“It appears that Kane wasn’t supplying them with adequate food or water,” Morgan said. “They’re all severely malnourished and dehydrated. Many are sick from advantageous diseases like cholera and dysentery, according to the menders who’ve looked over the ones already here.”

  Elaine leaned forward. “I’ll gather some of the teachers and other support staff. We can lend a hand.”

  “That would help.” Morgan turned back to Winnie. “The long and short of it is these people need time to recover. I suspect it will be worse with every camp we liberate. It’s something we have to prepare for.”

  Winnie felt sick. These people had been suffering while she and the rest of the Duster army were taking hot baths in Promise Point.

  “How soon until we can rescue the next camp?” she asked.

  Silence, until Victor finally spoke.

  “We have to absorb the people we already have before we can add more. Some we can funnel to the cities friendly to our cause but the rest will have to stay here. That’s going to tax our resources. It’ll be weeks before we can afford to bring more refugees in.”

  “That is unacceptable. In two weeks, Kane could kill hundreds if not thousands more chanters in those camps, just by stopping the food supply.”

  “I know that, Winnie,” Victor said. “We don’t have a way to feed them all either, though. They’d end up dying of starvation here instead of in the camp.”

  “At least they’d die free.”

  Danny interrupted. “Winnie, we have to think about our Dusters, too. If we’re too exhausted or hungry, we won’t be up to taking the fight out against Kane and his forces.”

  “Is this the way all of you feel?” Winnie asked the table.

  “We can’t save the whole world, Winnie,” her mother said. “I know you want to, but sometimes we have to accept our limitations. Know what we can accomplish.”

  Silence fell over the table. She shook her head, her anger growing.

  “You can’t shake your head and make reality go away,” Morgan said. “Your mother’s right. We’ll save who we can when the time is right. But that’s all we can do.”

  Fury bubbled inside her. It was irrational. Out of control. But it spilled forth anyway.

  Winnie stared back at her sister. Morgan recoiled.

  “It’s easy for you and the rest of us to say it’s the best we can do,” Winnie said. “But our best is pitifully small compared to what we must do. You can all stay here and think up a way to think bigger. I’m going downstairs to speak with the wounded.”

  Winnie turned and stormed out of the command center leaving paralytic shock behind her. At least her back was to them, so they couldn’t see the tears.

  She’d never felt so alone, despite being surrounded by thousands.

  Heading to the nearest lift tube, Winnie stepped onto a transport disc and rode it down to the mender’s quarters and infirmary. Maybe if she visited with the wounded and sick, it would assuage her guilt.

  Wiping the tears from her eyes before anyone could see, Winnie straightened her shoulders and went to look in on the injured.

  Chapter 15

  Danny found Winnie in the infirmary an hour later.

  “What took you so long to find me?” she asked. “Did you decide to give up on me, or have you and the others come up with a plan to rescue the other camps?”

  “Neither, Win. We decided to ask the rebel cities for more assistance with relocating the refugees while we try to ramp up operations. Garraldi, Maria, and Morgan all think it will shorten the interval between raids by a week, maybe more.”

  “That’s not acceptable. We need to go again now, before Kane can react.”

  “Are you crazy, Winnie? You’re not even ready to go again. Have you discussed what’s happening with one of the menders?”

  “Are you saying I’m crazy, Danny?”

  “No. But I am suggesting that something is bothering you, and that I don’t know what that something is. You’re obviously not going to share it with me, so I think you should talk to someone else.”

  Winnie pressed her lips together, barely keeping her anger in check. She didn’t want to lash out again like she did during the command meeting.

  “Danny, the remaining rescued prisoners are due to arrive any time. And there are plenty of things that are far more important than what’s on my mind right now. Let’s focus on getting these people settled. We can deal with other things later, after we’ve reset our forces for the next assault.”

  Danny reached out to Winnie but she pulled away.

  “Don’t, Danny … ” Winnie’s voice was almost a whisper. “Not now.”

  “Why not?”

  “I have to focus on what needs to be done. I can’t afford any distractions.”

  Winnie didn’t dare tell him how much she wanted to melt into him and spill her feelings over what the dragons had done. But if she started now, she’d never regain her composure in time.

  Danny stood looking at Winnie. She could see the hurt in his eyes.

  He turned and walked away without another word.

  Winnie watched him until he was out of sight. The few people milling around them pretended not to have overheard, going about their business of tending to the wounded and sick.

  She couldn’t stick around any longer. Winnie also didn’t want to be there when the refugees started arriving. It would bring back too many memories. Winnie left the infirmary and was about to turn left when she saw a cluster of people around the nearest lift tube.

  Winnie turned and hurried down the corridor in the opposite direction.

  Without thinking, she drew in magic, filling herself with energy and opening a portal.

  Then she ran through, letting it slide shut behind her.

  ———

  Winnie sat on the ledge watching dragons soar in the distance. Two were chasing each other around and through the neighboring peaks near Promise Point, dancing in the sky without effort.

