Bone Crier's Moon

by Kathryn Purdie

  “I’m here!”

  My pulse jumps. His voice sounds throaty and exhausted. He’s standing on the ledge just past the foot of the bridge. He blindly battles a Chained with his father’s knife while another one crawls headfirst down the cavern wall, ready to leap on him.

  “Watch out!” I race to intervene, but my mother throws two more Chained at me. I scowl and fight them back toward the Gate as quickly as possible. “Above you, Bastien!” I call, though I can’t see him anymore.

  My hastiness makes me sloppy, and when I cast one of the Chained through, the second one grabs my dress. I’m dragged dangerously close to the swirling black dust. I grind my teeth and yank away just in time. The Chained tumbles through the Gate. I fall backward on the bridge from the force of our separation.

  Well done, Ailesse, Tyrus’s realm sings to me. Now come and receive your reward.

  Reward? My limbs tingle, and I pull to my feet.

  “Move back from the Gate, Ailesse!” my mother shouts. “You’re too close!”

  Vaguely, I hear the growls of several Chained surrounding her. She’s too enmeshed in fighting to come for me.

  My chest sways toward the Gate, but my feet root me to the ground. “I . . . can’t go,” I murmur into the hot breeze reaching out for me. “Bastien . . .” I frown and shake my head. What about Bastien? I can’t remember what felt so urgent a moment ago.

  Tyrus’s siren song shivers through my body, a euphoric rush that promises more. Where I am is a better place. It has greater power. You can do anything in my realm.

  “Ailesse!” A woman’s voice. My mother again. What does she want now? “He is lying! Come back to me!” Her words are insignificant. They fade as the siren song blares louder.

  “I want to fly,” I tell Tyrus, my imagination running wild. “I want to breathe underwater.”

  I will give you that and more.

  “I want . . .” My legs tremble. “I want love.” Love has two faces. A blue-eyed boy. A dark-haired girl. But I can’t remember their names.

  “Do something, Bastien!” my mother cries.

  My thoughts snag. Bastien? I almost know what that means. It doesn’t stop my feet from slipping forward. The black dust undulates like beckoning fingers. What would it feel like to have that glittering darkness wrapped all around me? I lift my hand. I reach.

  “Ailesse, no!” A new voice. Male. One that stirs warmth in my blood.

  The drums beat harder, but I can’t forget that voice. It doesn’t come from the Gate. My sixth sense pounds up my spine and across my shoulders.

  “Walk away from the Gate, Ailesse, or I will kill Bastien!” my mother yells.

  Bastien. He’s the boy I love. That’s his name.

  The siren song shatters. The black dust snaps at me like the jaws of a jackal. I jump backward and dodge the bite. Blood rushes to my head as I spin around. Two Unchained run toward me. I leap aside, and they race through Elara’s translucent Gate. I look across the bridge. Three Chained fall off its side in streaks of chazoure. My mother delivers a powerful round kick and strikes the last soul standing. He screams and falls off the bridge with the others.

  I gape at her. Those were the last of the dead, and she didn’t even ferry them. She’s staying close to Bastien with her hand at his back. He’s unnaturally stiff—and he’s no longer holding his father’s knife. My heart stops. My mother is using it against him.

  “What are you doing?” I dart toward them.

  “That is far enough,” she says calmly. I halt at once, ten feet away, fearing what she’ll do otherwise.

  Perspiration slicks Bastien’s hair. His eyes are fever bright. He’s been fighting the Chained just as hard as we have, but it’s taken a greater toll on him. How can my mother reward him like this? “Let him go! He was helping us. Why are you—?”

  “The Gates will not stay open much longer. The two years are at an end, and Tyrus has still not given him back to . . .” Her mouth creases shut, and she inhales a steadying breath. “This is my final chance, Ailesse.”

  My heartbeat quickens. She’s not making any sense. What does all this have to do with Bastien? “Final chance for what?”

  “To redeem myself.” Her black eyes gleam. “I understand now. This is Tyrus’s last requirement—my last act of reconciliation. I need to help you see it through.”

  I stop breathing. I glance at Bastien’s pale face. “See what through?”

