Ozland

by Wendy Spinale

  “Worse than death?” Lily asks.

  “Yes, much worse!” I say.

  “What’s worse than dying?” Alyssa says.

  Worry lines form on Hunter’s forehead. His expression says it all. The horror of the reality he’s painted feels like a punch in my gut.

  “Living,” I say, my tone filled with fear.

  No one says anything but instead give one another confused glances.

  “Living as something the Bloodred Queen has concocted,” I say. “You’ve seen what she’s done to the animals around here. The gryphons, the Bandersnatches, and who knows what else lies across the country. What’s to stop her from doing the same to humans? You saw how the original cure affected Katt in Umberland. She was becoming more reptilian by the day. We know Katt sent that cure to the Bloodred Queen. She can use it to buy the loyalty of other nations.”

  “If the virus hasn’t already spread that far,” Hunter says, “then the threat of it will buy their compliance.”

  “And if it hasn’t,” I say, “if the virus has only spread throughout Europe, a new concoction could be one that ultimately wipes out entire continents. Whoever sent that vial to the biological lab in London knew the devastation it would cause. They were England’s ally and understood that in the Bloodred Queen’s hands it could devastate nations. We have to find the virus and destroy it for good.”

  “Of course they were allegiant,” Jack shouts. “I’ve told you already that it was my father who sent the virus! The very same king you intend to rescue.”

  Pete pulls a dagger from his holster and flings it in one fluid motion. The blade embeds itself into the wood framework just above Jack’s head. “The word allegiant should never come from your lying mouth,” he says.

  “You might not like me or even trust me, but you need me if you have any hope of defeating the queen. You’ll never get close enough to her to kill her, not with the army she has protecting her,” Jack says. “If you won’t let me go to rescue my father, take me with you to kill the Bloodred Queen.”

  Ignoring them both, Hunter continues. “Doc, you need to locate and dispose of all evidence of the Horologia virus permanently. Can you do that?”

  “Can’t Pete or I take that task?” Pickpocket asks. “We can find the vials and whatever else is left, and smash them or bury them or toss them in the river.”

  “And contaminate the water, soil, or air?” I ask.

  Pickpocket looks down.

  Hunter shakes his head. “Your skills are needed on the front line. After what we’ve encountered in the Labyrinth, I assure you, it won’t be just a handful of human soldiers you’ll face. This won’t be an easy battle.”

  Emery stands and walks toward me. She takes both of my hands in hers in a motherly fashion. A lump grows in my throat. Again, I’m reminded how long it’s been since my own mother looked at me this way. With hope and expectations that are far above what a boy my age should ever have to fulfill. While I attended the finest university in England at age twelve, the neighborhood children played marbles. But that was then. These days the one use for a marble is for creating fire on a sunny day. Only with the clear ones, anyway.

  “The Bloodred Queen will find a way to alter the virus, if she hasn’t already, only this time she’ll raise the stakes. We are counting on you to find and destroy the Horologia virus,” she says.

  The magnitude of the horrifying possibilities settles over me like ice. The Horologia wiped out nearly every adult in London. Even when I attempted to find an antidote, it came with its own complications. All those years of studying, of sleepless nights with my nose in a textbook, will be a waste.

  This is a nightmare we could relive again. This war is far from over.

  Unless the source of the virus is under our control, we—no, the world—will always be hostage to the Bloodred Queen.

  Either unable or unwilling to process the potential future with the virus still in existence, I nod and turn away, heading toward my sleeping quarters.

  Lily catches up and, without saying a word, takes my hand. As her fingers hold mine, I glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She gives me a small smile, and I squeeze her hand in return. I feel the noose around my heart loosen just a little.

  We cross the wooden footbridge and turn right, toward the rickety shelters, when my lab coat is jerked, nearly knocking me off my feet. Lily stumbles with me, but I release her hand. Jack grips my lapels, heaving me up against the bars of his prison.

  “Let him go,” Lily says, drawing her sword.

