CHAPTER
13
Toshi walked casually down the hill toward the trolley line. It wasn’t easy to walk casually. In fact, just thinking of what it meant to act casual stopped him from being able to do it.
A Worker landed on his shoulder. Then another. Toshi forced himself to breathe in and out. He thought of the color green and recalled the sound of rain. When he opened his eyes again, the Workers were gone.
The Hive had been on edge for almost a week now. The Warrior Sisters had come down from the high watchtowers that had kept them out of sight, and they now hovered over the streets or clung to the rooftops and to the sides of the buildings. Workers were quick to swarm, and more than one panicky citizen had been anesthetized with a sting, collected by a Warrior Sister, and never heard from since. Any elevated emotion could call Workers to you for closer inspection. Toshi was even setting them off in his sleep now. He’d wake, drenched in sweat, to find his body completely covered in them like a living blanket.
Toshi broke into a light jog and swung himself up into a passing trolley. He spotted his contact and shuffled through the other passengers until he stood back to back with him. It wasn’t long before he felt his contact bump into him. Toshi opened his hand and passed his contact a small vial of antidote—or what Toshi and Ivan hoped was an antidote—to the Workers’ stings.
His contact palmed the small vial easily and then waited for the next bend in the trolley line to disguise bumping into Toshi again. Toshi briefly felt the man’s hand tuck a note in the folds of his tunic, and then his contact hopped off the trolley.
Toshi watched the man blend seamlessly into the garment district’s waves of humanity. He wondered whether he would be the one to test the antidote himself, or whether the vial was going to be smuggled out of the city to one of the farms for the rebels hidden there to test it. Toshi knew it might be safer to get it out of the city, where the death of a Worker might be chalked up to accident, but that would take longer.
In the Hive, every single member was accounted for. If even one Worker used her stinger or was killed, a Warrior Sister came to collect the tiny body and investigate the reason. Even the death of one Worker could alert the Hive to foul play, and thus Toshi and Ivan had been unable to test their antidote.
They still hadn’t completely abandoned the idea of finding a way to kill the Hive, but keeping what homegrown rebels they could find alive in case of a rebellion had become a more pressing concern. Mala had insisted. She argued that they couldn’t hope to gather more support for the cause unless they could offer some kind of protection against the instant death that was, at present, the only outcome for defying the Hive.
For defying Grace.
Toshi stared out the window at the people on the street. Heads that used to be held high were now bowed with fear and suspicion. The entire city seemed to know. Maybe they had always known deep inside that Grace was behind the Hive, and it only took someone else to say it in order for them to believe it. Toshi knew he had accepted it quickly, as had Mala. And the Hive had been quick to sense the change in the populace.
He jumped off his trolley, crossed the tracks, and caught one going in the other direction back home to the government center. He felt more relaxed now that the exchange was over and opted to take a seat rather than stand. Back at the Governor’s Villa, Toshi ran up the stairs to his apartments to change before meeting Ivan in the lab.
Grace was waiting for him in his sitting room, idly thumbing through some of his papers. She looked up from the formulas he’d been working on the night before and smiled.
“This is a very powerful insecticide,” Grace said, eyes sparkling.
He opened his mouth and let the first lie he could think of spill out, knowing that any pause was death. “That’s what we’re hoping. It should sell well in France and Germany.” Toshi unlocked his spine and forced himself to cross to the bar. The note he carried in his pocket weighed on him. “Would you care for a drink?” he asked, trying to think how he could destroy the note that undoubtedly had instructions for his next drop. His hands shook.
“No. And none for you, either. You’re going to need to be completely sober for what’s coming,” she replied.
Heat began to build under his arms. Toshi felt a Worker alight on his forearm. “And what is coming, Grace?” he asked quietly.
Grace stood and crossed to the balcony. She opened up the double doors and took in a lungful of fragrant air. “Isn’t it a glorious day?” she asked.
Toshi stayed just inside the doors. He could see a cluster of Warrior Sisters approaching and knew it would be pointless to run. He felt strangely calm, as if the real torture had been waiting to be found out rather than whatever it was Grace had planned for him now. He was considering whether or not he had enough time to write a letter to his family when he noticed something strange about the approaching Warrior Sisters. They were carrying someone—someone who seemed to be unconscious. They weren’t coming to take him away, but rather to leave someone behind.
Toshi ran to the railing of the balcony and saw that the young man suspended between three supporting Sisters was badly injured. Fear for himself dissolved, and his medical training took over. He dashed back inside, gathered up a healer kit from his closet, and started pushing furniture out of the way just as the Warrior Sisters landed.
“Tell them to bring him in here,” Toshi ordered. He kicked aside the coffee table and spread out one of the throw blankets on the ground. “Gently! It looks like his shoulder is dislocated.”
“This is why I had them bring him directly to you,” Grace said fondly. “You’ve always been the most gifted healer.”
“There’s a basin under the sink in my kitchen. Fill it with hot water, and set it down here,” Toshi instructed. Grace didn’t do it herself, of course, but after the barest of pauses one of the Warrior Sisters strode out of the room on her ostrich-like legs. “He has hyperthermia, hypoxia, broken ribs, multiple contusions.” Toshi listed just a few of the injuries he recognized as his willstone flared to life. He ran a hand through his hair. “Get me more bandages. In my bathroom . . . the linen closet.” Another Warrior Sister bounded out of the room. Toshi looked up at Grace as he began loosening the young man’s clothes. “He’s an Outlander.”
“A shaman,” Grace said, nodding.
He rolled the half-dead shaman over and got a better look at his face. “Breakfast,” he said. He couldn’t keep the dismay from his voice.
“Not exactly,” Grace said, excited. She sat down on the edge of Toshi’s couch as if she were at a luncheon and had juicy gossip to dish. “I just pieced this all together. As near as I can figure, he’s one of the versions of the individual you know as Breakfast. Isn’t that fascinating?” Toshi didn’t reply. “He’s going to teach me how to get to those other universes.”
Toshi repressed a shudder at the thought. “If he lives.”
