A hand touched his arm. Then Sorrin’s voice: “Concentrate, Bowe. What part of Drywell Square? Who are we looking for?”
Bowe opened his mouth to speak, but his tongue was too dry to form words. He swallowed and tried again. “Near the north end. An old woman selling carvings.” He wasn’t sure his words were coherent enough to make sense, but Sorrin pulled him up and led him on. Bowe kept his eyes on the ground, watching his feet, trying to avoid looking at the mayhem of the marketplace around him. Still, it was difficult to walk without stumbling when he wasn’t sure which of his multiple feet he wanted to hit the ground first.
Then he heard a voice—her voice. “What’s going on? What have you done to him?” Bowe looked up, but didn’t see her. Instead, he saw her carvings coming to life. The lion grew in size and its mouth opened, revealing a row of sharp teeth. It pulled back into a crouch. The eagle opened its wooden wings and launched into the air. It extended its claws and dived. Bowe screamed and threw himself away from it. He crashed against the counter and felt it give way. His head thumped against the ground.
* * *
A palm slapped Bowe across the face. “Wake up, wake up—I’m not going to let you die on me,” Sorrin said. “Drink this.”
Bowe felt his head being raised, and water trickled into his mouth. He gulped it down. “Thank you,” he said, “but it’s too late. The poison has already gone too far. I’m already blind.”
“You’re not blind, you idiot—your eyes are closed.”
Bowe thought about it for a moment, and then, concentrating on his eyelids, he managed to get them to open. He caught a quick glimpse of Sorrin leaning over him in a darkened room before the world began to spin, and he closed his eyes again. “Where am I?”
“We dragged you here when you knocked yourself out. The escay girl and I.”
“Where is she?” Bowe asked.
“She’s seeing if she can get the money for you. Your cut on the garnet sales isn’t enough to cover your whole loan, but she may be able to persuade her partners to advance enough to save you.”
Bowe sighed. “No, don’t bother. I don’t want to be saved by her again. How do you even know that Jeniano has a cure? Or that he’ll give it to us if we repay him?”
“Jeniano is known for using Shade of Helion. If he refused the cure to a paying debtor, no one would repay him again.” Sorrin’s voice seemed to come from far away, as if he were at the other end of a long tunnel.
“I deserve to die like this. By poison. For what I did.” Bowe was falling farther down the tunnel. “I deserve it.”
Sorrin gripped Bowe’s shoulder. “Maybe you do deserve to die, but I don’t. And you promised to help me along the Path. You may not have taken that seriously, but I did. There’s no way I’m going to let you die until you’ve fulfilled that promise. Do you hear me?” Sorrin’s voice got farther and farther away until it was swallowed up by time and distance, leaving Bowe alone in the darkness.
Chapter 13
23 Days Left
Bowe’s eyelids rolled open to reveal a blurry world. He tried to rise, but his neck didn’t have the strength to control his head and it flopped back and forth. He closed his eyes again.
“You’re awake,” said a voice. Bowe opened his eyes again, and this time the world came into focus. He was lying on the floor in Sorrin’s basement room, and Xarcon looked down at him with a concerned expression on his face.
“You’re Xarcon.” Bowe found that absolutely hilarious and roared with laughter. “We’re at Sorrin’s place, but you’re not him, you’re Xarcon.”
The furrows deepened on Xarcon’s brow. “I came to see how you are, and Sorrin asked me to stay while he went for some food. Are you okay?”
Bowe stopped laughing. He thought for a moment and then smiled. “I’m wonderful. Isn’t the world great?”
Xarcon leaned down and touched Bowe’s forehead. “Still a bit warm. The fever seems to have broken, but you…aren’t fully right.”
“I’m too hot.” Bowe threw his blanket off. “No, wait—I’m cold.” He shivered and laughed at the same time. “The Infernam is nearly here, and I’m cold.”
Xarcon replaced the blanket and Bowe snuggled into it until the shivering stopped. “I’m hot.” He tried to throw the blanket off again.
Xarcon held his arms. “Why don’t you hold on to that in case you get cold again?”
