Infinity (18 page)

Chapter Twenty-four

The light outside faded; soon it was pitch black. I heard men in the darkness and saw the brief flare of torches being lit along the outer walls, the shadows of the crackling flames writing on the far side.

There was a dull
thump
of boots, the rumble of wagons and men moving forward. The sound of the army was even louder at night when there was nothing else moving on the other side of the walls.

I heard a long, low howl and then a distant shriek of dragons roaring to one another.

“What is that?” Jesse asked, standing up and hurrying over to the window.

“The dragon warriors,” I said, my head bowed. I didn’t even bother to lift my eyes. “They sound scary, and they look really scary, and well, long story short they’re pretty scary all the way around unless they like you.”

“And they like you?”

“I don’t know,” I answered. “I hope they like me…. They fight for me, at least. But because of me, their entire town was destroyed, not once but twice. The first time we only burned down a part of the town, but the second time—the second time it was entirely destroyed.”

“What?” Jesse asked.

“It’s a long, not very nice story,” I said. “Let’s just go with it’s been a very long year and leave it at that.”

“It’s going to be okay, Allie,” he said. “It will. I promise.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Maybe not,” he said, his voice soft. “But what I do know is that none of us is going to quit fighting until this world is safe again.”

The door creaked, and Jesse grabbed my hand, linking us together to face whatever was about to come. The door slowly opened, and I watched as Bavasama stepped into the room, two of her henchmen behind her.

“Hello, darling. Time to go meet your army and arrange their surrender.”

“I don’t care what you do.” I stood up and glared at her. “We’re not surrendering.”

“We’ll see about that.” My aunt smiled cruelly at me and then turned to her men.

“Seize her,” Bavasama said. They stepped forward, not giving me the chance to run before one of them grabbed me and the other went for Jesse.

“I’m coming.” The guy who used to be the most popular boy at Bethel Park High School held his hands up in front of him. “You don’t have to go grabbing me and crap. I’ll go along with you—just don’t make me smell your pits again.”

“Whatever.” Bavasama sniffed, and instead of pulling Jesse into a chokehold, the guard just clamped down on his arm and dragged him along behind us.

“Where are we going?” I asked, spitting the words out through clenched teeth.

“The place with the best view, of course,” Bavasama said, her voice high and cackling. “I thought you would want to make sure you could see everything.”

She glided up the stairs, and when we reached the top, I saw Rannock and the Fate Maker standing there waiting for us.

“Ah, Piotr.” She reached up to pat the Fate Maker on the cheek. “Are you excited to watch your little country fall? I’m sure you’re ready to return to ruling it. Aren’t you?”

He bowed his head before her. “Nothing would please me more.”

“Oh, I’m sure of that,” she said with a tinkling laugh as Rannock pulled down on a rope hanging nearby. A set of rickety wooden stairs appeared, leading up to the roof of the castle. “Unfortunately for you, once my niece is dead, I won’t need you anymore. I’ll be the legitimate heir to the Rose Throne.”

“But—” He looked at her, shock covering his face.

“You’ve been too weak for too long.” Bavasama shook her head and then turned to two more guards posted along the wall. “Seize them. Both of them.”

“What?” Rannock screeched as one of the guards came forward and grabbed him from behind, another doing the same to the Fate Maker. “But I’m your husband. I love you.”

“You’re a wizard,” she answered. “The only thing you love is power, and I no longer want to share.”

“You ungrateful shrew!” he screamed as they dragged him and the silent Fate Maker away, both of them glaring at my aunt. “You wouldn’t even be the empress of this country if it weren’t for me. The wizards would have overthrown you years ago.”

“And why do you think I’ve arranged to imprison the rest of the wizards beside you once I’ve handled the little problem massing outside my gates?” Bavasama turned to look at me and shook her head. “One piece of advice from me to you,” she said quietly. “Never share your power with a man. None of them can be trusted. Not that it’s going to matter much for you, since I’ll be cutting off your head soon.”

“You haven’t beaten my army yet,” I said.

“Not yet,” she said. “But only because I wanted to wait until I had you in the perfect position to watch all of them die.” She motioned to the guard holding me. “Bring her.”

Bavasama climbed to the top of the ladder and out onto the roof before peering back down at the rest of us. “Come along, Allie dear. Let’s go watch your army march to their death.”

