Crown of Dragonfire (8 page)

They stepped out of the
hut in the darkness of night. Above, high in the sky, the chariots of fire were
streaming across the river, and the distant cries of the seraphim rose. Around
them spread the thousands of huts of Tofet, and Elory did not know if she'd
ever see this place—the only home she had ever known—again.

"Come, quickly now,"
Meliora urged.

Elory nodded. Standing
outside on the dirt path, she gave her father a last embrace, and her tears
would not stop falling. Vale joined the embrace, his arms stiff at first, but
then his grip softened, and his eyes too shone with tears.

"Go," Jaren whispered. "Quickly,
my children. May Requiem's stars forever shine upon you."

"Come on!" Tash said,
hopping in the dirt. "Those chariots are getting closer."

Elory nodded, wiped her
eyes, and released her father. Tash grabbed her hand, yanking her down the
path. Meliora and Vale walked ahead. As they hurried between the dark huts,
Elory looked back only once. She saw her father standing in the doorway, the
candlelight limning his form. He raised his hand in farewell, and then Tash
pulled Elory around a corner, and she did not see him again.

 
 
MELIORA

They hurried along the
bridge, the dark waters gushing beneath them, four figures hidden in robes and
hoods. Behind them spread the land of Tofet, cloaked in shadows. Across the
bridge rose the city of Shayeen, lit with many lanterns. In the sky the
chariots of fire soared, scanning the land below.

We'll never make it across
the river.
Meliora's heart thudded, and she felt her phantom wings again,
aching to flap them, to fly from here, fly over the walls and vanish into the
wilderness. How weak were those doomed to forever walk upon two legs! What hope
did she have of reaching the port with Ishtafel's guards swarming?

Ten of those guards
stood at the southern edge of the bridge, and several more stood in watchtowers,
arrows nocked.

"Halt!" they cried.

Meliora halted before
them on the bridge. The dark waters of the Te'ephim gushed below, and the cries
of soldiers rose in the city ahead, seeking her and Tash, tearing down the city
to find them. The light of chariots streamed above, and cold sweat washed
Meliora. Truly a fool's quest! She wouldn't even make it across the river, let
alone out of the city and across the wilderness to find the Keymaker.

"I told you I'd return
with two more slaves," Meliora said, glaring at the guards from the confines of
her hood, hoping she looked more angry than terrified. "They are my family's
slaves, escaped from our house into Tofet. I've reclaimed them."

The seraphim guards
raised their lances, and their torches reflected against their armor and
helmets. "Let's take a look at them. And at you. Hoods off! Word is two
criminals are out somewhere in this city. We got to be careful."

Meliora's heart beat
even faster. Behind her, the others—Vale, Elory, and Tash—shifted their
weight from foot to foot, still hidden in their hoods. Meliora had used this
ruse—pretending to be a mistress, with Tash as her slave—to cross the river
into Tofet. Could she truly fool them twice?

Tash stepped forward, a
slender figure hidden in burlap, and placed a small, hard object in Meliora's
hand. Meliora held it out to the guards—a golden bracelet embedded with
rubies.

"I don't want to report
my house slaves escaping," Meliora said. "If the City Guard hears, they'll
stick the poor bastards on pikes. Take this and let us through—no questions
asked."

The guards' eyes
gleamed like rubies themselves. One seraph snatched the bracelet, and another
made a grab for it. Soon they were quibbling over how to dislodge the rubies
and which guard got which stone. It had cost them Tash's silver ring to enter
Tofet, but the girl had many jewels, given to her by a host of adoring seraphim
lords.

Leaving the bridge keepers
behind to fight over the rubies—they were already prying the gems out from the
bracelet—the hooded companions made their way into Shayeen.

When rushing into
Tofet, only a handful of chariots had flown above, and Meliora and Tash had
soon lost the guards' pursuit in the shadow path. Now it seemed that the entire
city garrison was out in the night—they marched down the streets, knocked on
doors, and flew above in their chariots of fire. Their cries rolled across the
city, and in the distance, Meliora could hear her brother shout in the night.

"Find them! Find the
prisoners."

Ishtafel did not
mention her by name. Good. Meliora smiled thinly in the shadows of her hood.
Perhaps he was too embarrassed to have lost his own sister.

