Page 158 of Earthbound

‘Somewhere without pain,’ Lettle added.

Rayan’s heart beat against hers as they watched the edges of Ajax’s soul blur and fade until it was gone completely.

Crack.

The sound drew them out of their grief and they spun, searching for the sound.

A fissure crept up the trunk of the Tree of Souls, cleaving it in two. The ground began to shudder where the baobab’s roots strained to hold it upright.

‘It’s going to fall!’ Rayan shouted.

They began to run, but Lettle noticed that Alder wasn’t moving. And he was standing directly in the pathway of the falling tree.

‘Alder!’ she shouted.

He looked up at her, his face a mask of confusion. Lettle felt as though someone had winded her and she gasped for air.

Because that wasn’t Alder any more.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Yeeran

From the moment Yeeran saw Ajax get struck by drumfire, she knew Rayan was going to die.

Lettle knew it too, but she refused to believe it. Her sister’s passive smile had horrified her, but she understood that Lettle was protecting herself. Yeeran was just worried what would happen when Lettle’s smile fell away and reality hit.

If Yeeran thought about it for much longer, she would turn around and go back to Mosima, but she knew she couldn’t. Malak was out there, and if she could end this all now, she would.

So much had changed since Yeeran had last been in the camp. Though it had only been six weeks, it was as if a year had passed. The tent poles had sunk deeper into the swamp terrain, leaving their canopies sagging. Discarded bits of food and clothing lay heaped in stinking piles. The edge of the camp was completely deserted, but she could hear fighting up ahead.

A group of soldiers ran into her line of sight in the distance. One of them pointed at her and the others readied their weapons.

Yeeran was not prepared to fight so many, not when she had another purpose. She slipped into the nearest tent and rolled beneath a pallet, waiting for them to pass.

‘Was she one of Malak’s?’ a voice called out.

‘I’m not sure, didn’t look like she was wearing his uniform to me.’

‘Doesn’t mean she wasn’t one of his treasonous folk.’

Has the army uncovered Malak’s mutiny?

‘Search the tents.’

Yeeran’s pulse beat like a drum in her throat as she heard the soldiers move systematically through the camp.

‘Have you checked this one?’ Yeeran watched as boots inched across the threshold, a few feet from her face.

She turned onto her side slowly so that she could more easily reach her drum, but as she moved the weapon tipped onto its shell, letting out a hollow sound.

Yeeran sucked in a breath and held it. Maybe the soldier hasn’t heard.

She watched their shadow stretch as they walked back to the doorway of the tent, her lungs straining.

Thwum.

The arrow ripped through the mattress above Yeeran and embedded itself in the floor a few inches from her face.