  Her commanding gaze bores into me. “Your rite of passage.”

  49

  Sabine

  CAS AND I RACE DEEPER into the western part of the forest. The soldiers try their best to keep up with us. An hour ago, we heard an explosion in the same direction we’re still headed. Cas said it was stolen black powder. We’ve been moving as fast as possible ever since.

  Faint sounds of arguing drift to me on the night air. Even with my jackal grace, they’re too distant to understand clearly. I can’t tell who they are or what they’re saying. What if one of them is Ailesse? I grab Cas’s arm. “This is as far as the soldiers come.”

  He scans the ground around us. He doesn’t hear what I do. “We’ve arrived at the entrance?”

  I glance at the map. The entrance above the soul bridge is in a clearing, and we’re still in the thick of the trees. But we have to be close. “It’s only a little farther. We can’t be more than a quarter mile away, if this map is drawn to scale. The cavern should be right below the entrance.” I don’t mention the long flights of stairs in between.

  “Then the soldiers will come along until we reach it,” Cas says.

  “No.” My chin lifts. “The soldiers will be close enough here.”

  He shifts on restless legs.

  The breeze billows through my hunting dress as we stare at each other. I don’t blink.

  “Very well.” He sighs and motions for Briand to join us. Cas surveys what sky we can see past the forest canopy above and places a hand on his companion’s shoulder. “Do you see that pine—the tallest one?” He points at it. “If Sabine and I haven’t returned by the time the moon touches the top of that tree, follow our trail and bring the soldiers.”

  The moon and tall pine are close to touching already. I frown at Cas. “That doesn’t give Ailesse enough time to . . .”—kill you—“. . . be rescued.”

  “It’s plenty of time if she is as close as you say. That’s all I can risk without reinforcements.”

  I briefly close my eyes, hating this plan more and more. But I can’t lose this chance. Ailesse is finally within reach. “Fine. Follow me.”

  Cas and I leave the others and press forward through the forest. He stays in step behind me, even though he’s the one carrying the lantern. It doesn’t matter. My nighthawk bone gives me vision in the dark to compensate.

  Our surroundings brighten, and the trees around us thin to reveal a moonlit meadow. Burned sulfur reaches my nose before I notice curls of smoke rising off the ground.

  Cas’s brow furrows. “This is where the black powder exploded.”

  “Exploded what?” I can’t see what’s in the middle of the meadow—the surrounding wild grass masks it—but orange embers glow there.

  He shakes his head. “That’s what we need to find out.”

  I take his hand, and we race partway into the meadow before he pulls me to a stop. “Look.” Cas points at a hatch that’s flung open on rusted hinges. A staircase leads below. “This must be the entrance.”

  My pulse jumps. “We have to hurry.”

  “Wait, Sabine.” He squeezes my hand. “This could be a trap.”

  It is. The back of my throat tightens. For you, Cas. I hastily glance away. He doesn’t deserve to die.

  My eyes land on hazy orange light cutting across the meadow. What I thought were burning embers is actually flickering firelight—from torches? It’s coming from a jagged opening in the earth.

  I drop Cas’s hand and move closer. The opening runs deep underground. I’d need to stand right next to the edge to see
how far down it goes. The bridge must be below.

  “No, I won’t do this!”

  Ailesse.

  I freeze at the sound of her desperate voice.

  “Let him go, Mother!” she cries.

  Odiva is with her?

  “I’m not going to kill Bastien!”

  My breath rushes out of me.

  “What’s wrong?” Cas comes to my side. He can’t hear Ailesse like I can.

  I shake my head. I’m sick with horror. “He’s not the right boy.”

  “Pardon?”

  I run for the open hatch.

  “Wait!” Cas yells, chasing after me. “We need to exercise caution!”

  “There’s no time!”

  My mother is trying to make my sister kill her amouré.

  But it isn’t Bastien.

  50

  Ailesse

  MY MOTHER’S BROW ARCHES AT my defiance. “It is a full moon, Ailesse, and here we are on a soul bridge. True, you could kill Bastien anywhere, but this is more fitting, don’t you think? You can do what you meant to do when you first laid eyes on him.”

