Rise of Fire

by Sophie Jordan

“I know.” He sighed. “I know.” He rose from the bed and gave me a gentle push toward the armoire. “So let’s go get him.”

  THIRTY-ONE

  Fowler

  THE SOUND OF my cell door clanging open woke me from troubled sleep. My entire body ached from the beating the guards had given me, in addition to the injuries from my fight with Chasan. I wasn’t in the best condition. I inhaled, wiping the blood from my nose and lip with the back of my hand as I struggled to rise.

  I blinked past the fog obscuring my vision to the slight figure hovering in the threshold of my cell.

  “Fowler?” a soft voice asked, so at odds with everything inside this sordid, wretched place. The gentle sound of my name stood out starkly against the hardness of everything around me.

  “Luna?” I blinked again, shaking to clear my head. “Am I imagining you?”

  She stepped deeper into the cell, emerging from the shadows and revealing her familiar pale features, the delicate lines and hollows cast in sharp relief. A smile played at the corners of her lips. My heart constricted. I shook my head, the too-long strands of my hair falling in my face. I shoved them back. “What are you doing here?”

  “We’ve come to get you out of here.”

  “We?”

  She motioned behind her.

  I looked up to find Prince Chasan standing there. He entered my cell, hands on his hips. “No time for reunions. You can kiss later. I’ve got a few girls distracting the guards, but that will only grant us so much time. They’ll return to their posts eventually. Right now it’s time to leave.”

  We followed the prince through the sleeping castle, below the dungeon and down into the bowels of the castle, until I was certain we could go no farther without reaching the very core of the earth; a bleak thought, as I imagined the center of the earth was overrun with dwellers.

  “I thought there wasn’t any other way in and out of the castle,” I said as we turned a corner into a narrow corridor that forced us to walk single file.

  “You mean other than the not-so-secret tunnel in the kitchens? Everyone knows about that, you know. My father let everyone know about it. He calls it his decoy tunnel so that if there was ever a mass exodus from the castle, that one would be overrun. This one is truly secret. Only the royal family knows of its existence.” The prince grimaced. “The castle has never been breached by dwellers, but as a precaution, at the beginning of the eclipse, Father had a team of engineers build this tunnel that leads out of the castle. Then he killed each and every one of them so they could never speak of it.”

  Luna gasped.

  Chasan continued, “He claimed you could never be too safe. Never know when we might need to run. In that event, he didn’t want to compete with a stampede of people trying to get out.”

  “How awful,” Luna muttered.

  I gave her hand a squeeze, ignoring the ache and sting in my bruised knuckles.

  “We’re almost there now.” Chasan’s pace picked up slightly. “I’ve left two horses with supplies waiting on the other side. Weapons, too. Fowler, your bow, of course. I know your penchant for it. Assuming they haven’t made too much noise and lured dwellers, the horses will still be there.”

  We reached an iron door set in the damp stone wall. The prince unbolted it. He pushed open the thick metal door, its well-oiled hinges silent. Chasan stuck his head out to peer into the darkness before passing through. Unlike the last tunnel, this one did not go on and on. I followed. It was only a few feet until I emerged Outside. I paused, looking around in the pulsing darkness as Luna stepped out beside me.

  The horses were twin shapes etched against the chronic night. They nickered softly in greeting. I hurried forward, helping Luna up onto her mount. Turning around, I faced the prince. He stood framed on the threshold of the secret door.

  Clearing my throat, I extended my hand for him to take. “Thank you. I was wrong about you.” It was hard to admit, but it was the truth. It wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world for Luna to have ended up with him.

  “Ride hard. Get as far down the mountain as you can. He’ll come for you the moment he realizes you’re gone.”

  “What about you?”

  Chasan grinned, his teeth a flash of light in the darkness. Always a cocky bastard. “I’m his son. What can he do to me?”

  I thought he could do a great deal. I wouldn’t put anything past the man. “Don’t underestimate him,” I warned because I felt as though I had to. After the favor he did us, I couldn’t just toss him to the wolves.

