by A A Woods
“Well… damn,” Tuk said, plopping down at the table and resting his heavy manacles on the wood.
Carlette exhaled.
“Yeah.”
“What do you think? Gonna sign up and be their little mascot?”
Tears beaded at the corner of her eyes. “I don’t know what to think. I don’t understand any of this.”
She scrubbed her cheeks. Took a breath. For the past eight years, she had concealed everything; her fear, her solitude, her anger. But something about sitting in this warm, wooden home had undone all her defenses.
Tuk leaned forward, eyes bright and sympathetic, and Carlette struggled to inhale.
Yet another thing that didn’t make sense, this enemy who didn’t feel like an enemy.
“I’m sorry,” he said, low and sincere. “I’m confused too. When you grow up being told that everyone on this island is an evil witch, you expect horns and tails. But you’re… well, you’re certainly not an evil witch.”
Carlette’s gut knotted. She couldn’t bear for him to say that, not after so much.
Not after Quaina.
“No, Tuk,” she said to her hands. “I don’t deserve your sympathy.”
“Come now, that’s not how this goes. I’m supposed to be calling you a monster, and you’re supposed to say something about me being Nuri scum and we both get all angry and righteous. You’re ruining the game.”
Carlette coughed a laugh, but tears continued to bubble from her eyes, staining her face with fresh weakness.
“Why do you think you don’t deserve my sympathy?” Tuk asked, the lightness gone.
Carlette’s gaze roved over the Moian home, her fingers running along the wood. It was so strange to be back in the Giant’s Wood this way. So wrong. She shouldn’t feel comfortable here, didn’t deserve to feel at home.
“When I was eight years old,” she started, her voice a whisper, “I snuck out of Tuleaux. There was a shipment coming in from the forest. They were opening the ground fences, just for an hour. Guards were everywhere, but my friend and I… well, we were experts at breaking the rules.”
Tuk was silent and Carlette silently thanked him for it.
“I had always been… drawn to the forest. I just wanted to see it. To smell it. I had dreamed of going into the Giant’s Wood for so long that I stopped believing it was dangerous. When the rangers told stories of spiders and insects and foxes, I listened in wonder, not fear. And my friend… Quaina… she wanted to help.”
Carlette swallowed and stared at the tips of her boots. Blood had smeared over one toe and she wondered who it belonged to. So much had happened in the past few days, it was impossible to know.
“It was spring. The winter had been hard. That’s what the shipment was—food scavenged from the forest. The city was desperate. Quaina and I were so skinny… we slipped right between the soldiers and they didn’t even see us. Everyone was scanning the woods, watching for the wolves. We’d heard them howling in the night. Just as desperate as we were.”
Carlette sighed and clenched her fists. The burden of this story, this horrible memory, was a rock around her heart.
“Quaina and I didn’t think, we just sprinted into the trees. I remember laughing. We were so proud. The trees are smaller by the ocean—thinner soil—but they were the largest things we’d ever seen. Quaina tried to climb one and fell. She twisted her ankle. But still we laughed.”
Tuk was motionless. Carlette was beginning to shake.
“The Amonoux pack showed up without warning. One minute we were alone in the shadows and the next... They were like ghosts. Quaina told me to run. She always told me to run, was always protecting me, keeping me safe when we got into trouble. It was our way.”
Carlette turned her blurry gaze to the celling.
“So I did. I thought she was behind me, but when I turned back, she had fallen. Her ankle, I think, or a root. I’ll never know. The largest wolf was on top of her, about to bite down.” Carlette took a deep breath. “Something happened. I didn’t understand it at the time. But I reached out and…” Carlette clenched her fists. “She died anyway.”
Finally, terrified of what she might find, Carlette lifted her head and met Tuk’s eyes.
“It was just the beginning. I started to lose control, enhabiting other orphans and guards. Mya, the orphanage matron… she got desperate. If anyone found out that she’d taken an unregistered child, she would lose her funding. Maybe even her life. So she brought me to Jemelle and left me there…”
Carlette fell silent, not really sure what she was trying to say anymore. She felt like a bucket that someone had emptied and abandoned.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Tuk said. “Things happen. Wolves eat. You couldn’t have stopped them.”
