Burn

by Keri Arthur

  And he would have gone into the heart of Mareritten itself if that’s what it had taken to rescue me.

  The knowledge made my breath catch and my stomach twist. I barely knew this man, but the connection between us was already so deep and strong that I suspected there was no escaping it.

  Not that I wanted to.

  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” he said softly, “but you look like shit.”

  A smile twisted my lips. “Way to boost someone’s morale, warrior.”

  He didn’t reply. He simply drew me into his arms and held me close. It felt as if he never intended to let me go.

  Felt like home.

  I rested my cheek against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart and reveling in the strength of the arms that held me so tenderly.

  Two hundred years and the destruction of everything I’d ever known and everyone I cared about—that’s what it had taken to find the one thing that had been missing from my life in Zephrine.

  I blinked back tears that were a weird mix of pain and joy, then said, “How did you find me?”

  “Before we get into all that, let’s get you out of these chains.”

  He kissed the top of my head and then slid the pack from his back. From one of the smaller pockets at the front, he plucked a key lock similar to the one he’d used in the old farmhouse. He unlatched the leg cuffs first, then the wrist ones, and tossed both into the nearby stalagmites. I rubbed my wrists in relief but didn’t dare touch my ankles. The skin there was red and raw from all the walking.

  Kaiden waved one of his companions across. “Loretta’s a field medic. Once she’s tended to all your wounds, we’ll set up a temporary camp.”

  I frowned. “Is that safe? I have no precise idea of where we are, but I do know we’re close to the old tunnels that run under Zephrine. If the Mareritt are using them—”

  “We’ll deal with all that if and when it happens.” He raised a hand and lightly touched my cheek. “I wasn’t kidding when I said you look like shit. We don’t move until you’re back to something resembling full strength.”

  The depth of concern in his eyes had my innards trembling again. It was just further confirmation that this nebulous link went both ways.

  Loretta—who was tall and muscular, with a lined face that suggested she was in her fifties—stopped beside him and gave me a brief, impersonal smile. “Righto,” she said, balancing her pack on the stalagmites. “Let’s have a look at you.”

  Kaiden stepped out of her way. She did a quick but thorough examination, making unhappy noises when she saw the state of my back. After dragging a medikit from her pack, she proceeded to wash down and then tend the wounds scattered around my body. It wasn’t pleasant, but she did at least use a numbing agent when she got to the deeper wounds on my back. Apparently not only were there metal bits still embedded, but several of the cuts were deep enough to need both butterfly bandages to hold them together and sealant spray to cover and protect them.

  Once she’d finished, she shoved the medikit back, gave Kaiden a nod, and walked back to the others. Kaiden took off his coat and placed it around my shoulders, holding it steady while I shoved my arms in. Once he’d done up the buttons, he caught the collar, tugged me close, and kissed me. It was little more than a gentle brush of lips against lips, but it held all the passion and caring that had been so evident in his eyes.

  “I’m glad you’re alive and relatively unhurt, both physically and mentally,” he murmured.

  “How can you tell the latter?”

  A smile twisted his lips. “Do you really need to ask that?”

  “No.” I raised a hand and brushed the hair out of his eyes, needing to drown unhindered in those glorious aqua depths, if only for another second or two. “If I hadn’t escaped, it might not have remained that way.”

  “I’m surprised they didn’t question you when they were bringing you here.”

  “I was unconscious. I doubt they would have attempted to question me anyway, because even in the cell, they had to use a combination of drugs and magic to read me.” I hesitated and then glanced at his companions. As much as I wanted to confide my fears over the ice in my mind and my possible part in the fall of the graces, I had no desire to do so within the hearing range of those who didn’t know—and likely didn’t entirely trust—me.

  “Why drugs? Especially if they had mages or even readers on hand?” He caught my hand and led me toward the others. The two men had set up a camp stove and were currently pouring water and what looked to be dried vegetables and meat into a pot.

