A few minutes later, the city's stained colossus saw no further threats, so it dissolved itself. Grain after infected grain of automata flowed with it up into the city's walls. Vargas Hale saw the mottling darkness grow where the blackened sands had landed.

  Five hours, he thought, maybe six. Then he'd have the city, the Waltons, and the Populists, too.

  It was going to be a very good day.

  Chapter Ten

  Killing the Red-Cloaked Rider

  The earth quaking steps of the colossus and its blows shook even the highest chambers of the spiral tower. Molly watched the city's hundred foot golem meet Vargas Hale's little ones outside the walls, and when she saw the spreading stain they left, the one that Corina's night-bird had warned against, she told Antoine and Lula what it meant. They went to learn the paths of the city and prepare themselves for the coming battle. Molly took Teddy Da and went to find Juan Chang to tell him just how little time remained and what the Stitchlife Corina had offered.

  The people of the Haunted City hid. Molly saw their half-faces peeking out the windows of their houses, watching the Populists with fear in their eyes. There was hate there, too, hate like they had in their eyes when they looked at her. She didn't understand – Juan Chang and his Populists had never done anything to them. Neither have I, she remembered, but they hate me, too.

  When she got to the West gate, she understood.

  Standing among the Populists there, looking up at the stained wall was a red-cloaked man. She remembered that cloak. Sun-faded red. Pale, but bright. Its color made her blood rise with memories of watching that cloak charge across the blackstone fringe and the shame of how she'd run from him while her mother and brother and Little Falls died. Her limbs tingled and lost feeling, and rage-numbed fingers groped for her blade.

  The Red-Cloaked Rider turned and Juan Chang waved to her.

  Molly's mind was shock-blank, but her mouth understood. “Juan Chang is the Red-Cloaked Rider,” it said. “He killed them. He killed everyone.”

  “Who?” the bear asked. His voice sounded small and tinny behind the pounding blood and the ringing in her ears. Molly drew her knife and sped herself into a ribbon of blur-streak wrath darting through the crowded Populist raiders.

  The ghosts screamed and waved their arms, and she slashed at the faces of the apparitions who tried to stop her.

  When Molly was close, she lunged at the Red-Cloaked Rider with the point of her blade. He caught her arm and wrist in a vise-grip, and with the squeezing of his rough hands, her blade fell to the ground. Molly screamed with frustration and fury before she felt wasp's wings kiss her cheek and a stinger stab her neck. The world waved and spun. Then the ground fell on top of her, and everything went black.

  Molly opened her eyes and saw Juan Chang's face above her in the shade of the tower. She tried to rise and reached for his throat, but she was still dizzy from the wasp's sting. Everything twisted around her until Teddy Da's gentle paws pushed her back down. “Which town was it?” Juan Chang asked. “Summit? San Gou? Little Falls?” Molly's eyes widened in anger to hear him say the name. “Little Falls,” he said. “You came from Little Falls, didn't you.”

  She shivered and shook, and the words would barely form. “You killed my...”

  “Me and my men didn't burn your town and kill your kin. It was the Hale Guard. Fin Singh wore a red cloak like mine, and the Hale Guard wore the skins of my Populists, and they rode on town after town, burning, looting, killing.”

  “Liar!”

  “Ask yourself, Molly,” Juan Chang said, “why would I fight from atop a horse that moves as slow as a cloud on a windless day? Why, when I can move with witch-given speed? Only an impersonator who was not witch-sped would do this.” Molly remembered the sight of the red-cloak snapping as the horses charged across the blackstone.

  “The color of the cloak. The same red,” she said.

  “The same North Coast dye,” he explained. “Anyone can go up the coast and buy it.” He smiled at her with the face she wanted to believe, and she remembered she'd never seen the Red-Cloaked Rider's face so close. “And do I fight with a saber like he did? You know I prefer my knife.” He did, she thought. “Did the raiders have muskets?” he asked. Molly shook her head. “It wasn't me,” he said. “Your desire to avenge your town and your loved-ones is understandable, but the Hale Guard are the devils you seek, not me and my men.”

