“Don’t you dare.” Aeonia stepped between us, glaring at her sister. “If you touch them, I will never forgive you, Aurora.”
There was a moment of silence as Aurora stared at us, her face blank. Then, slowly, her hands slipped away from her sword. “Follow me.”
Giving Yashear, who’d gone back to fighting Ayrens, and the other traveler a wide berth, Emile and I walked down the street, our weapons still drawn. Aurora was leading us toward the outskirts, I was relieved to see, and we no longer had to stick to the shadows and avoid anyone fighting. The travelers nodded to Aurora as we passed, their eyes flicking to Aeonia before resuming their fights. My heart sank. Why didn’t they stop?
Finally, we reached the edge of Ayres. A group of travelers armed to the teeth were assembled, surveying the city. Behind them crouched five travelers assembled in a circle, their eyes closed as they chanted something. Watching them, I felt a strong sense of foreboding. They were casting magic, but why?
“Claudette.” Emile’s tight voice pulled my attention away from the travelers. He let go of the sword with one hand to grip my arm. “L-Look.”
I followed his gaze, gasping when I saw in the distance that our barn was on fire. Not just the barn, but the field and all of our crops were burning, too. I’d thought the fighting was concentrated in the major part of Ayres, and now I realized what a fool I’d been to think that. The travelers had to pass the farmland to enter the city; they must have torched it on their way to join the fighting.
Maman. Papa. No! I took off at a run, Emile at my heels. Behind us I heard Aeonia call something, but already I was too far away to understand what she was saying. The air grew thick with smoke, choking me, but I ignored it.
Even with his legs uninjured, I was always faster than Emile, so I arrived at the house before him, calling for my parents. The house wasn’t on fire, and I hoped, again, that they had hidden in there away from the violence.
Opening the door, I stopped in my tracks. “N-No.”
“Claudette!” Emile limped up the pathway. I wanted to slam the door shut, sparing him from the horrific scene that lay before me, but my limbs were frozen. Tears spilled down my cheeks as I stared at my parents’ bloodied and broken bodies.
Maybe they’d tried to hide, but the travelers had still found them.
My eyes were glued to their prone forms. It was obvious they’d tried to fight back; Papa was still clutching the handle of a frying pan, while next to Maman lay a kitchen knife. Like Gilbert, Papa had been shot with an arrow, while Maman’s head hung at a funny angle. She was staring right at us, her brown eyes wide and unblinking.
She looked terrified.
I began shaking, wishing I could go to her, to comfort her like she’d always comforted me whenever I’d had a bad dream, but I couldn’t. I could do nothing but stare and cry.
I knew the exact moment Emile saw what I saw. A noise of anguish escaped from his lips as he fell to his knees. His leg, I thought distantly. It must hurt him to kneel like that. And yet he didn’t move either. Maybe he was frozen like I was frozen.
But when he reached for me, his arm wrapping around my waist, I found myself falling to the ground too. His touch unfroze me, and for a moment I hated him for doing that. Because now I could feel and hurt, and I didn’t want that. I didn’t want my heart to feel like it’d shattered into a thousand sharp pieces. Dizziness overwhelmed me, pitching the world sideways as I struggled to catch my breath. Why? Why did you do this to me, Emile?
It wasn’t his fault. I realized that a moment later when I tore my eyes from our parents’ bodies and looked at my brother, his shoulders heaving as he sobbed so hard I thought he’d be sick. His face was raw with pain—I wasn’t the only one hurting.
Emile is the only one I have left.
My world had suddenly grown that much smaller.
Chapter Seventeen
How long did we remain like that, crouched outside our home that was no longer our home as our farm slowly burned away to nothing? I almost wished the flames would consume us as well, but then I remembered how close we’d come to that actually happening.
“Emile,” I whispered. He followed my gaze. The barn had already collapsed and the crops Maman and Papa had worked tirelessly on were all but destroyed, too. “There’s nothing left for us.” Where were the farmhands? Dead, too?
