by Katie Macey
Clenching her jaw, Niamh battled tears. Catching Aarin's eye by accident, she saw how his face flushed red in the heat. She wondered how much longer they were going to last...
Frowning, Niamh shuffled out of their huddle into a partial kneel.
"What is it?" Caeednce coughed.
Peering into the smoke, Niamh leaned forward a little, cupping a hand around her ear, saying, "I thought I heard something."
"Of course you heard something!" said Veayre, exploding at her. She was about to say more, but they all saw it.
A hand reached through the bars, waving a metal loop, from which dangled their prize.
"Who's there?" called Niamh, before coughing violently. Aarin lunged forward, snatching the keys. The others all stood, their attention fixed on Aarin and the key.
"You haven't got much time!" called the voice. “Hurry!”
CHAPTER 6
As a singular, sweaty mob they tumbled through the open door. Niamh kept her breaths shallow to avoid inhaling too much smoke but grinned at Aarin anyway. They were out! Each of them reached to another; a squeeze of a shoulder, a tousle of hair, a pat on the back. Their rescuer stood apart. Niamh squinted at their silhouette but ducked her head coughing violently. Showering embers blasted overhead. Aarin shoved her down hard. Caeednce slipped her hand over Niamh’s. Veayre screamed. She heard the crash of another beam coming down. It landed in a pile of flames and glowing coal.
The chaos lulled to a quiet crackle. Niamh jumped to her feet and dragged up Veayre and Caeednce. They were shaken, Veayre more so. Aarin and Iilen blocked their rescuer from view. Niamh’s brows creased. Who had rescued them? Another beam crashed down. Niamh’s chest ached at the dark smoke surrounding them. Sweat dribbled down her neck.
"Aarin!" said Niamh, over the cracking and splitting of the burning fires. "Which way?"
Aarin looked around bewildered. He hesitated, seeing only fire and smoke at every turn.
"This way!"
Niamh still didn’t know who had set them free, but whoever they were, they knew what to do. The silhouette tore off, pounding his feet into the path that lead further up past their cell. Niamh’s reaction was to instantly follow, but saw the other's hesitation and paused, not understanding why.
"Run!" the silhouette turned back to yell at them.
Niamh knew she was the newcomer, so she should be deferring to one of the others to decide what they did. But their faces were veiled in the smoke. Niamh had to trust her own judgment. She followed, breaking into a run. Heat clung to her as she fled, following their mysterious rescuer up the path. The fire was loud, so she jumped when an arm brushed hers. Iilen ran beside her. Niamh clenched her jaw. Whatever was happening, they were escaping the cell, and getting away from the fire. That had to be a good thing, no matter how her stomach churned.
Bursting onto the mountainside, like a swimmer emerging from a lake, Niamh saw just how high up they'd come. Finally out of danger and high above the smoke haze, Niamh joined the others in climbing out on a rock that overlooked the whole village.
It jutted out from the mountain like a jug’s lip, and Niamh could see across Muspary and out to sea. Iilen kneeled. The sea continued to shift and buckle in its icy freeze, but in horrifying comparison, the village was an orange inferno, throwing a thick plume of black smoke across the sky.
Niamh swallowed hard. Her throat rasped and her lips cracked. A tear dribbled down her cheek. How could Muspary survive such a disaster? She had never seen such devastation.
Aarin paced back and forth. Caeednce’s tears streamed down her face, so Niamh joined Veayre in wrapping an arm around her shoulders. But Aarin didn’t face the fire below. And he didn’t acknowledge Caeednce’s tears. He stared back down the path, then running his hands through his hair looked further up the path. Niamh saw nothing remarkable about it, and she wondered why no one had mentioned it before. The path led over the crest of the mountain. Surely that was her and Veayre’s way out of here?
"We're not safe here, you moron!” said Aarin, using the angle of the road to intimidate his subject. “Jomen, what were you thinking leading us this way?"
Niamh’s eyes widened. Aarin was furious, and she was grateful for the distance between them. But had he said ‘Jomen’? Niamh’s head cocked to one side, and Veayre and Iilen’s faces showed that she wasn’t the only one surprised.
