Joah was chatting with a Farrow woman and looked about five minutes away from taking out his watch and doing some magic tricks for her. Abi was about to head over there, either to save the woman or to save Joah from himself, she hadn’t decided which yet, when an unpleasant-looking man grabbed her elbow.
“You’re Abi?” he asked, stepping squarely in front of her. Abi gave him a smile and tried to move past. He wasn’t even holding a drink. It looked like he hadn’t gotten the message that the vote was over and tonight was for celebrating. “I’m Alban. I’m guessing you’ve heard of me.”
Abi stopped trying to move past him. This could actually be interesting. “I have indeed. How nice to finally meet you.”
“Save it. Where’s Kay? Just because the gates have opened doesn’t end our relationship.”
Abi laughed, one of pure joy. This had moved from interesting to fun. “Oh, I think it does,” she said. “I think any hold you had over Kay is quite finished.” She wondered what Alban would say if he knew she had been the one filing reports with him for the last five years.
He pulled her arm again, bringing her in close. “It’s not finished until I say it is. We still need eyes on the Dynasty and she’s better positioned than ever to give us that. Or else I make arrangements for certain elements of her past to come to light. However cozy her new relationships are, she could still face exile.”
“You have really got the picture all wrong. Here, let me set you straight.” Abi reached down and pinched the hand that held her arm, making him pull it back in surprise as she caught a pressure point. “Kay is done working for you. Her past has already come to light and the Dynasty has forgiven her. They care about the present, and in case you haven’t been paying attention, she’s the one who saved Enos while you were arguing that he be killed or ransomed or whatever.” She raised her voice slightly at that last one, just to watch him cringe. “Yeah, you probably don’t want that getting around. For whatever reason Enos didn’t say anything and neither did Yamar, but you’ve got to remember how much the Gol love their Dynasty. If that rumor spreads, I would fear for your safety. And that’s just the first of your worries. Kay pretty much has a full pardon for her past, but you, on the other hand, have been spying on the Gol for ten years now. Something tells me they wouldn’t appreciate that.” The expression on Alban’s face was priceless.
“Now,” Abi continued, “I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. You’re going to get out of my face and if you ever speak one word to or about Kay or me ever again, you’ll find yourself in a jail cell. Or maybe we’ll get more creative than that. Kay might be merciful. I’m not. I’d have them start with your fingernails. Now, we’re going to go on thriving in this new world we helped usher in. You go quietly diminish someplace else.” She leaned in. “Fuck off, Alban.”
He turned and walked stiffly away. She couldn’t suppress a small gleeful laugh. It wasn’t fair. Kay should have been here for this. She scanned the party. Amos was still looking around for Kay. He certainly was all in on that one. Good for Kay. It had been a long time since she’d been able to climb out of her own head long enough to let someone else in. Thinking of Kay with Amos brought tears to her eyes. Kay had worked so tirelessly to do some good to offset the horrors in her past. So selflessly. It felt great to think they’d made it around the corner. And, she thought as she caught Joah’s eyes, they’d done it all together. And all made it out the other side. Joah was looking concerned, but she waved him off, even as a tear spilled onto her cheek. So young, that one. Yesterday he killed the two men he’d hunted for years and today it seemed like all he could think about was getting with that Farrow girl. Who, admittedly, was quite pretty.
The Bosun with the mustache was suddenly beside her. “Apologies,” he said in a deep voice, “for the intrusion. Was that man bothering you? We may have opened the gates, but that doesn’t invite discourtesy.”
Abi wiped away the tear on her cheek. “No,” she said. “I’m just fine. I was just thinking. Now,” she took his arm and ran a finger down his shoulder to his elbow, “you have to tell me all about these tattoos. Why a bear but no flowers?”
Micah smoothly wrapped his arm around her and gently led her to the edge of the Overlook, where the view of the Closing celebration was better, discussing the different levels of Bosun membership that entitled one to certain marks. Abi was half-listening and feeling good as the lanterns began to rise from the city of Celest sprawled out below them.
…
Kay sat alone near the edges of a small fire. Soon it would grow large enough to swallow the body of the Fire Creep.
