But she already knew who had done this. The villagers of Eren. They must have been searching for her ever since that girl’s funeral. She should have known they wouldn’t have given up. She should have moved Jentt into one of the caves. She should have left stronger constructs to protect him. She should have taken him with her, or been here with him, or...
“Jentt!”
She knew he couldn’t hear her, but she couldn’t help screaming his name.
Racing into the tower, she ran up the steps. The stone was cold to the touch—the flames must have died down hours, even days, ago. Only the stench of smoke still lingered in the air. She tasted the bitter tang as it coated the tongue.
A few steps up, she found the cleaning construct. Its bones and gears had been broken, as if it had been stomped on, and it too had burned. It lay on its smooth step, motionless. “I’m sorry.” She was crying now, hard enough that it was difficult to see, and she slowed so she wouldn’t trip and fall.
Zera’s voice drifted up from the base of the tower. “Kreya?”
Kreya stopped in front of the door to the bedroom, or what was left of the door. It had been hacked with an ax, either before or after the fire. She touched the splinters, lightly, as if they were hallucinations that would, she hoped, vanish when they encountered reality.
But it was real. And she didn’t want to see it.
She felt as if she’d been hollowed out with a spoon. It was difficult to breathe; every breath she took rattled around inside of her.
Footsteps behind her.
And then Zera’s hand was on her shoulder. “I’ll go in with you. Or for you. Do you want me to go in first? I can do that.”
It was a kind offer, especially since Kreya knew how badly Zera did not want to enter that room. She tried to smile, to show she appreciated the words, but her face felt brittle.
“Are we positive our friendly neighborhood arsonists are gone?” Zera asked. “If I were them, I would have kept an eye on the tower, in case you returned.”
“If they’re here, they’ll wish they weren’t.” Kreya pushed the door open. It stuck, creaking, and she shoved harder. Ash rained down on her shoulders. She blinked it out of her eyes.
Sunlight streamed in through the unshuttered window in a way that Jentt would have loved. She made her eyes shift from the window to the burnt bed—
The burnt,emptybed.
“They took him.”
Kreya pivoted, striding back to the stairs, but before she could take more than a step out of the bedroom, Zera caught her arm. “Who took him? Where are you going? You can’t go rushing off—”
“The villagers. The last ones I stole from. It must have been them.” They’d taken him, presumably to burn him on a pyre and hoist his ashes onto their cliff. “I need a speed talisman.”
“A, we don’t have any left. And B, I’m not going to let you race off and get yourself killed because you—”
“They’ll destroy him! I can’t bring him back from ashes! Give me a talisman!”
“I don’t have a talisman! Kreya—stop. Think.”
Sucking in air, she prepared to yell, and then she deflated.With the amount of time that had passed, Jentt had to be already gone. It was a lost cause. She’d returned too late.
“I’m not saying don’t go after them and kick their asses, but plan first. Please. Or you’ll be on the pyre too.” Zera unloaded several talismans, shifting them from her pockets to Kreya’s. She didn’t know how useful they’d be—one for steadiness, another for flight. “Take these. Use whatever you need. I’ll be right behind you. Just... please, one second to think, okay?”
Kreya heard a whirring from the stairwell. Faint. Familiar. She pushed past Zera, homing in on it. She stepped past the crushed cleaning construct and down to the entrance.
Her bird construct was there. Unharmed.
She didn’t know how it had survived the destruction. Kneeling, she touched its skull lightly. “Hey, little one, I am so glad to see you.”
It whirred at her, and then it pivoted and hopped toward the cellar.
“You hid down there? Clever.” She wondered if any of her other creations had had the chance to escape the fire. She hadn’t seen any of the rag dolls, though she hadn’t expected to—they would have burned like tinder.
The bird led the way down the stairs, and she joined it, descending into the darkness.
