One hissed and jumped at him, Kieran sliced at it but the other was coming too. He let one fall on him, and somehow rolled it over so that it was stuck on its back. In a fragment of a second, Kieran raised both blades high and slashed through the creature in a crossing motion just as the last thing came at him from behind. Without turning, he shoved the blade through the last thing. It fell towards his back and he spun, dislodging his sword, disgustingly spraying yellow blood everywhere, letting it fall.
What shocked me most, and will still shock me until the day I die, was the way everyone calmly picked up their bags and continued down the path like nothing had even happened. I stood there, astonished, as they passed me.
After that I didn’t even dare speak. I grew sufficiently paranoid, my suspicious eyes permanently scanning the forest. I stayed close to Kieran. No matter how much I hated to admit it, I felt safe with him.
Mostly I think I was imagining it, but I swore I caught formidable glimpses of movement in the trees. Though whenever I focused properly I only saw shadows. It kept me on edge, alert. It kept my heart beating erratically and my senses sharp and defined. Perhaps it was a good thing I was bricking it.
I don’t know how long passed, minutes or hours, but with every second, I grew weaker. With every step my muscles flared with new aches and pains. With every breath I was closer to death.
Then, abruptly we arrived at the top of an extremely steep valley.
The rock crumbled away almost vertically beneath my feet, revealing at the pit of the slope a crystal-clear river carrying shards of floating ice from further north. I gulped as I contemplated the hazardous descent. The land stretched out everlastingly in frozen mountains, unhampered and undisturbed by human hands. We were still much further away than I had hoped.
“How are we going to get across?” I asked shakily.
No one was breathing as heavily as me, but Briseis collapsed inelegantly to the floor, her arms splaying out in melodramatic exhaustion. Kieran frowned at her. Nik perched on a rock and Chara joined him. He passed her a bottle of water from one of the bags he was carrying and she gulped it down gratefully. Before Nik could drain his bottle, Bris snatched it away and finished it off. He raised his eyebrows but she shrugged unapologetically, “I’m about dying.”
Bris’s gaze flickered to me, her eyes wide as she realised what she said. It took me a moment to understand why she looked so guilty.
Kieran, of course, spoke first, “We can’t go anywhere until we find the Healer.” He glanced over at Adrian. “I’m afraid that’s your job, you’ll know where she is more than anyone else. Briseis you’ll have to take him.” He looked over at Nik and Chara, “I guess I don’t need to explain to you both what needs to be done.”
Nik frowned, “No, unfortunately you don’t.”
“You’re the most…” Briseis trailed off, searching for the right word, “…believable, Nik. If anyone can talk us out of something it’s you.”
Nik nodded, looked at Chara who shrugged and looked at me before they disappeared down the valley. “Good luck, fledgling.” She said and Nik smiled hopefully.
“Come on then,” Briseis gestured to Adrian, “No point waiting.” She looked at me before they too went “See you on the other side.” Adrian didn’t speak.
I turned to Kieran “What now?” my voice had transformed into a breathless rasp. “Where do we go?”
“There’s no point in leaving yet, not for a while, you might as well save your energy.” He said as he shrank to the floor and pulled off his bag.
I carefully sat next to him, staring at the view of the mountains, thinking to myself about how I’d been here before but forgotten. I remember now, I remember the taste of the air. Sweet. Foreign. Exotic.
“Did you miss it here?” I asked him eventually, noticing him watching the mountains with a peculiar expression.
“I was born here, had friends and family here, didn’t have to hide here and was practically worshipped; of course I miss it,” He huffed irritably.
“You were worshipped.” I repeated dubiously.
“Every day the peasant children would come and give me offerings of jewels they’d collected from the mountains.” I turned around to look at him, eyebrows raised, but he continued nevertheless. “And the women. Well, I don’t think you’re old enough to hear what they gave me.”
“Are you actually a compulsive liar?” I wondered seriously.
“If I said no, would you believe me?” he countered, eyes flashing.
