“Ryko, move!” Kygo yelled. But he was too far away.
The horse plowed into the middle of the group, stamping over Ryko and a screaming soldier. For a moment horror stole my breath; then the islander moved, rolling away from the frenzied beast. A few lengths away, the water swept up a chunk of mountainside in an explosion of cracking wood and earth.
Dillon looked up at his handiwork, his delight draining into sudden pallor. “It’s too big.” A fine spray of cool water wet my face and Dillon’s hair. He dropped my unbound hand, digging his freed fingers into his forehead. “It hurts,” he gasped. “Is it supposed to hurt?”
“Give me the book.” I dug at our pearl shackle. “Let me help you.”
“No!” He shoved me in the chest, pushing me back a step. “You want my power. Just like my lord.” He bared his teeth in a vicious smile. “Can you hear him? He’s screaming.”
I grabbed him by the front of his tunic. “Dillon, you can’t kill Ido. If he dies, we die.” I shook him. “Do you understand? We have to save him!”
“Save him?” Dillon spat the words. “I’m going to kill him. Before he kills me.”
His yellowed eyes bulged with hate. He would never save Ido. Never help me. I felt the roaring water around us falter, the fine mist gathering into drops that hit my face with ominous weight. Dillon was losing control.
I had one chance to get the book before he killed us all. But he was stronger than me in every way. What did I have left?
Sucking in a desperate breath, I slammed my forehead into his face. The impact jarred my head back in an explosion of bruising pain and streaming light. I heard Dillon howl as he recoiled, pulling me with him. Through a blur of tears, I lunged at the pale rope binding the folio to his forearm. My fingernails scraped the embossed cover and connected with the row of pearls. I rammed my fingers between gems and leather and pried open a gap, enough space to hook the rigid rope. My first yank loosened its straining resistance. On the second, half of the pearls lifted. Once more and I would have it.
I hauled, but instead of releasing, the pearls snapped back, clamping my hand against the leather binding. Dillon straightened, blood welling from a gash above his eye. Frantically, I tried to pull my fingers free, but there was no slack. Both my hands were bound to the folio, and the folio was bound to Dillon. His fist swung back, but I had nowhere to move. The savage undercut caught me in the delta of my ribs and slammed out my air. I doubled over, my breath locked in my chest.
I had lost my chance to get the book.
The pearls closed even more tightly around my fingers, sending burning pressure up my arm. Heat rose through me, unclenching my chest into gasping relief. Sour acid flooded my mouth as soft words seared my mind. The black book was calling me again, whispering ancient promises of perfect power— whispering a way to stop Dillon.
For a moment, the book’s treachery held us still, each caught in our own desperation.
“No!” Dillon screamed. “It’s mine!” His wild punches hammered my arms and chest.
All I could see in front of me was Dillon’s flailing madness and the sickening memory of his black, bloated Hua. Was this the book’s promise to me, too — the dark grip of Gan Hua and burning madness? There was no choice. I had to let the acid words score their power into my mind. I had to risk its madness. Everything else had failed.
Around us, the circling wall was shedding waves of rain laden with stinging stones and mud. The air rippled and streamed with collisions of water, as if huge bucketfuls were being thrown from all directions. An uprooted tree spun out of the torrent and crashed into the ground near Solly, reaming a hole in the mud. Only a few lengths away, Kygo ducked as a bush flew past his head and bounced across the flooding slope. It was all coming down.
I closed my hand around the pearls and prayed to Kinra again. But this time I asked her to call the black book and let it carve its dark Hua into my mind.
The heat slammed through me like a physical blow. I staggered and pulled Dillon off balance. The pearls coiled and squeezed our connected hands like a rattling constrictor, pulling the book across the bridge of our wrists. Bitter gall parched my mouth and throat, shriveling my howling pain into a whimper.
The book was coming to me, bringing its scorching power.
“No!” Dillon swung his body into mine. “No!”
