by Sarah Fine
And then he was in the water. Malachi and I caught Ana as she tried to dive after him, and Treasa crouched low and reached for Takeshi’s hands, which were clinging to the wet stone. In a moment suspended in time, he turned his face upward and looked at Ana. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but the river had other ideas. It ripped him from the rocky shore and into its white embrace.
Within a few moments, he was gone.
SEVENTEEN
FOR A MOMENT, I was stunned into stillness, but then Ana’s shrieking brought me back. Treasa was holding her against the cliff wall, and one of the Tanner’s stout men, who had been in front, was shouting at Ana to calm down. But her face was twisted with pain and panic. Malachi’s arm was steel around my body, and I knew he wanted to get to her, but it was impossible unless we wanted to risk losing more people to the rushing water.
The hard-muscled man ahead of Ana began to drag her while Treasa wisely stripped her of the knives at her thighs. She probably saved the man’s life, because Ana was reaching for them a second later, desperate to get free. She’d totally lost her mind, and I couldn’t blame her. I steadied Treasa when Ana kicked her in the leg, making her falter. We all inched along, and for many tense moments, the only sounds in my head were the water and Ana’s cries.
After what seemed like ages, we reached an alcove of sorts, a salt cave that was relatively dry, studded with crystals that reflected the weak lantern light as we pressed ourselves into it and collapsed. Malachi edged past me and gathered the sobbing Ana in his arms. She grasped his neck as he held her shaking body against his. The Tanner’s people, men and women alike, looked genuinely regretful, if puzzled by the intensity of Ana’s reaction. I was reminded of what Takeshi had said, how rare love was in this city. How cheap life was, and how common misery and suffering were. But Ana—she’d lost her Takeshi. Again. He’d been carried away while she watched, powerless. And one look at the river told me he didn’t stand much of a chance. I tried not to picture his slender body pressed against the wall of the dome while the water flowed through it. Drowning for eternity.
I shuddered and lowered myself to the floor of the cave. I wanted to comfort Ana, but Malachi was handling it. His hand cradled her head, holding it to his chest. He gave me a sidelong glance so full of sorrow that it brought tears to my eyes. He’d lost Takeshi, too. Knowing Malachi, he was probably thinking there was something he could have done.
After a few minutes, the Tanner knelt in front of the three of us. He waited for Ana to pull herself together and notice him, which she did remarkably quickly, wiping her tears and releasing Malachi.
“We’re going to rest here for a while. Bed down and gather your energy,” the Tanner said. “Then we’ll make a push and try to get to the palace.” He held a metal object in the light of a lantern. It was a simple metal pocket watch, but not with numbers on it. There was only one hand, and only two hours were marked. Where the twelve and the six could usually be found, it said F and B.
He let us examine it for a moment. The hand had passed the B. “It’s just after the black hour, when the Mazikin are most active. We can rest until here.” He pointed to a spot where the nine should have been. “And then we’ll try to arrive at the palace before the fire hour.” He pointed to the F.
I nodded to show that I understood, trying not to make a face as his breath blew toward me. I had smelled a lot of foul things since arriving in the city, but this dude’s breath? The worst thing ever. It was a strange combination of rot and sewage, and it matched his black teeth perfectly. He turned to Ana. “Shame about the Guard,” he said, then retreated deeper into the cave, beckoning for Treasa to join him.
I leaned around Malachi and looked at Ana. “What can we do?”
She shook her head. Her gaze on me was dark and intense. “Follow through with the plan,” she said, her voice flat. “And hope for the best. I will never give up.”
I will never give up. It was what Takeshi had said to her.
“Get some sleep, you two,” she continued. “And make each other strong.”
“Ana . . .” Malachi began, reaching for her again.
She held up her hands to fend him off. “No. Enough of that. I’m fine.”
Malachi pulled back, frowning. “You aren’t alone in this.”
She eyed the Tanner’s people, some of whom were watching us with keen interest. “I know, guys,” she said to us. “Trust me, I know. Just . . . let me be, all right?”
