"I must admit I'd hoped to see you again under better circumstances," the Queen said, breathing heavily as we pelted up the front stairs of the City Watch headquarters. Someone was swinging the great doors closed behind us and dropping the bar back into place. Edaine's Spirit Souls clustered all around us, glowing faintly and keeping a suspicious eye out on all sides even now that we were safe. I'd expected them all to be identical, but the one on the left was female and the one behind her was grizzled and bearded. Who knew why the Twins bothered with such specificity? Were the Souls the same each time they were summoned? Was there some trace of a real person in the Spirits of Korikana, or were they merely an armored, fighting bit of nothing? Worry about it later, stupid. Just be glad you've survived another fight. I'd gotten overwhelmed after jumping too deep into the fighting and not making sure anyone had followed me. Had Edaine and her Spirits not been in the Queen's group of fighters, that nasty Revenant Lord might have done me in. I'd been forced to pop my Sucking Void there near the end, and even then it had been a close call. I wished to the skies we'd been able to find and kill whoever had summoned that particular bit of nastiness, but getting the Queen to safety had trumped such concerns.

"It would be wise to start gathering all of my late husband's children together, if you can," she said softly as we mounted the steps. "Have you located any of them?"

My blood froze in my veins. "I, I… what?" I stammered.

"Be at ease, Hull," she said, somehow looking both comforting and hard enough to take on the entire enemy army herself. "If I bore you any ill will you'd have died a good while ago. I was a knowing participant in Hestorus's experiments, and I approved of his reasoning. He was our Legendary. He had a responsibility." She shook her head, seeming frustrated. "I can't quite conceive of the fact that he's gone."

"I'm… not sure, Your Majesty," I said, matching her soft tone. "There may be one, but I'm not positive."

She nodded briskly. "We'll need to speak to Gerard when the situation permits. I know he had put considerable effort into discovering as many of you as he could in recent weeks. Once he gets over his over-Ordered fixation on legitimacy, he'll realize the value in having as many strong souls nearby as possible. You'll help us find them and bring them in."

"He hates me," I blurted. "He wants to kill me."

She gave a steely nod. "I am aware. But he's wise enough to set that aside now that the city is at stake."

I wasn't even a little bit sure of that, but now hardly seemed the time to tell our sole surviving monarch that her son was an angry, self-obsessed piece of shit who'd let the world burn so long as his enemies suffered.

"Your Majesty," Lord Hintal said at the top of the stairs, going to one knee. "We thank the Twins for your safety."

"On your feet, Dormund," she said crisply. "You might as well thank General Edaine too, while you're at it. She's the one who got me out of the castle and kept me alive since."

"I hope I have not overstepped in beginning to organize the city's remaining defenses," the stiff City Watch commander said. "I will be greatly relieved to relinquish control of our forces here to the General, if you command it."

"I'm sure you've done admirably," the Queen said, sweeping past him, "but city peacekeeping is a different thing than running a war. Edaine, you'll step in."

Edaine, still resplendent in her Mythic armor despite a heavy layer of dust and blood, managed a bow even as she kept pace with the group entering the main operations room. I'd only seen her at a distance during the fighting. She threw me a nod when she saw me looking. I couldn't hold back a smile. Edaine was solid, and I was glad she'd be taking over. I was sure that Basil's dad was a decent man doing his best, but he was also an ass, and if I had to pass ten more words with him for the rest of my life, it'd be ten too many.

"We'll need to coordinate our knowledge and planning," Edaine said. "Time for a sit-down. The officer's balcony up there will do. Let's go. Hull, join us."

I headed for the narrow set of stairs leading up to the balcony only to be brought up short by the sound of Lord Hintal's voice. "I've already debriefed the boy. He won't be needed."

"He's one of my junior officers," Edaine said mildly.

"And a powerful summoner with a unique Source that overlaps our enemies," added the Queen. "He stays."

Watching Hintal swallow his complaints like spoiled milk warmed my ugly little heart. An hour into the meeting, I wished he'd gotten his way. It wasn't that I was uninterested in the defense of the city; far from it. It was simply that every decision was debated back and forth from a dozen angles until I could barely make sense of anything any more. I just ran at things, hit them hard, and told my demons to do the same. More complex maneuvers were for the nobility, but now I was stuck listening to them and nodding like I knew my ass from my elbow when, in these matters at least, I didn't. The only real news I gleaned was that Gale was acting as messenger between the Queen's group and the bulk of the King's army outside the walls. I watched Lord Hintal swell with pride and beetle his brow in concern at the same time when he heard it. Somehow this family in the lowest tier of the city's nobility had ended up with its sons mixed up in the heat of everything.

Stolen novel; please report.

The army was holding fast outside the city until the situation was clearer. Most of the Orcs seemed to have wandered off in disinterest once Hestorus had died; apparently they had a strong distaste for cities and refused to enter. Only their general Targa'Thul and a handful of his most loyal followers remained, camped out directly in the breach of the city's wall to receive messengers from their allies inside. The demons and undead had infested the city, leaving our army with uncontested control of the surrounding countryside. Hintal was pushing for an immediate attack from our outside forces, and Edaine seemed in cautious agreement, though she hadn't committed to anything yet.

