what else is there?”
Precious seconds, ones they couldn’t spare, ticked by. Kaie realized Sojun was never going to agree to his plan. But he would follow. Into the fire or into the vault, Jun would follow. So he turned back to the Lemme and where she was waiting for him by the tree line.
“Am I right?” Kaie murmured as he helped her back to her feet. “Will we be safe there?”
Her voice was little more than a whisper. “For a time.”
It was assurance enough. Better than anything waiting for them in the woods. So he took her hand in his and started pushing south again.
There wasn’t far to go, but it took too long. Everything in him was screaming to run but Kaie held back. He was unsteady and the Lemme was tired. And they would all need their energy. Sojun followed.
Eventually he turned them east again. There was no way to be sure of their position. Even with the smaller clearing for a guide, Kaie’s internal map was sketchy. When they finally reached the big clearing again, they were further north than he hoped. Outside the village, thank the gods, but still a good ways from their hill. There was no cover. The mostly empty huts, or what was left of them, seemed to be free of soldiers. But he wasn’t ready to deem it safe.
He tightened his hold on the Lemme’s arm, gritted his teeth, and charged into the clearing. For a few moments he ran as fast as he could. The world blurred around him, all streaks of orange and black, the hot air slapped at him, and he saw nothing. It didn’t last long. It couldn’t.
More and more, the weight on his arm slowed his mad dash for safety. The Lemme was old. She was sick. She never left her hut. She couldn’t keep up with a small sixteen year old boy. Not even a dizzy one. Her breathing was thick and labored. He slowed, but it wasn’t enough. She stopped moving, dropping her hands onto her knees and gasping for air.
Sojun was at his side in an instant. Kaie met his friend’s eyes. Jun wasn’t as fast as him, not even when he was dizzy. But the other boy was so damn strong. He wanted desperately to be the one to save the Lemme, because all of this might be his fault for being what he was. But now wasn’t the time for redemption or pride. “You have to carry her!” Kaie said.
Jun looked surprised. “I won’t be able to fight. If they come for us…”
Kaie shook his head. “If they do, we’re dead. You can’t fight steel with flesh. One of us has to carry her and we both know I’m not strong enough!”
Sojun gave him a strange look, one he didn’t recognize. But, whatever else it might signify, it meant an end to their briefly shouted argument. Jun scooped up the Lemme in one smooth movement, making her look no heavier than Amorette.
They were moving again, albeit slower than before. He longed to stretch his legs again, to taste the freedom of those minutes, but Kaie would not leave his heart’s brother behind. Not again.
They reached the path fast enough. It was the same one he walked with his friends earlier that day, but Kaie wouldn’t recognize it if he weren’t searching the ground for any sign. His whole world cracked right down the center and one side slid out of place. Nothing was familiar anymore. Momentary relief washed through him when he spotted it. He pointed for Sojun and then they headed up.
As they passed over the spot where they were laying hours ago, he heard voices that would mean an end to their escape.
“… thought he said there wasn’t anything out this far.”
“Maybe not. But it doesn’t hurt to look, does it?”
“It will hurt, if the Cat thinks we’re wasting time.”
He and Sojun exchanged a glance, neither one of them looking around to find the men talking. With a burst of pure adrenaline, both boys surged forward over the hill.
His foot slipped, just as those stone doors came into view. Kaie’s mouth flew open in a silent shout as he tumbled. His body curled into something resembling a ball and he rolled. Dirt and grass hit his tongue and rocks hit his body. Once again, the world was a blur, but this time there was no comfort in it. He wasn’t in control and that made all the difference.
Kaie hit hard. For a moment, a precious, expensive moment, he could do nothing but gasp for a breath that wouldn’t come and stare at glittering lights dancing behind his eyes. He felt a hand wrap itself around his wrist, and then he was sliding. He nearly cried out as the movement scraped his back and bounced his battered head against the earth.
He gathered up his senses just in time to watch Sojun, the Lemme now slung over his shoulders, drag him into the vault. Jun set her down on the ground beside him and then, clearly straining from the effort, slammed the doors closed. A second later he was on the ground as well.
They were safe.