Malachi hesitated, then nodded.
I sighed. “Okay.” I wanted to say so many things to Ana, but at this point, I was fairly sure every word would hurt her.
As Ana turned her back to us, Malachi scooted a bit closer to her, unwilling to let her go very far. Then he pulled me toward him. He’d shed his satchel, and he pushed mine off my shoulders and set it next to his. “Come here,” he said quietly. “I need you.”
I sank onto him as he sat against the wall of the cavern, his legs stretched out in front of him. His fingers burrowed in my wet hair, and I buried my face against his scarred throat. “I’m so sorry,” I said.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he replied in a strained voice. “I can’t.”
My arms tightened around his chest. “Whatever you need.”
He kissed my forehead. “I feel stronger when you’re touching me.”
I tipped my head up so I could look at him. “Me too.”
He stroked my hair away from my face. “I should have remembered that before I tried to let you go. Or maybe I knew it, and didn’t feel that I deserved it.”
“You were punishing yourself.” He’d punished me, too, whether he meant to or not. Even now, it was painful to think about all those weeks we had ignored each other. I didn’t regret the time I’d spent with Ian—he’d been a great friend. But if I’d had a choice, I would have been with Malachi. Ian knew it, too. I wish Malachi had.
“I was punishing myself,” he said. “And I might still be if I hadn’t realized it was making me weaker.”
I stiffened. “So you didn’t come back because you wanted me?”
He gave me a squeeze. “I always want you. It is a constant. But I have to atone, Lela. I don’t feel like I can move forward unless I somehow make up for what I’ve done.”
“Haven’t you suffered enough, Malachi?”
“It’s not about suffering. Or maybe it is, a little.” He sighed. “I don’t know. It feels so big that perhaps nothing is enough. So many people are here because of me.”
“And a lot of others aren’t because you stopped the Mazikin over and over again in the dark city. You never let them overrun the place.” I took a breath and softened my tone. At some level, I understood and respected his sense of responsibility, his determination to make up for what he’d done. But most of me just wanted him to be able to rest, to have peace.
He closed his eyes and shifted his body so that we were touching from head to toe, until it was hard to feel where I ended and he began. He took my hand and guided it under his leather tunic, over the muscles of his abs, the welts of his scars, up to the slightly sunken mess at the center of his chest. He let out a breath and closed his eyes as he pressed my palm over it. And I didn’t care that we were in a small salt cave with twenty other people. I didn’t care what they thought of us, tangled together like this. I only wanted to be near him.
He leaned his cheek against the top of my head. “I’m so tired, Lela. I’ve never been this tired.”
Fear slid down my spine like an ice cube. Every soul had its limit, and Malachi had been pushed so far that I wondered if he truly had the energy for atonement. “Rest, then. We have a few hours.”
I bowed my head against his shoulder and monitored the rise and fall of his breath as he sank into sleep. As I sat there, willing him to be strong, offering him everything I had, I silently promised him—no matter what I had to give up—that I would get
him through this. He deserved peace and safety more than anyone I knew, and with every ounce of fight I had in me, I would make sure it happened.
I woke with a start when someone roughly shook my shoulder. Treasa’s pale face hovered before mine in the darkness. “We’re leaving now,” she said.
I blinked in the near dark. Malachi and I had slid down the walls of the cavern and ended up wrapped around each other, my head on his chest, and his head resting against our satchels. His arms were tight around me. I pulled my hand from under his tunic and stroked his face. “Are you awake?”
“I am now.” He released me and pushed up on an elbow. We both turned toward Ana. She sat with her back against the cavern wall, staring at the ground. She looked hollow, like her heart had followed Takeshi downriver in that cold, merciless current. I wondered if I’d looked like that, right after I lost Malachi. Hesitantly, he touched her shoulder, and she didn’t move. His hand fell away. I felt bad for him, because he only wanted to help. But at the same time, I knew from experience—her loss was so profound that nothing would help.
