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“Isn’t it enough that she’s planning to keep the Castelan from preparing for this attack?” my mimic asked, his dark hair lit at the edges by the afternoon sun.
And yet I was sure there was something more. If it were me planning this attack, I would want more than that. And she didn’t need to sneak in here to do that. She’d indicated that she didn’t know for sure that the Castelan would be on her side in this.
“What are you doing here?” a man’s voice demanded.
Really? Did everyone climb up ten stories for a look at the view? Where did a guy have to go around here to make battle plans?
I turned lazily to indicate that I didn’t jump for just anyone, only to see Lenora’s strapping brother standing there.
“I think Nostar’s looking for you,” I said, turning back to watch the golems.
“I asked you what you’re doing here, and I want a response,” he said, striding up to stand beside me.
Now, there was a man who looked like a hero. He was bulky with muscle and armor and he still moved lightly on his feet. You’d never see me dancing around carrying a bunch of metal around like it was a cape of feathers for feast day.
“Just watching the army of golems that’s going to destroy your entire city,” I said lazily. If he didn’t care about the fate of his people, why should he expect me to?
“My father knows what he’s doing,” Lee Estabis said.
“And when those metal monsters arrive?”
He sighed. “We aren’t so feeble as you think. If they attack – and Eventen says they will not – then we can fight. We have dragons. We have soldiers. Our men are brave and strong. And we have defenses you don’t even know about.”
“Defenses that can save that entire population? Wow. You guys must have magic like I’ve never heard of before.”
He clenched his jaw irritably. “Maybe we do, boy.”
“And what, you’ll extend it over the whole city?”
“The people would need to come to the Castel,” he said through clenched teeth.
Uh oh. The defense – whatever it was – was in the Castel? And Katlana said that she needed to get to the Castel with my help. It’s why she let me take her captive because she was sure I’d come here next and bring her to the Castelan.
I grabbed Lee’s shoulder trying to spin him to look at me, but he threw my hand off with a slight shrug.
“Lee Estabis,” I said through clenched teeth. “You have a special weapon here that can thwart the army marching on your city. And you have two traitors in the Castel.”
“I’m standing with the person we’re most worried about,” he said wryly. “Why do you think I looked for you here?”
“Lenora trusts me.”
“Lenora is blinded by her time with Ephretti Oakboon – that religious zealot. We know Eventen. He has long been our friend. He has brought us gifts over the years and help. We don’t know you. And we don’t believe you.”
“Where is that weapon?” I asked warily.
He snorted. “As if I would tell you.”
“You need to secure it. You need to do that now.”
Because if I was Katlana, that’s what I’d be here to sacrifice myself to stop.
“Me, too,” my mimic agreed.
Lee gave me a suspicious look. “That would lead you right to it.”
I sighed, rolling my eyes and leaning on the battlement to look down as I tried to collect my thoughts. How did I get Lee to trust me? How did I change his mind about Eventen and Katlana?
There were other towers on the Castel below this one. I could see three from where I was leaning. I watched as Katlana strode through the entrance below me onto the top of one of those other towers. From here she looked small. She was only recognizable by her distinct leathers. At least she wasn’t near any secret weapon.
At the far end of that tower, leaning on a battlement just like me, another small figure looked out over the army creeping toward us. On either side of that tiny figure, two other figures stood. Katlana strode toward them. Maybe that was her thing. Meaningful conversations on the edge of the tower. Maybe she said whatever it took to shake a person up. Maybe she didn’t mean any of it.
I wished I could believe that.
“My father keeps our weapon secure,” Lee said. “Nothing will happen to it.”
There wasn’t a weapon on the planet that could keep those golems back. Was there? But if there was, that could explain why they were moving so slowly.
“You shouldn’t be so sure,” I said. “You should be worried like I am. You should be leaning here on the battlement just like me, assessing the threat and trying to find a way out of it.”
Where were those threads of the future now when I needed to see them spin? All I saw still was that one soft spot and no way to press on it at all.
Lee chuckled. “I don’t have to, Tor Winespring. Look down at that tower.” He pointed to the figures Katalana was joining on the battlement below. “My father watches with his guard. He looks. He assesses. You think you are the only one here who cares? How like a young man! We watch. We care. Even now, my father prepares contingencies in case Eventen is wrong.”
The pattern sprung up at his words and it seemed to me as if it was brighter – thicker – more certain than before and that soft spot ... it was shrinking.
As Katlana crossed the last steps to the Castelan on the battlement, the spot grew smaller and smaller and suddenly I knew.
“Lee, your father wouldn’t happen to be the weapon, would he?”
I should have listened to my mimic. I should have killed her. But he didn’t know what I knew – that I was no murderer.
Katlana was. And if my hunch was right, she was about to do the one thing she couldn’t have done from the outside. She was about to cripple this city and destroy its defenses in one blow.
“As if I’d – ”
“Stop!” the word was wrenched from my throat, but I couldn’t possibly have screamed loudly enough or run fast enough to make a difference. “Stop her!”
Already, a green orb danced in Katlana’s hands, expanding and rising to cover her, and still expanding alike a green bubble in a world-sized swamp.
The Castelan spun, his guards running forward, his own hands springing up and lightning forming in them as he prepared his defense. Katlana’s bubble was too quick. It swallowed them and the entire top of the tower in the space of a heartbeat.
Lee was still gasping beside me – still not able to form his own words – when the bubble rippled and then a boom shook the skycity, flinging us both backward.
I flew through the air, landing hard on the stone tower top. My ears were ringing, sound upon sound. Light flared and popped in bursts across my vision. Colors and sensations rocked me.
No time, Tor! No time to be dazed.
I shoved myself to my feet, rocking dangerously. I didn’t know if it was the tower swaying under me or my own balance but there wasn’t time for that – not for any of that.
I stumbled forward, my steps splaying out like a newborn animal. I caught myself on the stone battlement and leaned forward, gripping the stone hard to avoid pitching over the side.
I needed to see. I needed to know.
The top of the tower below was gone. Dust, falling masonry and a rising cloud were all that was left where once a tower had stood.