  The prince’s gaze flicked up to Luna sitting atop her horse. “Believe me. I won’t make that mistake again.” I knew he was thinking about how he’d thought he would be the one to marry Luna.

  “You can come with us,” Luna offered.

  I surprised myself by agreeing. “Yes. Come with us.” I still didn’t like him. He didn’t disguise his interest in Luna and I would always have to keep one eye on him.

  He smirked at me as though doubting the sincerity of my offer. “My place is here. Lagonia needs me, especially considering who my father is. Someday he’ll be gone. Someday this eclipse will end, as before. I’ll be here to pick up the pieces and rebuild when that happens.”

  Nodding, I swung up onto my horse, holding the reins loosely in my hands. I had never held out much hope for the end of the eclipse. This world was darkness. I wasn’t waiting for light to return to start living. I wanted Luna by my side in this life, come good or bad. “Good luck. And thank you.”

  “Now go. Don’t get recaptured and let my efforts go to waste.” Chasan swung his gaze to Luna, and I knew he was speaking mostly to her as he added, “Take care of yourself.” There was a wealth of meaning in those words. She meant something to him. Even now, saying farewell and leaving him behind, this prickled at me.

  Chasan sent me a hard glance and slapped my horse on the rump. I lurched forward. He called out as we started moving away, “Try not to die.”

  My horse slid into a trot. Luna followed. I glanced behind me, watching as she turned in her saddle to wave back at the prince. She called a farewell, but he was already slipping through the door back into the castle, as though he could no longer stand the sight of us.

  The heavy metal door thudded shut behind him, sealing himself in and us out.

  Once again we were together on the Outside.

  THIRTY-TWO

  Luna

  IT TOOK A day to get down the mountain. We rode hard, Fowler pushing the horses down precarious slopes that had us arching sharply in our saddles. I didn’t complain, biting back any fears or concerns, knowing we had to cover as much ground as possible as fast as possible. Mammoth bats flew overhead, their great leathery wings slapping the air as they hunted for prey in the great maw of night.

  We stopped only briefly, when necessary, to rest and water the horses. On the second day we were still moving over rocky terrain. Fortunately, we hadn’t come across any dwellers. It stood to reason our luck couldn’t hold forever. Not in this world.

  Still, at that first, inevitable sound of a dweller, I froze. Its tinny and shrill call bounced off the rocks of the canyon we were passing through. The eerie sound reverberated across the air, carried far by bat-stirred winds. Even though a part of me had missed the Outside, I hadn’t missed that.

  “The ground is getting softer,” Fowler murmured beside me.

  I nodded in acknowledgment and swallowed, all my senses squeezing and stretching as far as they could go. I listened. I knew firsthand how one dweller could turn to two to twenty in a blink.

  “Luna?” Fowler queried, and I knew he was asking if I detected anything else with my more sensitive hearing.

  After a moment, I shook my head. The dweller must have moved on, for we didn’t hear it again.

  We kept moving.

  We didn’t speak much in those first couple of days, too intent in our flight from Ainswind, too trapped in our own thoughts.

  “You have to eat, Luna,” Fowler said as he pus
hed a piece of dried meat into my hand.

  Nodding, I brought it up to my teeth and tore off a chunk. It tasted like leather but I forced myself to chew.

  “Do you think Chasan is all right?”

  “I think he’ll always land on his feet.” He sounded testy.

  “Are you angry?”

  “I think we’re out here and Prince Chasan is snug inside his castle. He’s fine.”

  We fell to silence again. I felt chastened. “Do you think he’s coming?”

  “Tebald?” I felt the motion of his shrug. “It’s risky. He doesn’t like risks.”

  “He’ll come,” I stated hollowly even though I had posed the question. I wanted him to persuade me otherwise, but I knew. I had thought of little else except Tebald’s voice in my ear, his determination to have me that went deeper than his desire to unite our countries. “With an army, if need be,” I added.

  “We can travel faster than any army. It’s just the two of us. He will make the mistake of bringing too many men with him. Too many men will attract dwellers. They’ll be swarmed. They’ll have to fight.”

