The Black Key (18 page)

I don't have time to be cautious. “Paladin!” I cry.

“Violet?” Raven's voice rips through me, a happiness more powerful than I thought I was capable of feeling in this moment. Her head pokes out of the plum-colored Southgate train. “Violet!” she cries, and jumps down off the carriage.

I can't stop the cry that escapes my lips, a tortured howl
really. I run across the station as she starts toward me and we collide into each other.

“You're okay,” she breathes into my ear, her hands scrabbling over my back to make sure I'm whole.

“Lucien's dead,” I say, and it hits me then, like a punch in the chest. Lucien is dead.

“What?” Raven gasps, but I don't have time to explain because heads are popping out of train cars and girls are filling the room, eyes wide as they take in the huge space.

“Violet,” someone says, and then my name is picked up and echoes through the train station. “Violet! Violet is here! Violet!”

I want to cry. I want to gather them all up in an enormous hug. I want to shout orders, to tell them to forget the wall, we are taking this whole Auction House down right now, we are punishing the royalty for killing the man who was ten times the human any of them were or would ever be.

“Violet, you're all right!” Indi engulfs me in one of her hugs. “I'd forgotten about your hair and your face. You don't look at all like you!”

Sienna and Olive join us, Sil bringing up the rear.

“We heard about Coral,” Sienna says, at the same time Olive asks, “Have you seen my mistress?”

“Lucien's dead,” I say again, the words coming easier this time as my body begins to accept the reality of that fact.

Sil's face goes blank with utter shock. Indi gasps and Sienna covers her mouth with her hands. Even Olive looks upset.

“It's my fault,” I gasp. “All my fault.” I only have eyes
for Sil in this moment. “I . . . I did something stupid and he took the blame for it. I should never . . . I didn't mean . . .” The tears begin to fall thick and fast.

Sil strides forward and takes my chin in her hands.

“Stop crying,” she says sharply. “Look at me.” She holds me in her steely, silver gaze. “That man loved you more than anything in this world. You can't do a single damned thing to bring him back, but you can honor who he was and what he did, right here, right now. These girls need you, Violet.”

She sweeps a hand out over the seventy-seven girls who were meant to be unconscious, sold into slavery, but instead have gathered around me, faces bright and determined.

“They are here, and alive, and they need
you
,” she murmurs. Seventy-seven pairs of eyes stare at me, waiting for instructions. Girls ranging in age from thirteen to nineteen, looking to me for guidance.

Sil is right. I take a deep breath.

“We've got to divide up,” I say. “Raven, Sil, Indi, Olive, you'll be in charge of each team. Make sure you've got every element. Sienna, you're with me.”

Sienna flicks her lighter open, making the flame burn bright.

Then I turn to the waiting faces, and for the first time, I really see them. Amber is there, looking at me with a clenched jaw and resolute face. Tawny, Ginger, and Henna are right beside her. I see Sloe, a beautiful girl with russet skin and dark, arching eyebrows, the leader of the Northgate girls. She throws her hair over her shoulder in her typical haughty fashion. Little Rosie Kelting, a fourteen-year-old from Eastgate, chews her lip as she awaits instructions. So
many faces, so many names.

Strong, beautiful girls. Paladin.

“Southgate to Raven!” I call. “Northgate to Sil! Eastgate to Olive! Westgate—”

I'm interrupted by a flat piece of stone wall sliding open. A Regimental steps out and for a second I panic, but the glint of blond hair under his cap makes my chest swim with relief.

“What are you doing here?” I demand, walking over to greet Garnet. “You were supposed to—”

But all my panic returns when I am close enough to see his face.

It isn't Garnet.

Hidden doors are all around us, clicking like insects as they slide open, Regimentals pouring out of them, a wall of red.

We are surrounded.

S
URPRISE SEEMS TO BE OUR ONE ADVANTAGE.

The blond one is staring at me, mouth open, like he's never seen a girl before.

The room is a powder keg, waiting to explode. The instant someone moves, the spell will be broken. My knees bend slightly as I prepare myself to light the spark.

