by Jill Cooper
Just beyond the fortress was a ravaged city. Crumbling buildings and bridges, and most had been consumed by a raging lava pool that squirted up every so often, just like Sebastian told me about. Rivers of fire flowed from what appeared to be a sot laden capital building where frayed banners hung out in front. This had been where everything had been lost. The world, freedom, and this was where the last remnant shard was.
I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.
“Now it’s time to let me go, Tarnish. I brought you to the fortress. You can do this without me. You have Robbie and the others. Let me go,” Ella begged.
I turned toward her sharply. “You know what I’m up to, the mission I’m on. Are you telling me you could just walk away from all that?”
“Yes! In a heartbeat. You walk toward death, and I’ve had enough of it. You hear me? I’ve had enough!” Ella whipped herself around, her braids flying behind her. She climbed down the ladder and quickly slid down.
I charged after her, and before she made it back to the barracks, I grabbed her arm. “I won’t let people live an enslaved life just because it’s easier than fighting. I won’t let you give up before I’ve had a chance to show you everything I know!”
Ella pried my fingers off her arm. “That, what, death and destruction are okay because you can read a few stupid stories? You can make books come to life? Not everyone cares. I don’t care. Let the dark lord keep his books. Let him… I don’t care!”
“What are you so afraid of? Ella!”
She scurried backwards away from me. “Stay away! She wants you. I don’t know why, but she does. And I don’t want to be anywhere near her and what it is she can do!”
I paused. Beyond Ella’s ranting and grandstanding, I heard… well, I heard something I couldn’t place.
Ella whipped her head around. “What’s that noise?”
I heard it, too, coming from the other side of the courtyard down below. I took a step into the center field, hearing what could only be someone humming a song. I continued to the middle of the field when my boot kicked something thick and metal. It clacked, and when I bent down, I saw it.
A chain and a cuff. This place had been turned into a slave encampment after the dark lord had won the war. After books and knowledge had been banned, this place had become punishment to all those who opposed the dark lord.
Temptress had been here. Here she had opposed him. I didn’t know how I knew, I just did. Even though…
“Tarnish!” Ella screamed, and I whipped around to see the windows of the barracks were glowing with tremendous heat. They crackled with fire and flame. The door opened. Robbie and Beatrice ran out of the room, legs pumping as hard as they could.
Sebastian burst out through the door. “Run, Abby, run!”
****
Moments earlier, Rebecca’s breathing was rough. She gripped her chest hard, and it rose and fell quickly as she wheezed, unable to draw a proper breath.
“Relax,” Sebastian said as he leaned in and put a hand to her cheeks. Ice cold, touching her burned his hand in the same way gripping icicles did.
Frostbite.
Even her eyes were turning a frightening blue. What was going on here?
Rebecca shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed, “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you.”
“There’s no need to apologize. No need. Just rest, you’ll feel better.”
“She’s coming.” Rebecca gritted her teeth. “She put something in me. I can feel it. It’s moving. She’s coming.”
“Who? Who put something inside of you?”
As her body began to quake, Rebecca started to wail an ear-shrieking scream. Sebastian held her shoulders firm to try to keep the rocking at bay.
“Female rider. She’s here. She’s…” Rebecca’s eyes widened. “Get away from me!” She clawed at Sebastian’s face. “Get back! I’m not long for this world, Sebastian. I’m not!”
A moment later, her body expanded like swelling from gas. Sebastian wished there had been time to save her, time to find out what was wrong. A moment later, he raised his arms to defend himself as Rebecca’s body ruptured. Like an overinflated balloon, bits of her went flying everywhere.
It lit up the room, and a fire started where her body had lay and quickly spread. Sebastian shook off the bits of blood and flesh from his arms as he tore the door open.
“Run, Abby, run!”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Tarnish Rose
Sebastian’s words spurred me on. I grabbed the rope around Ella’s waist and tugged her forward. She squealed. “I’m not the family pet!”
“So, we’re family now?”
