"I can't. Tell me what has happened?"
He gave me a quick sketch of how the battle had played out after I jumped into the fire. Most of the Warpers were dead, only Roze, Gede and four others remained alive. They were in the Keep's cells, awaiting trial.
"They will be hanged for treason and murder," Leif said. He grew somber. "We buried Moon Man last week."
"Last week? But-"
"You've been gone for weeks. We keep the fire burning, hoping you'll return. Also Valek will not let us quench it. He's been helping the Councilors and Master Magicians recover from their ordeal and to smooth out relations with the Commander via Ambassador Signe. Valek went from the scourge of Sitia to the hero of Sitia." Leif smiled sardonically.
Valek. The one person I wouldn't mind spending eternity with.
Leif continued, "And the rest of us are coping with the aftermath. Many students were killed by the Vermin. We're still sorting out who is left. Your friend Dax is okay, but Gelsi died resisting a Warper."
Moon Man was right, Gelsi found her way back. I hoped Stono wouldn't suffer too much before his soul found the sky.
He paused. "The Sitian army's hunting down the remaining Vermin who escaped. The Sandseeds have moved back to the plains to repopulate." Leif sighed. "You're missed by everyone. Why can't you come back?"
"Someone needs to keep the Fire Warper from regaining power."
Leif frowned as he thought, then looked hopeful. "Bain has burned those old Efe texts to stop someone from learning about the blood magic."
"But there are others who know how to perform the ritual, and, even though you will execute them, they will be here in the fire world and able to communicate to someone who is determined to seek them out."
"You're a Soulfinder, can't you send them somewhere out of reach?" Leif asked.
"They don't deserve to be in the sky."
"Why not?" Moon Man said.
My mind thought over what I knew of the sky, which was very little. "I think they would taint it. It's pure and their vile deeds would soil it."
"Finally. What is the sky?"
What indeed? When I sent souls there, I felt refreshed, energetic even though I used power, which usually caused me fatigue. I added souls to the sky. Adding to the power blanket surrounding the world.
The source of magic!
The world's soul.
Moon Man beamed at me. "Now you can send me there! And then you can return to your life."
He chuckled at my dubious expression. "You will find a way, Yelena. You always do."
"Last piece of cryptic advice?"
"Consider it my farewell gift."
I hesitated for a moment. Once Moon Man was gone I would be all alone.
"All the more reason not to stay," Moon Man said.
"There's one thing I won't miss."
"And that is?"
"You reading my mind all the time and making me figure things out for myself."
"All part of being your Story Weaver. It does not stop, you know. You will hear my voice in your mind from time to time, giving you my unique advice."
I groaned. "And I thought living in the underworld for eternity was bad!"
Before sending him to the sky, I stared at him, trying to hold his features, including his sardonic grin, in my mind. When he disappeared, his absence felt like an icy coating on my skin. I realized I still held Opal's bat, but my connection to Leif was broken.
I wandered through the shadow world and found lost souls. Every so often I checked in the fire world to make sure the Fire Warper remained as he should be. He cursed, taunted and tried to cajole me, depending on his mood.
Irys, Leif and Bain all talked to me through the glass animals. They were the only ones who had the ability to use them. Through them I knew Roze, Gede and the other Warpers would be hanged soon. I prepared to receive them in the fire world.
In the meantime, I stared at my bat, trying and failing to connect to Valek. My desire to talk to him, to hold him, clawed at my body. Frustration at my inability to communicate with him caused a window to open to the real world, and I could view events around my fire. I laughed at my intense feelings of ownership. My fire. But I sobered. I knew after they hanged Roze and the others, my fire would be doused and my window closed for good.
The Council planned to hang Roze and her accomplices on gallows built in the bloodstained sand then burn their bodies in my fire. An insult given only to traitors.
The sand would be cleaned up and perhaps the gardeners would plant grass in the space. Or some trees. Flowers. A memorial? Perhaps a structure similar to one of the Citadel's jade statues or fountains. To remember me and Moon Man.
Now I was being maudlin and dramatic. Next thing I knew, I'd be designing the memorial, sketching its dimensions in the sand. I wondered about what they would do with all the sand. Send it to Booruby to be melted into glass? So Opal could turn fire into ice?
