Hearts & Minds: Book Six in the Crown of Blood series

by White, Gwynn

  Nicholas sat on the edge of his stool with his hand covering his mouth. The lad looked like he was about to vomit. Axel’s heart melted. He walked over and wrapped his arm around Nicholas’s shoulder.

  Nicholas’s arm slid around his waist.

  “Prince Meka is in command of his own mind, Warlord. As are Kai Lin and Shale.”

  “Kai Lin and Shale,” Axel exclaimed. Both of them had been stolen from him by Felix in a raid a few years before. His shoulders sagged with relief that they had survived. “Give them both a hug from me. What about my other programmers?”

  “No change with them.”

  Axel’s joy faded. So many youngsters with their minds fried by Felix’s hateful crystals.

  “Also, we had an unexpected find, Warlord. Prince Grigor is here.”

  Nicholas’s arm squeezed his waist so hard, Axel was sure it would stop the blood flow.

  Then Nicholas yelped.

  He looked down to see his own hand crushing Nicholas’s bicep. He pulled it away. “That is…” He sucked in a breath, trying to find words to describe his astonishment, mixed with jubilation. Contacting Grigor had been just one more problem for him to solve.

  Tears glistening, Lynx clapped her hands. Clay danced on his stool. From their upturned eyes, Chad and Jerawin were chatting with their respective gods.

  His informa crackled. “Finding Prince Grigor has been a real blessing. He has located Lukan’s hiding place and found a way into the palace.”

  Axel’s hand reached up and smacked his forehead. “What did you say?”

  “He has located a bunker where Lukan and Stefan Zarot are holed up. We have every reason to believe that Lukan plans to stay there.”

  As cocky and arrogant as he was, this was more than even he could have dared hope for. “Tell him that the alliance is grateful for his efforts. Keep him safe until we get there.” Now for the critical question. “My son’s ice crystal?”

  A pause. And Axel knew exactly what was coming. He took Nicholas’s hand and held it tight, more to comfort Nicks than for his own need.

  “They can’t turn it off,” Nicholas said bleakly at the same moment that Ivarr said, “We can’t deactivate it. The best we can do is to turn off the images.”

  Just one word pulsed in Axel’s head… bluff, bluff, bluff… He threw his head back and snorted the most derisive laugh. Then he crouched down to eye level with Nicholas. “It doesn’t matter. It’s all a bluff. Lukan can no more access your ice crystal than I can fly to the moon.”

  Everyone started talking at once. The sound was so deafening that Nicholas winced and covered his ears with his hands.

  Axel shouted, “Everyone, shut up. Now.”

  Instant silence.

  Nicholas pulled his hands away from his ears. “Thank you,” he whispered. “The noise caught me off guard.” His glacial eyes brimmed with hope, mixed with fear. “What do you mean about Lukan?

  He cradled Nicholas hands in his. “Nicks, think back to everything Dmitri has told you since you arrived here.”

  Nicholas’s hair dropped over his face.

  Axel wanted to brush it away, but this wasn’t a time to be impatient. Perhaps he was finally learning some new tricks.

  Minutes ticked by.

  Finally, Nicholas tossed his hair over his shoulder. He looked distraught. Devastated. Crushed.

  Axel—everyone—gasped.

  “I’m a fool,” Nicholas croaked. “King Thorn, my Norin grandfather, is here, but I can’t see him because Lukan burned Zakar with Dragon’s Fire. Everyone is scared that he’ll burn Norin because King Thorn was a founding member of the alliance.”

  He hadn’t told Nicholas that. And one glance around the office confirmed that no else had either.

  Lynx fell down to her knees in front of Nicholas. “Dmitri told you that, didn’t he?”

  Nicholas nodded. “I’m sorry. It was so overwhelming. But I still should have picked up that he was trying to tell me that Lukan couldn’t hear me.” He buried his face in his hands. “Why would any of you believe anything I say now?”

  “Because you are the Light-Bearer.” Axel pushed every ounce of conviction he could into his voice. “Because you are the Son of Prophecy. The one chosen by Dmitri to lead us to victory.”

  Nicholas’s head lifted. “Does this mean that you trust me about the mind-controlled?”

  Just another bluff. Just another game. But this time, we’ll be in control.

