Witch's Pyre

by Josephine Angelini

  It’s nearly time, Lily, Lillian called. When the Hive has committed all its forces to fighting my soldiers in the center, send yours out of the grove on all sides to surround us.

  I understand, Lily replied. Lily could feel Lillian’s exultation in the throes of battle with her army, but her body was weak, and she was burning more than she should. Lillian. There’s something you need to know about the bomb.

  You can’t convince me not to use it, Lillian replied.

  I know. That’s why I had Carrick dismantle it.

  Lily felt Lillian’s dismay, and then she Gifted her army and sent the screaming horde of men, women, and Woven onto the battlefield.

  Toshi jerked to a halt when he heard the boom. He saw a third beam of light shoot into the bruised sky and knew that Lily’s army had taken the field. Dread consumed him. They wouldn’t last long if he didn’t kill the Queen.

  Toshi could feel echoes of agony and ecstasy from the rest of Lily’s claimed as they hurled themselves into battle, and his feet turned on their own and started running. Feeling Lily’s power in him, Toshi reached Hearing Hall in moments.

  He ran through the forest of columns, a petrified echo of the redwoods surrounding Lily, and went to the door that opened into nothing. He tied the climbing ropes together and used them to ease himself down into the darkness. When he reached the end of his rope he let himself drop.

  His magelight blazed out as he fell. When he finally hit the floor, he picked himself up and started running again.

  Lily exulted.

  She bounded across the field with her fearless Pride. She soared through the air with her fierce raptors. She swarmed across the ground with her frozen-souled insects. She led the charge with Rowan onto the field, thundering toward the struggling and dying Walltop soldiers, delirious with mad joy, and almost went back on her word. As Rowan tore into the leading edge of Warrior Sisters with his battalion of queens, Lily felt herself sliding toward taking all of him.

  There was a part of him that wanted it, too. He wanted to know what it was to burn on the pyre. It was for this reason alone she resisted, even when he wouldn’t have. She couldn’t let Rowan burn.

  Warrior Sisters cracked their cat-o-nine-tails whips, and when they couldn’t use their whips they fought with their bare hands. Their movements were blindingly fast and brutal. They did not fight with punches and kicks, but rather they grabbed on to an opponent’s limb and tried to rip it off or they’d fly up as high as they could, let go of their struggling victim, and let gravity do the killing for them. They attacked in concert with their Sisters, but they were as brutal with one another as they were with their victims. If one was losing a fight, the others did not waste their efforts on a lost cause. If one was winning, others joined her to end it quickly.

  Workers swarmed, and they were felling Lillian’s uninoculated soldiers by the dozens. Their swollen bodies hardly looked human, and the sight of them angered Lily. She contacted Tristan, who was engaged in an aerial battle with the Warrior Sisters.

  Tristan—fly into the city, she ordered. Gather rebels with crossbows. Shoot the swarms from raptorback.

  I’m supposed to stay over you and protect you, he argued.

  Get that pesticide. Kill the swarms. My fire will protect me.

  Lily wrapped her hands around her iron chains and held on as the logs beneath her turned to crumbling red coals. She called out to Breakfast for more wood and his team piled her pyre ever higher. She drew the heat into her crucible of a body and changed it faster and faster until all of her claimed were overflowing with power. Lily’s army basked in her mounting strength, throwing themselves at the Warrior Sisters in frenzy, while Lillian’s army began to falter.

  Lillian! How can I help you?

  I’m dying, Lily, and when I die it won’t be quietly. You must take my claimed from me or they’ll die with me.

  I don’t know how.

  I’ll give you everything I am. Everything but one part—the worst of me. That I’ll take with me to my grave.

  Lily’s vision scoped out from her pyre, pulled up into the air, swirled over the battlefield, and spiraled down into Lillian’s.

  Clawing agony assaulted her. A thousand regrets rained down on her head. Every memory Lillian ever had, every mistake she ever made, every willstone she ever claimed, every love, and every hate she harbored in her heart transferred from Lillian to Lily in an instant.

  All but one. Lillian kept Carrick for herself.

