‘Pull me free, witch.’
She reached down.
Her strength was immense, and he could feel frozen blood splitting, could feel massive sections of skin and flesh torn away as she lifted and dragged him out from the fissure.
‘Liar! You lied!’
Torrent lay on his back. The red sleet was diminishing now – he could see the Jade Strangers and the sun itself. From below his hips he could feel nothing. Frozen. Bloodless. I haven’t got long .
‘Where are they?’
He forced himself on to one elbow, pointed off to the right and slightly downslope. ‘There, behind that rise – stand atop it, witch, and you may see them.’
‘That is all I need from you – now you can die, pup. Did I not say you would?’
‘You did, Olar Ethil.’
Laughing, she set off for the rise of hard-packed snow and ice. Twenty-five, maybe thirty paces away.
Torrent twisted round, dragged himself closer to his bow. ‘I promised,’ he whispered. Half-numb fingers closed about the bow’s shaft. He scrabbled one-handed for the quiver, drew out a stone-tipped arrow. Rolling on to his back, he lay gasping for a moment. It was getting hard – hard to do anything.
Ice squealed and then cracked and he slid half a pace – back towards that fissure, but now it was wider – now it could take all of him.
Torrent forced the nock’s slitted mouth round the gut-string.
She was almost there, tackling the ragged side of the rise.
He used his elbows and shoulders to push himself up against a heap of rubbled ice. Brought the bow round and drew the arrow back. This is impossible. I’m lying all wrong. She’s too far away! Wretched panic gripped him. He struggled to calm his breath, deafened by the pounding of his own heart.
Olar Ethil scrambled on to the rise, straightened and stared downslope.
He saw her fists clench, half-heard her howl of fury.
Squinting, his muscles starting to tremble, he stared at her shoulders – waiting, waiting – and when he saw them pivot, he released.
I will make him pay for the lies! Olar Ethil, eldest among all the Bonecasters and now reborn, spun round towards Torrent—
The arrow caught her in the left eye.
The stone tip tore through the eyeball, punched through the back of the socket, where the bone was thin as skin, and the spinning chipped-stone point drilled a gory tunnel through her brain, before shattering against the inside of the back of her skull.
He saw her head snap back, saw the shaft protruding from her face, and by the way her body fell – collapsing like a sack of bones – he knew that she was dead – killed instantly. Gasping, he sagged back. Did you see that, Toc? Did you see that shot?
Ah, gods. It’s done, brother .
It’s done. I am Torrent, last warrior of the Awl .
When he slid towards the fissure, he was helpless to resist.
Torrent. Last warrior of the …
Stormy bellowed in agony as Gesler dragged him away. The red-haired Falari had been stabbed through his right thigh. But the blood was slow, gushing only when the muscles moved, telling Gesler that the fool wouldn’t bleed out before he got him away.
The Ve’Gath were all drawing back – and back …
Because she’s coming. Because she’s finally joining this fight .
Gods help us all .
Pulling Stormy on to the blood-soaked embankment of the third trench, he looked back upslope.
She was walking alone towards the massed Kolansii. Little more than a child, stick-thin, looking undernourished. Pathetic.
When Gesler saw her raise her hands, he flinched.
With a terrible roar a wall of fire engulfed the highest trench. Scalding winds erupted in savage gusts, rolling back down the slope – Gesler saw the corpses nearest the girl crisp black, limbs suddenly pulling, curling inward in the heat’s bitter womb.
And then Sinn began walking, and, as she did so, she marched the wall of fire ahead of her.
Kalyth stumbled to her knees beside Gesler. ‘You must call her back! She can’t just burn them all alive!’
Gesler sagged back. ‘It’s too late, Kalyth. There’s no stopping her now.’
Kalyth screamed – a raw, breaking sound, her hands up at her face – but even she could not tear her eyes from the scene.
The fire devoured the army crouched against the base of the Spire. Bodies simply exploded, blood boiling. Thousands of soldiers burst into flames, their flesh melting. Everything within the fire blackened, began crumbling away. And still the firestorm raged.
Gunth Mach was crouched down over Stormy, oil streaming from her clawed hands and sealing the wound on his leg, but he was already pushing those hands away. ‘Gesler – we got to reach those stairs—’