  “I do. And I know exactly how to use that to our advantage.” There was much to do to prepare for the campaign he envisaged, and time was still of the essence. But first, he wanted to hear the rest of Dmitri’s book. Who knew, maybe the seer had some other hidden treasures in there he could use?

  He started to tell Clay to get on with the reading when he froze.

  Nicholas frowned. “What’s happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Far worse than that,” he croaked, cutting the link with Ivarr.

  He was about to pull up Ferret’s screen when Lynx clambered to her feet. “Talk to us.”

  “Xipal. What if the attack was nothing but a bluff? A decoy to get his people into the mine? He has enough Blades in here to cause mayhem.”

  Lynx paled.

  Clay slipped the book into his pocket and strode to the weapons rack. He helped himself to a couple of shotguns.

  That made his heart race even faster. “Arm everyone,” he said, pulling up Ferret’s screen.

  Clay tossed him a shotgun, which he slung over his shoulder, and then handed one to everyone else except Nicholas.

  “And me?” Nicholas asked.

  “You don’t need one.” Clay planted himself down next to Nicholas. “Anyone who tries to get to you will have to go through me first.”

  Reassured, Axel pulled his focus away from the exchange to call up Ferret. He changed his mind and buzzed Gallen’s informa instead.

  “Warlord.” Gallen’s soft-spoken voice. “How can I help you?”

  Axel’s neck muscles loosened slightly. “Any news on Xipal?”

  “I’m still in discussions with one of his Blades. No breakthrough yet.”

  “Is Treygan there?” Lynx asked Gallen.

  A pause. “He looked in a while ago. Didn’t stay long.”

  Lynx frowned and pulled out her informa. She flicked through the images from the surveillance cameras in Dark Cave.

  Not sure what troubled her, Axel leaned over for a closer look.

  Gallen sat across from Coyotl at a stone table in one of the interrogation caves. Coyotl’s hands were manacled to a bench carved out of the rock. Marrow leaned against the wall, looking on.

  A very ordinary interrogation.

  “Have the prisoners from the hospital wing arrived down there?” he asked Gallen. They were guarded by his true defenders. If anyone tried any mischief, his defenders would cut them down in a heartbeat.

  “Not yet, Warlord. Treygan mentioned they’d be coming. He also said that his men would take over guard duty from Ferret’s platoon.”

  “That’s what I instructed,” Lynx said softly. “Still, I’ll call him to make sure everything is in order.”

  While Lynx spoke to Treygan, Axel flicked to the cameras in Dark Cave. He flitted past Felix brooding in his chair, and Zav’s girls pacing their new home, to the cameras in the Black Hole, so named for the almost black ice-crystal walls. Beneath harsh lights, Xipal’s Blades milled. Axel did a rough head count. The numbers tallied.

  Next, he brought up the cameras in the jasper holding cell. It brimmed with boys.

  Perhaps he was being paranoid.

  Lynx slipped her informa into her pocket. “He was with Felix. He assures me that everything is under control.”

  Axel let the last of his tension bleed away. Nicholas was safe, his prisoners were restrained, and he had a plan for the attack on Cian.

  That was worth celebrating. He gestured to Clay to start reading.

  Thirty-Two

  W
hen The Game Turns Sour

  After an evening of high tension, Nicholas’s stool didn’t offer nearly enough support. He slumped off it and sat on the floor with his back against Mom’s legs. Mom dropped her hand onto his shoulder. Her fingers twirled a lock of his hair. It was soothing, even though she had a shotgun across her back.

  Axel had gone back to his desk. With his boots on his clutter, and reclined in his chair, he radiated confidence. After the near panic of the prisoner scare, it was reassuring. He could have asked Axel what he was thinking, but right now, he just wanted to absorb the hugest victory of his life.

  Axel had agreed to his and Dmitri’s plan.

  Disaster had been averted. Even better, the pages in the book Clay held flipped freely through his fingers. Nicholas prayed that they would never have to discover Dmitri’s alternative ending.

  Clay started to read. He closed his eyes to listen. “Through fields of green and skies of blue, victory lies defeated. Silent as ghosts, Death in all her cryptic beauty flies. From bowels unnumbered Wraiths as black as night discharge. Their Prey, the darkness ere transfixes. But hark! Pray, look! Sound the alarm. For it is at the flank that danger lurks.”

