“He’s okay,” she asserted before I could say a word, still stomping out fire embers on Benedict’s robe.
“I’m fine,” Benedict agreed sleepily. His face was soot-stained and perspiring from the heat, but he was alive.
“We need to move him back,” I replied. The flames erupting from the doorway were growing more intense by the second. Ruby and I started to drag him away from the door—I held onto a corner of his robe, trying to make sure that I touched him as little as possible. I noticed Yelena being carried off by Jenney and Julian, and the rest of the kids doing the same to a small dark-haired kid I’d almost syphoned from a few days ago. I hoped he was okay.
“Does it hurt anywhere?” I asked, turning my attention back to Benedict. Now that he was away from the fire, I placed my hands behind my back, careful not to come into physical contact with any part of him as the hunger started to rear up inside the pit of my stomach.
“No,” my brother murmured deliriously, “it was just really warm in there… It must be the entity doing this, right?”
“I think so,” I replied. “Nevertide is split up the middle, like a huge landslide or something…and the sky, well, that’s just weird.”
Benedict looked at me in confusion, but before he could ask what I meant, one of the kids cried out.
“The tower! The tower’s going to fall!”
I looked up. The north tower directly above us had started to sway, lurching like a drunk back and forth as more splits and tears and crashes emanated from within the castle.
“Everyone back!” I cried out, knowing already that we were too late…The first rock fell just a foot away from where Benedict’s head lay. The kids screamed out. In the next moment, a familiar hand slammed into mine.
“Throw your energy out—now!” Tejus yelled down at me. He must have followed me as soon as I’d left his arms, and I was immensely grateful in that moment that Tejus refused to abandon me under any circumstances, no matter if it threatened his own life.
“What do I do?” I cried back.
“A barrier!”
“I don’t know how to do that!”
“Let your instinct take over, Hazel. Just trust me.”
He clasped my hand tightly, and, trying to see into his head without syphoning his energy, I followed his lead, attempting to throw my energy outward so that it encircled all of us from the falling rocks. Tejus was still weak, I could tell, but somehow he still managed to start building the shimmering, bluish barrier.
“Don’t hold back.” Tejus yanked at my hand. “I’m syphoning off your friends—I’ll be fine.”
The entire process took only a few seconds; I poured the rage and fury, the power and the desperation I felt into a single channel outward. In my mind, it created the same thick rope of ‘energy’ that I used to bond with Tejus, but this time it was directed onto the ground—and where the energy came into contact with the ground, it spilled out, covering the ground and then rising up into a large bubble, merging with the wisps that Tejus had already started to create.
“You’re doing it,” Tejus whispered as the bubble encased us.
Just in time. The rocks of the tower screamed, stone grinding against stone as the aged mortar crumbled away to dust. It collapsed, covering the barrier that we’d created, shutting out every ounce of light, and making the earth shudder on impact.
The moment rocks hit the barrier, I howled in pain. It was as if each stone had landed on my head—but inside my brain, ricocheting around my skull, knocking every nerve, muscle and bone in my body. The edges of my vision started to turn gray.
“Tejus…” I murmured, unable to get any more words out as the world felt like it was fluttering away to nothingness.
“It’s all right, I’ve got it—I can hold it.”
I heard his reassuring murmur like it was traveling down a long, long tunnel.
“Everyone’s safe,” he continued.
Everyone’s safe.
We’re all okay.
I let go of his hand, yearning for rest and hardly able to keep my eyes open for another second.
Benedict’s startled expression was the last thing I saw; he was looking up at me from the ground, his eyes wide and disbelieving as I smiled and then fell, gratefully, into unconsciousness.
Ash
As the bird continued on toward Hellswan castle, I looked down at the complete devastation below me. A large crack split Nevertide in two, like a gaping, smirking mouth across the landscape. Smaller cracks hair-lined off it, the roots of trees exposed by landslides, as if the forests and fields were sloping down into the center of the world. Villages lay in ruins, barns burning, and most homes looked as if they’d collapsed entirely, falling over as if they were made out of paper, not stone.
A cloud of smoke rushed up to meet us, momentarily blinding me in a thick fog, and when it passed, I got my first look at Hellswan castle. Or what was left of it.
Ruby!
She was my one and only thought as I looked down at the annihilation of my home. The main fortress of the castle was just about still intact, but every other inch of it lay sprawling outward, nothing more than rubble, with the black dots of ministers swarming around the wreckage like confused ants.
Queen Trina groaned next to me. She was still out of it, her eyes closed and her body limp in the talons of the vulture.
This is your fault.
A large part of me wanted to drop her down to the land below—to watch her somersault through the air until she landed like a rag doll on the rocks or was swallowed up by fire. It would serve her right: this was her doing, every dead sentry, every crack and split in Nevertide on her hands—evidence of her betrayal of her own people. If Queen Trina lived and Ruby didn’t, I would never forgive myself – or her.
As we drew closer to the castle, I realized that the tremors and the shifting of the ground had come to a halt. The crack in Nevertide wasn’t widening any further, for now, but I didn’t know if this would be a brief reprieve or the end of the entity’s destructive force on the land.
