The Boys of Fire and Ash

by Meaghan McIsaac

  “This…Beginning,” I said. Blaze watched me as I tried to figure out what I wanted to ask. “It’s a people?”

  Blaze sighed. “It’s more like an idea.” He rubbed his neck and looked down at his feet.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I told you it’s not so easy out here,” he said with a sad smile. He turned back to the rolling hills and headed out towards the Baublenotts.

  This was how Blaze liked to talk, lots of words but never saying anything. It was frustrating, and I was getting tired of him just telling me what I felt was only part of the whole story. “Hey,” I barked, making him stop. “But what is it?”

  He clicked his tongue obnoxiously, staring up at the Shibotsa for what seemed like hours. Then finally: “You have Rawley, right? He’s a real Brother, right?”

  I nodded, and Digger and Av joined me.

  “Have you ever met him?”

  Digger laughed. “He’s been dead forever. No one’s met him.”

  Blaze looked to Digger. “So how do you know he’s real?”

  “B-because,” Digger said, “because he’s Rawley. Because he was the First Brother. He just did…”

  “But you’ve never seen him, right? You don’t know.”

  “He’s dead,” I said, annoyed that Blaze was doing his confusing talk again. “We just know.”

  “No,” Blaze said. “You don’t know. Not really.”

  “What’s your point?” Everything that came out of his mouth was frustrating, like he thought we were stupid.

  “My point is, the Beginning is lots of people’s Rawley story. It’s something they tell themselves they know.”

  Untouched. That was what he called me when he sat down on my cot. He was right. Everything in this world outside the Pit was so confusing, so frustrating, so loud. How could any Brother survive on his own? My stomach twisted. How could Cubby? He was so small, so kind. This world was too ugly for him, and now he’d seen it. If I got him back, would he even still be like he was?

  I quickened my pace and followed after Blaze. I had to get him back, and do it fast.

  TEN

  We stalked the fringes of the Baublenotts for hours, back and forth, while Blaze prodded the waterlogged earth, humming and hawing, deciding on the safest entrance to the still marsh.

  I was losing my patience with him. This was taking too long.

  Av and Digger sat together on a large slab of rock with their heads in their hands, bored and tired, while I paced around, unable to hold still.

  Blaze stopped in front of a large pool of water and sank the large stick he’d been walking with for the hundredth time. The stick stopped halfway, and Blaze pushed and wiggled it cautiously.

  “Well?” I asked.

  Blaze ignored me and stared ahead into the green swamp. The sun was almost gone, the water still as glass, large rocks and vegetation poking out in patches.

  Blaze stepped into the pool and he sank up to his knees. He prodded again with the stick, then cautiously took another step.

  Av perked up and watched Blaze hopefully, while Digger’s head bobbed as he fought sleep.

  “Can we go now?” I pressed.

  Blaze kept on ignoring me. He was silent and watchful, staring into the marsh.

  “Nope.”

  Av sighed, resting his chin back in his hands.

  Restless, I slid down the muddy bank to the edge of the pool.

  “Blaze!” I barked, crouched in the mud behind him.

  He whipped his head around and shot me a vicious look, a finger to his lips, then went back to watching the dead marsh.

  “Blaze,” I whispered, “this is as good a place as any! Let’s just go!”

  Blaze poked at the floor of the pool again, then nodded.

  “Yeah,” he said. “We’ll go in this way.”

  I let myself collapse in the mud with a breath of relief. “Thank Rawley.”

  Blaze hoisted himself out, back onto the bank, and walked over to Av and Digger’s rock. Digger was now fast asleep and Blaze smacked the back of his head. Startled, Digger yelped as he fell off the rock.

  “Have a bite and we’re on our way,” Blaze instructed.

  I sat up. “You’re kidding!”

  “Uh, no.”

  “No, no, no,” I said, scrambling to my feet. “There’s no time to forage or hunt for food. If you see something as we go, fine. But we can’t stop; you took hours finding a way in!”

  “No one’s foraging,” he said, pulling out the spongy golden bricks he’d taken from the boy in Abish Village.

