I knew revolution would nd us. I didn’t expect it to be so soon.
I didn’t expect it to be from all sides.
Alarms blare in the sector, but I have no way of knowing if they’ve attacked anything more than the palace. Aer Allisander’s comments, I don’t even know if this attack is the work of rebels or consuls.
e hallways are full of smoke and darkness, but I can sense movement, and I can hear the shouts and ghting. We have the advantage of invisibility, but so do they. I keep the wall at my back and head right, away from the noise. I’ve lost track of Rocco and the guards who were in the hallway, but Harristan and Quint are somewhere ahead of me. Tessa grips tight to my hand.
“is guard’s got the king’s mark,” calls a man. “He must be close.”
I freeze. Tessa’s ngers bite into my palm. I don’t dare say Harristan’s name.
e voices fall silent, and I know this is not a good sign. ey’re hoping to use the darkness against us. e smoke tickles my throat, and I try to breathe shallow breaths.
Harristan coughs.
“ere!” shouts a man, and I hear the swip of a crossbow. It hits something, but I have no idea what. A man cries out ahead of me.
A rush in the darkness tells me an enemy has drawn close, and I leap forward to tackle them. An elbow drives into my ribs, and my earlier injuries scream at me. We crash to the ground, and I realize I’m not going to be fast enough to do anything but die.
But then the body is jerked away from me, and I hear the unmistakable sound of a blade piercing esh, followed by a body hitting the oor beside
me. A man groans. ere’s a scuffle, and I roll just before a booted foot strikes my shoulder. Something—someone—hits the wall with a sickening thud.
I brace my hands against the wall, waiting for a clue about what just happened.
“Corrick?” Tessa’s voice cries out from the darkness. “Corrick.”
A hand brushes my shoulder, and I jerk away. It’s too much fast movement at once, and I have to brace a hand against the oor. I inhale a lungful of smoke and cough.
“Your Highness?” Rocco. His voice is closer, and I realize it was his blade that rescued me, his hand that found me in the darkness.
“I’m all right. Harristan?”
He doesn’t answer, but he coughs again, hard.
“We have to get out of the corridor,” calls Quint, and his voice sounds more distant.
I nd my knees, then the wall again. “Get to my quarters,” I call. My room is along the back wall of the palace, which hopefully hasn’t taken as many hits as the front half. I have ropes in my chest to go out the window, but I don’t want to shout that into the darkness.
Crawling through the smoke seems to take an hour, but no further voices cry out in the dark. But then my hand nds the familiar edge of a doorjamb, and we push through the doorway.
At rst I’m not entirely sure it’s my quarters. e lights here are as dead as they are in the rest of the palace, and while the smoke is nowhere near as dense as it was in the hallway, the room is still cloudy with a haze, even though a re burns low in the hearth. But my stinging eyes begin to adjust, and I can make out my side table, my bed, the low chest along the wall.
I can make out Harristan, who’s not still coughing, but I can hear his wheezing from here. Quint, who’s got a hand braced against the wall. e guards Rocco and orin, who are already dragging a chest of drawers in front of the door.
Tessa, whose eyes are full of questions I can’t answer. “Who?” says Harristan between gasps.
“I don’t know,” I say truthfully. I look at the guards. “Could you tell?” “Just men,” says orin.
“With crossbows,” says Quint, and a strain in his voice forces me to look back over. at hand braced against the wall is leaving a dark handprint, and his jacket is unbuttoned, showing a spreading stain near his waist.
“Quint!” I say in alarm. I remember the sound of that rst arrow hitting something when Harristan coughed.
Quint waves me off. “I’ll be ne.”
e doorknob rattles, and orin and Rocco exchange a glance, just before something heavy slams into the door. e chest of drawers gives half an inch before they both brace against it.
Tessa looks at me. “Can we go out the window again?”
I limp to the back wall and peer out into the darkness. In the distance, Stonehammer’s Arch is blazing against the night, but the palace grounds are pitch-dark. e alarms in the sector are loud and relentless, and smoke lls the air every way I turn.
e rope Tessa and I used to escape is still pooled on the oor by the window, triple knotted around the ironwork along the sill.
Something heavy slams against the door again. Wood cracks, and the chest of drawers whines against the oor. Rocco swears.
Tessa appears at my side. “Can you climb?”
“Yes,” I say con dently. ough . . . I probably can’t. Even if I can bear the weight of a rope around my boot, my shoulder will never be able to support my weight. en again, I’d rather free-fall out this window than take an arrow in the face, which seems like more of a certainty if we don’t get out of here.
