Fall

Piper

“I was wondering where you were,” Lady Harper said. “Usually the North flaunts their advantages, and I haven’t seen them introduce you to the show.”

Lady Harper was in a deep maroon. A few gold bracelets hung at her wrists, a small show of wealth. Her black cat was by her feet, giving Piper a matching glare.

“You’re Queen Celia?” Piper said. “How were you in the North?”

“It took many years. But now we’re here.” She took a step back, and ripped open the tent flap. “Guards!”

Reine savored every second. During Piper’s question, she had slashed a back door to the tent. Let’s go!

Piper ran out, followed by Finch and Tennyson.

“Stables,” Tennyson said. He knew where Taft was by their bond, and Chip with him.

As shouts broke around them, Piper felt like a glass bubble was shattering around them. They were on the receiving end of a vitrum incarnate this time.

If Lady Harper was Queen Celia, then Charlotte Harper was a princess. If she had gotten the heir position from Kane, Charlotte would have been in line for two crowns. If King Asher had been killed ‘accidently,’ the ascension would be even faster.

They would have had a bloodless takeover in the blink of an eye. This war would have been meaningless. The West must have known—known about the plot against her newfound home. Had backed it.

Piper nearly slammed into a tree.

Watch where you’re going! Reine snapped. If you fall, we’re going to be captured.

She said it took years! Piper said as they dodged tents and cut through the camp. The stables were apparently closer to the frontlines. Years for this!

I heard her, Reine growled. She skidded to a stop and circled around a soldier struggling to slip on her armor.

“Here!” Tennyson took a sharp left, and they were at a wooden half-building. He ran past the stalls and worried horses to the end. The padlock was shaking under a great force.

“Key, key,” he muttered as he choked the lock. “Life, I can’t open this.”

Finch craned his head back and forth as the Eastern camp was aroused. Lady Harper—or rather, Queen Celia—must know their goal to reclaim Taft and Chip. Or maybe she was taking her time, aware they had nowhere else to go short of the battle. A snake creeping to an injured bird.

Ideas? Piper asked Reine.

Leave them behind, but I know you won’t, Reine growled. So fight.

Finch was at the bottom of the door, working at one of the metal shafts at its side.

“What are you doing?” Tennyson let the lock thump back to the door.

“The hinges. Help me,” he was pulling frantically at the nail shaped head that connected the wood.

Tennyson caught on, and took the top half, wrenching it out faster than Finch. He knelt to help the spy, then jumped to his feet as the door came apart, held only by the locked handle.

The shouting was getting louder. Reine unsheathed her claws. Get ready.

Taft was squeezing his way out of the stiff opening. Finch slipped inside once the leopard was free. Chip must have been in a less protected cage, because they were both out in record time.

Footsteps. More yelling. Piper looked down the line of pens to see soldiers gathering.

“Should we go?” Finch said. He was a bit hesitant.

Reine started running. We’re not getting out of here unless we act now.

Piper took her cue. “Yeah.”

She activated her alea, and groaned when a crossbow shimmered in her hands. A long range weapon was not ideal.

But when she came close to the enemy, she yelled, and swung the crossbow like the mace. It smashed into the nearest face, and the others stepped away in surprise. “What the—“

“For Elbe!” she screamed, continuing her speed as she waved the weapon.

Tennyson was laughing as they stumbled along the uneven ground. Taft ran with Reine, startling away the latecomers, while Finch covered the rear with his vitrum disk. He had chosen a flamethrower from it, to give them distance from their pursuers.

Together, they were a fearful and fearing band. Piper’s blood coursed through her like a lit fuse. Reine fed and thrived on her adrenaline.

Then they broke the tree line, and all Eden was upon them. Swords, shields, wild cries. The Eastern generals had not yet gotten word of the roving trio, and Seine’s planning teams were scattered as Piper, Tennyson, and Finch ran for their lives. Snow tried to blind them as they hurried forward.

They were swept into the middle of flashing teeth, white sky, and colored uniforms. In that moment, anything that wasn’t blue was Piper’s enemy. And since they weren’t wearing any allegiances, everyone wanted to hit them anyway.

She woke from her daze when a sword nicked her shoulder, drawing blood instantly. With a flick of her wrist, her alea was a clear shield. The Northern soldier recoiled in shock. “Wait—“

“I’m Amur!” Piper shouted. “Help me to Kane!”

Prince Kane. The soldier pushed her away, then followed behind. “Keep going.” His wolf fera limped close to them.

Tennyson appeared out of the crowd, gaining a thick hogshead shield in the process. Flurries thickened his beard. She hadn’t realized their trio had dissolved once they entered the field.

“Stay with us!” Piper said before her helping soldier attacked Tennyson. “Where’s Finch?”

“I don’t—“

“Look out,” the wolf-man grunted as he deflected a sword reaching over Tennyson’s shoulder. “Talk later.”

“Where’s your unit?” Piper asked as she made a path behind her vitrum shield.

“Separated. Doing it to all units.” The wolf-man lunged again, then retreated back to the protection of Piper and Tennyson. “Faster.”

Reine and Taft didn’t have armor like the rest of the battling fera. They used their attacks sparingly and in the same defensive stance as their Elben soldier.

“Got a name?” Tennyson said as he bent to pick up a discarded spear. This he used to jab at anyone who dared come near their flank.

“Joul. Lupe.” His limp mirrored his fera. Or perhaps it was the other way around. “Faster.”

He’s right, Reine said. We need to make it to the Northern side. Which is west.

Piper’s vision seemed to blur as a numbing exhaustion began to creep into her legs, her mind. But a drive to survive kept her going. Until, until, until…

“I see blue,” Tennyson said over the roar.

Blue. Elben. The North. Piper blinked to see through her shield.

Oh Life. There was safety, there were friendly eyes. Nothing was so sweet.

Joul was slower. His limp had gotten worse, and his fera tagged along as best he could. Tennyson finally picked up the wolf so they could keep running.

Twenty feet from the trenches.

Ten feet.

Five—

Some familiar sound reached Piper’s ears. Tinkling, fragile breaking. A fairy’s last cry in the storm. She whipped her head around, searching for the source of the noise.

The ground shifted. It became softer as if under acid, and made a churning motion under them.

Joul seemed to have an idea of what was happening. “Life, faster!”

Reine’s paws started to stick in the earth. What is this?

I don’t know! Piper dove for the trenches. She turned to help pull Tennyson and Joul in. They landed in an ungraceful heap before Reine struggled to the top. Life help us.

Piper closed her eyes to see through the leopard. She almost wished she hadn’t.

Reine was level with the trench top. As she watched the ground turn into a swirling, hungry mouth, Northern soldiers quickly shuffled around them. They placed vitrum shields over the trench. When the quicksand earth touched it, its progress stopped and looked for another way forward. It was a dirtied sea, filled with grass and roots lapping at the clear boundary.

Hands pulled Piper and the others up. They were dragged away from the trenches while questions peppered the air.

“Who—is that Amur?”

“She was running at us with an alea, it has to be.”

“Private Joul, who is this man?”

Piper struggled to her feet. “I need to speak to Prince Kane.”

“Let her go,” Joul insisted at their hesitation. “She’s Piper Amur.”

Agonizing seconds passed as Piper was guided through the Northern camp to the center of planning. There, the general and prince were waiting over the moving battle map.

Kane shook his head. “I don’t think I can surprised anymore.”

Piper lowered her pack to the ground. “I know who Queen Celia is.”