Song of the Sword

by C. R. Grey

  Gwen gave out a yelp and shot down the slope without another word. Bailey was on her heels, scrambling down the steep hill away from the camp. When they reached Hal and Tori, Bailey skidded on a patch of muddy earth, stopping short at a large, long boulder overlooking the valley. The others spread out alongside him and stared out over the rocky landscape.

  “Ants alive,” he breathed.

  The Dominae filled the floor of the valley in line upon line of black-armored fighters. Soldiers holding swords and bayonets stood at the front—many, many lines back were solders on horseback, next to some riding on saddled bears and lions. The animals stared directly ahead; no tails lashed or manes twitched. It looked like there were thousands upon thousands of soldiers down there.

  “Where’s Phi?” he asked.

  Gwen clutched Bailey’s arm tightly.

  “There!” she said, as if her breath had been knocked out of her. She pointed across the battlefield to where Viviana’s tents had been erected. Their white canvas snapped and waved in the wind, and as a loose tent flap changed direction, it revealed a figure of a falcon thrashing in the wind. It was tied down, and Bailey knew from the way it moved, fierce and defiant, that it was her.

  AT THE SIGHT OF her, Bailey felt his knees buckle beneath him. Her ankle was bound in front of her, and a sharp-jawed woman dressed in Dominae black stood guard over her.

  “Oh, ants,” breathed Tori. “I hadn’t believed Lukas until now. What can we do?”

  “Tremelo needs to know,” said Gwen.

  “He’s about to have a lot on his hands right now,” said Hal.

  Hundreds of the black metal steeds emerged from the forest, just like the one Clarke had ridden into the Dark Woods. Their eyes burned bright red, and tiny licks of flame shot out from their manufactured nostrils.

  The four friends gaped as the Allied fighters began to appear directly below them. On a rock ledge just a few yards beneath their hiding place, the archers lined up, made up of men and women from the Velyn, the RATS, and from Defiance. At the bottom of the cliff, a ship rumbled into view, its cannons ready to fire. And finally, the fighters on foot. Tremelo stood with Digby, Eneas, and Bailey’s dad.

  “Look!” said Gwen, pointing to the center of the Dominae’s forces. The soldiers stepped aside to form a pathway down the middle of the valley. Riding on a massive black metal horse was Viviana. Two Clamoribi flanked her, flying just a few feet over her head as she reached the front line of her troops, but Bailey saw that Tremelo didn’t dare move.

  “We’ll have to save Phi ourselves,” said Bailey from their perch.

  “You promised your dad you wouldn’t go!” Gwen said. “We can do it without you.”

  “But it’s Phi,” he told Gwen as he surveyed the distance between them and her—a sunken field now crisscrossed with flying arrows and the occasional blast and smoke of cannon fire. “You’ll need all the help you can get.”

  “Then promise me you’ll stay away from Tremelo,” she begged. “Promise me!”

  “What’s going on?” Tori asked. She and Hal looked at them with worried expressions.

  “There’s no time to explain,” she told them. Bailey didn’t know himself. What had Gwen seen? But they were out of time, and he agreed just the same.

  “Okay, I promise.”

  To reach Phi, they would have to skirt around the edge of the valley, out of sight on top of the ravine. If they tried to cross the field, they’d have no chance of getting to her without being captured themselves. But the edge of the valley was where Viviana’s camp was stationed.

  “Hal, find Taylor!” Bailey called. “Tell him to bring as many of the Scavage team as he can.” This would be the game of a lifetime, he thought as he climbed down a steep, rocky ravine overlooking the narrow end of the battlefield. Gwen, Taylor, Arabella, two Blue Squad Squats, and Hal and Tori brought up the rear. Taleth paced back and forth on the rocks at the top of the ravine, and her anxiety bled into Bailey’s.

  “We don’t have a Sneak,” said Arabella. “Phi’s our best Sneak.”

  Bailey clung to a moss-covered rock, only a few yards away from the valley floor. “Who should we send?” he asked.

  “You,” Taylor said in a way that made it sound like it was the most obvious answer. “You’re faster than anyone here, even me.”

  “Make a decision already,” said Arabella, behind them. “In case you didn’t get the memo, Phi is a bird! Let’s get moving.”

