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The Hive was unleashed. They streamed over the wall and flew down upon the waiting army. A moment later, Toshi felt the ground shake and another beam of light pierced the sky from the direction of the battlefield. The Salem Witch answered Grace’s call to battle.
“Here,” called Michelson. Toshi went to him and saw crossbows hung neatly inside a wall box.
Toshi took down one of the crossbows, fitted a dart into the firing mechanism, and aimed over the side of the platform. Down below at street level, a swirling mass of Workers was flying past. Toshi shot the dart into the swarm. He heard a pop as the dart exploded in its center. Nothing happened.
“Damn,” Avery said.
“What do we do now?” Michelson asked. “Do we go back to the lab?”
“Wait,” Toshi said, holding up a hand.
The cloud of Workers seemed to be thinning, and a trail of dark specks was starting the litter the ground. Then all at once, the swarm fell out of the air, dead.
Toshi reached out to both Ivan and Lily. It worked. The pesticide worked, he told them.
Try to kill as many swarms inside the city as you can, Lily said. The more you kill there, the less will be able to join the Warrior Sisters on the battlefield.
We’re on it, Toshi replied.
The raiding party stripped the box bare, tied the crossbows across their backs to climb down, and left them at the base of the tower before moving onto the next. Toshi passed Ivan an image of what they were doing so Ivan could send other rebels to gather the crossbows and start exterminating the Workers.
Toshi contacted Lily again. What was that impossible task you were going to give me?
I want you to go through the back door of the Hive and kill the Queen.
Ah. Toshi’s insides liquefied.
You should be able to get to her easily. The Warrior Sisters are aboveground, fighting, Lily said, trying to give him confidence. She sent him images of how to get to the Queen.
“You two keep at this,” Toshi said aloud as his team approached the next platform. “I’m going to need all the rope.”
“Where are you going?” Michelson asked, taking the coil off his shoulders and passing it to Toshi.
Toshi didn’t dare say it, he merely gestured to city center. “Our witch has given me an impossible task,” he said.
He kept one crossbow for himself and took as many darts as he could. He left them to it and ran toward the Hearing Hall, pausing every chance he got to shoot down swarms of Workers.
The first wave of Warrior Sisters started flowing over the wall and raining down on Lillian’s soldiers.
The sky over the battelfield darkened as the wheel of Lillian’s storm clouds began to rotate above her. A ray of blindingly bright light shot up from Lillian’s pyre into the center of the wheel, knocking everyone back with a p
ulse of energy.
Lily locked the iron-and-diamond cuffs around her wrists as she ran to her pyre. Rowan ran beside her, pulling her crown out of his satchel. When they got to the base he carried her up the uneven mountain of cut logs to the stake waiting at the top. Lily had never seen a pyre this high before.
“I have an ax crew stationed below with Breakfast to keep the fire well fed,” Rowan told her hastily. He started threading the chains on the stake through the rings on Lily’s cuffs. “Tristan will keep a squadron of raptors over you to repel any air attacks by the Warrior Sisters. Una will lead the Pride and the ranch hands on the left flank. Alaric, the Outlanders, and the Pack will be to the right. I’m leading the insect Woven straight up the middle.”
“How will you lead them?” Lily asked. “The insects don’t understand language.”
“I’ve become stone kin with all the queens,” Rowan said with a troubled look on his face. Lily stared at him, knowing how much it cost him to do that. “The point is,” he continued, “they’d have to get through our entire army before they could get to you—”
Lily put her hands over Rowan’s and made him look up at her. “I love you.”
“And I love you.” He placed the blackened crown on her head and kissed her hard, crushing her against him. “I’ll be with you,” he whispered, and then turned and climbed down.
Lily looked up. She could hear her chains, her breath, and the wind. High above her the tops of the redwoods rubbed up against the storm-dark sky. Thirty feet below, her army went about their frenetic last-minute arrangements for battle. Weapons were checked. Ranks were ordered. Strategies were concocted. Former enemies became stone kin to coordinate in battle. Only Lily stood alone. Waiting to burn.
She smelled it first—just a hint of smoke teased out from the pulpy smell of the wood, and then suddenly there was so much smoke she was choking on it. Her eyes streamed as she coughed and sputtered, her body bent double as she hung in her chains. The heat rose, and Lily knew three full seconds of terror.