His weight knocked me to my knees in the muddy water, the momentum bringing him splashing down beside me. Bracing his shoulder against mine, he tore at the shifting, contorting pearls. His nails gouged my flesh, his fingers sliding under the gems in the slip of my blood. I rammed my body against his, but it only added more leverage to his heave on the pearl rope. The book lifted. Dillon hauled on them again, murmuring words that sang their power through my head. In an explosion of unraveling pearls and shrieking Hua, he wrenched the book free.
I screamed as the ancient energy ripped out of me.
For a moment, I saw the stark triumph on his face. Then the swirling wall of water dropped with a roaring crash that sent up plumes of mud like a ring of explosions. Huge peaks of water collided around us in all directions, breaking into rolling, swelling waves black with dirt and debris. I saw Solly and Dela disappear under the roiling torrent that swept toward us. Near the tree line, a backrush caught a group of running soldiers, their leather armor dragging them under. A horse squealed, the sound suddenly cut off as the poor beast was swamped. I lunged for Dillon, hoping to grab him before the full force hit us, but my fingers only grazed his shirt. I heard Kygo scream my name. He was only an arm’s length away from me. But so was Dillon. As I lunged for the boy again, the pearls coiled around his forearm, wrapping themselves around the exposed edges of the book. It knew the water was coming.
The wave hit me like a cold sledgehammer. It slammed me backward, then pulled me under its dark surface, flipping me into a straining tumble. I heard only the rush of water and my heartbeat pounding the sudden lack of air. Legs caught in heavy folds of cloth. Swirling stones and twigs pelting me. No air. No air. Was I up or down? Something hit my shoulder. I grabbed it — the buoyant length of a branch. Up, please let it be up. I kicked frantically, my feet tangled in the twists of my gown.
Chest searing with the end of my last breath. Up, up. Clinging to the wood, I broke the surface, gasping, my ears ringing with the relief of air, and the deafening crash of water.
Something snagged my sleeve.
“Grab the tree.”
Yuso’s blurred face. I reached for him. His cold hand locked into mine and pulled me over the solid round of a tree trunk.
“Hold on,” he yelled and hooked his arm over my body.
We spun, caught in a violent eddy, then lurched back into the wild current rushing down the slope. Pale shapes under the roiling water bumped and tumbled past. Bodies, their flailing limbs brushing against me. For a few lengths a sobbing horse swam beside us, struggling to keep its head above the murky rapids. Then our tree trunk snagged on another and swung around. For a breathless moment, I saw Dillon clinging to a tree, the black folio swarming up his body like a rat finding higher ground. The pearls wrapped around a branch and pulled him to safety.
Then our makeshift raft broke loose and Yuso and I spun back into the deadly plummet downhill.
CHAPTER NINE
YUSO’S GRIP TIGHTENED his body locking mine against the trunk, as we plowed relentlessly toward the ridge of the slope. The flood had leveled everything, churning the earth into a thick mud that gushed over the edge.
“We’re going over!” Yuso yelled. “Don’t let go.”
We sheared the tops of scrubby bushes and a bank of foul debris. For a moment the drop hung before us, its base obscured by a cascade of muck — and then we plunged over, heavy mud raining down on us as we rode the sliding, falling earth into the gully below.
Screaming, I felt my hold slip on the slimy bark. All I could taste and smell was dirt. Yuso’s body lifted from mine. I slid forward, groping frantically for a secure hold. Then his s
trong arms pulled me free and we were falling together, his yell loud in my ear.
We hit, the impact jarring us apart. Blindly, I rolled and rolled, my gown wrapping my legs in a sticky weight. I slammed against something hard. The brutal stop sent a shock of bruising pain through my back. Around me was the sound of loud slapping, and my own hard breathing. I spat out dirt and wiped my eyes, blinking the world back into bleary focus.
A nearby mound of mud resolved into the shape of a dead horse. Next to it was a drowned soldier, still holding his Ji in a death-grip. I sat up — too fast, my head spinning — and backed away from their glassy stares. Cold mud oozed through my toes. I had lost both sandals.
“Lady Eona? Are you all right?”
