A Crown for Assassins

by Morgan Rice

  “I should go to the wall,” he said. “It would raise morale.”

  “Not if they saw you hit by cannon fire,” Will said. “Besides, Lord Cranston won’t allow it.”

  “I’m the king, Will,” Sebastian pointed out.

  “You think that makes any difference to Lord Cranston?”

  Will had a point there.

  “At least get anyone who wants inside the palace,” Sebastian said. “Maybe the extra set of walls will defend them a little longer.”

  That was where they were now: defend a little longer, hold on a few more hours in the face of the inexorable push of the New Army. Hold on, and hope against hope that some kind of relief would come for the siege.

  “Has there been any indication that help is coming from the rest of the kingdom?” Sebastian asked.

  “It’s been silent,” Will said, “but how would a message get through? A bird would be brought down by crows, and a messenger wouldn’t get through the lines. We have to hope.”

  They had to hope, and keep hoping, until there was no hope left. Until…

  With a great crack that reverberated around the city, a section of the city wall crumbled and fell. It seemed to do it almost in slow motion, the ancient stones finally deciding that they could take no more of the battering they had received and collapsing in an avalanche of falling rocks filled with the screams of the men who had occupied that section. For a moment, everyone around Sebastian seemed to stand there in stunned silence as ochre-uniformed figures poured through the gap, onto the straight parade before the palace.

  “Fire!” Sebastian ordered. “They’re bunched up down there. This is our best chance to hurt them!”

  Around him, men seemed to get the message, cannons booming with grapeshot, muskets and bows firing down from the palace roof and walls and windows. The barrage hit the oncoming tide of men and cut them down in a scythe stroke of carnage. Soldiers were punched from their feet by lead shot and crossbow bolts, falling in the path of the next in line, filling the street with what was almost a barricade of their numbers.

  With any other force, that would have been enough to make them pull back and reconsider their approach, or at least spread out into the surrounding streets, starting a secondary siege of the palace. Instead, wave after wave of troops came forward, obviously more frightened of their general than they were of the cannons they faced.

  “He doesn’t care about them dying,” Sebastian said. “He’s just sending them forward to get slaughtered.”

  “So we keep killing them,” Will said. He shouted over to a cannon crew. “Redirect your aim. You’re firing high!”

  Will hadn’t seen the danger yet, but Sebastian could.

  “If they just keep coming, then they make ground every time we have to reload,” he said. “They’re just throwing men at us until they make it here.”

  “So we shoot faster,” Will said.

  Already though, the enemy were getting closer, almost to the low walls that marked the limits of the palace grounds. Sebastian heard the clash of blades as they fought with the men there, paying with blood for every step forward they took. The problem with that equation was that the Master of Crows seemed to be willing to pay the price.

  It begged the question of what was so valuable to him that he was willing to spend the blood of so many of his men, rather than just waiting for the siege to play out over weeks or months…

  “I have to get to Violet,” Sebastian said, drawing his sword and running down from the roof, a cluster of men with him.

  He heard the crash of soldiers breaking into the palace and sped up his dash to get to his daughter. He passed guards and they joined him, forming a wedge as they made their way down toward the royal bedrooms.

  As they reached them, Sebastian saw soldiers of the New Army heading the other way. He didn’t hesitate, just yelled a battle cry and slammed into them.

  He cut down one man with an overhand blow, then shoved him back into the others. A man thrust at him and Sebastian stepped aside from the blow, hacking at the man’s arm. He kicked out at a soldier’s knee, forcing him down for one of the guards to finish. Step by step, Sebastian fought his way to the door of his daughter’s nursery and forced his way inside.

  Violet’s wet-nurse was in there, a knife in her hand as if she might defend her charge from the world. It was a brave move, and Sebastian was grateful for it.

  “Wrap Violet up,” he told the young woman. “We might have to leave soon.”

