After what seemed like a lifetime of running down stairs, we emerged in a brightly lit cavern. My eyes blinked furiously, getting accustomed to the light again, and I realized we were in an underground bunker, deep beneath the foundations of the palace. It was gargantuan in size and hewn from the rock itself, much like the hangar in Queen Gianne’s realm, but there were no ships docked here.
Instead, there were hordes of military personnel running around, barking orders. Others sat in front of glowing blue screens, watching a series of images and camera feeds while their fingers danced across smaller screens laid flat on their desks. They were jotting down what they saw, I realized. Where we would have had a keyboard, they had these small screens instead.
It was then that I understood what this place was—we were in a command center. This was the hub of security activity for Queen Brisha’s queendom. I gawked at the extent of her military operation. No wonder she knew so much. There were cameras everywhere, watching everything.
I turned as I heard the queen’s voice shouting above everyone else’s. She was dressed in black military fatigues, her hair swept back in a bun, her silver eyes moving between the enormous screens that hung from the ceiling of the cavern. Although she spoke with authority and intense volume, her voice was calm, her manner even more so. Every movement she made, and every word she spoke, was carefully deliberated—I could see it in her face. I had never seen a woman more powerful and awe-inspiring, staring at her where she stood giving orders atop a marble plinth. Even Pandora paled in comparison, and I had just watched her kick a wall down.
“Evacuate Lyceum, Vergar, and Nocta to the community bunkers!” she boomed, her mighty voice carrying across the length and breadth of the enormous underground chamber. “Rygel, Horvat, and Scahva can follow. Get every civilian out, now! Send the cargo ships to pick up any remaining civilians in the villages and hamlets surrounding the cities. Take anyone who is left and get them to the nearest bunkers!”
Up on the screens, I watched as a fleet of military ships took off from various hangars dotted around Northern Vysanthe. In other images, I saw soldiers and pilots sprinting around loading bays, gearing up their vessels for the fight ahead. Enormous troops of infantry marched into the bellies of gigantic gunships, where they strapped themselves in, the metal doors left open. In a moment of panic, I wondered how they would get down to the ground to fight… and then I remembered. They had wings. Perhaps they didn’t even fight on the ground at all.
Beside the large blue screens that were hanging down from the ceiling was another large screen, though this one was tinted red. On it, I could see the approach of Queen Gianne’s ships, her colors—black and red—streaked onto the outside of the vessels. They swarmed like a great metal mob, coming forward in seemingly endless numbers, with more ever-present on the southern horizon.
Palace staff were being ushered through several doors that branched out from the main command center, before being herded toward a large section at the back of the cavern, which held rows upon rows of small wooden huts.
It seemed like Queen Brisha had been preparing for this moment for a long time. But, although she was moving around her post with a calm demeanor, it was evident that this move had taken her by surprise. Even so, she was proving herself a worthy queen by getting her subjects out before the worst of the assault hit. Somehow, I doubted Queen Gianne would do the same.
Feeling as though I had just summoned the devil herself, Queen Gianne’s face suddenly appeared on every screen at once, looming large above us. Her expression was a smug one. At the sight of her, Angie and Lauren huddled close to me, while Bashrik and Navan looked up, their faces showing their rage at what she was doing.
“Dear Sister, I’m very sad it has come to this,” she purred coldly, her voice booming through every speaker in the cavern. “Unfortunately, you have only yourself to blame for this attack. I’m afraid you have forced my hand.”
Queen Brisha pressed a button on her wrist, causing a small screen to flicker up with her face on it. “Whatever makes you sleep better at night, Sister, knowing how many innocents you have slaughtered for the sake of your own paranoid delusions,” she retorted bitterly, though she was doing an impressive job of keeping her cool.