"I set you free!" said Jomen, his shout emerging as a squeak, before he bent over and coughed hard. They'd all inhaled more smoke than was healthy.
"Are you okay? How long were you in the smoke for?" said Caeednce, rushing to support Jomen’s arm as she spoke.
"What does it matter?” said Aarin, giving full vent to his anger. “We're still in danger! And our only choice is to return the way we came." Aarin fumed, his eyes matching the warm glow of the burning village.
Niamh didn't understand. There was a path right there, and it led away from the fire. What could possibly be the matter with it? She opened her mouth to speak, but Veayre stepped in front of her. Niamh raised an eyebrow at her traveling companion.
"I won’t waste your time, demanding a thorough explanation, but I have to ask,” said Veayre, lifting her hand towards the overpass. "Is this way less treacherous, than retracing our steps?"
Aarin took a breath. Veayre’s deferral to his judgement, calmed him enough to reply.
"I wouldn't take that road,” said Aarin, “unless death chased me there." With his hands on his hips, Aarin leaned forward, coughing hard.
Niamh looked to Caeednce and Iilen for any hint that Aarin’s words were false, but she found only looks of resignation.
"It is true," said Iilen, noticing Niamh’s questioning face. "We haven't got a choice. Setting us free was noble Jomen, but to follow this road…it’s suicide."
Niamh faced the burning village. Strong words from the usually jovial Iilen. How could they possibly believe going back into the inferno was the best option they had? Surely it couldn't be true.
Niamh moved toward the overpass they all feared, hoping to peek around its curving corner. But Aarin grabbed her arm, halting her immediately. He stood rigid and immovable, and with his face leaned close, he whispered through gritted teeth, "No. And I don't have time to make you understand, you'll have to trust me."
Iilen led their descent. Caeednce suggested a possible route to the meeting place by the ocean. Niamh hesitated. Veayre followed after Aarin, and they disappeared from sight. But no sooner had Niamh resigned herself to joining them on their idiotic dash through the burning village, did they hurtle back towards her. And the whites of their eyes showed in the dim light.
Even as her muscles tensed, poised to join them whatever way they ran, she stopped short. An almighty shudder rippled through her body, and with her hands flying to cover her ears, she buckled at the knees. Like a bolt of lightning in absolute and instant illumination, the sky erupted in bright orange flames. A horrendous cracking sound hit her like a punch to the side of the head. Niamh reached out to Veayre and the others. The moment stretched and as a collective throng they moved, footing unsure and frantic. The path Aarin had described as being so treacherous he would risk burns to avoid it, really was their only option. Niamh lost her balance with one step, then missed her footing in the next. But she felt the heat of the fire behind them and heard the crashing of buildings, and the shudder of the earth as foundations cracked.
Someone slammed her from behind. Niamh lost her footing entirely, knocking over those in front of her as well. Facing away from the fire, Niamh couldn't make out anything in the contrasting dark. She stumbled forward and crashed onto the hard ground. Heavy woollen fabric protected her skin from breaking but she knew her knees and hands were badly bruised. Her eyes still tried to adjust to the dark, but she began to understand what had happened.
Niamh couldn’t see any light from the fire. None at all. Untangling herself from the fallen crush of people, and checking herself for further injury, she stood. Grabbing the body next to her
, she traced up the shoulder and neck, touching long straight hair and a square jaw.
"Aarin,” said Niamh, coughing. But he pulled away, reaching down to the others who were slowly unfurling to reveal the three people that crouched there.
"Jomen, you idiot, what have you done?" said Aarin. "Where is he? I'm going to-"
"Going to what?” said Jomen. “And I'm right here." He pushed on his knee to stand up directly behind Aarin.
"We are standing on the forbidden road!" said Aarin, shoving Jomen roughly.
"Hit me if you want,” said Jomen. “It's easy to hate me. Especially now. But if you’ll take a moment and actually see what happened, you'll realise you’re making a mistake.”
The two boys were breathing hard, and Niamh's eyes began to adjust just enough to see that Aarin was poised, ready to fight. But Jomen, though weaker and not as tall, looked up at Aarin just as furious.
