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| - ❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅❄❅ — BANNERS, Start A Riot COLD. It's all I feel at Calder's words. Something has sliced a neat wound through the bottom of my stomach, and all my insides have fallen out, leaving only my lonely heart beating, the rest of me empty and exposed to the frigid wind till everything within me turns to ice. "Did you hear me?" Calder demands, like I'm deaf instead of utterly destroyed. "Farrah! Everly! Greer has Everly." I snap back to myself. "Come on." We tear up the mountain like cats possessed. "Wait up!" Turner yells, running alongside me. "If it was Tessa," he whispers, "I'd do anything for her. I'll help you save her." I don't stop to ask what Everly has to do with his doomed romance. There isn't room for such coherent thoughts to form in my mind, which is just a mass of fear and desperation. I have to find her. The entrance to the peak comes into view. Dimly, I become aware of Turner, who is positively hollering in my ear. "Calder! Lucifer! Wait -- this is insane -- we can't storm the peak with a three cat army." Calder whirls on the black-and-white tom. "My mate is in there!" "You can't save her from Greer like this," says Turner. "Did someone call for an army?" Ruta arrives, but she's not alone: a battalion of cats who look ready for war stand behind her. I see Jett, Sasha, Plover and Eider -- but also many Clan cats. Shadowstar and his three warriors look particularly eager to fight, but to my astonishment, Moonstar and Blackstar are also there, grave-faced but determined. "Clans, there is no room for a fourth in the Triad!" calls Moonstar loudly. "Let us take back what should always belong to those who heed the warrior code -- and their allies! Anyone who kills us, who takes our warriors and steals our prey, who makes us feel inferior -- they are our enemy!" Calder stares at me, temporarily distracted. "What has gotten into them?" "I can be pretty persuasive," says Ruta smugly. "As can I," says a quiet voice, and my eyes focus on a tom in the crowd that they skipped over the first time. "Riverfrost? You're -- you're supposed to be . . . in hiding." "Actually, I'm supposed to be dead, thanks to Collection," my father -- it's so strange to think that word -- says, "but because of Everly, I'm not. So I decided to accept the risks of being a resurrected ghost -- I've been meeting with warriors from all Clans, turning them against Greer, asking them to join an uprising if one started, and eventually got an audience with the leaders." Ruta sniffs. "Well, I helped." "We thought you were crazy at first," says Blackstar to Riverfrost, "but eventually . . . Greer has not treated us well. It's time to do something about it, instead of fighting each other like petulant kits. "And I thought Clan cats had no sense at all," mutters Jett. Narrowing her eyes, Moonstar says, "Don't forget that it's the leader of your organization we're about to fight." "Hey, we did beat you to the rebellion thing," says Sasha lightly, nudging Jett as if to say, shut up now. Stamping my paws impatiently, I say, "Are you mother hens done chittering, or would you like a solid sharing tongues session before we try to save our friends' lives?" "Sorry, Lucifer," says Sasha. "We should probably form a plan," says Moonstar hesitantly. Calder makes a strangled sort of noise. "We don't have time for a plan! Farrah could be dying." "Here's our plan of attack: attack. Everyone got it?" snaps Riverfrost. "Good." We surge forward in a wave. But I've barely reached the threshold of the entrance when I hear someone yell my name. "Not that way! Lucifer, are you looking for Everly?" It's Miko, breathless and covered with blood. "Miko, what happened to you?" I ask, shocked. "It's not mine. It's Farrah's," he says grimly. I look around for Calder, but he's nowhere to be seen. "Lucifer, listen . . . Everly's in trouble -- Greer took her to be -- to be tortured, personally . . ." Static buzzing fills my ears. Everly . . . tortured . . . I know the pain Greer can inflict -- but never, never has she hurt me as much as it hurts to think of Everly being hurt as I've been. "There's a secret entrance," Miko is saying, and I stare at him blankly, trying to process his words through the singular, agonized scream my thoughts have coalesced into inside my brain, "that leads straight into the training cavern. Greer used it to launch her surprise attacks while you guys were training. I only know about it because . . . Well, I can explain later. Come on." Miko leads me around the side of the mountain. We scramble over jagged piles of ice. I've spent my entire life training to move soundlessly and gracefully over the roughest terrain, but right now I'm so distracted that I tear my pads open with countless cuts, not looking where I'm stepping in the slightest. "Where are we going?" I ask, glancing about and noting that there is more ice smashed into glittering pieces on the rocks beneath us, as if it's been knocked down by some big disturbance. "In here." Miko is a blurry shape that I can barely see through a semi-transparent piece of ice that is covering what turns out to be a hole in the rock. Though it is well hidden, the entrance is still surprisingly big considering the tunnel is so secret that not even I knew about it. I step inside. "Wait, Lucifer. There's something I need to tell you. There's a reason Greer never brought you in here," Miko says. I sniff the air. There is a strange warmth on my right, and it carries with it a scent that's all-too-familiar . . . "Asara," I say, feeling a bolt of longing course through me. Miko