Renegade (17 page)

K
ieran's face grew red. Was he panicking for his parents, or furious at the pirates for taking them away? From the street above us came the sound of screaming. The timing wasn't an accident, I was sure of it.

“Where are his parents now?” I asked the old woman.

“I don't know.”

“When did the pirates take them away?”

“This afternoon.”

I turned to Kieran and stood directly in his line of sight. Even then, I wasn't sure he was seeing me. “We'll find them,” I shouted. “You have to trust me.”

But he didn't trust me. Why would he? His parents had been gone several strikes. They could be anywhere on the island. Maybe even on the mainland.

I grabbed a flap of his tunic and dragged him toward the stairs. There was no time to waste. The pirates would've heard the clan folk by now and known they'd escaped. They'd also know that Kieran was gone too. And Jossi's only hope of regaining control would be to bring Kieran back in line.

Wherever Jossi went next, that's where Kieran's parents would be.

We were halfway up the stairs when I heard someone calling my name. It was a woman's voice, but before I could scan the faces around me, the rising tide of clan folk forced me up to the street. I figured it must have been Tarn, but she was already outside, waiting.

What if it was my mother? I was about to turn around and fight my way back down when Dennis yelled, “You've got to stop this.” He was appealing to Kieran, not me, but the clan boy still didn't respond.

Rats surged along the street into town, a black mass so large that it threatened to overwhelm everyone and everything. Incredibly, none of the rats were biting or scratching, but the destructive potential was all too real. With a single thought, Kieran could kill us all.

Tarn was the next to plead with Kieran. She placed her hands on his shoulders. “We need you to control this,” she said, flicking her head at the flood of rats. “We have to focus on your parents now.”

Her words had the opposite effect. Reminded once again that his parents were in trouble, Kieran seemed to grow frantic. The rats responded to his chaotic thoughts, scurrying around aimlessly, crushing each other in their blind determination to move somewhere . . .
anywhere.

“Let's head to the main street,” I said. “Wherever they are, the pirates'll have to give them up now.”

Tarn wrapped her arm around Kieran and hurried him toward the intersection of the two streets. Dennis and I ran after them. We watched our feet, careful not to trip, but it was hopeless. As we stepped on the rodents, they reacted with sharp claws and quick teeth. I'd only gone about twenty yards when I felt warmth spreading from a bloody wound. If I'd been attacked, it seemed certain that everyone else had been too. No one would escape the Plague this night.

We were only a few yards from the intersection when Tarn stopped suddenly. “Get back,” she cried.

I shoved Dennis into a doorway and joined him there. With our backs against the wall, we listened to a fresh round of gunfire.

Tarn and Kieran were hiding in the gap between two buildings. She pointed to the intersection, where the rats were coming from all directions. Kieran had refocused now, so that they moved with purpose again. But as they came together, there was nowhere left for the rats to go. So they trampled each other, forming one new layer after another. The rats on the bottom would be crushed to death.

Why was Kieran summoning them? Who did he think was the enemy? There was no use in imploring him to stop—he was locked into this single task. As long as he lived, the rats would keep coming. But we couldn't let him die. He didn't deserve to pay for our war with Jossi.

The pirates had been taking aim at the clan folk, but now they used their weapons to frighten the rats away instead. It didn't work. The rats clawed at loose clothing and used it to climb. The pirates who didn't run were smothered. When one of them fell down, he was covered so quickly that I couldn't tell where he'd fallen. It was as if he'd disappeared entirely, drowned in a sea of black.

The clan folk were scattering too. They ran behind buildings, anything to steer clear of the rats. All around us was chaos.

I ran toward the intersection, staying close to the buildings where the layer of rats was thinner. Tarn ran out to join me, and she dragged Kieran with her. As we turned the corner, a scream split the air.

“No!” cried Tarn, but I couldn't take in the scene as quickly as her. Several beats passed before I realized that only three elementals remained on crates.

My father was swinging from a rope, legs thrust out, kicking. Beside him, Ananias strained against his rope, trying to get closer.

I broke into a sprint. The mass of rats tripped me, but I refused to fall. Falling would take time that Father didn't have. The large group of pirates had shrunk to just a few. Two of them took aim at me, but it was dark and they were distracted. I didn't even change course as their shots passed harmlessly by.

“Thomas, wait!” Tarn shouted. But I couldn't wait. Of anyone, she should have been able to see that.

As I drew closer the pirates took aim again. This time they didn't even get to fire. A funnel of wind whipped past me, so concentrated, it seemed to bend and twist the atmosphere. The force of it knocked the pirates onto their backs. I'd thank Dennis for that later.

