I ran up the path, ducking as arrows peppered the rock around me, shattering dust and pebble, biting my face. But I was fast, and by the time the guards aimed and fired, I was well out of danger.
29
Thunder split the sky and a flash of lightning, suddenly blinding, cast shadows through the burning ash. The steep slope of the mountain was ankle deep in pumice and lightweight volcanic rock that crumbled beneath my boots. Slow rivers of thick toxic sludge oozed down the ravines and crevices, taking the path of least resistance.
The air was so thick with ash I could hardly breathe. There was so much sediment in the ash, mixed with the wet rain, it felt like I was drowning.
Still I pushed on. The heavy rain hissed and sizzled as it collided with the ground layer of ash, sending up puffs of poisonous dust, or where the earth was hot enough, burst into a billowing clouds of toxic steam that not even my mask could filter out.
I felt dizzy and light-headed, and my knees trembled with each step, threatening to give out completely. The hot rain felt like it was coming from all directions, at one point even up from the earth, scorching the bottom of my arms and elbows.
The thick leather of my coat protected most of my skin. The sizzling embers would have burned holes through my cloak, but luckily it was heavy from rain, soaked and dripping down my legs. My tangled curls hung heavy from beneath my hood, sticking the sides of my face and neck, coiling around my ears like snakes.
But then my vision cleared as I neared the lip of the roaring volcano. The ash was going up, shooting past me in one direction, a wall of fiery embers, a burning river, spewing into the sky like a dragon. It rolled out above me like a mushroom cloud, evaporating the rain and spreading out before falling into the valleys. I was in a pocket, an in-between space of surprising stillness. I unfastened my mask and pulled down my shawl so I could see. The noxious air stung my sinuses, and the blistering heat blurred my vision.
Then a shadow darkened the ash, looming large over me. The shape filled my vision, before consolidating on a single figure that seemed to melt out of the wall fire.
He was wearing a dark suit and padded fur coat, studded with spiked armor of black metal, and a golden crown that shone like a halo. A crack of thunder announced his arrival, and rays of light rippled off his stark silhouette like rising steam.
It was hard not to be intimidated, even though I’d seen the newspaper articles from the Before, of the thin scientist he’d used to be, before all this began. The man who left his wife behind and kidnapped their son.
I glanced over my shoulder, but I couldn’t see anyone else. It was just King Richard and me. The jewels of his crown sparkled with dazzling light as he rushed towards me. I raised my bow and fired three arrows, but each time he vanished in a swirl of ash and smoke, moving so quickly I couldn’t see him.
My heart pounded in my chest.
“Now now,” he said with a smirk. “That’s no way to greet your father-in-law.”
His voice echoed in the fiery maelstrom, appearing to come from everywhere at once. I hissed at him, stepping back warily, clutching my bow.
“I’m not your daughter,” I spat. “Legal or otherwise.”
When he smiled, he looked so much like Damien my heart ached. The fine lines around his mouth and eyes gave him a cruel countenance, and a gray streak running through his dark hair revealed his age. Now that I’d met his mother, I knew where Damien got his sensitive features.
Thunder rumbled above us, trembling the ground. A blast of hot steam made my stumble back, clutching my weapon.
“I did warn you how this was going to end,” he said, drawing his long sword slowly from his belt with a scrape of metal on metal.
“Did you?” I asked. “I probably couldn’t hear you past the iron bars between us. Remember, after you killed my mother and locked me up?”
“Hardly,” he said, holding up a hand. “And you got the events a little wrong. First, you lured my son into a trap by feigning concern for your mother, and nearly killed him.”