Flight of the King (33 page)

Viviana shrieked.

Bailey reached for the orb, but it was too far. Viviana lunged at him and clutched at his leg—he could hear her calling to her guards to take him, to rescue the orb. He felt himself being
pulled back, in the grip of the Dominae. Taleth, however, would not let him be taken. She leapt at the guards, forcing them away from Bailey.

At the edge of the stage, a thin figure appeared. Bailey's breath caught in his throat.

“Hal!” he cried. “Hal, you're all right!”

Hal waved, and Bailey saw that he had the claw in his hand. Bailey pointed to the orb.

“Help—it's the tiger's heart!” He wasn't sure whether he'd made any sense at all—but Hal seemed to know what needed to be done. With one powerful
swing, Hal pierced the orb's metal shell with Bailey's own tiger claw.

The pulse died, and Bailey heard a pop as the last strains of energy left the orb. He stood, with Taleth positioned between himself and the Dominae, and watched as the Halcyon's soaring
music reached not only the battlefield by the stage, but also the entire fairgrounds. The fighting stopped. Like a ripple radiating outward, Bailey could see the effect growing, reaching more and
more animals and their human kin, as though each strengthened bond helped to fortify the next, until the entire field had attained a stunned, haunted peace.

Those who had covered their faces with their hands or crouched in the mud began to rise and look around, dismayed and bewildered. Heartbroken cries could be heard as the people regarded the
aftermath—the bodies of their kin, and the wounded animals and humans.

Bailey ran to Hal, and threw his arms around him in a bear hug.

“You're okay! You're alive!” he said, holding his friend tight.

“So are you,” said Hal, hugging him back.

“I'm sorry,” Bailey said. “It's my fault that—”

He was cut off by a roar from Taleth: Viviana stood only a few feet away from them.

“You truly think you're able to stop me?” she seethed. “One fight—
one
destroyed piece of scrap—and it's over?” She stepped back and spoke
loudly, addressing Bailey and Hal and the entire crowd all at once. Out on the field, the people held one another as they looked up to the stage.

“I am the queen of a New Age of Invention; I do not draw my power from one tiny machine. I have the means to control the entire kingdom at will, and my armies spring up whenever I
choose.”

“They'll never follow you now,” Bailey shouted. “Not after what you've done today.”

“After today?” Viviana repeated. “The people will fear me. Which is all the power I need.”

She gestured to the grounds, where Bailey saw that indeed, the citizens of Aldermere were cowering. Families comforted one another, and those who weren't trying to run from the fairgrounds
were hiding their faces, afraid to see what Viviana would do next. Bailey's heart broke to see so many animals fleeing the fairgrounds, skittering and flying and galloping to the woods, and
their human kin watching them go with eyes filled with betrayal.

“That is what power looks like,” Viviana said. “That is what my father never understood. And it killed him. But now the name of Melore is transformed! It lives
on—”

“In his son,” said Tremelo, as he stepped onto the stage. “Trent Melore.”

TREMELO WALKED FORWARD TO
face Viviana. At his feet, Fennel stood by him, her tail bristled.

The faces of every man, woman, and child in the Gray City were turned to him. Tremelo realized that if he had ever commanded this much attention before, it had been part of another life
entirely, one he did not remember.

But when he laid eyes on the face of his sister, he remembered her all too well. He held his crossbow slack at his side and gazed at her—those familiar, fierce violet eyes, staring at him
in shock. He remembered the sound of her young voice on the other side of a door as flames licked at the walls of his childhood chamber.
It's stuck—Trent! The door is
stuck!

“Viviana,” he said. “Stop this. You must listen to reason.”

He reached out his hand.

Viviana, his sister—his family—looked down at his open palm as a skittish cat might regard a friendly dog. After a moment of silent recognition between him and his only living
family, she straightened her back, and stepped away from him.

“Impostor,” she spat.

“He's not!” shouted Bailey, running up behind Tremelo. “He's the True King! He should rule, not you, you—”

Tremelo held Bailey back and raised the crossbow.

“We are family,” he said, “but I will not allow you to continue this plot you call Dominance. I will do everything in my power to stop you.”

Viviana threw her head back and laughed. “You
have
no power,” she said. “You are not my brother.”

Beside Tremelo, Bailey shook with rage. The boy's knuckles were white from clenching.

Viviana looked from the Velyn to her own guards. The Dominae circled Viviana, inserting themselves between her and Tremelo. But Eneas and two of his men charged at them, fighting a clear path.
As the guards drew back, Taleth opened her enormous mouth and roared. Viviana cringed.

“Surrender to us,” said Tremelo calmly. “My sister—please. We are family.”

The sound of whooshing wings echoed above, and Tremelo and his followers turned to see a colossal flying machine approaching the stage. It wasn't unlike Viviana's
Clamoribus—Tremelo marveled at its birdlike design—but it was sleeker, with rigid wings. Its eyes were two curved, paned windows, looking coldly down at the crowd beneath it.

“The finale exhibit,” smirked Viviana. As the enormous bird hovered above her, a polished set of metal steps folded down from its belly, and she stepped up. Tremelo came forward,
mouth agape. The Dominae guards formed a circle around the strange bird, with their swords drawn. Out of reach, Viviana paused on the steps.

“My power is greater than yours,” she said. Her gaze was on Tremelo, but she projected her voice out, addressing all who listened. The giant bird began to hum as it rose higher into
the air. Viviana's voice amplified as she continued to speak, her words echoing throughout the arena. “I am not constrained by the bond. You would have me surrender to a False King, a
pretender
, when I have all of Nature under my control, past the bounds of life and death.
That
is true power.”

