War Bird

39. Dry All My Tears.

“Wake up True!”

My eyes fly open and the first thing that pops into my mind is the face of a small, scared child. “Birdie!” I croak. A hot dry hand takes mine. It’s Finlay, looking at me with sad eyes. “No.” I shake my head. “Tell me you stopped her.”

“Sorry,” he says. “She knocked you out, then teleported herself to Birdie’s room. Took her.”

“To the chateau?”

“We believe so, we don’t know for sure,” he says. 

“Have you even checked?” I sit up, ignoring the spinning feeling that immediately comes. I’m in Merton’s old bed, the bloody, snapped rope dangling by my face.

“We were worried about you!” Asher says. My eyes flicker to the purpling stripe around his throat and the red marks on his face. He swallows bravely. “You’re not thinking of going after her, are you?”

“I don’t think that’s wise.” It’s Kull. She looks totally pissed off, arms folded, foot tapping. “For God’s sake, what were you thinking, throwing yourself at her like that? We could have had a chance of taking her down if you hadn’t got in the way!”

“She had Asher.” A hard lump forms in my throat. I look up at Finlay. “What was I supposed to do, just stand back?”

“Of course not,” Finlay says. 

“You saved me,” Asher agrees.

“Yes, marvellous,” Kull snaps. “Now, because of her foolhardy attempts to play the hero, we’ve lost the child.” 

“But at least we’re safe now.” Miss Ever steps forward, spreading her hands. “The Nightingales have managed to contain the Mortal Doorways within the Bay. We can rebuild and get on with the fight.”

“We’re not safe!” Finlay looks at Miss Ever like she’s grown a second head. 

“So we’re not even going to try and save Birdie?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. For a room full of fighters, there sure are a lot of cowards in here.

“She’s probably dead already,” Kull snaps. “Thanks to you.”

“You can’t blame this on me,” I say. “Anyway, you’d know if she was. If Alice had used Birdie’s blood, we’d be dead. I mean, well and truly dead. Trust me.”

“What did you see?” Arkwright steps forward, making me jump. He’s so silent I forgot he was even here.

“You did a Participant Bond again?” Grace asks, before I can speak.

I nod. “Yeah.” I close my eyes as I replay the images. “And it was horrible. We’d already worked out she’s going to use Birdie’s blood to become the most powerful Sorcerer alive. But I saw the aftermath of that. The world will just be like her playground, and everyone in it her slaves.” I glare at Miss Ever. “So no, we aren’t safe. We’re in way more danger than before.”

“Are you sure the child is alive?” Arkwright says, his normally still face more busy than I’ve ever seen it.

“No!” I shrink back from him. Why’s he so uptight all of a sudden? “But the fact that we’re all still alive suggests that yeah, Alice hasn’t had a chance to use her blood yet.”

“Then we launch an offence on the Chateau,” he says, his eyes tight and urgent.

“Are you serious?” I say, as Kull barges forward. 

“Excuse me?” She says. “I am the one in charge of our Defence and I say we hole up and prepare for the fight to come here!”

“As Intelligence Commander, I disagree.” Arkwright clenches his fists and they face off over my head. “Like Miss True says, we’re still alive, but the minute Alice Mecaster performs her blood magic with the Cardin child we’ll die. All of us. And our families back home.” His voice cracks a bit and I look at him in surprise. His face is as flat as ever, but he looks a bit younger, softer. I see a wedding ring on his finger that I haven’t noticed before. “I can’t believe you want to risk that by simply waiting around!” He finishes.