“Probably not,” I admitted, “but I really doubt that you were worshipped.”
“Aye, you are right.” Kieran admitted. “It was lustful adoration that I received from those beautiful women; and hatred from their husbands.”
I laughed despite myself, “You’re so full of crap, Kieran. I don’t know how your neck manages to hold the weight of your head.”
“It’s a very good neck, I grew it myself,” he assured me. He glanced down at my arm, “Your marks are starting to show.”
I looked down. It was true. Those tattoo patterns Nik had made appear earlier were spreading faintly across my arms.
“They’re pretty,” Kieran admitted unwillingly, referring to the marks. “You know, in a girly fire-swirling kind of way.”
“I think there’s a compliment in there somewhere,” I said. “I think you actually just called me pretty.”
“I said your marks are,” he agreed grumpily.
“Nah,” I grinned jokingly, “Don’t deny it; you think I’m pretty.”
His face was suddenly terrifyingly serious. “Ruby, saying things like that could get you killed here.”
“What?” I waved him off, “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“No Ruby,” he continued, eyes deadly earnest, “If anyone in anyway thinks that we are closer than we should be, if they heard you say that and got the wrong idea,” he shook his head, exhaling, “the consequences don’t bear thinking about. You heard what Nik had said about the tribes. He was right.”
I pulled a face, “It can’t be that bad.”
“Come with me,” he said, “We’re not far from the Wall. I’ll show you.”
I followed him, stumbling as I became more exhausted, for about twenty minutes, down the valley and around the base of a large chiseled mountain. After struggling my way around a sharp rocky bend, as I was just beginning to gasp with the pain of walking, I saw immediately what he meant by the Wall. I staggered back in shock and horror then slumped down onto my knees, gaping up at the fifty meter high wall with a sickening lurch in my stomach. I looked away, unable to continue looking.
“This is what I mean when I say the consequences are serious Ruby,” Kieran said softy. I looked up at him, “I don’t mean to scare you; I just need you to realise that in this world you have to play by the rules. I know you’re used to being free to be with whoever you want, but here you have to stick to your own Tribe. Same goes for healing. A healer is not allowed to heal those from a different tribe. You’re not Earth, you’re Fire. Even worse, you’re a Swartette and I’m an Ashaik and if anyone knew I’d healed you we’d be up there.”
I turned back to the bodies on the Wall. Initially my eyes focused on the hundreds of severed wings impaled to the rock with iron stakes, reminding me of the butterflies you’d find pinned under glass in a museum. Dried dribbles of blood streamed down the walls like gruesome fingers from where the flesh and bone had been vigorously hacked through. There were so many, wings of gold, blue; even the pure white of angels had been smeared in blood and anguish. My eyes drifted to the bodies that were scattered occasionally underneath the wings. There were less of these and many were decaying. The stench of rotting flesh filled my nostrils. I counted nineteen bodies altogether, each branded with a symbol cut into their foreheads; ostensibly drawn with knives. The blood had been cleaned away so the symbol could be revealed but I couldn’t decipher any of them.
The body that was most horrific seemed fairly new; it had yet to weather. S
he was a young woman, her skin must have once been a creamy colour and her hair was once the most beautiful strawberry blonde. I edged closer despite myself, transfixed by the enormous mound that still expanded her dead belly. She had been pregnant.
I wanted to cry, tears even brimmed. Her eyes remained open but dead, looking out at an impossible horizon, her face lapsed in an eternal sadness.
The mark on her forehead was different to all the others but one who had silver hair and who hung underneath a pair of disgustingly rotten grey wings.
“She was pregnant,” I whispered, my voice a hollow shell of its normal self.
“Treason,” Kieran read the mark on her forehead. “She went against Fire, and judging by her stomach, it must have been with a man. The only way they’d execute a pregnant woman is if the baby was mixed.” He glanced over to the silver-haired young man, “This must have been her lover.”
“How could they do that?” I felt sick. Why did he bring me here?
“It’s here to stand as a warning,” Kieran murmured apathetically. He turned to me, “Do you understand now? You must never tell anyone I healed you.”
