I will not lead the Ground Guard to Irades. Nothing can justify the slaughter of thousands of innocents for the sake of one man’s twisted ego, so you might as well hang me now and be done with it!”
“Shut him up.” Falka’s voice was a quiet hiss, but Tauran still heard it. In its wake, murmurs rolled through the crowd, turning to shouts. Roric gripped Emilian by the throat.
In the chaos, Tauran seized the moment, the crowd stumbling back several paces when Ibi-shao moved. “Falka has been lying to you! All of you, for years!” Tauran shouted. “He’s a manipulative snake, and this is only one point on a whole list of things he’s doing behind your backs!”
“Tauran!” Falka’s shout gave Tauran pause, and Tauran hated it. In the past, Falka had used that exact tone to make him focus, to draw Tauran’s head out of the clouds. Tauran, in his desperation to impress the man he’d seen as the father he’d so desperately longed for, had done his best to obey. “Do you not see how you’re scaring these people?” Falka swiped a hand at the crowd. “You arrive here, in my city, on the back of the beast that has tormented the good citizens of Valreus for months, hurt and killed their loved ones. And now you’re shouting accusations at me, the one man standing between them and death from above, the man who devoted years of his life to your future. It’s not too late to come around, Tauran. You were a son to me. You still are.”
Tauran’s face heated. His entire body was hot. He felt like a child, chastised. He knew it was manipulation. He knew now, like he hadn’t before, that Falka didn’t have a shred of concern for him or his future. Tauran glanced over the crowd. They didn’t know that. They looked at Falka with admiration, seeking his protection. In their eyes, Tauran really was a traitor, arriving in their city on a creature of death. How many lies had Falka spread about his treason in the months he’d been gone? Valreus’ golden son breaking his father’s heart. Tauran had no sway here.
Two guards yanked Emilian into position under the noose. Shouts of ‘hang him!’ and ‘dirty traitor!’ echoed through the soldiers, rippling slowly to the crowd beyond. Tauran clenched his jaw. This was why they had all come. To see a rebel hung. He had to act now, before it was too late.
A fawn-colored blur whipped past Tauran. Sorcha extended her wings, claws outstretched. She grabbed the overhang of the platform and yanked, the wood groaning and splintering.
Shots tore through the air and Tauran ducked, a bullet glancing off Ibi-shao’s shoulder with a spark. A deep, angry growl rumbled out of her and she twisted her head, closing her jaws around the upper body of a soldier at her feet. Tauran felt her bite down through the flexing muscles of her neck and he tore his gaze away, searching the platform. Falka was gone. So was Roric. The attention was off Emilian, the guards jabbing their bayonets at Sorcha’s outstretched wings as she snapped at them. Catria could handle the guards. Tauran just had to hold the surrounding soldiers’ attention long enough for her to free Emilian and go.
Another shot whistled past Tauran’s head, and he hissed. He had to get off Ibi-shao’s back. He was a sitting duck.
Clinging to her scales, he slipped onto her bent elbow. When she crouched, he hung from his arms and dropped the rest of the way. His feet hitting the cobblestones too hard made him buckle, and he groaned, looking up in time to see a ground soldier charging at him. Tauran reached for the gun in his belt, drew, cocked and aimed. Ibi-shao’s jaws clamped around the soldier’s torso with a sound that rattled Tauran’s bones. People screamed and ran. Tauran backed underneath Ibi-shao’s belly as she swiped her tail across the space around her, the tail spike dragging against stone like nails across a chalkboard, severing the legs of two soldiers at once.
A thundering roar made them all still. The hairs on Tauran’s body rose.
The sound of beating wings preceded the appearance of a dark form in the sky, casting a shadow over the square. Falka’s titan, Excellor, landed in the cleared space across from Ibi-shao.
Ibi-shao turned her attention from the soldiers to the new challenger. For a moment, the only sound was the rumble of deep growls vibrating through the ground