whiff of power. His supporters are vocal, but his base is small. In order to truly push his agenda, he must ally himself with an established force. But I admit that even I was intrigued at first. For the whole of autumn, his ideas seemed to glitter inside my head. He spoke of a glorious future for our Kind, and I wanted so badly to help him create it. But it was a tangle of lies, Lady. A fox’s trick.”
At Crier’s confused look, she continued. “It’s from an old human story. Once, during a long and terrible winter, Fox and Bear were afraid that their children would starve. Their milk had dried up and they were both too weak to hunt. Everybody knew that Fox was the cleverest animal in the whole forest, so Bear went to her and begged for help. ‘My children are hungry,’ she said. ‘I can hear their bellies at night. What should I do?’ And Fox told her, ‘Last week, Brother Wolf attacked the farm on the edge of this forest. He killed one sheep and two fat hens. Now the humans are scared. Go to them peacefully and tell them that in exchange for one fresh hen per day, you will guard their hens and livestock from the wolves. You are weakened, but your body is big and your teeth are sharp. Brother Wolf will not cross you.’
“So Bear did as Fox said. That night, she left her cubs in their den and traveled to the farm on the edge of the forest. She knocked very gently on the farmer’s door and said, ‘I come peacefully. Please let me in.’ And the farmer opened the door only to sink his hunting knife into Bear’s heart. He thought it was another attack, you see.”
Crier watched Junn’s face as she spoke. Junn’s eyes were focused on something that did not seem to exist in this room, something visible only to her.
“What happened next?” Crier asked. “Did Fox steal the farmer’s chickens?”
“No,” said Junn. “Fox waited until Bear’s children died of starvation. Then she ate them. The meat of two bear cubs was enough to last Fox and her kits through the final weeks of winter. She had hunted without ever lifting a paw.”
“So she killed Bear on purpose.”
“Weren’t you listening?” asked Junn. “Fox didn’t kill Bear. The farmer did. When the other animals discovered what had happened, they all blamed Bear for going mad. ‘Walking right up to the farmer’s door,’ they said. ‘What a fool.’ And Fox nodded along with them, and nobody ever found out what she had done.”
She looked at Crier closely, searching her face.
“So Kinok is the fox,” Crier said. “Clever and deceiving.”
The queen smiled. “No, my dear. Kinok is the wolf.” She paused and stared at Crier for a moment. Then she said, “I want you to be the fox.”
Her words moved over Crier like a wave of arctic air. “You said he spoke of a future for our Kind,” she said slowly. “What future is that?”
“The New Era.” The smile had left Junn’s face. “The Golden Era. To the Scyre, it’s a travesty that we still inhabit human cities—he thinks of us as vultures picking at dead things, living on the bones of a failed civilization. The true dreams of the Anti-Reliance Movement go far beyond just one capital city. He wants to raze all the old cities to the ground and build new cities, Made cities, Designed entirely for our Kind. Cities where humans are not only unwelcome but incapable of survival. Let them struggle, starve, kill one another off until they are, as his supporters would put it, ‘no longer our problem.’ And that’s not all. He wants to Make a new breed of Automae. He wants the next generation of our Kind to be even stronger, sharper. With no human pillars at all. And most importantly, most desperately, he wants to end our reliance on the Iron Heart.”
“He . . . he did mention something like this to me.” Crier’s mind whirred, overwhelmed by all the information.
“He claimed to have discovered a new source of power.”
“Yes, he told me of his idea, but . . .”
Junn gave her a long, level look. “My lady, you of all people should know that there is no such thing as just an idea.” Junn leaned forward again. “It is not merely philosophical. It is very real. The Anti-Reliance Movement is already under way. The Scyre’s followers drink his words like