Danial, ignoring him, lightly touches the wound on Valoria’s neck as lines of concentration crease his brow.
I turn away, unable to watch any more. I’ve seen someone I love die before, and I don’t think I’ll ever shake the nightmares.
The soldier Jax was kicking is just a few feet away. I frown at the metal figure, replaying the moment it attacked over in my mind, but it’s hard to remember details with a nervous crowd surrounding me. It’s hard to think at all when I don’t know yet if I’ll have my best friend an hour from now.
I’m startled from my thoughts when Danial collapses in Simeon’s arms. His body is in the grip of the temporary paralysis that always follows a difficult healing.
Forgetting the crowd, I drop my cloak and anxiously study Danial, then Valoria. There’s still blood everywhere, but no wound gapes on her neck, and her eyes have their shine back. Jax helps Valoria to sit up while Meredy collects her crown and blood-spattered glasses. After polishing both on the edge of her cloak as best she can, she returns them to the queen.
I sink down to my knees and throw my arms around Valoria,knocking her crown askew. After taking a close look at our friend, as if to assure herself Valoria isn’t about to collapse again, Meredy joins the embrace. I’m reminded of the picture Valoria drew of us once, before she had any idea she’d ever be queen.
“You really scared me,” I murmur into my friend’s blond hair.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers in reply. A bit of color reappears in her cheeks. “Did you happen to watch the healing process?” she asks, drawing back to look between me and Meredy. When we both shake our heads, she frowns. “Really? Neither of you? I was hoping someone could describe it for me.”
It’s so typical of Valoria that in another time, in another place, I’d laugh. But the metal soldiers are still on my mind, and Valoria’s blood is soaking into my shirt from where I hugged her, making laughter impossible. Even Karston gazes distrustfully at the fallen metal soldier, his shoulders hunched, his body tensed with the pain of invisible wounds.
A sob makes me look toward the edge of the garden just in time to see Noranna’s brown curls disappearing as she bolts away from the palace.
Azelie hurries after, her face unreadable.
After helping Valoria to her feet, my gaze returns once again to the soldiers. That night in the kitchen, they seemed almost comical, but there’s nothing funny about them now.
“Lock them up,” Danial says to the attending palace guards, those made of flesh and bone, nodding at the metal soldiers. “Put them in the empty dungeon and chain them to the floor. They’re to be kept under lock and key, the doors always guarded, until further notice.”
“Will you help me over there?” Valoria asks Meredy and me in a low voice, nodding subtly toward the horrified crowd. “I’ve got to show them I’m all right, or they’ll never trust me.”
“Damage control,” Meredy murmurs sympathetically. “Right.”
We try our best to make it look like Valoria is walking unassisted toward the nobles, like we’re just worried friends sticking close to her side when really, we’re helping to keep her upright. Her voice is calm and commanding as she reassures everyone that she’s going to be just fine, and that there are clearly flaws in the soldiers’ design. She’s apologetic and somehow still authoritative—that is, until the crowd finally disperses.
That’s when she wilts and leans on us as much as she can to stay upright.
“Help me get her to the garden?” I ask Meredy, who nods at once. As we march deeper into the garden, away from the few lingering nobles and the servants already scrubbing blood off the flagstones, I call over my shoulder, “Jax. Karston. Simeon. Danial. Group meeting,now!”
Karston doesn’t seem to hear me like the others. He stumbles toward a row of bushes closer to the palace walls, looking like he’s going to be sick. Can’t say I blame him.
When the rest of us are far enough away from the crowd that the sigh of the sea drowns out the babble of distant voices, I find a bench where Valoria can stretch out and recover from almost dying. Danial, whose limbs are still painfully stiff, joins Valoria on the bench while everyone else sits beside me on a bed of ivy.
“We need to talk about what happened with those soldiers,” I say in a low voice—just in case. “Could there be something wrong—some flaw in their design?”
“It’s possible,” Valoria says at last, rubbing a flake of dried blood off her cheek. “I got so swept up in their potential—you know how I am—but the truth is, we need a real, operational army that doesn’t rely on magic. It’s too risky. We can and will keep training our humanvolunteers. That’s a promise. In fact, once the fever dies down, the council and I have a plan to bolster our recruitment efforts. I can’t share it yet, but it’s a good one. I should know.” She allows herself a small smile. “I helped think of it, along with Danial. Today’s display with the soldiers was really intended to placate the nobles closest to my family, nothing more—though they failed spectacularly at even that.”
“So you have a plan. Good,” Jax says, carefully avoiding my gaze. I’m sure he’s thinking of the plan we’ve put in place, continuing to train the volunteers. “What about the soldiers you’ve already built, though?” He frowns. “If we don’t dismantle them, what’s to keep them from trying to hurt you again?”
“They’re just objects. From my understanding, they can’t do anything without a mage to move them,” Simeon cuts in, looking unusually grim. “What we should do next is make a list of everyone we know who has a magical gift that causes things to move. If we stop the mage, we stop any chance of this happening again.”
“We can add their names to the list of people Valoria has her guards investigating for the fire at the school,” Meredy adds thoughtfully. “Maybe we’ll find a connection between the arsonists and today’s attack.”
“Good thinking,” I say softly, directing the best smile I can manage in Meredy’s direction. She answers me with a softening of her gaze, a blink of affection. Louder, I add, “It’s going to be a long list, though, when it could be any number of people. A rogue mage, even, like Vane. We might have stopped a lot of deaths if we’d known about him and his power sooner. That’s why I think we need to take action now, too—with our swords, not a quill.”
“Still, a list is worth trying,” Danial says softly, weary from the earlier healing. “Now, as for the soldiers themselves—I say we burnthem. The metal can be used again, but since we have a plan to build a real army, they aren’t needed.”
“Very well,” Valoria agrees after some thought. “I’ll make a list of potential enemies at today’s demonstration and check them against those being investigated for the fire. And as soon as we can, Noranna and I will take a few of the soldiers apart to see if there’s a flaw in their design. Just in case they can be salvaged. If we don’t find anything, I’ll make arrangements to have them melted down.” As I expected, she makes no mention of taking a night off to rest after her brush with death.
“You really think any further tinkering with these murderous piles of junk is safe?” Jax asks, frowning at Valoria. “Let me be there when you do it, at least.”
“Why? Because I can’t take care of myself?” Valoria’s eyes narrow. Combined with her crimson-stained jacket, the effect is chilling, but Jax doesn’t shrink back from her as she leans in until they’re nose-to-nose. “You forget, Jax of Lorness, I’m not a damsel. I’m not even your equal. I’m yourleader, and it’s my job to protectyou—” She takes a deep breath, drawing back from him to gaze at each of us in turn. “All of you. It’s my job to protect all of you, and that’s what I’m going to do now.”
