6.

 

After he gave his verbal report to Heast, Zaifyr climbed the stairs of the Spine and made his way down to the western edge of the city. Mireean soldiers had erected metal barricades to stop their attackers from scaling the wall and breaking into other parts of the city, but it was unnecessary. No such attempt had been made. Fires had been lit instead, causing thick, pungent smoke to run up the walls and into the sky.

“We have misunderstood the nature of our enemy,” the Captain of the Spine had said as the two stood on the roof of The Pale House, earlier. “We were deceived by stories of crop failure, poverty and rebellion. We saw the filed teeth on the bodies of those we killed and thought nothing of the nature of a person who would submit to such pain. We heard of priests, but knew nothing of their god and did not ask. We thought we knew the answers and characterized the Leeran Army as a religious crusade, one directed by madness and desperation, but it is not. They have dug through the Spine while we watched the show they provided. We have, in short, been complete and utter fools.”

Zaifyr nodded to where the fires trailed into the night sky. “How many made it through?”

“We estimate two hundred and fifty. Even a conservative take on the number of men and women in the towns you saw would suggest that they have lost around forty percent of their force.”

“You were lucky.”

“We were.” Heast’s pale gaze turned to him. “Imagine how much worse it would be if it happened in two days’ time, when the siege engines are in place.”

He did not disagree. After he had told Heast what he had seen, the other suggested that the collapse of the tunnel had forced the hand of those in it rather than the collapse being a result of overeagerness.

“A handful of people were cleared out of each town two weeks ago,” Heast said. “We’ve been unable to account for them in the camps and my belief is that most returned to the villages and joined those living in the tunnel. It’s more luck than anything else that a part of it collapsed and they were forced to play their hand early, or risk suffocation, or worse. Still, we do not want to be fighting in the streets when the rest of the Leeran Army is within range of their catapults.”

“How long are you giving Steel?” he asked.

“Until the morning’s first sun,” the captain replied.

And until then, Zaifyr knew, he could only wait.

“How you stand apart from them, apart from those mortals,” a voice said from behind him. “It is very symbolic.”

Bau.

“I want to avoid smoke in my eyes,” he replied lightly.

“Also symbolic?”

“You tell me.”

Dressed in his clean, white robes, the Healer walked around Zaifyr, stopping well before the smoke and the line of soldiers who lurked around the barricade, their faces covered by cloths and long bows held in their grasp as they waited for a target to appear. “You are not what I had imagined, Qian,” Bau said, turning his back to them. “Aelyn had described you to be passionate, emotional, whereas I find you … much more disaffected. Tell me, what do you think of all this?”

“Of this?” He glanced at the soldiers, at the fire and smoke behind them. “Nothing much. People have died and fought for centuries.”

“But you remain.”

“So do you.”

“We should have left already.” Wood cracked in the fire and a sudden burst of smoke arose along the Spine. “But there is some work to finish first. Would you believe, however, that it grates on me to leave? There is much I can do here, and more I could do if I was not forbidden. The world would be a different place in the span of five days if I had free rein to do as I please.”

“Nothing would truly change. At best you would just recreate the immediate world in an image you believe in, but it would just be your creation about your morals, your life. And it would not stop war and famine and cruelty around the world. You would realize soon enough that you need an army just like the one around us, and what you stopped would only begin again.”

“Aelyn said that such thoughts made her realize that our laws were a necessity.”

Zaifyr replied blandly, “I have heard it said before.”

“Doesn’t the hypocrisy of it bother you? I mean, here we are, both of us sent to learn what is happening. Our very presence is representative of larger forces and ideologies of dominance.”

“You are only describing the Enclave, Bau.”

A sudden burst of flame lit the Keeper’s face, revealing his smile fully. “I have often thought the same.”

“Do your brothers and sisters share that thought?”

“Some.” He turned and pointed to the trails of smoke rising. “Like all organizations, opinions range from one side to another. Certainly, some laws have had a positive impact, but in others, such monsters like the Innocent thrive because of it. Personally, I think of the Enclave as a cage hanging over a fire. When our evolution is complete, when we are the divine and our power has finished rebuilding us, it will be then that the fire is at its strongest. Those that we have ignored will have evolved just as we have and our reluctance to engage them will only fuel that which we have been trying to avoid. When the floor drops away and plunges all of us into the fire below, I will not be surprised.”

“Your fire is just another word for war. Nothing else.”

“I know.” Ash began to settle on Bau’s white robe, discoloring it. “But that is nothing new for you and me, either.”