Fall

Kane

They waited as the dais shimmered to its full form. The stairs were crystal clear as before, the chairs and table moved to its top like cake figures.

An entire day had been spent tracking down Queen Celia. She had almost made it back to Seine with a pack of guards. If she had gotten across the bridge highway in time, there would have been a siege or a chance to rally her forces again.

As it was, she was given a simple tent next to the dais in preparation of meeting with Kane. There would be no escaping this. No decoy fera to mock them.

Flint calmed his nerves. You can do this.

Kane swallowed. I know I can.

Together, they went up the stairs. Around them, soldiers knelt. Blue, gold, and a wintry mix. Red and green soldiers were detained in tied bushels to be brought back to Elbe for trial.

When he got to the top, he was startled when the sea came to its feet.

“Prince Kane!” they thundered. He heard pride in their voices.

Flint nudged him. Do something.

Right. Kane threw a fist into the air. “For Elbe!”

“For Elbe!”

He smiled at that. “I couldn’t ask for better citizens, better allies. Thank you for protecting our home. Thank Life for letting us survive this. The North is not aroused lightly. And when that time comes, we fight greatly. We live in a land of extraordinary events, and you’ve shown a will to protect that.”

They cheered as Kane settled into his chair.

Queen Celia’s tent rippled. She came out with a brave face, a ruler brought low. Her cat hugged her steps as she came to sit on the opposite end of the table.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Kane asked, loud enough for the soldiers to hear.

Her words were a frosted knife. “Kit.”

Kane wanted to recoil. To show his anger, his confusion. But Flint helped him stay steady. He would not be weak in front of Queen Celia. Fear and reaction was what she thrived on. “What about Kit?”

“Want to see your sister again? Set me free, and I’ll tell you where she is.” Queen Celia was poised to strike, a snake rearing. “Bring me to a cell, and bring her to death.”

“I will not make a deal with you. This is a time for your surrender.” He pushed the newly minted treaty across the table. The pen rolled with it. “Sign it, Queen.”

Kit was her last card, one she acquired early in the game. Flint chewed this idea. I wonder if she ever thought she would need to use it.

A growing part of Kane did fear, however. Kit was not safe, and here he was letting her slip out of the conversation. Would he ever get this chance once Queen Celia was dethroned?

An oddly catlike hiss came from the queen. “You don’t care if she dies.”

She spoke his mind. “I do care.”

“You will sit on your gilded throne behind your gates and glass, heart growing cold, soul frozen,” Queen Celia said. “And it starts here.”

Kane flinched. “Sign the treaty.”

“I will not sign the treaty.” She rose, but guards suddenly flanked her. “You have not won.” She turned to the soldiers. “You have not won!”

The guards grabbed her cat. Queen Celia thrashed in their grip. “Kit will die because of you!”

Kane watched her pulled off the stage, repeating her threat. There would be no ceremonious tent for her now. She would be with the rest of the prisoners.

Atlas

Atlas met with Kane as soon as the queen was escorted away. He spotted Flint’s antlers from a distance away, and then the triple guard.

“What happened to Kit?” he said. Where was his daughter? Wasn’t she with Thea, in Elbe?

“We need to speak in private.” Kane made a path for his tent, a grand if not the largest in the camp. Its blue canvas was decorated in white patterns. Intricate snowflakes, mountains and flowering vitrum.

Atlas sat on one of the two chairs inside. Then Kane talked. He told of Kit’s disappearance, Nora’s coin, the fruitless investigation and puzzlement about her whereabouts. They assumed Kit had been smuggled out of Elbe, and by Queen Celia’s claims, that was correct. Now a girl who for months had been hoped to be among the living would be dead.

“It’s Queen Celia’s last trick to play against us,” Kane explained. “She wants to buy her freedom.”

Atlas put his head in his hands. “Did she give us a timeframe?”

“We can’t…” Kane paused. “King Asher won’t let us release Queen Celia. Not after this war.”

Hudson paced the ground. We should not bargain with her.

What if we do? A sudden idea came to Atlas. “Where is Charlotte in all this?”

Kane looked to his tent’s canvas. The noon sun was burning a vitrum flower into the floor. “I don’t know. Seine?”

Where was the princess? In the castle. “That makes sense.” Atlas rubbed his chin. “We need to send a unit to scout out the city. See if she’s still there, we can capture her and use her to get to Kit.”

“Maybe two units. Or three,” Kane said. “There are still rogue bands of the East-West. And I doubt Seine will let our scouts waltz through the front door.”

“We can send them out tonight.” Atlas rose. “Kit can’t wait another day.”

