Page 21 of Echoes of the Raven
“Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?”
“I… I do not know.”
“Think.”
“This is the best of my recollection. I genuinely thought—”
“Fuck!” Calierin pulls her tunic over her nose. “It caught up with us.”
We’d left the smoke behind for a moment, but it has found us once more. In a matter of seconds, it floats thick under our noses. Saoirse begins coughing and so do some of the others.
“I’m going back,” Calierin declares. “If I’m going to die in this hole, I will take with me as manyhuman dregs as I can.”
Kadewyn frowns and snatches the torch from my hand. “The smoke,” he says, holding the flame toward the dead-end wall. “Look!”
I get closer and squint. The gray haze is slowly funneling out through a small hole in the wall. Kadewyn tosses me the torch, drops to his hands and knees, and starts digging with bare hands.
After a frantic moment of digging, he stops and shakes as a violent coughing fit assaults him. “There is definitely a way out,” he manages.
I turn to Calierin, who stands frozen between leaving and staying. “You’re welcome to head back and kill as many human dregs as you wish,” I say. “Or maybe you would rather use your magic to widen this hole and get us out of here.”
Her throat bobs, and I’m quite sure that is her swallowing her pride. Clearing her throat and blinking smoke from her eyes, she comes closer and holds her hands up toward the wall.
“Small blasts,” Kadewyn suggests. “You would not want to overdo it and finish the job the humans started.”
She sneers but holds her tongue—not an easy feat for her.
As she works, releasing small bursts of magic, we wait, breathing through our tunics and coughing due to the smoke and the dirt that crumbles from above with each thrust of Calierin’s hands.
My head swims from the smoke, and my breaths come in short bursts.
After an interminable moment, Kadewyn pushes in front of Calierin. “That’s enough.” He starts digging again, scooping large handfuls of black dirt and pushing them backward under his legs. “Got it!”
He jumps to his feet, grabs Calierin’s elbow and shoves her down into the hole. She grunts in protest but crawls on hands and knees, worming her way out of our would-be tomb.
Kadewyn and I usher out the other veilfallen, one after the other. When we’re the only ones left, I get behind him and push him along, even as he attempts to do the same to me. I am their leader for one last day, and as such, I will abandon this sinking ship last.
I crawl out, lungs burning, eyes feeling as if someone poured acid in them. The others have found their way to the river’s edge where they splash fresh water on their faces and drink to relieve their aching throats.
Kadewyn lumbers toward them and waves me along. I hold up a hand as I hunch over, hands on knees and try to catch my breath. Only around thirty veilfallen line the bank. Are the rest dead? Since I joined a year ago, our numbers never surged above fifty. We’re slowly dying in this realm, losing our magic, becomingless.
Calierin is not wrong. I’m to blame for this attack, and the guilt that cuts through me is deserved. But even if I have lied to them, I have not betrayed them. Everything I have done, and everything I will do from this point on, is to serve the only purpose they care about.
Returning home.
I stretch to my full height, inhaling lungfuls of clean air. Slowly, I take several steps back and retreat under the cover of trees. Perhaps I owe them an explanation, but I do not have the stomach for it—not when Calierin’s rage will take center stage.
It’s better this way. They may hate me for a time, but when I reopen the veil, and reenter Tirnanog, I will be the last thing on their minds.
As quiet as a phantom, I walk away, my heading already set in stone.
10
VALERIA
“Simón would never forgive me if something happens to his daughters.”
Armando Quiñones - Royal Guard Captain - 21 DV
