“It isn’t your place to tell me what the Brood is fighting for,” Paige said, and now her twang was deepening again. “Until a week ago, you didn’t even know what the Dragon’s Brood was. Clearly the wizard was wrong about you.”
“Clearly? Has he been wrong before?”
“No one is infallible. I assume you will be leaving us then.”
“It’s pointless for me to go east without the boy.”
“Well then, I suggest you come with us to Coalhaven and make your journey worthwhile.”
Emily turned away, looking into the crowd around them. They watched with transfixed fascination, as if she and Paige were playing some strange new form of tennis, and they were trying to discern the rules.
“And what do you say?” she asked them. “How many of you even knew that the wizard says Michael is the key to winning this war?”
A low murmur filled the air, but no one stepped forward or answered. She thought she heard disquiet in some of those voices, but she couldn’t be sure. She hoped she did.
“That’s enough,” Paige said, and her tone was cold enough to mist the morning air.
Emily looked back at her. “You were fine with doing what the wizard wanted as long as those things suited you. Sending Corbbmacc to Seven Skies got him out of the way. So did sending him to Hellsgate for food…”
“I said, enough.”
“…But as soon as we come back and tell you something you don’t want to hear, then the wizard must be wrong and I must be crazy. Isn’t that about it?” Emily had managed to keep her voice from rising, but now it shook a little as she fought to suppress her emotions.
“I have twenty-seven people here who are my responsibility,” Paige snapped, and she was not as successful at keeping her emotions in check. “I will not risk their lives tromping around some godforsaken corner of the world because some little girl says so!”
“No one is asking you to. Michael comes with me. I’m not asking for anyone, or anything else.”
“What about us?” Haake asked, drawing everyone’s gaze to him again. “Don’t we have a say?”
“You are Broodsmen,” Paige snapped. “A war cannot be fought unless we are organized and work together.”
Emily felt someone beside her and glanced over to find Corbbmacc at her elbow.
“In other words,” Corbbmacc said, “you’re all expendable and have no say about it.”
A stunned silence filled the room, as loud as any gunshot.
“I didn’t say that,” Paige said.
“Then give them a choice,” Emily challenged, motioning at Paige’s Broodsmen.
There was a long moment of silence. Paige bowed her head, apparently in thought, though to Emily, she looked more like someone deep in prayer.
At last, Paige raised her head again, squaring her shoulders. Her wings quivered slightly.
“The Brood is not a democracy,” she said softly.
“Is it a dictatorship then?” Emily asked, matching her tone.
Paige stared at her, her expression inscrutable. She shrugged indifferently.
“Tell them then,” Paige said. “Tell them what you plan to do.” She turned to the men and women around them. “After you’ve heard what she has to say, you can choose whether to come with us to Coalhaven or forfeit your lives for a fantasy.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Emily saw Celine step up to stand on her other side, Rascal still perched upon her shoulder. She drew strength from the presence of her friends as they stood beside her, much as she had from her wingers on the ice. She touched the crystal in her pocket again and took a deep breath.
“I’m supposed to take Michael,” she pointed at him, still sitting against the back wall, “into the mountains to the east. There will be a lake there, and I think…”
She paused, wondering how to phrase what she wanted to say. She could almost feel Paige’s satisfied smile as the seconds slipped away.
“I think there will be someone there who can help him, and then he can help you. He can help us all.”
There was a soft rustling as everyone turned to glance at their neighbors or whispered to those beside them.
“Where is the lake?” someone called out.
Emily’s heart sank. She had no idea where it was, but was afraid to admit it. She sensed her credibility with these people, most of whom had never seen her before this morning, was tenuous at best. She wished she had a better answer for them. Hell, she wished she had a better answer for herself.
“In the mountains,” she repeated, hoping it would be enough.
“What the hell,” Haake said, and he came to stand beside Celine. “I’m going with you. Nothing could make me go back to Coalhaven. I’d rather die.”
“Probably gonna get that wish,” someone else called out, and there was a smattering of nervous laughter.
There was another long silence.
“Anyone else?” Paige asked, her eyes moving from face to face. There were many expressions of unease among them, but no one else stepped forward.
“Cowards,” Corbbmacc muttered beside her. Emily felt sure that if she’d had a more definitive answer as to the location of the lake, she could’ve convinced a few more of them, but that wasn’t the important thing. Taking Michael with her was.
“Well,” Paige said at last, “I see it has made no difference. Haake is going with you. The rest have the sense to come with…”
There was the soft chink of metal and leather from behind Paige, and Garrett stepped forward. He didn’t look at Paige as he passed her; his eyes were trained carefully forward.
He crossed the distance to Emily’s little group and turned to face Paige at Corbbmacc’s side.
There was another wave of rustling and mutters from the watchers.
Paige stood stunned, staring at Garrett in mute disbelief.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, and her voice was so low Emily could hardly hear it. The smooth veneer over her facade showed the first signs of cracking as she struggled to cover her shock.