Bowe’s mind felt foggy, but that made sense, so he stopped struggling. He found it difficult to form thoughts, but he was so happy that it didn’t matter. He gripped Xarcon’s wrist. “Sit down. Talk with me.”
Xarcon sat on his heels, carefully removing Bowe’s hand from his wrist. “What do you want to talk about?”
Bowe smiled widely. “I’m happy. Isn’t life wonderful?”
“That’s what you want to talk about? The poison and antidote combination was strong stuff.”
Bowe put his finger to his lips. “Shhh. Don’t let people know, or everyone will want it.” He giggled. “Everyone will want to be poisoned.”
Xarcon shook his head. “To answer your question: no, life isn’t wonderful. Especially not if you are an escay.”
Bowe’s joy lessened. Fragments of thought surfaced out of the fog. “The escay have a hard life. But I’m helping them, I think. I’m working with the Guild.”
Xarcon leaped up and looked around. “What are you saying? You know it could mean both our deaths if a marshal heard you talking about that. Even in your state.”
“The Guild isn’t so bad. Or maybe it is, but I hope not. I think the Guardians don’t like it so they make us think it’s evil.”
“Shut up.” Xarcon stared at Bowe in horror. “Stop talking. Think about something else. Flowers. How wonderful life is. Anything.”
Bowe giggled. “Flowers. Flowers are pretty.” Sorrin entered and Bowe giggled harder. “I know you. You walk funny.”
Sorrin rushed over to him. “You’re awake.” He touched Bowe’s forehead. “And the fever’s broken.”
“His mind may also be broken,” Xarcon said. “You don’t want to hear what he’s saying.”
Sorrin turned to Xarcon. “I’m just happy he’s woken up. He was in an awful state these last two days. Hopefully his mind will clear when he recovers further.”
Xarcon’s mouth twisted. “It’s worse than just mindless babbling. We can’t let anyone hear him. He can’t control what he’s saying. If we’re lucky, he’s gone crazy, but I fear it’s much worse than that—I fear he’s telling the truth.”
Sorrin rubbed his chin. “He’s in a fevered state that makes him tell the truth?” He leaned down. “Bowe, what’s your biggest secret?”
“Don’t answer that,” Xarcon shouted at the same moment that Bowe said, “I killed my mother.”
Sorrin straightened. “He killed his mother. That’s excellent.”
“How’s that good? What’s wrong with you?” Xarcon asked.
Sorrin was already limping out the door. “The last time, you didn’t believe him. Neither did Edison or Thrace. I’m going to bring them back and we’ll find out for sure if we can trust him. Was he trying to play us, or did he truly mean what he said?” Sorrin clumped up the stairs.
Xarcon ran after him. “Wait. You don’t know what you are doing.”
“Keep an eye on him until I’m back.” And Sorrin was gone.
Xarcon returned to Bowe’s side and squatted down beside him.
Bowe grinned up at him.
“Are you feeling more like yourself?” Xarcon asked. “You better recover before Sorrin gets back. You just can’t talk about certain things.”
Bowe’s grin faded. “You mean the Guild?”
“Stop talking about that.” Xarcon rubbed his hand through his hair. “Come on, you can’t go around spouting stuff about the Guild. I don’t care how fevered you are.”
“You must like the escay, since you live and work with them now.”
“I didn’t become a performer because I liked the esc
ay.” Xarcon sighed. “Maybe if I talk, I can stop you from telling too many truths. I knew years ago that I couldn’t survive the Path. There are others who are stronger, smarter, and more ruthless than I. They’ll be the ones selected and chosen. So I decided to spend the time I had left doing what I most enjoy. And I’ve always loved watching the street performers. So when the Path started, I went to them. When I asked, they took me in, taught me, and took care of me. I already have more friends among the escay than I ever had in the serpent’s lair known as the harem. But that doesn’t mean I want anything to do with the Gu…that organization.”
“I liked the escay I met, too,” Bowe said. “I didn’t expect to. The priest, the newsbard, and a girl. An old woman protected me from the marshals and gave me her only cloak. For no reason. And I don’t even know where she lives so I can go back and thank her.”
