by Luke Scull
‘You should be resting back on the ship. You almost died, Ed.’
Dull Ed shrugged his massive shoulders and wiped at the snot hanging from his nose with the back of one hand. ‘I heard people yelling. I thought someone might need help.’
‘What are you doing with that thing? It’s dead.’
‘Smokes did it!’ Ed rumbled, his voice angry. ‘I found him hurting the kittens and I chased him off… but mummy cat was already dead. He burned her.’
‘Where are the kittens?’
‘I hid them somewhere safe. Somewhere dry and warm.’ Ed’s expression became one of childish hope. He held out the remains of the cat. ‘You can bring her back, can’t you? Make her move like you did the dead people.’
‘It doesn’t work like that, Ed. I can command the shamblers from the Blight, but I can’t raise dead bodies. And I can’t return anything to life.’
‘Oh.’ So crestfallen was Ed’s face that Cole couldn’t help but feel guilty. Before he could do or say anything to cheer the big man up, a flash of silver fire lit the skyline near the palace and the city streets suddenly trembled.
‘That wasn’t thunder,’ Derkin said slowly.
‘Ed, we need to go,’ Cole said hurriedly. ‘The city isn’t safe. Put that thing— er, mummy cat down. You can’t help her now.’
‘What about the kittens?’ Ed asked.
Cole sighed and blinked rain out of his eyes. ‘You said they’re somewhere warm and safe. Kittens hate the rain and they’re scared of loud noises. They’ll be happier inside until this storm stops. We can come back for them later.’
Ed’s heavy brow creased. ‘You promise?’
‘I promise.’
Dull Ed placed the dead cat carefully down on the ground and stood up. Another flash of silver lit the sky, and this time it was met with an answering burst of black fire. Cole glanced in the direction of the palace and swallowed nervously.‘Time to go,’ he said.
Sasha opened her eyes. Somehow she was still alive. She was on the floor, Ambryl groaning beside her. Screams floated above the roaring in her ears. She blinked twice and saw that she was surrounded by rubble. Thick dust still sprinkled down from the damaged ceiling above. The southern wall of the throne room had been reduced to a smoking ruin; the golden doors were a mangled heap nearby, bent almost beyond recognition.
Standing in the blasted remnants of the doorway was a man. A tall, severe-looking man wearing a tattered black coat and a red cloth around his face. Black fire danced across his body and Sasha knew straight away that he was a wizard. A wizard, or some kind of demon stepped right out of hell.
‘Beloved,’ he boomed, giving voice to a fury that made her earlier anger seem like a child’s tantrum. ‘I have returned for you.’
Sasha scrabbled to her feet, cutting her palms on the broken glass strewn across the floor. The great window above the dais had shattered and rain streamed through the opening to fall around the target of the wizard’s wrath.
The White Lady seemed unharmed by the magical assault that had just levelled half the chamber. Even so, her voice was thick with disbelief. ‘Thanates,’ she whispered. ‘You were dead.’
‘Dead?’ The newcomer laughed bitterly, a sound uncannily like that of a crow’s croaking cry. ‘A wizard of Dalashra cannot be so easily killed – and I was a king among wizards. You underestimated me, Alassa.’
‘How do you remember my name? I took it from you! I erased our names from the world! Stripped them from the memory of every living thing!’
‘Yes,’ the wizard agreed. ‘And that spell near broke your mind as it did my own. But you left the truth in the Hall of Annals. You wanted it preserved somewhere, a reminder of the love we once shared.’
‘Lies!’ the White Lady shrieked. ‘You lie! I’ve never loved any man!‘
‘You loved me enough to carry my child!’ Thanates roared in answer. He managed to compose himself, and when he continued a deep melancholy filled his voice. ‘We could have averted war between the Congregation and the Alliance. We could have stopped the tragedy that followed. But you tore Sanctuary apart in your fury, slew every priest and priestess within its walls. And when I attempted to restrain you, you turned on me.’
