Bone, Fog, Ash & Star (The Last Days of Tian Di #3)(8)

“Hide me where?”

“Ah! Excellent question, quite to the point.” Foss paused. “I do not know.”

“Foss,” said Eliza, “do you have any idea why the Mancers would be trying to kill Charlie?”

He shook his head briefly, a gesture that might have meant no or not now. She let it drop, a cold creeping feeling around her heart. She thought perhaps she knew the reason.

“The Mancers!” exclaimed Charlie, recovering from his shock just enough to get angry. “Typical crazy controlling Mancer behaviour! No offense, Foss. Kyreth said they were going to let me off the hook for spying, aye, but I should have known better than to believe it. Still, sort of late for them to change their minds, nay? I mean, that was years ago.”

“We can come to that later,” said Eliza. “A hiding place is the most important thing now.”

“The Thanatosi are relentless,” said Foss. “They will never stop seeking their prey.”

Charlie slumped back against the pillows.

“I know where we can go, aye,” said Nell suddenly.

“We?” said Charlie. She ignored him and held out her hand to Foss, as if offering it to him to kiss. He looked at it in surprise. On her finger, she wore the ring Jalo the Faery had given her when they parted ways in Tian Xia.

“The Realm of the Faeries!” she said. “Jalo can give us sanctuary. These Thanatosi or whatever you call them, lah, they wouldnay be able to follow us there, would they?”

“True,” said Foss. “If the Faeries were willing to give you sanctuary, you would be safe. The Thanatosi cannot enter that Realm uninvited.”

“What’s this we and us business?” asked Charlie. “You dinnay need to hide.”

Nell turned on him, her violet eyes flashing angrily. “Do you really think the Faeries would take you in by yourself? If I go with you, Jalo will help. But I dinnay remember him being terribly fond of you, lah. Seeing as the first thing you did when you met him was try to kill him.”

“If you can call finding him with a sword at your throat meeting him,” huffed Charlie.

“Stop it!” said Eliza. “Nell is right. Jalo would help her but I’m nay sure he’d help you alone, Charlie. Can you do it, Nell? I know you’ve got this exam coming up.”

“I’ll bring my notes. I can study in the Realm of the Faeries as well as anywhere,” said Nell lightly, as if they were proposing a drive to the seaside. “As long as I’m back in time for the test. I’ve got a month, aye.”

“Then I’ve got a month to stop the Thanatosi once you two are safe. We should leave right away.”

“We?” said Charlie again. “So you’re coming too? We’re all going to the Realm of the Faeries together?”

“Someone has to get you safely to Tian Xia,” said Eliza. “Once you’re in touch with Jalo, I’ll be comfortable leaving you alone. But until then I’m nay letting you out of my sight. Will you come, Foss? We’ll need barriers.”

“Of course,” he said. “We will leave at once.”

~~~

They packed up their few belongings quickly. Of her birthday gifts, Eliza brought with her the peculiar weapon Swarn had sent, the scabbard Nell had made her, into which she fitted her dagger, and the backpack her grandmother had woven, which she filled with supplies. The rest she left with her father. Charlie limped out of his tent, Sorma herbs packed against his tightly bandaged wounds. He looked at the Thanatosi, still leaping and spinning and swarming along the barrier in eery silence.

“Makes me dizzy watching them, aye,” he said flatly. “Do they nary stop moving?”

“Look at that! They can turn right upside down. Like gravity doesnay apply to them!” exclaimed Nell. “It would be fascinating to be able to study one of them in a lab. See how they work, aye. Like those jumps they make. How do they do that?”

Charlie gave her a faintly disgusted look. “You’re creepy when you get all scientific,” he said.

“Come,” said Foss. “They cannot stray far from the ground. We shall be out of their reach in no time.” He gestured towards the waiting dragon.

Charlie grimaced. “I’m nay sure how I feel about sitting on some flying beast’s back. I’m usually the back, aye.”

“Nay anymore,” said Nell, a bit cruelly.

Rom came out to see them off, supporting Rea with one arm.

“So you’re off again,” said Rea, squinting in the sun. “You’ll be careful?”

“I always am,” said Eliza. She kissed her mother on her cool cheek, struggling to ignore the hum of the Urkleis as she did so. Then she threw her arms around her father and hugged him goodbye.

“Take care, my girl,” he whispered.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said. “We’ll play chess with my new set.”

He kissed her and smiled. “You’re all right, then?”

She nodded. “It was a good birthday, up until the assassins.”

Foss helped Nell and Charlie onto the dragon’s neck and seated himself just before its wings. Eliza climbed up the gold-scaled back. The dragon swiveled its neck and watched her with one brilliant eye. Dragons knew a being of power when they encountered one and this dragon had flown with Eliza before. She seated herself on the middle of its back, behind Foss, gripping the golden spike in front of her. Foss called out a command and the dragon leaped into the air, its huge wings accordioning out. Below them the barrier crumbled, but the Thanatosi were no longer interested in the Sorma camp. In a swirl of white limbs and flashing swords, they came leaping across the desert after the dragon. The dragon beat its massive wings, climbing higher and higher into the sky and leaving the Thanatosi behind.