  The young woman looked as though she might reply, but then cried out a warning. Sebastian spun to see an enemy soldier forcing his way into the room. Sebastian cut the man down without hesitating, then slammed the door, forcing a wardrobe down in front of it.

  “We don’t have much time,” Sebastian said. “Hurry.”

  The wet-nurse set about wrapping Violet in swaddling to carry her. Even as she did it, Sebastian heard men hammering on the door. The lock gave way, and they started to shove the weight of the wardrobe back.

  Sebastian stabbed into the gap, hearing a man cry out. He thrust again, and saw his blade slice into a face. Still, the soldiers kept coming. They forced the door wider, revealing the battle in the corridor outside and letting a pair of men into the room. Sebastian started forward at one, changed direction and sliced his blade into the second man’s throat.

  He felt something scrape along his side and turned in time to parry a second blow from the first man’s sword. He cut back, exchanging blows with the soldier, none of them getting through. The other man’s eyes went wide, and he collapsed, the wet-nurse standing over him with her dagger.

  “How are we going to get out of here with Violet?” she asked, in the brief lull in the fighting.

  “I don’t know,” Sebastian said. He checked his side where he’d been hit. His hand came away wet with blood, but there was nothing to do but ignore it.

  He stepped out into the corridor. For the moment, it seemed to be empty of everyone except his own soldiers. Sebastian knew it wouldn’t last. If they were going to keep Violet safe, they had to leave now.

  “Come on,” Sebastian said to the wet-nurse. “You have to stay next to me with Violet, whatever happens.”

  “I will,” she promised.

  “Guards with me!” Sebastian ordered. “Protect Princess Violet, whatever the cost!”

  He knew that the men would stand. They hadn’t hesitated when his daughter had been in danger. They hurried downstairs as a group, doing their best to avoid the fighting there. A small cluster of the enemy came at them as they were on the stairs. Sebastian parried a blow and then sent a man tumbling, stabbed another as he raised his sword.

  “They’re here!” a man called out, even as Sebastian cut him down.

  “Quick,” Sebastian said. “If we cut through the ballroom, we can get out onto the lawns and use the maze to lose them.”

  They made for the ballroom, fighting their way through the melee. Sebastian used himself as a shield between the fighting and his daughter. A sword grazed his cheek, but he didn’t care. Another cut into his off hand, but he just cut down the man who had struck the blow. They pressed forward in a wedge around the princess, and Sebastian knew that this was real love and real loyalty, all of them willing to give their lives for one small child. Men peeled off from the wedge, defending, holding back the tide. By the time they got to the door they were looking for, it was just Sebastian and the wet-nurse.

  They made it into the ballroom, their reflections spread out around them in the mirrors. The doors on the far side were open…

  A tall figure stepped out into the doorway.

  “Give me your daughter,” the Master of Crows demanded.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  Sophia was back in Monthys, the flames rising around her. She was there with Kate, and their nursemaid was there, trying to lead them to safety. They heard the voices of the men who had come to kill them, and Sophia knew what was coming next because she’d seen it so many times before.<
br />
  “Go and hide,” their nursemaid said. “Get away when you can.”

  The dream shifted, so that she and Kate were hiding in a space too small for any adult, listening to their nursemaid’s screams… only now they were different screams and this wasn’t Monthys. Sophia heard a baby’s cries, and she was walking through the corridors of the palace, surrounded by dying people in soldiers’ uniforms, searching for her daughter.

  She knew without being told that her daughter was in danger, yet Sophia couldn’t find her. She was somewhere down the next corridor, through the next doorway… out of reach. There was a glow ahead, and somehow Sophia knew that it was coming from Violet, but when she reached out to touch her…

  Sophia woke with a gasp in the dawn light, the wastes around her still cool, not yet baked by the heat of the day. The warmth of Sienne next to her was as good as a blanket, and Sophia ruffled her ears as she woke.

  “Not every dream is a vision, right, girl?”

