The Mirror King (The Orphan Queen, #2)(122)

“Black Knife will save us!”

I loosened my hook and gathered my line, searching over heads to meet Tobiah’s eyes. His posture was stiff and serious as he pushed his way through dozens of people, toward me.

But the people pressed closer. Fingertips grazed my sleeve. Others tugged at my mask.

I jerked back, reaching for a dagger out of habit, but Tobiah was there, his hands on my shoulders.

“It’s all right.” With the noise all around, I felt his murmur of comfort more than heard it.

“What is that glow? Wraith?” asked a man.

“Yes.” Tobiah’s answer came hard.

“Are you going to stop it?”

“Yes,” I said. “We are.”

Someone gasped. “That’s the queen’s voice. And the Indigo king’s.”

There was no obvious communication, but a few people in our path stepped back and out of our way. Then more until there was a clear line to the city.

The whispers rippled down the ranks of people: “Black Knife will stop the wraith” and “The heir to four Houses” and “Queen of the vermilion throne.”

Their words became waves of sound as Tobiah and I raced toward the fighting and wraith.

At the top of the courtyard wall, Melanie was waiting in the same place I’d run into her the first time I sneaked into the city.

“About time.” She finished tying her hair into a ponytail; the shorter strands fell around her face. “We thought you’d never leave that balcony.”

“We?” I moved my line out of the way and offered a hand to Tobiah. His fingers tightened around mine as he swung himself over the parapet.

She motioned down the walkway where five people crouched in the shadow of stonework. One by one, they stood and came to meet us. James, Oscar, Kevin, Theresa, and Sergeant Ferris all had swords buckled at their hips, and long black knives painted down the fronts of their uniforms.

“I told Oscar that sending you to your room was both pointless and rude,” Melanie said.

“We’re not letting you go out there alone.” Theresa cocked a hip toward the lowcity. “There’s a minor war.”

“Plus the wraith,” said Oscar. “Is that Chrysalis’s doing? His guards reported him missing half an hour ago.”

“Unfortunately.” I glanced at Tobiah, who was trying not to look at James. “There’s no point in ordering them to go back. We may as well let them help.”

Tobiah gave a swift nod. “Keep up. We can’t afford to waste time.”

Everyone agreed as Melanie stepped forward and tugged my mask off my head. “Put this away. Your people need to see your face.”

“Fine.” I thrust my mask into my belt and rappelled down the other side of the wall.

There was no easy way to travel; jumping from building to building wasn’t an option in this part of the city, with the roofs pitched so steep even Black Knife and I would have trouble. That left the ground, though from the wall, I’d had a quick view of bodies packing Castle Street and all the surrounding roads so tightly it was a wonder anyone could breathe.

Moving against the flow of bodies was almost impossible, so I led my team around the edges, keeping to the walls of buildings where I needed only one elbow to keep people from my space.

“This is more annoying than I thought it would be.” The din nearly drowned Theresa’s grumble, even though she was right behind me.

I started to laugh, but a commotion in the street stopped me.

“The wraith is here!” A man threw himself into a cluster of boys, knocking one over. Others around him staggered and turned on him with angry shouts.

I raised my voice. “Kevin! Take care of that!” I glanced back long enough to see him snap and thump his chest, and then he pushed through the crowd to follow orders, and I had to dodge someone vomiting in the path ahead.

We forced our way opposite the crowd for what seemed like hours, pausing to help where needed, but it couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes before we turned a corner and suddenly broke through the crush. Now that there was room to move, I staggered and braced myself against a brick wall, gasping in the wraith-hot air. Sweat poured down my face and neck and spine. My clothes clung uncomfortably.

The others came around the corner, sweating and panting as much as I was. Tobiah took off his mask and swiped his forearm over his face, but paused halfway through the motion, and stared up. “It’s snowing.”

Flakes the size of my splayed-out hand drifted from the wraith-lit sky, sticking where they hit the ground. When I knelt and held a hand over one, I could feel the heat even through my gloves.

I stood. “Don’t touch it.”

Melanie scowled at the sky as the number of giant white flakes doubled. “Oh, that shouldn’t be hard at all.” She smoothed back her hair, sweat sticking it to her skull.

I waved the group onward. “Hurry. We have to stop the fighting.”

“What about the wraith?” Sergeant Ferris strode ahead, checking around a corner before I reached it. “Can you stop the wraith like you did in Skyvale?”

Tobiah, James, and I exchanged an awkward three-way glance. “No,” I said. “It might kill me. It would make everything worse.”

Chrysalis would be wraith mist, and James would be the lifeless shape of a boy.