Broken Crown

by Drae Box

  “Done.”

  Aldora pressed a hand to the blue dome and it gave at her touch, the blue wall racing away from her hand as if eaten by acid. Raneth jerked his hands forwards and his white mist swept out and smashed into the brown jackets, knocking them out of the alleyway and against a building. They slumped to the ground as Raneth twirled on the spot, spinning his palms out towards the brown jackets behind them. The mist crept upwards, crackling as it solidified into an ice wall between the three friends and the brown jackets.

  Aldora ran to the left and Pedibastet fled past her. She looked over her shoulder for Raneth and saw that he was still misting as he walked briskly behind her. She slowed and turned to face him.

  “What are you doing?”

  In answer, Raneth turned his back on her and spread his arms either side of his shoulders, before sweeping his hands together and up. The extra mist swept up into a second wall, blocking off both units of brown jackets behind them. He jogged up to her.

  “Figured that might give us a little more time.”

  They rejoined the swamped street and Raneth pulled up his hood to help hide his face.

  “I don’t know if this’ll work with me still wearing the trousers,” he stated. “I should have changed them in the bazaar. I have a civilian pair in my bag.”

  Aldora glanced down at his royal official trousers. The hard-wearing material was made of different splodges of blue, with pockets on the outside of each knee, as well as more at the hips and on his rump. Looking quickly at the other trousers she could see in the crowd, she nodded her agreement. Nobody else was even wearing plain blue.

  “But we don’t have time to change,” continued Raneth. “Look for another street we can duck into that has drainpipes.”

  Eventually, after some more dodging of men in both the brown uniforms and the black ones, Aldora, Raneth and Pedibastet found a rooftop they could access. Aldora set her bag down next to her, far enough away from the edge of the mostly flat roof that she was safe from being seen from below. Raneth carefully changed his trousers next to her, and Aldora steadied him with a hand on his butt as he wobbled.

  She watched his face redden at her touch. They’d finally slept together in Newer so Aldora couldn’t help the slight smile that she gave him. It seemed he was still a little shy. He did turn away when I changed, she reminded herself. She cleared her throat. “So we just sit up here until either someone figures out we’re here or it gets dark?” she asked. She looked out at the city and frowned. There was a narrow, long flag just visible past the rooftops of Wisner. It was black and across its centre was a purple crown, broken into two parts and outlined in silver.

  “Yeah. I used to sit on rooftops all the time to wait my criminals out, and Thane.” He zipped up his flies and sat down next to her, grabbing his weapons belt from her lap and fastening it quickly around his waist, before relieving her of the lighter he carried around that sometimes proved helpful to his duties. “Thanks.”

  “You will do all that again,” stated Pedibastet. “Do not talk in the past tense about your royal official activities, Raneth. You will fix the kingdom.”

  Aldora watched Raneth glare at Pedibastet. What’s that all about?

  “We should eat something,” she said gently, slipping a hand into her bag and pulling out the first two royal official ration bars she found. She held them out to Raneth. He took the smaller one and reached into his own bag for a bottle of water.

  Pedibastet snuggled into Raneth’s lap. “Some water would be good.”

  Raneth cupped a hand and poured some of the water into it. As the water dripped free, the Prince of the Cats lapped up the small amount still in his hand then purred his thanks. Raneth wiped his hand on his hoodie, took a swig from the bottle and handed it to Aldora.

  “We’ll try for the south gate once it’s dark,” he said.

  Aldora chewed on the ration bar, noticing that the so-called raspberry flavour tasted like paper. Better than nothing.

  “I’m going to try and get a bit of sleep in after this,” she told her friends. “Will you wake me when it’s time to go?”

  “Always,” replied Raneth.

