| |
––––––––
WHEN I WAS HALFWAY to the gate, the great portcullis began to close. I watched in horror as the wrought iron teeth started to sink toward the ground, slowly but inevitably. In a pinch, I was pretty sure I could climb through the bars, but that would take time I did not currently feel like I had. Every passing second I spent outside was a chance for someone to recognize me and thwart my efforts.
All the paranoia I had cultivated during my days in the palace and on Talyad came bubbling to the surface of my mind in a torrent. Despite the fact that I was moving fast, head down, and surrounded on all sides by complete chaos, I felt sure all eyes were on me, that the rebels must have had scouts deployed throughout the crowds, that at any moment, I’d feel hands on my arms or shoulders.
But all I could sense was the clash of blades and the thunder of firearms in my ears. A hundred voices cried out at once, full of anger, fear, pain. I didn’t allow myself to consider the possibility that the people those voices belonged to might be dying where they stood.
There was no time for thinking. I had a singular purpose, of which I could not afford to lose sight. My gaze remained fixed steadily on the side of the gateway, watching the iron teeth drop ever nearer to the ground. I swallowed hard. At least if it crushed me, I would have died trying.
The space between me and the gate only appeared to lengthen, no matter how many steps I took or how hard I pushed my body. My lungs and muscles burned. The path before me refused to stay clear; I dodged flying weapons, falling bodies, heaps of debris, and gouges in the earth. One protracted skirmish between a rebel and a Guardian forced me to take a flying leap over them as they wrestled for dominance.
It was the kind of violent discord I never could have imagined as being part of my own kingdom. Some of the bodies I passed, rebel and Guardian alike, lay chillingly still on the paths and in the grass. I saw one downed rebel get trampled over by what remained of the fight he had lost. A stone formed in the pit of my stomach.
What am I doing here? This is absolutely insane. I could still see the gate closing, and now I also saw the rebels manning its controls, struggling to handle the massive mechanism like white belts sparring with masters. Nonetheless, it was pretty clear I wasn’t going to make it in time—I needed a plan B.
Or so I thought. In the next instant, before I even had time to redirect my course, I saw the front lines of the fighting break apart. A fresh contingent of soldiers in Talyadian armor had split the battlefield like the Red Sea, all the way up to the castle. And they were being led by someone I knew.
Dressed in a distinctive set of armor emblazoned with what I assumed was his family crest, Theo fought alongside his men with all the fervor of a general. I’d never really seen him fight, but it wasn’t hard to tell that his training far outclassed the majority of the rebels on the field. He tossed his opponents aside one after the other, back into the churning tide of battle.
He was buying me time, and he didn’t even know it. I gathered a second wind and took off sprinting over the last thirty yards. Most of the rebels had converged on the new Talyadian threat. The gate was as open as it would ever be.
But it was still going to be a close call. Truth be told, I second-guessed it until the exact moment I moved to throw myself under the gate. One of the heavy teeth bit into the top of my leg, and as the shock of pain ripped through me, I saw the whole grisly scenario flash in my mind’s eye. This is it. I’ve made my last mistake.
And then the gate stopped falling. I glanced up and saw a Guardian hauling down on the chain with one arm; with the other, he flipped his helmet up and gave me a quick thumbs up.
“Go!” Colvin called. “I’ll catch up with you inside!”
My heart wanted to stop dead in my tracks and tell the man I loved him. My brain, however, understood that we were on a timer. I scrambled the rest of the way under the portcullis and launched into a second dead sprint, blazing past gardens less lush than I remembered. A few moments later, the gate slammed shut.
That was when the quiet descended. Just outside the entrance to the palace proper, I paused to catch my breath and noticed how eerily empty the grounds were on this side of the gates. The bulk of Raven’s forces, whatever remained, had been dispatched to try and keep the worst of the violence on the outside. I was walking through a virtual ghost town. The voice in my head wanted to call it a ruin, but I shut it up quickly.
No room for doubt. No margin for error. As soon as I found Raven, the rest of this nightmare would fade into the background and it’d just be the two of us settling a score. That was what I figured, anyway. The end of this mess was so close I could practically taste it.
I should have known better. I had barely gotten up the stairs and into the first corridor before the sound of approaching footsteps reached my ears. I immediately jumped back against the wall, pressing into the darkest sliver of shadow and holding my breath. It was a futile effort. If a rebel rounded the near corner, there was no way they wouldn’t see me.
And yet—that was somehow exactly what happened. I stood there and watched a rebel patrolman stride directly past the spot where I stood, his eyes glossing over my form as if I simply didn’t exist. Dumbfounded, I waited for him to turn the next corner, and then I let out the air in my lungs.
“What the hell was that?” I whispered under my breath, unable to keep the question just rattling around inside my head. “He should have seen me. I was right there!” I could’ve reached out and grabbed him if I wanted. “Was he blind? No, that’s stupid. No way would Raven put a blind guy on patrol.”
The sound of my own voice was comforting in a weird way, but I knew I had to keep silent. I couldn’t wrap my head around what had just happened regardless; it wasn’t worth risking the incredible second chance I’d just been given. Assuming, of course, that the rebel hadn’t just faked me out so he could go tell all his friends without me knowing.
Mindful of the possibility of traps or other patrols, I crept down the halls, trying not to cringe at every footfall. The vast spaces and vaulted ceilings that once were so awe-inspiring and regal now struck me as a curse, taking every sound and flinging it far and wide. But the good news seemed to be that Raven hadn’t retained a high enough number of rebels to cover the entire palace. I managed to slip through large swaths of the place unnoticed; if they could hear me coming, I could definitely hear them.
And unlike my Guardians, Raven’s ragtag band of rebels didn’t come with much more than rudimentary training. I sneaked up on a girl with a long braid and put her in a chokehold until she passed out, at which point I secured her wrists with her own handcuffs and went on my way. Another guy got a heavy statuette to the face, and probably a broken nose to go with it. “Sorry!” I whispered, stepping across his prone form. “It’s nothing personal, except that you work for the worst person on the planet. Literally.”
The more people I encountered, the less I understood exactly what was going on with me. Even when I was totally sure I’d been busted, no acknowledgement came. I knew Raven had to have told them to raise hell or high water if they saw me. But after the second or third rebel watchman passed me up, I wondered if this was just another part of her crazy scheme. Maybe I was really, really lucky. Or maybe she was an evil genius.
Then I entered the center atrium of the palace and started on the long approach to the throne room, and everything changed once again.
