a smile. That’s how I think of myself now. I don’t even have to try anymore.
Another earthquake sent the mechanical horses stumbling, but when it passed, they stood upright. The guards and militiamen shook in their saddles. There was a moment of calm as the first sign of light appeared on the horizon. Out in the desert a whip-poor-will called, its plaintive cry echoing through the darkness.
Then, on the horizon, a dark cloud began to rise. Miles wide, miles high, black and billowing, sweeping toward Elysium with the speed of a thousand freight trains. But this time, everyone knew it for what it was: the army of Sentinels, sent to judge Elysium. Asa could feel the weight of them in the air. The cavalry stood their ground—how could anyone run from something that was as wide as the sky?—and as the black dust cloud neared, it slowed and came to a stop about thirty feet from the Sacrifice. The cloud began to condense, to shrink, until all of it somehow was contained in the enormous, terrifying forms of one hundred Sentinels, one hundred Dust Soldiers, waiting for instruction. Asa could feel the fear emanating from Elysium’s soldiers, but, true to Susanah’s instruction, they did not falter.
A lone Dust Soldier broke from the others, moving toward the Sacrifice. It examined the pile of crops and sacks of liquor and dry goods, summing it up.
Then it snapped its fingers.
The entirety of the Sacrifice began to blacken and shrink before his eyes, like ashes without a fire, until all of it, everything, was swept away by the wind. Then a great voice that sounded like all the cosmos speaking as one shouted, DEATH HAS BEEN JUDGED THE WINNER.
Asa swallowed the bile in his throat. Just as he thought. Now all She had to do was claim Her win. The Dust Soldiers unsheathed their scimitars. It was time. Time to break the Game.
“Charge!” cried Susanah, holding her spear aloft. She and Mowse lurched forward, their horse leaping into battle. The cavalry surged after them, shouting out their war cry, their spears held like knights’ lances. On the wall, Zo gave the command. Fifty shotguns went off, aiming for the Dust Soldiers in the back. He heard Cassandra cry out a command, and the cavalry suddenly looked twice as massive, copies of each horse and rider exploding into life, launching themselves toward the Dust Soldiers. There was a resounding clash of swords and spears, of clanging metal and screams of the wounded and the roar of dust over it all.
Asa’s palms sweated. He had seen wars and conflicts before. They were half of human history, it seemed. He had thought he was sure before, but being here in it, officially part of it, was something different entirely. To fight now meant fighting against all that he had ever been. To raise a hand against these Dust Soldiers now was to defy the order of the universe. It was choosing a punishment at the end of all of this, greater than any that had befallen any daemon in history, all so these humans could have the chance to live.
But that was what Sal would do. It was what Olivia would do. And it was what all these rushing human soldiers were doing now: risking everything on the off chance that they could make a better life for their friends even if they, themselves, never lived to see it. And, Asa realized, it was what he wanted to do. His heart was human now, through and through. And humanity, true humanity, he realized, was sacrifice.
Asa cracked his knuckles, stretched his hands, and sent an arc of infernal flame down at the rushing Dust Soldiers. He had never felt so sure.
Lucy left the hospital and went house to house, bringing water rations to the people huddled under tables and praying beside beds. Every so often she stopped and collapsed against the side of a building, wheezing, spluttering blood, wondering each time she gasped for air if it would be her last breath. The ground seemed to roll beneath her feet, and beyond the wall, she could hear the screams of the soldiers and the infernal shrieking of the Dust Soldiers. Mud rose in Lucy’s chest. She fell against the side of the Robertson house, pounding her burning chest, trying to shake loose the mud before it choked her completely.
She felt a firm hand clapping her on the back. It thudded against her again and again, until finally, the