70. Escape Route

Escape Route

" I 'm sorry," I rasped out, not sure who I was apologizing to. To Yllana, who I'd never liked, and yet who'd willingly sacrificed herself to save me, because she loved Cass and he loved me? To Cass, who'd never get to hear his mother tell him that she knew she hadn't done well by him, but that she'd done her best to keep him safe? Maybe even to Pelleas, who hadn't wanted to see either of us die, or to Faery itself for the loss of someone who might have lived forever.

Gently, my hands shaking from the pain, I closed her eyes for the last time.

"Quyen? Can you hear me?"

I jerked, scrambling backwards, Cass' voice so clear it sounded like he was standing in front of me.

"Don't panic," he said, his voice calm and quiet, oh, god, was I going insane? "I'm making you hallucinate. Not easy."

There was a touch of wry humor in the words. My mouth trembled. It was so easy to believe that I was losing it; that this was a psychic break. But when he'd been cut off from power, I'd still been able to reach him, sending my thoughts to him even when he couldn't answer me. This could be the opposite, Cass using his command healing and his deep understanding of my body and my mind to communicate.

C-A-S-S-? I wrote on my palm.

Distant relief seeped into my veins. I reached for that contact, but without the power of the Court of Mercy behind me, I didn't pack enough of a punch to span the distance.

I closed my eyes, fighting back tears. S-T-A-Y-A-W-A-Y , I wrote.

"Not happening," he said.

Idiot. Too fucking loyal for his own good. I drew a frowning face on my arm and got an answering purr of amusement.

I wobbled my way to my feet. The world swam, but not as badly as I thought it should. If Cass was going to insist on flying to my rescue, the least I could do was try to get the fuck out of dodge myself.

H- O-W-? I wrote to him.

"Heard you in my dreams. Found the siphon," Cass said. The weirdness of hearing him when I knew he wasn't there didn't diminish. "Mists broke off. Then Flies. One hurt, two broke me." The words wavered, not like he was emotional but like he was struggling to keep making me hear them. It sounded like hearing someone from underwater. "Fell. Survived it, barely. But Mists is ours again? You killed him?"

I wanted to say no, but it wasn't that easy to communicate complex things through the notes. What Cass actually needed to know was that Tech was dead. I could fill him in on the details later.

Y-E-S , I told him, not looking down at Yllana.

So Sagebrush hadn't broken off. I knew it could have. Of the three duchies, even though it had been conquered the longest ago, it was the largest and still had a strong identity. Flies and Mists combined weren't the size of Sagebrush. If it was this bad with two – hell, with one – what would it have been like if all three had followed through?

I swayed on my feet but didn't fall. There was no way I was going to make it back down to the floor to pick up a dagger, but I managed to scoop up Tech's abandoned opals off the couch and stagger across the room. It was a near thing; I had to catch myself on the wall, breathing hard.

Everything hurt. I was getting used to it, bit by bit, but it sapped my strength, gnawing at me. I didn't even have the wherewithal to walk down the hallway. I had to slowly work my way along the wall, leaving bloody handprints on the pale stone.

"Don't do anything stupid," Cass told me, his voice wavering like a bad recording.

I scowled. You're one to talk , I thought back, even knowing he couldn't hear me.

Cass stopped talking to me, but the pain eased away and my muscles slowly stopped shaking. That had to be him; Cass using the blood-link to dampen the physical effects of losing part of the Court and of being off of Mercy's land. It gave me a little more stability, too. The intensity of Cass' link to the Court of Mercy meant that when he was focusing on using that magic in me, I was less like a cut-off limb and more like a cut flower put in water. It wouldn't keep me going forever, but at least I didn't feel like I was dying.

I'd expected to run into someone on my way out, but the Buzzing Palace was eerily empty. I didn't encounter a single servant or soldier. It was like Talien had emptied the place out in anticipation of events, which I supposed was probably true. Whatever had been used to cut off the Duchy of Flies from the Court of Mercy had to span the entire length of the border. That meant at least a hundred miles of array, and I imagined there needed to be people along it to activate it. This had to be an all-hands-on- deck situation.

He had to know Tech was dead. Had to know I was wandering through his palace alone. With no one else in the palace, it would be impossible to miss.

He was the King. There was a distinct possibility he could kill me with a snap of his fingers if he wanted to.

