Whether she liked it or not, Raya had to accept the advise of her friends. She could not join one of the factions of Ith. She had no interest in joining the gang of Domeran, here at the edge of Massed Alley, but even the Delivered—the freed slaves of the Mage Kings—would be as likely to put her and Axar to death as they would be to listen to Raya’s urgent explanation that she had never supported the Mage Kings. Continue reading Raya 41
A feeling of dread spent all morning building up in Raya’s abdomen as she walked along the Crimson Highway. The grey walls of Ith, looming over the scattered copses of trees and bumpy hills, seemed to signal it. Like them, the sensation grew as they got nearer. Her mind wandered, but she did not want to accept any of the solutions she considered, nor even to get give them purchase.
There was a Crimson Highway checkpoint a mile out from the city; they said nothing as Raya and her four friends crossed their line. They didn’t even bother checking their red coin and their signed documents. Highwaymen a few miles up the road had checked the day before.
Then they reached the front gate of Ith, and found it utterly abandoned. Continue reading Raya 40
Eight months. Eight months had passed without Raya experiencing a minute. Ailo and Benn told them when they returned from that first supply run. Raya had lost a twentieth of her life, nearly. Even now, on their third day in Elpan, Raya could scarcely comprehend what that meant. Her parents were a year older each—they must have missed her, worried about her. Continue reading Raya 39
Raya blinked, and her ankle flared with pain as though she had stepped on it. She cried out and reached along her leg to brace the broken joint. The floor boards beneath her pained body were different, she realized, and her hand paused halfway to her foot. She glanced up.
Raya sat in an unfurnished room, next to Axar, Ailo, Benn, and Dondar. There was a burst of breath from the group, as though there had been silence earlier. It was disconcerting for Raya, because, an instant ago, they had been in the loudly crackling flames of Axar’s house. Now, the plain wooden walls and roughly sanded floor planks surrounding them were quiet, undamaged, and completely undecorated. Continue reading Raya 38
Raya and Benn were sharing a small bowl of stew when a knock came at their door. Raya stood up nervously. Every unexpected situation made her worry: had the enemies of the revolution found her? When Dondar opened the peephole, he shrugged and opened the door. It was Ailo who strode into their dining area. The lantern, hanging above the door, lit up his short, silver robe, as he rested his hands on the pommel of his curved sword. “Afternoon,” he mumbled.
“Welcome,” Raya said, quietly. The guard had sworn to protect their home of Creek Stead, but he rarely entered the establishment directly these days, giving Raya more privacy and secrecy in the rebellion. Continue reading Raya 37
When Raya set out from her home in Fork Crossing the next morning, with Benn and Dondar in tow, she was still trying to understand of what coincidence Mistress Nerlav had spoken. She lived in the neighborhood where Master Nerlav had once worked, the month of his death, and now was part of the leadership of a revolution that was affecting far more than the widow. It seemed a stretch to draw any sort of connection from it, but the woman’s plea seemed earnest. Continue reading Raya 36
More than a month had passed since the explosions in the Norzeen District of Ith. Though the Mage Kings had not wavered in their strength, the revolution was growing bigger than it ever had. In Massed Alley, starving men and women flocked every inn, stable and shop. Houses that once sheltered families were now homesteads for dozens. The streets housed even more warm bodies, starting to stir in the morning as the rebels made their way along. Though even Fork Crossing felt the bustling growth of the metropolis’s underclass, it was in the midst of the Alley’s chaos that Raya found herself that morning. Continue reading Raya 35
Raya had been enjoying her new home, despite her hesitance to trust Axar. The city of Ith seemed much calmer to her here, though she could not be certain if that was a lull in the tension between the city’s rulers and its people or if it was due to her distance from the bustling commotion of Massed Alley and other, similar boroughs. Benn and her ate breakfast together every day, while Dondar joined them often. Sometimes, the middle-aged guardsman was absent, either hung over from a night at a tavern or walking to put distance between himself and the magicians that Raya seemed to be constantly surrounded by. Continue reading Raya 34
“And what of Jadden?” Raya asked. Benn and she sat at a table with three men who had attended the funeral of King Rull.
“Captured once more,” one grimaced. “Along with the other two hundred citizens freshly enslaved.”
Raya shook her head. They had received the news yesterday, for their visit to Axar’s estate had filled conversation for the remainder of that day. But when Raya had woken up in the Freeman’s Bunkhouse, she’d heard the sorrows immediately. Jadden and his rebels had set explosives beneath the Bridge of Norzeen to detonate it when the funeral procession had crossed. No more of the Mage Kings had perished, though many guards and slaves had. Continue reading Raya 33
Axar’s manor in the Low Dales was smaller than the mansion where Nalisa Orr had lived, but it was still as large as the longhouse of the Council of Olston. Two pillars supported the leaning roof over the large front door, where a small potted tree with dark blue flowers grew. The sun-scorched blue shingles above were dusted with ash and the unprotected trees were starting to wilt, like many of the plants in Ith.
Raya looked at the windows on the front face of the house. There was no movement. Continue reading Raya 32