There was a sudden, subtle change in the air next to me even though I knew nobody else had come up the stairs to the balcony. "Holy Twins," Afi said, dropping to one knee as soon as she was visible. "Your Majesty, forgive my intrusion."

"This is Afi, a commoner girl sponsored by House Erlun," Hintal said.

"I remember her, Dormund," the Queen said. "But I don't remember that." Edaine, who'd been poring over a map of the city, also looked keenly interested in Afi's sudden appearance.

"She elevated during the fighting," the officious prick said, seeming inordinately pleased to have information to spill to the Queen. "She can enter her Mind Home and travel through some adjacent plane to find people she knows well."

Afi fidgeted, clearly uneasy at having her ability exposed to so many people all at once, but with the Queen herself at the table, it wasn't as if she could really make a complaint. "At your service, Your Majesty," she said, bowing her head.

"I had her search out my son Basil to reconnoiter within the castle," Hintal said. "Report." He flicked a hasty glance at the Queen and then another at Edaine. "If it's appropriate at the moment," he added.

"Go on," the Queen said, a study of poise and power. "And please, have a seat with us."

Afi took a deep breath, seeming to realize she was treading in the same deep waters that had been closing over my head for the last hour. "Basil is being held by the lich, who is using some kind of Artifact on him – and a few others – though I didn't have time to find out why."

Now this I could focus on. "Is he all right?" I blurted.

Hintal and a couple of his senior officers at the table shot me glares, incredulous that I would speak out of turn in the presence of the Queen, but neither she nor Edaine seemed bothered.

She hesitated. "He didn't look great. But he refused rescue, so it can't be all that bad."

There was something she wasn't saying; I could feel it. My stomach churned. I had to get to him. I had to.

Hintal clenched his fists. "You could have brought him out and you didn't?"

Afi shook her head. "Turns out I can't carry anyone with me, at least not at my current level of elevation. I tried, my Lord. I'm sorry."

"Continue," Edaine said as the Watch commander bowed his head and tried to master his emotions.

"He said Azure is hidden in the castle and wreaking havoc."

"Good," said the Queen fiercely.

"Anything else?" Edaine said.

Afi opened her mouth, glanced sidelong at me, and pressed her lips shut again, looking irresolute.

"Out with it, girl," the Queen said.

With a grimace, Afi complied. "He asked for Hull to come to the castle. He's got some asinine idea about bringing Esmi back to life."

I clutched the table. "Esmi's dead?"

She nodded, reaching out to grip my shoulder. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Esmi was dead. I'd worried about it, but now that I'd heard it I couldn't quite wrap my mind around it.

"I feared as much," Edaine sighed. "No one had seen her since the fighting outside the walls."

Basil had to be out of his mind with grief. Twins, how can she really be dead?

"It sounded almost as if he intended to turn Hull over to the vampires for vengeance," Afi said, disgusted. "Seems he killed one of them. Or maybe it was something about him getting the King's vault key from his mother? I wasn't totally clear on it."

The Queen's eyes drilled into her. "Yveda the Changer has the vault key?"

Once again I froze. She knew about my mother?

She saw me tense. "I knew her in the days when she was courting Hestorus. It wasn't until later that I found her true identity. We were friends for a time, believe it or not."

I thought of my mother in her disguise at the Gala, cozying up to the Queen and making jokes. Had she known who it was? Certainly not, or I imagined she would have done something about having a powerful demon in our midst. Now wasn't the time for that particular revelation.

"Perhaps the boy could do some good if he went in after Basil," Hintal said. He was trying to sound casual, but I could see the way his hands were white at the knuckle where they clasped together.

"Absolutely not," Edaine said. "He's too useful on a strike team to simply hand over."

They began to argue the point back and forth, and I wondered if I had any say in the matter. Don't be stupid. They may need your help, but nobody asks an attack dog whether it wants to get into the ring for another fight.

The Queen interrupted them by standing up. "Hull will enter the castle."

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"What?" Edaine echoed.

"Hestorus told me long ago that his vault held exactly what was needed to save us should he fall. That was the reason I delayed so long in leaving the castle; I had hoped he'd secreted it somewhere for me to find. Apparently the damnable man had it on him when he died. We must recover it, and we cannot allow our enemies to access it."

"They may have done so already, Your Majesty," Edaine warned.

"No," she said confidently. "I can assure you they are missing a key component to gain access." She turned to me. "Do this, Hull, and anything you ask of me will be yours. Nothing is more important."

"And if you have a chance to help Basil…" Lord Hintal said, somehow managing to make it sound both a threat and a plea.

I swallowed. "So, what? I'm supposed to just walk up and knock on the gates?"

"You have a cadre of demons at your command and your mother is in control of the castle," she said, unyielding. "They will let you in."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. I'd be able to help Basil, or at least see him, maybe. And somehow this vault had something we needed too. "We didn't exactly part on good terms, my mother and I."

"I know her, Hull. No matter what she or you have said, she will let you in. Out of curiosity, if nothing else." She tilted her chin up. "You are a sworn officer, are you not? Your Queen commands this of you."

Afi had her eyes screwed shut and was shaking her head. Her lips were moving as if she were arguing with herself. She seemed upset. She didn't notice when I looked to her for support. Hintal was nodding at me, eyes pleading. Edaine gave me a tiny shrug.

"Well, shit," I said. "I guess I'm headed to the castle."

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