The guard shoved me forward, and I grabbed the ladder, pulling myself up to stand beside her on the roof. My aunt held her arms out and to the sides, like she was taking it all in, and then turned to smile at me. “Isn’t it marvelous?”

“Marvelous?” I asked as I looked out over the two armies, thousands of warriors clustered together, armed to the teeth. I heard dragons shrieking in the sky as they flew over my army and the shouted demands coming from the soldiers atop Bavasama’s walls. In the air was the stench of burning oil, and I could feel my arms prickle as magic, coming from both sides, rippled across the night air.

“All these warriors ready to throw their lives away for a queen that’s already as good as dead,” Bavasama said. “All the blood that will be spilled in vain.”

“You really are crazy, aren’t you?” I asked. “Not just power hungry. Absolutely crushed-crackers insane.”

“That’s what my mother thought,” she said, her voice high and excited. “The problem was I just couldn’t make her understand my vision. The beauty of a thousand worlds all wreathed in flame, begging for my mercy. Every world, every reality, bending their heads and swearing allegiance to me as the Golden Rose.”

“Yep,” Jesse said. “Completely mental.”

“Shut up, you,” she snarled. “Or I’ll have you thrown off the roof.”

“Allie,” Jesse said, ignoring her, as he grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry.”

I turned to him, wide-eyed. “Why?”

“You’re going to need someone else to write your stories for you.” He launched himself at the guard who had his arm then, dragging the other man closer to the edge of the roof.

Jesse broke free of the guard’s grip, and one of the dragons screeched, both of them flying faster now, the steady
thump
thump
of their wings speeding up. The guard swung at him with an enraged scream, and Jesse ducked low, dropping his shoulder and tackling the heavier man. The guard stepped back, and the two of them seemed to hang in space for a moment before they both toppled out of sight.

Jesse had given me a moment of surprise and the chance to keep myself alive. Now I just had to be brave enough to use it to my advantage. It was time to be the sort of queen my mother would have been proud of.

I stomped down as hard as I could on the inside of the foot of my captor and then jammed my elbow into his side. The guard bent forward with a grunt, and I snatched the back of his shirt before I shifted, digging my hip into his side and throwing him toward the edge with all my strength. He stumbled once and then tripped over his own feet, tottering for just a second before he went over the side with a scream.

I turned and grabbed my aunt by the hair, pulling as hard as I could, and dragged her to the edge before stomping down hard on her legs, too, forcing her to her knees, my hands still tangled in her hair. She yelped as I jerked her head up so I could look her in the eye.

The beating of a hundred pair of wings swept through, though, and I looked away, watching as the sky filled with dragons flying toward us in a V formation. I saw the black dragon at the front, and my heart skipped a beat.

“Remember what I told you about ticking off my boyfriend?” I pulled at my aunt’s hair harder, jerking her chin back so that she was staring at the dragons flying toward us. “You should have listened. Because the dragon at the front? That’s him, and I’m pretty sure he wants to barbecue you.”

I watched as Winston roared, diving toward the army on my aunt’s walls, flames pouring from his mouth. For a moment no one moved. It was like the entire world was frozen, waiting, and the next instant my army was surging forward, battering at the gates, screaming as they went, the entire world drowned out by a single, shrieking wail.

“Defend that gate,” one of the men below us yelled. But I could hear my army roaring outside as the wood began to splinter and the gate buckled under their assault. They surged through the gate, and roars of approval and anger sounded as the men crowded across the bridge and into the castle. Winston pulled up, and the dragons circled higher again as I stepped closer to the edge to watch, still keeping my aunt immobile.

He turned toward me and flew higher, moving up into the darkest reaches of the evening sky until he was nothing more than a faint shadow above us, blending in perfectly with the night.

“Archers to the walls,” someone shouted. But before any of Bavasama’s men could scramble into position, arrows rained over the side of the walls like a swarm of angry bees. Men screamed, and dragons roared as another volley was launched toward us.

I pulled my aunt’s head back farther and glared down at her. “Your palace is going to fall, and when it does, I am going to kill you.”

“It hasn’t fallen yet.” She lashed out at me with one arm, her hand curled into a claw.

“Give it time. Your army is just too stupid to realize the fight is over.” I slammed her head forward, bashing it against the stone ledge that surrounded her walls.

Bavasama let out a grunt of pain, and I watched as blood poured from a cut above her eye. She brought her elbow back and rammed it into my stomach, knocking the air out of me, and I doubled over, letting her go.

