“I couldn’t have been asleep for more than twenty minutes, then.”
Aren’s posture changes, becoming more alert, more ready for action. “They haven’t had time to leave the city yet.”
Lena mumbles something in Fae.
“They’ll try for the gate.” I’m fairly certain of that. Otherwise, it’s a rough journey through the Corrist Mountains to get to the Missing Gate on their northeastern edge. That’s the next nearest place humans can safely fissure.
I slept in my clothes, so all I have to do is stuff my feet into my sneakers, then grab my sketchbook off the hook hanging beside the door, and I’m ready to go.
“We can intercept them,” I say, stepping into the corridor. I almost barrel into a fae. Jacia.
She steadies me with a hand on my elbow. Edarratae pool under her palm until she releases me, then focuses on the two fae still in my room.
“The remnant, Tylan, is missing,” she reports.
“I definitely had nothing to do with that,” I say to Lena. She gives me a look that is extremely unamused.
“Notify Taltrayn,” she tells Jacia.
Jacia acknowledges the order with a nod and departs. Aren and I leave right after her, heading the opposite way down the corridor. Aren’s walking quickly even for a fae, so I have to run to keep up. I’m not at a full sprint, though—I couldn’t keep that pace up for long—but we’re out of the palace and in the Inner City in just a few minutes.
“You should run ahead,” I tell Aren.
“I’m staying with you,” he says. “Tylan is an illusionist. We need your eyes.”
My side is starting to cramp. I concentrate on drawing air into my lungs, then blowing it out. I don’t want to slow him down any more than I already am.
I’m sweating, but a cool wind blows from the south, chilling my skin, and I think I hear a rumble of thunder. The sky was clear before I went to sleep. It’s not clear anymore. Thick, gray clouds are gathering above the Inner City.
“Wait up.”
Slowing down, I look over my shoulder and see Naito running toward us.
Aren stops. “Why aren’t you on watch?”
“Taltrayn told me to go to the gate with you,” he says. Then he looks at me. “You’re supposed to go to the veligh. Watch for remnants there. It’s safer than this.”
Aren mutters something in Fae about a fool. I can practically feel him seething beside me. He’s probably taking this personally. I don’t really blame him. Kyol has no business overturning Aren’s decision.
My hand tightens on the strap of my sketchbook. “I can’t get there in time to be any help.”
“And I’m not letting you run back through the Inner City without an escort.” Aren puts an arm on my shoulder, moves me toward the silver wall. “You’re both coming to the gate.”
It’s less than a mile to the northwest portcullis. It’s closed. Two fae standing guard watch us approach. Others are here as well, but hidden at their posts somewhere within the wall, watching the Outer City. After a few quick words from Aren, one of the swordsmen touches the wall behind him. A faint blue line climbs its silver surface. As it rises, so does the portcullis.
The other swordsman says, “We haven’t seen anyone approach the gate.”
Naito steps between me and Aren. “Maybe they haven’t left the palace.”
“Taltrayn will find them if they haven’t,” Aren says. Then he asks the swordsman, “How many are on watch above?”
“Eleven,” is the reply.
“Send six down. Three to protect the humans and three with me.” He ducks under the portcullis with a motion for Naito and me to follow.
“It’s clear, I presume?” Aren asks when I reach his side again.
I scan the flat area of land between us and the river approximately two hundred feet away. The foothills are just beyond it. Theoretically, Paige, Lee, and Tylan could go there, hide out in the caverns or in one of the mountain passes in the distance. Then they could choose the time to fissure out of the city. It’s what I would do.
Well, it’s what I would do if I didn’t know that the rebels knew about the serum and where to get it. I have to assume Paige has chosen her side now, and that she’ll tell the remnants how she was given the Sight. I don’t think Lee will stop her.
The betrayal hurts exactly as much as it should. We were friends. She shouldn’t stab me in the back like this. She shouldn’t ally with my enemy without asking me what this war is about. I’m going to kick her ass when we recapture her.
“McKenzie?” Aren says. He’s focused on the row of shops to our left. They’re a good hundred yards away and difficult to make out with the sky growing so dark.
“I don’t see anything,” I tell him. “Do you?”
“Maybe. Keep heading toward the gate.”
The six fae he requested from the wall have arrived. He assigns three to Naito and me, then he and the others disappear into slashes of white light. I see their exiting fissures near one of the gray-bricked buildings. Aren’s looking down the narrow walkway between them. He draws his sword, then—
I’m nearly blinded when a virtual wall of light opens up in front of me.
My guards react before I do, leaping between me and the newly arrived fae before the nearest one is able to take my head off. Instinct makes me drop to the ground anyway. I roll, and when I get back to my feet, Aren’s back at my side.
“Diversion,” he snaps out. “Stay close.”
Tylan must have fissured for reinforcements. No less than two dozen remnants fill the clearing between the river and wall. We’re outnumbered, but not for long. Other rebels join us—probably the rest of the guards from the wall—and they surround me and Naito, attacking any remnant who gets too close.
“We should go back!” Naito yells. I just barely hear him above the sounds of the fight…and of the thunder rumbling through the air. The sky is almost black with clouds. They shift as I watch them, and just when I realize that this storm isn’t natural, the hail begins to torpedo down.
Each strike feels like a bee sting. My clothing offers little protection. The tiny pellets bruise my face, my shoulders, my arms. Someone’s controlling this, concentrating the storm above us. If we…
There they are. Paige and Lee. They’re sprinting toward the gate from the east, not from the row of buildings to the west.
“Aren!” I unsling my sketchbook from my shoulder, start to open it up, but I’m knocked to the ground.
Then Aren’s above me, intercepting a remnant, keeping him away from me. I roll to my stomach, scramble forward to grab my sketchbook, but another remnant is there. His boot comes down on the center of a page. I grab the leather strap just as he lunges forward and yank it as hard as I can. The packed earth is treacherous, with the hail building up; the sketchbook slides easily, sending the remnant flying back on his ass.
He hits hard, nearly loses his grip on his sword, the sword that’s just within my reach.
I throw myself on top of him, grabbing his arm before he brings the blade up, but I’m totally screwed. He’s stronger than I am. As he turns over, he hooks his free arm behind my back, then slams me face-first to the ground.