All the Stars and Teeth(103)
There’s no time for trivial injuries. I glance over my shoulder to see Ferrick and Bastian hurriedly using a blade to cut strips of fabric from their shirts and stuff them into their ears to avoid hearing Vataea’s song. Casem’s a few paces behind them, but I don’t wait for him to catch up.
“Ferrick, help the wounded!” I yell, hoping he can understand what I’m trying to tell him.
Sand kicks up at my feet and gnaws at my ankles as I dart across the clearing shore toward the group of Aridians who have been fighting off the invasion. I don’t look to see if Ferrick listens.
Bodies lay littered across the ground in pools of blood the sand soaks in and feeds from. A palace guard I don’t recognize drags herself toward the sea on her stomach. Her legs have been severed and she’s bleeding out quickly, but Vataea’s song holds her tight as a lure.
Only a few men and women are left standing. I press a palm to my heart to steady its relief when I see Aunt Kalea’s among them, alive and holding her own with a sword in one bloodied hand. The other forms a fist.
There’s a girl charging her with a sword drawn and poised to attack. The girl’s eyes are gone, consumed by shadows, and blood trails in rivulets down her cheek. She’s blind with rage and magic, and Aunt Kalea looks ill. She wavers with her sword, rusty from years of forgotten training. When the girl strikes, Kalea barely manages to avoid the full force of the blade. She stumbles back, clutching her wounded arm with a grimace. Her hand is still fisted, carrying something I can’t see.
The girl raises her sword again, and my heart seizes. I run as fast as I can, but it’s not enough. I won’t reach her in time—I can’t protect her.
Just before the sword falls, Aunt Kalea tosses her weapon and drops to the sand. She twists out of reach, narrowly missing the blade, and tips her head back. With trembling hands, she drops a small bone into her mouth. It’s coated in blood.
I lunge to stop her, but it’s too late. She swallows the bone, and I stumble back like I’ve taken a fierce blow to the gut.
Her opponent’s sword clatters to the ground and the girl falls to the sand, screaming. The acid in my aunt’s stomach gnaws at the bone, destroying it inch by inch. The girl’s skin peels back and melts away as she claws at herself, trying to stop the pain and smack the rotting skin back into her body.
It will never work. The girl’s death will be a slow, painful one.
Aunt Kalea has forever bound herself to soul magic. This whole journey, and I couldn’t spare even one person from a life they never wanted to have.
She chokes on it as it etches itself into her soul, grabbing desperately for her throat. Her stomach. She lurches as if about to retch, her entire body shaking uncontrollably.
When I accepted soul magic, it was a vicious, monstrous thing that took hard work and Father’s help to tame. I was sick for weeks with the curse, just as Aunt Kalea will be.
May this magic be every bit the beast you are …
The group of Aridians behind her stir with panic as Aunt Kalea’s eyes roll to the back of her skull. When they spot me, it’s through blood that drips into their eyes. Some of them need medical attention immediately. I’m glad to see Ferrick tending to some of them in the distance, but we need to get more Suntosan healers here as soon as possible.
“Get her inside!” My voice cracks when I yell at the women, full of a thousand apologies I wish I had the time to say. But I’ve wasted too much time already. “All of you find a weapon and get somewhere safe!”
There’s a man in my path whom I don’t recognize. An enemy soldier dressed in white, whose iron spear reflects the flames that devour my home and glints a violent red. A small collection of leather bracelets smudged with blood sits on his wrist, and my rage burns white-hot.
This man has the same magic as Kaven. He’s one of the few who’s learned cursed soul magic, and I will not let him have anyone else’s blood.
I don’t falter. I continue my charge, leaving Aunt Kalea to the others. When the man tries to block my path, the pain and rage that has been building within me flares and bursts. I duck under the attack of his spear and stab my dagger deep into his abdomen, twisting it. The spear falls from his hand, and I draw back only to rip Rukan across his throat and watch the blood fall like freshly corked wine. He gargles on it, choking as I press forward.
More attackers block our path, but Casem’s arrows fly from behind me. They slice through the air too quickly to keep track of, hastened by his Valukan air magic, and he takes all four of them down before they can become a threat. Bastian covers me from behind as I tear Rukan cleanly through the neck of another woman who lunges for us. I hear her head thunk to the sand, followed by her body, but I don’t look back.
“Keep going!” Bastian yells. “We’ll cover you!”
I leave Ferrick behind with the wounded, never having planned to stop.
An earth-affinitied Valukan stands at the edge of the cliffside, sending giant boulders spiraling from the cliffs at two invading Kers attacking him. When he sees me, his eyes light with recognition and he grounds his feet in the dirt, crouching low. He makes a sweeping motion with his arms, and the mountain trembles and cracks, splitting down the middle as a makeshift staircase takes shape. It’s a direct path to the palace, only about a half mile up.
“Go!” he yells, grunting as one of the Kers attacks, moving too fast to avoid. The Valukan pulls the earth around him like a barrier, shielding himself. Before the Kers can follow, the Valukan tears his hand through the air and the beginning of the staircase collapses after us.