Defiance: The Umbra Chronicles Book 2

by Grace Martin

  ‘Step through,’ I ordered quietly. Ronan met my eyes, shocked. David raised his head to look at me, one last time.

  ‘Step through and I’ll kill you!’ Maldwyn flashed another lightning towards them to make his point.

  Umbra flared in my brow like a star, so bright that the whole room was illuminated. ‘What is that?’ Maldwyn asked, stunned.

  Ronan took advantage of Maldwyn’s distraction. He leaped into the Portal, David in his arms.

  ‘No!’ Maldwyn roared.

  And just like that, his power over me was gone. He could never threaten David again. Giving David up was the hardest thing I’d ever done. I would have done it a thousand times over if it meant he could grow up safe and happy with a father like Ronan.

  I let a smile curve my lips and turned to Maldwyn. ‘How brave are you now that you don’t have a four year old boy to hide behind, Maldwyn of Cairnagorn?’

  ‘I’ll kill you!’ but it didn’t have the same conviction he’d shown before. I think he knew then how this was going to end.

  I gestured him forward. ‘Come on, then. Slither out like the snake you are: abuser of children, murderer. You, who are all foul things in the world, come and face justice.’

  I let the winds fly around me, let them take my hair out of its knot and whip it around my face. Maldwyn took a step backwards, his wand raised defensively.

  ‘You do what you’re told, Emer, or I’ll punish you!’

  ‘Punish me?’ I laughed. ‘No, Maldwyn, today is that day you face punishment.’ I raised my voice, shouting to be heard above the wind. ‘You did every evil thing you could think of. You raped me and tortured me when I was only a little girl. And when I tried to go for help, you and your crooked friends made sure I was sent back into your clutches. You took away my child. You took away my life! You abused my sister. You killed a good man, just last night. He was worth a thousand of you. I was right not to recommend you to become squire to Caradoc. You are evil to your very bones.’

  I raised my hand. Maldwyn rose with it, his feet lifting off the floor, kicking helplessly. He dropped his wand, his arms clutching at thin air as the wind ripped around him. He raised higher and higher in the massive chamber. I don’t think he’d ever realised how very grand the ceiling was in here, how… high. There were several stories of galleries, holding row upon row of books, high above our heads. Maldwyn rose, one level at a time, screaming incoherently.

  The roof of the chamber was cracked open and moonlight spilled through it. Maldwyn rose through the hole in the roof, now silhouetted against the sky.

  ‘For everything that you ever did, every sin you ever committed against a child,’ I shouted, my voice loud enough to echo in the stone chamber around me, ‘may you now be judged.’

  I withdrew the magic. Maldwyn fell, screaming all the way. He hit the ground hard. He stopped screaming. He stopped everything.

  I made sure he was dead, then left the Library. I would return to the Library to get back to Ronan and David later. Right now, I had to save my Sparrow and my friends. I turned myself into a hawk and flew towards Cairastel.

  As I flew away, I tried to tell myself that I’d had no choice, that he’d brought it on himself ‒ but I knew that what I’d just done had been straight up murder.

  #

  There was already smoke rising from Stellari when I approached it, flying towards the sea. I strained my hawk’s eyes to see ‒ the dragons were back at Cairastel. As I got closer, I saw the tiny shapes of humans moving around the buildings atop the Spires. It was impossible to tell how much of Aoife’s army survived, but at least some of them had made it back here after the battle of Eramar.

  I flew straight to Stellari, the Slaves’ Spire. Even as I flew overhead, I could see that something was terribly wrong. The slaves were terrified, running one way and another, trying to get away from something in the smoky air. I flew over the spire, looking for any sign of my friends and my sister.

  Aoife was there, still wearing her silver and white armour, now charred with fire and blackened with blood. She stood among the First Cohort of the Dragon Magi. They walked together slowly, advancing inexorably, along the main road that led through the Slaves’ shelters. As they walked, they cast fire to either side of them. All the piles of garbage quickly caught fire. Each time, it only took moments for the screaming to begin.

  It was hard to fly over the spire now. The winds caused by magic and the smoke rising form the flaming piles of garbage made it too difficult to stay in the air. I couldn’t find any sign of my friends. I wheeled down the side of the spire to the hidden staircase to the catacombs where we had previously hidden.

