by Walsh, Sara
At least that was the plan. I’d barely lifted my foot when I was hauled back from the army of fire. Disoriented, and sprawled on the ground, I scrambled to my knees. Bromasta faced the sentinels, sword in his hand.
“Never, Elias!” he yelled over the roaring flames. “Turn your gaze from my daughter or I will take out your eyes.”
The Suzerain did not reply. He opened his arms and the line of sentinels parted. From Elias’s limbs, a fiery torrent flew at Bromasta. Through the smoke, I saw Bromasta go down.
A cry came from behind me and Sol, Delane, and Vermillion, her hair streaming like a river of blood, sprinted toward the battle, their figures blurry through the shimmering heat haze.
I could reach Bromasta first, if I could just get through the fire unscathed. Elias couldn’t take him—not like this. To protect us, he’d given up his chance to see his children grow. I couldn’t let him give up his life, too. I launched myself into the flames.
“DAD!”
Flames roared around us. They’d caught the sleeve of Bromasta’s shirt and had seared the hair on the side of his head. I bowled into his body, wrestling him back from the fire.
“Mia, no!” my father gasped.
I turned my back to the Suzerain, shielding Bromasta’s body, waiting for the moment of agony as my skin burst to flame. It didn’t come. Instead a deep cold spread from my neck and into my limbs. Sharper than biting ice, it coursed through me with the force of rushing white water. Not daring to let go of Bromasta, I felt the Solenetta’s power growing with each second. Voices sang from somewhere inside it. It was the song I’d heard at Malone’s, only this time I understood the words. It was the voice of Balia, the part of me inherited from my mother’s blood. It sang of the solens—the sunstones—birthed in the southern deserts. It wanted the heat. It drank the heat. It would not be conquered by flame.
Its words strengthened and guided me. Answering its call, I tore the Solenetta from my neck and held it out to the fire. Winds of flame coursed into the stones. The song of the Balians soared.
I wish I could say that I knew what I was doing, that deep down some understanding existed between me and the Solenetta. I couldn’t. I held on for dear life, bolstered by the knowledge that Bromasta had broken free of the flames. My father was safe.
The Suzerain’s furious roar shook the camp. Still the Solenetta absorbed the heat of his attack.
Bromasta’s voice rang out, “Finish it, Mia!”
I looked at Elias through the fire. I saw the sentinels frozen before him. My grip on the Solenetta loosened. My muscles relaxed. I envisioned the Suzerain consumed by his own fire.
The Solenetta heard me. A ball of vibrating light formed around my hand and the stones spat back the power that they had absorbed. A tornado of flames tore at Elias. His screams shook the hilltop. The sentinels exploded in a wave of ash. The wall of fire flared and then it, and the Suzerain, disappeared.
Stunned, I stared at the rings of charred grass where the army had just stood. Elias was gone. He was really gone. For good? I didn’t know. Dead? I had no clue. But he’d disappeared.
I fell back, the Solenetta dormant in my outstretched hand. Jay appeared beside me, his eyes wide with awe.
Unable to believe it was over, I waited for Elias to reappear. Slowly, I relaxed. It was over. The Solenetta was again just the Solenetta. No burns, no marks touched its surface. Its veins—my veins—glistened as always.
“I never knew it could do that!” said Delane.
“Me neither,” I replied.
Sol and Vermillion helped Bromasta to his feet.
“You’re hurt,” I said, rushing toward him. “He would have killed you.”
Smoke wafted from Bromasta’s arm, the skin on one side of his face painfully scorched. “But for you,” he replied. He held out his hand to shake, just as I’d done to call our truce in Vermillion’s kitchen.
I stared at Bromasta’s outstretched hand, picturing Jay triumphantly riding our father’s shoulders after the battle. I remembered the goofy portrait of me that he carried in his worn notebook. I’d always thought of fathers in terms of what they did, ticking off the points for every good deed—holidays, birthdays, cheering from the bleachers at soccer and baseball. But Bromasta had never been there for me or Jay through any of that time. Instead he’d given us a chance to live, had thanklessly devoted himself to keeping us safe, while he’d stayed here alone to fight for Brakaland. I saw his sacrifices as if they lay in his outstretched hand.
