I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔

Chapter Fifty-One

The soil under the sky-level burned much better than the hard, rocky ground in Mictlan. I gathered Fuego again and pushed deeper. The rim of my hole broadened on its own as I worked at the bottom of it, fire nibbling outwards through the turf. By the time my arm could reach no deeper, the mouth of the hole was wide enough for me to climb into. The burn slowed as it expanded, luckily. It might be big, but it would not leave a crater behind me by the time I reached the prison.

When I was a good meter and a half down, I burned myself a space to crouch in the hole, then applied my power to the side of it. Ash coated every part of me and stung my throat when I breathed. I could safely light my seeking-fire now, so I used Jem's location to guide me. The full matzin gourd rolled awkwardly against my hip. I was glad I had left my stick outside. I shifted positions as my knees' ache became a sharp pain. The heat in the tunnel, discomfort of my crouched position, and constant risk of being found had me sweating under my clothing. I wished it was thinner.

"Jeremías?"

My heart did a flip as the flame stretched almost straight upwards. I was past the wards. The next moment, my outstretched hand met stone. Ash trickled away, leaving me face to face with the building's foundation. Fire left no scar on it. I heaved a breath and regretted it: the residue of my burning billowed around me like localized fog. I held my breath and squeezed my eyes shut until it settled. Then I gathered Fuego again and tunneled straight down.

It was another meter before I found the foundation's bottom, and there my progress slowed. The earth beneath the prison was heavily compacted, and I had gone scarcely a hand's length under the stone when I met a different kind of ward. This one stretched down like a curtain from the building's underside, presumably to prevent an intrusion just like this. Fuego made it crackle softly before it melted away. I promptly found another one, horizontal this time. This one burned yellow and left a sulfurous stench behind. Creative.

Ward by ward, I made my way under the foundation and back up again. I was under Jem's cell now. The wards did not relent until I ran up against another barricade of stone. The prison floor. The blocks appeared to be resting directly on the soil below, so I carefully burned out the area under one. Then I sent my fire into the mortar sealing it to its neighbors. It dropped with a dull thunk. Gods, it was a thick one. I burned out the soil beneath it again, sinking it deeper. A crack finally opened where it had left the rest of the floor.

I opened my hand. "Centzon Huītznāuhtin?"

They were all outside, so I crawled up to the crack and whispered, "Jem!"

The lack of reply could have been either shock or unconsciousness. I hoped it was the former. "Jem? It's me. Are you there?"

"Adriana?"

He probably thought he was hallucinating, and I couldn't blame him. I had, after all, just removed a sizable chunk of his floor. From beneath.

"Adi?" Emma was there too, behind something that muffled her voice.

"Give me a sec..."

I burned my stone block further into the ground until the gap above it was large enough for me to crawl through. I pulled myself out into total blackness.

Jem shielded his eyes as I lit the flame in my palm. "Diez madres... what happened to you?"

I looked down at myself. I was grey all over from a heavy coating of ash. "Dirt doesn't burn cleanly."

"Adi!"

We were in a cell with stone walls and a barred front. The voice came around the wall, from a cell next door. I reached a hand through the bars and found Emma's halfway between our cells. She squeezed it tightly.