So much pain. So much blood. So much destruction. But I couldn’t stop to help anyone in particular. I was driven to search the crowd for one face in particular.
Chesh.
My throat tightened. I should have searched for him when he was first injured, but I’d been distracted by the fight to repel the Hearts. I took a ragged breath. What if he hadn’t made it?
That thought jolted my mind into gear. How many people hadn’t made it? How many had perished defending Melfall from attack? How many had died in the streets because I had encouraged them to come out of their homes in the tunnels? How many would be alive today if we had never thought of the Big Night Out?
I put my hand over my mouth as tears sprang to my eyes. We’d wanted to change The Forge, and we’d certainly accomplished that vision, I thought bitterly. Tonight would go down in the history books as a night to be remembered—but not for the reasons we’d hoped.
I backed up, staring at all of the people who were injured because of me. Stepping backward, I almost tripped over another person lying on the cobblestones.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” I said, murmuring the words over and over again. I turned and moved away, but everywhere I looked, I could see evidence of the destruction the Hearts had brought on our city—the injuries, the torn-up cobblestones, the broken scaffolding torn apart to use as weapons, the shocked and sobbing people who couldn’t believe it had happened. Tears welled in my eyes, making the world around me a blur.
I walked straight into a woman wearing a red dress, but I couldn’t see her features through my tears, even as I glanced at her face.
“I’m sorry, I’m so—”
“Ivy.” The woman put her hands on my shoulders and gave me a little shake.
I blinked away the tears that burned my eyes. Gaia was standing there, looking at me with concern. “Are you alright?”
I sniffed, the tears streaming down my cheeks. “Am I alright?” I asked, sounding hysterical. I swept an arm around me. “I’m unharmed, but what about them?”
Gaia frowned, then pulled me over to a small space directly underneath the clocktower.
“You’re not alright.”
I shook my head. “I’m not injured. I’m looking for Chesh. What if he didn’t make it? What if—”
“He did make it. He’s fine. He’s in the hospital.”
My eyes opened wide. “He’s alive?”
Gaia tilted her head to the side. “He had a serious injury to his shoulder, but, yes, he’s alive, and he will heal.”
I let out a sigh and let my head fall forward so that my chin rested almost against my chest. Then I noticed Genie wasn’t with Gaia.
“What about—?”
“Genie is alright, too.” Gaia smiled. “Or he will be with some care and attention. I left my phoenix there—he has magical healing powers, you know. He’ll be in his element in the hospital, though I expect I’ll find him in a pile of ashes when I return.” Gaia squeezed my arm. “Thank you for asking after Genie’s welfare. That means a lot to me.”
“You’re in love with him,” I said, more of a statement than a question.
“Of course,” Gaia answered. “It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
I paused, wondering how to phrase the question that had hovered on the edge of my thoughts since I’d known about Gaia and Genie's relationship.
“Do your parents approve?” I asked. “I mean the King and Queen—the people who raised you.”
Gaia put an arm around my shoulders. “Yes, I still think of them as my parents.” Then she frowned slightly. “Why do you ask whether they approve?”
I shrugged. “He just doesn’t seem quite the type for…forgive me, but you’re a princess. He doesn’t look like a prince.”
Gaia smiled sadly. “My father wasn’t a prince when my mother married him. He was an orphaned street urchin and a mischievous one, at that. Still, they fell in love and got married, and he was a good ruler.”
“Was?”
“Until he lost his memory and went back to living on the streets like the orphan he’d started out as.” Gaia sighed. “They married for love. I don’t think they’d stop me from doing the same.” She looked sideways at me. “Sometimes, the person who is the perfect match for our hearts isn’t the person that our parents—or our kingdoms—would choose for us.”
I nodded my head, then leaned my head against Gaia’s shoulder, feeling suddenly exhausted. “I don’t think anyone would approve of my stepping out with Raven. Last night made that perfectly obvious.”
