Slight and Shadow (Fate's Forsaken: Book Two) (44 page)

“You didn’t kill the witch?” he shouted at Jonathan — who had his lanky arms clamped protectively over his head.

“That old bat must have woken up!” he cried, grimacing. “I
told
Clairy we should’ve put a few more herbs in her tea —”

“You can’t just put her to sleep! I told you — you have to
kill
her!”

“What?”

But at that moment, a bright light flared up at the castle. The braziers burst to life and several monstrous shadows popped up around the walls. Torches were lit, someone let out a bellowing command, and the shadows began to cross the wall at an alarming pace — moving towards the covered passageway.

Kael turned and slung his arm at the giant in charge of the women. “Start running for the Pens! Go!”

He did, and the women who were able to run followed along behind him. Two had bellies so round that they couldn’t make the journey, and Brend helped them into the wagon. “Is that all of them?”

Kael turned to ask Jonathan, but the fiddler had suddenly vanished. He’d slipped back through the doorway without so much as a warning, and Kael had no idea what he was doing. He was about to go in after him when a familiar screech sounded overhead.

He looked up and saw Eveningwing fighting above the passageway. Several guards sprinted across the roof, heading straight for the tower. Eveningwing dove in among them, beating them with his wings and raking their helmets with his claws. He managed to knock one guard off his feet and sent a second plummeting from the wall. But the others made it across.

There was a small door on the roof of the tower, one that would open into the kitchen’s upper levels — Kael remembered it from Jonathan’s maps. He could do nothing but watch as the guards scaled the remaining few feet of wall and reached the tower’s top.

“They’re going to cut the gate!” Brend hollered. “Is everybody out?”

Kael started to reply when he saw a giant down the road waving frantically. “The castle’s opening up — they’re sending out the army!”

“We’ve got to run!” Kael said to Brend. “Get the women back to the Pens — tell Declan that trouble’s coming!”

He nodded and passed the order back. The giants strapped to the wagon took off at a sprint. The rest followed Brend at a jog, their eyes on the castle gates. When Kael stuck his head through the door to yell at Jonathan, he saw the fiddler was not alone.

He and another giantess were helping a second giantess down a narrow flight of stairs. Her belly was round and swollen beneath her dress. She moved as quickly as she could, but her face was white with the effort.

Kael swore.

The wagon had already left without them, and he knew they would never be able to outrun the guards at her waddling pace. What little hope he’d had of making it out alive was quickly evaporating. And they still had Gilderick’s army to deal with.

He charged forward, prepared to carry the giantess over his shoulders, if he had to. But a noise stopped him short.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Jonathan looked up, his eyes wild. “Eveningwing jammed the gate — they’re trying to cut the chain!”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than a horrible groan spun Kael on his feet. The gate snapped at its chain — and it began to fall.

The blunted bottoms of the gate’s teeth stretched for the ground, trying to clamp down upon the clear night sky. Once the gate fell, there would be no lifting it. There would be no getting through it. They’d be trapped inside this tower, left to wait for whatever miserable death Gilderick had planned for them — provided the guards didn’t skewer them first.

No, Kael knew that their only hope to live lay beyond that gate. And their only chance of escape was to keep that gate from falling.

There was no time to panic, no time to doubt himself — he simply did what had to be done. He threw himself between the ground and the gate. In his mind, he held a memory of the Scepter Stone.

He saw the mighty red rock of the giants — so tall and thick that not even the mages had been able to split it. He raised his arms over his head and imagined that he
was
the Scepter Stone. He saw his skin turn scarlet, bespeckled in black. He imagined that his arms hardened and his legs sank deep into the earth.

I am the Scepter Stone,
he thought to himself.
Nothing can break me.

He felt the thrum in his chest when the gate crashed down into his open palms, but his arms didn’t shudder. His legs stood strong. For a few moments, he held the gate above him as if it was no more trouble than an open door.

Then his head began to ache.

