Sacrifice

by Christopher Mitchell

  I’m sorry, little bear , she said, but you have to wake up Keira, and tell her to get you all out of the city as quickly as you can.

  Karalyn said nothing, but clung on tighter.

  Daphne sighed. Alright , we’ll go down together.

  Daphne pulled her daughter down over the city, gliding past the Great Fortress and over the Kellach quarter. The city was quiet and dark, with only a handful of windows leaking light onto the streets. She found Keira’s apartment block, and went through a shutter and into a dark room. The Kell fire mage was lying asleep on a large bed, her chest rising, and a pool of saliva seeping from her open mouth.

  Daphne hesitated for a second, then went into her mind .

  Fire. The skies burned, and falling wreckage was striking the blackened land where Keira stood, her arms raised. All around trees were burning, and scorched corpses littered the ground.

  Keira , said Daphne.

  The fire mage turned, tears and ash streaked down her face. She frowned at Daphne and Karalyn as the background faded out to nothing.

  We’ve just seen the Creator , Daphne said. He’s re-enacting the ritual.

  Now?

  You need to get out of the city.

  Fuck.

  And I need to get back to the farmhouse and wake up. We’ll head for the gate into the Kellach quarter. I’ll contact you again once we’re there.

  Keira nodded.

  Daphne turned to Karalyn.

  Keira will look after you , she said. Do what she says, and be a good girl. I’ll see you soon, I promise.

  No! Don’t go!

  I have to, little bear. I’ll see you soon.

  Daphne pulled herself free of Karalyn and soared away, blocking her daughter’s cries from her ears. She surged over the city. As she was reaching the walls a booming wave of power burst out over the streets, from the direction of the Great Fortress. Tenements crumpled and fell in the surge of energy, and Daphne’s consciousness tumbled through the air. She gazed out in panic as the ground under the city rippled and buckled, sending houses, towers and walls crashing to the ground. Above the half-ruined streets rose the Great Fortress, the largest building left standing in the city. She stared at it and in an instant her vision power ceased, and she was back in her own head, a flashing pain surging behind her eyes.

  She got to her knees, her right hand covering her face, her head feeling like it was about to explode.

  The ground rocked under her as the shock waves reached the farmhouse. The roof fell in on top of them, and a swinging beam struck the stove, driving it into the wall in an explosion of fire and sparks. Killop grabbed hold of her, and they ran from the building, falling onto the grassy bank.

  Daphne lay on the grass, clutching her head in agony, Killop’s hand on her shoulder. He stood, and she watched him race back into the farmhouse, before her eyes closed.

  Chapter 33

  Last One Down

  P lateau City, Imperial Plateau – 18 th Day, Second Third Winter 507

  ‘I have to go, little bear,’ Daphne said, turning to her daughter. ‘Daddy and I will see you tomorrow. We love you.’

  The Holdings mage blew her a kiss, and disappeared.

  Keira shook her head. ‘Fucking show off.’

  ‘Has she gone?’ Flora said.

  ‘Aye.’

  ‘What did she say?’

  Keira rubbed her chin. ‘We’d better get Kallie.’

  Flora wandered out of the room, and Keira knelt down by Karalyn.

  ‘Ye’ll see yer ma soon,’ she said. ‘Play here for a bit, while the rest of us talk, aye?’

  Karalyn picked up her toy horse as Keira walked from the bedroom, and entered the living-room. She poured herself a large rum and lit a stick of keenweed. It felt good to be going. Fuck, she was going to see her wee brother soon.

  Flora and Kallie came into the room.

  ‘Flora tells me ye’ve been hearing voices in yer head,’ Kallie said. ‘I knew it was only a matter of time. ’

  ‘Ye better sit down,’ Keira said. ‘Cause ye won’t be laughing when I tell ye who it is you’ll be seeing tomorrow.’

  Kallie frowned. ‘Daphne’s close?’

  ‘Aye,’ Keira grinned, ‘and my wee brother too. We’re meeting them in the morning.’

  Flora poured Kallie a drink and handed it to her.

  ‘Where?’ the Holdings woman said.

  ‘Out of the city,’ Keira said. ‘A few miles up the road towards the Holdings. We’re getting out of here at last.’

  Flora sat.

