Siren's Song (11 page)

“And yet,” whispers the queen with a note of sadness, “these types of animals have such a bond that when all else fails in the face of danger, one will ultimately sacrifice itself for the sake of the others. If you truly had been a threat, you would've taken this one as an easy kill and left the others alone. In that way, the sacrifice of one may save the many.”

I turn and stare at her and the guard.

Then peer back over at the limp swan as my throat tightens. What she's suggesting pricks my shoulder blades. “You're suggesting I sacrifice myself.”

“That is the third option, yes. Because without your blood, Draewulf cannot ever fully succeed. He will stay mortal and thus can eventually be killed.”

“By an Elemental who no longer exists because I'm the last of my race.”

“Maybe. Or perhaps in sacrificing yourself, you will destroy him too.”

“Well, which is it?”

She shakes her head.

“Are you saying I should kill myself?”

“Not in the least—I would never condone such a thing. I'm saying you can run or fight, but when the time comes—and it will—you may have to fall at the hand of another before Draewulf takes you. No one escapes this life, nor do they escape war, unscathed. And in
this case you are the piece that will make all the difference. So
hold it all lightly, Nym
.”

The words from the Inters slip through my head:
I wasn't supposed to survive.

A sharp throat clearing comes from the Cashlin guard. “Your Majesty, three of Draewulf's airships are nearly here.”

My legs are frozen, my head is frozen, and my voice has gone to litches. Eogan's dying and this is all a hull's nest.

“Your Majesty,” the female guard says, more insistent.

“Just tell me.” I swallow. “If it comes down to such a thing, will my sacrifice guarantee Draewulf's defeat and my people's freedom?”

The queen's face grows gray. “I cannot answer that other than to say freedom comes in many forms. But it
always
comes at a price.”

“And what if I run? Will that at least slow his defeat?”

“It will.”

“In that case, if the people will die no matter what, then why spend their last few weeks leading them to a violent end?”

“I think the question is, can you justify not trying to defeat him?”

“I can if you're wrong.”

The guard slips her hand onto my arm.

“Again, I cannot tell you for certain.”

“Because you don't
know
, or you refuse?”

“As I said, ultimately the choice is yours to make. Now leave. The time has drawn short for Eogan, and his death will be at your feet if you willingly stay.”

The drone of an airship rattles the domed glass ceiling as I stare at her. Knowing that what I choose now will set the course for not just the Hidden Lands' destiny, but her destiny as well.

And that is a weight I don't want anything to do with.

She nods at me, as if already knowing what my choice will be.

“Take that there,” she says calmly, and with a tip of her head
indicates a letter slid into the Luminescent guard's pocket. “Give it to King Sedric.” She pauses, then, as if on second thought, says, “Tell him from what I can see, you have roughly ten days.”

“Until what?”

“Until Draewulf is finished with Cashlin.”

Wait—
ten
? I grab the letter just as the Luminescent jumps toward the queen and grabs the handles on her chair.

“I must see to Her Majesty. Show yourself—” The guard's words are drowned out in an explosion that blasts just beyond the window behind the queen, sending the sound of shattering glass through the room as a burst of heat and fire and screams billows up from a section of city wall in the distance.

The bombing shakes the entire Castle. It's so violent and loud. I drop to a crouch while the guard hovers over the queen as we wait for the sky to fall. Except Queen Laiha's expression doesn't seem concerned, and after a moment the shaking stops and the garden room stays intact.

I rise and tuck King Sedric's letter into my dress top.

“Go!” the guard says.

“The sooner, the better,” the queen adds. “For all of us.”

I'm racing up the crystal stairs to the bridge when her voice calls after me, “You should know, though, that the one called Lord Myles stands on the edge of a decision as well. One choice will send him over a precipice and turn him into a lesser Draewulf. The other will most likely cost his life but will help the Hidden Lands survive. Help him if you can. But should he decide wrong, destroy him. And, Nym!”

I barely turn.

