Cogling (47 page)

“My coglings will destroy everyone you tried to save.” Mother Sambucus stabbed the air with a ruby-hilted dagger. “I have coglings at the gatehouse. They’ll keep the gates shut until everyone is dead.”

Ike stepped toward her, swinging his sword to whistle through the air. His hat had slid back from his forehead. “Edna, keep going.”

Edna shivered as she kept stroking her brooch, concentrating on the fire. Smoke choked her lungs and stung her eyes. Windows burst and wood crackled. Somewhere within the palace, a ceiling caved with a thudding
whoosh
. The throne room shook. Pictures and crests slid from their hooks to smash the floor. Silver magic bit at her—Mother Sambucus tried to stop her.

Two ogres struck at Ike with their clubs, but he dodged and swung. One club slashed inches from his head. They grunted and Ike swore. Edna held her breath as a hag threw herself upon Ike’s back. He flung her off and thrust his sword through her heart. The tip of his blade pierced the tile floor, pinning her down.

“Burn.” The voice next to Edna’s ear made her jump.

Ike’s mother knelt and wrapped her arms around Edna’s legs, pressing her cheek against Edna’s thighs.

“Watch out, the cameo will…” Edna’s warning trailed off. The cameo couldn’t hurt Ike’s mother since she’d made it to help protect her son.

“This is for what you did to my father.” Ike slashed his sword through an ogre’s pelvis. Edna shut her eyes, but couldn’t block out the sound of a sword slicing through flesh.

“I’m the King.” A cogling swung a sword. Hilda clenched her hands into fists; the machine resembled King Elias, but the real king stood dazed beside Harrison and Rachel by the fence. This stiff creature was only a machine.

Hilda pointed at him. “You’re a mess of cogs and gears. You’re not the King any more than I am.” The crowd gaped; some wept, others trembled, and a brave few stood with their fists clenched. “The hags created coglings to deceive you. They want to destroy the humans.”

The crowd screamed and whispered as the coglings drew their weapons, metal faces expressionless. Hilda staggered against the whir of anxiety booming in her ears. She had to convince the group the coglings weren’t their superiors, or they might not fight back.

Mother Sambucus started down from the throne. “I’ll dirty my hands with your blood. I’ll drink your sorrow.”

Ike rolled across the floor beneath the final ogre’s swinging club and his foot splashed through a puddle of blood. As he stood, he pulled a bejeweled dagger from inside his boot.

Beneath his breath, Ike whispered, “Lethan.” Magic tingled upon his lips, before flying from his mouth to encase the polished metal.

He threw the dagger with the technique Mother Sambucus had taught him to destroy enemies, and held his breath. His mother would hate to know he’d learned it, but the magic carried it through the air toward his target. Mother Sambucus screamed before it sliced into her throat, and she staggered backwards as it pinned her against the throne. Her own training had returned to terminate her.

From nearby, Edna gasped. Ike’s mother chortled louder.

Blood spurted from Mother Sambucus’s skin to drip down her dress. She gurgled and pulled at the gold handle, but the magic trapped it in place. The hags and ogres paused to stare at her twitching death throes. Her arms writhed, her back arching as much as it could.

Ike lifted his sword and aimed it at her face as he crossed in five strides, blood splashing. The room settled into a thick quiet, the only sounds his heels upon the tiles and her gurgles. Her bulging eyes pleaded with him, but her sagging mouth couldn’t form words. He sheathed his sword and rested his hand over the hilt of the dagger. Her legs trembled.

Ike ripped the front of her dress with his free hand. A brass pocket watch with a sun design hung against her silk chemise. He yanked it hard enough to break the chain, and the Dark Mother’s neck snapped. Her skull rocked backward, her eyes rolling into her head, before her head tipped to the side and her lips stopped twitching.
Edna clenched her hand into a fist. “Chains aren’t that strong.”

“She had it coated in magic. I added a little of mine to make it stronger.”

Ike removed lock picks from his pocket and poked at the watch. Everyone stood still in the throne room. The back of the watch popped open and he worked the inner gears free.

The workings snapped and cogs plinked to the floor. He threw the broken watch at the wall and turned to face his enemies. His sword whistled as he drew it.

“That watch controlled the coglings,” he said. “They’ll crumble, but I wonder which of you will follow the Dark Mother into death.”

A buzz sounded through the crowd outside the palace. Harrison cringed, slapping his hands over his ears to dull it.

The coglings shook. Hands fell off, gears grinding. Glass eyes popped out. The humans huddled together, but a few of the braver folks shoved at the coglings. They wrestled the weapons free and chopped at the machines.

“What’s happenin’ here?” Harrison asked Rachel.

She shook her head. “They’re just falling apart.”

“You reckon Ike and Edna won?” Harrison reached for her hand, and she squeezed it.

“Only the Saints know.” She glanced at the castle, where flames appeared in most of the windows and burst through the shingled roof. The heat bit at the crowd, forcing the onlookers back.

Harrison leaned against Rachel, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders to hold him tighter.

Trust me, you haven’t seen wicked yet.

dna’s stomach churned as Ike struck down the last ogre. Blood washed across the floor, soaking between the tiles. Edna looked away from his stained clothes; the stench of death threatened to choke her. Ike’s mother continued to rock and laugh, whispering, “Burn forever.”

Ike wiped his blade on an ogre’s shirt. “You can stop.”

Edna assumed he spoke to his mother until he looked at her. “Pardon?” She blushed.

“Stop rubbing,” he said. “Eddie, it’s over.”

She jerked her hand away from the cameo. The brooch had exfoliated a section of her finger, leaving it raw and bloodied, yet her hand felt numb.

He sheathed his sword. “I don’t know how to heal them.”

She wrinkled her nose at the gory corpses on the floor. He couldn’t mean the hags and ogres. “I thought you wanted to have ‘em dead.”

“Not
them
.” He pointed at the cages of noblemen. “I don’t know what spell was used.”

The thuds and whooshes of the castle crumbling echoed into the throne room. Edna shivered. Although flames leapt at the doorway, the heat didn’t enter. “Thanks to the cameo, we’re safe for now.”

Ike crossed the room, stepping over bodies and splashing through puddles of blood, to reach the wall where a pulley system had been constructed. He fiddled with the contraption until a puff of steam hissed free before gears clanked together. The cages lowered to the floor, where they thumped and squished. One landed on a dead hag.

“Let me help.” Edna ran to Ike as he fiddled with the lock on the nearest cage.

“You can pick locks?” He didn’t look at her.

She loathed the chill in his voice. “I can try to get the cameo to do it.”

“Break them,” his mother sang.

Ike stiffened. “Mum, you…” His voice broke and he returned to his work, shaking his head.