Fortunately for them, it seemed like the guards weren’t paying close attention to the trio running along the rooftops, instead focusing on the boat still drifting down the river. That meant they had the
element of surprise at best. Or, at worst, a few extra moments.
“There’s a door down there.” Eira pointed to a door at the base of the archway that was guarded by a man and a woman.
“We’ll be met with resistance on the inside route.” Olivin took a step closer to her, holding out his hands. “There’s a faster way, if I may?”
“Go ahead.” Eira didn’t even have to think about it; the only thing that mattered was moving as quickly as possible. She wasn’t sure what he had been planning on doing, but she certainly hadn’t been expecting him to sweep her off her feet.
Olivin leaned forward, wrapped an arm around her back and reached down behind her knees. Despite her surprise, instinct to stabilize herself kicked in. Eira wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding on tightly as he straightened. The odd feeling of weightlessness settled into her lower stomach as he lifted her, adjusting slightly, settling her weight in his arms.
“I’m capable of walking, you know,” she murmured. A crack of distant lighting lit up his profile in sharp outlines that quickly faded into the night. She shifted her grip. It somehow resulted in her being pressed even more tightly against him…not that it should have been possible.
“Not like this.” Olivin shook his head and looked up at the archway with fierce determination. He began running to the edge of the rooftop.
“Olivin?” Eira’s voice grew somewhat shrill with panic. “What—”
As he jumped, he said, “Mysst xieh.”
Light spun from underneath his toes, forming a circular disk. Mysst xieh
—shield. Eira had always known it for use in combat. But Olivin used it like a stepping stone, sinking into his right leg before lunging forward.
“Mysst xieh!” Another circle of light appeared, this time under his left foot. Olivin sank low again and then bounced upward.
Circle of light by circle of light, they made their way upward. Yonlin was behind them, doing the same. Eira was vaguely reminded of how Cullen could step on pockets of air to rise upward. But she had never joined him while he was performing the act.
She had moments of weightlessness combined with seconds where her stomach was in her throat before Olivin landed on solid magic once more and repeated the process. Again, and again, they rose.
Until a beam of light whizzed by Olivin’s head. He swayed, falling to the side.
“Olivin!” Eira shouted. She was helpless to be of assistance. If she’d had her magic, she could summon a ledge of ice for them to land on. But all she could do was cling to him as they fell through the open air.
“Mysst xieh!” he shouted, almost deafeningly loud in her ear. A circle of light spun out beneath him.
Almost at the same time, Yonlin said, “Mysst soto gotha.”
Bow, Eira’s mind filled in at the exact same time as the weapon condensed from strands of magic into Yonlin’s hands. He drew back, and fired down at the people who had been shooting up at them.
“Get her up,” Yonlin shouted between shots. “Yonlin—”
“Go, Olivin!”
“I’ll return fire when I’m up,” Olivin called back, already working his magic to get them to a window at the top of the archway.
Eira’s stomach had dropped out from her body since the fall. She continued to cling to him with all her might. “I’m sorry, Olivin,” she whispered.
“Yonlin knows the risks, as do I.” He seemed to shift his grip to hold her even tighter. Eira could see him swallow hard. “We’re better off helping you, no matter the cost.”
“I wanted to keep you safe.” She’d wanted to keep all her friends safe, and only seemed successful at endangering them more.
“And I wanted to stay by you.”
Loyalty has a cost. Eira pressed her eyes closed and drew a shuddering breath. She would pay any cost…but she wasn’t ready for what it might cost to those around her. The people she cared about.
The people she loved.
As soon as Olivin landed by the window, Eira smashed it in with the butt of her dagger. He wasted no time and they tumbled in through the confetti of glass—enduring superficial cuts and scrapes along the way.
“Lumeria’s murderers!” a man shouted, lunging for them.
Eira recovered faster than Olivin. She tumbled and jumped up, ignoring the pain in her arms and legs from embedded glass as she dodged the man’s sword. Eira swung and dug her dagger into his chest.
Clumsy.
He half wheezed, half snarled, rearing back to attack her again with his sword.
