The Unspoken: Book One in the Keres Trilogy (45 page)

Sotter kneels down next to Frehn. She opens a medical supply box and hands me a knife.
“
Cut him, hold one side open with the knife. I need to be able to see it.
”
My mouth hangs open, staring at her. She must be crazy.
“
Do it!
”
she roars. I plunge the knife into the back of his shoulder and cut towards the center of his back, pressing the blade against one side of the gash.

“
Hold still,
”
Sotter inserts a long pair of metal tweezers deep into the open cut. I turn my head and wish I could stop my ears to the sound of metal pushing against Frehn
’
s muscle tissue.
“
Ok, you can let go,
”
she finally says. I pull the knife away and she presses a bandage to the cut.

“
Did you get it?
”
I ask tentatively.

“
Yeah. But it wasn
’
t clean. We need Doe.
”

We plaster his back with strips from the medical box that we dunk in the pond water and wave ammonia under his nose. He convulses and opens his eyes.

“
Back on the horse, Frehn.
”
I tell him. I pull a movement magus from my arm and use it to place him in the saddle, then I climb up in front of him. Sotter mounts her horse and we turn up the mountainside. Frehn
’
s head lolls against my shoulder as we climb. Half an hour or so later he starts muttering about tattoos and magic and we stop to force some water into his mouth. Sotter walks her horse close to mine so she can keep close watch on Frehn
’
s face.

“
You can do magic,
”
she says to me after a while.

I wait for the black smoke fingers to press into my chest before I remember they have been scraped off my body. I look down at my shirt, still stained with my blood, and then back at her.

“
Yes.
”

“
Can the other Unspoken?
”

“
Yes.
”

A distant whistling sounds through the trees, followed by a rolling boom. Sotter and I sit straight up, looking around us. My wristbows are raised. But the sound is miles away. We nudge our horses into a canter, anxious to put as much distance between us and the rumbling as possible. When we reach an outcropping on the mountainside, we cautiously edge our way to the cliff. Chelon is deep in the valley below us. The Amendments Spire protrudes above the trees and buildings like a broken bone. Seeing the two walls enclosing our former home makes us reach for each others
’
hands. Our eyes are pulled beyond the city where an unending mass undulates through the small mountain pass like a snake. Twenty catapults stand in a line a few miles ahead of the massive army, sending green gaseous balls of fire whistling through the air at the walls of Chelon. From our cliff, we see the impact before we hear the explosion. The horses strain against their bits nervously.

“
We can
’
t help them now,
”
Sotter says quietly.

“
No,
”
I whisper.
“
We can
’
t help them now.
”

I pull the reins and turn my dapple gray around.
“
I think I
’
ll call you Odin,
”
I whisper to him, patting his neck.
“
You have just delivered me from Hell.
”
I pull Frehn
’
s arms tighter around me, trying to dispel the solitude, the rage and the image of Merit
’
s frail, broken body on the forest floor miles away.

I can end this. The torture, the war, I can end it all. I have the choice to obliterate the pain, to decimate The Mothers and The Audauxx, to ensure that the suffering ends. Abbot said I will have to use the weapon, it
’
s my destiny as the Catalyst, but that it is up to me how I choose to use it. The humanity I have known has ached for centuries, fear and torture suffocating its every move. I have the power to empty the earth, to let the world breathe without choking on the agony of life.

Everything I learned in the Warren, the grueling hours with Zink and Loshee in the combat simulators, Abbot struggling against my own anger to teach me self-control, was leading up to this. Abbot knew I would be hunted. He knew I would not be able to stay inside the walls of Chelon. He and Zink both tried to tell me The Mothers were not my true enemy. They were only a horrifying obstacle, but not a threat to my, or PG3456
’
s, life. The Audauxx and their desire to use me in their lust for control has always been the reason for my training. They were a part of what I was not yet ready to know, things Abbot said would destroy me. Everything Abbot worked so tirelessly to ingrain into me floods my mind- never throw magus in anger, always have a clear idea of the ultimate desired result when pulling from my ink, push forward through pain, fulfill my own destiny as the Catalyst, the ability to choose rebirth or destruction, developing the physical strength to escape the double walls, the command over intusmagus to evade The Mothers, to reach the safe city, to rise above the hunger for power.

Frehn moves his head, pushing his face into my neck. His warm breath against my ear drives everything else from my thoughts and the full force of love burns up through my chest.

In that moment, I make my choice. I failed to save Merit, I failed to preserve love for Harc. But there is still a chance that I can save Statric and Holden, Abbot and Serees. And Wex. I will reach the safe city. I will fight the Audauxx. I will save love. This is my true destiny.

As Sotter and I start silently back up the mountain in search of the regroup location, blue and gold sparks create a glimmering trail over the tree tops. Someone is safe. Someone fired the signal.

We can
’
t help anyone in Chelon now, but we can help those who are willing to fight. We have to reach Credo Cantus.

End of Book One.