Page 213 of Flame and Sparrow

Mairu had no answers, either, but her expression reflected the deep, aching terror building in my own heart.

“The area is strangely clear,” Dravyn said as he and Valas returned to us. His breath caught as he looked upon the fallen goddess again. Averting his gaze, he said, “We need to tell the others what’s happened.”

Valas agreed, and he disappeared in a flash of ice and snowy powder to see to the task.

I wrapped my arms around myself and stood, turning my back to the fallen goddess, unable to look at her any longer.

“It’s still here,” I thought aloud, looking the tower up and down, trying to make sense of it. “I thought for sure it would be under siege…”

What were we missing?

While Dravyn waited for Valas to return—preparing to help him calm the God of Storms, who was likely to fly into an entirely new kind of rage at the sight of his fallen court member—Mairu and I continued to search the area for clues.

I made my way to the opposite face of the tower, where a staircase wound its way up to a narrow landing jutting out over the pavilion—a potentially useful lookout point. I climbed as high as I could despite my fear of heights. Kneeling and clutching the edge of the landing tightly, I peered out over the desolate landscape below me.

And there, far in the distance, I saw what appeared to be a line of soldiers rapidly retreating.

Mairu joined me a few moments later, squinting and trying to follow my gaze. “Do you see something?”

“They’re running away,” I said, pointing.

“Running from what?” she wondered. “Us?”

We watched them for a moment, until a chilling explanation struck me, making my grip on the metal landing go numb. “Not from us.”

Mairu gave me a curious look.

“They’ve likely planted something in the tower.” I descended the steps even faster than I’d climbed them, ignoring the burning in my lungs and legs as I went. “A bomb of some sort,” I further explained to Mairu, breathlessly, as we reached level ground again. “Something with a delayed fuse so they could escape before it ignited.”

She still looked somewhat confused—such weapons were not exactly common—but I knew Andrel and the sort of tactics he used. I had helped him perfect those tactics over the years, after all, and it was the bombing of the temple in Cauldra that had set my life on the unexpected path I was now walking.

“We need to spread out and search,” I ordered. “Tell the others. Hurry!”

Mai hesitated only a moment longer before nodding and bolting away.

I started looking, even though I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for. I also didn’t know what we would do with any bombing device if we found it—how we could defuse it, or how we could prevent it from doing catastrophic damage. I didn’t know how much time we had before it went off, either.

I just kept searching, my mind flooded with flashes of all the foolish things I’d done to lead to this moment.

I’d told them about this place. Aboutallthe Towers of Creation. And maybe the divine things they’d collected from me had even been used to help construct their ultimate weapon. I’m sure my sister had contributed to their knowledge and materials, too—but I had been the one to finish things off, the last push they needed before they made the decision to attack.

So Savna and I had worked together to bring down the gods, just as we’d always wanted to.

Except, even when I’d been trying to follow in her footsteps, I don’t think I’d ever pictured it like this—so many dead bodies, a bomb hidden in the dark while we ran away…

Was this really what she’d believed in?

Such violence and cowardice?

Tears stung my eyes, but I angrily wiped them away. I didn’t need tears. I needed to think.

It had always been Cillian who focused on this sort of thing during our missions, but I had picked up at least some of his skills over the years. He would look for low spots, load-bearing spots, central spots…

I kept moving, kept searching.

In the distance, I heard the arrival of the other Marr. Thewhooshof their magic carrying them in. The confused chatter. The horrifying roar of the Storm God as he saw what had happened to the Sky Goddess.

The sky filled with lightning. The air tingled with static—then with sweltering heat, as if Dravyn’s magic was rising as well. Were they fighting one another again?

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