“Just because escay are nice is no reason to speak well of the—you know. That organization is dedicated to destroying the ascor way of life. Our way of life. Just a mention of it in the wrong company will have you sent to the Fortress, never to return.” Xarcon stood up. “I can’t believe I’m even talking about this with you. Shhh.” The sound of footsteps came from the stairwell. “No more talking about it.” Xarcon looked down at Bowe’s expression and groaned. “Seems to be no reasoning with you right now. I’ll just have to hope the conversation stays on safer matters such as matricide.”
Remembering Chalori, sadness spread through Bowe’s mind like tendrils of darkness in a fog. Then Sindar walked in, and Bowe felt joyous again. He beamed at the other boy. “Specter of the rooftops. Thief of hearts, and other stuff that doesn’t belong to you,” Bowe said.
Sindar bowed. “At your service.”
“Who are you?” Xarcon asked Sindar.
“I’m Sindar. I was supposed to meet Bowe here at the meeting a few days ago but when I checked out the place, the marshals were watching. Sorrin met me just now and told me to come here, that I wouldn’t regret it, then limped off faster than I could run. What in Helion’s name is going on?”
“I can see rainbows.” Bowe grasped at the air in front of his face. The bright colors dazzled him, but each time he grabbed at a rainbow, it disappeared. “But I can’t catch them.”
“I can see that.” Sindar edged away from Bowe, as if he had something that was catching. Bowe knew the thief couldn’t see what he did. None of them could. He wanted to share his joy with the others, but they couldn’t understand.
“Bowe was poisoned, then given the cure as he was dying. He was really sick for the last three days, badly fevered, and now he’s in a weird state of flowers and rainbows.” Xarcon glanced at Bowe and then back at Sindar. “Because none of us trusted Bowe earlier, Sorrin thinks we should question him now, since he always tells the truth in this state.”
“How do we know that?”
“That’s just what Sorrin thinks. Me, I think he’s just coming up with all kinds of craziness. Look, he’s trying to catch rainbows again.”
“I guess we should ask him a question that he’d never normally tell the truth about.”
Xarcon’s voice had a nervous edge. “No, that’s not a good idea.”
Sindar was already crouching down in front of Bowe. “You know that escay girl you were with the last time we met? Are you in love with her?”
Images of Iyra flashed though Bowe’s brain. Pulling him into the boat. Holding his shaking hand and helping him turn the key. The warmth of her as he held her and kissed her. “I think I am. I don’t even know her that well. And I know she is an escay and could never be for me, but—” He curled his fingers into a fist and placed it on his abdomen. “—deep down, I know I love her.”
“That’s your bellybutton, not your heart.”
“Oh.” Bowe raised his fist and placed it on his chest, but it slid back down. “Deep down…”
Sindar smirked. “Still your stomach.” He grabbed Bowe’s wrist and placed Bowe’s fist against his breastbone. “Deep down there in your heart—I get it.”
“Don’t you feel the wrongness?” Xarcon asked. “For an ascor to lie with an escay is bad enough, but to actually fall in love with one…”
Bowe tried to understand the feelings that Xarcon’s words induced, but he couldn’t make sense of them. “All that isn’t important right now. All that matters is that I love her.” He beamed up at Sindar and Xarcon. “I should tell her.” He tried to get up, but dizziness and weakness washed through him and he fell back down.
Xarcon shook his head. “He’s fallen in love with an escay. Is there anything that boy hasn’t done?”
“Sounds like Sorrin is back. No one else could limp down that stairs at that speed without falling.” Sindar pushed himself to his feet. “And what do you mean? What else has Bowe admitted to doing?”
Xarcon cleared his throat. “He said he killed his mother.”
Sorrin entered, followed by Edison and Thrace. The room became overcrowded once more, and Sindar was almost pushed out the back.
“This scene is familiar.” Edison looked down at Bowe. “Though, our would-be glorious leader is rather the worse for wear.”
Bowe was happy that all these people had come to visit, but found it hard to summon the strength to smile. Everything blurred and darkened, then disappeared.
“He’s falling asleep,” said a panicked voice from far away, and then a slap on his cheek gave him a jerk, and everyone reappeared. Sorrin was at his side. “Ask your questions,” he demanded of Edison. “If we let him sleep, the effect may be gone by the time he wakes up.”
