The sun soldiers plunged into the shadow horde, cutting and thrusting, pushing the nichevo'ya back as the riflemen fired again and again. But despite their ferocity, they were only human, flesh and steel pitted against living shadow. One by one, the nichevo'ya began to pick them off.
Kaida had caught up with Alina, Mal and the small group of grisha. Only Zoya, Sergei, David, Harshaw, Nadia, Adrik, Stigg and Maxim remained. The rest were dead.
"Make for the chapel!" Tamar shouted.
"We'll be trapped!" cried Sergei, running toward Alina.
"We're already trapped," Mal replied, slinging his rifle onto his back and grabbing Alina's arm. "Let's go!"
"David!" Alina yelled. "The second bomb!"
David did as he was told and flung it toward the nichevo'ya. His aim was wild, but Zoya was there to help it along.
The group dove into the woods, the sun soldiers bringing up the rear. The blast tore through the trees in a gust of white light.
Lamps had been lit in the chapel and the door stood open. They burst inside, the echoes from their footfalls bouncing up over the pew and off the glazed blue dome.
"Where do we go?" Sergei cried in panic.
Already, they could hear the whirring, clicking hum from outside. Tolya slammed the chapel door shut, dropping a heavy wooden bolt into place. The sun soldiers took up positions by the windows, rifles in hand.
Tamar hurdled over a pew and shot past Alina up the aisle. "Come on!"
My best friend's gone mad. Where are we supposed to go?
She tore past the altar and grasped one gilded wood corner of the triptych. Kaida gaped as the water-damaged panel swung open, revealing the dark mouth of a passageway. This was how the sun soldiers had gotten onto the grounds. And how the Apparat had escaped from the Grand Palace when everything started.
"Where does it go?" asked David.
"Does it matter?" Zoya shot back.
The building shook as a loud crack of thunder split the air. The chapel door blew to pieces. Tolya was thrown backward, and darkness flooded through.
The Darkling came borne on a tide of shadow, held aloft by monsters who set his feet upon the chapel floor with infinite care.
"Fire!" Tamar shouted.
Shots rang out. The nichevo'ya writhed and whirled around the Darkling, shifting and re-forming as the bullets struck their bodies, one taking the place of another in a seamless tide of shadow. He didn't even break stride.
Kaida desperately wanted to use her sun summoning powers, her hands twitched. The want to use it so large, it felt like an itch. But she was definitely not going to be able to scratch the itch away, because there were the sun soldiers who followed the Apparat who started the insane story of Alina being a Saint. She didn't want to be considered a Saint, it was too much pressure and she knew herself that she couldn't be a Saint if they even exist. She'd done things a Saint would never do. Saints would never make the mistakes she had.
Nichevo'ya were streaming through the chapel door. Tolya was already on his feet and rushing to Alina's side with pistols drawn. Tamar, Kaida and Mal flanking her, the grisha arrayed behind them. Alina raised her hands, summoning the light, bracing for the onslaught.
"Stand down, Alina," said the Darkling. His cool voice echoed through the chapel, cutting through the noise and chaos. "Stand down, and I will spare them."
In answer, Tamar scraped one axe blade over the other, raising a horrible shriek of metal on metal. The sun soldiers lifted their rifles, and Kaida heard the sound of inferni flint being struck. She rubbed the large scar on her right palm.
"Look around, Alina," the Darkling said. "You cannot win. You can only watch them die. Come to me now, and I will do them no harm - not your zealot soldiers, not even the grisha traitors."
The nichevo'ya swarmed above them, crowding up against the inside of the dome. They clustered around the Darkling in a dense cloud of bodies and wings. Through the windows Kaida could see more, hovering in the twilight sky.
The sun soldiers' faces were determined, but their ranks had been badly thinned. One of them had pimples on his chin. Beneath his tattoo, he didn't look much older than twelve.
Tolya cocked the triggers on his pistols.
"Hold," Alina said.
"Alina," Tamar whispered, "we can still get you out."
"Hold," Alina repeated.
The sun soldier lowered their riles. Tamar brought her axes to her hips but kept her grip tight.
"What are your terms?" she asked.
Mal frowned. Tolya shook his head. Kaida gritted her teeth.
"Give yourself up," said the Darkling. "And they all go free. They can climb down that rabbit hole and disappear forever."
"Free?" Sergei whispered.
"He's lying," said Mal. "It's what he does."
"I don't need to lie," said the Darkling. "Alina wants to come with me."
"She doesn't want any part of you," Mal spat.
If it weren't such a serious situation, Kaida would have burst out laughing. Do these two seriously have to fight over Alina right now? And why aren't they letting the girl speak for herself?
"No?" the Darkling asked. "I warned you that your otkazat'sya could never understand you, Alina. I told you that he would only come to fear you and resent your power. Tell me I was wrong."
Kaida doubted that siding with the Darkling to understand and love oneself's powers was the best decision to make either. They were just trained to 'love' it to be used as a soldier in the Second Army. She definitely didn't want to be used as a weapon anymore, but she was also tired of living in fear of her powers.