He realized that he was exhausted. He hadn’t slept in two days. He hadn’t eaten. He’d been too busy battling in the arena, fighting the Countess’s guard, and killing Hob to do much of anything else. And now his weakness was catching up to him quickly.

Pain glanced his skull so sharply that it felt as if an axe had split it in half. His arms began to tremble. The barely-healed wounds in his back tore anew, and hot blood trickled down his shirt. Dots of light burst across his vision, blinding him. His strength was draining fast — crushed out from under him by the impossible weight of the tower door. He knew he might very well kill himself if he pushed much further.

But he had to try.

Jonathan and the two women were almost there. If he could hold on for another few seconds, they would be free. He pushed back stubbornly against the pain, holding it at bay. The women passed him, then Jonathan darted by, and Kael could hold the gate no longer.

His head struck the ground hard, and a black cloak threatened to cover him.

No!
he said to himself.
You can’t pass out — you’ve got to get up! You’ve got to get the women to safety.
He bit back against the fiery torment that raged through his skull and worked his arms beneath him. He tried to rise — only to find that he couldn’t.

The gate had come down on top of him, and now his head was trapped between the bottom rung and the ground. He tried to pull himself free, but the beam was wedged very firmly over his throat. Any other time, he might’ve considered himself lucky to be alive: a few inches were all the difference between being trapped and being crushed.

But with Gilderick’s army unleashed, he thought he would’ve rather been crushed and done with it.

Dirt sprayed across his middle as someone slid in beside him. He heard a pair of hands scrabble desperately against the rung. “I can’t lift it, mate!” Jonathan grunted. “Can you wiggle your head a bit?”

Kael wanted to scream at him — to tell him to get out of there and follow the women. But he could hardly think about speaking before a fresh wave of pain blinded him. He fought the blackness back a second time, struggling to stay conscious.

An explosion split the air above them. Kael felt it through his chest as it rumbled the earth. A burst of orange light burned across the doorway, and he saw Jonathan’s worried face peering down at him. He had his head pressed against the upper rungs. Kael only got a quick look at him before he disappeared.

An ear-piercing whistle cut through the night, and then Jonathan hollered: “Oi! Some of you larger blokes come give me a hand — Kael’s stuck!”

The earth shook again as several giants rushed to his side. More explosions rattled the ground, startling the dust from the archway. He heard cries and the sharp clang of steel coming from the castle gates. He tried to speak again, but had to shut his eyes when lights burst across them. He grit his teeth against the pain, holding it back.

When the lights faded, his eyes opened — and he was shocked to see a familiar, sandy-headed boy grinning down at him.

“Don’t worry, Kael — we’re going to pop you out of here,” Noah said.

Noah? How on earth was
Noah
here? He should’ve been at least a day and a half away, traveling with the other pirates. There was no way he could already be at the castle. Perhaps Kael had fainted without realizing it.

But then a high-pitched shrill cut across his ears, erasing any doubt: “Kael! Is he all right? Oh, he’s not hurt, is he?”

“No, he’s fine —”

“He isn’t
fine
!” Aerilyn cried. And Kael felt her hands tugging at his belt. “Oh, he’s bleeding — and he’s got his head stuck in a gate! Get him out!”

“Just keep those blasty arrows coming, lassie,” Brend shouted. “We’ll handle the rest. Ready, lads?”

There was a collective grunt in reply, and then a loud creak of wood as the gate began to rise.

“Heave, lads!
Heave
—”

“Pikes on the wall!” someone cried.

“No time — pull him out!” Brend grunted.

Two pairs of hands grabbed onto Kael’s legs. He left a good bit of his skin behind as his body was dragged forward. A pike thudded into the ground beside him, inches from his nose. Another whistled over his head and he heard someone grunt in pain.

“Noah!” Aerilyn screamed.

“We’ll take care of him — now
fire
, lassie!”

An arrow struck the tower above them and exploded. Pieces of brick rained down. Through Kael’s foggy eyes, the chunks of the tower seemed to glide to earth as calmly as flakes of snow. He watched them curiously, but didn’t have a chance to see them fall. Someone scooped him up, and the motion rocked his skull. Lights flared before his eyes. He fought them back.

