Page 32 of The War of Wings
“Listen,” I started, my voice sharp. “You all saw what happened in Eserene. You all saw the kelpies, the soulhags, and the drivas. You saw the castle fall and Malosym rise from the ashes. If that’s where you draw the line in terms of your beliefs, fine. But it doesn’t negate the fact that Malosym is out there and is going to come back at some point. We need to be ready. And to be ready, we need to free Katia and Rhedros.”
“But why?” one of the commanders shouted from the rear of the tent. “What’s Malosym’s motivation?”
The same thing every man wants,I thought, but decided to keep it to myself. “The same motivation he had in the Old World. Power. Absolute and complete power.” I stepped back from where I stood, slowly walking around the table, looking each man in the eye as I moved. “And the source of his power? Pain. That’s how he gets stronger. That’s how the Occulti get stronger. I want each and every one of you to understand the implications. Let it sink in.” I wanted to shout at them, scream in their faces what it meant that a power-hungry being fed onpain. “The source of his power is unlimited. He seeks to decimate the realm as we know it, but that doesn’t mean killing. There are far worse fates than death at the hands of Malosym and the Occulti.”
One man’s ruddy face had pinched and he looked about two seconds away from rolling his eyes. I wanted to grab him by the throat and punch that stupid fucking look off his stupid fucking face. But I caught Summercut’s face next to him, and though there was shock in his expression, I could tell he believed me. That was all I needed. One person.
I took a deep breath, preparing for the fallout after my next words. “Right now, the Occulti are swarming Heaven. Sorenpromised he’d do everything he could to keep the residents safe, but I don’t know how long he can keep that promise.”
It was like all the air had been sucked out of the tent. Even those who’d worn expressions of disbelief and doubt were slack-jawed and terrified. Because everyone in this tent had lost someone at one time or another. Everyone here knew someone in Heaven. I wanted to sneer when I saw the ruddy-faced man go pale.
“We need a plan,” I said carefully. “We need a method of attack.”
Summercut nodded at the end of the table. “Supplies are running low here, your Majesty. Many of the food stores in Eserene were decimated in the battle. I suggest we march back to Taitha.”
Kauvras nodded. “I agree, your Majesty. There is plenty of room and supplies.”
“Okay,” I said, flipping through my brain for what else needed to happen. “We need to warn everyone. We need to send word to every other kingdom and ask for aid. Whatever support they can send.”
A general whose name I did not know stepped forward, raising a hand. “We don’t have enough ravens here with us to do so, but Taitha should.”
I looked to Kauvras. “Yes,” he confirmed. “We can send word as soon as we arrive.”
“Okay,” I said with a nod, standing straighter as I turned to Summercut. “We should have enough supply carts from the journey here to transport the injured to Taitha. Please see to it that it is arranged.” I made my way to the door of the tent, turning back to its occupants one last time. “Let everyone rest today. We’ll march for Taitha first thing in the morning.”
???
Cal’s eyes had been locked on me since we’d left the tent. It was like he was afraid I’d combust into a cloud of smoke and ash and disappear completely. To be honest, it didn’t feel too inconceivable. He’d finally drifted off to sleep on the pallet someone had laid out for us, and I’d managed to slip away. And though my head hadn’t known where I was headed, my heart knew exactly where to go.
I wasn’t shocked to see the state Inkwell was in. It had been a shithole before the battle, infested with rats and caked in a layer of dust you couldn’t scrub away no matter how hard you tried. It was a shithole now, but the rats had fled and the dust had been blown away by the wingbeats of drivas, replaced instead by soot.
Some of the homes and buildings on Copper Street still stood. A few were just bones of the shanties they’d been before the battle, a handful of charred planks and beams still arranged in the rough shape of a cottage or shack. But many had been reduced to ash completely, ghosts of what had once been entire lives that had been lived here beneath the shadow of the Eserenian wall.
I stood before the spot where our home had been, the one I’d shared with Ma and Da and Larka. It had been years now since it had burned to the ground, long before the calls of drivas echoed over the city, long before the name Malosym ever touched my ears. This place had made me, shaped me, and it wasn’t even mine. Not technically. I wasn’t born here, didn’t really belong to the people I’d called Ma and Da my whole life.
Meandering down Copper Street, I turned on to Gormill Road and then the waterfront, where the blue waves undulated in Pellucid Harbor. The water glittered in the sun like diamonds, and I growled under my breath. What right did the sun have to shine on a day like this? How could the rest of the world keep turning when there was nothing but chaos and ruin coming for us?
Waiting for this day to pass was torture. I knew it was the right decision, letting everyone rest after the battle. But I was crawling out of my skin, wracking my brain for a plan I should already fucking have. I walked and walked, as if each step jostled my mind and if I just shook it around enough, I’d come up with something. Step after step, breath after breath, until suddenly my foot didn’t meet the ground.
Shit.I scrambled backward onto solid earth, away from the edge of the cliff. My hand flew to my chest as the salty air heaved in and out of my lungs. All that walking, and I found myself at the Cliffs of Malarrey.
I turned, staring out over the city, trying to slow my breaths to the rhythm of the waves battering the base of the cliffs. A few spots of the city still smoldered, thin gray smoke traveling into the blue sky. Eserene’s skyline was startlingly different without the castle. I supposed I wasn’t expecting it to look the same, but seeing it was…
My brain conjured the scene of the castle crumbling. I’d been so relieved to know Castemont was going down, so relieved that all of this was coming to an end. There had been such awe at seeing the soulhags, the kelpies, and the drivas, such gratitude. And I’d felt powerful, though no power flowed through my veins at all. I thought we’d won.
Stupid, stupid girl.
I assumed the soulhags had gone back into the earth and the kelpies back into the sea. The drivas had flown back over the wall and out of sight, Adorex’s final, thunderous roar forever imprinted on my brain. But…
Where had the rest of the drivas gone?
I gnawed on a thumbnail as I stared out over the horizon. Did they go back to the Saints’ Realm? They obviously had some capacity to travel between realms, considering they’d ended up in Eserene.
“Thought you’d be here.”
I jumped at the voice that interrupted my thoughts, relaxing when I saw Cal making his way up to the clifftop. In his hands were two bundled packages, and I surged forward when I realized what they were. “Are those–”
“Meat pies.” He smiled. “Realm hopping made me hungry, so I figured you were starving. Someone made them over a fire at camp, so I’m not sure how good they’ll be, but I figured some real food couldn’t hurt.”