“Oh, he’d better live, Toshi,” Grace said, her voice dropping dangerously low. He didn’t need for her to say “or else.”
Lily lay next to Lillian, her spirit hovering over their bodies.
In the overworld, Lillian’s spirit was as strong as ever, but in the real world her body could barely survive the separation. Lily’s spirit looked down on the two bodies below, and saw that Lillian’s breath was faltering.
That’s enough, Lillian, Lily told her. Go back into your body.
I’m almost there, her spirit called across the overworld. I can see the redwood grove. I can feel its vibration.
You’re suffocating. Come back.
Lillian’s eyes snapped open and she drew in a gasping breath. Lily’s spirit rejoined her body and she sat up next to Lillian.
“I can do this,” Lillian said defiantly.
“I know you can,” Lily replied. “But maybe we should have Rowan monitoring us? He can take much better care of you than I can.”
Lillian shook her head and sealed her lips, still unwilling to let Rowan touch her.
“I really hope I’m not as stubborn as you,” Lily snapped.
Lillian laughed. “Oh, you are.” She sighed in frustration as the two of them got off the ground. “I need to learn this. Now,” she said.
For the past few hours the three armies had made a tenuous camp on the side of the mountain while the leaders of the factions talked to their people. Raptors were picking off pack animals from above and the Pride was taking the rear-flanking battalions, but there was no help for it. Lily had given Lillian the vibration she needed to get to the redwood grove, but she still had to learn how to jump before she could move herself and her army.
Captain Leto appeared at the entrance to Lillian’s tent. Chenoa and Alaric were behind him and he escorted them inside.
“Sit,” Lillian said stiffly, making it clear that although she had saved Chenoa’s life, there would have been no love lost if she hadn’t. She gestured to a small camp table and chairs that were set up in the middle of her quarters.
“There was one Woven attack on our eastern flank while you were occupied,” Leto informed her. He helped her into her chair at the head of the table and stood behind her.
“Casualties?” she asked.
“Five killed, seventeen wounded,” he replied. His lips tightened as he looked at Alaric. “And there have been several brawls that have broken out since the arrival of . . . them.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Lillian said.
Lily called to her coven in mindspeak. Rowan, Tristan, Caleb, Una, and Breakfast all entered the tent and arranged themselves behind Lily’s chair at the other end of the table, opposite Lillian.
Chenoa narrowed her eyes at Breakfast. “I know you, boy,” she said.
“No, you know Red Leaf,” Lily corrected.
“Does he have the gift?” Chenoa asked. When Lily nodded, Chenoa cackled. “Watch that he doesn’t go crazy.”
Crusty old bat, Breakfast whispered in mindspeak.
Lily stifled a smile as Mary bustled into the tent with a grim look on her face and Riley in her wake. After Lily quickly introduced her to Lillian, Alaric, and Chenoa, Mary took the final seat at the table. Riley stood behind her as her second.
“The long and short of it is this,” Mary said with no preamble. “The below folk won’t go west if you’re just going to blow it up.”
“Many of my braves won’t go either. Not unless it’s for a home,” Alaric said.
Captain Leto made a dismissive sound as his eyes flicked away. Alaric’s nostrils flared in barely contained ire.
Lillian held up a hand to stave off an argument between them. “We can’t fight the Hive soldier to soldier. We’ll lose,” she said.
Mary and Alaric looked to Lily. “She’s right,” Lily said reluctantly. “They outmatch us in numbers and in strength. We can’t beat them.”
“Maybe not with the kind of soldiers you’ve provided,” Captain Leto said. “Walltop soldiers are different.”
“The only way to destroy the Hive is at its source,” Lillian said, defusing another argument between Leto and Alaric. “Bower City. Once we do that, the rest of the country is anyone’s for the taking.” She turned to Chenoa. “How much land would be lost if one of your bombs was detonated underground?” she asked.
“Depends how deep you go, what kind of bedrock we’re talking about,” Chenoa replied, palms up. “I could give you some estimates if you could give me some more facts about the terrain.”
“Whoa, wait,” Una said, waving her hands in the air. “You want to detonate underground?”
“From what Lily showed me, that’s where the Queen and the actual hive is. That’s where the bomb will be most useful,” Lillian replied.
“But isn’t Bower City, like, right above the San Andreas Fault?” Una gave a semi-hysterical laugh. “Someone please tell them why they can’t do that.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Lily said. She quickly explained what she knew about the unstable geology of the western seaboard and the positioning of Bower City. “Detonating aboveground or belowground is insanity. This should be a nonissue, everyone.”
Chenoa made a thoughtful sound deep in her throat. “I’d have to see some data before I’d advise against detonating,” she said. “Earthquake zones aren’t ideal, but in some cases it could be better if the contaminated land broke off and slid under the sea.”
“And then it would be safe to live on the land that was left?” Mary asked. She shifted in her seat and planted one of her thick fists on a hip. “The bald truth is that if I can’t tell my folk that they’re going to get a piece of land out of this, they’re not going to fight.”
Again, Captain Leto made a disparaging sound, and this time he went so far as to turn to Lillian. “My Lady, you don’t need to pander to them. Walltop’s loyalty doesn’t need to be bought. If you decide to bomb the city—”
“Easy to say when Walltop soldiers have a place to live,” Alaric said scathingly.
“We can’t do this,” Lily pleaded. “There are over a million innocent people living in Bower City. They don’t deserve to die.”
“Neither do we,” Alaric reminded her gently. “You’ve said yourself that we can’t win in a straight fight.”
“Not with the numbers we have,” she admitted. She turned to Lillian. “You, of all people, should be against this. Please, Lillian. What you saw in the cinder world—”
“One bomb won’t make a cinder world,” Lillian said loudly, as if she were trying to drown out a conflicting voice shouting inside her own head. “One bomb, detonated all the way out there, isn’t going to poison the Thirteen Cities or bring on a never-ending winter for the rest of the world. The only thing one bomb will do is destroy the Hive, end Grace’s dominion over the Woven, and bring the rest of us out of the dark ages. With Grace gone, the Woven won’t be driven to attack humans anymore. The whole country will be up for grabs.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Lily said, rolling her eyes in exasperation. Instead of ending the argument, all she’d done was give Lillian a platform from which to draw more people to her side. “There’s another way,” Lily began.
