They had more in common in this, and their lonely childhoods, than she could have guessed before.
She picked up the set of keys and left the room. In a few minutes, she reached the first floor where, after having to hide in an alcove to avoid a pacing guard, and checking a few doors, she finally found the drawing room.
A large oak desk stood in the corner next to a standing clock. Cream-colored armchairs and sofas dotted the rest of the room, which ended in a broad fireplace. After searching for a few minutes, she found the cabinet underneath the desk. She tried a few of the keys and eventually got the right one to open the cabinet.
Rolled-up sheets of paper lay stacked on top of one another inside. She withdrew them and placed them under her arm, then relocked the cabinet and stood to leave.
When she opened the door a crack, she heard footsteps beyond it. Peering through, she saw a maid retreating down the hall.
The whole house was quiet now, and for the first time since tracking down Ryuu here, she wondered how many of his servants and guards were Inosen, and how many among them used magic. How many could he expect to harbor before someone finally caught him?
Being rich wouldn’t protect him forever, as the hit on his brother proved. Shaking her head, she decided it wasn’t her business what he did with his life. She’d be cutting him out of it soon enough. She shoved away her guilt at the thought and left the mansion through the back door once more.
24
As the setting sun painted a reddish-orange glow on the grimy white buildings of the Wings, Aina returned to the city with the subway blueprints held under her jacket. She watched the shadows of Kosín’s streets as she neared Teo’s apartment, avoiding the corners where she’d seen posters of her face hanging earlier. Though she’d made it all the way to Ryuu’s house and back without getting caught, now that she was in the city, her senses were alerted to every movement. Each corner she turned, she expected a flash of blue hair and gold eyes before her throat was pinned through with a throwing star.
The moment she entered the apartment, she knew something was wrong. Ynes was the first person she saw, weathered hands clenching the blanket she rested under. Ryuu placed one hand on her shoulder in comfort. Raurie was there, sweat on her face and her breaths ragged as if she’d run here. Bruises covered her face and arms, bruises that hadn’t been there a few hours ago.
“How did the Diamond Guards know it was us?” Teo asked Raurie, seated across from her at the table.
“Someone must have seen Aina go into my aunt’s house and then tipped off the Diamond Guards. It was too risky; we shouldn’t have…” Raurie let out a shaky breath, then said, “They came a few minutes after you left. They saw all of June’s diamonds, and they caught me putting her knives away. It was obvious. At first they were going to take us”—she broke off, one hand trailing to a dark purple bruise on the side of her head—“but then they told my aunt they would let us go if she did a tracking spell to find Aina, since she’s Bautix’s priority right now. We used some of Aina’s blood that dripped on the floor during the spell. We had to, or they would have—”
“We know,” Teo said, biting his lower lip. “You didn’t have a choice.”
“I knew Teo lived in the Wings, so I came here as soon they left, and Ryuu saw me from the window. My aunt went to a safe house for Inosen in the tunnels, and she’ll get a message to my uncle to join her. She wanted me to go with them. They’ve kept me safe my whole life, and I would do anything for them, but I wasn’t just going to hide underground and let you die. I had to come warn you, so you’d have a chance to get away. If someone had warned my parents, maybe…”
“So, the Diamond Guards will use magic when it’s convenient for them,” Aina scoffed. “Let me guess, they can use magic because they’re good Diamond Guards who protect the Steels and any other use has to be punished. How long ago was this, Raurie?”
“They left less than thirty minutes ago. In the vision, my aunt saw you entering the city near the Wings. They could have followed you here. You all have to leave now.”
Aina raced to the window. Holding her breath, she peered around the edge. Her hands curled into fists at the sight of a group of Diamond Guards approaching the building, candlelight in windows flashing on the silver badges of their uniforms. Pedestrians scattered out of their way, then stood back to watch what would happen next. Aina jerked her head behind the window.
“There are ten Diamond Guards surrounding the apartment entrance,” she said, her jaw clenching. “I’d fight them, but we’re so close to finding Kouta, we can’t risk getting thrown in jail. We need another way out. What about the roof?”
“There’s no roof access,” Teo said, shaking his head as he peered out of the window and to the building across from them. He turned to her, his eyes pleading. “You’re the one they really want, so you need to get out, Aina. Scale the building. You’re the only one of us who could manage that. Get out, and we’ll deal with the guards.”
“I’m not leaving you. They know I was here. The minute they see Raurie, they’ll know she came here to warn us, and all of you will be shot or thrown in a cell. We need another way out.”
