by B. T. Narro
From the corner of his eye, Neeko noticed heads turning toward him. He began gathering pyforial energy at his side, where it would be hidden, mostly. An archer stepped out from the throng and pulled back on his string. “Who are you?”
Neeko was too close for the archer to miss.
Suddenly there was an explosion on the dais. It came from Wendi’s far side, her hair and dress billowing as she flinched. Neeko ducked in case the startled archer shot at him. But the man turned with every other guard and ran onto the stage.
“On the roof!” people in the crowd began to shout.
Neeko took the opportunity to go for the stairs, leaping up three at a time. Fireballs shot out from the crowd, slamming high against the side of the palace. The noise was near deafening as globs of shattered fireballs rained down onto the dais.
“She’s on the roof!” the crowd continued to scream as hundreds of mages shot at Shara.
Guards surrounded the king in protection and had begun moving him straight toward Neeko. Fire was spreading behind them along the dais and the palace itself.
Neeko drew his blade and got pyforial energy around its handle. It wasn’t a breath later that the crowd identified him.
“Pyforial mage!”
“He’s the one from Tramberr!”
Neeko only had a moment before he’d be destroyed by fireballs. He willed a thin line of pyforial energy at the guards. Then he shoved it to the right, sending half of them stumbling sideways. It created enough space for his sword to get through.
It shot straight into the king’s chest.
There wasn’t enough time to impale the king with his other blade as well. He dropped it and lifted himself into the air, fireballs and arrows flying all around him.
He noticed guards crouching over Wendi’s fallen father on his way up to the roof, the priest’s scarlet robe visible through gaps between their bodies. The same scene unfolded beneath Neeko’s feet where the king lay. Brimber ran past Marteph and straight to Wendi, presumably to free her.
Fireballs pelted the palace beneath Neeko’s feet, behind him, and in front of him as others missed over his head. The entire roof seemed to be on fire as Neeko rose to its height. He almost lifted his arms to cover his face as the heat forced his head to turn away from the flames.
He moved through the black smoke, finding no reprieve from the constant fireballs as he held in coughs. He glimpsed only a few spots where Shara could be between the flames…and she was at none of them.
“Shara!” he screamed.
He thought he heard her voice, but the crowd and the roaring fire were too loud for him to tell.
He hovered lower and felt as if he was putting his legs into an oven. “Shara!” he tried again.
“I fell in! I’m hurt!”
Straining his eyes to look through the smoke and the flames, he saw that part of the roof had collapsed.
An arrow whizzed in front of his face, nearly startling him into losing his focus and letting the py disperse. Damn. Archers had run up to the side towers.
Three more arrows came at him as he guided himself over the hole in the ceiling and then let himself fall.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
SHARA
When Neeko left her on the roof, Shara had become so nervous that her whole body shook. The ritual had begun. It was time to finish everything they’d been working toward for months. But she couldn’t move.
Go! her inner voice yelled. Shoot that bastard priest right now or Neeko will die with Wendi, and you’ll never forgive yourself.
She crawled to the edge of the roof, catching sight of the back end of the courtyard filled with men who would try to kill her as soon as they noticed her there. She lay flat, pressing her cheek against the wooden roof as she attempted to gather the necessary bastial energy.
It was no use. She was too nervous to focus.
I need to find some way to tell Neeko so he can get out before they see him.
She peered over the edge to see that he’d already come around the tower. A line of guards looked right at him. Oh, two hells.
Shara got to her knees and pulled in as much bastial energy as she could. She spotted the priest a few meters from Wendi and aimed her wand. She caught sight of some in the crowd pointing as she unleashed all of the energy through her weapon, shooting a fireball down onto the priest’s head.
The explosion forced her to turn away. Shara looked again to find him supine and completely still as hundreds of fireballs erupted from the crowd.
They cracked against the palace wall as she tumbled backward. In a mad scramble, she got to her feet and dashed behind the nearest chimney. The palace shook from the hail of fire. Countless voices screamed her whereabouts as fireballs started soaring into the air as high as Neeko could fly. If they couldn’t shoot her directly, the mages would rain the fireballs down on her.
The air was so laden with fire that she couldn’t tell which were going to hit her. Cranking her neck, she couldn’t see where she was going and ran into a chimney hard enough to knock her flat on her back. If she wasn’t more careful, she’d run right off the roof.
A fireball struck just beside her as she was getting up, sending her airborne. She landed hard and rolled, reaching desperately for anything to stop her from falling off but finding nothing. She came to a stop with her nails broken and her fingertips burning.
She stood to find half of the roof covered in sporadic flames. There were too many mages. She had to find a way down or she would be struck at any moment.
It was only a few steps to the back edge from where she was. A quick look proved that broken legs were the best she could hope for if she jumped. She had to hold out until Neeko killed the king and then came for her.
But the fireballs wouldn’t cease. She jumped to dodge them as she bustled back toward the center. She made it and stopped, hoping to find Neeko coming up over the front of the palace.
