Or was the plan simply to let the Adlin cause their havoc while she ran back to her queen, as the wind had suggested?
I rounded the last corner and hit the long straight stretch of road that led down to the inner wall. There were guards lining the top of it now, and more struggling to climb the walls. All of them were armed. Normally, the reserve force would only be called out under the direst of circumstances, so what on earth was happening in the outer bailey?
Were Ava and April safe?
I took a deep breath that barely even tickled my throat let alone filled my lungs, and tried to remain calm. I had to concentrate on finding Hedra, on stopping her, if everyone both here and in the outer bailey were to have any chance of halting the larger threat of the Adlin.
I hit the brake as I neared the locked-down inner gates. The carriage slewed sideways for several feet before it came to a shuddering halt. I threw my mask on the seat and then climbed out. Two men and a woman were running toward me, all of them wearing breathing masks. I hoped like hell someone had thought to issue them in the outer bailey.
My own breathing remained short and sharp, but my lungs weren’t burning. The wind stirred just enough air around me to keep me upright even if that fierce vacuum continued.
“Did the lady Hedra come down here sometime in the last half hour or so?” I had to shout to be heard above the noise of the sirens.
“Yes,” the woman—a regular soldier rather than one of the reserves—said. “But she’s caught in the outer bailey.”
“What happens there?”
“We don’t know,” she said, and then motioned toward the Upper Reaches. “You should return to your house, m’lady. It’s not safe here.”
Meaning she hadn’t seen my stain. “I need to get into the outer bailey—”
“There is no way inside,” she said. “The doors are secured and cannot be opened until the all clear is given.”
I swore softly. “Where’s your captain?”
“Up on the wall, but—”
I didn’t wait for the rest of her answer. I just headed for the nearest steps that climbed the steep wall, the wind at my back, feeding me air, telling me to hurry. If the soldiers chased me, I couldn’t hear them.
My lungs were burning when I finally reached the walkway at the top of the inner wall. I ran to the parapet, one hand gripping the nearest merlon as I leaned out.
Below me was chaos. There were soldiers everywhere, but many of them were either on their knees gasping for breath, or unconscious. I couldn’t see either Ava or April amongst those littering the ground, so maybe they’d made it to the wall. Not that it would make them that much safer—not against a wind that was sucking away the air. I scanned the rest of the area but couldn’t see Hedra anywhere. Maybe she was standing in the shadows of this wall.
At least the gates were still closed… but for how much longer if this wind continued to batter them was a question I really didn’t want an answer to.
The wind stirred again, bringing with it the sound of running steps. I glanced to my left and saw several armed soldiers coming toward me. While they’d probably release me the minute they confirmed my identity, every instinct said I couldn’t afford any sort of delay. That if I wanted to stop Hedra and save my friends I had to get down there, into the outer bailey, as soon as I could.
Run, the wind whispered.
Run where? It wasn’t like the wall provided any real choice, given it, like the outer bailey wall, ended with a sheer drop to the sea.
Trust, the wind whispered. Run
I did, even as I wondered at my sanity for doing so. The soldiers behind me shouted at my reaction, and I had no doubt orders were being issued along the line for soldiers to stop me at all costs—and no sooner had that thought crossed my mind when it started to happen. I swore and barreled through a couple of ill-prepared attempts but the farther I got along the line, the harder it became.
Jump, the wind said again.
I glanced over the parapet and the long drop down to the outer bailey. Not on your life.
Or my life, in this case.
Trust, the wind said. No harm will come.
I ducked under the blow of a soldier, and barely avoided the desperate attempts of two others. Rain-slicked skin helped, but for how much longer?
The wind didn’t reply. Instead, she amplified a sound that chilled my heart—a male voice ordering weapons to be fired.
They’d kill me rather than let me get any farther along this wall.
It left me with little choice. I took two steps and leapt high over the parapet.
And hoped like hell the wind kept her promise.
8
Everything became a blur as I dropped down the sheer edge of the inner wall. Far below me lay the hard stone rooftops of the bunkhouses, but hitting them rather than the ground wouldn’t make all that much difference. There was probably only a couple of hundred feet difference between the two and—from this height—the result would be the same: my flesh splattered ingloriously across the stone.
The wind didn’t seem inclined to check or hinder the speed of my drop, and it made me wonder—far too late—if perhaps the voice I’d heard advising me to jump belonged to Hedra, using my trust of wind’s voice against me.
But as I drew closer to the ground, the air surged, buffeting and bruising my body even as she gripped me. The speed of my fall began to ease, but the urgency I could hear within her was growing.
I hit the wet rooftop hard enough to send a shudder of pain through my entire body, and stumbled forward several feet as the wind abruptly released me, and I struggled to keep my balance.
A shout had me reaching for my knife and spinning around. The air was so thin that even though I hadn’t been here long, my lungs were beginning to burn and my head was pounding. There were unconscious soldiers everywhere on the ground below, their clothes and hair fluttering in the almost violent exodus of oxygen toward the gates. But some of the Nightwatch had managed to grab breathing apparatus, and many of them were now heading up the stairs to the walls. Walls that were shuddering under multiple impacts, something I could feel through the stones under my feet.
So where was Hedra?
There was no sign of her in the immediate area. I ran to the edge of the roof, leapt down to the walkway and pounded along, the sound of my steps lost in the cacophony of noise coming from both the sirens and the roar of the Adlin. On the second bunkhouse level, there were at least a dozen unconscious Daywatch soldiers lying across the walkway, and several had breathing masks they hadn’t been able to strap on in time. I scooped up one, hurriedly tying on the small tank before pulling on the mask. It didn’t immediately help either the burning in my lungs or the pounding in my head, but that was to be expected. I jumped over the railing and dropped down to the ground. No one paid me any attention—all those who remained awake and aware were focused on the wall and the Adlin, none of them realizing the real threat lay within the walls, not without.
I paused, and looked around. Logically, Hedra wouldn’t be out in the open. She’d either be hidden in the deeper shadows, out of the immediate sight of any Nightwatch officer, or perhaps even in one of the two emergency shelters used to protect noncombatants caught within the outer bailey during an attack.
Former, the wind whispered. Ahead.
Ahead was not a useful instruction given the sheer size of the outer bailey. Nevertheless, I ran on, my grip fierce on the knife as my gaze constantly swept the shadows, looking for any hint, any sign, of life.
The pull on the air got stronger, seeming to crystalize in thought and determination. Urgency beat at my brain even as the wind tore around me, harrying my steps, pressuring me to greater speed. I all but flew across the wet stones, and still, there was no sign of her.