  The stone was set in front of the opening. There was no way in. I could use my magic to open it, but I might as well take Aoife by the hand and point out which of my friends I wanted her to kill first.

  I could still hear screaming above me. The slaves were completely at the mercy of Aoife and her Dragon Magi. Yar Yarinann wouldn’t even consider using his guards to defend the slaves against the Queen.

  It made me mad, that I couldn’t get into the damn tombs and these damn helpless people needed my help. I didn’t want to help. I just didn’t have a choice, not if I wanted to live with myself, and especially after what I’d done to Maldwyn. Ronan wouldn’t have hesitated. Caradoc, young Caradoc, would have rushed into the flames for a complete stranger. Could I fail them both now?

  Of course not.

  I flew up and over the surface of the spire and I changed back into my own shape.

  I went to the Eyrie, where the slaves were suspended above the abyss in their cages first. I called to the other slaves nearby for help. ‘Pull the cages in!’ I shouted. ‘All of you, lend a hand, man the ropes!’

  A line of ragged people formed at each winch and the cages began to swing as they were pulled back towards the surface of the spire. I remembered that terrifying feeling of movement. I’d feared falling to my death less than I’d feared that mad swaying of the cage as it was repositioned.

  As the cages reached solid ground, I went to each one. ‘Get back from this side,’ I had to shout, each and every time, to get the slaves in the cages to get back from the gate. I closed the lock in my fist and passed lightning through the lock. The locks exploded in my hands and I shook the red-hot pieces of metal to the ground as the slaves pushed at one another to be first out of the cages.

  A guard appeared on the ledge over the winches. ‘What are you doing there?’ he shouted. He raised his arm to gesture for the other guards to join him.

  ‘What am I doing?’ I shouted back. ‘I’m not committing cold-blooded murder, that’s what!’ Another guard joined him, then another, and they began to jump down the ledges that led onto the winch platform.

  The slaves weren’t going to help me. They’d spent too long being obedient, being quiet. The guards charged towards me. I held out my arms like I was going to embrace them all. As soon as they were close to me, I swept my arms together. With the movement came a mighty wind that swept them off the edge of the spire. Their screams mingled with the sound of the slaves screaming in the fires above. They had tried to stop me from saving lives. What choice did I have but to kill them?

  I charged up the ledges. In the few minutes I’d been down on the winching platform, it had all gotten much worse atop the spire. It was hard to see anything through the smoke. Without changing my appearance, I changed my skin to fine dragon scales. The colour was the same, but the flames wouldn’t burn me and the smoke wouldn’t damage my eyes. Rhiannon had taught me how to do this, when baking bread for the slaves.

  I strode through the nightmare, pulling people out of death traps they’d thought held safety, kicking aside piles of flaming garbage that blocked people in, heaving fallen beams and sheets of metal away from cowering slaves. Amongst the smoke and the flames, I occasionally saw the mud-coloured shapes of the Quarantine Men, directing the slaves to safety. I locked eyes with one of the mute men and heard his voice in my head. I had
no idea that was even possible. That explained the strange gesture he’d made when I was in the tombs. He’d been trying to talk directly into my mind.

  ‘We can keep them safe from here,’ he said. ‘The magi are at the Slave King’s gates.’

  I said, ‘Thank you,’ out loud and was never sure if he knew I’d said it. His attention had already returned to the slaves fleeing the fire.

  I ran parallel to the fence outside Yar Yarinann’s Kingdom, half turning my ankle a dozen times and barely noticing. Aoife and her Dragon Magi were standing at the gates.

  ‘Open these gates or I will smash them down!’ Aoife screamed.

  I expected to hear Yar Yarinann’s baritone, but instead it was Cuchulainn’s clear tenor voice that rang through the chaos. He almost sounded like he was laughing. ‘Let you in so you can burn us down? Go ahead and smash the gates if you dare.’

  ‘Did I hear a dog bark?’ Aoife asked. ‘Is my hound guarding the wrong side of my door?’

  ‘We are not your pets, Imposter Queen, to roll over and die at your command.’

