Twice, I skidded on the roof and scraped my palms catching myself, but I reached the dragon’s hind legs just as the body began to shudder. Hoping it was dead, I climbed up its talons and leg, then up the side to its back. The scales were sharp and cold, wet with sleet. But it was a lizard — albeit a huge one adapted for the tundra — and cold-blooded, so cold scales should be normal. Maybe.
I scrambled onto its back and used scales like a ladder over the edge of the building. My hands froze and ached, but I didn’t stop moving.
The body convulsed when I was halfway down, near the stretched wings. Everything slipped. I held on tighter, but when it didn’t stabilize again, I leapt onto the wing and slid the rest of the way down, jerking and stumbling over bones beneath the thin, smooth scales.
Wind cut at my face and up my sleeves as I sped down. Finally the slope eased at the wing tips resting on the cobblestones. Momentum threw me onto the ground just as the dragon crashed behind me.
Someone running by stared at me and swore, then tossed a laser in my direction as he headed north. My hands were too cold and stiff to catch the weapon, but I grabbed it off the ground, then tried to decide where I was in relation to Sam’s window. Not far. I scrambled over the dragon’s corpse. The building and beast created a narrow gorge, sheltered from wind and noise.
I found the prison window easily enough, and they hadn’t shut the glass. “Sam?” I knelt and peered inside the dim room.
Empty.
I sank to my heels and rested my forehead against an iron bar, trying to figure out what could have happened. It was possible he could have escaped, but he barely remembered how to use a data console. Disabling the soul-scanners was beyond him. Orrin had been in there, but he was as hopeless as Sam. Stef would have been able to do it, but it probably required tools she didn’t have.
The other possibility was that Li had discovered my absence and known where to find me. She wouldn’t have hesitated to kill Sam.
Then I would avenge him. Li would come back, and like Meuric, she’d hunt me for the rest of her lives, but at least she’d suffer the same soul-ripping pain as Sam.
My stomach twisted. When had I become so blase about killing? My knife was still wet with Meuric’s blood, and I was already thinking about what to do to my mother? I wanted to throw up again, but there was nothing left in me.
Keening and moaning jolted me from my thoughts.
Tall shadows drifted about the dragon’s remains, charring scales. I scrunched my nose at the ashy reek and bolted away from the sylph. They weren’t interested in me yet, and I didn’t have sylph eggs.
I sprinted into the stinging night, battle din rising as I pulled away from the Councilhouse. Airborne drones roared around dragons, shooting lasers every chance they got. The dragons spat globs of acid. I pulled my hood on tight. If anything fell on me, I’d hear it sizzle and I could throw off my coat. It’d work only once, though.
My muscles ached, but I ran as hard as I could, avoiding anything shadowy or glowing green. I wished I had a flashlight or SED — mine had been confiscated — but my knife and laser were better than nothing.
I searched the faces of everyone I passed. Most of them were running, too, and looked like they knew what to do. More than I did, at any rate. None of them were Sam, or my friends. I pushed on, hiding my fists inside my sleeves for warmth.
People and lights and acid piles packed North Avenue. I wished I could duck into the residential quarter, but I didn’t know my way around that maze well enough. Li’s house was right by the guard station, anyway.
I wished I were cowardly enough to hide in someone’s house until everything was over.
Heart’s north wall loomed ahead, brilliant as it reflected light across the guard station. I pushed my weak legs harder. What if Li wasn’t at her house? She was a warrior. No doubt she’d be single-handedly killing half the dragons, not waiting for me to confront her.
I focused on rage. She
Lungs and legs burning, I darted around a trio of children firing lasers into the sky, and skidded to a stop near the guard station. Everything was so bright it made my eyes water. My nose ran from the cold. It seemed like, if I was going to face my mother, I should at least look like I could take care of myself.
I wiped my nose on my sleeve and clutched the laser. The path there was familiar by now, though the dead dragon and acid-marked cobblestone were new. Shadows lingered everywhere, but none made sylph songs.
Shivering, I stood at the end of her walkway and stared down the front door.
It swung open, framing Li.
She seemed bigger. Angrier. “Where have you been?” She didn’t move. Li always waited for me to go to her.
I flexed my fingers around the laser grip. “What did you do to Sam?”
She cocked her head. “Sam?”
“You heard me.” I stepped forward. She wasn’t holding anything but the doorknob. I could fire before she could. Maybe. I’d never used a laser; my aim was probably terrible. “What did you do with Sam? He’s not there anymore.”
“I don’t know what happened to him.” She checked over her shoulder. Distracted. Agitated. It was natural, considering the war going on around us, but not for Li. She liked conflict. She liked opportunities to see me hurt, and here I was without the one person who meant everything to me, worried he was dead, and she was
“He was in prison. Now he’s not.” I stopped halfway down the walk and straightened my shoulders. The sore one stung, but I tried to make my expression frozen with anger, like she did. I didn’t want her to know how much I hurt.
“Why do you think I’d do something to him?” Her familiar sneer returned.
“You always do things. It’s what you are.” I lifted my laser and let my free hand rest on the rosewood handle of Sam’s knife. “You tried to make my life miserable, make me believe that no one could ever care about me. But you’re wrong. Sam does. Sarit, Stef, and the others do. I’m not a nosoul.” My hand shook as I took aim. “Now tell me what you did to him.”
Her mouth dropped open.
At first I thought it was shock because I’d finally stood up to her, but then her expression went slack and her eyes focused on nothing. One last flicker of rage, and she crumpled.
Dead.
I staggered backward. A dragon wouldn’t fit inside, and a sylph would have been more obvious. I hadn’t done it.
A man stepped out of the shadows, over my mother’s body, and lowered a handheld laser like mine. “You must be Ana.” Odd that it took only one small man with a laser to kill her. He didn’t look like much. Short. Clipped auburn hair. Pale.
Oh. I knew those features, though I’d never seen him before.
“I’m Menehem,” he said. “We should talk.”
Chapter 29
Darkness
I KEPT MY laser aimed at his chest. “You killed her.”
“Yes.” He raised his eyebrows. “Wasn’t that what you were here for? I thought I’d get it over with. You weren’t going to stop accusing her of murdering Dossam, and she wasn’t going to admit to it. She didn’t, by the way. She’s been here with me.”
My jaw ached from clenching it as he strode toward me. I held my ground. “But the battle—”
“Yes, that’s where she was going. And she could have done a lot to help people, but honestly, I didn’t want her to.”
