Fallen Kingdom (Fallen Trilogy book 2)

by Tess Williams

  Her golden fur, her massive wings folded, her turquoise eyes lit with delight; and every part of her humming with life. I inhaled and dashed down steps to reach her, releasing the hand that had been holding mine. The moment I touched her, crumpling into the fur of her neck, I saw a hundred moments, hers and mine, days in Yanartas, the first time we’d seen each other on the mountain, my fear, her derision, knocking me off the platform and onto her back. It was almost overwhelming, but I had not forgotten the coming dilemma.

  I pulled away to address her. I’d barely opened my mouth when her eyes shifted behind me. Her expression changed from pleasure to rage, a snarl exploded from her and her talons extended from her paws.

  I turned to see Cyric frozen at the case of the steps, the color gone from his face, his eyes wide, solely on Luffie.

  “Luffie—” I began, but before I could go on, I was struck with a wave of images. Cyric: every moment I could think of, even ones I couldn’t, as he’d been since he’d joined Akadia. Things I’d shown her, like Tobias’s death. Or things she’d seen herself, like him killing in the Katellian battle, or the way he was now, in Lieutenant’s armor.

  But I responded just as forcefully with my own images, things he’d done that were good, all in seconds. She roared to stop me.

  Cyric took a step backwards, the betrayal I’d expected to see strangely absent. He looked purely in shock.

  “Cyric,” I called, hardly knowing what I was asking him—yet knowing perfectly both at once.

  His gaze switched to me. It caused Luffie to roar again, but this time she was cut off by another voice. Gael came up from behind her, jumping down steps, out of breath. “Quiet Luffie, we’re not out yet,” he said calmly, then to me, “I’m glad you made it. We didn’t plan I’d have to go in there. We thought she could reach you.”

  “She tried. I—” But I couldn’t even get the words out, for now Cyric’s expression had turned; anger now mixed with his shock.

  Gael looked where I was. His hand went to his mace; he took a half-step in front of me.

  “Gael, don’t.”

  “Isn’t that—”

  “No. He’s my friend. He has to— he has to come with us,” I said, though this was almost impossible to get out with Cyric staring the way he was, a way that said that couldn’t have been farther from happening, and with Luffie at my back, shouting the same thing in my thoughts.

  “There’s no room,” Gael said. “Luffie can’t hold three.”

  “Isn’t Yurei here?”

  Gael shook his head. “I’m riding with you. And there aren’t others.”

  I already knew because of Luffie that there were more chimera here, but by this I assumed he meant there was no extra room. Panic for the situation was drowning coherent thought; I could feel it slipping through my fingers, I knew Cyric wouldn’t stay doing nothing much longer.

  “Luffie can hold three,” I said, almost chanting. “We’re all light. It’s fine.”

  “Not so far as we’re going,” Gael replied.

  “Then we’ll drop him off.”

  “Ellia, there’s no time for this,” he argued. “We have to get out of here before the whole place—”

  I gasped and stopped Gael from going on with a tight squeeze to his arm. But it was too late. Cyric’s expression was alert. He shifted his gaze to my hand, where it stayed for a moment. Then he glanced at Gael, then back the way we’d come, all without saying a word. Finally he looked at me. I felt my insides twisting as he read my face. His eyes grew slowly fiercer—on to full-out panic. I tried to shake my head, but he only took one last look at the three of us, then turned and dashed up the steps.

  “Cyric no!” I cried desperately. I jerked forward, but Gael had caught my wrist. I sobbed with a horror, that I couldn’t even identify yet, I couldn’t even think what this meant, and that there was nothing that I could do to stop it. “Cyric!” I shouted again, but this time my voice was cut off by a rush of air above me. Gael pushed our heads down as Luffie flew over us. He called after her, but she went out of sight. Gael cursed and drug us forwards, but we didn’t have to go far. Just around the bend, she’d landed at the top of the steps Cyric was climbing. At first he didn’t notice her, focused as he was on his speed. But when he did, he jerked back, and nearly came tumbling back down the stairs.

