Juan Chang expected the creature to turn, but in seconds it crossed the bay's pebbled fringe, and with great splashing, Baba Yaga stepped into the water and walked away from the shore. “Where are you taking us?” Juan Chang asked.

  As the walking fortress waded out into the bay and headed for its mouth, she smiled and said, “We'll give a bit of time for the news of your heroics in the Haunted City to spread. Then, we'll go and raise a new army for you. A big one – to be witch-sped and then led into battle by the dashing, red-cloaked Juan Chang. You can't have a proper war without an army, now can you, General Chang?”

  “You're going to help us topple the Hales?”

  “Not just the Hales – all of them. All the noble families. It's time for their reign to end,” she said. “But I can't speed more than a few handfuls of your men by myself, so Baba Yaga will take us on a little trip, and we'll get some of my friends to help us.”

  “And where are your friends?” he asked.

  “The Coral Castle,” she said, and Juan Chang thought he heard a faint growl at the bottom of the fur-belly's throat.

  A witch-sped army was what they'd need to defeat the nobles. Now that he'd found a way to build one, Juan Chang wondered what the true cost of it would be.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Electroencephalogustic Cat

  Beneath the crystal cast, preserved body of Kitty Hawk, five-score witches stood in the cavernous, ossified hall of the Coral Castle. A dozen Stitchlifes knelt before them on a raised platform, bound and facing the others, their inquisitor, and charges of conspiracy.

  The castle's Barbary Guard usually kept to the walls and the outer ring of the castle, but today, Hala Zamis made sure their witch-sped, primate blurs darted through the crowd in the Great Hall. The gusts of musk-air as they passed were a reminder to all present that threats from within the castle walls would be managed with the same severity as threats from without.

  Hala Zamis was the reigning Queen of the castle, and she claimed the right of inquisition. Her ambitious successor, the Stitchlife Conac claimed seconde, the right to ask a question if she felt truth remained hidden. Hala knew this tradition was to make sure a single witch couldn't easily steer the proceedings, not even the Queen of the Coral Castle.

  A newly-wreathed apprentice brought a bump-topped, pearl-shelled box and waited with bowed head. Hala Zamis set her hand gently on its shine-top lid, and her palm tingled as the pearl-skin sampled her. If it didn't like what it tasted – if anyone else but the matriarch tried to open it – then nematocysts would pepper their flesh with neuro-toxin and death would soon follow. No antidote had ever been made. Hala Zamis thought its contents were even more dangerous than the box, but today, she had no choice but to open it. The lid lifted itself silently with five-hundred-year-old muscles and revealed the creature inside.

  What slumbered within hadn't been woken in a century, but its milk-cloud eyes opened immediately. Hala Zamis watched its sides begin to lift and fall under pale blue, hairless skin. Its rough tongue flicked out and licked its chops in anticipation, and its whiskers twitched. Once, it had been a cat. Now, it's body ended inches behind its ribs where it tapered into a monkey's tail. On the inside it bore no more resemblance to a cat than the hundred sea-creatures that had been re-writ and combined to craft it. Shock-water eel and hammerhead were among them to be sure, but it was made by Kitty Hawk, and even Hala Zamis didn't know all its secrets.

  She prayed that it wouldn't discover all of hers.

  Hala Zamis pushed the sleeve of her white coat up to expose the soft, two-century old skin of her right arm and then reached for the waking creature. She slid her hand under its side and lifted. Its half-body felt like an icy stone in her hand. She lay it atop her forearm so that its triangular, feline head sat just behind her wrist. Its two front paws and prehensile tail wrapped around her arm to hold it in place.

  It purred loudly.

  It could tell truth from lie, but not detect omitted truths, so she hoped that if she asked the right questions of the bound conspirators at her feet, then they would answer wisely.

  Hala Zamis pointed the head of the creature at the first of the kneeling witches and asked, “Are all of the conspirators within the Coral Castle before us?”

  The chamber was whisper-quiet, and they all heard the purring continue without pause as the kneeling Stitchlife answered, “Yes, all are before us.”

