They hurried past the towering Admiral’s statue, where Harkan stood waiting. He lit a bombardier and hurled it past them toward the approaching adatrox. An explosion, screams of shock and pain—then a ringing silence.
The market grounds lay in ruins. The bombardier had bought them a moment or two.
A small weight slammed into Eliana, throwing its arms around her.
Remy.
She kissed the top of his head. “It’s all right. I’ve got you. I’m here.”
Harkan stood behind him, looking past Eliana. More adatrox were coming, pouring down from the city’s upper levels. He threw back his hood, loaded the revolver Simon had given him.
“El, take him and go,” he told her.
Eliana stared at him, Remy in hand. “You’re coming with us.”
“Simon can’t spare more grenades. I can hold them off.”
“Are you mad? You can’t shoot worth a damn.” She grabbed Harkan’s arm. “And there are too many of them. They’ll kill you!”
Simon yanked Remy from her grip, roared, “Eliana, now!” and hurried across the bridge, sheltering Navi and Remy against his body. The two halves of the bridge, lowered to bring in supplies for the fete, had begun to raise. Remy looked back frantically for Eliana, but arrow fire from the city’s inner wall rained down upon them, and soon he was lost to the night.
Eliana grabbed Harkan’s hand. “Come on—”
But he stood firm, pulled her in to his body for a clumsy, hard kiss.
“I’ve always loved you,” he whispered against her mouth.
“You tell me this now?” She wanted to smack him. A sob burst out as shaky laughter. “You idiot—”
A nearby explosion nearly threw them off their feet. The adatrox had detonated one of their own bombardiers. Behind Eliana, the bridge shifted and groaned.
“I can handle this.” Harkan shoved her toward the bridge. “Go!”
She stared at him for a helpless, frozen moment, drinking up the sight of him—the dark fall of his hair, the beautiful square line of his jaw. Her throat filled up with all the things she had never said, and all the things she had.
None of it was enough.
She turned and fled across the bridge, not looking back even as she heard Harkan open fire. He cried out, and her chest seized around her heart. She ran blindly across the shaking bridge, jumped across the gap at the top, and stumbled down the other side. She joined Simon as he fought through the tower guards, Navi and Remy close behind them.
With each step she took, each swipe of her blades, grief struck her. Tears and smoke left her half blind.
First her mother, now Harkan. Her best friend. Her light on dark days.
She had left him. She had left him.
She listened for his gunfire and heard only chaos. The adatrox archers on the city wall shouted commands to one another. Simon hissed at her to move faster. He grabbed a bombardier from a fallen adatrox, triggered it, threw it back at the guard tower.
The explosion threw them off their feet. Eliana’s chin hit the ground. A shock of pain jolted her skull. But they had destroyed the tower, collapsed the bridge. It would give them a few minutes. She pushed herself up.
Past the bridge, they hurried into one of the scattershot encampments that had formed outside the city—refugees fleeing the dangerous countryside, hoping for a chance to get in the city. The camps were pandemonium. People bolted away from the city walls, trampling the slow and sick. Bleating animals ran crazed from their pens.
Still holding Remy close by the arm, Simon tossed Navi his adatrox cloak. She caught it and drew the hood up over her face. Two soldiers in threadbare cloaks found them with a pair of saddled horses. Others raced past them toward the city wall. Red Crown rebels, Eliana assumed, all ready to die to protect them.
Good, she thought. Their deaths will buy us time.
“Take the boy,” Simon ordered. Navi nodded, her face hidden. One of the rebels gave her a leg up, and then helped Remy before running toward the wall with the others. The last rebel turned to face Simon, her battered face lit with some inner fire.
She put a fist to her heart and then to the air—the Red Crown salute.
“The Empire will burn,” she said.
Simon inclined his head. “May the Queen’s light guide you.”
Then the woman was gone.
“Wrap your arms around my waist,” Navi murmured to Remy, “and hold on tight. What’s your name?”
“Remy,” he answered, glancing fearfully over at Eliana. “Where are we going?”
“No.” Eliana emerged from her numb shock, backed away from Simon. “I ride with Remy.”