Girl of Myth and Legend (32 page)

I don’t say anything to that.

‘This way,’ says Korren.

‘Know where we are?’ I ask.

‘I think so. Just a little further now.’

‘We can do this,’ says Jacob.

I smile. ‘Yeah, we—’

I feel something reaching out to me, like a cold breeze against my back. I start to turn, and then—

Burning.

None like I’ve ever known. Not even when my magic awoke.

Burning burning burning.

My blood. It’s hot. It’s too hot. It’s going to burn through my veins and flesh, my
soul
.

‘Kor—’

My body crumples to the floor.

‘Leonie!’ I hear Jacob shout, but I can’t respond. I feel as if my entire body is on fire… no, more than that, like my being is being torn apart over and over, the magic in me burning away. I can’t speak or yell or cry. I can only lie on the ground, eyes wide as my body tries to find some way to cope with the agony.

And then the fire is gone, replaced by hands that wrap around my throat, and my head is slammed against the ground, over and over. My vision blurs, I don’t know what to do, I can’t see my attacker, and I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe. I claw at their face, at their hands, but it doesn’t relinquish their grip.

Another pain grips me, though it’s not my own. It’s Korren’s. I can’t see him, but I hear Jacob, the panic in his voice, the helplessness as he watches us die.

Die. Dying. Is that what I’m doing? Is this really where it all ends? At the thought of Game Over, a quiet desperation begins to arise in me, quiet at first, but as my vision grows cloudier, as my throat burns burns burns, it becomes a shout, a yell, a scream. Strength I didn’t even know I had courses through my body, pulsates through my bone and blood and muscle, and I push out, using my entire body to force the attacker to loosen their grip. I kick them away, without having time to gasp for breath, because they come for me again, wild and fervent like an animal. I grab their arms before they can wrap their hands around my neck, and we wrestle until their strength beats mine and sends us crashing to the ground.

My eyes meet theirs, and then—they’re gone.

I sit up, trying to regain control of my breath, and when I look up Korren is in front of me in a defensive stance, and facing him is…

‘O’Sah,’ I say.

He has a crazed look in his eyes, just like the soldier that attacked Jacob. O’Sah, who is more adept that me. O’Sah, who knows how to survive, who has fought many battles, who is on the Council. And yet, even he is standing before us, a victim of the maiden. It is too late for him.

Korren was right. I have to ignore the voice in my head telling me I won’t survive, but it is my own voice now that is telling me: ‘Look. Look at him. If he can’t live through this, how can you? You think wit and strength can get you through this? What a joke. You are nothing to this maiden. Nothing. The only thing keeping you alive is Korren, and even he will have to give up on you soon.’

O’Sah comes forward, and Korren readies to lunge, but before he does, O’Sah puts his hands on his head and clenches his jaw. He looks like he is struggling with something, and then he glances around, white as a sheet.

His gaze falls on me.

‘My Lady?’

‘…O’Sah?’ I say.

‘Leonie,’ he says, and falls to his knees. ‘No! Don’t come near me. Stay back.’ His cheeks are wet, and he sobs. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’ He puts his hands on his head again and rocks back and forth. ‘It won’t stop. It won’t go away. I can’t make it go away. I’m dead. I’m dead. I can’t make it go away! I don’t want to die! Please, I don’t want to die!’

I step forward, and though Korren shoots me a glare, as if telling me to stay back, I ignore it.

‘I-I really did want to protect you,’ O’Sah says, looking up at me and clutching my jacket. ‘I-I wanted to keep you safe. Didn’t mean to hurt you. Didn’t mean to. Didn’t mean to. I didn’t! Shut up, shut up, shut up! I didn’t. I didn’t!’

‘All right, I understand,’ I say in a soft voice, like I’m talking to a child.

‘I-I know you think me a monster, and maybe I am, b-but please never doubt how much I believed in you. Everything I did was for you. Yes, I did it all for you! I would live and die for you. Over and over if I had to. I was never your enemy.’

I go onto my knees. ‘It’s OK, O’Sah, it’s OK.’

He cries. ‘I wanted to be part of your legend. Now I’ll be a small part of it. I’ll be known as the one who tried to kill you. Oh gods, I tried to kill you! All my life, all I’ve done, and that is all I’ll be remembered for!’

I shake my head. ‘I won’t remember it that way.’

‘I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s OK.’

‘I’m so… sorry.’

‘It’s OK.’

‘So Sorry …’

‘It’s—’

‘Kill me… please.’

‘O’Sah—’

‘Please. I don’t want to die like this.’

‘I-I can’t.’

‘
Please
.’

I shake my head. ‘I can’t kill you.’

‘Then,
your
kytaen… my own is dead… so please…’

I crane my head to look at Korren. He nods his head, and I turn back to O’Sah, my eyes welling with tears.

‘No, y-you… it… O’Sah, you can’t want this,’ I say. ‘You
can’t
want this.’

He smiles, sweat dripping down his forehead. ‘Oh, but I do.’

I shake my head again, about to say something, when Korren comes beside me, and says, ‘It’s all right. It’s better this way.’

‘Korren—’

‘It’s too late for him, little lion. Killing him is a kindness.’

‘But—!’

‘Go stand with Jacob.’

I glance from him to O’Sah, and O’Sah stares at me pleadingly. I stand up, legs shaking, not comprehending this sudden reality of kill yourself or be killed. Jacob looks at me just as uncertainly, and we turn away from Korren and O’Sah.

After a moment I hear a strange noise, like flesh being penetrated, followed by a gasp.

Then. ‘Thank you…’

I turn and find O’Sah on the floor, eyes closed.