Every second that she stood still seemed to stretch on for a lifetime. The fire was beginning to encircle her. She needed to move again.
Shara made a dash for a chimney that seemed to have some space around it that wasn’t on fire. Trying to watch the sky and her feet, her progress was slow. Her lungs burned as if a separate fire raged within her. A gust of wind sent thick smoke straight into her eyes.
Reflexively, she crouched and covered her face as she coughed. She checked the air. A fireball seemed to be coming straight toward her. No, just in front of her. She took a step back, then nearly jumped forward again as intense heat threatened to singe her back.
The fireball crashed down in front of her, completely surrounding her with flames. Seeing that the fire in front was smaller than the rest, she jumped over it. Her feet slammed down on the other side and suddenly she was falling…still falling. The roof had collapsed and she’d taken a cluster of debris with her, preventing her from seeing anything as she gained speed.
She didn’t remember hitting the ground, though she certainly felt the pain. Her body screamed in alarm—her ankle. She could tell something was terribly wrong.
She realized that only a chunk of the roof had fallen, but the rest was licked by flames and could come down at any moment. She needed to find a way to get to Neeko.
Shoving away shards of hot wood, she made room to stand. She curled her knees and shifted weight onto her right ankle.
She screamed in pain and collapsed. “No, dammit!”
Looking around, she found the room to be empty. She could hobble out the door, but what could she hope to find?
“Neeko!” she yelled.
Another chunk of the roof crashed down beside her, extending the gap she’d fallen through. She tried to scoot away from it on her elbows, but she collapsed the moment they touched the rug. They’d been injured as well. She turned each one up for a glimpse at her bloody wounds.
So she used her knuckles and her one good foot to wobble out of the clearing.
“Shara?” Neeko yelled from somewhere above her.
“Neeko!”
“Shara?”
“I fell in! I’m hurt!” she screamed.
Neeko fell through the gap and looked as if he was about to break his legs. But he slowed just in time to land in a crouch. He dashed to her frantically.
“I can’t walk,” she told him.
“Get on my back.” He helped her on as he spoke quickly. “There are archers and mages surrounding the palace and gathering on the towers.”
“Can you carry us to the mountaintop?”
“Not in one trip.”
“Then what about the wall? Can you get us over it?”
He took two breaths to think. “It’s our only option.”
That wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear.
“But they’ll shoot at us as soon as we come out,” he said.
“Wait.” She closed her eyes for a heartbeat, seeing the design of the palace in her mind. “Go out that door so I can see where we are.”
Neeko threw it open and ran into a hallway. Other people were evacuating their rooms and running toward the nearest staircase.
“Go left,” Shara said. It was the opposite direction from where everyone else was headed, and they glanced at Neeko and Shara in confusion as they crossed paths.
The palace on this floor was nothing but long halls with bedrooms on either side. Shara directed Neeko through two turns and then told him to try the doors to their left. The second one was open. As she’d expected, it had windows facing to the west.
“I need to set you down,” Neeko said as he kneeled.
She fell off his back. Neeko already was gulping air with each breath as he looked out the window.
Shara crawled up to it for a glimpse. The city wall was farther than she’d expected.
Terror struck her as she heard people below yelling to surround the palace. She and Neeko would be dodging arrows and fireballs, and more of each the longer they waited.
“Neeko, we need to go as soon as you can.”
“I know,” he panted.
Shara jumped as the ceiling cracked open. Two men screamed as they fell through with the flaming rubble. They both survived, though not without injury as they groaned and looked around.
“They’re in here!” one archer shouted as the other man reached for his sword.
Neeko stretched out his arm and stole the blade from his grasp with py. It turned in the air and drove into the man’s chest. Then it came out and swung across, taking off the archer’s head as he tried to load an arrow.
Neeko threw open the window and crouched in front of Shara. Another chunk of the ceiling came down behind them as she managed her way onto his back.
His body tensed, and then he jumped out the window. They cut across the sky, veering upward over a swarm of men.
“Above us!”
“Shoot them!”
Neeko flew faster than Shara could ever hope to run. She clung to him as arrows and fireballs hissed by. Neeko went higher and faster still, reaching the speed of a galloping horse. A scream tore out of her throat.
Then there was no one beneath them. Her scream ceased. The roar of the burning palace quieted.
They slowed as Neeko panted louder than Shara had ever heard from him. The wall seemed too far at this rate. She shot a look over her shoulder. Nearly the entire Southern army seemed to be chasing after them.
“You have to get us over the wall,” she told him, “or we’re dead.”
Her stomach fluttered as they shot higher with a sudden burst of speed. Her hair whipped behind her and the wind howled in her ears.
But it wasn’t long before they slowed once more, even began to descend. They sank toward the massive wall of stone like a tossed rock, and Shara couldn’t tell if they were going to get over it.
She tensed as they approached. Two hells! There were going to clip the top of the wall’s parapets. Neeko’s knees would shatter.
They lurched one last time and it was just enough for Neeko to get his legs above the parapet. His feet hopped off it, bouncing them all the way to the parapets on the other side. Shara held tight, dearly hoping Neeko still had some strength left as they flew over the edge.