The other pirates disbanded immediately. Three of them ran, but Jossi wasn't among them. The two who had been knocked down threw off the opportunistic rats and pulled to a stand, ready to fight again.

I was only ten yards away when my father stopped struggling. I panicked that he was dead, but then I noticed his hands, still bound, and the small flames rising from his fingers. He was focusing his remaining energy on burning through the binds. Ananias must have realized too, because he followed Father's lead and conjured a flame so powerful it incinerated the rope that was binding his own wrists. He thrust his free hands up, ready to remove the rope.

He didn't get the chance. The pirates ran by, kicking the crates away. One after another the elementals fell several inches, until the rope jarred them to a halt. It was enough to strangle them, but not to snap their necks. They dangled together, fighting an impossible race against their disappearing breath.

As I reached them, Ananias was gripping the top of the rope with both hands. He pulled himself up a little, releasing the tension on the rope. Able to gasp another full breath, he produced more flame.

I went straight to my father and pulled the burned, frayed binds from his hands. I expected him to do as Ananais had done and take the stress off his neck, but he didn't move. I crouched underneath him and raised him up on my shoulders.

Beside me, Ananias fought to sear the rope. The flame was shrinking as his arm grew tired and his energy waned, but finally the rope snapped and he collapsed to the ground. From there, he fired another flame at Father's rope. It singed my face, but I didn't care. When the rope snapped, Father fell off the back of my shoulders. I couldn't catch him. His head collided with the ground.

“Leave him,” Ananias rasped. He yanked me around. “We have to get the others down. They'll die.”

I followed him past Alice. She was burning through the rope, just as he had done. But the impressive flame she wielded wasn't just her doing: Dare was beside her. He'd linked one hand with her, while he pressed the other hard against his bleeding chest. He was grimacing and wheezing, desperate for breath and yet anxious not to breathe because of the pain. One thing was clear, though: He wouldn't let his daughter die.

I lumbered under Jerren, placed his legs on my shoulders, and lifted him up, just as I'd done for Father. This time, it felt different. Jerren groaned as my element worked its way through him. I tried to limit the effect, but I was suffering too. As I grew breathless and my pulse quickened, energy burned away like steam from boiling water.

I wanted to slide out and let Ananias take my place under Jerren, but my brother was focused on burning through the rope. White-hot flames spun from his fingertips. I closed my eyes and willed Ananias to be quick.

Tarn caught up to us at the moment that the rope snapped and Jerren collapsed on top of me. By the time Tarn dragged him off me, I couldn't move. The sickening odor of burning flesh surrounded us, but Jerren didn't complain. He didn't make a sound at all.

Alice crawled over to him. She ran her hands across his cheeks and scraped dust from his lips. “Come on, Jerren,” she muttered. “Come on!”

Finally Jerren opened his eyes. It was a tiny gesture, but it gave us hope. Alice ran her hands across his face and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

“Where's Dare?” I shouted. “He was right here.”

“He's gone,” said Dennis. “Took a rifle with him. Kieran's gone as well.”

“What?”

“He fell. We called to you to wait, but you didn't hear.”

I scanned the street. Kieran was capable of killing us all. Without Tarn's comforting hands and voice, that seemed more likely than ever. “Where is he now?”

“I don't know.”

Everywhere I looked I saw rats, thousands and thousands of them, scurrying along, fighting, driven by an irresistible force toward the intersection. But there was nothing haphazard about their movement. Wherever he was, Kieran had reestablished complete control over them.

That's when I noticed the torches arranged in a row at the top of the water tower. The flames weren't large, just enough to illuminate a pirate and the two clan folk he held at gunpoint . . . and the shadowy outlines of the two figures climbing the ladder just below.

“Please, no,” I whispered. But somehow I already knew who the figures were. Sure enough, a sliver of light cut across the ladder and revealed Kieran and Jossi.

Whoever controlled the rats, controlled the island. With Kieran as his prisoner once more, Jossi had that power. Looking around me, I couldn't imagine a scenario in which a single one of us might survive.

“We need to get to him,” I said.

No one responded.

“Come on.” I faced the others. “We need to—”

I froze as I saw Ananias. He was leaning over our father, hands limp at his sides. As he turned to face me, my brother didn't say a word. But then, with tears streaming down his face, he didn't need to.

Jossi had claimed another victim.

I crawled over to my father's dead body.

I
'm sorry,” said Tarn.

I didn't respond. There weren't words to express what I was feeling.

“What should we do?” she asked, though what she really meant was:
Do we keep fighting?