  So they did. Bailey couldn’t wait to get on solid ground; the brush-covered cliffside they were now traversing was slippery under their feet.

  “To the imposter leading this army,” Viviana said, her voice booming from down below. She’d broken the silence first, Bailey thought as he and his friends scaled down the cliff. As he concentrated on his footing, he saw out of the corner of his eyes that the Clamoribi flew higher, amplifying her voice for the entire battlefield to hear.

  “You risk the lives of your believers,” she continued. “But you can avoid the spilling of their blood today.” She paced on her metal horse in front of her troops. “Surrender yourself to me.”

  “He can’t give himself up,” whispered Gwen, in a strained breath. She crawled down a moss-covered rock and was much faster than Bailey would’ve guessed.

  Tremelo took a step forward toward Viviana, and hundreds of Dominae archers that made up her front line aimed their drawn arrows at him in unison. Bailey paused, stopping in his tracks as he held his breath.

  “Viviana,” Tremelo said, shouting so loud that Bailey could hear him from where he stood. The True King didn’t need the Clamoribi to speak. “I would sooner die.”

  Behind Tremelo, the Allies sent up a roaring cheer, holding their bows and swords and axes in the air. Bailey looked toward the tents and strained his eyes to catch another glimpse of Phi. Then he started scaling down double time.

  Viviana sat tall on her metal horse. “Very well, then,” she said. “Archers, FIRE!”

  The soldiers for Tremelo shielded him with their makeshift armor as arrows were let loose. Shouts echoed across the valley as Viviana retreated back into the folds of her dark army, who closed ranks behind her.

  The battle had begun and now raged down on them: the Defiance ships had come equipped with not only three cannons, but an impressive catapult that the Allies used to launch enormous boulders into the fray, scattering several of the Dominae at a time. The air above the valley was thick with flying arrows.

  “Come on, Bailey,” Tori said just below him.

  They’d finally reached a narrow ledge that was just one long jump from the valley floor. One by one, they stealthily leapt down and immediately rolled behind a flank of bushes. From here, they could see the backs of Viviana’s last line of defense, mounted on their metal steeds. Viviana’s tent stood several yards away, guarded by four Dominae solders, all in black uniforms, with peaked helmets and the insignia of the hand and claw on their chests. Outside of the tent sat two figures tied with ropes to a tree—a thin, ashen-skinned man who hid his face in his bent knees, and Phi.

  “Okay, listen up,” said Taylor, sounding every bit the squad captain. “We all know what we’re doing, then? Arabella, you’ll lead your Squats out behind me and Bailey, while the Slammers distract. And bench squad—Hal, Tori, redhead—you’ll provide the cover up here from the rocks.”

  Hal and Tori nodded. Gwen nervously lowered her gaze to the ground.

  “If you get in trouble, just run,” Taylor continued. “We’re the fastest team in Aldermere, and the best at hiding too. Don’t let anyone corner you, know where your best chance at an exit is, and you’ll be all right.” He nodded at Bailey, who felt a lump the size of an orange rise in his throat. What if, he thought, they wouldn’t be all right after all?

  “Okay,” Bailey said, swallowing his fear. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait!” Gwen pulled Bailey back by his sleeve. Her eyes were red and wide. “I have to tell you. What Clarke said about the horses, and the strange
animals—I saw it. My vision was exactly how he described it. I was running from a shiny, metal horse….It breathed fire.” She put her face in her palms, took a deep breath, and kept going. “It was going to kill me. And I thought I’d outrun it, but then there were other animals. Real animals. They moved strangely, with a vacant look in their eyes.”

  “We’re going to take care of each other!” Bailey assured her. “We’re going to get Phi, and we’re going to stay together. You’ll be safe, I promise.”

  “But I’m not just worried about me. I’m worried about you!” She crossed her arms tightly. “You need protecting too. And how am I supposed to be of any help? At the battle with Sucrette, I had the harmonica. Now, I can’t even get one owl to come near me! And if the kin are Dominated, or worse—”

  The Allies had done their best to send their kin away, but the trees surrounding the sunken gorge were filled with birds of every flock, and the underbrush shook with the anxious bodies of rodents and canines called by their bonds to watch what unfolded. The Allies could no more keep their kin from coming than a patch of grass could stop a sea tide. Bailey knew that it was only a matter of time before Viviana would use this to her advantage—but he hoped that he and his friends could take one desperate chance before that happened. He hoped that Gwen could.