“What about this?” Ryuu called over. He’d removed the knickknacks and cups of tea from the makeshift table, then lifted one of the two wooden planks that made it up. Carrying the plank over his shoulder, he brought it to the window and nodded to the building across from them, where a window was open. “Maybe we can’t scale buildings, but we can lay this plank between our window and theirs. It should be long enough—”
A door slammed below and they all jumped. Heavy boot steps sounded on the floors below.
Teo’s eyes flicked to Aina, his face paling. “No other choice.” Then he glanced back at his mother, who gave him one resigned nod.
He laid one end of the plank on their windowsill, then allowed it to fall so the other end landed on the opposite window ledge with a loud clatter. They all cringed at the sound, but apartment doors were slamming open inside the building as the Diamond Guards searched and would block out the noise of their escape.
“You go first, Aina,” Teo said, his hands shaking as he stepped away from the window. She never saw him so nervous, not even in shoot-outs.
“No, people who can’t fight should go first,” she said. “Your mother—”
“I’ll go last with her. We’ll slow everyone down if we go now. Raurie, Ryuu, get out of here,” he called to them, his voice shaking slightly. She placed a hand on his shoulder to try to calm his nerves, but he jumped when the Diamond Guards’ shouts increased in the hall outside. Their footsteps pounded up the stairs, reaching the second-floor landing and coming ever closer to the third.
Raurie went first, shaking as she crawled across the plank. Each passing second frayed Aina’s nerves. Ryuu approached the windowsill next, and Teo handed him a gun that he took with a reluctant nod.
The moment Ryuu reached the other building and slipped through the window, Aina crawled onto the plank. It shook a little with her weight and the breeze blowing through the narrow space between buildings. She glanced over her shoulder once, but Teo waved at her to keep moving.
The wind swept her hair in front of her face, threatening to block her vision, but she pushed through and crossed to the other building as fast as she could.
“You’re okay?” Ryuu asked as she climbed off the plank and landed inside. An old man slept in an armchair, his snores breaking the tension in the room.
But before Aina could respond, Raurie let out a sharp cry, pointing to Teo’s apartment across the alley.
Aina whipped around. The Diamond Guards had burst through the door and aimed their guns at Teo.
Aina nearly shouted at him to get across, one hand flicking to her knives to throw them into the Guards’ throats. But Ryuu’s hand clamped down on her mouth, and he pulled her behind the wall.
She pushed him off roughly, then peered around the edge of the window. Just then, Teo knocked down the plan
k in one smooth strike. It fell through the air with a sharp whistle and clattered to the ground below.
“Run!” Teo called over before he spun around and fired his gun at one of the Guards, trying to keep Ynes shielded behind him. The sleeping man jerked awake and yelled at them to get out of his apartment.
Ignoring him, Aina hissed, “Shoot them!” at Ryuu. She grabbed his hand that held the gun Teo had given him, but he jerked it back.
“Aina, we have to leave,” he said in a low voice. “You’re the one they want. They’ll keep Teo alive as long as they can—”
A shot rang out. Raurie stifled a scream by biting down on her fist. The world screeched to a halt in front of Aina, and blood chilled in her veins.
Not Teo.
She looked out of the window. In the other apartment, Teo’s mother lay on the floor, blood spilling from a wound on her head. Teo knelt, one hand cradling Ynes’s head, the other arm wrenched behind his back by one of the Guards.
They forced him to his knees, tears coating his cheeks as he watched his mother bleed out. But as he tried to reach toward her again, the Guards jerked him away, handcuffing him and pinning him down.
Aina moved to grab the gun from Ryuu’s grasp, but the moment she touched it, she flinched away as if the barrel itself would burn her fingers. All she saw was her own mother’s head covered in blood, her father’s chest riddled with holes, the gunman’s face hidden by the metal he wielded. She couldn’t move.
One of the Guards shouted, “She’s in the building across!”
A shot fired at the window as Ryuu pulled her behind the wall again. The bullet slammed through the cheap plaster, missing her by inches, but she hardly blinked, hardly even breathed.
“We have to go,” Ryuu said. Though his voice was steady and brave, his hands shook. One clenched the useless gun, the other held her. She peered around the edge of the window once more. Two Guards hauled Teo toward his door, away from his mother who bled on the floor. “Now!”
He pulled her toward the door, Raurie right behind them with the old man’s shouts following. Aina looked back again, but another Guard raised his gun and fired. The bullet smashed into a clock on the wall next to the door. They fled, gunshots ringing in their ears.
