Page 175 of Voidwalker
Then, Astrid fled in the opposite direction.
That hypocrite. That conniving, craven snow slug. Fi hesitated, cold and bloodied, torn in two directions as Kashvi mustered her fighters to chase the Beast down the main avenue. As Astrid stumbled away down a side alley.
If the Beast daeyari escaped, it would return to Verne to heal, all their casualties for naught. Losing Astrid would mean the same, a warning to her mistress of what she’d found. Their enemies would return stronger, more prepared to crush Nyskya’s makeshift rebellion, probably with a full daeyari at their side.
In the square, Boden pulled up the rear of the fighters, bandaging one last clawed arm before racing after the others.
He spotted Astrid. Then Fi.
She thanked the endless Void that they didn’t need words. In an instant, Boden understood everything she did: that Kashvi and her fighters needed his help to take that Beast down, that Fi could handle Astrid. That Fihadto be the one who handled Astrid.
“Go!” Boden shouted. “We’ll catch the daeyari, don’t let her get away!”
Fi ran.
38
Don’t say I’ve never done you any favors
When Fi and Astrid were young, her father told them not to play along the riverbank. He said the ice was too dangerous.
Astrid insisted that was what made it fun.
If not for her, Fi wouldn’t have fallen into the water that day. She wouldn’t have died. She wouldn’t have returned a Voidwalker, wouldn’t have been groomed to become Verne’s Arbiter, wouldn’t have buckled then fled then hidden for ten years, only to come back with a bomb in a daeyari capital. Pebbles snowballed into avalanches.
But everything came back to Fi and Astrid, always running after each other.
Now, Fi followed a trail of trampled snow out of Nyskya, into the forest.
Did Astrid think she could outrun her? This was Fi’s terrain, her boots easy over familiar slopes and snow-hidden ravines, her quarry’s tracks haphazard. The chase wouldn’t last long.
And once Fi caught up to her? What then?
Fi couldn’t say if it was rage or despair pushing her to run so fast. Guilt or anger making her want to scream. Astrid had threatened Fi’s life, had brought a monster into Nyskya, enough transgressions piled overtop each other that Fi knew her friendwas gone. Knew what she had to do. Astrid brought this end upon herself.
But what if Fi hadn’t left her behind? What if she’d swallowed her guilt and apologized all those years ago, not left this wound to rot between them?
Fi pushed on, following Astrid’s tracks through the snow.
Until they ended at a Curtain.
The gossamer sheen rippled in the ice-still air, ethereal and taunting and utterly implausible. Astrid couldn’t flee through a Curtain. She wasn’t a Voidwalker.
Fi spun a circle, cold air burning her lungs, but the track didn’t split off. No signs of broken branches or other escape.
Astridhadn’tbeen a Voidwalker. Ten years ago.
Fi’s fury erupted as a scream. Ten years stolen from them. Ten years of change, too much to say how much of the woman she once loved remained. She drew her sword and charged into the Curtain, desperate for an end, to put this long-drawn agony behind her at last.
She stepped out onto a Shard.
And onto a slick of ice that nearly sent Fi to her ass. She skidded, catching herself with windmilling arms as a flat expanse of ice-coated lake stretched before her. The Void hung black overhead, starless, a red aurora humming some low register that almost sounded like a sob.
A slice of heat came for Fi’s side.
Her sword parried Astrid’s at an awkward angle, two red blades screeching against each other. They both pulled back, resetting. Astrid hunched, her shoulder wounded, scarlet light catching the sharp angles of her face and the points of her antlers.
Fi shouted, because it was all she knew how to do when everything hurt like this. “And you criticizemefor running away?”