I ran forward, Robbie and Beatrice on my left, the others on my right, and Sebastian running after us right down the middle of the courtyard. The heat from my satchel stole my attention. It glowed so hot, I wasn’t able to concentrate. I had to move it over to the side, hoping it’d be enough, but the crystal sphere began to melt through my bag. Soon it’d be on fire, and me with it.
“Tarnish!” Ella screamed. “Look out!”
The front gate we were racing toward exploded open. Everyone abruptly stopped, and Sebastian bumped into me. I nearly fell over and checked the satchel to make sure the remnant was still there. Yup, and still burning through the cloth, singeing my robes.
The dark rider, a woman in a black cloak, wore her hood so it hid her from my vision. Her horse I could plainly see had decayed red eyes and sagging skin along its jawline, its teeth jagged bones and slack jaw as she neighed at me.
“Abby Taylor.” The female rider spun her mace overhead. It ripped through the air like a tornado current, and the wind picked up against my hair.
Robbie and Beatrice stood in front of me with their shields up. “We’ll die before you get to her!” they said. On one side, Ana flanked them. I realized they’d die for me, and they just might.
Other riders charged from behind the female rider, coming toward her. As they did, the earth rumbled and ghosts pulled up from the soil, disrupted the earth.
Ella’s eyes widened. “Spirits. The damned walk the Earth.”
“They’ll try to scare you,” I said. “They’ll try to distract you, but they can’t hurt you. Most of the time.”
“Most of the time,” Ella repeated. “Well, isn’t that comforting?”
Sebastian fired arrows toward the riders as they charged. “Tarnish!” he screamed. “Tarnish, look out!”
The ghosts surrounded us, and the dead riders circled. My satchel glowed so hot, it turned red. I pulled the crystal sphere out of my bag and held it in two hands. It burned my skin as I lifted it overhead, and the brilliant blue light shot out at the dark female rider and cast her in the life glow.
She screamed and was thrown back, covering her face with one hand.
The fire burning against my hands was too hot to handle. I dropped the crystal sphere against the grass, and fire began to smolder. I approached the female dark rider and yelled to Sebastian as our new friends battled the remaining dark riders.
“Get out of here! Get Ella and charge toward Temptress’s fortress!”
“Not without you, Tarnish!” Sebastian lunged for me and grabbed the hem of my cloak. “I’m not leaving without you!”
I pulled the hood back on the dark rider and saw her face. I gasped and recoiled at the beauty of Margret as she stared back at me. No, it wouldn’t be her. It couldn’t be.
“Margret?” I found myself whispering, tears in my eyes.
Margret’s eyes clouded with confusion. “Abby? Help me…”
A moment later, her body went rigid as a board and the look of death and decay covered her face. She struggled back up to her feet, the mace back in her hand, and cast an angry finger at me. She flung me wide, leaving Sebastian to face her alone.
He quickly replaced his crossbow with his sword. As I rolled onto my stomach, I called his name as he met the dark rider in battle. Her mace whipping through the air, Sebastian ducked, quickly
regrouped, and flung his sword wide for my old friend Margaret. She grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up in the air.
“Death to the reader! Death to the curator! Death to any who stands with her over our faithful Dark Lord Creighton!”
"No!" I screamed and turned, hurrying to retrieve my crystal and bag of books.
Up in the sky, a giant black bird with red wings circled as if it readied for a landing. I dove to the ground, and just when I was about to pick up my bag, the bird landed with a thump before turning human. I stared directly at its metal boots, crunching the dirt.
I gazed up at her beautiful face marred by evil, her brown curls blowing through the air as she bent down and swopped up my crystal. “Give it back,” I whispered through my clenched jaw.
The Temptress was too busy gazing into the remnant and peering inside. Its red hot glow was gone and had returned to its neutral blue color in her hand. “Pity,” Temptress whispered, “it no longer seems to work.”
“In your hands,” I corrected and stood to my feet. I readied my staff, ready to fight for what was mine.