I didn't think he would, though. I was his bargaining chip. He wanted to be the King of Flies, and even if all three duchies had broken off, the Court of Mercy was still a powerful player. The Court of Flies had been conquered once. It could be conquered again. I couldn't imagine a world where Talien killed me and Cass left a single stone of the Buzzing Palace standing. He would tear it down with his bare hands if he had to.

I walked right out of the front doors of the palace, blood on my hands and opals in my pocket, and no one stopped me.

Ace was waiting for me in the moonlit night. He stood there, holding the reins of a dark horse in one hand and my rapier in the other. He met my gaze with a level expression.

There was no challenge there. No apology. He was what he was: the long enemy of my crown, a man who'd lost everything he'd ever loved and spent a thousand years with pain his constant companion, someone who'd bound himself to a path he'd come to regret. We weren't friends—but maybe we weren't enemies, either.

"Sagebrush isn't a Court," I said, my voice rasping.

A flicker of sorrow crossed his face. "No," he said softly. "It isn't."

We stood there, watching each other, acres of pain and buckets of blood between us.

"Does it hurt?" I asked at last.

He wet his lower lip. "Ceaselessly."

I knew he meant more than the pain of his ruined hip. The loss of his family, the loss of his Court, a thousand years under the heel of the man who'd conquered him… all of it had left him scarred and hurting.

He'd still chosen to pull the blow. Sagebrush was still my duchy. He was still its duke. He'd sacrificed his one chance of reclaiming his inheritance to give us a chance to survive.

My eyes drifted to the horse. Fear made sweat break out down my spine and on my palms. It was a big, unpredictable animal, but it was my best escape from the jaws of the trap I was in—from the trap meant for Cass. I didn't matter to Talien, not in the grand scheme of things. I was only the bait.

I made myself step forward and take my sword. Ace stood there in silence as I fixed it onto my belt, then handed me the reins of the horse and stepped back.

He didn't bow. He didn't get to his knees and offer me supplication or fealty.

But he stepped aside, and that was enough.

I shoved down the fear and put my foot into the stirrup. It wasn't any worse than getting into the saddle of a war-dragon. I made myself remember Cass' hands on me; Cass' hips framing mine and the confidence with which he moved. I could do this.

My focus settled onto the beating heart at the center of my world. "As long as I'm the Merciful Queen, you'll be welcome at the Clement Palace, Aeskanai Vaylir," I said, setting myself for the battle ahead, like sinking into a fighting stance. "May you find your home and hearth before you grow weary."

I didn't wait for his reply, or look to see his reaction. I fixed my eyes on the horizon, and kicked my horse into a run.

I wasn't a good rider even on dragonback, but Ace must have guessed as much, because the horse knew what it was doing. The animal loped along in a rolling gait, ignoring my attempts to kick it faster. That was fair; I probably would have fallen off. I was already struggling to stay on. My tailbone slammed into the saddle with each pace, and I couldn't seem to keep my knees closed around the beast's sides.

It didn't matter. The horse ran, and I didn't fall. We broke out of the snow-covered formal gardens and into a scraggly woodland, following the main road out of the Buzzing Palace. Guards were posted not far off the palace grounds, a whole troop of them. They were facing the border—ready for an attack.

The sound of hoofbeats caught their attention, too late. One man whipped around in time to get bowled out of the way, the horse putting its head down and running. It had to have been trained for this, I thought with distant assessment, clinging on for dear life. An arrow whizzed past. Another.

Then we were in the wood again, and the arrows ceased.

The road turned, but I didn't, aiming for the border. In the light of the moon, with the snow reflecting the light, it was bright enough to see, and I had no time to spare. The horse didn't balk, covering the snowy ground with ease as we beelined for the border. Horses move at a good clip, but it was at least three miles to the Court of Mercy. Every one of them held deadly danger. Talien could get me, or Ithronel, or those soldiers I'd blasted through. I just needed to get across the boundary—get to safety before Cass got here to take me to safety.

Honestly, it was a miracle he wasn't already assaulting the border.

Even as I thought that, I caught the sensation of Cass throwing himself skyward, my thighs tensing and the phantom sensation of beating wings thrilling down my back. I gritted my teeth and leaned forward, trying to urge the horse to run faster.

If I could just get out of the Court of Flies— If I could just make it back home—

All around me, brambles erupted from the ground.