A long moment of silence met his words. ‘The Mother betrayed me,’ the White Lady said eventually, her voice heavy with unexpected grief. ‘I was her mortal representative, yet she rewarded my devotion by taking the one thing I could never accept. As I watched her die, I asked why. Why of all women she would take my baby in childbirth? Do you know what her answer was? “The Pattern wills what the Pattern wills.” But we broke the Pattern, and therein we revealed the truth of her lie.’
‘Foolish woman!’ Thanates spat back. ‘The Alliance broke the Pattern to reach the heavens and in doing so you brought upon us all this Age of Ruin!’ The wizard took a step forward and the black fire wreathing his coat flared again. ‘For what you did to me – for the fate to which you have doomed this world – I will have my revenge.’
The White Lady’s perfect features twisted into an ugly sneer. She gestured and the Unborn gathered around the dais suddenly surged towards the wizard. He raised a hand as they converged on him. Black fire burst from his fingertips and somehow, despite his apparent blindness, his aim proved unerring.
Where the black fire touched the pale women they ceased to exist. Body parts disintegrated. Entire torsos suddenly disappeared, causing newly detached limbs to wheel wildly away in explosions of pale white flesh and dark, rotten innards.
The last of the Unborn was almost within touching distance of Thanates when her head simply vanished. Her flailing body sprayed black blood all over the marble floor before collapsing. The smell of the grave filled the air and even with her hashka-ruined nose Sasha couldn’t stop herself gagging from the overpowering stench. Over by the benches the Consult were doing the same.
Thanates, however, was indifferent to the sickening odour. The wizard raised his arms and seemed to brace himself. ‘I have waited five hundred years for this moment,’ he growled. ‘I shall not be denied now.’ He screamed a word, and hurled a raging torrent of black fire towards the White Lady.
An answering stream of silver fire shot out to intercept it. For a few tense seconds the two opposing beams roared into each other, monumental manifestations of magical force struggling for supremacy. Then the silver fire began to inch forward, eating up the black fire, gaining momentum. Thanates’ face dripped with sweat, while in contrast the White Lady appeared unflustered. ‘I remember now why I had you tortured,’ she said coolly, having recovered her earlier poise. ‘Your arrogance grew insufferable. If you understood what it meant to storm the heavens and succeed, you would never have presumed you could defeat me. Not if you had siphoned all the raw magic in the Trine.’
As if freed from invisible shackles the silver fire surged forward and struck the wizard, hurling him back through the gap vacated by the shattered doors. He disappeared from sight, his final cry of outrage echoing through the chamber.
The White Lady lowered her arms and the silver stream vanished. Her eyes flicked to Sasha, who recoiled in fear – but it seemed Thelassa’s ruler still had other matters to demand her attention. Her lips forming a grim line, the Magelord stepped down from the dais and exited the chamber.
As soon as their mistress had left, the Consult began peeking out from behind the benches where they’d been hiding. Chaos broke loose as men and women fled the throne room.
‘Follow me,’ said a familiar voice behind her. Sasha turned to find Ambryl staring at her, her expression unreadable. Without another word her sister sped off towards a door at the rear of the chamber. Sasha followed, stepping around chunks of rubble and over the severed limbs of the Unborn. She skirted the dais, which was wet and slippery from the rainwater pouring in from above.
Ambryl led her through a maze of winding, narrow corridors that seemed to connect to every room in the palace. Other members of the Consult raced to and fro, a few giving Sasha dark looks as the
y passed by. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked once they finally emerged into the biting rain somewhere west of the palace.
‘To the docks,’ Ambryl replied acidly. ‘I can only hope we find a captain foolish enough to cross the channel in this storm.’ Despite her obvious fury her sister’s words came as a welcome relief to Sasha.
‘Thank you. We’ll be much happier back in Dorminia, you’ll see.’
‘We? I’m going nowhere.’
Sasha blinked rain from her eyes and stared at Ambryl in shock. ‘You’re not?’
‘No. After today, you are on your own.’
‘But you’re my sister. We stick together no matter what. That’s what you said.’
Ambryl’s mouth twisted. ‘I have no sister. You are a selfish, impulsive fool. A junkie and a harlot, beyond help or good reason. I will see you safely away from here, for the memory of our parents if nothing else. After that, we’re done.’