  How could anything so gorgeous and gentle turn into something so unrelenting and terrible? The thought picked at Winnie’s mind—a buzzing fly nagging a person trying to sleep.

  She’d spent the better part of two months before the raid living in and around the creatures. She’d seen the dragons hunt in the crags and valleys around the base, but never equated that prowess with their ferocity in battle.

  Winnie had unleashed them on the camp guards without knowing what it meant to do so. Now she relived it again and again in her mind, paying the price for her ignorance.

  And now she sat here for nearly a full day, watching and remembering, alone.

  It was just after dawn on the second day, while watching the peaks light in the rising sun, when Winnie heard a tiny whirring and a familiar voice behind her

  “Good morning, Seelie.”

  “Winnie, we’ve all been looking for you,” said the fairy. “I was just about to give up and return to the others when I remembered finding you here before.”

  “I needed to work on something. Without interruptions.”

  “So,” Seelie said. “Have you worked it out?”

  “I’m not sure I can. It’s … complicated.”

  Seelie flew up next to Winnie and hovered, looking out at the dragons soaring in the morning light nearby.

  “Scary, aren’t they?” Seelie said. “The Lady of the Lake warned us they were coming. She said the world would never be the same after they were called.”

  “She knew I’d summon them? How?”

  “I think it had to happen,” Seelie said. “The Fell wants to destroy the world. In order to protect it, we might have to destroy some of it, too.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of more than anything else. I don’t want to be known for destroying things. I want people to know that they’re safe from the monsters. Now I’m the one bringing them instead.”

  “Kane is the one dealing with the Fell to rule the world, Winnie,” Seelie said. “And he will succeed if you don’t do everything in your power to stop him. The dragons were created by the Fae because they knew they’d someday be needed. You didn’t do that. The Fae did it when they chose you to be the one to wield Excalibur.”

  “I don’t know if I can do it, Seelie. I feel the destruction within them. It’s just under the surface, ready to break free if I don’t choose wisely.”

  “You’re not alone, Winnie. We’re all ready to stand with you in this fight. Don’t push us away just because you’re afraid. That’s when you need us the most.”

  Seelie possessed the soul of Winnie’s unborn child, lost when the Harvester nearly killed her. She was close in ways that the others never could be.

  “Will you stay by my side, Seelie? I need you.”

  “Of course I will. For eternity.”

  Winnie smiled and gave a last glance to the dragons frolicking in the distance. They played like children but fought like demons.

  Maybe the same had to be true for her.

  “Let’s go back, Seelie. I’m ready to tell my friends what must be done.”

  She summoned her magic and wove the flows to open the portal back to the living quarters below. It was time to return.

  Seelie perched on Winnie’s shoulder, as she stood and walked through the blue-rimmed doorway back to her friends.

  ———

  Winnie stepped out of the portal and knew that something was wrong.

  People were scrambling, running everywhere, yelling for weapons and gear.

  She stopped a junior officer who tried to run past her. “What is going on?”

  “Haven’t you heard? Director Kane is preparing to attack Philadelphia. We’re preparing to send a force to its defense.”

  Winnie let the officer go and turned to Seelie. “The portals can’t transport the numbers we need, and the dragons will never carry them fast enough. Don’t they know that?”

  “Maybe it’s the only answer they have.”

  “There’s another way,” Winnie said. “Come on.”

  Seelie followed Winnie up the stairs to the command level and the room filled with windows. Everyone was clustered in front of the one expanded for a wider view. Winnie could see the central city of Philadelphia in the background. The foreground was filled with rows of artillery pieces aimed at the city across the river.

  Winnie said, “You’ll never get enough of our Dusters there to make a difference.”

  Everyone turned around at the sound of her voice.

  Danny said, “Where have you been?”

  Elaine looked near tears. “We thought you’d left us, Winnie.”

  “I had to think some things through. But I’m back. And good thing, because what you’re planning won’t work. We have to use the dragons.”

  “We considered that,” Victor said. “But they won’t make it in time with our riders.”

  “No, we only send the dragons. Without the load they’ll reach the city in a few hours.”

  “Will that be enough time?” Garraldi asked.

  “It will have to be. It’s the best we can do without needlessly sacrificing our forces.”

  “But Winnie,” Danny said. “Without you there to control them, aren’t you afraid that they might not correctly identify friend from foe?”

  Winnie felt the weight of his concerns, mirroring her own worries about what might happen. The dragons were a necessarily dangerous weapon. They had to be set free to fight Kane’s forces. It would either be in Philadelphia now or somewhere else later.

  Gripping Excalibur in its scabbard at her waist, Winnie closed her eyes and willed her mind outward until she connected with the dragons in and around Promise Point.

  Picturing the city of Philadelphia in her mind and its position on the map, she sent the location and a single word.

  Protect!

  Chapter 16

  “Sir, the artillery units are all in position and ready for operations.”

  General Couch looked up from the map table in the command tent, and toward the skyscrapers across the Delaware River.

  “Thank you, Major Beckett. Have them stand by for orders.”