I need to get them to safety.
We dropped down just outside the portcullis where most of the ministers and guards were gathered, all flapping about like headless birds. I anxiously searched the crowd for a familiar blonde head, but I didn’t see her.
“Ashbik!” one of the guards cried out, and my name was echoed across the waiting group. I shoved Queen Trina to the floor, and the bird took off in flight once again, no doubt to find a safer spot than here.
“Watch her! She’s not to move—if she wakes, secure her to something,” I instructed, pointing at five waiting guards who appeared to be only partly injured. “The rest of you wait here, by the entrance. Do not leave—you all wait for my command, is that clear?” I roared out.
I heard the resounding chorus of ‘yes, your highness’. Had it been under other circumstances, the meek and mild response of the ministers would have made me laugh. As it was, I didn’t care whether they stayed here or not, not really. I just wanted to find Ruby.
I looked at the other guards; there were three who weren’t injured at all, and I beckoned them over.
“I’m going to search for the humans, you’re to follow me.”
“Your highness, no one will have gotten out alive—the towers, everything—it collapsed,” stuttered one of them, avoiding meeting my eye.
“We’ll find them,” I repeated implacably.
The ministers stood aside hurriedly as I walked toward the portcullis. I didn’t bother checking to see if the guards had followed my lead. I was going anyway. Using True Sight, I scanned the entrance of the castle while walking closer to the worst of the rubble. The sight made me sick. There were at least fifteen sentries—some ministers, some servants—who had been caught in the rock as it had fallen down, crushing all of them. The only mercy would have been that they would have died quickly.
Please don’t let Ruby…
I couldn’t even finish the thought. The idea that sh
e had met the same fate was unimaginable.
Searching every single pile of rubble, including the interior of the blocked-off main fortress, I anxiously sought her out, looking for any sign of the rest of the humans, Tejus or Hazel.
“There are sentries trapped in there,” I muttered to the guards. Inside the main fortress I could see ministers who were still alive, trying to remove the rubble that blocked their paths. Already their movements were becoming slow and weak. “One of you go and fetch more who are able to help—we need to start trying to get them out. They’re going to suffocate in there otherwise.”
Where the collapsing building hadn’t killed them, the fire shortly would. It seemed to be worse at the lower levels of the castle, but with the entrances and exits blocked, those left alive would soon suffocate or be burnt alive.
The guard hurried back to the portcullis. I continued my search with the two remaining guards, starting to edge around the right side of the castle where the damage was the worst. The towers had all collapsed, one leaving only the iron staircase jutting out of the foundation of the keep, burnt and twisted, but still standing.
I started to focus on the piles of rubble. The first two contained nothing, but as I moved closer toward the side entrance, a large, built-up pile caught my attention.
“Ruby!” I ran closer to the pile of rocks, seeing a group of humans trapped inside along with the distinct, hunched-over figure of Tejus.
“Help me move these!” I called to the guards. Then, realizing that the three of us wouldn’t move fast enough, I commanded, “One of you go back and get more help—anyone who’s able-bodied!”
I could see that Tejus had built a barrier that was covering them all—but how long he could hold it up, I didn’t know. He was obviously syphoning off the humans to keep it in place, and if any of them grew too weak…
I started to throw the rocks back, moving the top ones first. Shortly, footsteps hurried to my aid. Three more guards and two ministers launched themselves at the pile, helping me heave off the worst of the rubble.
As we moved a dented iron spike, three large gray stones tumbled off the barrier. Then Ruby peered out at me, dusty and soot-streaked, but smiling.
“Shortie!” I breathed, grinning at her weakly.
She waved, knowing I wouldn’t be able to hear her through the protection of the barrier. I kept removing the stones, smiling at her reassuringly, but I felt sick. That had been too close for comfort—I had almost lost her again, and where I should have felt relief, instead a knot of anxiety twisted in my gut. The danger was getting worse, seemingly at the same rate that my feelings for Ruby were intensifying. The thought of losing her was becoming more and more agonizing.
Most of the kids were huddled together on the ground, while Ruby was kneeling up against one of the fallen rocks, anxiously monitoring our progress as her energy was syphoned. Tejus kept still, focusing on keeping that barrier in place, with Hazel lying next to him. She wasn’t moving.
We cleared off the top of the stones, creating a nest-shaped crater in the ground where nothing would be able to fall on the humans once the barrier was removed. Tejus checked it was safe, and then, with a sigh of relief, he let the barrier fall.
“Hazel needs help,” Tejus barked the moment the barrier came down. I nodded, turning to one of the ministers, who reluctantly edged his way down into the pit and over to Hazel.
“Do I get more white knight points?” I joked feebly with Ruby as I put out an arm to help her up. Her fingers closed around my hand, and she grinned.
“Yeah, you get more points.”
She looked back, watching the guards carry Benedict and then Yelena out.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Benedict decided to be a hero.” She rolled her eyes. “I think he feels like he’s got a lot to make up for—especially when it comes to Yelena.”
I nodded. In his position, I would feel the same way.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” she breathed, turning her attention back to me. “Did the earthquake affect the Fells as well?”
