The Boys of Fire and Ash

by Meaghan McIsaac

  Cubby didn’t answer him and neither did I. We couldn’t hide here forever, and the sun had begun to rise. We were running out of time to save Lussit.

  A loud rumble split through the morning and Cubby screamed at the sudden surprise. Av was quick to cover the kid’s mouth, but there wasn’t really a need. The rumble was so loud it shook the entire Temple, Cubby’s little squeal barely audible for the two of us sitting right beside him.

  There was a sun ray across Av’s left arm and I turned to see where it was coming from. A small window in the next aisle. I jumped up and ran round the shelf, Cubby begging me to come back.

  When I peered out, there was a huge plume of smoke near the front of the Temple; I could see the tips of flames licking their way up the turrets as Tunrar screamed and fled, leaping off the roof and climbing in windows. For a moment I thought I was in the Pit, the Fire Mountains ready to explode.

  “What is it?” asked Av.

  Along the banks of the river I saw the cause of the explosion, and I wanted to laugh and throw up all at once. A group of four women were hurling flaming bundles at the Beginners’ Temple. I watched as they released another and when it hit, explosion—the fireball shattered when it slammed into the marble steps, spraying fire in all directions.

  “It’s the Belphebans,” I told him.

  Av and Cubby ran to get a look and the three of us watched as still more Belphebans poured out of the Baublenotts and advanced on the Temple. I was relieved—our army of four had just increased by dozens. But Gorpok Juga’s words repeated in my head: They will be right on time to view her die. We needed to find Lussit, and fast.

  “This is about to get really bad,” said Av.

  I knew he was right as we heard the angry shouting of the Beginners, another explosion, and the battle cries of the Belphebans.

  “Take Cubby and find Fiver,” he told me. “Get back to the Pit. Quick. I’ve got to find my sister.”

  “Your what?” Cubby asked.

  We both ignored him. “No, Av, I’ll find her. I brought her here, it’s my fault.”

  “Urgle, you can’t possibly save Lussit on your own,” he snapped. “You just can’t. You’re…” He bit back what he wanted to say, trying not to start a fight, but he was too late.

  My cheeks went hot. “I’m what, Av? Useless? Is that what you were going to say?” After everything, he still thought of me as that bumbling, awkward underdog from the Pit.

  “I didn’t mean that!” he shouted as another explosion rattled the Temple. “Would I have come all this way if I thought that? Would I have bothered if it was useless?”

  I glared at him, not sure what to say. He was here. He’d been by me through everything.

  “You have to get back to the Brothers, you can’t waste time! You have to warn them about Krepin. By Rawley, Urgle! Some things aren’t just about you!”

  “Isn’t that Fiver?” interrupted Cubby, his little arms pointing across the rooftop.

  Av turned his attention from me to Cubby, but I wasn’t done talking. I wanted to help him. He’d helped me, it was my turn.

  “What’s he doing?” said Av.

  I looked out the window and sure enough, there was Fiver, lying on his belly and snaking his way towards the action.

  “Fiver!” called Cubby, and I covered his mouth, afraid the Tunrar or guards might hear.

  Fiver cocked his head in our direction and scurried over as soon as he saw us.

  “It’s getting a little rough out here, boys,” he said. “Maybe it’s time to call it a day?”

  “I’m going back for Lussit,” said Av.

  “I’m going with you,” I said.

  “You’ll slow me down! Just keep Cubby safe, Urgs. That’s all you have to do.”

  And that was it. He wouldn’t hear of me helping, and he ran out the door to find his sister.

  SIXTEEN

  As the door slammed shut I thought about ignoring what Av said. I thought about trying to find Lussit anyway. Then we could go back together, help our Brothers, together.

  Suddenly I felt the wind knocked out of me as Cubby shoved me violently in the gut.

  “You were going to leave me alone again?” he shouted, his lip quivering. “For some girl!”

  I looked at his weepy eyes and hated myself. Av was right. My job was to keep Cubby safe.

  “No, Cub,” I said, hugging him tight. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It’s you and me, right?”

