Keeping track of the lies was a different story. But I wasn’t planning on bothering for long.
This was only my second time out of Eden City, and most definitely the farthest away from home I’d ever been. As of yet, I couldn’t see much but a dusty haze hovering in the distance. But from the jet, the city had appeared endless. We were apparently about a half-hour drive from our hotel in the northeast of the city—close to where Jiang wanted to meet.
The air was crisper and drier here, and smelled … different. Sweet, but it was an artificial sweet. My hopes had better not be the same. I glanced at Drey as we made our way beyond the customs official to the waiting black limo, and I somehow managed to avoid tangling my legs in Pie’s leash as she bounded around me in her excitement to be off the plane.
“We won’t be cuffed together this time?”
“We might as well be,” Drey muttered out of the side of his mouth as the driver got out to open the door for us.
As in, if I escaped, it would be like it was with the cuffs—I’d be cutting off his hand, so to speak, and killing him. Our fates were pretty tied. But if anyone was going to lose any appendages, it would be me losing my thumbs. And I’d be freeing Drey along with myself.
Drey’s graying hair was slicked back, and he wore a ridiculous ensemble composed of a pale blue polo shirt, white cardigan, and pale plaid pants with matching visor. The platinum wristwatch probably cost more than every possession I’d ever owned combined. He looked like he was about to go golfing in Monaco, or maybe enjoy a cigar and a tumbler of brandy on his veranda. I wasn’t even entirely positive what a veranda was, but, in other words, he was a walking stereotype.
Under normal circumstances, I’d take advantage of this fabulous opportunity to mock him without mercy. But you had to have a sound-enough relationship with someone to mock them, and at the moment Drey and I were anything but sound.
We slipped into the back of the limo after Drey gave the driver the name of our no-doubt-swanky hotel. Behind us, our security guards followed in a black SUV … but they wouldn’t be within sight for long, especially not once we went to meet Jiang. And then I would be out of sight, once I got the monitors off.
The limo started moving and I got to watch the city rise around us through the tinted black windows. And what a city it was.
In Eden City, the neighborhoods were segregated, but here, the rich and poor were tossed together amid a patchwork of buildings—some that rivaled the best in Eden City, and some that were worse than the worst. People in sleek suits heading for private cars jostled with people in shapeless uniforms waiting for busses. Dirty carts with street food parked on the corners in front of sparkling high-rises.
I loved it. Pie was less interested in the view than she was in the leather upholstery, but Drey kept her from chewing on the seats while I stared out the window in awe.
There was writing everywhere: strung across banners, riding up the sides of buildings, hanging over shops, and even lining the street at some intersections. Tu had the same type of writing as on his back, revealing the Word of Earth inside of him, but now that I’d learned the English alphabet, these characters somehow looked far more incomprehensible than they had before.
“How can they know all of these symbols?” I asked, peering outside as we crawled through bumper-to-bumper traffic that stretched across multiple lanes. I knew I sounded like a dolt, but I didn’t care. “How do they remember what they mean?” I hadn’t noticed much of a discernible pattern in the complex slashes of script.
Drey shrugged. “It’s a difficult language. And yet they have a literacy rate higher than Eden City.”
So even the lower classes could decipher these symbols that I couldn’t even begin to understand.
I felt a rising desperation at being so close to freedom, but not quite able to touch it. I almost wanted to leap out of the car and make a run for it then and there. But I would have stood out more than a flashing neon sign. The monitors wouldn’t even have been necessary in tracking me down; people could’ve pointed the way to me.
At least that was the case until we made our way into what was clearly a rich section of the city and I saw an embassy flag or two. Foreigners of all shapes and colors began appearing. If I tried to lose myself in this crowd, it wouldn’t be as hard.
“Jiang lives near here?” I asked, my breath fogging the window. I practically had my face mashed against the glass.
“Yes, or at least he owns a flat in this neighborhood. He’s rich enough to abandon it, most likely, if we’re not what we seem. And here’s our hotel.”
We pulled up to the exact type of building I’d imagined: shiny, sleek, and towering, with what had to be a dozen golden doors facing the street. It would’ve looked nearly the same a half a world away in Eden City. Maybe all hotels for rich people were this cookie-cutter.
“There’s only time for me to change, and then we have to go,” Drey reminded me.
“I know,” I said, my stomach clenching.
It wasn’t dimmer outside only because of the tinted windows. It was nearing dusk when we stepped out of the limo. Drey didn’t give me much time to look around before he hustled me into the lobby and checked us in. I saw our room for nearly as short a time as he shrugged out of his clothes in favor of something less dorky, though the gray button-up shirt and black slacks still screamed of wealth. That was the idea, but he didn’t want to look like the exact same rich person who’d just flown in on a jet. We were supposed to have been hiding here for a couple of weeks, after all.
My clothes weren’t deemed remarkable enough to change, and Drey had been the distraction, anyway. He’d argued that the best disguise for me was one that drew no attention to itself.
“Pie needs to stay here,” Drey said, buttoning his cuffs. As if he sensed I was about to disagree, he added, “Jiang will wonder how you got her, and besides, she was seen at the airport.”
