It was probably a good thing the other two men were there, because making love to a Gilt Hollow citizen out here, where anyone could walk up at any time, was probably one of the stupidest things Oskar could do. But Oskar had a hard time thinking rationally when Zora was around.
Otto, however, had no trouble being rational. “Zora, we appreciate your offer to help. But relations between shifters and Gilt Hollow citizens are…complicated things. It’s much easier for us to, uh, live happy, safe lives if we don’t get tangled up in deals with noblemen’s daughters.”
“No one here wants to live a safe life. I’m sick of safety, and I know you’ve never truly felt safe. Sure, things might be more comfortable without me involved, but they won’t be more effective. I can help you in ways you can’t help yourselves. Let me.”
Oskar cleared his throat and gathered his courage. He felt he had to speak up on behalf of Zora, even if it angered Otto further. Zora had a point. He’d spent his whole life being too safe. All of them had. If they wanted to start a revolution, they were going to have to step out of their comfort zones at some point. “I think we should let Zora in on our…projects. If we want to make real progress, we have to take real risks.”
As Oskar had expected, Otto’s eyes darkened at these words. But what he hadn’t expected was for Leo to stick up for Zora, too.
“Oskar’s right,” Leo said. “We’ve been making slow progress—painfully slow—for years. And while slow progress is better than no progress, we’ve got to start taking some risks. If we want to see a revolution in our lifetime, we need all the help we can get.”
Otto let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Fine. I’ll consider it and we can vote on it at the next meeting. But that’s all I’ll promise for now.”
“No,” Zora said. “That’s not good enough. I want in now. And I want to come with you to Bear Hollow.”
Even Oskar choked in surprise at these words. “Zora, it wouldn’t be wise for you to be seen over there. People will talk and word might get back to Gilt Hollow. We could all be in trouble, you included. And…there’s not much to see there anyway. It’s a bunch of rundown houses and starving people who will hate you.”
Zora reached down for a large black bag by her feet that Oskar hadn’t noticed until now. She held it up proudly. “They’ll love me. I brought cake.”
Leo and Oskar exchanged a glance that was half amusement and half pity.
“Zora,” Leo tried, “That’s really nice of you but it’s going to take more than cake to fix all the bad blood between Bear Hollow and Gilt Hollow.”
Zora set her bag down again, looking deflated. “I know. But I wanted to at least try to do something nice. And I want to go to Bear Hollow, even though I know it will be hard to see. I need to see for myself what your people are going through. I’ve heard bits and pieces from shifters over the years, but most shifters don’t want to risk getting in trouble by complaining to a nobleman’s daughter. And goodness knows my father isn’t going to tell me what’s really going on over there. He makes it sound like your people are doing okay, and that any problems they might have are their own fault.”
Otto snorted. “You know what. Fine. Let her come. Let her see for herself how ‘okay’ our people are doing.”
Oskar looked up at Otto in surprise. “Otto, really? I’m all for letting her join the resistance, but taking her to Bear Hollow is too dangerous. For her and for us.”
Otto crossed his arms, an obstinate look crossing his face that Oskar had seen many times during training. Oskar knew what that look meant. The man had made his mind up.
“She can join the resistance on one condition,” Otto said. “She comes with us tonight, and she sees with her own eyes what our people have been put through.”
Oskar shrugged and looked at Leo, who also shrugged.
“I think that’s a crazy idea,” Leo said. “But what the hell. This is all crazy.”
A big grin spread across Zora’s face. “I promise I’ll be careful,” she said.
Oskar sighed. It didn’t matter how careful one was. Bear Hollow was never going to be a safe place for a woman from Gilt Hollow. Or for the shifters escorting her.
But, like Leo said, what the hell. Here went nothing. Or perhaps, here went everything.
Chapter Thirteen
The group was silent for the entire long walk through the tunnel. Otto led the way, pushing one cart of food. Then came Leo and another cart, and finally Oskar and a third cart. Zora walked behind him, lugging her giant bag that supposedly held cake.