She looked around at them and debated telling them what she had in mind, until her eyes rested on Caleb. He would smash his willstone and leave her rather than agree, and so would thousands of others. Lily knew the only way for her idea to work was for everyone to already be on the battlefield when it was revealed. Give them no choice but accept her decision or die.
When Lily remained silent, Rowan spoke up on her behalf. “Maybe there’s a way to infiltrate the Hive and kill the Queen without using a bomb,” he said. “We got in there before. It was easy.”
“Yeah, too easy. There’s no way we’re getting back into the Hive now,” Tristan said.
“Lily could jump a small team of us in,” Rowan suggested.
“I can’t,” Lily said, shaking her head. “The Queen is deep underground. There’s tons of silicone in that land, and it blocks me as well as quartz.”
“Then something else,” Rowan said, frustrated.
“Are you so sure that killing the Queen is enough?” Lillian asked quietly. She didn’t look at Rowan as she spoke. “That might disband the Hive, but Grace controls all the wild Woven. She’s the one who has to die.” She turned to Lily. “Is there any way you can jump someone into the city to assassinate her?”
“It’s a big city. There’s no way for me to know exactly where she’s going to be at any given time,” Lily answered. “And if I can’t jump someone directly to her, whoever I send will most likely be chewed up by the Hive in a matter of moments. Grace has every inch of Bower City covered with Workers.”
They were all silent for a moment, trying to think of some alternative.
“But I might be able to use someone already inside the city to kill Grace for us,” Lily said in a small voice.
“Who?” Rowan asked.
“Toshi. I’d have to claim him first, but I know he’s willing. And he’s close to Grace.”
“How could you claim him?” Lillian asked, narrowing her eyes at Lily. “You’re here and he’s there.”
“Remotely. Through the speaking stones,” Lily replied. She sent Lillian the memory of how she used the speaking stone above Lillian’s rooms to claim the ranch hands and the below folk.
Lillian gasped. “I didn’t know you could use it to claim.”
“I didn’t think of it. Grace did, actually. She’s been using a line of speaking stones to claim each new generation of wild Woven that hatches in the east. She’s been doing it for over a century now. I can use the same line to claim Toshi. But—” Lily broke off.
“But what?” Alaric asked.
“We’re calling it assassination. It’s just another name for murder,” Lily said.
Mary humphed. “Honey, war is just another name for murder.”
Alaric turned to Lily. “Think about it, Lily. If Toshi can get to Grace, no one else has to die.”
Lily nodded, knowing this was the smartest choice. She looked up at Lillian and saw her staring back.
Think of the last line you’re unwilling to cross. That’s the line you must cross in order to win.
Like you and the bomb?
Exactly.
I’m not like you, Lillian. And murdering Grace is not my last line.
After the meeting, Lily made her way to the tent she had been assigned, hoping that there was something clean for her to change into. Just outside her tent, Breakfast and Una caught up with her.
“So what are we doing?” Breakfast asked, holding open the tent flap.
“What do you mean, what are we doing?” Lily asked, not getting it. She ducked inside and Una and Breakfast followed her.
“What are we going to do to stop those crazy bastards from nuking a million innocent people,” Una clarified, looking a little wild around the eyes as she closed the flap behind them.
“Well, I’m going to try to claim Toshi, and once I see what’s going on in Bower City . . .” Lily began. Una waved a hand in the air to cut her off.
“Uh-uh. Not good enough,” she said. “Even if you do manage to assassinate Grace, the Hive will still be alive, and you know the batshit brigade is going to want to exterminate them with that bomb.”
“We need to make the nuke go away,” Breakfast rephrased a bit more calmly. “As long as it’s out there, someone is going to be threatening to use it.”
Lily sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I know,” she said. “I have someone on that problem.”
There was a pause while Breakfast and Una decided who would be the one to speak.
“Who?” Una asked.
Lily twisted her hands. “Carrick.” They stared at her, too shocked to speak. “I know, I know,” Lily continued, agonizing over her decision, “he’s probably going to murder about a dozen people to fulfill my order, and those deaths are going to be on me.” Lily’s stomach soured and her mouth warped into a sickly smile. “But if I don’t use Carrick, than I only have one other option. My last line.”
Breakfast paused and then inhaled sharply through his teeth. “I’m almost too scared to ask,” he said, turning to Una with a grimace.
“I’ll make a mind mosaic to find the bomb, and then steal instructions for how to dismantle it from Alaric’s memories,” Lily said.
“Come again?” Breakfast said, confused.
“A mind mosaic is when I use my claimed like an array of cameras. I look through all of your eyes to find what I’m looking for. Sometimes I have to look through your memories, too, sort of like fast-forwarding through recordings on a surveillance camera,” she explained. “You don’t even know I’m there, but I’m spying through you.”
Una looked horrified. “Please tell me you’ve never done that before,” she said.
“Once. When I was learning, and only for about a second,” Lily admitted. “Rowan told me that witches do it all the time,” she said, becoming defensive at their accusing looks.
“But not you,” Breakfast said hopefully.
“No. Not me,” Lily said. “At least, not yet. But if Carrick doesn’t find the bomb or doesn’t dismantle it for whatever reason, I’ll have to try it.”
“Yes, you will,” Una said, looking at the ground. Breakfast turned to argue with her but she continued before he could say anything. “She’ll have to, Stuart. A million people . . .” She trailed off, the scope of it overwhelming her.
“It’s wrong,” he said quietly.
“I know that, Breakfast,” Lily snapped. “I asked a man who tortured me—who tortured and murdered my father—for help in order to avoid it. Is that the right thing to do? I don’t know. I’m trying to do what’s right, but I don’t know if there is such a thing as a right option anymore. Just different kinds of wrong.”
