The Boys of Fire and Ash

by Meaghan McIsaac

  What he meant, I had no idea, and before I thought it I heard myself asking, “What’s madness?”

  Blaze scratched at his neck, still watching Fiver, mouthing along. I’d seen him do that before, in the torchlight just before he grabbed Crow. End to the Beginning.

  “ ‘It is time for this man to leave, so that his brother may have the room to grow and learn in the Ikkuma Pit!’ ”

  “What!” I said.

  Somewhere outside, a little voice could be heard screaming.

  Blaze’s icy-blue eyes locked onto mine. “It’s war.”

  The story came to an abrupt stop as everyone became aware of the screams. I barely registered it, my eyes fixed on Blaze. I didn’t understand what he meant, and my stomach turned.

  “AV! AV!”

  Blaze turned away from me, his attention on the doorway.

  “AV! AV!”

  My heart stopped and I looked for Av. He was on his feet, running to the door. We both knew that voice.

  Goobs suddenly appeared, and collapsed on the floor of the A-Frame, sobbing and wailing for his Big Brother.

  I watched the door, waiting for Cubby to show, my pulse thumping louder in my ears every second he didn’t.

  “They got him! They got him!” Goobs cried into Av’s arms. “At the East Wall, they got him!”

  Not Cubby, I begged. I pushed through the Brothers and ran to Goobs, who was clinging to Av and whimpering. I could barely understand him. Av looked at me, frightened.

  “We were trying to run away from Wasted, he kept yelling, ‘Scroungee! Scroungee!’ And then the monsters—” He gulped in panicked breaths.

  “Who got who?” I yelled. Silence rolled over the A-Frame, as the echo faded and Goobs tried to get ahold of himself long enough to answer.

  “Cubby.” He sniffed. “The monsters have Cubby and Wasted.”

  I heard the call of the creatures somewhere in the distance and bolted for the door.

  “Urgle!” I heard Blaze yell as I took off outside, running as fast as I could across the floor of the Ikkuma Pit.

  Fiver was beside me in an instant, barreling by me, club in hand.

  Our bare feet pounded the ground in sync as we charged for the East Wall.

  I could see the yellow, ghostly figures of the Tunrar Goblins on a rocky ledge halfway up the wall, Wasted’s limp form resting beneath the big one, Cubby kicking and screaming in the clutches of the other.

  Fiver roared, startling the Tunrar. The big one shrieked back at him.

  Then familiar voices were yelling all around me. Av and Blaze were beside me, bellowing, trying to frighten the creatures off.

  Cubby must have heard us because his shrieking became louder, wilder.

  I saw the big one drop Wasted and scramble up the East Wall.

  Not Cubby.

  We reached the rock face and I began frantically climbing. Fiver and Av were flying upwards, they’d be with Wasted any moment. I could hear Cubby above me, he was screaming my name and I momentarily lost my footing, grating the bottom of my foot against the rock.

  Below me, Blaze pushed my stinging foot back up and I kept going.

  “Oh, no! No!” I heard Fiver crying.

  I hoisted myself up onto the ledge and saw Fiver and Av standing over Wasted.

  “Crow!” Fiver screamed, tears streaming down his face as he scooped the little body into his arms.

  “He’s right behind us,” said Blaze.

  Crow and Digger hoisted themselves up, and everyone gathered around Fiver and Wasted. Everyone but me.

  I looked above me and saw the Tunrar climbing, Cubby kicking and punching hysterically in the smaller one’s muscular arms.

  I climbed, my arms ached and burned, but I had to get to him. They’d disappear into Nikpartok Forest any moment.

  When I reached the top of the East Wall there was nothing but dead trees before me, silent and crooked, weaving into each other, impossible to see through.

  “Cubby!” I screamed.

  He let out a cry, not far ahead.

  I ran. My legs were numb with the effort, begging me to stop, but I didn’t. Branches whipped my face as I plowed ahead through the thick, brittle forest. The guttural call of the Tunrar sounded somewhere to my left—not far. I couldn’t see, the light from the fires of the Ikkuma Pit were behind me, the forest was nearly all black.

  I kept running.

