I hoped the same, but I also knew those two men would move the underworld to reach me, just as I would for them.
‘Is there anything left of Murus?’I wondered where Wolfe and Ania would go when all of this was over.
‘The fortress and parts of the city are badly damaged.Wrecked by exploding fire.’Atlas shook his head.‘I’ve never seen anything like it.We had no way to fight it.’
‘Dragon fire.’Finn spoke from where he had been quietly listening.
‘You know it?’Atlas turned his full attention on him.
Finn nodded.‘The Order makes it using powders.’
Atlas leaned forward.‘Do you know how to make it?’
‘No.’Atlas’s shoulders slumped, but Finn continued.‘They keep the powder’s ingredients secret.Only those closest to Merrick know how to make it,’ Finn paused, his eyes glimmering as he looked at Atlas intently.‘But I know where it’s stored.There are large amounts of it under the castle.They always had us guarding it.It must be handled carefully as it’s extremely volatile.I’d always thought that one torch thrown into it could destroy the entire castle.’
Atlas nodded, taking Finn’s meaning.
‘You would need an entire army to get into the city,’ said Finn.
Atlas looked despondently into the flames.Given the camp’s size and the few soldiers keeping watch from the trees, he had only a handful of soldiers with him.
I was exhausted.I yawned and excused myself from the group to grab my things.
Ania came to find me just as I was rolling out my bedroll.‘You’re Cursed?’she blurted out.
I had seen her eyes widen earlier by the fire as I recounted how we escaped.
‘Yes.’
I wondered what was happening behind those jade-coloured eyes as she pinched and pulled at her bottom lip with her thumb and index finger.
‘I wish I were strong like you,’ she whispered so quietly I had to strain to hear her.
Ania took a shaky breath as if preparing to tell me something important, but her gaze wavered.
‘You can tell me anything,’ I assured her.
She nodded and left to get into her bedroll.Ania wasn’t ready to share her secret, but I hoped one day she would be.
†
The following day, we buried Rhett.Atlas and I stood on either side of Tomas.He did not cry or speak as the curator from the fortress read from a book.I let the words wash over me, not listening, just feeling.
The curator had changed since I last saw him.He had lost weight, and now a large burn marked one side of his face.By the way he moved, it was not just his face that had been badly burned.He had taken the news of Queen Yaris’s death hard.I saw Mae comforting him and wondered if they had known each other before the Order had banished him to the fortress library in Murus.
Atlas was wary of the patrols still looking for us, so we moved our camp as a precaution.Atlas had found us entirely by accident last night while tracking the knights, worried that they were searching for Ania and Wolfe.
I was reluctantly packing up camp, afraid we were making it harder for Torgrin and Cillian to find us, when Atlas called to me.He lingered by an ancient elm that stood out from the rest of the trees because of its colossal, twisted trunk.
‘This is for Torgrin,’ Atlas said as he pointed to the circle and lightning bolt he had carved into the tree.‘He will know I was here.’
I ran my fingers over the marks, wishing Torgrin would see them and find us soon.
‘We devised a way to leave each other messages as boys.’Atlas handed me his knife.‘Now you need to carve your mark, so he knows you are with me.’
‘What’s my symbol?’I looked at him, confused.
‘Only you can choose that.’