  I nodded again, heartened by these words.

  Fowler rose from where he was sitting and settled down beside me, his arm aligned with mine. “You’re worrying too much. It’s not good for you.” He bumped me slightly. We’d been alone for the last couple of days, but we’d hardly touched.

  “Easier said than done, isn’t it?”

  He lifted his arm and draped it over me, a comforting weight. “Nothing is easy,” he murmured, and I sighed as his fingers brushed the hair back from my temple. “Except this. Us. That’s easy.”

  I smiled a little. “Except when it wasn’t. I remember when we first met and you would hardly talk to me.”

  “That’s because I liked you, and I didn’t want to.”

  “You were so . . . hard. And unfeeling.”

  “I thought I had to be. I thought not caring was the way to protect myself from this world. From losing and hurting again. I actually told myself we could just be travel companions. That I could spend months with you and not love you.”

  I turned my face, dropping my forehead against the side of his face. “I’m sorry.”

  “What are you sorry about?” Bewilderment rang in his voice.

  “If Sivo hadn’t forced me on you, then you would have kept going. You’d be halfway to Allu by now. I was exactly what you didn’t want. Entanglement. Someone to drag you down—”

  He kissed me, crushing my words. His hands held my face, pulling me toward him so that I crawled in his lap and straddled him. This kiss was ruthless, desperate. A release from the fear of almost losing each other. From days of running without time for breath.

  “Don’t you ever say that,” he growled against my lips.

  His hands burned a trail everywhere, roaming my back, callused fingertips stroking my nape and burrowing into my hair. I trembled as he tugged my head back, his lips gliding over my throat before coming back to my mouth. “You’re the best thing to ever happen to me and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere except here with you.”

  My fingers delved inside his doublet, smoothing over taut shoulders. I clutched him through the layers of his shirt, hungry for the sensation of him. He winced and I remembered his injuries. Gasping, I pulled back. “Oh, I’m sorry!”

  He seized my hands and positioned them back on him. “I want your touch.”

  I nodded, a happy breath shuddering out from me because it was what I wanted, too. More than anything. Gently, I slid my hands over the curve of his shoulders. “I’ll be more careful.”

  Fowler leaned back slightly to shrug out of his doublet. “Don’t worry about me.” His arms came back to wrap around me, and we were kissing again. Hard, deep, soul-bending kisses. Fowler’s bigger body curled over mine, taking us down. Dried bits of grass crackled under the blanket cushioning us as we kissed until I could hardly catch my breath. “You’re all I need.”

  I framed his face in my hands and reveled in the texture of his skin, the silk of his hair, the delicious weight of him over me. I traced his features, soaking him up, absorbing all of him. “I love you, Fowler,” I whispered, following his instructions and living in the now. Not worrying. Not thinking. Only feeling.

  I listened to the strong and even cadence of Fowler’s heart beneath my ear. His chest rose and fell in slow draws. If he wasn’t asleep, he was very relaxed. I smiled softly. He needed rest.

  My ears pricked and I lifted my head from the pillow of Fowler’s chest. A bark sounded in the distance. I lifted my head. “Did you hear that?”

  “What?” Fowler asked, his voice alert and wide awake.

  I rose to my feet. “It sounded like a . . . bark.”

  “Your wolf?”

  “No.” I wished it was Digger, but that wasn’t his bark. Digger rarely even barked. He was all stealth. “A dog, I think.” I angled my head to the side, listening harder.

  Fowler moved to stand by my side, pulling his shirt over his head. I faced the direction of the sound. “There. I heard it again.”

  “That’s south. Not the direction of Ainswind.”

  I turned to face him. “That’s good, right?”

  “I don’t know.” He hesitated a moment, listening by my side. A dog barked again. “I heard it,” he confirmed. It was a distinctive bark, low and hoarse. This time closer.

  Fowler jumped into action, sliding back into his doublet, gathering up our things as one bark turned into two, then three. I joined him in packing up our belongings, our breaths fast and choppy with anxiety.