Breakfast narrowed his eyes at her. “Don’t get too comfortable with that notion.”
Carrick walked back into Lillian’s camp, slipping through the occupied throngs unnoticed.
People tended to ignore Carrick until they couldn’t, and then afterward, they tried to forget about him as quickly as possible. Sometimes they would say or do just about anything to make him go away. That had its advantages.
Carrick passed a squirrely page boy gnawing a thumbnail down to the quick as he walked, and grabbed him.
“Lady Lillian’s heaviest armored cart. Where is it?” he asked, standing a little too close.
“I don’t know—the carts are that way?” the boy replied with a desultory wave of his hand. He was trying to extract himself, but Carrick just smiled, unnerving the boy even more.
“What’s your name?” Carrick asked, friendly-like, sidling even closer.
“G-Gavin,” the boy stammered.
“Gavin, I’m in a lot of trouble if I don’t find our Witch’s biggest, heaviest cart. I’m supposed to already know where it is.” Carrick leaned over the boy, still smiling, and the boy leaned back, desperate now to get away.
“There is one she’s kept separate. Over that ridge, out of sight,” he said.
Carrick released him. “That’s the one. Thank you, Gavin. If there’s ever anything I can do for—”
But the boy scurried away, probably already trying to forget the encounter had ever happened.
Carrick mounted the ridge and dropped into a crouch behind a boulder. The cart that was housing the bomb would be guarded, of course. He’d have to kill the guards swiftly and without them ever really knowing what it was that was taking their lives, or Lillian would know, too. But Carrick had spent so long out in the wild with the Woven that he knew how to move like them, strike like them, and leave no trace. Except, of course, for the useless bomb he would leave behind. But no one would know about that until they tried to use it, and then it would be too late.
Carrick waited until dusk. He stayed crouched down until he was almost a part of the rock, like he was growing out of it, turning to stone. He stared at his hands. He’d just gotten them clean again.
Captain Leto strode confidently to the waiting greater drake, wearhyde riding clothes creaking, sliver epaulets flashing, and looking very much like a grizzled old Viking stepping forward to slay a dragon.
“You want to check the cinch around the drake’s neck before you climb up,” he instructed. He tugged on the leather straps that encircled the drake’s long, lowered neck. They didn’t budge. “Nice and tight,” Leto said approvingly. “Next, you see that the stirrups are the right length for you. Then, just grab hold of the pommel and swing yourself up.”
Leto mounted the drake and it squawked, shifting onto its thick hind legs and grasping the air with its smaller forelegs for a moment before settling back down. Lily took a reflexive step away and bumped into Rowan, who was standing right behind her. He steadied her and gave her a little push forward.
“And you wonder why I never learned to ride one,” he teased quietly in her ear.
“You never learned because you’re a big baby,” she whispered back. She felt him chuckle and elbowed herself away from his chest. “And since you never learned,” she continued accusingly, “I have to ride to the nearest speaking stone with Leto. You should feel horrible for abandoning me like this, you know.”
“Oh, I do,” he replied, grinning. The drake flapped its talon-spiked wings, irritated at being penned in by the huge spruce trees. “Just horrible.”
“It’s perfectly safe to come forward now, Lady Lily,” Captain Leto called.
“Ha,” Lily retorted.
“Leto is a good man,” Rowan admitted grudgingly. “He won’t let anything happen to you.”
Lily took a step toward it, and the drake squawked again. “It’s not Leto I’m worried about,” she grumbled.
“Who’s the big baby now?” Rowan said.
Lily forced herself to stride confidently to the drake, even if it did look like a giant dragon with red eyes. She swung herself up behind Leto and found that although the drake’s neck was wider than a horse’s, the feel of it wasn’t so different. The drake’s hide was warm, which surprised her. She was expecting it to feel cold, like a snake’s.
“Hold on tight,” Leto said needlessly.
The drake lurched under her as it clawed its way up the trunks of two of the surrounding trees. She could hear the wood crack as the drake scrabbled with alarming speed up above the canopy of evergreens. Then she felt an undulation in the drake’s neck and heard the billowing sound of a sheet snapping in the wind as the drake’s wings made the first massive downstroke. Her stomach swooped as if she’d left it behind on the rapidly diminishing ground. The wings churned on either side of her, jolting Lily up and down and back up again. Then the pounding stopped abruptly, and they were hanging in the sky as if caught on a hook. Lily felt weightless as they began to soar.
“It’s actually quite enjoyable once you get used to it,” Leto yelled over the whistling wind.
Lily allowed herself to relax and watch the scenery fan out around her. After what seemed like only a few more strokes of the drake’s wings, she saw the mountain peak they were headed for—Mount Mitchell in her world, the tallest peak in the Appalachian Mountains. Somewhere on top of it rested a speaking stone.
Leto had the drake bank, and it spun delicately on a wingtip. They circled the green peak, but the dense red spruce and Fraser firs made it impossible to see the ground. As they came around the hulking shape of the mountain, they saw that the eastern slope had fallen away, leaving sheer cliffs.
“There,” Lily said, pointing toward the top of the ridge. She’d seen a brief glimmer, like a mirror flashing.
The drake came in for a landing, its wings scooping backward and its talons extended to grasp the treetops. It alighted delicately, and then turned to climb down the tree trunk on all fours like a lizard. The huge spruce swayed and cracked under the drake’s massive weight, but thankfully, it did not fall.
Leto dismounted first, and then helped Lily down. She went directly to the emerald-green speaking stone, already feeling the pulse and whisper of the hundreds of thousands of minds that were gathered and amplified inside it.
“Are they haunted?” Leto asked, sounding uncharacteristically unsure of himself.
“No,” Lily replied. She refrained from laughing at what was, to him, a serious question. “Although I can see how calling them haunted would keep them protected from vandals,” she added.
“The voices,” he said, still angling his thick body away from the softly glowing stone. “They say the disgraced dead who didn’t fulfill their witch’s bidding are trapped inside.”