“If you can . . .” Her voice cracks, and for a second I hear my own mother's tone coming through. It's as if all her crazy, hardened veneer has just peeled off and exposed who she truly is—with the
heart of a mother's love—behind it. “Help Rasha. She will need you and . . . you will need her if Draewulf truly takes me.”

What in hulls?
I swallow. She's finally mentioning that now? And then I don't care because I'm running for the door. With a final glance at the snake-swans, I push out of the room just as the queen's call of “Hold it lightly, Nym!” is cut off by another bomb and the sound ricochets through the palace.

CHAPTER 11

T
HE PALACE STAYS STANDING AS I PLOW DOWN
the hallways and past frantically moving Cashlins who've emerged from hulls knows where toward the room where I left Eogan. I've almost reached it when the young male guard, Kenan, Kel, and Eogan appear.

I stall for a half second as they head toward me.

“You're—”

“Whatever they did to me worked.” Eogan steps forward, still weak looking but coherent.

I frown at the bags beneath his eyes.

“We have to get out of here. Kenan said you went for Queen Laiha.”

“She's staying, but she's released us to take our airships and go.”

“They're this way,” the guard says. “Follow me.”

“And the crews?” Kenan demands.

“Already aboard and waiting. The queen had me send two Luminescents to escort your Lord Myles and Lady Isobel as well.” The guard's already turned down a corridor. “They'll be on the ship in the West Courtyard. We need to reach it before Draewulf's bombs do.”

We're jogging to keep up with him now, and Kenan's got his arm under Eogan's shoulder. “Your queen will
die
here, and then
her daughter as well,” Eogan says quietly to him. “She must have seen this.”

“I agree. But she has made her choice. Whether it is for the best or not. However, as far as Princess Rasha—”

Kenan shakes his head as if the guard's crazy. “But at the cost of how many lives? And because of some stubborn—”

“She asked us to rescue Rasha,” I say.

The Cashlin guard's body slows until almost frozen mid-movement, and Eogan's eyes find mine.

“She believes we're going to need her. But beyond that, it's no use,” I say. “The queen won't come, and we have to go.” I tug Eogan's arm and push Kenan and the guard forward. “Eogan's still going to die unless we get him to the Valley. And if his body fails, Draewulf has enough of his blood that his power and land will transfer to the monster fully.”

I keep my hand on Eogan's arm and peer up as another rumble shakes the crystal ceiling. “Now do you trust me or not?”

Another explosion.

Another shaking and shivering and shattering somewhere in the palace.

A long inhale of breath, as if from out of nowhere, and half the palace guards run past us.

“Kenan, we're leaving,” Eogan growls. His throat clenches as he swallows and clasps my hand and pulls us forward into a run.

“How many bombs can each of Draewulf's ships hold?” I yell.

“Up to two.”

Kenan tips his head. “Except back in Bron he loaded a number of the airships' cargo bays with bombs. So he has far more at his disposal.”

“He'll likely have brought one of those ships then from Tulla. I assume this is his way of shaking us free before he drops wraiths on
the city.” Eogan looks at the Cashlin guard. “How many ships total did Draewulf bring to this capitol?”

“Five by our count.”

“Meaning he thinks it'll be easy to take the city then.”

Ahead of us the guard nods. “My thoughts as well.”

“The queen said Cashlin will last ten days,” I say over the noise.

The guard stops. Turns.

As do the others.

I swallow. “That's her estimation, anyway.”

A moment longer and then the guard nods, turns, and pushes through a door to the West Courtyard where one of our airships is hovering in the center. Overhead, our other ship is flying low and as close to the mountain as possible. I twist my hand to pull up a shroud of thick fog to cloak them better from Draewulf's eyes as we break into a full run.

“Kenan, I need to be in the captains' room,” Eogan says. “And I'll not accept an argument on it.”

Kenan nods and eyes me. “Kel, you stay with Nym.”

At the loading dock, Cashlin guards are waiting to wave us up the ramp. The young male with us doesn't stop. He ascends ahead of us, and as I near the top, I spot two red-eyed Luminescents already aboard amid our crew scurrying about the deck.

