Nanowrimo Day 29
Yin's eyes were cold. "I said I'd see this thing to the end, and I will," he said. "Every step of the way, I'm coming with you."
Tamara looked to the palace. She felt strangely attracted to it, as if someone inside was calling to her. "I think the girl we're supposed to crown is there already," she said quietly.
"Of course she is," Brittany said. "Didn't you feel her before?" She turned to Ammu. "How about you?"
Ammu smiled. "I've come this far," she said. "Might as well come the rest of the way."
"Okay, then it's decided," Brittany said. "Come on, we'll need to be fast here. I'll beat my drum, but there's no telling who's watching us from the palace."
"Right." And then it was time for them to set off.
Tamara felt exposed more than anything else, as they jogged across the vast green space to the palace. There was nothing else moving, other than their own motley crew, and other than their footsteps, there was complete silence. Not even the sound of a bird disturbed them.
"We're almost within normal arrow range," Midori said.
Tamara nodded, and saw Candace nod beside her. "We're going to make it through this," she said quietly.
"Yeah," Candace replied.
"Just a little more," Midori muttered.
They passed whatever invisible boundary she was seeing, but nothing happened. They kept going, unmolested. Midori still looked tense, though, and Tamara couldn't relax either.
"They might be trying to make sure that they kill us," Brittany said. "Stay prepared."
They were fortunate: the enemy gave away their plans with a single misfired arrow. It stuck in the ground, right in front of the group, still quivering. Everyone stared at it for a moment, but Tamara was the first to regain her wits.
"Scatter!" she yelled. Everyone fanned out, and even as they were doing so, the rain of arrows came down.
It actually wasn't so dangerous for the Warriors themselves. They all had their defenses; Tamara and Candace could knock them out of the air, Brittany's drum could create a shield around her, and Midori, of course, could never be hit under any circumstances. They'd decided already that Yin would follow Candace and Ammu would follow Brittany. Tamara, of course, was far too much of a loose cannon to be charged with defending anyone.
They were able to reach the palace itself without much trouble, as a result of all of this. Midori was even able to pick off a few of the shooters, though even her arrows couldn't pierce the thick walls of the castle.
Right beside the wall, it was of course nearly impossible for the archers to hit them. That didn't preclude the possibility of them pouring something hot down the walls, so Tamara raced for the nearest set of doors. They were a huge gate, one that she never could have opened on her own. But as the Opener of Ways, she could open or close any door, and they swung open at her touch as if they were weightless. Standing here, hands spread, Tamara was the first-- and last-- of the Warriors to see their princess.
She was standing at the foot of what seemed to be stairs. "No!" she shouted as the doors opened. "Go back! Close them!"
But even as she spoke, the blade that had been held in place by the closed doors was falling. Before her eyes, the girl who would have been the Dawn Queen was sliced nearly in half.
"No!" Tamara screamed, running to her as quickly as she could. But it was far too late already, of course. The princess had been tied up, and tied to that spot. She was entirely helpless. And now Tamara had killed her.
All the Warriors had felt it at the same time, and they rushed around her. But of course there was nothing that could be done.
Midori looked to the body, and then looked to Brittany. "What now?" she asked.
But it was Tamara who answered. "We're going to take them down," she said. "Even if we don't have a Queen, there's no way that we can allow a Dusk Queen to be crowned."
Candace nodded, and Midori did too. After a long pause, Brittany nodded as well. "The throne is on the roof, actually," she said. "No matter where their girl is, she'll have to go there to be crowned. And we'll be waiting for her there."
The guards came in, just then. Dusk People, of course-- the ones who'd set the whole thing up, undoubtedly. "Stop where you are!" one of them shouted.
Tamara simply smiled, her hands rising to the hilts of her swords.
Several very bloody minutes later, they were running up stairs and along long hallways, seemingly at random. Tamara didn't know how, but she had some strange intuition of the way they ought to go. It seemed that the other Sunlight Warriors did as well; they moved practically in unison, without speaking. Every person they met who tried to put up some resistance to them was killed, as quickly as possible, even Midori taking down a few. They didn't have any time to waste, or to spend in moral hand-wringing. They had to get there as quickly as possible.
And then they cleared the last staircase, and they were there, standing on top of the palace. It was much higher than the other buildings of the city, so high that in the distance, they could see the sun and its light sparkling off the sea.
