The Fire Sisters (Brilliant Darkness 3) (13 page)

I sigh. Peree loves to tell me all the unflattering animals I resemble, like lizards. “Do I even want to know?”

“A wolverine was a type of weasel. They were ferocious hunters, totally unafraid. They could take down prey a lot bigger than themselves—”

“A
weasel
?” I choke. “Are you
kidding
me?”

Bear caught a small, sick weasel once. He nursed it back to health, planning to keep it as a pet. As soon as it was healthy, it gave him a nasty bite and took off. He still grumbles about it.

“A
wolverine
. Forget the weasel part.” He massages my neck. “You only ever hear the
name
of the animals. Listen to the
qualities
. Ferocious, unafraid. Good stuff.”

“Okay, okay.” I find his hand. “C’mon, I want to see how Derain’s doing.”

Peree clears his throat.

“What now?” I ask.

“I,
um,
I think we should go up in the trees.” He rushes on. “I’m not saying Kai was right! We didn’t know there would be other people out here, but now that we’ve seen some, and they weren’t too friendly, we should be more cautious.”

I throw my free hand up. I never argued that we
shouldn’t
go up. Only that we might move faster on the ground.

We walk back to the group. I’m still tense, waiting for Kai to start shooting accusations at me again, but she doesn’t. I’m not even sure she’s there. What I do hear is Derain’s tight breathing. At least he sounds like he’s on his feet now.

“I feel for you,” Bear says to him. “It’s going to be tough to move that arm without pain for a while.”

Bear broke ribs during the Summer Solstice competition last year. Marj fussed over him like a newborn. It took to the end of the summer for them to heal. Add this to his hand injury, and Derain is in bad shape.

“We must go on,” Derain says. “I’ll manage.”

Will managing be enough? How much farther will we have to go?

Peree helps me find my pack and walking stick as the others get ready to leave.

“Huh,” he says.

“What?” I ask.

“They didn’t take anything. I thought maybe they wanted our food and supplies. But nothing’s missing.”

I think about it. “Maybe this is their territory, and they were defending it.”

“All the more reason to get out of here. We’ll have to find a good place to climb.”

We start moving along the path again, staying close together. Everyone’s quiet, listening for the attackers.

“Look for the walkways,” Amarina says. She’s staying with Derain, behind Peree and me. Bear and Kai have moved to the front; I hear them speak to each other a few times. The brothers still walk to either side of our group.

Guilt creeps in every time Derain grunt in pain. I know nothing I said or did directly led to him being hurt, but my pushing to stay on the ground again had serious consequences, and it could have been a lot worse. Is Kai right? Should I just shut up and let others do the thinking, the leading? What
do
I know anyway? I’ve made so many mistakes.

And while I’m being honest with myself, I have to admit that Kai hasn’t exactly seen me in my shiniest moments. First, I washed up in the Myuna, bruised and battered, with a half-dead boy in tow. The next time she saw me, I was in the pit Moray pushed me into, cornered by a sick one and pretty much delirious. She singlehandedly pulled me out. Nothing I’ve done since we returned to the village has been all that heroic, either. There’s absolutely no good reason for her to respect my decisions or follow my lead.

But she’s never given me a
chance
to prove myself. Why do I still wish she would? Maybe Moray and Bear are right and I care too much. It seems a lot easier to go around like Moray, not worrying about what other people think. Although I don’t fully believe the act.

Peree spots a platform in the trees after a few minutes. We’ll have to climb a tree to get up, he says.

I’m not a great climber. The Lofties never allowed Groundlings to climb their trees; they saw it as a threat. Not that
that
stopped us, but honestly, I tried to avoid it. Between my tree-sickness and the fear of falling and crushing every bone in my body, it wasn’t something I enjoyed all that much.

The others ascend before Peree and me, ending with Amarina and Derain. I feel terrible for him. He must be climbing one handed, and maybe with his injured hand, too. I can almost hear his teeth grinding against the pain. If he can do this, so can I.

