The Ashen Raven's Treason

Chapter 11

Wyetta can't see me yet. We're too far apart, our magic having yet to realize another Luminary is present amongst the crowd of weary citizens. Someone shouts that she has arrived, we're all to die, and a fit of screams and gasps from others begins the pushing and shoving at the front.

Pip remains a statue underneath my clenched body.

The weak of the crowd disperse and leave behind enough room for the brave. New faces present themselves at my side, climbing up the wooden platforms that allow access to the continuous build of the border wall. They dangle off, their bodies reaching out as far as they can like ribbons in the breeze. Arms outstretched, legs holding on tight.

Everyone wishes to see her.

I can't look elsewhere. A wall of black spreads far enough into the Void that the dark, jagged rocks disappear. She scaled them with ease. Her soldiers crest over their sharp tips, turning into mountains and hills themselves. Only, these rocks move.

The queen's men standing yards away, still in perfect formation from the halls, hoist their shields high. Panic shoots through me at the sight of who stands in front of them all. The entire royal family, accompanied by Millicent Terravale, stare down the one woman destined to take Rivian for herself. Standing at the queen's side, Cloak's namesake billows in the wind. Past the black fabric and gold rim, stitched into a complicated design, a silver sword hangs tight in his grasp.

Gustus, Setsuko, Aela. The remaining three royal children stand at their mother's side. I recognize the armband on Setsuko's bicep, the blood-red fabric indicating she's the master of explosives and poisons. Littered throughout Rivian's forces, many soldiers wear matching identification. I hate to think of the chaos that'll rain down at their hand.

Except for Setsuko's lethal drive, we're outnumbered. The army of the soulless continues to march, falling in perfect formation behind their queen. For a moment too long, she stands there, watching us. The royals, rather. No one makes any sudden movements, and for the first time in too many years, the Terravale sisters come face to face.

The last time they saw each other, Millicent was banishing her sister from ever entering the capital again. She heard of Wyetta's new occupation—kidnapping children and the strong to turn them into Luminaries without consent. Ruining their lives and providing them no other option than living in the Void, the only territory Wyetta could rule without title or qualification.

Millicent remains as poised as she can without quivering in her boots. One Luminary against another. One Terravale...against another. I look between the two of them, Wyetta in the distance and Millicent's back to me, and wonder who the stronger sibling is. Who carries the fire of their past, the desire to bring change? Millicent never proposed revolution; Wyetta did. And now she wants her land back before her sister threatens to take a rite of passage into the capital.

I glance up at the wall; the citizens climbing the rickety platforms to reach a higher vantage point. That's why she's here. She heard of the wall and knew she must act fast before her sister took an opportunity away. After all these years of growing her forces, sacking cities and granting them a power they didn't desire to instill fear in her sister—Wyetta Terravale has finally arrived.

We should've seen this all along.

Muttered voices turned to shouts of fear distract me from my thoughts. A man towards the front carrying a flaming torch points out towards Wyetta, practically throwing his arm out of its socket to raise awareness of her moving. She's lifting a hand.

Golden mist blossoms over her palm, the same shade as her hollow eyes. With that signal, she pulls forward five trebuchets from where they remained hidden in her forces until now.