It was a sympathetic question. No one would blame Ananias and me for giving up the fight. But looking at my father—scarred, broken, and finally beaten into eternal submission—I knew what I had to do.

“Grab the rifles,” I said, pointing to the ground.

“We don't know how to fire them,” said Dennis.

“I'll find a way.”

Tarn sighed. “They'll be out of bullets. That's why the pirates left them here. It's why they kicked over these crates instead of shooting everyone.” She tilted her head toward my father, coaxing me to join Ananias. To kneel beside my father and say good-bye. To offer a blessing for safe passage long after I'd stopped believing in any such thing.

Unable to do anything more for my father, Tarn turned her attention to Jerren. Up the street, to the north, the clan folk were climbing onto roofs to escape the pirates and rats. Maybe they'd stay there for days, huddled together, ignoring the destruction all around them, and pretending the threat was temporary. Less than a month ago, I'd have done the same thing. Now I had only one thought and one objective: to end this, once and for all.

The others called after me as I began the slow march toward the intersection, but I didn't look back. I had no time for condolences, or vague promises of a better future. The future was now, and it was bleak and evil and lonely.

I was halfway to the intersection when I heard footsteps behind me. I had no right to expect company, but Dennis took his place beside me, head high, chin jutting out. Ananias joined us a moment later. Then Alice.

With the others alongside me, I chanced a look back. Tarn was tending to Jerren, but her eyes were fixed on me. She gave a single nod, a gesture of support and respect. I nodded back, realizing at last that this was the moment the Guardians had most feared, the one they'd spent years trying to avoid: when their children realized the extent of their power and took ownership of it, whatever the result may be.

We pressed onward. By matching our strides to the speed of the rats, we were able to walk more easily. They scratched at my ankles, but it felt accidental, not aggressive, as if I was simply in their way.

Everything changed at the intersection. Here, the rats were buried three deep. Those that were still alive bit me as I stepped on them. There was no way around them, though. The mound grew deeper with every yard of hard-earned progress; the noise, louder. They weren't congregating at the intersection at all, but at the base of the water tower.

The tower was close, less than twenty yards away, but we were barely moving. The fresh wave of rats came above my knees. When my foot slipped through the crushed pile of bones and blood, the rats came almost to my waist.

The others weren't beside me anymore. We'd been separated, driven apart in our quest to find the easiest path. But there were no easy paths. I wanted Ananias to scare off the rats with flames, but it was Dennis who caught my eye. Shorter than the rest of us, he was almost submerged in black. The rats weren't just biting his legs, but also his chest, which bled through his tunic. When he lost his balance, he slid down a few inches.

A moment later, he was gone.

“Dennis.” I kept my eyes on the spot where he'd disappeared, certain that if I looked away I'd never find him again. “Dennis!”

The others had seen him go under too. His name rang out from all directions, but none of us was close to him.

I forced my way over, flinging rats from my path. When I was a few yards away, the sea of rats throbbed like an enormous heartbeat. The spot where Dennis had disappeared swelled slightly. I just had time to cover my face before hundreds of rats shot into the sky, and Dennis emerged, gasping for air.

Ananias was nearest. He grabbed a flap of Dennis's tunic to keep him above the rats. I expected Dennis to scream, but he didn't. His face was a mask. Looking into his eyes was like seeing a reflection of Kieran . . . or myself. Dennis seemed capable of anything in that moment. He just needed an outlet for his fear and anger.

Ahead of us, the pirates who had chosen not to escape were surrounded. They waved their blazing torches haphazardly, but still the rats came. At the foot of the steps the rodent mound grew faster and faster. Pirates who had been above the pile only moments ago found themselves being dragged under with the deathly efficiency of a coastal riptide. As I clambered up the mound of rats, a pirate's hand shot out of the blackness to pull me down. I kicked at it. I had no room for empathy anymore.

“You've got to stay on the surface,” Ananias shouted. “Don't slip under.”

I crawled the last few yards to the water tower and reached for the ladder. A pirate was fighting his way over too, recognizing it as his last hope of escape, but the rats overwhelmed him. More than that, they attacked him, biting and clawing until he writhed in pain, thrashing his limbs about in an attempt to free himself from them.

Having subdued another victim, the rats turned on me. I threw myself at the iron rungs, and climbed the ladder. Ananias was close behind me. He had hold of Dennis, and wouldn't let the boy go. But Alice was still several yards away, and slowly disappearing beneath the blackness.

Dennis didn't hesitate. As Alice covered her eyes, he took Ananias's hand and they combined, sending a band of fire that momentarily cleared the area. Free again, Alice grabbed the nearest rung.

