Twig

by wildbow

  I could imagine that some had talked and already found out that my story didn’t add up, or that I’d told different stories to different individuals. Had I been in their midst as it happened, I could have steered it.

  But I’d been tending to Jessie, because Jessie was more important than this small army I was building.

  Those veins of dissent running through this body of people would make this next bit hard.

  Better to address this on a smaller-scale level.

  I indicated each of the people I’d named, and indicated for them to come upstairs. The leaders of the student groups, the people I’d singled out, and then Mr. Unhappy from the group of prisoners I’d released.

  We gathered ourselves in one of the hotel rooms. The leaders of the student groups, the gang leaders, our assistants and helpers.

  Many of them found seats around the room. Jessie and I did too, turning two chairs around. Shirley stood in the corner behind us, while Rudy and Possum stood off to one side. The gang leaders took standing positions at various points around the room.

  A decent crowd unto itself, this.

  “Introductions are in order,” I said. “My name is Sylvester Lambsbridge, this is Jessie Ewesmont, and the most important thing to get out of the way is that we have no association with Genevieve Fray at all.”

  I saw mixed reactions, across the board, mostly among the students. Junior was smiling. He’d known. Others looked more confused, including Rudy and Possum. The student council looked shocked, and the Greenhouse Gang looked resentful. Ralph in particular, the round, glasses-wearing head of the Greenhouse Gang, looked angry.

  “You lied to us,” he said. He’d known before I’d even announced it. There was no shock or processing period that absorbed the initial impact of my admission.

  “Absolutely,” I said. “I’m sorry I had to.”

  “You lied,” he said, getting angrier. “We’ve been misled all this time, first by the Academies, ultimately this, the school shutting down, and now by you?”

  He took a short step forward, pointing a finger.

  As he did, Otis and Frederick moved, as if to intercept him. Ralph’s scowl deepened as he retreated that same step. He very dramatically flung his pointed finger down and out of the way, as if discarding it, the anger and accusations by no means gone.

  “The fact of the matter is,” I said. “Fray dropped the ball. We picked it up. We intend to keep every promise she made. The plan stands. It’s just a plan with different leadership.”

  “It’s a fucking lot different!” Ralph said. His face was red now. I could see the student council picking up on his energy. The anger was spilling over and they were absorbing it. Given a moment, they would join their objections to Ralph’s.

  “You didn’t even want to go with the students,” Jessie said.

  “I didn’t and I don’t, especially not now!” Ralph said. “But these students you’re preying on, they’re students I care about! Students I tried to help! I joined the student council to help them, and even after I dropped out of the council, I committed! I stuck my neck out to ensure the best and brightest wouldn’t get sabotaged or cut down with interference and petty politics! So they wouldn’t get used!”

  “You actually care about your fellow students?” Junior cut in. “No wonder you ended up on a bottom-rung Academy like Beattle.”

  “Talk to me about success and failure when you’re in the top ten of students here, R.J.,” Ralph said. “Until then, shut up and stay out of this.”

  “Ow. But I’ll concede the point,” Junior said.

  “Ralph,” I said.

  Ralph turned his attention to me.

  “Genevieve Fray is very good at sounding like she cares. Even through intermediaries. I don’t know exactly what she said to you, but I imagine it something along the lines of how she plans to save the world, and I know she tells every individual soul along the way that she’ll save them, making promises to each and every one about how she’ll solve their medical issues, save their lives, save their minds, or cure them of everything that ails them.”

  I glanced at Junior as I said that. He nodded, and the motion got glances from others.

  I continued, “…But as brilliant as she is, she’s only human. She can’t grant every wish.”

  “And you can?” Ralph asked. It was a question meant as something retaliatory or accusatory.

  “No, no I can’t, and Jessie can’t either,” I said. “But there’s a reason you’re in this room with Jessie and me and not Fray and her people. We’re paying attention.”

  I paused, letting that sink in.

  It didn’t quench or answer Ralph’s wrath, but it didn’t stoke it either. It seemed to be reason enough for the student council to hold their tongues, when they were ready to join Ralph in cussing us out.

  “She’s working in other cities,” I said. “She’s making promises to others. She’s spreading herself thin, with too many pokers in too many fires, and some are being forgotten, others neglected. She’s not so different from the Academy in this respect.”

  “She was here today,” Ralph said.

  “Her messenger was,” I said. “But we were here weeks and months ago, planning and watching.”

  I indicated the gang leaders.

  “Who are you, then?” Davis, the student council president asked. “Who are you really?”

  “I’ve spent more time working for the Crown and the Academy than many of you have been in school. I’ve killed on behalf of the Crown while working for them, and I’ve killed members of the Crown nobility since leaving that role behind. I’ve witnessed the start of wars and I’ve personally ended them. So trust me when I say it’s no mistake that I’m standing here in front of you now.”

  I paused for effect.

  “Jessie is nearly as experienced as I am, and far more capable in a number of areas. She’s also harder to explain, because she lurks more in the background, as a planner and coordinator. That’s who we are. For every day you’ve spent studying, we’ve spent a day immersed in the darker, bloodier side of the Crown’s and Academy’s dealings. Today, our individual worlds have collided. The students need the kind of help we can provide in navigating that dark underbelly of Crown and Academy. We need the knowledge, the influence, and the voice the students have.”

