Nadya’s heart stopped for a moment. Gedeon’s hand was on Kesali’s back, and he could have pushed her out over the wall to her death.
“This is your fault, this chaos! She has deserted you!” He kept speaking low and fast to Kesali, whose face remained calm. Somehow, she seemed to be immune to his control. Nadya wasn’t.
She jumped on top of a nearby pile of rubble. From across the battlefield, Marko stared at her, and Nadya held his gaze. She breathed low and fast through the fabric of her disguise. Something passed between the two of them, not recognition, but a degree of understanding. She nodded once and looked to the wall where Kesali was held. The Iron Phoenix was the only one who could rescue her, and Marko knew it.
He turned to his men. “Stop the zealot!” he ordered. One of them began shouting to the remaining guardsmen who weren’t desperately trying to push back the rioters. The mob’s power and numbers seemed to grow by the moment. The pitifully small group of men in red uniforms and Marko in his brilliant purple one started to jog toward the building that held the zealot on its roof. A ring of over a hundred men, clutching their weapons with fanatical glee, stood between them and the leader of the rebellion.
Nadya touched her seal and sent up a prayer. If you do not look after me, look after them. Then she looked to the wall and began to run.
Chapter Twenty-three
Nadya’s boots splashed through pools of rainwater tinged with blood. Behind her, the tide of the battle between the guards and the rioters was slowly changing as the Duke’s Guard was pushed farther and farther back. Nadya only hoped the fight bought enough time for the Nomori remaining on the tier to escape, although to where, she didn’t know. There was nowhere else in the city they would be welcome now.
The steam pumps, suspended over the large culvert that bordered the wall around the entire city, had stopped working. The culvert was finally empty. Nadya ran along the narrow wooden bridge that they sat on, leapt over the pump, and grabbed the sleek marble wall.
There were virtually no finger- or footholds, only slight cracks that ran along the slippery surface, showing where the marble blocks had been cemented together a thousand years ago. Nadya’s hands screamed as she hauled her entire body up by two fingers. She gritted her teeth and kept moving.
“They call you their Stormspeaker, their priestess, their prophet. They have no idea what you are truly like. If they knew of your darkness and your selfishness, they would have taken your head long ago.” The frustration was palpable in Gedeon’s voice. Nadya climbed faster. If he acted upon it, if he did something to Kesali…
“If you won’t admit the darkness within yourself, then the city will destroy you for it. You, bring her down. Give her to the zealot for his sacrifice. Tell him it is compliments of the storm gods. That fool will believe it. Go!”
Nadya clenched her jaw and kept climbing. Her hand touched the top, and she vaulted over into the middle of the scene. Four guardsmen had taken hold of Kesali, trying to drag her along the walkway down to the nearest guardhouse and the stairs that led to the city below. Nadya’s gut twisted. Kesali would not survive a moment on the ground before some fanatic with a knife killed her. Six other guardsmen converged on Nadya. She knocked one out with a blow to the jaw, and another to the ground as she swept his feet out from under him. One got behind her, and before Nadya could react, he tore her cloak off.
“Nadya,” Kesali whispered, eyes wide. “How…?”
The way Kesali looked at her now, her fear, her disbelief, seared itself into Nadya’s mind, and she would not forget it for the rest of her days.
“Stop.” Gedeon’s voice rang out firm and calm. He smiled at Nadya. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Nadya stopped breathing. Those black eyes held her, and she just waited for them to expand and take her over.
“Bring the Stormspeaker back. I have a better idea.” He lounged against the side of the walkway. “Oh, and don’t think of trying anything, Nadezhda Gabori. If you do, you will be made to regret it.” His tone left nothing to the imagination. “I was planning to make Lady Kesali here into one of my puppets and force her to walk to the zealot and renounce her Nomori heritage and offer herself up as a sacrifice to the storm gods. That would stir things up nicely, if only she wasn’t so self-righteous.”
She didn’t know what he meant. “Why?” Nadya managed in a strangled voice. “Why do any of this? Why let Levka control you?”
