Crown of One Hundred Kings (Nine Kingdoms Trilogy #1) - Rachel Higginson Page 0,37

accessed. A lift system made it possible to ride from the ground to the first level of the village easily.

Tenovian citizens were used to containing and controlling fires. This was how they existed. How they cooked, conducted business, raised their children, and worshiped. Fire was as common in a Tenovian village as daily meals and kilns and alchemy.

The fire that raged through this village with unrestrained frenzy proved that it had not been accidently set. Nor had it been designed to only damage a little.

Whoever had set this inferno had meant to kill. To completely obliterate.

“There are people up there!” I heard someone shout.

Arrick’s men moved into action. While half the army remained with the well and pulley system, sending buckets of water down the line to drown the fire as best they could, the other half raced for houses where dozens of villagers were trapped.

I slid off my horse, ignoring my stiff bones and sore muscles. I slung my satchel over my abandoned saddle, tucked Shiksa inside, and rushed into the blaze.

The smoke billowed around me, creating curtains of black, choking agony. The fire blazed hotter than anything I’d ever experienced. My skin immediately felt as if I’d lazed in the sun all day and let it redden my complexion to the point of pain.

“Whoever set this fire, locked them inside,” Oliver gasped next to me.

Fire, as hot as the flame that blazed around me, set my blood to boil. “Who would do such a thing?”

Oliver shook his head. This was beyond any horror he had ever seen.

Arrick’s strong voice called for more water overhead. My mind swirled with our latest conversations. Had this been the work of the Tenovian royal house? Or the Ring of Shadows?

I shook my head, determined to focus on the fight ahead of me.

I raced to help the army, leaving Oliver screaming after me and the Crown of Nine abandoned on my horse. Leaping to the small platform that would raise me from the ground to the corded walkways, I clung to the rope tethered to the four corners.

My weight set the platform moving and I looked up at the image of Denamon overhead. I struggled to swallow through a singed throat. Letting my courage take flight, spreading sturdy wings that eclipsed my fear, I pulled hard on the rope dangling above my head and began my ascent. The rope seared with the heat above, burning my fingers.

The fire made the rope unstable and I swung widely in the air, the platform trembling beneath my weight. I pulled harder, faster, trying to end the journey swiftly.

It was not a short distance to the first dock. The black cedars were so tall in this part of the forest, that to reach the first level of branches and bridges was like climbing from the ground to the roof of the Temple. The rope frayed as the fire bit into it, singeing away the thick strands little by little.

A single strand of rope snapped overhead and I lunged to the side, releasing a surprised screech. My fingers bit into the hot rope while my toes dragged across the shifting base beneath me.

The platform dangled in the air, tilting precariously. One of the corner ropes had snapped. I held onto the pulley, but another rope broke above and the platform rocked and quivered aggressively.

I leveraged my body against the nearest corner rope. With one hand gripping the pulley so I didn’t plunge to my death, I reached for the docking platform. My fingers brushed the smooth wood, but I couldn’t grab on.

Oliver yelled something at me from the ground, but I couldn’t hear him clearly over the roar of the fire. In fact, the blaze had grown so hot around me that my skin prickled with sweat and seemed to be as hot as the flames that raced toward me.

I used my forearm to wipe the moisture out of my eyes so I could see properly again, but smoke clouded my vision.

I reached for the dock one last time just as the fire finished eating through the rope.

My mouth opened to scream, but before I could fall to my death, strong hands clasped my forearm. My weight pulled heavily against my savior, making me wince, but he did not let go.

The platform crashed to the ground with a resounding splintering of wood I could hear even over the roar of the flames. As I clung to the strong arm suspending me above my near-death, breathing in shaky gasps

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