But they dropped like a sack of bricks.
“Neeko!”
He grunted; they slowed. Then they fell quickly again. Shara tensed as she readied herself for both legs to be broken.
Neeko grunted out a scream and they slowed just before reaching the ground. He crashed down onto the grass and fell sideways. Thankfully it was to the left and Shara could use her good foot and hands to brace her fall.
Surprisingly, she found herself to be without any additional injury. But Neeko looked like a sick dog, lying on his side and covered in sweat as his chest heaved.
Shara couldn’t walk on her own and she couldn’t carry Neeko even with two good ankles.
“We have to go,” she told him. “They’ll be coming from around the wall.”
“Uhgn.” He couldn’t seem to move or speak.
She got herself up on one foot. “Neeko, we need to get to the road to buy horses.”
He groaned as he struggled to his hands and knees. Shara bit her cheek, wishing there was some way of helping.
Finally Neeko made it to his feet. He staggered toward Shara and offered a wobbly arm. They both nearly toppled as they tried to find balance.
Soon they were hobbling toward the road. It was so dreadfully far.
“Stop,” Shara said, realizing they weren’t going to make it. “Rest here a moment, then take us back atop the mountain range.”
“I don’t think I can,” he managed. “It will take too long.”
Their dread hung in the silence that followed. Shara held back tears as the realization came that they weren’t going to make it out alive.
She desperately looked around for ideas. Then she saw two women on horseback riding straight for them from the north.
She almost fell to her knees in relief when she recognized Cedri and Laney.
“My gods,” Neeko uttered.
The two women arrived shortly and jumped off.
“You both look hurt,” Cedri said as she rushed to Shara.
“Just me,” Shara answered.
Cedri put her arm around Shara’s back. “You ride with me. Neeko, get on Laney’s horse.”
Neeko tried to climb on, but he didn’t have the strength. Cedri and Laney pushed him up, grunting as they shoved his rear and feet.
“We have another horse waiting about a mile north.” Cedri helped Shara up as she spoke, then climbed up behind her.
Soon they were galloping toward the northern hills. Shara had a glimpse of the city and found no stream of horsemen coming out just yet.
They rode hard and Shara tried to ignore the throbbing pain of her ankle. Soon they’d passed through enough trees that she couldn’t see the city or the road behind her. They still would be pursued, but it was unlikely they would be found.
She felt relief with her next breath.
“Why did you come?” Shara asked.
“I recovered the day after you left,” Cedri said. “Then Laney and I began talking.”
“We decided we wanted to help,” Laney chimed in. “But we were too late to catch up to you.”
“Then we figured that even if you managed to kill the king, you would have trouble getting out,” Cedri added. “So we brought an extra horse. We watched from the hills and figured you were somewhere along the mountain.”
“You must’ve waited for at least a day,” Shara realized.
“We did,” Cedri said. “But we weren’t going to leave until we could confirm you were safe or we ran out of food.”
Neeko’s shallow breaths finally had calmed back to normal. “How did you know to come when you did?”
“We were watching the strange ceremony, though we couldn’t make out much,” Cedri said. “Then we saw all the fire. We figured you and Shara had something to do with it, so we began riding to where the wall meets the mounta
in range because that was the most likely place to find you.”
“But there were so many scouts,” Shara said. “We had to fly up atop the mountain range miles back.”
“We killed many of them,” Laney said with sickening pride.
“I wouldn’t say many,” Cedri added. “But we did fell those who tried to attack us. It’s fortunate that we are two women, because the small groups of men we encountered took it upon themselves to stop us rather than report back to the army as they should’ve done.”
“Are you thankful?” Laney prodded.
“Very,” Neeko said.
“So?” Laney asked. “Aren’t you going to tell us if you were successful?”
Shara found Neeko glancing at her curiously.
“Wendi’s father is dead,” she told him.
“And so is King Marteph.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
SHARA
After the three days it took to get back to the Northern army’s encampment outside Tramberr, Shara’s ankle was feeling somewhat better, though she still had no hope of walking without her stick. Neeko carried her from her horse as Cedri and Laney wished her well and went to report to Jaymes.
Neeko took her into a healer’s tent, who confirmed what Shara had already suspected. Her ankle wasn’t broken, but it would take another week before she could walk on it without support.
Her other wounds from the fall had healed. The king was dead. His priests were dead. Brimber would take charge. The war wouldn’t last much longer. She could feel pride erasing her feelings of torment. The destruction of her home in Lanhine, Swenn torturing her, and her guilt over the death of the ally scouts Swenn had made her reveal—it had all led to this. She’d given it all purpose. But Neeko had been oddly quiet lately.
They inquired about getting their own tent, only to find that none were available. Many of the soldiers had packed their belongings and now were staying in Priest Elbick’s castle, holding him prisoner until the war ended.
She and Neeko rode into Tramberr and rented a room at an inn. After a quiet meal and a bath, they retired to bed, eager to sleep for more than a few hours.