The Boys of Fire and Ash

by Meaghan McIsaac

  “Come on, Av,” I heard Fiver say behind me. I turned and saw my best friend on his hands and knees, Fiver holding up his head and slapping his cheeks lightly.

  “Av?” I hurried over and got down on the floor with him. His eyes were rolling backwards. “Av!” I smacked him. He focused on me a second.

  “Wawksh,” he slurred. “Eyesh an’ wawksh.”

  “What?” He was such a mess, his eyes so far back that only the whites were showing. I looked at Fiver, who shook his head, frowning.

  I heard a door open and Krepin speaking in a grand voice.

  “Cubby is no more,” said Gorpok Juga.

  My heart stopped and my stomach dropped into my feet. The world went white, like I’d been struck by lightning. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think. Not Cubby.

  A line of children dressed in white, foreheads bearing the blue mark, were led by the man he called Gorpok Karlone to the front of Krepin’s altar. Several Tunrar hissed at them, herding them after the hunched-over man.

  The smallest, leading the line and clad in blue robes, was my Cubby.

  “Urgle?” he said, his familiar raspy voice trembling.

  A wave of relief rushed over me and my head felt dizzy.

  “Urgle!” he cried out. Before he could run to me, a Tunrar leaped in front of him, hissing.

  “Linerk!” Karlone bellowed at him. Cubby hung his head and stepped back in line with the other boys. I watched as Krepin smiled with satisfaction and that other thing. I could see it now, it was like pride, happy that my Brother obeyed him so quickly. His grin turned my stomach.

  “Tell him I’m taking Cubby home!” I shouted at Gorpok Juga. “Now!”

  “Krepin say, is no Cubby. Is Passage Linerk, servant of the Beginning.”

  “No!” said Cubby. “No! No! They said they’d kill me if I didn’t do it!”

  Karlone bellowed at Cubby again and several Tunrar began moving menacingly towards him.

  I could see his little mouth trembling, his big green eyes begging me to help him.

  Krepin turned to me, calmly saying words that I couldn’t understand but knew I hated.

  “Aju Krepin say,” Gorpok Juga began, “Cubby was Tunrar sacrifice to Beginning. Krepin is love, gave Cubby choice. To give himself back to Beginning in death, or service. Cubby decide on service, become a Passage.”

  “He’s coming home with me.” My voice cracked as I struggled for the same kind of authority as Krepin.

  “Aju Krepin say, Passage Linerk is home.”

  My pulse kicked up again, my stomach twisted and heaved. I had no idea what to do. I looked to Fiver. He was busy holding up Av, slapping his face, calling his name.

  The room began to spin as my mind raced. I needed Blaze. Blaze would know what to do.

  “Ha shu,” came the foreign words from Krepin again. He wasn’t asking this time.

  Cubby’s eyes were turned to the floor, the ugly blue mark blaring at me like the numbing glare from the sun.

  “Ha shu!” he shouted. He raised his right hand and Karlone seized Cubby by the scruff of the neck. Cubby cried out.

  “Hey!” yelled Fiver.

  “Don’t touch him!” I took a step towards them but Juga stood in front of me.

  The other boys cowered away from Cubby and Karlone, huddling together, knowing something I didn’t.

  Karlone threw Cubby to the ground; two of the Tunrar crouched over him, hissing and spitting with glee.

  “Stop it!” I begged. “Leave him alone!”

  “Ha shu!” Krepin shouted again.

  “Maybe Krepin,” said Juga, a glint in her eye as she pushed me back, “should give Beginning sacrifice after all?”

  Karlone strode towards a brass stand with ornate staffs and blades resting within it. He pulled out a glinting silver edge and stormed back towards my Brother.

  Cubby cried out, covering himself beneath the excited Tunrar. “Urgle!”

  A tremor overtook my entire body, and from somewhere inside me I felt a powerful rumbling, as though the world around me was about to crumble to the ground. The Tunrar screamed and I closed my eyes tight.

  Fiver cried out behind me. “Urgle!”

  And then his name. It rose in my throat like a violent cough, and without a thought in my head I shrieked, “Blaze! The Brother’s name was Blaze!”

