House of Winter

Chapter 28, Part 2

"There!" Ari called out. The world was lit up by the red glow of lava, but there was a crest of untouched white snow like an island in the midst of a sea of red.

"There's someone already there," Sanna said, but her words weren't loud enough to reach Ari. Ari was leaning low into Warrah, urging the dragon on towards the crest of snow.

"No, Ari," Sanna said, with a horrified understanding of what she was seeing.

At first she thought the smear of black and dirty orange stripes must be Jinni, but Jinni was in the air behind them. It was another fire tiger, and its rider had the unmistakable uniform of the Fire Army. As they got closer, they realised the fire tiger was on its side, on the ground. Not moving.

Sanna tried to pull Sigrún back, but Sigrún was struggling to fly in the heat of the eruptions, and she wanted the relief of being on the snow. When they dropped down, Sanna's worst fears were confirmed.

There he was. In the middle of the world ending, they'd somehow found each other.

Sanna had never seen Tai look dishevelled, but now he was a mess. His hair was sweaty and matted to his forehead and she was disgusted to see there were stains down his front, as if he'd thrown up on himself. He seemed delirious, and beside him there was one army officer and one tiger - both dead. It seemed they'd been hit or crushed by flying boiling rocks. Sanna didn't look too closely at their bodies. She focused on Tai, who had somehow been spared, in the cruellest twist by the hand of the world.

He looked like a boy.

Sanna looked back at Ari, who had never looked this bad through her sickness. But it was clear that's what it was - Tai had caught the same fever as Ari had got in the refugee camp. But while Sanna had been able to care for Ari, it seemed that Tai had been suffering with very little care, who was now dead on the ground.

Tai was too weak to stand. His tiger, Yainni, was trying to push him, but Tai was almost unresponsive. He would die here, Sanna was certain of that. And one glance at Ari made her realise that Ari was thinking the same thing. There was a glowing look of satisfaction on Ari's face, a new energy that Sanna hadn't seen in days, and it made Sanna feel sick.

"How does it feel, Tai?" Ari said. "To know that we'll watch your final moments? To know that the reason you'll die is because you went to that refugee camp hunting for me. You'll die here, and in your final moments you'll see my face."

"Ari," Sanna said. She jumped from Sigrún's back and went to Tai's side.

"Get away from him," Ari said. "He doesn't deserve comfort. He deserves to die alone, in pain. He deserves to know that no one is coming for him. No one will save him. He did that to so many people in Lombardia, and now he will have the death he deserves."

"We're all going to die here," Sanna said. "Look around, Ari. This is it. The world is ending. Is this really what you want for your final moments? To gloat over the death of someone else?"

Ari spun and stared at Sanna. "How dare you. I can gloat as much as I want. Tai killed my sister. His father killed my whole family. I will gloat over his death, if it's the last thing I do."

Sanna gritted her teeth. She had witnessed Ari's boundless empathy when it came to the Vastiens in the refugee camp. She had seen just how strongly Ari felt about saving those people. But here, in this moment, all empathy in Ari's heart had disappeared, been crushed by her hatred of Tai.

Sanna may never understand the pure hatred in Ari. She had never lost her family, and never blamed anyone so wholeheartedly for the death of anyone. She knew that Tai was bad, but she also knew that Tai was sixteen years old. And he was her cousin. She couldn't leave him here, close to death, too weak to climb onto his own tiger's back.

Sanna lifted Tai into a seated position. "We have to get him out of here. The ash cloud is coming and he'll die."

"Don't touch him!" Ari screamed, but Sanna ignored her.

Sanna knew that Tai would not be able to support himself on his tiger's back, so instead she pulled him onto her wolf. Sigrún struggled to take off under the weight of the both of them, with the storm cloud of ash enclosing them.

Ari was apoplectic with rage, but Sanna had no time for her. She glanced back to check that the others were following - Ari on Warrah, and Jinni and Yainni the tigers flying solo, out of the storm cloud of ash.

In her arms, Tai was groaning.

"You stupid little boy," Sanna said. "You would have died there."

"What is going on?" he moaned.

"Volcanoes," Sanna said. "Everywhere. Your gods must be angry."

"I have no gods," Tai said, and Sanna almost rolled her eyes.

After a while of flying, they emerged from the clouds of ash and eventually saw the suns rising in the Lothern sky. Dawn was breaking. The landscape below them seemed untouched by volcanoes, as they approached the coast to the Sud. Eventually Sanna identified a place to land, where the melted snow made rivulets down the rockface.

Almost as soon as Sanna landed, Tai rolled off Sigrún and onto his knees, coughing and spluttering. He threw up black phlegm onto the ground. Sanna washed her own face in the fresh water, and discovered her own nose was full of black dust.

"We should have left him there!" Ari snapped, landing beside him. Her face seemed paler with the ash, rather than darker. Little white flecks of ash were settled on her eyelashes.

"I couldn't," Sanna said weakly, imploring Ari to understand. The last thing she wanted was to have this argument with Ari. She didn't want to fight.

Ari was glaring at her. "What are we going to do now? Take him with us to find Lumi?"

"Of course not," Sanna snapped.

"I'll follow you anyway," Tai said, through a cough. He was still on his knees. "I'll find Lumi before you."

"We obviously can't let that happen," Sanna said. "You stupid idiot of a prince. Look at you. You're pathetic."

"You saved me," Tai said, with a sneer. He was staring up at her, but somehow his snide expression made it feel like he was looking down at her. "You're the pathetic one."

Sanna bit back the insults she wanted to throw at the boy, as he sat back down on his haunches. He was still too weak to stand properly.

"We'll leave him here," Sanna said. She knew Tai was too weak to fly, but she could imagine that he might make an attempt anyway, so she glanced over at Sigrún. Sigrún seemed keen to prove herself after the embarrassment of Jinni's rabbit hunt, and it took her less than a second to pin Tai's tiger Yainni to the ground.

Tai let out a yelp, but he wasn't fast enough as Sanna sent a blast of ice onto the ground, pinning Yainni's wings so the tiger was trapped like a bug on her back.

"That'll take a few hours to melt," Sanna said. "Ari, can you manage riding Warrah, or do you want to come on Sigrún?"

Ari didn't respond, but instead glared at Sanna as she swung herself onto Warrah's back.

x

do you think Ari will ever forgive Sanna for saving Tai?

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elle