  He regained his footing quickly enough, but he didn’t move forward. There were no torches up there, I doubted he could see very well. Luffie raised her head and growled at him, though it wasn’t her most ferocious sort. She wasn’t blocking the way ahead. He looked between her and the next set of steps. With his body aimed towards her, he began to walk up the last few steps slowly. She stretched her paw forward once, scratching the stone with her talons; he hesitated for just a second then went on, and finally he reached the top. He took a glance at the next steps, which were very close, then he looked once more at her, then he bolted, but Luffie was much quicker than that. She came between him and the steps, lunging forward on her paws. He jerked back, his hand on his sword-hilt, but not drawing it. She flushed her wings and let out a roar. He backed up again. He still hadn’t drawn his sword, and now he let go of it completely, eyeing the steps beyond her, keeping his hands wide at his side and crouched a little. She’d walked back and forth until she had him against the edge of the platform; I wondered if he could see there was nothing behind him but air. He glanced back as if my thoughts had drawn him to. Then the next part happened so fast. Luffie lifted up on her hind legs and slammed her front paws down, letting out a massive roar. Cyric took the fatal last step, teetered on the edge for a long moment, then dropped back into air. I screamed, despite myself. Luffie raced off the platform, took to the sky, then dived down into a spin and out of sight. Gael was saying something beside me, pulling on my arm, something about using my mind to tell her to come back, that we had no more time.

  My heart was pounding too loudly to hear him. And I couldn’t see for the tears in my eyes.

  I raced to the edge to try and spot them. I couldn’t but Luffie sent me a clear image. I took Gael’s arm and gave him quick instruction, instruction well-learned by any Cirali Warrior. I imagined the platform in Yanartas, and the leap into the ocean for which I was not allowed to take a running start. There were only seconds, then both Gael and I jumped off the side of the palace.

  For a moment, there was nothing but wind, and darkness, and the twinkling fires below, then Luffie swept under us and we both landed on her saddle. Gael was behind me, his hands tight beside him on the harness as we were taught to land. Me in the middle, the very same way. And in the front, scrambling to get a hold of anything, was Cyric.

  I should have been so happy that I could laugh, but Luffie had so overwhelmed me with what she had done it was almost painful what I felt. I sent her all the appreciation I could muster. She responded with a swift dive that made Cyric latch onto the saddle. I wrapped my arms around him to grab the reigns. He must have only realized then that I was there.

  “Ellia, let me off this thing!” he shouted. His voice was half rage, half terror. And he didn’t stop yelling there. I knew he’d been terrified of the idea of flying since we were young, and as far as I knew, he never had done it, but I didn’t think that’s what accounted for the strain in him now.

  “Go west out of the city,” Gael said, “Luffie knows. Ellia, I don’t know what’s going on, but if you don’t get your friend to stop, he’s going to give our presence away to all of Akadia.”

  For not the first time, I thought of what Luffie had showed me. Guilt swelled up inside of me, that I was risking anything, even Gael, trying to save Cyric. It didn’t take more than a quick thought to Luffie, and she knew what to do. She started diving, swooping, and swirling, through arches and the dark sides of buildings. Cyric quickly became too concentrated on keeping a hold on the saddle to shout, and Gael and I were able to manage. We quickly passed the palace, and entered the abandoned district that housed the granted temple. I asked Gael about Nain, if s
omeone was going to rescue him. Gael said there was a rescue planned, but after what I’d heard in the palace, I wasn’t assured.

  “We should make sure. Nain was taken underground. We should—”

  “Ellia, we’re already carrying three. Luffie’s not going to last much longer as it is. You need to—”

  “I know,” I interrupted, though instantly I regretted my anger. Gael certainly didn’t deserve it. Seeing my behavior, he probably thought I’d gone crazy. He let me know that whoever we were supposed to meet before we left across the desert was already gone. With not more than a quick image from me, Luffie directed her flight towards the red granted mountain. It was already very close.

