Starrlings 1: House of Fire

chapter 41

A R I

Across the pitch, Raphael had pulled himself back onto his falcon. In moments, two light lions and their riders had landed next to Raphael. They wore the uniform of the Garde, the King's lion police force. More and more Garde, riding lions, launched into the air so that the sky above the pitch swarmed with lions, who flew higher up the cliff and towards the city.

"Ari, I don't want to be here anymore," Bell said with a whimper.

Some of the crowd was staying in place, confused and expectant of their prince to lead them, but others were moving. Ari and Bell joined the throng who surged to the exit gates and up the narrow stairways that led to the top of the cliff, stumbling as others pushed into them. Ari was aware of how exposed they were here, trapped in the crowd with only one escape. Above them was sky, behind them was sky and ocean. They had no shelter.

"Ari!"

Bell grabbed Ari's hand as she was almost swept away into the crowd. The sisters gripped onto each other as the crowd around them panicked, and with nothing to do but follow the fear through the ticket barriers and towards the Falcon Junction station. Up here, it was even more chaotic.

And as they reached the surface of the city, Ari saw the thing she'd been dreading. A thick plume of smoke rising through the air, somewhere beyond the station. There'd been an explosion.

The sky was full of kinnlings, while the streets were full of ordinary folk, pushing each other out of the way as they tried to get towards the train station or to safety.

"Where do we go?" Bell asked. "Do we get a train back to school?"

Ari shook her head as she remembered the horrible news of Black Lunsday, during the Fire War, when hundreds of people had been killed at the bombing of a railway station.

"Don't leave me, Ari," Bell said, her voice panicked.

"I would never leave you, Bell," Ari said firmly. "Hold onto me."

They pushed through the crowd, away from the train station and along the street, passing more and more panicked people as they went. There were also lions and their riders, flying overhead, but somehow this did nothing to relieve Ari's tension.

She didn't know where they were going until they reached it. She saw the subway entry to the Nord Sever - the subway that would take them down to Darklake - and she ran down the steps, with Bell on her tail.

"The deeper underground, the better," Ari told Bell firmly. "The subways are bunkers. Remember that. Always go underground."

They descended stairwell after stairwell, deep into the underground, where the solar lanterns flickered with magical light. The air down here was damp, and the walls dripped. Far below was the cavern of Darklake, but it would take them hours to descend all those steps. The Nord Sever was a cable car that shot down through the darkness to the deepest parts of the city, but Ari had no intention of riding the cable car. She just wanted to be in the safety of the tunnel.

"We're going to stay here until it's safe to get back to the school," Ari said definitively, because it felt good to have a plan. She knew the underground subway tunnels were the safest place in New Hamilton from the firebombs. She knew if more bombs were dropped, they would be safe down here. So there was nothing to do but sit and wait out the threat for a few hours, until they knew that the full Garde was deployed and the city was safe.

"Is Kakaio attacking?" Bell asked in a whisper.

Ari had no response. She couldn't imagine why Kakaio would attack, when their prince and princess were here on peaceful terms. According to Tom, the princess of Kakaio had been at that ceremony. Surely they wouldn't endanger their own princess? But who else would drop firebombs onto the city of New Hamilton?

After two hours of sitting huddled in the damp tunnel, blazing golden beams of light heralded the arrival of the Gardes on lionback. They held their hands high, delivering light into the darkest crevices of the tunnel, revealing a handful of people who were sheltering in the shadows.

"You cannot sleep here," one of the light starrlings, on the back of a lion, called out, as the others cut through the darkness, disturbing those who were sitting or lying down. "Move along."

"We're here because there was an explosion!" Bell said, as a lion moved towards them. Ari only shuffled backwards, trying to avoid the lion's paw.

"The culprits have been arrested," the Garde said. "You are not allowed to sleep here."

Ari felt relief, knowing that the threat was gone, but now Bell was angry.

"What do they expect? We've got nowhere to go. They act as if it's a crime to sit down and wait," she seethed, as they stood up.

Ari and Bell dusted themselves off and followed the crowd as it emerged from the darkness and safety of the Nord Sever tunnels and into the afternoon light.

They traipsed through oddly quiet city streets and back to Falcon Junction, where the familiar sounds of steam engines welcomed them. As they approached the station, Bell gripped Ari's hand again, but this time it wasn't out of terror, but out of excitement.

"That's the Water Dancer," she murmured.

• Author's Note •

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elle xx