Something shifted in his gaze. “Stay here,” he instructed as he stood. I watched in horror as he entered the house and shut the door behind him.
“Emile!” Coward that I was, I couldn’t bring myself to go in after him. What was he doing in there?
I found out a few minutes later when he emerged from the house carrying two satchels. He handed one to me; peeking inside, I saw that he’d packed me a few changes of clothes. “Is there anything else you need?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
I shut my eyes, picturing the house and, more specifically, my room. There was nothing I was attached to, no toy from my childhood or trinket of Maman’s that I secretly wanted. I glanced at Emile’s chest; the necklace still hung around his neck. Even though I knew the necklace had started this chain of horrific events, I was still relieved to see it hanging there.
“No,” I said in answer to his question. “I don’t need anything else.”
I went around the side of the house, ripping off my bloody and torn dress in exchange for pants and a loose shirt. When I rejoined Emile, he’d done the same, exchanging his ruined pants for a clean pair. He put weight on his leg, wincing, but he said nothing.
“Should we bury them?” I wondered.
Emile glanced at the burning fields once more. “Where?” He was right; the fire would continue to spread, leaving no place safe for us.
My chin began trembling. I wanted to be strong, but it was so hard. “So we leave them here to burn?”
His face falling, he nodded. “We should go.”
“Where?” Our home was gone and we couldn’t return to the city. What was left for us?
I realized it the same time he did. “The monastery.”
It would provide us with shelter while we tried to figure this out. As we waited for an answer to fall in our laps. With the smoke choking me and the knowledge that my parents’ bodies lay just past our front door, I was having trouble forming a single, coherent thought. I wanted to fall asleep for the next thousand years only to wake up and find that all of my problems had solved themselves.
No—I wanted to wake up and find out this was all a nightmare, one that Maman would comfort me from. This couldn’t be my life. My parents couldn’t be dead.
I stifled a sob. If I started crying now, I wouldn’t ever stop. Feeling Emile’s eyes on me, I turned. “Let’s go.”
We’d just started making our way north when the ground began shaking. I struggled to stay on my feet, not comprehending what was happening.
Then came a sound like thunder, only louder and it lasted much longer. As the earth pitched and heaved, I fell over, wondering if now the world was ending.
“It’s coming from the city,” Emile yelled over the noise. We got to our feet and ran toward Ayres—
Emile grabbed me by the arm and yanked me back so hard he almost wrenched my shoulder from its socket. I cried out but then quickly forgot all about the pain as I watched Ayres fall.
The city was crumbling, first in small chunks, then bigger and bigger pieces, into the ocean. How? How is this possible?
Screams filled the air, audible over the sounds of the city—stores and homes and roads and people—splashing into the water below. I’d spent all of my life gazing out into that ocean, and now I watched as the dark waves greedily consumed my city.
Our city was falling, and all we could do was watch.
When it was over, my ears were ringing. The horrified screams suddenly cutting off would haunt me for the rest of my life—if I survived this night.
The city, the castle, the cliff, everything, was gone.
A cheer came from our left. The traveler
s, their bodies lit by torchlight, were celebrating. I remembered seeing them gathered in a circle chanting earlier. “They did that,” I said through gritted teeth. “They destroyed the city! They killed everyone!” I unsheathed my sword, burning with anger.
“Claudette, wait!” Emile grabbed me before I could rush into the crowd, stabbing whoever stood in my way. “They’ll kill you!”
“I don’t care!”
“Please! I can’t lose you too!”
His words stilled me. Emile was right. We only had each other. If I died, he would be hurt again. I couldn’t do that to him.
Unfortunately, our yelling attracted the travelers’ attention. A few of them broke away from the group to approach us.
“Wait!” Aeonia ran in front so she could stand between us. “These are my friends!”
I laughed loudly at that.
Aeonia looked at me uncertainly. “Claudette?”
“Friends?” I pointed to where Ayres had been only moments ago. “How can you call us friends after you did that?”
She walked over to us quickly. “Stop it,” Aeonia hissed. “I’m trying to help you.”