  Clay paused. “Does our Light-Bearer have anything to add to that?”

  He didn’t. His eyes snapped open, and a blush threatened.

  “Remember, Light-Bearer, there are two sides to this conflict. My curse applies to both.”

  That’s a warning to Lukan?

  “Aye.”

  He’s got a copy? Wouldn’t that be ironic.

  “He was offered this very one. Twice. He forfeited the chance to own it. Twice.”

  Everyone was waiting for him to speak. Only Axel smiled, a knowing one that said he understood every word of the verse. Good. Then at least he and his father were on the same page. “The threat applies to Lukan.” Without waiting for a response, he closed his eyes again to wait for Clay.

  “Good to know,” Axel said. “And Nicks, this might be a good time to tell you that we own thirty stealth airships. We’ll be using them to get to Cian.”

  Still with his eyes closed, Nicholas smiled. “I think we’re all in good hands, Lord of the Conquest.”

  Paper rustled on Axel’s desk. Moments later, something fluttered against Nicholas’s forehead. It fell into his lap. He opened his eyes. Axel had sent him an intricately folded sheet of paper. He held it up quizzically.

  “An airship,” Axel said, grinning. “Just like the ones in our hangar. I think Dmitri calls them ‘cryptic beauty.’ That’s what I’m naming mine.”

  “See,” Mom said. “All those bits of paper on his desk that he refuses to throw away. He turns them into toys.”

  “I happen to have been finished with that sheet,” Axel said haughtily. “It was headed for the trash can… which is here… somewhere.” As he leaned over to scratch through the chaos around his desk, Clay cleared his throat.

  “To the Prey was offered a peaceful day. To wit, he did rebuke, and thus his fate decreed. Yet will he die in his bed.”

  “At least it says the bastard dies,” Mom muttered.

  “There’s no hope that he will stand and fight.” Axel’s voice was muffled by the desk.

  Was he still digging for his trash can? Axel’s confidence was almost heady, like a drug that leached through the room. Everyone sat straighter on their stools.

  Clay rolled his eyes. “I’m not waiting for you, Axel.”

  Axel poked his head up. “Did I ask you to?”

  Clay shook his head almost indulgently. “Here goes... for the rest of you who are listening. But what of Sapphire and Emerald? What of Stars and Wind? Spirits, Wind, and Constellations shall move as Sapphire and Emerald conspire. Traitors! Tyrants! The dragon roars and rams its fire from the sky. And yet, like the sands of the sea, uncounted, unfathomable, and undaunted Spirits, Wind, and Constellations shall heed the battle call.”

  Jerawin beamed at Chad. “We and Thorn get a mention!”

  But Nicholas’s mind had snagged on the phrase and rains its fire from the sky.

  Dmitri, can we expect Dragon’s Fire?

  There was no answer from the seer. This was apparently one of the things he had to fathom himself. He caught Axel’s eyes. “Do we have gas masks?”

  “You picked that up, too?” Even that didn’t seem to quell the glint in Axel’s eye.

  He nodded.

  “We are old friends with Lukan’s gas,” a voice from the door said. A Norin man dressed in worn leathers watched him through sharp, intelligent eyes. The man brushed his almost-white hair, braided with beads and feathers, off his face with a scarred hand.

  Nicholas scrambled to his feet. “King Thorn?”

  A nod. “The name ‘Grandfather’ would earn you a hug.” He gestured to Mom. “Ask her. My hugs are rarely given, thus are more worth having.”

  He tried it out. “Grandfather.” It rolled weirdly off his tongue. “How about you come and sit with us?”

  “Don’t mind if I do.” Grandfather closed the door behind him and then covered the room in a couple of long strides. Then he enveloped Nicholas in a firm, but brief hug. “I’ll take your stool.” He sat with his long legs stretched out before him.

  Nicholas sat at Mom’s feet with one arm resting on Grandfather’s leather-clad leg.

  “Please tell me that I don’t have to start at the beginning?” Clay moaned.

  “Young whippersnapper,” Grandfather said. “I’ll spare you this time.”

  “Good. Because otherwise you’d have been disappointed.”