Queen Gianne glowered. “This is all on you, Brisha. I could have continued to keep the peace, but then you spurned our species by giving asylum to criminals like Navan Idrax and his little pet. You are not fit to wear a crown, Sister. You have lost your way—you have lost our way of living. What are we, if our race is not the most superior in the universe? If you spoil the blood by mixing species, where are we going to end up? No, Sister, I will not allow it. This is all on you.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Gianne,” Brisha said evenly. “I rule with a fair hand instead of an iron fist, and my people love me for it. Your people wish to dethrone you because they are terrified of you. You’re running scared, and you’re lashing out—you’ve done it all your life. Now, if you would just come to the palace and talk to me, I’m sure we can figure this out without the need for bloodshed.”
But it was clear Queen Gianne was way past that. There was a mania in her eyes that terrified the living daylights out of me.
“I can see them!” Queen Gianne said sharply, her finger jabbing at the screen. “Those traitorous cretins! And… Bashrik Idrax?! The whole family is rotten! See, you let defectors and traitors into your midst! You shelter them. You aren’t fit to be queen!”
I glanced at Navan, feeling panic rise in my throat. Queen Brisha still thought that Navan and I had run to her because of our illicit romance, but if Queen Gianne were to expose us as traitors now, revealing our connection to the rebels, then it would all be over. This war between sisters wouldn’t matter to us, because we wouldn’t be alive to see it. Angie, Lauren, Bashrik… all of us would be doomed.
To my relief, Queen Gianne skipped over the details, choosing to simply call us every expletive under Vysanthe’s sun. She stared straight at us with her enormous eyes, blown up to epic proportions on the screens in front of us, her rage palpable, even though she wasn’t actually in the room.
“You think I’m not fit to be queen?” Queen Brisha scoffed. “Look at yourself. You’re a quivering wreck. You think you can send every ship you have at us and hope to win, but there’s no strategy there—there’s no skill or intellect involved in anything you do. You rush in headfirst, cause a huge mess, then run off with your tail between your legs, leaving everyone else to clean up after you.”
Queen Gianne looked like her head was about to explode. “How dare you,” she breathed. “You’ve never even seen any action, because you don’t take any risks—you’re a coward, with your head always hidden in a book. Even your subjects think you’re a pushover. They don’t like you—they think you’re weak!”
“Better a kind queen than an incompetent, mad one,” Brisha shot back.
“You’ve always thought you were smarter than me, Sister, but we’ll see about that,” Gianne remarked, her eyes narrowing to almost reptilian slits. “You think you’ve got the upper hand when it comes to the immortality elixir, but you’re wrong. It is slipping away from you as we speak. While you have been chatting away, I’ve been busy.” She smirked. “We will see who wins this race, Sister.”
A split second later, the video feed ended, the screens switching back to images of the fleets taking off and the townships that were coming under fire.
“I want security at maximum to prevent any more hacking!” Brisha demanded.
“No!” Navan suddenly bellowed.
Everyone in the cavern whirled to look at the screen his eyes had turned to. In the image, bombs were being dropped on a striking building, and I realized what it was. It was the only place Gianne could bombard that would hit Brisha where it hurt—her alchemy lab.
For a moment, Queen Brisha’s cool, calm façade slipped. An almost innocent look of terror flickered across her face, her eyes burning with a bright rage.
She recovered fast, turning to her military personnel.
“Why weren’t those ships stopped once they got over the border?!” she roared. “Get them shot down, NOW!”
Her team jumped to action, barking orders through their comm devices to the military leaders and skilled pilots on the other end. On the screens, I watched as Brisha’s ships maneuvered into position, blasting the enemy ships out of the sky… but the damage was already done. Blinking on a broken feed, I saw the remains of the alchemy lab, plumes of black smoke rising up from the debris. It was a pile of rubble now, nothing more.
Queen Brisha’s eyes lingered on the image, her face contorting into a mask of pure hatred. “This is an act of war!” she cried. “We will retaliate, and we will be smart about it! We will use strategy, and we will show Gianne what true triumph looks like! We will not allow this to stand!” As she shouted, her team whooped and hollered below her.