  Cubby wiped his eyes and took a big long sniff as he brushed his nose with the back of his wrist. When he was done, he looked up at me and managed a weak smile. “Right,” he said.

  “And me too, right?”

  I laughed when I looked at Fiver, his bottom lip jutting out in a fake frown.

  “Come here, Cub,” said Fiver, smiling. He helped Cubby hop out the window and onto the roof. “We’ll head that way, the southeast side. There’s a ton of Tunrar, but it’s away from the fighting. The Tunrar seem too spooked from the explosions to care much about us anyhow.”

  I nodded, barely hearing him as I made sure Cubby was safely out the window and tried not to think of Lussit, the sound of her voice when she screamed my name, the feel of her hand on my wrist. I didn’t want to leave her behind. I wanted to find her.

  Suddenly, without warning, I was thrown and my ears were ringing. I sailed through the air for what felt like forever, sparks dancing in front of my eyes. I landed with a painful thud on stone floor, debris and dust raining down on top of me.

  Everything hurt and my head was spinning. I stumbled to my feet and looked around. The Belphebans had hit the library, splitting it open and throwing me across the room.

  On the other side of the roof, so far away from me, I could see Fiver and Cubby. Cubby was all right, helping a dazed Fiver to his feet. They were near the southeast corner, exactly where Fiver had wanted to go…. Cubby was as good as safe. And with that knowledge, all my brain could think about was Lussit.

  “Fiver!” I shouted. “Get Cubby out of here! We’ll meet you at Abish Village.”

  “What?” screeched Cubby.

  His big green eyes were sparkling with tears and his little mouth hung open while he tried not to say whatever angry thing he wanted to. And he was right to be angry, he didn’t understand. But he was safe now, he was free.

  “I’ll be right back, Cubby, just listen to Fiver!” Cubby made a step towards me but Fiver grabbed him by the shoulders. “Listen to Fiver! I’ll see you soon!”

  I turned and ran, my feet taking me to Lussit as fast as they would go. I heard Fiver call my name, and I heard Cubby screaming at me to come back, but I couldn’t. I had to save Lussit. I brought her here, it was my fault. Saving her was my responsibility.

  I leaped over the crumbled remains of fallen walls and tripped over books and trinkets strewn across the hallway. The north, Cub had said. That’s where they kept the sacrifices.

  I ran to the north end of the Temple, dodging crumbling pieces of fallen ceiling. There were Belphebans and Beginners everywhere, fighting and killing. The noise was deafening; I couldn’t even hear the Tunrar coming before it threw me into the wall.

  My shoulder was blasted with pain from the impact, and the Tunrar screeched and launched itself at me.

  Pressing my back to the wall, I lifted my feet and slammed them into the beast’s gut, and it squealed and fell back, hacking and coughing. I didn’t wait for it to compose itself.

  I ran, ducking and dodging as arrows pummeled the floor, blades swung barely missing me. They were dropping all around me: Beginners, Belphebans, Tunrar. Bodies littered the wet marble floors.

  “Ikkuma!” growled someone from behind me. I whipped round to see the beast of a guard who’d apprehended me. He ran at me with his spear and I froze, unable to think as I watched him barrel towards me. There was a loud, familiar bang, and the man fell to the ground, dead.

  I looked around for the pistol-wielder and I found him locked in battle with two other guards and a Tunra
r Goblin. Blaze. He hadn’t left. He didn’t acknowledge me, he was too busy. A pair of Belphebans rushed to his side and the three of them took down the guards and the Tunrar with ease. I wanted to thank him, but now was not the time.

  I ran. I ran fast and I ran hard with no more thought in my mind than north. I slipped more than once. The destruction to the Temple had let in more of the water from the Baublenotts. I was up to my ankles in the fast-moving current. The Beginners’ Temple was falling. I couldn’t get to the north end fast enough.

  When I finally got there, it was practically a pile of stone. The Belphebans had torn the whole front apart and my heart sank. Did they move her somewhere safer? A different part of the Temple? Or did Krepin flee the Temple before the attack, taking Lussit with him? What if they hadn’t moved her at all? What if she’d been right here, in one of these splintered rooms, when the attack started?

