Storm of Ash

by Michelle Kenney

  Where was she?

  ‘Max?’ I exhaled warningly, my hands shaking as he stopped barely three metres away, my arrow aimed at the pulsing artery in his neck. Was it him? Or had the shadows claimed him again? Raoul had taught us all the quickest and kindest way to dispatch one of our kind.

  ‘Tal …’

  And the way his lips shaped my name, as though we were back in my room watching the shadows dance, was so familiar that for a moment I didn’t breathe. Could he remember? Could he finally remember it all?

  My bow aim shifted to the hybrid hound at his side, which could barely contain itself. It looked half molossus, half basilisk with a low rear that tapered into an elongated tail that thrashed powerfully.

  It lunged then, pulling free from Max’s hold and springing directly for the Komodo to my right. The pair clashed and fell into the bloodied earth as Max advanced, his Diasord still high. And there was no time for anything but trust as I readjusted my aim and dispatched the arrow directly into the hybrid’s neck.

  It stilled as Max reached down and pulled its heavy body off the struggling Komodo dragon, which gathered itself and crawled away.

  ‘Why run when you can fly?’

  It was the lightest whisper with barely any volume, but there all the same. And then I knew for sure. I looked up into his harrowed face, at raw forest-greens, just as another body crashed into him, propelling them both into a rapid, blurred tumble. It was one of the grey-scale Oceanids, at least a foot taller, and lightning fast in his movements.

  ‘Max,’ I yelled, as a heap of carnivorous basilisks reached up and twisted around my ankles.

  I stumbled, trying to free myself, everywhere a sea of misshapen, bloodied limbs.

  ‘Fall back!’ August’s hoarse echo chased through the violence.

  There were so many falling, too many dying. Leaving still more of Cassius’s myth army silhouetted against the sky. My scorching eyes searched frantically for Max and the Oceanid soldier, among the heaving ranks of bodies, the dead and wounded alike.

  We never needed her more.

  ‘Lake?’ I entreated the sky, as an ugly black molossus started ripping down our thinning line, trampling anything in its way.

  It was still some way off, but I would know its vicious intent anywhere. Brutus. Part molossus, part Cassius. I drew my bow again, never more hate-fuelled than at this moment, determined to rid the world of one curse, whatever it took. But as I narrowed my sight, I became conscious of the lightest, flecked leopard feet sprinting across the battlefield. A cat with an old score to settle, and more than enough battle-stripes already. I swung my gaze and felt my fears spiral.

  ‘Jas … no!’ I yelled, lowering my bow and sprinting forward for a surer aim, willing my feet over the fallen, willing her to turn tail or fall. I couldn’t part with anyone else I loved.

  But her snow-leopard legs were much nimbler than mine, and as she rounded into his path, she did what every protective watch-cat would do when faced with a monster that would do her family harm, and threw herself into a brutal collision.

  And it was personal. I was within hunting distance now, and again and again I tensed my bow, trying to get a vantage, only for one of them to roll away, blocking the other. It was clear they had unfinished business, and that this time neither was running.

  Jas was lighter and swifter, but Brutus had the advantage of brute strength. Repeatedly, her sharp claws ripped through his thick coat, but I could tell she was tiring. I held my breath as I deftly released an arrow, which impaled itself in the side of one of his massive haunches, and as he turned in fury, Jas went for his neck. He roared and I thought perhaps it was her moment, but a cenchris chose that same instant to wrap itself around one of my ankles, and as I fell Jas released her grip. Brutus felt the difference in a heartbeat, and rounding with an almighty roar, sunk his bloodied jaws around her slim neck.

  Our gazes connected momentarily, and I saw the colours in our treehouse canopy, a myriad of forest dawns, and Eli cradling her as a tiny cub, reflected in her eyes. Before her light died completely, bringing the sky crashing down around me.

  ‘Nooooo!’ I screamed, fighting my way back onto my feet as Brutus let his broken quarry drop.

  He sunk low on his haunches, his blood-flecked eyes pumped with victory, as I ran in and skidded to my knees, pulling her beautiful warm head into my arms. Her mountain eyes were empty, just like my fight. And as Brutus’s head leered large over mine, his jaws wet with Jas’s blood, I found myself wanting nothing more than to leave this raw, painful world far behind.

