Chapter 29 - Redemption

​We cut our way through the defenses that tried to hold us back from reaching the palace walls. The front gates were the obvious route of attack, since the Emperor had destroyed them when he died, but we knew they would be heavily defended. We went that way anyway, perhaps because it was so obvious, but also because Nokomi had a need to return through the same gates where her father had died.
 
The estates along the avenue leading to the gate were shells at best, crumbled pieces of foundation that had bene mostly blown apart in the explosion. The pit in the middle of the road, the epicenter of the explosion, was fused like volcano glass. The heat must have been truly incredible.
 
Unlike her father’s entourage, we were not so easily taken by surprise. Nasha’s scouting revealed the fighters waiting to ambush us, and we took them by surprise instead. We were merciless, but not without sense. We were not a pack of ravening beasts. The Princess’ Dogs were a weapon, surgical and precise in our violence.
 
Nokomi paused only briefly at the exact spot where her father had loosed all of his heartfire in one last deadly blast. She looked to me, and I nodded encouragement to her. She took a breath and fixed her eyes on the makeshift gates that had been erected in the weeks since we’d fled the palace.
 
Heavy timbers had been placed where the gates had been blown apart. While they had not been mudded into place or finished with the tiled roofing to match the rest of the walls, they were sturdy. They may have lacked ornamentation, but they would hold against an army without a battering ram or the ability to leap to the top of the walls.
 
Still, that would be a costly battle, costing as much in time as in lives. Time was a luxury we did not have. We had to get to Navid quickly, before he could flee. I’d already left a small contingent in the home that Kalb had used to hide Nasha’s existence, on the off chance that Navid tried to slip out the same way we had, though I doubted he would be that obvious.
 
“It’s time.” I suggested and Dog echoed, our voices still strange in our pointed ears.
 
Nokomi had been carrying fire in her palm, but had not yet had an occasion to use it. We’d kept her guarded well enough that she’d not had to join the fighting, so she might save her heartfire for situations like this. Our pack could certainly take the walls and bypass the gates, but we might have need of the soldiers we’d lose here.
 
“My turn.” Nokomi agreed.
 
She stepped forward to face the gate, keeping just out of range of arrows. Dog and I stood beside her just in case. We would not let a random arrow end our vengeance, not with our goal so near.
 
Nokomi concentrated her energy and will into the ball of fire that danced on her fingertips, and we watched it grow to burn so brightly that we had to turn our eyes away for fear of going blind. When she’d gathered all the light she needed into the sphere, she wound up and cast it at the gates. That ball of light flew straight and true, flying farther than I would have thought possible to throw such a thing. The globe arced through the air, striking dead center in the middle of the gates.
 
It hit, splashing like a tomato, and the liquid fire immediately started burning wherever the droplets landed. Even the sand at the base of the gates caught fire. Her blood as good a fuel as any oil, and in moments the entire new gate was on fire. More than that, the fire seemed alive, and it burrowed through the wood where it had struck, sizzling and melting the wood as if it were sugar in hot tea.
 
Screams erupted from behind the walls, where some must have been too near the fire when it burned through. The fire grew, taking on a life of its own until it had engulfed the entire gate complex. Even from our distance, we could feel the warmth of the fire on our faces.
 
We had but to wait. And howl.
 
The pack’s howled for Navid’s blood, growing louder as the fire grew stronger, reaching a crescendo as the gate finally collapsed in on itself, sending up a shower of sparks that danced like fireflies in the rapidly-approaching night.
 
Nokomi strode toward the fallen gates and parted the sparks with a spreading motion of her hands. I watched in surprise as the fire, even the small pieces of it in the air, obeyed her. It was, after all, a part of her.
 
Soldiers had arranged themselves in a half ring within the walls, far enough from the fire to not get burned, but close enough to encircle any attackers that dared to enter through the destroyed gates. We heard crossbows being cranked and bowstrings going taut.
 
“The two open pavilions facing us are loaded with archers and bowmen.” Nasha reported, her eyes out of focus as she saw through Zephyr’s eyes. She looked fiercer than I’d ever seen, with the hot winds from the fire blowing back through her dark hair and her mouth turned upward in a satisfied smile.
 
“Do we have an archer?” Nokomi asked, looking around at the lot of us.
 
I looked to Scar, and he quickly located arrows and a bow that had belonged to a waiting assassin that would never pull another bowstring. Among us, Mongrel was the best archer, so he drew an arrow and stood at the ready, awaiting Nokomi’s command.
 
