Russell barrelled around the corner, slipping slightly on the marble floor as he tried to change direction when he saw her. For his age, he moved incredibly quickly.
He grabbed her by the hand, dragging her along with him. As shouts echoed from behind them, he swept his free hand through the air. The two men approaching were thrown through the air as they made to draw their weapons, disappearing out of sight.
‘What did you do?’ she shouted, trying to keep pace with him. Ahead of them, the green glass doors exploded outward with a deafening boom.
Russell didn’t answer.
With the two guards at the door still reeling from the explosion, they sprinted fast. Blinded by the midday sun momentarily, she allowed Russell to pull her to the right. Dozens of soldiers stood outside the vaults, weapons at the ready. As her eyes adjusted to the sunlight, she saw archers preparing to fire for a brief moment before Russell pushed her ahead of himself.
Unsure where to go, she looked back at him just in time to see him sweep a hand through the air in a wide arc. In front of the soldiers, an enormous wall of fire burst from the ground, blocking their line of sight. ‘Come on, we don’t have long,’ he shouted, grabbing her once more as they sprinted in the direction of the nearest street.
‘Who are they?’
‘Arcadia, they must have been expecting you to come here,’ he said, glancing back in the direction of the plaza.
‘There!’ she shouted, pointing up at one of the rooftops as movement caught the corner of her eye.
Peering over the edge, crossbow at the ready, another soldier stood in wait. Eyes flicking in the direction she was pointing; Russell brought a finger down through the air. There was a crack and a blinding flash. A bolt of lightning streaked down from the cloudless sky, blasting chunks of rubble from the side of the building.
A rumble began to grow, leaving Clara wondering if it was part of the aftereffects of the lightning strike. Judging by the look on Russell’s face, it might not be. Stumbling slightly, she glanced over her shoulder to find half a dozen horses galloping after them. There was no way they could outrun the mounted soldiers; they would be on top of them in a matter of seconds.
Russell took a deep, shaky breath. Whether it was all the running or the powers taking their toll, she didn’t know, but he was tiring quickly. Slowing slightly, he held his hand out, palm up, his fingers extending as if he were holding an orb.
As he lifted his hand, the ground began to shake, with pillars of stone rising up from beneath the stone. ‘Rooftops,’ he said heavily, pushing her ahead of them towards the pillars that made up a disjointed staircase of sorts. Leaving her to go ahead, he turned back.
Climbing onto the rooftop, Clara scanned the area. For a moment, it seemed as though they were alone. Looking back down at Russell, she saw him exhale a deep breath, just as he had on the night they had crossed the border.
Rather than ice, the wind whipped up, raising a wall of sand from the street, rolling towards the horsemen, and engulfing them. Breathing heavily, he climbed the rest of the steps as quickly as he could, limping slightly. ‘Did you get what you needed to?’ he asked breathlessly, urging her forward as quickly as he could.
She nodded. It was probably too late to think that she might get the chance to explore The Archive now, but she had what she had been sent to get. ‘I need to get to Sebastian Vandemark in Tristan,’ she said, helping him along as best as she could.
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‘Sebastian died nearly two years ago,’ Russell said.
‘What am I going to do now?’ She sighed, slowing her pace as she looked to the sky for answers.
‘Don’t give up,’ he encouraged. ‘Go to Tristan and ask to speak to Lewis Vandemark. Tell him that Russell sent you. The dusk may have passed, but after that comes the night.’
‘What if he won’t speak to me?’
‘He will,’ Russell insisted. ‘Take this as well.’ Grabbing her hand, he forced something into it. Opening her hand, she saw a large, teardrop-shaped diamond. Letting go of her, he looked down into the street below. ‘Good, we’re in the right place,’ he said, gesturing for her to follow him.
It wasn’t until she stood in the street next to him that she realised where they were. ‘Something I can help with?’ Izza asked, leaning against the side of the sand-ski.
‘Yes,’ Russell said, pulling Clara forward and out of the main street. ‘I need you to take Clara to the port in Whitemire. Right now!’
‘Whitemire is a couple of hundred miles from here; it’ll take us days to get there and back,’ Izza laughed as Hanni appeared from around the back of the sand-ski.
‘If you ever want to find anything in that desert, you’ll take her to Whitemire. It won’t be for a while, but the day will come,’ Russell said as he fished around in his bag. ‘In the meantime, this should keep you supplied.’
Tipping a few coins from a small coin pouch, Russell held the gold out to Izza. ‘How do we know you’re not lying about finding something?’
‘I’ll stay here and help you; I have a feeling I can see some things that you and your brothers might not be able to,’ Russell said, forcing the coins into her hand. As he did so, Clara saw his eyes go vacant, just for a second. ‘Do we have a deal?’
Izza nodded slowly, a look of confusion on her face. ‘Fine. Let us turn the sand-ski around.’
‘Wait, Izza? What are you doing?’ Hanni asked in disbelief.
‘Turn the sand-ski around; we’re going to Whitemire,’ she repeated before disappearing inside the house, leaving her brothers bewildered but, reluctantly, turning the sand-ski around.
‘Did you just? Clara hissed.
‘I didn’t lie to them, Clara. Sometimes not everything is clear, and there are multiple possibilities. Sharing one of them sometimes helps,’ he said, shushing her quickly before she could say any more.
Diving into his bag again, Russell produced another pouch, this one empty. As Hanni and Faisal began turning the sand-ski around, grumbling between themselves, Russell emptied out the coin pouch. Carefully, he began to divide them up, slipping a handful into the empty pouch.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked, eyeing all the coins.
‘You might get as far as Whitemire with their help, but after that you’ll be on your own. I’m hardly going to leave you foraging on farms in the dead of night,’ he muttered, scraping the remaining coins into the other pouch and handing it to her. ‘This should be enough to get you from Whitemire to Whitecliff. It’s probably a hundred or so miles from there to Tristan.’
‘You’re not coming with me?’ she asked. As much as she had questioned whether she could trust Russell on their journey so far, she didn’t want to leave him behind. Seeing how he had been able to hold back all the Arcadian soldiers who had pursued them had been incredible. She never would have stood a chance on her own.
‘I need to stay here,’ he said gently. ‘Someone needs to clean up some of this mess. I’ll try to give you as much of a head start as I can.’
‘I’m scared,’ she whispered as Hanni and Faisal began to push the sand-ski out from under the cover, with Izza reappearing with three large rucksacks.
‘You’ll be fine; stay smart,’ he said with a warm smile. ‘Besides, you think I would let you walk off with all that coin if I didn’t know something?
‘Let’s get going!’ Izza called as she tossed a pair of goggles in Clara’s direction.
‘I’ll see you again?’ she asked quickly as he nudged her towards the waiting sand-ski.
‘Of course, just because we’re parting ways now doesn’t mean that we won’t see each other again,’ he replied.
‘When?’ she called as the sail began to pick up and the sand-ski began to move towards the edge of the city.
She tried desperately to hear his response as the sand-ski screeched over a piece of stone, but his words were lost. He raised a hand in half a wave, a twitch of a smile crossing his lips as the sand-ski sped up, the distance between them growing quickly.
Pulling the goggles over her eyes, she turned away from Russell’s disappearing figure, silently watching the streets pass before they opened on to the endless expanse of the sweltering desert. Feeling the diamond Russell had given her in her pocket, she took some comfort from the fact that he seemed to be sure that they would meet again one day. When, she wondered.