  Which was when I felt her. Which was when everyone felt her, and even the ground beneath us appeared to shake with trepidation. Brutus turned tail and fled with a cowardly whine, while the whole battlefield turned its attention to the night sky – to the shadow of a legendary draco-chimera, slowly consuming the Dead City of Isca.

  ‘She’s coming in … Fall back … fall back!’

  It was a familiar male voice, but he was so detached and far away. All that was real was circling above me – huge double-lidded yellow eyes as wide as my entire length, and as deep and fathomless as the ocean. And as her spiny draco-chimera head dived, her velocity and magnitude made the ground beneath my knees tremble. It was as though the whole world was holding its breath.

  Nothing had ever looked more beautiful. If I reached out, I could touch the gold and purple-flecked scales around her eyes, glinting like oyster shell in the dawn light; while her giant fire-skinned claws raked through the tainted earth as though it were sand. She was more than the Voynich’s last secret, she was celestial.

  Dark to dark, blood to blood.

  It was just me and a fiery little girl by the name of Lake. Wasn’t it?

  ‘Lake?’ I whispered.

  The battlefield had fallen silent, while the horizon was beginning to spill an eerie light. There was a sudden rush, the club feet of odontotyrannus thundering towards us, its ugly bellow echoing across the stunned landscape. Lake sunk forward over her thick fore-claws, her amber eyes gleaming and archaic jaws parting. It was already too late, and I dived for cover as the ground disappeared inside a blast of scorching chemical heat.

  When I looked back, odontotyrannus was gone.

  As was the mood.

  Slowly, I put out a hand, trying to re-create the same energy as before but her draco eyes were slices of fury as she swung her gaze back to the rest of the watching battlefield. To the stunned army of mythical creatures and their cowering guards.

  ‘Lake …?’

  But this time she took little notice of the feral girl beside her. Instead she lowered her spiny muscular neck and released a single jet of searing steam across the landscape, desiccating everything it reached in a heartbeat.

  ‘Talia Hanway!’

  Slowly, I turned in the direction of the voice as Lake released a jet of acidic venom to the sky this time, and though the air was already thick with choking smoke, I was with her. Because he was there, at the centre of a large battalion of griffin-mounted guards, the man who had ripped my life apart, and who I loathed with every cell of my feral body.

  And somehow Lake knew.

  Her spiny head sank low again, her reptilian jowls pulled back in a vicious expression as a volcanic sound invaded the steaming air. It took only a moment before I realized it was coming from within her.

  Hominum chimera is one of the most volatile creatures of the ancient mythical world. It’s believed she is capable of triggering a sequence of natural disasters, culminating in the eternal fire of damnation – or the end of civilization as we know it.

  August’s words ran through my head with perfect clarity, and I knew then she was capable of it all. I had no doubt she had enough power to tilt the natural world on its axis, to start a fire that would engulf the land, to melt the ice and snow, and force the seas to rise enough in fury to drown us all. She could shake the very foundation of Hades if she chose.

  Somehow Cassius had rebirthed a legend, the mother of al
l mythical creatures.

  The battalion came to an abrupt halt just far enough away for us to be able to hear through the chilling silence that somehow felt louder than all the chaos of before.

  ‘What a beauty … my creation … my Lake,’ Cassius crooned, pushing forward through his soldiers on a lavishly armoured griffin to take up position at the front.

  His voice was perfectly calm – the voice of a despot who believed so hard in his Emperor-God rhetoric, he’d forgotten his own mortality.

  ‘But how thoughtful of you to bring her to heel for me, Talia. I knew you could do it – though poor Livia had her doubts.’

  Poor Livia. The moment Ida’s dart buried itself in her neck flashed through my mind and I tightened the hold on my blade, expecting a challenge, but Cassius moved on. So much for poor Livia.

  He smiled as Lake lifted her draco head, and though she was the most fearsome creature on the planet I could sense her uncertainty. She knew Cassius was connected somehow, and it was making her hesitate.

