Zara’s gaze sweeps over the deck and as it lands on me, I shove every scrap of my fear away and I choose to believe. That we can do this. That we will do this. This might be the magistrate’s city, but today we take it from him.
We separate to our boats. Matthias and Rudy will be heading ashore in a different one than us since they’ll stay with the Streak crewmen until they get closer to the Colossus. I throw my arms around my brother’s neck. He squeezes me back.
I don’t ever want to let go. We just patched up what was left of our family. But he has to go. Just like I have to go. So, I step away. Trying to project lightness into my voice, I say, “I’ll never forgive you if you get yourself caught again.”
He laughs. I want to memorize the sound. “Believe me, I’m not planning on it.”
His hand finds mine and he presses something into my palm. I look down. It’s a little butterfly, folded out of yellow paper, its wings bright like buttery sunshine.
“A butterfly?” I ask.
“Rudy described them to me. I thought I’d try making one. For luck.” He steps closer, and when he speaks again, his voice is more serious. “If anything does happen, this time I’ll find you. I promise.”
I look up into his eyes, so sure. Full of the belief that what we’re doing today is right. I wrap that belief around my own heart. “I know you will.”
I squeeze Matthias’s hand and then guide it to the rail. He swings himself onto the ladder. I tuck the butterfly into my belt pouch. I’m not going to regret leaving my brother. And this won’t be the last time I see him. I won’t let it.
Kocha is with Alix and Dane farther down the railing. The big pirate ties off a rope ladder and climbs down into the waiting boat. Dane is about to do the same when Zara saunters over to us.
“Surely you weren’t thinking of leaving without saying goodbye, soldier boy.”
She’s caught Dane with one leg over the railing, off balance, and he sways precariously for a moment. “Goodbye,” he manages.
I snort. He’s so articulate. He scorches me with a glare.
“Don’t get yourself killed out there,” she says.
“I won’t. And you, too. Good luck with those cannons.”
She pats the railing. “A captain doesn’t need luck, not when it comes to her ship. I can count on the Streak.” She steps forward, placing her hand on his chest. With the wicked glint in her eye, I’m not sure if she’s planning on pulling him closer or pushing him overboard.
She draws him in for a kiss on the cheek and swaggers off.
Dane stares after her, a dazed look on his face, then turns and sees me watching. He scowls. “Not a word.” I grin, but he’s already over the railing.
Alix steps up to the ladder but for a moment he just stands there, looking at it. He’s quiet, and his expression is distant. It’s painful seeing that. All I want is to make things right between us, but maybe I realized my mistake too late.
“Are you ready for this?” I ask quietly.
His fingers thread around his father’s pendant. “The Heart will be destroyed today. At least then this will all be over.”
Those words throw me back, to before we went to the Acropolis, when it was like he was trying to force himself to be what the world wanted him to be. Or even farther, in the gardens by the automaton, when he was in such pain. I’m not good at this—at comforting people—but I have to try. He so clearly doesn’t see what I see. There is a bravery to being kind and gentle, to being hopeful. One I didn’t recognize before I met him.
“You know,” I say, “back on Tallis, all I cared about was finding my brother. And when I first saw you in that cave, all I saw was a tool that would help me reach my goal.”
Alix stiffens, and I stare down at the railing, too much of a coward to face him. I can’t blame him for being distant with me, not after what I did. But I couldn’t bear to spill out my heart, and still see him look at me with that detached gaze. He deserves for me to let him in, for once. Even if he leaves me in the end.
“But I was wrong. Alix, you’re right, you have runes and a tome. And you’re right that I can’t possibly know what that’s like. But I do know you.” Now I do look up, because I owe it to him to face him as I say this.
“What you said in the boathouse, that this is what you are... It isn’t true. You’re our friend. And the person who you are, the decisions that led you here, that made you our friend, none of that is because of your tome or the Script. Destroying the Heart doesn’t make you a key, it doesn’t make you a vessel. It just makes you yourself, someone who would do anything to save those who need your help. Someone who refuses to stop trying, no matter what happens. You have a spark that refuses to dim. And that doesn’t come from here.” I lightly press my fingers over his seal, glowing faintly beneath his chiton. “It’s all you. Your light is stunning. It’s brave and beautiful. So just be you, because that’s enough. It’s always been enough.”
Vulnerability creeps over his face, and he looks like the Alix I crossed an ocean with again. The Alix who makes me want to be a better person. I’d give anything for him to smile again like he used to, soft and hesitant and warm.
He opens his mouth.
“Alix! Karis!” Kocha calls up. “Get down here.”
Alix looks at me for a moment, emotion flashing across his expression, and at least it’s there now. He swings himself down onto the ladder. I have no choice but to follow, not sure if I made things better or worse.
As I seat myself on the bench, Kocha takes the oars. He guides us through the bay, toward the beach. There’s no wind and the sea is surprisingly still. We’re hidden by a peninsula of rocks that sticks out into the water, so we can’t see the city or the Colossus or the other automatons. It’s so strangely calm that if not for the nervous energy sizzling beneath my skin I could almost forget what we’re rowing toward.