My brother has crossed the room as well, and he coughs again as he peers out into the darkness with me, then inhales deeply of the night air.
“Harristan, do you remember how to climb—”
“I taught you, Cory,” he gasps. He takes hold of the rope.
“One of us should go rst, Your Majesty,” calls Rocco. Wood splinters as the rebels slam into the door again.
“en hurry,” I say. I head for the chest of drawers and brace my shoulder against it. I don’t know how many men are on the other side, but it must be half a dozen. “Go, orin.”
“No!” calls Harristan.
“You’re the king,” I say. “Go. Get out.”
orin disappears out the window, followed swily by my brother. Tessa and Quint are both beside the window.
“Go,” I say to them. Another slam against the door. Flaming cloths are shoved through the opening this time, landing on the chest and catching almost immediately.
“No,” calls Quint. “Corrick, you’re—”
“Go!” I shout at him. My bad ankle keeps threatening to give out, and I have to readjust my shoulder against the chest. Flames feel close, and I’m afraid to look to see how close. I grit my teeth against the pain and the heat. “Go now, Quint. Go, Tessa.”
e rebels slam into the door again. More wood splinters. e wall has caught re behind me. I can hear shouts.
Quint and Tessa go out the window.
I look over at Rocco, braced against the chest like I am. Sweat threads his hair and drips down his cheeks.
“Run, Your Highness,” he says. “I’ll buy you time.”
“You go,” I gasp, trying to hold my grip as the chest begins to shi along the oor. “Go aer them. Harristan will need another guard.”
He gives me a withering look, but before he can say anything, I add, “at’s an order, Rocco.”
“I can’t leave you here.”
“Well, I can’t run.” I give a humorless laugh. e chest slips another inch, and I choke on my breath. “And I can’t climb.” Another inch, and I press my forehead against the chest. e room is lling with smoke, and I know I won’t be able to hold this door much longer. “Please, Rocco.”
“Very well, Your Highness.”
He lets go of the chest. It skids six inches, and I cry out. I had no idea he was holding so much weight. Men shout in victory on the other side of the door. I’m not going to be able to hold this much longer—or it’s not going to matter, because they’ll be able to get through the space.
I should have told Rocco to leave me a weapon.
en again, maybe quicker is better.
An arm hooks under mine, pulling me away from the chest, liing me to my feet, dragging me forward. I trip over myself for a few feet before I realize Rocco is supporting my weight, half carrying me across the oor.
“I told you to go,” I say.
“Execute me later.” He takes hold of the rope. “Can you hold on to me?”
e door explodes inward. Rocco doesn’t wait for an answer and swings us onto the rope, and for a terrifying moment, the world spins wildly, the
aming arch swirling through my vision. e rope brushes my ngers, and I grab hold with my strong hand, trying to support some of my own weight, but we still descend too quickly. Rocco’s legs hit the palace wall as he rappels downward.
I hear the swip before I recognize the sound, and in the darkness below, Tessa cries out. A man is in the window with a crossbow.
“Run!” I cry. “Tessa, run!” She should have gone with Harristan. She shouldn’t be here.
e rope jerks, and Rocco swears. We bounce against the wall one more time.
en the rope gives altogether.
We hit the ground. It hurts spectacularly. I try to roll, as if that will somehow make it hurt less, but it doesn’t.
“Corrick.” Tessa’s voice, low and desperate in my ear. “Corrick, you have to get up.”
Swip. I feel the rush of an arrow near my head, but I can’t move. I hear a crossbow snap close by, and I inch, but I blink and realize it’s orin and Rocco, returning re. Men above are arguing, shouting at each other about who cut the rope.
en I’m lied again. Someone has an arm under mine. My vision goes spotty, aring with light. Flames have erupted from dozens of windows along the back wall of the palace. e alarms keep blaring, and I want to lie down right here. I don’t know who has me, but if it’s Rocco, I’ll have to stop hating him.
en I hear Harristan’s voice in my ear, rough and ragged. “Race you to the gate?”
It’s a taunt from when we were children. His voice is so low and close that I realize he’s the one holding me up. I blink at him. His face is smudged with soot, but his eyes are dark with concern. “You’ll win this time,” I say.
“Come on, Cory,” he says, and he takes a step forward, supporting my weight, gasping from the effort. “Let’s make it a tie.”