  He broke off a huge crumbly piece of the first and stuffed it in his mouth, then handed a piece to Digger, who waited with an outstretched, greedy hand.

  He handed a piece to Av, who sniffed at it suspiciously.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Some kind of Abish cake,” said Blaze through stuffed cheeks. He threw me the other brick and I caught it. I broke off a small piece and sniffed. The smell, different and spicy but still nice, made my ravenous stomach growl. I was starving. I looked at Av. He had taken a bite and didn’t seem to be enjoying it, his face scrunched up as he chewed.

  I touched it lightly to my tongue. It was pleasantly sweet. I popped the piece into my mouth. I’d never tasted anything so sweet or moist. What was Av so repulsed about? I took a huge bite out of the brick.

  “It’s just flour and sugar,” Blaze went on. “Some egg in there, bit of wolf urine.”

  I choked and spat it out.

  “What?”

  “Oh, I doubt there’s any real wolf urine in there,” he laughed. Relieved, I went back to eating. “Abish have all kinds of cakes for different things, sell them to outsiders as remedies for heartache, bad luck, and such. Wolf urine supposedly makes people strong, agile, fearless. With the war going on they sell tons to frightened soldiers and their worried families.”

  I took another giant bite, but Av was still unconvinced.

  “I doubt the Abish risk taking on a wolf every day to make cakes that they only sell for a couple of silver pieces,” said Blaze, and I nodded in agreement. “Probably just take it from local dogs.”

  I stopped mid-chew and glared at Blaze.

  “It’s good for you,” he said, then winked.

  “What’s a soldier?” asked Digger as I wrestled with my painful hunger and the sudden urge to gag.

  “Soldier?” said Blaze. “It’s a person who, I dunno, fights for…whatever someone important tells them to, I guess.”

  “Fights what?” said Av.

  “Other soldiers.” Blaze was shifting in his seat. “Other soldiers who are doing whatever some other important person told them to.”

  “Why would they do that?” asked Digger.

  Blaze was quiet a minute, struggling to figure out an answer. I watched him scratch his neck for the hundredth time that day, and caught sight of a blue mark on his skin, half hidden by his shirt. The blue was bright and rich; I’d never seen such a color on skin.

  “Put it this way,” he said finally. “Let’s say you met Rawley, the First Brother.”

  “I told you, he’s dead,” said Digger.

  Blaze rolled his eyes. “If he wasn’t dead. Say he came to you and told you his Mother was coming to the Pit, to take over, and he needed your help to fight her. Would you do it?”

  “Yes,” said Digger. Av and I nodded.

  “That’s a soldier,” said Blaze.

  “Someone who helps Rawley?” asked Digger.

  “No,” said Blaze. “They’ve all got their own Rawleys.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  Blaze sighed. We were exhausting him with questions, and I felt nervous that there was so much we didn’t know.

  “Look,” he said. “For some soldiers, the Beginning is their Rawley…and for others the Beginning is their Rawley’s Mother.”

  I didn’t understand, and by the look on Av’s and Digger’s faces they didn’t either. This Beginning, this idea, was growing more fr
ightening all the time. How could it be so awful to one person, how could it take away Cubby, and still be as good as Rawley to someone else?

  Blaze was facing the still marsh, his pale blue eyes looking like they did the night he’d been sleepwalking—looking inside, not out. I watched as his hand slowly reached for his belt, where the flint box had once been, only to remember it wasn’t there. He scratched at the blue mark on his neck again, almost like he had to whenever he talked about the Beginning. A question rolled around in my mouth, begging me to ask it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

  “What’s the Beginning to you?” I asked.

  Slowly he looked at me and I glanced at his neck. He moved his hand away and got up, but it was too late, he knew I’d seen it.

  “It’s nothing to me,” he said. “I don’t care either way.” He picked up his stick, slid down the muddy bank, and stood beside the first pool. “Should we get moving here or what?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. He was lying. He had to be. The Beginning was something to him. A big something. Even if he refused to admit it.

