Dragonoak: Gall and Wormwood, page 55
I didn’t waste another moment. I barged into the room, shoved my way between Amy and Emma, and skidded to a stop in front of Claire. I’d do what Akela and Reis hadn’t been able to, should it come down to it.
“What?” Amy began, narrowing her gaze. “Thought you’d been taken care of.”
They’d removed their helmets and left them on the small table I’d been sat at with Aren, short hours ago. She was no longer in the room and had most likely been taken to her son’s side; she was far more willing to bend to Agados’ will than Claire ever would be.
Claire had been forced into a chair, cane nowhere to be seen.
“Rowan,” Claire said evenly. She didn’t let relief betray her voice. “My old friends are doing all they can to convince me to give up crown and country. They claim that the entirety of our forces have fallen. Akela included.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Claire raise a sceptical brow, expecting me to be beyond incredulous at the notion. All I could do was grind my teeth together to stop my jaw from trembling.
“… Rowan?” she asked, fingers twisting in the cuff of my sleeve.
Emma erupted into laughter and slapped a dragon-bone clad hand against her plated chest.
“You really thought we were lying, Ightham?” she asked. “And here I was, giving you far too much credit. Thought you just knew how to keep a straight face.”
“Used these very swords,” Amy added, patting the blade at her hip. “Washed them off, naturally. Dragon-bone cleans up rather well.”
They’d missed spots. Akela’s blood was still splattered across their armour.
Amy grinned so hard her face must’ve ached. She quite literally patted her sister on the back, certain they’d finally managed to break Claire. Claire sat in utter silence. An ache welled up within me, the sort that had been knocked out by all that had happened with Katja. I stared between the Knights, vision blurred, and caught sight of Varn in the doorway.
She stood with her chain and sword held loosely in her hands, brow furrowed. She shrugged her shoulders and held out her arms, wanting to know what to do next. I looked away, so as not to draw the Mansels’ attention to her.
“Rylan doesn’t have the castle yet,” I said slowly. There was still hope in this. There had to be. The Mansels might’ve killed Akela, but how many of Rylan’s soldiers had Akela killed over the past few hours? That alone was not enough to condemn them. Each soldier Akela had slaughtered had family, loved ones. They all meant something to someone; everyone was an Akela to somebody. “Emma. You helped us before. When the King was dying, you let us in to see him. You went against your orders then. And when Aren wanted to know if I was a necromancer, you tried to help me. You tried to warn me and you stopped her from torturing me.
“It’s not too late. Come with us.”
Emma said nothing. Amy started to laugh but the sound fell flat when she saw the way Emma stared at me. She was considering it. In truth, the only thing binding her to Rylan’s desperate plan was Amy, and all it would take was a few sharp words to convince her sister to betray him.
“Seriously?” Amy hissed in her ear. “You saw what the gunpowder did. How’s anyone meant to stand up to that?”
“She’s a necromancer,” Emma said, pointing at me.
“Not if she’s blown up,” Amy snapped.
“I’m your best chance at staying alive,” I promised.
“Shut up,” Amy said. “Queen Aren’s with Rylan. She knows we’ve always been loyal to her and her son. After this is all over, even if Ightham does win, you think she’s going to reward us? She never liked us to begin with. She’ll use us. She’ll chew us up and spit us out. We need to stick with what we know.”
Emma shook her head and caught my eye, almost apologetic.
“Nice try. We’re taking Ightham and keeping her out of the way until this is all sorted,” she said.
“We won’t need her for long,” Amy threatened.
“You’re not taking her anywhere,” I said, stepping closer to them.
“Oh, yeah? How you gonna stop us?” Amy asked. “If you were going to necro us into our graves, we’d already be there.”
“Last chance,” I said to Emma. She lifted her jaw. Without taking my eyes off her, I switched to Canthian and said, “These are the Mansels. They killed Akela and they’re trying to take Claire.”
Varn moved like lightning.
