Phoenix (26 page)

ASH

THE SUN IS HIGH
over Thrace, making the whole market sparkle as thousands of mirrors catch the light.
We’re inside a tavern at the end of Spice Square, about fifty feet away from the Thrace
City Hall. The two white-and-red Sentry banners still hang down the front of the city
hall, fluttering slightly on the breeze. For the past few hours, I’ve been watching
the guards come and go from the building, trying to gauge their movements. There’s
nothing out of the ordinary.

To our right, directly opposite Thrace City Hall, are the giant digital screens, showing
the countdown: 36:04:01, 36:04:00, 36:03:59, 36:03:58 . . . Situated on top of one
of the digital screens, carefully camouflaged, is a camera.

So far, I’ve spotted around a hundred Sentry guards, several squads of Trackers and
two Lupine packs coming and going from that building, including Sebastian and Garrick.
They’re heavily armed, but because they’re not expecting trouble, we’ve got the element
of surprise on our side. Plus, unless they open up the large decorative doors that
dominate the façade—which doesn’t look possible, considering how rusted the hinges
are—all the guards will have to exit the building via the small access door one at
a time, making them easy pickings for us.

Across the square is the ghetto wall, punctuated at even intervals by guard towers.
These appear deserted, but I know better. Gilderoy Draper and his team have been up
there, hidden from view, since dawn. The fact that the Darkling ghetto is empty has
worked in our favor, as it means the guard towers have been unmanned for over a year.

Above us, a Transporter travels to one of the Destroyer Ships, carrying a platoon
of guards who have just finished their shift. There’s only one Transporter left, parked
down Cinnamon Street, next to the city hall. Everything is going as planned. First
thing this morning, two dozen of the Dacian rebels, including one of the clan elders,
Miranda, allowed themselves to be captured and taken up to the Destroyer Ships. Hidden
under their clothing were homemade bombs.

My stomach knots as I anxiously watch the airships. If everything is going to plan,
the rebels have already freed the prisoners from the cells and are making their way
to the hangar deck to capture the Transporters so they can get the Dacians off the
airships before they blow up. So much can go wrong, and we’re relying on Miranda and
her teams to take out the airships; there’s no other way we can seize Thrace.

Natalie, Elijah, Giselle, Neptune and Sol Becket are with me. I check my watch. It’s
almost noon. In two minutes, we’ll be unleashing hell on this city. I flick a look
at Natalie, who is adjusting her sword. I know she’s had experience using a sword,
so that brings me some comfort. She’s wearing a black hooded robe, and has Cinderstone
powder painted over her eyes and nose like the rest of us. She glances up at me, her
face almost entirely hidden in the shadow of her hood. I smile at her, and she smiles
back. Madame Clara gave her some medicine to manage the pain in her leg, so she’ll
be able to fight.

I check my rifle for the umpteenth time, and then adjust the canvas bag hidden under
my robe. It’s loaded with ammunition and smoke grenades, cobbled together from ingredients
Neptune’s men were able to gather for us yesterday. Everyone else has a canvas bag
similar to mine, as well as a sword, dagger or rifle. It’s not much, but it’s all
we have. I hope it’s enough.

Neptune pats me on my shoulder. “You ready, boy?”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” I reply.

“Ash, look!” Natalie says, pointing up at the sky.

On cue, the azure sky fills with Transporters. They zoom away from the Destroyer Ships
and fly toward the agreed-upon rendezvous point a few miles outside the city. A second
later, there’s a tremendous explosion to the north of Thrace—it’s the Destroyer Ship
hovering above the docks. Burning ash and debris rains down on the city as the scorched
skeleton of the airship crashes into the ocean.

The access door to Thrace City Hall bursts open, and Sentry guards spill out of the
building to find out what’s happening. Now it’s our turn. We each light our smoke
grenades, causing white vapor to swirl around us as we run into Spice Square, just
as scores of Dacian wagons speed up the side streets, blocking the Sentry’s only escape
routes. The Dacians leap off their vehicles, guns and swords in hand. They’re all
dressed in black robes with Cinderstone powder painted on their faces, like me. The
guards skid to a halt, stunned, as a hundred Phoenixes glare back at them through
the smoke, our hooded capes billowing like wings.
Rose thinks he’s killed the Phoenix? He can think again.

