The Grave at Storm's End by Devin Madson

Author:Devin Madson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2020-04-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Hana

The bridge exploded and I was falling through flames and smoke and steam and spray. Hitting the river burst the air from my lungs and in the inky darkness water roared. Kin’s sash tangled about my leg like a slimy hand dragging me down, but whatever its weight, I would not abandon it. Not now. Instead, I fought with my gloves and sandals and kicked with aching legs.

I broke the surface and sucked a great lungful of air—furnace hot. Steam billowed around me. Overhead, a firestorm was dissipating, swirling tongues of orange flame fading to smoke.

“Endymion!”

The current was too strong to fight. All I could do was spin, hunting the haze for any sign of him.

“Endymion!”

Unwilling to so easily relinquish my life, the swirling Tzitzi sucked me back under. Blood thumped in my ears. Again I thought of discarding the sash and again I could not. Kisia belonged to the Otakos, not the Tzitzi. Its dark water pummelled me like a rag doll, but I pushed for the surface again, lungs bursting.

Emerging into the light, I gulped air and water in equal measure.

“Endymion!”

Foam and debris washed around me. Endymion could be anywhere. He could be dead. Since he could kill with nothing but a thought, perhaps that would be for the best. He had wanted me to leave the city and at least in that he had gotten his wish. There was no faster way out than this when the city was in lockdown. Unless…

Siege gates.

The thought arrived mere moments before the gate itself, the black iron grating rushing toward me out of the swirling water. White pain ripped through my skull as I hit it and was pinned to the metal rungs by the force of the raging river.

“Hana!”

Endymion clung to the grating, wet clumps of hair covering the Traitor’s Mark that could never truly be hidden. There was another man—a rebel—holding tight to the metal gate. And a third body butted up against the bars, more corpse than soldier, washed against the gate like so much debris.

“You could have killed us,” I snapped the moment I had caught my breath.

“That could have killed us.” He pulled an arm free of the water and pointed back toward the distant bridge. The remnant heat hung above the city like a dense red cloud.

“I need to get back.”

“Hey!”

The rebel was edging closer, pulling himself hand over hand along the grating.

“Keep your distance,” I warned.

He lifted a hand in surrender. “I mean no harm. My name is Captain Terran, my lady,” he said, making a pitiful attempt to bow amid the storm water. “You probably don’t remember me, but I fought for General Manshin.”

We had been on the same side not so long since but too much had changed. I turned to find Endymion watching, his gaze intent. “Move,” I said. “Let’s get out of this river.”

He needed no further prompting and made his way, hand over hand, toward the edge of the siege gate. I looked up, thinking to climb

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