“Mysst soto tonc.” Light flashed. A spear wielded by Olivin pierced the knight’s shoulder, cutting through the soft spot between plates of armor. He dropped his sword and it unraveled into strands of light that faded away.
Eira freed her blade and jabbed it into the man’s neck, ending it there. She panted, turning to Olivin. But he was back at the window already, returning fire so Yonlin could join them.
“I’m going ahead,” she announced. “Eira, wait!”
She didn’t hesitate. Eira wouldn’t allow the fact that she had no magic to hold her back, or be a burden to the people counting on her. Another gate guard in leather armor engaged her. He clearly hadn’t had much practical application to his training as she managed to disarm and mortally wound him in a few blows.
But he didn’t have a signet of a Pillar, so Eira left him to bleed. Perhaps he would die…or maybe he could hang on for help to arrive. Eira knew that it didn’t make her any less guilty of attacking an innocent man. But hopefully he kept his life. Her qualm wasn’t with the people of Meru, just the Pillars.
Bursting through a door at the top of an ascending hallway, Eira was faced with a mechanical room—blessedly void of any other knights. Panting, she took quick stock of the elements of the portcullis. As Yonlin had said, there was a spindle connected to two chains on the right. On the
left was a lever connected to weights by more chains that was already engaged. That must be the quick release. Eira was still figuring out how it worked when Olivin and Yonlin arrived.
“You take that side.” Yonlin pointed to the side closest to the door they’d entered in on. “We pull in three…two…one. Kot sidee.”
The two men worked in unison, standing before the massive spoked wheels that were on the ends of the spindle above the portcullis. The chains and spindle were so large it would take two or three grown adults, per side, to move the gate. As Yonlin and Olivin spoke, glyphs appeared on the opposite side of the wheels. The magic crashed into the spokes as it was sucked in toward their palms, pulling the wheels in the process. As soon as the magic met their hands, it vanished completely.
They repeated again. “Kot sidee.”
As the gears turned, the gate slowly began to lift; hefty chain collected around the spindle. In tandem, the weighted mechanism connected to the lever she’d been inspecting began to move as well. With every turn of the gears behind her, there was a clicking of the winch behind the lever. As soon as the gate was up, she would find a way to disable it.
But in the meantime, Eira focused on the doors on the left and right sides of the room. There were heavy bars to the right of each of them that slotted into hooks on either side of the metal doors. The builders had planned for a potential attack and wanted this room to be easily guarded.
No sooner had she managed to get the bars in place than the doors began to rattle. A moment of silence. And then the whole door shuddered.
“We have to move.” Eira turned back to them. The churning of gears and clanking of chain had slowed. Yonlin was breathless.
Sweat dripped off Olivin’s nose. “We’re going as fast as we can.” Eira stepped in for Yonlin, grabbing the wheel. “Take a break.” “It’s too heavy.”
“I can get a turn or two.” She looked to Olivin. “On three.”
Eira managed three turns of the wheel. Blood poured from around the shards of glass in her arms. Muscles threatened to give out. Her palms almost instantly became raw from how tightly she clutched the spokes. Gritting her teeth, she stayed focused, pulling as hard as she could while ignoring the pain. The screams and shouts outside were barely audible from within the stone room. But, in her mind’s eye, she could see the boat
making its way to the portcullis by the flashes of magic that sparked around it.
“We’re almost there,” Olivin encouraged. “A little bit more and the ship should be able to fit under.”
“I’m going to disable the quick drop!” Eira crossed to the other side of the room, leaving Yonlin to finish the job. The stone around the doors was beginning to crack. The guards, or Pillars, were going to burst through soon.
Eira knelt by the lever and sucked in a breath, holding it. Her nerves were on fire. Hands trembling. If she got this wrong, the gate would fall immediately. The boat would be locked in. Or, worse, the portcullis would fall on the boat itself. Visions of it being cleaved in two, her friends on it, flashed through Eira’s mind. She pressed her eyes closed and banished the notion, exhaling and forcing the wound-up tension in her muscles to abate. She had to think clearly.