  Another Tunrar sounded to the right. I stopped and listened.

  Leaves and twigs crunched under Av’s foot as he caught up.

  “One of them is flanking our right,” he panted, bent over, gulping in air.

  My lungs felt like they were going to burst, and I thought I could taste blood.

  There was only silence, except for Av’s wheezing. I couldn’t hear the screams.

  “Go right?” he asked.

  I paced back and forth, frantically searching for any sign, any clue as to which way they’d gone. But the damn forest was so black, so dark, I could barely see a thing.

  “Cubby!” I cried.

  Something shifted to our right; we could hear its labored, sickly breathing. I could see Wasted in my head, what that thing had done to him—his blood, his eyes.

  “Cubby!” I begged.

  No response.

  I threw up.

  “Urgs, it’s on the right,” whispered Av, pulling out his dagger.

  I heard it, but I didn’t care.

  I stayed there, on my hands and knees, smelling my own sour puke, staring into the black.

  Then Cubby’s desperate shriek rang out.

  I was off in an instant, Av yelling after me.

  My foot caught and I fell. My hide ripped and I could feel I’d split open my knee. Didn’t matter. I scrambled to my feet and kept going, fast as I could.

  That was when the big one got me.

  The Tunrar slammed into my right side, throwing me into a tree. My head bashed up against it, stunning me a second. It threw me to the ground and was making a sick hacking sound as it clawed at me, trying to pin my flailing limbs.

  I kicked and punched with everything in me.

  It hissed and slashed at my thigh with its sharp claws.

  I grunted in pain.

  It pinned my legs and opened its hideous, gummy mouth, the rotten smell of meat on its hot breath.

  Wild and furious, I lunged at it as best I could and sank my teeth into its leathery shoulder.

  It screamed and bashed my head on the hard ground.

  I was dazed, couldn’t move.

  It circled me, shuffling around through the leaves, hacking and hissing. Then it brought down a huge, heavy fist on my stomach.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  It shrieked with triumph.

  The Tunrar raised both fists in the air, and I waited for the rib-crushing blow.

  All of a sudden it arched its back and squealed like a Larmy pig, falling on the ground and writhing around.

  I crawled away from it, clutching my stomach.

  Av ran up and pulled his dagger out of the squealing monster’s back, then gave it a hard kick to the head. It went limp.

  “You all right?” he asked.

  I sat up, still holding my stomach and noticing the hot blood pouring down from my split eyebrow.

  I cried. It wasn’t the pain, or the blood. It was the silence.

  I couldn’t hear Cubby.

  SEVEN

  “Here, let me see,” said Av, pulling my hand away from the deep gash on my thigh. He winced at the sight, but I felt nothing. The lump in the back of my throat was swollen and throbbing, I couldn’t swallow. I’d lost Cubby. I’d failed my Little Brother.

  My stomach heaved and I couldn’t hold it in.

  Av jumped back and wiped away my bile from his legs.

  “Crow!” he called into the dark trees.

  I heard thumping feet. As Crow, Blaze, and Digger burst out of the shadows and into the dark clearing, I felt sicker. Images of Wasted, his limp body, then Cub
by, his face twisted in terror, flashed through my head. Not Cubby.

  I stuck my head between my legs and lost myself in violent sobs.

  Crow’s cold fingers grabbed my leg and flattened it out as he tried to get a look at the gash from the Tunrar.

  “Get me a switch from a Sticky Willow,” he instructed.

  Someone ran off, I didn’t know who. Probably Av, because they were back in moments.

  I heard Blaze next: “What happened?”

  “The thing went at Urgle,” said Av, handing Crow a short branch dripping with sap.

  “Cubby?” asked Digger.

  No one spoke.

  Crow leaned into me. “This will hurt,” he said.

  With a careful eye, he held the oozing stick just over the gash and let several thick black drops fall onto my open flesh. Each drip radiated with a vicious pain, and my body screamed to push Crow away as he pulled the sides of the gash together and squeezed. I didn’t care. I’d lost Cubby. I wanted all of it to be the worst pain I’d ever felt, I wanted punishment.