The Sentry guards barely have time to register what’s going on before Gilderoy’s men
appear in the watch towers and begin shooting. A dozen guards are killed before the
others snap out of their stupor and start firing back. Their aim is wild, disoriented
by the smoke. There are screams all around me as Dacians and Sentry guards are gunned
down in the cross fire. Blood stings my nostrils, making my fangs throb, but I control
my thirst as I lob a smoke grenade through one of the shot-out windows of Thrace City
Hall, hoping to flush out the remaining people inside. Natalie and Giselle do the
same, while Elijah pounces on a Sentry guard, sinking his saber teeth into the man’s
throat.

A thunderous sound suddenly rips through the city as a second Destroyer Ship erupts
into a ball of flames, then a third goes down toward the west, crashing into the Rainbow
Forest. The ground vibrates with the weight of metal smashing against the earth. One
by one, the bombs detonate, tearing through the remaining two Destroyer Ships. They
lose altitude fast, but the pilots manage to steer the aircraft toward the fields
outside the city, perhaps trying to keep civilian casualties to a minimum or maybe
just hoping to escape. Either way, as soon as they hit the ground, the airships explode.

The skies are empty.

Now all we need to deal with is the enemy on the ground.

I toss another smoke bomb through a broken window, and Natalie and Elijah follow suit,
causing a string of explosions. It does the trick, as the Moondogs bound out of the
access doors, led by Jared. They snarl and snap their jaws as they charge toward us,
their red coats flaring behind them. I don’t see Garrick’s pack anywhere. The smell
of blood in the air is intoxicating, and the Lupines trample the dead Sentry guards
with their steel-capped boots, crushing their bones in their thirst to feed. They
don’t care who they kill, consumed with bloodlust: Sentry, Dacian, it makes no difference
to them—it’s all just flesh. They tear apart ten rebels before we manage to draw our
rifles and swords.

We rush at the Moondogs, slashing and shooting at them as we run. Neptune, Giselle
and Sol take the creatures on the left, while Natalie, Elijah and I tackle the ones
on our right. Natalie spars with a smaller, female Moondog who has a mane of dark
black hair and is wearing a scarlet top and pants. The woman swipes at Natalie with
her razor-sharp claws, but Natalie ducks out of the way and plunges the tip of her
blade through the Moondog’s heart, killing her.

“Good one!” Sol calls out to Natalie. His glasses are splattered with Lupine blood.

“Sol! Watch out!” Giselle cries as another Moondog lunges for the man.

It seizes Sol and mauls his throat. A blade to its stomach from Neptune finishes the
creature, but Sol’s already dead. Movement to my left draws my eye. Through the smoke,
I spot five figures climbing out a first-floor window in Thrace City Hall and dropping
onto Cinnamon Street below: Sebastian, Garrick, Sasha and two more of their Lupine
pack. Garrick appears to be limping slightly. They shoot the Dacian rebels who block
their path and manage to reach the Transporter parked on the street. A moment later,
the engines whir, and they fly off, leaving the rest of their men to fend for themselves.

Fragg!

I don’t have time to dwell on it, as there are still the Moondogs to contend with.
There are three left—two females and Jared. I shoot one of the females in the chest,
then whip my gun around on Jared. I’m about to pull the trigger when he grabs Giselle.
I can’t shoot him without hitting her.

Her gray eyes snag on mine.

“Do it, Ash!” she cries out.

I hesitate.

“Shoot!” Giselle yells as Jared plunges his canines into her neck.

I pull the trigger, once, twice.

Giselle and Jared collapse on the ground, unmoving.

Natalie and Elijah take down the remaining Moondog, bringing an end to the fight.

The square falls silent. All the Lupines are dead, and the Sentry guards that are
still alive are cowering behind the pile of bodies near the city hall steps. The only
people left are the Trackers, who have yet to leave the sanctuary of the city hall.