  Couch waited until his first officer left to pass along the order, then looked at the map again. Was this really happening again? He still had nightmares from what occurred in Baltimore a few days before. Dozens of soldiers had to be taken off the line with psychiatric problems related to what they’d seen while guarding the city’s perimeter.

  Their orders were to let no one out of the city during the bombardment. But in the process of executing that order, some units had fired on civilians fleeing the freshly spawned monsters. Others stood by watching the creatures pursue and consume those who had escaped the initial artillery barrage.

  It had been the lowest point of Couch’s career.

  Now, here he was again, preparing to loose the terrible power of Kane’s new weapons on another city. Couch hadn’t thought that Kane could resupply him so quickly. He’d hoped there would be a respite from the campaign of terror.

  His personal phone chirped in his pocket.

  Couch pulled it out and tapped it to enable the call.

  “General!” Kane’s voice was angry, accusing with only a single word spoken.

  “Hello, Director.”

  “Why haven’t you started the bombardment? I sent you orders to proceed directly to Philadelphia without delay and initiate operations immediately.”

  Couch drew a deep breath before responding.

  “We only just now finished with the artillery preparations. My men aren’t automatons. I have to give them a break on occasion unless you want mistakes in this campaign.”

  “Lest you forget, General, I have your family here with me at all times. Perhaps I too should relax, take a break from my duties to spend time with them.”

  “That won’t be necessary, sir. We’ll begin the barrage within the half hour. We’re waiting for final confirmation that the encircling units are in position to hold the perimeter points.”

  “Very well. I’ll expect to hear back from you within thirty minutes. Otherwise I’ll have to take that break to look in on your wife and children.”

  “I understand, sir. It will be done.”

  The phone went dead and Couch lowered his hand, shaking as he returned the phone to his pocket. He liked to think the trembling was due to his anger at the director, but in truth, he was terrified of what Kane might do to his family.

  He looked back at the city. There were families in there, too, but they weren’t his family. His soul was damned, but none of that mattered so long as his family stayed safe.

  “Major Beckett.”

  “Yes, sir?” The major had been hovering nearby, anticipating his next order.

  “Pass the order to the artillery batteries. They may fire. Walking barrage from the city’s center outward.”

  “Yes, sir.” Beckett turned to pass his order to the communications officer.

  The general’s shoulders sagged as the first booms sounded and Kane’s special artillery shells started arcing up and into the city. Blue fire bloomed from a skyscraper. He hoped the explosions did the work of dealing a rapid death. The alternative, to be turned into those horrible beasts, was far worse than death.

  A shrieking cry sounded overhead.

  Couch looked up and blanched. “What the hell is that?”

  More of the bat-winged creatures appeared overhead, circling the city.

  Now there were hundreds.

  More of Kane’s monsters?

  Couch watched the massive beasts—dragons—circling until another round of artillery fire sounded from the riverbanks across from the city. A terrible cry rent the air and the dragons all banked toward the general’s forces.

  In a moment of horror, Couch realized that these beasts did not belong to Kane. They belonged to Durham, and were here to seek revenge on his men for their crimes against humanity.

  “Fire on them, dammit!” Couch shouted. “They’re with the enemy!”

  He ran to the communications tech, whose eyes were transfixed on the dragons. Couch grabbed the mic from the corporal’s hands and pressed the button.

  “All anti-aircraft units fire on the dragons,” he shouted. “They aren’t ours!”

  Couch looked back down the river to his units.

  Too late.

  Fire spewed from the dragons’ jaws, enveloping one artillery piece after another. Soldiers, their clothing aflame, flung themselves into the river, desperate to douse the flames. Others fell and burned where they stood, writhing on the ground until the sweet mercy of death came to claim them, turning into what looked like piles of burning rags on the ground.

  Couch watched the magical fire consuming his troops and melting barrels. Metal sagged and bent. Within a few minutes, the general’s entire artillery section was destroyed.

  The other units had opened fire. Couch saw one of the dragons wheel in the air then plunge into the river below as one of the larger antiaircraft shells landed a direct hit.

  “At least they’re not completely invincible,” Couch said.

  “They’re shrugging off all but our biggest weapons, though,” Beckett said. “Small arms have little to no effect, and seem to only be making them angry.”

  The major pointed toward the city. “Look, sir, a group of the dragons have separated from the others and are moving into the city proper.”

  “Bring up the remote cameras our recon units placed this morning. I want to see what they’re doing.”

  “Here they are, sir,” Beckett said, tapping a series of buttons on the display controller.

  The series of monitors lit up to display the city’s center. The initial barrage had caused significant damage before it was stopped by the dragons. Several buildings burned with the strange blue flames. The Fell beasts began to spread out and hunt refugees in the streets.

  But then the dragons arrived.

  Some belched red fire at the buildings to extinguish the burning blue flames. Dragon fire burned through everything it touched, causing buildings to crumble and collapse in on themselves.

  More and more dragons flew in to quench the blue flames, and damn the buildings. As the blue flames died, the dragons settled in the streets and took their fight to the ground.