  I cast my burning eyes across the rim of the forest, searching for Eli, but the air was too black and acrid to recognize anyone. And yet, it felt as though the entire hill was watching, the destiny of the natural and unnatural balancing on this one fragile moment.

  ‘Don’t listen to him,’ I hissed, climbing to my feet. I was acutely aware that her every exhalation could spell death, and yet I wasn’t afraid. ‘You are the mother of mythical creatures – a living legend – and he is a liar, a cheat and a murderer,’ I added, watching Cassius’s swarthy face light up perversely.

  I could tell she was listening by the narrowing of her double-lidded eyes. Lake, the little girl, was still in there. I could feel her.

  There’s always a weakness in the life created, Aelia’s faint voice explained. It’s why Cassius is hunting for the Book of Arafel – for Thomas’s cipher and the correct genetic coding.

  I gazed upwards at the armoured scales, at her eyes, the colour of old gold, and of the power of ages behind each breath. Could it be that she also had a weakness? Could that weakness possibly be her humanity? Which would explain why Cassius couldn’t synthesize my control. It was linked to our humanity – our emotions – the very thing Cassius had tried to design out. My vision swam momentarily and I knew, at last, I was right.

  ‘Oh but I don’t think either of us are entirely blameless on that front, are we, Talia?’

  His loaded, twisted words hung on the air as there was a shuffle among the mounted guards. Then a single gladiator was pushed forward and thrown forcibly to the ground in front of Cassius.

  ‘When will you see we’re the same, you and I?’ He sighed. ‘That together we could create a new world, filled with life worthy of the outside. Just think of the glory, Talia!’

  But I had no words. Because my attention was on the figure sprawled at the feet of his dark-blood griffin. His helmet was gone, his Outsider skin was cut and smeared with earth, and his forest-green eyes were full of pain as he tried to push himself up. I could see he was badly injured. His left arm swung heavily while the side of his uniform was ripped and congealing with blood.

  And yet his old care was there, fully there this time, in the grit of his teeth and thrust of his good arm, warning me. The tiny treehouse dart tube had done its greatest work, and the spark of memory in the auroch’s stable had slowly grown. My heart tore, and it took every last ounce of strength I had not to sprint to his side, to give Cassius the perfect bargaining pawn.

  ‘Max!’

  My voice sounded leaden in the smoke-filled air, saying everything and nothing at all.

  ‘It’s all OK, Tal …’ he responded hoarsely. And I knew then what he was going to say. ‘Tell her … to do it!’ he forced, just as one of the guards lashed out with an animal restraint.

  ‘No!’ I yelled, but I was too late.

  It fizzed as it hit Max, forcing him to collapse to the ground as the griffins side-shuffled in terror.

  Bile climbed my throat, filling my mouth. How could one person be capable of so much destruction and malice? Believing himself invincible, untouchable, immortal even.

  My dark blood was rising, reading Max’s pleading eyes. He did understand. He understood so much and I never gave him the respect he deserved. The guilt in my chest hardened into a cannonball.

  ‘You see, Talia, I still have something you want,’ Cassius crooned, leaning forward over his saddle. ‘I flatter myself I’m rather good at strategy, as this sort of tactical operation tends to exhaust me. And it’s a very simple straightforward choice really. Do as I ask, and your forest friend will live to see another day. Defy me and …’

  He shrugged, as though it was all regrettable, his immortality assured, my hands tied.

  Lake’s response was to release a jet of pure black flames to the sky, forming a cloud of acidic gas that descended slowly, sucking the oxygen from the air around us. I tried to take short steady breaths, even though my lungs were burning and crying out for relief.

  ‘Pull out while you can, Cassius. Call off your army and we’ll finish this between us. Just you and me. After all, what have you got to fear from a lone feral girl?’

  There was a moment of silence before Cassius started laughing, his callous mirth carrying to all four corners of the battlefield as movement on the rim of the hill caught my eye.

  A familiar knight in Arafel colours, riding bareback across the strewn wasteland, with only a loyal Cyclops for company. My heart throbbed to see them both alive, yet what could they do here except perhaps trade their own lives for the smallest ground? The cannonball hardened further. You must bear the responsibility alone, Talia, Grandpa whispered.