  Coming up on it was like time slipping through my fingers. I thought of things, foolish things, like sending Gael off on Luffie and staying with Cyric, using a weapon to try and force him all the way back to Yanartas. Or I thought of sending Cyric with Gael, in my place. Then I could walk myself to safety, and Gael could make sure Cyric was taken back. Or I could stay just while Luffie flew Gael to safety, then she could come back and carry Cyric and I.

  I knew it was all wrong. For one, Luffie would never let me leave her, for another, forcing Cyric to come to Yanartas would never work if he didn’t want to. It was dangerous for all of the Yanartians. It was selfish. There was so much more going on than just the two of us. Things I didn’t even understand. I’d had my chance to save him, now it was up to Cyric to decide what he would do.

  Even so, I held tightly on to him as we descended to the largest platform of the red rock—where Tobias had once told me he’d used to watch the dragons lay at night. Though Luffie was moving slower, Cyric didn’t start shouting; whether because of my hold, or because he could tell we were going to let him go, I wasn’t sure. But probably the latter, because when Luffie landed, immediately, he jumped off. He hit the ground and stumbled, falling into the dirt, and instead of getting up, he just scrambled on his back away from her. His eyes were wide but empty. Seeing nothing.

  I dismounted as he turned towards the city, towards the palace. Luffie would have stopped me if she didn’t know my intention. His pulse raced wildly in his throat; tight, and stressed. The bones between his shoulders and around his neck jutted out for his awkward position. I knew his panic was all for Lox, but at least it distracted him as I bent down, got a hold of the chain around his neck, and yanked it free. He looked at me then, but he wasn’t seeing me, or if he did, his head was still filled with his previous concern. I had been intending on telling him that he didn’t have to go back, that he was free of the city and could leave if he wanted and come to Yanartas. But seeing him like this, I only screamed and threw the stone down to the ground so that it shattered. “I’ll never forget who you’re supposed to be!” I shouted at him.

  And then I turned and ran before I lost my strength to, back to Luffie. Gael just watched me with concern as I mounted her. She took the air in a gust that swept close to Cyric, what must have caused a minor windstorm around him. I knew she’d done it for my sake. She was furious; I could feel it beneath her fur, and I thought that doing what she preferred would have meant picking Cyric back up with her talons and dropping him from this height to the desert floor.

  As she sped away, as soon as I could find my voice, I began to ask Gael questions, mostly about what was happening, how many chimera were here, how many Warriors. He answered until we ran into a group of more chimera who had caught up with us, each holding one Warrior and one Democedian.

  And we were well away from the city before we heard the blast.

  CYRIC:

  Hard rock and dust was under my hands and I could only see a glow in one direction. There was nothing else to give me a sense of bearing or space. I’d figured at least that I was on the granted mountain outside the city. I hulled myself up to my feet. I was nauseous and dizzy, due only in part to the flight. Words repeated in my head, screamed at me, but all I could think of was the palace, that I needed to get there. I took some steps towards it, uncertain that I might walk off the edge of the mountain at any second. It was nothing more than distant torches, as it was on nights when I rode Tosch and came back late. A rush of wind blew past me; I blinked my eyes and turned, trying to see where I could get down. I thought I saw the darker shadow of a cave. Hoping it wasn’t just my imagination, I started walking towards it, but I didn’t get more than one step before there was an explosion of light back in the direction of Akadia. And that wasn’t all. I could hear the sound too, a burst of noise, then silence, then a ripping and crumbling. The peak of the palace shuddered within the light, then whole parts of it disappeared to nothing, falling over the red-rock wall, into the city.

  I dropped to my knees, everything knocked out of me. The hall I’d just been standing in, the golden walls, the floors ,ceilings, flashed through my mind. But most of all, its people. Soldiers I’d trained with. Molec. Handmaidens. Veera.

  Then Lox.

  Lox, when I thought of him, I saw his face as I’d last seen it. I saw him leaning towards Thane, then his eyes darkening as he glanced around the room. His gaze falling on Veera. Falling on Molec. Falling on me. And then he’d said something to Thane, then he’d turned. And before I’d left with Ellia, just before we’d stepped outside, I’d seen him walking out just as we were, through the exit on the opposite side, away from the golden hall that no longer existed.

