amplified her sound, carrying the tone across the city to the dust storm. Several cracks appeared across the faces of the nearest red stones.
The kraken slowed.
It was working!
“Ommmm.” Roa glued his gaze to the kraken. “Ommmm.”
His queen, too attuned to his energies, lost control. Roa immediately focused on her, but it was already too late. Her low tone escalated to a soul-shattering shriek.
Gailen’s bones ached, and the other warriors moaned and shuddered. Behind him, all the mating gemstones fell off the Life Tree. Hairline cracks appeared around the knot in the bark.
The damaged red stones shattered.
Her terrible shriek died away.
“Ah.” The warriors en masse relaxed.
Beyond the city, the kraken stopped as though the All-Council army was reassessing the danger. A few tentacles went wild, seemingly under their own control again, and they smashed into the warriors.
The units carrying the red stones quickly changed formations and spread out.
The wild tentacles went limp and drifted on the current, then dug into the ground at the edge of the city. The outermost ring of castles bobbed and jostled together.
“Again,” Lieutenant Diras ordered Roa.
He wrinkled his nose. “Ommmm.”
His queen had barely controlled the tone for an instant before escalating to a soul-crushing shriek.
It echoed inside Gailen’s chest cavity and tore at his brain.
The gemstones around his feet shattered with horrifying pops, and the cracks in the trunk deepened, peeling back from the inner wood, exposing it to poisonous seawater.
Her shriek again died away, and the Atlantis warriors clutching their heads relaxed.
Gailen grabbed the adamantium knife and cut the split bark, cauterizing the Life Tree’s wounds and excising the poison. He felt flayed to the muscle beneath his skin.
If Starr were here, she could make this tone. She could help Queen Jasleen.
Starr…
But all he sensed from her was pain and panic.
Another red stone shattered.
The kraken turned away from the city. A full third of it broke free, and those tentacles grabbed enemy warriors and mashed them into its one functioning beak. War cries turned to screams. It was horrifying, and the army surged away from that side of the kraken.
But that still left two-thirds of the monster focused on the city. The units controlling the red stones forced two-thirds of the kraken forward. Those tentacles wrapped around the outer castles and tore them from the ground. Pelan’s castle, Iyen’s castle. Endi’s castle. The castle of Lieutenant Diras. Their stalks severed.
Pain lanced Gailen’s chest.
The Life Tree shrieked.
“Again!” Lieutenant Diras roared.
“Your Life Tree cannot survive another cry,” Roa shouted back.
“We cannot survive without it!”
The All-Council must have realized the same thing. They forced the kraken deeper into the city. It was a race now to see who could withstand the most destruction and whether the kraken would reach the Life Tree before they could break the last mirror stone.
But Roa was right that the Life Tree could not endure another uncontrolled shriek.
And Lieutenant Diras was right that they could not survive without it.
They were both right.
Gailen hugged the trunk. “Protect the Life Tree. Shore it up.”
The patrol obeyed him instantly.
Lieutenant Diras hugged the bark beside him. “We are not queens.”
“I know, but our blood contains its sap. We may not be strong, but we must try.”
The innermost ring of castles tore away, revealing the full mud storm and the terrible clacking maws of the kraken.
Queen Jasleen puffed out her spines, forcing Roa away from her as she stabbed him through the wrist, chest, and sides, and she blindly screamed way too high.
The Life Tree shuddered. The bark fractured beneath Gailen’s fingers.
He dug in and rested his forehead against the tree he had tended for years, trying to dig within him for what it needed. If he could only be strong enough. If he could only be enough.
The shriek needled his spine as the kraken’s tentacles curled around the Life Tree and the dais shook uncontrollably.
And then another tone overlayed the shriek. “Ommmm.”
The last red stones cracked and disintegrated.
The dais stopped shaking.
A bright warm light glowed from beneath Gailen’s fingers. The Life Tree responded to the proper tone and amplified it, cauterizing its wounds as the queen power channeled through it.
He pulled back and turned.
The All-Council warriors surged away from the city, fleeing from the stilled kraken.
A group of queens descended on the city, their bright shield glowing with soothing peacefulness across the war-torn land. One familiar face led the way with her prince in her arms.
“Queen Elyssa,” Gailen murmured.
Lieutenant Diras turned and fell to his knees on the dais. “Praise the Life Tree.”
The kraken’s round squid eyes