There is stone all around us. Water beneath us. Air everywhere. Sienna has her lighter.

“Who in the Exetor's name are you?” the Regimental says.

“I am Violet Lasting,” I say calmly. Then I take a deep breath and cry, “Paladin!”

I join with Air instinctively, gathering all the molecules
of air in this room toward me, condensing and compacting them. Then I release them, like a stone from a slingshot, at the blond Regimental still gaping at me. The force of it is so powerful, he is slammed into the far wall and slumps to the ground unconscious.

“Sil, Earth!” I shout. “Indi, Water!”

There is a rumble underfoot as the floor begins to shake. Sil shouts for the girls who can to join with Earth, but the Regimentals are running toward them, despite the unsteady ground. I send two flying, but a third has drawn his gun and is pointing it straight at my head.

This is it,
I think.
Maybe I'll get to see Lucien again. And my father.

Then the Regimental is engulfed in flames. His screams stun everyone temporarily as I turn and see Sienna, lighter in hand, a murderous expression on her face. We nod to each other as a crater opens up at our feet, Sil and Amber and five other girls focusing on the ground. Two Regimentals fall into it as the crater deepens, searching for the water down below. Sienna sends a snaking coil of fire toward a Regimental aiming his gun at Sloe.

“Don't shoot to kill!” one of them calls out to the others. “The royalty need them alive!”

“Are you crazy?” one shouts back as another cries, “What's happening?”

The crater hits water—I can smell it; I can feel its writhing, fluid force.

“Finally,” Indi sighs. She's with seven other girls, and they condense the water the way I've condensed Air, forming it into a thick white jet and shooting it across the hall.
It hits one Regimental hard in the face and his neck snaps back. Others raise their hands to cover their eyes as the jet splits into seven, and Regimentals start slipping on the wet floor.

I'm still connected with Air when I hear the bullet. I don't know if I make the conscious decision or somehow the element does it for me, but it whizzes by my ear, nicking my lobe, and then sharply shifts direction, landing in the shoulder of an oncoming Regimental. I ignore the sting of pain and the feel of blood dripping down my neck.

My eyes land on the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

“Earth!” I cry. “The walls!”

Sil and I make eye contact and I jerk my head to the light fixture. Sloe joins us, then Amber, adding her own force to our might, so that cracks begin to snake up the walls and then across the ceiling.

“Back up, back up!” I shout, and the Paladin scatter toward the door as the chandelier sways precariously over the main force of Regimentals.

There is a loud crack and it falls, delicately at first, a beautiful swirl of light and metal. I grab Sil's hand and run, barreling right into Sloe and getting all three of us out of the way just as the chandelier crashes down.

The noise is deafening. It bounces off the walls, magnified tenfold, so that my eardrums feel as if they might pop. Hunks of stone and iron fly everywhere. Sil and I use Air to deflect the larger stones away from the girls. Sloe is trembling underneath me.

“You're okay,” I say. My ears are ringing faintly, and I'm reminded of how I felt after the explosion in the Bank.

I lift my head and survey the damage.

It seems as though most of the girls made it to the door. But there are bodies littered around and under the rubble. A girl with curly hair lies a few feet away from me, her neck twisted at an unnatural angle, a bullet hole in her chest. I don't recognize her—she must have been one of the last ones in the holding facilities to gain her powers, when I was already in the Jewel. Regimental bodies are everywhere.

“Raven,” I croak, sitting up. Dust settles in my hair and on my eyelashes. “Raven!”

“I'm all right!” She stands up, shaking the dust from her hair.

“Sienna? Indi? Olive?” I call.

I hear a cough and Sienna's braided head emerges from behind a chunk of rubble. “We're fine.” Indi pops up beside her, her pale skin smudged with gray. I see Olive rubbing her eyes blearily.

“That was a very good idea,” Indi says.

“That was only the beginning,” I say. “This number of Regimentals is a fraction of what's guarding the Auction House.”

As I look around the ruined station, though, I think,
We may be small in number. But we are a force to be reckoned with.
Then I add,
Lucien, wherever you are, I hope you're seeing this.