Again I laughed.
“I mean it, Claudette! They’ll kill you if you attack them! But if they see that you’re my friends, then you can come with us.”
I stared at her. She actually thought we’d travel with the same people who murdered our parents? Our townspeople? With a noise of disgust, I shoved her away. A few of the travelers began grumbling loudly, but I heard Aurora call to them to stand down.
“Claudette—”
“Everyone is dead! Because of your people! You were outraged only moments ago. What changed that?” I asked. “Was it when you saw what your powers could do? How they could destroy an entire city? Are you proud of your people now?” I jabbed her in the chest with my finger and she winced. “I saw you in the monastery, when you were making the plants grow. And again in the castle, with the fire. You were laughing as they burned. You like it.”
“Of course I do!” She swatted my hand away. “You wouldn’t understand because you don’t have magic, but that power, Claudette. It’s intoxicating.”
“Even when you use it to kill people?” Emile asked quietly.
Aeonia had no answer for that.
“We can’t go with your people,” Emile continued. “Our parents…” He cut himself off, shaking his head. “And now our entire city. They’re murderers. We’ll never see them as anything but that.”
“But what will you do?” Aeonia asked. “You have no home now. Where will you go?”
“As far away from you and your kind as possible.” I watched her for a reaction and was rewarded with a flinch, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
Nothing would.
“Come on,” I said to Emile.
“No, Claudette, wait.” Aeonia reached for my hand, but I raised my sword, pointing the tip in her direction, and she faltered. I wouldn’t use it on her—I didn’t think I would at least. “Please don’t go. Stay and let me fix this—”
“Fix this?” I repeated. “How can you possibly fix this?” Again I pointed at Ayres. “Are you going to float the city back up from the ocean? Are you going to magically bring back thousands upon thousands of people? Are you going to bring my parents back to life?”
Her eyes welled with tears. “Claudette, I—”
“There’s nothing you can do. There will never be anything you can do to fix this.” I shot her a look of pure venom. “I never want to see you again. You’re nothing but an awful reminder of what happened this night. Michel is right; magic is evil. Your people are evil. And if you don’t think what they did tonight was wrong, then you’re just as bad as them.”
“I do think it was wrong,” she insisted. “But what Michel did to me was wrong too. They—my family—were protecting me, which they never would have needed to do if he hadn’t tried to kill me!”
She was actually making excuses for them. Yes, Michel had been wrong, but even after the travelers had seen Aeonia was all right, they’d still gone ahead and destroyed the city with magic. What kind of ruthless, bloodthirsty people did that? And the worst part was they’d cheered after it was done. They were celebrating the deaths of thousands. How could Aeonia possibly think that Emile and I would travel with people like that? I’d rather starve to death at the monastery than walk a mile with her people, now that I saw what they were capable of.
Magic corrupted. I knew this from our history lessons, and yet somehow I’d forgotten it. I’d been tricked into thinking Aeonia’s magic was special, beautiful. I thought it would be different this time around, but her travelers were just as bad as the magicians from the old wars. The Knights had the right idea:
Magic should always be destroyed.
“Enough,” I said. “We’re leaving.” I pushed past Aeonia, putting as much space as possible between me and the travelers as I followed the path to the monastery.
She called my name, pleading with me to stop, to stay with her, but I ignored her. Never again would I let that girl and her accursed magic fool me.
***
The monastery was untouched by the night’s horrific events. Something inside of me loosened upon seeing the familiar walls of the building still standing, their stone walls gleaming in the moonlight. It was quiet here, and the smell of smoke was barely noticeable.
Together Emile and I entered the silent ruins, bypassing the section of the courtyard where Aeonia had used her magic to make the plants grow. The long scratch on my arm throbbed when I glanced at the cage Aeonia had made out of the shrubs.
