Fire

by Rosie Scott

  “I regret ever befriending you,” I sobbed, nearly falling forward into his chest before stopping myself, disgusted.

  “Let him go, Kai,” Silas replied, despondent. “It is for the best.”

  “You betrayed us,” I replied, unable to keep the seething pain from my voice.

  “I saved you,” he retorted. “And I gave him a fighting chance. I did not bring the guards to him, like I promised your father. I may tell Sirius that I missed him, but I could still be held responsible. I did it for you.”

  I breathed shallowly, letting those words sink into my head painfully. It made sense, save for one detail. “You lied to him, and told him I was the one who would rat him out. I will never forgive you for that.”

  “You don't have to,” Silas replied, though his voice was pained. “I wanted him to run from you, Kai. Better him run from you than to have the entire world running after you. For as long as you are with him, you are a criminal.”

  More tears rose to replace the last bout. “That is not your decision to make,” I protested. “You are trying to control my life by deciding what is best for me. I am a grown woman, Silas, and we are no longer together. Leave me free to make my own decisions and mistakes.”

  Theron released his hold on me. I knew he was probably surprised to hear such personal conversation. He hadn't known until today that Silas and I had ever been romantically involved.

  Silas pulled away from what had been a mutual gaze. He looked heartbroken. I could tell, then, that despite everything, he still felt immensely for me. Perhaps jealousy had helped shape his intentions. Perhaps learning of my true parentage had caused him to want to have a relationship with me again, and he wanted to work toward that. But it was too late. I had changed too much, and we were headed down two very different paths.

  “I am sorry for intervening, Kai, and I am sorry for my harsh words to you in the past,” he finally said, his apology genuine. “The trip to Whispermere changed you, and it frightens me. A year ago, I would have never imagined you would want the things that you want now. I knew of your obsession with necromancy, but I always thought it was only an interest. You are willingly crossing legal lines left and right, and I do not know what to make of it.”

  “You are so worried about what is legal, Silas, that you are blind to what is moral. Necromancy can be used for good. You have seen that with Cerin.”

  “Cerin is one exception in a long list of others who have used it for ill,” the elf replied. “And besides, your father and all the other kingdoms of Chairel and beyond—they do not care about what is moral. You will be treated as a criminal for as long as necromancy is illegal.”

  “So I will work to make it legal,” I stated.

  Silas blinked at me a moment. “You cannot do that, Kai. You have no political power.”

  “Then I will take it.” I backed away from Silas, before looking to Theron. “Where is Nyx?”

  “She went to secure different lodging,” Theron replied. “She told me you were not willing to leave without speaking to Bjorn.”

  I nodded. I had told her that. Now that Cerin had went off on his own, I almost regretted saying it. I wanted to go after him, but that quest would have to be put on hold. Speaking to Bjorn came first. It was, after all, one of the reasons we had come here to begin with.

  Nyx came back to the inn hours later, just as the sun had started to set. Silas, Theron, and I were waiting for her at the bar, since we needed to free up the rooms for other guests.

  My friend hurried up to me, her eyes wide and flicking back and forth between us. I remembered then that Cerin had been at the inn when she left. Maybe she thought he'd been captured.

  “How did they capture Cerin?” Nyx demanded, in a panic.

  “They didn't. Silas lied to him and got him to leave on his own,” I explained, my tone bordering on depressed.

  “No,” Nyx protested, before reaching into a pocket of her armor and pulling out a folded piece of paper. She slammed it onto the bar before me, rushing through pulling it apart so we could see it.

  On the parchment was a spot-on sketch of Cerin's angled face. At the top was a hole, like the poster had been nailed to the side of a building before Nyx had torn it down. Across the bottom of the poster, in thick black ink, it stated:

  CAPTURED! Cerin Heliot.

  Charges: Necromancy, 76 counts of murder of Seran armed forces, 12 counts of abuse of a corpse, evading the law, practice of magic without proper license, refusal to follow official court summons.

