Wystwood

76. Spires in the clouds

Ada turned from the window and hurtled towards him. A fleck of spittle flew through the air as the Hound closed his other hand around Raeph's throat, and he snarled, his own long fingers finding the place where the Hound's mask attached behind his ears. Then he twisted his wrist, and blood poured onto the floor, more screams echoing down the corridor.

Ada had almost reached him, could see her green ribbon knotted around his wrist, fluttering alongside each of his punches. She called his name and Raeph looked to her immediately, his snarl returning as he shouted, "Get out!"

"I won't leave you!" Ada cried back.

A fist slammed in Raeph's ribs and he doubled over, the third Hound that Ada had seen sitting on the ballroom dias now towering over him. But Raeph had grasped his arm, and as he staggered to his feet again, he wrenched it back until the Hound's shoulder gave a sickening crack.

Raeph pitched back a step towards Ada, chest heaving as he looked from the Hounds to the corridor. They could both hear Solen and Lark calling up at the abandoned window. Raeph's eyes cleared at their voices and he gazed out into the dawn, grey and mild, the bright stars all faded. He gave Ada a weak smile.

"You go first," he said. "I'll come right behind you. Trust me."

Ada nodded and ran back down the corridor, shaking through bursts of relief and complete terror. Diane cried out in surprise as Ada leapt from the window as though the fall were nothing at all. She felt faster and stronger than she had all night; they had saved Solen, almost evaded the Hounds, and together, she and Raeph would find a way to finally get the name of the Saltsworn. She looked back to the window expectantly.

"Come," ordered Yue, clearly annoyed at having been made to wait. Lark and Solen had already limped to the gated garden that Yue had led them through the night before.

"Not yet," said Ada, out of breath. "Raeph is coming too. He'll follow any second now."

Yue stiffened, and Diane was shifting from foot to foot, looking back to check Solen then out across the courtyard.

"Any second," repeated Ada, trying to pick out the cries of pain spilling through the window above. "There!"

Raeph appeared amongst the broken glass, the morning light deepening the violet bruises around his eyes. Blood matted his hair and stuck to the dry patches of his lips. Ada leapt onto her toes, reaching as high as she could as Raeph stretched down, one leg already planted on the sill.

There was a pop of a cork next to Ada, and she flinched, her fingers missing Raeph's as she turned her head to see Yue launch a thin glass vial at the Barracks wall. The vial shattered, and in an instant, the dawn was eclipsed by sulphurous black clouds. Ada gagged, her eyes streaming against a smoke that was horribly familiar. It was a twin to the Stone Circle's alchemy that she had seen once when returning to the Bonneville, though where that had been a dreamy twilit sky, this was a nightmare's darkness.

"Raeph!" Ada shouted, but the smoke filled her mouth and made her heave.

"Ada!" She heard, and squinted her streaming eyes upwards. Raeph was there, his pale face out of focus amidst the roiling clouds. Ada could only watch, lungs burning, as hands tore at Raeph's shirt and dragged him back into the Barracks.

The world seemed to turn very quiet. Glass shards fell around Ada like snowflakes, dusting the cobblestones as they shattered. Blood rushed through her ears, and though she couldn't hear Diane speaking at her side, she saw the smooth smile on Yue's face. Ada lunged forward, her forearm finding Yue's neck as they both collided with the wall. Diane shrieked, but Yue's shocked expression quickly cleared into disgust.

"Think very carefully about what you want to do here," Yue whispered, her eyes glittering.

"Oh," breathed Ada, pressing down on her delicate throat, "I know exactly what I want to do."

"You couldn't. You can't," Yue said, struggling to get the words out. "You can't kill like he does. He doesn't even think before he destroys fae life. That's just the nature of a wolf."

"You don't know him!" Ada cried, jerking away as Diane touched her shoulder. She looked horrified, as if she was the one to be facing a wild creature. Yue took the moment to grab Ada's wrist, wrenching her arm from her throat and behind Ada's back. Hot tears stung her eyes and Ada leapt away from them both, black coils of smoke spiralling around her.

"Forget him, Ada," Diane said quietly, holding out a tentative hand as she would to a wounded animal. "All Hounds are cruel at heart, you saw the man I was made to marry. They take no pleasure in anybody but their Lady."

"No," Ada said, the word coming out like bile. "No!"

"He'll never be accepted by us once Wysthaven is under the control of the Stone Circle. Exile or execution will be his lot. But never acceptance." Yue spat onto the ground. "You shouldn't encourage him."

The smoke was making Ada dizzy, and as she heard Yue's final words, she was suddenly standing outside of her family's cottage in Little Crestbury. The sky was dark, but it was the solstice and not smoke which had drawn a beautiful blackness across the earth, the world deep and clear and wonderous. Lucille stood before her, angry and vicious. But she was her sister nonetheless, whom Ada loved in spite of the pain, and often, because of it.

"I'm sorry that you're hurting," Ada whispered. "I'm sorry that I haven't taken the time to talk to you, and tried to understand you and your fears. But I have done that with others now, and it's changed the way I've seen them, and the world they live in, and the magic that does or does not come from them. I want to live like that from now on, with the people I care for, or can come to care for in the time that I am given with them."

"What?" Yue was almost lost within the smoke.

"I care about Raeph," Ada said, his name coming out like sob. "I mean that with every single part of my being and I will never be ashamed of saying it. But I will be ashamed if I do nothing because of it."

"Ada..." Diane said, reaching out again through the smoke. But Ada only wiped the tears from her eyes and stepped back into the deep darkness.

"Please get Solen and Lark help in the Circle," she said, and then turned and ran alone into Wysthaven.

Diane's cries followed her briefly, but either the smoke smothered her voice or Yue had pulled her back towards the gated garden. Ada knew that the promise of Solen's safety would be too great for Diane to pursue her, and Yue was likely hopeful that she had disappeared for good. All that Ada regretted was that she couldn't see her friends safely to Hester, and she felt a hollow misery to be leaving Min without word again.

But Ada knew also that Raeph would do the same for her, and above that, she knew exactly where to find him. Peering up through the clouds of smoke, Ada searched for the spires of the tower.