“You want to shake?” I said. I laughed. “Are you kidding me?”
I threw myself into my father’s arms.
We stayed that way for the longest time. In three days I’d gone from hating a man I’d never known to embracing my own flesh and blood. He was real and he was my dad—I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.
“We should move,” said Delane. “Those fireworks are sure to bring out more guards.”
Then this was it. I pulled away from Bromasta. “You all have to get out of here,” I said. “Quickly.”
“Let’s see you safely back first,” Bromasta replied.
Vermillion headed off to where she’d ushered the boys to safety at the base of the second hill. I looked for Sol. He’d hung back since Elias had vanished, and hadn’t spoken a word. Now he’d taken charge of Jay, leading him toward Vermillion and the other boys, Delane jogging to catch up with them. Time ticked away.
“I can’t stay,” I said, as I walked with Bromasta. I wasn’t sure who I was trying to persuade.
“Nor should you,” he replied. “You have a life elsewhere.”
“I mean, what would I even do here?” I added, unable to take my eyes off Sol. “I can’t fight. All that with Elias was just a fluke.”
Bromasta stopped me with a touch on the arm. “Mia, you have the hardest job of all of us,” he said. “You have to guard the Solenetta. You have to take care of Jaylan.”
“And you?”
“Back west there’s much to be done,” he replied. “Elias is gone, but I doubt if it’s for good. We must press this advantage. And quickly.”
Sol would probably go there too; they’d waited so long for an opportunity like this.
“You have the parler stone,” said Bromasta. “Petraeus will show you how to use it.”
“I’ll use it,” I promised.
“I’m proud of you, Mia, whether that means anything to you or not.”
“It means a lot. I’ll try not to blow it.”
“You won’t,” said Bromasta. “Of that I am quite certain.” He smiled, a proper smile, as wide as the one he’d offered to Jay. “Now go and be with your friends. We can’t linger for long. Delane was right—more guards are certain to arrive.”
Jay had turned back for Bromasta. I passed him as I hurried to catch up to the others. That was one good-bye I didn’t want to see. “Quick as you can,” I said. “We’ve got to move.”
By the time I’d reached the base of the second hill, Sol was already marching the kids up to the arch. I half hoped, half wondered if he was trying to avoid saying good-bye as much as I was. Paranoid that I’d start the Equinox before we spoke, I tucked the Solenetta, which was still in my hand, safely into my jacket pocket. Vermillion and Delane waited for me at the bottom of the hill.
“Ready?” asked Delane, when I reached them.
“I think so. Take care of yourself.”
Delane grinned. “Never. Don’t forget about us.”
“As if that’s humanly possible. Let’s hug it out before I cry.” I pulled him in, my Brakaland buddy, the guy Sol had thought had meant more to me than just an amazing friend. Looking back, it was insane.
Our hug complete, I hung back for Jay, who brought up the rear with Bromasta. They walked hand in hand, Jay chattering away about something I couldn’t hear. Jay’s face was upturned, the look in his eyes almost starstruck. I hated to break their moment.
“Ready?” I said, offering my hand to Jay.
He did
n’t take it. He shuffled closer to Bromasta, his gaze cast to the ground.
“Jay, I know it’s hard,” I said, hating to see him this way. “But we have to go.”
Jay looked up, frowning, his hand tight in Bromasta’s grip. “I want to stay.”
Nothing that had happened could have prepared me for those words. Of course Jay would come home with me; I’d come here to rescue him, the thought of him safely back in Crownsville was the only thing that had kept me sane.
“Jay, you can’t,” I protested. “You’ve got school.”
Jay’s mouth set and I knew it meant trouble.
“Jay,” I warned. I looked to Bromasta for help.
“Mia is right,” said Bromasta, softly. “It’s too dangerous here. You have to go with your sister.”
“But I don’t want to go back,” said Jay. He held tight to Bromasta’s arm. “Dad, I want to stay with you.”
As soon as Jay said those words, the look on Bromasta’s face changed. He’d been soft with Jay yet, at the same time, serious and firm. Now he looked as he had when we’d spoken of my mother in Vermillion’s kitchen. I caught tears welling in his eyes and panicked that all the emotion of being apart from his son was about to be released.
