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I gulp, turning to the others. “You see that, right?”
On the other side of me, Keita nods, his eyes grim. “Now I know what those flapping sounds were—the ones we heard in the very first shadow vale.”
I shudder, realizing how lucky we were that we got the gigantic vale wraiths instead. But it’s clear that when we enter Hemaira, that luck may no longer hold. Vales are opening all across the city now, areas of darkness enveloping the light, entire houses and buildings suddenly covered in black or red sand and tentacles. Yet more terrified screams sound, but they’re as abrupt as the merchant’s. Soldier or civilian, it doesn’t matter—wherever the vales appear, deaths swiftly follows.
Our entire army is silent now, everyone watching in horror.
“Wha do we do?” Britta asks.
“We can’t enter the city with those vales opening all over the place,” Li says.
“Except we have to.” This quiet reminder comes from Belcalis. “Remember what the Maiwurians said: the vales are the first sign of the world’s collapse. And now they’re opening all across Hemaira. We need to get Deka’s kelai and swiftly, before the gods become too swollen with power.”
“Not to mention, we need to help all the people still trapped in the city.” Sighs rise as I point out this unwelcome fact. Three months ago, when we rescued our sisters from the Warthu Bera, we also led a larger escape, allowing people who didn’t want to be in Hemaira safe passage out of the city. But not everybody was able to leave. And worse, not everybody wanted to.
And now we have to help them.
When everyone turns to me, shaking their heads, I continue: “There are still innocents in Hemaira, people who aren’t soldiers for either army.”
“But they chose to stay,” Adwapa humphs, “so as far as I’m concerned, that’s not my issue.”
“Not even the children?” Katya asks—not so much a question as a silent condemnation. Her eyes pierce into Adwapa’s until finally, the older girl blinks.
“Infinity take me, I hate having a conscience,” she growls.
“But you do have one, and so do we all,” I reply.
“Which is why, as I said before, we have to hurry,” Belcalis continues. “The longer the wait, the longer this escalates and the more innocent people die.”
But even as she says this, a roar sounds from the front of the army. I turn to find Gazal pointing toward the city with her atikas. I can’t hear what she’s saying, but I see the results: three contingents of aviax head into the city. Only they’re not flying toward the two clashing armies; they’re headed for the vales and the people caught inside them.
When Gazal turns to me and gives me a brief nod, my heart lifts. “She’s saving them!”
“Just as you would do,” Keita says with a nod. “Gazal really is the perfect decoy. She understands precisely how you would behave and—”
“Deeeekaaaaa…” My entire body tenses when a familiar voice sings out my name. As I turn, every muscle even more tense than before, a bat-like figure explodes out of the city, easily soaring over the shadow vale now developing over what remains of the wall’s foundations, to plant itself in the middle of the battlefield.
“DEEEEKAAAA…,” Melanis continues calling out, head swiveling as she searches through the gathered army. “I KNOW YOU’RE HERE….”
At the front of the army, Gazal swiftly unsheathes the double atikas that have been carefully crafted to resemble mine and approaches the Firstborn. But Melanis doesn’t even spare her a glance. She darts over the army, easily evading the aviax who quickly give chase. I gasp when she finally comes into full view. The winged Firstborn has completely transformed, her face and body now so gaunt, they might as well just be flesh and bone, her eye sockets sealed over with eerie pink skin.
But how is she maneuvering without being able to see?
“COME OUT, DEKA!” Melanis shouts, briefly stopping to slice her claws through the belly of one of the pursuing aviax.
When he falls with an agonized shriek, Melanis flits down to dig her clawed fingers into the wound. She pulls out the aviax’s entrails triumphantly, shaking them at the gathered army. “Come out, Deka, or I’ll be forced to make such a splash, the sand will turn permanently red.”
By now, I’m gritting my teeth so hard, I’m almost certain I’ve cracked them. Melanis isn’t exaggerating when she says she’ll turn the sand red. She fully intends to keep killing soldiers one by one until she forces my hand.
Even as I think this, she turns in my direction, a dark smile slicing her lips. “Found you!” she says, hurtling toward me, claws outstretched.
I unsheathe my atikas, shaken. How does she know it’s me? She isn’t even using her eyes anymore. It’s like she can find me even in complete darkness, and—
My eyes widen, Anok’s last few words suddenly washing over me: Do not allow yourself to shine too brightly in the dark…. So that’s what she meant. Melanis isn’t searching for me by sight anymore—she’s using the combat state. She can literally see me in the dark!
Britta turns in my direction. “Wha do we do, Deka? Wha do we do?”
I look at Melanis, who’s still darting around, those sightless eyes no doubt combing over the thousands of glowing souls on this battlefield to find me on behalf of her goddesses. But I’m wise to her tactics now. Just as I’m wiser to the gods’—after all, it’s they who taught her what to do. How to locate me. I inhale back into the combat state, and then I sit there, looking at myself for the first time—at my hands, feet, and all the parts of me I can see.