  ‘Let’s put some distance between us and that mad bastard in the fortress,’ Keira went on. ‘This has fucking worked out perfectly. Instead of wasting time searching for them, Daphne and Killop have come to us. All we need to do now is get you back to Hold Cane.’

  Keira hesitated, as she remembered.

  ‘What is it?’ said Flora. ‘What’s wrong?’

  Keira gazed at the Holdings woman. ‘Daphne said that the Emperor had been in Hold Cane when he was rampaging through your country. He didn’t leave much behind.’

  Flora clenched her fists. She got up from her seat and walked to the window facing the Great Fortress, and gazed out into the evening sky.

  Keira turned to Kallie. ‘Ye look like someone’s taken a shit in yer breakfast.’

  ‘I don’t think I’m ready for this, Keira,’ she said. ‘Seeing them together, I don’t know how I’ll react.’

  ‘Ach, come on,’ Keira said, taking a swig of rum. ‘It’ll be awkward for the first five minutes, then it’ll be fine.’

  ‘I thought we still had a third or so before I had to decide,’ Kallie said. ‘Tomorrow’s too soon. I might stay here.’

  ‘What? No way, Kallie, not a fucking chance.’

  ‘I couldnae take seeing Killop with his new family. Sorry.’

  Flora walked over. ‘If she’s staying, then so am I.’

  Keira gawked at her .

  ‘Yer giving up looking for yer family?’ she cried. ‘Just like that? They might still be alive, fuck it, it’s worth a shot.’

  ‘I am going to look for them,’ Flora said, ‘but I’m not travelling to the Holdings with Daphne Holdfast. I’ll wait a couple of days, then go by a different route.’

  ‘I’ll go with you,’ said Kallie, ‘if you want.’

  Flora smiled. ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’

  Keira narrowed her eyes. ‘Ya back-stabbing wee cows. After all we’ve been through, yer abandoning me because ye might feel a wee bit awkward? Look, come with us, even for a few days, try it at least before ye fucking quit on me.’

  They said nothing.

  Keira felt her temper close to exploding.

  ‘Sorry, Keira,’ said Flora.

  ‘Fine,’ Keira snarled. ‘Fuck the both of ye. Ya pair of useless tossers. I don’t care about yer personal bullshit, Daphne’s ma fucking sister now, so if ye fuck with her, ye fuck with me.’ She stood. ‘Flora, do something useful for once and get yer lazy arse down to the tunnels. Let them know I’ll be needing the wagon at dawn. And make sure ye pick up the keys.’

  Flora stood. ‘Alright, but you’ll have to put Karalyn to bed.’

  Keira frowned. ‘How hard could it fucking be?’

  Flora smirked, and walked to the front door of the apartment. She pulled a long cloak from a hook, and left, slamming the door.

  ‘Ye can’t blame her,’ Kallie said. ‘The Holdfasts are responsible for destroying her home.’

  Keira turned to her. ‘Yer a fucking eejit. The Emperor destroyed her home. The Holdfasts were only doing the same as what I did last year, and fighting the bastard. He kicked their arses, just like he kicked mine, but at least they had the guts to try.’

  She downed her rum.

  ‘Ye turned her against me,’ Keira went on. ‘Ye knew she liked me and ye couldnae handle it. Ye wanted her for yerself, well now ye’ve fucking got her. ’

  ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ Kallie muttered as Keira st
ormed from the room.

  She walked into the bedroom and saw Karalyn playing on the rug with her wooden horses.

  ‘Bed,’ she said.

  The girl ignored her.

  ‘Bed.’

  Nothing.

  Keira frowned. She didn’t have time for this. She needing to be packing, so she could squeeze in a few rums and a smoke before bed. Shit, why had she promised to leave at dawn? She wondered if Daphne would object to the still considerable amount of weed she was carrying. She snorted. Killop would be more likely to find some pious reason to complain about it. Daphne seemed alright. A better fucking sister than Kallie anyway. She’d better leave her some, she thought. Enough to see her by for a while.

  She leant down and picked Karalyn up.

  ‘Right, ya wee toerag,’ she said, as the girl wriggled in her arms. ‘Time for bed.’

  ‘You’re a stinky poo.’

  ‘And you’re a cheeky wee cow.’

  ‘Cows go moo. You’re a stinky poo.’

  ‘Aye?’ Keira said, putting the girl down, and raising her hands like claws. ‘If you’re a cow, then I’m a big fierce bear, who’s going to fucking eat you, em… who’s going to eat you.’

