90

Ash

“Weapons, savants. Ride!” The command jolts me awake. Star bunches her hindquarters and leaps, bursting out of the bone tunnel. We land at a full gallop and in seconds are through the open gates to Avon Eyre’s courtyard. “Defend the Sanctuary!” a warrior woman cries above the chaos. The cold slaps my skin; the sun is long past set. Black phantoms fill the sky, blocking the moon with their leathery wings. I cower as they swoop in, and then draw my sword. The night fills with their high-pitched screams.

One flaps near me, so close the tail snaps like a whip in front of my face. When it pumps its wings to rise, a horse and rider squirm in its talons. Avon Eyre’s archers fire from the rooftops but all I can think is, we’re too late. “Tomik!” I cry out, but my voice is swallowed by the sound of battle and the screeching phantoms.

“Dismount!” Tannson orders as my horse rears. The ground comes up fast. I land hard on my side. A hand reaches to pull me to my feet. A boy’s hand. “Tomik?”

“I thought you were dead.” He’s in dark brown leather armor from head to toe, sword pointed away from me and at the mayhem.

“Not yet.” I gasp for air as an ouster wind assails us. It rips our swords right out of our hands. “Look out!” I try to warn others.

“Initiates,” Radigan calls from behind us. “Raise your phantoms!”

Tomik turns to me. “Are you really non-savant, Ash?” His gaze stays on mine for a fleeting moment.

I nod, tears welling.

“Then stay behind me.” He gracefully touches down one knee and leaps back up. The ground cracks. Snow and cobbles fly high into the air. Before I can blink, a huge black lion lunges into the night sky like a starry constellation come to life.

I gasp again, my heart rate quickening.

His phantom is larger than a horse, the broad shoulders rippling as it lands. The mane swings back and forth as he shakes snow and dirt from his coat. The creature bounds forward, then skids to a stop, pushing snow ahead of forepaws like a plow. With front legs dropped to the ground, tail lashing, Tomik’s lion throws back his head and roars. The thunderous challenge is matched by screeches from the sky. The lion springs at the nearest phantom diving toward us.

“Weapons!” Tomik shouts. “Don’t worry, Ash. I’ll pro…” His words are drowned by the turmoil.

A runner must have heard this call because the next thing I know, they appear, replacing the weapons torn out of our hands by the ouster. I drop the empty scabbard from my waist and buckle on the new one. It glistens as I draw it and grip the hilt with both hands, raising it over my head to guard against aerial attacks. Giant paws spring into the air as Tomik’s lion leaps again, higher than the courtyard fountain. When it lands, a leather-winged phantom writhes in its jaws. I turn away at the sound of breaking bones and spouting blood.

“What did you say, Tomik?”

“He said, don’t worry, Ash. I’ll protect you.”

I shudder as my inner voice turns into Kaylin’s and repeats the words, “I’ll protect you, lass…” It takes me back to the road to Asyleen, where Kaylin died. All over again, I find his sea-green and gray eyes as he lay bound by rune chains. I shake the image away.

Not now. I can’t mourn you now.

Tomik and I fight our way across the courtyard, through the stable, and into the field beyond. Another battle. Another sanctuary under attack. Sure, I was trying to escape this one, but it’s still another threat I don’t know how to stop.

“Always, Ash. Always I will protect you.” Kaylin’s voice returns. Through the pain, I want to feel it, the protection he promised.

But he’s not here now.

I weave in and out of lost memories as I fight. The vision shifts to Marcus pledging his protection, too, only now we are children caught stealing pies from the palace kitchen.

He’s not here, either.

And then my memory bursts through a door I didn’t know existed. Someone holds me, and cries, “I am doing this to protect you, little Ash.”

I think it’s my mother, but when I look closer, she is gone.

I turn even further inward toward a heartbreaking wail. As the fighting continues around me, Tomik and his phantom clearing our path, the cry inside fades into a keening, a death knell—long and despairing. I follow the sound deeper into the landscapes of my mind where a dark wall is lit by guttering torchlight. The keening comes from the other side.

Hello? Are you hurt? It’s a stupid question. No one unharmed makes noises like that. Do you need help?

“We’ll die without it.” The answer settles over me like a thick fog.

I search the wall for cracks in the mortar, but when I look up, it runs for as far as the eye can see. Still, I drag my fingers across it, brick by brick until I feel it. In the far corner is a fracture the length of my arm. I press my eye to the chink in the middle, searching the darkness on the other side.

I see it, the whimpering creature. Trapped in a much-too-small prison. The beast coils tight, as if the walls burn to the touch. The scales on its back pulse a dull gold, but most of its body is charred. My chest caves in, constricting my heart as I count the ribs, visible with each rise and fall of its breath. And then, it calls my name…

“Ash?”

I’m here! I dig frantically at the mortar. When I can reach my hand through, I try to touch the suffering creature but my arm’s not long enough. What happened to you?

“Bound.” It gasps mind-to-mind but says no more.

Show me.

The moment I say the words, it feels as if my aching heart bursts open, releasing a thousand black butterflies that spiral into the sky.