For a time.
Eight
His whole body was shaking. He wasn’t cold but every bit of him was shaking like it was. Didn’t matter. Time for that later. Time to be sick later. Take care of the Lemme first.
Taking more effort than it should, Kaie crawled the short distance between them. The Lemme’s eyes were closed, her face drenched in sweat and her breathing was raspy. Fearing that she wouldn’t respond at all, he gently shook her shoulders. “Are you alright?”
Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she took in her surroundings with a sluggishness that worried him. He pressed a hand to her cheek and wasn’t surprised to find she was running a fever. Kaie looked around them for some source of water to give her but there was nothing.
They were in the small entrance space before the vault proper began. It was his first time on this side of the doors but he saw this much of it years ago, when his mother’s father was laid to rest. He watched from their hill, unnoticed by the adults. It was one of the only times he did anything like that without Sojun, but it seemed terribly important to be on his own that day. Now he regretted it. With his friend there was always the push to go further than he would by himself. The hill would be unsatisfactory, and now he might possess some knowledge of what lay down the two tunnels branching off left and right.
The light on the wall was made by Toman, Jun’s father. He was the light giver for the village. It was his job to craft the lanterns used on the rare occasion someone was lost in the woods at night or a harvest ran late and to set up the torches in the center of the village for ceremonies. And to keep the path out of the vault lit for confused spirits clinging too long to their bodies, so that they might find their way out and to the Abyss. Sojun told him once, before his friend’s mother left the family, that this light was special. One of Toman’s own inventions, inspired by one his mother brought home from a visit to a city for a negotiation with the Empire, designed to burn for weeks untended. Kaie prayed that this one was newly lit and soundly crafted. He didn’t mean to be down here weeks, but the thought of even an hour in the darkness set a crazed panic to work clawing to escape his mind and the vault both.
“We need to find water for the Lemme,” he told Sojun, who was watching him with the intensity of someone fighting to stay awake. “And some way to bar the door. Just in case those soldiers come looking down here.”
Jun frowned. “How?”
Kaie’s eyes drifted, first left, then right. Where were his visions now that there was need of them? “Did your father ever tell you what’s beyond this room?”
His friend’s eyes screwed closed. “No. Gods, please don’t ask that! We can’t go further! The lost souls will rip us to shreds!”
He couldn’t help but to gape. Sojun was strong. He was already one of the strongest in the family at only his fifteenth year. Nothing gave him pause. Not going against a handful of boys, not the bear that wandered into the village last spring. Nothing. But now he was pleading like a babe. He didn’t know how to deal with this. Where did this fear come from? How long was Jun keeping it hidden? Always?
“I’m sorry.” He bit back frustration. How could he berate his friend for this? If it weren’t for Sojun, they wouldn’t be this far. “I’ll go myself. You can stay here and look after the Lemme?”
Kaie drew in several
deep breaths, trying to will strength back into his body with the air. Then he shoved himself to his feet. And, once again, damn near fell over. He caught himself on the stone wall as the world tilted horribly out of control. Suddenly he was kneeling on the floor again, gagging on the burning bile spilling from his lips, not entirely sure how he got there.
Sojun was beside him. “Kosa take me,” his friend spat. “I have to go, don’t I? You can’t do this by yourself.”
“No, Jun.” Kaie tried to smile. It didn’t quite work. “I can do this. I just need a minute.”
He wasn’t at all sure he could. Gods, but he didn’t want to go. His friend wasn’t the only one terrified of the spirits lost in the tunnels. But what else was there? So he took his minute. Just one. Sucking in a long, apprehensive breath, he tottered to the right.
“You’ll come back for me?” Sojun called out before he turned the corner.
This time, Kaie added, hating himself all over again. “Fast as I can.”
Another word and he wouldn’t go at all. He could convince Jun to go instead. His friend was so much stronger than him. Talking his heart’s brother into things was never hard. He was sure he could manage, even with something Sojun was so clearly terrified of. And it made so much more sense. Before he could do it, Kaie forced himself around that corner.
He wanted to go back. Right away, he needed to go back. The
Burnt (Blood and Fire Book 1) Page 10
