by Sam Farren
I was convinced the entire army would march towards us, but the cry drew out a single figure from behind the front lines. I tore my eyes off Rylan's, though I didn't need to look at the rider to know who it was.
Inside, I roared, banishing the sickness to the pit of my stomach.
“This is the necromancer, isn't it?” Rylan asked when the pounding of hooves drew near, but Katja galloped straight past him.
Charley's reins bit into my palms.
Dirt rose in a cloud around the hooves of Katja's horse, and she came to a halt in front of Kidira. She wore armour, though not the armour of Felheim; the metal was stained gold, but all sigils had been pried from it; and she carried a sword she didn't know how to use at her hip. She had forgone a helm, having no intention of masking her presence from us, face turned a watery grey.
“Mother—” she said, swallowing the lump in her throat when words failed her. She circled Kidira, horse as restless as she was, and Kidira kept her eyes fixed on Katja as Kouris and I both did. “I... goodness me. Ightham told me that you were alive, but seeing isn't the same as knowing, is it? I'm so happy to see you again, mother.”
“Kouris,” Kidira said in a tone she ought to have used to send Rylan running. “What are you doing?”
Remembering herself, Katja tugged sharply on her horse's reins and turned in a half-circle, moving to Rylan's side. She wasn't his prisoner. That much was abundantly clear. She moved freely, used a gloved hand to sweep her hair over her shoulders, and sighed, exasperated at the sight of me.
“That's the necromancer,” Katja said to Rylan in a low voice that was still loud enough for us to hear, before returning to her mother's question. “I'm doing all I can for these lands. Don't you see? This war ought to have ended months ago. Your fight is long since over, mother. You do not have the resources, the bodies, in order to best Prince Rylan's forces, much less restore Kastelir to what it once was. I'm begging you, please. Do not be so stubborn.”
“Do you not hear yourself, Kouris?” Kidira said, voice too quiet, to even, for Katja to relax. “You have sided with the man responsible for all this. The man who saw your Kingdom turned to ash, your cities reduced to little more than charred wood; everyone we have lost, every friend, family member, citizen, servant, is dead because of him and his ilk.”
After all Katja had been through, after all she'd endured and forced others to endure, mere words from Kidira could still make her cower.
“The past is the past,” Rylan interjected. “We cannot change that, no matter how desperately we fight. We ought to look to the future, and how we might make Kastelir better than it once was.”
Kidira's horse stomped his front hooves in the dirt and Kidira paid no heed to the arrows aimed at her throat.
“Do you not hear him? He speaks of razing Kastelir in order to purify it,” Kidira spat. “And you would go along with it, because it is easy.”
Inhaling sharply, Katja said, “Mother, I know I've disappointed you terribly, but if you'd only—”
“Disappointed?” Kidira repeated, incredulous. “I have always loved you, Kouris. More than anything in this world. I stood by you your entire life, ensuring that no one, no matter how high-ranking, confined you to a life dictated solely by the nature of your powers. I let you do what you loved, and what you loved was helping Kastelir. Studying our past and bettering our future. And now? Now you make a mockery of who I raised you to be. I could endure being disappointed in you, Kouris. I could find a way to rid myself of the sting of disappointment, in time.”
Katja's jaw trembled and Rylan took the chance to regain control of the situation.
“Finish this some other time, both of you,” Rylan said. “I did not come here to argue.”
To Kidira, Katja was the only person within a thousand miles. Kouris spoke up, taking care not to move too close to the soldiers who'd been holding their crossbows up for far too long, arms aching.
“What did you come here for, then?” she asked. “Other than to intimidate us, that is.”
“I came seeking peace with my little sister, who didn't even have the decency to accept my invitation,” Rylan said, as though he had any right to speak of decency. “Her rebellion is crushed. Orinhal is ours. Yet I am willing to put this all behind me. If she surrenders, all of this misfortune will be forgotten.”
“Surrender?” Kouris laughed heartily. “I reckon you don't know your sister half as well as you think, Rylan.”