swallows. "Lucifer, listen to me. Greer underestimated your strength the first time -- it seems you've survived without the asara this time . . . I'm still not sure why, actually, but then, it's a very mysterious plant. I also harbor suspicions that it hasn't been as easy as you've maybe pretended in front of your friends." I glance away, but my eyes are still scanning the tunnel walls. I spot a break in the rock -- is that a glimpse of purple I see? I break past Miko and slip through the gap, gasping at what I see. Asara. Everywhere. In a small, sheltered chamber, it's grown up in a lush purple carpet. "Lucifer!" Miko prods me in the back. "Come on, Lucifer. You won't get lucky a second time." "I'll be fine." A haze is falling over my mind. I'm actually trembling slightly. "It might even help me in the fight . . ." "It's not worth it. It's not worth losing yourself -- think of how hard it's been to shake Greer's influence. You'll be placing yourself right back within her reach." "Isn't that where I always am?" I say desperately. "I can never truly escape her, can I?" Miko groans, pulling at me to no avail. "Please, don't do this." "Miko," I say, taking a step forward. Miko glances up at my change of tone, but my suspicion isn't directed towards him. I frown and point to a bare patch of the floor. "It looks like the asara has been freshly uprooted," I say. "But I haven't been at the peak in a long while." Going pale, Miko says, "Is she raising another soldier? But she hasn't told me . . ." "Did she tell you about me? Have you known all this time? That I was being drugged?" "I knew a bit more than what she told me," Miko admits. "But not about the asara, not for a long time. I found it by accident." I'm not quite sure if I believe him, but I can't deliberate right now. "It seems like she took a lot more than is needed for one cat. Maybe she drugged the entire Guard, and that's why they won't join our cause or even listen to us." "Maybe," says Miko uncertainly. "It would be most unwise if she did. Such a volatile, unpredictable drug. Greer must have still been in her testing stages of how to best use the drug; besides you, I don't think she spread its reach very far yet. She might have been planning to give it to Cecily too, because Cecily was intended to be your mate." Sickened, I say, "What if we did have kits? What if they had defects, or . . .?" "Then Greer would move on to another experiment, wouldn't she?" Miko says seriously. "The thing that makes this so dangerous is that no one knows about it, so they have no way of guarding against it. Even I have no idea how long she'd been growing the plant before she decided to make you patient zero. Cats see Greer's controlling policies and viciousness, but they can't even dream just how far she will go to keep her power." "At least you have me to try and think like her. I know more about Greer than anyone, because she was trying to make me like her," I say darkly. "Stars." Miko shakes his head at the dark patch of earth where a huge chunk of asara was uprooted, his eyes dark with worry. "The world is falling apart," he says. As if unleashed to punctuate his words, a scream, coming from the inside of the peak, reverberates through the tunnel. "Where does this tunnel lead out?" I say, my heart pounding as I start to run. I recognize the scream. It's Everly. "The training cavern," says Miko, right as I slide out onto a familiar ledge. I blink as I recognize the spot where I've started countless training sessions -- but there was always rock behind me. Greer must have sealed the tunnel when she wasn't using it. Thank goodness it isn't sealed now. "Lucifer." I can't think of another occasion when Greer's voice, usually a menace in itself, has meant so little to me. All I can see is Everly. She's crumpled on the floor just beneath the ledge, and she's covered in blood. I flash back to when Everly attacked Greer to save me. I remember the time she found me in the training room, on the verge of unconsciousness, how she tried counting to numb the pain, how she was the last thing I saw before I passed out -- I remember a thousand other things, the way she forgave who I was and understood me despite my twisted story, the way she followed me into a blizzard to help me save Eider, the way she screams and clings to me whenever we go sledding, but laughs harder than everyone else. How she feels every sadness and every hurt down to her very bones, but how she also feels every joy and every laugh with all her being. I want to stand there remembering, because I don't know how I can be brave enough to go to her and check -- check if the cat I share all those memories with is . . . is . . . I leap off the ledge and land beside her. "Miko," I plead, and the medicine cat hurries over. Greer laughs cruelly. "So weak," she hisses. "She's alive," Miko says. His eyes say, She won't be for long. "I can get supplies from my den," he whispers, "but you have to protect her till I get back." "I'll protect her with my life," I promise. Greer allows Miko to run past her; she seems to find it amusing. "Her friend" she nods towards Everly "went to go find Miko, you know. Shame he wasn't there. Sam must have killed her, the foolish she-cat." Farrah. Miko never said what happened to her. My heart aches for Calder. I stand over Everly, refusing to move. If Greer wanted to attack, it'd be all too easy, but she seems content to taunt and torture me with her words first. "I suppose, Lucifer, that you have deluded yourself into believing this is a love story," says Greer contemptuously. "You have forgotten the simple truths of life I taught you: pain and power. There is no black and white, no