  Shoving the last piece of Abish urine cake in my mouth, I got up and followed. Av threw his cake away and slid down the bank, while Digger yawned and stretched, reluctantly joining us.

  “Here’s the deal,” said Blaze. “You step where I step, nowhere else.”

  We nodded.

  “I mean it. There’re sinkholes, caverns, black water. Only step where I step.”

  We nodded.

  “You do what I do. If I start running, you run. If I hide, you hide. Exactly what I do. If I start running in circles singing ‘Wamby the Wiggly Wooga,’ you’d better be doing the same.”

  Digger snorted.

  “And keep quiet. We don’t want to attract any attention.”

  “From what?” asked Av.

  “Anything.”

  Blaze turned his back on us and slid into the pool.

  I looked out on the marsh and the still, quiet surface of the water was no longer sleepy and dull, but alive, waiting for me. I thought of the Hotpots, of how dangerous they were, but at least they didn’t lie. Their orange glow and intense heat gave you fair enough warning. If you were dumb enough to get too close, well, the Hotpot did its best to tell you not to. But these quiet pools, they kept their dangers secret.

  Blaze, watching me standing on the bank, nodded for me to follow and I let my foot sink into the water, a nagging itch overtaking my palm where the Abish girl had touched me.

  The water was freezing, and a jolt of pain from my Tunrar wound rippled up my thigh like a cold burn. My bare feet met the bottom, swallowed by several inches of mud. I had to wrench my foot with every step to dislodge it and my calves quickly started to ache.

  Every five steps there was new terrain. The water would drift around my ankles at one moment, next thing I’d be up to my waist. Large slabs of pink-speckled rock sat in random places, shrubs growing on and around them. Blaze would carefully lead us across slippery surfaces, pointing out the crevices—large black gaps in the rock that led down to nothing but darkness.

  Everything was damp and wet, even the air, and I felt a chill seeping into my bones as the night washed over us. Av walked behind me, his teeth chattering. The Ikkuma Pit was hot, sticky. Its air pressed against your skin, engulfed you, hugged you. In the Baublenotts, the air was different: thin and cold, unwelcoming.

  Something howled in the distance and my heart stopped.

  “Tunrar?” I whispered.

  “Wolf,” said Blaze and Digger at the same time.

  We moved on in silence. The disturbed water laughed at me as we waded through, the pools of the Baublenotts giggling at our weary effort. I shivered.

  “Hey,” whispered Digger. “Wait.”

  Av and I turned to see what his problem was, but Blaze kept going, prodding at the ground before taking a step.

  “There’s something behind us,” said Digger, looking back the way we’d come.

  Av and I watched.

  The marsh was well lit by the moon; silver light reflected off the still water. There was nothing to see but rock and vegetation.

  “You’re fine, Digger,” sighed Av, turning miserably to follow Blaze.

  Digger looked back at me. “I was hearing something, a person. I’m sure of it.”

  I shrugged and motioned at him to follow.

  He jerked but didn’t move.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  He ignored me, shifting his hip awkwardly and scowling at the water.

  “I can’t—” He twisted his knobby legs. “My feet are stuck.”

  I looked back to Blaze and Av. They weren’t far ahead but they were still moving.

  “Twist them out,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  “I’m trying!” Digger snapped.

  I sighed and walked back to him. It was only four steps, but I was so tired that I cursed at the knowledge that it was four steps I’d have to take again.

  “Gimme your arm,” I said.

  Annoyed, Digger slapped the water. “What the Mother is that gonna help, Urgs? You need to grab a leg.”

  I didn’t like his tone and considered leaving him there. I settled for splashing him instead, and smirked as he growled. I bent down and grabbed a leg, the water swallowing me up to my neck.

  “Ready? Go.”

  I pulled as Digger wiggled; we both grunted with the effort.

  We heard Blaze whistle and stopped.

  Av and Blaze had their attention to the west. Blaze pointed to his ear and Digger and I listened.

  There was a faint whispering noise, or a sizzle. I’d never heard anything like it but it was coming our way.

  The sound surged, then grew faint, another surge, then faint. Digger and I watched Blaze.