  Bailey turned back to face her, straightening up. She was upset, that much was clear—but what could he say at a moment like this? He thought of Phi, and wondered what she would do. The answer was she’d listen to Gwen. She’d try to understand why she was scared.

  “You’re scared we won’t all make it?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I’m scared of what’s going to happen on that battlefield….”

  He grabbed her shoulders gently, and she looked up. Her eyes were wet with tears.

  “We’re doing this for Phi,” Bailey said. “And for Tremelo, and for all of Aldermere. Maybe…let yourself feel the fear and really give in to it.”

  “Feel the fear?” Gwen wiped her eyes. “How?”

  “I don’t know,” Bailey admitted. “When I first got to Fairmount I was so scared—of what the other kids would think, or that I’d never Awaken. And even though my bond is still new, it grew strong so fast. I think it was because Taleth and I had each other, and we weren’t as scared anymore. And because I have new friends—like you. And Phi and Hal and Tori. I don’t feel so alone. I don’t fear what’ll come next. And somehow that makes the bond stronger. Maybe you could try to focus on what you have?” He couldn’t do it justice, couldn’t explain it any better than that. But it seemed to be enough for Gwen.

  “I’ll try,” she said. “But, Bailey, you have to come right back after Phi is free. Come right back so we can all look out for each other.”

  He nodded. “And I almost forgot,” he said as he pulled one of the metal amulets out of his pocket. “Take this.”

  Together, they peered at the imposing line of soldiers just a few paces away, all with their backs turned to them. Bailey took a deep breath.

  “I’ll meet you on the other side of the rocks,” he said to Gwen, Hal, and Tori—who stayed at the rocks for now. Bailey and the Scavage team would push forward, while his friends would run around the perimeter to help secure Phi. Hopefully he’d make enough of a commotion that no one would notice them.

  He made sure that the tiger’s claw was secure in his belt, and he crept away, skirting the rocks at the cliff’s bottom, around the edge of the battlefield. He stopped at a patch of shrewsberry bushes just a few feet from the rear of Viviana’s tent. Phi sat with watchful eyes looking out at the battle, so close Bailey could throw a pebble at her feet. He twisted his head so that he could see Taylor peering back at him from behind the bushes. Bailey nodded, a gesture that Taylor returned before turning back to the others waiting closer to the cliff face. Bailey hunkered down behind the bush, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

  He couldn’t stop thinking about Gwen, and how afraid she was that her bond was irreparably broken. He was frightened too. To free Phi, he and his friends were all risking their lives, and they had nothing to help them but the bond. If his friends weren’t able to place their trust in it, then nothing was certain.

  Bailey searched the woods atop the ravine for Taleth’s mind. To find her, he focused on the sound of the wind whisking the topmost branches of the evergreens—a sound barely audible from where he crouched close to the battle. But where Taleth stood, hidden in the dense growth overlooking the ravine, it was as loud as thunder. Bailey felt her ears twitch. A dew-covered bush left a streak of moisture on Taleth’s left flank as she prowled closer to the edge of the ravine.

  From there, she—and he—could see Tori, Hal, and Gwen. They stood closely together in a row, with Tori in the middle. Through Taleth’s eyes, Bailey watched them join hands.

  “Okay, Taleth,” Bailey whispered, nearly knocking himself out of her mind at the strange sound of his own voice. “We’re going to help them now.”

  Taleth began to purr, a sensation that filled Bailey with warmth. As both himself and the tiger, he focused all his energy on his friends. He and Taleth remembered together what it had been like to feel them, to feel their bonds working. It had been as though every human’s bond was Bailey’s too, joining onto his and making it stronger and more beautiful. He and Taleth breathed, and Bailey imagined a shimmering golden rope, stretching from Taleth to Tori, Hal, and Gwen.

