Iron Breakers: The Floodgates (Iron Breakers Book 3)

by Zaya Feli

  Rafya tugged Ren's sleeve and pulled Ren after him. Ren followed the others down a narrow flight of stairs to a dimly lit space. It was cold, like the first tunnel they had entered, and looked like a cellar, with no windows. It was clammy, with a mouldy smell on the air. They were underground.

  The single torch by the doorway was burning low. Valkon took it from the sconce. To the left, a doorway led into a dark room. On the right, another tunnel.

  Valkon led the way down the tunnel with Rafya on his heels. Ren was about to follow, but stopped and turned when the sound of Anik's footsteps behind him faded. Anik stayed where he was, looking towards the dark doorway like a moth transfixed by a flame.

  “Anik,” Ren whispered. His voice echoed, but Anik didn't seem to have heard him. Despite the warm, yellow light of the torch, Anik's face was ghostly pale.

  “Anik, come on.” Ren crossed the space between them and placed himself in front of Anik. Anik seemed to stare through him, and Ren stood on his toes to break Anik's line of sight. At the entrance to the tunnel, Valkon and Rafya waited.

  Finally, Anik blinked and looked at Ren. Ren could see a sheen of sweat on his brow despite the cold of the cellar.

  “What is it?” Ren asked, touching his hands to Anik's arms.

  Anik trembled and shook his head, inching away from the dark doorway. “Let's go.” Now Anik couldn't seem to get away fast enough, although he didn't take his eyes off the doorway, as if expecting a monster to jump at him from the shadows. Ren looked over his shoulder, but saw nothing.

  They continued ahead, and this time, Anik didn't look back. Still, Ren exited the tunnel last to make sure Anik didn't lag behind. They reached another staircase, this one leading up, narrow and winding. Somewhere above, sharp voices called orders and boots pounded against stone floors. The rest of the castle guard must have gotten word of the intruders. In a few minutes, the whole castle defence would be out looking for them.

  “There's no other way. Come on,” Valkon said, leading the way up the stairs two steps at a time. Rafya followed, then Anik, then Ren. The higher they went, the louder the voices became. Valkon slowed near the top of the stairs. A door blocked their view.

  “Careful,” Rafya whispered.

  Valkon placed the smouldering torch on the top step and gripped the handle, turning it slowly. Pushing the door open an inch allowed faint, warm light to spill through the crack. They were back in the castle.

  Ren waited with bated breath until Valkon turned back to them. “I can't see anyone. Must be around the corner.”

  “Let me see where we are,” Rafya whispered, switching places with Valkon.

  Ren searched for Anik's hand, and when he found it, it was clenched into a fist. Anik had barely spoken a word since their escape from the gardens.

  “There might be a way out to the left,” Rafya whispered over his shoulder.

  “Then let's go before the guards come this way,” Valkon hissed.

  They all looked at each other. Then the torch burned out.

  Valkon was first out the door, followed by Rafya and Anik. Ren left the door open behind him as he followed the others, half-running down the corridor. He felt exposed. The plane of his back was an easy target in the enclosed space and he could almost imagine the feeling of the steel tip of an arrow burrowing into his flesh.

  They turned a corner. There were no windows and only a single door at the end of the corridor down a few shallow steps. On either side of Ren, the others sped up. Was it Ren's imagination or had the sound of the guards behind them grown louder?

  Valkon slammed into the door as they came to a stop, pulling it open, then ran facefirst into the steel gate on the other side. He tugged on it. It didn't give. A fresh breeze blew through the iron gate, a few twinkling stars visible above a garden almost identical to the one they'd come from. “Fuck!”

  Ren looked at Valkon, then at Rafya. “Why is it locked?”

  “I-” Rafya's eyes were wide and he shook his head in little jerks.

  “Back, before we get cornered,” Anik urged, leaping up the shallow steps. Then he stopped.

  Around the corner came over a dozen guards in full armour with drawn swords. When they saw Anik, they halted. The guard nearest the front shouted for Anik to get on his knees.

  Ren looked from Rafya to Valkon, chest constricting. No, they hadn't come this far to surrender. On the other side of that gate lay freedom. Ren heard the dull scrape of Valkon drawing his sword. At the top of the stairs, Anik stood like a pillar, adjusting his grip on the stolen bow. Ren realised with a cold wave of dread what Anik was thinking. For Anik, capture was not an option.