  Aldora smiled and kissed his stubbled cheek. “Thanks.” She lay on her side, curling her legs close to her and folding his arms. She pressed her back against Raneth’s leg to steal some of his warmth but it was also so he wouldn’t be able to see her face. He was too good at reading her expressions, too caring not to ask questions. She need to think. How could Uncle Denzel do this? She gritted her teeth. That’s the wrong question. We know this has been in motion for years. They kidnapped Cray to brainwash him and somebody attacked my village and stole the Dagger the year before that. Four years. Was that all it took to somehow build enough power to take the kingdom, to have men ready and willing to patrol the streets in those brown jackets, to turn people against Raneth? How had her uncle done it? She frowned, remembering Ulger Denman, the murderer Raneth had been ordered to kill when she and he had met for the first time. Denman been helped by Reinette, the woman that kidnapped Cray, in return for the Dagger. Uncle Denzel’s a bookseller, thought Aldora. He might not have visited me and Dad much, but he wrote to us both every month and he always gave me books. How did he even fund this?

  A faceful of white and brown fur woke Aldora. She shifted her head away from Pedibastet as he purred at her, continuing to rub his white cheek and then his brown cheek against her.

  “Time to play,” stated Pedibastet as he moved back and curled his tail around his back legs. Aldora looked at the sky. It was night.

  Aldora sat up and rubbed her eyes before looking over at Raneth. He doesn’t look like he slept at all. He was easing slowly closer to the edge of the roof without standing by moving on his hands, feet and butt to slide down the slight slope near the edge. Aldora mimicked his movements, easing off the flat part of the roof and joining him on the slope, noticing that she could look down onto the street below, which was lit by three gas-powered lampposts.

  “Looks safe,” he stated as he looked at her.

  “Good.”

  The Dagger Bearer slid herself closer to the drainpipe they had used to climb up and shuffled until her legs dangled off the side of the building. She turned onto her stomach and lowered herself onto the drainpipe, clasping it between her hands and knees. She shimmied down it, grimacing as the cold moss from the back of the metal pipe clung to her fingers. Raneth jumped down, rolling on immediate impact and standing up in one fluid movement.

  “You need to teach me that if we’re going to end up on rooftops a lot,” said Aldora.

  A small thump came from a bin next to Aldora as Pedibastet jumped down and poured himself onto the ground at her feet.

  “I will,” promised Raneth.

  The streets were completely deserted, so the three friends walked side by side until they reached the widest street in Wisner, which went from the north gate to the south gate – the only two entrances to the city. They skirted around the glow of the gas lamps that lit the streets, squeezing into the tiniest shadows to bypass them as they drew ever closer to the south gate. The inner gate was lit with four electric lampposts instead of gas, allowing for a more reliable stream of light to illuminate the gate. The six men standing in the square of lights all wore black jackets.

  “These guys again?” grumbled Aldora as she, Raneth and Pedibastet snuck into a side alley and peered out towards them. “If they’re guarding it, I bet both the inner and outer gates are locked. How are we going to find the keys without them killing us?”

  “It might not be that hard,” replied Raneth, before turning and kicking at some newspaper pages scattered across the floor. He plucked a small stone from underneath one and flung it to the side of the black jackets.

  Aldora didn’t see where it landed, but she heard three tiny taps as the stone hit and rolled along the cobbled path. One of the closest men moved away from the other five without speaking to them.

  “They’re not trained to work
as a unit,” noted Raneth, looking at Aldora and giving her a hint of his usual lopsided smile. “I can knock one out and take his jacket, if you’re OK with that, A?”

  Aldora frowned and shook her head, watching the black jacket that had investigated the stone’s noise already returning. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said gently, taking hold of Raneth’s nearest elbow. “We will still need to get past the other five and they’ll notice their friend is missing after a while and go look for him. If you’re anywhere near them when they find him, you could get caught.”

  “I don’t want to form into my griffin-self unless we have no other options. It’s best to use it only for emergencies for now. What do you suggest?”

  Aldora watched the black jackets as she considered Raneth’s question. He had said it gently, without any irritation or anger in his voice. He simply wanted another idea to work with. I should be able to come up with something, she thought as she chewed on the inside of her left cheek. I can’t leave everything up to him. He’ll burn out.

