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Chapter 38

Karys

It was taking too long to get back to the palace.

Maybe it was the silence between us making it feel longer. Or the tension weighing down our movements, making every step seem to drag. Or maybe this whole situation was some fever dream that existed outside of time and reality—maybe I'd never actually woken up this morning.

I almost started to believe this last thought until Dravyn slowed his horse, his gaze darting suspiciously at our surroundings, and he said, "This is a different route than the one we took earlier."

The statement startled me; it wasn't like me to not notice a change like this.

One of our escorts slowed as well. "A disturbance of some kind took place on that earlier route, soon after we passed through," he informed us. "It's been dealt with, I'm told. Nothing to worry about—we're just being extra cautious."

But the soldier clearly seemed to be worrying as he picked up his pace, leaving the three of us to exchange an uneasy glance.

As the soldier trotted just out of earshot, Dravyn's glare swung in my sister's direction. "You came into this city alone, as agreed?"

"I swore I would," she replied, stiffly. "And I kept my promise."

I pushed my horse between them before Dravyn could comment on her record of promise-keeping. "We're almost back to the palace," I said pointedly. "Let's just keep going."

They led their horses away from one another, each hugging as closely as they could to opposite sides of the road while I remained in the middle.

Finally, we turned onto the street that led directly up to the palace gates. Dravyn's former home stood like a beacon among the increasingly dismal day, the brick facade bright in the somber lighting.

A bolt of lightning flashed, its brilliance reflecting in the silver-domed tower that reached high from the palace's center. It was such an arresting sight that at first, I didn't notice anything else on the road we were trotting along.

When I finally did pry my eyes from the palace, I still took note of little that directly surrounded us…because there was nothing worth noticing.

No sound. No movement. No signs of any life, at all. The street and its houses were clearly inhabited—clothes hung to dry on lines, chickens pecked in yards, dogs barked.

Yet not a single person walked among any of it.

My skin crawled with warning.

Then, a flash of movement: Someone darted across an upstairs window. Someone who didn't want to be seen, I thought. Someone who had the high ground. A vantage point.

A shiver rippled through my horse. I absently rubbed its neck, whispering calming words while my gaze darted to all the places where threats could be lurking. A few more flashes of movement caught my eye—all too quick for me to make out much more than vague shapes as they snuck past doors and windows. They all appeared to be dressed from head to toe in black, and they were clearly following our movements. Flashing signals to other figures in other houses.

We passed a wide balcony draped with Galithian flags. Aside from wind chimes clinking lightly in the breeze, there was no movement here.

There was only a horrifyingly still shape stretched across the boards, halfway in the house and halfway outside—a lifeless body. Its bare feet pushed between the balcony railings. Small feet.

A child, maybe.

Bile rose up, acrid and stinging in the back of my throat.

Something told me there were more bodies tucked away out of sight.

Dravyn pulled his horse up beside mine, inhaling deeply, scenting the air. I didn't have to ask what he smelled. I smelled it too.

Elves.

And blood.

"The houses…" I began.

"They've been infiltrated."

Arrows flew from several different balconies in the next breath, striking the ground all around us.

A massive bang! sounded in the same instant, spooking our horses and making it impossible to steer them away from the second deluge of arrows that quickly followed the first.

I spotted the nearest masked assailant and started to summon fire into my palm. My horse panicked even further at the surge of magical energy. I leapt from the saddle before the beast's panicked bucking got us both impaled, wings flaring from my back and lifting me higher, slowing my descent so I could twist in mid-air and take aim at the masked attacker I'd spotted.

This all happened in the span of a few heartbeats—yet Dravyn was still faster; before I touched the ground, he was in front of me and my horse, summoning magic of his own. A wall of fire sprang up, dazzling and bright, thick enough that no arrow could have passed through—

An unnecessary wall, I quickly realized.

Because most of our attackers weren't even aiming for us.

They were aiming for my sister.

Savna had gotten separated from us. She was some twenty feet back, crouched beside her horse, which was kneeling in an awkward, crumpled heap on the dusty road. Arrows protruded from the creature's neck. Savna was distracted, frantically trying to assess the damage, so busy trying to soothe the horse that she was oblivious to the full extent of the danger taking shape around her.

I screamed her name.

She looked up just in time to see the arrowheads glinting before they were released. She hit the ground and rolled, narrowly avoiding three different shots. Springing back to her feet with a lethal grace, she quickly assessed the area, searching for cover.

I raced toward her, wings tucking behind me, the fiery concentration of their power propelling me forward with a reckless, inhuman speed.

Savna took cover in a narrow gap between two houses as I crashed to a stop in front of her.