And when he forced them open once again, he saw something that stopped his heart.

Noah lay in the arms of the giant next to him. A red, gaping hole split the symbol on his pirate tunic. He pawed at it desperately, trying to staunch the bleeding.

Kael could fix that — he could save Noah. He was certain of it.

One last time, he forced the darkness back. He pressed his hand against the hot wet of Noah’s wound. He felt for the ragged edges of his flesh and thought hard:
You are cl … clay …

Light — a light brighter than any he’d ever seen — erupted across his eyes.

And Kael knew no more.

Chapter 41

Where All Men Fall

Kyleigh woke to a strange feeling.

At first, she thought it might’ve just been from the vast amount of salted meats that she and Silas had eaten. But the longer she thought about it, the more she began to realize that she didn’t feel too
full
: she felt empty. She felt as if she’d never eaten — like she didn’t need to eat because there was absolutely no point in it. The light dulled and all of the color around her seemed to fade.

She forgot the sound of laughter. When she tried to remember it, all she could think of was the lonesome call of the wind. No matter how she begged them, her lips wouldn’t bend into a smile. She might’ve propped them up with her fingers … had she been able to move her hands. But instead, they lay limply beside her, as if her very bones had crumbled away.

It was fear that finally gave her the courage to stand. She had a horrible feeling that something was wrong.

The pass between the Red Spine called to her, and she went for it at a jog — skipping over the sleeping forms of her companions, moving as fast as her legs would carry her. She was so focused that she didn’t see the man in her path until she’d already run him over.

It was Eveningwing. He sprang up from the ground; sand clung to the sweat on his chest and neck. He panted and grasped for her, tugging furiously on the front of her jerkin.

“Your Kael!” he gasped, shaking her. “Come quickly — your Kael!”

For the first time in a long while, Kyleigh was afraid.

A new instinct gripped her, a sense she never knew she had. The Spine loomed in her vision. Her wings beat against her head. She no longer cared if she was spotted. She no longer cared if she was in danger.

Something like a thread wrapped around her heart, ripping her towards Kael. She followed it over the Spine and across the plains. Four barns stood out sharply against the flat land, like footprints in the mud. Little fires danced all around them.

It was for Kael’s sake that she dropped down into the shadowed fields. She’d left Eveningwing far behind her, she didn’t know if Kael was among enemies or friends. She wouldn’t land in full dragon form and risk starting a battle — a battle would take far too long, and she had to reach him quickly.

She’d hardly gotten her human legs settled beneath her before she sprinted towards the barns. Giants jumped from their fires as she passed, but she didn’t care. Her eyes flicked over the many structures looming around her, and the thread wavered. Panic scraped against her chest as she tried to figure out where to find him.

“Kyleigh!”

Someone grabbed her arm, and she ripped it away. It wasn’t until she was grabbed a second time that she recognized Aerilyn. Her nose was red and swollen, her eyes burned and her face was wet with tears. When she breathed, there was a different scent on her breath — one that was slightly muddled by another. This scent meant something … but Kyleigh didn’t have time to remember what it was.

She had to find Kael.

Aerilyn pulled desperately on her arm. “He’s in here — oh Kyleigh, he’s hurt so badly. We don’t know what to do!”

As Aerilyn led her away, Kyleigh felt as if she walked through a nightmare. There was noise all around her, but she couldn’t hear it. Light shined, but it brightened nothing. There was solid earth beneath her feet — there must have been …

But for some reason, she couldn’t feel it.

Familiar faces blurred out of the corner of her eye. More hands reached to grasp her, thumping hollowly against her flesh. She passed through wood, through steel, and then the thread suddenly ended, jolting her.

When she saw him, the world snapped back.

Kael lay in the corner of a horse stall, curled up on a pile of filthy clothing. He was exactly how she’d remembered him: his straight nose, his lips … but there was something wrong with his brows. There was usually a little line between them, one that went deeper as he furrowed them. And they were usually always furrowed, even when he slept. He was always thinking about something.