  Jessie spoke, “You can turn us down, say that you’re not interested in what we have to offer. But know that you’re our first priority, and you’ll have our full attention.”

  “The plan stands,” I said.

  Bea’s leg jiggled up and down. The student council president and vice president were rigid, upset. Ralph still had red in his face. Only Junior looked calm, but none of this was news to him.

  “What’s next?” Mabel asked.

  Ralph looked at her, aghast.

  “We don’t have other options, do we?” she asked, in response to his look of outrage. “What do you think we’re supposed to do, Ralph? Go out there and tell the students that they shouldn’t hear Sylvester out, that this was all a bad idea and there really isn’t anyplace to go? They’d tear us to pieces. Then they’ll leave. Go home or go elsewhere, or try to make their way on their own. And that doesn’t help anyone.”

  “If he hadn’t interfered, then the students could have gone with Fray. Someone we know,” Ralph said.

  “No,” I said. “Because the Academy is already here. Fray was too slow. There were agents in place, eavesdropping, already moving against her. Gordon—”

  Jessie put a hand over my mouth. She turned to Gordon Two. “What’s your real name?”

  “Nicholas.”

  Jessie removed her hand from my mouth. She gave me a pointed look.

  I cleared my throat. “He can testify. We had a run-in with two of the agents.”

  “We did,” Gordon the Second said. “Sylvester killed the both of them. I heard the bird woman talking to the headmaster. I didn’t exactly go running off after her to join up with her side when I heard it, eithe
r. It didn’t really sound like the students were a factor.”

  “Naturally,” Ralph said. “She was talking to the headmaster. She’ll say different things depending on who she’s talking to.”

  “Including us?” Mabel asked him. “Come on, Ralph. Don’t pretend it’s any different.”

  “She was a student once. She sounded genuine when she talked about that period in her life.”

  “She was a bureaucrat too,” I said. “One who helped orchestrate the trafficking and recycling of children into experiments, working with a rebel group. I was there when she was brought into custody.”

  “And we’re just supposed to believe you?” Ralph asked. “You’ve already admitted you’re a liar.”

  “I believe him,” Mabel said. “Maybe it’s silly or I’m being misled because I’ve actually looked into his eyes and talked to him while Fray only sent a representative, but I feel better about working with Sy than I felt when we were talking to Avis. Something about her unnerved me.”

  “I don’t think you’re processing this with your head, Mabel,” Ralph said.

  “You think I’m going with my heart?”

  “Parts below the belt, Mabel,” Ralph said.

  She struck him, open palm, across the face. He rose out of his seat, and she did the same.

  The two of them stopped short of an outright scuffle when Frederick moved closer to them, ready to break it up. Both breathed hard, incensed.

  Ralph abruptly turned away, striding toward the door.

  Otis blocked his way, keeping him from exiting. The middle aged, grizzled gang leader glanced at me, and I gave him a gesture, telling him to stay where he was.

  “I was never going to stay,” Ralph said. He didn’t look at anyone as he said it. “So I don’t have to stick around for the rest of this discussion, right?”

  “It’s a problem if you leave and say the wrong things,” I said.

  “Mabel said it, didn’t she?” Ralph asked. “If I tell the students down there what really happened, they’ll riot again. Then… there’s nothing. Nowhere for them to go. It doesn’t benefit anyone. But I certainly don’t have to stand there and say this is a good idea. I won’t lie to them either. I’ll use the back door.”

  “Alright, Ralph,” I said. “Good luck in your future studies.”

  “Keep your ‘good luck’ and go fuck whatever pit you crawled out of, Lambsbridge,” he said.

  “We’ll have to give you an escort to make sure you don’t cause a stir,” I said.

  “On it,” Clay said.

  “Nah,” I said. I had to do a bit of guesswork on this one. The funny thing was, Clay would have been my choice if he hadn’t spoken up. “Otis? Pick out one of your men and send him with?”

  Otis opened the door for Ralph, gesturing at a lieutenant of his. He closed the door once the two had left.

  Mabel remained standing. Her hand went to her hair, tucking it behind one ear. I could see the tremor in her fingertips. She probably didn’t like confrontation.

  “You can sit down, Mabel,” I said, quiet.

  She didn’t sit down. She didn’t meet my eyes, either. She did meet Jessie’s briefly. It took a moment before she shook her head.

  “Listen,” she said. “Ralph and I, and all the rest of the Greenhouse Gang, we talked to Avis. She talked about where she came from, she talked about being part of the Academy, and she was good at that, she had good stories, she made us laugh. And she talked about what she does while working for Genevieve Fray, the sorts of things Fray is doing, and she made it sound good, hopeful, and exciting. But she looked hollowed out, like she hadn’t slept enough over a long time.”

  I touched my cut eyelid, “I’m not sure I look much better.”