I opened my mouth to speak but my words choked in my throat.
A burst of agony rippled through me. Like a wave, the pain crashed everywhere, right down to my fingertips. I cried out involuntarily.
It was a million times worse than before; the extremity of it caused my head to spin nauseatingly and my limbs to convulse vigorously. Though I had never been burnt before, I could tell I was being now. A scalding pain in my lungs impulsively triggered me to gasp. The torture grew worse. I screamed.
It was time to die.
Chapter Nine
I doubled over, trying not to breathe.
I tried to concentrate on what Kieran was saying…something about flying through the streets…probably have to fight our way through. The monster in me was roaring ravenously. Boiling blood; charring flesh; growing stronger.
I looked up and saw Kieran’s brilliant eyes staring sympathetically at me. I managed to nod, but struggled to turn my head. Everywhere was agony. By the time I next blinked Kieran was in bird form. Stretching his wings out, he completely blocked the horrible view of the mutilated bodies with his looming silhouette.
Then I screamed as the monstrous fire suddenly shifted into my heart. The pain, I cried to Kieran. It’s too much.
Breathe shallowly, Kieran instructed, it’ll help. He looked perplexed at my expression, You’re early! You shouldn’t be burning for another two hours yet.
Sorry, I’ll try and die slower next time, I glared bitterly.
His advice didn’t alleviate the pain, in fact it technically did nothing to quench the intensity of the fire; instead it gave me something to focus on other than the excruciation of my limbs. I furiously ignored the feeling that my veins were running with acid instead of blood, concentrating on the throbbing in my lungs as I tried to slow their expansion. Once my breathing was closer to normalcy, I eventually persuaded myself to stand. I shook violently as I struggled to clamber onto the gigantic monster that was Kieran.
Kieran suddenly leapt into the air and dived. His body was parallel to the steep decline of the valley, mere meters away. It was the weirdest rollercoaster I’ve ever been on. We picked up speed, accelerating instantly like black lightning.
The scenery transformed from icy slopes to the tall majestic mountains that scraped the sky with their sharpened peaks. Trees coated the mountains, filling the air with a rich fresh fragrance. The highest peaks held dustings of snow probably hundreds of years old. We were moving so fast, a hundred times faster than Kieran had before. The sun was rising. I looked at it; the colours mirrored the fire that was dancing within me. I looked away. I barely seemed to blink before we were reaching the outskirts of the city.
Shifting my vision forward, straining my spine straighter with astonishing effort, I tried to see the city. It was located at the bottom of an enormous crater in one of the larger mountains, appearing to me like the inside of a perfectly rounded volcano. As we travelled closer I comprehended the sheer size of the valley. Its outskirts provided another steep descent through ice and rock, then forest, before finally revealing the glorious city surrounded by walls.
Sprawling in the middle of the city’s magnificence was a building with a tower that, to my amazement, seemed to be forged from gemstones. It was a lot bigger than any other building, even the impressive palaces that perched higher up on the valleys walls. The gemstones twinkled translucently in the sunlight and a proud stone Phoenix, its wings outstretched as if in welcome, had more jewels dripping from its feathers. It had a crown of flowers and at the tips of its wings hovered glass orbs of incandescent firelight and droplets of shimmering water. It was superfluously radiant.
It terrified me that my eyesight was suddenly perfect; I knew what it meant.
Kieran continued at an impressive speed, I tried desperately to hold on. As we neared the buildings, Kieran swooped dangerously low to land before an impressive gate made of solid gold. The arch was decorated with various stones and ancient-looking runes in a foreign language that I recognised immediately. My mother’s language; I hadn’t forgotten it over the years.
The rough landing hurt me even more and I was gasping again. How much longer did I have to put up with this? How much longer until my body just surrenders to the fight? Kieran grudgingly forced his way forwards towards the gate, where we faced five exceedingly large guards and a woman sat at rectangular table. I couldn’t decide if she was beautiful or just plain terrible.