“You're coming with us then,” Eogan says to him in a statement, not a question.

“If I may, Your Highness. As well as those two Luminescents. Queen Laiha sends us as a token of assistance to King Sedric.”

Eogan pats his shoulder and moves past the man toward the captains' room. “Get us in the air,” he yells as the fourth bomb hits. And this time a shatter of glass crashes from the palace ceiling onto the rooftop nearest us.

I duck even though we're instantly rising up up up into the fog-cloak, with only the smallest lights to reveal the location of the other ships. I peer over the railing onto the city and palace that have black holes and smoke emanating from four different vicinities. All those people.

Kel's chilly hand grabs mine. “Can't you stop them?”

My surge of thunder snaps and a thread of lightning ignites over the city. It illuminates Draewulf's five airships, eerily close, through the fog.

I clench my fist and drag another shred of lightning down to tear through one of those ships. It lights up like a furnace—all spark and flame and wisps of shredded balloon—and then it's falling from the sky onto one of the crystal streets.

The next moment the fog is darkening, like ink seeping into it. The thick, blackening wisps swirl up and around where the other ships are, blocking them from my vision.

I send in a gale wind to shove it away, but the darkness clings to the atmosphere like a plagued leech. Thick and unmoving.

I send in another shredded bolt, but it slices right through the black cloud and explodes a section of housing below it.
Litches.
Three more attempts end in the same result, and it occurs to me that the cloud is doing more than hiding them. It's acting as some sort of shield.

My curled fist lets the sky sizzle overhead but holds off sending any more. If I can't see them, I can't hit them. Suddenly my wrist aches, my lungs ache.

“What're you doing?” Kel yells. “Why are you shielding them?”

“I'm not. It's Draewulf. And my ability's still too weak to break through it.” I pull my hand from the boy's and use both fists to shove a gust between us and those ships. Propelling us faster in the
wind. Pushing us away from the city, away from that black cloud, and away from Draewulf.

“Is Princess Rasha on one of those ships?” The Luminescents' voices are eerily close.

My gut lurches.
Litch.
I shake my head; I don't know. But hulls, I hope not. I continue to force the gale to give us distance, then close my eyes as the sounds of Eogan shouting orders from the captains' room, and the airship's drone, and the crashing of glass and metal below swirl around me.

After a moment I can stand it no longer and beg the Elemental in my blood to at least bring forth rain like it did earlier.

It's barely a mist on my face when it begins. Water droplets sprinkling the air, carrying cool breath from the thickening clouds. As if this, a sigh of mercy on the earth, it is willing to give.

It immediately dims the smoke and fires that have flared up around the swiftly fading city.

The air whips around me just as the ship is moving beneath my boots, dragging us to another place and leaving in our wake another devastation.

I bend both hands now and I'm rewarded by a downpour. It patters and drops and slaps the balloon overhead and the deck railing and Kel's and my heads. Soon it's coming down so hard that the city and Draewulf's airships are dissolved into the storm. But if they're faring anything like our ships, Draewulf's captains are struggling to keep them aright as they weave and bob about on the wind.

Good.

I turn to look at the waterlogged Kel, and the guard, Sir Doesn't Matter, and the Cashlin Luminescents, and the soldiers assembling themselves into units on our ship's deck. Kel smiles a bright-white, toothy grin at me through giant drips falling from his nearly
shaved black bangs before he looks back to the mountains we're climbing over.

I share his smile halfheartedly and lessen the rain. Then turn with him to face Faelen.

Ten days.

CHAPTER 12

T
HE RAIN KEEPS UP FOR HOURS, GUSHING, REFRESHING
, washing the blood and wraith smell from my skin and off the ship as it pushes us forward through the afternoon toward Faelen.

Eogan's doing his best to stay awake and rest while assisting the captains, and Kenan's ensuring the prisoners are overly secured—including Lord Wellimton, whom the soldiers put into a holding cell with Myles and Isobel. Which makes me grin.