The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1)(59)
“Ready!” The shout tore from my throat as I drew my sword and drove it deep into one of the top eyes. A moment later, Black Knife thrust the prod into the creature’s scissor-like mouth parts.
The beast spasmed. Its back half pulled against the immense weight of the chains. It twitched, and everyone cheered as the giant body hit the earth with a thud. Black Knife disappeared into the crowd, somehow avoiding everyone’s notice.
Quickly, I drew my sword from the eye and tapped the chains on my way off the beast. “Go to sleep.”
Men clapped my back and congratulated me, but my whole body shook with adrenaline, and the exhaustion of animating those enormous chains. I managed to pull myself away—I didn’t want to get caught in the wraithy mist like I had in Skyvale—and for the first time I got a look at the rest of the caravan.
Guards and glowmen lay motionless on the road, their bodies illuminated by the blaze growing in the forest. There were so many people on the ground.
The scorpion’s body hissed, and a miasma of wraith poured into the air above it. Then, the white mist split and snaked around a few men, hitting three or four men in the chest. They all dropped to their knees and coughed, but a moment later, they were fine. Back on their feet, as though nothing had happened.
The mist was wraith, that much I knew, but why touch some people and not others?
My head spun with confusion and weariness, but there was still a fire to put out, so I wiped my sword clean and sheathed it, and accepted a section of the heavy, rigid hose that syphoned water from the nearby river.
Water sprayed onto the forest fire, and heat and steam rolled off in waves. Within minutes, the flames were out.
The fight and fire had left me nauseous. I staggered down the road a ways and heaved, doubting I’d ever be able to sleep again after that nightmare.
When I straightened, a black silhouette stood down the road, motionless as our eyes met. He sheathed his sword and lifted a hand in good-bye.
I stayed planted as he stepped backward. I should have said something. Done something. But while I stood there with all these strange emotions boiling inside me, Black Knife vanished into the smoke and steam and darkness.
“See you when I come back,” I whispered. But he was already gone.
TWENTY-ONE
THE CARAVAN WAS determined to arrive in West Pass Watch on schedule, in spite of the attack, and so it resumed the long journey over and around the mountains.
As we trudged up the winding roads, some of the guards worked on the lyrics to their new song, “Will Makes the Kill,” and I ducked my head in embarrassment. Maybe that was another reason Black Knife wore a mask: so he could escape the people’s adulations by simply removing that slip of silk.
Anyway, it seemed wrong to take credit for killing the scorpion when Black Knife had done half the work. And I’d cheated by using magic. The very thing that had made that creature.
“You ever been to West Pass Watch, Will?” asked Josh Blue. The guard had been one of the men I’d saved during the scorpion attack, and he’d made it his priority to look out for me—since he still believed I was a young, inexperienced boy trying to pay for my education.
“Never been out of Skyvale,” I said, squinting against the early afternoon glare.
“You’re in for a sight, then.” He pointed up at the weathered, gray bricks peeking out from the autumn foliage. “The castle was built long before Skyvale Palace. That one is only two hundred years old, a baby palace. But this one is from centuries before Skyvale ever was. It was built with magic, by some of the original settlers from the old land across the sea. West Pass Watch and its twin castle, East Pass Watch, were the first kings’ homes, back when the Indigo Kingdom was much smaller.”
“How small?”
“The whole thing was inside this valley, everything the House of the Dragon claims. The rest came during a series of wars with ancient kingdoms you’ve probably never heard of. They were incorporated as territories for a while, given overlords who were all related to the king of the time, then made official parts of the Indigo Kingdom.”
“Like what’s happening with Aecor now?” The words caught in my throat. “The king’s younger brother is Overlord of Aecor.”
Josh shrugged. “Hard to say with times like this, with the wraith just beyond the mountains. Before, I’d have said yes. But now, it’ll be a miracle if we’re around long enough to see any changes in our world.”
I checked the woods, but this area was heavily patrolled; it seemed unlikely we’d run into any difficulty just outside West Pass Watch. The only trouble was the ever-present stink of wraith, which grew stronger every day, though it seemed my nose was becoming accustomed to it.
“So this castle.” I motioned upward. “This one and the other guarded the western and eastern borders of the Indigo Kingdom?”
Josh nodded. “King of the time lived at whichever end he was fighting a war on. It was usually the east, as their attentions began focusing on what is now the eastern areas of the kingdom—from those mountains to Aecor. West Pass Watch was pretty neglected until the year eight thirty-five, when the Pierces seized power from the Gearys. Terrell the First gave the keep to one of his top supporters, but it went back into Pierce hands when the wraith problem was discovered.”
“You know a lot of history.”