The Shadow City. Ryan Wieser
recovered, he let her go. She turned in his arms and looked into his gray eyes and knew something about him with such certainty, despite how odd it was to know. She knew this boy would always save her.
Jessop knew that she needed Falco, and as she studied his concerned face, the way in which he held her close, her eyes traveled down his neck. Where his tunic was pulled low, she saw lines. Hundreds of silvery lines, all crossing over one another, peeking out under his collar; they were scars. She knew then that not only did she need him, but he, who held her with such conviction, tight against his mangled body, needed her too.
* * * *
“Did he say when he would be back?” Mar’e asked, readjusting the ochre-dyed shift she wore. Jessop copied her, tightening her own cloth dress. Falco had left her with the Kuroi while he returned to Azgul, the city where his master resided. He had spent several days with her first, explaining to her where the Hunters of Infinity worked, how they worked, and why he needed to be the one to confront Hydo. She had asked him how he intended to best his mentor, when he couldn’t fight him off the day of the fire. “I had expended my energy trying to heal…” He had let his voice trail off, his gaze fall from her. “It matters not. I can do this. I know my brothers will help me.” While she feared his departure, he had spoken of his many brothers in the Glass Blade, where they lived and trained—and assured her he would return safely. He said he thought of at least several brothers who would return with him.
Jessop began to work on her braid. “He just said it wouldn’t be long.”
Mar’e stared at her skeptically. “He’s very beautiful, you know.”
Jessop crinkled her nose at the girl’s words. She wondered if she and Mar’e were truly friends. She did not understand how the girl spoke to her about Falco so soon after what had happened to her family.
“You think I want to talk about him with you?”
The Kuroi girl sighed heavily. “I don’t know what is and isn’t safe to talk about with you anymore. I don’t know anyone who lost their parents.”
Jessop glared at the girl. Mar’e had known her parents. She had slept in their home. She had spoken with them. She had eaten their food. Jessop had expected her to mourn in the same manner she did. They stayed silent for many minutes, uncomfortable.
Mar’e shifted nearer. “I saw you two, the morning he left, walking.”
Jessop thought back to that morning. The sky had been gray, like his eyes, and there was a welcoming chill in the desert air. “Once it’s done, I’ll come back for you. We will make arrangements.” He had spoken to her with a soft voice, always dancing around the pointed words. He avoided saying anything about her parents. He simply wanted her to know he would make sure she was taken care of. That his mentor wouldn’t get away with his trespasses against her.
“You don’t have to feel responsible for me. It wasn’t your fault.” She had been terrified of speaking the words to him. She thought that maybe, if she told him he could be free of her, he would truly never return. But she didn’t want him to return out of guilt. She didn’t even want him to return to take care of her. She had the Kuroi. She just wanted him to return.
He had shaken his head down at her. “It’s not like that.” He touched her face softly, his fingertips grazing her temple. He closed his eyes and seemed to focus. Jessop didn’t know his kind. She had seen him do much and had heard there was much more he could do that she had yet to witness. All she knew was that she did not fear him. He blinked, opening his gray eyes to her slowly. “You’re different. I can’t tell what it is…But I know you’re like me somehow.”
She had stared at the ground, confused by his words. “I don’t know about that.”
He had raised her chin with his hand, willing her to look back at him. “I do.”
Jessop pushed the memory back, returning her attention to Mar’e. “You saw us walking—what of it?”
“You don’t even know each other and you act like you have this unspoken bond. You walk with one another as though you’d been doing it for years.” Her voice was sharp—jealous.
Jessop narrowed her eyes at her friend. “You don’t get it.”
“Then explain it to me, Jessop.”
“He’s alone, Mar’e. Alone like I am alone.”
She cocked her head and her dark braids fell over her shoulder. “His family died too?”
Jessop knew Mar’e meant no insult. She simply didn’t understand. “No. I don’t know. But it’s not like that. Not that kind of alone. Alone because he’s different.”
Mar’e nodded, her eyes softening. She looked about the space in the tented room, as though ensuring they were alone. “I do know what you mean. He’s different like you. Like what the Kuroi speak of.”
Jessop didn’t know what Mar’e was saying. She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling defensive. “What do they speak of?”
“I’m not supposed to say.”
“Mar’e.”
“Fine. But remain silent over it. I do not always say you aren’t Kuroi because of your bloodline, Jessop. I don’t even say it to just criticize you, even though sometimes I know I say it to be cruel…I say it because I have heard my parents speak of it. I heard them talk about how you and your family are different.”
Jessop felt her skin prickle at the words. “What are you talking about?” Her tone was angry. Defensive. Mar’e had lied to her before and she was possibly lying to her again simply to feel superior once more.
“I don’t know any more. That’s the truth. All I know is that I heard them talking. Not about how you and your mother were part Kuroi, but how you were part something else.”
Jessop studied her friend’s face. Mar’e seemed excited, as though she relished having secrets to tell. Jessop didn’t think the girl spoke the truth. But she thought of what Falco had said to her. She was different. She shook her head, arguing against the thought. Maybe she was different, maybe she wasn’t, but if there had been something about her family, her parents or Dezane would have told her. She gruffly walked past Mar’e. “Don’t talk about my mother.”
* * * *
She didn’t understand why the ashes were still smoking. She didn’t understand how a week ago, this had been her home, her parents…her whole world. It had burned entirely to the ground—not an intact dish or surviving piece of furniture. No parents. Hydo’s wicked magic had given the fire life, a dreadful ability to decimate that which a natural flame would have left simply licked.
She closed her eyes and stepped onto the ashes. She was surprised to learn they were not hot against her feet. Was she numb to new pain now? She kept her eyes shut and raised her hand out before her. In her mind, she saw her front door, her hand wrapping around the lever to open it. She stepped through the wooden entryway, and the smell of fresh flat bread replaced that of charred flesh. Her mother was polishing a dish, her father cutting meat. It was mealtime. They looked to her and smiled. She stepped around the table and approached them, ready to be enveloped in her parents’ embrace.
But as her extended arms locked tightly around nothing, she opened her eyes. She was standing right where they should have been, but of course, they weren’t. She let her arms fall to her sides. She knelt down and pushed her hand into the hot ash. She wanted Hydo to die—she maybe even wanted Falco to be the one to kill him. But if he couldn’t, she would do it. Maybe not today, or even in a year…She needed to grow; she knew she couldn’t fight anyone at this size, except maybe Mar’e. But as she lifted her palm and watched the ashes of her life and all that she had loved trickle through her fingers, she knew she would kill him. Given the chance, she would take everything he ever loved, and set fire to it.
* * * *
The fire was moving with a mystical force. The noise