  A wall to my left exploded into a million pieces and I fell.

  “Lussit!” I screamed, huddled on the floor. “Lussit, where are you?”

  And then there she was, not Lussit, but the withered old prisoner, standing not five feet from me. She was standing, though her body was bent forward and her hands were wringing in front of her. Her eyes were different, not glazed like the last time I had seen her. They were alive and alert, like she knew something I didn’t. Then she turned to me and reached out a spindly, long-fingered hand. She motioned for me to follow and she turned down one of the corridors that was still standing. I followed, not sure where she was leading me, but the explosions intensified around us, and getting out of here was the only thing to do. She stopped at the end of the corridor, which led to an outside courtyard, a staircase stretching to the upper levels of the Temple. She pointed to it while she smacked her gummy mouth together.

  “Up there?” I asked her.

  She nodded with that glazed-over expression that gave no indication she had any idea what was going on, and turned away, walking dumbly in no particular direction. But crazy old woman or not, her staircase was all I had to go on.

  I climbed, having to cling to the stairs every time an explosion rattled the building. I could hear the battle now, the distinct cries of the Belphebans and the rumble of their weapons, the roars of men that fought for Krepin.

  As I neared the top, the sounds of the battle died down, and I heard the voice of Aju Krepin booming over the Baublenotts, followed by the voice of Gorpok Juga.

  “Aju Krepin urge all you blasphemers!” Gorpok Juga cried. “Expel this demon’s lies from you heart. Let the Beginning keep you!”

  When I reached the top, I saw them. I saw everything. They were facing their audience below, the Belphebans and Krepin’s army, their battle paused to hear his words. A group of soldiers, priests, and Passages stood around Krepin and Gorpok Juga, praying and chanting.

  “She is the wrong path!” Gorpok Juga preached, and there, in the center of the group, was Lussit, on her knees in front of Krepin, facing the horrified eyes of the Belphebans below, her hands bound in her lap. She wasn’t crying and there was no sign of the fear she’d shown when she’d screamed my name. Her posture was defiant and noble.

  The tall, spindly man who’d nearly killed Cubby, the one Krepin called Karlone, was there too, holding a jeweled dagger on a white cloth. Krepin lifted the dagger into the air, ready to bring it down on her at any moment.

  “Krepin!” I barked.

  Every head turned in my direction, and it was then that I realized I really should have thought a bit longer before I opened my mouth.

  Krepin shouted words that I assumed meant something along the lines of “Get him!” because his guards and priests were quick to apprehend me. I flailed and kicked and wriggled with everything in me until I saw how close I was to Lussit. Shoving me beside her and forcing me to my knees in front of Krepin, his followers readied me for sacrifice.

  “With they lives,” announced Gorpok Juga, “the Beginning will be happy. They go home to the start. All you who are sinners, forget lies of this unholy daughter of evil.”

  Lussit kept her chin up, ignoring Gorpok Juga’s words. She ignored me too. All her focus was on keeping a brave face. I admired her.

  I suddenly found myself feeling light-headed. The height and the knowledge that my death was moments away were too much for my brain to process.

  “Turn from—” Gorpok Juga’s words were interrupted by my stomach juices spewing from my mouth. With a violent gag I vomited down the front of the Temple, my bile taking forever to fall to the crowd below.

  Everyone was silent, good guys and bad guys, all of them shocked that I had done that. I was shocked myself, but mostly embarrassed. I didn’t care about everyone else, just Lussit. I looked at her, but she was still facing forward with her chin held high. I watched the corners of her mouth twitch and I realized she was suppressing a laugh.

  As my insides withered and I felt my cheeks blush, I saw out of the corner of my eye the naked skin of Krepin’s ankle near my wrist. In that moment I had a choice: die humiliated or live a hero.

  Seizing the distraction, and not thinking beyond that, I reached out and grabbed the Aju’s ankle, yanking it towards me and sending him falling forward.

  “Run!” I yelled, grabbing Lussit by the arm.

  Krepin let out a shriek as he went head over feet over the front of the Temple. A roar of cheers from the Belphebans erupted below us.

