Chain of Thorns (The Last Hours, #3)

Steady, she told herself. She could see no footprints in the sand, only the marks where she had bounced and rolled across the ground, and the hot wind was already beginning to cover those with new sand. She narrowed her eyes against the sun’s shimmer and saw a gap between two rocks at the top of a shale-and-gravel hill. The sandy ground near the gap seemed disturbed and—was that a boot print?

Cordelia scrambled up the hill, her hand on Cortana’s hilt. Closer up she could see a sort of path, perhaps a place where water had once flowed, which passed between the two boulders. With some difficulty, she was able to squeeze through. Beyond the rocks, the hill fell away to more sandy wasteland, but not far away was another sizable rock formation. Leaning against it, her eyes closed and her face pale, was Lucie.

“Lucie!” Cordelia skated down the hill on a wave of loose sand and gravel before hurrying over to her friend. Up close, Lucie looked worse—her face was strained, and she held her hands over her chest as she struggled to breathe.

Cordelia fished her stele out. Lucie held out her wrist obediently, and Cordelia traced an iratze on the skin there—only to watch in horror as it rapidly faded, as if it had been drawn with water.

“Lilith said,” Lucie gasped, “that runes wouldn’t work here.”

“I know,” Cordelia muttered. “I hoped she was lying.” She put down the stele and opened her flask, which she pressed into Lucie’s hands. After a moment, she was relieved to see Lucie take a swallow, and then another one, a little color returning to her face. “What happened?” Cordelia said. “Are you hurt? Was it the Portal?”

Lucie took a deep breath and coughed again. “No.” She looked past Cordelia at the landscape beyond: dusty with ash, studded with dozens of blackened rock formations. A burned land. A poisoned land. “It’s this place.”

“It’s awful,” Cordelia agreed. “I can’t imagine why Lilith is so enamored with it. Surely there are nicer worlds she could conquer and possess.”

“I think she likes… that it’s dead,” Lucie said. “I’m used to the dead, to feeling their presence and seeing them everywhere. But this… This is a whole dead world. Bones and rock and the skeletons of ancient things.” She shook her head. “Death hangs in every part of the air. It feels like a weight pressing on me.”

“We can rest here until your strength comes back,” Cordelia said, unable to keep the worry out of her voice.

“No.” Lucie frowned. “Every second we wait is a second James and Matthew may not have. We need to get to Idumea.” She exhaled sharply, as if the name made her flinch. “I can feel it, Idumea. It’s pulling at me. A—a dead city. So many lives lost there.”

“You’re sure it’s Idumea?” Cordelia said. “That you’re feeling?”

“I know it is,” Lucie said. “I can’t say how, but I know. It’s like I can hear it calling out for me. Which is good, because that’s where we have to go anyway.”

“Luce, if it has such an effect on you, when we can’t even see the city in the distance—what’s going to happen when we get closer?”

Lucie looked up at Cordelia. Her eyes were the only blue thing in all the landscape; the sky shifted between orange and gray. “I feel better,” she said. “I think it’s because you’re with me. Really,” she added. “You needn’t look so worried. Help me up, will you?”

Cordelia helped Lucie to her feet. As she put away her flask, she narrowed her eyes, staring at the stone Lucie had been leaning against. “Look at that,” she said. “It’s a statue.”

Lucie turned to look. “Part of one, anyway.”

Though it was eroded by years of wind and acidic air, it was clearly the head of a woman. A woman with long flowing hair, and serpents curled in her eyes. The remains, Cordelia realized, of a decapitated statue of Lilith. Where the rest of it was, she couldn’t guess—buried under the sand, perhaps.

Lucie regarded the head. “When Belial won this land for himself, I suppose he destroyed all the monuments to Lilith.”

“Of course he did,” Cordelia said, surprising herself with the bitterness in her voice. “Like a child kicking over another child’s toy. This is just a game for them. What does it matter who controls this barren world, except to Belial’s and Lilith’s pride? Edom is just a chessboard, and we are two of their pawns.”

“But you are very good at chess,” Lucie said. “James told me so.” She looked out over the blood-tinted landscape of Edom, and there was strength and determination on her face, more like her usual self. “And even a pawn can topple a king.”

True, Cordelia thought. But often it must sacrifice itself in the process. She did not say what she thought out loud, though, only smiled at Lucie and said, “Well then. The job of a pawn is to move forward, never stopping and never turning back.”

“Then let’s get started,” Lucie said. Retrieving her rucksack by its strap, she slung it on and began to make her way across the dry land. After a moment, Cordelia followed.



* * *



By the time Ari and Anna got back to the Institute, they were exhausted. They had trekked all the way to Primrose Hill to investigate a barrow, which a few smudged maps in the Institute library had marked in a way that perhaps suggested an entrance to Faerie. It had been a long shot, and Ari had been pessimistic about it from the start. And indeed, if there ever had been a gate to Faerie there, it was long gone, or had been sealed by Belial without a trace.

“Back to the library, I suppose?” Ari said as Anna latched the Institute door firmly behind them. “To find the next candidate?”

“We cannot keep doing this,” Anna said wearily. “If we had all the time in the world, we could try every likely hill and dale in London. But we have barely any time at all.”

“Perhaps we should focus on making a longer list from our research first,” Ari said. “Then at least we could check several spots in the same part of the city.”

“I think we should find the five likeliest,” Anna said as they started up the central staircase, “and visit them, wherever they might be.”

“Only five?”

“We may not even have time for five,” Anna said. “Our situation here is untenable for very much longer.” She sighed. “Perhaps Grace will find a way to signal for help. Or perhaps Cordelia and Lucie will have some success in Edom. Or…” She trailed off, but Ari knew what she was thinking. “Or at least,” Anna said in a quieter voice, “we will have made a last stand.”

“Anna,” Ari said, taking her by the shoulder. Anna stopped and turned to look at her. “Before we consider our last stand, may I suggest we eat something? And maybe have some tea before we go out again.”

Anna smiled faintly. “Tea?”

“We will do no one any good,” said Ari firmly, “if we collapse from hunger or thirst.”

She was going to go on but was stopped by a muffled voice coming from the other end of the corridor. “What was that?”