The Mirror King (Orphan Queen) (36 page)

“THEY’RE STILL BREATHING,”
said Oscar.

“The wraith hasn’t solidified the way you described at Mirror Lake.” Sergeant Ferris knelt to help build the stretcher for Claire. “But they can’t move through it.”

My head buzzed with horror. The wraithland, here in my city. “Did you see Patrick or Prince Colin?”

“No, but we couldn’t get a good look. Oscar tossed a pebble into the mist, and it stuck. If they’re with their armies, they’re trapped.”

If Chrysalis regained control over the wraith, everyone would be moving again. We had to find Prince Colin and Patrick first, force them to agree to call off their armies, and somehow send away the wraith.

“All right.” I rose to my feet. “You four, take Claire to the castle. Get her to Connor.”

“I don’t like leaving you,” said Theresa.

“Please, do this. And after you deliver Claire, take all the barrier pieces up to Radiants’ Walk—the overlook above the Red Bay.”

Oscar nodded. “The barrier will be there.”

“Good. Guard it with your life.” I dragged in a long breath, heavy with the heat of wraith and stink of blood. “Melanie, James: you’re with us.”

Outside, Melanie and James moved ahead, their weapons drawn, though the street was unnaturally still; even the snow had stopped, and was steaming in piles against the buildings.

“The wraith is changing everything so quickly.” Tobiah’s voice was low.

“Chrysalis brought it as a weapon.” Now that we were so close to the battleground, haze blocked out the moon and stars completely, but the flecks of light cast enough illumination to see by. “Chrysalis doesn’t think about consequences when he acts. I don’t know if he can. I want to hate him for doing this, but I know him now. I’m learning the way he thinks. It’s almost childlike.”

“He’s no child.” The words were a growl.

“No, he’s not.”

“But he loves you. He wants to protect you.”

“I don’t think he has a choice.” I waved the topic away. “We can discuss Chrysalis and his dubious humanity another time. Right now, we need to focus on making this city safe.”

“You’ve said it a hundred times: we’ll never be safe.”

Maybe not. But right now, we both needed hope. “We have to make it safe. If not for us, for the people who come after us.”

“Right.” He wiped his arm across his face, leaving a streak
of sweat and dirt. “You were giving a lot of orders back there. Do you have a plan?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to share?”

“No.”

“I see. You don’t want to be embarrassed if everything goes awry.”

I twitched my little finger at him. “Just because you have impeccable taste in clothes doesn’t mean you know everything, Black Knife.”

“Oh, nameless girl. When will you learn to trust me?”

“I do trust you.” I bumped my elbow against his, a pathetic attempt at levity, but he caught me, turned me, and held me in place. We stood dangerously close. “It’s myself I don’t always trust,” I whispered.

“That’s strange.” He released my arm and took a step backward. “I trust you, but I don’t always trust myself.”

“This seems to be a problem with kings and queens.”

“I think it’s a problem with people.” He smiled faintly, and we hurried to catch up with Melanie and James. “I always believed I was a monster hunting other monsters.” His voice remained soft.

Knowing what he’d done to bring back his cousin in a society that condemned all magic, I could imagine the cycle of self-loathing that must have taken hold.

“I never saw
you
as a monster, though. A criminal, yes. Definitely a troublemaker. But even when I learned you were a radiant, I didn’t see you differently. I thought maybe you were like me.” He didn’t meet my eyes. “Since then, I’ve fought actual
monsters. Not just wraith beasts or glowmen, but the kind of people who come out of hiding when the world falls apart. I’ve traveled through the wraithland of my own home. I’ve seen things I couldn’t begin to describe.”

“Like this?” We’d come to the battleground: a huge park surrounded by shops, taverns, and food stalls. I’d been here once before; people had been planting trees and beginning the frame of some kind of stage or platform. Now vines covered the brickwork, growing every second. Broken glass windows glimmered like teeth.

“Dear saints.” Melanie pressed her hands to her mouth.

Mist writhed between thousands of men and women caught mid-fight. Wraith beasts, too, had been trapped with their claws raised or their jaws clamped around a leg.

Many of our people were turned away, identifiable only by the knives painted on their uniforms, but I caught a few faces I knew. They blinked and gasped, and struggled against the solidifying mist, but it was futile.