“It isn’t true,” Lily said gently. “Speaking stones are tools for the living, not the dead.” Lily thought of how she’d tried to reach out to Juliet in the overworld after she’d died. “The dead don’t speak. No matter how much you beg them too,” she said in a gravelly voice.
Leto nodded, accepting Lily’s answer. “She doesn’t deserve to die this way,” he said, switching topics. Lily knew he was speaking of Lillian.
“I know,” she replied. She frowned, thinking of the pain she’d felt when she’d possessed Lillian’s body. “No one does.”
“Can Lord Fall help her?”
“She won’t let him.”
“Stubborn,” he said with gruff affection.
“Willful,” Lily suggested instead.
Leto nodded and looked down in thought. “I guess that’s why she’s as good at magic as she is.” He looked back up at Lily, his expression hard. “Are you going to finish what she started?”
“I am,” Lily replied, surprised to be saying it. “I’m just not going to do it the same way she would.”
“Fair enough.” He nodded once, making a decision. “If her time comes before the battle, Walltop will answer your call.”
“Thank you, Captain,” she replied, sensing the gravity of his pledge. She turned to the speaking stone. “But hopefully what I’m about to do will make a battle unnecessary.” And maybe Toshi can save Lillian’s life, she added silently, keeping that thought to herself.
Lily looked into the scintillating center of the speaking stone and placed her hands on its warm surface. Her mind dove into a fast-flowing stream. It raced green over the mountains, into the valley, and across miles of verdant land. Next, a blue haze diffused across her mind’s eye, and she jumped rivers and sped past plains. Yellow light pulled her up sheer, rocky heights, only to drop her down again into the red-tinged light of the baking desert and scrubland. Her mind’s eye sped over chaparral-covered hills buckled by earthquakes, and finally rested inside the milky white glow of the westernmost speaking stone in the chain.
Millions of threads of light were gathered there. Grace had quite an army.
She called for Toshi, whispering his name, and found a vibration inside the milky speaking stone. It was strong and clear and free. Lily focused on it, and felt his mind push back against hers, like a hand brushing away a tickling hair in sleep. She called him again, this time speaking his name with authority, and she felt recognition douse him like cold water.
She asked: Are you still willing to be claimed?
She couldn’t hear his mindspeak, not without claiming him, but she could feel his assent like a gift being given. She played the unique pattern of his willstone back inside her own and claimed him.
Mine.
Instead of seeing his memories, Toshi’s intense focus on what he was doing brought Lily directly into the moment with him. She joined his perspective and realized that he was struggling to save a life.
Lily looked down at the hands that she now shared with Toshi. They were running over a set of smashed ribs. Blood foamed in the lung under them. Toshi looked at the face of his patient, and Lily recoiled inside his mind. She needed a moment to remind herself that she wasn’t looking at Breakfast.
Red Leaf. He could teach Grace how to worldjump, she told Toshi.
He’s dying, Toshi replied.
For a moment Lily felt relieved. A part of her wanted to tell Toshi to let him die, but even as the thought tiptoed across her mind she felt a surge of denial from Toshi that was akin to hitting a brick wall.
I can’t kill a patient, he told her. It’s against everything I’ve ever believed in.
Of course. No, you must try to save him.
You’re really here with me, aren’t you?
I really am, she replied. Lily could feel wonder and elation skate across Toshi’s mind, but he quickly turned his focus back to his patient.
His hands leaked magic as his willstone flared with ruby light. Lily stayed present in his mind, a silent observer, while Toshi dealt with Red Leaf. Toshi scrolled through Red Leaf’s many injuries. Lily deemed it hopeless, but Toshi managed to pull Red Leaf out of the danger zone in a few precious minutes.
Toshi was the best healer Lily had ever seen, maybe even better than Rowan, although Lily decided to reserve judgment on that as she was usually unconscious when Rowan was doing his best work.
“He’s stable,” Toshi said, slumping back in exhaustion. When he looked up, Lily could see Grace sitting on Toshi’s couch with a rapt expression.
“It’s such a joy to watch you work,” she said. Her eyes flicked over Toshi appreciatively. “The heroic healer, fighting to save lives.”
Lily felt Toshi’s frustration. “He’s stable, but he’ll need more care,” he said.
Grace flicked her head to the side and two Warrior Sisters strode forward to take Red Leaf.
“Gently,” Toshi scolded, but the Sisters paid him no heed. If they understood him, they weren’t about to take orders from him. “Tell them to be careful with him,” Toshi said to Grace.
“Oh, I wouldn’t let my prize die on me now. Not after going through so much trouble to acquire him.” Grace stood and rubbed her hands together briskly. “I expect you’re tired. I’ll leave you to rest.”
“Where are you taking him?” Toshi asked as Grace and the Warrior Sisters left his rooms. She didn’t reply.
It’s okay. Breakfast can contact Red Leaf in mindspeak once he’s conscious, Lily told him. I’ll let you know where she takes him if you want.
With Grace gone, Lily felt elation bubbling up in Toshi again.
Did that really happen? Did you claim me?
Yes. It was definitely one of the strangest claimings I’ve ever done, but you’re mine.
Lily smiled to herself where she stood, thousands of miles away from him on a mountaintop. The difference between Toshi and the vast majority of soldiers she’d claimed recently was like the difference between sending someone a written note with a pencil that kept breaking and speaking to someone while you looked each other in the eye. As a mechanic, Toshi was capable of full mindspeak, and he was gifted enough that she could feel his presence in her mind as much as he felt hers. She should have been prepared for the intimacy of it, but it had been a long time since she’d claimed anyone with Toshi’s level of talent. He felt it, too. Conflicting emotions spun through him, and Lily realized that he was shy.
Can you see everything in me? My memories? My desires?
I could, Lily responded, feeling a little shy as well. But I try not to pry into the private thoughts of my mechanics. I’ve had a lot of practice getting out of someone’s head before they think anything intimate.
She felt a creeping fear edge in on his happiness.
There must be a reason you decided to claim me now, he guessed. What is it?
There was no point in delaying. We want you to kill Grace, she said.
Lily saw Workers land on Toshi’s arms at the very thought of murder. I can’t, he replied.