“This will never be over,” she screamed as she hurled herself forward, tackling me and knocking us both back. “Not until you’re dead and I’m sitting on the Rose Throne.”

“That is ne—” An arrow whistled through the air and came down hard, burying its point into the roof next to my head. Bavasama and I both looked over, staring at the shaking arrow with its ragged, scarlet feathers on the shaft.

I tried to buck my aunt off me, jerking my hips upward and jackknifing my shoulders up at the same time. She groaned as I made contact with her ribs, and I used my momentum to flip us over, slamming her head back against the stones.

She let out a grunt of pain as I tightened my grip on the front of her dress and lifted her toward me, ready to slam her back down again. When I had her sitting almost upright, my aunt shifted, one of her arms swinging wide and a sharp pain lanced through my side followed by a white-hot, burning heat.

I let go of her, still kneeling at her ribs, and looked down at the jeweled hilt of the knife sticking out of my side. “Dumb move, Auntie Bav,” I snapped. I gave a low hiss as I wrapped my fingers around the knife’s hilt and wrenched it free. “Now I don’t have any reason to show you mercy. Even if I wanted to.”

I held my aunt at knifepoint with her own weapon, trying not to cry as the pain radiated through my body. I couldn’t die, but apparently, that didn’t mean getting stabbed would hurt any less.

“You’ll never be able to rule this world,” Bavasama said through gritted teeth. “Never be able to control the wizards. The ogres and the trolls will come out of the mountains, and they’ll hunt your people. You’ll never be safe again. Never know peace.”

“Once I’ve gotten rid of you, they’ll fall into line,” I said as I pressed the knife harder against her neck.

“They won’t. None of them. The wizards aren’t going to let you just take over Bathune. If you let me go, let my army surrender, and keep me on my throne, I’ll help you defeat them.”

“Shut up.”

“I will,” Bavasama pleaded. “I’ll abide by the terms of our peace treaty. I’ll help protect your borders, and I’ll keep the wizards in check. I know how. I can teach you to rule this world like it’s supposed to be ruled. Show you how to be a strong queen.”

“There’s nothing in this world, or any other, that I could ever learn from you,” I snapped.

“You can’t kill me,” she said, her eyes wide. “You can’t, Allie. I’m your aunt. A member of the royal family. You can’t just murder me.”

“Watch me,” I ground out. “You’ve killed so many people. So many people have died because of your actions, your twisted desires. Darinda. Timbago. The people who lived in the forest of Ananth. The Firas.”

“They were nothing,” she said, her eyes fixed on mine. “Servants. Peasants. Their lives were meaningless. But I’m a
queen
. The rightful queen of this entire world.”

“You ordered the death of my friends. You killed good people, and you want me to let you live? If I could kill you and every single member of your army every day for the next hundred years, I would. I would kill you over and over again to make up for what you did to them.”

There was another roar, and I glanced up, looking out over the roof to see the dragons herding my aunt’s soldiers toward the center of her courtyard, my army surrounding them. I glared down at my aunt and then smiled. “And guess what? It looks like I just might get my chance.”

Chapter Twenty-five

Three dragons broke free from the rest and started toward the palace, Winston in the lead with Ardere and Kitsuna’s mother behind them. I pressed the knife against Bavasama’s throat, hard and watched as blood began to trail down her skin toward the neckline of her dress.

“Start making your peace with the Pleiades, Aunt Bav.” I glared down at her as the dragons landed. “Because it’s time for you to pay up on our little bet.”

“Allie!” Mercedes’s voice was clear and strong. I glanced back to see her sliding off the back of a gold dragon.

“She’s responsible for Darinda’s death,” I said, my words shaky. “And all your other sisters. The Firas. The people of Sorcastia.”

“I know,” Mercedes said as she came closer. “And she’ll be punished. But not like this.”

“She trapped my mother on the other side of the Mirror of Nerissette. She tried to take my throne. She stole the lives my mother and I should have had.” I felt tears running down my face, and my hands began to tremble, making the knife quiver in my hands.

“I should kill you.” I narrowed my eyes at my aunt. “Right here. I could do it. You know that, don’t you? I’m the Golden Rose of Nerissette, and no one would stop me. Not after everything you’ve done.”

I felt a strong hand on my shoulder. “Enough,” Mercedes said, her voice low and soothing. “Allie, it’s enough.”