I looked up again, finding more attackers drawing their arrows and pointing them in our direction.

My own arrows shot from my hand with little conscious thought—arrows made of fire that embedded deep in the bottom of several balconies and rapidly ignited the wood, consuming it and sending the archers crashing to the ground.

There were countless more attackers already spilling out of houses, thundering down the street, leaping from the balconies before Dravyn or I could set those balconies on fire. They all wore the same dark attire and masks, and they carried more than just bows—weapons of all shapes and sizes flashed, clinked, clattered.

A group of sword-wielding assailants was swiftly approaching us. My sister drew her sword as well, the metallic shriek of it echoing off the high walls of the houses rising on either side of us.

I backed deeper into the corridor, positioning myself more squarely in front of my sister and starting to summon a shield of flame for us both.

Dravyn cut a path through the group of approaching swords to reach us—a raging storm of wind and fire that killed several and sent countless others scattering in all directions. As he reached me, he guided my attention toward the bridge in the distance; another heavily armed group was crossing it, heading our way—Galithian soldiers.

"We should let them take it from here," he said.

I nodded. We could have killed all of these elven assailants easily enough. But we'd likely send half this city—and its innocent population—up in flames in the process.

"You can carry your sister away?"

I nodded without hesitation, even though I'd never actually managed to transport someone else alongside myself. But Savna wouldn't relax enough to let Dravyn carry her, I was certain—so I was her best option for escape.

I would manage, somehow.

I turned to relay this plan to Savna just as an attacker appeared on the other end of the narrow passage we'd taken shelter in. He'd been trying to sneak up on us. Failing this, he broke into a crazed sprint, his curved blade drawn and ready at his side.

My sister turned to face him, ducking at precisely the right angle to avoid the strike and then countering with one of her own. In a single, fluid motion she swooped down and then rose back up, plunging her sword into his gut.

As she twisted her weapon free and kicked the attacker to the ground with a grunt, I was briefly transported—as I'd so often been over these past weeks—back to our younger years, to all the times I'd admired the way she fought. The way she protected me.

She was still the sister I had always admired and looked up to, in so many ways.

But now we were facing a bigger battle than ever before.

And it was my turn to protect her.

While Dravyn held off the rest of our attackers, I grabbed Savna's arm and pulled her out of the fray. I needed more open space, away from the houses and everything else, where I could focus and fully unleash my magic and let it wrap itself properly around us and carry us away.

As I hurried her along, I began to focus my power. The surge of it must have felt overwhelming to someone not used to it; Savna stumbled and dug in her heels, yanking her arm from my grasp.

"Karys, what are you—"

I spun wildly toward her, sending bits of flame peeling off my body—which did nothing to settle the panic in her eyes. A few of the embers caught on the trees surrounding us. The sound of crackling leaves and the scent of wood smoke filled the air.

"I can get us both away from here, but you have to trust me ," I said, as calmly as I could. "You have to relax into my power, to want to go with me, or it could end very poorly for you."

Her eyes widened further as I reined in the embers drifting around us and extinguished the smoking trees with a clench of my fist.

The symbols on my skin burned brighter. I redirected the flames I'd collected, fusing them together and turning them into ribbons that I started to wrap around us.

In the same moment, I spotted a trio of our attackers weaving through the trees, trying to hunt us down.

"We have to go!" I shoved my hand out.

My sister hesitated only a moment before she reached back.

An arrow struck her outstretched arm.

A shallow scrape, nothing more, but the scent of her blood undid something in me.

A furious cry rising in my throat, I turned my power on the ones approaching us. While I focused on the one who had fired the arrow—ending him with a spear of flame shot straight through his neck—the other two swung wide and closed in on us from opposite directions.

Savna fell into step beside me, sword in hand.

I forged those ribbons of flame around us into a sword of my own.

And for a moment, we were again our younger selves, reborn into our old life—a life filled with the two of us fighting back-to-back. Watching over one another. Where I stumbled, she stepped in to lift me back up. Where she missed her mark, I followed up and struck with more precision.

We were invincible.

Until we weren't.

Until I went one way, impaling my target with my blade of flame, searing my way through his heart.

Savna went the other way, dealing with her own attacker with the same sort of finesse—knocking him off his feet and stabbing smoothly into his chest when he struggled to sit up.

But there was another taking aim; I twisted around just in time to see him darting out from behind a nearby tree, silent as a falling leaf.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the whites of his eyes, wild and wide.

Thunder followed at the exact moment he stabbed the blade into Savna's back—a sound that seemed to fit the sensation of my heart collapsing into nothing, nothing, nothing .