“Sil, Raven, Indi, Olive,” I say. “Get everyone to the wall. You remember the way, right?” They nod in unison. “Fire won't do much but maybe you can use the water here. Earth and Air will be crucial. This wall is thick. Really thick.”

“We know,” Sloe says. “We saw it.”

“Where will you go, Violet?” Amber asks.

I catch Sienna's eye. “We're going to signal to the rest of this city that it's time. Let's show the royalty that they can't control us anymore.”

Several girls whoop and cheer, but Sil shouts, “Quiet!”

“The Countess,” Raven says to me with pleading eyes.

“She's here,” I promise her. “With Frederic. Don't worry. You'll have your chance. But these girls need you now. They'll follow you.” I turn to Sienna. “Let's go.”

I lead everyone out the door and back to the stairs I took to get down here. As we climb, adrenaline pumping through me with each step, I wonder if the royalty felt the earth shudder as the chandelier crashed down, or if they are still blissfully unaware of the danger that is about to befall them.

There is a door to the outside on the lower floor of prep rooms, right at ground level. “Be careful,” I whisper to Raven. She beckons to Indi to follow. The other girls are so quiet, even the ones who look frightened. They file out into the hall, determined and alert. Sil is the last to leave.

“We'll see you up there,” she says, pointing above us, where the spire waits. I grip her shoulder for a brief moment, then she's gone.

Sienna and I climb up another floor to the top level of prep rooms. There will be Regimentals here for certain—the lower level is used only when lots of surrogates are being Auctioned, but this level is in use every year. I pause behind the door and listen. I can make out at least three different voices—Regimentals.

I grab the handle and nod to Sienna's lighter. We need a distraction. The flame bursts up, a fiery orange. I open the door and she sends the fire racing down the halls. We hear screams and cries as the Regimentals guarding prep room doors run from the blaze. We wait a few seconds, then enter the hall. Flames devour the carpet and climb the walls, but the hallway is empty. Sienna and I quickly put the fire out together.

I see the door we need and throw it open with Air, the handle too hot to touch. This staircase is narrow, with slitted windows, and it curls up in a spiral. We start to climb—up and up and up . . . and when we reach the top of it, I can see the pink curve of one of the smaller domes of the Auction House a few feet below us out the window. If I crane my neck, I can see the wall. There is a short hallway that takes us to a long ladder.

I go first, tying the skirts of my lady-in-waiting gown so I don't step on them. Sienna wears pants; the rungs pose no problem for her.

Halfway there, my arms are aching and my breath comes out in heavy pants. I can hear Sienna gasping behind me, but neither of us complains or slows our pace. I know we're close when I hear the wind whistling shrilly above us. We climb out onto a tiny, round landing made of the same golden material as the spire that surrounds us.

As I stand up and look around, I find myself grateful that I'm not afraid of heights.

The spire is hollow, thin strips of gold shooting up into a point and forming a sort of cage around us. We are a few feet above the top of the wall, and can see its
vastness stretching out before us.

“Whoa,” Sienna breathes. I agree. The wall is immense, and maybe fifty yards away. I look down and see the figures of the Paladin on the swath of green lawn that separates the Auction House from the wall. Indi's blond hair is easily identifiable and I watch Raven lining girls up on the grass.

“It's so big,” Sienna says.

“It is,” I say.

“Are we really going to bring it down?”

I grit my teeth. Ash promised me he'd be behind that wall, with Ochre and so many Society members. Lucien was counting on me. I can't fail them now. I won't.

“We will. Come on,” I say, motioning to her lighter. “First things first.”

It's time to give the Society members the signal to set off the bombs.

She flicks it and the flame shoots up. “Brighter,” I say, and the fire glows until it hurts to look at it. The wind whips Sienna's braids around her face and tugs at the strands in my bun, stinging my eyes.

I connect with Air and it plucks the lighter from her hands, carrying it through the slats of gold. I lift it up, high into the sky, where it hangs like a tiny sun. Then I feel along the cracks in the lighter, and in a burst of dazzling light, it explodes.