  Just as that rope seemed tautest, Taleth’s mind slipped Bailey, without warning, into a memory. As it had before, the sudden change of the trees and sounds unnerved Bailey. But he kept breathing, reminding himself to stay with Taleth, or be shaken from the bond. He calmed himself and took stock of where—and when—he was. Taleth was in the mountains again, but farther south, where the trees gave way to rocks, and the bushes to prickly, weather-hardy moss. Bailey heard the cry of a tiny creature: a human infant. It lay on the ground in front of Taleth, wrapped in a wide piece of blond mountain lion fur. It looked up past Taleth, reaching its stubby hands out toward something just out of Taleth’s vision.

  Take him down the mountain, said a voice. Bailey sensed a woman standing just behind Taleth. Her hand rested on the tiger’s back as Bailey realized that the woman had, in actuality, said nothing. Taleth had merely understood her thoughts. Leave him someplace safe. I trust you, Taleth, thought the woman, her voice filling Taleth’s mind with pure, clear intention. I know you won’t fail me. Don’t be afraid. Taleth turned away from the crying child and looked at the woman. She was backlit by sunlight, but Bailey saw matted curls of long hair, and the glint of light reflecting off a teary cheek. Taleth rubbed her head against the woman’s waist and began to purr.

  Bailey fought through the haze of Taleth’s memories to return his sight to the present—to his friends standing on the rocks. The loving voice of the woman in Taleth’s mind echoed in Bailey’s too. I know you won’t fail me. Don’t be afraid.

  He squeezed the metal amulet in his palm. The powerful hum he felt in Taleth’s chest was as familiar to him now as his own breath. Their bond grew in intensity, filling his mind with warmth. As he focused on the clasped hands of Tori, Gwen, and Hal, Bailey knew that they were beginning to feel their bonds strengthen too. Tori and Hal seemed almost to glow as their bonds to the snakes and bats in the surrounding woods began to stir and to gather. Only Gwen’s bond remained small and fragile, like a candle flame between two bonfires. Bailey wished he could speak directly to her. I trust you, he’d have said. I know you won’t fail.

  The ground under Taleth’s paws began to quiver with movement. Snakes, hundreds of them, slithered under cover of fallen leaves and around the intrusive shapes of raised roots to the edge of the rocks. Taleth didn’t move, and neither did Bailey. Bailey looked up—and suddenly he was looking up from the floor of the gorge again, solidly back in his own body—just in time to see the whooshing levy of bats burst from behind the treetops. They swirled in descent, mirroring the progression of the vast assemblage of snake
s slithering down the face of the cliff, all converging on the battlefield. Bailey scanned the crowded sky for the third species he’d expected to see, but there were no owls in sight.

  “You can do it, Gwen,” Bailey whispered. “I know you can.” He thought about the first battle they’d all fought together, against the duplicitous Miss Sucrette. Gwen had been fearless then: her owls, powered by her harmonica music and her own unshakeable faith in the bond, had helped bring Sucrette down. Now seeing Dominance grow so powerful had eroded that confidence, but Bailey knew that Gwen could find it again. She had to.

  A black snake with yellow stripes sped over Bailey’s right foot and toward the battle. Its kin were already out there, winding around the ankles of the Dominae soldiers and whisking past their stomping heels. The soldiers broke ranks as they tried to wave the swarming bats away from their helmets.

  Taylor lifted his hand straight up in the air and made a gesture like a countdown. At the final flick of his fingers, Arabella and the two Squats emerged from the bushes, positioned several yards apart. The three Scavage players ran headlong into the soldiers’ camp in three different directions like clanking cannonballs. Arabella was the loudest of the three: “What’s this?!” she shouted, as the soldiers still struggled to fight their way through the mess of snakes and bats. “There’s a student here! Better catch her!” She and the others drew the Dominae away from the tent where Phi sat, providing a clear path between Phi and the safety of the cliffside. Each time the soldiers tried to tackle or overtake the Scavage players, the bats swarmed in front of them, or the snakes impeded their way. Beside the tent, the soldier guarding Phi stepped away from her to wave some especially eager bats from his face.

  “You’re up,” said Taylor.

  Bailey felt for the curved tiger’s claw in his belt as he watched his teammates draw the Dominae soldiers away from the captives. He took a deep breath and stood up. On the rocks, Gwen stood too. Their eyes met, and he nodded. She looked stricken—her bond was weak, as she had told him. But she had one other task that didn’t require the bond at all. Upon seeing Bailey’s nod, she placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled: