Gates of Thread and Stone(42)

I wanted to say something, but my mind had gone utterly blank. I felt aware of every blade of grass prickling my arm, of the cool air against my burning face. I stretched out my fingers and touched his wrist.

Avan cast me a sheepish smile. My heart jumped. Neither of us spoke.

We remained there until sunset. Then I peeled myself off the grass, joints and muscles aching, and we joined G-10 in the mess hall for dinner. My jaw still hurt and chewing food felt like torture, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. G-10 had a lot to teach us, and I couldn’t give him any more reason to think I was weak.

Hina had spotted me in the mess hall a couple days ago and had since joined us for meals. She lugged her boyfriend over as well, but other than a couple of ambiguous grunts, he had yet to talk to us.

At the moment, he was spoon-feeding her soup. It was sweet. In a “What the drek?” kind of way.

“Irra wants to see you after dinner,” G-10 said to Avan.

“No one talks to Irra as much as you guys,” Hina said with a look that was part curiosity, part sympathy.

“Lucky us,” I said. “Why does Irra want to see him?”

Avan just nodded, his fingers fiddling with his eyebrow piercing.

I tapped my fork against my plate. “Well?”

“He didn’t say,” G-10 answered. He switched topics to his plans for tomorrow’s training, including bringing Hina in to assist with sparring. Then Hina brought up the various hobbies that the hollows had formed out of boredom, such as building scrap models out of the junk constantly popping up around the fortress. They drew Avan into a discussion about Grays and their construction as I mulled over what Irra might want with Avan. Would he give Avan the same warning he’d given me?

When Avan excused himself from the table, I gave him a halfhearted wave and watched him go. G-10 mentioned he had patrol duty in a few hours.

“Does that mean with the gargoyles?” I asked. With everything else going on, I’d almost forgotten about them. “Are they safe? Where do they live?”

He grinned, his blue eyes sparkling with anticipation. “I’ll show you. Come on.”

He rose from the table and bounded for the door. I had no choice but to follow him or risk looking like a coward. I waved to Hina and her boyfriend, who didn’t look up from his tray.

G-10 led me around a corner to a staircase that spiraled up and up into the darkness. The metal handrail wobbled, so I kept to the wall. The stairs were littered with paint chips and rust that had flaked down from the underside of the steps above. They creaked as we climbed, the sound echoing so loudly that it felt as if the whole structure was about to crash down around us.

To distract myself, I said, “Irra mentioned you’re the newest recruit.”

“Yep,” he said with a nod. “Ninu sent my team to the Void to scout out where Irra might be. We split up to cover more ground, and I got cornered by a group of hollows.”

“What about the rest of your team?”

His mouth dipped at the corners. He had a tiny beauty mark on the right side of his chin, and I found myself studying it as he talked. “They left without me. All sentinels work in teams of three, and we do pretty much everything together, so most of us grow close. I asked to be sent back to Ninurta to get them out, but Irra couldn’t justify the risk.”

Even though his teammates had left him behind, G-10 still seemed loyal to them. I wondered what he’d do if he had to face them in a fight.

“Why are you called ‘hollows’?” I asked. “You’re not exactly the empty shells I was expecting.”

“It’s supposed to be ironic,” he said. “Ninu’s sentinels are the hollow ones. Not us.”

I thought about Reev and prayed that wasn’t true.

“Do you remember much from before you were a sentinel?”

“Bits and pieces.”

He didn’t sound winded at all, even though we seemed to have climbed a thousand rickety steps. I, on the other hand, sounded like I had run the entire length of the Void.

“Ninu doesn’t remove our memories. He erects walls in our minds, locking away our memories a little at a time. Too much at once can be overwhelming and interfere with our training. It takes months. I was about two-thirds of the way into my cleansing when Irra took me. He hasn’t been able to break through the walls yet.”

“That’s awful,” I wheezed.

“We’re almost there,” he said, and pointed up.

I tipped back my head to see. He offered to carry me the rest of the way, but I chose to keep my dignity. Or what was left of it, anyway, as I practically crawled the last few steps to the landing.

G-10 walked over to a door, but I remained sprawled on the floor until my breaths slowed.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Ugh.” I forced myself to stand. My knees wobbled but held.

We went through a narrow passageway that ended abruptly in swirling gray mist. We were outside.

To be accurate, we were on the roof, standing at the peak of Etu Gahl. Surrounded by gargoyles.

I gasped, jumping, and collided with G-10. His hands came down on my shoulders to keep me from fleeing. His voice was soothing against my ear.

“It’s okay. Irra enchanted them. They’re completely tame. Except if there’s an intruder, of course. Which hasn’t happened yet, but we like to be prepared.”