Temptress barely gave me or my words consideration. “Such a thing brings such beauty to the world, if only it was completed.” She pouted and stared past me. Sebastian and Ella were surrounded by the others, the dead riders circling them. Margret now had Sebastian’s sword and her mace.
Now it was only a matter of time. We were defeated. Dead in the water.
“They’ll lose,” Temptress said, “but I can save them, get you all out, if only you do a few short things for me.”
Things? My stomach twisted with horror, and then I knew what it was she meant. She wanted the last shard. She wanted the complete crystal sphere.
“And if I don’t?” I asked while holding my breath.
She twisted her head to the side, her staff in hand. “Then I’ll hurt the one you love. Everyone here will be dead because of you.” She fingered my hair and gave me a smile, genuine as it was twisted. “We know how much the curator hates that, don’t we?”
I yanked my head back in disgust.
“Even the one I sent to you. You’d die to save her, wouldn’t you?”
Ella. My heart skipped as I realized I had played right into both their hands. My heart sunk; I thought I had been getting through to Ella. I thought over time we’d be friends, if only I could figure out what made her tick.
“That’s right.” Temptress scowled as she delivered the final blow. “I’ll hurt George, make him love me, and you’ll wish you had never been born.”
George.
“What proof do I have he’s still alive? What proof?”
The Temptress swiped her hand through the air, and Tarnish saw all the proof she needed, the vision of George alive and sitting in the cell. He huddled in the corner, and his body shook. His face bruised and bloody, his hair wet with sweat. On his wrists were chains, and I saw how red and raw his skin was.
How long could he survive?
It was my mission, not his, but I couldn’t risk the fate of the world on one man, no matter how much I wanted to save him. But my friends were losing. Being pushed back by the ghosts and dead armies being led by my old friend, Margret.
“If you save them, if you bring them to safety, I will do it. I’ll do whatever you ask! But you must get rid of these dark riders. These ghosts!”
The Temptress smiled. “Consider it done. And that, darling Tarnish Rose, is why they call me Temptress.” She waved her hands in the air, and the ghosts dropped down to the ground, becoming dirt and dust once more.
“Ravengers,” she called with her head in the sky. A moment later, her ravengers swooped in, chasing the dead army off. Those that wouldn’t go, the ravengers physically removed, leaving the horses terrified. The horses neighed, going up high on their rear legs, and ran for the exit as sure as I wanted to run myself.
“If I’m going to complete my quest, I need my things,” I practically begged of her, but I did my best to keep my composure.
Temptress tilted her head at me and handed over the crystal and my bag with elegance. “Once you learn the location of my tower, you’ll no longer need Ella as your guide. She’s not welcome. Ditch her. Or kill her. I can’t wait to see what you choose.”
She swooped back up into the sky, and I feared everything I had just done… just promised. What had I done? What had I promised the enemy just to buy me and my friends more time?
“Tarnish!”
Sebastian’s call snapped me out of my thoughts, and I reeled. The ravengers took back off to the sky, and I took off running toward them. Both he and Ella ducked for cover as the ravengers left us behind. With the enemy gone, Ella and Sebastian rose back up, wide-eyed, and followed the ravengers' flight trail back to the Temptress’s fortress.
“We should be dead,” Sebastian said simply, a slight tremor in his voice. “Why aren’t we dead?”
I swallowed hard. Ella’s eyes accused me, and her cheeks were bright red with anger, or maybe adrenaline. I couldn’t be sure. Robbie and the others called to me from the center. Beatrice had an arm wound, but it wasn’t bad. Somehow, we’d manage to live another day.
“This one was left behind,” Robbie said and nodded toward the female death rider, the leader. She contorted in pain on the battlefield, holding her stomach as if mortally wounded.
I bent down and pulled the hood away from her face. I grimaced as the others recoiled at her appearance. Not nearly as decomposed as before, her skin stretched thin over her bones, and her eyes were human again.
