Page 20 of Fire to the Stars

“I know a way.” Claire pulls her hood over her scarred cheek, then lifts Lucy. She peers up the path and shifts on her feet as if working up the will to move. “Follow me.”

Claire darts onto the path, back toward Ravinfort. I’m about to shout at her, ask what in the Gods’ names she’s thinking, when I spot the silverwolf pack flanked by their masters. She sprints straight for them, me on her trail. We’re clear of the trees. Out inthe open. But it’s too late to turn back. Just when her judgment can’t possibly get worse—whenmyjudgment can’t get worse for trusting her—she darts right and leaps down the wooden steps of the first dock.

Aboatlessdock.

Alarm makes my stomach drop. She’s betting on the river rapids to sweep us to safety.

“Attaquez!” rasps a figure.

I leap onto the creaking dock. My calf narrowly escapes a silverwolf’s snapping jaws. Claire teeters on the dock’s ledge. “Hurry!” she shouts. Lucy yips in her arms.

Sounds crash together: barks and howls, Old Tongue commands, my pulse in my ears, boots pounding on wood. Claire shifts Lucy to one arm and reaches for me with her free hand. I rip off a glove and shove it down the front of my overcoat. My grip needs to be as solid as possible. Without stopping, I latch onto her wrist. She grabs mine. I suck in a lungful of air.

Together, we jump.

I plunge into the freezing water, jerked at the shoulder as Claire is first to be swept downstream. My overheated skin turns ice-cold. Water floods my ears and drowns out a silverwolf’s snarls and the sound of its claws skidding to a halt on the dock.

Claire’s grip on my wrist tightens. Her legs kick mine as we burst to the surface. We’re thrashing, spitting water, only to choke on a new wave. The current drags us out of the orange reflection on the river’s surface, farther from the flames, away from Ravinfort and around the cliffside bend. Thick forests line the rocky shores. Lucy whimpers in the cold, her soaked coat dulling from gold to red-brown. Claire holds her tight against her shoulder. With both of her hands full, her chin is barely above water.

“Hold on to—” Water fills my mouth. I cough it up. I pull Claire, but the rapids keep us at arm’s length. I want to hold her by the waist to free one of her arms, but I can’t stay afloat. My muscles tighten from the cold and drain me of strength.

We take wave after wave. Starlight prickles the sky in the shape of that damned owl constellation. It watches me, veiled in smoke, passive to the killers who hunt us.

I pray.Help us, Diu.

A drop in the rapids dunks us under and yanks our hands apart. The last thing I feel is Claire’s nails scraping my palm before she slips into the depths beyond my reach.

Fire is the most unwieldy of celestial materials. For your safety, I give your realm the tinderfox.

—Lesson in creation magic from Diu to the Immortals

Translated fromThe Tale of Stars (L’Histoire des Étoiles), Part I: The Book of Origins

Chapter Seven

Claire

The weakened current drags me by the coat, but I shuffle my way up the riverbank, then fall to my knees. Lucy’s soaked body threatens to slip from the shaking cradle of my arms.

My chest spasms. Bubbles pop on my lips. In a great twist of pain, I double over and vomit up water.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Air slices down my throat so sharply, I start violently coughing. All the while, the crackle of Diu’s magic skitters within my chest in blistery pops that I know from experience are healing my lungs. Steam bursts from my mouth with each cough.

Tears stream from my eyes, mucus drips from my nose, and saliva leaks from the corner of my lips. I should’ve drowned. Ididdrown.

Death came for me, but Diu’s curse pulled me through.

“Lucy, wake up.” I gently shake the dripping bundle of fur in my arms. “Lucy?”

At first the poor thing doesn’t react. Her closed eyelids flutter, soaked fur a dingy brown. Her little chest heaves for air, but she’s breathing. My having one arm free to support her might be the reason she’s alive right now.

I unbuckle my sopping coat and untie the strings of my bodice. Lucy is shivering and I’m not much warmer, but securing her inside my clothes to share my body heat is better than nothing. It’ll have to do for now.