Carlette shook her head.
“It was my fault we were outside Tuleaux’s walls. And my power drew the wolves, I’m sure of it now. I left her, Tuk. Ran away when she needed me most, when I was the reason she was there in the first place.” Carlette’s eyes snapped up. “I deserve everything that school has done to me.”
Tuk pushed to his feet and came to her. Before she knew what to make of it, he was next to her, gripping her hand.
“Carlette, you can’t blame yourself for everything. You were born this way because your mother was Ebonal. You wanted to go into the forest because you were a curious child. And your friend died because it was a hard winter and the Amonoux were hungry.”
Carlette felt Tuk’s words burrow into her, worming greedily into her soul. Oh, how she wanted to believe him. She’d gone over that moment in her head so many times that sometimes it felt like it was still happening, that she was still grabbing hold of the wolf’s leg and reeling at the catastrophic storm inside her brain. She’d never told anyone the whole story before. Even Grand Mera, who heard Mya’s version and hadn’t spoken of it since. And so Carlette had lived it, held it, carried it around.
But aloud, something about the memory changed.
“You do deserve happiness, Carlette. We all do.”
“Tuk…”
What she was going to say was lost as Tuk leaned in.
Frantic, panicked thoughts flashed across Carlette’s brain. They could both be killed for this! If anyone found out, Carlette would be executed. Tuk would face worse than torture. Grand Mera’s pinched face bloomed in Carlette’s mind, disapproving, disappointed.
Carlette jerked her head back, hitting the Goddeau wood with a thump.
Tuk’s eyes widened, almost in surprise.
But before either of them could figure out what to do, a horn reverberated the air, accompanied by the distant sound of screams.
Chapter Twenty: Nurkaij Strikes
The door burst open and Byrna rushed in, followed by her brothers.
“What’s going on?” Carlette demanded as she and Tuk leapt to their feet. She tried to ignore the way Byrna’s eyes flashed to her still-damp cheeks, the curve of Tuk’s arms that hinted where they had just been.
But Byrna’s snide smile didn’t come.
Something was very wrong.
“Nuri soldiers,” Byrna said, grabbing Carlette’s arm. Carlette yanked herself free.
“I’ll follow,” Carlette said, voice biting.
Suddenly, Byrna’s nose was inches from her own.
“You caused this,” the Moian girl snarled, breath smelling of copper and fury. “I don’t know how, but I swear to the Fethidi demons, I will find out.”
“What are you talking about?” Carlette said.
But Byrna wasn’t listening. She was already shoving outside, the door swinging in her wake. Carlette glanced at Tuk before they hurried out after her.
The forest outside was unrecognizable. Thick, viscous smoke wafted towards them on a wind of shrieks. A distant crash echoed. Panic and shock braided together in a toxic haze, filling the emptiness that had been serene less than an hour ago.
“What happened?” Tuk whispered.
Byrna was loading her slingsh
ot, Tabis shifting nervously at the edge of the deck.
“I should ask you,” she growled without looking up. “A Nuri fleet is bearing down on this city. Three outlying villages have already burned and they’re pushing toward the capital.” Byrna’s eyes flashed up. “Why do you think that is?”
Tuk paled, the rosy flush on his cheeks vanishing.
“I didn’t do anything,” he said, lifting chained hands, shaking his head. “What could I have possibly done?”
“No one could have followed us,” Carlette added, trying to keep her voice reasonable. “I don’t even know where we are.”
Byrna snarled and grabbed the front of Tuk’s jacket.
“Hey!” Carlette said, trying to get between them, but Byrna had the iron strength of a climber, the unbreakable grip of a girl raised in the trees.
“If I ever find out you had anything to do with this, the spiders will be the only ones who find your body.”
Tuk didn’t balk. He leaned into Byrna’s face, his nose less than an inch from hers.
“I didn’t. Do. Anything.”
Byrna threw him away. Tuk stumbled but Carlette grabbed his arm, keeping him upright.
