The first thing wrong with the Air Nation wasn't the dead.
It was the silence.
I noticed it twenty minutes after we crossed the border.
At first, I thought it was simply the mountains.
The deeper we travelled, the taller they became.
Jagged stone rose on either side of us, cutting the sky into narrow strips of blue.
Old pathways wound through them.
Some carved directly into the cliffs.
Others crossed enormous gaps on bridges that looked far too old to still be trusted.
I didn't trust them.
Tadewi apparently did.
Which was why I was currently following her across one.
I looked down.
Immediately regretted it.
Clouds drifted hundreds of feet beneath my boots.
I could not see the bottom.
"Your ancestors were insane."
Tadewi continued walking.
"They were free."
"The two aren't mutually exclusive."
Willow snorted behind me.
The bridge creaked.
I froze.
Willow walked directly into my back.
"Why did you stop?"
"It made a sound."
"It's a bridge."
"Hundreds of feet above certain death."
"You have wings."
I looked at her.
"That's not the point."
"What is the point?"
"I don't like it."
Tadewi glanced over her shoulder.
"You fought seven armed men yesterday."
"Men don't collapse beneath my feet."
"They do when you hit them."
"Not helping."
She almost smiled.
Almost.
Then her expression changed.
She stopped.
Not gradually.
Completely.
I nearly walked into her.
"What?"
Tadewi didn't answer.
Her head tilted.
Listening.
I listened too.
Nothing.
No footsteps.
No voices.
No movement.
Just—
Nothing.
I frowned.
"What is it?"
Tadewi looked toward the mountains.
Her face had gone still.
Willow stepped beside me.
"Tadewi?"
"The wind."
I waited.
"What about it?"
"There isn't any."
I blinked.
Then I noticed.
My hair hung motionless around my shoulders.
The torn orange banners hanging from an old watchtower ahead didn't move.
Not even the grass growing between the stones shifted.
Nothing.
The Air Nation was completely still.
"There should be wind," Willow said.
Tadewi's eyes remained on the mountains.
"There is always wind."
Something cold moved over my skin.
Yesterday, we'd stood at the border looking into Tadewi's stolen home.
Today...
I was beginning to understand what stolen meant.
"Mortimer?"
I asked.
"I don't know."
Tadewi's answer came too quickly.
She started walking again.
I followed.
But she moved differently now.
Faster.
Her shoulders tighter.
Her hand never left her staff.
I glanced at Willow.
She'd noticed too.
Neither of us said anything.
---
We left the bridge behind.
Then the path.
Then anything resembling a path.
Tadewi led us through a narrow opening between two cliffs that I would have walked past without ever realizing it existed.
On the other side, stone steps climbed almost vertically.
I stared upward.
"No."
Tadewi started climbing.
"Yes."
"There are approximately a thousand stairs."
"Eight hundred and twelve."
I looked at Willow.
"She knows the number."
"Apparently."
"That's worse."
Tadewi didn't turn.
"I can hear you."
"Good."
We climbed.
And climbed.
And continued climbing long after I had begun reconsidering every decision that had led me here.
Eventually, the stairs opened onto a narrow ledge.
Tadewi stopped.
Raised one fist.
Willow and I froze.
This time—
I heard it.
Metal.
A slow scrape against stone.
Then another.
Footsteps.
Not hurried.
Not careful.
Steady.
Tadewi moved toward the edge of the ledge and lowered herself.
We followed.
Below us, an old road curved between the cliffs.
Figures walked along it.
One.
Three.
Five.
Eight.
Twelve.
Soldiers.
My stomach tightened.
Their armor had once been silver.
Orange cloth still hung from several shoulders.
Air.
But the metal was blackened now.
Rust.
Blood.
Something darker.
They moved too evenly.
No conversation.
No glancing around.
No exhaustion.
Dead.
Tadewi went very still beside me.
I looked at her.
Her eyes were fixed on one of them.
A woman.
Dark hair braided close to her scalp.
Half her face had been torn away.
A broken orange insignia still clung to her chest.
"Tadewi?"
Nothing.
I touched her arm.
Her gaze shifted to me.
"You know her."
Not a question.
Tadewi looked back down.
"Serai."
The name was almost nothing.