“It had better,” Xarcon said.
“Okay.” Edison scratched his head. “I’m still not buying into your story that he can’t lie, but there’s no harm in asking a few questions.”
Xarcon made a noise deep in his throat. Edison glanced at him, then turned his attention back to Bowe. “What’s your honest opinion of this noble journey to prove ourselves worthy—the Green Path?”
A deep weariness pinned Bowe to the floor. He focused on Edison and tried to think about the Green Path. The images hit him much harder than Sorrin’s slap on his cheek. Vitarr’s inert body being pummeled by Dulnato, then his serene expression on the funeral barge; Jisri falling into the sea with a knife in his eye socket; Cetu being sliced to pieces by the Eye fighter while his screams cut the air. “The Green Path is a monstrous thing.” He threw the weariness from himself like a cloak and pushed himself up to a sitting position, looking at each of the Deadbeats in turn. “It is an evil beyond describing. To make young men walk is a terrible crime against the natural order. And the ascor who make us do it are perpetuating that evil.” Then Bowe started giggling. “‘Perpetuate’ is a funny word.”
“See, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Xarcon said. “It is not truth he speaks, but madness.”
“It is often madness to speak the truth.” Sorrin helped the patient back into a lying position. Bowe’s burst of energy had died as quickly as it had arrived. “Anyone with eyes can see that he speaks what he believes to be the truth.”
“Do you expect us to believe you when you say you won’t accept selection unless you can bring all your followers into the Refuge?” Edison asked Bowe.
“I don’t.” Bowe’s eyelids became heavy. He let them fall, and spoke into the darkness. “Anyone who follows the ascorim wouldn’t believe me. All I know is that I cannot—no, will not—walk the Path as it now exists. If there is no other way, death has beckoned me all my life. I don’t want Defenders; I want a brotherhood where we walk forward together—where either all of us survive, or none of us.”
If anyone replied, Bowe didn’t hear them.
Chapter 14
13 Days Left
Bowe twisted the azure cloak in his hands. He’d put on his tunic and pants, then taken them off after deciding they were too hot, and now had put them back on. He had nothing else to wear to an ascor event, so he would just have to suffer the heat. It was crazy to have an even
t take place in the afternoon this close to the Infernam, but he had to put up with it. This Harmony match was important—at least, he thought it was. Eolnar had, as promised, arranged a place in a qualifying match—if Bowe won, he’d play against the Guardians on the evening before the Infernam. Glil considered playing too risky, but Bowe tended to ignore Glil’s conservative advice. The Path didn’t leave much room for prudence.
Bowe walked onto a balcony that looked out over the central courtyard. He hoped that the fresh air would cool him. But the outside was worse—like a furnace expelling hot air. Beneath him, Edison trained alone, hacking and slashing the stuffing out of several dummies. In the center of the courtyard, Thrace was putting a row of escay teenagers through their paces. Bowe didn’t understand how they trained in this heat. Their arrival at Bellanger Mansion had been one of many shocks for Bowe when he had woken up.
He couldn’t even remember persuading the Deadbeats to join with him, though he’d heard the basics repeated by the newsbards many times since. How Bowe Bellanger had recruited a handful of Defenders while lying in his sickbed was their new favorite story. Only shards of his five fevered days in bed remained in his memory. Much good had come out of that fever, though—he’d achieved more in his short time of sickness than in all the time he was well.
He’d apparently insisted that they bring him to Bellanger Mansion in a stretcher. He didn’t have to fear the Raine marshals now that his loan was repaid. The whole brotherhood now resided here—plus others. He wasn’t sure why the escay girls had arrived to clean, or why escay boys had arrived to start training as guards—though he knew Iyra had something to do with it.
The escay boys barely knew which end of the sword to hold when they’d first arrived. Edison had tried to train them, and they’d all left nursing more bruises and cuts than they were willing to bear. After they had been coaxed back, Thrace had started training them. He shouted a lot, but he didn’t hit them as much as Edison. Things were improving. They were now able to pick up the sword by the handle instead of the blade nearly every time.
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