I froze in shock as a wild idea formed in my head. Thinking it through, I found many holes and reasons for it not to work. But success or not, at least I could say I tried. And the effort alone would keep Moon Man from nagging me for a while.
35.
CALLING TO LEIF through my bat, I hoped there would be enough time. He seemed eager to help and rushed off to make the arrangements.
Events had to happen in a particular order for this to work. I returned to the fire world. The Fire Warper would be our first test subject. Watching out my window, I waited for Leif to return. I didn't like being in the fire world. The shrill noise drilled through my skull and the putrid smell permeated the air. I preferred the quiet dullness of the shadow world.
The Fire Warper enjoyed my anxiety. "Look at how you long to return. Your suffering is my only pleasure. And I will enjoy keeping you here. Already I sense an unhappy boy who seeks revenge on his tormentors. If his desire grows, I'll be able to talk to him. Unless you prevent it."
Doubt flared about what I planned. Was I being selfish? Could I still rescue souls lost in the shadow world? Yet I had done it before with the ghosts in Owl's Hill. Suppressing all my fears, I ignored the Fire Warper's comments.
What seemed like a couple of weeks to me, but could have been a month or more, passed. By my brief glimpses into the Keep, the cold season had ended and the warming season was in full swing. I received updates from Leif, but now that I had a chance to escape, my impatience grew.
Finally, all the elements were in place. The gallows were built and the needed equipment brought in. My incredible relief at seeing Opal surprised me. Her mouth was pressed in pure determination as she readied her tools.
Another worry crossed my mind. Within the underworld, I hadn't felt cold, hot, hunger or thirst. But if I stepped back through the fire, would it burn me? I would find out soon enough. The Fire Warper hovered near me, his amusement plain.
Opal grasped a long metal pipe and poked it into the kiln. I wondered where they had gotten the glassmaking supplies. She turned the pipe and drew it out. And proceeded to create a glass animal.
When she moved to blow into the pipe, I inhaled the Fire Warper's soul. He yelped in surprise and seared my skin as I sent him through Opal and into the glass. He screamed in panic and resisted. But I controlled him. He was a soul after all.
Opal jerked as if burned, but returned to her task, making the ugliest, squattest looking pig I ever saw.
Placing the animal into the annealing oven, the wait began. Had our experiment worked? If the Fire Warper was truly trapped within the glass, then we could encase all the Warpers who knew how to perform blood magic, preventing them from passing the information along. And I could go home.
Twelve of the longest hours passed before Opal withdrew the pig and held the statue up for all to see. It was then I noticed just how many people had come to watch. I expected Leif, the Master Magicians and Councilors, but it appeared that Fisk and the entire Helping Guild members were there. My mother and father lingered at the edges. Perl's hand was clamped to her throat in dismay, but she looked as determined as Opal.
Cahil and a regiment of soldiers, including Marrok stood at attention. Ari and Janco waited with Leif. Janco scowled, showing his extreme dislike of magic.
Valek glowed with his own inner fire. For him, I would risk the flames' heat.
I turned my attention to Opal's creation. It pulsed with a muddy red light. The Fire Warper was locked inside.
The audience cheered. Opal placed the pig in the sand, and gathered another blob of molten glass, preparing for the next soul.
Roze, under the control of three Master Magicians, was forced to mount the gallows' steps. The noose was tightened around her neck and the executioner stepped back. Her face contorted with rage and she shouted.
Time froze for a moment and I felt what it would have been like to stand there terrified, waiting for the floor to open and my life to end with a quick snap of my neck. If I had chosen the noose instead of becoming the Commander's food taster two years ago, I wondered if any of this would have happened.
Roze fell in slow motion. Her body jerked at the end of the rope. Her soul flew. I captured it.
Her hateful thoughts filled my mind. Guardian of the underworld suits you, Yelena. You belong here. You don't really believe you can go back? You'll be feared by all and become an outcast in record time.
If I was a Soulstealer, I would agree with you, I said. You don't scare me, Roze. You never did and that bothered you more than me being a Soulfinder.