I take it slow but steady, trying not to think about the pitiless ground. Peree climbs after me, helping me locate the branches over my head. This tree isn’t a greenheart. I’ve never touched one like it before. The trunk feels as substantial as a greenheart, but its bark is smooth, and it has a fine coating that comes off dry and chalky on my hands. The trunk has no smell. I’ve heard the others comment on the strange colorless trees that began mixing into the forest as we traveled along the Restless. This could be one of them.

After some time, I manage to pull myself up onto the walkway overhead. Bear hauls me to my feet, and my stomach lurches as the tree sickness barrels into me. Swallowing, I try to get my bearings. Kai’s saying something; I missed the first part.

“…Good shape. They look a lot better maintained. We should be able to move quick.” She emphasizes the last part, as if for my benefit.

Peree joins us a moment later and takes my arm as the rest start forward. When I do take a few steps, the wood feels strong and firm, but I still sway, feeling disoriented.

“Steady.” He tightens his grip and holds me closer.

I hang on to him with one hand and sweep my stick with the other.
Tap, tap, tap.
For the first time, I can hear the sound it makes against the wooden platform, as well as feel the small impacts. Its easy rhythm soothes me. Through Aloe’s cane, I know there’s somewhere safe to put my feet.

Everyone comments on the walkways, agreeing they’re well taken care of by somebody. The Sisters? The mysterious group who attacked us? Or someone else? I really hope those people won’t track us up here. It’s even possible they
live
up here, although no one mentions seeing any signs of them.

The walkway follows the Restless for a little while like the path on the ground did. The river is farther away now, to our right, but I can still hear it as we walk. I can tell when we cross platforms, because everyone spreads out a bit. We squeeze together through tight passages when the walkway narrows. Thankfully, there are no broken sections, or fire gaps we have to jump over.

By late afternoon, a crisp wind blows in. Not as bad as the freezing rain the day before, but enough to raise goose bumps on my skin. I press myself against Peree’s warm body.

The trees are alive around us. Leaves rattle and shake, branches rasp together, and squirrels chitter, probably annoyed with the great, lumbering beasts in their homes. But most distinct is the smell: the sharp scent of the Sisters. It’s growing stronger. Everyone seems to notice it now; several people mention it, and there’s a nonstop medley of coughs and sniffles.

The smell—whatever it is—is a constant reminder that we’re running out of time. That maybe it’s already too late. It drives us forward past the point of exhaustion, into the first hours of evening.

Through the shadowy shapes of the tree branches, the sky beyond tugs at my attention. It’s wrong. The smoky stench is almost unbearable now; it actually makes my eyes water.

“Why is the sky lighter than it was before?” I ask Peree, wiping my cheeks. “It’s almost like there’s a—”

“Fire!”

“Forest fire?” I whisper.

“I don’t think so,” Peree says. “The blaze is beyond the trees.” He sounds more curious than worried, which helps me relax. “There’s a platform with an opening in the canopy coming up; we should be able to see better from there.”

He leads me forward. When we stop, I feel a horizontal, waist-high board in front of me. The slats here feels even sturdier than where we started—there’s almost no give or creak when I step or push on them—as if they're new. I fold my arms over the top of the board.

I can sort of make out the fire now, at least its intense light. It seems to be below and to the left of the platform we’re perched on, and it doesn’t sound particularly close, crackling and spitting in the distance. But the air around me
feels
heavier somehow, and the stinging scent of the Fire Sisters is all encompassing. It even leaves a strange, sour taste in my mouth. My eyes run like tiny waterfalls. The others clear their throats.

Finally, Bear whistles, long and low. “You don’t see a view like
that
every day.”

“Amazing.”

“The
rocks
are on fire.”

“How is it possible?” Amarina asks.

“And all that water,” Peree mutters.

“What do you see?” I try not to sound frustrated.

“I’m not sure where to start…” he says. “It’s a lot.”

“How about the fire? Is it growing? Coming toward us?”

“No, we’re okay. It’s not moving. First off, the forest we’re in ends up ahead, at a plateau. There’s a compound on top, although it’s still a good walk away. It must be the Cloister.”

“It is.” Kai's voice is quiet, reflective.