  “They’ll be headed to the High Temple of Beginners,” said Blaze.

  His words made no sense to me, like he’d spoken a completely different language.

  “What?”

  “The Tunrar and the kid.”

  I looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

  “They won’t kill him.” He was so matter-of-fact, as if we should have known.

  Again, I thought of little Wasted.

  “But Wasted…,” said Digger.

  Blaze shook his head. “Wasted was for them. They’re saving Cubby for the Beginning.”

  We looked to one another, confused. I could hear my pulse in my ears, hear the grumbles of Blaze in the darkness: End to the Beginning. Hope and dread throbbed in the pit of my stomach.

  “The Beginning?” I asked.

  “Look,” explained Blaze, “Tunrar Goblins are servants of the Beginning. Whenever they feed, whenever they take, they are bound to give back to it. So if they fed on Wasted, they have to save Cubby for sacrifice.”

  “Sacrifice?” asked Av.

  “The Beginners’ High Temple is where they’ll head. They’ll take the boy to the priests there.”

  We stared at him blankly.

  “Their home,” said Blaze.

  “Where’s the Temple?” I demanded.

  “Other side of the Abish Village, tucked away somewhere in the Baublenotts.”

  “No!” I yelled at him. “How do I get there?” I had no idea what these places were, but I was on my feet and brushing Crow off my leg, ready to sprint in whatever direction Blaze pointed me. My angry cut pulsed with pain and I wavered. Av put a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

  “The Abish Village…to the—” Blaze stopped when he saw my face and sighed. “You are going after him completely blind.”

  He was right. Every word out of his mouth was new to me, devoid of any meaning. I was blind. I knew nothing of the world outside the Pit, and what was more, I was the least ready of anyone to leave it. I wanted to scream at Blaze, his blue eyes pitying me and my ignorance. I wanted to hit him, make him say something that I understood.

  He shook his head and sat against a tree, his hand rubbing his neck. Watching him, I understood one thing: I needed him.

  “Show me,” I said, my voice trembling.

  “Urgle—” Av started, eyes wide at the very idea.

  Blaze had a knife out, his eyes following the blade as he thought. It glistened for a moment in the moonlight. I looked up through the crooked branches and shivered when I didn’t see the thick black smoke of the Fire Mountains. There was only naked, night sky. I’d never seen the moon before, a blotchy, pasty orb, alone in an expanse of empty blackness. Once I had Cubby back, I never wanted to see its blue glow again.

  “A Beginners’ Temple isn’t exactly a place I want to be, Urgle,” he said.

  If I could have killed him in that moment, I would have. It was his fault the Tunrar came, his fault Cubby was gone. And here he was telling me what he wanted or didn’t want? Searing hate pulsed through my flesh and I stomped on his ankle. He let out a snarl as Digger shoved me away from him and Av was by my side, arm out to hold me back.

  “We helped you when you needed us!” I bellowed.

  He looked at me, his eyebrow arched with amusement.

  Av pressed harder against my chest to keep me back.

  “I am a Brother,” said Blaze, revealing the ankle I’d slammed with my foot. His scar was almost white in the moonlight. “I’ll take you to get the boy back. But once I get you to that Temple, you’re on your own.”

  “I’m going with you,” said Av.

  A lump formed in my throat. He didn’t have to, but I was relieved Av would be with me.

  “Uh, bad idea,” said Blaze, getting to his feet. “The Baublenotts are tough going. Keeping my eye on one of you is going to be hard enough.”

  “I can take care of myself,” Av snapped.

  “I’ll go,” said Digger.

  Digger had the same opinion about Cubby as Fiver, though he wasn’t as vocal about it. What did he care if the little scroungee was dead? Surprised, I turned to face him, and when I did it all made sense. He was standing straighter than I’d ever seen him, shoulders back. He was showing off for Blaze.

  “We don’t need you,” I spat.

  “Makes more sense for me to go than Av,” he said. “It’s almost my Leaving Day. Better for you to have two grown men helping to get Cubby back than just one.”

  Two men. What a moron.

  “Crow, you have to go back, take care of Fiver.” Digger’s leader voice was out again. “And tell the others what we’re doing.”