"She served under me."
My chest tightened.
Willow lowered her head.
For a moment, none of us spoke.
Below—
Serai kept walking.
Her body obeying something that had no right to own it.
Tadewi's fingers tightened around her staff.
"We go around."
I looked toward the road.
"They're headed toward the western pass."
"I know."
"They could find someone."
"There is almost no one left to find."
Almost.
I hated that word.
Tadewi looked at me.
"We cannot risk alerting every dead soldier in these mountains."
"I know."
And I did.
That was the worst part.
I looked at the patrol again.
Twelve.
Only twelve.
We could fight twelve.
Willow could probably fight twelve by herself.
But fighting wasn't the problem.
Killing them was.
Willow seemed to reach the same conclusion.
"We can take them."
Tadewi looked at her.
"We can fight them."
Then her eyes moved to me.
"Only Lyra can finish them."
Silence.
Violet fire stirred beneath my skin.
I looked at Serai.
Then the others.
Some were little more than bodies.
Others looked almost alive.
Almost.
But I knew better.
We'd tried everything before.
Steel.
Lightning.
Water.
Broken bones.
Severed limbs.
Nothing mattered.
They got back up.
They always got back up.
Unless I burned them.
I still didn't know why.
Another question for the gods.
The list was becoming unreasonable.
"We don't fight them here," I said.
Tadewi frowned.
I pointed farther along the road.
It narrowed between two enormous rock faces.
"Willow."
She followed my finger.
Understanding came quickly.
"I can close both ends."
"Without crushing them?"
"Why?"
"Because I need them together."
Tadewi studied the pass.
Then me.
"You intend to burn all twelve at once."
"I intend to try."
"Have you done that before?"
"No."
"Comforting."
"I've burned several at once."
"How many?"
I thought.
"Define several."
Tadewi closed her eyes.
Willow smiled.
"I can hold them."
Tadewi opened her eyes again.
"No."
We both looked at her.
"They won't enter the ravine without reason."
A faint smile touched her mouth.
"I'll give them one."
---
Tadewi disappeared first.
Not magically.
Which was somehow more impressive.
One moment she was beside us.
The next she'd slipped down the cliff path and vanished among the rocks.
Willow and I moved into position.
She crouched above the narrow pass.
I waited farther down.
My heartbeat slowed.
Not calm.
Focus.
There was a difference.
Then—
A sound.
Footsteps.
From inside the ravine.
Except nobody was there.
I frowned.
The sound came again.
Running this time.
A voice.
Faint.
Human.
"Help!"
The dead stopped.
All twelve heads turned simultaneously.
I shuddered.
Wind.
Tadewi was carrying sound through the ravine.
Another cry.
Closer.
The dead moved.
Not running.
Not yet.
But faster.
They entered the pass.
One.
Three.
Seven.
Ten.
Twelve.
I waited.
Tadewi appeared on the ridge opposite Willow.
She raised her hand.
Willow slammed both palms against the ground.
Earth answered.
Stone erupted behind the patrol.
The dead turned.
Another wall exploded upward ahead of them.
Trapped.
Twelve faces turned toward us.
I stood.
"Well."
Every dead soldier looked at me.
"I think they noticed."
They charged.
"Lyra!"
I jumped.
Straight into the ravine.
Possibly not my best decision.
Definitely one of the more entertaining ones.
I landed badly.
Rolled.
Came up.
The first dead soldier reached me.
I ducked beneath his sword.
Kicked his knee.
Bone snapped.
He didn't react.
Right.
Dead.
Forgot about that.
He swung again.
I moved.
Another came from my left.
Then another.
Too many.
"Tadewi!"
Wind slammed through the ravine.
Three bodies flew backward.
Not dead.
Just temporarily elsewhere.
Willow dropped beside me.
Her fist hit the nearest soldier hard enough to turn his head completely around.
He stumbled.
Then turned it back.
Willow grimaced.
"I hate that."
"Deeply unsettling."
He lunged.
She kicked him backward.
"Any time, Lyra."
"I'm working on it."
Violet fire sparked across my fingers.
Small.
Not enough.
I needed more.
One of the dead grabbed my shoulder.
Tadewi's staff appeared between us.
Crack.
The arm bent the wrong way.