"When you start thinking straight,” said Jomen. “You'll be thanking me."
Niamh wondered about this Jomen boy. She hadn't had much to do with him except to know he was the son of Lord Egleril, who was utterly awful. In a way, she already had some respect for Aarin. But how well did she really know these people?
"What's going on?" said Niamh, tentatively entering the conversation.
"Well, this is the forbidden road, that's true enough," said Iilen, dusting off his shoulders. Jomen hung his head and took a deep breath.
"You were running this way anyway,” said Jomen, “don't turn on me now. I brought you the keys, didn’t I? And was I supposed to NOT shove you all out of the way of-"
"Far out! We must've only just..." Iilen ran his hand through his hair, unable to finish his sentence.
"If we had been caught there..." said Caeednce, who also didn’t finish.
In the end, it was Veayre who said, “I think Jomen saved us.”
Aarin remained glued to the spot. But now Niamh’s eyes had fully adjusted, in the low light of the starry heavens she could see exactly what had happened. Somehow, in the inferno of the burning village, the rocks in the mountainside had heated and cracked, with large shards flying free. The pathway back down to the village was blocked with the debris of boulders and stones. Reaching out to touch it, she felt the warmth of the rocks, and how the fragments of littered wood palings from broken buildings seemed to heat her hands. Peering closer, she looked deeper into the rocky mess and could see the ends of wooden fragments glowing with hot coal embers.
"Is there no way back?" said Niamh.
No one answered.
Niamh looked over the rocky terrain and noticed how different it seemed from Muspary. Where the village was rocky, sandy, and rickety, this road was different. Even in the low light she could make out lush rainforest, vertically angled rocks, with straight and extremely tall trees. Niamh stepped back, wracking her brain to come up with anything helpful. But Caeednce grabbed her forearm, preventing her.
"Careful!” said Caeednce. “There's a nasty drop off just there."
Niamh looked behind her, at how close the heel of her foot came to a ledge. Black darkness prevented her from seeing just how far the drop was.
“Thanks,” she said, a wobble in her voice.
Aarin's determination couldn't do anything about their dilemma, so he was the last of the group to admit that all they could do was wait for morning. Before he conceded defeat, they all watched his blustering desperate search for ideas, pacing back and forth until they petered out. After that, the dim hours passed slowly for Niamh. The rough-barked tree, though well away from the steep ledge, was an uncomfortable leaning place. She managed to doze off once or twice through the night but real rest eluded her. Her mind's eye was filled with images of the inferno, and grimy faces of her acquaintances, fearful and tense.
✽✽✽
Morning revealed soot-covered, disgruntled faces. They reached an unspoken agreement to avoid discussing their options at all. It was obvious there was no way back. The returning path to the village was completely blocked. Niamh sighed. Sheer cliffs, a forest barbed with thorns, and the avalanche of fallen mountain rendered it impassable. The road had a steep drop-off on one side and dense tall forest on the other. All the optimism in the world was useless in this situation. Niamh noticed Veayre looking very closely at one of the trees.
"Wait!" said Aarin, yanking her hand back.
Veayre glared up into his face.
"Let me go,” she said.
"As you wish," Aarin growled back, "but don't think I'll save your life next time. They're poisonous, Veayre. The tip of the thorn contains a blood-thickening poison."
Veayre turned grey at that announcement but didn't withdraw her aggressive reaction.
"Forget it, Iilen," said Caeednce, keeping her voice low. Niamh hadn’t noticed Iilen staring at the blocked way back to Muspary. Iilen ignored Caeednce, and instead tried to climb back. Niamh turned her back. Iilen had tears running down his cheeks, and she could see how hot those stones were. It might even still burn on the other side. Some awkward minutes passed until a frustrated Iilen sank back down on the path, out of breath.
A thread of recognition floated between them, slight nods acknowledging what nobody wanted spoken aloud: there was no way back either through or over the blocked path. Muspary was lost to them.
