At the city gates, a line of elephant warriors, all bhutas, obstructs our way. A regiment of foot soldiers holds the line behind them.
“You cannot pass,” calls out a commander. He rides upon a large elephant with great tusks. He holds out his hand, and the ground trembles. A fissure opens up in the land, and a crack spreads, creating a gap between our army and his.
The demon rajah throws a stream of blue across the divide, striking the commander in the chest. He falls off his elephant, and the ground stops parting. The unnatural flame scares all the elephants, and they stampede away with their riders. The demon rajah jumps over the crevice to engage the rival regiment.
Our soldiers charge forward to defend their ruler, but he needs no aid. In one swipe, the demon rajah’s blue fire flattens the first line of men. Prince Ashwin leaps over the divide and joins his imposter father. I jump over the gap and rush after him. The opposing regiment breaks its line. Our troops barrel past them through the gate and into the city. I try to maintain sight of Prince Ashwin, but I lose him in the foray.
The demon rajah pushes into the roadways lined with huts, his blue fire burning homes and trees and markets. Crimson soldier uniforms fill the roads like streams of blood. Screaming women and children run everywhere. I spin around and spot the prince slipping between two huts. I run after him and seize him from behind.
Prince Ashwin points a dagger at my face, struggling against my hold, and then recognizes me from his peripheral view. I release him, and he lowers his blade. I identify the dagger’s turquoise handle as one of Kali’s.
“Did you rob that from the kindred before you abandoned her?” I growl.
The prince recoils from my rancor. “I only left her to draw away the Voider.”
“Don’t pretend you’re a hero. You unleashed this thing.”
A blast of blue flames illuminates the sunset sky.
“I had no other choice,” Prince Ashwin says, glowering.
“Tell that to the people whose city is being destroyed.” I check around the corner for the demon rajah. “A riverboat is waiting to take us out of here.”
“What about Kalinda?” the prince asks, eyeing the palace high up on the hill.
“She’s meeting us at the river. Try to keep up.”
I take off down the road. Prince Ashwin matches my speed, and we run downhill for the waterfront. Slivers of the dark-green river can be seen through the huts. Nearly there.
Blue flames explode at us from behind. The demon rajah casts another blast of fire at the hut in front of us, and the walls collapse. I haul Prince Ashwin out of the path of the raining debris, and we roll away. The prince turns onto his back and groans. He was struck in the forearm, his flesh burned white.
“I wondered if I would see you, Captain Naik.” Rajah Tarek’s voice sends a torrent of memories down upon me. I spent years serving this man. I saved his life over my brother’s during an attack. A small part of me still seeks his approval, but this is not Tarek. “I am unsurprised my son is with you. He has always been a disappointment.”
Prince Ashwin sits up, biting down on his pain. “Stop lying. I know you’re not my father. Tarek was the disappointment. He failed the empire.”
“Tarek’s work was left unfinished, but I have come to put everything right.”
The demon rajah collects a blue fireball in his hands. We cannot outrun him, so I hunch over the prince and prepare for agony.
Real fire flares above us, red as a sunset, and pushes away the Voider’s icy blue.
Kali plants herself between us and the demon rajah. Her hands are aglow, her face set in a defiant glare. Her soul-fire brightens her veins like rivulets of gold and reflects off her dark hair. Life and light glimmer around her, radiating supernal power, a beacon casting away shadows. Almost immediately, my eyes ache like I am staring into the sun. Kali resembles a goddess destroyer, terrifying and glorious.
“Get Ashwin to the boat,” she says.
The river is not far, but upon a closer look, Kali’s side is bleeding, and one of her legs is misshapen. My fears warn me that if I leave now, I may never see her again.
The Voider collects more blue flames for attack, his powers endless.
Kali bends into a fighting stance. “Deven, go! Protect the rajah.”
The rajah. My ruler. Our future.
I heave Prince Ashwin to his feet and push him into a run. He cradles his burned arm, the scent of charred flesh rank, but he meets my speed. We dash around the corner for the riverfront, and I lose sight of Kali.
