He lowered Eliana to the ground. They were out. It had to have been near midday, but clouds and smoke darkened the sky. The outpost’s perimeter wall was aflame. Eliana heard screams, shouted commands. Simon pulled her along awkwardly, his arm around her waist as they ran.
Oh, right, Eliana thought, giddy, the pain in her head now completely gone, her limbs strong and steady once more. I’m supposed to be hurt. She leaned into Simon’s body, let him help her along.
A chorus of high-pitched whines began behind them. The door through which they’d exited burst open. Eliana saw Lord Morbrae search through the smoke, spot them, raise his gun. The whines escalated, shrill and dissonant.
Simon shoved Eliana ahead of him. “Get down!”
She obeyed, skidding down a wet slope into a narrow, swampy ravine. Simon threw himself down after her and covered her body with his own.
The world exploded.
? ? ?
Someone slapped her.
Eliana surged awake with a gasp. “How long?”
“Three seconds,” came Simon’s impatient reply. “Get up.”
She obeyed, then froze. A terrible sound floated down to her from the blackened sky.
Screams.
She climbed the ravine, slipping on the slick wall of mud, and peeked over the rim into chaos. The outpost’s main building lay mostly in ruins, debris scattered as far as she could see. And from the ruins came those screams—agonized, beastly.
“The prisoners,” Eliana whispered. She looked over at Simon. “Some could still be alive.”
“Yes,” Simon agreed, “or it could be adatrox or my own soldiers who didn’t get out in time.”
Eliana lifted herself up by the roots of a watchtower tree. “We should try to help them.”
Simon pulled her back down. He began reloading his revolver. “No. We ride north.”
“Did you not hear me?” She flung out her arm in the direction of the outpost. “There were children in that prison. They had them in cages—”
“Yes, and if Red Crown had carried out their raid tomorrow as planned, they would have gotten them out. But you ruined that when you ran away. We couldn’t risk letting anyone who’d seen you, or heard whatever intelligence you delivered, leave here alive.”
Eliana stared at him in horror. “What?”
A shot rang out near the outpost, followed by another. Simon pointed one gloved finger. “Hear that? My soldiers, disposing of the survivors. Listen.”
Eliana did, hearing a third shot, then a fourth, a fifth. She reached for the tree roots once more, but Simon pulled her back down and held her close, arms pinned at her sides.
“Listen to them die,” he hissed, his mouth hot at her ear behind the cold, hard mesh of his mask. “Their blood is on your hands.”
Eliana half-heartedly fought to free herself, but as the shots continued, and the horrible screams abruptly stopped one by one, she subsided.
It will consume you, her mother had warned her.
She breathed past the foul knot of shame burning the back of her tongue.
“We’ll add them to your tally, hmm?” Simon’s voice was furious. “Do you even remember how many people you’ve killed, Eliana?”
Eliana nodded, her eyes and mouth dry. She felt shriveled, undone. She closed her eyes. Yes. Yes, she remembered. Including Harkan? He’d be alive now, were it not for trying to protect her.
What had she told Remy?
We can’t know for certain.
He could still be alive.
She closed her eyes, clung to the foolish hope to keep from screaming.
“Eighty-seven,” she whispered as the gunshots continued. “Eighty-eight. Eighty-nine.”
“What did you ask him for?” Simon lowered his hood and pushed back his mask so that it rested in a mess of dirty-blond hair. “Safe passage home for you and Remy? Amnesty? Your mother returned to you, safe and sound?”
Eliana nodded. She felt as though, slowly, all the life inside her were being funneled out.
“And was it worth it? Were their lives worth it?” He jerked his head up at the outpost. “Did you get what you asked for?”
Eliana didn’t have the chance to answer, interrupted by galloping hoofbeats. She glanced up, and the sight of a mud-spattered brown horse emerging from the nearby woodlands, Remy sitting on its back behind Navi, knocked the breath out of her.
She met his worried blue gaze and gave him half a smile.
“Simon!” Navi called down to them, a terrible fear on her face. “Crown’s Hollow is under attack!”
Simon pushed Eliana ahead of him. “Climb,” he snapped. She did, Simon following nimbly. Remy was already dismounting, Navi right after him. Remy stumbled across the mucky ground to bury his face in Eliana’s bloodstained shirt. She held on to him automatically, half her mind still back at the outpost with the gunshots.