  Molly was still stunned, and the fact that she'd been fooled once made her doubt her judgment now, but she knew she believed Juan Chang when she heard her mouth give the warning she'd come to give, about the stains and the wall and how it would fall.

  *****

  Molly took an empty leather satchel from the Populists, and as they prepared for their stand, Molly and the bear went to the bulge-bellied womb to retrieve the seeds. There was no door until Molly touched the dome, and when the witchy sands parted for her, she left the fur-belly outside to stand guard against the Waltons while she retrieved the three seeds. When she came back with a sack full of melon-sized, stony, egg-shaped seeds, her face was white with whatever she'd seen inside. The bear asked her to name what she'd seen, but Molly's mouth hung open, unable to put words to whatever mystery had struck her speechless and stolen the color from her face.

  They hid the seeds in the top of the tower.

  At the western wall, they saw the smaller stains had bled together as they spread, and in hours, they'd become a fifty-yard-wide, blackened blemish across the gate. In front of that spot, on the avenue that led from the gate into the interior of the city, red-cloaked Juan Chang and his Populist Musketeers prepared their staggered, firing-line formations.

  Teddy Da sniffed at the air around them. Close by, it was sweet with purpose, but what blew to him from inside the houses was acrid and pungent. “I don't smell fear in Juan Chang's men,” he said to Molly softly. “But there,” he said, pointing to the faces peering out the windows at the musketeers, “There, they stink of it.”

  As red-cloaked Juan Chang walked from a nearby firing-line to stand with them, he looked up where they did and saw the fear-filled faces. “The people of your city believe as you did: that the Populists and their red-cloaked leader are brigands, bandits, and murderers. They probably think we mean to kill them.”

  “Didn't you tell them it wasn't you and your men that killed and burned and looted?” she asked.

  “I did.”

  “It doesn't look like they believe you,” the bear said.

  “These people believe what they see,” he said. “And what these people see us do in the coming battle will speak far louder than anything I could say.”

  “But how can you win?” the bear asked. “There's fifty witch-sped blades waiting outside. And the Hale Guard, too.”

  “My musketeers will fight to occupy the nobles. To delay them, to distract them so that the people of this city can escape. That will be our victory.”

  “But you'll be killed,” she said. “All of you.”

  “If we don't stand here, then the Populists are already lost. Look at the fear and the hate on the faces peering at us from the windows. The Hale Guard's false-flagged treachery has all but killed their love for us and nearly killed our rebellion, too. None of these people will ever help us again, let alone join our fight. Their sons and daughters won't either. Not unless we make our stand here and these people escape to tell others of how we saved them, of how the Populist Musketeers died for them.”

  “I have a way for us to escape,” Molly told him. “Corina said she'll be coming. In Baba Yaga. In her eight-legged lab.”

  Teddy Da groaned.

  “Tell me everything the Stitchlife told you, Molly,” Juan Chang said.

  “She told me that the stains marked where the walls would fall, and that when they did, we should wait for her in the tower. She said she would come for us, and that we should be ready. She said that the battle's lost and she's going to carry us out of the city in Baba Yaga. She said that she no longer serves the nobles. She wants to make me her apprentice – make me a Stitchlife.”

  “The witch lies, I think,” Teddy Da said. “The witches exist to serve the nobles.”

  “She said if we come with her, then the nobles' rule will end.”

  “What do the voices in your wreath say?” Juan Chang asked. “What does General Jin-Soo Hale say?” Molly's eyes widened.

  “How did yo-”

  “I've heard your whispered conferences,” he said. “And sometimes you speak words that don't seem like yours. Someone more skilled than you in witchy ways must control the wasps, too. Your plan for the first ambush at the tunnel was brilliant. The Hero of Harpers Ferry must have had a hand in it, I think. The ambush at the river wasn't as good a plan, but it was genius if the goal was to get Obin killed. You don't have that kind of guile, but the General does. I know there are constructs, mind-ghosts in your wreath advising you. Is one of them General Hale?” She nodded, and Juan Chang smiled. “Well, what does the long-dead General say? I'd be interested to hear.”

