Crown of Hidden Scales novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Thirty Paces

I did not take it back.

"Edric," I said. "Look at me."

He looked, with the whole bridge watching, and his hands were shaking on Bronwyn's collar.

"I'll count to three," I said. "Put her down, and walk away. Or find out what the crown does to a coward."

"You can't touch me from there!"

"You're right," I said. "I can't."

I turned to Rhain.

"Run," I said.

He did not ask why.

He bolted down the bridge toward the Emberfold end, at full tilt.

I ran the other way, toward the grey line.

Every step I took, the crown on my head grew brighter.

At twenty paces apart, my wrists began to burn.

At twenty-five, the scales on my arms flared white.

The same heat hit him, and gold light ran up his spine.

At thirty, the bridge between us lit up.

A line of fire shot out of the crown.

It ran down the middle of the span, straight as a bowstring, from my chest to his.

It was gold on one end and silver on the other.

It hummed.

The Dowager's soldiers cried out and fell back from it.

Edric was standing in the middle of the line.

He had one hand on Bronwyn and one foot on either side of the glowing thread.

The stone under his boots had gone cherry red.

He screamed.

He let go of her.

Bronwyn dropped onto the cobbles and rolled.

I saw her bound hands come up and grab the nearest guard by the ankle.

The guard went down.

"Now!" I roared.

Rhain stopped running.

He turned around and walked back along the line, one slow step after another.

The thread shrank as he came.

When we stood a pace apart it winked out, and the crown on my head dimmed to a low glow.

Edric lay on the bridge, clutching his boots, with his silver lacquer cracked and flaking in long strips off both arms.

The paint had peeled away in front of three hundred men.

Under it his skin was pink and blistered and bare.

"There it is," said somebody, in the grey ranks.

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