No, not just my arm. Everything hurt. It was my heart that hurt the most, however. The grief over losing my parents and watching Gilbert die. Seeing Ayres fall into the ocean. Aeonia’s betrayal. And me. So much of this was my fault, starting with the day I found that damn disc. If I’d never found it, Aeonia never would have felt compelled to share her secret with me. The travelers would have left in a few weeks and life would have gone on. Instead, they’d showed their true colors and murdered thousands because one of their own had been in danger.
My teeth began chattering. We thought our silly training sessions would prepare us for anything, but tonight we saw how we’d never be prepared to face something like that. No wonder the magicians had nearly destroyed the world once. No one should be allowed to have that much power.
“Claudette.” Emile reached for the sword I was still gripping. I couldn’t get my fingers to unclench from around the hilt, and I gasped when Emile finally freed them. He made me take the sheath off from my shoulders and rested the sword on the ground, next to where he’d already placed his satchel. I did the same with mine, my movements wooden.
Tears slipped down my cheeks and splashed against the tall grass. “This is all my fault,” I said quietly.
Emile looked at me, surprised. “No, it’s not.”
“I’m the one who wanted an adventure.” I spread my arms wide, my voice echoing off the walls around us. “Well, I got one. And wasn’t it as good as I hoped it would be?”
“You’re wrong.”
“No, Emile. I’m the one who wanted to see magic,” I said. “I’m the one who encouraged Aeonia. I knew she was hiding something, and I kept prodding until she spilled her secret.”
“She didn’t have to tell you,” Emile replied. “You didn’t twist her arm. She wanted to tell you. She wanted to be caught.” Emile shook his head. “She was always going to say something. And it would have been fine if Michel hadn’t interfered. If you want to blame someone,” he said, his voice barely a growl, “then blame him.”
“I thought I heard voices.” Emile and I whirled around to see Michel standing there, his expression a mixture of relief and unhappiness.
“You!” Emile charged forward and struck Michel on the chin. My mouth dropped open, but I made no move to restrain him. “That was for Gilbert! And this is for my parents! And for all of Ayres!”
After the third punch, M
ichel pushed Emile away. “Enough!”
“No,” Emile screamed, “it’ll never be enough!”
“So you want to kill me?” Michel scooped up my sword from the ground and shoved it into Emile’s arms. “Then go ahead. Run it through my chest. Will that make you feel better, Emile?” Emile hesitated, which was enough of an answer for Michel. Sighing, the older boy said, “No, it won’t. There’s been enough bloodshed tonight, hasn’t there? Us three—we’re the only ones left, aren’t we? The city fell into the ocean, and anyone who was visiting the carnival was slaughtered.” I stared at him, aghast. “And if your parents were alive, you’d be with them right now, and not here.” Our silence confirmed his suspicions. “So we can either kill one another or we can work together.”
“Work together to do what?” I asked him suspiciously.
Michel’s lips curled into a feral smile. He looked more like a wolf than a person and I had to stop myself from taking a step back. “To get revenge.”
“Against the travelers?” Emile asked.
“How can we possibly do that?” I said at the same time.
“We can’t do anything right now, the way we are,” Michel explained. “But we’ll train and travel and learn everything we can about the travelers. There has to be a way to defeat them. To defeat magic.” He paused. “Or do you still believe magic is good?”
I ignored the way his voice dripped with disdain. “We’ve both had enough of magic.”
Michel nodded his approval. “Good. Look, there was a way they stopped the magicians before, in the old wars, right? Unfortunately, whatever they did is lost to us because they destroyed all the manuscripts from back then. But there are other cities out there, other libraries. We can find out what they did, and then we can do the same thing.”
Hugging myself, I wondered, “Will we be able to? With just the three of us?”
Instead of Michel answering me, it was Emile. “Yes, we can. We have to. For our parents. For Gilbert. For Ayres.”
Michel held out his hand, palm down. Emile placed his on top and both boys looked at me. I swallowed. They made it sound so simple, but there wasn’t anything easy about this. This was a suicide mission. The travelers had brought down an entire cliff with their magic. What chance did three teenagers have against them?
By the Morning Light_Smoke and Mirrors Page 10