  ‘Have you finally grown a backbone, Cuchulainn, my dog?’ she sneered.

  ‘This is not the first time I have fought for the freedom of slaves, Impostor Queen. I fought the Empress of the Thousand Counties and won freedom for the Camiri. Today I stand again before a tyrant in the name of freedom and the equal dignity of all!

  Behind him there was a cheer. Something stirred in my heart. This was how he had spoken the night he’d called the Camiri to follow me as Bach Chwaer. If he could speak like this, then the Caradoc I knew was not dead.

  ‘How does it feel to know that today you will die like a dog?’ Aoife shouted.

  Caradoc shouted back. ‘For a man to lay down his life in the service of his brothers and sisters is the greatest deed a hero can perform. You do not take my life today, Imposter. I lay it down so that others who come after me may live!’

  The slaves cheered again. They appeared above the wall and began to throw garbage at the Dragon Magi. Aoife made a disgusted sound and created a shield with a flick of her hand. The rocks and bits of broken pottery fell in a circle around her and the Magi. They began to laugh.

  ‘Is that all you’ve got, Caradoc?’ Aoife jeered.

  ‘No!’ I shouted, striding behind the Dragon Magi and standing in the centre of the road. ‘They have me ‒ the Bach Chwaer and Umbra’s Heir.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I hit the Dragon Magi as hard and as fast as I could. Once they had a chance to get organised, they would be a serious threat. I had to keep them off their feet. The ground exploded beneath their feet. A dozen spears of lightning rose from the ground, each one seeking to twine around a magi and still the beating of their hearts. These men had stolen my magic when I was weak. I felt no pity for the loss of their lives.

  The few who survived cast fire at me, but my dragonscale skin barely even singed. They threw a wall of flame, but I marched through it, my hair whipping in the wind.

  ‘Where’s the rest of your army, Aoife?’ I asked. ‘You seem to have far fewer Dragon Magi than you used to. Did you misplace them?’

  Aoife slapped her hands against her breastplate. ‘Do you see these bloodstains?’ she asked. ‘This is the lifeblood of your mother. I cut her open and crushed her heart while it was still trying to beat. There is no safe place for you now. I will destroy you, just as I have destroyed everything else you love.’

  No one answered her. The gates opened and the slaves swarmed out. They were armed with makeshift weapons ‒ jagged bits of steel tied to sticks, sharp edged bits of ceramic, rocks and flaming torches. They swarmed over the guards. Even with all their stolen magic, the magi were no match for the sheer numbers of the slaves. They went down beneath the press of bodies, never to rise again.

  Aoife raised her hands to intensify her shield. The slaves swarmed around her but could not reach her.

  ‘You know that shield won’t protect you from me forever, Aoife,’ I said, advancing on her. The slaves opened a path for me until I stood just outside the circumference of the shield.

  ‘My other magi will come looking for me. They will destroy you!’ she shrieked.

  ‘What, the Home Guard?’ Kiaran asked from the other side of Aoife’s shield. ‘They couldn’t tell their arse from their elbow.’

  ‘And maybe,’ said Rhiannon, coming around the circumference of the shield, ‘when they find you it won’t be easy to tell which part of you is which, since they’ll all be in such tiny pieces.’ Rhiannon was so calm. She was, hands down, the scariest person I had ever met in my life.

  ‘And you might want to be careful,’ Cuchulainn advised ‘If you mistreat a dog, it is only justice when he turns and bites you. Dogs are known, not just for their waggy tails, but for their teeth.’

  And there was my Sparrow, a small shape even beneath her coating of feathers. ‘This is your last chance, White Queen. Call off your Guards and your Magi. Give the slaves their freedom and history will remember you as a heroic defender of the people. This doesn’t have to end in flames and ruin. There is still a chance.’

  Across the circle, Rhiannon snorted.

  Aoife looked around, turning from one of us to the other, spinning in a slow circle. Then she suddenly broke down. She fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands as she wept.

  Because I’m not the nice one, I laughed when Rhiannon said, ‘I still get to kill her though, right?’

  I was all for Rhiannon’s idea. Sparrow put her hand on my arm at one point ‒ I think when I suggested that we drop Aoife off the Eyrie and place bets on whether or not she bounced ‒ and I had to rein myself in. I had to be good for Sparrow.