‘He’s…’ I begin.

‘Dead,’ confirms Korren.

My hands cover my mouth. ‘No. No. O’Sah.’

‘You hate him, and yet you’re pitying him?’

‘I-I may have hated him, but I never wanted him to die for it.’ I kneel down next to his body and clasp his cold hand in my own. ‘Despite everything, he did want to protect me.’

‘I don’t like this,’ says Jacob in a small voice, and I stand and walk over to him, punching him on the shoulder. ‘Ow!’

‘Toughen up,’ I say, tears in my eyes. ‘We both need to toughen up. We’re going to face worse things in the haze. Let’s give the maiden a good chase first, yeah? We don’t want to end up like O’Sah, do we?’

He stares at me for a moment, and then shakes his head. ‘No, we don’t.’

I look at Korren. ‘Let’s get my dad and get the hell out of here.’

Because Jacob and I? We won’t last much longer.

KORREN

SENT WITH LOVE

My leg is getting worse. It’s becoming difficult to walk, but I can’t let the other two know that. They’re depending on me for more than just leading them back to the temple; they need me to help keep their minds focused. I’ve dealt with pain before, though usually my injuries heal faster than this. Nonetheless, if I can just get to the temple and then the portal, we’ll be transported to The Core, where the Replica will heal me.

‘Are we there yet?’ I hear Jacob ask.

‘No,’ I reply.

‘Are we close?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s cold.’

‘It won’t be for much longer,’ assures my keeper.

‘If we get out of here,’ he mumbles.

‘Not if, just when.’

‘Yeah.’

‘What’s your favourite colour, Jacob?’ she asks him.

‘Um, why?’

‘Just wondering.’

‘Green?’

‘Why green?’

‘Um, I dunno, it’s, um, I guess it reminds me of the outdoors. What’s yours?’

‘Mine is black.’

‘Black?’ he says.

‘Yup.’

‘That doesn’t seem very you. I would’ve thought you’d like yellow.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘You seem like a happy person.’

She smiles. ‘I like black because it reminds me of night. You can only see all the stars when the sky’s black.’

‘You can’t see any stars now.’

‘Sure, but they’re there, Jacob. They’re definitely up there. The maiden hasn’t snuffed their light out. Hey, hold out your palm.’

He does.

‘OK, and now do your thing.’

‘My thing?’ he says.

‘Your magic.’

‘Oh.’ A small orb of light glows from his hand.

‘See? Your light is so much brighter in the dark, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah. Yeah it is.’

‘The stars up there can’t see your light right now, because of the maiden’s darkness, but it’s still here, isn’t it? It’s still glowing.’

He nods.

‘And no matter what, it will keep on glowing, and the darker it gets, the brighter it will get, too.’

‘Yeah. Yeah.’ He smiles.

She gives me a fleeting glance, a little smile on her lips. I don’t know why, but I feel like smiling back.

I thought I would be at the entrance by now, but half an hour later and we’re still in the temple’s grounds. The two behind me have been quiet for a while, and I have to keep glancing back to make sure they’re all right. My keeper meets my gaze every time, and I can see she is struggling to contend with the haze, but at least she’s looking back. Jacob, however, is staring at the floor with a blank face.

Though I said I would find Orin, I decide that it’s best we head towards the portal. I know my keeper will understand. She wants to save her father, but she won’t want Jacob to die, too. I don’t tell her that I’m changing our direction, though; she still believes she and Jacob can survive this.

I stop.

‘I’m not sure where we are,’ I say.

‘Maybe we just need a little bit of light,’ she says. ‘Jacob?’

Jacob lifts up his hand and his orb hovers into the air. It zooms around the area, highlighting pieces of rubble and a miniature shrine. I move forward, spotting a familiar sight.

The light dies.

‘Crap,’ my keeper utters. ‘Can you spark it up again, Jacob—?’

‘It’s all right,’ I say. ‘We’re close.’

‘How’d you know?’

‘There’s a statue of the stargod Iwo-tan. That means we’re close to the entrance.’ Really, it means that we’re close to the steps we take to the open field and to where the portal is.

Her face brightens. ‘We can do this. We can actually do this.’

‘If we hurry.’

‘OK. Jacob, come on,’ she says.

Jacob turns to us. His expression isn’t one of fear or despair, but not one of calm and peace either. His eyes tell me everything: they hold nothing in them—they are an empty void.

He looks at my keeper as he brings a shard of glass to his neck. ‘Abi sends her love,’ he says, and pushes the glass into his skin, slicing it across his neck. He falls to the ground.

I look to my keeper, and her eyes are wide, body trembling.

I realise what’s going to happen.

But too late.

A gust of wind smacks against her, hurling the mist into her face and knocking her down and out of view.

I go to where she had been standing, but I can’t see her.

I can’t see her.

Damn. Damn!

The mist took advantage of her momentary weakness, her sheer despair at what she had just witnessed, and now she’s lost to me.

It’s all right,
I tell myself.
I can find her before it takes her.

I think that, until I hear her screams.

LEONIE

THE GLINT OF A KNIFE

My chest slams into the concrete and knocks the breath from me. The silver vapour covers the world around me, and I am alone.

‘Abi sends her love.’

My body is shaking. My head whirls. I don’t know what to do, where to look, what to think. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. My hand moves to my chest as if trying to scrape the breath out, but all that escapes me is a choking sound.

Why?

Why?

Why
?

Jacob. Oh God.
Jacob
. He’s dead. He’s dead.

A cry finds its way out, and I rest my hands on the ground. I let my head fall and tears fall… and despair takes me.