Yuso’s voice. I jerked around. He was only a few lengths away, buried up to his chest in a deep pocket of sludge. Only one arm was free, held awkwardly in the air. Behind him, mud rained down over the ridge: the source of the slapping sound. It was getting faster and heavier.
I started toward him. “Are you hurt?”
“Stop! I don’t know the size of this hole.”
“Are you hurt? Can you get out?”
He had to get out — I didn’t want to be alone in the middle of all this destruction. For all I knew, Yuso was the only other survivor. I briefly wished it had been Ryko who had saved me. Was the islander even alive?
I fought back a rise of panic. Was Kygo alive? Dela? I did not even know if Ido had survived Dillon’s drain of his power. Although he must have — otherwise, the ten bereft dragons would surely have torn me apart.
“I’m not hurt, but every time I move, I sink,” Yuso said. “And there’s nothing to pull myself out with.”
I took another step.
“No, don’t!” The force of his cry drove him farther into the sucking mud.
I tensed, holding my breath as the level settled under his armpits. “All right, I won’t come any closer. But we’ve got to find a way to get you out. The ridge is going to come down”—I glanced up at the steady fall of mud—”on top of you.”
Very slowly, he shifted his head back to look, then gave a low, desperate laugh. “Don’t suppose you could hold it back with some of that power I just saw?”
“It wasn’t mine,” I said, scanning the devastated landscape for something to throw to him. Everything was camouflaged by a thick layer of brown slime. My eyes skipped over the dead horse and soldier, then flicked back. The Ji.
“You mean it was all the boy’s power?” Yuso was talking softly but rapidly, holding back fear with words.
“No, it was the black book,” I said. “It bound us together.”
I felt an echo of the book’s burning power in my mind. Without Kinra, I would not have survived its onslaught. My breath caught; did I still have her plaque? I plunged my hand into the slimy pocket of my gown. The pouch was there, still safe.
Gingerly, I edged across the mud to the dead soldier, testing each oozing foothold. What if he wasn’t quite dead? What if he had become one of the Halbo, a demon spirit of the drowned? I lowered myself into a wary crouch beside the body, but it did not move or clack its teeth.
“So the binding is true, then.” Yuso’s voice abruptly stopped. I spun on my heel, terrified he had gone under, but his head and shoulders were still clear. “What are you doing?” he whispered.
“I’m getting this Ji to pull you out.”
“No, it’s too dangerous. Leave me. There’s time for you to climb to safety.”
I wrapped my hand around the handle and yanked it free from the soldier’s grip. The man’s hand lifted and slapped back down, as if he were blessing me. Shuddering, I whispered a quick call to Shola on his behalf, then carefully retraced my own safe footprints back to Yuso.
The captain was watching me, anguish written in deep creases of mud on his thin face. Hurriedly, I extended the pole across the mire until the handle hovered near him.
“Grab it. Quickly.”
I glanced up at the slopping mud fall behind him. It was flowing into the hole, raising the level.
He caught the wavering wood. “I will be too heavy for you.”
“I am strong,” I assured him, although the same doubt had blown its cold breath on me. He was lean for a Shadow Man— the Sun Drug issued to the eunuch guards usually built more bulk — but he was still tall and well muscled. “Don’t worry,” I added. “I won’t leave you.”
He flinched as a heavy branch fell beside him, splattering his face with more mud. I tested the ground with my toes and found a section that was not too soft. Working my heels into it, I wiped a length of the pole clean.
“Ready?” I asked.
He nodded.
Taking a resolute breath, I hauled on his weight at the end of the long pole, careful to keep the hooked blade away from me. I felt a small shift. I heaved again, and again, inching backward through the stiff mud. Suddenly his other arm swung free, dripping with sludge. He grabbed the pole with both hands.
“Keep going,” he urged.
I dug my heels into the mud again and pulled as he pains- takingly lifted one hand and placed it above the other on the pole. Panting, Yuso smiled across at me. I smiled back — it was working. On his nod, I heaved again as he dragged himself along another hand-length. Every muscle in my arms and back burned with the strain of holding his weight, but his chest was almost out of the hole.