I stepped toward them, as though I could help.

“Don’t get too close.” Melanie raised her arm to bar me from proceeding. “Remember what Ferris said happened when they threw in a pebble. It’s there.”

Indeed, a small piece of rock hung in midair.

“You heard Chrysalis. It won’t hurt me.” When I lifted my palm to the mist, it seemed to melt. It was still wraith, but simply the kind that changed things, rather than trapped. With another step, the floating pebble hit the ground with a faint
clack
. “I have to free our people while this immunity still works. Maybe they know where Patrick and Prince Colin are.”

“Fine.” Melanie crossed her arms. “In the meantime, we’ll just stand here, useless.”

“Don’t be foolish. Find a building to climb up and get a good look at everything. Or go around the edges and look for Patrick and Prince Colin there. Just don’t touch the mist.” That wasn’t a useful instruction; there was mist
everywhere
. “Look, you can see how this mist is different. It sheers off at the edge of something, and there’s a shimmer to it.”

“I see it.” Melanie scowled.

My smile was forced. “Take James; that way we’ll each have a boy to look after.”

James and Tobiah shot each other unamused looks, but after a moment, Melanie and James went off together, discussing their best course of action.

I took another step into the mist, which melted at my nearness. “Watch my back, Black Knife.”

“Intently.”

Another step, and then another. I reached the nearest soldier with a black knife on her uniform. She’d been trapped in a silent scream, someone’s blade coming toward her from behind. I’d seen her before. Met her once. Her name was . . . Denise something.

“It’s all right, Denise,” I murmured. “I’m going to free you.”

Her eyes widened as the mist cleared away. Her mouth moved. She dropped from the wraith’s grasp and pointed behind me.

I drew my sword and spun, letting the mist scatter and melt around me.

A figure in a shredded indigo uniform limped around a corner. Blood poured down his cheek and neck, and his skin shone
with sweat. He kept one arm tucked against his chest.

“Uncle.” Tobiah moved toward him, but stopped as Prince Colin hefted a sword with his good arm.

“I should have known I’d find you with her.” Prince Colin’s glare cut from Tobiah to me, his eyes narrowed. “Flashers. Filthy creatures. You deserve to die in this stuff, not my people.” He brought his sword around, cutting through banners of wraith accumulating around him. It didn’t help.

“Is that why you attacked the city?” Tobiah sidestepped so that he was between his uncle and me. “Because of Wilhelmina’s magic? Or because you don’t want to give up Aecor?”

Denise was kneeling in the muck, silently gasping, but recovering. I moved toward another black-knifed soldier, freeing him while Tobiah had Prince Colin distracted.

“You planned this.” Prince Colin shuddered as heat blasted through the street. “The coronation. Patrick Lien’s release. The wraith destroying us both.”

“We didn’t plan anything.” Tobiah’s voice was firm. “Do you really think I want to see another place become wraithland?”

“I wish I could believe you.” Prince Colin edged away from the shimmer mist, closer to a shop where vines grew around columns. Leaves fluttered and fattened, reaching for him. “But you’re dressed as a vigilante and keep company with a flasher.”

Tobiah moved again, not blocking me anymore, but herding Prince Colin away from the vines that slithered down from the buildings. Like green snakes, they crossed the walkway, heavy leaves catching air like sails on a boat. “Come back to the castle with us,” Tobiah said. “Someone will help you. Is your arm broken?”

“I won’t go anywhere with you.”

Quickly, I freed two more of my soldiers, whispering for them to stay close. I had to assume the wraith would solidify again when I moved away.

“Come on, Chrysalis,” I muttered.

The soldiers crowded behind me as I moved toward the edge of the wraith shimmer. Those still trapped looked at me, pleading with their eyes. They were afraid I was leaving them. “I’ll free you,” I whispered. “I swear it.”

Near Prince Colin, the vines reared up to throw themselves around him. Tobiah brought his sword down with uncanny speed, cutting the thick greenery in two just before it reached his uncle.

There was no time for relief; another vine zipped in from the opposite direction. “Watch out!”

My warning came too late.

The vine wrapped around Prince Colin’s throat and tightened. His sword fell to the cobblestones as he tried to tug off the wraith vine, but more twisted around his body, pinning his arms in place.

