Page 26 of The Vanishing Throne

The fallen creature lies on its back amid the rubble, blown back by the force of the explosion.

‘What did you do?’ I whisper to Aithinne.

Aithinne pushes to her feet, dusting off her clothes. ‘I redirected its blast away from us so it used its weapon on itself.’ She scans the destruction. ‘Easy.’

‘Ah, yes,’ I murmur, trying to quell the emotions that rush through me at seeing my childhood home destroyed. ‘Simple’s sibling, Easy. I don’t even want to imagine the levels of chaos that would prompt visits from their cousins Straightforward and Uncomplicated.’

The creature’s limbs begin to twitch, its metal bones clicking back into place. I reach for the blunderbuss on my back, but Aithinne is already ahead of me. She has her sword in her hand before I can blink.

‘If you’ll excuse me …’

She strides over to the creature. In a single, clean motion, she rams her sword into its neck. The creature immediately stops moving. Then she’s walking back to me, muttering, ‘That bloody bastard Lonnrach. I can’t believe he sent amortair—’

There’s anotherdistant explosion. We turn and see anothermortairrunning toward us with incredible speed. It rounds the castle crags, long arms pumping by its sides. With every leap, the ruins of old buildings in its path are pulverized. Its massive body tears through brick walls like paper. It’ll be upon us in seconds.

‘Go!’ Aithinne pulls me with her. ‘Don’t stop running.’

‘What is that thing?’ I can barely hear myself over the creature behind us.

‘Mortair,’ she gasps. ‘They only have one purpose: Seek and destroy.’

We’re not fast enough. Rather,I’mnot. Aithinne is slowing down for me to catch up. My human speed can’t ever match hers, or themortair’s. It’s gaining on us, the ground shaking as it runs. The hum of its weaponquickens to an agitating trill and I glance back as it raises its hand, the metal shifting to a blinding light in its palm as it aims.

The direct blast slams into Aithinne.BOOM. Light surrounds us and the ground beneath us cracks and breaks with the impact. I’m thrown back by it, my body slamming into the cobblestones. I roll hard, my shoulder landing painfully on a fragment of brick. Aithinne’s sword skitters across the street just out of my reach.

I look up as the light clears. Aithinne is on the ground, bruised and bloodied all over. Her eyes are glazed over with pain.

I can’t stand this any more. I push to my feet, pulling the blunderbuss from my back holster before I even think. It’s thesimplest thing in the world. Hunt and kill, the game I’ve played since the night my mother died.

‘Falconer,don’t!’

Aithinne reaches for me, but I dart out of her grasp. The creature is still advancing toward us, moving breathtakingly fast. It’s reached the ruins of Charlotte Square now, racing down the street right for me.

With Aithinne injured, themortairwon’t draw its weapon again, not if Lonnrach needs me alive. That makes it vulnerable – I can hurt it, but it can’t hurt me.

I’ll leave it for Lonnrach to find. A message:I’m not yours. You don’t have me any more. The next time we meet, you’ll realise that I’m the one who’s going to end you.

I let the creature come to me. The ground quakes as I plant the base of the blunderbuss against my shoulder and aim for its legs. I let out a slow breath to calm myself. As the creature approaches, I have to readjust my aim: up and up and up.

There.Just before it reaches me, I pull the trigger.

The blunderbuss recoils into my shoulder hard enough to bruise. The air fills with smoke between themortairand I. I watch as theseilgflùr-laced scrap metal sprays wide and blasts into themortair’s armour.

The smoke clears and the creature is still standing. There isn’t a mark on the obsidian plates that cover its chest. Christ, the blunderbuss didn’t even cause a dent with theseilgflùr. It should have. It should have worked. Themortairraises the weapon in its palm at me … ‘Oh, hell,’ I whisper, backing away. My hand goes to the hilt of my blade and I pull it out, ready to fight. ‘Hell.’

‘I gave a simple instruction,’ Aithinne says from behind me. ‘Don’t. Which meansDon’t do that; it’s a bad idea. Nothing can break its armour except my own blade.’

‘What?’

The mechanism grows brighter and brighter, a blinding sun in the centre of themortair’s hand.

Nothing can break its armour except my own blade.Then my only option is to disable themortair’s weapon. Before it can act, I sheath my own weapon andsnatch Aithinne’s sword from the ground.

Then I’m on my feet, leaping at themortair. I aim to slash at themortair’s weapon hand, but the creature turns at the last second. The blade slices through its other hand, severing it right at the wrist in a single, clean swipe. The metal piecearcs into the air and hits the ground with a mighty thump.

Themortairroars, a ghastly high-pitched, mechanical whine. Its jaw opens so wide that the clockwork structure of metal in its throat is visible, the jagged pieces of its teeth.

Its foot sends a massive chunk of wall flying and I narrowly avoid getting hit.

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