A Poison Dark and Drowning (Kingdom on Fire #2)(91)

Maria turned and walked away up the beach, hair whipping about as she gazed out to where the sea and sky met on the horizon. Behind me, the boys remained still and watchful.

Maria came back to us. “Someone must stop that bastard R’hlem.” She gave a tight smile. “Might as well help.”

I wanted to sob as relief and exhaustion swept over me. Maria helped me up while Blackwood tromped over to us.

“Very well. If you’re truly the one prophesied, your timing is perfect.” He looked north. “We’ve got to get to London.”

“What about Dee?” Magnus was doing his best to comfort the boy as he moaned in pain. God, he’d be awake soon, and then his agony would truly begin. “We can’t leave him.”

“We can’t help him.” Blackwood winced but continued. “We need to get to town—”

“And what? Warn people?” Magnus shouted, his eyes red and wild. “The place has probably been under siege for hours by now!”

“We will go and fight,” Blackwood said, every word precise and clean. “That is our duty.”

“To leave a fellow sorcerer to die?” Magnus snapped.

Blackwood glared. “Don’t force me to say these things. His body is broken.” Here, he quieted, in case Dee should hear. “He can’t handle a stave anymore. What can be the good—”

“The good of saving a friend?” Magnus boomed, moving toward Blackwood until they were practically nose to nose. Dee shifted, groaning in pain. Blackwood relented somewhat.

“Howel, stay with Magnus and see that Dee is comfortable until…” Blackwood didn’t finish. “Maria and I will go—”

“No. I can heal him.” Maria returned to Dee’s side, helping Magnus adjust his body. “We can manage.”

“If you are the chosen one, this cannot wait!” Blackwood barked, all but throwing his stave to the ground in frustration. But Maria was right: without her, Dee would die. The capital might collapse, yes, but Dee would be gone. And if Maria was our chosen one, rushing her unprepared into the most brutal kind of danger might be foolish.

“This is our plan.” I interrupted them all. “Maria, you and Magnus stay until Dee is stable, then come to us. Blackwood, we’re going.” I prepared myself for flight, but Blackwood snagged my arm.

“You don’t have the authority!” he cried.

“Neither do you.” Summoning the wind, I lifted unsteadily onto a cushion of air. Magnus ran over.

“Stay,” he said. Unlike Blackwood, he didn’t make it an order. “If R’hlem captures you, God knows what he’ll do.”

I imagined that I knew. A chill walked down my spine, but I was resolved.

Maria understood, because she said, “Let her go. We’ll meet again in London.” Then she returned her attention to Dee. Magnus and Blackwood started arguing; to save us all time, I took off.

I flew half a mile before I had to rest, and drifted to the ground. Kneeling, I waited for Blackwood to land beside me.

“We find our chosen one, yet somehow you’re the one who faces R’hlem.” He sighed. “Why is that?”

“I’ll tell you if we survive.” Before he could ask more questions, I harnessed the wind once more. He caught up and did not speak again until we’d reached the outskirts of London.

We landed by the river, while across from us clouds of dust and smoke stained the sky. Bells tolled at random, like the screams of madmen. Even from this distance, I could see the flicker of orange light as buildings burned.

London was on fire. The Ancients had come to town.





Ash covered the streets like a sinister snow as we walked through what had once been Whitechapel. Blackwood and I followed the shouts for help and the distant, bestial cries. Figures darted out of the clouds of rubble, racing for the river. The men and women and children who ran didn’t even glance at us as we calmly made our way deeper into the city. Before too long, we’d gone up Fish Street to the Monument, a column memorializing the Great Fire of London. High above us, the fat black shape of On-Tez the Vulture Lady landed atop the pillar, spread her wings, and cawed.

Fitting.

God only knew how long the Ancients had been here. Blackwood had kept close to me since we landed, his arm before me like a shield. I would have told him off, but as we turned onto Monument Street, we stumbled upon a collection of bodies. There must have been thirty of them all told, rich and poor together. Familiars knelt over the dead and gorged themselves, tearing flesh in leathery strips.

From the scaled appearance of their skin and the clawed hands that sliced open the corpses to get at the more tender organs, I could tell these Familiars were Zem’s. One looked up, its serpentine eyes frenzied with bloodlust. It wiped a sleeved arm across its gory mouth, a chillingly human action.

When the creature charged, I summoned as much water as possible from the ground beneath and created a long, sharp blade of ice. Together, Blackwood and I shot it right through the lizard’s heart. The thing took two jerking steps and fell over, the ice dissolving quickly as the thing’s fiery blood ate at it.

Blackwood ripped stones from the street and formed a cage around the other two lizards. Inside, we could hear them pounding and bellowing; they began to breathe fire, turning the stones to powder.