Viviana Melore laughed, and Tremelo watched the woman who was once his sister fly away, forever beyond his reach.

OUTNUMBERED, THE DOMINAE GUARDS
were no match for the RATS and the Velyn. With their help, Tremelo and Bailey fought their way off the stage and into
the crowd. All around them, people comforted one another as they wrapped wounds in scraps of torn cloth.

Tremelo, Bailey, and the others followed Digby to the edge of the fairgrounds, while groups of fighters broke off to pursue Dominae guards. They ran to the thin forest between the fairgrounds
and the first winding streets of the Gray.

Bailey and his friends dashed quickly into the trees, but a gray uniform appeared in the corner of Bailey's vision. A Dominae guard reached to tackle him, but Taleth reared back, and
brought the full force of her claws down on the man's chest. Digby appeared at Bailey's side then, and sent a second man reeling backward with a blow from a heavy, blunt-ended wooden
mallet.

“Never thought I'd live to see so much excitement,” Digby joked. “Them Dominae keep comin' for us, we keep beatin' 'em back!”

A volley of arrows chased them into the woods as more Dominae soldiers appeared at the fairgrounds' edge. But the sound of whooshing arrows was quickly replaced by the flapping of wings
and screeching of owls who ducked and swooped, confusing the archers. Together with the Velyn and his friends, Bailey plunged into the trees. Ahead, he saw the red-and-white tail of Fennel the fox
leading the way. They ran until the sounds of the fairgrounds were far behind them, and he could see the first rows of tenement housing on the outskirts of the Gray.

After a trek through a series of underground tunnels and back alleys, the group finally reached The White Tiger. Bailey half expected Viviana to be there waiting for them—but instead, at
least three dozen RATS fighters had beaten them to the cozy bar. They immediately helped themselves to Digby's taps. Several men and women used benches and stools as makeshift medical
stations, washing and stitching up wounds while their patients dulled the pain with mugs of Digby's rootwort rum. Some of the RATS huddled in the corners, shaking their heads as they tallied
the lives lost in Viviana's terrible experiment. But as Bailey entered the room with Taleth by his side, he felt their eyes and heard whispers echoing through the room:
the white
beast…just like the Loon said…it was all true…
The whispers grew even more hushed when Tremelo entered, with Gwen behind him.

Bailey chose a spot on the floor next to the bar, and sank down gratefully into it. He felt proud, but also tired and a little self-conscious. He'd just stood in front of the entire
kingdom and shown his true Animas. Everything would be different now—his life in the Lowlands seemed to have taken place long ago. He hoped his parents would be proud of him when he saw them
again. When he finally told them everything that had happened in the last few months, he hoped they'd understand.

Taleth followed him, walked in two fastidious circles, and then settled on the floor too. Her enormous, bloodstained back was like a fortress between him and the world. Hal, Tori, and Phi sat
behind Taleth, all in a huddled group. Gwen left Tremelo standing by the bar, and joined them.

“This is yours,” Hal said to Bailey, digging in his vest. He pulled out Bailey's claw.

Bailey took it and turned it over in his hands in wonder.

“You were fierce up there,” he said to Hal. “How did you get this back?”

“The guard who was holding me during the Fair had it tucked in his waistband,” said Hal. “Like a trophy—I guess he was going to keep it. When the bats attacked, I grabbed
it and ran like the anting wind.”

Bailey looked up from the claw and met Hal's gaze.

“I'm glad you're okay,” he said. His words fell short of the pride he felt for Hal's risky escape, and the sorrow that he'd ever put his friend in danger.

Hal lowered his head, and rolled up his shirtsleeves to reveal a crisscross pattern of deep, ragged scratches.

“I'm okay,” he said. “At least, I will be. But when those bats came after me, I'd never been so afraid. A whole cloud of them. I didn't know what was
happening. I was trying to find you, or anyone I knew, but all around me, wings were flapping and people were screaming.…”

Tori reached out to him and examined the cuts on his exposed arms.

“I know,” she said sadly. “It was horrible.”

“But you stopped it,” said Phi. “
We
stopped it.” She gasped. “Ants! I almost forgot!” Phi dragged her rucksack to her and unbuckled its front flap.
Bailey saw a familiar scaly nose poke its way free of the canvas.

“Bert!” he cried. Just as though they shared a real kinship, Bert scrambled out of Phi's bag and waddled across the floor to Bailey's lap. There he curled up and, true to
form, fell asleep.

“You saved him,” Bailey said to Phi. “Thanks.”

“We had to send our own kin away,” Phi said. “I think I saw Carin overhead as we ran through the Gudgeons, but I can't be sure. And Tori's snakes—”

“I don't think I want to even look at a snake right now,” said Tori. “That's the worst part of all this. Viviana's made everyone afraid of their own kin. We
stopped it, but the damage has been done.”

“But now the kingdom knows that the prophecy is real,” said Gwen. “And that Viviana will only use Dominance for her own power.”

Digby busied himself behind the bar, opening more kegs that had not been destroyed in the previous raids. He poured a few mugs of sap milk and passed them down to Bailey, Hal, Gwen, Tori, and
Phi. Bailey took a long, slow sip of the warm liquid. It seemed to him like the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted, especially after the horrors he'd witnessed that day. What Gwen
had said was true, but they were still far from stopping Viviana. She'd gotten away.