"Well then," Brigan said, "what deal? Out with it."
Mydogg's steel eyes cut again to Fire. "Give us the monster," he said, "and we'll surrender our position."
It's a lie, Fire thought to Brigan. He's made it up this moment. He wants me – certainly he'd take me if you offered – but it's not why we're here.
Then why are we here? Can you sense anything unusual in the position of his army? What about the guard standing behind him?
Fire gripped Musa harder with her half-dead hand and leaned more heavily on Neel. I don't know. His army seems prepared for a straightforward attack. But I can't get into Murgda's head, so I can't know for sure. His guard has no intention to strike unless you or Nash make a move. I can't find what's wrong here, Brigan, but, oh, something is wrong. I feel it. Put an end to this before we learn what it is.
"No deal," Brigan said. "The lady is not a bargaining piece. Tell your archers to stand down. This meeting is over."
Mydogg raised his eyebrows sleekly and nodded. "Stand down," he called to his guard of archers, and as Mydogg's archers disengaged, Fire's body clamoured with panic to find all of them so accommodating. Something was so terribly wrong here. Brigan put his hand out sideways, the signal for his own archers to disengage; and suddenly, Fire screamed with an anguish that tore through her but that she didn't know the reason for. Her cry rang out, eerie and solitary, and one of Brigan's archers shot an arrow into Nash's back.
Pandemonium. The traitorous archer was struck down by his companions, and his second arrow, surely meant for Brigan, flew wide, striking one of Mydogg's guards. Brigan spun fiercely between Mydogg and the brother-in-law, the blade of his sword on fire with morning light. Arrows soared in all directions. Mydogg and his brother-in-law lay dead on the ground. And then the King's Army came roaring onto the scene, for without meaning to, Fire had called them.
In the bedlam everything finally became clear, focused on a single pinprick of purpose. Fire dropped and crawled across rock to the place where Nash lay on his side, dying, it seemed, for the arrow was lodged deep and true. She lay next to him. She touched his face with her broken hand. Nash. You will not die. I won't allow it. Do you hear me? Do you see me?
His black eyes stared, conscious, but barely, and only barely did he see her. Brigan tumbled down beside them, clutching Nash's hair, kissing Nash's forehead, gasping with tears. Healers in green appeared and knelt at Nash's back.
Fire grasped Brigan's shoulder and looked into his face, his eyes blank with shock and grief. She shook him, until he saw her. Go now and fight this battle. Brigan. Go now. We need to win the war.
He surged up wildly. She heard him yelling for Big. Horses thundered on all sides of the sad little tableau, parting around Fire, Nash, and the healers like a river around a rise of rock. The sound was deafening and Fire was soaked, drowning in hoofbeats and water and blood, gripping Nash's face and clinging harder to his mind than she had ever clung to anything before. Look at me, Nash. Look at me. Nash, I love you. I love you so much.
He blinked, staring into her face, a string of blood growing at the corner of his mouth. His shoulders and neck convulsed in pain.
Living is too hard right now, he whispered into her mind. Dying is easy. Let me die.
She felt the very moment when the two armies met, an explosion taking place within her own being. So much fear and pain, and so many minds fading away.
No, Nash. I won't let you. My brother, don't die. Hold on. My brother, hold onto me.
Part Four
The Dells
Chapter Thirty-Two
The river had risen so high with the spring melt that finally one of the bridges, with great shrieks and moans, had broken loose and plunged down into the sea. Hanna said she saw it happen from the palace roof. Tess had watched it with her. Tess had said that the river was liable to wash the palace and the city and the whole kingdom off the rocks, and then there would finally be peace in the world.
"Peace in the world," Brigan repeated musingly when Fire told him. "I suppose she's right. That would bring peace to the world. But it's not likely to happen, so I suppose we'll have to keep blundering on and making a mess of it."
"Oh," Fire said, "well put. We'll have to pass that on to the governor so he can use it in his speech when they dedicate the new bridge."
He smiled quietly at her teasing. They stood side by side on the palace roof, a full moon and a sky of stars illuminating the city's expanse of wood, stone, and water. "I suppose I'm a bit frightened by this new beginning we're supposed to be having," he said. "Everyone in the palace is so fresh and bright and confident, but it's only weeks since we were hacking each other to death. Thousands of my soldiers will never see this new world."
Fire thought of the raptor monster that had taken her by surprise this very morning, diving upon her and her guard as she exercised Small on the road, coming so close and fast that Small had panicked and kicked at the creature, almost losing his rider. Musa had been furious with herself, furious even with Fire, or at least with Fire's headscarf, which had loosened and released part of its property and been the reason for the attack in the first place. "It's true we've a great deal more to do than erect a new bridge," Fire said now, "and rebuild the parts of the palace that went up in the fire. But, Brigan, I do believe the worst is behind us."
"Nash was sitting up when I went to the infirmary to see him today," Brigan said, "and shaving himself. Mila was there, laughing at his mistakes."
Fire reached a hand to the roughness of Brigan's jaw, because he had reminded her of one of her favourite places to touch. They came together then, and forgot about the suffering kingdom for a number of minutes, while Fire's guard tried to blend even more discreetly into the background.
"My guard is another matter we need to discuss," Fire murmured. "I must have solitude, Brigan, and it must be when I choose it, not when you do."
Distracted, Brigan took a moment to respond. "You've borne your guard patiently."
"Yes, well, I agree I do need them much of the time, especially if I'm to stand so close to the crown. And I trust them, Brigan – I'd go so far as to say I have love for some of them. But – "
"You need to be alone sometimes."
"Yes."
"And I've also promised you not to wander alone."
"We must both promise each other," Fire said, "that we'll be thoughtful on the question, and answer it for ourselves on a case by case basis, and try not to take undue risks."
"Yes, all right," Brigan said. "I'll concede this point."
It was a piece in the structure of the ongoing conversation they had been having since the end of the war, about what it meant for them to be together.
"Could the kingdom ever bear me as its queen, Brigan?"
"Love, I'm not king. Nash is well out of danger."
"But it could happen someday."
He sighed. "Yes. Well, then. We must consider it seriously."
In the starlight she could just make out the towers of the bridge that men were building over the rush of the Winged River. In the daylight she watched them now and then, hanging from their ropes, balancing on scaffolding that barely seemed strong enough to withstand the current. She lost her breath every time one of them leapt over empty space.