A sickening crack filled the chamber as Varn struck Emma around the side of the head with the padlock. Amy didn’t have the chance to react as Emma went down with a howl, clutching the side of her shattered skull. Amy made a futile grasp for her sword half a second too late. Varn thrust her own blade forward, sinking it deep into her throat.
Without bothering to wrench the sword free, Varn kicked Emma square in the chest as she rose to avenge her sister. She went flying across the floor and Varn leapt on her before she could draw her sword. She pinned her wrists to the ground with her knees, straddling her as she stretched out the chain and pressed it against her throat.
Emma struggled and swore and Varn became frustrated with how long it was taking. With a blinding punch across the face to subdue her, Varn freed the dragon-bone sword at Emma’s hip and drew it neatly across her throat.
“Gods. Okay,” Varn grumbled as she caught her breath. She rose to her feet, all blood and exhaustion, and I was endlessly glad that she was on our side. She rolled her shoulders back and pulled a hasty bow together. “Glad to see you’re in one piece, Your Majesty.”
It took Claire a moment to answer. Her eyes were fixed on the carnage sprawled across the floor, unable to absorb what she’d seen.
“Thank you, Varn,” she eventually managed.
“Happy to help,” Varn said, wiped the dragon-bone blade on her sleeve and bowed for a second time.
“I am loath to say it, but I believe the two of you have a better idea of what is happening within the castle than I do,” Claire said, changing the subject without taking her eyes off the Mansels. Later. I could bring them back later, once this was all over. “I was brought here shortly after the first explosion, and my mother was already gone. The Mansels arrived a matter of minutes ago and cared more to taunt me than to shed any light on the situation.”
Between every word she spoke, all I heard was Akela, Akela, Akela. Legs scraped against the wooden floor as I pulled a chair out by its high back and collapsed like a pile of skin and bones into it. I pulled my knees to my chest and closed my eyes as I tried to collect myself. The truth couldn’t be any worse than Claire had prepared herself for.
Varn hissed as her finger split open, gushing blood an unexpected side effect of tapping the edge of a dragon-bone weapon. I healed it from where I sat with a wave of my hand and Varn wiped her palm clean on one of the sofas. She knelt down and set about liberating the sheaths from the Mansels’ hips, claiming both swords for herself.
“As soon as that first explosion went up, I ran straight into Katja. You’ve probably figured it out by now: they used our armour to get in, and all those traitors Kidira was worried about helped plan it from the inside. I found Akela and Reis, and… Reis had managed to take one of Rylan’s soldiers hostage. That’s where we got our answers,” I said. I was unable to meet Claire’s eye as I spoke. “I took Oak to the barracks to get reinforcements, but the moment I got there… there was already gunpowder waiting, Claire. Ash said she’d send the soldiers to the castle once things were sorted out there, but…
“I don’t know if they’ll get here. I came back to the castle, found Reis and Akela again, and then we ran into…” I glanced at the bodies on the floor. “I tried to save her, Claire. I promise I did. She’d told me to run but I went back for her the moment they… I reached out but she was too far away. Someone knocked me out. I couldn’t get to her.”
Claire reached over and cupped my face. My eyes still wouldn’t meet hers.
“Rowan. Rowan, listen to me. I know you did everything you could for Akela, but please don’t think that there’s nothing more you can do. We’ll find her. You’ll bring her back and things will start to make sense again. You’ll see.”
She was right. She had to be. I reached out through the castle, seeking death, but was too shaken to feel as much as I ought to.
But one thing was clear: curling up in a chair and mourning Akela wasn’t going to do anything to help her. What we needed was a plan. We needed to keep going, to put one foot in front of the other, as we always had done. It couldn’t be any harder than trekking through the Bloodless Lands, couldn’t be harder than spending years thinking Claire was dead.
“We can’t stay here. Rylan put you here for a reason. Where do we go?”
“First we ought to gather as many people as we can. Kidira, Eden, Reis, Laus and Alex ought to be somewhere. We know we can trust them,” Claire said. “Atalanta and Queen Nasrin as well.”
Kondo-Kana was best left forgotten in a situation like this.
“Oak’s gone to the mountains to find Kouris,” I said.
