CHAPTER 12

  "Stay close. No one moves on their own without my signal." Hakashi's voice had lost its usual bored cadance and was instead talking like an actual military leader. "Understood?"

  We nodded and reached for our helmets.

  “Don’t bother, hinders your vision,” Hakashi said, walking towards the door.

  Jorik took a step around the table. “H-hey wait! You can’t leave yet. Erik, you need to meet with the Gurus.”

  I let out an annoyed grunt. “Look, I have bigger priorities than your city or the Criers now. My own people are walking into a trap.” I left it at that. The talk of fate and following some sort of pre-planned life annoyed me to my core. I had my own goals, and none of them included joining a rebellion.

  Hakashi cracked the door, peered out, then motioned forward. "Move. Now."

  The streets had become a graveyard of bodies that had bled out while we were with Jorik. Hakashi signaled us to run on the balls of our feet to minimize sound as we hopped between corpses. Each face I saw made my stomach churn. Men, women, and children with dead eyes frozen in terror, each body pierced by a single hole. I didn’t have an interest in helping the Crier rebellion, but seeing these innocent people lying in their blood, sweat, and waste, angered me. There was no reason for it. Forcing myself to avoid looking at the bodies, I kept my head up, and swallowed spit to clear my mouth of the taste of rusted copper.

  Don't look down. Fern said. What if those eyes come back?

  I didn’t respond to him; the dead I jumped over still occupied my mind. Jorik’s children occupied my mind. A worry came over me about what would happen to them. The thought sickened me, but I wondered if we were able to save the Cinders, I could get those kids out of Paradize.

  "Here," Hakashi whispered, ducking into an alley so narrow the buildings nearly kissed overhead. Scaffolding climbed one wall like metal ivy. "Up." He pointed.

  I followed his lead, hand over hand, step to step, boots following, and finding supported spots on weathered planks. Every window we passed had been barricaded from the inside with metal scraps or broken furniture —anything to block openings—for whenever Igi-igi decides to massacre again.

  The anger and disgust that had simmered since Jorik explained how this city was a farm grew in me. Igi-igi benefitted from these deaths, even if they were meaningless. Their souls would go to that nexus where he could then feast on them. Below, guards dragged a cart loaded with bodies and a man with a large cart of water and a mop began to sweep the blood away.

  This is worse than the other floors, I thought. The ghosts, the sea-beasts, even the Guardians—they didn't slaughter children.

  I don’t understand why this place was made, Fern said.

  We reached the rooftop, and the Slums of Paradize sprawled before us—thousands of grey apartments stretched in every direction until they met the tall white walls surrounding the First Tier. Beyond those, red-tipped wheat stretched on for miles, like a sunburnt sea, waving with the wind.

  Above us, the second tier hung like a metal sky, blocking sunlight and drowning the slums in perpetual twilight lit by weak oil and crystal lamps. Through the center of Paradize, a wide cylindrical core rose up through the metal ceiling above. A thousand-foot spine of dark stone, dotted with windows that watched the slums like eyes.

  "Focus." Hakashi grabbed my shoulder. "They're coming."

  He pointed toward the main thoroughfare connecting the gates to the central spire. Even from several blocks away, I immediately knew it was the entire Expedition Army. Black and gold uniforms walked in down the main road, all three hundred of them. I saw Spiderbane with her crimson hair, Usiast, and his enormous form next to her, and all the other familiar faces. I prayed that my friends weren’t caught up in there.

  Where could they be? I thought.

  "Down." Hakashi yanked me behind brick chimneys.

  I adjusted my knees and moved beside him. I could feel heart hammering against my chest, so I slowed my breath to calm my nerves. "We can't just watch. We need to free them, we need to warn them what they are being led into, have you seen what Igi-igi can do?”

  “Yes, I saw. I stayed hidden, but I saw what that thing did. It’s like I told you, though, this is a prisoner march, and your brother is leading them. Look.” Hakashi pointed to the formation's head, but the figures were too small for me to see clearly. I drew on the Chimera's enhanced vision, feeling the familiar shift of focus as my sight telescoped forward.

  Noah walked at the front with predatory grace. Golden fire blazed from his eyes, not the green ones he was born with.

  Starbringer controlled him. Or whatever that evil soul’s name is.

  Shit, Fern whispered. That thing has completely taken him over again.

  But why is he awake? Why are they following willingly?

  "Fuck." Hakashi's curse was barely audible. "That's why they can’t do anything.”

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  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  Nanda gripped my shoulder. I looked up at him and his blue Veclan eyes glowed with strain. “Their hands, Brother. Look."

  I looked back and focused tighter. Every Cinder marched in thin golden chains. Their hands were bound to their ankles with the same magical restraints Starbringer used during his assualt on the Academy. Their powers wouldn’t work with them bound like that.

  "No,” I whispered.

  "How did this happen under Infernal Spiderbane’s watch?" Raine's composure cracked. "She should've executed the twin-soul the moment that coffin opened."

  Her words stung even though I understood them.

  “He must have taken them by surprise,” Hakashi said grimly. “No matter how strong Spiderbane and the others are, Starbringer is the Magelord—he’s the strongest mage in all of Stylos. We were lucky that we had been able to capture him, but at full strength, none of us could stand a chance. If he awoke, and ambushed the Expedition after we left, half-drunk and half mourning, well…” He shook his head. “It was over before it even started.”

  Guilt crushed my chest. This was my fault. I'd insisted Noah be kept alive, swearing I'd extract the twin-soul to save him, Fern, and me. I'd argued over and over against his execution and demanded he travel with us so I could be responsible for him.

  Because I couldn’t let go of my brother, Starbringer returned and captured 300 of our best fighters.