  This one felt too much like one, though.

  She stood, stretching and dressing, stepping out into the camp they’d made and finding that no one was awake yet. She walked to the edge of it, looking out to try to gauge how far they still had to go, how much longer it would be before she could get back to her daughter. Sienne sat next to her, probably keeping a sharp eye out for any small animal foolish enough to wander close.

  “If it’s a vision, should I turn back?” she wondered aloud.

  Could she get back to Ashton before whatever happened in her vision happened? Was it a vision of the future, or worse, of the past, telling her about something that had already happened? Sophia wanted to believe that her daughter was safe, because Sebastian would keep her safe whatever it took, but there was too much of a sense of dread hanging on from her vision.

  Sophia looked out over the wastes, taking in their vast emptiness, the sand and the scrub, the broken ground and the promise of the searing heat from the sun when it rose fully. That was when she saw the footprints.

  They glowed with the same light that Sophia had seen in her dream. Three sets of them stretched out there, along with a set of paw prints beside them. They stretched into the distance, off into the wastes, away from what passed for a road. The lines of prints formed a silvery path that seemed to stretch out like a river waiting to carry them to their destination.

  “Do you see them too, girl?” she asked Sienne, but Sophia already knew the answer to that. This was still a part of her vision.

  Sophia stared at them, trying to make sense of them. They weren’t in the direction their guides had been leading them. They really didn’t suggest going home to Ashton. If the glow from the footprints hadn’t been the same as the glow in her dream, she might have ignored them and turned back anyway. That glow seemed to carry a message with it, though: this was the way to her daughter. This was the right thing to do.

  It was just three sets of footprints. Sophia could guess what that meant. She crept around to where Kate and Lucas slept in bedrolls, both of them electing to sleep under the stars rather than in a tent. She went to shake them awake, but their eyes snapped open as she did.

  Careful, she sent, we can’t risk making a sound.

  What is it? Kate sent back. More creatures?

  She sounded almost hopeful. Sophia shook her head.

  I’ve… seen something, a vision, I guess. Footprints for the three of us and Sienne, leading out into the wastes alone.

  So we are meant to go that way? Lucas asked.

  Sophia nodded, then beckoned. The other two stood, following her to the edge of the camp. Sophia could still see the footprints shining away into the distance.

  “Do you see them?” she asked.

  Lucas nodded. “I do.”

  “I don’t,” Kate said. She spread her hands. “But then, I was never as good at seeing things. If you say it’s there, it’s there.”

  It felt good to Sophia that her sister trusted her that much, but it also stung a little in the reminder of just how much Kate must have lost when they excised the witch from her head.

  “So you want us to go out there without the others?” Kate asked. “What do you think it means? That the others have been lying to us about where the Forgotten City is?”

  “Or they don’t really know,” Lucas suggested. “Or we have taken a wrong turn somewhere. These are all possible things.”

  “I guess,” Kate said.

  “I don’t know,” Sophia admitted. “What I do know is that the glow in the footsteps is connected to Violet somehow.”

  She told them about her dream then. Kate nodded with understanding at the vision of Monthys, then clenched her hands when she heard that Ashton might be in danger.

  “We should go back then,” she said.

  “It’s too far,” Sophia said. “And this… this feels like the way we have to go if I’m going to see Violet again. I know it’s a lot to ask, Kate, but I need you to trust me on this.”

  Sophia’s heart sank at the thought that they might go their separate ways again. They’d spent so much time apart, and this had been the first time since the orphanage that they’d really had time together. Yet maybe Kate would feel that she had to go back, that she—

  “OK,” Kate said.

  “You’ll do it?” Sophia asked, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.

  Kate put a hand on Sophia’s arm. “I wouldn’t do anything to put Violet in danger,” she said. “If you say that going with you this way keeps her safe, then I’m going with you.”

  “Me too,” Lucas said. “I believe that your vision has shown us a better way to our parents. We will find them.”