Almost.
Our boat scrapes into the sand on the beach and we climb out. Kocha nods at us and then he’s gone, rowing back to the Streak.
For a moment we stand there, me and Dane and Alix. It’s the first time in a long while that the three of us have been alone together and it takes me back. To escaping from Tallis and hiding on that island. Before we ever met Zara or her crew or went to Valitia.
Dane leads us inland, past farms and vineyards, ramshackle homes of clay and sticks surrounded by whatever crops and vines manage to grow on the rocky, hilly terrain. Stones poke through the soles of my sandals and the sun beats down on my head and shoulders. There are no farmers tending to the vines or the fields. Not even any goats or sheep bleating from the fields. The dirt path we’re on is as deserted as the farms and maybe that should make me relieved, but instead a prickle runs up my spine. Farmers don’t take days off lightly.
Unlike the higher tiers, there’s no wall surrounding the Lower City, so as the outermost hovels come into view, it’s a simple matter to slip down a side street. I’ve only been here briefly, but as we track through the winding lanes with the small houses brushing close on each of our sides, I see how the few days we’ve been away have changed this place. A tense, stifling silence has descended upon the city, as if it’s scared even to breathe.
Then we hear it. The thud of a massive footstep that shakes the ground beneath our feet. An automaton.
We find a squat house with a stack of crates next to it and climb onto its roof to get a better vantage point. We hunker down side by side in the straw, the stiff stalks poking through my clothes. I end up next to Alix. It’s the first time we’ve been this close in days, and that thought clamps around my chest like a vice.
There are three automatons nearby. They’re all large. Not as large as the Colossus, but I’m still not used to seeing the things activated. Each is at least half again as tall as the biggest of the houses. Two of the automatons are moving. One is stationary. I’d have said that would be our be
st chance, but it’s also the largest of the three.
If I’m being honest, none of them look like a good chance.
“Do you see any of their masters?” I ask quietly.
Dane scans the area, alert and serious. In that expression I see the captain he might have been. The even better rebel he’s becoming.
“There, in that window.” He points to a nearby building. After a beat, I see it: a flash of gold that must be a seal, draped around the neck of a shadowy figure.
“Let’s do that one,” Alix says. “We can stay in the master’s blind spot and I can reach the automaton’s seal from one of the rooftops around it.”
Dane nods. “Now we just wait for the signal.”
We stay silent and still, my heart thudding in my chest. Every moment that passes strings the tension tighter. They must be getting close to position soon.
A plume of smoke erupts on the west side of the city, sending a tremor through the streets, followed quickly by another one on the opposite side. There are shouts from soldiers a few streets away and the tramp of feet as they run off.
There. All we can hope is that Zara’s people have drawn off enough of the magistrate’s forces for us to do this.
The three of us slip off the roof and steal toward the automaton. There’s no chance of us losing it, even down here at street level. The thud of its feet shakes the entire block.
Dane slows us as we approach. “Karis, you climb that building there. I’ll stay on street level. You and I will be lookouts. Shout if you see anything or if the Scriptmaster moves. Alix, good luck.”
“Good luck,” I whisper to Alix, but he’s already slipping into an alleyway between two buildings. He doesn’t look back.
I obediently clamber up the side of my building. I keep the position of the Scriptmaster in the window in my head and use the slope of the roof to shield myself as I scramble over the edge. The automaton is only one street away, lumbering along slowly. Maybe that’s as fast as it can go.
Hopefully that’s as fast as it can go.
Alix creeps over the side of another roof, careful just like I was to stay hidden from the Scriptmaster. He’s almost to the automaton. Just a few more feet.
Gold flashes in the opposite window. It’s a second Scriptmaster, and I can clearly make out the open tome in her hands. She’s the one controlling the automaton. And she has a perfect vantage point for seeing Alix.
“Alix!” I shout.
The automaton moves, and instantly I know I was wrong in thinking it could only move slowly. It lunges toward Alix, hands outstretched.
Alix jumps back, barely escaping the cage of grasping fingers, but not quick enough to evade the blunt force of the automaton’s arm. He’s slammed back across two rooftops before hitting an upper wall so hard it caves around him in a cascade of clay and stone.
The automaton is already moving again. I get up and sprint across the roof, struggling to keep my balance in the unwieldy straw. I scream as I leap the gap between two of the houses, heading for the second Scriptmaster, sure that if it’s a choice between attacking Alix or saving themselves, I know what they’ll choose. And I’m right. The woman frantically scribbles in the tome and the house I’m on trembles with the thud of the automaton’s footsteps.
“Karis!” Dane’s cry echoes down the street. “Look out!”
I throw myself to the side as a massive hand pounds where I just was, taking half the building with it.
Alix launches himself onto the thing’s back. The automaton’s arms come up, spraying bits of straw and clay into my face. I scrabble away, trying to avoid the crushing weight of its limbs. It raises its hands above me, ready to crash down, and this time I have nowhere to go, trapped by the caved-in roof at my back. I throw my hands up as if I can somehow fend off the incoming blow.
The automaton freezes.