I was satisfied with my minimal preparation, which had involved finger-combing my hair and putting on deodorant, so I sat down on one of the king-sized beds in our suite. “Then I stay too.”
He dropped his hands to stare at me incredulously. “You’ll risk both of us just to bring her along? Tavin, she’ll be here when we get back. And she’d be frightened when you … you know. I think dogs can sense it. You don’t want to put her through that.”
I couldn’t exactly tell him that I wasn’t planning on coming back or using the Word of Death ever again, if I could help it. So I just said, “I’ll leave her outside. This flat of his is up in a huge building, with a lobby and everything, right? We can leave her down there.”
“And I’m sure whoever is watching the lobby will be overjoyed to babysit her.” He snatched up his black jacket and whipped it on. “No, she’s not coming.”
“Please,” I said, not needing to fake the desperation in my voice. “Knowing she’s there will help. And what if we have to run in a hurry?”
“We won’t if you stick to the—”
“Come on!” I damned-near shouted. “You’re making me kill someone … again! It’s a pretty small favor to ask in return, to have my dog right there to comfort me afterward, since you definitely won’t.”
“Keep your voice down!” Drey hissed. “Are you trying to risk everything?”
Yes. But I couldn’t say that either, so I just stared at him, my jaw clenched together.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said. “I’m the only reason you have that dog in the first place.”
My voice came out cold. “You’re also the only reason I haven’t happily been the Word of Death all my life or blissfully ignorant as a trash boy. Because, trust me, either one would be preferable to this cosmic joke of a life that you’ve left me.”
Drey looked as if I’d all-out socked him. I felt this bump in my stomach, as if I’d been hit too—or maybe hit bottom.
It was l
ike I’d been trying so desperately not to drown that I hadn’t even noticed I’d sunk so low.
“You can take Pie,” Drey said. He looked and sounded lost, as if he suddenly wasn’t sure where he was or what he was doing anymore … kind of like the junkyard dog I’d gutted. He scrubbed his face, his voice wavering slightly behind his hands. “Gods, you can take Pie.”
It was probably the lowest blow I’d ever dealt anyone, never mind Drey—in the figurative sense, of course. But I didn’t apologize, because I didn’t want him to change his mind.
The cab ride to Jiang’s was silent. Even Pie was quiet, sniffing the air tentatively and looking back and forth from me to Drey, each of us staring out separate windows at the nighttime cityscape. It was as if she knew something was wrong—knew something was irreparably broken between us.
Drey already felt so guilty about everything that had happened to me, and I’d thrown it in his face just to manipulate him. But then, he’d been manipulating me into killing people.
Nothing was right with the world anymore. Everything was broken. The Words broke people. Godspeaking broke people. Why had the Gods done this to us? These were their Words, after all. They weren’t a gift; they were a curse, and the Gods must have hated us to give them to the world.
I only spoke once, without looking at Drey, as we passed what appeared to be the roof of a lit-up temple with upturned eaves, intricately painted trim, and red pillars—so different from one of Eden City’s cathedrals. “Do they believe in the two Nameless Gods here?”
“Not like we do,” Drey murmured. “They do think of the Words as aspects of two opposing forces: yin and yang. But they believe each Word originated with an immortal being of legend, and that various things granted these immortals their powers. Elixirs, enlightenment, divine blessings … ” He trailed off into silence.
So they had immortals instead of Gods. Other than the number of them, I didn’t see much difference. In the eyes of people here, the Words were still seen as good. Which meant they had it as wrong as everyone else.
There, in that dark, quiet car, I realized I hated the Gods. If I could have used their own Word to kill them, I would have. But maybe they were already dead. Instead, I was going to take this Word from the world—take it to my grave. I was going to escape, and no one would ever use it again.
seventeen
The cab delivered us to a tall building paneled in polished, shining slate. None of our own security guards were with us, though I had no doubt they were monitoring the situation from a distance—and monitoring me.
The red-and-black marble lobby was as shiny as the outside, I saw, as we passed a pair of Chinese security guards by the front doors. We had to wait by a second pair while they ran the briefcase Drey was carrying through a scanner, and then had to walk through a metal detector ourselves.
After that, we were allowed to follow a black rug up to a large front desk. Drey murmured in English to the man behind the counter and slipped him a small folded stack of Chinese currency. It looked like a lot. Certainly enough to babysit a puppy for half an hour. The man hesitated, but eventually held his hands out. I passed him Pie over the counter. He looked awkward, holding her away from his spotless uniform with gloved hands, but soon he set her down on the floor behind the desk so she was out of sight.
He then gave us a well-practiced smile and said with barely an accent, “Dr. Jiang has been expecting you. You are free to go up.”
We passed several more security guards on the way to the elevators, guys who looked like they meant business. They ignored us for the most part, only pushing the elevator button for us when Drey asked for the top floor. But then two of them got in the elevator with us.
As soon as the doors closed, the men gestured for us to hold our arms out, and then they patted us down, checking for whatever the metal detector might have missed. I held my breath as one of the guard’s hands passed over my wrists, but he paid no attention to the monitor bracelets.
Needless to say, the ride up was utterly silent.
