can say.” She looked around the parapet. “Where are the bairn?”
I gestured toward my bulging front. “Isla is here, um, Archie is in the nursery. Emma is watching him.”
She screeched, “Ye hae a bairn on the walls?! I hae never heard of such a thing!”
“I have just watched my husband walk across those fields. I am not leaving the walls until I know what is happening with him.”
She threw her hands up in the air. “Quentin, did ye ken he was turning himself in?”
“Yes, ma’am, we went and negotiated with Lord Philip Delapointe and this was the only arrange—”
“Sean, what hae ye done about it?”
Sean said, “I was raisin’ an army tae go fight tae bring him home.”
She looked around the walls. “These men? Ye were goin’ tae fight with these men tae rescue Magnus? Someone should hae come tae see me at the first sign of trouble.”
I said, “The vessels don’t work.”
“Yes! Of course they dinna! I turned them off so I could handle this all at one time and—”
“You can do that? How come we haven’t done that before...?”
“Because I am under no orders tae tell ye anythin’ about the vessels. Ye are tae use them with m’permission and my instructions only.“
While we were speaking, her drones rose into the air, forming a line across the fields, hovering above the tanks. She asked, “Is Chef Zach’s son, Ben still here?”
“Yes.”
She pulled a small twist of gold thread from a fur bag at her waist. “This is enough for three — daena lose them.” She tapped behind her ears and gestured along the base of her skull. “Ye will take the thread and stretch it from here tae here along the back of the bairn’s head.” I glimpsed a strip of thread on the back of her own neck.
“What does it do?”
“Twill protect them from the worst feelings of the jumps—”
“What the... are you serious?”
“Of course I am serious, Kaitlyn. Ye canna jump with bairn and expect everythin’ tae be—”
“I mean, are you serious — why have you never told us about this before?”
“Why would I tell you this?”
“Because your son almost died! Because every time we jump it’s the worst fucking thing ever! Because I want a piece of thread on the back of my own head if it will help!”
“I daena hae enough, and so it’s only for the bairn. Be reasonable for once and apply it tae their heads.”
I took the threads. I was so fucking completely irritated and hoped Magnus would live though this whole thing so that I could tell him about how she had this all along and never. Once. Fucking. Mentioned it.
“Now who else is here? Ye need tae send Zach and his family and yer own bairn away, verra fast.”
“Where?”
“Florida is fine now, ye can go there as long as yer security is up tae par. Quentin, is yer security goin’—”
I interrupted, “Magnus and I were thinking Maine.”
She turned back to me. “Why would ye want tae go there? Tis cold! Go tae Florida, ye hae yer home there.”
“Fine, when you see him, will you tell him, make sure he knows?”
“Of course.” She stalked away.
The drones began to amplify a voice, one I recognized as Hammond’s, loudly, “Release the King,” a pause and then repeating, “Release the king,” another pause, “Release the king.”
The enemy tanks opened fire, shooting at the walls.
I shrieked, clapped my hands over my ears and then clapped them over Isla’s ears, almost dropping the gold thread. Explosions, stone rubble flying up, the walls shacking. I cowered at the top of the stairs, pushed aside as men raced up and down. “Please, let me down, please!”
I saw an opening and dove in between two men as another explosion rocked the castle walls. “Fuck, fuck, fuck...” I tried to keep from falling down as the man behind me almost overtook me. Passing a window, I heard the drones again: “Release the king! Release the king!” I pressed against the wall so a man could barrel past me to join the fighting.
At the bottom step Quentin joined me and we raced to the nursery. “We got to get you out of here.” Zach and Emma were waiting just within the doors, holding Ben and Archie who were crying desperately. Zach and Emma were on the verge of panic, you could see it in their eyes.
Emma asked, “Is Magnus going to be okay?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know at all.” I added, “Hold Ben’s hair up. Like this.” She pulled up