“Are you okay?” she whispered, but was interrupted by the thundering footsteps of Byrna’s father sprinting towards them.
“They’ve taken the northern guard tower,” he panted. He already had a bloody gash on one cheek.
“What do they want?” Carlette asked.
“What the Nuri always want,” he said, voice strangely calm among the whorls of chaos. “To burn witches.”
Tuk tugged on Carlette’s elbow. Pulled her ear close.
“I know what’s happening,” he hissed. “They brought over our new ships from Vaijan, the city’s latest invention. Zanburs, Commander Invitas called them. They must have located the Hanging City just in time to test them out.”
“Tuk,” Carlette said with a swallow as Byrna helped her father strap on his armor. “Did they follow us here?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Tuk said. “I swear.”
Carlette wanted to say more but she was interrupted by Byrna throwing her a bandana.
“Your hair might as well be a beacon,” Byrna snapped. “Cover it up.”
“Where are we going?”
“We are going to fight,” Byrna said. “You are going to climb down the tree and escape on your own. With any luck you won’t get crushed under a flaming airship.”
“We can help,” Tuk broke in, shouldering past Carlette. “We can fight.”
“You?” She snorted. “I doubt it.”
“I’m no more loyal to Caika than Carlette is to Jemelle,” he said.
Carlette’s gut twisted.
Byrna opened her mouth, but Roland put a hand on her shoulder.
“Let them.”
Byrna pursed her lips. Folded her arms. And then, with a whip-quick movement, she threw a dagger at Carlette. Carlette snatched it out of the air before it punctured her leg.
Byrna smirked. “Maybe you aren’t useless after all.”
Roland stepped away from them, into the gathering circle of warriors. His low voice rolled like thunder. Carlette couldn’t understand the Moian words, but their grave effect was clear.
She knew what this kind of invasion meant.
If Nurkaij had found the city, the Moians would have to move. It would mean the end of this beautiful place. Their only hope was to escape, to flee deeper into the forest.
Carlette’s heart pounded. She clutched the dagger, pathetically useless against Nuri airships. Tuk shifted next to her, hands chained, even more defenseless. And besides, he was no warrior. He was a mechanic, trained to keep his head in battle and ensure that his ship stayed in the air.
Stayed in the air…
An idea struck Carlette.
“Tuk,” she whispered as Roland addressed his men, clapping them on the shoulder one by one. “If we could get you onboard one of those ships, could you sink it?”
Tuk’s expression was blank for a moment. Sink it? he mouthed.
And then his eyes grew wide.
“Of course,” he said in a babble. “It’s a lot easier to crash them than it is to fly them. But there will be too many for us to do much…”
Tuk’s eyes grew distant. He stared at the treetops, at the surrounding soldiers.
“The resupply ship,” he said at last.
“What?”
“The resupply ship!” Tuk exploded. Roland’s voice trailed off as everyone turned to look at them. “The little ships in the forest are like bees. Their number and speed will make them hard to defeat, but they can’t reach Caika on their own.” Tuk was shifting his weight, almost bouncing. “If we damage the resupply ship, protocol will force the others to abandon their mission to save it. It would give your people plenty of time to escape.”
Byrna’s eyes narrowed.
“And how can we be sure this isn’t some cowardly Nuri trick?”
Tuk shrugged. “I suppose you can’t.”
“It’s your only chance,” Carlette cut in, trying to infuse her words with strength.
Another distant crash ricocheted off the Goddeau trunks. Screams rolled towards them, a crashing wave of panic. Roland’s expression was cold and grim, but he smiled, and for the first time since meeting the kind-faced man, Carlette could see Byrna’s resemblance.
“Very well, young man. What do we do?”
· · ─────── ·❅· ─────── · ·
Carlette perched on a branch, one hand on the tree’s thick bark, the other on Tuk’s shoulder, waiting for the signal. Fear pounded in her belly as she went through the endless myriad of things that could go wrong.
They could fall to their deaths.
Carlette’s power could fail.
The Nuri fighter in the Zanbur could react too quickly.