He lifted his hand again, but this time tried to reach too far. His grip slipped. The sudden loss of his weight on the pole yanked me to my knees. I saw him slide backward, groping wildly for purchase. Instinctively, I braced knees and toes in the mud and anchored the Ji. His hand connected and gripped.
“Got it?” I gasped.
“Yes.” He pressed his forehead into the crook of his arm, gulping deep breaths. “How’s that ridge holding?” he finally asked.
“Not that good,” I said. “Ready?”
He lifted his head. “Lady Eona, I cannot—” He stopped, his eyes bleak. “I have a son. His name is Maylon. Find him, tell him—”
“Yuso.” I caught his gaze, holding him steady, although my own doubt pounded through me. “I’m not leaving until you’re out of there.”
With a nod, he clenched his teeth and once again started the laborious hand-by-hand crawl up the pole. I heaved back on his weight over and over, finding a rhythm in between each desperate handhold that gave him precious impetus. Gradually, his chest and waist emerged. When his hips finally breached the sucking mud, I dropped the Ji and slithered toward him on hands and knees. Grabbing his outstretched hands, I pulled him free. In a clumsy mix of sliding, dragging, and crawling, we made our way back to secure ground.
Yuso turned to study the ridge, then gave a soft grunt of relief. “It is still holding, but we should get out of here.” He stood up and tested his right leg. A large tear in the thigh of his mudsoaked trousers was dark with blood.
“Is it bad?” I asked.
He dismissed it with a shake of his head. “I can walk.” He offered me his hand and pulled me upright. My own legs were trembling with the afterwash of effort. And fear.
“Did you see what happened to the emperor?” I asked, as he ushered me forward. “Or any of the others?”
Yuso shook his head.
“What if …?” I couldn’t voice the possibility.
“If His Majesty is dead, then it is all over,” Yuso said flatly. He picked up the Ji. “There is no reason for a resistance.”
“But Sethon can’t be emperor. He will destroy the thousand years of peace.”
“Whatever way it goes, the thousand years of peace are over,” Yuso said.
Using the blade at the end of the pike to test the ground, he limped toward the horse and soldier. I wanted to deny his bleak assessment, but the ache in my chest knew he was right. I followed his footprints across the firmer mud.
“Did you say you have a son, captain?” I asked, trying to focus on something other than our tortuously slow progress through the sludge.
“Why?”
“It is forbidden — on pain of death — for an Imperial Guard to have family ties.” He held my gaze. “Do you understand? No one else must know of my son.”
I nodded. “I swear on my dragon I will not tell anyone. But how did you become a father?”
Yuso turned back to navigating the treacherous ground. “I was not born a eunuch, my lady.” He stopped in front of the dead soldier and peered into the man’s slack face. “I sired my son before I was cut. I was very young.”
A few limped steps took him to the horse. He bent and stroked the animal’s mud-caked neck. “One of our mares, poor girl.” He looked up at the ridge, gauging its stability, then unbuckled the saddlebag and heaved it free. “His mother died when he was born — may she walk in heaven’s glory — so he is my only family.”
“He must be very precious to you.”
“He is now a lieutenant in Sethon’s army.”
I looked down at the soldier, my spine prickling. “Is he stationed in this area?”
Yuso dug the Ji into the mud.
“I don’t know where he is,” he said. He slung the saddlebag over his shoulder. “That is what this war will be: father against son, brother against brother.” He scanned the stark landscape, then pointed east and beckoned me onward. “It is our duty to restore peace as soon as possible at whatever cost — otherwise there will be no land to rule.” He glanced back, his lean face grim. “You will come to know that, my lady, and I am sorry for it.”
We were climbing the other side of the gully when the ridge came down.
It dropped in a crashing roar, the terrible sound bouncing off the rock faces around us in a rolling echo. We both stopped and watched the deadly churn of mud and debris slide across the valley below us. It smothered everything in its path and sent the stink of wet earth and decay into the air.
Eona: The Last Dragoneye e-2 Page 14