I walk forward, smoke swirling around my feet, and stop in front of the steps. I fix
my eyes on the Sentry guards. At that moment, the digital screen on the west wall
flickers, and a live feed of Spice Square appears on the monitor. Pandora and her
band of rebels have successfully taken control of the news station. Right now, my
image is being broadcast on every screen, in every city across the United Sentry States.

“You have one chance to surrender,” I call out to the guards, my voice loud enough
for the Trackers inside the building to hear. “Lay down your arms and come peacefully
with us. If you refuse, we will have no choice but to respond with force.”

There’s a long pause, and I think the Trackers aren’t going to come out. Just as I’m
about to give the order to storm the building, the access door opens. The Trackers
file out of the city hall, flashing furious looks at me as they pass. The Dacians
bind their hands and line the prisoners up in front of the ghetto wall. They’ll stay
there until we decide what to do with them. I’ll leave that up to Neptune. This is
his city now.

Taking their cue, Natalie and Elijah head to the roof of the city hall. I walk up
the stone steps, disturbing the smoke spewing out of the broken windows. It whips
around me until it’s impossible to tell where my robe ends and the smoke begins. I
turn and gaze up at the camera, perched on top of the digital screen directly opposite
me. My face fills the screen. There’s a splash of blood on my cheek, and the Cinderstone
powder around my eyes is streaked and messy, not at all like the perfect makeup job
that Amy always did. This is the real me. This is the true face of Phoenix: bloodied,
battle-worn and wearing a torn black robe coated in ash.

Behind me, the two white-and-red Sentry banners flutter on the breeze, creating a
stark and vivid image. I let it linger on the screens for a moment, so the whole country
can see me. The square is so quiet as everyone waits for me to speak that I can actually
hear my heart beating.

“This is a message for Purian Rose,” I finally say to the camera. “You thought we
were defeated. You thought I was dead. But you were wrong. I am alive. I have been
resurrected.
I am Phoenix, the boy who rose from the ashes.”

That’s the signal. Natalie and Elijah, now on the roof of Thrace City Hall, cut down
the Sentry banners and replace them with ours—a burning black Cinder Rose on a cerulean
background. The flags tumble down the building’s façade. The message is clear: Mirror
City is ours.

The broadcast ends, and the digital screens turn to SBN news, which is already showing
commentary from a very flustered February Fields. Purian Rose must be in a murderous
mood right now. I suspect a few Sentry generals will be executed for mistaking my
identity at Iridium and causing him this political nightmare. Rose made such a show
of me being “just a mortal boy” that his army killed, and yet here I am, alive and
kicking. The rest of the country will believe I’ve miraculously been resurrected
again.
It’ll give them courage to fight alongside the rebels, knowing Phoenix, and the rebellion,
will not be stopped.

The Dacians start moving the dead and wounded into the surrounding buildings, emptying
Spice Square, and only then do I see the real carnage. Blood seeps down the steps,
and everywhere I turn, there are bodies: Sentry, Lupine, rebel. It’s not quite the
massacre at Iridium, but it is more death than I ever want to see again. Elijah and
Natalie search the pile of bodies for any signs of life. Neptune wanders over to me.
There’s soot over his craggy face and blood in his curly gray hair—some of it is his
blood, some of it belongs to the guards he killed.

“Did we lose many people?” I say.

“At least thirty so far, and we don’t know how many made it off the Destroyer Ships
yet. It could have been worse,” Neptune adds when he sees the anguish on my face.

He pats my shoulder and tells me he’ll take over from here. I let him. These are his
people, after all. I silently walk across the plaza, looking for Giselle’s body. I
spy her flame-colored hair underneath Jared’s corpse. I roll his body off her, then
gently scoop Giselle up in my arms. There’s a bright red stain on her dress where
the bullet’s torn through her chest. I’m surprised how numb I feel looking at her,
but once the shock’s worn off, I’m certain the magnitude of what I’ve done will sink
in.
I killed her.