Ever since she used it on the Volkvolny, the need to use it grew, and the fact that she had to hide it from everyone pained her. If people knew her powers, they'd use her as a weapon. If word got out a grisha named Kaida was in Ravka, then He would come for her and Djel knows what he would do.
But she was tired of living in fear, tired of resenting the powers she had.
"You were wrong."
The Darkling shook his head. "You cannot lie to me. Do you think I could have come to you again and again, if you had been less alone? You called to me, and I answered."
Kaida furrowed, having no clue what this madman was talking about.
"You... you were there?" Alina sputtered.
"On the Fold. In the palace. Last night."
"That isn't possible," Mal bit out.
"You have no idea what I can make possible, tracker."
"Alina-"
"I've seen what you truly are," said the Darkling, "and I've never turned away. I never will. Can he say the same"
"You don't know anything about her," Mal said fiercely.
"Come with me now, and it all stops - the fear, the uncertainty, the bloodshed. Let him go, Alina. Let them all go."
Although the Darkling wasn't speaking to her, it felt like it. She had to let Him go. It's been years since she'd last saw Him. He may have given up searching for her. If she uses her powers, then bloodshed will cease, she could protect those she cared for and save people like Mila. Maybe if she stopped resenting herself, then she'd be happier with life. If she was happier and accepted who she was, then Nikolai might see her the way she sees him.
"No," Alina said.
The Darkling sighed and glanced back over his shoulder. "Bring her," he said.
A figure shuffled forward, draped in a heavy shawl, hunched and slow-moving, as if every step brought pain.
The Darkling laid a hand on the figure's shoulder. She flinched.
"Leave her alone," Alina said angrily.
"Show them," he said.
She unwounded her shawl.
The bites were everywhere, raised black ridges of flesh, twisting lumps of tissue that could never be healed, not by grisha hand or by any other, the unmistakable marks of the nichevo'ya. Kaida saw the faded flame of her hair, the lovely amber hue of her one remaining eye.
"Genya," Alina gasped.
They stood in terrible silence. Alina took a step toward her. Then David pushed past everyone down the altar steps. Genya cringed away from him, pulling up her shawl, and turned to hide her face.
David slowed. He hesitated. Gently, he reached out to touch her shoulder. Kaida saw the rise and fall of her back, and knew she was crying.
David drew his arm around Genya's shoulders and slowly led her back up the aisle. The Darkling didn't stop them.
"I've waged the war you forced me to, Alina," said the Darkling. "If you hadn't run from me, the Second Army would still be intact. All those grisha would still be alive. Your tracker would be safe and happy with his regiment. When will it be enough? When will you let me stop?"
"You mourn the people killed in Novokribirsk," the Darkling continued, "the people lost to the Fold. But what of the thousands that came before them, given over to endless wars? What of the others dying now on distant shores? Together, we can put an end to all of it."
Kaida was completely lost by why Alina was thinking about what he said. He was the cause of this whole war. He put the amplifier on Alina, he killed the people in Novokribirsk by controlling her powers, and he was the one who created the Fold causing the deaths of those thousands. Obviously he didn't want to put an end to all of it, so why wasn't Alina allowing them to kill the power-hungry monster?
"All right," Alina whispered.
Kaida was going to slap the girl.
"Alina, no!" Mal said furiously.
"You'll let them go?" she asked. "All of them?"
"We need the tracker," said the Darkling. "For the firebird."
"He goes free. You can't have both of us."
The Darkling paused, then nodded once.
"I'm not going anywhere," Mal said through clenched teeth.
Alina turned to Tolya, Tamar and Kaida. "Take him from here. Even if you have to carry him."
"Alina-"
"We won't go," said Tamar. "We are sworn."
"You will."
Tolya shook his huge head. "We pledged our lives to you. All of us."
Since when did I pledge my life to her?
Kaida would have happily listened to her and took the rest of the grisha away to safety, but she also didn't want Alina to be captured because they'd gotten close after the months.
Alina turned to face them. "Then do as I command," she said. "Tolya Yul-Baatar, Tamar Kir-Baatar, you will take these people from here to safety." She summoned the light, letting it blaze in a glorious halo around her. "Do not fail me."
Tamar had tears in her eyes, but she and her brother bowed their heads.
Mal hooked his arm and turned Alina around roughly. "What are you doing?"
The two bickered back and forth, till Alina kissed his jaw and walked up the aisle.
"Alina!" Mal shouted. Tolya picked him up, and Kaida helped David with Genya following Tamar. "Alina!" his voice was raw white wood, torn from the heart of a tree. Alina did not turn.
Through the dark passageway Kaida helped everyone through, waiting for Tolya, she took one last long glance at Alina and went through.
As they moved along, they could hear the chapel rumbling. Mal tore off of Tolya and sprinted back to Alina like his life depended on it.
Kaida was about to follow him, not wanting another person to leave the group, but Tolya stopped her.
So they waited for the two to come running back to them, covered up in dust and dirt, from the collapsing building.
When Kaida went up to them to help out, Alina was unconscious, her hair turned completely white from her brown hair. Kaida lifted Mal on to his feet, while Tamar and Tolya ran to Alina's side to get her heart to beat again.
author's note:
That's the end of Siege and Storm. The next chapters will be base on Ruin and Rising.
Thanks for reading!