There weren't many things up there. There were stools for people to sit on, and at one end of the vast roof, a step, atop which was a chair. And resting on the seat of that chair was a crown.
"We made it," Midori said, half-collapsing. There were no other people on the roof; the Dusk princess and the Moonlight Warriors hadn't reached it yet.
"Get out of view of the stairs," Tamara told her. "We'll stand on either side, and ambush them as they come up. Maybe we aren't going after the Moonlight Warriors. but remember: we need to take down that Dusk girl."
"For Arsal," Yin said quietly.
"Exactly," Tamara said, glaring around the circle. "For Arsal."
It was only a few minutes later that Candace gave the alarm. "They're coming," she said. "It has to be them. The princess' soul is... oh!" she broke off, with a surprised look on her face.
"Ssh!" Tamara said. She drew her swords; at her nod, Candace drew her dagger, and Midori knocked an arrow. Brittany's hand hovered over the skin of her drum.
Crystal was the first one through, of course, as the Moonlight Warriors' Opener of Ways. But right behind her was--
"Onala?!" Tamara said. It slipped out without conscious thought. Her lip curled, and before she knew it she was surging forward, her swords aching to feel blood, to cut and slice and stab.
Yin got there first, though. His spear wasn't mystical, like that of the Moonlight Warrior. But it got the job done. Onala collapsed, blood flooding from her torso. She was dead before she hit the floor.
Crystal was fast, Tamara gave her that. She whipped around, guns at the ready, but by then Tamara was between her and Yin. She held her swords in front of her, protectively. She was fairly sure that she could deflect any bullets, but she'd never fought against another Warrior before.
Lachante was rushing up the stairs; she gasped when she saw Onala's body. "What happened?" she asked.
"That guy killed her," Crystal said.
"She killed my best friend," Yin said, voice low and dangerous. "I was just returning the favor."
"She would have been your queen," Crystal said.
"Shut up, Crystal," Tamara said. "Do you really think we would let you put one of your Dusk People on the throne? And a murderer too?"
"Well we've got to put someone on it," Crystal said.
"We could make it one of us," Lachante said suddenly.
"What?" Brittany said. "But doesn't it have to be--"
"No, as long as it's a woman," Lachante said. "Though actually, I'm not even sure about that part. But my family has a story about this happening, a looooong time ago, like back during slavery. She was the first Warrior we know of in the family-- though I guess maybe there were others before her. Anyway, when she did it, she didn't know anything about this, and she ended up crowning one of her fellow Warriors. In fact, according to the story, she was the only one who came back, that time. Everyone else stayed."
Crystal looked around the group, contemptuously. She holstered her pistols. "Well, if it's going to be one of us, might as well be me," she said.
"No," Tamara said.
Crystal looked at her. "What, did you want it to be you?" she asked. "Do you really think this is something you're capable of? I think we both know who'd be better at this."
Tamara didn't say anything; she was too angry to speak. Anger choked her, made her tighten her grip on her swords. "Don't you dare," she forced out between gritted teeth.
Crystal laughed. "Or what?" she asked. When Tamara didn't say anything, she laughed again. "That's what I thought." She turned away, strode up to the throne, her hands reached down to the crown...
When Tamara thought back to it, it was as if she'd blacked out. She didn't know how she got from where she was standing by the stairs to the throne, let alone how she got there without anyone stopping her. At one moment, she was so angry that she thought she'd explode, and the next moment she was standing over the throne, watching her swords go through Crystal's chest.
Crystal looked at her incredulously for a moment, coughing wetly. "N-no," she ground out. And then she was sliding off the swords, sliding onto the floor in front of the throne. Her hands were still clutching the crown, which gleamed just as brightly in the pool of her blood as it had on the throne.
Everyone stared in shocked silence for a moment. And then Lachante was running toward them, falling to her knees, cradling Crystal's head in her lap.
"How could you?" she screamed, staring up at Tamara.
Tamara could barely even speak. She opened her mouth, but only a gurgling sound came out.
"She was your friend! I loved her! How could you?"
"I-- she was going to--" At a loss, Tamara looked to her fellow Sunlight Warriors. But none of them would meet her eyes.
Midori was staring down at her feet. She whispered, but somehow her voice carried. "She can't be dead," she said. "I mean, she's Crystal. From school. She can't be-- you didn't kill her, really. Right?"