Page 412 of Alchemised
“The array has to be destroyed,” she said as he took them. “No one can know he’s still alive.”
Amaris rose to her feet, wings already extending in readiness for flight, and Helena was about to release the reins and let her run when Atreus spoke.
“Kaine …” he said.
Kaine lifted his head just enough to look at what remained of his father. Kaine’s face was exhausted, and pained, but the malice and hatred was gone as he stared at Atreus.
“Father …”
Atreus’s whole face seemed to soften. He started to reach out, but Amaris snarled in warning, and his long fingers curled away.
“Your mother was always so proud of you. She said you were the best thing we ever made.” Then Atreus looked at Helena. “Save him.”
Helena didn’t answer, she simply loosed the reins. Amaris raced across the courtyard, flight muscles tense and rippling beneath the saddle, and she leapt, launching herself. Her onyx wings beat against the black sky, and they were airborne, climbing higher and higher. The air whistled around them, and Helena clutched at the harness securing Kaine.
The city was bright, but the mainland was like a void, a black abyss they were attempting to flee, straining towards the stars.
As Amaris levelled out, something flickered below. It grew, becoming an immense, glowing ring of light as Spirefell was consumed by roaring flames.
CHAPTER 75
Julius 1789
THE NOVIS MOUNTAINS LOOMED STARK AGAINST THE starlit sky. Helena put their backs to them, flying south.
Amaris had been younger and smaller when Helena had last ridden her. Her wings were stronger and steadier. Once Helena pointed her south, she seemed to know to follow the river.
The darkness below was nearly endless, punctuated with the clustered lights of towns and villages.
Everywhere Helena looked there was endless dark. She buried her face against Kaine’s back, trying to breathe.
“Don’t die, Kaine,” she kept saying, pressing her face between his shoulders, feeling the feeble thud of his heartbeat against her forehead to reassure herself that he was still alive.
She didn’t know how long they flew; the night seemed endless.
Amaris began to descend without warning, and Helena nearly slipped sideways. For a terrifying moment, she thought she’d fall.
Kaine jerked from barely conscious to awake. His hand shot back and he grabbed her, holding her tight as she managed to get centred again. She tried to squeeze with her legs, but they were so tired she could scarcely hold on anymore.
Amaris hit the ground at a run and Helena nearly bit through her tongue. She looked around desperately, trying to make out where they were as Amaris cantered through the dark. There was an electric torch in one of the saddlebags, but she couldn’t remember which anymore. Amaris halted, standing and waiting as Helena shifted to dismount, sliding down.
Amaris was several hands taller than she remembered. The ground did not meet her feet when expected. She fell the rest of the way, caught by thick, lush summer grass. She lay, staring up at the stars, a glittering path across the sky.
Before the Disaster, it was said people could travel by following the stars, but no one knew where they went anymore. She struggled back to her feet.
“Kaine,” she said, fumbling through the dark until she found Amaris and then Kaine’s leg, his boot hooked in the stirrup. “I don’t know where we are. What do we do now?”
He lifted his head slowly. She could only see his silhouette in the dark. He tried to get off and then realised he was fastened to the saddle.
Helena felt her way to Amaris’s head and urged her down to the ground before finding the straps and clips and unfastening them as best she could. Kaine leaned on her as he dismounted.
“Hunting cottage just …” His voice sounded raw.
They walked forward slowly, and then there were steps and a wooden door, and they stumbled inside. There was a shelf by the door that held a torch, and she flicked it on. It was barely more than a shack. Simple and rough-hewn, just a place to sleep.
There were two narrow beds, but Helena and Kaine collapsed into one, not bothering to remove their boots or cloaks.
“We did it, Kaine,” she said. “Just like we always said we would.”