I hope your wound
burns, brother,
she thought.
I hope it screams with the same agony as my
phantom wings.

"Quickly, this way!"
Tash said, directing the companions into an alleyway that ran between brick
silos and refineries, the way so narrow they had to walk single file. At the
end of the alley, they went down a flight of stairs, took a dark path between
two hills, and finally tiptoed along an aqueduct. The shadow path of the slaves
was a way of rooftops, tunnels, sometimes even sewers, a network connecting all
of the city, as hidden as the passageways of rats.

The port wasn't far,
less than a mile from the bridge, but the path seemed to wind on for endless
leagues. They hurried through a brick house where fishermen cleaned their
catches and fish entrails stank in buckets. They made their way across a barren
backyard where fishing nets hung from ropes. Always the chariots flew overhead,
and the sounds of guards breaking down doorways rose from the city streets.

Finally, standing
between a few palm trees, Meliora could see the port ahead. A boardwalk spread alongside
the Te'ephim River, and lanterns bobbed on the masts of sailing ships. There
lay her road to freedom.

"Find the prisoners!"
rose Ishtafel's cry above, and Meliora looked up to see a stream of fire. It
was him. His chariot. She grimaced and clenched her fist, but he shot overhead,
moving too fast to see her, and charged across the river into Tofet. A thousand
chariots flew behind him, and his voice boomed in the sky like thunder. "Make
the slaves pay! Break them until they bring out the prisoners."

Meliora hissed, and
Elory gasped at her side.

Elory shuddered. "He's
going to kill them. He'll decimate them again." She grabbed Meliora's arm. "We
have to go back. We have to get Father! To fight. To—"

Meliora lowered her
head. "We cannot."

Vale stepped closer,
and anger kindled in his eyes. "You did not see the decimation, Meliora. You
did not see the bodies on the pikes. If he's planning another attack, we—"

"We must bring hope,"
Meliora said, staring at him. She was tall for a Vir Requis, six feet from her toes
to her shaved head, but Vale stood just as tall; he stared back, eye level with
her. "More than ever, the people of Requiem need the Keeper's Key," she said. "We
cannot fight Ishtafel while wearing our collars. We must leave this city."

They all stared at her.
From across the river, screams already rose—the screams of slaves.

"They're dying," Elory
whispered.

Meliora nodded. "Then
we must hurry. We must fetch the key as quickly as we can. Come now. To the
port."

Reluctantly the others
followed. They made their way past the palm trees and stepped between a portico's
columns. A cobbled boardwalk spread ahead along the riverbank. Lanterns swung
from poles, casting orange light upon the river. Piers stretched into the
water, lined with the small reed boats of fishermen. Several larger boats—the
sailing ships of merchants—docked farther away.

"Tash, the jewels,"
Meliora whispered.

Tash nodded, stepped
forward, and furtively passed more jewels into Meliora's hands: three anklets
strewn with gemstones and a silver necklace.

"That's all I've got
left," Tash whispered. "It better be enough. I—"

"Watch it!" barked a
burly seraph, trundling between them. His girth knocked into Meliora and Tash,
shoving them back, and his breath stank of spirits. Behind him, he dragged a
collared and bruised slave.

Meliora winced and kept
walking along the boardwalk. She had never been to the port before; her mother
had always forbidden it. Meliora had always imagined a delightful, magical
place, akin to the little stream that ran through the palace gardens. In her
imagination, men and women sat dangling their feet in the water, singing songs
while pups scampered between flower beds, and in the water sailed ships carved
like swans, adorned with crystals, bringing with them the treasures from
distant lands: sweet cakes, the softest silk, and exotic birds in cages.

Now Meliora understood
why her mother had forbidden her to visit. Here was no place for a pampered,
innocent princess. A drunk seraph lay on the cobblestones by an emptied bottle,
drooling. A few pleasure slaves lurked in the shadows—not adorned in silk and
jewels like Tash but coated in bruises and scrapes. As chariots shrieked
overhead, raining sparks, gamblers were quickly packing up their games of dice
and retreating behind the trees. The firehorses galloped above, and soldiers
stood a hundred yards away, holding torches.

We must hurry,
Meliora thought.

"Now, let's see who we
can buy a boat from," she said. "Everyone seems to be fleeing the boardwalk."