31
KALINDA
My fire streams through the Voider’s blue flames, dispersing them to plumes of smoke. Deven and Ashwin depart, on their way to the boat. I was there moments ago but ran back when I saw how close the demon rajah was to us. Indah is still at the vessel, waiting with the others, including Natesa and a fatigued Yatin.
The Voider starts toward me, his hands glowing with aberrant powers. “You are bold, Kalinda.”
I lock my trembling knees, rooting myself to the ground. I hoped, prayed, I would be given the opportunity to stop the flood of wrongs I undammed by killing Tarek. Ending his life was the gods’ will—fate. So this must be fate too.
“I’ve been waiting for this,” the demon rajah says.
“So have I.” The Voider has been plaguing me through my nightmares of Tarek. My burning hands and the eerie eyes I saw were signs of my real tormentor, this demon. Whether my soul is tied to Tarek’s or not for eternity, I am done with him in this life.
No more Tarek. No more guilt. No more mercy.
I throw a blast of fire. The Voider wisps it away as he would a pesky fly.
“You cannot earn redemption, Burner. None of this would have happened if you had been a dutiful wife. Tarek is very angry with you. He yearns for you to suffer for your betrayal.”
“You don’t strike me as the type to fight a mortal man’s battles.”
“This is my battle too, a vendetta as old as the ultimate betrayer, the sky-god Anu.” The demon rajah thrusts another blue flame at me. I blast it away with a stream of fire, and our tangled flames strike a row of huts. My flames attack the houses, feeding off the bedlam. “Anu ripped this world from Abzu and Tiamat and then left it to weaklings. Bhutas are an abomination, created to ease Anu’s conscience for abandoning the mortals he enslaved. No longer will demons be confined to the shadows.”
Smoke from the raging fire stings my eyes. Inside the flames, serpentine dragons slither. I extend my fingers to them. Protect me.
On my command, the serpents encircle the Voider, lunging and snapping at him. The demon rajah fends them off with his powers. One by one, the fiery dragons shriek and puff to smoke.
“You cannot hurt me with fire. Tiamat created the First-Ever Dragon. The demon Kur is my master. I am born of fire and venom.”
The demon rajah knocks me back with a blue burst. I hit the wall hard, rapping my head. With temples pounding, I reach for my power and throw heatwave after heatwave to slow his approach. He bats away the searing strands of light and gains on me. I brace against the wall. My injured leg aches sharply, and my side has begun to bleed once more. Indah’s pain blocker is wearing off.
He steps up to me and brushes the hair from my face. “So pathetic. So weak.”
He slams me against the wall with more frosty fire. While I am pinned by numbing cold, he presses his lips to mine and blows blue fire into my mouth. Icy flames flow inside me, chilling me so deeply my soul-fire begins to suffocate. He steps away, yet the wintry inferno still burns through me, freezing my veins.
I crash at his feet, immobilized by excruciating pain.
“My fire would have burned a mortal to ash by now. But you . . . I could leave you in this blistering misery forever.” He bends over me as I shiver in agony. “Wait here, love. I will end your dear captain and prince and then return to usher you into the evernight.”
The demon rajah starts for the waterfront. Shards of ice pierce my lungs. I
search inside for my soul-fire. Only embers remain. The frosty blaze will fester until it smothers my powers completely.
A chunk of burning rubble falls near me, blowing ash into my face. I wait for Jaya to appear, searching for the same shining spirit that visited me when I was drowning, but she does not come. I must not need her, for she has never failed me.
Nature-fire feeds off the debris, the serpents staying near. I stretch out my fingers. Come for me. Nothing happens, so I direct the last of my strength to lifting my hand and pulling at them harder. You will obey.
They shed off of the firestorm and slink over, dancing around me. Their warmth radiates into my limbs and thaws the worst of the Voider’s chill.
I climb to my knees, shuddering in spasms. “Do it now,” I call at his back, my teeth chattering violently. “Or do you think I’ll get the better of you?”
He pauses with a disdainful smirk. “You err, Burner. I am not your husband.”
“My husband wasn’t afraid of a woman.”
He bares his front teeth like a snake preparing to strike. “I am the shadows. You are to fear me.”