  The girl shrieked, and ran round the bed. Keira got down on all fours and chased her, roaring and growling as Karalyn half-laughed, half-screamed. Keira cornered her against the wall. She picked her up and threw her onto the bed. She sat down next to her and grabbed her foot.

  ‘I’m going to eat this first,’ she growled, and the girl wept in laughter as Keira tickled her toes.

  Keira smiled down at her. This auntie shit was alright.

  Keira rolled over and fell out of bed, crashing down onto the floor.

  ‘Fuck,’ she groaned, opening her eyes as her dream came back to her. Had Daphne been in her head again? Taking fucking liberties, just coming in like that. What if she’d been thinking about guys or something? She would have to speak to her about it.

  Her eyes widened as she remembered Daphne’s message. At the same time she heard a wail coming from Karalyn’s room.

  ‘The Emperor,’ she muttered, scrambling to her feet. She pulled on her clothes and made it to the crying child’s room in a few strides.

  ‘It’s alright,’ she said, picking the girl up and rocking her. ‘We need to get dressed and go.’

  She put the girl down and lit a lamp. She was in the middle of pulling out some clothes for Karalyn as Flora walked in, scratching her head.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she said. ‘You leaving now? Without saying goodbye?’

  ‘Shut up and get dressed,’ Keira said, as she pulled a woollen dress over Karalyn’s head.

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘We need to get the fuck out of here. Now. That mad fucking bastard’s about to perform the same shit that he did last year, and he’s doing it right fucking now. You remember? Earthquakes, crazy mage shit? A hundred thousand heads exploding?’

  Keira finished tying Karalyn’s boots, and had picked her up as the tremor hit the tenement. She was knocked from her feet, landing on her back on the floor, Karalyn held tight to her chest. The lamp smashed against the rug, setting it alight, as the floor buckled. The walls curved and swayed, and the roof fell in on them. Keira rolled over, shielding Karalyn, and crawled under the bed. The floor gave way, and they soared down, crashing into the floor below, landing on a table. It collapsed, and Keira lay still, every part of her aching, Karalyn whimpering in her arms. A cloud of dust descended on them as the tremors stilled.

  ‘My fucking back,’ she groaned. She gazed up at the dark hole in the ceiling above, where flames were licking the sides of the bed. She tried to move her legs, and they responded. She wriggled her toes. ‘Thank fuck.’ She gazed at the girl lying on her chest. ‘How ye doing, ma wee toerag? Ye alright?’

  Karalyn looked up at Keira, her eyes wide. She didn’t seem to be injured, so Keira edged off the table as debris fell through the hole from the floor above. Keeping Karalyn held tight in her arms, she staggered to her feet. She was in an abandoned apartment, stripped of anything valuable, and covered in a thick layer of dust. She stumbled to a broken window and gazed out.

  ‘Shit,’ she said, her eyes taking in the scene of devastation. A dozen fires were burning in the Kellach quarter, and half of the buildings had collapsed. The Great Fortress loomed tall and undamaged amid the rubble and ruined streets. She tried to reach out to the nearest flames, but her powers had gone. She remembered back to when the Emperor had annihilated her army. It had taken a few hours for her powers to return that time, but whereas before she had felt relief at the loss of her skills, now a feeling close to panic was creeping through her.

  ‘Don’t get carried away,’ she muttered to herself.

  ‘I want to see mama,’ said Karalyn.

  ‘Aye, I’m sure ye do, hen,’ Keira said. ‘That might not be the easiest thing right now, but.’

  ‘I want mama!’

  ‘Alright, alright,’ she said. ‘We cannae leave Kallie and wee Flora, but. We have to go upstairs and help them.’

  She carried the child across the room, hearing the floorboards creak and move under her boots, and made it to the front door. It was locked, so she stood back and kicked it open, sending splinters of the doorframe flying out. They went into the stairwell. It was in darkness, but Keira knew where the steps were, and edged towards them.

  Halfway up the stairs, she put her foot down on a step that gave way, and they nearly toppled over the edge. Keira dived back, staying close to the wall.

  ‘That was fucking close, eh?’ she laughed. She peered up into the darkness. ‘This is fucked up, I cannae see a thing.’ She took a breath. ‘Flora!’ she yelled.

  Nothing.

