"Get behind the wards!" Javier shouted. He all but hurled Master Ignacio into the circle of Bahiim symbols. Genimo scurried into the circle and stared wide-eyed as the entire window casing collapsed. Blasio dropped to his knees near the steam engine and covered his face with his hands.
Kiram tightened the last strap of Donamillo's harness and let the old man's body hang limp. He grabbed the wires of the second harness and leapt out from the mechanical cure.
Jays crashed into the infirmary and a seeping darkness followed them, pooling across the floor, burning stones and eating through pieces of iron. The birds screamed and swooped, but none of them seemed capable of flying over the wards Javier had laid down.
"Get the mechanical cure moving!" Kiram called to Elezar. To Kiram's relief, Elezar pumped the drive bar fast and the iron ribs of the mechanical cure swung around, building speed. Faint sparks lit up along the harness wires. Javier and Master Ignacio joined Elezar and the mechanical cure spun like a gigantic top.
Something struck the infirmary doors. They broke open and a wall of darkness flooded the room. Only the blaze in the belly of Kiram's steam engine and the faint sparks given off from the mechanical cure offered them any illumination.
Hissing screams and the shrieks of blue jays rose from the darkness. Master Ignacio groaned and Elezar swore as the discomfort of the shadow curse intensified. Kiram gritted his teeth against the pain. And yet Javier's wards still held the darkness back.
Javier glared at the black mass roiling over them and mouthed Bahiim incantations as he pumped the drive bar.
"Nestor? The engine?" Kiram had to shout over the screams and shrieks that tore the air.
"It's hot!" Nestor yelled back. Even in the dim light Kiram could see the pain in Nestor's face but he still locked the boiler door down and gripped the engine release as Kiram had shown him earlier.
"Let the steam engine take over!" Kiram shouted. "Let go of the drive bar!"
Elezar, Javier and Master Ignacio released the bar and jumped back as the pistons of Kiram's steam pump took over. The ribs of the mechanical cure whirled by at a blinding speed and suddenly the faint sparks inside the mechanical cure erupted to brilliant light.
Only then did Kiram see Genimo crouched over a patch of Javier's wards, scrubbing them away.
"Stop him!" Kiram shouted.
Nestor tackled Genimo and flattened him to the ground but it was already too late. Cold blackness hit Kiram. Agony stabbed through his chest and hot blood spilled down his belly. His knees buckled.
Elezar and Nestor both lay on the ground writhing from pain, as did Master Ignacio and Scholar Blasio. Blood erupted from wounds that opened wherever the curse touched them. Only Genimo remained unscathed, but he looked terrified when he met Kiram's gaze. Then suddenly hot white light blazed over them all.
Javier stood, hands raised with walls of white light pouring from him. As Kiram forced himself up to his feet Genimo bolted from the sphere of the shajdi's light, fleeing back to his master in the darkness.
"Javier, this doesn't need to go on." Fedeles' voice silenced the cacophony of screams. And suddenly he stood there, smiling, at the edge of the shajdi's light. His eyes were too dark and his skin too luminous. This was not Fedeles, Kiram reminded himself. This was Donamillo wearing Fedeles' body.
The whirr of the mechanical cure's spinning ribs and the steady hiss and clang of the steam engine created a strange rhythm, like the beat of a mechanical heart that even Donamillo's shadow curse couldn't stop.
"Your friends don't need to suffer, Javier" Fedeles circled them as if he were enjoying an easy stroll. "Give me the white hell and I will release them. You know I don't want to hurt Kiram. Why force me to kill him?"
Javier didn't respond, but a shudder passed through his body. The light around him intensified, illuminating his bare bones.
"I'm a patient man, Javier. I can wait while you burn away like a candle." Fedeles paused only a few feet from Kiram, though he hardly seemed to take notice. Instead he stared at Javier with an expression of rapt avarice. Kiram could almost see Donamillo's want rising up through Fedeles' features. "We both know you won't kill me, big brother. You promised me you would keep me safe."
Javier trembled and Kiram hated Donamillo, not just for taking such a cruel tactic, but because he knew it would work. Javier would let the shajdi burn him hollow before he would kill Fedeles.
Kiram gripped the wires of the second harness. Donamillo was only a foot from him now. He just had to step into the killing darkness of the shadow curse and close the wires around Fedeles' body. Donamillo's spirit would be drawn back into his own body and they would all be saved.
It was the only way.
Kiram didn't think beyond that.
He threw himself onto Fedeles, embracing him and closing the circuit of the harness. Black blades punched through Kiram's body. Fedeles shouted and shook in his arms. Pain ripped deeper into Kiram, but he held his grip and saw the white sparks of the mechanical cure flurry over Fedeles.
They both fell to the floor. It was hot and slick with blood and Kiram knew it was his own. He tried to draw a breath but his lungs only brought a red froth up into his mouth.
He couldn't survive this. The thought hurt him nearly as deeply as his wounds and yet there was light overhead. The shadow curse had fallen back. This agony hadn't been for nothing.
Kiram tried to hold onto Fedeles even then, but strong hands pulled him away.
"Kiri, Kiri. No, please don't bleed. Don't go!"
Kiram recognized Fedeles' voice, devoid of Donamillo's cold tone, crying from a distance.
But it was Javier who held him. Tears rolled down his face and raw grief broke his voice as he spoke Kiram's name again and again.
"It's good." Kiram could hardly form the words. "I saved you.." He wanted to say more, but Javier was fading from his sight just as the pain drained from his ruined body.
He knew he was dying, but he wasn't scared. He had already crossed the Sorrowlands. Whether it was heaven or a shajdi that awaited him, Kiram didn't know, but a soft light fell across him and seemed to draw him deeper into its purity. It felt so simple and beautiful.
Then something caught him, held him. Pale shadows like the hollows of a skull rose from the light. Long bones wreathed in white flames gripped him as if death itself were embracing him and barring him from its respite.
"I won't let you go." Gentle flames licked Kiram's flesh and he knew the voice was Javier's.
Chapter twenty six
Kiram woke to terrible pain. He felt like he was on fire, like someone had cut him open and filled his intestines with burning coals. He wanted to scream from the hurt. Maybe he did.
Someone forced something down his throat, something bitter and cold. He spat and slurred a string of angry obscenities but then a deep sleep took him. He dreamed of crows' wings fluttering over him and then that Alizadeh's cool hand touched his fevered brow. Darkness closed over him.
After that he drifted in and out of consciousness, waking at odd hours and searching his dim surroundings for a familiar face.
At least twice Nestor leaned over him, his pale skin peppered with faded bruises, and assured him that he was safe. Kiram questioned Nestor, but then couldn't remember most of Nestor's replies. Words burned away in Kiram's fevered mind leaving him with only impressions of the conversations: the lingering assurance that Fedeles was better and that Scholar Donamillo had died days ago in his brother's arms. But above all else Kiram remembered what Nestor would not tell him, which was where Javier was.
In Kiram's dreams Javier often lay beside him, whispering foolish jokes or teasing him. But he could never quite see Javier, could never touch him and it frightened Kiram.