The warriors all fell to one knee before me. ‘What are your wishes, Your Majesty?’ one of them said.
‘Aw, pelicans,’ Kaz swore.
24601
Many of you in the Free Kingdoms have heard about the day I was crowned king of Mokia. It’s become quite the legend. And legends have a habit of being exaggerated.
In a way, a legend is like an organism – a virus or a bacteria. It begins as a fledgling story, incubating in just a couple of people. It grows as it is passed to others, and they give it strength. Mutating it. Enlarging it. It grows grander and grander, infecting more and more of the population, until it becomes an epidemic.
The only cure for a legend is pure, antiseptic truth. That’s partially why I began writing these books. How did I end up leading Mokia? Well, I was never really king – just ‘acting monarch’ as they put it. I was the highest-ranked person in the town, but only because most everyone else had either fallen or been sent away.
So no, I didn’t heroically take up the king’s sword in the middle of battle, as the legend says. My ascent to the throne was not announced by angelic voices. Very little heroism was involved.
But there was a whole lot of confusion.
‘What?’ I demanded. ‘I can’t be king! I’m only thirteen years old!’
‘You’re not our king, my lord,’ one of the Mokians said. ‘Just our acting monarch.’
Another rock boomed against the city’s dome. Spiderweb cracks formed up the side of the glass.
‘Well, what do I do?’ I asked, glancing at Kaz, Aydee, and Bastille for support.
‘Someone has to make the decision for us, my lord,’ said one of the Mokian soldiers. ‘The king was about to surrender. Do we go through with it, or do we fight?’
‘You’re going to make me decide?’
They just kept kneeling around me, waiting.
I looked over my shoulder, toward the Librarian camp. The sky was black, but the area around the city was lit as if by floodlights. I could see several places where the Librarians were digging tunnels, using some kind of strange, rodlike devices that appeared to vibrate the dirt and make it move away. The robots kept throwing rocks against the dome.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Just moments before, I’d been incredulous that the king would even consider surrender. But now the same question fell on me, and it terrified me. I had just seen people die. Librarian soldiers who had come to kill – or at least incapacitate – the king. Could I send the Mokian warriors to perhaps suffer the same fate?
Talk of bravery and freedom was one thing. But it felt different to actually be the one who made the decision. If I gave the order, the men and women who got hurt, killed, or knocked out would be my responsibility. That was a lot to heap on the shoulders of a thirteen-year-old kid who hadn’t even known about Mokia six months ago. And people wonder why I’m so screwed up.
‘We fight,’ I said quietly.
This seemed to be the answer the soldiers were waiting for. They yelped in excitement, raising their spears – which, as I’d just learned, doubled as flamethrowers and could also shoot a stunning blast like the Librarian guns.
‘You,’ I said, picking the Mokian who’d been doing the talking. He was a lanky fellow with a lot of war paint and his black hair in a buzz cut. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Aluki,’ he said proudly. ‘Sergeant of the wall guard.’
‘Well, you’re now acting as my second in command.’ I glanced at the sky, cringing as another rock hit the dome. Above, the moon shone full and bright. The same moon that shone on the Hushlands. ‘What time is it? How long until dawn?’
‘It’s not even eleven yet,’ Kaz said, checking his pocket watch. ‘Seven hours, maybe?’
‘Spread the word,’ I said to the soldiers on the wall around me. ‘We have to survive for only seven hours. Help will come after that.’
They nodded, running off to pass the word. Aluki stayed with me. I turned to the side; Bastille was regarding me with folded arms. I cringed, waiting for her to scour me with condemnations for being so arrogant as to let the Mokians make me king.
‘We’ll need to do something about those tunnels,’ she said. ‘We won’t hold out for long if teams keep slipping into the city like that.’
‘Huh?’ I asked.
‘Don’t forget the robots,’ Kaz said as a rock hit above. ‘Woodpeckers! That glass is close to cracking. If the dome falls, the tunnels will be our last concern.’