  Max tried to lift his head and speak, though I could tell every exhalation was costing him. It took all the feral strength I had left not to run to him, to give Cassius exactly what he needed to control Lake. But it was like slowly cutting off my own limbs, and I was near blinded with fear by the one choice I had remaining.

  ‘Cassius!’ August’s roar cut across the devastation as he galloped towards us, and I felt Lake exhale in recognition.

  ‘This is not what Thomas or Octavia ever intended for the outside world. You know this.

  ‘Thomas had reason to take his chance on an outside life. He saw this day coming, he knew there was no glory in ruling a world that was dead!’

  His voice carried clearly, though the air felt poisoned. I inhaled raggedly, trying to fill my lungs though it felt like dragging my lungs over red-hot coals.

  ‘Thomas didn’t just take his chances, he abandoned me!’ Cassius suddenly raged. ‘Taking our research and hiding it for two centuries. So, this dead world as you call it, it is my destiny! And now I will create a new world, filled with life that knows no weakness, and Thomas can watch from whatever hole he is wasting away in, knowing that in the end … I won.’

  The pack of griffins scuttled in panic as Lake sank and released a shorter jet of black fire, her draco eyes as deep and unsettled as a storm.

  ‘Yes, my girl,’ he crooned, switching attention. ‘Just look at how magnificent she is, Augustus. Hominum chimera, the one legend Octavia and Thomas believed impossible to re-create, and I’ve done it. She’s mine, as is the control.’

  His eyes levelled with mine, pure death adder reaching across the space between us.

  ‘Though she’s a little slow to know it.’

  He cracked his whip violently in Max’s direction as though to make his point, the tip catching him and opening up a deep welt across his cheek.

  And just as though I’d been hurt myself, my fury swelled.

  ‘There is nothing I cannot – and will not – do to make this world great again.’

  His onyx eyes glittered with a jealousy that had soured his soul for centuries as August charged, his head low and machete ready. It was a sight I could never have foreseen, a free Equite Knight riding against everything he’d ever known, choosing a barefoot girl and a legacy, bound by humanity.

  Cassius smi
led, pulling his visor down, and indicated to his guards who shifted direction as Lake suddenly released another stream of acidic flames to the sky. I could feel her instability and confusion as culpably as my own. My heart was pumping red, red blood. Arafel blood. Free blood.

  A good hunter knows when to fight and when to flee.

  I sprinted forward in front of Lake. In this position she could incinerate me with one breath but it didn’t matter. Because Grandpa, Mum, Eli, Aelia, Max and August were all in my heart – and the only person who could actually change anything was me. It was never more time. For the sake of an Outsider future, between the red earth and yellow sun.

  ‘You want to know why Outsiders survived, Cassius?’ I railed.

  ‘Do it, Talia,’ Max stormed, telling me he was spent.

  He’d managed to push up onto one elbow, showing me the glint of something small in his hand. A dart, he still had a dart.

  I nodded, glancing at August, who was slowing as though I were already a ghost. He closed his eyes in silent blessing, telling me he and Unus would take their chance.

  ‘Guards!’ Cassius stormed.

  ‘Why run when you can fly?’ I smiled, snatching the tiny dart tube from around my neck and scuttling it along the ground and into Max’s outstretched hand.

  ‘Guards!’

  But Cassius’s command stalled on his lips as Max’s sure aim found his neck. He wrenched out the small precise weapon as chaos broke around him, his lips staining black with fury. It wouldn’t kill him, but Max had bought me valuable seconds.

  I was conscious of a confused volley of scattered laser fire as I flew up Lake’s outstretched foreleg. And if she was startled by my sudden proximity, she didn’t show it. Instead, I could feel our blood connecting, awakening a knowledge hidden there by Thomas when he saw how this would end.

  Finally, when I stood at the crest of her enormous draco head, I saw the devastated world the way the gods might. Broken by ambition and greed – and by the selfish desire of a few who took what was real and twisted it until it no longer resembled itself.