  Taking a step onto the stairs, Ren reached for Anik's free hand. “No,” he said.

  Anik's head twitched to the side, but he didn't take his eyes off the guards. The one at the front shouted again, a last warning.

  “They'll kill you if you fight,” Ren hissed, panic and fear making his hands tremble.

  Anik's voice was flat. “I'm sorry, Ren. I shouldn't have let you come.”

  Several things happened at once. Anik pushed Ren back with a hand on his chest, raised his bow, and fired, his arrow slamming into the exposed throat of the frontmost guard. Valkon bumped Ren's shoulder as he raced up the steps, sword raised as he charged like a bull. Ren shouted for them to stop, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of steel on steel.

  Spinning, Ren stumbled down the stairs and tugged on the gate, breath burning in his throat. This couldn't be it. Not yet. Not like this. They were so close!

  He paused. The gate was secured not with a hatch but with a lock, a single keyhole in a square metal plate. Ren smoothed his finger over it, hope and desperation making him gasp for breath as he dug his hand into an inner pocket and fumbled for his mother's key.

  For when you need to escape.

  It was a ridiculous attempt. The key had never saved him before and it wouldn't save him now. Too much was at stake for such a far fetched idea to work.

  It's a Skarlan key. Jayce's words echoed in his mind.

  Ren stuck the key into the hole and turned. The click of the lock drowned out every other sound in Ren's mind. He whipped around, searching the mass of guards for someone he recognized. Valkon was on the ground, blocking a guard's sword with the sole of his boot.

  “Anik!” Ren shouted.

  Anik turned, slamming a guard's head against the wall, making him collapse like a sack of potatoes.

  Their eyes locked. Ren yanked the gate open.

  The arrow slammed into Ren's body with surprising force. Ren staggered against the gate, which swung the rest of the way open under his weight. He reached out and closed a hand around the bars to keep from falling. He stared wide-eyed at the arrow in his chest. It didn't hurt, not really, just spread a strange, warm sensation from its point of impact.

  Something shimmered in the light and Ren looked up in time to see the archer raise his bow again, fingers sliding on the string.

  Anik was faster. The power behind the horizontal swing of his sword sliced the guard's neck in two like it was made of butter instead of muscle and bone. The body and the head hit the ground at the same time and Ren watched with morbid fascination as the head rolled one and a half times and came to rest on its side.

  Ren stared until Anik blocked Ren's view of the corpse, racing forward with Valkon behind him. Rafya snatched the key from the door and locked it from the other side.

  Everything seemed to happen too quickly and too slowly at once. Ren's head was spinning and his breathing seemed too loud in his ears. When Anik wrapped a hand around his arm and pulled him along, he nearly tugged Ren off his feet. Ren struggled to keep up.

  “Hey, you'll be fine,” Anik said, mouth close to his ear. “It's just a flesh wound.”

  “I don't want to die,” Ren gasped, fear making nausea rise in his throat.

  Beside him, Anik let out a soft sound. “You're not going to die. You'll be fine,” he repeated. He tugged Ren around a low wall and b
etween some shaped bushes.

  I don't feel so good,” Ren said. He swallowed against the nausea and tried not to stare at the arrow protruding from his chest. It looked all wrong.

  “That's the shock,” Anik replied, keeping a firm grip on Ren's arm. “You need a drink of water, that's all.” He sounded confident, but Ren knew the signs of someone masking anxiety. The strain in Anik's voice gave him away.

  Rafya led them to another hidden door and around the city wall, a different route than the way they had come. Ren didn't question it, simply followed. There wasn't much else he could do with Anik's tight grip on him.

  Finally, Rafya stopped and Ren looked around. They were in a logging storage site. Massive piles of tree trunks were stacked into elongated pyramids. To the right, a horseless cart and some sort of pulley system stood motionless.

  “There's no way we can move south across open land now. They'll be looking for us,” Rafya said.

  “We can't stay here.” Anik helped Ren sit against a giant log. “Workers will be showing up and Ren needs medical attention.”

  “Workers won't come until dawn,” Rafya said, joining them and Valkon against the logs. “If we move just before dawn, we can mingle with the rest of the crowd and slip away.”