My sister was looking at me as it happened. Starting to reach for me again. Ready to trust me. To let me carry her away from all of this. As her attacker withdrew his weapon, she dropped slowly to her knees before tumbling face first onto the grass.

I stumbled toward her, reciting my next steps to myself, trying to force myself to stay focused.

Slow the bleeding.

Get her away from here.

Save her, save her, save her—

My earlier suspicion was proven true; my sister had been the target of these assassins. And now that she was motionless on the ground, the one who had stabbed her seemed completely uninterested in me.

He took several steps back, sword still held at the ready, but only appraised me with a cold, distant look as I fell at my sister's side and gathered her into my lap. Remembering the divine mail I wore—and the magic it was infused with—I pulled her closer to it, hoping that the Healing God's power might seep into her somehow.

I held her the way she used to hold me when I was sick—enveloping her entirely in my arms, folding my body over hers until we were one singular being, our heartbeats echoing one another's, my breaths in sync with hers, even as they became shallow and slow.

I pressed a fist against the wound on her back, trying to stop the flow of blood. That blood quickly soaked through my sleeve and trickled down my arm, but I only pressed tighter.

Whatever magic lies within this armor, whatever healing power still sleeps within my elvish blood, let it pass to her

The chaos in the distance raged on.

I could sense Dravyn still battling within it. He wouldn't leave until I was gone, I knew; so of course he was still fighting, still drawing as many as he could away from us. He'd killed plenty—the stench of blood and death, of scorched skin and bones, was overwhelming—yet more had managed to peel away from that main battle; they were making their way toward me, surveying the scene. Sizing up the goddess before them. The blood soaking me. The smoke spiraling around my arms—all that remained of the fires I'd started to wield moments ago.

I barely glanced their way. There were too many to count at just a glance, but I didn't care. Didn't care that I was outnumbered. That I felt cold and empty of all fire, divine or otherwise. That I could barely breathe.

I didn't care about anything else except the weight of my sister's body in my arms. I saw nothing else. Felt nothing. Heard nothing…

Until the one holding the sword—the sword stained with Savna's blood—spoke.

"You were warned," he said.

I swallowed away the bitter dryness coating my throat. "…What did you just say?"

"The message we were instructed to give you," said the elf, cooly. "You were warned."

Andrel's words from days ago snaked into my mind.

You've already lost enough. I would so hate for you to lose anything else…

Slowly, carefully, I untangled myself from my sister. Laid her shivering body on the ground. Rose to my feet. My blood-soaked clothing stuck to my skin. Heat flared around me, drying it, turning the cloth stiff. Symbols ignited across my body, blazing so brightly they could be seen even through my armor.

Quietly, I said, "I have a warning for him, too."

I struck my right hand outward. Flames ignited in my hand, stretching all the way up to my shoulder. Another flick of my arm, a bit of concentration, and the fire gathered into the familiar-by-now shape and weight of a makeshift blade.

The elf who had stabbed my sister cocked his head and narrowed his gaze, lips parted as if to answer me.

I silenced his reply by flinging that flaming sword forward with such swift, incredible force that he had no hope of avoiding it. It struck his chest and exploded, swallowing him in a ball of heat and light.

The group of approaching elves slowed, their expressions wary.

My eyes darted over them, counting.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

My sister's attacker lay dead on the ground, little more than a melted and singed, gruesome impression of a body.

I pulled the fire around him back into my control, reshaped it into a weapon. As soon as my hold on it was secured, I struck my left hand out and repeated the same motions as before, forging a second blade.

With all the divine power I possessed, I swung both of the blades forward, crossing them before me and sending forth a wave of fire from the combined points—a wave that built and spread until it became an inferno that leveled trees and bodies alike.

It was over within seconds.

Nothing survived. Everything had been reduced to ash and cinders—or so I thought.

Then I heard footsteps scrambling off to my right.

I turned my furious gaze toward the only thing still moving—a female elf who had managed to take cover in a ditch that my fiery wave had merely skimmed over.

She tried to run faster.

I flew after her, knocking her to the ground. She attempted to roll away, but I shoved a boot onto her chest, holding her down.

Jerking my head toward the closest pile of charred, ruined bodies littering the ground, I said, "Pass that warning to Andrel for me, won't you? And let him know he's next." I let the fire of my wings fall away, guiding some of the embers into the shape of a long sword that I pressed near her throat. "Swear to me you won't leave out any details of what I've just told you . "

Her wide eyes shifted toward those burned bodies, then back to me, over and over.

" Swear it ," I growled.

She nodded frantically. "I-I swear it."

Slowly, I lifted my foot from her chest.

And without another word, I went back to gather up my sister's lifeless body, wrapped it in a cloak of divine fire, and carried her away.

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