“She’s right,” Garrett said, and though the words were low, the deep resonance of his voice carried them easily throughout the room. “I trust the wizard, so I trust her.”
“Garrett,” Paige said, and there was a note of such sad disappointment in the way she spoke the name that Emily almost felt sorry for her. “Is that really what you want to do?”
“It is what I must do.”
“I thought…” Paige’s voice cracked. She swallowed and said, “I thought you were smarter—better—than that.”
There was another rustle from the congregation, and Mona came forward, pushing her way through the crowd. She was carrying a tiny bundle tenderly in her arms. Purposefully, she went to stand beside her husband. Paige watched, her face as still as the stone dragons outside.
After a moment, she turned to face the Wraith, who had not moved from its place behind her.
“And you?” she asked. “What are your thoughts, Wraith?”
“I have allied myself with the Dragon’s Brood,” the Wraith said. “I have allied myself with you.”
Paige turned back to Emily, and though she was fighting for control, her hurt and anger shone through the widening faults in her carefully constructed mask.
“You’re so keen to make sure everyone has a choice. Let’s see what Michael has to say, shall we?”
She motioned at one of the women standing near the front of the group. Emily recognized her as one of the nurses who had been treating Mona after the birth of her son.
The woman nodded and made her way across the room to Michael. She reached out with a hand misshapen by arthritis and touched his knee. The boy looked at her.
“Michael,” she said gently, “will you come with me?” She took his hand and pulled him to his feet.
He came willingly enough. The woman led him across the room and stood with him in the empty space between Paige and her Broodsmen, and Emily and her friends.
“Mic
hael,” Paige said. Michael looked at her. There was confusion in his eyes, but no fear.
A ray of sunshine fell in through the window, casting them all in a cool gray light. It made the red highlights in Michael’s hair shine like polished copper.
He looked older, too. What had been mere stubble as they’d fled Seven Skies had grown into a patchy, scruffy beard. It dispelled much of the childlike demeanor that had so dominated his appearance.
“Michael,” Paige repeated, “I’m going to ask you a question. You need to listen and answer it. Do you understand? It’s a very important question.”
Michael stared at her, as if he was trying very hard to make sense of what she was saying.
“Question,” he said doubtfully.
“Yes, a question.”
“Like Derek,” Michael said, and he smiled. Paige frowned.
“Like what?” she asked.
Michael didn’t respond.
“Listen, Michael. Do you want to come with me, and all these other people, to somewhere safe? Mary is coming. You like Mary, don’t you? She’s been taking good care of you, hasn’t she?”
Michael’s eyes shifted to the woman who still stood beside him.
“Mary’s nice,” he said, still smiling.
“Or you can come with me, Michael,” Emily said. The boy turned to look at her.
“With you?”
“Yes, Michael. You can come with me, and I’ll take you to someone who can help you.”
Michael’s smile faltered.
“Help me,” he whispered, and it was like they were facing each other beneath Marianne’s tower all over again, holding each other’s gazes through a mesh of thorny vines.
“I will, Michael, if you come with me.”
Michael seemed to be thinking hard. A line appeared between his brows, and his eyes suddenly seemed very far away.
“Where?” he asked at last, his voice still little more than a whisper.
“Into the mountains, Michael,” she told him. “To the lake.”
His eyes widened.
“Lake,” he murmured dreamily, and it was not quite a question.
“Michael,” Paige said, drawing his attention back to her. “Who do you want to go with? Do you want to come with Mary and go somewhere safe?”
Michael stared at her for so long that Emily’s heart began to sink. He was so confused. He wasn’t capable of making decisions like this. Whoever was the last one to ask was likely the one he’d go with. Leaving the decision up to him was madness.
She opened her mouth to say something, although she had no idea what it was going to be, when Michael shook his head very slowly, and turned back to face Emily.
“Going with Derek,” he said, and he stepped toward her. Their eyes locked, the way they had in the mirror in the House of Horrors, and she felt the tumblers inside her head turn.
It was like that moment when the first few pieces of a jigsaw puzzle finally fit together, revealing a small sliver of sky, or field, or snow. Most of the picture was still dark, hidden behind the chaos of unplaced pieces, but the darkness was shattered by the wonder of discovery. Perhaps she would have seen it sooner, if she hadn’t spent so much of the last few days hungry, exhausted, and terrified. Maybe the pieces would’ve come together, and maybe they wouldn’t have. She was so far out of her depth in this world, trying to cope with magic and monsters she’d not dreamt existed since earliest childhood.
“The crystal effects us in ways it doesn’t other people…” Derek had said.
“Finish what you started…” he’d said.
“You can succeed where we failed…” he’d said.
She stared into Michael’s eyes, wondering if it was trust that she saw in their dark depths, or only wishful thinking.
“Like Derek?” Michael had said.
Derek. A boy of many questions.
Just like her.
Just exactly like her.
She remembered her dream of the night before. She remembered staring into Derek’s green eyes and seeing the pride that blazed there when he looked at her. Green eyes—so very like her own.