I can fuel you. I can make you as strong as a god, and as soon as it’s done I could make you disappear. I’d bring you here to me, instantly. The Hive wouldn’t be able to catch you.
More Workers flew in and landed on him. One took position over his jugular. Lily, I can’t. Don’t you think I’ve considered it? Since you left, I’ve made contact with thousands of rebels in Bower City. We all want Grace dead, but we can’t do it. The Hive smells aggression before we can commit any act of violence.
Lily could feel their prickly feet scaling up and down his skin, and she shuddered for him.
Please stop thinking of it. Please calm down, she urged.
Toshi unclenched his fists and took a series of deep, calming breaths, trying to rein in the frustration that choked him.
I’ve thought about nonviolent ways of killing her, like poison, but the Hive tastes her food. I thought about designing a virus specifically for her, but I can’t get close enough to take a sample of her DNA. Did you know that the Hive doesn’t allow even one of her hairs to fall to the ground? Silly as it sounds, I’ve even considered leaving booby traps throughout the villa, but the Hive scours every room she’s about to enter before she goes in there. Everything you can think of, I’ve thought of it. The Hive is everywhere and they watch for danger in everything where she’s concerned.
I’m sorry, Toshi, I should have known. Lily waited until she felt Toshi relax enough for the Workers to lift off his skin. I could still jump you out of there, she said. You’re mine now. You don’t have to stay in Bower City.
She could feel how tempted he was. He wanted to join her so badly it hurt.
I can’t leave, he said finally. Ivan and I are working on an antidote against the Workers’ stings, and some kind of pesticide to use against them. We’re trying to come up with some way to fight the Hive.
Good. We’ll need a way to neutralize the Workers. I can protect my claimed from them for a while, but I’ve never been able to sustain it for long, she replied. You mentioned that there were rebels in the city. How many of them do you think would be willing to become my claimed?
She felt hope swell in Toshi at the thought of a bewitched rebel force. Most are begging for that chance. Some might need convincing.
Let them know that they have one day to think about it. Tomorrow I’ll be back to claim as many as are willing.
They’ll be ready, he promised.
And, Toshi, there’s one more thing.
What is it?
Someone who needs healing. She may be past even your help, but I’d like you to try.
Have you touched her? Can you show me her sickness? he said, every inch a doctor again.
Lily passed along what she’d seen when she tried to help patch Lillian up enough to keep going.
It’s bad, he said. If I don’t get to her soon, she’ll die.
But could you help her?
I could do more than help. I could cure her, but it would have to be soon.
I’ll get you here, Lily promised. Somehow, I’ll get you here.
Her heart lifting, she cut off the connection with Toshi. She turned to Leto, who was watching her from a respectful distance.
“Did it work?” he asked, trying not to sound too eager. She could feel the rest of her coven waiting for a response as well.
“Yes and no,” she replied. “Assassinating Grace isn’t an option, but I think I’ve found us a rebel army inside the city. And I think I’ve found a way to help Lillian.” She looked at the lowering sun. More time had passed than she’d thought.
Leto mounted the drake and reached down to give Lily a boost. “That sounds like a very productive sojourn to me,” he said, visibly happier. Lily could tell he cared deeply for Lillian.
She climbed up behind him, trying to hang on to what hope she could, and not think of the thousands of rebels who would most likely be the first to die when the war began.
“He’s awake,” Breakfast said. His eyes closed as he made contact with Red Leaf. “Grace is there with him.” He frowned. “She’s asking about spirit walking.”
“She doesn’t waste any time,” Tristan grumbled. He shook a handful of nuts into his mouth.
“I didn’t expect her to,” Lily said, looking sternly at her bowl of lentils. She and Lillian sat side by side in Lillian’s big tent. Lily’s coven surrounded them, eating dinner. It had been a tense meal, shared out of necessity so Lily could spend more time training Lillian how to jump, but even still Rowan, Caleb, and Tristan stayed far away from Lillian, hardly looking at her.
“Aaand, he’s out again,” Breakfast said. He rubbed his eyes. “Grace is going to have Toshi work on him some more. Shouldn’t be long before he’s up and about.”
“How long to do you think it will take Grace to figure out how to jump?” Rowan asked.
Lily shrugged. “I thought about it for maybe a week, but I figured it out in a split second.”
“Because you had to,” Lillian said, nodding. “We’ve always worked well under pressure. I’ve been trying for two days now and I haven’t been able to do it.”
“You almost had it the last time,” Lily interjected.
“Still, I haven’t been able to do it,” Lillian repeated.
Because she’s weak, Rowan said to Lily in mindspeak. If she weren’t so distracted by her pain she would have been able to do it by now. She hasn’t eaten a thing tonight.
I noticed, too, Lily replied, trying not to care that Rowan was obviously paying more attention to Lillian than it seemed.
“So that’s good news,” Una said. “It’s not like the Hive is going to just appear and kick the snot out of us.”
Lily saw Caleb shudder at the thought. If the Hive caught them unawares, they were all dead. Pyres take time to get burning. If they were ambushed, their armies could be wiped out by the Hive before Lily and Lillian had a chance to bewitch them and give them enough strength to fight back.
“It might be a good idea to have two stacks of wood ready at all times,” Lily suggested.
“I’ll see to it,” Rowan said.
“That’s not going to help,” Lillian countered, as frustrated with herself as she was with the situation. “We need to strike first or the Workers will kill us all. Surprise is the one advantage we have. We need to move.”
“I promised Toshi the day to get the rebels together. I’ll claim them in the morning. It’s just a few hours away,” Lily said.
“Not that they can do anything,” Breakfast mumbled. Lily frowned at him. “I’m just saying—if the Hive doesn’t allow them to show aggression, how can they help us?”
“It’ll be different once the fight starts. The Hive will have to fight on two fronts. They’ll be thrown off balance,” she replied with more confidence than she felt. “And they’re working on an antidote and a pesticide. If they can neutralize the Workers inside the city, all we have to do is fight the Warrior Sisters.”