  Cuchulainn surprised me when he said, ‘We shouldn’t sink to her level.’

  ‘Only if her level is after falling off something very high,’ I quipped but Cuchulainn looked solemn. ‘After what she did to you?’ I pressed. ‘You’re her dog, remember? You should be the one, out of all of us, who most wants to tear her apart and taste her blood!’

  ‘That’s exactly my point. She’s the one who called me her dog. It’s because I choose to be greater than what she believed I could be. I’m not a murderer, Emer.’

  I was.

  I stepped back like he’d slapped me. Then I stepped forward. ‘How dare you take the moral high ground? She deserves what she gets! She’s a monster!’

  ‘But I am not. I’m not going to let her define me.’

  I slapped his face as hard as I could. I knew that if he had done the same to me, I would have called it an evil deed. When I saw the shock, the confusion and the hurt in his eyes I was ready to call it an evil deed. He’d done nothing to deserve it, except be a better person than I was. I would have given anything to take it back.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m the Bach Chwaer. I am the heir to the Thousand Counties, the thrones of Meistria and Camaria. You can all have your opinions, but I have made my decision. Aoife the Imposter is guilty of murder and genocide and crimes of unspeakable cruelty. For this, she faces justice and the sentence is death.’ Sparrow opened her mouth, but I made a slashing gesture with my hand. ‘Enough. I have spoken.’

  Even Rhiannon looked shocked. ‘But you can’t spill royal blood…’

  ‘Why not? She did.’ I looked around. They were all oddly silent. Where had they thought this was going? ‘Fine. There are other ways to die. I’m not unjust. I’ll even give her time to prepare herself for death. Justice needs to be public anyway. In three days’ time, we will enter Meistria and I will take the throne. There, before the whole city, I will strangle her myself.’

  There was no more argument, just logistics. ‘Where are we supposed to put her?’ Sparrow asked quietly.

  ‘In the tombs used for quarantine,’ I said. ‘I broke the locks on the cages to free the slaves in the Eyrie, so they’re no good anymore.’ I stood up. ‘All right, Aoife, come with me.’

  She cringed away. ‘No, you’ll kill me, I know you will,’ she whimpe
red. ‘As soon as you get me away from the others, you’ll kill me. Please. Please.’ She turned to Cuchulainn on her knees and begged. ‘Please don’t leave me alone with her. Please. I know you’re a good man, an honourable man, a noble man. For the sake of our betrothal so many years ago, for the sake of the children I bore you-’

  ‘Stop it,’ Cuchulainn said. ‘I wish to hear no more from your filthy mouth. I will go, but only to ensure you don’t spill your poison into Emer while her ear is yours alone.’

  Cuchulainn and I escorted Aoife, tied up with rags, outside the Slave King’s gates to the tombs that had been used by the Quarantine men. I wondered what had happened to them. No one had seen the Quarantine men since the fires started.

  Cuchulainn held Aoife’s arm. I didn’t touch her because I was afraid I might strangle her here and now. She had done nothing but hurt the people I loved, because I loved them. She had destroyed this country, slaughtered the Camiri people who had been enslaved under her mother’s rule and sent her dragons to breathe fire over so many towns that few people were brave enough to live outside a hive anymore. She was ruin to the world. She deserved death. The world deserved to see her die.

  I had promised it to her.

  Cuchulainn guided Aoife through the piles of garbage to the tombs. Once we were out of sight of the others, her tears began to dry on her cheeks. As we approached the tombs, she began to smile.

  ‘Don’t make me wipe that smile off your face,’ I said.

  She stopped walking. Cuchulainn let her. ‘I’m afraid that won’t be an option, Emer.’

  ‘You’d be surprised how close it is to the top of my list, Aoife.’

  ‘And here I thought you were the sentimental one. Don’t you care what happens to your sister?’

  ‘Elisabeth is well out of your grasp, Aoife.’

  ‘I wasn’t talking about Elisabeth. I was talking about that grubby little urchin who came back with you through the Portal this time. I believe you told her to stay behind, to stay in the safe place where you put her, Caradoc. I’m afraid she isn’t very good at following directions.’