  "That's not all." Nanda turned his head down the road. "Look who's waiting."

  At the thoroughfare's end, where it opened into the central spire's plaza, stood Igi-igi. Arms clasped behind his patchwork back and surrounded by guards. Waiting like a spider for flies.

  Igi-igi stood perfectly still, waiting for Starbringer to deliver him the Cinders.

  "Your brother's leading them all to slaughter," Raine said. Her stare burned into me.

  Shame suffocated me. My hands trembled under the weight of what I'd caused.

  Erik, breathe, Fern urged.

  I inhaled deeply, pushing my diaphragm down along with my worry. When I panicked, Fern always reminded me to calm down, and when he panicked, I tried to make sure we made it through. The self-hatred talk could wait, I decided. The Cinders had to be rescued. We can’t let all 300 of them die and become food for this monster.

  The procession continued toward the spire, but something shifted in the air, causing the hairs on my neck to stand up. I felt as if I were being watched.

  Nanda stiffened, he sensed it too. He turned his head, and I watched his Veclan eyes pulsing with strain. Red thin veins danced around the blue of his eyes. Then, he smiled, "Firebrand, we may not be entirely on our own. Four other squads on the rooftops."

  My heart jumped. "They’re here?”

  “Finally, some good news,” Hakashi said, scanning the surrounding buildings with sudden focus.

  I swept my eyes across the nearby rooftops when I finally saw them. There, about two hundred yards across the street from us, a flash of red, sticking out from behind some water barrels, made me smile.

  "Mel." Relief flooded through me.

  The red colored hair was unmistakable. Beside her, Silas hunched over a crystal-powered spyglass attached to his mechanical arm. And next to him...

  "Jessa?" I mumbled. The Forgeman healer from the medical tent sat alert and ready, more capable than I'd assumed.

  Their leader, a man with auburn hair, and a wheat reed dangling from his mouth like a rural philosopher, raised his hand towards us. The man looked familiar and his name slipped my mind until Hakashi spoke up.

  “Heh, looks like Hyper got himself also on babysitter duty,” Hakashi muttered, returning the signal. “Hold and observe is what he’s saying.”

  "There." Raine pointed in a different direction, her storm-dark eyes finding another team.

  I followed her finger and saw Sora crouched behind a chimney, her twin-bunned silver hair shined even with the lack of direcrt sunlight. The black eyepatch she word gave her small frame the edge she had honed internally. Her twin Rinka huddled close by—identical except for the missing eye, longer hair, and the hardness that had grown inside Sora.

  Lucius was also with them. And their leader was also a familiar sight, another friend of Hakashi, Firebrand Heda. The blonde woman had changed into a black martial arts gi, and stood like a statue. He muslces we coiled and ready to be released at any time. She met our gaze and returned an acknowledging signal.”

  Southwest," Nanda said. "Two more teams."

  I spotted Tevin's group next. He stood alongside Zenobia and purple-haired Ruriel. With Srilick as the Firebrand leading them. The also made the same hand signal as we observe and wait.

  "Srilick?" Hakashi laughed. “The Infernal really wanted to keep us all together, huh?”

  The final team perched further down the road towards the central spire. Waelid's cocky silhouette, and Galina's glass skin caught some nearby lamplight. Quill, who had helped during the fight against Starbringer, stood beside them and their squad leader.

  "Bartholomew." The Blazeman met my eyes across the distance, smiled, and signaled.

  "All teams acknowledge," Hakashi said. "No one moves. No matter what. We observe."

  For a moment, seeing my friends all alive distracted me from reality. Until I looked at the bound army below. I looked down at Igi-igi, eagerly waiting for them to approach.

  This isn’t right… I thought, frustration building.

  "Sir, we need to move now. There wont be a second—“

  "You will NOT act without my order." Hakashi's tone could've cut steel. "No matter what happens. Understood? I am responsible for you three, and I know we are not strong enough to win that fight. We observe and see IF we can intervene, but it would take an act of god.”

  I clenched my teeth and cursed.

  If only I was stronger, I could take out Starbringer and Igi-igi. If I had more power I could save them now.

  As the army got closer, I could see their condition clearly. The 300 Expeditionary Forces all bore fresh wounds. Their uniforms were ripped and cut. They had bruises and dried blood covering their skin, and some had evidence of broken arms hanging uncomfortably in the chains. Veterans who'd survived dozens of missions now walked, bound and broken, through a city they never knew existed.

  "We can't let this be the end." My fists clenched white.

  Hakashi raised his hand and signaled to the other Firebrands and Bartholomew. Every team leader responded. They all deferred to him.

  “Seriously? Make the burnt-out overworked one become senior command?” Hakashi said annoyed.

  Does rank really matter right now, Fern asked.

  Someone has to take charge when things go to shit, I said.

  But I was growing impatient.

  “What do we do Firebrand? We are all here. All alive. About to watch them become food for that monster.” I pointed at Igi-igi.

  “What can we do?” Raine asked. She had her notebook out and had flipped it back to a previously written section. “We don’t have access to pillar dust. That’s how you broke Starbringer’s chains last time, right? He’s prepared this time and is confident that no one will be able to get close.”

  She was right. I hated that she was right.

  Hakashi clenched his jaw like he hated having to decide. “We observe, stay hidden, and look for an opportunity. And if there isn't one..." His voice cracked slightly. "We keep moving forward."

  The army drew closer to Igi-igi, and he finally moved. The creature opened his arms wide and walked forward. He then bent down and embraced Starbringer in a tight hug, like a grandfather picking up their grandkids. Seeing Noah’s body being held in the air, dangling, made my mouth slowly open in disbelief.

  “Welcome home, brother!” Igi-igi yelled.