But somehow, despite all her misgivings, this fight felt… clean. Unlike the greasy uncertainty she’d had transporting Tuk or listening to prisoners scream in Erebus’s shed, this was the war she craved: an unsoiled fight against an enemy that was slaughtering innocents. Carlette had long ago accepted that she was little more than a blade to be wielded, but for the first time she felt happy to be swung.
How strange that it was a Moian chief holding the hilt.
Tuk shifted beside her. The men in the trees waited patiently, but Carlette could sense their burbling anger. Shrieks and cracks filled the air, growing closer. Who knew how many had already fallen to their deaths or perished under gunfire.
“There,” hissed Tuk.
Below them, a tiny airship zipped around the edge of one tree, coming into view. Two men and a woman sat in a basket hanging below the long, thin balloon. One was in the back, his arm churning as he pumped the engine. The woman in the middle fed fuel to the contained inferno that kept the ship in the air. In front was the gunman, one hand on a mounted rifle, the other on a flamethrower, delivering death with both.
Carlette reached out with her mind, brushing against the gunman. She flinched. Tuk glanced at her.
“It’s hard when the mind is… unpalatable.”
“No surprise,” Tuk muttered, narrowing his eyes. “That sack of dung was the worst in the corps.”
But Carlette was already gathering her power. Two more Zanburs appeared behind the first, flying towards them in a bird-like formation.
She had to act quickly.
Like a spider reaching along its web, Carlette unfurled her power in wispy tendrils. She could feel the minds of foxes and Moian warriors nestled in the trees, the rodents on the forest floor scampering away, the birds frantically escaping the spreading smell of death.
Drifting down to the ship, Carlette let her mind circle around the three men.
It had to be simultaneous.
She had to be strong.
“Ready?” Carlette whispered.
“Yes,” said Tuk. His voice cracked.
They leaned out.
Carlet
te’s magic snapped around the soldiers’ minds, silencing their protests, freezing their bodies. She felt the exertion, but it was just like climbing the stairs of Durchemin—at once exhausting and enthralling.
“Go!” Carlette said as she focused on the pilot.
The Zanbur shifted to the side, closer to their tree. Tuk took a deep breath.
“If I die, don’t let Byrna do anything horrible to my body,” Tuk said.
And then he jumped.
Carlette held her breath as Tuk’s body arced, nothing but open air between him and the forest floor. He was graceful, fearless, fierce, a Nuri mechanic in his truest form, a creature of the sky. Tuk’s fingers reached out, brushing along the top of the balloon. He grabbed hold of a railing that ran along its edge. A rope stretched, dug into the balloon, and suddenly Tuk was swinging along the ship, shimmying quick as a squirrel into the basket. He grabbed a mooring line and threw it to Carlette.
She swallowed. Looked down.
And leapt out to grab it.
Fear clawed her chest as her fingers clawed the air. The rope was nothing, tiny, an almost-invisible thing in the vastness of the forest, but she managed to grab hold. It pulled taut. She swung beneath the ship, biting down a scream as the healing skin of her palms rubbed raw.
Into the fire… she thought frantically, taking deep breaths.
As she began to climb, a war cry rose around them.
The signal had been given.
Carlette yanked herself up the rope, trying to ignore how far away the ground was, how much her hands hurt. Her body swung as darts and stones rained down. But the Moians aim was as good as legend.
A sionach soared past, its rider blowing a dart.
Clinging to the line beneath the airship, Carlette felt the Nuri soldiers die. She had been trained to brush off the nauseating, gut-jerk feeling of a life being snuffed out. A life she was holding. But it was never comfortable, and, as Carlette dangled over nothing, she had to remind herself to hold on. To breathe evenly. Her stomach heaved.
A body fell past her.
Carlette swallowed again, harder this time. She was almost there.
The second body tumbled to the forest floor as she grabbed the edge of the Zanbur. Strong fingers wrapped around her forearm. With a breathless pull, Tuk yanked her into the basket. She rolled onto the wooden slats and relished the simple rise and fall of her chest. Her life. Tuk grinned at her, but Carlette couldn’t relish their victory as the feeble struggling of the Nuri woman’s mind beat against her mental grip like butterfly wings.
