Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3)(114)

Lily got an idea. “I need your help. I’m going to jump someone here, and he’s going to have a whole bunch of antidote for the Workers’ stings. Do you think they could help you distribute it? I’d need you to fan out and give it to as many as you can,” Lily said.

“Definitely,” Juliet said.

Lily reached out to Ivan in mindspeak and found him in his lab, frantically making more antidote and pesticide. She called his name softly.

Lily, he replied, surprised but polite as always. Forgive me. I’m out of practice being someone’s claimed.

This is going to be a little strange for you, she told him in mindspeak. But I need you to pick up as much antidote as you can carry.

Ivan did as she asked and Lily jumped him to her. He appeared before her, his arms laden with bags full of vials.

“That was one of the most singular experiences I’ve ever had,” he said with a quaver in his voice.

“Ivan, this is my sister, Juliet,” Lily said, smiling. “She’s going to help you distribute the antidote.”

Ivan nodded at Juliet politely as he handed her what he carried. He then turned back to Lily. “Send me back to my lab,” he asked. “I’ll keep making it for as long as I can.”

“Contact me when you’ve got more, and I’ll jump you back here,” Lily replied, and then sent him back to his lab.

Toshi looked up at the Warrior Sisters’ platform, still wondering how he was supposed to get up there, when he felt a rush like he’d never experienced before. His body felt light, his head clear, and every sense was sharpened.

He heard Avery and Michelson groan. They felt it, too. The three of them met one another’s eyes with small, secret smiles on their faces.

“So that’s what all the fuss is about,” Avery said, his smile breaking into a grin.

“I guess we’ll die happy, then,” Michelson added.

Toshi let out a shaky laugh and redirected their attention to the platform. It suddenly didn’t seem difficult to climb at all. The three of them clambered up the bare scaffolding with ease. They didn’t even need the rope.

The top of the platform was deserted. All the Warrior Sisters were at the perimeter. Toshi looked toward the tiny orange glow of Grace’s pyre on top of the wall. Above her the Hive was swarming. A strange, circular cloudbank was forming in the darkening sky. It started to rotate over Grace’s pyre, and then there was a pause in the mounting tension like the end of an inhale just before a scream. A single beam of light shot out of the pyre and into the sky.

The Hive was unleashed. They streamed over the wall and flew down upon the waiting army. A moment later, Toshi felt the ground shake and another beam of light pierced the sky from the direction of the battlefield. The Salem Witch answered Grace’s call to battle.

“Here,” called Michelson. Toshi went to him and saw crossbows hung neatly inside a wall box.

Toshi took down one of the crossbows, fitted a dart into the firing mechanism, and aimed over the side of the platform. Down below at street level, a swirling mass of Workers was flying past. Toshi shot the dart into the swarm. He heard a pop as the dart exploded in its center. Nothing happened.

“Damn,” Avery said.

“What do we do now?” Michelson asked. “Do we go back to the lab?”

“Wait,” Toshi said, holding up a hand.

The cloud of Workers seemed to be thinning, and a trail of dark specks was starting the litter the ground. Then all at once, the swarm fell out of the air, dead.

Toshi reached out to both Ivan and Lily. It worked. The pesticide worked, he told them.

Try to kill as many swarms inside the city as you can, Lily said. The more you kill there, the less will be able to join the Warrior Sisters on the battlefield.

We’re on it, Toshi replied.

The raiding party stripped the box bare, tied the crossbows across their backs to climb down, and left them at the base of the tower before moving onto the next. Toshi passed Ivan an image of what they were doing so Ivan could send other rebels to gather the crossbows and start exterminating the Workers.

Toshi contacted Lily again. What was that impossible task you were going to give me?

I want you to go through the back door of the Hive and kill the Queen.

Ah. Toshi’s insides liquefied.

You should be able to get to her easily. The Warrior Sisters are aboveground, fighting, Lily said, trying to give him confidence. She sent him images of how to get to the Queen.

“You two keep at this,” Toshi said aloud as his team approached the next platform. “I’m going to need all the rope.”

“Where are you going?” Michelson asked, taking the coil off his shoulders and passing it to Toshi.

Toshi didn’t dare say it, he merely gestured to city center. “Our witch has given me an impossible task,” he said.

He kept one crossbow for himself and took as many darts as he could. He left them to it and ran toward the Hearing Hall, pausing every chance he got to shoot down swarms of Workers.

The first wave of Warrior Sisters started flowing over the wall and raining down on Lillian’s soldiers.

The sky over the battelfield darkened as the wheel of Lillian’s storm clouds began to rotate above her. A ray of blindingly bright light shot up from Lillian’s pyre into the center of the wheel, knocking everyone back with a pulse of energy.