Tadewi twisted.
Redirected the body past her.
It crashed into two others.
"Now."
I reached.
Not outward.
Inward.
For the strange violet flame that had lived inside me long before I understood anything about myself.
There.
Waiting.
Always waiting.
Fire burst over my hands.
The dead reacted.
All of them.
Not fear.
They didn't have enough of themselves left for fear.
But the darkness inside them—
moved.
I felt it.
A recoil.
I froze.
Only for a heartbeat.
Then Serai turned toward Tadewi.
Tadewi stopped.
That was enough.
Serai lunged.
"No!"
I threw the fire.
Violet flame struck her chest.
She stopped.
Not stumbled.
Stopped.
Light cracked beneath her skin.
I stared.
Blackness spilled from her mouth.
Not smoke.
Something thicker.
Alive.
The violet flame caught it.
Consumed it.
Serai's body collapsed into ash.
Gone.
Tadewi stared at the place she'd stood.
Something changed in her face.
I didn't have time to understand it.
The others rushed us.
"Willow!"
She moved.
Straight through them.
Not trying to kill.
Moving bodies.
Driving them toward the center.
Tadewi understood.
Wind struck from the opposite direction.
The dead stumbled together.
Ten.
Eleven.
All of them.
I raised both hands.
Violet fire climbed my wrists.
Higher.
Hot.
"Down!"
Willow dropped.
Tadewi followed.
I released it.
Fire exploded through the ravine.
Violet swallowed everything.
For one terrible second, I couldn't see.
Couldn't hear.
Couldn't breathe.
Then—
Silence.
Real silence.
The flames disappeared.
Ash drifted through the air.
Twelve soldiers were gone.
I stared at my hands.
The fire retreated beneath my skin.
Willow slowly stood.
"Remind me never to make you angry."
"You've made me angry several times."
She considered.
"Then remind me to stop."
Tadewi didn't speak.
She walked toward the ash.
Stopped where Serai had fallen.
Bent.
There was nothing left.
Not even bone.
Tadewi closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
Quiet.
Not to us.
To her.
I moved beside Tadewi.
Didn't touch her.
Didn't say it was mercy.
Didn't say Serai was free.
I didn't know what happened to souls after death.
And whatever Mortimer had done...
I wasn't sure there had been anything left to free.
After a moment, Tadewi opened her eyes.
Her gaze moved to me.
Then my hands.
"That fire."
I looked down.
"What about it?"
She hesitated.
"Nothing."
I stared.
"That was very obviously something."
"Later."
"Tadewi."
"Later, Lyra."
I frowned.
Apparently secrets were contagious.
Wonderful.
---
The deeper we travelled, the worse the Air Nation became.
Villages stood empty.
Doors open.
Meals long rotted on tables.
Bones in streets.
Black veins crawled across stone in places.
Not roots.
Not exactly.
Something else.
I didn't touch them.
None of us did.
The wind returned occasionally.
Weak.
A breath against my cheek.
Then gone again.
Tadewi grew quieter with every mile.
She knew these places.
Not all personally.
But enough.
She pointed once toward a ruined collection of buildings carved into a mountainside.
"That was a school."
Nothing else.
Later—
A collapsed bridge.
"Market route."
Then—
A tower split down the middle.
"Skyguard."
Each word another grave.
Eventually she stopped naming them.
That was worse.
We were moving through a narrow forest when Tadewi stopped again.
Her hand rose.
I froze.
Willow did too.
"What?"
Tadewi crouched.
Tracks crossed the dirt.
Huge.
Four-toed.
Deep enough that whatever made them had been heavy.
Willow knelt.
"Bear?"
"No."
Tadewi touched one print.
Her expression darkened.
"Windcat."
I stared at the track.
"That is not a cat."
"It shouldn't be that large."
There it was.
One of those sentences I was learning to hate.
"How large should they be?"
Tadewi held her hand approximately at her hip.
The print was nearly the size of my chest.
"Wonderful."
A branch cracked.
Above us.
I looked up.
Something fell.
"Move!"
We scattered.
The creature hit the ground where we'd been standing.
Stone cracked beneath it.
I rolled.
Came up.
And stared.
"That's definitely not a cat."
It had the shape of one.