  When I opened my eyes, the heads of all the Beginners were swiveling from side to side, murmurs passing between them. But Krepin was still.

  Karlone let the blade drop on the floor with a loud clang, and a smile oozed across Krepin’s pristine face.

  My breath came back to me and I gulped in air as I watched Karlone wave away the Tunrar. He lifted Cubby by the arm and threw him at the group of terrified boys, never taking his merciless eyes off me.

  “Where is traitor Blaze?” said Juga. Her eyes were wild, looking at me like my head was about to pop off. They all were. Every face in the room was staring, like they were waiting for me to just burst into flames or something.

  “I—I—I don’t know,” I stammered. I didn’t.

  “The thief come here?” Gorpok Juga pressed.

  “Thief?”

  “Blaze! He come here?”

  I shifted on my feet, everybody in the room leaning with keen interest towards me.

  “How long?” Juga growled.

  “What?”

  “How long he was here?”

  “I—I don’t know. He left just before we swam the river.”

  Gorpok Juga interpreted this to Aju Krepin, who barked commands, staring at me as he did so. Tunrar screamed and I cringed. Dozens of them climbed the walls, crawling out windows and running for doors. A hunt had begun.

  Aju Krepin descended the altar, the people in the room murmuring low to one another as they stared at me.

  I began to panic as he approached, the water at his feet parting wherever he stepped. It was just like Blaze’s story, the gift of the twins, Ardigund and Belphoebe.

  His icy-blue eyes locked onto mine, and I trembled. If it hadn’t been scratched out, would Krepin’s be the face above the girl in the Baublenotts?

  He placed a hand on my arm. He spoke to me quietly.

  “Aju Krepin give you Passage Linerk,” translated Gorpok Juga. “After you help him.”

  “What?”

  “Forget it!” yelled Fiver.

  “What does he want?” I asked desperately.

  Aju Krepin turned to Gorpok Juga and spoke quickly.

  “He has many troubles. His Holy War on the blasphemers makes Aju Krepin no sleep.”

  I didn’t understand. I needed Blaze to explain.

  “The Belphebans raid supply lines to Aju Krepin’s armies.”

  “I don’t—I don’t know what you mean,” I told her.

  “Aju Krepin plans big attack on blasphemers. Belphebans must not cause problems.”

  Hot tears rolled down my cheeks.

  “I don’t understand!” I cried. “What does he want me to do?”

  “If Belpheban Head die, Belphebans must mourn until full moon. No more trouble from them for one month.”

  Aju Krepin’s grip on my arm became tighter.

  “You kill Belpheban Head.”

  My whole body was shaking. I’d never killed anything but Slag Cavies. “I—I can’t kill anyone!”

  “You are Ikkuma. If anyone want to kill Belphebans, it is Ikkuma boys.”

  “Who are these Belphebans?”

  She tilted her head, surprised I didn’t know. “They are you Mothers.”

  I could taste the bile in the back of my throat.

  “You kill Belpheban Head, Aju Krepin give you Passage Linerk.”

  I remembered Blaze, his warning. One decision.

  I was just Urgle. I was Useless. How could anything I did change anything?

  “Why me?” I barely managed to squeak out.

  Krepin squeezed my shoulders and smiled.

  I looked at Cubby, tears streaming down his cheeks, the f
resh blue mark on his forehead screaming at me. I would not abandon him here; there was only one choice.

  “I will,” I said, and nodded.

  Aju Krepin took my face in his hands. Gently he pressed his forehead to mine, blessing me, his Ikkuma orphan assassin.

  ONE

  I can still remember the pain. The crumbling bits of rock of the Ikkuma Pit walls pressed hard against my naked back. I remember because I was mad, so mad, at my Big Brother.

  “Time’s come, Urgs,” he’d said. “The little one’s been dropped by the South Wall. I gotta go to make room.”

  He’d told me that morning, and by dinnertime he was gone. But not before showing me where to go. Scared and nervous, I went with him to the South Wall, and he pointed to the tree line, where Nikpartok peeked over the Ikkuma Pit.

  “They left him there,” Cheeks had said.

  I was terrified. I’d only just turned seven and could barely throw a spear.

  “No sense wasting time,” he said, slapping me on the back. “Now get on up there and keep an eye on him.”

