The Boys of Fire and Ash (10 page)

“I can't—” He twisted his knobby legs. “My feet are stuck.”

I looked back to Blaze and Av. They weren't far ahead but they were still moving.

“Twist them out,” I said. “Let's go.”

“I'm trying!” Digger snapped.

I sighed and walked back to him. It was only four steps, but I was so tired that I cursed at the knowledge that it was four steps I'd have to take again.

“Gimme your arm,” I said.

Annoyed, Digger slapped the water. “What the Mother is that gonna help, Urgs? You need to grab a leg.”

I didn't like his tone and considered leaving him there. I settled for splashing him instead, and smirked as he growled. I bent down and grabbed a leg, the water swallowing me up to my neck.

“Ready? Go.”

I pulled as Digger wiggled; we both grunted with the effort.

We heard Blaze whistle and stopped.

Av and Blaze had their attention to the west. Blaze pointed to his ear and Digger and I listened.

There was a faint whispering noise, or a sizzle. I'd never heard anything like it but it was coming our way.

The sound surged, then grew faint, another surge, then faint. Digger and I watched Blaze.

The whispers suddenly became a loud, violent hiss, and Blaze threw his stick and took off running as best he could, Av hot on his heels.

“Come on!” I yelled at Digger.

I tugged and jerked at his caught leg and it trembled with his own desperate effort to pull it free. He grabbed onto me to steady himself as he strained, his fingernails digging into my back, begging me not to leave him.

With a sudden jerk the leg came free and I fell back into the pool, submerged up to my neck. Digger grabbed me and hauled me to my feet.

The two of us trudged after them, frantically searching
for Av and Blaze. They were gone, and I had no idea where Blaze had stepped, but the hissing was louder, closer—I couldn't worry about his path.

The water was so deep and thick with mud that we were getting nowhere fast, and I thought my pounding heart would burst from my chest any moment.

I stopped and grabbed the nearest log for support. I clutched my chest and gulped in the damp night air.

There was no sign of Blaze ahead. To the west, a small cloud was closing in, the hissing sound coming with it.

Digger leaped out of the water onto a giant hill of pink rock. He reached out for me and I grabbed his arm. He hauled me up and we ran.

Legs free from the mud and water, it felt like flying.

Digger was in front, yelling at me to move faster.

I tried. I pumped my legs and nearly slipped a dozen times on the slimy, wet rock.

Digger let out a scream and disappeared down a crevice in front of me.

Before I could stop myself, I felt the rock beneath me disappear and I fell too.

I caught the edge of the rock.

My arms trembled and it was all I could do to hang on. I tried to pull myself up but my body couldn't do it.

“Digger!” I screamed.

I heard him below me whimpering in pain.

“My leg!” he called. “I think I broke my leg!”

The hissing was louder. I couldn't turn around, but I knew what I'd see. The cloud was coming.

“Blaze!” I shrieked.

I tried to pull myself up again and cried out as I nearly lost my grip.

I closed my eyes tight and saw Cubby's face, his body trapped in the arms of the Tunrar, his little hands desperately reaching out for me.

“BLAZE!” I shrieked again.

It was then I heard a familiar roar and wondered if I'd dreamed it.

I hadn't. A pair of hands grabbed my arm and pulled.

Digger had definitely been seeing someone.

“Gotcha!” said a voice.

I opened my eyes and saw the big ugly face I thought I'd never be happy to see.

“Fiver?”

Fiver pulled me out of the crevice and I gripped onto him, hugging him for the first time in all our lives together.

Av and Blaze were rushing towards us, Av nearly stopping mid-sprint when he saw Fiver.

“Come on!” Blaze yelled.

The cloud was even closer, and I knew what it was now: an angry swarm of some kind of insect.

I ignored Blaze and threw myself to the ground to look into the dark hole for Digger. I couldn't see him.

“Move it, Useless!” Fiver begged.

“Digger!” I cried. I reached frantically into the darkness. “Can you grab my hand?”

The swarm was nearly on us, dancing and pulsing. Fiver grabbed me and pulled me back. I saw the cloud, black up close, its angry din numbing my ears. We ran down the slope of the stone towards Av and Blaze, and I turned my head back every three seconds to the swarm.