  “We need to find a way over the city’s inner and outer defence walls that doesn’t involve going through the gates. Or I could just ask them to take us to Uncle Denzel.”

  “Your uncle wants me dead. That won’t end well.”

  “But, I…” Aldora observed Raneth’s irritated frown. “I want to try and talk to my uncle about you and other royal officials, and what he’s done to Giften. I want to try and talk him down.”

  “No,” grumbled Raneth. “It’s too dangerous. He has all the power right now.”

  “Says the royal official. Like I said in Newer, I’m not some delicate flower, Raneth. I’m the Dagger Bearer. I can do things too, just like you.”

  For a moment, Raneth didn’t respond. “Can you shoot a crossbow?” he asked after the silence, his voice low.

  Aldora frowned. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “If you could, you would have said yes. I know you’re not fragile but I’m the one with more training.” Raneth sighed as he scrubbed a hand down his face tiredly. “Sweetheart, I want to keep us safe, that’s all, and I don’t think your uncle is safe. Somehow he managed to get Cray to leave his kingdom in his hands. Do you understand how bad it is that that even happened? It would have taken a lot of pressure on Cray to make him do that, which means your uncle can lay it on thick, so he isn’t someone you want to test with the emotional strings of family commitment.”

  Aldora chewed at the inside of her cheek. Maybe after we’ve gotten some decent sleep he’ll think differently. Cray’s like an uncle to him in the same way Uncle Denzel is to me, but Cray’s been there for Raneth more than Uncle Denzel’s ever been there for me. He might need some time. I definitely need some time.

  “OK,” she murmured after a moment, loud enough for Raneth and Pedibastet to hear. “We need to get past those guys and get the keys to the gates, right?”

  The boys nodded.

  “But we don’t want to seriously hurt them, because otherwise that gives my uncle ammunition to use against you in the papers, and it will make those guys’ mates more determined to find us, which could get us in hot water.”

  “Yeah,” said Raneth.

  “What if we use my gift?” asked Aldora. “When I was in the arena in Newer and Inspector Ian came for me, I did a sort of air ripple which knocked him down the stairs. I could try and do that to all six of them at once, knock them out, and then we can rummage through their pockets until we find the keys. What do you think?”

  “If you’re sure you can take out all six at once, I don’t see any reason not to do it that way,” replied Raneth.

  “Good. Then we need to get close,” said Aldora. Before I get too scared and change my mind too.

  “We should walk up to them calmly,” suggested Pedibastet. “That way they won’t attack us like they would if we ran.”

  “Me first,” uttered Aldora as she stepped out from their cover and strode towards the black jackets.

  Raneth and Pedibastet flanked her on either side, and when Aldora glanced at Raneth, she spotted that the fingers of his left hand were twitching by his hip. He’s expecting this all to go belly up, she realised. Should I say something? Try and comfort him? She carefully observed her boyfriend’s blue eyes; he had them focused fully on the black jackets. They didn’t waver. He’s a royal official. He’s probably just letting his training kick in.

  She rubbed at her collarbone as she realised that she was watching Raneth to avoid worrying about what they were going to do next. Rely on my gift, she thought anxiously. Half the time it doesn’t even work. I screw up. Her heart started to beat faster against her chest, knocking out her fear so only she could hear it. She wrapped her arms around her torso. Please don’t let me mess it up this time. She thought over the training she had been given by Master Redler of the Royal Official University. It’s all in your imagination, emotions and experience. The more you use them, the quicker you master them, as long as you don’t get yourself killed by your own gift.

  The black jackets were watching them now, all six of them grouping close to one another to stand between the trio and their path to the gate. Good. That will make it easier to get all of them.

  Raneth glanced at Aldora. “You ready?”

  “We need to be a bit closer,” she whispered. “I don’t want to miss them in case it gets weaker the further away we are.”

  He nodded thoughtfully as one of the black jackets yelled at them to stop. “Here we go,” he uttered.