  Nicholas remembered that Clay was Mom’s brother. That made him Grandfather’s son. It explained the banter.

  Sounding a bit hoarse, Clay read, “An Emerald, young but bold, who wears a deceiver’s crown, the dragon’s roar will silence.” He looked up. “Ideas?”

  “The only emerald I know is Stefan,” Axel said. “But he’s not a young man.”

  “Meka?” Mom suggested.

  “Meka has a diamond. We’ve already discussed that” Clay said, a little bit impatiently.

  “I’m well aware that he wears a diamond,” Mom snapped. “Just as I’m well aware that this poem is—what’s the word? Allegorical? It’s a metaphor. We have to look beyond the meaning.”

  “Lynx is right. It’s Meka.” Axel sounded very certain. “We all know that he’s a chameleon. He shifts for his audience. But his heart is in the right place. How he silences the dragon?” He threw up his hands. “I guess only time will tell.”

  Something in Axel’s tone canted Nicholas’s head. Again, he sounded just a little too smug, as if he’d already worked everything out.

  He probably had.

  Nicholas let his head fall back on Mom’s legs. Axel would tell him everything when the time was right.

  Clay smiled. “I think we’re right about Meka. Look.” He held up the book showing a picture of a boy who, at a stretch, could have looked like Meka. Or a young Uncle Tao. He dropped the book and read. “The best blood of Norin will yet be spent. Of Chenaya and of Treven, too. There is no hand that this can stay. But, ere last, the Norin flag again will fly.”

  Nicholas shivered. He wrapped his arms around Mom and Grandfather’s legs, wishing that Axel was close enough to be included in this hug. And Anna. And Farith. Meka and Grigor, too.

  “A lark. A twist. A game of chance. Let the tiles fall. Another era ushers in. But mark! No more the crown of blood be worn. Adieu, and let the living and the dead recline.”

  Clay closed the book.

  Axel jumped to his feet. “Set your watches, folks. This time tomorrow, we fly to Cian.”

  He strode to the door and pulled it open.

  Treygan flopped into the office. His throat had been cut.

  Thirty-Three

  Assault

  In a heartbeat, Axel’s shotgun shifted from his back to his hands. Behind him, Lynx and Clay shuffled.

  His desk toppled.

  Nicholas dove behind it. Lynx and Clay joi
ned him.

  Shotguns in hand, Chad and Jerawin eased next Axel. Thorn pulled two machetes off his back and filled the gap on his right hand.

  “Anyone on duty in the other offices?” Chad whispered.

  Axel shook his head. “Not this late.”

  He was about to step out into the cavern outside his office when Jerawin slipped past him. “Stay there,” Jerawin whispered. “You’re all needed in Cian. I’m not.”

  “Don’t—”

  Jerawin blasted a round down the tunnel leading to the offices.

  People screamed.

  Axel’s heart sank.

  The voices sounded painfully young. No alliance children ever came to this part of the mine. Someone had betrayed them, and Xipal’s teenagers had gotten free.

  Jerawin opened fire again. That left him with just two cartridges.

  Axel loped across his office to his weapons rack and scooped up a handful of incendiary balls. He shoved some into his pockets and then tossed the rest to Lynx and Clay. He didn’t need to tell them to protect Nicholas with their lives. They’d do it anyway. Next, he scooped up three bandoliers of ammunition. “Lynx, get onto your informa. Find—”

  “Done. Gallen and Marrow are dead. Ferret’s platoon is fighting us in Main Tunnel.”

  She sounded as bleak as he felt.

  Mouth bitter with betrayal, Axel swore. His defenders had been at a party. He purposely hadn’t used them for Xipal’s attack. Few, if any would have had weapons with them. He was potentially looking at a blood bath.

  “Come on,” he snapped at Chad and Thorn. “Let’s go.”

  A knife thrown from the tunnel thudded into Jerawin’s chest. He looked down at the blood spreading across his robe in surprise. His knees crumpled, and he fell face first onto the ground.

  Screaming his rage, Axel triggered an incendiary ball and tossed it down the tunnel.

  It exploded with a whoosh.

  A human torch staggered out into the cavern.

  Coyotl. If anyone else had been confined in that tunnel, they would also have been ignited. Served the bastards right.