We got up and stretched. After hours spent in Malachi’s arms, I felt renewed and rested. He’d said he loved me a few times, but now I knew it for sure. It swirled inside me like a bright white light. I glanced up at Malachi, and he smiled. “How do you feel?” I asked him.
He stepped close to me and spoke quietly. “Like I’m healing.”
I put my arms around his waist. “Me too.”
I let go of him and accepted the satchel as the Tanner strode past us toward the mouth of the cave. “We’ll walk without stopping until we reach the area below the palace,” the Tanner said, “and then we’ll send a small party up to scout.”
With that plan in place, we set out, enduring countless hours of hiking. The river grew wider the farther we went, but the current calmed as well and the roaring subsided. Ana walked in front of me, her steps steady and slow. She was eerily calm. And although I wondered how she could be so composed after losing Takeshi, I was glad she was, because we needed our Captain.
At long last, the narrow trail grew a bit wider, and the water flowed gently alongside us. Several yards ahead of me, a lantern bobbed up and down in a rhythmic pattern. “They’ve reached the palace!” said one of the men hiking in front of Treasa. “Go quick and quiet now.”
We picked up our pace until we made it to a patch of land shielded by a rocky outcropping. The Tanner gestured at us to come ahead, and as we did, something brown and liquid splashed from above and landed in the river. Malachi put his arm around me and tugged me back, recoiling in disgust. The Tanner chuckled and pointed at several huge pipes descending from high in the stony ceiling, their wide openings directly over the river. “And that would be the palace’s version of a sewage system.”
We joined the Tanner at the wall of rock and peeked around it to see a short path leading upstream to another stretch of level ground. Sections of metal pipe had been piled at the edge of the space, right next to a large horizontal cog connected to chains and buckets that dipped into the river. The Tanner wedged himself next to me and Ana, and nodded toward a narrow ladder that led straight upward.
“Maintenance shaft. For the ones who have to fix the pipes. Most of the buildings in this city don’t have running water, but the palace does.”
“Do you know where that ladder leads?” Ana asked.
“If my informants are accurate, it leads to a dishwashing room off the kitchens. If you go in at the fire hour, it should be quiet. This is when the Mazikin sleep.” He held up his weird watch, and it was almost on the F.
“Then what are we waiting for,” Ana said. One by one, we climbed around the outcropping, which shielded the trail toward the tannery from the view of any of the palace inhabitants that had to come down here.
Once all his people had made it to the cog-and-bucket system, the Tanner looked up at the ladder, which ascended into darkness. We couldn’t see the top. “Go ahead,” he said. “Get up there and send word about what awaits us.”
Ana’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not coming?”
He shook his head. “I thought perhaps this was a task best left to the warriors.” He gave us his black-toothed smile. “But I will send Treasa.”
While the Tanner beckoned Treasa over, I edged close to Ana. “I don’t trust her,” I whispered.
“We’ll cut off her head if she so much as twitches in the wrong direction,” Ana said matter-of-factly.
We looked up the rungs of the ladder. “If we’re caught, it won’t be good,” Ana muttered as she glanced at Malachi, who seemed to be assessing the Tanner and his men. I wondered if he was counting their weapons and watching where they sheathed them. He was the one I was worried about, too. What would the Queen do if she got ahold of him again?
Ana put her hand on my arm. “He can do his part, Lela. And you can do yours. Just follow my lead.”
I nodded. “Sure thing, Captain.”
“Let’s go, folks,” she barked. “I’m getting bored down here.”
Malachi strode toward us. Seeing him from this distance reminded me of what had been done to him. He stood straight and tall, yes, in pants and a tunic that fit like they’d been made for him. But the skin of his neck was still pink with scarring, and those scars striped all the way up the right side of his face. I didn’t want to see him get torn up anymore. I wanted to tell him to stay behind, but I knew he’d never accept that.
The three of us gathered at the base of the ladder, and Treasa joined us. “You go first,” Ana said, flashing a poisonous smile full of warning.