‘Ambryl—’
‘Shut up. You’ve been nothing but a disappointment to me. I should have turned the other cheek back in Dorminia. I should have let the rapist have you.’
Sasha’s mouth gaped open. She felt like she’d been punched in the gut. Of all the things her sister could have said to wound her, that – that was the most devastating. Tears filled her eyes, but her sister merely turned away. Turned her back on her and set off again without a backward glance.
They hurried through the streets, neither saying a word as they passed men, women and children scattering in all directions. Every so often an explosion would rock the city and bright lights would flash somewhere to the east, an ominous warning that hinted the battling wizards were not yet done with each other.
As on the night Salazar had died, looters had taken to the streets. Sasha witnessed doors being kicked in and homes robbed. One man was trying to set fire to a house with little obvious success. She thought she saw an exceptionally dishevelled figure crouching down and gnawing on a body, but that might have just been a trick of the hashka clouding her brain.
They were hurrying down a side street when she slipped and fell. She reached down and probed her ankle, felt the swelling and knew immediately that it was fractured. She tried to rise, but even with the deadening effects of the moon dust the pain when she attempted to put her weight on the ankle was intense. ‘It hurts,’ she gasped at her sister. Ambryl was frowning down at her, as if she were a wounded animal that it might be kinder simply to put out of its misery.
‘I should leave you here,’ her sister said quietly. ‘The Mistress will not forget what you did. If I am found to have helped you, everything I have dreamed of will be in ruins.’
Sasha looked up at Ambryl. ‘Go then!’ she said angrily. ‘Leave me. I’m sorry I couldn’t be who you wanted me to be. I should have died that night. The truth… the truth is I’m broken.’
Ambryl’s eyes narrowed. She reached down, grabbed Sasha by her hair and pulled her roughly up despite her protests. ‘Don’t you ever say that,’ she spat. ‘You say that again and I’ll kill you. Now put your arm around my shoulders and don’t let go.’
Sasha did as her sister ordered and together the two of them continued west towards the harbour, moving as best they could with Sasha’s injury. They hadn’t gone far when a blinding flash lit up the streets and a howl of rage tore through the air. Sasha looked up and her breath caught in her throat. She felt Ambryl’s fingernails dig into her arm as she too saw what was happening above them. The sisters stumbled to a halt and stared at the devastating contest playing out in the skies above Thelassa.
The White Lady and Thanates were circling each other hundreds of feet above the city. As Sasha watched, dumbstruck, the Magelord of Thelassa hurled a javelin of silver fire at her former lover. Thanates dodged to avoid it and the deadly projectile soared away into sky. Undaunted, the wizard tilted his head back and twin jets of fire exploded from his hands, propelling him up into the black clouds above. He disappeared from sight. The world seemed to hold its breath in anticipation.
Thanates reappeared directly above the White Lady, plummeting straight down. He collided with the Magelord and wrapped his arms around her body and the two of them dropped from the sky like stones, locked in a deathly embrace. Down and down they fell, twisting and turning, until eventually they vanished behind one of the great marble spires.
‘Is it over?’ Sasha whispered. ‘Is she dead?’ Please be dead, she prayed silently. Please be dead.
She received her answer moments later. Like a vengeful angel, the silvery figure of the White Lady rose up to float beside the tower. She was clutching something in her hand, something red. ‘You should never have come here,’ she thundered, her voice carrying like a hurricane. ‘This place will be your tomb.’ The White Lady released whatever it was she was holding and it floated slowly down through the wind and the rain. It was a cloth, Sasha saw. The red cloth Thanates wore around his eyes.
The Magelord raised her arms and began to chant arcane words, working a mighty spell. There was a tremendous crack and then, to Sasha’s horror, the great spire beside the floating Magelord suddenly rose into the sky. A thousand tons of marble, torn from the ground in an absurd display of power. Rubble rained down as a fresh wave of screams erupted on the streets.
When the tower was half a mile above the city the White Lady moved her hands in a circular motion. Three hundred feet of stone turned slowly in a colossal arc so that the pinnacle pointed down at the ground. The Magelord aimed it like a spear: a spear capable of slaughtering an army.