  “What about the princess?” Valkon asked. “They'll be waiting for us. They wanted to move the army out of the gorge before dawn.”

  “They'll have to wait,” Rafya said, groaning as he tugged up his dark shirt and inspected a gash across his ribs. “This is the best we can do.”

  They fell silent. The quiet didn't help Ren's anxious mind and he reached up and closed a hand around the shaft of the arrow. Anik's hand locked around his wrist like a vice.

  “Don't,” Anik said firmly, forcing Ren to let go. “If it has backwards-facing spikes, you'll tear the flesh.” He watched Ren closely, searching his face.

  Ren closed his eyes, breathing against the constant nausea. “I just want it out.”

  “I know.” Anik closed one hand around the shaft near Ren's chest, then grabbed hold of the end and snapped it in two between his hands.

  Ren jerked, unable to stop a yelp as the arrow shifted and pain shot through his shoulder.

  “Starting to feel it?” Anik asked, discarding the broken end of the arrow on the ground.

  “Yeah,” Ren sighed and leaned against the rough bark of the log. His chest and shoulder throbbed with every beat of his heart and the part of the arrow still embedded in his flesh sent out sharp bursts of pain with every breath. At least now that the shaft was shortened, the heavy length of it didn't cause it to shift with every movement he made.

  “Let's have a look,” Anik said, leaning forward. Ren wanted to tell him to be careful, but he didn't need to. Anik peeled back the fabric of Ren's cloak and jacket with gentle hands to reveal the place where the arrow had gone through. “Not to worry,” he said softly. “It's under the collarbone, right by the shoulder, so it missed the lung. Right side is good, far from the heart.” He smiled at Ren, relief clear on his face. “It probably feels like your arm's about to fall off, but it really isn't that bad. Jayce can handle it when we get back to the others.” He lifted his own jacket and tore a strip from his undershirt before carefully wrapping the length of white fabric around the base of the arrow. He guided Ren's hand to the spot. “Press lightly.”

  Ren managed a small smile in return, then winced when he breathed too deeply. “How long until dawn?”

  Rafya gazed at the sky. “An hour or so. Maybe just under.”

  “I'll keep watch,” Valkon said.

  * * *

  They had shed the dark cloaks, moving south across the landscape not far off the road. Anik had disappeared around the corner of the city wall and returned with a mule. Ren didn't ask where he had found it; he was just happy to get off his feet, even if every jerking step the mule took jostled his aching shoulder.

  Moving in plain sight was unnerving. It worked, but it still filled Ren with unease. Iskaal's city gates were open, and travellers, workers, and merchants moved in and out of the city, watched by Skarlan guards. Even though the guards were no doubt still on the lookout for the band of supposed thieves, no one would expect them to travel along the road with a mule.

  Fatigue made Ren's eyelids droop. He rocked with the animal's movements and stifled a yawn.

  Rafya came up next to him, placing a hand against the mule's neck. “I left your key in the gate,” he said, looking up at Ren, brows drawing together. “I'm sorry.”

  A different kind of sting made Ren's jaw clench. He'd had his mother's key since she died. Then again, she had told him to use it for exactly this. For when you need to escape.

  She had known the danger Ren faced, known that Halvard would hunt him down if he ever found out that Ren was still alive. She might even have foreseen that he'd find himself locked inside the castle of Iskaal the same way she had been. He closed his eyes, wondering if she was somewhere out there, proud of him. “It's fine,” he said eventually, looking down at Rafya. “It served its purpose.”

  By the time they made it back to the gorge, the front of Ren's jacket was soaked with blood despite the makeshift gauze, and even Valkon was beginning to look nervously over his shoulder at Ren. Ren tried to offer him a smile, but it didn't seem to have much effect. The pain was constant and throbbing and he was starting to feel light-headed.

  A scout from Evalyne's army spotted them from between the cliffs and guided them to the gorge entrance. The moment they approached the army, Evalyne was there, asking questions too fast and sharp for Ren to follow. Anik dismissed her and her face grew pale when she saw the blood on Ren's shoulder. She called for Jayce.

