Tainted Crown

by Jenn Vakey

  The moment he started to waiver, I pushed him back and jumped to my feet. Ignoring the way my chest was screaming at me, I flew over him and ran toward Linley just as one of the men lifted her and started carrying her into the river. She was fighting back hard, but her little hands and feet weren’t doing any real damage to the much larger man.

  “Leeya!” she screamed, pleading.

  I swung my baston out as I passed the Sentry that was just standing on the shore watching them. I didn’t stop to see if the blow had put him down before I was rushing into the water after them.

  “Grab her!” a voice called from behind me. One that actually made me pause just before I reached them and turn. Because it wasn’t a Sentry. Well, at least not one of theirs.

  Lamont was standing on the shore with his arms up. He looked like he was concentrating, but I had no idea what he was doing.

  “Grab her, Leeya,” he ordered again.

  And that was the moment that I was sure I had lost my mind.

  The water around us started to move, rising up almost like a large hand. When it reached out toward Linley and the Sentry, I snapped out of my shock and grabbed for her. Despite the strange behavior of the water, the man tried to hold on. I whacked at him awkwardly as she wrapped her arms around my neck and I tried to wrestle her out of his hold.

  The water that slammed down hit him with such force that it knocked me back. My grip tightened on Linley. She had been pulled from his grasp, but the rapid movement of the water was still jostling us.

  That was nothing compared to what it was doing to the man.

  I held my hand against Linley’s head, forcing her face to stay tucked into my neck so she couldn’t see.

  His arms were pushing out, but they had absolutely no effect on the water that was pinning him down. I stumbled back away from him. I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He was drowning. His movements slowing, becoming jerky.

  Then stilling.

  I looked back, stunned and searching for an explanation. I almost expected to see someone else with him. Zaydan, maybe. And, in a way, I was right.

  “Look out!” I cried.

  But it was too late. The Sentry who had been kicking me at the tree was back on his feet, my baston in hand. The one he had just slammed into the side of Lamont’s head.

  “That’s mine,” I hissed, pushing out of the water. I slowed just long enough to put Linley down on the shore before running ahead to meet him. He might have held his own for a short while when we collided, but I had my anger to fuel me. And this time, I didn’t walk away until I knew he wouldn’t be getting up any time soon.

  I yanked my second baston from the Sentry’s lax grip, then turned to make sure the other two wouldn’t be coming after us again. The one I had knocked out on the shore was still unconscious. As for the one in the river, he was face down and unmoving. For once, I didn’t have any regrets that someone had been killed. He’d tried to murder a child.

  Dropping down to my knees, I rolled Lamont onto his back. His head lulled. He was out cold, but at least he was breathing.

  “What are you doing out here?” I asked, moving to Linley. She had her arms wrapped around herself, shivering from the cold. I grabbed her arms and shifted her so I could make sure she was okay. Then I met her eye. I was angry, and not just with the situation. She shouldn’t have been out here like this. She knew better. “Rhydian told you not to wander.”

  There were so many things I wanted to say to her. To make her understand just how dangerous things were right now. But when her wide eyes met mine, all I could do was pull her into my arms and hold her. It was so easy to forget sometimes that she really was just a little girl. A scared child.

  “Don’t ever do that again,” I said instead. Linley clung to me, nodding against my chest.

  We stayed like that for as long as we could before I finally released her. She needed to get out of the cold, and I needed to do what I could to put an end to this invasion.

  We were too far outside of the camp for me to just leave these men here until someone else could help me move them. I had no idea if they had realized who Linley was. I couldn’t take the chance that one of them would rouse and run off.

  With no other options, I started pulling the laces from their boots. It wasn’t going to be comfortable, but I was able to tie the hands of both surviving Sentry behind their backs. Not that I really cared about their comfort levels.

  My attempts to wake Lamont were unsuccessful. Knowing I couldn’t leave him here, I shifted him to where his head was pointed toward camp. “Stay right with me,” I told Linley, waiting for her to nod as I gave her my bastons. Then I reached down and hooked my arms under his and started pulling him backwards.

  The exhaustion of everything that had happened was starting to settle in by the time I was able to get him out into the open. I still didn’t want to leave him here, but I couldn’t do it anymore. I would have to send someone else after him and hope nothing happened to him before then.

  “The wards are back up,” Linley said, holding my bastons out for me to take. “I can feel it. The magic.”

  I breathed out a sigh of relief. Finally. Looking around, I could tell that it still wasn’t over. Some people were still fighting, although not many. The wards up meant that no one else would be coming in.

  “Come on,” I said, scooping her up into my arms. “Hold on tight.”

  She did. Her little legs wrapped firmly around my waist to keep her in place, so all I needed to do was rest my forearm against her back while still holding my bastons. She was their target, and there wasn’t a damn thing they could do to take her away from me.

