The Boys of Fire and Ash (12 page)

He looked at me. That was a good start. He'd been so mad, so different. Av hated Blaze, and Av never hated anyone. But I needed Av to put up with him, just a little longer.

“I don't trust him either. But he's all I've got to get to Cubby, Av.”

Av bounced on his knees again, not saying anything. Just talking about Blaze made him so furious. I hated seeing Av so unlike himself.

“At least use him for his food,” I said, hoping to get a laugh. “Might as well get something out of being around him.”

He didn't laugh, but the corner of his mouth twitched, and that was enough for me. He dropped his arms and stepped away from the fire. “Let's hope Marmos is better than Abish cake,” he grumbled.

I grinned, happy to hear him sound more like the Av I knew, and we walked back together to where Blaze was sitting with Fiver.

They were mid-conversation, Fiver prodding Blaze with more questions. Fiver bit into the back side of some roasted bird, his cheeks stuffed as he talked. “So she's his Mother?”
he said, staring up at the dark moss-covered stones at Blaze's back.

By the light of the fire, I could see faces where I'd pulled away the moss. They were carved into the stone. Six young faces, one on top of the other. The second from the top caught my eye—a girl with a gentle smile.

Blaze shook his head, poking at the fire. “She's his sister.”

He handed me a stick with a sizzling roasted Marmos skewered on the end, and I tore off a crispy leg, then passed it to Av.

“I'll bet I know which one their Mother liked best,” said Fiver, picking a bone out of his mouth.

“There was no Mother,” said Blaze.

“How's that?”

Blaze yawned and rubbed his eyes. “It's just an old story.”

Fiver went on chewing, watching Blaze expectantly. As a storyteller, Fiver couldn't resist adding a new adventure to his memory, a new tale to tell the Brothers.

Blaze shook his head and stood up beside the stones. “There's about a hundred different versions,” he started. “There's thousands of pillars just like this one, in every village and city, but they're all different in their own way, and so is the way they tell it.”

“So what's the story?”

He took a deep breath and stared at the stones as though he was exhausted just thinking about it. He let his hand rub the base of his neck. “Basically, six babies were said to be born out of the fabric of the earth, three sets of twins. Folks call them the Sacred Six.”

“What's that mean?” Fiver asked.

“They were gifted.” He pointed to the two faces on the bottom. “See here, these three dots?” There were three
dots marking their foreheads. “That means these brothers were born of the desert. That's Keely and Hines. People say they had the power to make things grow. They could make the crops obey them—that was their gift.” He moved up to the next two faces, three diagonal lines marking their foreheads. “And here the lines mean these were the brothers of rock and ice, Amid and Azul. They were gifted in moving the earth, carving canyons and raising peaks.”

His hand moved up to the girl's image on the next set, his fingers pausing on her round cheeks. Her forehead was marked by three circles, like ripples on water. Blaze ran his thumb along the rough line. My eyes drifted to the face of the twin brother above her, and only now did I notice it had been scratched out.

“And them?”

Blaze sighed, leaning against the stones with one hand, his other brushing hair out of his eyes. “Those two are the water twins. Their gift was water; they could manipulate it to their will, according to the story. That's why they've been put at the top of the pillar here, I guess. Folks say they were born right here, out of the waters of the Baublenotts.”

“What happened to her twin?” asked Fiver, pointing at the scratched-out face.

“Some people don't like him much,” said Blaze. “According to some people, he caused a lot of problems.”

“For who?”

Blaze's hand went to his neck and Av looked to me. I bit into the flesh of the warm Marmos, waiting for Blaze to go on.

“Well, these guys, for one,” he said, waving at the faces below. “He wound up killing all of them, except his sister.”

I stopped mid-chew and Fiver sat up straight. “Why would he do that?”

Blaze sat down and poked at the fire. “He wanted to take her sons away from her.”

“So?” said Fiver. “What'd she care? Probably didn't want her sons in the first place.”

I nodded. That was how Mothers were.