She looked around,
frowning. The last few fishermen were scurrying off the boardwalk, between the
columns, and hiding in the grove of palm trees. The light of chariots reflected
on the water, and more soldiers came marching onto the boardwalk, torches
crackling.

"Forget buying a boat!"
Tash said. "That one. Quickly!"

Meliora nodded and
gestured for Vale and Elory to follow. The four cloaked and hooded figures made
their way across the boardwalk and onto a pier. A reed boat swayed in the
water, tied to a peg.

"Quickly, everyone in!"
Meliora whispered. "We'll—"

"Halt!" rose a voice
behind them.

Meliora's heart sank.
She spun around to see a seraph, armed with spear and shield, march toward her
along the pier. His eyes burned within his helmet like candles in a lantern.

Meliora's heart now
threatened to leap out of her mouth. She held out her palm, letting the jewels
shine. "I'm here to buy this boat. This boat is yours, yes? Of course it is.
Take these jewels and—"

The soldier reached her
and grabbed her wrist. "Are you trying to bribe a guard of the city?" He
growled and reached for her hood. "Show your face, seraph! Who are you? I—"

Tash leaped forward and
opened her palm, spraying out green, sparkly dust. The smell of purified hintan
filled the air, and the spice covered the soldier's face. The seraph blinked,
inhaled sharply, and coughed.

"I . . .," he
whispered. "I . . . who . . .?"

Tash gave the man just
the gentlest of shoves. He fell from the pier, vanishing into the water.

"A pleasurer's weapon."
Tash flashed Meliora a grin, then leaped into the boat.

Vale and Elory
followed, and finally Meliora stepped into the boat. She drew her halved spear
from her cloak and lashed the blade across the rope several times, finally
severing it. The current began pulling them downstream. It was a small reed
boat, barely large enough for the four of them, and dipped deeply into the
water.

Elory grabbed the oars
and rowed, adding speed. They kept flowing down the river, moving farther from
the bank. The water rippled around them, and Meliora thought she glimpsed
gleaming, reptilian eyes that soon vanished.

"We've got company,"
Vale muttered and gestured to the boardwalk. Two seraphim guards had noticed
them.

"You, fishermen!" one
cried from the boardwalk. "There's a curfew, damn it. Get back here."

Meliora tugged her hood
lower, clutching her spear. Tash drew her dagger, and Vale reached into his
cloak and drew his own halved spear. Elory kept rowing, glancing around
nervously.

"Damn it, I said get back
here!" shouted the guard. The two seraphim spread their wings, took flight, and
stormed toward the boat. "Are you deaf, damn it?"

"Wait," Meliora
whispered, clutching her spear under her cloak. "Wait . . ."

The two seraphim
descended to hover before the boat. "Turn around now and—"

Meliora leaped to her
feet and thrust her spear. The blade tore through one seraph's wing. He wobbled
in the sky, cursing, and Meliora reached out, grabbed his wounded wing, and
pulled down hard.

The seraph slammed into
the water with a splash. Those reptilian eyes shone again, and a crocodile's
maw rose from the water, closing around the seraph.

At Meliora's side, Vale
drove his spear into the second seraph's face. The soldier stumbled, and Vale
reached out from the boat, tugging him down. The water splashed and the boat rocked.
Elory hissed and swung her oar, shoving one wounded seraph deeper into the
water. The crocodiles feasted. The seraphim sank. The boat sailed onward.

"Over there!" Elory said.

Meliora spun her head
to see five or six seraphim race along the boardwalk. She cursed, lifted the
jewels Tash had given her, and tossed them. "Catch!"

The jewels hit the
boardwalk, and the seraphim knelt. Elory kept rowing, and the sound of seraphim
arguing over a diamond necklace rose from behind.

"Take us farther from
the bank," Meliora said. "Far from the boardwalk. We'll vanish in shadows."

Elory complied, guiding
the boat until it sailed in the middle of the Te'ephim. The river was so wide
that, from the riverbanks, the boat would appear as nothing but a speck,
perhaps just another crocodile in the night. Chariots of fire still streamed
above, and distant screams rose from Tofet, but the water seemed almost
peaceful. They left the port behind, and soon they were sailing between two
walls.