“You were having lots of fun with him, when I saw you,” Gaia replied. “You two danced like there was nobody else in the world.”
“There wasn’t—not then, but…”
“But then those Hearts arrived and ruined it all?”
I ran a hand over my cheek and wiped away the tears. The mention of the Hearts brought back a thought that had been niggling at me since Alice locked the gate shut.
“Why did they do that, do you think? The Hearts, I mean.”
“I’ve been wondering that too. It doesn’t make sense, does it?” Gaia replied.
“Unless they’re being controlled by someone else,” I continued, thinking aloud. “At the end, when they suddenly stopped fighting, they just turned and marched straight out of the gates. As though someone had given them an order and they were just following it.”
I frowned, looking at the people laid out over the cobblestones again, as another thought struck me.
“Where are they?” I asked, getting to my feet. “The Hearts that fell? They’re gone.”
Gaia got to her feet beside me. “The Hearts that could still move joined the others who were retreating. Those that couldn’t move were dragged by the uninjured people and thrown over the wall after them. Nobody wanted any remains of them inside the walls.”
I nodded, hesitating a moment as a thought nagged at me. Something that had happened during the fight. Then I remembered with a jerk.
“I saw you shooting fire from your fingertips, again,” I said, astonished once again. “How do you do it?”
Gaia smiled. “I was wondering when you might ask more about my magic.”
“Is it really magic?”
“Fire magic. It’s one of the gifts my parents left me—left to all of us siblings, I suppose.” Gaia winked. “You, too.”
I stared at her, startled. “Magic? Me?”
“Don’t you wonder about your affinity for watches and machines?”
I blinked, frozen into place as my mind whirred with this information. Her meaning dawned on me. Gaia arched her eyebrows and nodded her head. Other questions started to form in my mind, but a wave of weariness washed over me. I knew I should visit Chesh, or help with the injured, or do something, but the scene before me suddenly swam before my eyes, and I almost stumbled.
Gaia clung to my arm. “I need some sleep. You do too.”
“You’re not going to the hospital?”
Gaia shook her head. “Genie will be well looked after there, and my phoenix will watch over him. He’ll only scold me for not looking after myself if I go to see him now. Come, let’s get some sleep. We’ll be needed later, I’m sure of that.”
2
3rd September
I sank down in the chair next to Chesh, who was tucked into a hospital bed, sleeping. His curly blonde hair was sticking out, laid out on the crisp, white pillow like curly rays of sunshine—or perhaps the mane of a lion. There were fresh bandages on his shoulder, the same crisp white as the sheets on his bed. His face was pale, and there were dark smudges under his eyes. His expression was peaceful in sleep, his mouth slack, and I wished for the smile that he had so often turned on me.
He’d told me he loved me. Twice.
How had I not seen it before?
Ever since I’d told him about meeting Raven, Chesh had been acting differently—strangely. I realized now that it was jealousy and an over-protective nature that had made him react so badly. I sat very st
ill, in a state of conflict. I wanted to make sure he was alright, and I wanted to patch up our friendship, but I didn’t want to drive a wedge even further between us.
Right now, in this in-between state, we could still be friends. If I said the wrong thing, we might never be friends again.
I sighed, reaching over to take his hand, stroking his skin with the pad of my thumb.
“Chesh,” I whispered. “Get better. Then we’ll make sure everything else is alright.”
He stirred at my words, slowly rising to consciousness. He blinked, staring around the room before he turned his head slightly to settle on me.
“Ivy,” he said, a sense of weary surprise in his voice. He shifted in bed to turn his body toward me and winced with the movement. To avoid the need for him to move any more, I stood to lean over him.
“You’re hurt,” I said.
“Yes, I’ve just remembered that,” Chesh replied, sinking back on the pillows. “My shoulder.”
“How is it?”
“There’s a big hole in it,” Chesh said with a grin. “It hurts.”
I chuckled.