Hand over hand, foot over foot, I pressed on. From ten yards above the ground, I had a clear view of Skeleton Town's ongoing destruction. The surviving pirates worked their way from roof to roof, setting fire to everything they saw. Maybe they thought it was the only way to combat the rats. Or perhaps they thought that this night would mark the end of everything, and they wanted to be the cause of it.

The remaining clan folk had gathered on a far distant roof, insulated from the mayhem. On the street, my father's body was almost too small to see, even as the fires in the buildings spread, bathing the scene in a red-orange glow. Tarn tended to him, and she wasn't alone. There was someone else beside her: a woman, I thought, though I couldn't be sure. They were fighting a losing battle against the never-ending tide of rats.

The other woman turned around then, as though she wanted me to see her—a face I recalled from a picture I'd found in Bodie Lighthouse weeks earlier. I took in the first view of my mother in thirteen long years.

Watching my father die had stripped me of anything but the need for revenge. But seeing my mother reminded me there were others to save, and others to live for. Griffin deserved the chance to meet the mother he'd never known.

I climbed again, faster than before. When I was halfway up the steps, Jossi appeared high above me. He held a lantern close to his face, presumably so that I could see his expression: crazed, unhinged. “Don't come any closer,” he yelled.

“Let them go,” I shouted back. “Before everyone dies.”

“Why? Brings on the rats, I say. Let them come. Look around you. This is how we'll
all
go, the only way elementals will suffer the way that
we
have suffered. This'll be remembered as the day the earth was purged.”

Below me, Dennis, Ananias, and Alice had continued climbing, and the ancient ladder was rocking back and forth under the strain. Several of the supporting clamps had rusted away.

“I told y'all to
stop!
” Jossi screamed. He leaned over the railing. “One more step and I shoot.”

I had no choice. I stopped, and the others did too. The ladder continued to sway. Would Jossi even let us go back down, or was he planning to hold us there until the ladder buckled? Never mind that
he
wouldn't be able to get down either. He'd clearly seen how devastating this night would be, and had made peace with it.

I surveyed the town again: the burning buildings; Tarn and my mother dragging Father's body away from the stream of rats; and on the roof of the hurricane shelter beside us, a man who lay on his back, rifle pointed toward the sky.

A shot rang out. Above me, Jossi collapsed against the railing with a jarring clang. Down on the shelter roof, the man took aim again, but couldn't seem to hold the rifle steady. When he dropped the gun, he didn't even attempt to retrieve it.

It was
Dare
.

“Go!” Alice screamed.

I climbed. The ladder shook, but I didn't care. My fingers barely grazed the iron rungs as I heaved myself toward the tower platform, where several heavy footsteps pounded against the metal grate, and bodies collided with the massive water drum. Kieran's parents were fighting back.

The tussle ended as suddenly as it began. Only this time, no one hit the railing. Instead, a body was thrown clear over it. It passed by me with a rush of air, and landed on the mountain of rats below. I had no idea who had just died.

It didn't take long to find out.

Kieran's father teetered on the edge of the platform above me. Jossi was on top of him, landing punches to his face. As I neared the gap where the stairs connected to the platform, I got a clear view of Kieran's mother holding her son back, protecting him at any cost.

The victim must have been the other pirate. Which meant that Jossi was fighting alone.

I slapped my fingers onto the edge and pulled myself up the final step. Seeing me from the corner of his eye, Jossi pushed away from Kieran's father and staggered toward Kieran. As I swung a leg onto the platform, the boy's mother intercepted the pirate and they crashed against the railing. The suddenness of it, the sheer force, ruptured the rusted metal bars. They had no chance to stop their progress. There wouldn't have been anything to hold on to, anyway.

Jossi fell first. His hands were wrapped around Kieran's mother's arm, and she fell too. Together they hurtled past the broken railing and over the edge, plummeting toward earth. Arms outstretched, they almost brushed against Dennis, Ananias, and Alice, who were still climbing. A half yard to the side and Jossi would have taken all the elementals down with him.

“Mother!” Kieran's voice was high-pitched and frantic.

His father lay dead or unconscious on the platform. Kieran stood beside the gap, toes overhanging the edge, face frozen in horror. The tower was leaning, groaning under the strain. I crawled toward him. When I was only a yard away, he turned to me. I expected to see horror in his face, or desolation, or anger. Instead I saw only defeat. Kieran had endured so much, and done unimaginable things in the hope of being reunited with his parents. Now his mother was gone.

Kieran bowed his head and climbed over the railing.