sp; CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
KAZI
The world floated in a blur around me, but I heard the sounds, the creak of the cart door opening, the order of the guard for me to come forward, the thunk as I stumbled against the floor, and then hands clamped around my arms. Twist, lift, kick. My mind was willing, but my arms and legs wouldn’t listen.
And then I heard Montegue’s voice again, felt his warmth as he pressed close to me. “Did you hear that? The crowd? They love me. I am not a nothing king. I am a great one.”
My lips moved, but I wasn’t sure if I said the words aloud. Fool. You’re a fool, Montegue. Truly great leaders don’t have to chase love. It finds them.
He clutched my face in one hand, his fingers digging in, and jerked my head up so I had to look at him. His dark eyes swam in and out of view. His lips were a blurred, angry smear in front of me.
“I lied to you,” he whispered. “I did kill my father. And it was the most satisfying thing I have ever done—until now. Watching you hang today will eclipse that.”
He had heard my words. I had managed that much. It was perhaps my last small victory. I smiled.
He pushed me away, and I felt myself being guided forward once again.
“Stand here,” a guard whispered. Stand. The medicine was wearing off. I already felt the fiery pain crawling up my scalp, my knees burning, crumbling, and then a sound split the world in half. My head tilted back and I saw a winged shadow swoop down from above, and I guessed that Death’s angel had finally come to get me.
Make it one more day, Kazi.
I tried to resist, but I was too weak and his grip was too strong.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
JASE
The whir of the rope in the pulley buzzed in my ears. My cloak, my hair, everything flew upward as I flew down. The skywalk shook when I landed, and Kazi fell into my arms. “Hold on to me, Kazi! Put your foot in the loop.”
But she didn’t. Her legs didn’t move, and her arms hung limp at her sides. I wrapped my arms around her waist, squeezing her to me, and sent a piercing whistle through my teeth—the signal that I had her and to bring me up. I wasn’t there more than three seconds, a shadow, a trick of the eyes, and then we were flying upward again, and halfway up, the ballast that Gunner and Paxton had shoved from the tembris passed by us—three bound soldiers’ bodies that more than countered our weight.
“Take her!” I said when we reached the top, and Paxton and Gunner hoisted Kazi over onto the limb, then pulled me over too. “They must have drugged her so she wouldn’t struggle,” I said. “I’ll have to carry her.”
The tembris limbs were wide enough for us to run mostly unseen from below, but with Kazi in my arms, I couldn’t jump the gaps and had to carefully navigate them instead. It slowed us all down, sometimes having to hand her over between Gunner, Titus, and myself to cross safely from one limb to the next. Order was already returning below, and a carefully orchestrated theater of citizens directed by Aleski shifted, moved, and absorbed Mason, Synové, Aram, Samuel, and Hawthorne so they would become lost in the crowds. Appropriate horrified screams were offered up for soldiers who had fallen from rooftops, so the king and Banques would know that the citizens were taken as much by surprise as they were. By now the dead ballast we had thrown over was leading some eyes up into the canopy.
“Kazi,” I whispered as we ran. “Kazi!” Her lids were heavy trying to focus on me. I pressed my lips to her cheek. Her skin was burning up. And then she began shaking. What was wrong? This wasn’t just a drug to sedate her.
Up ahead, we met up with Priya, Wren, and Titus. “How many did you shoot down?” Gunner asked.
“Three.”
“Three.”
“Four. But one of them fell without his launcher, the devil.”
And then panic flooded Wren’s face when she spotted me just behind Gunner and Paxton. She leapt between limbs until she was at my side. “What’s wrong?” she asked, her fingers searching for wounds. “Kazi,” she hissed. Kazi’s head barely turned.
“I don’t know,” I answered, “but we have to keep going. We need to get to the horses before they do.”
* * *
I held Kazi tight in my arms as they lowered us to the base of Kalliope. Imara was waiting with the horses. One had been meant for Kazi, but now she would have to ride with me. Titus and Aram had staked out a ruin for us to hide in until nightfall.
I laid Kazi on the ground to do a more careful search for wounds.
“You don’t have time!” Imara warned.
But Wren and I pulled away her shirt, and that’s when I saw it—fine, spidering lines crawling up her chest like lace. Poison?