A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes 2)

"How are we going to get to Kauf, Elias?" This is the question that's plagued me since the moment we slipped into the tunnels from his barracks at Blackcliff. My brother allowed himself to be taken by Martial soldiers so that I'd have a chance to escape. I will not let him die for his sacrifice--he's the only family I have left in this blasted Empire. If I don't save him, no one will. "Will we hide out in the country? What's the plan?"

Elias regards me steadily, his gray eyes opaque.

"The escape tunnel would have put us west of the city," he says. "We'd have taken the mountain passes north, robbed a Tribal caravan, and posed as traders. The Martials wouldn't have been looking for both of us--and they wouldn't have been looking north. But now . . ." He shrugs.

"What's that supposed to mean? Do you even have a plan?"

"I do. We get out of the city. We escape the Commandant. That's the only plan that matters."

"What about after?"

"One thing at a time, Laia. This is my mother we're dealing with."

"I'm not afraid of her," I say, lest he think that I'm the same mouse of a girl he met at Blackcliff weeks ago. "Not anymore."

"You should be," Elias says dryly.

The drums boom out, a barrage of bone-shaking sound. My head pounds with their echo.

Elias cocks his head. "They're relaying our descriptions," he says. "Elias Veturius: gray eyes, six foot four, fifteen stone, black hair. Last seen in tunnels south of Blackcliff. Armed and dangerous. Traveling with Scholar female: gold eyes, five foot six, nine stone, black hair--" He stops. "You get the point. They're hunting us, Laia. She is hunting us. We don't have a way out of the city. Fear is the wise course right now--it will keep us alive."

"The walls--"

"Heavily guarded because of the Scholar revolt," Elias says. "Worse now, no doubt. She'll have sent messages across the city that we haven't yet cleared the walls. The gates will be doubly fortified."

"Could we--you--fight our way through? Maybe at one of the smaller gates?"

"We could," Elias says. "But it would lead to a lot of killing."

I understand why he looks away, though the hard, cold part of me born in Blackcliff wonders what difference a few more dead Martials make. Especially in the face of how many he has already killed, and especially when I think of what they're going to do to the Scholars when the rebel revolution is inevitably crushed.

But the better part of me recoils at such callousness. "The tunnels then?" I say. "The soldiers won't expect it."

"We don't know which ones have collapsed, and there's no point going down there if we'll just hit a dead end. The docks, maybe. We could swim the river--"

"I can't swim."

"Remind me to remedy that when we have a few days." He shakes his head--we're running out of options. "We could lie low until the revolution dies down. Then slip into the tunnels after the explosions have stopped. I know a safe house."

"No," I say quickly. "The Empire shipped Darin to Kauf three weeks ago. And those prisoner frigates are fast, are they not?"

Elias nods. "They'd reach Antium in less than a fortnight. From there, it's a ten-day journey overland to Kauf if they don't run into bad weather. He might already have reached the prison."

"How long will it take us to get there?"

"We have to go overland and avoid detection," Elias says. "Three months, if we're swift. But only if we make it to the Nevennes Range before the winter snows. If we don't, we won't get through until spring."

"Then we cannot delay," I say. "Not even by a day."

I look over my shoulder again, trying to suppress a growing sense of dread. "She didn't follow us."

"Not obviously," Elias says. "She's too damned clever for that."

He ponders the dead trees around us, turning a blade over and over in his hand.

"There's an abandoned storage building near the river, up against the city walls," he finally says. "Grandfather owns the building--showed it to me years ago. A door in the back courtyard leads out of the city. But I haven't been back in a while. It might not be there anymore."

"Does the Commandant know of it?"

"Grandfather would never have told her."

I think of Izzi, my fellow slave at Blackcliff, warning me about the Commandant when I first arrived at the school. She knows things, Izzi had said. Things she shouldn't.

But we have to get out of the city, and I have no better plan to offer.

We set out, passing swiftly through neighborhoods untouched by the revolution, sneaking painstakingly through those areas where fighting and fire rage. Hours pass, and the afternoon fades to evening. Elias is a calm presence beside me, seemingly unmoved by the sight of so much destruction.

Strange to think that a month ago, my grandparents were alive, my brother was free, and I'd never heard the name Veturius.

Everything that has happened since then is like a nightmare. Nan and Pop murdered. Darin dragged away by soldiers, screaming at me to run.

And the Scholar Resistance offering to help me save my brother, only to betray me.

Another face flashes in my mind, dark-eyed, handsome, and grim--always so grim. It made his s

miles more precious. Keenan, the fire-haired rebel who defied the Resistance to secretly give me a way out of Serra. A way out that I, in turn, gave to Izzi.

I hope he's not angry. I hope he'll understand why I could not accept his help.

"Laia," Elias says as we reach the eastern edge of the city. "We're close."

We emerge from the warren of Serra's streets near a Mercator depot. The lonely spire of a brick kiln casts the warehouses and storage yards into deep shadow. During the day, this place must bustle with wagons, merchants, and stevedores. But at this time of night, it's abandoned. An evening chill hints at the changing season, and a steady wind blows from the north. Nothing moves.

"There." Elias points to a structure built into the walls of Serra, similar to those on either side but for a weed-choked courtyard visible behind it. "That's the place."

He observes the depot for long minutes. "The Commandant wouldn't be able to hide a dozen Masks in there," he says. "But I doubt she'd come without them. She wouldn't want to risk me escaping."

"Are you sure she wouldn't come alone?" The wind blows harder, and I cross my arms and shiver. The Commandant alone is terrifying enough. I'm not sure she needs soldiers to back her up.

"Not positive," he admits. "Wait here. I'll make sure it's clear."

"I think I should come." I am immediately nervous. "If something happens--"

"Then you'll survive, even if I don't."

"What? No!"

"If it's safe for you to join me, I'll whistle one note. If there are soldiers, two notes. If the Commandant is waiting, three notes repeated twice."

"And if it is her? What then?"

"Then sit tight. If I survive, I'll come back for you," Elias says. "If not, you'll need to get out of here."

"Elias, you idiot, I need you if I want to get Darin--"

He puts a finger on my lips, drawing my gaze to his.

Ahead of us, the depot is silent. Behind, the city burns. I remember the last time I looked at him like this--just before we kissed. From the taut breath that escapes him, I think he remembers too.

"There's hope in life," he says. "A brave girl once told me that. If something happens to me, don't fear. You'll find a way."