  “And what is the purpose of your cabal?”

  “To serve the will of the Coral Castle.”

  The ears flattened against the feline head, and the hiss that came from its angry mouth filled the chamber. A murmur grew among the assembled witches. Clever girl. “A lie,” Hala Zamis said. “Now, tell us the truth. What is the goal of your conspiracy?”

  This time, the witch at her feet looked into the eyes of the crowd as she answered, “To serve Kitty Hawk's will and her oath.” The creature purred loudly. The sound of it confirming the truth of her words drew an even greater response from the crowd.

  Hala Zamis was pleased with the witch's responses and the statement they made. The conspirators didn't serve the will of the castle; they served the will of Kitty Hawk. Therefore, the two were different.

  “Enough,” Hala Zamis said to the crowd. “We've heard enough. Take them to the lower levels and give them time to think. A century. Then we'll put them before us again to see if they've repented.”

  She gripped the chimera by the scruff of its neck and felt its paws and tail release. Hala Zamis was relieved, but before she could put the creature back it the box and close the lid on the dangerous thing, Hilde Conac approached to stand beside her. “I invoke my right as seconde,” she said to the crowd. “I will ask one more question.” As she plucked the creature from Hala's hand, she said, “With your permission, of course.” Hala Zamis felt tingling alarm shoot through her, but she had no choice. The thin-grinning witch Conac would have her question.

  The Stitchlife Conac set the creature atop her own forearm, and pointed it directly at Hala Zamis. “Are you part of this rebel cabal?” she asked. As Hala Zamis opened her mouth to lie, the creature's ears lay flat, and it filled the Great Hall with its hiss.

  Hala Zamis felt gusting air to left and right. In less time than it took for her to smell their musk, the growling Barbary Guards were beside her, and the powerful grip of their over-sized, leathery hands held her fast.

  She took one last look up at Kitty Hawk's inanimate face and consoled herself that all hope wasn't lost. Corina was still free. Hala had sent a broad-winged messenger to warn her of the cabal's discovery, and Hala hoped it wouldn't be too many years before the undiscovered conspirator came home and somehow rescued them from the Coral Castle's dungeon.

  The Barbary Guards were fast and fierce and savage. Corina would need an army to rescue her sisters, Hala thought, but Corina was always resourceful – she'd find an army and make it hers.

  The Stitchlife Rebellion

  By A.D. Bloom

  Stitch: Book Three

  Chapter One

  Across the Starry Sea

  Even before Molly she opened her eyes, the thumping of Baba Yaga's pump-house heart reminded her where she was, and the gentle rocking and the salty air told her the Stitchlife's castle must be at sea. When she heard the happy, guttural groans of the bear's pleasure in feeding, she turned her head and saw Teddy Da. He held an enormous fish in his claws, and its lost, rosy scales caught in his fur and reflected the soft light of the lab's helio blooms. Molly remembered vines holding her fast where she lay, but they were gone now. When she lifted her arms to look at them, there was only faint bruising where she'd felt them grow into her veins. “What did Corina do?” Molly asked as she questioned the bruises with her fingertips.

  “The witch said she cleaned your blood,” the bear explained. “The poison from the Hale Guard's thorns made you as limp as this fish.”

  “The seeds,” she said, looking around the lab for them.

  “Safe with Juan Chang.”

  “The Haunted City?” she asked.

  “Far behind us now,” the bear said. “We're at sea.”

  “How long was I asleep?”

  “Weeks. How do you feel?”

  “Hungry,” she said as Teddy Da took another bite of the fish. He held it out for her to share, but Molly shook her head and wrinkled her nose. “Does it taste better than people?” she asked.

  “Some.”

  A young woman's springtime laugh and the familiar tang of sweet-roasted meat filled the lab. “Kitty Hawk's creature enjoys the ocean's bounty,” young Corina said as she entered. “But perhaps you'll enjoy this more.” The Stitchlife held a char-roasted and plattered rabbit in her hands. “My kestrel plucked rabbits from the fields around the Haunted City,” she said, “and I kept them fresh for you.”

