The invaders were easy to see, thanks to their lanterns. But they weren’t doing anything. Tavi let her mind wander to the activity downstairs. The tunnel was a long shot, but with so many gifted people working on it, she had to believe it would work. A small voice in the back of her head insisted that the other side had many gifted people working together too. But she shoved the thought to the side as she watched the invaders, who were helpless behind the ravine she’d created.
None of them were in uniform. Tavi wondered if that was because Konner didn’t want people to know he’d sanctioned a slaughter.
The Golds began discussing logistics. When they’d left the catacombs, they hadn’t had time to bring any supplies. This time, they could plan ahead. Wrey and Reba left the room to gather food and water for their tunnel trip and subsequent hike.
The rest of them considered what direction Ash’s tunnel might take. Tullen and Jenevy were debating the merits of a long tunnel through the entire mountain, versus a shorter one emerging near them, when Tavi interrupted. “More people are walking out of the forest. They’re rolling out some sort of contraption.” She squinted, wishing for daylight.
Sall rushed to the window and peeked out. His face was somber when he pulled away. “It’s a trebuchet.”
They all gave him blank stares.
“It’s used to throw stones or other items,” he said. “Farther and with more force than they could throw them with their hands.” He returned his gaze to the view out the window.
“They’re going to throw stones at the monastery?” Jenevy asked. “How does that help them?”
“Stones or something else,” Sall repeated.
Tavi was afraid to ask what he meant by something else. She moved to a corner of the window so she could watch along with Sall. One of the invaders placed what appeared to be a stone in the sling at the back of the device. A sturdy man stood at the front of the machine and pressed down on the front of the throwing arm. The sling swung up, and the rock flew out. It crossed the ravine but didn’t come close to the monastery.
“It doesn’t throw far enough!” Tavi said.
“They’re just working out how much force they need,” Sall replied.
The same team tried again. This time, the man pulled down harder. The stone came much closer to the building.
Tavi and Sall gave the others updates as the invaders continued to try their machine. The fourth stone struck the side of the monastery, and Jenevy stood. “I’m going downstairs to make sure everyone is away from the windows.” She ran out of the room.
The invaders continued their efforts. It wasn’t long before a stone crashed through a downstairs window. Five minutes after that, half the stones were reaching their targets.
There was a pause in the action, and after a couple of minutes, Sall and Tavi both breathed, “Oh, no.”
A moment later, the trebuchet let loose an object covered in fire. “Hit the wall,” Tavi begged.
The ball of flames didn’t listen. It soared through one of the downstairs windows.
“Fire!” Sall cried. He rushed out of the room, followed by the rest of the Golds. “Fire!”
The first two fire bombs that landed in the monastery were put out easily. The third landed in a long set of drapes. By the time someone got to the room, the fire had spread to furniture and bedding. Desperate monks threw buckets of water, and the flames responded with sizzling laughter as they continued to multiply.
People rushed through the monastery, closing every thick, wooden door. The fire was undeterred; it devoured plaster walls and took its time consuming the doors. Tavi ran through halls, screaming at monks and refugees to evacuate to the courtyard.
Most of the building was already cleared. But she kept running and screaming, her lungs and throat protesting from the smoke and exertion. She had to do something. She ran out to the courtyard and tried to send magic under the walls and through the ground to the invaders. If she could shake the earth under them, it might stop them, if only for a short while. Jenevy lifted Tavi off the ground, insisting she save her magic. “The invaders will let you use all your magic, and then you’ll be defenseless.”
Jenevy was right. So Tavi went back inside. But someone shouted at her to leave, insisting everyone was out. The flames had taken over one entire side of the monastery, and they were hungry for the rest.
The courtyard was full of red-robed monks who’d sought a life of peaceful contemplation, shivering Savalans who might have been safe if they’d stayed home, and terrified pilgrims who’d only wanted to be close to Sava.
Tavi wiped the tears streaming down her cheeks and refused to let her eyes produce more. “The cottages!” she cried. “Get to the cottages!”
Only the few people around her could hear her over the panic and crackling fire. She turned to a man and a boy next to her and said, “Spread the word. Go to the cottages. Grab anything that could be used as a weapon.”
Both of them nodded, and they ran into the crowd to tell others. In minutes, the courtyard was empty of all but Tavi and Tullen. Flames in the monastery’s front windows gave them more light than they needed or wanted.
“Why are you still here?” Tavi asked.
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
Without meaning to, she flicked her eyes toward the iron gate that led to the mountain trail.
Tullen took a single step, placing himself between her and the gate. “You can’t go out there.”
“Someone has to talk to them.”
“You’re going to tell them you’ll go with them, aren’t you?”
She blinked back tears again, turned, and took two steps toward the gate.
Tullen grabbed her arm. “You can’t.”
“I have to.”
“No, Tavi, you can’t. What are you going to do, heal the earth and walk to them?” She didn’t respond, and he insisted, “They’ll send everyone in. They’re not just here for you. Those people want gray awakenings. They won’t settle for taking you back to Konner.”
Tavi’s shoulders dropped, and she covered her face and sobbed into her hands.