“There’s a ridge of rocks running unbroken along one side of the plateau, and they’re on fire, like Conda said. The flames reach high up in the sky, billowing smoke. A wall of fire. I don’t see any way through them.”

“The
rocks
are on fire?”

“I guess it just looks that way. There must be a fuel source somewhere underground,” Peree says.

“The Sisters call them the Eternal Flames,” Kai says. “I’d forgotten that.” She still sounds preoccupied. What else is she remembering?

“The smoke,” I think out loud. “That’s why the Sisters trail that smell.” When Kai first described the Cloister, she said the fire never dies out. The smoke probably embeds itself in every stitch of clothing, in every hair, in every pore, every minute of the day.

Peree goes on. “So the Cloister has the wall of fire on one side, and a sheer mountainside on the other. High stone walls connect them. We’re nearest to where the fire and one of the walls meet. The wall on this side is bordered by forest. It’s hard to see what’s beyond the wall on the other side. Looks like some kind of drop off."

"The question is—how are we going to get in there?" Cuda asks. "The place seems really well protected.” He sounds dismayed.

“Maybe the Sisters haven’t gotten the children and Frost inside yet. Maybe we somehow passed them,” Conda says.

“Perhaps.” Amarina sounds unconvinced.

“Can you still see the Restless?” I ask Peree.

“Only because the last bit of daylight is reflecting off the water. It’s downhill to our right. It runs away from the Cloister into a huge body of water, far off in the distance. Bigger than the water hole or the river.
Much
bigger.”

All that water,
he’d said.

“The Shivering Sea,” Amarina says. “We have heard of it from wanderers who passed through Koolkuna. They said vast numbers of people used to live alongside it, they scattered to avoid the 
runa
.”

The Shivering Sea
. A thrill runs through me. I’ve heard of these great expanses of water, but of course, I’ve never been near one. I listen for it; it must be too far away. I only hear the sizzle and pop of the Eternal Flames.

“How big is it?” I ask.

Peree stands behind me and picks up my hands. He spreads my arms wide, like wings. “This is as far as I can see in the moonlight. But it’s probably bigger.”

“And the Cloister?”

He brings my hands closer together.

“It looks about twice the size of Koolkuna. Big enough to house a substantial group,” he says. “The flames are blinding; they make the inside of the Cloister hard to see. There are some buildings, I think—”

“And guards on the walls,” Conda says.

Moray scoffs. “How can you tell from this far?”

“The torches along the walls blink out every few seconds. See? People are moving in front of them.”

“See that cluster of torches?" Bears asks. "On the ground below that… some people came out of the forest. They’re walking toward the wall.”

“I think they have children with them
,
” Peree says. Amarina gasps.

Our
children
?
  They’re probably too far away and it’s too dark to be sure, but I grip the railing with both hands, ready to run to them.

“How do we get down from here?” I ask.

Peree lays a hand on my arm. “There’s no way we’d reach them in time.”

Everyone seems to hold their breath. Derain breaks the silence, moaning softly.

“They disappeared,” Peree murmurs. “There must be a gate.”

“Damn it!” Moray says. The handhold bounces slightly as if he slammed his fist on top of it.

“We almost caught up to them,” Conda says. His words sound final, as if this is the end of our journey.

I close my eyes, allowing tears of frustration to mingle with those brought on by the caustic smoke. Could we have reached them
before they disappeared into the Cloister
 if we’d moved into the trees this morning, like Kai suggested?

Amarina cries—the first time I’ve heard her do it—and Derain comforts her. He sounds as if his heart is breaking, too. If
I’m
devastated to know we were so close to the children; how must
they
feel? Peree tucks me under his arm. It’s hard to tell if I’m supporting him or he’s supporting me. Defeat hovers around us, as unmistakable as the sharp stink of the fire protecting the Sisters and their terrible ways.

What now? How will we get into the Cloister and back out with the children? It seems impossible from the way they described the place. So… what’s our choice? Leave Kora, Darel, Thrush, and the other children to the Fire Sisters? Do Frost and her child deserve to live out their days here in the Cloister?

I stand up straight and shake my hair out of my face. “Okay. So we need to find a way in. Any ideas?”

Silence.