Wystwood

75. Crimson stains of dawn

The carving knife lay on the table between the pig and the hand, and all were soaked through with blood. Lark swayed, and the crowd moved with him, pressing forward to see his mutilated arm and lurching back to avoid his falling body. Ada was being crushed amongst the fae, the floor beneath her slick and the air growing hot. She could hear Lark's sobbing, but it was being muffled against something, and with a final surge she shoved her way to the banquet table.

Lark trembled on the ground, his face pressed against Raeph's shoulder, who had broken his fall. Lark's wrist was cradled between them. Crimson blossomed across his pale blue cape and his shirt was sticking to his neck. He cried harder and Ada felt her head becoming faint. She couldn't bring herself to look at the table. The pig's clouded eyes were staring straight at her.

Raeph's chest was heaving, and for a moment, Ada thought he may be about to retch. But then he moved, unnervingly fast, and the crowd jolted backwards again. He snatched the carving knife from the table and struck out at Renard, the blade slicing deep into the fae's cheek before he staggered back and the Hounds closed in. A number had been jeering; devouring Lark's pain and savouring his every cry. But now a new kind of hunger swept over them, like a pack suddenly seeing their alpha weakened.

A Hound shouldered Ada aside, tossing his unfinished goblet at her feet and closing in behind Raeph.

"Oh, the Wolf will regret this," muttered someone in the crowd.

"He's no wolf," replied another. "Only a disloyal spawn of vagrant filth."

The Hound was unravelling a chain from his robes. He snapped it out, as if meaning to catch Raeph around the throat, and laughter bubbled through the crowd. A new show had begun, and the fae were all eager to have the best view.

Pale light slipped through the wide window, glaring in prisms across the ballroom. Ada doubted that Min's Veil would last much longer, if it hadn't been lost already. The painted fae teetered around her, lidded eyes and wine-stained lips. If even one recognised Ada as a human then a wilder spectacle was sure to happen.

But watching Raeph and Lark, bloodied and desperate, Ada didn't care. "Raeph!"

Spinning, a storm of midnight fury, Ada saw his eyes were ablaze and wild. He snarled at the Hounds behind him, and they shrank back quickly, nearing Ada. Despite her shaking, she didn't shift back into the crowd, even as Raeph's cold stare settled upon her. She saw in his expression all that she had feared; her rounder face, less pointed ears, shorter frame.

Raeph swore, harshly enough that a few of the older fae tittered, and then he moved again. A number of the Hounds scattered, though others leapt to guard the window, barring an easy escape. There was a smash as a Hound knocked a violin from a player's hands, and at the same moment, Lark gave a terrible wail. Raeph had thrown him over his shoulder, and with his other hand, he pitched the carving knife into the crowd of fae.

The fae shrieked and stumbled away, mulberry wine mixing with blood as the ballroom descended into chaos. A cold hand closed around Ada's, and then she was running alongside Raeph, her feet slipping as she guided him toward the crease in the curtain. Diane was waiting for them, her frantic expression turning aghast at the sight of Raeph.

"It's alright," Ada wheezed. "But we've all got to go. Right now."

"Where's Solen?" Raeph demanded, which seemed to compel Diane into answering him.

"Upstairs," she said. "We found a way out through a window at the front of the building. It's quite a way down but— stars, what happened to your friend?"

As Diane spoke, another voice from the ballroom cried, "I saw them run together past the curtain. Just over there!"

"Upstairs!" repeated Diane, turning as Reaph gritted his teeth and set down Lark from his shoulder.

Lark whimpered, not nearly as loudly as he had in the ballroom, and Ada thought he may be about to faint. She put her arm around him as he teetered, almost falling beneath his height until Diane took his other side.

"Can you get him to the window?" Raeph asked, and Diane nodded, encouraging Lark up the first step.

"Raeph!" Ada said as he turned back to the ballroom. A cacophony of chains shook the air, the curtain quivering at the Hounds' approach. "You can't fight them!"

"Ada." He said her name as if it pained him, and she almost hurled herself back down the staircase. But then Raeph lowered his head, their eyes meeting as if they were back in their alcove above the world, and his expression was soft and devastatingly tender. "Please."

Ada could feel the shape of his true name inside her mouth, and knew then that she could order him to come with her. She could order him to never leave her side again. But she couldn't bind him to her like that. She couldn't take away his choice to protect those he loved in the manner he decided best.

So she turned her head as the curtain ripped down its middle, focusing on the marble steps beneath them and not the red prints they left in their wake. Lark seemed to be fighting forward too, his face twisted in agony but his legs straining on. The echo of chains followed them as they reached the landing and stumbled down a dark corridor on their left.

Solen waited for them by a tall window that she had evidently just smashed open. In the courtyard below was the unconscious body of the young Hound who had greeted Ada and Lark at the Barracks' door, and beside him stood Yue. She looked unimpressed as they crowded around the window, though Solen's lips too were already twitching with distaste.

"I thought you planned to sneak your companion out of the Barracks," Yue said. "But it sounds as if you unleashed a circus in there instead."

Yue spoke with a low drawl, but even from several metres above, Ada could see the spark of excitement flare in her eyes. Dawn had broken like an eggshell over the courtyard, with orange sunlight seeping across the stones and making Yue shimmer as a mirage would. Wysthaven looked cracked and ravaged from the window, and all that made Ada want to enter it were the yells coming from the landing.

"Lark's been injured," Ada called to Yue. "Can you catch him if we lower him down to you?"

Yue's eyes shifted to Lark, and her expression sharpened as she saw the bloodied wound at the end of his wrist. Her mouth fell open for a second, but then she snapped back, "Of course I can."

Despite Solen's wariness, she helped Lark out onto the sill and then stood back as Ada and Diane lowered him by his elbows. His height worked to their advantage, and Yue was strong despite her slim frame, easily manoeuvring him until his feet found the ground. Ada could see he was biting back the pain, his face disturbingly pale in the morning light.

"You next, Solen," said Diane, ignoring Solen's protests as she gathered her into her arms and bustled her through the window.

Solen feebly tried to resist Yue, who also seemed disinclined to help as she let Solen fall heavily to the cobbles. Ada winced, but Solen had already struggled to her feet and was looking up for Diane, who Ada nodded forward.

"You'll follow behind me?" Diane asked, swinging her legs out onto the sill.

"Yes," she said, though her reply was lost to a terrible shouting from the far end of the corridor. Raeph stood with his back to her, shirt clinging to the sweat and blood pouring down from his neck, and Ada watched as a Hound's fist closed around his jaw.