Page 16 of Ashes of Gold
I dig deep and thrust. The air ripples, knocking them off their feet, and for a second I can almost catch my breath.
“Jhamal! Kai!” Everything is chaos around me.
Dead ahead, Patrol’s back on their feet and…
They. Keep. Coming. Bodies, ten, maybe more, are charging in my direction. We knock them down, but more keep spilling into the hall from connecting corridors. I zig and zag, blocking blows. Fire streaks past and I cover my face. Magic ricochets off my gilded wrists like bullets. More Patrol flood the hallway. Gooseprickles spread on my arms, memories tugging at me. Dread weighs on me like lead.
We can’t win this.
We need to get out of here.
I reach behind me, expecting to feel Jhamal, but there’s no one there. A cough claws its way up my throat, and I spot the door Patrol was guarding earlier. The exit—he was guarding the way out of this death trap. It’s wide open. I catch a glimpse of Jhamal and dart in that direction. Something hot sears my arm and it’s warm and runny to the touch. I try to look back, but the hall is a cloud ofdust, bits and pieces of walls crumbling. Jhamal has a Patrolman in a headlock, arms twisted behind his back, and he’s using him as a shield. Kai is steps away, pulling her dagger out of someone’s throat.
“Through there, the exit is that way, let’s go!” I point at the open door and signal for them to go behind me. “I’ll try to buy us a few minutes.”
Jhamal pulls Kai off another Patrolman and they disappear at my back. The words… It’s been so long. Spells are like recipes, if you haven’t used them in a while they get foggy.
“C-co… cokenzae…”Shit, how does this one go?“Co… quinzae…” Magic buzzes through me, hot, ready to burst, waiting for the command to dictate its form. “Coquinzayea a’yi!”
Droplets of fire swirl in one hand and a transparent ball of gas in the other. I slam them together and thrust. The hallway explodes. I fly backward through the doorway.
“P-pwas…,” I say, sliding my palm down the splintered wood, trying to remember. “Pwas… pwastomee!”
The door shudders before turning to stone, locking the guards in the hallway with the flames and smoke. I stumble up and run.
The exit is actually a long corridor that empties into a domed room with a glass ceiling. Like a large foyer off the main street aboveground. The quiet says we’ve outrun them for the time being. They can’t get through an enchanted stone wall easily. Even with magic.
In the center of the domed foyer is a stage of some sort with seating around the perimeter. Safe for the moment, Kai is there wrapping her leg. She pours a liquid on top of the bandaged wound and bites down, flinching.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“I am.” She gestures over her shoulder. “Jhamal is checking the halls that lead to this room. Areyoualright?” She skims me up and down and it’s only then I notice I’m bleeding heavily from my arm.
“I think so.”
“Let me.” She lifts the edge of her breastplate and rips the fabric underneath. “Dipped goatskin. We wear it under our armor. Very porous and the substance we dip it in is made from garlic. Helps leech out any infectants.” She wraps it around my arm tight. “I did not mean to come off rude earlier, if I did. For the past several months, I’m the one who’s been making the decisions, looking out for us.”
“It’s all good.”
She tucks the edge of the wrap so it stays put.
“And thanks for the goatskin or whatever it’s called.”
“Of course.” She holds a deeper gash lower on my arm close to her nose.
“What’s that?” I ask, pointing to the liquid she’s now holding.
“Oh, this is wine. Made from vineyards beside Yiyo.” She unstoppers it. “This one is going to sting.”
She pours it down my arm and I see red.
“FUCK! That hurts.”
She smiles. “I know, but it’ll help.”
“Thank you.”
“What remains of my tribe, my saisas, should be here soon.” She presses a coiled shape insignia on her armor, and it glows. My brows cinch.