He laughed. “That whelp isn’t controlling me. I was originally going to kill him when he showed up. But he does have a quick mind, and he came up with quite a good plan. Using you and the Stormspeaker. What chaos! The zealot isn’t one of mine, you know. A couple of kills, followed by the floodwaters and food shortage, and this city hardly needed my help to tear itself apart.”
“Why?” she repeated. Her eyes darted around to the guardsmen. She didn’t want to kill any of them. If she pushed them over into the sea, they would survive for at least an hour, provided they could swim. It would buy her enough time to save Kesali.
The glistening rapier at Kesali’s throat, however, stopped her from making a single move.
“Because I can. Because I’m more powerful than they are, and once my family realized that, they tried to have me killed for it. So I hate them in turn.” He laughed. “I only wish to cause misery, as is my right.”
He was insane. He had Durriken the Butcher’s madness.
“And I believe that having the Iron Phoenix murder the betrothed of Lord Marko, the Stormspeaker herself, will cause quite a ripple in the city.”
Nadya shut her eyes, backing away from him.
“You cannot avoid me.”
Someone grabbed her shoulder, and Nadya threw them off. There was a long moment of silence, then a splash below.
“Get out of here,” Kesali yelled. “I’ll be fine. Go, go and save yourself.”
Nadya could not listen. She was here to save Kesali, and Kesali must not die. She and Marko were the only two in the entire city who could heal the rift between Nomori and Erevan. They needed to live so the city would live, and if that meant giving her life for it, then Nadya was happy to make the sacrifice. Not for Storm’s Quarry, not for Marko or the Duke. Not even for her parents.
For Kesali. For the dream Kesali had of a united people, and for the love between them that could not be.
Love for love. Making that sacrifice meant she would not live to see the day of their wedding.
She clenched her fists. “Why don’t you fight me like a soldier instead of cowering behind your puppets?” Two sets of hands grabbed at her, and the barrel of a pistol settled on the back of her neck. Guided by her senses of hearing and touch, she jerked away, and after a moment, two splashes sounded below.
“You have to open your eyes at some point.”
“Only to kill you,” she muttered.
“Or to save her.”
Nadya heard Kesali’s scream. She turned, eyes shooting open, to see a bit of trousers plummet over the wall. Nadya did not think. She turned her back on Gedeon and the remaining guardsmen and leapt off the wall, pushing off the stone edge to give her more speed. Time slowed as the air took hold of her and she fell.
Kesali was flailing in the air, pure terror etched across her features. Nadya put her hands at her sides and willed herself to go faster. Kesali’s body loomed closer and closer, but so did the hard stone bottom of the dry culvert.
Kesali reached out for her, and Nadya clasped her hand. She yanked Kesali up, turning her over. In that instant, her mind went to the safest place she knew, and she prayed. Let us live through this, she called out silently to the Protectress. Warmth bloomed in her seal, and time resumed.
She slammed into the bottom of the culvert, Kesali on top of her. Stones cracked and gave way underneath her. Dirt billowed out, clogging her eyes with grit and shards of rock. The rumbling did not stop for a long moment. Her back screamed. The air was forced out of her lungs, and suddenly, all was still.
Nadya o
pened her mouth, croaking. Slowly, her chest expanded with air. It hurt. Everything hurt. Her back and legs shrieked in pain. She was sprawled across a depression in the bottom of the culvert, surrounded by dirt and bits of rock. She blinked away the grit from her eyes. Every breath she took hurt, but Nadya forced herself to keep breathing and not go near the darkness that hovered at the edge of her vision.
On top of her, Kesali groaned.
Slowly, Nadya sat up, cradling Kesali. Bones, bruised and cracked, made popping noises in her back. Nadya spat out blood. She was alive. They had survived the fall, and Kesali…here in her arms, Kesali was breathing.
“Nadya?” she whispered. Her lips cracked open. Blood dribbled out the corner of her mouth. “You saved me.”
Kesali sank into her embrace, tears flowing down her cheeks. Soon, Nadya was crying, too, and they sat there in the crater, sobbing.
