Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood) by Skye Malone, Megan Joel Peterson Page B

her direction.
    “Ashe.”
    She flinched. Cornelius had reappeared behind her.
    “Go back to your room,” he said, his gaze locked on the wizards coming through the portal.
    “What–”
    “Do it now.”
    “Cornelius–”
    He glanced over to her and she blanched at the look in his eyes. At a loss for what to do, she backed away and then started for the hall, still watching the factory floor. Behind her, Cornelius strode down the metal stairs and then grabbed the nearest wizard for information.
    Guards rushed from the hallway and, startled, she stumbled back against the wall to stay out of their path. On the factory floor, more people were being carried in. Suspended between two wizards, a woman without an arm screamed, the bandages on her shoulder soaked and dripping red. Howling for his mother, a toddler flailed in the grip of a man whose head was wrapped in his own t-shirt and whose back bore viciously seeping burns.
    And others didn’t move at all.
    Trembling, her hands braced themselves against the wall.
    “Your highness?”
    Catching himself as he ran from the hall, Elias looked at her in alarm. Barely giving either of them a passing glance, Katherine kept going, a dozen wizards carrying bundles of medical supplies coming after her. “What’re you doing here?” he asked.
    “C-Cornelius was…” she started, her gaze still on the wounded and the dying. She faltered, forgetting her response. “What happened?”
    Elias grimaced, glancing to the factory floor. “You shouldn’t be here.”
    “What happened ?”
    “We’re not sure yet. Ambush at another safe house, probably.”
    Her brow drew down tremulously as a tiny body wrapped in a purple fleece blanket came through the portal in the arms of a larger wizard.
    The look on the man’s face told her all she needed to know.
    “Please go back to your room, your highness,” Elias said, gentleness struggling to cover the urgency in his tone. His gaze darted between her and the factory floor, and he reached over to guide her back toward the hallway. “There isn’t any need for you to see this.”
    She shrugged off his hand, watching as the man set the little body down on a crate. A bloodied hand slipped from beneath the fleece. A pink bracelet dangled from the wrist and the glitter inside caught on the bright factory lights. Heavily, the man sank to the floor, and as he buried his face in his hands, his shoulders began to shake.
    Ashe headed for the stairs.
    “Your majesty!” Elias called, rushing to catch up with her. “Please, this isn’t–”
    She ignored him, making a beeline for the man. Pulling his tearstained face from his hands, he looked up as she stopped by the body of the child.
    Her fingers shaking, she pulled back the blanket. Confusion clouded the man’s face as he looked from her to Elias.
    “Who…?” the man asked, his voice thick with pain.
    “Her Royal Highness,” Elias explained quietly. “Queen Ashe.”
    The man stared at her. She barely noticed.
    With her dark lashes resting on her pale skin, the girl could have been sleeping, but for the blood staining her little green t-shirt above the blanket’s hem. Feathery strands of auburn hair lay across her face, above freckled cheeks still touched with pink.
    Gently, Ashe brushed the hair from the child’s face and then looked down at the man.
    “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
    Grief tugged at his expression. Wordlessly, he managed to nod.
    Ashe turned. More people rushed down the steps to help, while others carried the injured farther away. Children wailed for their parents, the sobs mingling with the moans and cries of the wounded. Healers shouted for bandages as their magic flared, treating what could be quickly fixed and staunching the blood of what could not. The less injured leaned against crates at the edge of the chaos, their eyes glazed with residual horror. At the center of it all, Katherine stood, calling orders to her army of healers and pouring her magic into the