I hold my breath. Ten seconds pass. Twenty. I watch as the last embers die, whisked off by the wind, scraps of metal from the ruined lighter falling to the lawn below.

Another twenty seconds pass. Nothing. I wasn't sure what to expect but I assumed there would be an immediate
answer to the flare. My stomach begins to sink, fear seeping in. Sienna voices my concern.

“Do you think they didn't—”

Suddenly, there is a deafening boom, and a fireball blossoms far away in the center of the Bank. Glass sparkles like fireworks in the sun. The Society's bombs are going off. Thirty seconds later, I think I see a plume of black rising up from the Smoke. The Farm is too far away to know whether the bombs went off or not.

I reach out and grip Sienna's hand. “Ready?” I ask her for the second time.

She squeezes mine tight, no snarky comment on her lips, only hard, cold resolve mingled with a hint of fear.

I connect with Air again and shout, “NOW!” pushing my voice down so that it swoops around the line of girls waiting on the lawn below. Then I release my hold on Air and switch to Earth.

I can feel the heat of Sienna's hand in mine, a comforting warmth at odds with the heavy pull in my chest from the wall. These stones are old and they've been standing for a long time. I feel as each girl who can connect with Earth joins us. I think I hear Raven's shouts of encouragement, but maybe I'm just imagining that. The wall is heavy, so very, very heavy. I try to break cracks into the stones. I can feel Sienna fighting with me, and Sil, and Amber, and all the other Earth girls, but it's so hard. As the minutes tick by, I begin to fear the wall
is
impenetrable. My shoulders ache with effort.

Lucien was wrong. My plan was doomed. I am not the leader he thought I could be. It doesn't matter how many Paladin I convinced to join us. I've led them to failure.

Don't you give up, honey,
Lucien's voice whispers in the back of my mind, as crystal clear as if he were standing right next to me.
I know you can do this. I knew from the day I met you.

I think . . . I think I love you.
Ash's words ring out alongside Lucien's.

You found me,
Raven murmurs, the salty tang of the ocean filling my nose.

Let's hope she's everything you think she is,
Sil growls,
or we'll be living like cockroaches under a rock for the rest of our damned lives.

My heart begins to beat faster, swelling with each new voice I hear. These people are the air I breathe and the blood I bleed. They are my courage. I will not let them down.

I know you can do this.

Lucien believed in me, always. I hold that thought close, and for the first time, I try to believe it, too. No, not try.

I
can
do this. I am stronger than I think I am.

My legs and arms are filled with the heaviness of the rocks beneath me. My torso is made of stone, my eyes tiny pebbles that grind against my skull. My heart beats out a powerful rhythm in my chest, swelling with each new thud, and I grip Sienna's hand even tighter.

The power flowing in my veins feels as ancient as this very wall as I accept it into me, as I believe in it. I spread it out to Sienna, filling both of us with a heat like fire and a drive like flowing water and the force of a windstorm. I am all of the elements, and I can sense each of the girls below me, the little lights of their magic glowing like candle flames. I pour everything I have into them, the way I did
that night I saved Raven. I pour out all my love, my hope for a better life, a better world. I infuse them with my belief that they are strong enough. I am the strongest of them all and I radiate that might out to them.

We are the Paladin. We are more powerful than rock and stone. I know it now.

We are the protectors of this island.

I brush the last cobwebs of fear from my mind. I focus everything I am into this huge swath of wall, and Sienna does, too. So do the girls on the ground.

The first crack appears, and though I can't see it, I feel it in my chest. Sienna gasps, accepting this raw, pulsing power. I have never felt so strong or so alive. And I see that Lucien's original plan, of using only me to tear down this wall, never would have worked. It takes all of us, working together. No one Paladin could do this on her own.

With a great groan, a whole section of the wall begins to collapse. As hunks of rock and clouds of dust rain down, I release my hold on the element and grab one of the golden spires. The thunderous avalanche of stone drowns out the sound of my panting. Sienna covers her ears, crouching beside me.