  Watching as if from a great height, Lily saw Lillian lying atop her smoldering pyre, the fire nearly extinguished. Her skin was black with soot and streaked red with blood.

  Come, Carrick. Carry me to our grave, Lillian called.

  Toshi was lost.

  He blundered through row after row of womb combs, his blood chilling at the thought of the horrors they unleashed. Desperate now, Toshi ran toward what he hoped was the back wall. His feet made a squelching sound and seemed to stick. He was standing in wax.

  Relief over finding the hive quickly gave way to fear as he hurried down the ever-narrowing passageway. The smell of honey grew so strong it made him dizzy. He saw evidence that others had recently come this way in the wax. He followed the footprints left by Lily’s coven to a bottleneck. He climbed through, his heart in his throat, and saw the Queen. She was writhing on her velvet throne, her body twisted and racked with pain.

  Toshi hefted his crossbow, aiming it directly between her bulbous, rainbow eyes, and then lowered it. He forced himself to raise the muzzle of his weapon again. His hands shook as he watched her spasm and clutch at her pillow in mute agony. The healer in him wavered, and the one precious second he’d been granted passed him by.

  Rough hands grabbed him and wrestled him to the floor, knocking his crossbow out of reach. Toshi saw male torsos under their insectoid heads. The drones had squat bodies that were thick and square as bricks. Bristling hairs stuck up from their shoulders and backs. As they tried to rip off his arms and legs, Toshi noticed their stunted wings would never fly.

  He felt his limbs straining as they were pushed into unnatural positions, but they didn’t break. Still full of Lily’s power, Toshi fought back. He reached past the waving tubes in their mouths, grabbed ahold of their hairy, ovoid heads, and started wrenching them around. He rolled, and they rolled with him, pouncing on top of him in a pack and swarming over him.

  The knot of them crashed through a wax wall and Toshi felt warm, sticky honey flowing over him. He jumped up to his feet, only to be knocked back again. More drones joined the fight as the sticky, bloody ball of them pushed through another wall. Toshi scrambled to get his feet under him and noticed that he was being pushed back and uphill, away from the Queen’s chamber.

  He threw himself against them, pushing and shoving and trying to make his way back as they formed a blockade to steadily inch him out of the hive. He dug in his feet, only to feel them sliding back in the wax. He killed one after another desperately, trying to get back to the Queen.

  He tasted fresh air and felt earth under him as the pile rolled. The drones had evicted him from the hive.

  Only two wheels of clouds darkened the sky. Only two beams of light pierced their centers. Tasting victory, the Hive surged forward, throwing themselves against their foes with reckless abandon.

  Lily was torn. Half of her hung from her iron-and-diamond shackles. Half of her gasped for breath on a pile of ash.

  Hang on, said one half of her to the other. Survive this battle, and we can heal you. Toshi can save you.

  The part of her left in ashes spoke for the last time.

  I have seen myself as many things. I have been the hero and I have been the villain. I may never be a hero again, but at least I can make my final act a heroic one.

  I summon Carrick to me. He doesn’t want to come, so I force him. He fights me, his limbs stiff, but my will is stronger. He picks me up in a gruesome parody of a bride and groom, and carries me into the redwood grove. He can feel how hot my skin
is, and he knows what it means. He is not the first mechanic I’ve marched to his own death.

  As we near the exit of the hive, we pass by a pile of drones fighting one of Lily’s claimed. The one who can heal me. For a fleeting moment the thought of salvation shines a light in my dark mind. Toshi could cure me. Take all this pain away. I don’t have to die, but the war would go on, and many others would die in my place.

  I don’t give Carrick the order to stop. We pass by my last chance at life and I grow hotter until my body bursts into flames. I smile. I choose this for all of them. I choose this for Rowan.

  Carrick carries me into the mouth of the hive. Drones step up to stop us, but we have become a blowtorch that scares them away. Carrick would scream in agony if I would let him. But I won’t.

  Wax melts as we pass. The walls and ceilings drip and sizzle. We make our way to the Queen’s chamber as the hive dissolves around us. Carrick carries me to the Queen and lays me down beside her. In death I will become the bomb that was denied me.