“Jay,” I said. “Let me talk to Bromasta alone, okay?”
“I’m not leaving!”
“Jay,” I said. “Please.”
Jay shuffled reluctantly toward the other boys at the arch.
“This can’t happen,” I said to Bromasta, as soon as Jay was out of earshot. “You have to make him understand.”
“I’m not certain he can understand.”
“Just think about it. What on earth would you even do with him?”
Bromasta sighed. He looked to Jay with a distant expression on his face. “I’d take him north,” he said, as if he wasn’t even sure himself. “Solander’s soldiers protect the land there. It’s well-guarded. Safe.”
“But then what?”
Bromasta’s eyes softened. It was as if he saw it, he and Jay together, a reality he’d never considered possible, now in his reach. “From there we’d head west,” he said, and nodded. “If we veer south at the mountains, we’d be far from Elias’s battlegrounds. From there we can reach Solander’s court.”
“But you said you didn’t want us at the court!”
“These days there are few places as safe as Solander’s court,” he replied. “I have friends there. Few, but loyal.”
I looked at Jay, who waited as if the whole world lay on his ten-year-old shoulders. I thought of his life in Crownsville—his baseball, his computer games, Stacey Ann Baker. He had all that, yet something always had been missing. All the kid wanted was to be with his father. Only in our family could that be like asking for the moon.
I paused, trying to conjure Bromasta’s vision of Jay growing up in the same way that Sol and Delane had in a king’s court. Was that what I wanted for him?
But when I thought of Sol and Delane, I realized that was exactly how I wanted Jay to be—brave, selfless, smart. I was certain that if Bromasta thought he could get Jay safely west, then safely west they’d go. And who better to protect Jay than the legendary Bromasta Rheinhold? Besides, was Crownsville really any safer? If Elias was alive, he knew about me. How long before he searched for us again?
My reservations collapsed beneath the weight of one simple realization: I couldn’t make Jay leave the two things he’d been searching for his whole life—Bromasta and Brakaland.
“I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this,” I whispered.
“If you have any doubts, Mia, then he will leave with you.”
“I don’t doubt you. I just . . .” I sighed and looked into my father’s eyes. “I don’t doubt you,” I repeated.
“Then I will break the news to Jaylan.”
Bromasta headed for Jay. I lingered for a second, trying to get my head around how quickly life had once again changed, trying to imagine a future in Crownsville without Jay. Bromasta had survived all these years without him. Somehow, I had to do the same.
I turned for the hill and then stopped.
Sol waited about six feet away. I didn’t know how long he’d been there, but as soon as I saw him, my heart raced. “You heard?”
“I heard.”
“Did I do the right thing?”
“He belongs with his father, Mia,” he said, approaching me. “This is a chance for that to finally happen.”
“I know,” I said, and meant it. “But would you trust Bromasta? With Jay, I mean.”
Sol responded with a subtle nod, his gaze never once leaving my face. He reached for my hand, our fingers linking, hands palm to palm.
“Then I guess that just leaves you and me.” I squeezed his hand as tightly as I could and battled the tears I knew were about to fall. “Sol, I . . .”
His fingers came to my chin and he gently raised my face to his. “Mia, I’m coming with you.”
I knew I’d heard him wrong. There was just no way. He was going to head west, like Bromasta, to press the advantage following Elias’s defeat.
“To Crownsville,” he said.
“You’re serious?” I whispered, still gripping his hand. “Please don’t tell me this is a joke.”
He smiled. “I don’t believe we’ve seen the end of Elias, Mia. His magic is powerful. Until I see his body, I won’t be convinced he’s gone. You need someone to look out for you, more than just Petraeus. At least until things calm down.”
Sol was coming with me to Crownsville! I wasn’t going to lose him. Not yet.
“We have to move, though,” he said. “Did you hear the horns?”
I hadn’t heard anything but Sol telling me he was coming back to Crownsville.
“They’re coming,” I said, regaining my senses. “Bromasta and Jay! They have to get out of here.”