Oskar wasn’t quite sure how to feel. He was happy, of course, that Otto had agreed to allow Zora into the resistance. She knew about the group, and pretending it didn’t exist was getting a bit ridiculous. But Oskar didn’t know what to think of the fact that Zora was now accompanying him to Bear Hollow. And his confusion came from a strange mixture of emotions.
He worried for her safety, first and foremost. Gilt Hollow citizens never came into Bear Hollow without a legion of guards around them, so no shifter had ever had a realistic chance to kill a Gilt Hollow citizen. Even if a shifter managed to overcome the guards and kill a visiting nobleman, the guards would have witnessed the whole thing. They would take the shifter captive, killing him and probably his entire family as well.
But Zora had no guards tonight, other than Oskar, Otto and Leo. What would happen if the shifters of Bear Hollow decided to take the opportunity to kill a Gilt Hollow noblewoman, with no one else from Gilt Hollow around to witness things? Oskar could yell at them not to do it all he wanted, but there were no guarantees they would listen.
Beyond her safety, though, he worried about introducing her to Whisper. He had no plans, of course, to tell Whisper that he was in love with Zora. He’d be an idiot to confess that to anyone. After all, unless this revolution was somehow successful, there was no chance that he and Zora could ever actually be a couple. But still, he wanted Whisper to like Zora. He wanted Whisper to somehow see that Zora wasn’t like all the other Gilt Hollow citizens. But how could he expect that of his sister? All she’d known her entire life was hatred of Gilt Hollow and all its residents. No matter how nice Zora was tonight, and no matter how big of a cake she’d stuffed into that damn black bag of hers, she was still a Gilt Hollow citizen. Whisper wouldn’t have time to get to know her and trust her in one night. And it hurt Oskar’s heart to think that, just when he’d finally found love, he wouldn’t be able to share that joy with his sister. He wouldn’t be able to tell her how wonderful he felt, or how happy Zora made him, despite everything. Whisper would think he was crazy. She would think he’d sold out and been brainwashed by the Gilt Hollow nobles.
It doesn’t matter, he told himself as they approached the end of the tunnel. The only thing that matters is that I’m going to be in Bear Hollow tonight. I’ll get to see my people, breathe the fresh forest air, and hug my sister’s neck. The rest of the details—his relationship with Zora, how the resistance would move forward, and how his sister would react if he ever did tell her about his love for a Gilt Hollow woman—would all have to wait. Tonight was about seeing Bear Hollow, and about feeding his people.
And those people had been expecting the crew of shifters from across the river. As soon as Leo pushed open the tunnel door on the Bear Hollow side, loud cheers sounded out, rushing into the tunnel and echoing across its narrow walls. Oskar looked back at Zora and gave her an encouraging smile, and she tried to smile back. Her face was etched with nervousness, though. For a moment, he thought she might just hand him the bag of cake and run back toward Gilt Hollow. But then she smiled wider and nodded.
“Let’s do this,” she said.
He nodded back, and pushed his cart of food up the steep slope into the open air of Bear Hollow. He had barely cleared the tunnel’s entrance when he was mobbed by a group of shifters. They threw their arms around his neck, full-grown men shamelessly hugging him with tears in their eyes. Oskar felt tears pricking at the back of his own eyelids. There had been a
time only a few weeks ago when he’d thought he would never see these people again, yet now here he was.
And then, he heard Whisper’s voice cutting through the crowd. “Is he here? Out of my way! Let me see him!”
The crowd parted, and Oskar saw his sister running toward him. She looked thinner than he’d ever seen her, despite the fact that Leo had promised he was giving her first pick of the food that had been brought over on previous tunnel trips. Oskar had a feeling she hadn’t eaten any of it. She was too much like him—unable to worry about pesky details like taking care of herself when she knew her brother was being held prisoner in Gilt Hollow. His guess was that she had given away all of the food Leo had given her. He vowed to make sure she ate a good meal tonight, especially after she threw herself into his embrace and he felt how light she was.
