Chapter 30 – No Other Way

Cat stumbled onto the landing platform, greeted by a chill wind. There was still one ship on the platform, so she headed for that.

The others were close behind, too exhausted to argue.

Cat clambered up the lowered boarding ramp and found the ship empty. The pilot had presumably absconded with his colleague in order to get him medical attention. Given the state of the castle, they’d have little luck with that.

“Do you know how to fly a skyship, Frost?” Cat asked.

“Not really,” Frost said. “But trial-and-error is a great teacher, and I don’t see another way out.”

Cat sighed with exasperation but let Frost past. He sprawled out in the pilot’s chair and began messing with the buttons, causing the ship to shudder wildly and careen along the surface of the landing platform. The still-lowered boarding ramp ground up sparks against the stone.

“Take it easy!” Cat commanded, catching herself against the hull. “What’s the point of escaping if we just dash ourselves on the rocks!”

“Details, details,” Frost said. “Have I ever failed you?”

“Uh, yeah, you have, actually. Remember that time you were trying to repair the lights and nearly burned down the whole bar? Or that time you—”

“Got it!” Frost called. The ship evened out and settled onto the platform, engines rumbling comfortingly.

“Our faith in you was not misplaced, enchanter,” Aeva said. She lingered near the boarding ramp, locked in a fighting stance despite her injuries. Cat thought she would have hit the deck by this point, unconscious or worse.

“Go ahead and take off,” Cat said.

“No way!” Frost exclaimed. “We’re waiting for Hunter.”

Cat stormed up to the pilot’s seat and spun Frost around so she could look him in the eye. “Hunter went up against Couldess alone. The man is dead. He knew as much himself. If we stick around, we won’t achieve anything except dying ourselves.”

“I won’t leave him. He’s my friend.”

“If he really was your friend, then you should know that this is what he wanted.”

Frost sighed and rested his forehead against the control panel. “Fine. Strap in—this might get a little dicey.” He looked up and began punching buttons.

Cat seated herself in the co-pilot’s chair while Aeva crouched near some crates, holding onto a strap that attached the cargo to the floor.

The boarding ramp slowly retracted, and the engines fired louder as the ship rose into the air, teetering and wobbling. Frost kept his tongue between his teeth, his face a mask of perfect focus.

A single man appeared at the entrance to the landing platform. Couldess, smiling like he was enjoying a pleasant afternoon stroll.

He held up Hunter’s severed head by the jaw.

“Your friend here didn’t last too long,” he shouted. “Any of you fancy a shot at revenge?”

The ship ascended by degrees under Frost’s questionable control. The landing ramp closed completely, blocking Couldess from sight.

Very well, then, Couldess said. His voice echoed eerily in Cat’s mind. I can play dirty if I need to.

An intense, all-encompassing pain wracked her body, causing her limbs to tense up, fingers shaking as her eyes were plastered wide. Judging by their groans and contortions, the others felt it too.

Tendrils in her brain, digging through her ears, her eyes, her nostrils. Wriggling inside her skull.

Frost’s hands shuddered on the controls. The ship tilted dangerously as it sped away from the landing platform. It dipped into a sharp descent.

End yourself, Couldess commanded. The words echoed inside her, louder and louder, until it became maddening. It wasn’t just a thought, it was a compulsion, and her body ached to satisfy it.

Despite her attempts to ignore it, her body moved of its own accord. She slammed her head against the dashboard, twice, three times. She continued until her nose bled, until everything went out of whack, but she was powerless to stop it.

Couldess was already inside her. She could feel him rummaging through her thoughts, violating the innermost reaches of her mind.

No, no, no.

Please, not like this.

It disappeared all at once. No more pain, no more compulsion. She found herself panting heavily, blood dripping from her nose onto the dashboard.

Frost threw away the wand that he had placed against his temple and put both hands on the controls, bringing the ship out of its rapid descent with a stomach-lurching jolt before it could hit the cliff face below.

Cat looked back to make sure that Aeva was okay. The wildkin sank onto her back, having attempted to scratch open her wrists with her sharp claws.

“That was close,” Cat said breathily.

“Too close,” Aeva added.

***

They set down on the outskirts of Attea, far from Northmark, as they feared that Couldess would scramble an air response to shoot them down. They would have to find alternative means of getting back inside the city.

Frost’s landing had been less than perfect, breaking off a wing as they crashed into an empty field, but they were all still alive.

The trek into the nearest town took them about an hour. Cat had recovered a little after being able to rest, but Aeva lagged behind, barely able to keep one foot in front of the other. Frost had applied all the med-patches they had left to her, but that lightning had torn her up, and second-hand vivimancy simply wasn’t good enough to fix it.

Cat snuck into town and stole a rusty old rumbler to get them back into the city.

They set off along a desolate stretch of road, with many hours of travel ahead. Cat drove, while Frost and Aeva sat in the back seat so that the enchanter could keep an eye on her.

“So… that ended badly,” Frost said.

“Drakemyth’s dead. That’s something,” Cat said.

“Don’t say it like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like Hunter dying is okay, because ‘oh well, we got what we came for’.”