  Sophia looked around at the camp. “If we’re going, we need to go soon. People will start waking up any minute.”

  “And if they see us heading off into the wastes, they’ll probably want to come along for the ride,” Kate said. “Okay, I’ll be quick.”

  She darted back into the camp, silent as the desert wind around them. She came back with her sword, a couple of water skins, and some food. Lucas already appeared to have all of his possessions on him, standing ready to walk out into the wastes next to his sisters.

  “Are we ready?” Sophia asked. The others nodded, but even so, she didn’t feel ready. They were about to abandon the caravan they’d carefully put together to get them to their destination, in favor of striking out alone based on no more than one of her visions. It seemed like a foolish, dangerous thing to do.

  Yet with the prospect of finding her parents and getting back to her daughter set ahead of her in a clear, glowing pathway, the only thing Sophia could do was follow it. She just had to hope that in the meantime, Violet and Sebastian would stay safe.

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  Lucas could feel the heat of the day starting to build as the three of them trekked further and further from the path. The sun beat down on them and he covered up as best he could with the silks he wore. Soon, he’d sweated through them, the heat making them cling to him as they trudged on.

  “They’ll have realized we’re missing by now,” Kate said. “Do you think we should erase our tracks so that they can’t send anyone after us?”

  Of course Kate would think of that. Sophia was the one who saw the big picture for things, had the vision to find them a route. Kate was the one who thought about if they could be seen, who could sneak into a camp full of creatures without fear and not be heard while she killed them. Where did that leave Lucas, though?

  “What are you thinking?” Kate asked him.

  You have to ask, instead of looking? he sent.

  No, but I thought it might help to talk, she sent back.

  “I’m just wondering where I fit in,” he said.

  “Wherever we are,” Sophia replied. “You belong with us, Lucas.”

  Lucas smiled at the certainty in that. “I just mean that you’re the one with the most powerful magic, Sophia, and Kate, you can fight, and disappear into the darkness… I’m a bit of both, but
maybe neither.”

  Kate put a hand on his arm. “You fight better than I do these days,” she assured him.

  “I’m sorry, Kate,” he said. “I didn’t mean—”

  “I know,” Kate replied. “But maybe don’t spend too much time worrying about what use you are. We wouldn’t have gotten past that cyclops without you.”

  That wasn’t the point, though. Yes, Lucas could fight, but was that all he was good for?

  “Besides,” Kate continued, “that’s not the point. You’re our brother.”

  Lucas smiled at that. It was good to have a family. No matter how well Official Ko’s household had treated him growing up, it hadn’t been the same thing.

  They kept walking, deeper into the wastes. Lucas could follow Sophia’s shining path now that she’d shown it to them, but she was the one who led the way. It wasn’t just that she was the one who had the best chance of guiding them to their destination; it meant that he and Kate could keep to her pace, watching out for when she became tired.

  She kept going, though, leading them on across the broken ground, further into the sun. Around them, Lucas could hear occasional calls of desert lions or hyenas, but nothing bothered them now as they walked. Nothing except the relentless heat. That sapped Lucas’s strength, and although he tried to ration the amount he drank from his water bottle, soon it felt far too light.

  “We’re going to have to find somewhere to stop,” Sophia said.

  There was nowhere, though. There was only the continuing onslaught of the sun, which seemed to be determined to leach away every drop of moisture they possessed.

  “I think I can see something,” Kate said, pointing.

  Lucas saw it too: a faint shimmer in the distance, the faintest flash of green from a tree. They’d spotted an oasis.

  Lucas increased his stride, making for the oasis. He had his hands near his swords as well, because he imagined that the only source of water for miles around would attract its share of predators. The four of them trekked forward, and Lucas could feel a little hope rising in his chest at the sight of the oasis. Sophia’s vision had led them to it, and if it could do that, then was it so hard to believe that it might lead them to their parents too?