“We’ll go together,” Tullen said. “We have to try talking to them. But if you insist on being a hero, you’ll get people killed.” He let go of her arm and pulled her hands off her face. “There’ll be time for crying later,” he said.
Tavi nodded, took two deep breaths, and walked to the gate with Tullen at her side. He opened it, then shouted, “No!” and slammed it shut, sliding the bolt back into place.
“What?” Tavi asked.
“They’re coming across.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go.”
She jumped on his back, and he sprinted to the other gate. They rushed through and closed it, though they couldn’t lock it. Tavi wondered how long the first gate would hold the invaders back. Or would they just boost each other over the wall? Either way, they didn’t have long.
“They’re coming!” Tullen cried. “Put out the lanterns! Get weapons, and get your magic ready. They’re coming!”
He put Tavi down, and they separated, spreading the word. Tavi began knocking on doors, shouting at people not to hide. If they holed up in cottages, they wouldn’t have anywhere to run when an invader came in to steal their breath. At some houses, people exited after her knocks. But many of the doors remained closed.
There were plenty of people standing in the open too, holding whatever weapons they’d been able to find. Firelight glinted off knives and fireplace pokers. One man even carried a bow and arrow.
The monks, including Tess, stood in a group off to the side. Their hands were empty. Tavi wanted to go to them and shake their shoulders, insisting they must help fight. But she knew it wouldn’t do any good. They didn’t just claim to be pacifists; they lived that way. That wouldn’t change because danger had found them. Sava, spare them, she breathed. Especially my sister. Please, Sava.
She hadn’t yet reached the last cottages when s
he heard the first screams. A moment later, she saw their invaders. But half of them are stuck on Narre’s Path. There are more of us than them. The thoughts gave her little comfort; she knew how unprepared the refugees were.
Tavi saw a large man tackle a twelve-year-old refugee boy, and she sprang into action. The attacker was easy to stop. He’d dropped his hand cannon to strangle the boy, so Tavi grabbed the weapon and hit him on the head with it as hard as she could. It was a good hit.
Then someone grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. She felt a chin at the back of her head, so she leaned her own head forward and threw it back. It hurt. But it hurt the other person more, and Tavi slipped out of the attacker’s suddenly loose arms. She spun around, again using the hand cannon as a club. It connected with the shoulder of a young woman. Tavi screamed and hit her again, this time in the side of the head. She went down.
After that, Tavi went into a kind of fighting trance. Her all gift protected her from hits. She saved three people from death. Then she saw two intruders running out of a house, and she peeked inside. She was too late for the refugees in there.
The noises of battle overtook Tavi’s conscious thoughts. Shots. Slamming doors. Harsh demands and desperate pleas. And behind it all, the roar of fire.
Tavi spotted an intruder pointing a hand cannon at two refugees and a pilgrim. She was about to run up and tackle the man when Narre rushed up to her. “They’re closing the ravine by my path!” she screamed.
“What?”
“Come with me!”
A stout refugee was rushing at the man with the hand cannon, so Tavi followed Narre to the last cottage. Tullen was already there, hiding and peeking around a corner. An invader was on his hands and knees at their side of the ravine. His gray, glowing hands shone in the dark. Tavi couldn’t see the crevasse, but she could hear it moving. He must be the one who got them across on the other side.
A shot rang out, coming from one of the attackers waiting across the ravine. The iron pellet struck the house a few feet from where Tavi, Tullen, and Narre hid.
“Tullen, he’s big. You’ve got to stop him,” Tavi urged.
Tullen turned. “They—”
“Cover your eyes,” she said. “You too, Narre.”
Sava bless them, they didn’t argue. Once their hands were over their eyes, Tavi summoned her desire to save her friends and once again invited her all gift to fill her. It was just as willing as it had been at the wall with Ven, rushing into her with unbelievable power. She threw it onto Tullen, and he staggered, uncovering his eyes.
Tavi was relieved to see that when the gift transferred to him, the light didn’t blind him. She didn’t think his eyes had ever been so wide, in fact.
“It’s my all gift,” she said. “Now go.”
He turned and ran. Two shots rang out as he dashed to the gray-blessed invader. Two more sounded as he wrestled with the man.
“Can I uncover my eyes?” Narre asked.
“Yes,” Tavi breathed.
Narre looked toward the ravine then pulled back, squinting. She gaped at Tavi and blurted, “How?”
Unlike Narre, Tavi could watch Tullen’s glowing form without squinting. She ignored her cousin’s question, too caught up in the fight to answer. At last, Tullen caught the man’s neck in a chokehold. Seconds later, the gray-blessed invader slumped to the ground. Tullen grasped him under his arms and pulled him back to where Narre and Tavi stood. Tavi released her magic, and Tullen’s glow disappeared.
Narre turned to her and again asked, “How?”
Tavi used the same words she’d spoken to Narre months before in the Meadow. “I just told my magic to go there. And it did.”
Tullen ran back toward the main fight. Tavi guarded the man, and Narre went into the cottage, returning with a pair of shoelaces. They tied him up just in time for him to wake and curse at them as they walked away.