“I didn’t fucking mean it like that, and you know it. I was trying to be optimistic.”

“Maybe this isn’t the time for optimism,” Frost muttered.

They traveled in silence for a long time. Aeva’s condition worsened, and she descended into incoherent ramblings.

Cat’s optimism hadn’t been intended for the others. It was for herself. So much of their plan was falling apart. Linton incapacitated, Hunter dead. Even the Crown had turned out a dud. Cat had seen Aeva put it on, and… nothing.

But they had killed two archons. That was the only thing she could console herself with.

Codes, I wish I had a smoke, she thought.

They passed through more towns and villages as they proceeded to the Attean coast. Spotting a blockade of black rumblers at the entrance to a town, Cat brought the vehicle to a halt. The only other option was a pitted dirt road that seemed to lead off into nowhere. Dense forestation surrounded both sides of the main road.

Aeva’s eyes flickered open. She shot up stick-straight in her seat.

“We need to get out of the rumbler,” she said.

Frost looked questioningly at Cat.

“She’s off her tits,” Cat said. “Doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

Two of the rumblers in the blockade started moving towards them, truthers hanging off the sides.

Aeva got the left-hand passenger door open and fell out into the road, feebly attempting to stand back up.

“Oh, this is so not the time,” Cat growled. “Frost, get her back in the rumbler! We need to go!”

Frost scrambled outside to wrangle the wildkin. She elbowed him in the face as soon as he put hands on her, knocking him on his behind.

Cat got out to assist him. Aeva crawled all the way to the edge of the woods, where she tumbled into a shallow ditch, muttering under her breath in Gjosi.

“We don’t have fucking time for this!” Cat hissed. She spared a glance back at the truther rumblers, which couldn’t be more than a hundred meters away. “Frost, get up and help me.”

“No!” Aeva cried. “We need… to get into the woods.”

“Okay, less crazy, more walky,” Cat said, attempting to haul the wildkin up by her armpits. She was heavier than she looked.

Aeva looked up, moss-green eyes boring into Cat’s. “Trust me. Take me into the woods. I can get us back.”

Frost caught up to them, clutching his flat nose. “You’re sure you aren’t delusional right now?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, that sounds like something a delusional person would say.”

“We’re out of time,” Cat said urgently as the truthers pulled up a dozen meters away and began calling out to them. She grabbed one of Aeva’s arms and motioned for Frost to take the other. “Let’s bring her into the woods.”

“What if she’s wrong?” Frost hissed.

“Taking the road won’t work anyway. I don’t have enough anima left to beat these guys, and Aeva’s in no shape to do anything. Even if we did get through them, there’d be more. There’s no way we’d get back to Northmark anonymously.”

Frost relented, and together they carried Aeva in amongst the trees.

“Hey, stop right there!” one of the truthers called after them. “By the authority of the MOW, submit for interrogation! Failure to comply will result in immediate termination!”

They kept going, trudging through low bushes, branches tugging at their clothes.

Shots rang out in the twilight, but none hit home. Cat tried to pick up the pace, but Frost was weaker, slower. He couldn’t keep up.

Magelights came on behind them, casting long shadows off the trees, and there were sounds of footsteps close on their trail.

“Not much further,” Aeva said. “It should be… there!” She pointed towards a tree in a small clearing a few meters to their right, a young pine which had bent so far that it touched the ground, forming an arch.

Beneath it stood a woman, middle-aged, with a voluminous mane of brown hair. She wore a set of drab city clothes, dirty and dusty, leather boots and fingerless gloves topping it off. A cat lay draped across her shoulders, a fuzzy thing with gold and white fur.

The woman nodded as if she had anticipated their arrival.

Cat skidded to a stop and let Frost hold Aeva. She raised tired fists, bracing herself for one last fight.

We’re gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way, she thought bitterly. I barely have anima left to light a cigarette, even.

The woman reached for them, a dull expression on her face. “Not to fear, Bluebirds. I work for Lady Imwe. Come.”

Cat hesitated, but Aeva tore free of Frost’s grasp and stumbled towards the woman.

The agents’ footsteps were drawing close. Their lights illuminated the woman and the small clearing.

Aeva fell forward, legs giving out. The woman stepped up to her and let one hand touch her forehead. Instead of hitting the ground, she vanished entirely.

Cat blinked. “What did you do to her?”

“Explanations later. Hurry!”

Cat and Frost looked at each other. They ducked as gunfire rang out, bullets going over their heads.

“Suppose we don’t have a choice,” Frost said.

They hurried up to the woman. Her cat purred contentedly.

Gunfire echoed through the clearing, mixed with the hoarse shouting of truthers.

The woman reached up and touched Cat and Frost on the forehead.

A bright light flashed. The ground fell away beneath her, and she was sucked into a vortex of cold, viscous liquid. She screamed, but there was no one to hear her.

Cat’s vision returned abruptly. She fell to her knees in a hall of stone, surrounded by warm light. The place smelled of pine resin and old books. She looked up, and stared into the eyes of a tall woman, pale-faced and raven-haired, shrouded in starlight.

Imwe.

“A welcome reunion, my children,” the goddess spoke. “I have been expecting you.”