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I’m a bit busy at the moment, he replied. She could hear him counting in his head. He got to ten. I’m not dead. He seemed surprised by this.
Lily could feel sweat streaking down his back and the bubbling hysteria of a squashed laugh in his chest. He looked to his left and his right and she saw rough-looking men carrying rope on either side of him. Lily recognized them as hers by their willstones, and called each of them by name. Avery. Michelson.
We’re trying to get crossbows from the Hive’s lookout platforms so we can use the pesticide we developed, Toshi continued.
Does it work?
Don’t know yet. But the antidote does.
They’re still building my pyre, but I’ll give you what power I can, she replied. Where is the antidote?
Ivan has it, Toshi replied.
Good. Let me know if you succeed with the pesticide, Lily told him. I have an impossible task for you when you’re done with that.
Oh, good. My favorite.
Lily smiled to herself. She transmuted as much energy as she could spare and filled Toshi’s, Avery’s, and Michelson’s willstones with force. She felt them revel in it and smiled. A wave of exhaustion hit her and she staggered to the side. Juliet caught her.
“You need to sit,” Juliet said, leading Lily through the confusion and to a mossy rock.
“I just need salt,” Lily said as she sat down. She looked over Juliet’s shoulder and noticed that Alaric’s painted guard had shadowed every step Juliet took.
“Alaric really meant it when he said you were going to stay out of the fight, didn’t he?” Lily asked, gesturing to the guard.
“Yes.” Juliet rolled her eyes. “I feel so useless, and so do they,” she said, indicating her entourage.
Lily got an idea. “I need your help. I’m going to jump someone here, and he’s going to have a whole bunch of antidote for the Workers’ stings. Do you think they could help you distribute it? I’d need you to fan out and give it to as many as you can,” Lily said.
“Definitely,” Juliet said.
Lily reached out to Ivan in mindspeak and found him in his lab, frantically making more antidote and pesticide. She called his name softly.
Lily, he replied, surprised but polite as always. Forgive me. I’m out of practice being someone’s claimed.
This is going to be a little strange for you, she told him in mindspeak. But I need you to pick up as much antidote as you can carry.
Ivan did as she asked and Lily jumped him to her. He appeared before her, his arms laden with bags full of vials.
“That was one of the most singular experiences I’ve ever had,” he said with a quaver in his voice.
“Ivan, this is my sister, Juliet,” Lily said, smiling. “She’s going to help you distribute the antidote.”
Ivan nodded at Juliet politely as he handed her what he carried. He then turned back to Lily. “Send me back to my lab,” he asked. “I’ll keep making it for as long as I can.”
“Contact me when you’ve got more, and I’ll jump you back here,” Lily replied, and then sent him back to his lab.
Toshi looked up at the Warrior Sisters’ platform, still wondering how he was supposed to get up there, when he felt a rush like he’d never experienced before. His body felt light, his head clear, and every sense was sharpened.
He heard Avery and Michelson groan. They felt it, too. The three of them met one another’s eyes with small, secret smiles on their faces.
“So that’s what all the fuss is about,” Avery said, his smile breaking into a grin.
“I guess we’ll die happy, then,” Michelson added.
Toshi let out a shaky laugh and redirected their attention to the platform. It suddenly didn’t seem difficult to climb at all. The three of them clambered up the bare scaffolding with ease. They didn’t even need the rope.
The top of the platform was deserted. All the Warrior Sisters were at the perimeter. Toshi looked toward the tiny orange glow of Grace’s pyre on top of the wall. Above her the Hive was swarming. A strange, circular cloudbank was forming in the darkening sky. It started to rotate over Grace’s pyre, and then there was a pause in the mounting tension like the end of an inhale just before a scream. A single beam of light shot out of the pyre and into the sky.