good or evil. If you choose to believe in them, you are hindering yourself, fettering your ambition and tying yourself to a stone. You are foolish, and you are weakening yourself." I say nothing, but I can't stop myself from glancing upwards. Greer reads my mind, and a cruel smirk twists her features. "You found the asara," she guesses, "but you took none. Why? Afraid it would rob you of your feelings? Do you realize how pathetic you've become? You could have ruled this mountain." Hurry up, Miko. Please. I can't even begin to sort out the mess of emotions shooting through me: all I know is, stronger than them all -- the pull of the asara, the confusing and colliding urges to both rip Greer apart and listen to her words like I've done all my life -- is the need for Everly to be okay. I hear the clatter of paws on stone, and Miko comes rushing back in, bundles of herbs in his mouth. Greer lashes out like a snake, so fast I barely see her. Next thing I know, Miko is lying on the floor, the herbs scattered around him, winded but unhurt -- for now. Greer steps in front of him. "I propose a trade, Lucifer," she says. "You know Miko is the only one who could possibly save Everly's life now, but by extension, you are the only one who can allow him to. If you stay here, if you surrender yourself so you can be dealt with for your crimes, I will let Miko take Everly away and heal her. Is it even a decision, Lucifer? You know you belong to me. The fact that you don't want to anymore means nothing. The only question that remains is how many cats you are willing to let die before you accept your destiny." "Giving them over to you is just as good as killing them," I say, wondering if she knows how close I am to breaking. I lock eyes with Miko, who shakes his head, his expression contorted with regret, but firmness: Don't do it. Not even to save Everly. He doesn't understand. Nothing matters if Everly's not safe. The entire world is something she taught me to care for. "That's not true, Lucifer," Greer says, not even bothering to deny her innate malice. "I cannot rule a mountain of corpses." "Then why are you building one?" I cry. "Don't flatter yourself or the worthless cats you cared for. Your mother is not enough to amount to a mountain." I bare my teeth. "My mother is this mountain. Her soul, and the souls of all you've Collected, murdered in cold blood -- you can never escape them. Their cries are on every howling wind. Thorn Mountain is unforgiving: that's what you've always had everyone believe. Do what you have to do to survive, surrender no piece of yourself, ask for no forgiveness for it won't be given. But this mountain is not our enemy, nor is it something that can ever be conquered. Like its cats, it's out of your reach. It's time for you to listen to me. You have wronged this mountain and made its rocks slippery with blood, and you have wronged the Triad, you have wronged all the cats that have ever sacrificed so that their kits could live. You will not be forgiven." I spring at her. Miko scrambles to his paws and dashes over to Everly, getting to work at once. I grab Greer's face in a paw and slam her to the ground. Undignified and not exactly an elegant fighting move, but it gets the job done. My paw is covered in spittle and bubbly flecks of red blood. Greer does not appreciate my attempt to redesign her face. Her claws hook at my chest and tear into the flesh. She's working blind, but she still manages give me a significantly big wound before I wrangle her off. I remember my promise to Sasha. There is no hesitation in me, not even the slightest pause. I have to kill her. I want to kill her. I slice my claws downwards. My paw hits the stone floor with a bang that makes my bones crack. Greer dodges me, moving as quickly as a snake. Her tongue even darts in and out of her mouth in a snake-like fashion, licking blood off her lips. "Weak," she spits. "You are just getting weaker and weaker. I think that after I defeat you, I'll kill your father and the rest of your friends, just for the state they've reduced you to. Consider it my intervention on your behalf. Of course, I mean I'll kill your friends minus one. I seem to have already done the job on that pathetic ragamuffin upstart you teamed up with." She points lazily at Everly, but I don't look. Letting out a wordless bellow of rage, I run at her again. We crash into each other with the impact of two glaciers thrown against each other by massive waves. "HOW -- DARE -- YOU -- TOUCH -- HER!" Greer has her claws around my throat, but I don't stop pummeling her. My vision is red, my blood the temperature of liquid fire. I forget my entire speech about the spirit of the mountain, forget everything except the blood Everly is drenched with and the fact that Greer is the reason for her pain. "Lucifer!" screams a voice. I turn and see Calder, supporting a cat whose fur is so sticky and scarlet with blood that it takes me a moment to realize it's Farrah. "We have to go!" Calder says, and something in his voice makes me stop what I'm doing. "It's DiAngelo! He's here!" DiAngelo? Inside the peak? And suddenly the patch of newly uprooted asara makes sense. "You drugged the wolf," I whisper into Greer's ice-like face, unable to believe the lengths she has stooped to. "You drugged the wolf?" Then: "Everly." She's helpless. There's absolutely nothing she can do about it if the wolf comes in here. I rip myself away from Greer and run towards Miko. "I'll get her! You get the herbs! Run!" Greer doesn't even bother trying to stop me. Like she knows I won't get far. Like she knows we don't stand a chance.
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