“Prince Rylan,” he snapped, pressing two fingers to his forehead as he took a deep breath. “Regardless, we are willing to make a deal with you, to show that our intentions are good.”
“Can't wait to hear this,” Kouris said to me, rolling her eyes.
I huffed a laugh and Rylan went to great lengths to ignore what he considered to be insubordination.
“The fact that I'm going to let you leave ought to be generous enough. But in addition to that, you'll have my word that we won't march on Kyrindval. What's more, we'll return your people to you. King Atthis and his family reside within Orinhal, don't they?” Rylan said. “I have matters to deal with in the west, but I will be back here in one month's time. Tell my sister that I expect her full surrender. Until then, a single trade ought to kindle trust between us.”
“You won't slaughter a tribe full of innocents. Very generous of you,” Kouris said, rubbing her chin. “What's our end of the bargain, then?”
“Kyrindval and King Atthis,” Rylan said, tilting his head towards me, “For the necromancer.”
Kouris growled from the back of her throat, but it was Kidira who rushed out in front of me. She placed her horse between me and Rylan, one hand going for the spear on her back. Whatever Katja had been doing to make me nauseous was gone; I was clear-headed when my heart ought to have been pounding, more shocked by the way Kidira had been spurred to action than by Rylan's words.
“You aren't taking her,” Kidira said plainly.
“Queen Kidira, the Queen Kidira, protecting a necromancer,” Rylan said, darkly amused, “Have you forgotten who you are?”
“No. Nor have I forgotten what necromancers can do.”
Rylan was wise enough not to engage Kidira any further. He tilted his head to the side, and looked around her to catch my eye; he was debating whether he ought to try taking me by force. I turned my head, gaze drawn by the way Katja was staring at me from the corner of my eye, and saw her mouth something to me. Rowan, she said silently. Wait.
“A month,” Rylan hissed. “You have a month. And if you rightly change your mind, send word to Orinhal. It's made quite a worthy base for us.”
There was something beneath his words, something beneath the frustration he was trying to keep from seeping into his tone.
“You need Claire's help,” I said, realisation coming to me as I spoke the words. “Something's gone wrong, hasn't it? You need her to help you, because... is it the Agadians?”
He'd struck a deal and found himself unable to uphold his end of the bargain, or he'd become too involved in their politics. Whatever it was, Rylan was desperate for help Claire would never give him.
“You accuse me of working with the Agadians?” Rylan scoffed a second too late. “Felheim would never associate with Agados, unlike Kastelir.”
“Unlike Kastelir?” Kidira asked.
“Don't make yourself out to be oblivious. We received dozens of reports that Agadian diplomats had travelled to Isin in order to forge treaties with the Kastelirians, unifying the lands,” Rylan said.
“Nothing of the sort happened,” Kidira said slowly, piecing together the assumption Rylan had built up in his head. “The Agadians came for King Jonas' funeral and the Phoenix Festival, and in order to discuss continued trade until Jonas' replacement was chosen.”
Rylan stared at Kidira, desperate to refute what she'd said. When no words came to him and Katja didn't speak up, he tugged on his horse's reins, turned towards the rest of the army, and took slow steps away.
“Remember: Cla
ire has a month,” he said over his shoulder, putting the dragon-bone helm he hadn't earnt back on. “If you care about Kyrindval, you will hand over the necromancer sooner than that.”
Katja tried to garner my attention and failed. I'd yet to tremble around her and had every intention of keeping it that way, and so kept my eyes fixed on Rylan's back. His soldiers had yet to retreat, and their crossbows pointed up when Kouris took wide strides forward.
“Rylan. You'd best be listening to me,” Kouris called after him. Rylan continued on his way and she growled, words coming out louder. “If you send so much as a single soldier to Kyrindval, I'll gut them. If that's what it takes to protect the pane, I'll do it. I'll rip out their throats, I'll—”
Kouris swung out a clawed hand to help illustrate her point, and one of the soldiers started. A sickly thwupp shot out of the crossbow as the soldier's finger slipped on the trigger, shoulder rolling back with the impact, bolt flying loose with enough force to embed itself in a pane's chest.
