“No more than a dozen,” Eye growled from the corner. “Maybe not that many. The monarchs killed ten that I counted, and Kellin’s bunch weren’t even thirty to start with.”
“Are you sure?”
He shrugged. “Stuck in that place for what felt like forever, there was nothing to do but count. When I wasn’t counting night soldiers, I was counting drips from the ceiling or the blocks in my cell floor.”
There had been forty-three blocks in the floor of mine.
“Even a dozen is too many when they can shock you unconscious by touching or kill you by hugging,” I said. “And there’s Kellin to command those who are left.”
Woody scrawled KELLIN on his pad and held it up for Claudia. Being blind, he held it up in the wrong place. I moved it so she could see.
“KELLIN! YES!” Claudia shouted. “AND DON’T FORGET HANA!”
No, it wouldn’t do to forget Hana, who would be out for blood.
Woody sighed and rubbed his face. “Kellin was the leader of the King’s Guard when my brother reigned. Smart and brave. Back then I would have added loyal. I would never have believed he’d turn against Jan. But then, I never would have believed Elden would do what he did.”
He couldn’t see Leah turn away from him as she had from me when I looked up at her to say hello. But I saw.
“Here’s how I see it,” I said. “We have to stop the Flight Killer before he does something else. Something worse. I mean, look what he’s done already. He’s turned the whole goddam kingdom gray. He’s turned the people gray, except for a few who are…” I almost said by-blows, a term I’d heard my dad use about Scooter MacLean, a grammar school classmate of mine with unfortunate jug-ears. “Who are whole,” I finished lamely. “And he’s been rooting those out. I just don’t know how to deal with him. Or when.”
“When’s easy,” Iota said. He had finished feeding Falada and was tucking the depleted sack into one of the panniers strapped across her flanks. “Daylight. The blue boys are weaker then, and they can’t go out in the sun at all. Or poof. Nothing but bones.” He looked at Woody. “At least that’s what I heard.”
“I’ve heard that, too,” Woody said, “but I wouldn’t trust it for a fact.” He was scribbling on his pad and held it up to Claudia. I couldn’t see what he had written there, but she shook her head and smiled.
“NAH, NAH, HE CAN’T DO MORE THAN HE HAS ALREADY WITHOUT GOING TO IT, AND HE CAN’T DO THAT UNTIL THE MOONS KISS! THAT’S THE LEGEND, AND I BELIEVE IT’S TRUE LORE!”
Leah looked up, and for the first time she seemed engaged. She turned to Falada. When the horse began to speak, Iota’s reaction was amusing, to say the least.
“My mistress saw them tonight when the clouds broke for a few moments, and Bella has almost caught up to Arabella!”
Woody reached out to Claudia and tapped her arm to get her attention. He pointed in Leah’s direction, pointed skyward, and moved two fingers in front of Claudia’s face, one barely trailing the other. Claudia’s eyes widened and her smile disappeared. She looked at Leah. “YOU SAW THIS?”
Leah nodded.
Claudia turned back to me with an expression on her face I hadn’t seen before. It was fear. “THEN IT MUST BE TOMORROW! YOU MUST STOP HIM, SHARLIE! YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN! HE MUST BE KILLED BEFORE ARABELLA KISSES HER SISTER! HE CAN’T BE ALLOWED TO OPEN THE DARK WELL AGAIN!”
Leah jumped to her feet, grabbed Falada’s bridle, and started to lead her toward the door. Radar raised her head and whined. Franna followed Leah and touched her shoulder. Leah shrugged her away. I got up.
“LEAVE HER, LEAVE HER, HER HEART IS BROKEN AND NEEDS TIME TO MEND,” Claudia said. She no doubt meant well, but her blaring voice robbed her words of any intended compassion. Leah shrank from them.
I went to her anyway. “Leah, please. Come ba—”
She pushed me so hard I almost fell down.
And left, leading the horse that was her voice.
3
There was no need for her to open the door, because with no wolves in the vicinity there was no reason to pull it closed. The crowd of grayfolk was still growing, and when Leah emerged, leading her horse, those standing fell to their knees. They all put their palms to their foreheads. There was no doubt in my mind that if ordered by her or the other two surviving royals to re-take the city, or at least try, they would do it.
It was my coming that had led to this. Any effort to deny it broke down when met by one simple fact: they really thought I was the prince that had been promised. I didn’t know about Leah, but Woody and Claudia believed the same thing. That made the crowd of would-be rebels, Dora among them, my responsibility.