  The glow of the explosion was still bright, but it was blurring and running together with the darkness. I bent over and retched a half dozen times. When I wiped a hand over my mouth, it came away wet and for a moment I thought I’d coughed up blood; that’s how my body had felt, ripping in spasms. But as I touched my face again, I felt all the wetness coming from my eyes.

  So as I hadn’t since before the day my father had died, I realized that I was crying. And all I could think was how I’d wanted to tell her not to leave me.

  EPILOGUE

  I look back and see the twisted road

  Best friends and despair took its toll

  Take away my life

  Lay by your side, please…

  —I Won’t See You Tonight Part 2, Avenged Sevenfold

  ELLIA:

  I stood on a balcony facing the sea, my hands tight on the rail, and fresh ocean air moving all around me. Behind I could still hear the sounds of the celebration—for the success of the attack on Akadia, the death of its rulers, and Akadia’s subsequent evacuation of all the eastern kingdoms. Yanartas was filled to the brim with foreigners. Rescued Selkians, Katellians, some Ghaundians, and of course Democedians, who were honored above all.

  It had been a week now since my true homecoming, an event of more cheer than I ever would have expected it could be. This was due in large part to Minstrel, who had written… say, twenty or thirty songs in preparation for my return, and he’d spent the first night singing them to me; each time claiming to have never once doubted I would come back (despite the presence of tears in his eyes for nearly every song he sang).

  And as for tears, Estrid Larke had shed them for the first time I’d ever seen. She’d been waiting beside Tris on a platform when I’d first flown in, looking as if she were prepared to handle the whole event calmly, but as soon as I’d landed, after Minstrel had plowed into me, she’d burst into tears and raced forward to hug me.

  “Ellia, you’re a perfect fool!” she’d shouted then. “I’ve told you a hundred times, your powers don’t make you invincible. You never listen. I swear I won’t ever let you go off on your own in a battle again. I’ve already spoken with Lucian. He’s promised me that he won’t let you fight any battles without him.”

  I’d laughed, more pleased to be being yelled at by Estrid than I could have described.

  Lucian himself, I’d met not far outside of Akadia—where he’d been waiting with Arrin and a pack of chimera for all those involved in the explosion. He’d led the operation because, for one, the battles were still severe in Ghaund and Democedes, so the first-order Warriors were much-ne
eded there. Also (as I’d discovered later) Amalia had played a key role in the attack, sharing with the Warriors how the party in Akadia would take place, the structure of the palace, and so on. Lucian hadn’t actually gone inside Akadia with the others only due to his appearance, which would have given him away instantly.

  His reaction when he’d seen me couldn’t have been more surprising. Luffie had landed, and I’d let Gael start to explain all that happened. When Lucian had stopped him to look at me, I’d begun immediately to go on explaining the same, and where were the others, and how could I help, master, but he’d smothered all of this with an immediate hug, kissing my head, and laughing. That had done it and I’d started crying and not stopped until his green leather jerkin was soaked.

  He had managed to give one order, whispered but forceful…

  “Never leave Luffie in a battle again.”

  After that we’d had to wait for the other Warriors returning from Akadia and here came the deep grief that had marred the otherwise successful victory. Prince Nain of Karatel had not been rescued. As I’d feared, though the Warriors had searched for him, he’d been sent too far belowground to find. They’d looked and almost gotten trapped themselves because of it, but the complexes below Akadia were a maze too vast. I’d been able at least to share news of his safety and bravery with Selkie when I’d arrived in Yanartas. Even at the celebration today, there had been none who looked as sad as her, except for perhaps, the small portion of Warriors who had outlived chimera lost in Selket. Baraduce Nar, of course, was among them. He came only a short while. One of his eyes had been damaged beyond use and he now wore a patch over it. Seeing him, it was clear that the scar on his appearance held no comparison to the scar the loss of Ceras had left on him. And it was the same with the others.