  “Take me with you,” he says desperately. “I grew up in that castle. There are secrets no one else knows. Hidden corridors. I know every passage, hall, secret doorway in that castle. If you ever want to take down the Bloodred Queen, you need me.”

  “Why should I ever trust you?” I ask through clenched teeth.

  “Last warning,” Lily says, her blade pointed at Jack’s heart.

  Desperately, Jack grips my coat even tighter. “You’ll never take her down without knowledge of Lohr Castle. You—”

  The hilt of a dagger smacks Jack’s knuckles hard. He yelps and releases his grip from me, cursing.

  Pete snatches the dagger still stuck in the wood above the bars of Jack’s cell and sheathes it. He tosses his second dagger into the air, catches it by the handle, and points it at the former Marauder, former Lost Kid, and now prisoner for treason.

  “You’re absolutely right, Jack. We do need you,” Pete snarls. “For bait!”

  Jack retreats into a dark corner within his prison, nursing his wounded hand.

  “You may have very little respect for me—” he says.

  “No. I have absolutely no respect for you,” Pete interrupts.

  Scowling, Jack continues. “One day, Pete, you will know I’ve been a Lost Kid all along. I promise you that day is coming.”

  “Only if you live that long,” Pete says, running his knife over a steel bar, sending sparks into the darkness.

  Jack’s voice lowers discreetly. “You need to get close to the Bloodred Queen. I’m her stepson …”

  “The stepson she wanted dead,” I say. “The child she sent into the Labyrinth to be killed, and judging by your story, it sounds like Hook tried to fulfill that wish.”

  “My chances of getting close to her are far better than any of yours, especially because I’m her stepson,” Jack argues.

  “How daft do you think we are?” Pete asks.

  “Seriously! I swear that if you take me with you, I will help you kill the Bloodred Queen,” Jack says.

  I rub a hand across my face, unable to believe that we’re having this conversation. “I’m out of here,” I say, tired of the negative air that has grown in our small, frustrated community.

  I leave Pete and Jack to their squabble and return to my hut, hoping to shake the night’s conversation and the uncertain future.

  “Doc, wait!” Lily says, following close behind. Her sweet scent of night jasmine permeates the air around me.

  I throw open the curtain of the rustic hut and storm inside. Running my fingers through my hair, I pace, trying to shake the sense of doubt and helplessness.

  Lily places a hand on my arm.

  “Hey,” she says, her dark eyes fixed on mine. “What was that all about?”

  “What?” I say, feeling stupid because I know exactly what she’s talking about.

  “That back there,” she says with a wave of her hand. “The storming off, the fury with Jack.”

  “I’m not allowed to be angry?” I ask defensively.

  Lily shakes her head, places her hand on my cheek, and peers at me with worried eyes. “You’re absolutely allowed to be angry, but the ugly looks, the stomping off, the way you spoke to Jack back there—it isn’t like you.”

  Her words are like rain on the raging inferno that has been growing within me since my return to the village. My anger dissipates at her touch. I kiss her hand, grateful for the calm she brings.

  “I don’t know.
I feel useless,” I admit. “As it is, I’m not a fighter. Between the two missions, the one to save the king and the other to dethrone the queen, I have absolutely nothing to offer. The only thing I’m good at is medicine, and even in that area I continue to screw up time and time again. Pete’s right not to want me to come.”

  With raised brows, Lily takes my chin in her hand. “Doc, you listen to me. You are a brilliant, sweet man. You care for others so much that you’ll do just about anything to save anyone, even that bloke, Jack. You could’ve left him in that coma, which frankly we’d all have preferred, but instead you did what was right. You gave him a second chance.”

  I drop my gaze to the floor.

  “Look at me,” she demands. “All that stuff that Pete said, his continual criticism of you—it’s not about you. It never has been. Yes, he projects his anger on you for all the ways he thinks you failed, but the truth is, he’s angry with how he’s failed those he’s loved.”

