Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker 3)

Toshi broke into a light jog and swung himself up into a passing trolley. He spotted his contact and shuffled through the other passengers until he stood back to back with him. It wasn’t long before he felt his contact bump into him. Toshi opened his hand and passed his contact a small vial of antidote—or what Toshi and Ivan hoped was an antidote—to the Workers’ stings.

His contact palmed the small vial easily and then waited for the next bend in the trolley line to disguise bumping into Toshi again. Toshi briefly felt the man’s hand tuck a note in the folds of his tunic, and then his contact hopped off the trolley.

Toshi watched the man blend seamlessly into the garment district’s waves of humanity. He wondered whether he would be the one to test the antidote himself, or whether the vial was going to be smuggled out of the city to one of the farms for the rebels hidden there to test it. Toshi knew it might be safer to get it out of the city, where the death of a Worker might be chalked up to accident, but that would take longer.

In the Hive, every single member was accounted for. If even one Worker used her stinger or was killed, a Warrior Sister came to collect the tiny body and investigate the reason. Even the death of one Worker could alert the Hive to foul play, and thus Toshi and Ivan had been unable to test their antidote.

They still hadn’t completely abandoned the idea of finding a way to kill the Hive, but keeping what homegrown rebels they could find alive in case of a rebellion had become a more pressing concern. Mala had insisted. She argued that they couldn’t hope to gather more support for the cause unless they could offer some kind of protection against the instant death that was, at present, the only outcome for defying the Hive.

For defying Grace.

Toshi stared out the window at the people on the street. Heads that used to be held high were now bowed with fear and suspicion. The entire city seemed to know. Maybe they had always known deep inside that Grace was behind the Hive, and it only took someone else to say it in order for them to believe it. Toshi knew he had accepted it quickly, as had Mala. And the Hive had been quick to sense the change in the populace.

He jumped off his trolley, crossed the tracks, and caught one going in the other direction back home to the government center. He felt more relaxed now that the exchange was over and opted to take a seat rather than stand. Back at the Governor’s Villa, Toshi ran up the stairs to his apartments to change before meeting Ivan in the lab.

Grace was waiting for him in his sitting room, idly thumbing through some of his papers. She looked up from the formulas he’d been working on the night before and smiled.

“This is a very powerful insecticide,” Grace said, eyes sparkling.

He opened his mouth and let the first lie he could think of spill out, knowing that any pause was death. “That’s what we’re hoping. It should sell well in France and Germany.” Toshi unlocked his spine and forced himself to cross to the bar. The note he carried in his pocket weighed on him. “Would you care for a drink?” he asked, trying to think how he could destroy the note that undoubtedly had instructions for his next drop. His hands shook.

“No. And none for you, either. You’re going to need to be completely sober for what’s coming,” she replied.

Heat began to build under his arms. Toshi felt a Worker alight on his forearm. “And what is coming, Grace?” he asked quietly.

Grace stood and crossed to the balcony. She opened up the double doors and took in a lungful of fragrant air. “Isn’t it a glorious day?” she asked.

Toshi stayed just inside the doors. He could see a cluster of Warrior Sisters approaching and knew it would be pointless to run. He felt strangely calm, as if the real torture had been waiting to be found out rather than whatever it was Grace had planned for him now. He was considering whether or not he had enough time to write a letter to his family when he noticed something strange about the approaching Warrior Sisters. They were carrying someone—someone who seemed to be unconscious. They weren’t coming to take him away, but rather to leave someone behind.

Toshi ran to the railing of the balcony and saw that the young man suspended between three supporting Sisters was badly injured. Fear for himself dissolved, and his medical training took over. He dashed back inside, gathered up a healer kit from his closet, and started pushing furniture out of the way just as the Warrior Sisters landed.

“Tell them to bring him in here,” Toshi ordered. He kicked aside the coffee table and spread out one of the throw blankets on the ground. “Gently! It looks like his shoulder is dislocated.”

“This is why I had them bring him directly to you,” Grace said fondly. “You’ve always been the most gifted healer.”

“There’s a basin under the sink in my kitchen. Fill it with hot water, and set it down here,” Toshi instructed. Grace didn’t do it herself, of course, but after the barest of pauses one of the Warrior Sisters strode out of the room on her ostrich-like legs. “He has hyperthermia, hypoxia, broken ribs, multiple contusions.” Toshi listed just a few of the injuries he recognized as his willstone flared to life. He ran a hand through his hair. “Get me more bandages. In my bathroom . . . the linen closet.” Another Warrior Sister bounded out of the room. Toshi looked up at Grace as he began loosening the young man’s clothes. “He’s an Outlander.”

“A shaman,” Grace said, nodding.

He rolled the half-dead shaman over and got a better look at his face. “Breakfast,” he said. He couldn’t keep the dismay from his voice.

“Not exactly,” Grace said, excited. She sat down on the edge of Toshi’s couch as if she were at a luncheon and had juicy gossip to dish. “I just pieced this all together. As near as I can figure, he’s one of the versions of the individual you know as Breakfast. Isn’t that fascinating?” Toshi didn’t reply. “He’s going to teach me how to get to those other universes.”

Toshi repressed a shudder at the thought. “If he lives.”

“Oh, he’d better live, Toshi,” Grace said, her voice dropping dangerously low. He didn’t need for her to say “or else.”

Lily lay next to Lillian, her spirit hovering over their bodies.

In the overworld, Lillian’s spirit was as strong as ever, but in the real world her body could barely survive the separation. Lily’s spirit looked down on the two bodies below, and saw that Lillian’s breath was faltering.

That’s enough, Lillian, Lily told her. Go back into your body.

I’m almost there, her spirit called across the overworld. I can see the redwood grove. I can feel its vibration.

You’re suffocating. Come back.

Lillian’s eyes snapped open and she drew in a gasping breath. Lily’s spirit rejoined her body and she sat up next to Lillian.