Don’t do it, Sasha thought, appalled. You can’t. You’ll devastate the entire city.
It seemed the Magelord of Thelassa was beyond caring. With a scream like the death wail of a banshee the White Lady hurled the tower from the sky. For a split second a shadow seemed to swallow the earth, as if the moon itself were falling.
The noise when the great spire collided with the city below was like a hundred firebombs exploding all at once. The street lurched, sending Sasha crashing into the side of a building. Out of sheer instinct she tried to steady herself with her injured foot, screaming in pain as her ankle buckled. The wreckage of the pulverized tower rained down from above, stones striking her and dust filling her nose and mouth until she was choking on it. She heard something huge crash into the house behind her. There was a pregnant pause – and then a terrible creaking sound as the top half of the building began to sag.
Sasha could only watch transfixed as it toppled forward, a wagon-sized chunk of marble embedded in the roof. She was directly in its path. Her brain screamed at her to move out of the way but her body refused to act and she knew then that she was going to die, alone in a foreign city with no friends or family except a sister who surely hated her. She’d ruined things for Ambryl. Just as she’d ruined things for everyone who’d ever been close to her. She closed her eyes and waited for the end, the end she deserved.
It never came. Suddenly Ambryl was there, shoving her aside and covering her younger sister with her own body. Sasha caught a glimpse of her sister’s face an instant before the house crashed down. Ambryl’s expression was perfectly calm and there was a strange look in her eyes, as if this was a moment she had been waiting a lifetime for. The years of bitterness and hard living and dark deeds melted away, and in that instant she was the old Ambryl again, the young woman who would do whatever it took to keep her little sister safe.
‘Ambryl!’ Sasha screamed as the avalanche of stone and timber and the giant section of the shattered tower fell onto her sister. Ambryl’s body shielded Sasha from the bulk of the collapsing house as Sasha tried to roll away, innumerable bits of rubble striking her painfully, leaving her bloody and bruised but somehow still alive. She rose shakily from the ground, heedless of the hundred agonies threatening to tear her apart. Where Ambryl had been standing there was now only a vast pile of debris.
Fresh agony exploded in Sasha’s ankle as she stumbled to the wreckage but she ignored it; she went to her knees and began to claw a
way the rubble with her bare hands. Tears streamed down her face as she called her sister’s name again and again. This time there was no one to rebuke her. No sound at all except the patter of the rain and, a minute or two later, an ominous groan from somewhere far below the city.
There was a commotion at the end of the street and a crowd suddenly appeared, fleeing towards the harbour. One man glanced at her as he ran by. ‘The city’s collapsing,’ he shouted. ‘Get out of here while you can.’
Sasha paid him no mind. She continued to dig, tearing her nails and bloodying her hands, lost in grief. She knew it was hopeless. No one could survive being buried alive beneath all that stone.
With a despairing sob she crumpled against the fallen building, rolling onto her back and letting the rain wash over her face. The city groaned again and this time she felt the earth tremble. More people raced down the street. She briefly considered joining them but knew she wouldn’t be able to make it twenty yards without help. If she was going to die it might as well be here, beside her sister.
Another man ran past her, a straggler wearing a hood over his face. He glanced briefly in her direction and kept going for a few seconds. She couldn’t explain it but as she stared dully at the man Sasha felt a flicker of familiarity, as if she ought to know him.
It appeared the hooded figure was having similar thoughts. He did a double take before turning and starting back over to her.
‘Don’t worry about me,’ she said hoarsely. ‘Save yourself.’
The hooded man’s voice was thick with disbelief. ‘Sasha?’
How does he know my name? There was something familiar about that voice. The figure reached up and thrust back his hood.
‘C… Cole?’ For a moment she was too shocked to say anything more. Then it all came pouring out in a mad rush. ‘I thought you were gone,’ she said, her voice cracking. ‘I looked everywhere for you. I didn’t know if you were dead or maybe if you’d abandoned me. I’m sorry I treated you badly. I’m a fuck-up, I know that. Please don’t—’