There was a connection point between the lever and the locking mechanism that clicked with every turn of the wheels on the opposite side of the room. If she disconnected it here, then the lever would no longer undo the lock. Eira dug the side of her dagger into a pin holding a gear in place. She pulled. The gear popped off.
Nothing happened.
A small laugh of relief escaped her. The locking mechanism still clicked into place. But the lever was limp and useless.
“I think that’s enough.” The portcullis was two thirds up. But the doors on either side of the room were going to give in. With both men’s attention on her, Eira pointed to the left of the lever—the one that overlooked the sea and a horizon that meant freedom. “Smash this wall.”
“What? Why?” Even though Olivin was confused, he still crossed over anyway, readying his stance.
“How else will we get out of here?” Eira motioned to the doors and Olivin’s expression flashed from exhaustion to panic, as if seeing the full extent of their current situation for the first time.
“After everything…I don’t know if I have the power to walk us down like we got up here.”
“Then we jump. It’s a shipping channel, the water should be deep.” Eira knew how quickly the drop-off was in Oparium by the docks so the large ships could get into the wharf. It was regularly dredged by Groundbreakers and Waterrunners to avoid ships running aground.
“From this high?” Yonlin looked warily out the window. “Do either of you have a better idea?”
Olivin shook his head and his expression hardened into grim determination. “Juth calt.”
Yonlin joined him. “Juth calt.”
It was a race to see which stone wall would give first—the walls around the doors, or the one by the window. Which magic was stronger? She ran back to the opposite side as they worked, peering through the bars and out the window. The boat was just about at the arch.
They could walk, or jump down, and then Adela would scoop them from the water… It would work. It had to. A sharp crack and burst of sound accompanied the stone crumbling next to the window. Olivin and Yonlin had broken through.
“Let’s go.” Eira wasted no time wrapping her arms around Olivin’s neck.
“You are such a demanding creature,” he mumbled as he picked her up. She could feel his muscles tremble under her weight, but he steadied himself the moment she was enveloped in his embrace. Somehow, despite how exhausted they both were, Eira felt safe in his arms.
“You’d be much better off without me,” she agreed, her words almost vanishing underneath the howling wind and rain.
“I never said that.” His stormy eyes glanced her way. Time halted briefly, hanging on an inhale. Kiss him; you’re probably about to die, might as well. The thought streaked through her mind, but he spoke before she could act on it. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Let’s go, Yonlin.” Olivin jumped out into the air. “Mysst xieh!” He landed hard on a glowing disk. It wobbled underneath him.
Eira clutched tighter as Olivin regained his balance, not wanting her weight to tip him more to one side or another. “We’re almost there,” she offered optimistically.
“I’m not sure—”
“Drop me, if we’re going to fall.” “Eira…”
She met his eyes. “If we fall, go feet first. Drop me and make yourself as straight as possible.” She’d learned a few things on the docks of Oparium.
He nodded and stepped off the glyph. “Mysst xieh.”
Yonlin was right over his shoulder. The ship was crossing under the portcullis. Noelle, Lavette, and Varren were at the stern of the vessel, returning bursts of magic with their own alongside half the crew. Cullen manned the sails. Alyss and Ducot managed to keep the ship patched as quickly as it was damaged. Adela was at the front of the vessel, stoic and poised, eyes turned to the safety of the sea beyond.
They were going to make it. It was going to work.
Everything seemed to slow as Eira met Adela’s determined gaze. A slight smile crossed the pirate queen’s lips. Good job, it seemed to say. Joy swelled in Eira’s chest nearly to the point of bursting. For the first time in her life, it felt like she’d made someone proud—someone she looked to almost as a child would a parent.
It all happened so quickly. In a blink, there was an explosion high above.
Adela’s attention jerked upward. Fractures spread across the archway like lightning bolts. The guards must’ve broken through the door with an explosion of their own…but they didn’t know the building had already been weakened by Olivin and Yonlin smashing down the wall so the three of them could escape.
The archway crumbled. Light flashed. Chains snapped.
Eira inhaled sharply as the portcullis came rattling down. Olivin looked over his shoulder on instinct. His focus wavered and that was all it took for his magic to falter.
Eira, and everything else, tumbled down with deadly speed into the cold sea.