Indeed, it seemed her sister was wrong—Brisha had the full support of her people, by the looks of things, and now she was mad.
“Bashrik!” she barked, taking him by surprise.
“Your Highness?” he replied, hurrying to meet her as she approached.
“The alchemy lab I require of you, in return for Navan’s place in my realm, must be built a few weeks from now,” she demanded. “I had hoped we might have months, to make it truly perfect, but as you can see… we don’t.”
Bashrik looked aghast. “A few weeks? That’s impossible.”
Queen Brisha glared at him. “Nothing is impossible, Bashrik.”
He sighed, clearly not wanting to argue with the queen. “Well… I will do what I can. But I can’t promise beauty, Your Highness.”
“Then promise me practicality instead.”
“That I can do, Your Highness,” he replied.
With that, she turned to Navan. “My sister took me by surprise this time, but she will not get the chance to do that again. For that, I want your help,” she said sternly. “I need more bodies on the ground. I need more soldiers, Idrax, and we’re going to start with you. From this moment on, I am drafting you into my army. You are strong, you are fast, and you are smart—the perfect combination. I don’t doubt that you will become a great leader one day, but you will begin with the rank of infantry soldier. Your training will start soon.”
I gazed desperately in his direction, but his eyes were focused on Brisha. I could do nothing to stop this runaway train. It was out of my hands now—Brisha’s word was final, but where did that leave us? With him drafted into the army, and Bashrik engaged in building the alchemy lab, how were we ever supposed to find a way to leave Vysanthe now?
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Pandora took us into a large hut at the side of the cavern, but I could barely speak as we made our way toward it. Navan put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me to him. I leaned against him, feeling dizzy. In the space of a few minutes, everything had changed, and I didn’t know how to fix it. If Navan was being drafted into Queen Brisha’s army, what did that mean for our plan?
The whole day felt surreal, and unbelievably long.
“I’m starving,” Angie said as we entered the bare hut, breaking the tension.
“I’ll fetch something you can all eat,” Pandora said, before disappearing back out of the hut.
We sat around in silence, all of us entirely shell-shocked. I guessed this wasn’t what Angie and Lauren had been expecting when they snuck to Vysanthe—for a bombing to break out just hours after they’d landed. I wanted to hug them tight, letting them know it was all going to be okay, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know that it would be.
When the food came—Pandora and a few servants bringing it in—we descended upon it, filling up plates of fruit and steaming root vegetables I didn’t recognize. Angie and Lauren eyed it curiously, but I assured them that it was safe. Meanwhile, Bashrik and Navan approached a tray of warm bowls filled to the brim with a smoking red liquid, a look of confusion on their faces.
“What’s this?” Navan asked Pandora.
“Ferakor blood stew,” she explained. Whatever that meant.
They each curiously dipped a spoon into the mixture and lifted it to their lips. Apparently finding it not unpleasant, they began to eat, devouring the strange concoction. I guessed it wasn’t what they were used to in the South.
As Pandora departed once more, we sat down on the wooden chairs that had been set up. Angie, Lauren, and I snatched up furry coats that Pandora had brought for us. Wrapping ourselves in them, we glanced nervously at one another. It appeared nobody wanted to be the first to speak, after the events of the day.
“What are we all going to do?” I asked, breaking the tense silence. Someone had to, and I couldn’t bear another moment of it. “We can’t just sit around doing nothing,” I added, gesturing to Angie and Lauren.
Angie nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it… and I’d like to help with planning for the new alchemy lab. My dad’s an architect, so I’m familiar with blueprints and architecture. I figure I could be of some use, and it’d be something I could keep myself distracted with,” she explained, not addressing Bashrik directly.
Bashrik’s eyes widened, and he shook his head sharply. “Um, no. You’ll only get in my way and slow me down. I can’t afford any distractions—not when Queen Brisha wants it built in a few weeks.”