“You jumped off after me,” Kesali said, wiping her eyes with hands dirty with ash. “You could have died.”
“I will always jump off for you,” Nadya whispered. “No matter what has happened, I will always do it for you.”
Their blood and sweat mingled as they held each other through their tremors. Smoke had filtered down as the edge of culvert was licked by flame. It wouldn’t be long before someone came to investigate the crash, and she knew she couldn’t defend Kesali against a group of rioters, not in her current condition. She tried to stand, but pain exploded in every corner on her body. Nadya fell back onto the dirt, whimpering.
Kesali’s lips brushed her cheek, before she slowly got off Nadya. She stood, wincing at every movement. Her face was chalk white as she held out a hand to Nadya.
Nadya was almost afraid to take it, but Kesali’s gaze was insistent, and with her help, Nadya hauled herself up to her knees.
“You’re hurt,” Kesali said quietly, bracing Nadya on her uninjured arm.
“So are you. And it’s my fault.”
A voice from above called down, “I thought you might have been done for, but you are stronger than you look. Good.”
Nadya looked up to the edge of the culvert before she realized who that voice belonged to. Gedeon’s eyes trapped her in their black depths, and this time, he wasted no time. The blackness expanded, trapping her.
Nadya tried to claw at her throat, to beat the overwhelming darkness she now drowned in. Everything fell away, even Kesali’s touch. The black guilt beast consumed her, and her hands were painted red with the blood of the countless innocents she had murdered under Gedeon’s control.
The black snapped back, and Nadya was once again viewing the painting of her life. All the pain faded. Her body straightened, and Gedeon smiled.
Nadya shrieked, though her lips did not move, as she grabbed hold of Kesali with one hand and dragged her out of the culvert. Kesali screamed, her injured arm catching on the edge of jagged rock. The automaton that was Nadya did not even flinch.
“Nadya,” she said, breathless, “Nadya, take back control. Do not let him—”
“Silence, Stormspeaker, or I’ll have her snap your neck.” Gedeon gestured to Nadya with an almost familial love in his eyes that made her sick to her stomach. “Come. This needs to be a spectacle.”
Her feet carried her and Kesali across the bloodstained cobblestones to the center of the public square of the Nomori tier. Now it was filled with bodies and rubble and smoke, the sounds of the Duke’s Guard and rioters battling not a hundred paces away. Cowards, avoiding the fight, looted the stores that ran along the square. Several buildings down, the zealot’s men had cornered Lord Marko and his guards.
Nadya’s heart broke at it all. This was her fault. All the death, all the chaos, the ruined city—it all stemmed back to the first time she had killed two years ago.
Gedeon looked at her and the black in his eyes gleamed.
Some men had come to gather around them, licking their lips and readying their weapons. Gedeon paid them no heed. He looked at Nadya, and her soul froze. “Kill her.”
Her hand dropped Kesali’s shoulder and closed around her neck. Her fingers tightened, and Nadya fought. She fought with every bit of strength she had. Time slowed down as she watched as her fingers slowly curled around Kesali’s throat, cutting off her air. She had seconds before bone snapped, and Kesali would be gone.
Nadya screamed and kept screaming, but it did nothing. Her mind was a hurricane of stillness, her heart trapped in its eye. How was she so weak that he could take her like this? Kesali was strong. Kesali was immune. Kesali was—
The answer sank into her consciousness, and tears welled in her eyes. Nadya looked beyond her hand as it slowly killed the woman she loved and to Gedeon’s black eyes. They sparked with the power of control.
But as her grandmother had said, no one can seize control of one’s mind without a foothold, a foothold Nadya had and Kesali did not.
Nadya looked down at Kesali’s face. It grew pale as blood seeped out of her mouth. In the fuzzy distance, she heard Marko’s desperate cry. Kesali’s dark eyes stared down at her without fear.
She cringed as the images of the innocent, the feel of blood on her hands, intensified. The people at the Duke’s address. The men in the palace. Levka’s brother, those years ago. All swam around her, threatening to suffocate her.
Not matter her physical strength, she was weak. She was angry and fearful, just like all Gedeon’s other puppets. There was no way she could resist him on her own.
