Avi Marie's Arc

Chapter 27 of 30

The horns still rang when the lead master ran. He shoved through his own council and made for the tall doors, toward the rift in the sky beyond the cathedral windows. Avi Marie understood at once. He was not fleeing to hide. He was racing to the ones above, to reach them first and tell his own story before she could accuse him. If he got there, her name and her ledger would mean nothing. Her power was gone at this height. She could not fly. She ran on foot across the stone floor, and the crowd parted, but the master was faster. Azrael cut past her. His white wings snapped open. "He wants the sky," he said. "Cut him off before the rift." He shot ahead and slammed into the master near the doors. The two angels struck the wall and fell. Azrael pinned him for a breath, then the master threw him off and stood, one hand raised toward the open rift. "Stand back," the master said to the witnesses. "You do not know what you accuse." No one moved to help him. But no one moved to stop him either. He backed toward the light, and Avi Marie saw she would lose him. Then Petra stepped into the doorway. She had climbed the same path Avi Marie had, and she blocked it now with her body. In her hand she held the metal plate, the master's own order, his own seal. "You go up," Petra said. "They read this first." She did not raise her voice. She turned the plate toward the crowd behind him. "Signed. Sealed. Your hand. Run, and I send it up ahead of you." The master stopped. He looked at the plate, then at the faces filling the hall, then at the rift. Avi Marie watched him weigh it. If he fled now, the proof would reach the ones above before he did. He would arrive not as a warner but as the accused, already named. He lowered his hand. "You cannot climb faster than a signed order," Petra said. She stepped clear of the door. "Go, if you want. It will beat you there." The master did not go. His shoulders dropped. The fight left him all at once, and he sank to one knee on the cold stone. Two of his own council came forward and took his arms. He did not resist. Avi Marie crossed the floor and stood over him. "You will face the ones above," she said. "Beside me. Not before me." Azrael rose, wiping his mouth. "He'll answer now," he said. "But they already heard the horns." Avi Marie looked at the rift, still open, still bright. The lead master was caught. His story would not go up ahead of the truth. But the alarm had already gone before them both, and the ones who gave the order were waiting above, awake and ready.