But Ellai was a fickle patroness and had failed themspectacularlybefore. Karou didnt believe in gods anymore, and when the door crashed open, there were only Liraz and the Wolf to blame for it.
Well, Liraz said, her voice as dry as the rest of her was not. At least you still have your clothes on.
And thank god for that , thought Karou, snatching her hand out of Akivas shirt. Instantly she felt the chill of the chamber. How quickly her body adjusted to Akivas temperature and made everything else seem cold by contrast. It took a few blinks for her daze to clear, to register the details of wet clothing plastered to skin and the plink of drips, not to mention the waft of sulfur.
Ziri had taken Liraz to bathe at the thermal pools? Well, that was weird. Fully clothed? Okay, that was less weird than the alternative, but it was all just too weird, and then the Wolf hefted something across the threshold and everything came into focus.
A corpse. The oath-breaker, said the Wolf.
Ten. Haxaya.
What?
Karou unfurled from her perch on the stone table and boosted off the edge to drop down beside the body. At once she saw the scorched handprint on the she-wolfs chest and looked up at Liraz, who greeted her with a deader-even-than-usual stare.
Akiva joined her beside the body, and in a matter of seconds the corridor was filled with seraphim and also chimaera whod transgressed the boundary to see what was happening. It was almost funny, that an act of violence like this should in some way be the trigger for the armies freer intermingling. Almost funny, but so very not.
It was another powder keg, a lit match poised to fall on it. The next few moments were a scramble of questions and answers. The Wolf told them what had happened, maintaining the deception in every detail. Ten had done this. And Ten had died. As for Haxaya, Karou tried to process the fact of her part in it. She had known her well. As Madrigal, she had fought beside her, and trusted her. She was wild but not unpredictable. Not stupid . In making her part of the deception, Karou had trusted all their lives to her. Why would she do it? she asked, and she didnt expect an answer. She was asking the air, but it was Liraz who answered.
It was personal, said the angel. She faced Akiva, and something in her dead stare gave way. The change in her in that instant, Karou thought, was like the change that Ziri brought to the Wolfs face, though the reason could of course not be the same. It wasnt somebody else looking out through Lirazs eyes. It was the mask slipping, and that softer, almost girlish face that she revealed was herself . She said, Savvath, and Akiva, letting out a hard breath, nodded understanding.
Karou knew the name. As in: Savvath, battle of. It was a village on the western shores of the Bay of Beasts, or it had been, once. It was before her time.
To Thiago, her face angled toward him but her eyes downcast, Liraz said, What you do with her soul is your affair, but you should know, I dont blame her. I deserved her vengeance.
And Thiago made some reply, but Karou heard it in a state of distraction. Something was tickling at her mind. She kept looking from Tens body to Liraz, from the scorched black handprint on the she-wolfs chest to the angels tally, all but concealed by her sleeves, pulled down over
the heels of her hands.
Our hands are enemies, even if we arent , recalled Karou.
And the angels all went quietly home and no one died. The end.
Her heart started to pound. An idea was taking shape. She didnt give voice to it, but let its traceries unfurl, following them and searching for defects, anticipating what the arguments would be against it. Could it be this simple? The voices around her muted to a murmur and ran soft under the layer of her thoughts. It could and should be this simple. The plan as it stood was worse than complicated. It was messy. She looked around at the gathered faces: Akiva, Liraz, and the Wolf in the room with her, Elyon and Issa in the doorway, and the shifting figures behind them visible only as a shuffle of fire feathers and furred haunches, black armor and red chitin, smooth flesh and rough, side by side.
All ready to fly into battle, to enact for humanity the apocalypse of its dreams and nightmares.
Or maybe not.
It wasnt Akiva or the Wolf who first noticed the change in Karous mannerthe straightening of her posture, the brightness of her exhilaration. It was Liraz. Whats come over you ? she asked, in a tone of chagrined curiosity.
It was apt, that it was Liraz. If you think of a better idea, Im sure youll let us know, shed said at the end of the war council, scornful and dismissive. And now Karou fixed her with the strength of her own certainty. Her desperation had become conviction, and it felt like steel.
Ive thought of a better idea, she said. Reconvene the council. Now.
Once upon a time,
a girl went to see a monster menagerie
where all the exhibits were dead.
ARRIVAL + 36 HOURS
33
LIKE AN ALIEN INVASION
They should treat it like an alien invasion.