  Aldora strode closer to the black jackets, ignoring their second shout not to come any nearer. OK, she thought to herself. Just face them, bark like a fox and knock them all to the ground unconscious. One of the men in black jackets pointed at Raneth, yelling his name. They charged towards her, Raneth and Prince Pedibastet. She cleared her throat and took a deep inhale. Think of the fox’s bark. Think of it smashing into them and throwing them so hard against the gate they all get knocked out. She opened her mouth and yelled.

  The sharp yap of a bark erupted from her lips, a wave of air rippling outwards and smashing into the midriffs of each of the men. They flew backwards, swept off their feet, crashed into the metal gates and onto the ground. One slowly sat up, a hand pressed against his head as he winced at Aldora.

  A stream of white mist sped past Aldora. She heard the hard thump of something striking the man’s head and he slumped over. The Dagger Bearer watched a sphere of ice fall at the man’s side and roll onto the ground. She looked over her shoulder at Raneth again, to see him and Pedibastet jogging closer.

  Not wanting to waste any time, Aldora sheathed the Dagger and went over to the nearest black jacket. She rummaged in his pockets. Her hands curled around the familiar feel of Giften currency, and she withdrew the glibs and pocketed them.

  “Sorry,” she uttered. “But I suspect we’ll need it more than you.”

  She moved onto the next unconscious body as Raneth and Pedibastet reached her side. While Raneth pilfered another black jacket’s pockets, Aldora’s hand wrapped around a heavy slither of metal with two larger sections on the end. She pulled it out of the pocket and held it up.

  “Raneth, I think I’ve got it. Will the other gate need a different key?”

  “Probably not for the pedestrian doors,” replied Raneth. “Try it.”

  The Dagger Bearer stepped over two of the black jackets and pulled a third away from the bottom of the pedestrian door within the large gate. She slipped the key into the lock and turned it. The bolt snicked and Aldora smiled.

  “We’re good,” she told Raneth, though he and Pedibastet were already strolling closer. Aldora opened the door and stepped through.

  “Now we find out how a bookseller kicked Cray off his throne,” murmured Pedibastet as he jumped through the door. “Keep up, royal official.”

  Raneth ducked through the door. “I’m coming.” But he paused a moment to kiss Aldora’s cheek. “Nice work, A,” he uttered as she unlocked the outer gate’s doo
r.

  Chapter Three

  Raneth

  Reaching Green City, Raneth frowned as he eyed the sky. They’d walked all night. Though it was still dark, he could feel the tingle starting on his skin from his blood-gift, letting him know that he had a new opportunity to turn into his griffin-self if he wanted to, and that the sun was on its way. Late January promised a few more hours of darkness before the sun’s light would break through. They would have to use that time as best they could. If Wisner was anything to go by, things would be trickier once it was light. Raneth could just make out what appeared to be tendrils of smoke against the night’s sky, but with only the tiniest waft of the telltale smell, Raneth wasn’t sure. He looked to Prince Pedibastet, who was snuggled into Aldora’s arms.

  “Fire?” he asked.

  “Smells like there is,” said the Prince of the Cats, rubbing his brown cheek against the light skin of Aldora’s. “But I hear more than that too. Listen. I know my ears are superior, but you two must be able to hear some of it.”

  Raneth stilled his movements and eyed the capital city’s one defensive wall. Unlike the other settlements, which still had both their protective walls, Green had taken their inner wall down to build outwards, rather than reshaping the city’s internals or expanding a section of the wall to enable the expansion of the city. Beyond the wall, Raneth heard the sound of glass shattering and a chorus of voices celebrating. He winced. That can’t be good.

  At his side, Aldora was frowning. “Is that more of those people in black jackets by the gates? Can we avoid them? Are there royal official footholds into Green?”

  “Yeah,” confirmed Raneth to all three questions, squinting as he did his best to make out the gate in the dark. He nodded. There was definitely people guarding the closed gate. “The footholds are to the left of here, at the back of an empty hotel.” Thankfully in a quiet part of the city. Hopefully it’s still a quiet area...