“Jesus, Whisper. Have you eaten anything at all since I left?”
“Not much,” she admitted, pulling back to look into his eyes. “I’ve been so worried about you. It’s so good to see you. How have they been treating you? Your face looks awful! It’s covered in gashes!”
Oskar laughed. “Good to see you, too,” he joked. “It’s been okay, but yesterday was my first actual Games competition. I got pretty banged up. I don’t usually look this awful.”
Whisper’s eyes darkened. “I could kill them all.” She stopped, and looked around, realizing suddenly that the whole rowdy group of shifters had gone silent. Oskar felt his stomach turn. Even before he turned to follow the angry gazes of all the shifters surrounding him, he knew what they were looking at. Or, more accurately, whom they were looking at. Zora.
“What in the devil is she doing here?” a panther shifter a few yards away demanded. Then, as if the silent spell had been broken, the whole crowd started yelling. Several shifters started to rush forward toward Zora, but Oskar slipped, as quickly and silently as a shadow, to stand between her and the crowd.
“Stop!” he yelled. “All of you stop it now. Calm down.”
“Calm down?” Someone asked. “You bring one of those bastards over here and expect us to be calm? What were you thinking?”
“We were thinking,” Otto said in a booming voice as he came to stand beside Oskar, “That we’d like to introduce you to an important ally of ours. Everyone, I’d like you to meet Zora of House Severson.”
The crowd roared again at the name Severson, and it took Otto a few moments to settle them down.
“Zora has agreed to help our cause,” Leo said, coming to stand beside Oskar and Otto. “I’ve known her for years, and so has Otto. You can trust her. She’s tired of the way that the Gilt Hollow citizens are treating the shifters. She hates the Games. She wants to see change. And she’s risking her own life and reputation to help us with that change.”
The crowd started roaring again, and Oskar could tell he was losing them. This was going to turn into a public stoning if the energy in the crowd didn’t change, and quickly.
“Enough,” he bellowed, in as loud of a voice as he could manage. The crowd fell silent again. Oskar caught sight of Axel coming up at the back of the crowd. His best friend had wide eyes, but Oskar couldn’t worry right now about what Axel or anyone else thought. He had to tell everyone, in no uncertain terms, that Zora was to be treated like an honored guest.
“Our people have been saying for years, decades, perhaps centuries, that we want a revolution. Well, now is our time. We have this secret tunnel, we have several shifters in Gilt Hollow who want to help, and we have a Gilt Hollow citizen, with inside information, willing to spy for us. Don’t say you want a revolution if you aren’t willing to accept that it will require some trust. We cannot accomplish this on our own. If you care about your future, and your children’s futures, do the smart thing and accept the boon that we have in Zora Severson. The daughter of one of the most prominent nobles in Gilt Hollow is offering to help us. Her trustworthiness has been vetted by several shifters who have lived in Gilt Hollow for years, and know how things work over there. Let’s take this opportunity. This is our time!”
A prolonged silence hung over the crowd. Everyone stared back at Oskar like he’d lost his mind. Then, from the back, Axel raised his voice in a triumphant chant.
“This is our time!”
Oskar could have run through the crowd right then to give Axel a big bear hug. His best friend always had his back. Oskar knew Axel wasn’t the trusting type. Not after what had happened to his family. But it didn’t matter. If Oskar asked for support on something, Axel was going to give it. That’s just the kind of best friend he was.
Axel’s words spurred Whisper into action as well. “This is our time!” she yelled, looking up at her brother with a look that he knew meant she was telling him he damn well better know what he was getting all of them into.
I do, little sister. I do. I’m getting us into the revolution that will change our lives forever.