  “Mother, I can’t . . .” My chest seizes up. I’m desperate to get Bastien away from her. “I didn’t know him then. I didn’t love him.”

  “Love cannot always matter,” she snaps, but her expression flickers with pain.

  My teeth set on edge. “When does love ever matter to you?”

  “You think I do not love you?”

  “I know it. I understand what love is now.” I meet Bastien’s eyes. They overflow with concern—for me, not himself, because that’s who he is.

  My mother’s gaze thins. “I have loved deeply, child. I have sacrificed dearly for it. Why do you think—?” Her voice breaks. She swallows to compose herself. “I never wanted you to suffer as I have. I’ve done my best to protect you.”

  Protect me? She abandoned me. Her heart is glacier-cold. I’ve fought in vain all my life to thaw it. “If you really love me, you wouldn’t ask me to kill my amouré.”

  “You should have never had an amouré. That is what I am trying to set right.”

  I shake my head in disbelief. She thinks I don’t deserve love? “Let Bastien go, Mother. Honor my choice. You were once given yours when you met my father.”

  She bristles. “Your father was never the man I loved.”

  Her words are shards of ice in my chest. “What?” All my limbs go rigid as a sparkle of red at her neck catches my eye. A ruby lodged in the beak of a bird skull. I’ve seen that necklace once before. The memory tears across my mind.

  Two years ago . . . my mother on the floor of her chamber beside a golden chest . . . a letter open on her lap—and the necklace pressed to her lips. I’d never seen her cry before, and it frightened me.

  Now as I stare at her, my chest heaves with anger, even while my heart feels like it’s shrinking. She holds Bastien in a shaft of moonlight on the bridge. I don’t want her anywhere near him—or me. “You betrayed my father?”

  She lowers her brows and jerks Bastien closer. He hisses as the knife bites his skin. “Kill him, Ailesse,” she demands. “You cannot let your love for him destroy you, too.”

  My eyes burn. “You would really ask that of me after what you’ve done?”

  “What does my past have to do with what’s required of you?”

  “It has everything to do with it! You’ve broken the rules of what we hold most sacred, and now you expect me to keep them. You expect me to sacrifice for them—to kill the person I love—when you didn’t even love your own amouré.” Revulsion courses through me. “Your rite of passage meant nothing. You broke your oath to the gods.”

  Her nostrils flare. “I have paid the price for that and more.” She looks at Tyrus’s Gate again, and her voice takes on a desperate edge. “Don’t you understand? I must revoke what never should have happened. If I’d never met your father, you would not have become my heir—or even attempted to become a Ferrier.”

  “If you’d never met my father, I wouldn’t have been born.”

  “But I am trying to save you, Ailesse! I have tried so very hard, for so very long, to save you.”

  “I don’t know what this is really about, but don’t pretend it’s me.”

  Her eyes narrow. “I do not have time for this. Kill him!” She rattles Bastien, and his jaw muscle tenses.

  My body flushes fiery hot, then cold. The drums of Tyrus’s siren song beat louder. I shake as I struggle to drown them out. I glance at Bastien’s father’s weapon. “That isn’t even a ritual knife.”

  “No.” My mother withdraws another knife from a hidden sheath in her dress. “But this is.”

  I gasp. For one terrible moment I fear she’s going to stab Bastien herself. Then I remember she can’t. She wouldn’t. It would kill me. Still, my pulse won’t stop racing.

  She lifts her chin high. “Show me your strength, Ailesse. You have prepared all your life to become a Ferrier. You always knew this would be the price.” She extends the bone knife to me while she keeps Bastien’s father’s knife fast against his back. A bead of sweat rolls down his temple. “I have made my choices and suffered the consequences. You still have a chance for peace. Trust me, child. It will break your heart less to kill him now than to wait any longer.”

  Terrible pressure bears down on me. My legs quake harder as I look into Bastien’s beautiful eyes. Loving him will lead to my death. I’ve always known that. Just like he knew loving me would do the same to him. He gives me a slight nod, asking me to save myself.

  How can I?