“You were very brave,” I said, remembering how he’d leapt on the back of that Heart to protect me. “Thank you.”
Chesh smiled briefly, closing his eyes for a moment, as though the effort of speaking was costing him energy.
“Do you want me to go?”
“No.” Chesh’s eyes flew open again. “You’re not hurt?”
I shook my head. “I’m fine. I was lucky to have such a great friend nearby when I needed him.”
Chesh closed his eyes again, a smile on his face. Then he frowned, opening his eyes again. “I’m sorry, Ivy.”
“We don’t have to talk about it now.” I patted his hand.
Chesh stared up at the ceiling. “I spent all day yesterday in pain, in and out of sleep, and all I could think of was the look on your face when I interrupted your dinner and punched your date in the face. I just wanted…”
His eyes flickered over to me, then he went back to staring at the ceiling. “I should have told you before. Years ago. You were never like other girls. I tried making you jealous, but you never took the bait. Then I thought that if I was your friend, in time, you would come to love me, the way I love you.”
Chesh swallowed. I sat very still, saying nothing, my hands clasped in my lap. A lump formed in my throat. The words had been said, and they couldn’t be taken back. Chesh needed an answer, and I needed to set my friend free.
“You don’t love me, do you?” Chesh looked me in the eye.
“You’re my best friend,” I whispered, and a heavy, uncomfortable feeling settled in my stomach. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, summoning my courage. “But no, I don’t love you. Not the way you want me to.”
Chesh sighed, and it seemed as though his body sank back into the mattress. He closed his eyes, and the smile slipped from his face again.
“I’m sorry, Chesh,” I said. “I wish—”
“Me, too,” Chesh replied. He lifted his hand, reaching out for mine. I reached forward to clasp it. I held him for a moment before he withdrew. “I think it might be best for you to go.”
Tears prickled my eyes. This was it—the end of our friendship. I pressed my lips together, trying to hold my emotions in check.
“I just need some time, Ivy,” Chesh said. “Seeing you every day—seeing you with him—it’s too hard. I’m not saying we can’t be friends, in time. I just…”
I stood up, nodding my head. “I know. I hope your shoulder heals quickly, and you get out of this hospital bed as quickly as you can. Then, when you’re ready, you know where I live. I’d like to see you.”
“Goodbye, Ivy.”
I nodded and walked out, stopping in the doorway to glance back at Chesh, who was staring at the ceiling with a pained look on his face. I knew it had nothing to do with his shoulder.
I walked slowly down the hospital hallway, feeling as though I was floating along. The doctors and nurses rushed around me, like water flowing around a rock. People gathered in the doorways to hospital rooms, hovering around their injured family members.
I felt adrift, still seeing Chesh’s grieved expression as I left the room and wondering if I would ever find the same easy friendship with him again. Perhaps, before I’d met Raven, I could have made it work with Chesh. Rationally, we had the same interests, the same sense of humor, and we got along well. We should have made a good match.
In my heart, though, I knew it wasn’t love. Now that I’d met Raven, I knew that I couldn’t pretend to be in love with Chesh when I wasn’t.
I rounded a corner, making my way slowly towards the exit.
“Ivy?”
I looked up to see Gaia coming towards me. She had a light shawl wrapped around her shoulders, and she looked tired and drawn.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
Gaia smiled. “I’m not hurt. I’ve just spent too much time in this place over the last couple of days.”
“Is Genie alright?”
Gaia nodded. “He’s sent me away. He said he’s disturbing my rest, and I should go home to get some sleep. Besides, my phoenix is there. He won’t let anything happen to Genie.” She yawned. “I can’t say he’s wrong. I know I should get some rest, but I can’t help fussing over him. I’m lucky he’s alive, really. Everyone is—it’s a miracle that nobody died.”
“Nobody died?” I asked. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve been asking those who brought the patients to the hospital, and I’ve checked in with the nurse stations. No fatalities.”