  The barks overlapped now. There was more than one dog out there, and they were on the trail of something. Something like us.

  Fowler turned in the direction of the barks again and froze.

  “What is it? What’s happening?” I demanded, dread building as I tracked Fowler where he stood so still.

  “My father used trained dogs. Whenever a group left Relhok City, the hounds would accompany them. He never traveled without them. They can track. They can detect dwellers long before us. They can also fight, attack on command, if necessary.”

  “Your father?” I shook my head, bewildered. “He came himself?”

  “Yes. My father. Cullan.” He paused. “He’s come for us, Luna. He’s come for you.”

  I shook my head. “No. That can’t be—”

  Fowler grabbed my hand and tossed me atop my horse. “It’s him,” he declared as he mounted his own horse.

  We rode hard side by side, no longer concerned with the amount of sound we made. Alerting the dwellers to our presence was the least of our worries. We moved at breakneck speed, running away from a greater threat than those monsters.

  I followed Fowler, keeping pace. If there was even a chance he was correct, then we needed to move. The barking grew closer, right on our heels, but we kept pushing. An arrow hissed on the air and my horse cried out, tumbling out from under me and sending me flying. I landed hard, all the air escaping me in a pained whoosh. I lay on the ground for a stunned moment.

  “Luna!” Fowler’s shout rose over the thunder of hooves.

  I blinked, chasing away the shock of my fall. Hands grabbed me, hauling me to my feet. I whipped my head around, trying to process the flurry of voices, horses, men, and scurrying dogs. It was an overwhelming din. Even the air tasted musky and sweat-laced. Bitter with fear. My fear.

  “Luna! Luna! Are you hurt? Let her go! Let her go, you bastards!”

  I shook my head, searching for my voice, trying to filter through the chaos of sensations bombarding me.

  “Fowler.” A gruff, scratchy voice rose over all other sounds. “You look well, if not a little rough at the edges. Don’t tell me that King Tebald was not hospitable to you.”

  My skin shivered with an innate, gut-deep knowledge. My voice welled up, a thick, jumbled lump of words in my throat. This was Cullan. The man who had murdered my parents. Untold, innumerable lives had died at his command. I’d waited my entire life t
o confront him. True, I’d hoped to have more leverage when that day arrived, but here I was.

  My chance was now.

  THIRTY-THREE

  Fowler

  I FACED MY father. I wasn’t certain the last time I had seen him. Days weren’t something one counted in this life. There were no seasons to mark the passing of time. No birthdays to celebrate—but it felt as if I’d lived a lifetime since the last time I stood before him.

  He traveled with over a score of soldiers, all armed to the teeth. A dozen dogs circled the group impatiently, excited over their recent chase. I should have known if anything would rouse my father from the protection of Relhok City, news of Luna would do it.

  He looked the same. The years had been good to him. Only faint lines fanned out from his face. His well-trimmed beard was lightly peppered with gray. He still wore his hair long, pulled back in a single plait. I had hoped that age and disease might take hold of him and spare the world, but that clearly wasn’t the case. I reached inside myself, searching for the familiar hate, but there was only dispassion—emptiness when I stared at this man who had failed me in every way.

  “So this is the princess.” Cullan’s white teeth flashed in a smile as he dismounted to stand before Luna, where she dangled between two soldiers. “She is the spitting image of her mother, but I’m sure Tebald told you that already. He was rather obsessed with the woman. Pathetic man. Weak, losing his head over any female.” He tapped his temple. “That’s the difference between us. I use my head. That old fool thinks with other parts.” Cullan laughed and the rest of his men joined in.

  I struggled against the hands that held me back. In the distance a dweller cried out—not surprisingly, given the noise we were making—but the sound hardly alarmed me. Right now I faced a far greater menace.

  “Don’t touch her,” I warned, glaring at my father, staring at green eyes so similar to my own and yet not. These eyes were dead inside. Impossible to breach. They felt nothing for no one.

  Cullan laughed. “Speaking of weak men, you, my son, always did pick the worst girls to attach yourself to.” He shook his head with a tsking sound.