Blaze smiled. “Yeah, that's what I said when I first heard the Sacred Six story. She wanted him, though. She fought hard to keep him.”

“Did she? I mean, did she keep her son?” I was surprised to hear Av speak, surprised he'd want to listen to anything Blaze had to say.

I glanced over at Fiver, and his eyebrow was up. I knew how Av's question must have sounded to him. In the Pit, a question like that sounded like something a Mother seeker might say.

Blaze shrugged. “Not with her. She hid him,” said Blaze. “Hid him where no one would find him. No one ever did.”

I looked at her quiet smile, the tiny dimples on either side of her mouth. Her eyes were black, blending in with the color of the rock. They were empty stone, but there was something there, maybe it was the fire, something that made me feel like she knew we were talking about her.

“What was her name?” I asked.

“Belphoebe,” said Blaze.

“And him?” asked Fiver, motioning to the scratched-out face with the leg of his Marmos.

Blaze sighed, his voice heavy. “Ardigund. His name was Ardigund.”

The stone was scratched out so badly all I could make
out was the shape of his left cheek, a single dimple just like his sister's still intact. “What happened to him?”

Blaze bent down and picked up a loose rock. He stood up and smashed it into the scratched-out face, several pieces flaking away where he hit it. “He found the Beginning,” was all Blaze said.

He stood there, staring at the twin without a face, his fists balling at his sides. There was hate inside him, but why? What had the Beginning done to Blaze that had him so angry?

“Did you?” The question fell out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Blaze turned, his brow knotted. “Did you find the Beginning? Is that why you hate them?”

Blaze dropped his head, and a laugh that was steeped in something black escaped him. I didn't care if he thought it was ridiculous. He knew so much about them, knew so much about us, and Cubby's life depended on everything he knew.

“Why are you even here, Blaze? Why help us?”

He raised his head to that, his lips tight. He squatted down by the fire and looked at me with those cold blue eyes. “Listen to me, because you need to know. Living outside the Pit, you have to be a lot of things if you want to survive. You've got to be a hunter, a warrior, a soldier like those men we talked about, husband, father. Some stick, some don't.” He pointed at me, making sure I was really listening. “One thing I've always been is Ikkuman.”

I felt pain in my throat, a warm rush to my cheeks.

“I'm a Brother. We take care of each other. That's why I'm here, Urgle. And that is why I'm getting you to that temple.”

I nodded and looked away, fidgeting with the belt he'd given me to cover my leg. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to know for every one of us, not just that Blaze was telling the truth but that after all of this, after everything, somehow we'd still be us.

The Beginners' High Temple was a sight I'd not been prepared for. In the morning, Blaze led us deeper into the Baublenotts, where we came to a wide river. Loads of rushing water flew past us and spilled over the edge of a cliff. “The Falls of the Faithful,” Blaze called it. At the edge of the falls, in the middle of the river, sat the Temple. It was a large stone structure of rich blues, greens, and reds.

Blaze had done what he promised; he'd taken me to it. But still, I didn't know what to think. He was a Brother, it was so easy to forget because of how confidently he made his way through the world outside the Pit, but he'd said it himself, he was a Brother. And Brothers take care of their Brothers. He'd done that. He'd brought us here. But then there was Digger. And the lies. He lied about his flint box, I was sure of it. How could I trust him? I could see plain enough that Blaze's speech hadn't made much of an impression on Av, who'd been ignoring Blaze all day. Blaze killed Digger. That was the truth as far as Av needed to know it.

Rushing water spilled through the base of the Temple, flowing through the open doorways while Tunrar sat on the
rooftops, bathing in the sun, their hideous cries fighting the thunderous volume of the great falls. The weedy vegetation of the Baublenotts grew in and around its turrets as if trying to hug the evil thing.

“How are we supposed to get to it?” Av yelled over the noise.

Blaze scratched at the blue mark again, and I felt my stomach twisting.

“Well, the docks are pulled back,” he shouted. “See those long wooden things?” He pointed to several long, flat structures that sat parallel to one another, the current slamming them violently into the base of the Temple. “Normally those docks attach to each bank of the river. Seems they don't want visitors.”