  “It’s more than just that. She talked about her birds, and even brought one outside of that cloak she wrapped herself in, keeping one hand over its head like it was a bird of prey, and she didn’t talk much about anyone except Fray. Like the lady who only has her cats and one friend that sometimes visits.”

  “She didn’t seem healthy?” I volunteered.

  “She really didn’t,” Mabel said.

  “She really isn’t,” I said. “After the incident with the children that I mentioned, she was taken into a dungeon and tortured for three-quarters of a year. She’ll likely never be well again.”

  “Did Fray promise her a fix, like she promised me?” Junior asked.

  “You need a fix?” Neck asked.

  Junior only shrugged.

  “I don’t know what Fray promised,” I said. “I wouldn’t be surprised. But I think Avis knows it’s not entirely possible to fix what’s wrong with her now. Maybe Fray wouldn’t have wanted to insult her intelligence.”

  There were a few nods here and there.

  “I just—” Mabel started. She glanced up, met my eyes for a fleeting moment. “I just wanted to make sure you all knew that I reasoned my way to my current position. It had nothing to do with what Ralph said was going on below my belt.”

  “I can’t think of a diplomatic way to say this,” Valentina said. “Except that I think what Ralph said had more to do with what was going on below his belt than yours. It wouldn’t be the first time, in his case.”

  “So you knew why he joined the student council?” Mabel asked. “And why he left?”

  “I figured it out very quickly.”

  Mabel nodded. Then she took her seat very quickly, as if she was very uncomfortable continuing to stand and be the center of attention.

  “I should have joined the Academy, by the sounds of things,” Frederick commented. “Young romance, girls in pleated skirts, more going on below the belt than I got to enjoy before I was eighteen…”

  “You’re not helping matters, Frederick,” I said.

  The pale-haired, brown-skinned laborer and gang leader only smiled, showing off the white of his teeth.

  “Bea. You’ve been sitting there and bouncing your knee for a while now,” I said.

  “I always said I cared more about actions than words,” she said. “Your actions stack up.”

  “Okay,” I said. I suspected that wasn’t the end of it.

  “At my first school, I was told to do this, do that. I tried. I ended up worse off than I was before. I took advice from older students, and I picked a professor and I did the best work I could for him. That… didn’t work out. I found another professor willing to be my mentor, a woman, and she promised she would back me. When it counted, she didn’t follow through. I came here, because people said it would be better, and it wasn’t. I faced dropping out, and one more person came along, promising a fix. I told them I wasn’t prepared to just believe someone anymore. They told me to wait until today, see for myself. I did.”

  I waited, giving her time to sort out her thoughts.

  “I’m stuck, now. Because in all my life, only two people have ever said they’ll do something and actually followed through.”

  “I’m one,” Neck said, to the room and not to her.

  “And Fray isn’t the other,” she said. “But now this thing I’ve always said, when I was helping talk other girls through tough times and relationship troubles, that actions matter more than words? That guys and professors and parents can say whatever they like, but it’s what they show you that counts? I’m feeling like I have to stick by it, because you’ve been dishonest, Sylvester, but you showed your stuff when it mattered, with the prison especially. I’m not happy about feeling like I should stick by my old stance, and I’m not sure what I should do.”

  “Give me a chance,” I said. “I’ll ensure you’re happy with this course.”

  “Tall order, promising me any kind of lasting happiness,” she said.

  “The prison break was a tall order too,” I said.

  “Point,” she said. She glanced at Neck.

  “I’m with you, love,” he said. There was no love in the word, only loyalty.

  She nodded at that. Then she looked at me, nodded, and dropped her e
yes.

  “Student council?” I asked. “Davis? Valentina?”

  I’d left them to last, in hopes that influencing them would influence the student council along the way.

  The reality was that my read on the student council was by far the most lacking.

  “What I find myself asking,” Davis said, running his fingers through his brown hair, “is what would have happened if you hadn’t turned up today.”

  “Avis would have showed. The letters would have been written and distributed, the headmaster wins out, the Horse—”

  “Horsfall,” Jessie supplied.

  “—loses, badly, despite being much liked by a large share of the student body. The riot unfolds, and Avis and Fray stand by, letting it happen. Things are carefully orchestrated, people are swept up in it all, and by the time matters settle, the students are whisked away on Fray’s errand. The casualties are easily forgotten or lost in the shuffle.”

  “Casualties?” Davis asked.

  I avoided looking at Rudy and Possum. “The students who couldn’t bear the reality she’d rushed to conclusion. The students sequestered in jail.”

  “You don’t think a woman as smart as Fray had a plan in mind?”

  I started to answer. Jessie beat me to it.

  “We’ve been following Fray since the start of her career. We were there when she started her rebellion. I know Sylvester had a private chat with her once, while we were pursuing her. She wanted to recruit us, once upon a time. Her focus was always on humanity. Preserving humanity. But as time goes on, she’s slipping more. She’s finding it easier to overlook the small losses, to win a skirmish that involves moderate stakes. Overlooking moderate losses to win a battle that involves major stakes. Then overlooking major losses to win a battle that involves national stakes.”

  “Releasing the primordials,” I said. “Then the red plague.”