Nodding thoughtfully, Claire turned to Varn. She’d taken it upon herself to drag the corpses into a corner. When Claire addressed her, she sprung to attention, standing as straight as she would for Queen Nasrin.
“Can you account for the whereabouts of your party, Varn?”
“’fraid not, Your Majesty. See all this mess all over me, yeah? We was right in the heart of the explosion. Knocked me clean out. If it hadn’t, I would’ve sorted this bloody mess out for you already. I was with Atalanta and Her Majesty at the time, though. Kondo-Kana was off napping somewhere. Dunno. They probably ended up like me. Lanta’s busted ‘em out, if that’s the case.”
“We’ll relocate. Find somewhere secure and scout the castle for the others, bring back what guards we can, and find Akela,” Claire promised. “You said Reis was with her at the time. Do you know what became of them?”
“Nothing fun,” Reis said from the doorway, stepping in and scowling at the bodies on the floor. They held a spear instead of a cane, pistol at the ready. A deep bruise blossomed across the left side of their face and a large chunk was missing from their wooden leg. Stepping over a puddle of blood, they said, “Nothing I ain’t dealt with before, though. Bloody amateurs, the lot of ‘em.”
The tightness in my chest eased at the sight of Reis. Varn hopped over her neat pile of corpses and greeted them by grabbing their shoulders and shaking them to ensure they were really there. If Reis could make it to us, so could the others. It was only Akela we’d lost, only Akela we had to bring back.
“Aye. Good to see you too,” Reis said.
They took hold of Varn’s jaw and pressed their foreheads together.
Varn responded by punching them in the gut.
“First of all, keep your disgusting face off mine,” she said, and put her hands on the hilts of the swords on her hips. “But more importantly, look at this. Nice, right?”
“Not bad,” Reis conceded, and turned to Claire. “Ready?”
Claire didn’t respond.
“Any time today!” Varn called out. A split-second later she added, “Your, er. Your Majesty.”
Claire caught my eye and stared at the floor.
I didn’t have to wonder what was wrong: it hit me the moment I opened myself to her. With all I had been through, with the explosions, losing Akela and seeing Katja again, I hadn’t thought to pick out her pain from the agony gripping the castle.
“Come on,” I said to Varn.
I went to Claire’s side, crouched, and offered my arm. Knowing better than to let stubbornness rule at such a time, Claire wrapped an arm around my shoulder with no small amount of shame. Varn mirrored me and between us, we got Claire to her feet and took the weight off her leg.
“Don’t,” Claire warned as we helped her past Reis.
“Don’t what?” Reis asked, following us out of the room.
“You were right,” she said dryly. “After this, I will…”
Not needing time to finish, Reis clapped a hand on her back and said, “Been thinking real hard about it, Claire. Bloody good thing I like you, otherwise I would’ve been out of here at the first sign of trouble.”
Claire’s mouth twitched at the corner.
“We head left, followed by the first right. It will lead to one of the castle’s armouries, which I have the key for.”
Whatever was happening had been relocated to the far side of the castle. We followed Claire’s directions until carpeted floors and white walls abruptly ended. Bare stones and dark, low ceilings took their place, and after struggling down a narrow, spiralling staircase, Claire let go of Varn to pull a ring of keys from within her shirt.
Varn lit a torch and opened the gate to the armoury as quietly as she could.
It didn’t do us any good. Heavy footsteps beat against the top of the stairs and something crashed into one of the stone walls. Varn stepped forward, brandishing a sword in her free hand, determined to keep our whereabouts a secret.
“Wait!” Claire ordered when a figure appeared at the top of the stairs.
Kidira stood tall for all of a second.
Taking a step towards us, she slumped against the wall. Her face was beaten to the point where she could barely see what was in front of her. My body rippled with the echoes of wounds splayed across her and Kidira clutched at the deep cut driven into her gut. Varn dropped her sword and torch alike and rushed forward, catching Kidira at the foot of the stairs.