But now his brows were smoothed — relaxed, even. And it startled her.

She dragged her eyes from his face and saw his tunic was shredded and soaked in blood.
His
blood. He lay on his stomach, and she saw that his back was covered in gashes — as if some monster had raked him with its claws. She stared, frozen, at the dried, black shores along his gaping wounds and the bright red pools in their middles.

“We haven’t got a healer,” Aerilyn gasped, wringing her hands. “Oh, I don’t know what to —”

“Take his shirt off, little Declan,” Kyleigh said. She looked to the giant who squatted next to Kael, the only one in the room whose eyes weren’t filled with panic.

He held a bowl of water and moved a bloodstained cloth gingerly across Kael’s back. There was a steadiness in his hands as he moved them, a desperation in the pressure he put on Kael’s gaping wounds. But the line of his mouth was firm and strong. The calmness in his breaths soothed the panicked air.

She thought Declan looked more like his father now than ever. The deep cleft beneath his brows grew shallow as he raised them. “You remember me?”

Kyleigh thought that was an odd thing to say. “I try to never forget the men I’ve fought beside. Don’t you remember me?”

“Yeh, but a man would have to be worse than blind to forget Kyleigh Swordmaiden,” Declan grunted. He tore Kael’s shirt open with a single, quick tug. As he eased the shirt over his limbs, Kyleigh got a clear look at Kael’s back. It was worse than she’d thought. So much worse.

She spun to Aerilyn and began ripping the laces off her gauntlets. “Help me.”

Aerilyn undid the buckles along her jerkin while Kyleigh removed her gauntlets and belt. Every second they spent, the air in the room grew colder. She started to shiver. Time was running out.

“That’ll have to do,” she said, when she wore nothing but her leggings and breast band.

The cold had started to settle in her bones as she lay down next to Kael. Carefully, she pulled him into her. Wet warmth spread across her skin as she pressed her chest and stomach against his wounded back. She twined her limbs with his, molding them together, connecting them down to their fingertips and toes.

As she pressed her cheek against his neck, she caught his scent. He smelled like the earth after a steady rain. It was a good scent, a calming scent.

But it was faint — and fading quickly.

Kyleigh bit her lip hard and tried to keep her tears at bay. “No matter how I scream,” she said around her teeth, “don’t touch me. Don’t try to pull me off of him. I won’t be responsible for your deaths, if you try to separate us.”

Aerilyn nodded. “We’ll leave you alone.” Then she turned and began shooing the others out the door. There were some protests, but the stall eventually emptied — giving Kyleigh the chance to concentrate.

The skin between them was the only thing that kept their souls apart. Kyleigh held Kael tightly and thought she could feel his spirit bubbling up to the surface. It pressed against her wherever they touched and slid between the tiny holes in her skin.

Her limbs went numb. She could no longer tell their bodies apart. They were one flesh: breathing together, hearts beating together.

And then came the pain.

*******

Cold … Kael was first aware of the cold. The hard earth beneath him ached with it, as if it had never known warmth. A gust of wind swept across his back. The cold was there, too — glancing his flesh with a thousand tiny knives.

And it was the shivering in his limbs that woke him.

Somehow, he’d wound up back in the Unforgivable Mountains. He’d fallen, though — through one of the great cracks the weather had rent into the mountainside. It was an easy trap to fall into, if a man wasn’t paying attention. The cracks were often hidden beneath thick tangles of brush, lying in wait to gobble up unwary travelers.

But Kael should’ve known better. He knew he was lucky to be alive … though when he saw the height of the sheer rock wall behind him, he didn’t see how he could have possibly survived the fall.

He needed to find a way out, and preferably before the sun went down. How was he going to explain this to Roland? He’d be disappointed that Kael had let his attention wander. Amos would gripe about the fresh holes in his breeches.

Well, there was no point in putting it off.

Kael dragged himself to his feet, and was surprised to find that he wasn’t in pain. He expected to be bruised and bloodied. He must’ve been very lucky, indeed.