  The melody of the siren song resonates softer now, gentler. I hear its secret voice. You have another choice, Ailesse. You could come to me first. Bastien will follow you. He will die when you do, and the two of you can be together in my kingdom.

  I pinch my eyes shut. That doesn’t silence the music.

  You could both be so happy.

  My chest is a drum of black powder. My nerves are threads of flame.

  I have to make this end.

  I set my jaw. I imagine myself in the Nivous Sea. I’m turning around in the water to kill the tiger shark, even after Sabine asked me to give her up.

  I walk forward and take the bone knife from my mother’s hand. I stop trembling. Her eyes shine with pride. I’ve wanted her approval for as long as I can remember. My throat stings, but I swallow down my rising tears.

  “I won’t do this.” My words are iron. My mother can’t break them. Her grin falls as I step closer to Bastien and take his hand. “We’ll do what you said,” I tell him. “We’ll find a way to break our soul-bond. And if we can’t, then I’m prepared to die with you.”

  His brows quiver, but his eyes are a sure reflection of mine. He squeezes my hand and nods.

  I turn to my mother. “You have no power over us. You can never make me kill him.” I move to drop the bone knife over the edge of the bridge.

  She isn’t shaken. “Yes, I can.”

  In a flash, she grabs my wrist and secures my grip on the hilt.

  “What are you doing?” I wrestle against her. “Stop!”

  With graced strength, she drives the knife toward Bastien’s chest.

  51

  Bastien

  MY HEARTBEAT THRASHES IN MY ears. I grab Ailesse’s wrist. Throw all my muscle into stopping the bone knife. Its sharp tip trembles right over my heart. Merde, merde, merde.

  I fight to pull it back. My head throbs, muscles burn. I can’t make it budge. Odiva is too powerful.

  My eyes find Ailesse. She’s already looking at me. Her face is red. She shakes from exertion.

  My throat tightens. I don’t want her to see me die.

  A frantic cry shudders through the air. “Stop!”

  Someone’s on the ledge. Odiva, Ailesse, and I turn our heads.

  A dark-haired girl. The witness from Castelpont.

  A boy my age races out from the tunnel behind her. He jerks to a stop once he sees us, eyes round.

  “Sabine,” Ai
lesse gasps without releasing any tension on the knife.

  Sabine gives her a flash of a smile, then glares at Odiva. “You have the wrong boy.”

  My mind freezes. I stare at her blankly.

  The boy scrutinizes me. “That isn’t Ailesse’s abductor?” he asks.

  Sabine doesn’t answer. She yanks him close, whips out another bone knife, and brings it to his neck. His lantern crashes to the ground. He struggles to break free, but his effort is just as pointless as mine.

  “What are you doing?” he demands.

  “Say another word, and I’ll kill you.” Her voice is cold and steady.

  “Wrong boy?” Ailesse repeats Sabine’s words. “What are you talking about?”

  Sabine prods the boy a step forward. “This is your amouré, Ailesse.”

  “But you were my witness at Castelpont,” Ailesse replies. “You saw Bastien walk onto the bridge.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s your amouré,” Odiva says. She isn’t trying to drive the knife into my chest anymore, but she holds it there, resisting as Ailesse and I struggle to pull it away. “Any man could have stepped onto the bridge.”

  Ailesse looks at her mother and Sabine like they’ve both gone mad. “But . . . Bastien came when I played the bone flute.”

  “He wanted to kill you,” Sabine says.

  “He was lured to me. I saw it in his eyes.”

  Sabine shakes her head. “Any man would be smitten with you, Ailesse.”

  My heart beats faster. I size up the man in Sabine’s clutches. Handsome. Clearly rich. But Ailesse’s soulmate? Impossible.

  Or maybe not . . .

  My gaze drifts to Ailesse’s auburn hair, tousled and wild from fighting. She’s breathtaking. “It’s true,” I whisper.

  Her eyes fill with hurt. “Why are you agreeing with them? That man isn’t my amouré. You are. I don’t care what they say.”

  “Isn’t this what we want?” I ask. I wish we could have this conversation in private, without a knife in the grip of our hands. “If we’re not soulmates, then death can’t hang over us. We can be together in peace.”