I thought that after the ramshackle shanties, the view outside couldn’t get any worse.
I was wrong.
As we make our way to the edge of the city’s boundaries, my eyes squint, trying to see in the distance, past the outpost’s burning torches.
“What…” My question is unheard and unfinished, but the carriage comes to a halt, the sound of voices calling out.
I see Digby get off his horse and go stalking forward, and I waste no time opening the carriage door and getting out, my eyes still locked on the view ahead that I can’t quite make out.
I pass by the other carriages holding Midas’s royal saddles, and the handsome male—Rosh—is looking out the window, frowning. “You smell that?” he asks someone inside. I don’t hear the answer.
Sail steps up to me as I continue forward, where I see a large group of the guards all gathered, speaking to soldiers at the outpost. The outpost itself is just a simple stone watchtower and wall that runs up into the side of the mountains at our back, a checkpoint for those who want to enter the city.
I step closer, but Sail moves to stop me. “We should wait here.”
“What…what is that?” I ask, trying to look past the soldiers, at the figures I can see just beyond the torches. I can’t make it out from this far away, but something tugs me forward, urges me to see.
Skirting close to the line of the horses, I make my way forward, Sail sticking by my side. And although I can tell he wants to insist I turn back, I can’t, not even when a sick feeling enters my stomach, like a premonition.
When I’m twenty feet away, the smell hits me. Hits Sail too, because his steps falter, a gagging noise crawling up his throat.
I bite down on my tongue and rush on, and as soon as I make it to the gathered soldiers, I’m finally able to see, my mind able to piece together what my eyes and nose are telling me.
There, in front of Highbell’s wall, hang a dozen bodies, strung up on a row of gnarly, weather-beaten branches.
The bodies are…wrong. Abhorrent.
They aren’t just corpses. They aren’t gilded heads on spikes, warning people of Midas’s wrath if one should break the law. No, these…these are…
“Rotted,” Sail says grimly beside me, as if he were hearing my thoughts. “That’s what the smell is. We’ve been getting these little gifts from King Rot all week.”
My mouth is dry, moisture wicked away with the sight of their spoiled skin. The bodies are molding in some places, like King Ravinger used his power to make them decay like a piece of fruit. Green, white, and black tufts of furry mold clusters over their mortal wounds like a macabre plumage.
Other parts of them are browned and shriveled, like a husk left out too long in the sun. And the rest of them…just gone. Like those parts of their bodies rotted away completely, disintegrating into the air as nothing more than peeled scraps of skin and powder of bones.
Bile curls in the pit of my stomach, and I cover my mouth and nose with my hand. I don’t need to ask Sail who they are. I can see the purple-plated emblems on their still-visible armor. They’re King Fulke’s soldiers.
“He’s sent them here and to Fifth Kingdom as well,” Sail explains morosely as Digby and the others still speak, several paces away from the putrid bodies.
“Why?”
Sail shrugs. “To send a message, I guess. So King Rot can show us that he’s pissed. And that Fulke’s men didn’t stand a chance.”
“But why send them here?” I ask. “It wasn’t King Midas’s army that attacked,” I point out, a betrayal of course, but the fact remains.
Sail shrugs. “He must know King Midas was Fulke’s ally, that he’s now sitting on Fifth’s throne. I don’t think King Rot is happy about it.”
Unease fills me. I don’t ever want to know what it would be like to meet King Ravinger’s wrath firsthand. If he’s angry enough to send these rotten corpses here when it wasn’t even Sixth’s army that attacked his border…I don’t want to know what he would do if he ever found out that it was Midas’s plotting and scheming that initiated it.
Ahead, Digby seems to issue an order, and then some of the soldiers break off, a group going to the bodies, while the watchmen return to their posts.
Sail and I stand together and watch as the guards cut down the rotten bodies, leather wraps tied around their faces to keep out the stench. A larger group begins to dig one large hole in the snow, and then one by one, the bodies are dragged in, until the last soldier is placed inside, like seeds being buried in a grisly garden.
The guards work together, piling the snow over the dead, until all that’s left is a shallow mound of snow to mark their grave.
Once it’s done, the last of the lingering scent of their demise clears from the air. I shiver and hunker down inside my coat, just as Digby turns to see me standing there.
He makes a beeline for me, and I tense. “Brace yourself,” I mutter to Sail.
Digby stops right in front of me, sweat on his brow despite the cold. He looks at me for a long time without saying anything, and I have to try not to fidget beneath his stare as I wait for the lecture.
I know I put myself and everyone else in danger back in the city. I know it was a stupid, reckless thing to do. I know that my impulsive decision to give out money could very well have set off a bad chain of events, but I wasn’t thinking of any of that at the time. I just wanted to help. I just wanted to make those kids’ lives not quite so bleak, even if for only a moment.
Digby’s eyes flick over my face, and then his glare slips away as he sighs. “Stay in the carriage next time.”
That’s all he says, and then he turns and walks away, stomping toward the men. He barks out orders, indicating to everyone that it’s time to move out again.
I let out a puff of breath that coalesces in front of me like a starved cloud. Sail nudges me. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
I let out a chuckle and shake my head, following him as we start to make our way back toward my carriage. “No. I got let off easy.”
Midas would’ve raged at me for doing something so dangerous.
When we reach my carriage, Sail opens the door for me, stepping aside. “Well, if it means anything, I like what you did back there.”
I look at him with surprise, but he shrugs shyly, embarrassed either by his words or my attention. “It was risky and rash, but it showed you cared. That you saw, that you looked. Nobody else would’ve ever stopped for them,” he tells me, and the tone of his voice tells me everything I need to know about who he is and where he’s come from.
Sadness fills my cheeks, holding them up into a makeshift smile. “You would’ve, Sail,” I tell him. “You would’ve stopped too.”
And even though I just met him, I know this down to my bones. Because this soldier from the slums, he’s not so different from me.
Sail dips his head, and I offer him a smile before I climb into the carriage, the door closing quietly behind me. At least I know that for every King Rot that exists, there’s someone like Sail in the world to balance it out.
We travel for a couple more hours until Digby finally calls everyone to halt, just an hour before dawn. We’re well outside the city walls now, with nothing but a plain white canvas of snow surrounding us and a mountain range at our backs, the golden castle out of view.
Nearest to the fire, a thick canvas and leather tent is erected for me, fur rugs rolled out on the floor. Sail gives me a wink where he stands watch outside, and I climb in, barely shoveling down travel rations before I crawl onto my bedroll.
By the time night eases away and the dawning sun comes, I’m snuggled deep under golden covers with my ribbons wrapped around me. My legs and back are sore from riding, though it’s nothing compared to the aching sight of those molded men roped up, or the crushing poverty in Highbell.
But…I’m outside. I’m moving rather than stagnant. I’m out in the world, and I’m embracing it rather than hiding from it. So that’s something, at least.
I don’t know what I’m going to do once I reach Fifth Kingdom. I don’t know what to expect. It’s been one night, and I’ve already had to face heartbreaking destitution and rancid cruelty. But I’m okay. Despite not having the security of my cage, the world isn’t crushing me. Isn’t breaking me.
For now, I’m okay.