“I anger him with my failure.” Margret’s body trembled. “I’m to be retired to the earth, but he’s coming for you, Abby. He is stronger now. Stronger with the constant worship of Rottenwood and what has happened there.”
“What happened?” I demanded and took her hand. I was fearful for what she’d tell me.
“Death,” Margret whispered. “He killed your father. Your mother. Executed for all to see. He knows who you are.”
My parents… I closed my eyes to hold back the pain, but it came in waves, crashing over me so strong, I couldn’t breathe. Flashes of my life, the comfort of Poppa’s arms, the kind way Momma looked at me when she thought I wasn’t looking… how could they be dead? How could I have given so much to save the world and already lost them?
“He’s coming, and he will not show mercy,” Margaret whispered. She leaned her head back on the rocks, whimpering, choking on her own blood as her body quivered into spasms. I stayed with her as she died, my oldest friend, and held her hand.
“Please… forgive me…” Margaret whispered, and her hand somehow managed to stroke my cheek even as she quivered. The pain in her eyes was so intense, it brought tears to mine.
“You had no choice. There is nothing to forgive.”
She smiled as she passed, and I rested her hands against her chest. “Even the light of the remnant couldn’t save her,” I said.
“I think it did,” Sebastian whispered. “It released her of Creighton’s curse. He killed her to reduce her to a mindless weapon, but you freed her.”
His words struck my heart with such sadness and pain, I wished to find a way to ignore it. “Bury her,” I said to Robbie and the others. “We’ll push off to find the last remaining shard. After, we’ll come back for you. We might need your help along the way.”
Robbie and Beatrice nodded. “It’d be an honor to service you. We are faithful to Tarnish Rose!”
I felt like a leader when they said that, and the responsibility of it all was crushing.
Sebastian scowled, and I tried hard not to look at it. “But… the children…”
“Will be fine. The plan hasn’t changed.” Slowly, I walked away and heard them chasing after me, but I kept going. I went to the wall and climbed up so I could stare off in the distance. Past the lava, the fire, and the destruction, was the Smithsonian. Time to find it in the most dangerous place on Earth.
“You made a deal,” Ella said with horror and grabbed my arm.
“All your holier than thou act, and you made a deal with Temptress! Just like I did. Well, you aren’t so grand now, are you?”
Sebastian’s look of surprise and horror grew in his eyes. I didn’t face him, couldn’t answer him. “Is it true?”
“We were losing. I had to buy us more time,” empathically, I pleaded my case. “We can make it work for us.”
Sebastian shook his head. “Oh… Abby… how could you? She’s Temptress. You can’t break the deal. She won’t let you.”
“We’ll find a way. You’ve believed in me this far, don’t give up hope now, Sebastian,” I begged, I pleaded, “please.”
Ella saw the look of hope on his face and became enraged. “You believe her? How?! What was the deal, Tarnish Rose?! Tell me what is the deal!”
“Don’t you forget!” the Temptress’s voice boomed inside my head. “A deal is a deal, Tarnish Rose. I will release your friend, the children, if you bring me the crystal sphere! Your word is your bond. You are now mine.”
I swallowed hard at the deal I had made. A deal with the devil, no matter how good your intensions were, was never a good thing.
Ella glared at me. “What did you do? What did you do?!”’
“What I had to. So our quest can be completed. So we can have more time. I have no disillusions. It was a bad deal but one I had to make, or we’d be dead. The quest would be over, Temptress would have everything. We can find a way to use this to our advantage. I know it.”
“I stand with you. You know I do.” Sebastian stepped forward. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Tarnish. I hope you know what you’re doing.” He gripped the ladder in front of him, gazing down at D.C. as it lay out before us. He motioned for Ella to follow and helped her climb down first, before me.
“Sebastian…” I whispered, scowling. He would choose Ella over me?
He didn’t respond; instead he started to descend, and I wondered if I had made an unforgiveable mistake. How would I succeed if my friends couldn’t believe in me?