“If you see Wrey, send her over here to put him back to sleep for a good, long time,” Narre said.
Tavi nodded. She and Narre ran, ready to enter the fray again.
It was the lack of noise that first alerted her to a change. Then she and Narre came around a corner and halted. Several lanterns illuminated the sight.
Fifteen disarmed invaders lay facedown in a small, open area between cottages. Eight refugees and four of the attackers from Savala, all armed, surrounded them. Everyone else stood around the circle, watching.
Tavi sent Wrey to put the touch-blessed man to sleep, and then she asked no one in particular, “What’s going on?”
Tess approached, apparently unharmed. Tavi smiled with relief. “Some of the invaders helped us,” Tess said. “They turned on their own people.”
“She’s the one the king wants!” one of the captured invaders shouted from his position on the ground. He pointed at Tavi. “Get her!”
A female invader guarding the prisoners replied, “You best close your mouth unless you want my boot in it.”
Tavi looked around the group, trying to determine if anyone wasn’t there. Tullen walked up and stood beside her. “Where’s Zakkur?” she asked.
He let out a small sigh. “They found out he’d come to us. They killed him before they attacked.”
Tavi shook her head and continued looking around.
“Tavi,” Tullen said.
She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was his. She looked up, and she didn’t like what she saw in his eyes.
“What?” she whispered.
“Reba and Ven are both dead.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I spend my days imagining what you may be doing. I picture you leading men and women in training exercises, sleeping in a cold tent, or organizing the disbursement of supplies and food.
But in the evenings, when I sit in silence, I cannot avoid the truth: You are part of an army, and an army’s purpose is not to train, sleep, or eat. It is to fight.
- Sharla Stemming to Colonel Kav Stemming, from Year One: Correspondence in the Corminian Kingdom
“Are there any wounded?” Tavi asked Tullen.
He blinked. “Did you hear me?”
“Yes. Did you hear me?”
“They’re—they’re in three of the cottages.”
He led her to a cottage, where monks were tending to three injured refugees and one invader. Tavi did what she could to heal them, thinking how much more effective she’d be with Ven to help her. Then she took care of the people in the next two cottages. Two of them probably wouldn’t make it through the night.
When she finished, Tavi walked outside. Tullen was waiting for her. She closed her eyes briefly, then turned to him. “Can I see Reba and Ven?”
He nodded and led her into the cottage where he and the other male Golds had been staying. Narre was already there. Ven and Reba lay on the floor. Tavi stood above them, her candle bathing them in soft, flickering light. Their mouths and eyes were open, and Tavi turned away, wondering which two prisoners outside had stolen their breath.
“Why do you think they stayed in here?” Narre asked.
Tavi opened her mouth to state the obvious—that Reba had been too much of a coward to join the fight—but no words came out. She closed her mouth, licked her lips, and spoke the truth. “I think Ven was too peaceful to fight, and Reba stayed with him.”
Narre nodded. She swallowed and blinked, then went outside. Tullen followed her, leaving Tavi alone with the bodies.
She forced herself to look at Reba. The girl who’d been her best friend. The girl who’d betrayed them all. The girl who’d lost herself in remorse before finding a quiet boy who made her seem alive again.
Years ago, Reba had given up her friendships to serve herself. Tonight, she’d given up herself to serve a friend.
So many times I could have given her another chance. Every time, I refused.
Tavi wasn’t sure what to do with that truth. She was too exhausted to ponder it, but she took a few minutes to watch Reba, trying for the first time in years to s
ee her as she truly was.
After picking up a lit candle, Tavi left the house. Narre and Tullen were waiting for her, and Tess had joined them. Giving them a weak smile, she said, “I’m going to Narre’s Path.” She quietly refused their offers to go with her.
She walked to the ravine in front of Narre’s Path. Eight refugees and two invaders stood in front of the great crack in the earth, weapons pointed at the attackers who were trapped on the path. The attacker standing in front was calmly throwing one hand cannon after another across the ravine. Men and women behind him sent their weapons forward as one of the refugees kept count. When the last hand cannon came across, the refugee said, “Twenty-six!”
“Very good.” The man speaking was one of the invaders who’d switched sides during the fight. “Now your powder.”
Tavi watched as the invaders handed forward their containers of black powder. The person in front poured them out over the mountain’s ledge, one at a time, and the same refugee as before counted. Twenty-six.
The reformed invader called across the crevasse, “It’s time for you to all turn around and go home. We’ll send the others along behind you.”
“What about you?” one of the attackers asked.
The man looked down at the ground and then back up, locking eyes with the woman who’d asked the question. “Tell my wife I’ll come home when it’s safe.”
The woman turned and followed her colleagues down Narre’s Path.
Tavi approached the invader who’d given the others their instructions. “Do you think they’ll really go back to Savala?” she asked.
He turned and lifted his lantern to see her better. His eyebrows shot up. “It’s you.”
Tavi took a step back and eyed him warily.
“I gave up a lot to help you and your friends,” he said. “You don’t need to be afraid of me. But do you know how badly the king and queen want to find you?”
Tavi nodded.
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