  “But at the end of the day, it was my inability to keep them alive that matters,” I say, the lump in my throat aching. “And now, with Bella in the state that she’s in, I’m questioning my own competence as a doctor.”

  “Pete respects you, but he just doesn’t know how to show it,” she says.

  “Yeah, right,” I retort. “Respect is the last thing he has for me.”

  Lily smiles. “You don’t see it, do you? Think about it—if someone you loved was dying, you’d take them to the person you trusted most.”

  She’s right. If Lily’s life were on the line, if she were taken prisoner—there’s no one else I’d want to rescue her other than Pete.

  I wrap an arm around her waist. Lacing my fingers in her hair, I pull her close.

  “Do you know how much you mean to me?” I ask.

  Blushing, she shakes her head.

  “I would die a hundred times if that’s what it would take to convince you that you are a miracle. Not only in my life, but everyone else’s out there,” I say, nodding toward the entrance. “To live one day without you would be as if the sun burned out. I love you, Lily.”

  “I love you, too, Doc,” she says.

  Pressing my lips against hers, I pull her closer and savor the comfort her arms bring.

  Like prey in the open wild, the people of Evergreen meander to their little burrows built high in the trees. Each one retiring for the night into their grass and wooden huts. They suspect nothing, or at least they haven’t indicated they do. For the last few days, I’ve perched in the shadows, hidden in the leaves to gather as much information as possible. Intel for the Bloodred Queen. She seeks one thing: Doc. Even with the poison apple and the stolen research notes, her apothecarists haven’t created a proper cure.

  The queen doesn’t know I’ve found them. It took a long time to locate Doc and his band of misfits, even with Hook’s detailed description of where he last saw Duchess Alyssa in the Labyrinth. The maze was sprawling, with deadly creatures, and once in ruins, it wasn’t any easier to find them. Actually, it looks a lot like how the Bloodred Queen left my country. Of course, I may have helped with that in my hunt for the Professor’s and Doc’s research. I was desperate not to die—I watched the kids in Maddox’s garden, night after night, finding relief in death. The bodies piled up at morning light. I refused to be like those fools. And the Bloodred Queen was the best option not only to secure my own survival, but to ultimately overthrow—all in due time. After all, if her apothecarists developed the virus, then surely they could find the cure. Or at least I thought so. With the research journals in my hands, she assured me safe rescue and sanctuary.

  What she doesn’t know is that I plan to take her crown.

  She’s still too strong for me to defeat—at least on my own. Doc’s cure saved us both, but cursed us at the same time. She’s grown even more powerful as the mutated antidote has taken effect. We live, but no longer just as humans, taking on the strength and armor of something beastly. Something only Doc seems to be able to reverse.

  In the end, only one of us will receive the real antidote, and it won’t be the Bloodred Queen.

  For now, I wait for the right time to collect my prisoner. As the former Lost Kids blather on about what is known and what is not, I gain the upper hand. Until then, I continue to bring the queen minimal information to earn her trust.

  Fortunately, it appears that I’m not the only one who yearns for the death of the Bloodred Queen. With war plans in the making, I wonder if I should let them take down the queen. I’ve yet to come up with a plan myself. She is protected by an army made of steel and flesh, so I’ll never kill her on my own.

  Pete and his crew, however, might be able to accomplish the task. Soon enough she’ll have a war on her own soil that she will have to fight. While the Bloodred Queen may have the numbers and strength, Alyssa’s group possess skills far superior. Stealth, agility, intellect. It may take only one of them, Pete perhaps, to bring the Bloodred Queen’s reign to its knees. If I allow it, the Bloodred Queen will die without a bit of blood on my hands.

  And then what? The German people more than likely won’t allow an outsider to rule their land. Not unless I become the bride of their king.

  King Osbourne may very well be alive, as the people of Evergreen believe, but that piece of information will remain a secret from the queen unless it serves my purpose. Right now, the easiest and most sensible groom would be his son. Jack prattles on about his loyalty to Pete and the Lost Kids, but it is no secret that his allegiance to anyone is wavering.