  Sentence: DEATH.

  Execution: Guillotine, 13th of Dark Star, 417, at Seran University Court. Public welcome.

  The paper began to shake. I wasn't sure why until I realized I was holding it, so I let it go. It drifted to the bar below me. “Nyx...” I murmured, my voice weak.

  “What?”

  “What is the date today?” I asked her, my eyes on the execution date.

  “The tenth,” she replied, sounding just as forlorn as I felt.

  I stared at the sketch of Cerin, imagining him sitting in a dark dungeon cell with nothing but a straw mat on which to sleep. I felt broken. I had warned him this could happen. Too many of the soldiers knew his face, and perhaps even knew of his presence with us here before we'd been summoned to the court. Even still, I felt responsible. I felt Silas was partially responsible.

  I swallowed hard, feeling fear for the second time in what had been a long day. “We have work to do.”

  Twenty

  “Nyx, what did you find?”

  Nyx spread out a hastily drawn map onto the bed. I reached out and held down a corner when the paper began to roll back up. My eyes darted around the markings my friend had made on it with charcoal.

  One dark finger pointed to the top right of the map, where a line was drawn from the center of the map to the border. “This is a river that flows all the way from Sera to the Servis Ocean,” she explained, swiping her finger upward to the ocean. “There is an underground stream that flows from the mountains and into Sera's water system, and they reroute it from there to take sewage to the ocean to be dumped. Here,” she added, pointing to a circle at the end of the river closest to Sera, “is a sewer gate that separates the underground river from the above ground river. It is the same gate I used to enter the university six years ago, on my mission to kill you.”

  “Does it require a key?” I asked her.

  “Oh, honey, you don't need keys when you have me,” she teased. “They haven't changed the lock. It's still as easy to pick as the first time. I tried it tonight—obviously, because I got inside.” Nyx swiped her fingertip to a set of boxes farther up the line underground. “These are water treatment rooms. Water is heated here to purify it in these huge vats. When I was there, there were maybe four, five people working. The vats are huge enough that you can avoid the workers just by using clever timing.

  “There are steps here,” Nyx continued, moving her finger along, “that will take us to the castle storage. Ales, dry foods, all that fun stuff. There was no one here when I was just there, but since it's directly connected to the kitchen, we'll eventually come across some chefs or other types of food service workers.”

  “How easy is it to avoid them?” Silas asked, standing beside me, watching over the map with folded arms.

  “Easy for me. For three or four people?” Nyx shrugged. “We'll do what we have to do.”

  “We cannot kill innocents,” Silas said in protest.

  “And we'll try not to,” Nyx replied, looking up to him. “We can let them go, tie them up. It doesn't really matter to me. But if someone gets feisty, I'm going to defend myself.”

  I didn't want this to turn into another argument. We didn't have the time. “Go on,” I prodded.

  “From the kitchen comes a hall,” Nyx went on, dragging her finger horizontally across the map. “At the end of this hallway comes the dead end of another. The same hall that leads all the way out to the university's entrance and gathering room.”

&
nbsp; I nodded. “I know where that's at.” I pointed at where the two hallways dead-ended into each other. “The dungeon is here,” I said, tapping my finger at the end of the hallway.

  “It is,” Nyx agreed. “This'll be our biggest issue. Getting from the kitchen to the dungeon and defeating the guards. One of them—if not multiple of them—will hold the keys to the cells. The two hallways we need to travel to get to it are often traveled and lead to areas with lots of foot traffic. The probability of being caught in the act is high. If that happens, one or two of us will have to go into the dungeons alone while the others fight just outside to hold them off. Thankfully, once we have Cerin out of his cell, it's pretty much a straight shot from the dungeon back through to the sewers, where we'll be fifteen minutes or so away from the main gates of Sera at the front of the city that our only resistance should be from the castle itself.”

  “You did a good job getting all this info,” I told my friend, thankful for her.