  I think of Rowan. I’m grateful that my final thought is of love.

  Time to die.

  Half of Lily ended. The other half took refuge in her coven.

  She saw Toshi. The fireball of Lillian’s passing was heading right for him. It emerged from the hive and roared toward him. Lily jumped Toshi away before the fire could consume him.

  She saw Rowan. He staggered, his heart skipping, when he heard the explosion. He knew Lillian was dead. He looked up into the sky and saw the Hive break ranks just when it was about to be victorious.

  She saw Tristan. He wheeled his raptor and aimed his crossbow at a dark clump of Workers, but the tight swarm suddenly dispersed and flew off in every direction before he could fire.

  She saw Una. Una felt her lion slow. She cut off one more Warrior Sister’s head, and then turned to see what her lion was looking at. The enemy was running away.

  She saw Caleb and Alpha. They stood back to back, fighting a ring of Warrior Sisters who surrounded them. Without warning, the Warrior Sisters dropped their whips and leapt into the sky.

  She saw Leto. His left leg was broken. It stuck out awkwardly. He hauled himself up onto his right knee as he watched the retreat, unable to rejoice. Too many dead Walltop soldiers were scattered around him for this win to feel like victory.

  She saw Breakfast. He swung his ax and blinked the sweat and soot from his eyes. He saw a flash overhead and paused to look up. The Hive was flying away.

  Again, she saw Rowan. Alaric raced past him. He was running toward the main gate of Bower City—and to the pyre that was still ablaze on the ramparts.

  Toshi dropped the arm he’d raised to cover his face against the oncoming fireball, and found himself on top of the Governor’s Villa, standing next to the speaking stone.

  He allowed himself one moment of utter confusion before he wrangled his wits back in order. Ivan, he thought, and raced down the stairs of the villa, through the maze of passages, and into the lab.

  Toshi found Ivan, still furiously making pesticide as fast as he could, and pulled him away from the vats.

  “It’s over,” Toshi told his old friend. “The Queen is dead.”

  Ivan’s eyes drifted off to the side, the barest hint of a smile turning up the corners of his lips. His face suddenly darkened.

  “Grace,” he whispered. “Is she—?”

  “Still on the pyre,” Toshi answered before Ivan could finish asking. The two of them turned immediately and ran through the city to the wall.

  Lily heard the hissing and tasted the wet smoke before she realized what was happening. Bucket after bucket of water was being shuttled to her and dumped over the last flames. Her pyre extinguished, Lily cut off the loop of power flowing between her and her claimed. She could hear voices all around as her claimed dug to get her out of the remnants of her colossal pyre.

  Relief gushed through her, thick and sweet as honey, but a mountain of burnt and half-collapsed logs both surrounded and covered her.

  “Hold on, Lily. I’m almost to you,” Rowan said, his voice sounding muffled and far away.

  “I’m here,” she called out.

  Water started dripping down through the collapsed tinder above her, black and greasy with charcoal. She heard the thunking of an ax as Rowan got closer and closer to her, and felt the half-joyful, half-frightened thrill thumping inside him.

  It’s over. We won, he kept whispering inside his mind, repeating it over and over, trying to convince himself it was true.

  “There she is—I see her!” he shouted to the crew behind him. Lily saw Rowan throw aside his ax and start wrenching logs away with his hands.

  Lily pulled her chains free from the crumbling stake, and reached up to him as he threw the last log aside and gathered her to him.

  “We did it,” he whispered, his voice breaking.

  “We really did,” she replied, smiling through tears as she clutched at him.

  She couldn’t seem to get close enough to him as they kissed and held each other. She pressed herself against him, laughing and crying and babbling all at once. They held each other in the center of the scorched pile while the rest of the timber crew cleared a path, wanting nothing but to stay exactly where they were.

  Toshi and Ivan passed teams of rebels still combing the streets for swarms, their expressions cautiously hopeful that the battle was over. Bodies were already being collected and taken off the streets on stretchers. The injured were rushed to healers, who had set up triage centers every few blocks. Toshi noticed that not everyone getting help was a citizen. The restricted zone must have emptied into the city proper at some point during the battle, and Toshi held out hope that his family had made it across.