Av grabbed me when I reached him, my legs nearly giving out.

The thick swarm hovered over the crevice.

“Urgle!” Digger shrieked. “Come back! Urgle!”

“Digger!”

Blaze jumped on top of me, his hand covering my mouth.

The swarm disappeared into the crevice and Digger began shrieking, screaming.

“What's happening?” Av demanded.

“They're eating him,” said Blaze.

I struggled under Blaze and he let me up.

Av, Fiver, and I ran to help Digger, his wails of agony carving into my brain.

We stood at the edge, staring into black, hopeless, the crackling hiss of the swarm mixing with the shrieks of Digger.

He wasn't calling for me anymore, he wasn't even saying words, just screaming, screaming, and I had to get him out.

“Help me!” I said, grabbing Av by the arm, steadying myself as I tried to climb down to get to him.

Suddenly Blaze was beside us, pistol in his hand. He grabbed me by the back of the neck and threw me away from the edge. I landed on my back and watched as Blaze pointed the pistol into the crevice.

“What are you doing?” barked Av.

With a loud bang, Digger's screaming stopped.

The only sound was the crackling hiss of the swarm.

“Let's go,” Blaze said. “We need to get as far away from here as we can before they finish him.”

Death took Brothers in the Ikkuma Pit often, and we were used to it. Little boys around Hotpots with too much courage, or sometimes too little, often fell in. Illnesses that Crow couldn't treat sometimes took infants. Hunting accidents were rare, but not unheard of.

Digger's death had been different. It hadn't been an accident.

We walked through the night, none of us speaking, trying to wrap our heads around what we had just witnessed.

“How—?” rasped Av suddenly. His eyes were puffy from tears, focused on nothing, his face worn and ghostly in the moonlight. He was hunched, dragging himself along, and I felt my body doing the same. “How—?” he tried again, and swallowed hard. His eyes shifted towards Fiver, but still he did not look at him. “How did you find us?”

Fiver cleared his throat and shook his head, his damp curls dripping from the wetness; he too refused to look at anyone. “Wasted is dead. I wanted—” He struggled to keep his voice steady. “I want the Tunrar dead. I just followed your trail. Useless over there doesn't exactly hide his tracks.”

I didn't care why Fiver was there, why he'd saved my life. I just knew if he hadn't, I'd have fallen in with Digger.

“Thank you.” I didn't even recognize my own voice. It was hoarse, just as exhausted and worn out as the rest of me.

Blaze was twenty paces ahead of us. He marched through the Baublenotts just as alert as ever, Digger's death affecting him less than the cold night air.

“He didn't let us try,” whispered Av. White circles of moonlight reflected in his hard, puffy eyes. He was glaring at Blaze and breathing through his teeth, his jaw locked. I could see the anger raging inside him, in Av, the boy who never lost his temper. I didn't recognize him. He was wild and seething.

“Av?” I placed a hand on his shoulder and he jerked away from me. I jumped back, afraid for the first time he might turn on me.

“Not even
try
to save him!” he hissed. “Who is this guy, Urgs?”

He was looking at me now, rage and fear distorting his brow.

“You were right, back at the Pit; we don't know anything about him. Where'd he come from? Why were those Tunrar things after him in the first place? He hasn't told us anything. And we what? Follow him without question?”

I had to turn away from that accusing glare. He was right and I had no response. All I knew was I needed Blaze. Blaze could take me to Cubby…I hoped.

Av ran in front of me. “Aren't you watching him? The man is a nervous wreck!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Mention the Tunrar, or the Beginning, and the guy fingers whatever that mark on his neck is. It's like a tic!”

I knew what Av was getting at and I didn't like it. The pieces of Blaze that were coming together in my head were making a picture I wanted to ignore. Had to ignore. But it was getting harder all the time. I felt the world around me straining, ready to break.

“How do you know he's not one of them? Huh?”

“Because the Tunrar were trying to kill him,” I hissed.

“He killed Digger,” said Fiver. Fiver was tired but he was calm, not on the edge of control like Av. “It wasn't the swarm. It was him.”