I thought about the Heart that attacked Chesh. I’d assumed it was trying to kill Chesh, that it was luck that it put a hole in his shoulder instead of his heart. Perhaps, it chose to injure him, instead of going for the kill? But why?
Gaia smiled and put her arm around my shoulder, pulling me toward the exit. “I know that look. Come, tell me what you’re puzzling out now—because I’m too tired to work it out on my own, and I’ve got to go home. Walk with me.”
We stepped out into the heat and sunshine of a hot day—the air was clammy and still. I fanned at my face, while Gaia let the shawl drop from her shoulders. We took the couple of steps down from the entrance to the hospital to the street, then turned down Fourth Avenue back in the direction of the President’s Palace, where Gaia was now staying, too.
“I was just thinking that it’s more than good luck that nobody died.”
Gaia blinked. “You think the Hearts didn’t mean to kill anyone? I could’ve sworn when they charged at us with spears that they intended murder.”
“Me too,” I replied. “Now that I think of it, though, the Heart that injured Chesh had a clear shot at him. He could have put that spear through Chesh’s heart and felled him on the spot. Instead, he put the spear through his shoulder and let him live. Maybe that was purposeful.”
Gaia was quiet for a moment while she digested that information. “Genie could have been killed too. But he wasn’t. I thought it was luck, but maybe you’re right.”
“If everyone escaped without life-threatening injuries, it has to be more than luck.”
“If the Hearts weren’t intending to kill anyone, what were they doing?”
I shrugged. “That’s what’s so hard to understand. Every time I’ve seen a Heart, it hasn’t been wandering aimlessly. It’s been marching somewhere—with purpose. They want something, but what?”
“Or maybe they’re going somewhere?” Gaia suggested.
“Where?” I asked. “And why?”
“They didn’t appear to have a leader,” Gaia said. “But they must have—they were too well coordinated to be acting independently. They must be taking orders from someone.”
I stared into my sister’s golden eyes, knowing they mirrored my own. “You’re right. When they suddenly retreated, it was as though somebody had flicked a switch, and they all just stopped fighting and left, marching at the same pace they’d come. Someone e
lse was in control of them.”
“Have the Hearts harassed the city before?” Gaia asked.
I nodded. “Eighteen years ago—they did the work of the Queen of Hearts. They killed for her, so they’re certainly capable of it.”
“Do you think the Queen of Hearts is controlling them again?”
I rubbed my fingers at my temple. “Raven said he thinks the Queen has returned. After what you said about the things that are happening in the other kingdoms, perhaps… Alice doesn’t believe it—she’s adamant that the Queen is dead, but Raven said she’s a vampire and would have been difficult to kill. If that’s the truth, then she might be in control of the Hearts again. Or, it could be one of her loyal servants. There are still those who are loyal to her in The Forge.” I thought of the Tweedles and wondered whether they could have been responsible for the attack the other night. Without knowing who was behind the attacks, I couldn’t be sure that the Hearts wouldn’t attack again. The question gnawed at me, and I resolved to make some inquiries.
“At least, the Hearts are locked out of the city,” Gaia said. I murmured my agreement as I wondered what they were doing out there. We crossed the street, arm in arm, passing a greengrocer. I blinked as I recognized one of the women from the tunnels the other night, working behind the register—one of the women who had greeted Raven in the street as we’d walked to The Menagerie.
The woman smiled as she caught my eye, and raised her hand to greet me, then turned back to serving her customer.
Gaia caught the greeting and leaned toward me. “Apparently, since so many are injured, the unbeautiful citizens have been given opportunities to work that they wouldn’t have had before.” Gaia squeezed my arm. “See? The Forge can change. Not all at once, but we’ve made a difference over these last few days.”
I stared at the woman for a moment before turning away. “I’ve been thinking that if we hadn’t tried to force change, a lot of people would not be lying in the hospital right now.”
Ivy: Daughter of Alice Page 28