Sun Queen

♛ Seventy-Six ♛

                         ♛ Alina POV ♛

"Timur?" Ekaterina speaks in a hushed tone and I can see fires shine in her tear-stung eyes.

Her voice has an effect on Timur, I can tell since he flinches to hear her. I wonder for a moment about their history, but I push aside the thought. Now is not the time.

"How could you do this?" Ekaterina's voice is growing in volume and I can see her starting to slip from shock to anger.

Timur looks away. "I warned you not to join the council Ekaterina."

"Were you planning this?" Ekaterina steps forward and her arms drop from their folded position. "Even back then?"

"Always." Timur answers dully and Ekaterina stops.

"What's going on Timur?" I ask in the lapse of silence, my voice as tensed as my nerves. "What did you do?"

"I," Timur hisses, "am saving the world from the sickness that is Grisha."

Timur takes a step towards us this time and I can see his confidence gleam. "Grisha have taken over our country with their unnatural abilities, making themselves out to be god-like. Valuing their lives over ours. They even sit on the throne of Ravka."

This last statement is spat my direction. My hand curls into a fist. "I may have not wanted to be queen earlier, but I would sacrifice my own life to save Ravka. I have every right to lead my country."

"The same country you gladly disappeared from so you could go and play otkazat'sya. You had your chance Alina, but it's gone now." Timur's words echo in my head and I can't pretend they don't cut deeply.

Instead of hurling insults his way, I focus on the matter at hand. Figuring out what Fjerda's plan is and stopping it. "What is Fjerda doing Timur?"

Timur emboldens with pride. "Fjerda is doing what they should have done long ago. They're rounding up all the Grisha of the Second Army and bringing them over the border to be dealt with."

"Dealt with?" I repeat coldly. "Tell me, what does that entail?"

"I think you know all too well, demjjn. Don't worry though, you and the Darkling will be spared their fate."

My skin prickles with goosebumps. "What do you mean?"

"Why do you think King Artyom ordered the Darkling to be saved from the Fold and you to be returned to Ravka after your Grisha summoning mutated? We can bring down Grisha, but you and him will bring down Ravka yourselves."

I remember Aleksander telling me how he was saved for the sole purpose of destroying Ravka. And now I have too. The only difference is that they were wrong about Aleksander and right about me. I may deserve the title of monster and I have no doubt that I could destroy Ravka, but Aleksander will not.

I don't want to let them take the Second Army, but I don't have a choice at this point. The least I can do is suffer alongside them and they won't take that away.

"Take me too." I demand, starting to walk towards Timur.

"Oh no," he mocks, "Fjerda has much bigger plans for you than letting you rot on jurda parem."

"TAKE ME TOO!" I shout, almost beside Timur now.

Then, quick as a flash, Timur darts off to the side and mounts his horse. I spin over, leaping for him but with a sudden kick, the horse slips out from under my hands.

I start to run after the quickly fading horse, smoke swirling where my legs crash through. The stench of battle and defeat weighs down the air.

"Take me too." I sob, feeling multiple hands tug me backwards. I'm pulled upwards to stand. I find Ekaterina and Genya behind me, the old man and the wide-girthed man from my war council not far away.

"Where's Aleksander?" I murmur numbly, straining to see as smoke burns my eyes. "I need to find him, he needs to help us."

"There's nothing we can do now." Genya admits softly.

I run a hand over my face, wiping off the smoke stains and tears. "No, this can't be over. We can still save them."

We can't.

The undeniable, unspoken fact passes between us.

"I'm sorry Alina." Genya says, wrapping a tight arm behind my back to pull me closer.

"No," I reject her arm, shrugging it off, "I know I can't fight them now, but I'm going to save every Grisha I can."

Before I hear another protest of quiet-spoken admit of defeat, I flick my head to my right. "Ekaterina, I need you to gather carriages, wagons, anything you can find on the west camp's back road, alright?"

Ekaterina nods and I can see she's lost in her own shock of the moment. But I have faith she'll do everything she can.

"Thank you. Now, the rest of you need to help find any Grisha you can and direct them to that road. I'm not sure where we will hide yet, but the most important thing is to get out of here with as many Grisha as possible."

"Agreed." Genya gives a quick, jerking nod of her head.

I still have to find the Shu Han ambassadors, secure the First Army, and a million more people I have to save. But I can't afford to focus on anything but the Grisha right now. Blinking away smoke and exhaustion, I set my eyes towards the red-hued remains of the war camp. "Okay, we'll have half an hour. Let's go."

I would be lying if I said I didn't look for Aleksander first.

And I would be lying if I said I looked for anyone else. I did try to focus. I even managed to find a Squaller woman hiding in a collapsed tent. I convinced myself that I was doing the most I could. But my eyes wouldn't stop looking for every flash of black, praying with all my heart that it would be him.

It never was.

I help carry the Squaller woman past the camp's burning remains. Her leg was broken by a tent pole when it fell. I see Ekaterina's brightly blond braid through the stagnant billows of smoke. There's two wagons on the road she's waiting on, large and shallow to accommodate for larger army troops. Ekaterina comes swiftly to take the Squaller woman from me when she sees us and I get a good view of our group.

It's pathetic, truly. I falter at the sight of them. Besides Ekaterina, only one other member of the war council that remains is the robust man. I start to question the disappearance of the older man, but I'm sure I already know the answer.

Genya is here, but I sorely notice David is still gone and her eyes are rubbed raw. Around her are two Healers, three Heartrenders, two more Squallers, four Inferni, and one Alkemi. Their keftas ripple with the many Grisha colors. The whole group is leaning on each other, none of them looking strong enough to hold themselves up.

I notice all of this is in less than a second because my attention goes quickly to my left. I cry out sharply and run, collapsing into Aleksander.

His arms are like home. Even in all the chaos, exhaustion, and smoke, I can feel the sudden calm of solace in Aleksander's cape as it shells around me. After everything that has happened, I hold onto the feeling best I can.

Without moving my head from his chest, Aleksander moves us onto the first wagon. I bury my head deeper in the folds of his kefta and squeeze my eyes shut. It might have been my imagination, but I swear that shadows block out any remaining light.

The darkness makes it easier for me to fall asleep as the wagon pulls forward. As my consciousness spirals down, I rethink the day's events. I killed too many people for me to count without crying. The Second Army is almost completely gone, charging forward to Fjerdan Grisha camps, to their own deaths. There are only seventeen survivors in an army of hundreds.

The night is over and I've failed.