We ran to the others where I scooped up Jay for the hug of a lifetime. “No swords,” I said, crushing him against me. “And no more kicking sentinels. I’m serious.”
“I’ll be good,” said Jay.
“And I’ll make certain of it,” added Bromasta. After seeing him take on the sentinels, I believed him. “Now go, Mia. You’ll hear from us. Often.”
Though I knew I’d done the right thing, letting go of Jay was hard. A horn blew.
“Contact Petraeus as soon as you’re safely away,” said Sol to Bromasta.
“The moment we’re clear of Orion,” Bromasta replied, his arm around Jay.
Sol and I walked to the arch. Smiling at the boys, I took the Solenetta from my pocket. “It’s time to go home.”
Colored mist swirled under the arch. The Equinox was beginning.
The others watched from the bottom of the hill. Orion, aflame from the light of the setting sun, stood far beyond. A brigade of mounted guardsmen tore across the land, dust churning in their wake.
“Barrier’s open, Mia,” said Sol. He stepped through the veil of brightening multicolored light that filled the archway, the boys at his side. They vanished.
My gaze settled on Bromasta and Jay. “Good-bye,” I whispered.
The Equinox strengthening, I slipped into the shimmering lights, and emerged in a field in the middle of nowhere.
* * *
The same sun lowered in the west. Brakaland was gone.
“I want my mom,” said Ben. “Where’s my mom?”
I wished I knew. I stared at the spot where Bromasta and Jay had last stood. There was no hill in sight. In fact, there was nothing but acres of browning pasture and a dilapidated barn in a neighboring field. Nevertheless, I pictured Bromasta and Jay, Vermillion and Delane, and the sentinels charging from Orion. Did they gallop west toward this very space in a world within a world?
“Mia, the Solenetta,” said Sol. “The Barrier won’t close while it’s in your hand.”
I spun around, aware of the lights, which spread rapidly into the sky. I pushed the Solenetta into my pocket. The Equinox retreated, the colors fading befo
re they finally disappeared as if absorbed by the early evening air.
The kids waited in a huddle, looking to us for the next move. Slowly it sank in that we were back. And in the middle of a field. In the middle of nowhere. With six kids who were depending on us to get them home. Six kids who had suddenly reappeared.
“We didn’t think this through,” I said. “Sol, what the hell am I going to tell the cops?”
“I’m thinking,” said Sol. His gaze rested on the barn in the neighboring field. “Tell them you were looking for Jay on the Ridge and that you were kidnapped too. That you found yourself here.” He pointed to the barn. “In there.”
“That’s my story.” I rolled my eyes.
“It’ll work,” he said.
I stared at the barn. It was half falling down, hardly the lair of the infamous Crownsville Kidnapper.
“Don’t mention me,” said Sol. “It’ll only confuse things.”
“And if the kids talk?”
“Who’d believe them?” he replied. “Especially if you stick to your story. Get them away from here. Make it look like you’ve escaped. Get a few miles and then call the police.”
“And what about you?” I asked. Sol was in his Brakaland gear, as out of place here as I felt.
“You can do it, Mia.” He kissed my forehead. For luck. “I’ll be waiting for you in Crownsville.”
There was nothing left but to put the plan into operation. I rallied the troops before leading them off across the field and toward what I hoped was civilization, all the time getting the boys straight on the story, warning them that no one would believe that they had been in Brakaland. After about a mile trek, we found a road. We followed it for a mile or so farther before we stopped. A sign stood on the grassy shoulder.
CROWNSVILLE: 60 MILES
Was that how far we’d come? Through Bordertown, the Wastes, the valley, Orion.
Sixty miles.
I took out my phone and placed a call. The cops picked us up twenty minutes later.
THIRTY-TWO
An hour passed. Then two. Then three. Still the cops did not release me. They entered in and out of the hospital’s private waiting room where I sat, a never-ending stream of nameless, frantic faces. Only Sheriff Burkett refused to leave my side. He’d arrived about an hour after we’d been picked up, astonished, almost bewildered by the news he’d picked up on the wire. Pete hadn’t reported me missing. Now word of my disappearance had exploded.