In my brain I could still hear the hissing of the quiet after Digger's screams had stopped.

“The Piq Flies killed him!” I heard Blaze call.

The three of us turned to see him silhouetted in the moonlight.

“He was still alive,” snarled Av.

“He was dead!”

Av said nothing, but his fierce eyes were locked on the dark figure of Blaze. I knew Av better than myself, but not like this—those eyes, that rigid body, clenched fists. Av was the good one. Out of all of us, Av was always the good one. For Av, there was right and there was wrong, there was no in-between. Digger's death had been wrong. There was no way to fix it, to make it right. And for Av, I knew that meant Blaze was nothing but wrong.

The water laughed in the eerie silence as Blaze waded through it, back towards us. He stood in front of Av, confident under that wild glare.

“I saved him,” he said. “I ended his pain.”

Av threw a punch, taking Blaze by surprise and sending him on his back in the muddy water. Av launched himself
on top of him, screaming savagely, pounding with fury on Blaze's wounded shoulder.

Blaze bellowed in pain and flailed his limbs, struggling to get a hold on Av, but it was no use. Av landed blow after blow, while Blaze splashed helplessly.

I watched in disbelief. Fiver took a step back, seemingly impressed by Av's ability to take down a full-grown man when he was so upset.

Av's hands grabbed Blaze's neck, and with one violent shove Av plunged Blaze's head under the water.

“Av!” I yelled. “Stop! Av, stop!”

He didn't hear me. He was miles away from me in a fit of anger. Somehow, I just knew he wouldn't stop until he'd made it right the only way he could. He wouldn't stop until he killed Blaze.

I thought of Cubby, his cheeky smile and wheezy laugh. I needed him back, and that meant I needed Blaze.

I threw myself onto Av, knocking him off the drowning man, and the two of us landed side by side, face-first in the mud.

Blaze flew to his feet, coughing and sputtering.

I reached for Av, and again he shrugged me off, staying on his hands and knees in the mud and struggling to get ahold of himself.

“Do you know what Piq Flies do?” Blaze shouted. “They eat you from the inside out! They go in through your mouth, your nose, your ears, eyes! They eat and eat and you can feel them ripping at your flesh!”

I watched Av dry heave and winced at the memory of Digger's shrieks.

“Did you want him to feel that?” Blaze shouted again.

“He was alive,” Av groaned.

“What did you think you could do? Pull him out of there? Then what? Didn't you hear him?” Blaze was yelling at us, frantic.

“Stop it!” I begged.

“He was in agony! Even if we got him out, they'd still be inside him!”

“Stop!”

“His lungs, his throat, his ears! Eating!”

Av heaved again.

“The second they swarmed him, he was dead!”

I watched Av squeeze his eyes and grit his teeth. Tears rolled down his cheeks, streaking his dirty face.

“He was dead,” Blaze finished. “And I saved him.” He pulled his long sopping hair back off his face, scowling at us. “You want to know the truth?” He laughed bitterly. “She told me he'd die.”

My palm tickled and I got up, slowly. “She?”

He laughed again, but it was obvious he didn't find it funny. “The Abish girl. The crazy fortune-teller.”

“What?”

“I didn't tell you because I didn't want to scare you, but that's what she said.”

“It was
my
hand!” I protested.

Blaze nodded and shrugged. “Let's just say she didn't see a lot of good coming out of this little adventure of ours, all right?”

My knees were shaking, but I forced myself to sound as firm as I could. “What exactly did she tell you, Blaze?”

“Nothing very encouraging.” He turned away from me and wiped at the mud on his trousers.

“Stop telling me what you want me to know and tell
me what I'm asking you!” I grabbed his arm. “What did the Abish girl tell you?”

“That your Brother's dangerous!” he shouted.

I let go and stepped back from him. I looked to Av—he was just as confused and frightened as me.

The Baublenotts fell quiet again and I thought of Cubby. Had the Abish girl seen him somewhere in the lines on my hand?

“Cubby? Dangerous?” asked Fiver suspiciously.

Blaze shrugged. “I don't—” He was calming down, regretting having said anything. “I don't know. I had a hard time understanding.”

“Right,” said Fiver.