Treasa regarded her with a steady stare. “I’m trying to help you,” she said quietly. “And I’m sorry about Takeshi. He was a—”
“Don’t say his name to me,” Ana snapped. “Unless you want it to be your last word.”
Treasa’s expression didn’t change. “Allies and enemies are hard to distinguish in this city, Captain. It’s easy to mistake one for the other.” With her satchel on her back and her knives at her belt, she mounted the ladder and started to climb. I got on it after her, with Ana behind me and Malachi bringing up the rear. I suspected Malachi had wanted to make sure Ana had us around her, and that he could catch her if she faltered. At the moment, though, she seemed pretty steady, like the hollowness inside her had been filled with molten steel. I wouldn’t want to face Ana and her blades when she was like this.
My arms and legs began to ache by the time the cavern narrowed, becoming a vertical tunnel. When we’d started out, I’d felt strong, but it was amazing how quickly that vigor had drained away. Raphael had said that the city wouldn’t sustain us, that we would gradually weaken. Maybe, even though Malachi and I could recharge each other a little, it wasn’t enough to keep us strong. Biting my lip, I looked below me to see Ana, her face pale and grim, and Malachi even farther down, clinging to the ladder. I was willing to bet his heart was faltering, and I couldn’t reach him. “You guys okay?” I called.
Both of them nodded, and I looked up to see Treasa glaring down at me. “Shut the bloody hell up,” she hissed. “We’re close.”
When we reached the trapdoor, she pulled out a flat metal object the size of a ruler and slid it up between the metal door and the rock. A moment later, she’d lifted the door a few inches and was peering around. Then she swung it upward and climbed out. I followed eagerly, emerging into a dark room that smelled like shit and rotting meat. I covered my nose as I moved aside for Ana. “Ugh. What is that?”
“We’re close to the kitchens,” whispered Treasa.
“I don’t want to know what’s on the menu,” I muttered, stepping over to the trapdoor and pulling Malachi up. His muscles were twitching, and he leaned on me gratefully. I swiped my hand over his sweaty face, wishing we could stop here and rest. But we couldn’t waste the opportunity the fire hour had given us.
I closed the trapdoor and positioned the c
rude locking mechanism so it looked locked but could easily be pushed aside with jostling from below. Treasa gave me a nod of approval. She pulled a small lantern from her cloak and used what looked like a palm-sized safety pin to create a spark and light the candle inside. We were in a high-ceilinged room with a giant pipe running along one side, and a trough on the other. It was filled with metal plates and knives, all smeared with grime. The only doorway led to a primitive but huge kitchen with multiple fireplaces. Iron pots and large flat griddles were stacked in various places.
“The kitchens are supposed to be along the main corridor,” whispered Treasa as we huddled in the doorway. “And the throne room is at the end of it.”
“We should count how long it takes us to make it to the throne room,” said Malachi, “and identify possible points of exit.”
“As well as the location and number of the guards,” added Ana in a flat voice. “We’re kidding ourselves if we think everyone in this palace is asleep.”
“Agreed,” I said, drawing a knife. The others followed suit. “I’ll go first.”
Ana nodded. We pulled our hoods over our heads and crept through the doorway and into the quiet kitchen. Treasa held her lantern close to her body, where she could easily cover it with her cloak. Behind me, I could hear the quiet wheeze of Malachi’s breathing.
We reached the main corridor and peeked out. The floor, lit with lanterns that flickered along the hallway, looked like it was made out of narrow stalks of polished white wood. My brow furrowed as I gestured at it. “I thought there weren’t any trees around here.”
Treasa gave me a look. “It’s not wood, idiot. Why do you think they call it the Bone Palace?”
“Why do they have to be so freaking literal here?” I peered up the hallway and saw a big open room about forty yards ahead. It was lit with a blue glow. I looked over my shoulder at Ana. “What do you bet that’s the portal?”
She nodded. Treasa held up a finger. “I’m going to count steps. Keep up.”