“That’s all?” Breakfast asked. Una smacked his arm.
“Better than the alternative,” Una said to him. She looked at Lily. And better than you having to possess us so you can protect us against their stings, she added just between them in mindspeak.
I told you, Una. I’m not going to possess you again unless I have your permission, Lily promised.
Breakfast and Una shared a look. “Are you sure he can’t just—” Breakfast pantomimed sneaking up on Grace and throttling her. “We could coordinate with Red Leaf. He could tell us when she’s out of her body and we could send Toshi in there.”
“The Hive would sniff him out,” Tristan said with certainty. “He’d have to be able to do it without any kind of emotion changing his body chemistry. Maybe he could do it while he was sleepwalking or something.”
“Or possessed,” Lillian said quietly. The word slithered through the tent. She looked up. “I know mechanics hate thinking about possession, but consider the alternative.”
Lily could nearly hear Caleb gritting his teeth and intervened before he had a chance to say anything. “I’ll ask Toshi if he wants to try it.”
“But then he’ll know,” Lillian said, shaking her head. “If he knows, the Hive will be able to smell it on him.”
Lily felt everyone staring at her, waiting for a response. “And what if they smell my fear on him?” she asked quietly. “If I’m in complete control of his body, would my fear make his chemistry respond?”
“Yes,” Rowan answered. Lillian opened her mouth to argue with him, but he turned and looked directly at her for the first time and cut her off. “It’s too risky, Lillian,” he said. The way he said her name carried years of intimacy with it. Lily flushed and tried to wipe the thought of them together out of her mind.
“Why?” Lillian replied, pressing her point. “If it fails, all she has to do is jump him out of there. Even if she were too late and he were to die he would simply be the first of many in this war.”
Caleb stood up. “I wonder if Grace knew the moment she became evil,” he said. He looked at Lillian. “Did you know?” She didn’t respond. Caleb looked at Lily. “Will you?” He smiled to himself, figuring it out. “But none of you think you’re evil, do you? Not even Grace, I bet. Not even when she made the Hive. Didn’t she tell us that they protect the city so humans didn’t have to fight and die?” He paused, staring at Lily. “I bet she’s got it all worked out in her head so that she’s the hero.”
When he left the tent, no one tried to go after him. Breakfast was the first to speak.
“Just to be clear, you’re not going to possess Toshi, are you?” Breakfast asked.
“There are other options I want to try first,” Lily replied.
“Like what?” Tristan asked, raising a doubtful eyebrow.
Lily didn’t answer. Una eventually announced that she was tired and she and Breakfast retired, followed shortly by Tristan. Lily stood to leave when they did, but Rowan didn’t move from his spot on the floor of the tent.
“Are you going to bed?” Lily asked, standing uncertainly at the exit.
Rowan didn’t look at Lily. He was staring at Lillian. “Not yet,” he replied quietly. “Lillian and I have some things to discuss.”
Lillian had her eyes trained on her lap. Lily looked back and forth between the ex-lovers anxiously. After a few short moments her lingering presence grew painfully awkward.
“Alone, Lily,” Rowan added.
Lily left them, her head strangely light and her feet heavy. She took three slow steps before she heard Rowan say, “I’m not leaving until you tell me about my father, Lillian,” and she rushed back and hid by the entrance.
“There’s nothing to tell,” Lillian said.
“Stop it. Just stop,” Rowan said tiredly.
“It’s for your own good,” Lillian pleaded.
Rowan laughed bitterly. “My own good, huh? You still think you have the right to decide what’s good for me?”
“No,” Lillian whispered.
What the hell are you doing?
Lily spun around to find Una giving her a scathing look. Lily tried to think of a lie, but there was no explanation for why she would be lurking outside Lillian’s tent.
I’m eavesdropping on Rowan and Lillian, she admitted sheepishly. I think she’s going to tell him about that thing. An image of River Fall in the barn sailed from Lily’s mind to Una’s. Una stifled a gasp.
Move over, she said, as she crouched down next to Lily.
“I didn’t want you to change,” Lillian said, stammering. “That’s why I never told you.”
“Lillian, I’m changed, and not for the better. If you think you were protecting me, you failed.” His voice was bitter. Lily had never heard him speak with such rancor to anyone. “I’ve imagined it all, you know. Every possible evil one person can commit against another, and I’ve pictured my father doing it to you. Whatever you think you’re protecting me from, it’s already happened in my head. You’re not saving anyone.”
There was a long pause. And then, surprisingly, Lillian spoke. She told Rowan everything about the cinder world and how it poisoned her body. She told him about the men who had hunted her, caught her, and put her in the barn. She described the people in the barn, calling them lambs. And then she told him about his father and what he did to them.
Lillian spoke quickly, letting it all pour out. Rowan let her talk, never once interrupting. She ended by telling him how she’d drained the lambs of their life force to fuel her worldwalk back home.
“I swore I would never let it happen to this world,” Lillian said, her pace finally slowing. “When I drained the lambs, I promised them that if there were versions of them in my world, they wouldn’t end up in the barn. I’d make sure there’d never be a barn, or a River Fall to mutilate them, no matter what I had to do. I owed them that much.”
Rowan was silent for a long time.
“Say something,” Lillian begged.
“I wish you’d just told me. Right from the start,” he said.
“It wasn’t you I was trying to protect, you know,” she said in a wavering voice. “I was trying to protect your memory of him. I thought, even if I took him away from you, I could at least leave his memory alone.”
There was another long pause.
“Now that I can understand,” he said softly. “I’m so sorry, Lillian.”
Lily and Una heard weeping. Una squeezed Lily’s arm and they left Lillian to take the comfort Rowan was offering her.
It was after midnight when Lily crept out of her tent.
It had taken her that long to decide. After hours of staring at the note from Carrick, trying to tell herself that she’d done the right thing, she finally accepted that she had doomed both hers and Lillian’s army if she didn’t act. Losing the trust of her coven didn’t matter anymore.