  Molly sat up and reached out for the platter. “It's good to see you're hungry,” the witch said as Molly sank her teeth into the char-sweet flesh. “We're going to need you strong and ready when we arrive.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I'll let dashing General Chang tell you about that,” she said. Molly heard footsteps, and when she looked up, she saw Juan Chang approach wearing his red cloak and a kind of contented smile she never expected to see on his face. His arms slid around Corina from behind and he embraced the young witch.

  “My slumbering lieutenant finally wakes,” he said. “Sleeping on duty is a court-martial offense, but we'll overlook it since you're a hero. The people who survived the Hale Guard at the East Gate thank you, as do I. The tale the survivors told of the Haunted City and the Populist Musketeers rekindled the people's love for us. The story they told included you and the fur-belly, too.” That made Teddy Da grin.

  “Did many escape?” Molly asked.

  “Enough that our name no longer makes men shake with hatred,” he said. “Enough that recruiting new musketeers was easy.” Molly smiled at that.

  “Speaking of the new army,” Corina said, “I've got to check on Juan Chang's men.” She turned her head, smiled up at Juan Chang, unclasped his hands from around her, and crossed her lab to exit out a doorway on the far side that had grown narrow and half-occluded with a thick brace of helio vines leading somewhere outside.

  “How many?” Molly asked.

  “The new Populist army will be three hundred strong, all of them witch-sped quick. Corina is speeding the men that survived the Battle of the Haunted City now. Soon, with some help, she'll speed all the rest of them.”

  “Three hundred?” Molly asked, astonished.

  “They'll sleep until they're all sped, and when they wake,” he said with a broad smile, “they'll be an army stronger than I ever dreamed of having. As fast as any noble blades. When we return, we'll march on the nobles' enclaves.”

  “And you trust her?” Molly asked. “You trust Corina?”

  Juan Chang nodded once slowly.

  “The Stitchlife has been true to her word,” the bear said.

  “But we're at sea,” Molly said, “We've got to go back and retake the city.”

  “We will,” Juan Chang said. “Soon.”

  “But where are we going now?” Molly asked. “Where is Corina taking us?”

  “To Kitty Hawk's Coral Castle,” he said. “To the home of the Stitchlife Witches.”

  *****

  Every star's twin shimmered on the surface of the endless ocean, and Mei Corina's polymorph castle swam in them.

  Teddy Da stood beside Molly atop Baba Yaga's central tower. She saw how the shape of the fortress had changed. The outermost walls and towers had formed a hull. The central castle and its main tower was now set at midships with an acre of deck at the bow and the stern. A dozen, broad-bladed oars on the port and starboard sides propelled Baba Yaga with great sweeping strokes. They plunged into the waving, starry soup and swirled it in twisting spirals. Then the oars lifted themselves, swung forward in unison, and plunged into the watery sky again.

  “It's beautiful,” Molly said, and the bear made a short grunt.

  “It's calm now, almost like glass, but it's not always like this,” he said. “When the wind whips the waves, Baba Yaga rocks back and forth.”

  “How long have we been at sea?”

  “A week now. We brought aboard the last of the new musketeers from a green-lit city on the coast, and then Corina's walking castle transformed into this vessel as they all stood in the castle's courtyard and watched. She should have waited until the new army slept. The sight of such powerful witchery at work scared them, and the smell of their fear lingered even after they all went to sleep under the Stitchlife's care.”

  “Is it really three hundred?” she asked. Kitty Hawk's creature nodded.

  “They fill the rooms that ring Corina's lab in the tower,” he said. “They're all unconscious with bladder sacks hung above them, dripping sap down the vines that grow into their veins.” Molly nodded. She remembered seeing the sack above her when she first woke in Vora's shelter. And the vines, too.

  “They're in comas,” Molly said. “The vines feed them.”

  “Thin tendrils grew into their heads, too,” Kitty Hawk's creature said. “Not vines. Something else. After a week, the witchy things withdrew, shriveled, and dropped away.” Molly didn't know what those were for. Her mind was on another question. She turned to face the bear.