“See if you can hit each of those towers.” She suggested, reaching out to ignite the arrowhead with the blood on her palm.
 
She held the arrow until the arrowhead glowed white and the wood it touched sizzled. If there had been an moisture left within the shaft of the arrow, it had just vaporized.
 
“Don’t let Adish see you doing that.” I remarked.
 
She grinned at me, her eyes more alive in the light of her heartfire than I’d ever seen them. “How do you think we reforged my father’s sword?”
 
I blinked at her in surprise. She wasn’t kidding about using her blood in the forge. That gave even more meaning to the blade she carried. She’d spilt her own blood to make it.
 
Mongrel drew back the bow and loosed the heartfire arrow. It sailed through the sky like a shooting star, piercing the roof of the western pavilion. While Nokomi lit the second arrow, the first one burst into flames on the roof. Under that extreme heat, even the stone roof burned. Hot melted stone rooftiles dripped down onto the archers below as the structure began to go up in earnest. I remembered standing on that pavilion as Navid had made his triumphant return and going down the stairs to meet Legs. Now, it was burning.
 
The second arrow hit lower, on the observation levels of the eastern pavilion tower. Men tried to splash water on the fire or stamp it out, but this was no ordinary fire, and it blazed far too hot for simple things to put out. This was living fire – it sought destruction and found it.
 
With the archers disabled and the company of soldiers waiting for our attack thrown into disarray from the sparks floating down at them, our pack surged through the embers of the ruined gate. With powerful strides and leaps to carry us to the enemy, we were on top of them or behind them in mere moments.
 
The living fire knew who its friends were, curiously floating harmlessly past dog and man alike, while stinging enemy soldiers. It wasn’t even a fair fight. It was butchery.
 
When we’d cleared the space between the walls and the palace, we continued forward, picking up the pace as we neared our goal. Dogs and boys turned less than human by their changes were leaping over the smaller set of walls that blocked off the courtyard. I took Nokomi in my arms and jumped over the wall, following Dog’s lead.
 
More soldiers came pouring into those long gardens, the same courtyard where I’d been reunited with Nokomi upon returning to the city. It was a strange homecoming, this time with fire and death instead of joy. But the death brought a different, thrilling sort of joy to Dog and I: the thrill of the hunt. We were hunting down our enemies, our rivals.
 
Dogs and men launched themselves at the soldiers that burst from between the pillars of the palace. These were Navid’s heavy guards, the best-trained soldiers in his army. They looked like beetles in their dark armor, but it they thought to stop us here, after all we’d gone through to get this far, they didn’t know us.
 
Dog and I fell upon them like scythes through fields of ripe grains. We reveled in the terror that filled our nostrils. The blood of seasoned soldiers fell thick before our claws, and their flesh parted almost happily beneath our teeth. No sword, steel, armor, or weapon could halt our advance, but there were many soldiers. Our advance was not without cost.
 
A determined knot of defenders slowly gave ground as we broke into the halls of the palace itself, leaving behind the night air. The cool night was battling with the heat of Nokomi’s fire and losing, just as surely as Navid’s defenders were failing.
 
I roared and threw myself into the knot of defenders. My landing killed one, whose spine snapped beneath my sudden weight. Dog crashed beside me, and we tore at the soft innards of men from within their own ranks. We found their vital organs, even through their boiled leather and ring mail armor.
 
I punched one so hard that his helmet folded over on his skull, crushing his head like a ripened melon. Dog’s claws cut through men like scissors, and his maw found openings in armor and shields that ended lives. The two of us stood in a pile of gore, the center of calm in a sea of controlled chaos.
 
An archer down the hallway tried to put an arrow in my chest, but we batted it aside. When we barked at him, he fled, and the path was clear to the audience room.
 
Dog and I shook, and blood sheeted off of us as if we’d just taken a bath. Nokomi came to stand beside us, jaw clenched as she tried to ignore the carnage. These men were doing their duty, but so were we.
 
Nokomi’s hand gleamed as if she wore a glove of fire, and her eyes had a hard set about them. “We’re almost there. Let us finish this.”
 
I led our company onward until we reached the audience chamber. The last time I’d been here, Emperor Baraz and Kalb had been alive. I halted outside, giving a sniff. I could smell Navid beyond those enameled double doors.
 
“He’s in there.” I announced, earning a round of growls and snarls from my companions.
 
“Open it.” Nokomi ordered, drawing herself up in readiness for the fight to come.
 
I reached out to open the doors. This time there would be no doorman announcing our arrival. This time, fire and death heralded our presence. Navid would have to answer for his crimes.