Hours of sitting still and then, once decided, she couldn’t dress fast enough. She pulled on black wearhyde pants, boots, and a jacket, threw the bloodstained note she’d found waiting on her bedroll into the fire, and stole through the thick fir trees.
She went through the kennel where the guardians were tied up. Their bear-like bodies were only hulking shapes in the dark, but she could tell they were awake. She passed the corral of runners, and even though they didn’t nicker or prance, the raised hairs on Lily’s arms told her that they were watching her. All of the tame Woven were uncannily still in their pens. They never wasted their energy on superfluous movement. Lily supposed that was probably part of the reason they required less food and water. Efficient as it was, the result was quite disturbing. They regarded Lily with empty statue eyes, like snakes waiting to strike.
She went to the clearing where the greater drakes were tethered to fat spikes that were hammered into the ground. The drakes turned their wedge-shaped heads toward her as she approached, their chains clinking.
Lily smiled wryly at the sound, thinking of her diamond-and-iron cuffs, and searched for the drake she’d ridden that afternoon. She hoped it would remember her, and that it might even know the way back to the speaking stone in the dark. She’d forgotten to take the vibration of the speaking stone mountaintop, and she was kicking herself for that oversight now. Lily hadn’t gotten used to taking the vibration of every new patch of land she encountered, but she knew she wouldn’t make that mistake again.
When Lily found the drake it gave her no sign of recognition. She approached it slowly, dreading the moment when she had to bend her neck in front of it in order to unchain it from the stake.
“Do you know what I don’t understand?” Rowan asked. Lily spun around, her hand clutching at her thumping heart, and saw him emerge from the shadows. “I don’t understand why someone as intelligent as you can’t seem to grasp that I always know when you’re going to sneak out.”
“What are you—?”
“What am I doing?” he interrupted indignantly. “What are you doing?”
“This is not what it looks like.”
“So you’re not going to the speaking stone?”
“I am, but . . .” Lily paused momentarily to gather her thoughts and Rowan spun away from her, growling with frustration.
“Why do we keep having this fight?” he asked the stars. He spun back around and faced her. “I know you think you’re saving a lot of lives by doing this. I know that it seems like the fastest, most painless way to end this conflict—you possess Toshi, murder Grace in her sleep, and the war never even needs to happen. Hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved. I know how tempted you must be. Hell, I’m tempted to counsel you to go through with it. But just think about what you’d have to become in order to do that. Ask yourself if someone who could do that is someone you would want in power.” Rowan paused, and a pained look crossed his face. “You’re trying to protect people. So was Lillian when she hid what she saw in the cinder world about my father from me. I’m pretty sure Grace was trying to protect people, too, when she developed the Woven. But look how Lillian and Grace ended up. They’re soulless.”
He drew in a deep breath as if he had set down a heavy weight. “I know you believe murdering Grace will save us, but you’d have to give up too much of yourself to do it. I don’t want you to end up empty like Grace and Lillian. I’d fight a hundred battles to stop that.”
Lily looked at Rowan with a funny smile on her face. The smile turned into a quiet laugh. “I’m not going to end up like Lillian. And I’m not going to the speaking stone to murder Grace,” she said.
“You’re not?” he said uncertainly. “Then why are you sneaking around?”
“Because I know you’re not going to like why I am going.” She sighed, accepting that she got caught. “I’m going to claim the Woven.”
Rowan stiffened, completely taken off guard. “The Woven?” he repeated with a blank look on his face.
“We can’t win without them. I’ve known for a while now that it was our only option, but you and Caleb and Tristan and pretty much everyone from this world wouldn’t even consider it, so I kept my mouth shut.”
“But Grace controls them,” he argued, still not accepting it.
“Not all of them. She doesn’t control the Pride or the Pack—their will is too strong for her to claim them remotely without their consent. She admitted as much to me in the redwood grove,” Lily said, shaking her head. “The Hive is hers—I know I’ll never be able to take them over because she controls the Queen—but I think I have a shot of pushing her out of some of the insect Woven’s willstones, at the very least. If we can get even half of the insect Woven on our side, we might win.”
“The insect Woven,” Rowan repeated. His face was still a blank mask.
“See? This is why I didn’t tell you,” Lily said accusingly. “You think I like keeping secrets from you? I hate it. But what choice do I have when you’re so prejudiced you can’t see the Woven for what they are?”
“And what are they?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Victims.” Rowan let out a surprised laugh, but Lily pressed on. “They are Grace’s slaves. They’re cannon fodder and they die by the thousands. Maybe I can’t save them. Maybe I can’t save anyone, not the Outlanders, not the kids in the subways tunnels, not even my own coven. Maybe it’s some giant cosmic joke that I’m even here, and I should go home and go back to not being able to save my own world.” She bent down and started tugging on the lock that chained the drake to the ground. “But I’m going to try first. I’m going to go to the Woven and I’m going to ask them if they want to fight with me, because if anything on this blasted continent should want to get out from under Grace’s boot, it’s them.” She gave up on the lock and started tugging at the spike. “And if you’re too pigheaded to see that they’ve been abused as horribly the Outlanders have, than you can just stay here.”
Rowan watched her heaving ineffectually on the spike. “What are you doing?” he asked, suppressing a laugh.
“I’m trying to get this dang thing off!” Lily shouted, at her wit’s end.
“Use your willstones,” he said. He moved her back. “Look. It’s a lattice. You just touch it and think open.” He did it and the lock clicked.
“Oh,” Lily said.
“That was one of the first things I taught you about magic. In the cabin. Remember?” he asked.
“Now I do.” She looked at him and shifted from foot to foot uncertainly, remembering the cabin. Remembering claiming him. Every speck of her wanted to kiss him. “So . . . are you coming with me?” she asked, just short of pleading.
“Of course I am,” he replied. “I may not like the thought of running into battle alongside the Woven, but it’s certainly better than watching you sell your soul.”
“And easier than fighting a hundred battles,” Lily added cheekily.
Rowan laughed and looked down as a dark thought crossed his mind. “Yes.” His voice dropped. “I think this one battle is going to be quite enough.”