  According to Hunter, the assault on Lohr is only days away, as is the rescue of King Osbourne. If they find him, my chances for the crown become nearly impossible.

  So King Osbourne must not be allowed to return to his throne. It’s time for me to take his fate into my hands. He must either die or be revealed as a traitor so none will accept his reign. Which fate he meets remains to be seen.

  As the final residents of this village bid one another good night, I turn to the Haploraffen next to me. “Back to Lohr,” I say. I feel the wires in the circlet crown I’m wearing heat up, casting a golden glow on the creature’s primate face. The circlet on my head links me to the creature, part mechanical, part monkey. With a nod, it flaps its metal wings once and turns. I grab the reins and climb onto the steel-and-leather saddle.

  I’m about to make the command for the army of winged monkeys to return to the castle when an argument draws my attention.

  Jack’s face presses up against the cell bars, his coat tight in Pete’s grip.

  “You’ve been spouting off at the mouth for months about knowing things that no one else knows,” Pete says through clenched teeth. “I’m not inclined to believe you, but my curiosity is piqued. Start talking.”

  “Oh, I have plenty I could share, but I need something from you in return,” Jack says.

  “You’re not exactly in a position to be making negotiations,” Pete says, pulling him even harder into the bars.

  Jack shoves Pete and takes a few steps back. Throwing his hands up, he smiles. “Then I guess I’ve got nothing to share.”

  He returns into the dark corners of his prison.

  Even from where I hide, I can see fury etched in the lines of Pete’s face. He slams his hand hard against the bars. They rattle loudly, a sharp clang in comparison to their whispers.

  “Fine! But this stays between you and me. Got it?” Pete says.

  Jack reappears in the dim torchlight and rests his arms against the horizontal bar on the cell door. “Absolutely.”

  They continue in bantered conversation, but their hushed voices are beyond what I can hear. I tap my bottom lip with the claw of my index finger. “Interesting. Very interesting,” I mumble to myself.

  Perhaps I’m being too hasty to leave the Bloodred Queen’s fate to the Lost Kids. Whatever Jack is hiding could be advantageous.

  I turn to the lead Haploraffen, Kommandt. “Change of plans. Take them captive along with the others from England.”

&nbs
p; “And the rest of the village?” Kommandt asks.

  “Burn it to the ground,” I say.

  Sleep evades me. As I consider the evening’s discussion, fear prickles the hair on my skin. Daily, the Guard encounter the fierce mutated creatures that once called the Labyrinth their home. Now they roam free, taking any unsuspecting victim. Often, their meal is the forest wildlife. Other times, it’s one of our own.

  With the enormous appetites they have, game has become scarce. We might have survived the Horologia virus and all that’s come with it, but it may be for naught. Most of the villagers are on the mend, as slow as it is, but food remains our biggest worry.

  The reality is, as much as I hate to accept it, we either risk the dangers of escaping what remains of the Labyrinth, or stay here and starve to death. Or be eaten. None of the options are particularly pleasant. After the bloody battles in both Everland and Umberland, the idea of joining the assault team in Lohr is unsettling, but no more unsettling than staying here.

  After staring at the thatched roof of my shelter for what seems like hours, I slip from beneath the ragged blankets and pull them up over Lily. As always, she is restless in her sleep. Most nights she is vexed with nightmares, causing her to cry out. It is the only time I’ve witnessed her fears and sorrows. During waking hours, she wears a steady, unmoving expression, masking what I know lies beneath the surface. She’s guarded with her nightly terrors, refusing to admit that the demons of her past still haunt her. I worry for the toll it must take on her. One can only bottle up their insecurities for so long.

  Pulling on my stained lab coat, I retreat back out into the treetop village. Cloaked by the shadows of the night, I creep across the rope bridge, careful not to step on the few weathered boards that I know creak with every footstep.