  When they reached the wall they found that the stairs that zigzagged up to the top were cleared of the Warrior Sisters who usually guarded them. Toshi and Ivan took the stairs two at time. When they reached the top they heard voices. Someone had beaten them to Grace.

  Grace’s pyre steamed under her knees. She crouched atop the pile of doused logs, facing an Outlander with a fierce face. He threw the empty bucket he was holding aside and strode toward her.

  “Grace Bendingtree. I am Alaric Windrider, sachem of the last tribe. I find you guilty of genocide,” he declared.

  Grace shifted on her knees, her shackles jingling softly. “Aren’t I supposed to get a trial first?” she asked, smiling.

  “No trial,” he said. He pulled a knife out of his belt and her smiling face fell.

  “Sachem? What are you going to do with that?” Toshi interrupted, edging his way forward uncertainly.

  As Toshi frantically combed his mind for some kind of argument to present to Alaric, a small swarm of Warrior Sisters flew toward them and landed on the battlement. Alaric faced them, dropping into a fighting crouch and brandishing the long knife in his hand. Toshi felt Ivan push him back, protecting him, but the Warrior Sisters weren’t looking at any of them. They went directly to Grace.

  Grace looked at her former claimed uncertainly as they stalked toward her. “Wait,” she said, holding out a tentative hand. “No—”

  Before Ivan, Toshi, or Alaric could make a move, the Warrior Sisters snatched Grace up by her arms and legs, flew her past the edge, and let her go.

  She screamed the whole way down. When she finally struck the ground and went still, the Warrior Sisters flew away.

  “Grace is dead,” Lily said as she and Rowan scrambled out from the extinguished pyre. Clouds of steam still rose around them, filling the air with fog. Fatigue was taking Lily over, and turning her legs to jelly.

  “Alaric?” he asked. Lily shook her head and showed him what Toshi had just shown her.

  “The Hive did it,” he said, surprised.

  “They had the most reason to hate her, I suppose,” Lily replied. She narrowed her eyes at Rowan. “You knew Alaric ran up there to kill her, didn’t you?” she asked.

  “Yes.” Rowan met Lily’s eyes and held them. “And I was going
to let him.” Lily nodded, accepting it, and pulled his arm even tighter against her body. The subject was closed.

  Rowan helped Lily out of the blackened crater, but she wouldn’t let him carry her. No matter how much it hurt, she was going to walk away from this. As she minced through her claimed on her blackened feet, Lily passed Breakfast, still hefting his ax, his other arm draped over Una’s shoulder. Una stood next to a lion, her hand resting casually on her new stone kin’s back. Tristan grinned at Lily and Rowan and she grinned back. Beside Tristan, Caleb stood with Alpha. She noticed that they had exchanged knives and raised an eyebrow at him. Caleb shrugged to show he was as surprised as she was at this new alliance. Mary and Riley were there, scattered among the painted braves who still guarded Juliet. Lily even caught a glimpse of her mother, wandering among the stumps of the hacked-down trees. Samantha looked sad, as if she were mourning someone.

  Lily leaned on Rowan’s arm, limping her way across the battlefield. She met Leto in the middle.

  “We took the field, Lady,” he said, grimacing in pain from his broken leg.

  “We did, Captain,” Lily replied gravely, surveying the heavy losses Walltop had incurred.

  “Stay where you are,” Rowan told Leto. “We’ll send a stretcher.”

  “There are few injured,” Leto said, despite his condition. “The Warrior Sisters don’t stop until either they’re dead, or their opponent is.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” Lily said.

  “Lady,” he replied, bowing awkwardly from his prone position as Lily passed.

  Lily released Rowan’s arm and walked across the battlefield on her own. She summoned healers to the battlefield to tend to the wounded. She called to them in mindspeak, and then jumped them directly to those who needed help.

  Her feet, always the first to burn on the pyre, screamed at her with every step. Blood dripped down her hands and off the tips of her fingers from the raw skin under her jingling shackles. Her crown dug into her scalp, heavy and sharp, and she lifted her chin under its weight.