The elevator doors reopened on a sleek, dim hallway. At one end was a window that looked out onto the glittering city. In the middle was a pair of black doors that the security guards led us to. One of the guards knocked once, and then turned the golden doorknobs for us.
The front room looked more like an office than a sitting room, with a curving black desk dominating the center of a red carpet. Two chairs faced it. There were more intimate table-and-chair arrangements in the corner, but Jiang was already sitting behind the desk. We definitely would not be getting cozy together.
I supposed that was fair, since I hadn’t been very friendly when I’d met him the first time, in the Alps. But now it was time to kiss his ass.
The guards waited until Jiang gave them a nod, and then they left, closing the doors behind us. Jiang likely didn’t want them hearing our conversation, but they were no doubt right outside, waiting for a signal to come bursting in. Drey and I took a few more steps into the room, toward the desk.
Jiang wasn’t smiling even his fake smile. “Mr. Barnes. What an unusual surprise. I know why you’re here, but before you come any farther, I would like to know—who is this older gentleman with you? I recall seeing him on the news last year, dying, and then on a stretcher that arrived with the helicopter that day we met. As I recall, that same helicopter brought several Words who killed quite a few of my people.”
I took a deep breath, starting with our fake story to put him at ease in case he decided to stop listening too soon. “This is Mr. Bernstein. He was their prisoner, and the Word of Death was killing him slowly. Khaya healed him, and we both escaped in the chaos.” That last part was the only lie, really, and a believable one I hoped. There had been too much darkness and fire for Jiang to have seen what happened. He’d apparently escaped into the trees himself.
“I’m his benefactor,” Drey added. “I was the one who convinced Tavin to smuggle Khaya out of the Athenaeum in the first place. I have extreme interest in seeing the Words no longer under Eden City’s control.”
“And now you wish to join the escaped Words.” Jiang’s eyes narrowed. “But what if your interests don’t coincide with China’s?”
“My interests coincided with anyone’s but Eden City’s,” Drey said, with so much conviction I didn’t think it was much of a lie. “I’m for … how shall I say … a redistribution of power? If you need an additional incentive to help convince you we’re in earnest … ” He popped the latch on the briefcase, cracking it halfway open to reveal perfect stacks of crisp Euros inside. About a million of them.
Jiang was smiling now. Still, he asked, “How do you know I will be able to contact the escaped Words? And how do I know you will put in a good word with them for China?”
“Mutual trust—” Drey began.
But I cut him off.
“Let me put my trust in you first,” I said, unzipping my hoodie. “I’ll tell you a little secret, and maybe it’ll earn your trust in return.”
Jiang looked at me curiously, but Drey’s eyes flew wide in alarm.
I rushed ahead before Drey could stop me, yanking up the sleeves of my shirt once I had the hoodie off. “Do you know what these are?” I asked, brandishing my wrists at him. “Tu might have told you about them.”
Jiang studied the monitor bracelets for a moment, and then his eyes flew about as wide as Drey’s. He knew they were trackers from the Athenaeum. His hand shot under his desk—maybe for an alarm button, or a gun.
“Wait!” I said, turning my back to him. At the same time, I lifted my shirt about halfway up—definitely high enough for him to see. “Do you know what these are?”
“What are you doing, Tavin?” Drey asked next to me.
I didn’t like the hopeless tone of his voice, but I ignored him, letting Jiang absorb the sight of the inky markings lining every inch of my back.
When I turn
ed back around, he was frozen behind his desk. He hadn’t gone for whatever was under it. Yet.
“You … ” he stuttered, his composure gone. “You’re now a Word. The Word of … ”
“Death,” I said. “That’s right. I was sent here to kill you. That’s the other part of the secret. But I won’t,” I added quickly, before he could move again. “I just want to complete our deal, that’s all. And as a Word myself, I’ll forever be grateful to you. The others will be too, if you help me escape.” I didn’t specify grateful to China, but I figured this was good enough.
Jiang licked his lips. I could see his thoughts spinning behind his eyes.
“But you have to get these off,” I said, shaking my wrists at him. “And then get me out of here. Now.”
He hesitated only for another second, then gave a short nod. “We have a tool just for that purpose.” His hand now reached for the black phone on his desk.
“I thought you might,” I said, practically gasping in relief.
Which meant that everything was perfect.
Until Drey lifted the briefcase and a shot exploded into the room. It was muffled, but still loud enough to make me cover my ears. I should have been shielding my face instead, since blood spattered across it.
And then Jiang was lying face-down in a growing pool of blood on his desk, after rebounding in his chair. It actually took me a second to realize Drey had shot him in the head. With a briefcase.
The security guards outside barely had time to turn the doorknobs before Drey spun and fired four more shots from the case into the doors. There was a short shout, two thuds, and then nothing. He tossed the briefcase aside. It bounced on the rug, smoking slightly.
“Cruithear designed it,” he said. “The gun hidden in the casing is undetectable.”
“You just shot three people,” I said, completely stunned.
“The security guards were dead anyway, as soon as I shot Jiang.”
“Why … ?” was about all I could manage to say. I had to grab the back of one of the chairs for support.
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