  “Oh, it was fun. It's been awhile since I've gone creeping around like that. Nearly forgot how much of a rush it gives me,” Nyx admitted. “And besides, Cerin's one of us. The only regret I'll have is not being able to see Sirius's face when he realizes he's escaped.”

  I swallowed a lump of anxiety. If he escapes. If we pull this off.

  Silas turned toward the door of our room, then, perhaps going to his own. The inn Nyx had found for us to stay after The Hung HorsemINN wasn't any better in terms of location or clientele, but it had worked last night. We would be staying here tonight, but had no plans to stay again. Tomorrow was the twelfth, and it would be the last day we could help Cerin escape before he was led to the gallows. And the day of our attempted jailbreak would also be the last day we ever expected to be in Sera, given our attempt would make us outlaws from the city for life.

  “Silas?” I asked.

  The elf stopped, but did not turn back around.

  “Off to bed so soon?”

  “I am going to get a drink,” he replied, before leaving the room, and clicking the door shut behind him.

  When I pulled my attention back from the door, I found Nyx watching me with her black eyes. As we heard Silas's footsteps disappear down the hall, she said, “He will not be with us. You know this, right?”

  I ground my teeth together in worry. “I have figured it, yes. Has he said anything to you?”

  “You know Silas does not speak to me alone if he can help it,” she replied, her eyes falling back over the map, studying it distractedly. “Besides, I think he resents me for our arguments near the Seran Forest.”

  “I am surprised he has not left us yet,” I admitted. I had gone through many emotions over the past few days when it came to Silas. At some point over the past few moons I had fallen out of love with him, but I still greatly treasured him as a friend. Our argument at the inn after the incident with Cerin had irrevocably harmed even that. On one hand, I knew I could not change him or the strained relationship we'd ended up with. On the other, I was heavily mourning the loss of someone I thought would always be there. It was like mourning a death, because that is what it was. The death of a close friendship, and the death of an entire chapter of my life.

  “I think he feels guilty over causing this,” Nyx suggested. Though she had missed our argument, I had told her everything that had happened. “If he hadn't have lied to Cerin about you to get him to flee, we would have planned our departure much better, and he'd probably be with us now. What we're planning on doing is pretty dangerous, and it might end in fighting and loss of life. He will feel partially responsible for that. He might be struggling with deciding to help us or not.”

  Two sets of boot steps came up the hallway, then, so the conversation between Nyx and I tapered off. A knock came at the door.

  “Come in,” I called out.

  The door opened. There Bjorn was, nearly filling in the doorway with his bulk. Out of all of the people I expected, I hadn't expected Bjorn. Especially after all that had happened. Nevertheless, just his presence made me immediately happy, like all was suddenly well.

  I was in his arms before I even had recollection of jumping up from the bed. He held me close to his chest, nearly crushing me, and I didn't care. I welcomed it.

  He kissed my hair. “I am so, so sorry, my girl,” he murmured.

  I laughed, but it was thick and awkward from through a sob that otherwise would have stayed hidden. “For what?”

  “For everything, love. For not being able to come sooner, for hearing of your adventures through Terran before you could tell me. For all of the awful, awful things your father said to you.” He pulled back from me, and his hazel eyes switched back and forth between my own. “And for not realizing his true nature. If I had known he had tried to have you killed, I would have scooped you up myself and taken you far away from here.”

  How I wished he had. “He is not my father, Bjorn,” I stated.

  Bjorn nodded, his large hands rubbing my upper arms affectionately. “I wouldn't let him have that title either, my girl.”

  “Since the title is open, maybe you could take it,” I offered. It sounded so juvenile. I was an adult woman; looking for a father figure shouldn't have been a priority. Still, I justified it by reminding myself that I'd always had that father figure. I just hadn't asked him for permission to call him as such.

  Bjorn slowly came to understand my meaning, and he pulled me in for another hug, just as tears swelled in his eyes. “I feel like it's been mine for years. I stole it a long time ago.”