“I used to help my dad with his projects all the time,” Angie retorted. “I’m a good assistant when it comes to things like design, and I’m pretty handy, too. Trust me, I’m not saying this to get in your way—in case you think I’m that petty. Your job just happens to be where I’d do best, and hey, if I’m not useful, you can fire me.”
“Give her a chance, Bashrik,” Navan muttered, rubbing his temples, clearly not in the mood for arguments.
Bashrik pursed his lips. “Fine. Just don’t start crying when I let you go.”
Angie rolled her eyes. “Please. As if I’d shed a tear on you.”
“Lauren?” I prompted, turning to my other friend.
She pushed her glasses back up onto the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know,” she said quietly. “I’d like to be useful, but I’m not as brave as the rest of you, and I don’t have the physical strength you guys have, either… I’m honestly not sure where I can help.” There was a sense of dejection in her voice, her gaze dropping to the floor.
I smiled, knowing exactly where Lauren might fit in. “The queen has a huge library. If you could get permission from her, you could help research more about the immortality elixir. I’m sure you could find something in there that nobody has found before—a different perspective, maybe? If anyone can find something new, it’s you. You’re the smartest girl I know.”
A smile spread across Lauren’s face, her eyes brightening behind the lenses of her specs. “Sure… I could do that. I’ll read every damn book if I have to.”
That only left me. Bashrik already had his work cut out for him, and I knew what Navan would end up doing, though I couldn’t bring myself to utter the words aloud. He would be headed into certain danger, and I couldn’t bear the thought of it. His fate hung heavy over the group, remaining unspoken.
“You’re going to end up dead, Navan,” Bashrik said suddenly, voicing my own worst fear.
He grimaced. “You know I always appreciate your positive outlook on things, Bashrik—but in this case, I’m good.”
Bashrik gripped Navan’s shoulder. “Seriously, man. This is Queen Brisha’s army we’re talking about. The chances of you making it out alive are slim to none.”
“How is that helpful, Bashrik?” I sighed. This was already hard enough for me to deal with without Bashrik being a bundle of nerves.
“What about you, Riley? What are you going to do?” Lauren asked, thankfully changing the subject. Only, the question was one that had been plaguing me. I had an idea, but it wasn’t something I wanted to admit to the group just yet. It was risky, and potentially downright dangerous, but it was the only thing keeping me
sane.
“Uh… I’m not sure yet,” I hedged.
Navan looked at me suspiciously, his brow furrowed. It was clear he knew I was thinking something I shouldn’t be.
“Anyway, that’s not important right now,” I continued, before he could start interrogating me. “We’ve got a bigger problem.”
“What?” Lauren asked, a note of alarm in her voice.
“We need to find a way to secretly send information to Orion, or he’s going to start killing more humans… starting with my parents.” I had delayed bringing them up to speed about that particular aspect of Orion’s latest torment. It was painful to think about, let alone talk about.
My friends gasped.
“More humans?” Lauren whispered.
“Your parents?” Angie murmured in disbelief. “How would he even find them?”
“I don’t know, but that’s his threat, and I don’t feel like testing it.” My thoughts returned to poor Galo, who had given me that advice.
“We’ll gather info from our respective positions in Queen Brisha’s ranks, pool it together, and figure out a way of transmitting it,” Bashrik said, finally on a more productive train of thought.
“There are a few remote spots that might work,” Navan added, though his eyes were still on me. “If one of us can get hold of a comm device, we should be able to hack it and do this without anyone finding out.”
A somber mood descended across the group once more, the news of Orion putting a damper on things. It was almost amusing, where we’d ended up, and in any other circumstances I would have laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. Navan and I were still somehow spying for the rebels, but now we were betraying an entirely different queen.
“I need a shower,” I said finally, wanting to extricate myself from the group. There was something I needed to do, and I couldn’t do it with everyone’s eyes on me. Slowly, I got up, and I was thankful that Navan left me to my privacy as I stepped out of the hut and headed in the direction I’d last seen Queen Brisha.