She was like an ice sculpture; her skin luminously white -like she’d been locked in a windowless room since she was born, paler than me, even. She had wide grey eyes that turned coal black at the rim and hair which was shocking. It was absolutely transparent, like thin icicles that were convoluted in random directions. When her eyes narrowed, I realised she was as hard as ice too.
I need to get into the city, Kieran said urgently.
“Access rune,” she demanded bitterly.
I don’t have time for this; the girl here is dying; she needs a healer. He was obviously struggling to stay polite and dignified. I could feel the tension practically rolling off him like mist off mountains.
The woman’s cool eyes regarded me briefly, her expression lazy and uncompassionate. Sorry, she apologised, not bothering to even try and sound sincere, but everyone needs to show their access rune.
Kieran leaned over, intimidating, his sharply curved beak close to her unfriendly face. Her eyes flashed hostilely. Let me through, he demanded, can’t you see she’s helpless.
Well if she’s helpless, she countered, there’s no point us letting her in is there?
Kieran glared down at her, and then with one impressive sweep of his wing he sent the long table flying. It crashed explosively, thick paper and cups of steaming drink spraying everywhere.
My name is Kierakai Ashaik, his mindvoice was undeniably authoritative and dominatingly powerful, Second son of the Ashaik Elders, High-Protector and trained Assassin under the Fourteenth General. Let me through or, so help me, I will take action. This is my warning.
You think you scare me, boy? The woman laughed. I remember you all right, the younger of the Ashaik sons, the ones who disappeared.
That’s me, now let us through, he ordered.
Oh we will, the woman smiled vindictively, but you’re going straight to the tower. Guards! She glanced back to the men.
Automatically the guards were coming at him, Kieran charged against them; battering their thick frames with his powerful wings. Obviously this approach was not profitable for the guards, within seconds they were on their backs. Changing their tactics they suddenly burst into dark terrifying Earthbirds. They clawed at him, snapping with their deadly beaks, tearing at him. There were too many. Abruptly I slipped to the floor. I struggled to stand up again, swaying, trying to take in the scenery but my body screamed in agony. The five massive guards were battering Kieran; he fought
back determinedly, hitting one unconscious with an almighty kick to the head.
I looked around for help, but there was nobody nearby.
Then I felt the crystal eyes of the woman boring into my back. Cautiously I turned, feeling my agonised limbs ignite even further. It hurt so badly.
“Who are you,” it wasn’t a question, it was a demand.
I understood her instantly. I couldn’t believe my mother had lied to me about her native language. I must have never been in a car crash. I must have never had to re-learn English. No, I had been a total novice.
“Nobody,” I spluttered, wincing as my throat burned from the effort. I spoke in her language, it coming back to me with a surprising fluency.
“Well, nobody,” she smiled eerily, “your friend is going to die.”
I looked up, it was true Kieran was not winning, but he’d knocked down another two guards and was currently freefalling. I knew this trick; I’d seen him do it before, last time I was dying. He got so close to the earth, less than a meter away, before he pulled up. Another guard fortunately didn’t anticipate that, and crashed to the floor. Two more, I thought.
At this point the woman frowned, irritated, muttering something about how she always has to do everything herself. I saw her forehead crinkle in concentration. Like a stake through my chest I saw what she was doing. My vision darted up to Kieran; he froze in midair. The others were hurtling towards him, another guard joining them as if from nowhere.
I remembered Nik saying something about Phoenix developing different gifts, could she be physic? It seemed so. Oh shit! A spark of intuition explained: that must be how she lets people into the city, she searches their minds for the chance of a threat.
Kieran controlled himself. I sighed in relief and he dived downwards. Using his advanced flying skills for protection, he was faster. The sky was black now, not a fragment of sunlight remained. The woman grunted unhappily, trying to get a better hold on Kieran. Before I could listen to my better judgement I punched her. She staggered back in surprise. Then her surprise transformed into infuriation.
Ashes (The Firebird Trilogy Book 1) Page 10