  “Kin are somewhat immune to magic thanks to our link with the drakkon, and I don’t think the gift of reading is one they share. Every time we saw someone turned, it was via a mix of drugs and magic.” I carefully sat down but kept an inch or two between my back and the wall. The salve might have numbed everything, but I wasn’t about to push it. “But Túxn gave me another break—the cell they put me in was one of the originals.”

  “Originals?” He squatted beside me, unzipping his pack and tugging free a flask and a metal cup. “Do you mean it was part of the old tunnel system?”

  “In a way, yes. Just as the Mareritt built on the remains of my Zephrine, we built on the remnants of another civilization—one so old we had no record of it. But we think the ancient tunnels were used by the serving class to move to and from various rooms without having to use the main halls.”

  Kaiden poured what looked like liquid mud out of the flask and then handed me the cup. I gulped it down in the vague hope it would somehow taste better that way and then returned the empty cup. Unfortunately, he refilled it.

  One of the two men standing near the small stove stepped toward me and held out a hand. He was typical Arleeon in looks, but his golden eyes shone with power. An earth mage, I suspected, and an inclusion that made sense in this sort of raid. Without him to talk to the collective consciousness and guide their steps, Kaiden and the other two could have been wandering around through the tunnel maze for weeks.

  “I’m Harrod.” His handshake was firm and his voice gravelly but warm. “And it’s a damn pleasure to meet you. I think you brought more hope to Esan in a couple of hours than anything we’ve done for more than a century.”

  “I wouldn’t overhype my presence,” I said wryly. “One person can only do so much.”

  “But it’s not just you, is it?” the other man said. “I’m Randal, by the way.”

  He was taller and thinner than Harrod, with short-cropped gray hair and pale blue eyes. A scar ran down the side of his weatherworn face, and his hands looked rough and gnarled. A career soldier, I suspected.

  “It’s the drakkons,” he continued. “There may be only two, but their presence in the aerie is not something any of us thought we’d see again.”

  Which at least suggested the fear and uncertainty that had met their arrival in Esan was now fading. I had no doubt Kiva’s actions during the attack were responsible for turning that tide. I drank more of the tonic, shuddered, and then glanced at Kaiden. “I take it the Mareritt made no ingress into Esan?”

  “No,” Kaiden said. “Kiva’s final fire sweep took out a good portion of them, and our charge did the rest.”

  “At least that’s something.” I hesitated and finished the revolting tonic. “And the wall? Is it fully repaired?”

  “Aye,” Harrod said, “and we’re currently looking for a means of bracing it against that damn ice weapon of theirs.”

  “Is that even possible?”

  He shrugged. “We’re not sure as yet, but there’s talk of at least weaving metal through the entire structure, as it’s not pervious and won’t react in the same way. It might even be possible to heat the wall.”

  The latter would probably take far more time than the Mareritt would ever give them, but it was pointless commenting. He’d be as aware of the drawbacks as me—probably more so, given the earth would be called in to assist with either task.

  My gaze returned
to Kaiden. “I take it from your presence here that you did understand the note I gave Kiva.”

  “Ah, now there’s a story,” Loretta murmured, amusement crinkling the corners of her brown eyes. “One I daresay will entertain countless generations to come.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Really? Why?”

  “Because while I may have kin blood, I’m not capable of mind speech,” Kaiden said, voice bland.

  “Which is why I gave you the note.”

  “Yes, but it took a bit to work out what your message said. The blood had spread across the cloth and made the words almost incomprehensible.”

  “Sorry, but I didn’t have anything else to use.”

  “I gathered that.” His shoulder brushed mine lightly, a brief contact that nevertheless sent warmth shivering through me. “Oma returned to Esan once you’d entered New Zephrine, as near as I can gather. What followed then was a somewhat comical series of questions from me, and head shaking and foot stamping from Oma.”

  “It was quite a sight, let me tell you,” Randal said. “There was even smoke drifting from the drakkon’s nostrils. We were placing bets on whether she’d crisp him in frustration.”

