Flight of the King (29 page)

But now everything was coming to a head: at any moment, Bailey and Taleth would be led from this tunnel to a stage. There, Taleth would bow before the Jackal, or they would both be killed, as
well as Hal. He could see no way out for any of them. Even Taleth had become resigned to her part in it, though the sight of her bowing before the Jackal made Bailey feel guilty and sad. He'd
wanted a close connection with her, his bond. But all he felt from Taleth as a result was confusion and fear. What worried him most, though, was the thought of what would happen once they'd
done as the Jackal asked. He would have no use for them.

“Hello, chaps.”

Bailey heard a cheerful voice enter the alcove where his cage was hidden. He lifted his head, and felt Taleth flex her muscles. This was it.

But then he heard one thud, and another, and then the sound of two large men falling to the floor. He held his breath, and pressed his body against Taleth. One footstep, two—and then the
sheet that covered Bailey's cage was whipped away.

A thin man wearing a pair of brass spectacles smiled down at him. It was Jerri, Shonfield's assistant. In his hand, he held an elaborately carved blunderbuss with a stag and a crow on the
side. At his feet, two gray squirrels jittered and squeaked with fear at the sight of Taleth.

“Thank goodness,” said Jerri, looking from Bailey to the tiger. “You're both safe!”

“Jerri?” said Bailey. “How did you find us?”

“It's a long story,” said Jerri. “I'm just glad I did!”

He bent back the latch on the cage door and stood aside to let Bailey crawl out. Taleth followed, sliding her furry white side against the bars as she padded forward. Jerri stepped back as she
passed, eyes widening as she showed her full size.

“This way,” Jerri said, starting up the tunnel. The squirrels dashed ahead.

“Does Shonfield know you're here?” asked Bailey.

Jerri glanced over his shoulder at him. “Of course—she and Tremelo have been worried sick.”

“How did you know I was here?” Bailey asked.

“Saw some sketchy types loitering near the stage—Dust Plains, from the looks of them.”

“I don't understand,” said Bailey. “What about Graves? He's been working with the Dominae—he tried to attack me at the school.”

“I know,” said Jerri. “I was there. I'm sorry I couldn't do more.”

Jerri's squirrels jumped ahead of them; their chattering bounced off the walls of the tunnel.

“It was you, that night!” said Bailey. “Your squirrels kept Graves from kidnapping me!”

“Any good dean's assistant would do the same.” Jerri smiled. “Unfortunately, I didn't catch him. He's still on the loose. But at least you're safe
now!”

Bailey struggled to keep up as Jerri led him farther into the tunnel. At last, his nightmare was over—as long as Hal was all right too.

“Where's Hal?” Bailey asked. “I don't know where the Jackal put him. Are we going to find him?”

“He's safe and sound,” Jerri assured him.

Bailey felt as though an anvil had been hoisted from his shoulders. Hal was safe, and soon he and Taleth would be too. He turned around to put his hand on Taleth's side, but she
wasn't there. She was hanging back by the cage and the fallen guards, rubbing her flank nervously on the open door. A rumbling growl rose from her throat.

“Come on, Taleth,” Bailey said.

“What's wrong?” asked Jerri, turning back.

“Taleth won't come; she's too nervous,” Bailey said.

Taleth bared her teeth.

“Something's not right,” Bailey said.

Jerri retraced his steps.

“There are Dominae soldiers all over this place,” said Jerri. “We're beneath the fairgrounds. She probably senses how much danger we're in. We have to move
fast.”

Jerri reached out to Bailey as if to guide him forward. Taleth ran toward them and swung her left paw, claws extended, at Jerri. He jumped back and lifted the blunderbuss he'd been
carrying.

“Nature's teeth,” he cursed, aiming the weapon at Taleth.

“Don't!” shouted Bailey. “She didn't mean it.” But as soon as he said this, he knew that Taleth
had
meant to attack. A terrible feeling began to grow
inside him.

“Who sent you, Jerri?” Bailey asked, backing away. Taleth stayed at his side, growling and crouching, ready to attack again at any moment.

“Plan A clearly isn't going to work,” Jerri said, still pointing the blunderbuss at Taleth. “But to spend all semester searching you out, just to
shoot
you? For
Nature's sake!”

“
You're
the spy,” Bailey whispered. Dread filled his mind. It had never been Graves.

“At your service.” Jerri tipped his head. “Or rather, at the service of my lady. Viviana will be
very
happy to know I've found you; so happy that she'll
forget I was mistaken, before, about which one of you truly
was
the Child of War. I'd been watching your friend Phi, until she disappeared. Once I'd figured out it was
you
, the school's lockdown made it impossible for me to send word. Viviana'd have my head for that mess-up, but now! Here
you
are. A welcome surprise to place me back
in my lady's favor. Come along.”

Bailey didn't move. His hands had formed into tight fists. Taleth could easily kill Jerri, he knew, with one swipe of her paw. But Jerri's weapon was pointed directly at her, at too
close a range to miss. If she pounced, he would fire.

“If you won't come,” said Jerri, “then I guess I don't have much of a choice but to dispose of you here and now.” He cocked the blunderbuss. “A
shame—I know Viviana would have wanted the honor all to herself.”

BAILEY SHRANK BACK AGAINST
Taleth's flanks, searching the tunnel for a means to escape. There was nowhere to run—behind him was only the
cage, and the two guards who would wake up at any moment. He felt Taleth arch her shoulders. She roared.

