Horizon by Fran Wilde

Author:Fran Wilde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

19

KIRIT, BELOW

The Skyshouter fled from a city of light

Down the ramps, speeding over patterns of light and dark, the curators dragged us. We passed the alcove where I’d recovered. From within, the healer shouted, then emerged.

The healer gestured, “No,” emphatically. Pulled at our escort’s sleeves. The guards resisted, roughly.

I stumbled as the three of us were shoved and prodded down the ramps to another alcove in the bone ridge. Varat’s guards stuffed us into the woven bone cage that had once contained only Dix.

With some effort, they reinforced the lock with wire.

The place reeked of old robes and sweat. A bucket, pushed into a corner and covered tight, also smelled. Pressed next to Dix, I realized she stank to the highest of clouds too. Worse than the bone eater.

Wik, on her other side, seethed. Dix grew somber as our captors departed.

“Kirit.” Dix’s broken front teeth turned the two syllables of my name to one. She added a pleading note at the end that held me still and wary. Worse, she stood too close, her chest brushing my shoulder, my arm pinned against her belly. Crammed into a cage together, because of Dix’s escape from the same cage in the first place.

Guilt by association. Bird stealing. Lies.

Wik slipped his right hand to his left sleeve. His fingers brushed the short knife he’d hidden there before we left our dying city. “What now, Dix?” He tilted his head as if considering whether she could make the situation any worse. He’d had to duck to fit in the cage, so this made him look like a giant, looming over her shoulder.

I put my fingertips on his and shook my head. No harm comes to her, not here. We’ll never be let out if they see us as liars and killers. “Maalik.”

Wik’s grimace deepened. “That bird isn’t worth your sacrifice.”

“I disagree. We need to keep him safe.” Maalik was our only connection to our former home.

Dix ignored Wik, despite the close quarters. Focused on me. “Kirit,” she said again. Hearing my name emerge from her lips gave me chills.

In the shadows of our bone cage, her presence was still enough to make me squirm. There were too many betrayals between us. Now she raised her hand—to beg for more favors or to touch me, I didn’t know which—and I flinched. “What now?”

“We have to try again,” she answered. “You have to get me off this city.”

I flinched away from her. “Why should we help you ever again?”

Wik frowned at her. “We can’t leave easily when the city’s moving fast. As it will be soon. Meanwhile we’re stuck in this cage with you.” Wik’s voice was cold as Allmoons winds.

All the murders and horrors Dix had committed in order to hold power in the city above. Her crimes in this new city. The fact she still held Maalik hostage in her robe, one hand clamped over his body as a warning. The things she’d done. I grabbed her, my fingers at her neck.

“Kirit, I’ll help you,” Dix whispered.

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