  We made it nearly to the edge of the first building before a Sentry took notice and ran toward us.

  “I’m not in the mood,” I snapped, pointing my baston at him. To my utter surprise, he actually faltered for a moment. I thought he might just turn around, but his hesitation only lasted for a couple seconds before he started moving again.

  Putting Linley down, I dodge the fist moving toward my face and slapped my hand to the side of his neck. He made a startled gasp and tried to pull away. That wasn’t going to happen. I was tired and angry. Ready for this to be done.

  This time I used my fist to take him down the rest of the way. My hand ached from the impact, but it felt good.

  Then Linley was in my arms again and we were moving.

  Things were beginning to settle. Sentry were either down or being restrained, and our people were starting to come out of where they had been positioned. Gathering around to see what to do now.

  “There are two Sentry tied up by the river,” I said, pointing back behind me. “The location Rhydian is building. Another is down in the water.”

  Two men I didn’t really know looked to me and nodded before moving in that direction. “Check on Lamont. He took a blow to the head,” I called after them.

  When I looked back to the group that had started to gather, I was surprised to see that they were all looking back at me. Waiting for instructions. Many of them weren’t even new to Alkwin. Ones who had been here far longer than I had. I hadn’t expected it.

  “Every building needs to be checked for bombs before they’re used again,” I told them. “Move all of our injured to the training field. We’ll set up an emergency triage there until the clinic can be cleared. Make that the priority, because we have people locked in the rooms there.”

  The group dispersed, running off in different directions. Telling others they saw what to do. They were actually listening to me. Following my directions like they had been from one of our leaders.

  Strange.

  We had nearly reached the dorm when Rhydian ran up. He looked confused, but the relief there matched my own at seeing him. There was a scrape that trickled blood just above his eyebrow, but aside from that, he looked relatively unscathed.

  “What happened?” he asked, coming to a stop right in front of us. His eyes took us in. We were both soaked. Though th
ey weren’t visible, the bruises on my ribs made me cringe a little when I walked. Especially with Linley pressed against them.

  He rested his hand on her back and searched my face for an explanation. His worry only grew when he reached up and brushed his fingers against the side of my head. I winced at the sting, not surprised when they were red when he withdrew them. “Your head…”

  “I’m okay,” I said softly. I hated that fear there. Worry I was sure came from the last major blow to the head I had taken. “I already scolded her. She did a good job holding them off until I got there. It was the third one that came out of nowhere that got me. And does someone want to tell me what’s going on with Lamont? One of the Sentry dragged her into the river and he turned into Zaydan with the water.”

  “Yeah, I’m a mermaid,” a voice said from behind me.

  I turned around to see Lamont walking up, his hand pressed to his head. At my confused look, he smiled.

  “That might be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard,” I admitted, trying not to chuckle at the mental image that gave me of him with a tail. “But how?”

  “I volunteered to take the serum,” he said as he reached us. He looked to Linley and smiled, lowering his voice. “I’m glad I did, princess.”

  Tears threatened my eyes as I put Linley down and pulled Lamont into a hug. It wasn’t even just about the serum. The only reason he could have ended up there when we needed him was if he had followed me. He had left the battle to make sure I was safe, and he had saved Linley. “Thank you,” I said. I pulled back to look at him, hoping he could see how much I meant it. “Are you okay to take her to the bomb shelter in the schoolhouse?”

  Lamont nodded and held his hand out for Linley. She didn’t even hesitate. “Just knock and announce yourself. Tell them to stay put until we’ve cleared camp.”

  “I really like that guy,” Rhydian said, stepping up beside me as we watched them walk off. “I’m glad you were right about him. He’s definitely proved himself.”

  “Yeah, well someone didn’t,” I said, turning to face him. “Someone had to be inside to give them directions and set the bomb off. We need to find out who.”

  “We don’t.” Rhydian sighed and looked around. “I believe the term used in the past was suicide bomber. Someone actually wearing a bomb and detonating it. It explains why we didn’t find anything in the bags. Things have been so hectic that we haven’t been taking the step of making them change and burn their clothes. It’s not a mistake we’ll make again.”

  The thought was sickening. It had been bad enough when I just thought someone had brought something in and placed it. Taking down our wards. The fear had been there that people could have been nearby and injured, but I never could have imagined someone would willingly do such a thing. Blow themselves up.

  Had we let this happen by not telling Orson and the others about our suspicions?

  We didn’t talk as we walked around looking at what had become of our safe haven. People were carrying unconscious Sentry, and dragging the ones that were fighting against restraints. All around us, people could be seen moving in and out of the buildings as they checked them for hidden dangers. Our injured were being taken to the training field.

  We moved in that direction. As soon as it came into view, my feet locked up under me. There were so many of them. Some were up moving around, but there were rows of people lying still. Unmoving.