Alix’s one arm is wrapped around the thing’s neck and his body hangs down over its chest, his fingertips just low enough to touch the seal. He squeezes his eyes shut as his seal flares with light beneath his chiton, and when he opens them again, there’s a brightness that wasn’t there before.
I let out the trapped breath in my chest, the world spinning around me in a dizzying way.
Still not dead.
I wonder how many more opportunities I’ll have to think that today.
Alix slides off and rushes over to me. “Karis. Are you all right?”
He reaches down to me, and even though I was just about crushed, I’m so relieved he still cares enough to be worried.
“Yes.” I take his hand and let him pull me to my feet. My shaky knees barely hold me. “I’m all right.”
I look for the Scriptmaster. She’s still trying to write in her tome, her partner long gone. And then Dane slips through the window. He snatches the tome from the woman and stabs his dagger through the seal. The woman runs.
Dane tosses the tome to the floor, then steps up onto the windowsill, making the short drop to the roof we’re on. “That wasn’t too bad.”
He can speak for himself. He wasn’t nearly turned into a splatter.
“This isn’t over yet,” Alix says.
He uses the automaton’s still outstretched arm to boost himself up, climbing onto its shoulder. Alix looks up at the Scriptorium, clear-cut against the sky, eyes blazing with twin fires. He looks so sure. So strong.
“You want me,” he says in a low voice. “Come and get me.”
A rumble like distant thunder vibrates down to my bones. The magistrate. He’s seen Alix.
I look up to the Colossus, towering so high above us that its head seems to split the clouds.
And then it turns toward us.
39
* * *
ALIX
The Colossus steps forward, easily clearing the wall between the Acropolis tier and the one below. The entire city quivers with the impact of its weight. It takes another step, and another, and with that it’s already halfway through the agora, rapidly eating up the distance between us.
I throw myself off the automaton, landing on the roof next to Karis and Dane who both stare at the thing with wide eyes.
“We need to go!” I shout.
We swing down onto street level and race toward the harbor, our feet pounding the ground. I don’t know where we are but it doesn’t matter, because the way to the harbor is obvious from the slope of the ground beneath our sandals and the tang in the air wafting off the ocean.
The thud, thud, thud of the Colossus’s footsteps grows louder. It’s so close now the ground shakes every time one of its feet lands, threatening my balance. I careen into a wall as the ground rocks once more, but I push off and keep going.
We break out of the labyrinth of narrow streets and skid to a stop on the docks. There’s more open space out here, giving me enough of an angle to see the Colossus, already midway through the lower city. Beside me Dane scans the water, chest heaving.
The Streak isn’t there.
The Colossus takes another step and Karis stumbles, grabbing a barrel that reeks of fish to keep her balance. I step in front of the two of them, not knowing what I’m doing. I only know I have a better chance of stopping that thing than they do. The Colossus looms into view over us, so large it blots out half the sky.
A crack splits the air and a cannonball hits the Colossus smack in the middle of its chest. It staggers, its hand moving a sluggish moment later to catch itself on one of the boathouses. The building creaks in protest, wood cracking at the impact.
I whirl and see the Streak cutting through the bay. Finn, Ava, and the others scramble about the deck, loading more cannons. Zara stands at the wheel, hair flying free. Even from here, I can hear her cackling. Dane lets out a whoop.
The Colossus rights itself, in time to get two more cannonballs, one to its chest and one to its shoulder. It careens again,
but the Heart stays balanced in its hand.
It’s not dropping it. We won’t have much time before either some of the other automatons or the soldiers get involved.
I see a thick chain on a spool, used for reeling in ships. Not too far from where the Colossus stands.
“Dane, Karis!” I point to it.
As soon as I say the words they must understand because they both race for it. We grab its end. It’s brutally heavy, but together we drag it toward the Colossus’s feet. It steps forward, and for a sickening moment the shadow of its foot looms over us before it’s pushed back by another cannonball. The noise cracks through my head.
“We can wrap it around that,” Dane shouts. He points to a boat anchor, a large column of rough gray stone where the docks meet the land.
We wrap the chain around the stone. With any luck, whatever vantage point the magistrate has chosen won’t let him see what we’re doing.
But Zara sees. She shouts, the noise carrying across the water. There’s another crack and a cannonball whizzes to the right of the Colossus, then another. The Colossus steps left to avoid it. Closer. Closer.
“Now!” I yell.
We heave the chain tight against the automaton’s ankles. It trips, and the Heart falls from its hand, smashing through a boathouse roof.
I’m about to crow when the Colossus lurches, its one foot moving forward a moment too slow to try to balance itself, so close the impact throws us all to the ground. The Colossus sways above us, still off balance, and then it falls, not forward like I’d been expecting, but sideways into the bay. Right where the Streak is.
The Colossus’s arm snaps the mainmast before plowing through the center of the ship. Wood splinters and explodes, spraying out into the bay. Someone screams. Then there’s nothing but churning, frothy water around the Colossus’s massive form, bits of wood surfacing like refuse.
The Streak... She’s gone.
“Zara!” Dane scrambles to his feet and runs toward the edge of the dock.
This Golden Flame Page 27