There was no way through the wall behind him — his only hope lay ahead. A small river flowed through the bottom of the crack, its waters bubbled gently over the rocks settled within it. Beyond that river was another wall, and Kael groaned when he saw that it was every bit as tall and sheer as the one behind him.

He thought he might never make it out. Even if Roland sent the hunters to look for him, they would never find him here. How could he have been so foolish? Why hadn’t he watched his steps?

But before he could get too furious with himself, his eyes caught something they hadn’t noticed before: there was a crack in the wall across the river. It was so small that he’d likely have to crawl to fit between it. As he studied it, a gust of warm air breathed out of the hole. Even from a distance, he smelled the promise of summer riding along the gales.

Somewhere beyond that crack was a green land — an earth that the cold couldn’t touch. All Kael had to do was cross the river, and he’d be free.

It didn’t look too deep. He thought he might be able to reach the other side without getting his breeches wet. He’d taken one step into the water and was preparing to take a second when a strong hand grasped his shoulder.

“You shouldn’t go that way, boy.”

Kael spun around and cried in relief when Roland smiled back. He grinned through his grizzled beard and pulled Kael in for a tight embrace. His arms were stronger than Kael had remembered. His chest wasn’t quite so boney.

“I thought I’d been a fool,” he said, when Roland released him. “But if this crack managed to trick both of us, I don’t feel so bad.”

Roland laughed. “And you’d be right not to. Far more cunning men than you or I have fallen here,” he said, waving his arm at the high walls. His smile changed, softening. “All men fall here, eventually.”

Before Kael could ask what he meant, Roland clasped his arm.

“I’ve got some traps to run. Want to give me a hand?”

Kael hesitated for a moment. His eyes wandered to the crack across the river, his thoughts trailed to the green lands beyond it. “Shouldn’t we press on?”

Roland saw where he was looking and shook his head. “I can’t let you go that way, boy. I already promised your father that I’d keep you on
this
side of things.”

He started to walk away, and Kael went after him at a trot. “My father? He was here?”

“Oh, I’m sure he was. But I’d already promised him long ago — back when you were just a little thing. Though,” and here he smiled again, “I didn’t quite realize what he was asking of me.”

“What do you —?”

“Hush, boy,” Roland whispered. His arm sprang protectively across Kael’s chest, like he’d just seen a lion or a bear.

Kael froze. He knew if Roland could sense something, he ought to be still. He scanned the scrub bushes in front of them, searching for any signs of danger. And it wasn’t long before a number of large figures crossed their path.

They were giants — dressed in rough spun clothes and marching barefoot across the rocky bank. What in Kingdom’s name were
giants
doing in the Unforgivable Mountains?

“Watch carefully,” Roland said, as the giants approached the river.

They stepped in one at a time. The river must’ve been deceptively deep: by the time the giants reached the middle, the water was up to their waists. Most of them sank even deeper. Kael could only watch as the river flowed over their heads, dragging them downwards.

The giants made no attempt to save themselves. Their arms didn’t flail above the water, they never cried out. One moment they were crossing the river and the next — they were gone. Their large heads sank beneath the waves, and they never came back out.

Only one of them made it across. He stepped out onto the opposite bank and moved surely towards the wall, towards a refuge that Kael couldn’t see. And then he disappeared.

“Ah, see there?” Roland whispered. “His deeds must’ve carried him on.”

Kael thought that was a strange thing to say. Strange … and yet, familiar. Roland had said something like that before, but it hadn’t been while they were on a hunt — it had been in the Hall, when Kael was a child. Roland had been telling him a story about Death:

“Few things test a man like the savage back of a river,” Roland had said. “That’s why Death keeps a river at his threshold — it helps him sort everything out. You see, there’s only one thing a man can take with him when he dies: and that’s his deeds. He’ll stand on them all his life, and in death he’ll have them strapped to his feet. Good deeds rise up like walking stones across Death’s river … while the bad ones will cause a man to sink.”