I need your help.
She stopped fighting. This wasn’t a battle physical strength could win.
Gedeon’s eyes widened slightly. “Kill her!” he ordered again.
If you did not curse me, then help me.
Nadya fingers closed around Kesali’s throat, and she forced herself to calm. The scene in front of her faded, and she was fifteen again, being attacked by a large Erevan man with hands that groped and breath that smelled of desire and fish. She heard the crack as his body hit the stone wall and slid down, limp.
Gedeon had all the control. But, Nadya realized, she had something far stronger.
You have always protected your people. I have faith that you will protect both of us. I accept the burden you have given me. Nadya felt the words resonate deep in her bones. I am afraid. Of Gedeon, of Levka, of the future. Of myself. I am afraid, she thought as her mind cleared and grew stronger. But I am not cursed, and I will not stand to let this evil continue. For Kesali, I will fight.
Her seal of the Protectress burned hot. Nadya’s fingers snapped away from Kesali’s neck.
Kesali fell to the ground, coughing.
Nadya turned toward Gedeon. His hold on her was gone, and now he would pay for what he had almost made her do.
“Kesali!” She heard Marko’s cry, but it was distant and fuzzy. All her attention was focused on the man in front of her.
“Kill her!” His scream carried more desperation than authority. His eyes sought hers again, the black trying to consume her once more.
Nadya held her ground as the darkness came and swirled around her. It touched, trying to pry its way in, but the path it had previously taken to her heart was blocked. Her conviction formed a shield around her consciousness, one that the dark power battered against to no avail. The darkness faded, snapping back into Gedeon’s eyes, and for the first time, he looked frightened. Sweat trickled down his face. He backed up, then looked wildly around at the rioters.
With a cry, they rushed at Nadya. She batted them aside. They hit the cobblestones with sickening thumps. She closed the distance between her and Gedeon in three steps. Nadya grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up.
“Will you kill me, nivasi?” His mouth twisted into a horrible smile, and he looked truly mad. Spittle frothed at the corner of his mouth as he rasped for breath. “Will you embrace the darkness that is our birthright? Will you follow in the footsteps of Durriken the Butcher? Of Gedeon the Chaos-maker? Will you succeed where we have failed, in bringing this city down?”
One week
ago, she would have let him go, thumping him between the eyes to knock him out, then leaving him for the Duke’s Guard to collect. One week ago, however, she had not seen her city in shambles and her people slaughtered by mindless rioters. She had not taken the lives of dozens of men, women, and children with her bare hands. She had not known the extent of her power, nor the extent of his.
Nadya lowered him to the ground. He spat out blood. “You are weak. I knew you could not do it. You will never—”
She grabbed his shoulder with one hand, and wrenched his head off with the other. The words froze in a throat that now frothed up blood as his body collapsed to the pavement, unmoving. His head fell from her fingers, his smirk forever molded into its features.
Blood dripping from her fingers, Nadya turned around to see Kesali, pale-faced and shaking.
As Nadya opened her mouth to explain what she could not put into words, an explosion of a magnitude that would put fear into the storm gods rocked the city. The earth quaked, the wall fell, and the sea surged down upon them.
Chapter Twenty-four
As water rushed in, thunder roared. Nadya sprang for Kesali. She flinched away, but Nadya grabbed her good arm anyway and hauled her as fast as she could out of the path of the oncoming sea.
Nadya’s own pain was temporarily gone in the face of necessity. She grabbed the doorway of the nearest building and hauled herself up. She got to the roof, pulling Kesali up behind her, just as the water hit. With one hand gripping the stonework, she held onto Kesali with everything she had left.
Water exploded around them. One moment, there was nothing but encroaching waves of black, tipped with angry white foam. The next, they were swallowed whole.
In the middle of the swirling monsoon, Nadya could not see or hear anything. The only thing that kept her anchored to this world was her grip on Kesali. That grip was the only thing that kept them from being swept away. She could not think or believe. She could only close her eyes and hold.
The Iron Phoenix Page 21