“Jerri, please. You don't need to—”

But Jerri suddenly jumped, looking down at his feet.

“What the—!”

A pair of black snakes were winding around Jerri's ankles and slithering up his pant legs. Jerri kicked his left foot, then his right, trying to throw the snakes off. Just then, a
falcon—Carin—flew in front of Jerri and grabbed the blunderbuss. She hoisted it away from him, flapping hard to take it out of his reach.

“Hey!” Jerri stumbled after her, still trying to shake off the snakes. Bailey stepped back just as a pair of arms reached out of the darkness and caught Jerri from behind, tackling
him to the ground.

“Gwen, get his legs!” yelled Phi, whose arms were wrapped tight around Jerri's middle. Gwen appeared and seized Jerri's kicking feet, quickly binding them with rope. Tori
emerged from the shadows behind them and collected her snakes.

“You found me!” Bailey shouted. He joined them, holding Jerri down by his shoulders as Gwen fastened the knots. Taleth paced around the scene. As Jerri struggled, she purred.

“Let me go!” shouted Jerri.

“No way,” muttered Bailey. He helped the girls drag Jerri into the cage, where he shut the door with a slam.

“You're only making things worse for yourselves,” Jerri spat. “Viviana will be looking for me!”

“Won't you be embarrassed, then, when she finds you like this?” said Tori.

With Jerri out of the way, Bailey rushed forward, nearly tripping over his own feet, to greet his friends. Phi flung her arms around his neck, and Bailey hugged her back tightly. He laughed.

“How did you find me?” Bailey asked.

“It was Graves!” said Gwen. “He suspected Jerri all along. All we had to do was track him, and he led us right to you. Graves was never with the Dominae—he's with
the RATS, and he's gone to find them now! They're going to come and help us!”

“Are you okay?” asked Tori.

“Depends on what you mean by okay,” Bailey said.

“I should never have let you leave,” Tori replied. “I might've known you boys would get yourself into this kind of mess.”

Taleth stepped forward and touched her nose to Tori's hand.

“We've got to get you back to Tremelo,” continued Tori. She paused. “Where's Hal?”

Bailey felt as if a heavy stone had just been dropped from his chest to his belly. Hal.

“The Jackal separated us,” he said. “I don't know where he is.”

“What?” Tori yelled. Around her wrist, a slender black snake coiled and stuck out its tongue. “We have to find him!”

“
I
have to find him. This is my fault,” said Bailey. “He came to keep me safe, and I got him captured.” He didn't want to tell them what Hal had been
through. Part of him wanted them never to know just how close he'd let Hal come to death.

“When did you see him last?” Gwen asked.

“Yesterday, but only for a second,” Bailey said. “We were separated, back at the Jackal's compound. Now he could be anywhere!”

Tori nodded. “I can ask the snakes to search for him,” she said. “And maybe the falcons and owls!”

“The Reckoning is starting soon,” Gwen said. She looked into the darkness of the tunnel. “We can't trust our kin to help us.”

“What do you mean?” asked Bailey.

“The Reckoning…” Gwen trailed off. “I
saw
it. Viviana is going to set everyone's kin against them, using that machine. We need to send our kin away.”

Bailey thought back to the conversation he'd overheard in his travels, about the poor Animas Swallow named Miriam. Didn't those men on the cargo ship say her kin wouldn't come
near her? Was this the effect of Viviana's Reckon, Inc. machine—that it made people's kin turn against them? He knew that Viviana was capable of such hatred. And the Reckoning was
set to begin at any moment.

“How do I get to the stage from here?” he asked.

“But what about Hal?!” Tori shouted. “You know,
Hal
, our friend?”

“The longer I play along, the longer Hal stays alive,” said Bailey. “I'm going to show up onstage, just as the Jackal planned. Plus, it'll get me closer to Viviana.
And I have a feeling she'll be keeping her Reckoning machine close. Maybe I can find it, and stop her.”

“You can't, it's too dangerous!” said Phi. “Tremelo has the machine that will counteract it. Just come with us and you'll be safe!”

“I can't,” Bailey said, pushing past the group and motioning for Taleth to follow. “The Jackal expects Taleth and me to join him. What will stop him from killing Hal if I
don't show? And how else will we possibly get close enough to Viviana?”

All at once, the sound of applause and cheers came rolling over their heads from above ground.

Bailey felt Tori take his hand. Her eyes were brimming with tears. Phi too looked at him with worry and sadness written on her face.

“We don't want you to go,” Tori said, looking down at the dusty floor. “But it's
Hal.
What can we do?”

“Go with Gwen, back to Tremelo,” he said. “I'll find Hal.”

“Viviana will find you first!” came Jerri's shrill voice from the cage. He was hunched against the bars, his bound arms at an awkward angle. His glasses hung, broken, from one
ear. “You won't leave this Fair alive!”

Taleth retorted with a roar that reverberated through the tunnel. Jerri and his squirrels squeaked in fear.

“Maybe not,” said Bailey. “But that'd be better than dying down here.”

With that, he followed his friends out of the tunnel.

VIVIANA OPENED HER ARMS
as though she were preparing to embrace her audience all at once. Today, she would show them what real power was.

“This is for you,” she said, indicating the sprawl of the Progress Fair around her. Behind the stage, three concrete pillars, just over four feet tall and topped with torchlike
fires, provided a dramatic backdrop to her speech. “My father, King Lionel Melore, believed that with ingenuity and unity, we could build a brighter future—and that future is on display
today.”