  ‘Where the fuck are they?’

  ‘Karalyn find them,’ the girl said.

  ‘What? Are your powers fine?’

  The girl didn’t respond.

  Keira remained still in the darkness of the stairwell, her back against the wall, wishing she had stayed in Domm.

  After a minute, Karalyn wriggled in her arms.

  ‘Flora coming,’ she said. ‘Karalyn woke her up.’

  ‘Good lass,’ Keira said, kissing her on the head.

  A door above opened, and Flora staggered out onto the landing, holding a lamp in her outstretched arm. She was still dressed in her nightgown, smeared with patches of blood and dust. She squinted down at Keira and Karalyn, swaying in the lamplight.

  ‘Where’s Kallie?’ Keira cried.

  ‘Here,’ the Kell woman said, coming out behind Flora. She was fully dressed and had a large pack over her shoulder next to her longbow. ‘I managed to grab the stuff ye’d packed.’

  Keira noticed smoke coming out of the doorway behind the two women at the top of the stairs. Flora staggered, and Kallie caught her by the arm. She took the lamp, and clasped her other arm round the Holdings woman’s shoulder.

  ‘Watch the steps,’ Keira said, as they began their descent. She began to move down herself, avoiding the gaping hole she had made on the way up. She made it to the next floor’s landing, and put Karalyn down.

  ‘Yer wee, but yer heavy,’ she said as the girl clung onto her leg.

  She leaned back against the wall and watched as Kallie helped Flora down the stairs. When they reached the landing, the Kell woman lowered Flora to the floor, where she slumped .

  ‘Hey, don’t stop,’ Keira said. ‘There’s another four fucking floors to go.’

  Kallie grimaced, and pulled Flora back to her feet. Keira sighed, and picked up Karalyn.

  Keira glanced at Kallie as they made their way to the next set of steps.

  ‘Looks like it’s the Kell doing all the fucking work again.’

  It took an hour of slow and tiring effort to negotiate the four flights of stairs to the ground floor. Many of the wooden steps were loose and cracked, and parts of the roof continued to fall around them. Halfway down, Keira realised in the light of Kallie’s lamp that Karalyn was a
sleep in her arms. Flora struggled the whole way, with only Kallie’s strong arm keeping her upright.

  When they reached the last step, Keira staggered forward into the hallway and put Karalyn down. She took the pack from Kallie’s shoulder and found a cloak, which she rolled up and placed under the child’s head. She dug into the pack, and found a small pouch. She took out a stick of keenweed and lit it as Kallie lowered Flora down.

  ‘What now?’ said Kallie.

  ‘We see if our wagon’s in one piece,’ Keira said. ‘The building where it’s being kept is on the way to the gates, so if it’s fucked we should still be able to get out of the city.’

  Kallie nodded down at Flora.

  Keira frowned. She took a long drag, and crouched down next to the Holdings woman.

  ‘You alright?’

  Flora looked up at her, but her eyes were bloodshot and half-closed.

  ‘She might have whacked her head when she fell,’ Kallie said.

  Keira touched Flora’s head, feeling through her hair. She withdrew her hand and squinted in the lamplight at the blood on the tips of her fingers .

  ‘Yer going to be alright, wee Flora,’ she said, but even to her own ears she sounded like she was lying.

  Kallie joined her by Flora’s side, and they crouched in silence for a moment.

  ‘We’ll have to carry her and Karalyn,’ Keira said. ‘That’s if yer coming?’

  Kallie nodded.

  ‘Good. I’ll take the pack and Karalyn, you take her.’

  ‘Aye.’

  Kallie took a long woollen tunic out of the pack, and pulled it over Flora’s shoulders, trying to avoid the wound at the back of her head. She picked her up in both arms. Keira stubbed out the weedstick, feeling the false energy flow through her. She tied up the pack and slung it over her back, then lifted Karalyn in her left arm, holding her close.

  The two women caught each other’s eye, and nodded.

  With her free hand, Keira pushed open the door to the street and stepped outside. Though it was still night, the sky was lit up by the fires burning through the Kellach quarter. In the light of the flames Keira gazed at the half-ruined street. Some of the tenements had collapsed completely, while others like her own were still standing. Debris littered the road, with roof tiles, masonry and splintered wooden beams strewn around. A few Kellach were wandering around, or were standing gazing at the devastation.