I stepped again, reaching into my cloak for the tiny flint I kept in one of the inner pockets, knowing I needed to light a torch if I was to find anyone in here, when the board beneath my foot gave out. I fell through the floor, catching myself at the very last second on one of the broken boards, my feet dangling into the basement. I’d just realized how well and truly fucked I was, when the deep voice I’d almost come to expect behind me, interrupted my panic.
“Need a hand?”
“Serak?” He stood in the doorway, his silhouette illuminated by the dim light from outside. “No, don’t!” I called out when he almost stepped forward.
He seemed to understand the problem, as he backed away. “I’ll be back.”
“Ratter?” A small voice came from below, one I knew well.
“Dash?”
“Yeah. I’m… I’m stuck.”
“What happened?”
The words rushed out of him in one long stream, like a dam had broken. “I was coming to your house to say goodbye, but some men saw me with your Solstice gift. They tried to take it, and there were too many to fight, so I ran. I got lost. When I saw this place, I remembered it, and I was only going to hide just inside the door… but there was a little girl here, all alone, crying.” He let out a hiccupping sob. “She was down here, and when I tried to help, I fell next to her. She’s hurt, Ratter. I don’t know how bad.”
My blood turned to ice. I took a breath to call Serak back, when the board that had been holding me cracked again.
SERAK
I’d found a length of rope on the cart by the side of the dilapidated building when I heard the faint cracking of wood, and a muffled scream that sounded like my name. I reacted instinctively, running to the front, my arms pinwheeling as I realized I could make things worse by stepping into the darkness.
“Serak. Don’t move,” Ratter whispered. I’d never heard her voice sound like this. Full of fear and uncertainty.
“I’ll come to you,” I whispered back.
“No. Go get a light. Dash and Gertie are below. Hurt. I need you to go get help. If you fall, we might not be found—ah!” Another crack of wood had my blood freezing. I was not going to let her be hurt, not when I had the tools to save her.
Even if those tools would damn me to use.
“I have a candle,” I lied. “And a rope. Close your eyes. I’ll come over once I can see where it’s safe to step.”
I waited for her soft, “All right,” before I whispered four words—the first prayer to the Lord of Fire the acolytes of the Alldyns Vug were taught. Even here, so far from the sacred maw, my god answered me, and a flame sparked to life. I waved it to float near the floor and stepped forward. They were only tenpaces inside the room, Ratter’s dark hair shimmering with red as the flame danced toward her.
As if it knew her.
“Serak?” she rasped, and I knew she hadn’t closed her eyes at all. She had fallen halfway through a hole in the floor, gripping what looked like rotten planks on each side with her hands, one leg supported by a half-splintered beam.
Standing on the wooden crossbeam that must have been one side of the cellar at some point, I stepped carefully to her side. I tied the rope to the sturdy wood, then leaned close to the plank that she held with one bloody hand. I looped the rope under one of her arms, then around her other side, until she nodded slightly.
“Lower me down,” she said.
“No, I’ll go.” I waved the flame to the bottom of the pit, but it refused to move, staying by her face, red flickers playing over her fine features.She smiled and blinked, as if slightly mesmerized. I snapped my fingers, and she startled, then grabbed the rope in front of her and stared up at my face. “Lower me down, Serak.”
Her eyes reflected the flame, and for a moment, her voice seemed older. More mature. Her features changed, those gray eyes even a deeper silver, with tiny lines at the corners I knew she didn’t have. A scar appeared over one of her eyebrows, then vanished. Her hair grew longer, and seemed to be pulled back, with a dark diadem perched over her forehead.
“Lower me down, Serak,” she repeated. The flame came to rest on her shoulder, then descended into the darkness.Speechless, I nodded and did as she asked, slowly releasing the rope until she called up, “That’s enough.” I heard her speaking to the children, and when she called out again, I pulled one of them up.
I was shocked that she hadn’t rescued the young prince first, but it was the girl who came up with the rope tied under her arms, crying softly.
A soft, “Go up now. Go on,” reached my ears, and the flame I’d called ascended. I didn’t want to think what that meant. Why the magic I had pulled from the maw was listening to Ratter. Obeying her.
I had a terrible feeling that eyes and ears far away were focusing intently on everything that happened in this dark room.
I bundled the rope, and checked over the girl. She was injured, one arm possibly broken, and I took care not to jostle it as I pulled her out of the rope and carried her to the doorway. “You’ll be all right,” I said softly, then let out the best approximation of the whistling call I’d heard Ratter make when she mustered her street rats to search. Within a minute, I heard an answer. The flame danced back into the room, luring me. “Stay here,” I told the girl, and followed it.
The boy was next to come up. “Thank you, Lord Zellum,” he said somberly. I examined him, but he seemed perfectly well. I tossed the rope back into the hole, then helped him stand. “I owe you a debt.” His chin was trembling as I walked next to him, the flame flickering at my shoulder. I thought it was from shock, but his eyes widened as he took in the mysterious flame.