  Ren tried to dismount, surrounded by men and women shooting nervous glances in his direction, but he couldn't grip the saddle properly with his right hand without pain making his muscles cramp. Instead, Anik reached up, wrapped strong hands around his waist, and lifted him off the mule. Despite the bleeding wound in Ren's shoulder, he couldn't help the blush that spread across his cheeks. It was just an arrow wound. He wasn't a delicate youth in distress. But he didn't complain. He had landed himself in this trouble.

  Worry was etched across Jayce's features when they approached.

  “It's not serious,” Ren said, hoping to ease Jayce's mind as he untangled himself from Anik before sitting down. He wasn't sure the wobble when he crouched did much to ease Jayce's mind.

  “Really? I'm the physician. Don't you think I should be telling you if it's serious?” Jayce asked over his shoulder, pulling instruments out of his travel back – a knife, a pair of cutters.

  Ren looked away.

  A small crowd gathered, but they dispersed when Anik snarled at them to not stand there and gawk like Ren was a street show.

  “Please tell me it's all the way through,” Jayce said, glancing at Anik as he laid out items on a white cloth.

  “I don't think it is,” Anik said. He looked troubled and Ren didn't have to ask why. Even he knew what that meant. It sent a thrill of cold sweat down his spine.

  Ilias darted towards them, golden hair haloed around his head as he came to a stop beside Jayce, cheeks pink with exertion. “Here to help.” His eyes darted to Ren. “Don't worry, Ren. We'll get you all better.”

  Ren copied Ilias' soft smile, although he was no longer feeling quite so confident.

  “Get someone to start a fire so I can clean my tools,” Jayce said to Ilias, moving to Ren's side. “Let's take a look.”

  Anik helped Jayce peel back Ren's jacket and Jayce cut Ren's undershirt free from his body so he wouldn't have to lift his arm. Ren winced and turned his face away when he saw where the arrow protruded from his shoulder and the feeling of wrongness returned in force.

  “Oh dear,” Jayce said with a soft sigh. He only had to take a quick look at the back of Ren's shoulder to confirm what Ren already knew. Jayce turned to Anik. “Do you know what the arrow tip looks like?”

  Anik rubbed a hand over his eyes, squ
eezing them shut. “I didn't pay attention. They might have been double spiked.”

  Jayce let out a grunt of confirmation. “War arrows usually are.” He looked over his shoulder to where Ilias carefully held the blades of Jayce's knives and cutters in the fire to clean them.

  “Lay it on me,” Ren said, feeling his patience begin to waver. Most of all he wanted to tell Jayce to yank the arrow out and be done.

  “My guess is that your shoulder blade stopped the arrow from going all the way through,” Jayce said, running his hand through his hair. “I'll have to widen the wound, feel inside for any barbs, and then decide on a method of extraction.”

  Ren nodded, feeling the blood drain from his face. “Okay.” He hadn't noticed Anik leaving his side until he returned and held a water skin under Ren's nose. Ren was about to decline, but then he smelled the sweet scent of wine wafting from the mouth of the skin. Grasping it in his left hand, he took several large gulps of the unwatered wine and felt it warm him from the inside. “Okay,” he said again.

  Jayce had him lie back with a rolled cloth under his head. Ren tried to calm himself. Anik had taken over two dozen lashes and had been up and walking the next day. Jayce'd had his entire arm bitten off by dogs and he had recovered, too. This was nothing. Still, his heart raced when Jayce brought the slender, sharp knife blade to his flesh and asked him if he was ready. Ren couldn't speak, only nod. Anik placed a thick strip of leather between his teeth and Ren searched for Anik's wrist, wrapping his fingers around it. Anik took Ren's hand in both his own.

  The first cut was a sickly, slicing agony and Ren's entire body flinched. Jayce didn't take his eyes off the wound as he barked for someone to hold Ren down. Ren felt hands on his legs and his good shoulder, but he didn't see who it was. All he could see was Anik, who steadily held his gaze.

  The cut was nothing compared to what came next. Jayce passed the blade to Ilias and asked him to hold the arrow shaft steady, then ran a finger along its length and into the hole in Ren's body.

  Ren jerked against the hands holding him down, a cry caught in his throat. His vision narrowed and stars danced before his eyes. Agony exploded through his chest like a wildfire. Then fear and pain got the better of him and he slipped into darkness.