A snatch of song flitted through her mind, accented by the neon colors of a 1980s music video. In her memory, she could hear Casey’s mom singing along with the overly synthesized track: “Come on, come on, baby…I know you can’t be cold…I can see your eyes…and they’re the window to your soul…”
She touched the crystal at her breast and knew she was right. It wasn’t quite the same as the knowing, but almost.
Almost…
Chapter Thirty-Five
Emily stood motionless as the wave of realization washed over her. In a dreamy state, she reached out to Michael and pulled him into her little group. Celine clasped his other hand, and he stood between them, a small, bewildered smile on his face.
He’d known, she marveled. He’d known and had tried to tell her, but she hadn’t paid any attention at all. It had been so easy to dismiss him, since he was so clearly…what? Damaged? Impaired? Trapped?
“Go then,” Paige said, her voice bitter and her eyes on Garrett, “but know that you will not be welcomed back to the Dragon’s Brood when your strength fails you, and you realize what fools you’ve been. We stand together—or not at all.”
Emily gave herself a shake. She didn’t have time to think about this now. Later, perhaps, but right now she needed to pull herself together.
“You don’t speak for all the Brood, Paige,” Garrett said. “You may not have us, but others will.”
“We’ll see, Garrett,” Paige said. “Things change. Times change.”
She turned back to the others. “Start packing. I want to move out in an hour.”
As the crowd dispersed, Emily felt Corbbmacc’s hand on her arm.
“We should get ready to head out too,” he said.
“What about supplies? Food and weapons and stuff?” she asked, scanning the others around her. Of their company, only Garrett was armed, unless you counted Rascal’s sting.
Garrett stepped closer. “Do you really think Paige is going to let us take anything with us besides our personal belongings?”
Emily frowned. “She’s not happy with us…with me, anyway…but I don’t think she wants us dead.”
“She’s got two dozen people depending on her,” Garrett said, lowering his voice. “They will be her priority now. We can scavenge for supplies along the way. I know where the Brood has caches. Until then, we’ll have to make do with these.” He gestured toward the sword at his belt and the crossbow on his shoulders.
“Go get your stuff,” Corbbmacc said to the group at large, “and we’ll meet back here.”
Haake, Garrett, and Mona hurried off, leaving Emily to study her companions in turn.
They were the same four who had set out from Seven Skies. Along the way, they’d managed to lose most of their possessions. They had nothing to collect.
The thought brought a faint pang as she remembered her pack, lost in the battle with the tree at Seven Skies. She wished she still had it, though its contents would have done her little good here. It was the absence of her sword that made her distinctly uneasy. It was strange, how comfortable she’d become having a weapon at her side, and how lost she felt now without it.
She sank down onto the edge of the little table again, letting her head fall into her hands. She was tired. She needed time to think.
“Are you okay?” Corbbmacc asked, taking a seat beside her.
Emily avoided his gaze, turning to look at the others. Celine sat on the floor and tugged gently on Michael’s hand, coaxing him to sit beside her. On her shoulder, Rascal surveyed them all imperiously, as if he understood every nuance of the proceedings and was just waiting for someone to ask his opinion.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“You look better…than you did in the mines, I mean.”
Emily blinked. “Oh, yeah. I feel better. Being around all that crystal was…doing something to me, I think.”
“What about the piece you’ve still got?” he asked, his eyes dropping to her pocket.
“It’s not making me sick now. I think there was just too much of it in the mines.”
Celine shifted on the floor so she was facing them, looking up at Emily. She looked so small and frail. Emily tried to focus only on her eyes, desperately avoiding the white in her hair. Seeing it tore at her heart.
“There’s somethin’ else though, ain’t there, Em?” Celine asked, a line appearing between her brows. “I can tell. Go on, tell us.”
Emily closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Should she tell them what she was thinking? Would they think she was crazy? That thought made her smile wryly; how could they think she was crazy when there were zombies in the streets, and cats with wings and stingers, and God only knew what else?
“Well,” Celine said dryly, “she’s smilin’, so it can’t be all bad, I s’pose.”
Emily opened her eyes and looked around. They were quite alone. From deeper in the library, she could hear the sounds of activity as the others prepared for their journeys. If she was going to say it, now was as good a time as any.
“Do you know what reincarnation is?” she asked them tentatively, staring at the floor between her feet.
No one said anything.
“No,” Corbbmacc said at last. “What is it?”
“Magic,” Michael said. Emily looked up, and all three of them stared at him. He was staring off into space again, apparently oblivious to their conversation.
Just a coincidence, she thought. But she was wondering if she believed in such things anymore.
“Reincarnation is an idea some people have,” she said, watching Michael. “Where I come from, most cultures have at least some tales of it in their myths or religions. At least, that’s what my history teacher told us.”
She looked back at them, her gaze flicking back and forth between Celine’s solemn expression and Corbbmacc’s frown. They didn’t say anything, so she went on.
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