For a few moments, everyone remained quiet, but then, to Oskar’s utmost relief, another voice from the back of the crowd yelled out, “This is our time!”
Slowly, but steadily, the chant grew, until the voices of all the sifters in the crowd filled the air. “This is our time! This is our time! This is our time!”
That’s when Oskar knew everything was going to be okay. He looked back at Zora, and she smiled shyly, then held up her black bag. Oskar nodded and motioned her forward.
“Who wants cake?” he yelled out. Zora pulled out three massive, beautiful cakes, all securely placed inside traveling cases to keep their icing looking pristine. Someone found a knife, and the cake cutting began.
Almost no one in Bear Hollow had ever eaten cake. Flour was too valuable to waste on something as nutritionally frivolous as a cake, and no one here ever had sugar. Oskar watched the faces of his fellow shifters as they took their first bites ever of cake, and he wanted to cry. The pure joy and delight from such a simple indulgence broke his heart in two. Apparently, it did the same thing to Zora. When he looked over at her again, he saw tears in her eyes.
It was certainly not the last time he would see tears in her eyes on this night. She had a lot to learn about what life was like in Bear Hollow, and she was about to get a crash course. While Leo and Otto took care of passing out the food, Oskar motioned to Zora to follow him into the city of Bear Hollow itself. Whisper came along as well, not wanting to miss a moment of her brother’s visit.
Zora noticed the darkness first. “Where are all your streetlamps?” she asked. In Gilt Hollow street lamps stood on every corner, at least. Electricity powered the lamps in richer areas, and in the slightly less rich areas, shifter servants kept flames running constantly inside the lamps. No one ever had to walk around in the dark. Here in Bear Hollow, things were different.
“We don’t have the fuel to waste on streetlamps,” Oskar explained. “Any fuel we have is used for things like cooking or keeping our homes warm. Wasting it on mere light is a luxury no one here can afford.”
Zora fell silent, and Oskar could see the embarrassment on her face. Good. She was learning just how much she had to learn. Bear Hollow needed someone like her: someone who was compassionate and cared about the Bear Hollow shifters, but who also knew exactly how things worked here in Bear Hollow—who knew what they were lacking.
Oskar, along with Whisper, led Zora through dirt streets of tiny huts, most of which were empty at the moment. Everyone had heard that shifters had arrived from Gilt Hollow with food, and so most of the town had gone down to the tunnel. Oskar didn’t mind. It felt good to walk through his old streets without having to stop every few seconds to talk to someone. He was enjoying soaking it all in.
Zora was soaking it in, too. He saw her eyes widening as she looked at the tiny huts most of the shifters lived in. The huts were made of mud, stone, wood, and tree branches: anything the shifters could use to cobble together a house. Standard building materials were prohibitively expensive for the people here, so they made do with what they could. They walked on until they came to
the small hut that Oskar knew as home. He stopped and stood outside for a moment, his eyes once again filling with tears as he took in the sight.
“This is it,” he said softly. “This is where I grew up, and where I thought I would die. But then fate intervened and I ended up in Gilt Hollow.”
Zora said nothing. She stared at the small hut with wide eyes, and Oskar noticed that her eyes were filling with tears again. “Can I see the inside?” she asked.
Oskar nodded, and motioned for her to follow him through the door. Inside, things looked just as they had the last time he was here several weeks ago. Two simple wooden chairs by the fireplace, a wooden table with two more chairs in the kitchen, and a rope ladder that went up to a loft where two pine straw beds were laid out. Oskar and Whisper had slept in those beds since they were old enough to climb the ladder.
Zora looked around, her eyes growing wider by the second. “Is this what all of the houses in Bear Hollow look like?”
“Pretty much,” Whisper said as she stepped into the room behind them. Ours is actually a bit larger than most, but we still don’t have a lot of furniture. We keep it simple around here, out of necessity.”
The Misfit and the Bear (The Shifter Games Book 1) Page 11