  “She was worried,” Kaiden said with a shrug. “I was never in any danger, no matter what some might have thought.”

  “So how did you get into this area? By boat?”

  “Yes,” Kaiden said. “Once we made our way through to Hardwick, it was simply a matter of Harrod talking to the earth and finding the most likely candidate for the tunnel you mentioned.”

  Which meant that, no matter what had happened to them in the days after the graces had disappeared into the coruscations, the souls of the earth mages in my Zephrine had at least joined the greater consciousness—there was no other way the earth could have held that knowledge. And that was nice to know.

  I just had to hope the souls of my family, friends, and everyone else who’d been destroyed that day had been granted a similar gift.

  “And our drakkons?” I asked. “Where are they now?”

  Kaiden’s gaze shot to mine, something close to alarm in his expression. “You don’t know?”

  I shook my head. “As I said, the Mareritt pumped me full of drugs. One of them not only restricts all my abilities but damn near killed me.”

  “Do you think it’s permanent?”

  There was an edge in his voice—an edge that spoke of anger. For me, rather than the weapon Esan might have lost. I smiled and shook my head. “My fires are returning, albeit far too slowly for my liking.”

  “Good.” He touched my arm lightly, relief evident. “I gather from Oma that they’ll be waiting somewhere near Zephrine’s aeries.”

  Concern ran through me. “Won’t that be dangerous? The Mareritt drakkons will undoubtedly have been ordered to keep an eye out for them.”

  “I did ask that, but I gather she didn’t think it’d be a problem.” His tone was wry. “I get the impression she’s a very opinioned drakkon.”

  “That comes with the territory.” Certainly Emri had never been backward when it came to expressing her thoughts on various matters—up to and including my love life. Tears stung my eyes, and I blinked them away rapidly. I might have lost the drakkon half of my soul, but I now had Oma and Kiva. And it was totally possible that as our association deepened, the connection between us would grow. Just because there’d never been a case of a kin attaching psychically to another drakkon—let alone two—after the death of her own didn’t mean it couldn’t happen. “So what’s the plan from here? Retreat or attack?”

  “Given who’s leading this motley group, what do you think?” Loretta’s expression was bland, but amusement creased the corners of her eyes.

  “May I point out that everyone here is a volunteer,” Kaiden said. “There was absolutely no coercion involved.”

  “In fact,” Randal said, “he actively tried to discourage participation. But, for my part, I figured any incursion into the White Zone that had the ultimate goal of blowing shit up was not something I could miss out on.”

  “Ditto,” Harrod said. “Although I am sadly missing out on a good portion of the whole blowing up shit—at least until my task is complete and I rejoin you. Hopefully there’ll be some Mareritt left to kill by then.”

  “Given the size of the White Zone, I think there’ll be plenty.” Randal’s voice was dry.

  “Which is just as fucking well,” Loretta said. “We need to make them pay for the untold number of people who have died needlessly under their rule.”

  Those deaths obviously included people close to her, if the savage determination in her eyes was anything to go by.

  “While I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment,” I said, “there is one problem—five people will have more than a little trouble doing much damage.”

  “Which is why it isn’t just us five,” Kaiden said. “There’s several divisions positioned in the Red Ochre Mountains, ready to attack both the tunnel and the Coruscation Fort.”

  I frowned. “How did you manage that? Surely the Mareritt are now monitoring all movement?”

  “Distractions,” Kaiden said. “We moved at night and simply drew their gaze away from those areas with skirmishes elsewhere.”

  “And those divisions aren’t all we have on standby,” Randal said. “Boats carrying another two divisions sit just beyond the Black Claw; once clearance is given, they’ll hit Kriton and take out the Mareritt there.”

  “Both of which are diversions for what we’re going to be doing, I gather,” I said.

  Kaiden nodded. “Harrod will head deep into the tunnel maze and place a jammer—”

  “A what?” I cut in.