Sure, it seemed to lead them further away from the village, and it looked like it would lead them south-east, in the opposite direction she and Veayre sought to go, but it was their only option. Niamh’s sense of urgency only grew. Any travel would satiate it, even if it was via a longer route. She had to get to the academy, no matter what it took.
✽✽✽
Walking in single file they followed the narrow and roughly cleared trail. The path wound and curved but remained steady in its general direction: the wrong way. Their lack of chatter stemmed from the fact that the path gave them no options. Until something changed there was nothing to say. The air hung still, with any breeze trapped by the densely packed trees and lush foliage. The thorns remained a constant threat, and the further they walked, the more Niamh was fascinated by them. A whole forest filled with poisonous thorns? Who could possibly live here?
Trudging on, her cloak began to heat Niamh more than was comfortable.
"Are we following the crest of a range?“ said Caeednce, directing her question at no one in particular.
Niamh considered Caeednce’s question and raised her eyebrows in surprise. Caeednce was right. Though the path bent and curved, they hadn't descended back down to sea level.
"You might be right,” said Jomen.
Niamh heard a quick intake of breath and turned around just in time to see Aarin stepping back from the Lord's son, who leaned back, bent in a deep flinch. Pushing past him to the front of the line Aarin muttered, "What does it matter? Our only choice is to follow this stupid road, even deeper into Traot Crurg..."
"I don't recall this place: Traot Crurg," said Veayre, testing out the name on her tongue.
"Are they a closed people?” said Niamh, suddenly even more worried.
Caeednce’s mouth curled into a smirk, then noting Veayre's sharp look she explained, "Well, these lands do lie right on the border."
Jomen cleared his throat, and said, "I heard they got offended long ago, by our High King..."
"Oh?" said Caeednce.
"I can't remember much,” said Jomen, “but in my studies…well we covered a lot, but I'm pretty sure it was Traot Crurg…there was something about a long-held tradition. The High King disagreed…I wish I remembered more, sorry,” Jomen finished lamely.
"So they could be hostile?" said Niamh.
"He doesn't know," said Aarin, his voice rigid with frustration.
"Well, what do you know?” said Niamh, feeling annoyed. “Did your training cover information about this neighbouring land?"
She was getting sick of Aarin taking out his frustration on Jomen. She realised she didn’t know Jomen, but then she didn’t really know Aarin or the others e
ither. They were stuck with each other though, and Aarin’s attitude wouldn’t help.
"I'll take your rebuke,” said Aarin, slowly. “My training was very involved, but mainly consisted of rituals, logistics, and physical defence. Once you get a post, the process is that you work with an older guard, who shares with you the knowledge relevant to your station."
"So it's all pretty secretive then?” said Niamh. “Do all the guards only know exactly the information about their post?"
"That's how it works,” said Aarin.
"I didn't know that," said Caeednce, interjecting from the rear of their line.
The forest around them grew less dense the further they walked, and Niamh reached out to touch the bark of a tall trunk as she passed it. Changing the topic, she asked,
"Did you arrive all alone, Caeednce?"
"No."
Niamh noticed the smoothness of the bark, absent of thorns, and how the leaves had changed shape.
"There aren't thorns here," said Veayre.
Jomen instinctively touched a trunk as they continued on their way, and said, "Caeednce's people were escaping from the north. They shipwrecked, much like you two. Caeednce and five others washed ashore."
"My family. Our boat was too small."
"I'm so sorry, Caeednce."
A hush fell over the group, paying respect to Caeednce's loss.
"Do you have plans to return?" said Niamh, after the polite amount of silence.
"For someone so educated,” said Aarin, “you really are stupid."
Niamh felt her shoulders tense and she was ready to retort in kind, but a hand rested on her shoulder, steadying her. Glancing behind her, she saw Jomen withdraw his hand.
Offended and confused, she thumped a tree with her open palm. The thud reverberated far and wide, with leaves sprinkling down. The group came to a complete stop, staring at her astonished.
"We've got to work together!” said Niamh. “Stop insulting me Aarin, you don't know me. And I barely know you! But we're all here, wandering in this stupid forest, waiting for danger to find us."