I push to my feet, favoring my injured leg, and call to nature-fire. Rise up and show him who should be afraid.
The slithering flames amass beside me, entwining together with single-minded purpose. They weave into a smoldering mass that hisses and snaps like wildfire. I detect no immediate shape, but then the chaotic blaze rises taller than the highest hut and takes form. A face materializes with a long, distinguished snout and whiskers. The body stretches out into a sleek, curving wave, extending down the road, and sprouts short hind legs. Ridges rise and fall across its long, winding back. Spindly flames elongate into a regal neck and slide down into a slender, proud breast and strong front legs. A pair of red eyes burn hotly on its striking face.
A fire dragon.
I reach for its side, transfixed by the entity’s fearsome beauty. The fire does not burn me, nor does my hand pass through, but it meets a tangible body as real as if a cloud became solid ground. I rest my palm against the dragon’s serpentine form that burns a vengeful ember red. Blessed heat flows into my chilled veins. I do not understand how I created this dragon born of nature-fire, but I do not question its vitality or my ability to command it.
“Your serpent cannot stop me,” says the Voider.
The fire dragon bares its fangs.
Dropping my chin, I glare across the road at him. “I was created to light up the sky. I do not fear you.”
He pushes crackling blue fire into his fingertips. “You will.”
Get him, I call to the fire dragon, and it snaps at the Voider. He reels away, but as he turns back, he shoots at the dragon. A hole opens in its flank. The Voider throws more fire, and the gap widens. If he can outmatch nature-fire, he can beat me to the boat.
I leap onto the fire dragon’s back. Fly away.
The wingless beast carries me up. As we soar above the city, the Voider discharges blue flames after us. We dodge them, banking toward the river. Muddy green waters spread out beneath me. Indah’s boat waits below.
Arrowlike flames zip at us. I maneuver the fire dragon away, but the Voider’s cold fire pierces its breast. The crater spreads as the dragon is ripped apart by a hail fire of frosty blasts. The fire dragon falls apart around me, bursting to smoke, and I am knocked into the burning sky.
32
DEVEN
Kali is falling.
I run for the edge of the boat and dive into the river headfirst. I rise to the top; the golden surface reflects the remnants of her fire dragon fading in the sky. She hits the water a short distance away. Panic seizes me as I swim to her body floating in the waves and drag her back to the boat.
A young Lestarian woman, an Aquifier, coaxes a wave that lifts us up to the deck. I heave Kali out of the river with me. She hangs limply in my arms, her skin icy cold.
“I’m Indah,” says the Aquifier. “I can help.”
The image of Kali tumbling through the sky shocks me into compliance.
Indah rests her hand on Kali’s forehead and murmurs. “Blood is water, and water is mine.” Kali coughs up fluid but does not rouse.
Blue flames burst at our stern. The demon rajah nears the riverbank. Indah’s guard yells to the pole pushers with their bamboo rods on both sides of the wide, flat boat to draw us from shore. But man power will not move us out of the line of fire quickly.
“Pons!” Indah yells.
Her guard, Pons, shoots at the Voider with his blowgun. His poisonous dart strikes the demon square in the chest, but does not slow him.
Indah runs to the bow and summons a wave beneath us. I clutch Kali against me as the Aquifier propels us downriver on the swell. Once we are at a safe distance from the city, Indah relaxes her hold on the river, and the boat lowers to a level surface. The pole pushers begin their work, propelling us onward with the river’s current.
Brother Shaan appears in the doorway to the wheelhouse. “Bring Kalinda here.”
I carry her inside, dripping water across the floor, and lay her on an empty cot along the wall. She is still unresponsive, little breaths her lone movements. A healer treats Prince Ashwin on the next cot over. Indah sweeps in and commands two more Lestarian healers to set to work on Kali.
Watching her slack face, I can scarcely fathom that moments ago she flew on a serpent built of flames. When did she learn to command nature-fire—and harness it into a dragon? She has surpassed even Brac’s talents. I do not know of a more powerful Burner than her.
She is the woman the gods sent to save the empire.
And now, she is so still.