  I laughed through tears as we hugged again. “Nobody stopped you,” I teased him, light-heartedly. We hugged for so long, both crying into each other's clothing, that even Nyx had tears in her eyes as she watched us embrace from the bed. I think it was the first time I'd ever seen her come close to crying.

  It was a long time before we parted, but when we did, Bjorn dropped a thick brass key into my palm. I looked up at him through hurting eyes. “What is this?”

  “The key to the dungeons, love,” he replied.

  Bjorn couldn't have known how much that meant to me. Or maybe he did, and that's why he did it. Either way, I had expected Bjorn to love me no matter what, because he'd always done that. I did not expect him to support my choice in companions, or to automatically assume we were planning to break into the very dungeons he helped to regulate.

  “How did you know we were planning this?” I asked him.

  “Because I know you do what you believe is right, and I believed you when you argued for Cerin in the court. You're not going to let that man die if you can help it. Plus, he saved my girl's life.” Bjorn smiled at me.

  “Have you...spoken to him?” I asked, because I knew he would often go to the dungeons.

  “I did. Briefly, between guard shifts. I told him who I was. I thanked him for his service to you, and told him how you fought for him in front of Sirius's court at the risk of your own life.”

  “What did he say?” I asked, desperate.

  “Not much. He broke down and cried. Said he was sorry. I wasn't sure if that was directed to me or you.”

  I nodded, understanding. I couldn't imagine the emotions he must have been going through, particularly if he thought his last words ever to me were mostly negative, as they were. “Did you tell him you would help him escape?”

  “No. I don't want to do anything to sabotage you or him...and besides, I don't know his mindset. Prisoners can get loopy before they die. The last thing I needed was him rambling about escape.” Bjorn hesitated. “He has my permission, by the way.”

  I frowned. “For what?”

  “For marrying you. I could tell you were falling in love with him when you spoke of him at court.” He paused, taking note of my shocked face. I heard Nyx laughing hysterically at the situation behind me. “Am I incorrect?”

  I couldn't help but chuckle out of both embarrassment and because Nyx's laughter was contagious. “I...I mean, I care for him. Deeply. But nothing has happened between us y
et. He does not trust easily. I would want nothing more than something like that with him, but...” I trailed off, and smacked Bjorn's wrist playfully. “Marriage is far off, Bjorn!”

  “I apologize, love.” He chuckled heartily. “Maybe I should have said nothing at all. You don't need my permission, anyway. You wouldn't wait around for it if ever the time came. You've always forged your own path in life.”

  “It is what has caused me the most trouble,” I lamented.

  “Speaking of getting into trouble, there's one more thing about the escape,” Bjorn said. “I cannot control the soldiers throughout the university, but I have studied the schedule of those who work the dungeons. Tell me when you plan to go, and I will do my best to clear it of guards.”

  I frowned. “How will you do that?”

  “Easily. You tell the soldiers working that their relief is coming early, and you tell the soldiers on the next shift to come in later.”

  I nodded. “Okay. Well, we plan on going tomorrow evening. We'll be entering through the sewers about sunset.” I hesitated. “If there are no guards, how will we open the cell?”

  “There is always a set of keys hanging on a peg above the desk,” Bjorn replied. “They're on a loop of metal. The keys are in order of cells from end to end.”

  “And the desk is...” Nyx trailed off, attempting to remember from her own stint in the dungeons.

  “As soon as you go through the dungeon door and to your left,” he answered.

  Nyx snapped her fingers. “Ah, that's right.”

  “I want to ask you something,” I said to Bjorn, watching as Silas passed by in the hallway, back from the bar.

  “What is it?”

  “Will you leave Sera with us?”

  The large man exhaled, the breath whistling through his lips. “I am sworn to serve your father—” Bjorn paused, thought over his words, and continued, “—Sirius until I am sixty. I have three years left to go before my retirement. Leaving before then would count as a dereliction of duty.”

  “Let me rephrase, then. Would you come with us if we were to return to Sera in three years?”