Kouris roared, stumbled back, and two more soldiers panicked. Their arrows shot towards her, all three digging deep into the left side of her chest. Rylan bellowed for his soldiers to stand down, words knocked out of the air by the way Kouris growled her throat raw.
“Kouris!” I called, boots thudding heavily against the ground as I jumped from Charley's back.
She came crashing towards the ground and Kidira, who'd dismounted her own horse, ran towards her, spear drawn. I rushed straight past them both, into the wall of soldiers with their arrows and their orders to back off. My hands were glowing, eyes burning, both because I wanted them to and couldn't stop it from happening, power grinding against every nerve in my body.
The soldiers encircled me, each one stepping back when I looked at them.
“Go,” I barely managed to voice for all the venom caught in my throat. I stomped a foot against the ground, imagining that it trembled as the dirt and grass turned white around my boots. “You know what I am, what I'll do. Run!”
And the soldiers, with their numbers and their weapons, with an entire army behind them, listened to me. Some dropped their crossbows and others clung tightly to them, hands locked around the stock, but all of them ran, heading after Rylan and Katja, not stopping until they disappeared over the horizon.
CHAPTER XXIV
Kouris came crashing down like an avalanche, chest rising as she heaved for breath. I'd never seen her get so much as a scratch, yet there she was, three arrows pushed into her chest, piercing her lung, with thick, orange blood pouring out of the wounds. Death circled above her, drawing closer and closer and then dispersing when I ran over, shadows pushed away by the sun.
“Stop that,” Kidira said, knelt by Kouris' side. One hand was pushed down on Kouris' chest, close to the bolts, and the other gripped at her jaw, keeping her still and demanding her attention. “Your other heart is fine. Look at me—look at me, Kouris. Rowan's here.”
My knees slammed against the ground and I took Kouris' face in my hands, eyes fixed on hers. Darkness was claiming them, tarnishing the gold and turning it black, and I murmured her name under my breath, drawing the pain into myself and healing her heart and lung over and over again as the bolts continued to tear through them.
Kouris wheezed, choked on the blood in her throat, and Kidira said, “I'm going to remove the arrows. Keep looking at Rowan,” more composed than I could ever be. My eyes were misting over and I didn't dare to blink, lest my tears scare Kouris more than she already was. I'd never healed a pane like this and the echo of her injury settled strangely within me; my heart and no twin, and the pain saturated the whole of my chest.
“One...” Kidira said, wrapping her fingers around the bolt and tugging sharply on it. Kouris threw her head back, feeling enough to start seething, and I closed the wound the second the bolt was free. “Two...”
Kidira grunted, hands slick with blood. She wiped them on her shirt and took hold of the last bolt, having to push the bolt deeper before she could twist it out.
“Three.”
With all of the wounds closed, I willed Kouris' heart and lung to heal for a final time, and the darkness that swarmed her eyes disappeared along with death.
Kouris tried to speak, but it came out rougher than any curse in Svargan. Turning onto her side, she choked on the breath she tried to draw in and spat blood into the dirt, knocking a fist against her chest, until she could bring herself to sit up.
I threw my arms around her neck, pressing my cheek against hers.
“Yrval...” she croaked. “You're trembling.”
I was having a harder time catching my breath than she was.
“You're okay,” I murmured, plastering a hand against her other cheek and kissing her face. “You scared me, Kouris.”
Closing her eyes, she knocked her forehead against mine.
“Reckon you had the right idea in tagging along,” she said, smiling shakily. I kept close and she wrapped an arm around me, looking up at Kidira. “... thanks, Kidira. Don't know how the hell you always manage to stay so calm.”
Kidira stood over us, arms folded across her chest. Orange blood stained her hands and arms, her shirt and throat, but her expression merely said she'd been mildly inconvenienced, somehow. She didn't shake, didn't let out a heavy, relieved breath. I was a necromancer and yet she was the one who was fearless.
“And that, Kouris, is why you don't wave your arms around in front of people half your size wielding crossbows,” Kidira said sternly, holding out a hand.