  So everyone knows what a hero you are, I thought.

  “Crow?” said Av quietly. He was looking at his feet, kicking lightly at the dirt. “Would you look out for Goobs for me?”

  I felt my stomach churning again. I hadn’t even thought of Av, what he was leaving behind in order to help me.

  Crow nodded and Av patted his back in thanks. Then Crow turned to me and grabbed my hand. “Good luck, Urgle.”

  I nodded, feeling the lump in my throat rising as he disappeared back into the shadows of the forest, back to the Ikkuma Pit, back home to the Brothers.

  “Well,” said Blaze. “Ready?”

  For the first time I was aware of a chirping sound all around me, the rustling of the trees in the darkness as the cold wind slithered through their branches. I shivered. I’d never been this cold. Even with my Brothers standing there with me, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I was alone.

  EIGHT

  It was morning when we finally emerged from Nikpartok Forest and found ourselves trudging through endless rolling hills of long grass. The sun lay low in the sky, scorching my eyes. I had to stare at my feet to avoid the pain, but my legs up to my waist were hidden by the thin grass swishing as we forged ahead.

  “This is impossible,” Digger whined behind me. “My head is killing me and I can’t see anything!”

  Several paces ahead, Blaze was hacking at the grass with a long blade.

  “It’s because you’re used to the Pit being so dark,” he said. “Most places don’t have the smoke cover you boys have grown up with. Takes a while but you’ll get used to it.”

  I hoped he meant the sun and not the ache in my head.

  “One day, you might even enjoy it.”

  I doubted that.

  The pulsing in my head thumped to a rhythm that matched the throbbing where Crow had patched up my leg. There was nothing to be done about that either.

  I looked over at Av. He was waving his hands around his head.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Buzzing,” he growled, swatting and clawing at the air.

  “The bugs?” said Blaze. “They should go away once we hit the village.”

  Digger stopped in his tracks and hung his hands pathetically. “When’s that gonna be?”

  “Not too f
ar.”

  My head turned from left to right, and all I could see was rolling hills of long grass. Waves of bright green opened out beneath a sky the color of Blaze’s eyes. It looked so strange, like they didn’t belong together, the green and the blue fighting to overtake the horizon.

  The ache in my head throbbed and I looked at my feet, trying to find relief from the brightness.

  “Ugh,” Digger growled, “how long does it take to get used to it?”

  Blaze shrugged. “Not long.”

  “How long did it take you?”

  He paused to think. “You know, I don’t know. I don’t remember any of that sort of thing bothering me.”

  As the buzzing Av was talking about made its way to my ear, I found that hard to believe.

  “It’s the loneliness that gets to you more than anything.”

  None of us said anything, too distracted by the brightness and the buzz. But Blaze went on. “You’re lucky, actually, being out here with each other.” His blade struck the grass with an angry slash. “All I could do was cry the first few nights. It was the scariest thing, sleeping alone.”

  With a final swat, I managed to make contact with the buzzer and the noise stopped. Sleeping alone. I’d never thought about it before, and I realized I’d never slept alone. Every night of my life had been spent in the A-Frame, with Cubby sleeping above me for the past few years. Where would he sleep tonight?

  “Did you boys, ah…?” Blaze paused, his eyes on his feet as he forged ahead. “Did you know my Brother?”

  “Cole?” said Digger.

  I bit the inside of my cheek and looked to Av. He was kicking at the grass, and gave me a quick glance before he bent down to inspect something by his feet.

  “Yeah, we knew him,” said Digger.

  Blaze nodded and bit his lower lip. He looked like he was going to say something else, ask how Cole died maybe. It had been something with his insides; there was nothing Crow could do for him. He cried and screamed for days, no matter how many tonics Crow forced down his throat for the pain. Finally, he just stopped. But Blaze didn’t ask. Just one nod and that was it. If it had been Cubby, I wouldn’t ask either.

  Cubby. My stomach twisted at the thought of him out there by himself.

  Av stood up with some kind of root, giving it a careful sniff. “You ever run into anyone?” He gave it a lick then spat, tossing the root away. “Brothers, I mean.”