WHISPER- shadow and bone

Chapter 8

The air was thick with tension as Tolya took David to the holding cell. A hushed silence hung over as Grisha, Tracker, Prince all took in the news of the Darkling's survival.

"We need a moment just the three of us, please," Mal spoke gruffly, reeling from the revelation.

"Of course," Nikolai nodded, Nadia and Tamar following him from the room.

"Do you trust him?" Mal asked the pair. 

"I don't know. Not entirely. The shadow monsters... But why would he lie?" Alina furrowed her brow as she tried to make sense of David's words.

"He wouldn't lie about Genya like that. That makes me think he isn't lying about the rest of it," Ada shook her head.

"Kirigan's a force to be reckoned with. But if this is true, I need to hunt the Firebird," Mal spoke, worry lines branded into his forehead as he looked at the girl he loved so dearly. 

"Or I can do something right now, an alternative to boost my power," Alina suggested.

"Alternative?" Mal and Ada spoke in unified confusion.

"He created soldiers of shadow. Maybe... Maybe I can tear down the Fold by creating soldiers of light," Alina suggested desperately, seeking for a solution.

"We can't mess with magic like merzost Alina," Ada sighed defeatedly.

"The Darkling messed with it and we got the Fold for 400 years," Mal nodded.

"Now he has monsters who walk with him," Alina tried to justify her suggestion.

"Would you really want monsters walking alongside you. Light or not, they are still monsters" Ada emphasised.

"She's right. Give me time to track the Firebird. There's always a cost to merzost. It's not worth the risk," Mal urged Alina not to do something stupid. 

"There will be another way Lina, we will find it. Mal and I can scour the library," Ada suggested, hoping to lift her sisters' dampened spirits. 

Alina nodded but her heart wasn't in it. She headed off to find Tamar while Ada grabbed Mal's arm and dragged him to the library. It didn't take long for Mal to have one of his rare moments of genius as he called them. A memory piqued in his mind and Ada raised an eyebrow in approval. Cornering Tolya the pair had an idea, a crazy storybook idea, but it was an idea.

"We were skimming this again for leads on the Firebird, then I remembered a legend about a sword from Shu Han," Mal spoke to Tolya who seemed irritated to have been dragged away from his poems. 

"Neshyenyer. The Relentless Blade," Tolya spoke wisely.

"You know of it?" Mal questioned.

"Of course I do. It's a folktale. The Fabrikator Kho created an unkillable army made of cogs and bone..." Tolya began.

"Until the Fabrikator Neyar forged Neshyenyer," Mal finished for him. Opening the book so all three could see, he began to read the legend.

 "When Neyar fought, her blade flashed so brightly that people watching swore she had lightning in her hands. A blade so sharp it could cut shadow," Mal raised an eyebrow to Tolya as he spoke, asking for recognition.  

Tolya chuckled in response. "It's a bedtime story."

"But what if it wasn't?" Ada asked firmly.

"My culture has the best myths," Tolya smiled.

"The Sea Whip was a myth. So was the Stag. And they were real. She killed an unkillable army. This could be the weapon we need against Kirigan's monsters. And this book says it's in a temple in Ahmrat Jen," Mal continued.