“Akela,” Kidira mumbled, fingers digging into Varn’s shoulder as she tried to hold herself upright. Varn wrapped her arms tightly around her waist, blood soaking into her shirt. “I tried to get her body, but—”
“It’s alright,” Claire promised. “We’re going to find her, Kidira. Rowan will bring her back.”
“You don’t understand,” Kidira hissed. “They know we have a necromancer. They’re burning the bodies.”
CHAPTER XXXI
The darkness of the armoury was the first bit of safety we’d been afforded since Rylan had made his presence known.
Varn lit torches while Reis and I made seats of the crates and barrels. With Claire seated, we dragged Kidira into the centre of the room, where light from all sides gave us a clear view of her wounds. She slumped against Varn and muttered that she was fine, that we needed to focus on finding Akela. Ignoring her, I ghosted my hand over her face to wash away the bruises and ease the swelling.
The haze that’d covered her eyes started to clear and I found that her wounds were greater than any of us had first imagined. Most were easy enough to deal with. Something reminiscent of Varn’s crowbar had struck her ribs and blades had dug in like an angry wolf’s teeth.
I didn’t know how she was still conscious. If she was anyone but Kidira and had anyone but Akela been lost, she wouldn’t have been.
A deep cut in her stomach caused us problems each time I tried to heal it.
“It isn’t fixed,” Kidira said. She might’ve been seething but her usual stern tone was still there. She clung to the edge of the crate Claire was sat on and clicked her tongue as though anyone in the room could’ve done a better job than me.
“I know! I’m sorry!” I blurted out. “It keeps tearing back open. There must be something stuck in there. Sorry.”
“Half a spearhead, from the feel of it,” Kidira snapped.
Pain shot through her again and she took Claire’s hand when it was offered.
Not knowing what else to do, I fed the pain into my own gut and found that Kidira had been underestimating the extent of her injuries. It felt like an entire spearhead.
With enough sweat on my brow to rival a Canthian summer, I did what I could to keep the pain at bay. Varn leant over, tilted her head to the side and said, “What’s going on?”
“Part of a blade’s stuck in her stomach,” I said, quickly translating the situation. “But I’ve already healed it over. It keeps tearing from the inside.”
“That’s all? Gods, thought you were gonna tell me she was having a heart attack or something,” Varn said. “Done this sort of thing with bullets before. Tell her I’ll sort it, yeah?”
“Varn’s going to… she’s going to do something,” I explained.
Kidira screwed her eyes shut and grunted.
In that very moment, she would’ve accepted Rylan’s help.
Varn drew a blade. The sound of dragon-bone leaving its sheath caused Kidira’s eyes to snap back open.
Considering what she was about to do, Varn was surprisingly gentle. She placed the sword across the floor and lifted her palms in a show of peace. Kidira narrowed her gaze and Varn took it to mean that she had the go-ahead to continue. Varn pushed against Kidira’s stomach with her thumb, searching for the broken blade. Once she was confident she more or less had her target, she picked her sword up and used the slightest amount of pressure to split the skin open.
Kidira hissed and Varn dropped the sword to the floor, pressing two fingers to the wound. Kidira came dangerously close to breaking Claire’s hand as Varn twisted her fingers in the wound, face scrunched up as she focused on fishing out the shard of steel.
“There!” Varn said victoriously, retrieving her fingers and throwing the metal against the ground.
I closed Kidira’s wound for good.
Taking a deep breath, Kidira released Claire’s hand and wiped the sweat from her face.
“Give Varn my thanks,” she managed, after a moment.
“Kidira says thanks,” I translated. Varn, busy wiping her fingers on the floor, barely listened. “She says it to you, of course. Not me. Because I basically did nothing just now.”
“Someone’s bitter,” Varn said, flicking the back of my ear.
Kidira wasted no time once she was healed. She rose to her feet and began arming herself. I drifted towards her, having nothing to focus on but the bodies being burnt in piles. The bodies being burnt so that I could never bring them back, Akela’s chief amongst them. I should’ve been prepared for this. They knew I’d be here. I should’ve been looking over my shoulder; I never should’ve let them knock me out.