  “He says he doesn't know if the Stitchlife lies, but he says Corina could be the ally that wins the Populists' war against noble rule.”

  “Is he the only one in there?” Juan Chang asked. “In your wreath.” Molly shook her head.

  “Vora Mbuntu is in there too, and she believes what Corina says, but she's cautious. Fin Singh's ghost says the city's seeds are all that matters now, and my chances of escape are better with the Stitchlife than with any other plan.”

  “Your wreath carries Fin Singh's mind-ghost?” Juan Chang asked with a horror in his eyes. Molly nodded. “What else does Fin Singh say?”

  “He says that if I don't go with the Stitchlife in her walking lab, then we should sacrifice the people of the city and your men to create a distraction so I can escape. The General thinks he's right about that.”

  “What bloody-minded advisers you have. Do you always do what they tell you to?”

  “Sometimes I don't want to. But I do anyway. The General says that's sacrifice.” Molly's words made Juan Chang laugh darkly. “Is he right?” Molly asked.

  “If the Stitchlife isn't lying,” he said, “then she's a sure path to safety. Her long-legged lab is higher than the nobles can reach. Its legs and its belly are armored. The Hales couldn't bring it down without golems, and now, they have no more. It's a tempting offer Mei Corina makes. And it raises hope, too. The people will need Stitchlifes on their side if there's to be an end to noble rule. Imagine hundreds of fighting men, witch-sped as we are, Molly. Not even the strongest of the noble families could stand against an army like that. We could sweep across the land from enclave to enclave and defeat them. And imagine what you could do if you were not just a whirlwind taker of life, but a master of its secrets too – a witch.”

  “But what if she's lying?” Molly asked.

  “Go with the Stitchlife Corina when she comes. Escape with the seeds of the next cities. But take the bear, too. If it's a trap, then there's no better ally to have by your side than Kitty Hawk's fur-belly. And he's probably never tasted a Stitchlife before.” Teddy Da laughed at that.

  “But I want you to come too,” Molly said.

  “My place is here with my men. I must lead them and wear the red cloak for everyone to see. Who knows? I might survive.” Juan Chang smiled when he said it, but Molly doubted he believed it. “Do something for me before you make yourself safe in the tower. Go to the eastern gate,” he said, “on the opposite side of the city from where the walls are stained. When the fight begins, open it for the people there to escape. Then, run to the tower and go with the Stitchlife Corina when she comes.”

  “But the people here hate me. They won't even go to the East gate if I'm there,” Molly said.

  “My men will spread the word among them, and they'll realize it's the only way out. They'll go. The only other choice they have is death at the hands of the Hales and their Guard.”

  “And how will I know when the fighting begins?” Molly asked. That made Juan Chang laugh so hard his musketeers turned to see what had sparked his mirth.

  Chapter Eleven

  Monsters Born and Made

  The East gate appeared deserted as the twin-horned demon girl and her talking bear approached. Molly looked up at it and asked, “Why are you still here, fur-belly?”

  Teddy Da snorted. “I told you already. I'm hungry, and they'll be plenty of nobles to eat soon.” After Molly stared at him speechless long enough to let him know that wasn't enough of an answer for her, he added, “Because you have something I covet. And when I'm at your side, it's mine to share.”

  “What do I have? The city?”

  “No, not that. You're a champion, Molly. You're the People's champion. Like Juan Chang.”

  Frightened faces began to appear around corners, peeking out at them from side streets and from inside nearby houses where they'd hid themselves. “I'm not their champion,” she said.

  “You are. You fight for them. You protect them. Sacrifice for them.”

  “Then being their champion is nothing but blood-letting and murder and dark deeds they hate you for. Why would you ever want that?” she asked. More people appeared on the avenue, and the bear's eyes stayed on the growing crowd as he answered.