  “How did we miss this?” I asked softly. “Could we have stopped it? If we’d told…”

  Rhydian sighed as I trailed off. “It was the kid from this morning. The one with the scar on his throat. I never stopped to consider that head gestures might not trip your radar.”

  My lungs refused to pull in a breath as I stood there. Nothing about him had seemed off when we were questioning him. He’d just looked damaged. Relieved to be safe.

  “This was my fault,” I thought out loud. “I felt bad for him so I didn’t push. I think part of me knew nodding and shaking his head wouldn’t tell me anything. I should have told you and insisted he be searched better since he couldn’t actually answer the questions.”

  Rhydian grabbed my shoulders and forced me to turn to face him. “This isn’t your fault,” he said firmly, lowering his head until our faces were mere inches apart. “The only person to blame here is Dex. He sent these people here. He made a Tainted kid blow himself up. There’s no telling what had to have happened to him in Eden that left them with that power over him.”

  “They were here for Linley,” I whispered. My eyes were wet as I blinked back tears. They had been so close. If I hadn’t left the training field. If I hadn’t followed that sound. “A Sentry grabbed Isley. The little girl from this morning. She looks like Myrah, Rhydian. He thought she was the princess and told her they were going to take her back to Eden.”

  Rage filled his eyes as they widened with my words. He looked toward the schoolhouse, jaw tight as he stared.

  “He’s trying to take everything from me.” His tone was sharp, cold. “You. My sister. My…”

  He swallowed but didn’t finish his thought. My heart nearly broke. I already knew what he was going to say. What Dex had actually managed to take from him. He needed to know. I just couldn’t. He was already feeling so much right now. I didn’t have it in me to make it worse.

  I looked back to the field, to the bodies out there. Others Dex had tried to take. People I knew, people I loved. Aarys was out there. So was Jaron. Then there were those covered in sheets.

  “Who did we lose?”

  “One of the guys we rescued from the facility,” he answered, following my gaze. “His name was Caine. And Mylan Hackett. I don’t know if you’ve met him. He was one of our hunting guys, so he was outside of camp a lot. Pretty much kept to himself when he was here.”

  “The others?”

  “They’re okay, Leeya. They’re just sedated,” he said. He brushed his hand against mine. It was simple, but it did give me some comfort. Things could have been a lot worse.

  “Leeya!”

  Paxton’s voice made me spin in place, fear instantly gripping me. It only lessened slightly when I saw him running toward me with Lillith in his arms.

  “What happened?” I asked, moving forward to meet them.

  Lillith surprised me with a giant smile. One I realized I had desperately needed to see. She was okay. Injured if Paxton was carrying her, but okay.

  “I remembered one of those Sentry,” she stated. “He worked in the facility.”

  Paxton gave me a look of exasperated amusement. There was also a touch of pride. “She decided to tackle him as he was rounding the corner of a building. He bucked her into it before she drained him and started kicking him in the head. It didn’t help the knee she messed up when she hit the building.”

  “You tackled a Sentry?” I asked. I wanted to laugh. It honestly wasn’t even something I could picture in my mind. Sure, I knew she would defend herself if she were attacked, but this was entirely different.

  Lillith was beaming with pride herself, then her expression shifted to confusion. “Why are you wet?”

  “The fighting got boring, so I decided to go for a swim.”

  Lillith rolled her eyes and let Paxton carry her to the training field to get looked at. Part of me felt like I should be out there too, but we had several new Healers. They could handle everything. There were other places I needed to be.

  Rhydian and I walked toward the Sentry that had been lined up in the center of camp. I was glad to see Dallin here, standing over a pair of Sentry that were on their knees. He looked a little ruffled, but otherwise okay. There was a smile there when he looked up and saw both Rhydian and me. Then a silent question. I nodded, letting him know Lillith and Paxton were also fine.

  There was purpose in my movements when I walked up and looked into the face of the first Sentry in line. He sneered. This one apparently knew who I was. Or at least that I was on the list of Eden’s most wanted. Maybe I should take pride in that. After all,
it wasn’t every day a king sent all of his people after a girl.

  "Were you aware of the plot to assassinate King Phineas and his children prior to Dex's confession?" I asked. It wasn't a question I honestly knew the answer to. We knew Dex and Adler had plotted, and we could assume the council had supported it. What we didn't know was how deep this truly went. Were the Sentry simply backing them now, or had some of them been informed all along? Had they helped?

  Dex had just given us the perfect opportunity to find out.

  "No," he answered. Truth.

  "Are you a willing participant in his current plot to kill King Phineas' children?"

  His eyes shifted quickly to Rhydian and back. "No."

  Now that one was definitely a lie. Tsk tsk.

  "Were there any other traps set? Any bombs? Anything meant to hurt us."