  The whispers suddenly became a loud, violent hiss, and Blaze threw his stick and took off running as best he could, Av hot on his heels.

  “Come on!” I yelled at Digger.

  I tugged and jerked at his caught leg and it trembled with his own desperate effort to pull it free. He grabbed onto me to steady himself as he strained, his fingernails digging into my back, begging me not to leave him.

  With a sudden jerk the leg came free and I fell back into the pool, submerged up to my neck. Digger grabbed me and hauled me to my feet.

  The two of us trudged after them, frantically searching for Av and Blaze. They were gone, and I had no idea where Blaze had stepped, but the hissing was louder, closer—I couldn’t worry about his path.

  The water was so deep and thick with mud that we were getting nowhere fast, and I thought my pounding heart would burst from my chest any moment.

  I stopped and grabbed the nearest log for support. I clutched my chest and gulped in the damp night air.

  There was no sign of Blaze ahead. To the west, a small cloud was closing in, the hissing sound coming with it.

  Digger leaped out of the water onto a giant hill of pink rock. He reached out for me and I grabbed his arm. He hauled me up and we ran.

  Legs free from the mud and water, it felt like flying.

  Digger was in front, yelling at me to move faster.

  I tried. I pumped my legs and nearly slipped a dozen times on the slimy, wet rock.

  Digger let out a scream and disappeared down a crevice in front of me.

  Before I could stop myself, I felt the rock beneath me disappear and I fell too.

  I caught the edge of the rock.

  My arms trembled and it was all I could do to hang on. I tried to pull myself up but my body couldn’t do it.

  “Digger!” I screamed.

  I heard him below me whimpering in pain.

  “My leg!” he called. “I think I broke my leg!”

  The hissing was louder. I couldn’t turn around, but I knew what I’d see. The cloud was coming.

  “Blaze!” I shrieked.

  I tried to pull myself up again and cried out as I nearly lost my grip.

  I closed my eyes ti
ght and saw Cubby’s face, his body trapped in the arms of the Tunrar, his little hands desperately reaching out for me.

  “BLAZE!” I shrieked again.

  It was then I heard a familiar roar and wondered if I’d dreamed it.

  I hadn’t. A pair of hands grabbed my arm and pulled.

  Digger had definitely been seeing someone.

  “Gotcha!” said a voice.

  I opened my eyes and saw the big ugly face I thought I’d never be happy to see.

  “Fiver?”

  Fiver pulled me out of the crevice and I gripped onto him, hugging him for the first time in all our lives together.

  Av and Blaze were rushing towards us, Av nearly stopping mid-sprint when he saw Fiver.

  “Come on!” Blaze yelled.

  The cloud was even closer, and I knew what it was now: an angry swarm of some kind of insect.

  I ignored Blaze and threw myself to the ground to look into the dark hole for Digger. I couldn’t see him.

  “Move it, Useless!” Fiver begged.

  “Digger!” I cried. I reached frantically into the darkness. “Can you grab my hand?”

  The swarm was nearly on us, dancing and pulsing. Fiver grabbed me and pulled me back. I saw the cloud, black up close, its angry din numbing my ears. We ran down the slope of the stone towards Av and Blaze, and I turned my head back every three seconds to the swarm.

  Av grabbed me when I reached him, my legs nearly giving out.

  The thick swarm hovered over the crevice.

  “Urgle!” Digger shrieked. “Come back! Urgle!”

  “Digger!”

  Blaze jumped on top of me, his hand covering my mouth.

  The swarm disappeared into the crevice and Digger began shrieking, screaming.

  “What’s happening?” Av demanded.

  “They’re eating him,” said Blaze.

  I struggled under Blaze and he let me up.

  Av, Fiver, and I ran to help Digger, his wails of agony carving into my brain.

  We stood at the edge, staring into black, hopeless, the crackling hiss of the swarm mixing with the shrieks of Digger.

  He wasn’t calling for me anymore, he wasn’t even saying words, just screaming, screaming, and I had to get him out.

  “Help me!” I said, grabbing Av by the arm, steadying myself as I tried to climb down to get to him.