“It did, but…well, some of us survived.”
She nodded.
“Memenion?” she asked.
“Gone.”
Ruby closed her eyes briefly, taking a moment. “He was a good man,” she whispered. “Like Varga.”
She flew against my chest, her arms wrapping around my waist. I returned the hug, resting my lips against the crown of her head. A small sliver of jealousy unfurled within me—I hated that she still thought of Varga, that it still caused her pain to think of him. It was irrational. He had rescued her from the ice fires, after all. If anything, I should be grateful to the sentry. I thought when he was revealed to be an Acolyte, it would have tainted her memories of him. Clearly not.
“What are we going to do now?” she murmured against me, and I could feel her warm breath heating up my chest.
“I don’t know exactly,” I replied. “I need to speak to Tejus. I don’t know how many kingdoms were destroyed, or how many villagers, ministers and guards are going to be homeless now. Perhaps we can find shelter somewhere else.”
The prospect was a gloomy one. I didn’t know which kingdoms would be truly safe for us—of those that were left. Or if we’d be welcome at any of them, if they were still standing.
“I need to stay with Benedict and Hazel.” Ruby released her grip, looking up at me with worried eyes.
“They’ll be moving everyone out of the castle grounds,” I replied, watching as the guards helped more of the kids out of the pit. Benedict and Hazel were being carried off toward the outskirts of the gates. “Go. I need to speak to Tejus.”
“Okay.”
Ruby leaned up toward me and I kissed her, sinking into the familiar sensation of her pliant lips. Instantly I felt drugged. Varga, the entity, the destruction of Nevertide all faded away to nothing.
Tejus
Since I was a child, Hellswan castle had invoked mixed feelings in me. It had been my home, the only one I had ever known. Although the gray walls and the strict, unyielding rule of my father had made me long for escape—even causing me to stay in the Seraq kingdom for an extended period of time—seeing it reduced to nothing but rubble and dust was physically painful.
I stood next to Ash, both of us gazing at the destruction, almost as if it would suddenly start to mend itself, a twist in the universe making the stones reassemble, turning back time till it was once again the oppressive, impenetrable hulk that Hellswan castle had always been. The feelings of powerlessness I had been experiencing ever since I’d learnt of the entity’s rise started to return; what could I do—what could the kitchen boy do to stop this? If the entity was capable of such mass devastation, how would two sentries—both riddled with faults and flaws that clouded their judgment, with a limited army behind them and no closer to finding answers regarding the true nature of the evil that faced them—ever hope to defeat it?
Ash cleared his throat.
“What do we do now?” he asked, quietly.
I looked up at the sky. It was mid-morning now, and as long as the sky didn’t rip further to expose the night, we would have a decent amount of time before sundown.
“We need to get everyone somewhere safe—relatively safe,” I muttered, thinking of the few options that we had available to us.
“Where do you suggest? I was thinking that we could send scouts out—find the kingdoms that are least destroyed, and hope that they’re willing to take us in,” Ash offered, his tone doubtful.
“Take in the Hellswans?” I smirked.
“The villagers, at least?”
They might have a chance of being accepted elsewhere, perhaps if the Memenion kingdom was still secure, but they would be unlikely to accept our ministers or our guards. For too long my father had alienated the surrounding kingdoms, and while he had been respected as emperor, he had been hated. I doubted that those long-standing feuds would be eradicated in the face of a disaster—even one as severe a
s this.
“There is the summer palace,” I replied, ignoring his suggestion. “It is the only place I can think of. If it has survived the earthquake, then it will be habitable—sort of.”
Ash raised his eyebrows. “I have never been.”
“But you’ve heard of it?”
“Yeah, but I was never asked to work there.”
“We didn’t go after my mother’s death. The palace belonged to her family, and was given as a gift to my mother for her dowry. It’s located by the North Coast, far from the Acolytes’ temple. If no one knows we are heading there, we may manage to stay out of their way until we can come up with a plan.”
Ash nodded.
“But if you wish, we can take the villagers to Memenion,” I continued, thinking out loud. There wouldn’t be much space for us all in the old palace—perhaps Ash was right, better to get the villagers somewhere safe, away from the harm that I suspected would follow us.
“He is dead.” Ash’s words were barely above a whisper.
“At the Fells?” I asked, my throat tightening.
“He dropped…into the ground. There was nothing I could do.”
“Did he know about his son?” I asked, hoping that his dying moments weren’t ones of regret and shame over his offspring’s allegiance to Queen Trina and the Acolytes.
“Yes.”
I swallowed, not wishing to discuss the matter any further. With Memenion gone, our kingdom was truly isolated, as were our efforts to battle the entity. My mind drifted to Hazel once again. She was my primary concern. Keeping her safe would be the one outcome that I would not compromise on. If she survived this, even at the expense of every other soul in Nevertide, including my own, then I would have accomplished my goal; the entity would not have taken everything from me—would not have succeeded in destroying the one thing that mattered.
“What of the Impartial Ministers?” I asked. “Did any of them survive?”
“I saw one of them die—I don’t know what happened to the others. I wouldn’t have thought that they would concern you?”