Bloodrush (Scarlet Star Trilogy #1)

Chapter 35 - The Diary of Rhin Rehn'ar

'I stewed for days, hidden in the tower. I put on a brave face for Merion, but inside I raged. Like old times. Dark times. Karrigan had dismissed me as a fool, and coldly condemned his son to cold Fae steel. 

'Stop dragging Merion into your tiny little world of lies,' he had said.

That made me boil. I couldn't allow him to do that to me, or to his son. He is a stubborn fuck, and I knew there was only one way to make him listen to me, to get him to understand how important Merion was, how terrible a father Karrigan was and how much Merion needed me. Like he always bloody has.

It didn't take much to get into his study ...'

7th June, 1867

The night that greeted them couldn't have been further from the blazing havoc they left inside the riverboat. Instead of searing heat and thick smoke, they were met with biting rain and a wind that tugged and pulled at their limbs and clothes, trying to steal them away into the darkness. Merion blinked furiously as the rain lashed his face. His eyes were blind from the fire. The night was black and impenetrable. The boy staggered into the darkness, as each lightning flash painted the edges of the world.

Thunder rolled in the wake of a blue flicker, and he saw the trail leading up to the rise only a few hundred yards away. 'This way!' he cried to Rhin, who was already casting around in the shadows, wary and silent. His sword was out and on guard.

Merion sloshed through the mud. He could see his feet now that his eyes were adjusting, now that the fire was breaking out through the windows and doors of the riverboat and giving the desert a faint glow. Oranges, yellows and reds met the bruised black of the night sky. The hot colours played in the puddles around his tattered shoes.

'You said the town was rioting?' Merion asked over the drumming of the rain.

'It is,' Rhin hissed.

'Why?' Lilain whispered. She was getting heavier with every step.

'They didn't get paid,' muttered the faerie.

Merion snarled. 'I wonder why.'

Another lightning strike turned the night into day, and Merion saw the two lordsguards still sprawled on the ground, ruined faces lying in the muck. He bared his sharp teeth again and battled on.

'We'll get to the hill, then we'll take a look at you,' Merion told his aunt. She didn't answer, and Merion shook her, eliciting a groan. He was not about to let anybody else die tonight.

'We need to get Lurker out of the jail,' Lilain breathed.

'I wouldn't worry about that,' Rhin replied.

Yet another fork of lightning split the sky. Merion froze. 'Rhin,' he snapped. 'Stay here.'

'What?'

Merion pointed as the sky flashed again.

Thirteen little figures stood in a line in the mud, a stone's throw away.

Darkness returned, and despite the hot glow of the fire, they had vanished. No matter how hard Merion peered into the curtains of rain, he couldn't see them.

'Friends of yours, Rhin?' Merion asked, pawing at the empty space at his belt where the Mistress had been. She was now lost to the fire and the flame. All Rhin had to offer was a nod.

When the next flash showed the canyons in the clouds above, Merion squinted. There they were again, somehow closer now, yet unmoving, standing still with their arms crossed across their black breastplates, hooded and pale-faced. Merion slowly bent an aching knee and slid his aunt from his aching shoulder.