I stand back and pray while the healers attend to her. Anu, let her wake. Let me see her skin glow with veins of gold, her soul-fire unscathed within her. Bring her back to me intact and whole. Despite my insistence, her complexion remains ashy and dull. Before long, the healers’ distressed frowns undo me. I fist my hands in my hair. She cannot die.
“Will she be all right?” Prince Ashwin cradles his bandaged arm at Kali’s bedside. He brushes a wet strand of hair from her cheek.
I throw him back. “Don’t you touch her.”
Prince Ashwin stumbles sideways and retreats out the wheelhouse door. I storm after him, trapping him against the rail. He bends backward, his top half hanging over the water.
“You doomed us all!” I shout in his face.
“Vizier Gyan began the incantation,” he explains in a rush. “I had to release the Voider before he did.”
“Kali could die because of you!”
His face hardens to an angry mask. He pushes me forward, standing upright. “I didn’t see you there to defend her.”
I fist his collar and strike him in the face. The prince falls to the deck, cupping his mouth. I hoist him up to flatten him again, and Brother Shaan hurries out of the wheelhouse.
“Deven, this won’t help,” he says.
Prince Ashwin wipes his bloody lip, his gaze stricken. “I’m sorry.”
I shove him away, sending him staggering. “You’re a murderer. I know what you did to Brother Dhiren.”
“You go too far, Captain,” warns the prince.
“You killed your mentor.”
“I loved my mentor. Rajah Tarek discovered Brother Dhiren was a bhuta and ordered he be stoned to death. I couldn’t bear to see him suffer. Brother Dhiren was old and frail. I offered to end him quickly. The whipping . . . He didn’t survive ten lashes.” The prince tugs down his tunic, tears of indignation simmering in his eyes. “I had to make a choice, just as I did today. That is the burden of the throne. That is the duty of the rajah.”
I point upriver at the blue fire devouring the city. “Those people are paying for your ‘choice’ with their lives. You can rationalize this all you want, but the fall of Iresh is on your head.”
I bang inside the wheelhouse. Lanterns have been lit to compensate for the twilight hour. Out the forward window, Natesa and Yatin sit near the bow. A blanket covers Ya
tin’s shoulders, and Natesa is urging him to drink from a cup. Yatin has lost some of his girth, but I am relieved to see him upright. His little lotus will take good care of him.
Indah steps back from Kali’s bedside and studies me, determining whether or not I will accost her too. “That’s all we can do for now,” she says.
“When will she wake up?”
“Difficult to say.” Indah’s golden eyes brim with sympathy. “You should get some air.”
I rest on the corner of Kali’s cot. “I’m fine here.” Prince Ashwin is still out on deck. The mood I am in, I will toss him overboard and leave him to the crocodiles.
Indah signals to the healers. They collect their water jugs and step out of the wheelhouse, leaving Kali and me alone.
I lift her hand and inhale her scent, jasmine and midnight rain. Please don’t leave me. With Brac and Mother stuck in Tarachand, Kali is my family. Our group has been pulled apart since leaving Vanhi, and no matter how much I desire all of us to be together, I do not have wide enough arms to keep everyone close and safe.
Night blankets the jungle, the nocturnal noises drifting over the river. Rain begins to fall. The sway of the boat pushes me toward queasiness. I ground myself to Kali, cupping her hand in mine. She wears a cuff around her wrist identical to the one I saw on Prince Ashwin. Has she promised herself to him? I cannot bring myself to ask the prince. At a loss for what to do, I return to my prayers and plead with Anu to save my love.
33
KALINDA
I wake to steady rocking and dull, ceaseless pain, the most vulnerable parts of me turned inside out, exposed and bare. Lanterns swing gently above, casting pale light on my memory. Last I recall I was falling . . .
Warmth hugs one side of my body. Deven sleeps beside me, sharing my pillow. I snuggle into his dormant strength, and his eyes flash open.
“How long have I been asleep?” I ask, my voice hoarse from disuse.
“Three days.”
Quiet relaxes between us, raindrops drumming against the wheelhouse roof.
The Fire Queen (The Hundredth Queen Series Book 2) Page 27