  Cheeks was anxious, eager to get going, to finally Leave. He’d been planning to go for months, but he couldn’t. I wasn’t ready yet. I was still useless, so he had to put off his Leaving Day longer than he wanted. And here I was again, holding him up.

  “Don’t be so useless, Urgle!” he’d said, pushing me up to the wall. “Get moving!”

  So I did. I climbed up the South Wall, the highest I’d ever been, and stopped just before the top. I remembered looking out, the A-Frame just a brown pock on the black floor of my home and my Big Brother, Cheeks, barely visible as he made his way to the north…to his new life outside the Ikkuma Pit.

  And then I heard it.

  Just above me I could hear the cries of the little squirt, his raspy phlegm warble screeching for the monster of a woman that had abandoned him here. I risked a peek, even though my Big Brother had specifically told me not to.

  “One night, Urgs” is what he’d said after he’d discovered the new arrival. “If he makes it through the night, he’s all yours. If not, then he’s not Ikkuma anyway. Don’t let him know you’re there. He’ll cry all the more if he thinks someone’s nearby.”

  I peeked anyway. I’d never listened to my Big Brother before, so what did it matter now? He’d abandoned me. I was the Big Brother—well, I would be—and I didn’t have to listen to anybody.

  A tiny soiled bundle of cloth fidgeted in the undergrowth of Nikpartok Forest. I’d never been that close to the tree line, and I remember how scared I was that some predator would come and gobble me up.

  The crying stopped and the baby lay silent.

  Was he dead? I didn’t know. And the idea that I’d have to leave the safety of the Pit to find out made me nearly wet myself.

  Then he howled. The baby screamed and cried, demanding somebody, anybody, pick him up.

  But this was his test. The first night their Mothers abandoned them on the fringes of the Pit was a night they spent alone. If they survived, they were Ikkuma and adopted by their Big Brother. If not—I didn’t really know.

  The day drew on and I made myself comfortable, pressed up against the South Wall. My eyes grew heavy, and I slept to the sound of the baby’s lonely cries.

  By morning, I heard nothing. I awoke to silence and felt my heart stop. Was he dead? If the baby died, then I’d be no Big Brother…. But my Big Brother had left…so I wouldn’t be anyone’s Little Brother. What would happen to me? I’d be all alone. Who knows how long it would take for another baby to be left for me?

  Then I heard a snort—big animal, a predator coming to feast on the baby.

  I held my breath and peeked over the top of the South Wall and saw the most massive beast I’d ever seen. My little imagination couldn’t have dreamed up something so large. It stood on all fours, and its body was covered in a soft black fur. An Ashen Bear. It circled the baby, its black nose sniffing and probing.

  I looked around for blood staining his snout, the ground, the blankets, but there was nothing. Then a giggle. The baby squealed with delight as the giant bear sniffed at his face. He’d survived the night at least. He was Ikkuma all right…if the bear didn’t kill him now. Then the bear reared back and sat against a tree, licking her lips and scratching her belly. The baby continued to giggle, and the bear let out a low sound that to me sounded like a growl.

  “Please don’t eat him,” I whispered.

  In that instant, her big, shiny eyes were on me. My heart stopped. How could I have opened my mouth?

  The bear sniffed the baby again, then nuzzled him, like a Mother caring for her cub. She looked back to me, then waddled her giant form back into the cover of the trees until there was nothing left of her to see.

  Trembling, I bolted from my hiding place and ran for the giggling baby.

  Twigs snapped to my left, more to my right. The bear was out there. There could be more…or something else, anything else. The forest was watching, ready to pounce, and the baby was inches from my outstretched fingers.

  The ground slipped out from under me and I fell, scraping my palms and my knees. I lay with my face in the dirt, listening to the silence and begging my pounding heart to slow down.

  A quiet cooing tickled my ears and I turned my face to see a pair of big green eyes looking back. His mouth was open in a wide, toothless smile, and his skinny fingers reached for me. He was mine.

  I sat up and pulled him into my arms. He was so small and floppy I couldn’t imagine how anyone could place him down in the middle of the wild. He was silent in my arms and rested his head against my chest. I hugged him close and my cheek brushed his fuzzy blond head. He was my Little Brother. And I would name him Cubby.

