Fire Sermon 2- The Map of Bones by Francesca Haig

Author:Francesca Haig
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: YA
ISBN: 9781476767192
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2016-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

chapter 20

I pulled back my blade. The man fell as if my sword had been a hook on which his body hung.

Something broke in me. All the visions I’d had over the past few months were knocked loose, to rattle at random through my mind. The blast. Rows of tanks, now full of fire. The island’s crater, full of blood. The blast.

Piper grabbed me, shook me until I had to stop the scream to draw breath.

“Concentrate on staying alive,” he said, then shoved me to the side as another soldier came at him. I staggered back, sword shaking as I held it out before me.

I had already been responsible for more deaths than I knew. But this was new. The swing of my arms and the blade of my sword had put an end to that man. It was final, and absolute, and as intimate as a kiss. It could never be undone. His twin, wherever she was, some Omega somewhere, had died, too, without even knowing why.

“Pull yourself together,” Zoe shouted at me. I looked up. She was standing again, blood running from her mouth where the soldier had kicked her. Her shirt was sprayed with blood. At the collar it had stiffened, standing out from her neck at a strange angle. Even her teeth, as she shouted at me, had flecks of blood on them. Could she taste it? I wondered. What had happened to us? I used to work in the fields and grow things. Now, on this icy plain, I was a harvester of blood.

“Pull yourself together,” she shouted. I breathed out, and in again. Somehow my sword was still in my hands.

I looked up. We were making no progress. The front line of our final charge had already broken, the soldiers driving us farther from the wall. Simon and a cluster of his troops had gained a little ground, but not enough. They were cut off now, and surrounded by Council soldiers. They reminded me of the islands of the Sunken Shore, being gradually swallowed by the hungry tide. Simon fought with two swords, and a knife in his third hand. Nobody got past him. But two of the Omegas next to him had already fallen, and the soldiers were closing ever tighter around him.

Perhaps I felt the riders coming—perhaps that’s what led me to turn east, to the road, just as Piper gave the shout to push forward once again. I almost fell as I turned to look, everyone around me running. Piper saw me looking, and turned, too.

There were hundreds of them, devouring the horizon with their galloping hoofs. Mounted soldiers in their red tunics, leaving the sunrise behind them as they raced toward the town. They would be on top of us in minutes.

We were outnumbered—five to one, at least. Whatever hope our makeshift army had been able to muster, it was finished now. This was where my visions of blood on snow had been leading. This was how it would end.

I thought of Zach, and wondered if he felt his death approaching.

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