She’d spent last night in Amos’ tent. In the morning, she’d left early, stolen a sledge from the camps, and gone back to the haunted woods. No one had done any clean-up last night, leaving two bodies exposed to the elements. The scavengers had left them alone, scared away by the lingering smell of smoke or whatever foulness the Winden rituals had imparted upon the woods. The Fire Creep looked oddly pristine, white robes bright against the grey, ashy ground. She’d loaded him onto the sledge. The third man she left, arrow still jutting out of the back of his head.
The sledge was heavy and her hand ached where she’d cut it the night before. It took her most of the day to haul her load over to one of the lesser used gates. Once there she was able to talk her way through, the Fire Creep’s body covered by a sheet. The trip across Celest was equally grueling. While many offered to help her, she ignored them and kept hauling her burden along. Something was pulling her forward, telling her time was of the essence.
Whenever she faltered, she imagined a single lantern, floating down the narrow streets ahead of her, drawing her forward, helping her ignore her aching legs and back. She got close enough to her office to pick up the trail the Fire Creep had led her down the night he tried to hand her his beautiful death.
She followed that trail to the building of the fire, arriving as the sun was setting. The door and all the windows were soot-stained. The hungry flames had licked at the stone long into the night Kay had fallen for the trap. Once inside, Kay gave a sigh of relief and dropped the ropes she’d been using to drag the sledge. She sat on the ground, catching her breath and looking around. Like the haunted woods, the building was undisturbed. The fire from several nights before was cold, a pile of black beams on a mound of ash. Kay was tempted to sit longer, but the Fire Eye would be closing around midnight, which gave her only a few more hours. She rose to her feet.
A few minutes later, the fire was starting. Before it grew large and out of hand, she carefully dragged the Fire Creep’s body on top. Then she sat and watched it burn. The building, a long cylinder with an open top, made a perfect chimney, drawing the smoke of the pyre upwards.
While Kay watched the fire eat away, she thought about Amos. She wondered what she would do next. Her time in Celest may be finished. If she told him she wanted to go west, do more to confront the Winden, would he come? Now that he’d found a new home, would he leave it? Would he wake her when the bad dreams came, look at her with understanding and not pity?
As she thought, she used a small knife to carefully carve another notch into her bracelet. One marking Enos. She studied it in satisfaction after she’d finished. She ran her fingers around the bracelet, feeling each mark. She counted forty-five. If she didn’t consider herself square at this point, she never would. She gently kissed it, then threw it on the fire. It shriveled up immediately, turning to ash far quicker than the body it shared the fire with.
Several hours passed. Finally the fire was dying. All that was left of the Fire Creep was a charred skeleton. She waited a little longer, but the time of the Closing was drawing close.
Kay carefully stepped into the dying fire, boots kicking up embers and clouds of ash. She made her way over to the Fire Creep’s remains. She bent over and looked closely at what was left. There was a tiny crystal resting in the center of what had once been his chest. It looked something like a large diamond. She picked it up, holding it c
arefully in her fingers, rotating it before her eyes. An irregular cut, yellow hues running through it. From deep within it she could see the tiniest spark, as though a fire had been trapped and was still burning inside.
With the smoke from the pyre cleared, Kay could see the Fire Eye hovering above, visible through the opening at the top of the building. She locked her gaze on it, opened her mouth, and swallowed the crystal. In the skies above her, the Fire Eye closed.
THE END
Kay’s adventures continue in The Fire Eye Chosen…
Author’s Notes
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Kay’s adventures continue in The Fire Eye Chosen, a return to Celest after four years have passed which features Abi, Joah, Yamar, and others you’ll recognize.
Because reviews are critical in spreading the word about books, I’d be very grateful if you left a review on Amazon or Goodreads.
You can learn more about me and other titles by signing up for my mailing list through the following link http://eepurl.com/c3aDDL or by visiting samuelgately.com.
This is my fourth book. The first three all take place across the Sea of Colors, where two spies wrestle with the chaotic return of dragons. The series is called the Spies of Dragon and Chalk and I’d love it if you check it out.
Cheers.
- Sam
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