Tobiah lunged forward, drawing a dagger to free his uncle, but Prince Colin’s face was already red and purple. He writhed in place, struggling against Tobiah and the vines.

I had to help. “Hurry,” I called to the soldiers, and we started to run. As soon as they were away from the wraith shimmer, I sprinted toward Tobiah.

Prince Colin’s eyes bulged. His mouth moved.

“Keep him still.” Tobiah shoved his uncle onto his back.

I dropped my sword and knelt close, and that was all the
proximity the wraith needed. The vine loosened and fled; Chrysalis’s influence still held.

Prince Colin curled inward and turned to one side, gasping and coughing. “Wraith queen.” The words were garbled, but I’d heard them enough. I knew.

“How can we help?” Denise asked. The others stood behind her, shaky, but well enough.

“Guard Colin.” I glanced at Tobiah. “The former overlord is officially a traitor, same as Patrick.”

The four moved in just as the horrific noise of screams and metal exploded behind us—and silenced only a second later.

In the wraith shimmer, everyone had shifted. Just slightly. Just enough. One reached for us now, close to where I’d freed Denise. The one who’d been about to stab her in the back had fallen forward. Another was suddenly on his knees, trying to curl into a ball.

It happened again.

The wraith melted for a heartbeat, people lurched and gasped and cried out, and then everything stopped.

“Chrysalis.” Tobiah glanced at me. “He’s regaining control.”

Slowly. Horribly. But he was trying.

“Wil!” Melanie’s voice came from a rooftop down the street, and both she and James pointed—

A
thud
sounded as a dagger landed in the back of Prince Colin’s neck. He dropped to the ground, dead.

“No!” Tobiah took up his sword and lunged for a shape emerging from a nearby tavern. Patrick. My former friend hefted a giant sword with ease, bringing it up to guard as Tobiah closed on him with an awful shout.

The blades clashed. Patrick shoved Tobiah backward, but the king regained his footing immediately. He feinted low and struck high, but Patrick knew that trick.

The two were closely matched in skill, but where Tobiah was a fast, lithe fighter, Patrick was steady. He’d wear down Tobiah, and then strike a killing blow.

But he wouldn’t risk me.

“Help any of our people who escape the wraith,” I told my soldiers. Chrysalis would seize control soon. I hoped.

“But Patrick—”

“We’ll take care of him. Captain Rayner and Melanie will be here soon.” With no more room for argument, I took my sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, and joined Tobiah.

Patrick swore. “I don’t want to hurt you, Wilhelmina. I promised I wouldn’t ever strike you again, but you’re making that a difficult promise to keep.”

Around us, lightning bursts of chaos hit—Chrysalis fighting the wraith.

“You can keep your promise.” I swung for his side; he blocked. “You can choose to end this.”

“Aecor won’t be free until the Indigo presence is eradicated.” Patrick raised his sword against Tobiah.

Before he could attack, I jumped between them and blocked with my dagger. “Stop, Patrick!”

“I can fight, Wil.” Tobiah was at my side, sword ready.

“He will kill you. He won’t hurt me.” I didn’t take my eyes off Patrick. “Once I wondered if a dead queen was better than a defiant queen, but I know better now. Patrick won’t harm me,
because he knows the power of my name. He’s nothing if he’s not fighting for me.”

Tobiah backed off, but Patrick pursued, forcing me to work to keep myself between them. I blocked and redirected blows, chest burning with the effort. Heat poured over the street, and sweat made my clothes cling to my skin.

The rapid noise and silence of Chrysalis’s wraith-control effort made my head spin, and banners of mist had fallen in our space. They were glowing.

“Stay close,” I told Tobiah. “The wraith won’t attack if you’re near me.”

He grunted behind me, followed by the
twang
of his handheld crossbow firing. “I am in awe of the way you inspire such loyalty. Nevertheless, the wraith has us surrounded.”

I couldn’t look away from Patrick to confirm, just strike and block and move and block and thrust and block. “Well, maybe”—I gasped—“you should do something.”

“I just shot a streetlight in the eye. What more do you want from me?”

My sword arm shook with strain as I attacked again. Patrick blocked me with ease. “You won’t last much longer,” he said. “When you’re finished with this, I’ll kill the foreign king and hang his body from the castle wall. I’ll say this is what the vermilion queen and her Red Militia do to enemies.”