  “Because five hundred years ago, my mother destroyed the world, and then her witches gave what was left of it to the nobles you fight. Kitty Hawk's legacy is dark, but if I fight for these people with you, then I can make it a better one. I owe her that.” As they watched the people of the Haunted City creep closer to the gates, Teddy Da asked, “Do you even know why you're here?”

  “Because Vora made me witch-sped.”

  “You could use that speed to run away, but you don't.” More people came. Within minutes, there were hundreds of them and they filled the avenue in a wide half-circle. They all eyed Molly and the bear nervously and kept their distance as well as they could while staying close to the gate. The bear said, “I know why you're here: for love.” That made Molly laugh darkly.

  “Look at the fear and hate on those faces, fur-belly.” When Molly pointed, the bear looked at them again and nodded. “These people don't love me,” she whispered. “They hate me. They should. I've only ever killed two nobles, but I've killed hundreds of common men. I've even killed two dozen of my own city's people to show the others what would happen if they didn't do what I said. I betrayed Obin, too. The real plan at the river was for him to die. I killed him. The people here are right not to love me; I'm a monster, like you.”

  “Nobody loves a monster,” the bear said. “I know that better than anyone. I meant that you're here because you love them.”

  “I don't.”

  “You must. I was born a monster, but you decided to be one. For them. For love.”

  Molly tried to tell the bear he was wrong, but the crowd surged, and her words were lost. The people in the front rows of the crowd didn't want to get any closer to the demon girl and her talking bear, but they couldn't hold back the desperate herd behind them. Molly saw faces that had jeered at her in the marketplace as she left. For the first time, she felt like they were looking to her to save them. It only lasted until the crowd of hundreds surged forward again, and the people being pushed against her began to shriek with fright. Angry voices cried out from the back of the crowd. “Open it!” they yelled. “Let us out!”

  “Juan Chang said you would let us out!”

  “Not yet,” Molly shouted back, “We have to wait until the battle.”

  “You're keeping us here to die, demon! To haunt your city!”

  “Let us go, Monsters!”

  Soon, the crowd pushed her back against the gate and she could barely breathe. Molly couldn't hear what the crowd shouted after that; the people pressed against her were screaming too loud.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Battle of the Haunted City

  The wall fell.

  At first, the holes were small, and they dotted the dark stain up and down with spots of blind-bright light from the fields beyond. In seconds, they grew big enough for a man to walk through. Moments later, the patches of wall that hadn't yet lost cohesion had nothing left to support them and they collapsed. Where the stained wall and the Western gate had been, there was nothing but a great, gaping hole and a high dune of fallen, witchy sands.

  From aside the breach, Juan Chang couldn't see out over the darkened dune, but when the sands at its crest blew forward into the city, he knew it was from the air driven before the nobles' witch-sped charge. He shouted for the men in the first of his firing lines to let their musket-balls fly.

  Then he touched torch to the ball-packed powder keg next to him and ran witch-sped across the black dune and the gap in the wall, in front of the swarm of singing musket balls, and touched his flame to the keg on the other side, too. Before the plumes of smoke from the muskets were a foot out of their barrels, before their shocking report filled the air, Juan Chang ran around a side street's corner.

  The first Hales to enter the city didn't hear the muskets until after they'd they crested the dune. Some dove and dodged the singing swarm. Others broke to the left and the right of it, and when the powder kegs exploded, wood splinters and hundreds of lead balls filled the air with a flesh-tearing cloud not even the witch-sped could dodge.

  *****

  Muskets cracks and powder storms shook the air from the West, and Molly knew the battle had begun. Her pressing palm opened the East gate, and the crowd's surge pushed her and Teddy Da out into the V of the opening doors until the pair used their speed to climb atop the terrified human wave.

  They bounded over and across the top of the crowd for thirty yards before it thinned enough to drop to the ground and run through it. When they were finally clear of the tightly packed herd, Molly climbed up on an abandoned cart and looked back to the open East gate.