Tentatively, Kouris took it, doing all the work to get back to her feet.
Fearing retaliation, Rylan's soldiers had left in a hurry. There was nothing for us to do but take the news back to Kyrindval, and though Kouris insisted that she didn't need time to rest, she ran more slowly back to the mountains than I'd known her to run before. Neither Kidira nor I said anything, but kept our eyes fixed on Kouris, no matter how recovered we knew her to be.
Charley was more than a little jittery after what had happened with Rylan and the crossbows, far from eager to head back up the mountain. I issued every bribe I knew, leading him up the path what felt like a step at a time, and could've wept when I set eyes on Kyrindval once more. I scrubbed at my eyes, letting out a breath I'd been holding all the way up the mountain, and strongly considered collapsing there and then.
I'd no intention of leaving Kouris alone, but didn't have to.
Kidira had come to a stop by her side, holding her horse's reins out to me.
I took them, about to head into Kyrindval, but spoke before I could think better of opening my mouth.
“I'm sorry,” I said. “About Katja.”
Kidira placed a hand on my shoulder, but all she said was, “Go. Report our findings to Claire.”
I led the horses to the stables, only daring to turn back once the edge of the tribe was almost out of sight. Kidira had sat in the grass, so far from Kouris' side that she may as well have not been there at all.
A kindly pane working in the stables promised to take extra care of Charley until he calmed down, and the two of them seemed to already be acquainted well enough. The strip of sky along the horizon had turned a pale red while the rest was just dark enough to make the clouds and sky itself indistinguishable. I walked through Kyrindval with my arms wrapped around myself, hiding the blood that had spilt onto me.
The last thing any pane wanted to see was a human covered in orange blood.
Claire was in her cabin, sat in the living area. I heard voices from the street, Akela's and then Sen's, seeping out in equal measures, and paused, gathering myself. I wished I could've taken her nothing but good news, but the incident with the crossbow and Katja's presence put an end to all that.
Kouris was fine, I reminded myself, closing my eyes until images of the bolts dug deep in her chest faded.
An attempt at playing cards had been made. They laid forgotten across the table in the centre of the room, while Claire sunk into an armchair, not distracted in
the least by the way Akela and Sen sat chatting on the sofa opposite her, chick perched happily on Akela's knee.
Sen's ears didn't fail her. She heard me dragging my feet through the corridor and shot to her feet at the sight the pane blood splattered across my golden shirt.
“It's okay, it's okay,” I said, holding my hands out. “It's Kouris', but she's okay. I healed her.”
“Northwood,” Akela said, wrapping her fingers around Sen's wrist when she couldn't find her own way back to the sofa. “What is happening? Where is Kidira?”
“She's just outside of Kyrindval, with Kouris,” I explained. “She's fine.”
Akela furrowed her brow at the thought of Kidira willingly spending more time than she had to with Kouris, but was content enough to stay where she was once she knew Kidira was safe.
“What happened, Rowan?” Claire asked, closing her book and quietly slipping it onto the floor.
I shook my head, wandering aimlessly around the room, all eyes on me. All three of them were being more patient than I was, and at the sound of Akela's chick chirping, I took a seat on the arm of Claire's chair and let it all rush out of me.
"Rylan says you have a month. He wants you to surrender, to go work with him. He says he's willing to excuse all of this, and that together, you can help repair Kastelir. But there was something about the way he said it. I think it was... his last option, maybe. He said there was something he had to attend to in the west, and what's west, other than Agados? He needs your help,” I said, certain of it. “He said that he's willing to give us people back as a sign of good faith. Atthis and Galal. And he won't march on Kyrindval, if...”
“If?”
“If you give me to him,” I said, laughing flatly. “I-I just wanted to be a healer, that's all, I don't know how I got involved in all of this, and now Kouris, she was—it was an accident but they hurt her, a-and...”
Claire placed a hand on my arm, keeping me steady.
“Breathe, Rowan,” she said gently. “Take your time. We're all here for you.”
“That's not all. Katja's working with him, too,” I said, cracking the knuckles of one hand, and then the other.