  Startled, Lussit scrambled to her feet, gripping me for support while Juga wailed and nearly threw herself after her leader. Guards and servants leaped to where Krepin had fallen, forgetting us entirely.

  I could still hear him crying out, and when I peeked over the edge I could see him, his knuckles white from gripping to a decorative red stone protruding from the wall of the Temple. Juga nearly had her hands on him, still more of her followers reaching down to grab him.

  Karlone stood dumbfounded, still holding out the cloth ceremoniously. His eyes, puffy bags drooping beneath them, locked onto mine and the corners of his lips gave a twitch, like a smile was hiding behind them.

  “Urgle!” Lussit screamed.

  Behind us, an army of Tunrar was crawling its way down the parapets, their angry faces trained on us.

  A pair of guards, spears held at the ready, advanced on us and I felt Lussit frantically grabbing at my clothes as we backed closer to the edge.

  Through them. That was the only way out of here.

  With a roar, I threw my body onto the first guard, taking him by surprise, and the two of us went crashing to the ground with a thump.

  I heard Lussit scream behind me, and I was seized from behind, the second guard trying to tear me off the first.

  I flailed and kicked as wildly as I could, my left foot connecting with the jaw of the guard beneath me, knocking him out.

  The second guard had his arm wrapped around my neck and I couldn’t breathe as the Tunrar screamed and bounced with excitement, making their way closer to join the fight.

  The guard let out a yelp and his grip loosened a moment, just enough for me to break free.

  I turned to see Lussit on his back, digging her nails into his face as hard as she could while he did his best to shake her off.

  I threw myself into his knees and the two of them went flying to the ground.

  “Come on, come on!” I screamed, dragging her to her feet as the first wave of Tunrar began to surround us.

  The second guard’s arm shot out, grabbing Lussit by the ankle. She cried out, clinging to me for help. I pulled her away, but his grip was firm. She screamed at him, and with one shot from her leg, she kicked him in the face, and the man went limp.

  “Ikkuma!” roared Juga.

  She and the others were dragging a furious Krepin onto the roof, while Juga started screaming in her own tongue, pointing at me and Lussit. The Tunrar screamed back and tightened their circle around us. My heart was ready to break out of my chest but I gritted my teeth, prepared to fight them all if I had to.

  “Ru
n!” I heard Av yell from somewhere overhead.

  Everyone looked up and there he was, his body half out one of the top windows of the Temple, Farka handing him a ball that she lit up in flames. He hurled it right at us, and I knew what was about to happen. I grabbed Lussit by the arm and tried to pull her out of the way.

  The ball exploded and threw us sideways, but I never let go of her hand.

  Krepin, Juga, and their entire entourage were thrown too, and when I opened my eyes the doorway was only steps from us.

  “Come on, Lussit!” I screamed, dragging her to her feet. She was dazed and disorientated, but we had to move.

  The warriors below were frenzied and the battle continued as I ran as fast as I could down the steps, dragging Lussit behind me. The riverbank. We just had to make it there.

  We rounded the corner in wild flight from the angry guards that had survived the blast, and my body slammed into another. Lussit let out a shriek, but it was Av. Farka was with him and her sword was drenched in red.

  “This way! Follow me!” said Av, running off towards the south, taking us farther away from the riverbank.

  Farka stayed behind, fending off the advancing soldiers with her skilled blade.

  We kept running. We couldn’t wait for the woman who had saved our lives.

  Av made a sharp left into a giant space of nothing but rubble, the rushing water of the river barreling over the piles of debris.

  Av didn’t hesitate and he started climbing his way across the river, hopping from pile of rubble to pile of rubble.

  We were closer to the falls back here; their thunder was deafening and the water was even more violent. There’d be no fighting this if you accidentally slipped and fell in.

  “What about Farka?” cried Lussit.

  “She’ll be fine,” said Av, trying to keep his balance as the pile of debris beneath his feet shifted. “I’ve watched her kill every guard and Tunrar that came our way—there were a lot, and I don’t think any of them ever landed a blow!”