Piper

Sunsets were beautiful in the West. Piper had nearly forgotten how mesmerizing her first home could be. With the plains a flat horizon, the sun dominated the sky with rolling clouds and hazy rays. Purples mixed with blues and pinks to create a pastel wonderland. A dreamscape fit for a queen. You wouldn’t know the day before it had been a pale slate, spewing snow.

Reine sat next to her, tail neatly coiled over her paws. It’s over.

Yes, I suppose so. Piper was still tense, as if at any moment she would need to reach for her alea. Jump away to avoid an enemy coming from an unseen direction. Time would heal all wounds, invisible or not. But she felt as if it were too soon to heal, that there was still a chance she would be hurt again.

Now what? Reine thought.

Well… Go back to Elbe, Piper said. Maybe do some exploring.

The North, Reine purred. Visit my homeland.

And afterwards, go to the Glassings… see how they’re doing. Help King Asher and Kane restore balance in Eden. Go to the South. Skye said it was fun there, Piper said.

We’ll have to reorder that list, Reine said.

Piper chuckled. I want to see a world in peace. See it all.

We can do that. Reine stretched and yawned. Starting tomorrow, of course.

The sunset had become dusk, with stars filling the void. They walked towards the tents, each step making sleep that much higher on Piper’s priorities. Everything over the past few months seemed to be catching up to her at last, dogging her feet with fatigue.

She missed the rustling near the supply tent, but Reine did not.

Piper, she said.

What? Piper fought a yawn.

There’s something—Reine stiffened as the noise stopped. Something I don’t like.

Okay. Piper caught some of Reine’s caution, and crept carefully around the tent, hoping it was a lost fera.

Wild eyes stared back at her. The girl was in midnight black from head to toe, too dark for this hour. In her hands were two vitrum spheres. They sloshed with colored liquid. Cooper must have premade some of his weapons, or not set all of them off during the battle.

The girl immediately threw down a sphere. It cracked into thirds, letting a blue cream flow into the ground.

Piper didn’t wait to see what it did. She ran after the girl, shouting to get the attention of anyone nearby. “Hey! Stop! Thief!”

They wove through the camp, then cut towards open field. It was a mad dash until Reine put on a burst of speed to tackle the intruder.

Reine held the girl down while Piper took off her mask. She fell back as the intruder spat at her.

“Get away from me!”

“Charlotte?” Piper said.

Charlotte rolled, whipping her blonde ponytail in Piper’s face. Reine had to tackle her again.

“You have not won,” Charlotte hissed, an eerie mirror of her mother’s words.

Something bit Piper’s leg, hard. She yelped to see Chloe the arctic fox behind her.

Oh no you don’t, Reine growled. She went after the snowy fox, and the other fera ran.

Piper activated her alea, and a short sword appeared in her palm. It wasn’t the crossbow she wanted if Charlotte fled, but it was better than nothing.

Chloe skidded to a slushy stop in the melting snow. Charlotte picked up her fox as Reine circled them. “Call off your cat.”

“You’re going to run,” Piper said. Blood was welling on her calf, and she felt its drain.

It was now dark enough for Charlotte to blend in with the night. Her hair was a strange light now, stardust sleeping. She was thoughtful as her fera squirmed. “I was going to take the whole camp.” Piper saw the moment when Charlotte’s smile gained a wicked edge. “But I think they’ll miss the heroes of Elbe just as much.”

Reine, get back! Piper quickly backtracked as Charlotte threw her remaining vitrum sphere to the ground. It shattered with little fanfare.

Then the earth softened. Everything solid shifted, then moved in a slow spiral. Cooper’s weapon was working like clockwork, aiming to swallow them all.

They couldn’t outrun it in time. Piper knew this with a sinking heart. She would die. Never see the next Eden morning, the Glassings, Finch. Her footsteps were heavy, weighted by the deepening quicksand.

She didn’t look back when Charlotte’s laugh was replaced by burbling. She would not go down with the ship.

Reine struggled to her, near-swimming in the mire. No! Don’t give up!

Fires were starting to flare up in the camp. Rumbling, and tossing rocks from the other sphere were being shifted up by Charlotte’s mischief. An avalanche from Eden’s core. They could hear Cooper’s voice from here, calling about an antidote.

With their own problems, they wouldn’t notice Piper and Reine were missing. But she still yelled at the top of her lungs. “Help!” When she waved, her alea flicked into a shield.

Reine came closer. The shield!

Piper dipped the vitrum into the quicksand. Immediately, it gave her a pocket of air. A sliver of freedom.

With her arm wrapped around Reine, she took a step forward. And another. They kept walking until a block of solid ground greeted them. She pulled them to solid land, then collapsed.

Reine looked behind them. Where Charlotte had stood was only a mess of overturned earth.