Against the Wind

23.3 || Raya

They moved on, cautious and slow, the sounds of conflict refusing to near in a linear fashion. It seemed to coil from every dark nook and corner, like the city was infected with it. It struck Raya how strange it was that there'd been no trouble crossing the outer boundary; the watchtowers had been barren, the scored lines in the sand utterly meaningless, like the desert itself was seeping in. Tehazihbith was not a place designed to be under siege. She was barely aware of her improper clothes and short hair—she was a stranger in a strange place, an unsettled home with claw marks dragged through it, wounds that soon began to show.

Dark blood spotted the path at her feet. In the alley to the side, a spindled creature crunched a bone blade between its teeth, then spat it out with a roar, knuckle-like tail lashing the knees of a fleeing man. Raya seized up. Her eyes betrayed her, fixed on the scene as horror dribbled to the soles of her aching feet. Amina's tug on her arm was distant and weak.

The beast's jaws closed around the man's thigh, and crimson streaked the ground as he was dragged. His ribs were next. His scream crumpled into a rattle, fading too quick to drown out the damp, crackling squelch of his shredding bones. Wet blood oozed out between the beast's long teeth, dripping and pooling in thick, grisly spirals.

A thin breath sounded from beside her, closer to a hiccup than a gasp, sharp in her ear. Amina's eyes were round as moons. There was a dullness to them, an ashy tinge leeching the warmth from her cheeks.

Two bony ears stuck up from the beast's skull. Its head jerked up, damp with bloody spatters that reflected like haunted stars in its smooth, slitted eye. The electric sting of fear broke Raya's trance. Without giving herself time to think, she clamped an arm around Amina's shoulders and herded her into the first hiding spot that caught the eye: the slender hollow of a door's arch, carved of ebony wood that was warm to the touch and just curved enough to grant a shadow two people could press themselves into. A splinter dug into her back as she tucked herself deep within the space, and she was glad of it. She knocked her head back against the wood, teeth clenched hard enough to ache, eyes squeezing shut as she steadily, determinedly dispelled the pale specs the world was dissolving into. She focused on the ground hard at her feet and the lively quiver of Amina beside her and breathed.

Amina was audibly fighting herself; her inhales came in tight, frustrated rasps, quick and tremulous and shallow. The arch rattled under the impact of a backward kick. Prising open her eyes, Raya carefully brushed her knuckles against Amina's, then struggled not to startle when the girl snatched up her hand, crushing her fingers in a sweaty, iron grip.

Realisation struck like a damp flint in Raya's chest. This was the first human death Amina had seen. It was not Raya's first—though it felt as raw and fresh as if it was and ached just the same—but even she had not been so young. Pity cinched her stomach, oddly grounding, swiping aside her dizziness in favour of watching Amina's nostrils flare and the dark look in her gaze.

Like curtains of flame, rage shuttered in. She was still shaking. "This is all wrong." Her gaze cut past Raya as if she weren't there.

Though her fingertips were already a little numb, Raya gave Amina's hand her best reassuring squeeze. "I know," she said as softly as she could, but she wasn't given time to get any further.

Amina hissed through her teeth. "I should have saved him." Her words were uneven, climbing over one another, and Raya couldn't help but go tense. It was difficult to tell whether Amina was teetering towards tears or blindly, violently lashing out. The snarls of the beast they hid from and the others nearby felt like bad breath tickling the back of Raya's neck.

She shifted nearer, shielding some of Amina's view of the path beyond. "There wasn't time. I'm sorry." She chewed on her lip, shoving back her own tears. She had to be stronger than that. "We can't save everyone." She traced a slow circle over the back of Amina's hand, holding firm. "We'll only risk ourselves. We need to find the head mage as fast as possible. Can you stay focused?"