Page 62 of The Princes of Stone and Steel

The king cleared his throat to speak. “The Princess Congruis has been found guilty of treasonous acts. Turning against her family and her people, she conspired with the crowned prince Aereus to use the flesh against us.”

More boos filled the courtyard.

The king continued. “It is my understanding that the flesh, utilizing her womanly prowess, enchanted my son. When he is caught, he will be reprogrammed. The flesh must die. For all our safety, we will wait the appearance of the next.”

A mixture of cheers and boos rose from the throngs pushing in closer to the front as Steele and I kept moving along the fringes to end up behind the gallows.

“My daughter has no such excuse,” said the king, “having known for months in the other world where to locate the flesh but choosing to keep her hidden with the Papyrus princess. She aided in the escape of the flesh among the humans, hindered the capture of the flesh, and finally aided in her escape once again.

“For her actions against the crown, against her people, her sentence is death.”

The hoots and calls were the loudest yet. I needed to get to Kori.

Only one step ahead, a hole opened up in the ground. “You’re a hard one to find,” Chami chastised as she placed the first dagger on the ground by Steele’s feet.

One by one, she placed the rest. Steele bent to retrieve them while I watched the man place a burlap sack over Kori’s head and drape the noose around her neck.

“Steele,” I warned. We needed to pick up the pace.

It had to be now. We had to do something. Digging my feet against the soil, I called out to the Slippies, I called to the stones, the trees and the wind.

The hangman’s hand on the lever readied to end my best friend’s life.

Awhooshwhipped past my ear. I blinked and as my eyes opened, I watched a knife—one thrown by Steele—sink into the neck of the executioner.

Bright red blood spurted from the wound with every beat of his ugly, executioner’s heart. Because face it, you pretty much had to have an ugly soul to take the life of someone as good as Korrigan. He only had time to grasp the hilt before he stumbled backward off the platform.

The crowd turned frenzied. Some rushed the gallows while others fought, neighbor against neighbor. A man with a long, copper beard tried to pull the lever for the king. Steele used a second knife, this one plunging into the man’s heart. He, too, fell backward, bloody and dead.

“Cover me,” I ordered as I ran for Korrigan. The rear of the gallows stayed relatively clear. Only the ground rumbled up, manipulating into makeshift stairs allowing me to reach her in less than a minute. She gasped when she heard my approach and then I heard her horrid whimpers. To put her at ease I whispered, “Kori, sweetie. It’s me.”

“Mils?” she cried.

“Let me get you loose.” In my excitement, I ripped the noose and sack from around her neck at once and the noose became tangled.

Someone, a soldier or townsman, managed to throw the switch. I had ahold of Kori. The action caused a rope burn against her forehead as the burlap and twine untangled, which opened up in spots, bleeding. But she was free.

She was alive.

We landed hard on the back of a Slippy. The agile creature bucked, throwing us into the air and liquefied, going right through several people. He congealed and caught us on his back. The second Slippy rode up beside us carrying Steele.

Each time we reached a person, the eight-legged horses bucked us off, then turned to water. And never once missed catching us again. I kind of felt like puking from the motion of being thrown into the air and the jarring landing on the creature’s back over and over.

“Head for the outliers,” I ordered.

The wind swept in to put a barrier between us and the soldiers pursuing on foot. Our bigger problem came from the soldiers in these tank-like machines with giant track wheels tearing up the grass and dirt as they chased us down.

When the wind gathered its strength, calling up a gale force the likes of a hurricane, even a tank couldn’t get through.

Around to the back of the castle, outside the back gate that our rescuers had bucked us the highest yet to fly over, catching us on the other side, we trampled through more familiar ground. The ground led past the magnificent gardens with the metallic poppies, past the border between the Forfex and Papyrus lands. The Slippies ate up the distance fast… faster… fastest.

The trees opened a path for us, but I ordered them not to close ranks. Those mechanized movers would crush anything in their way. And as much as I was a part of the outliers now, they were a part of me. If they hurt, I hurt.

Then the strangest thing happened. The moment we passed into the outliers I felt a power surge like no other.

Twenty-three

A cabin in the woods

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