  TWO

  We’d been paddling furiously for what seemed like forever, fighting the current as we made our way from the Beginners’ Temple. I sat in the front of the little vessel Gorpok Juga had given us—a tiny boat big enough for me, Av, and Fiver—and stared into the distance, wondering how I’d ever complete my task. “Kill Belpheban Head,” Aju Krepin had said, “and you will get your Cubby back.” But how? I didn’t know anything about them—where I’d find them, how many there’d be, how I’d do it. I was lost in a world I knew nothing about, with no one to guide me.

  “Urgle!” Fiver barked behind me. “Pull in over there, we got to stop.”

  I craned my neck round to argue, but when I looked behind me I saw his reason. Av was slumped still, his head collapsed into his chest, drool seeping down his chin. He was getting worse.

  “We’ve got to find some fire moss!” Fiver yelled over the rush of the water. “That’ll set him right.”

  I slapped the water with my paddle. “This isn’t the Ikkuma Pit! Where are you going to find fire moss?”

  I turned around and kept on paddling, fighting the water with all my anger. We wouldn’t find fire moss in the Baublenotts. We had to keep going.

  “Urgle! Look at him!” Fiver roared. “We’re stopping.”

  I ignored him, pushing my arms to their limits, making up for Fiver’s lack of paddling. Cubby was still with Krepin; I had to get him back.

  “What is your plan here, huh?”

  I didn’t have one.

  “You don’t even know where you’re going.”

  I’d find my way. I had to.

  “Do you want to kill Av?”

  My stomach flipped and my face burned. No, I didn’t want that. Av was my Brother, my best friend. He needed help.

  Fighting tears and trying to swallow my frustration, I nodded, and Fiver and I made our way to shore.

  We climbed out onto the soft muddy banks of the Baublenotts, the swampy vegetation engulfing us.

  “Help me here, Useless!” Fiver barked as he tried to haul Av’s limp body from our rickety boat.

  I grabbed Av’s arm and the two of us heaved him out and onto the mud, leaning him against a tree. His eyes were glazed and his tongue hung limp in his open mouth, like it was swollen. This was
my fault. This wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t come here to help me.

  I kneeled beside him and reached out to support his neck. “Av?” I whispered to him. “Can you hear me?”

  His head wobbled a bit and I steadied him. “Oh, Av. I’m sorry.”

  A drop of blood slid down from his forehead, and he tried his best to sit up. That was how Av was, a fighter. I readjusted his shoulders against the tree, trying to make him more comfortable.

  “Av, you’re gonna get better,” I told him. He had to. I couldn’t do what I had to do without him. Av was the great hunter, the good Brother. “You just have to get better.”

  But how? Crow was so far away, and Fiver and I didn’t know much about healing.

  “All right,” said Fiver, revealing a dagger hidden at his side. “Let’s get looking for anything that looks like fire moss.”

  “You can’t just give him something that looks like fire moss, it might not do the same thing!”

  “Do you have any better ideas?”

  “It could be poisonous!”

  “He’s dead meat anyway if he stays like this much longer.”

  There was nothing I could say to that. My stomach felt sick; it had felt this way for so long, ever since the Tunrar grabbed Cubby from the Ikkuma Pit, and it just kept getting worse. I couldn’t remember what normal felt like.

  The battle cry of an angry Tunrar sliced through the silence, followed by a chorus of others.

  “Blaze,” I breathed.

  “What?”

  My heart began pounding; the Tunrar screams were so close. “Krepin sent the Tunrar after him.” Fiver stared at me blankly. “Listen to them shrieking. They’ve found him, Fiver! They’ve found Blaze!”

  “Good. To the Mothers with Blaze. I hope they rip him apart.”

  “No, Fiver! Don’t you see? Blaze knows this world, knows these people! He’ll know how to find the Belphebans!”

  Fiver grabbed me firmly by the back of my neck, his face twisted in anger. “Forget about Blaze and the Belphebans, Useless! We’ve got to take care of Av.”

  I shoved him off me, laughing from the hope that surged through my body. “He can help Av! He’ll know what plants are good medicine out here, he’ll make him better!”