  “Does Juan Chang love Corina?” Molly asked, and the bear laughed at her. “Why are you laughing? Is it a stupid question?”

  “Kitty Hawk didn't make another like me. What would I know about it? You would do better to ask almost anyone but me.”

  “I've seen people in love,” Molly said as she watched Baba Yaga's oars swirl the stars. “They look like Juan Chang looks – drunk with it. Giddy. Happy at all things.” A trio of pale shooting stars streaked radiant from a bright constellation above, flaring silent and bright before they were gone. “Her eyes don't look the same as his.”

  “Maybe you're right,” the bear said. “I just thought he was happy about his new army.”

  *****

  The twelve rooms that ringed the lab had been reshaped to the task. Each curving chamber held twenty-five, deep-sleeping men. All of them rested in the black automata's polymorphic embrace. Helio vines grew out of the lab, through Baba Yaga's walls, and emerged from the ceiling to fill the bladders that fed the men through their veins. The helio blossoms cast them in soft light while viruses transformed the first twelve of them cell by cell by cell. As the bulk of the new army slumbered in half-coma sleep and waited for the same attentions, the muscles of Juan Chang's lieutenants were rewritten for eye-blurring speed, and their minds were transformed to keep pace.

  When Corina made her rounds, she found one man had died. What she was doing to their bodies and minds was dangerous, and she was pleased that only one of them had died, but she considered it a piece of ill luck that Juan Chang was only steps behind her when she found him. She would have rather disposed of the body herself and not let the sight of the corpse's twisted face weigh on Juan Chang the way she knew it would. She stood over the body as he approached and saw her lover's smile fade as he took in the agonized face, open eyes, and clench-fingered claws of the pale lieutenant that would never wake.

  “One out of every ten was what I predicted,” she said. “The transformation is dangerous. This is a large batch.”

  “They're not a batch. They're my men.”

  “I only meant... Usually, when we speed the nobles, the virus that delivers the rewrites is custom-coded to each individual. Here, I'm using just one to speed a dozen men. When I have other witches to help, the process will be safer.” Juan Chang watched his lieutenant’s unchanging face. “I'm doing the best I can,” she said. Then, she smiled at him and whispered, “Come to my chamber and let me lift your spirit.”

  His gaze remained fixed on the dead man.

  Corina's tongue caressed a swollen convexity that bulged out from the roof of her palate, a gland of her own design that she'd added to augment her charms. After three rotations of her tongue's clockwise-swirling touch, it released the pheromones it made and stored. The deep, savory tang of her siren-song scent filled her mouth. Corina took Juan Chang's face in her hands and turned his head towards her. As she exhaled, a cloud of her witchy scent rose to him on her close and heated breath. His blood vessels dilated, and his heart beat thrill-fast. Breath came quick. Pupils expanded until they were wide enough for her to reach into. She kissed her captive lover while the dead lieutenant watched. Then Corina smiled with love-wet lips and led Juan Chang to her chamber.

  *****

  Gulls appeared and lighted on Baba Yaga's floating towers. The endless waving flat of the ocean's waters still surrounded Corina's vessel from horizon to horizon, but when Molly saw the gray-white wings and heard the screeching cries, she knew land must be close.

  “Can you see it?” she asked. “I can't.”

  “It's somewhere just over the horizon,” the bear said.

  Molly heard Corina climbing the last of the stairs to the central tower's top. “And even closer than land, is the Coral Castle,” she said. “It's good that the General's lieutenants have awoken.”

  “But the rest of the army is still asleep. Won't we need them?” Molly asked.

  “A dozen witch-sped men, your blade, and the bear's claws should be enough to free my friends if we're clever about it.”

  *****

  The Coral Castle looked impenetrable even when it was only a yard-tall model made of Baba Yaga's witchy sands. The grains of the deck immediately around the model mimicked the sea, and they undulated and crashed against the little castle's outer walls as Corina stood over it on the bow-deck and gave Molly, Teddy Da, Juan Chang, and his lieutenants a preview of their destination.