“No.” I shook my head, trying to whip the tears from my eyes, afraid to take my hands off the knife to wipe my face in case I couldn’t pick the now-heavy metal up again. “They are responsible for the deaths of so many people, she and the Fate Maker. If we don’t kill them now, then they’ll just find another way to hurt us later.”

“I know.” She let go of my shoulders and wrapped her arms around my waist, careful not to touch the blade in my trembling hands. “I know what they’ve done, but you can’t kill her here. Not now. Not like this. You need to make her face the army. Make her answer to the charges against her.”

“I’m queen,” I said, my voice choking on the words, as the knife dropped from my trembling fingers. “I was supposed to keep everyone safe, and I didn’t. They killed all of those people, and I have to end this. I have to make this right.”

“Not this way,” she said. “Not by assassinating your aunt in the dark.”

“But—”

“Boreas, Aquella,” Mercedes said quietly. “Arrest the Lady Bavasama. I’ll take Her Majesty down to formally accept the surrender of the army of Bathune.”

She tugged on my shoulder again, and I stood, wincing, my hand clutched to my still-bleeding side. “But first,” Mercedes said. “We need to find a medic.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said through gritted teeth. “It’s a scratch.”

“Sure it is,” Mercedes said as she looped my arm over her shoulder to let me lean on her.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, limping slowly toward the doorway to the palace. “It’s not like it can kill me or anything.”

“Whatever.” She grunted as she hoisted me higher on her side, taking more of my weight as we reached the ladder. She let go of me, leaning me against the wall, and then scurried down the ladder. “Just try to get down without passing out, Oh Immortal One. If you fall on me, I’ll turn you into a fern.”

“No, you won’t.” I huffed as I pushed off the wall and stumbled toward the ladder. I grabbed the first rung and swung my legs down, my feet slipping with each step. I clung tighter to it and began to descend slowly. When I reached the bottom, I slumped against the ladder, resting my forehead against it.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go see a medic?” Mercedes asked as she wrapped her arms around me, letting me lean back against her.

“Surrender first,” I said. “Let the medics work on the people with the real injuries. I’ll be fine.”

“Allie—”

“There are soldiers out there that I know are hurt worse than me,” I argued. “People like Jesse.”

“Jesse is fine,” she snapped as she slung my arm over her shoulder again and started to maneuver me toward the stairs. “Kitsuna’s mom caught him.”

“She what?” I gasped, partially in surprise but mostly in pain, as we started down the stairs from the tower to the main floor of the Palace of Night.

“We’ve got him,” Kitsuna said as she ran up the stairs toward us and then tucked herself under my other arm, helping Mercedes half carry, half help me down the stairs. “Mom saw him fall, and she managed to snag him. I’ve got to tell you it was the scariest thing. She just dove, and I thought we were going to hit the ground and then we’d all be dead, but she managed it.”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“As only someone who’s done a dive-bomb on the back of a dragon can be. Your friend is fine. Or at least he was when we left him with the army. He did mention something about finding a sword, though, so who knows what sort of scrape he’s gotten into since.”

“What about Heidi?” Mercedes asked. “Is she here, too? Do you have her stashed somewhere with the Fate Maker?”

“Heidi’s dead,” I said, hanging my head. “The Fate Maker killed her. I gave her my grandmother’s combs to protect her, but they didn’t, and he just killed her.”

“Are you sure?” Mercedes said, her voice breaking. “Because they weren’t dead last time and—”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “This time I’m sure. He squashed her like a bug.”

We reached the bottom of the stairs, and I pulled away from them, determined to accept the surrender of my aunt’s army while standing on my own. Mercedes reached for my wrist, but I yanked it back.

“I’ll be okay,” I told her, trying to smile. “We just have to get through a little bit more, and then, I swear to you, I’m going to find a way to get you home.”

She shook her head. “Don’t worry about that now.”

Kitsuna moved forward and rapped on one of the doors. She stepped back then, and I tried to straighten my shoulders, a grimace disguised as a bitter smile twisting my lips as the doors creaked open.

I stepped forward as soon as the door was open wide enough for me to fit through and took in the sight before me. There, clumped together, was an entire courtyard of weary warriors, smudged with dirt and smoke, on their knees with their foreheads pressed to the ground. My aunt’s vanquished army.

“Your Majesty.” My ears perked at my father’s voice, and I glanced over to see him standing on the top step, his hand clenched in a fist over his chest and his head bowed. “The Palace of Night is yours.”