  “Esan’s engineers found a means of jamming the frequencies being used to both control and kill the drakkons.” His grin flashed. “And that means the Mareritt’s best weapon cannot be used against us in this attack.”

  “Of course, they’ve only made three of them so far,” Harrod added. “So they’ll take out the two comms towers in Arleeon to complement the jammers. Between both, we should render the control bands inert over Esan, a good chunk of central Arleeon, and most of the White Zone.”

  Excitement surged, and my heart began to beat a whole lot faster. “So if we’re in the aerie when those things go online, we can de-band the drakkons and totally free them.”

  And while not all of Mareritten’s drakkons were kept within Zephrine’s aerie, a good proportion of them apparently were. That, in turn, meant most—if not all, given Oma’s earlier comments—would join us in the fight against the Mareritt.

  “Exactly,” Kaiden said. “A simultaneous assault on the Coruscation Watchtower and Kriton will draw the Mareritt’s attention away from Zephrine itself.”

  My excitement dimmed a little. “Even with the help of the drakkons, there are still only five of us—”

  “Here, yes,” Harrod said. “But there’s a third force—led by another mage—working their way through a different lava tunnel. When clearance is given, the mage will break through to the surface and the rest will attack.”

  “Our task,” Kaiden said, “is to free the drakkons and have them rain hellfire onto the Mareritt while we make use of the chaos to find and destroy those damn ice weapons.”

  None of which was going to be easy. I hesitated. “It sounds like you’ve put a lot of military resources into this attack—isn’t that dangerous?”

  Weren’t they all but repeating the mistake we’d made when we’d thrown everything into the coruscation attack and had subsequently robbed future generations of all hope?

  “We are pushing resources into this, but we’re not leaving Esan unprotected,” Kaiden said. “If we fail, then the status quo remains. But if we succeed—if only in part—then we push the scales in our favor. And from there, the long war will finally be ours to win.”

  His voice was calm and confident, his expression determined. An image slipped past the ice in my brain—one of Sorrel addressing the graces in the final mi
nutes before we’d taken off on our fatal attack. Though her words had been very different, her voice and her expression had been the same as Kaiden’s. I really hoped the results here were not.

  “This is our best chance,” Randal said. “They’re in disarray thanks to the amount of men they lost to the drakkon fire at Esan.”

  “And the fact that they withdrew their ice weapons,” Loretta said, “has to mean that, despite their destructive power, their use is somewhat limited—”

  “Not necessarily,” I cut in. “That attack might well have been little more than a test run that was also meant to draw me out—and in that, they succeeded.”

  “No matter what the true reason for the attack,” Kaiden said, “it resulted in a massive loss of manpower. Their command will undoubtedly be working on a response as we speak, and that means we only have a small window in which to hit them.”

  With that, I agreed. “Their time frame for any planned secondary attack will probably accelerate once they realize I’ve escaped.”

  “Yes, which is why you need to eat and rest up. We have to be in position to attack at twenty-two hundred hours, whether or not you’ve regained your flames.”

  Harrod handed me a bowl of the reconstituted stew. I thanked him and then said, “I take it there’s a preset and unchangeable timetable?”

  “Yes,” Kaiden said. “It was happening whether or not we found you.”

  There was a note in his voice—and a light in his eyes—that said while that may have been his orders, it wasn’t what he’d personally intended.

  “This whole process is just a lot easier with you,” Loretta commented, her voice dry. “Or will be, once you get your fire back.”

  “Which will be soon.” I hoped.

  “In the meantime,” Kaiden said, “eat up and rest. Loretta and Harrod, you take first watch.”

  They nodded, and the conversation moved on. I let it run over me, finding the noise soothing as I finished the stew and the rest of the awful tonic. Then I lay down on my side and, despite the hardness of the stone, quickly went to sleep.

  A gentle prodding woke me some hours later, but it wasn’t a physical touch, and a fierce mix of relief and joy swept through me.