Mostly.
Four legs.
Long tail.
Pale fur.
Or what remained of it.
Its body was enormous.
Too thin around the ribs.
Too thick through the shoulders.
Black quills pushed through patches of skin.
Its jaw opened.
Too far.
Much too far.
Black veins crawled beneath its throat.
Its eyes—
Completely dark.
It lunged.
Willow met it.
Of course she did.
"Willow!"
She stepped inside the swipe.
Exactly like yesterday.
Caught its foreleg.
Used its momentum.
The creature was significantly heavier than a mercenary.
She discovered that quickly.
It dragged her sideways.
"Bad idea!"
"I noticed!"
Tadewi's staff struck its jaw.
The creature snapped toward her.
I reached for violet fire.
"Wait!"
Tadewi's voice stopped me.
"What?"
"It's alive."
The creature charged again.
Willow rolled aside.
"Debatable!"
Tadewi blasted it sideways with Air.
It struck a tree.
Got up.
Alive.
Corrupted.
Not dead.
The distinction mattered.
I didn't know why.
The creature leapt.
I moved.
Not backward.
Forward.
Willow.
Step inside.
Its claw passed behind me.
I turned.
Tadewi.
Momentum.
Redirect.
My hands caught its shoulder.
For one extremely stupid moment, I thought I might actually manage it.
Then the windcat threw me ten feet.
I hit the ground.
Hard.
"Ow."
Willow drove her shoulder into the creature.
It snapped at her.
Tadewi's staff jammed between its jaws.
"Lyra!"
"I'm coming."
I stood.
The beast twisted.
Blackness pulsed beneath its skin.
Violet flame flickered across my fingers.
The creature recoiled.
I froze.
It hadn't reacted to Willow's Earth.
Or Tadewi's Air.
But the moment my fire appeared—
it backed away.
"What the..."
I stepped closer.
The flame grew.
The black veins beneath its skin moved.
Away.
From me.
No.
From the fire.
The creature screamed.
Not roared.
Screamed.
Pain.
Real pain.
I stopped.
The violet flame disappeared.
The windcat collapsed onto its front legs.
Breathing hard.
Still alive.
Tadewi stared.
Willow looked between us.
"What happened?"
"I don't know."
I looked at my hand.
"The fire..."
Wanted something.
That was the only way I could describe it.
Not the animal.
Not its flesh.
Something inside it.
The darkness.
The creature moved again.
Its head snapped toward Willow.
Whatever moment we'd had was gone.
It attacked.
Willow's blade flashed.
Once.
Clean.
The creature collapsed.
This time—
it stayed down.
We stood around it.
Breathing.
Tadewi crouched beside the body.
She touched the fur.
Then one of the black veins.
It was already fading.
"What did Mortimer do to this place?" Willow whispered.
Nobody answered.
I stared at my fingers.
The fire hadn't wanted its flesh.
It had wanted whatever was inside it.
Another question.
Another fucking question.
"Come on."
Tadewi stood.
"We need to move."
I looked at her.
She was deliberately not looking at me.
Definitely something.
Fine.
Later.
---
By afternoon, my legs hated Tadewi.
Personally.
Deeply.
We had climbed three mountains.
Crossed two bridges.
One of which had attempted to murder me.
Willow claimed bridges couldn't attempt things.
She was wrong.
We were halfway across when the center section collapsed.
One second—
stone.
The next—
nothing.
I dropped.
My stomach hit my throat.
My hand caught the edge.
Pain tore through my shoulder.
"Lyra!"
Willow hit the ground above me.
Her hand locked around my wrist.
Stone broke beneath her.
"Don't you dare."
I looked several hundred feet down.
"I wasn't planning to."
Tadewi grabbed Willow around the waist.
Together they pulled.
I climbed.
Scraped my knee.
Nearly lost my grip.
Then rolled onto solid stone.
I lay there.
Breathing.
Willow looked down at me.
"You have wings."
I stared up at her.
"Not the point."
She laughed.
I kicked her ankle.
Tadewi stepped over both of us.
"Children."
"You stole a horse."
She kept walking.
"Borrowed."
I smiled.
Even here.
Even now.
Somehow—
we were still us.
---
We saw the soldiers before sunset.
