Page 127 of The Dagger and the Flame
Yes. Yes, she remembered it now. The strike and the fall. The Dagger whose heart she had stopped. She clenched her palm shut, too afraid to look and see what crackled there. Was it a mix of lightning and Lightfire? Or some delusion she had imagined?
The gash on her arm had been mended by a nurse – seventeen stitches, bandaged up and set in a loose sling. Over a mug of sugary tea and six ginger biscuits, her friends told her what had happened after she fell, how they had fished her from the rubble and ran before the nightguards arrived.
They had passed a cavalry troop on their way to the infirmary, the king’s soldiers riding hard and fast towards the broken Aurore, where they would find all those bodies strewn among the rubble. They would cart them away to be inspected, then buried, and there would be more questions for the city to answer. More fear and accusations, more whisperings about monsters and Lightfire and the changing face of Fantome.
Sera told her friends everything that had happened down in the catacombs, including her final showdown with Dufort, the man she had once called her father, as well as the things Lark had told her on the Aurore before that fateful lightning strike.
They listened in wide-eyed silence, fitting all the pieces of the night together until the jigsaw was complete.
‘You can’t go back to House Armand,’ said Bibi. ‘Not after what happened in the catacombs.’ Sera hadn’t just broken the truce, she had smashed it to smithereens, killing the Head of the Order and his second-in-command in the same night, saying nothing of the monsters and the Daggers they had killed.
‘Mercure will hang you from the Bridge of Tears herself,’ said Val.
Theo winced. ‘You don’t have to be so graphic about it.’
‘I don’t want to go back,’ said Sera. ‘When dawn breaks, I’m leaving this city.’ She looked at each of them in turn. Her trio of stalwart, weary allies, as loyal and dauntless as the heroes of her favourite novels. ‘Thank you for everything you did last night. And in all the days before that. I’d be dead without the three of you, and Fantome would be on its knees.’ She summoned a watery smile. ‘I’m really going to miss you.’
‘It was the most exciting night of my life,’ said Bibi, squeezing her hand. ‘Despite all the almost-dying.’ She paused. ‘Or maybe because of it.’
Val scrunched her nose. ‘Whoever said farmgirls were boring?’
Theo only frowned, as if he was working through some impossible problem in his head.
‘I have one more favour to ask,’ said Sera, wincing a little as she sat up. ‘Could someone please fetch my dog for me?’ She was not going anywhere without Pippin. And if it cameto it, she would brave the threshold of House Armand and the furious swing of Fontaine’s walking stick to get him.
But Bibi was already nodding. ‘Of course!’
‘Thank you,’ said Sera, looking out of the window to keep from crying. The moon was fading from the paling sky, the night slowly giving way to dawn. Her thoughts turned to Ransom, and the promise they had made to each other in the catacombs.
It felt like a lifetime ago now.
But morning was coming, and at long last, freedom was dawning.
When dawn came, Sera was sitting on the bottom step of Our Sacred Saints’ Cathedral in the middle of the deserted square. The rain had finally sputtered out, leaving a pearly sheen across the rooftops of Fantome. The sky was soft and pink, scattered with fluffy clouds edged in gold.
Across the square, three familiar figures appeared with a dog trotting out in front. She shot to her feet and Pippin yipped, hurrying towards her. She swept him into her arms, pressing kisses into his fur.
When the others caught up, Bibi slung a rucksack from her shoulder and handed it to Sera. It was filled with travelling clothes and provisions for the journey ahead.
‘Thank you,’ she said, setting Pippin down to hug her. Then she saw her friends were carrying three more rucksacks between them. ‘What’s all this?’
‘We talked it over on the way home,’ said Theo. ‘We want to go with you.’
Sera blinked. ‘What?’
‘We want an adventure.’ Val tugged at the straps on her rucksack. ‘We want to see what lies beyond the Hollows.’
Sera’s heart skipped a beat. ‘But I don’t even know where I’m going yet.’
‘I’m more than ready to hurl myself into the unknown,’ said Val, with a shrug. ‘The sooner the better, frankly.’
‘And what about you, Bibi?’ said Sera. ‘You love living at House Armand.’
‘I love the people at House Armand,’ said Bibi, with a smile. ‘You are my people. And it’s not like I’ll be gone forever.’
Sera turned to Theo. ‘What will House Armand do without its Shadowsmith? You love your craft. It’s your passion.’
‘Creatingis my passion, Sera. Not Shade.’ He looked past her to the empty space where the Aurore had stood. ‘I just never thought there was anything beyond it. I’ve always believed that all the good magic died with the saints.’ His eyes shone as they met hers. ‘But after what I witnessed last night, after what we did with that Lightfire… we’ve only just begun to understand its true power. I can’t give up my curiosity yet. I don’t want to.’ His smile grew, pressing a dimple into his cheek. ‘And I don’t want to give up our friendship either.’