“What do we do?” said Fiver.

“Swim it.”

I watched the white water barreling past us, listened to its angry roar and felt my jaw lock. I'd known it. As soon as Blaze scratched his neck, I knew he'd tell us this.

“It's not possible,” said Av.

“It is,” said Blaze, nodding.

“Oh yeah? You done it?”

Blaze made no reply. His eyes were on the water.

“You've done it,” Av said incredulously.

Blaze said nothing, his gray-blue eyes now watching the Temple.

“Blaze?” I said. “Have you swum this?”

“What?” Suddenly he was back from wherever his mind had gone, focused on us. “No. No, I haven't.”

“But you've seen it done?”

He nodded.

“He's lying,” Av spat.

Blaze's eyes flashed to Av. “Kids younger than you have done this swim and I've seen it.”

“And drowned!”

Blaze withdrew into himself again, staring at the water. “Some make it,” he said quietly.

There were memories inside his head, ones he'd never share, and I wondered if I even wanted to know. Fiver moved in beside me, his back to Blaze.

“What do
you
think?” he asked.

I couldn't remember a time when Fiver'd ever cared what I thought about anything. Even still, I had no idea what to think. Cubby was right there, in that temple. All that stood between me and him was this raging water, and I'd never swum before.

“Can you swim?” I asked him.

Fiver shrugged. “Once or twice I gave it a shot when the Hunting Party went out.”

I nodded. Av had told me about swimming with the Hunting Party; he'd said none of them had been terribly good and I didn't think the water had been like this.

Av was crouched by the side of the river, watching me and Fiver expectantly.

“Cubby's in there,” I said finally. “I'm going.”

“Going,” Fiver said, nodding. “Wasted's dead. I owe it to him.”

Av stood up and wiped a drip from his chin on his shoulder. “Cubby's in there,” he agreed regretfully.

“In that water,” Blaze said, “you fight with everything you've got in you. Understand?”

I nodded.

“Everything. That current is going to sweep you right over those falls if you let up for a second.”

Fiver and I nodded.

“What are you still doing here?” said Av. “You got us to the Temple, now go!”

When Blaze looked at me, I hardened my face and made sure he knew I agreed with Av.

“Goodbye, Blaze,” I said. Fiver crossed his arms and stepped in beside me. We didn't trust Blaze. It was time for him to leave us.

Blaze smiled sadly, and nodded.

“Take care, Brothers,” he said.

I stood and watched him go, a twinge of regret pricking my brain.

He stopped and turned back, motioning for me to follow.

Fiver and Av were crouched by the water, preoccupied with deciding how best to approach the Temple.

I hurried over to Blaze.

“What?”

“Look, I know this is your Little Brother and all,” he started, “but I need to say this to you. If you make it across, make it in there, and you see him—”

I felt a sudden surge of panic. “Will he be dead?” I blurted out.

“No, no.”

“How do you know?”

“Just—if you see him, think a moment. You need to ask yourself this, and…you may not like your answer.”

“What?”

“If it turns out you can't have him, if you can't take the
boy outta there”—he bit his lip and looked away—“is he better off there than, than with Rawley?”

I took a step back. “What? What do you mean?”

“I mean,” he said, his eyes boring into mine and hiding something more behind them, “he's better off not breathin' than breathin' in that place.”

I took another step back. “No. I—” I couldn't understand what he was saying. I wouldn't. Cubby was coming home with me. “Why would you even say that?”

Blaze pointed to my hand, and I looked at my palm. “Just take that second to really think. A lot depends on your decision,” he said.

I felt dizzy a moment. I thought about demanding that he tell me what the Abish girl had told him, but the look on his face stopped me. I suddenly didn't want to know—in fact, I was terrified.

“If you get in there, ask to see Gorpok Juga. They won't say no after you've made that swim.”

“How do you know all this?” I asked.

“If they ask you questions, be brief with your answers, you understand? The less they know about you, about any of us, the better.”