Living ones this time.
At least some.
Tadewi pulled us behind the remains of an old wall.
Below us stood the only pass forward.
A narrow road between two cliffs.
Beyond it—
stairs.
Thousands of them.
Climbing toward the clouds.
My heart jumped.
"The temple?"
Tadewi nodded.
"Aerie is beyond that ridge."
Finally.
Then I looked down.
And counted.
Twenty-three soldiers.
Maybe more inside the old guard station.
Some wore mismatched armor.
Mercenaries.
Others wore Fire colors.
And scattered among them—
dead.
Eight that I could see.
Maybe ten.
Two corrupted beasts chained near the gate.
Not windcats.
Something canine.
Huge.
Black veins visible even from here.
I sighed.
"Of course."
Willow studied the pass.
"We could go around."
"No."
Tadewi pointed toward the cliffs.
"Too steep. Flying exposes us."
"How far to another route?"
"Half a day."
We didn't have half a day.
I looked at the soldiers.
Living.
Dead.
Beasts.
Then the stairs beyond them.
Something inside me sharpened.
Mortimer had guarded this road.
Maybe because it was an obvious route.
Maybe because Aerie mattered.
Either way—
I wanted inside more now.
"There is something in that temple."
Willow looked at me.
"We already knew that."
"No."
I shook my head.
"Something he doesn't want people reaching."
Tadewi's eyes narrowed.
"Perhaps."
"Which means we're definitely going."
"That conclusion does not logically follow."
"It does to me."
"Unfortunately."
I studied the checkpoint.
Living soldiers could call for reinforcements.
The dead couldn't be killed normally.
The beasts could.
"We separate them."
Willow followed my gaze.
"How?"
I pointed.
"The living soldiers will react to things the dead won't."
Tadewi understood first.
"Fear."
"Self-preservation."
Willow smiled.
"The dead don't care if the mountain falls."
"Exactly."
Tadewi looked toward the cliffs.
Then the checkpoint.
Then us.
"I have an idea."
I smiled.
"Is it terrible?"
"Probably."
"Excellent."
---
It began with a scream.
Not ours.
Tadewi sent the sound down the opposite side of the pass.
The living soldiers reacted immediately.
Heads turned.
Several drew weapons.
The dead did too.
But differently.
Together.
One movement.
One command.
Then Willow moved the mountain.
Stone cracked.
A section of cliff collapsed onto the road behind the checkpoint.
Not enough to hit anyone.
Enough to close the retreat.
The soldiers shouted.
Chaos.
"Now."
We moved.
Tadewi first.
Air exploded through the guard station.
Living soldiers were thrown backward.
The dead kept coming.
Willow hit the ground.
Earth split.
A trench opened between the groups.
Living men stumbled away.
The dead walked straight into it.
Some fell.
Others climbed over them.
No fear.
No hesitation.
Perfect.
I ran.
One mercenary saw me.
"Stop!"
"No."
He lunged.
I ducked.
Caught his wrist.
Turned.
Tadewi.
His momentum carried him past.
I kicked the back of his knee.
Willow.
He dropped.
I hit him with the hilt of my knife.
Me.
He stayed down.
Better.
I really was learning.
A dead soldier reached me.
I threw violet fire into his chest.
Gone.
Ash.
Another.
Gone.
Then three came at once.
Too many.
"Willow!"
"Busy!"
She was.
Very.
One of the corrupted beasts had broken its chain.
Willow met it head-on.
Because apparently self-preservation was optional for Earth royalty.
Tadewi spun through two living soldiers.
She didn't strike first.
Never did.
One attacked.
She redirected.
His sword collided with his companion's.
She swept his legs.
Turned.
Staff into ribs.
Then—
one of the dead grabbed her.
"Tadewi!"
She drove her staff into its throat.
Nothing.
It slammed her against the wall.
Once.
Twice.
I saw red.
Violet fire exploded from my palm.
The dead soldier vanished.
Tadewi dropped.
"Tadewi!"
"I'm fine."
Blood ran from her temple.
"You don't look fine."
"Later!"
Right.
Later.
Everything was apparently later.
I turned.
More dead were coming from the guard station.
Not eight.
Not ten.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
Fuck.
"Willow!"