Opal blew. I sent Roze on her final journey. Then Gede. Then the other four Warpers. Seven in all, including the Fire Warper.
When all the Warpers had been encased in glass, Opal sank to the ground in exhaustion. Now I could leave. I glanced around, trying to determine whether I missed anything, whether a soul who could do harm remained. Roze's words had a bit of truth to them. Regardless of my explanations, Sitians would be frightened of me and the Council's suspicion and unease would linger for a long time.
I welcomed the difficulties. All part of living, and I planned to enjoy every minute.
As I walked through my window to the Keep, sounds reached me first. The roar of the fire. Leif calling my name. Then scalding heat sucked my breath away. Bright yellow and orange stabbed at my eyes. My cape caught fire. I dived to the sand and rolled on the ground to snuff the flames. So much for my grand entrance.
36.
I SPENT MY FIRST HOURS back cocooned in an excited babble of all my friends and family. Everyone except Valek. But I knew I would see him when the horde dispersed.
Once my fire had finished its macabre task of burning the traitors to ash, it was doused. Thick smoke boiled from it and clung to the ground until Gale Stormdance created a fresh breeze to whisk it away.
I noted with much interest how fast life resumed. Though glad I had returned, the Councilors left for a meeting, and Fisk and his guild hurried off to work in the market.
Before he left, Fisk flashed me a wide smile and said, "Lovely Yelena, you'll need new clothes for the hot season. I know the best seamstress in the Citadel. Come find me when you're ready."
The hot season? Ari told me it had just started. I had lived in the underworld for seventy-one days, missing the entire warming season. I viewed the time with mixed emotions: glad my perceptions in the underworld didn't match reality, especially if I ever needed to go back; and upset I wasn't here to help clean up the mess left behind by the Vermin.
Ari and Janco grumbled over the hot, sticky weather and confessed their desire to go home to Ixia.
"We had fun rooting out all those Daviians," Janco said. "But I'm sure Maren misses us."
Ari looked doubtful. He had washed the black dye from his hair, and his light skin had burned in the Sitian sun. Janco's skin had tanned, matching his Sitian clothes.
"Oh this?" Janco said, when I mentioned his new coloring. "You missed some beautiful days."
"Janco's been sunning himself every chance he gets," Ari said with obvious disdain. "He claimed he kept the fire going, but I caught him snoozing in the sand a few times."
"Once!" Janco said.
They began to bicker. I laughed and moved away, but heard Ari call out, "Training yard, five o'clock."
Kiki's urgent summons had nagged me the whole time I'd been back. I hurried over to the stable to spend an hour with her. Perhaps Valek would show up and we could get reacquainted in the straw.
I scratched her ears, fed her peppermints and ducked behind a stack of hay bales when the Stable Master came looking for me, probably to give me a lecture about borrowing Garnet for so long.
Lavender Lady not go again, Kiki said in my mind.
I'll try to avoid it. No promises, though.
She huffed. Next time Kiki go.
A Horsefinder?
Help Lavender Lady, Kiki said, as if that ended the discussion.
Even though I longed to return to my rooms in Irys's tower, my parents insisted I come to their quarters in the Keep's guest wing after I visited the stables. Leif, Irys and Bain followed me, and the six of us sat in the living room, sipping tea. Wedged tightly between my father and mother on the couch, I was held prisoner. My desire to seek Valek would have to wait.
Bain and Irys were most interested in what had happened in the fire and shadow worlds. After giving them a brief sketch, Bain made me promise to visit him and recite the details for his book.
"You passed the Master-level test," Irys said.
"What?" Caught off guard by this sudden change in topic, I choked on my tea.
"You entered the underworld and returned with a spirit guide. Your encounter with the Fire Warper was your challenge, and his defeat your success."
"But I don't have a spirit guide."
Leif laughed. "Your bat! I thought he was strange. Beside the obvious fact that he wanted to hang out with you."
"Leif. That's not nice, considering all your sister has done for you," Perl admonished.
"Oh, right. How can I forget that she made me bait for a snake, left me under house arrest in Ixia and smuggled me into the Keep in a coffin. And don't forget the time..."