25
They raced out of the apartment and in the opposite direction of Teo’s building. Aina led the way through the narrow streets between the apartments that brought them out of the Wings and onto Lyra Avenue within minutes. Pushing through the evening crowd, they reached an alley next to a casino, near the storm drains set into the curb. Leaning against the wall, they paused to catch their breath. Evening gamblers gathered in front of them, waiting for the casino to open.
Fighting down the urge to run back and save Teo immediately, Aina scanned the crowd for a sign of any Diamond Guards chasing them. The red and silver lights from the casino flashed in her vision as she searched. Her chest tightened each time she recalled Teo’s hands tied behind his back and how he was dragged away from his mother’s body, all so Aina could get away. The image of her parents standing in front of her while bullets were fired at them seared through her thoughts.
“We have to save him somehow,” Raurie said, her voice cracking as she spoke.
“Of course, we have to,” Aina snapped. “I am not wasting another minute looking for Kouta until we get Teo away from the Diamond Guards. He saved our lives by staying behind. Now we have to save his.”
She pushed away from the wall, ready to run to the Tower’s prisons and massacre every guard who stood in her way.
“We know that, Aina,” Ryuu said, placing a hand on her shoulder to hold her back like he had in the apartment. She jerked away, sending him a murderous glare, but he didn’t step aside. As if he were making some kind of decision, he took a deep breath, then said, “But we won’t be able to help him if we get killed in the effort. They want him alive to interrogate him about you, don’t they? We have time. We can still save him and find Kouta, but charging after the Diamond Guards with a few knives is not smart, and you know it. That would only get you killed. We don’t have time to figure out some elaborate, foolproof prison breakout, but I think I have a plan.”
The thought of Teo being interrogated, and holding out on revealing any information, made her nauseous.
Because of her, his mother was dead, and now he was alone in his grief. She knew too well what that was like.
Her parents would have told her to take comfort from faith in the Mothers, but the Mothers hadn’t done anything to stop them from being killed, and Aina didn’t trust them to help Teo either. They had to help each other. They were all they had left in this world, and she couldn’t let brashness and recklessness ruin that too.
And she had promised Ynes she would be there for him.
“So, what’s your genius plan?” she asked Ryuu, trying to inject venom into her voice. It came out shaking instead.
“First, we need to get out of the open. Let’s go to the mines. We can use the warehouses there to look at the blueprints.”
The buildings seemed to grow taller on both sides, hard-packed concrete closing in as they neared the edge of the city. After crossing a bridge, they soon entered the forest, their footsteps and breath mixing with the sounds of birds chirping overhead. After a few miles, they stepped out of the forest into the light of the moons, and the Hirai Diamond Mine spread out in front of them.
Smuggling diamonds from here seemed so long ago, as if it were a part of someone else’s life rather than her own. Even the fear of Kohl discovering her diamond sales had faded away completely, replaced by the fear that he’d kill her if she didn’t get back to her job soon.
Ryuu led them to a small warehouse off to the side of the giant pit, about a half mile around its edge. On the way, Aina saw the supervisor she usually bought diamonds from.
Quickly, she tugged her scarf over her nose and mouth, so he wouldn’t recognize her if he looked over. It had been stupid of her to let her face be seen in public, with the wanted posters hanging all over the city. Anyone could have seen her, from the fight with Tannis in the alley, to walking through the Stacks, to leaving June’s house.
When they entered the warehouse, Ryuu pulled a string on a dusty light bulb. Fluorescent light flooded the cramped room. There were mostly boxes, tables, and chairs piled together. After stepping around the clutter, Aina spread out the blueprints on a table with free space.
There were so many numbers, measurements, and intricate drawings that she had no clue what she was looking at, but Ryuu traced his hand along the drawings without hesitation and muttered under his breath. He began to sketch in the margins of the blueprints, shading in details so quickly and clearly, it was obvious he was accustomed to this. For a moment, Aina wondered why he had so easily agreed to help her rescue Teo when his priority was to find his brother, but then decided not to question and risk him changing his mind.
She and Raurie stepped back to give him room to work. As Raurie sat carefully on the edge of a box and drew her shawl tighter around her shoulders, Aina searched the small room for anything that could work as a bandage. The blood from Tannis’s throwing stars had mostly dried, but she couldn’t risk any infection. After a few minutes of searching, she found alcohol to clean the wounds and a few workers’ shirts that she tore strips of material from to bandage herself.
After, she perched on another box near Raurie. It struck her, then, how odd this was—Ryuu, someone who stood in the way of her goal, was helping her, while Kohl, the person she worked the most to impress, had abandoned her. Teo was in jail, and there was a one-hundred-thousand-kor price on her head. A week ago, she never could have imagined this scenario.
The steady scratch of Ryuu’s pencil against the paper helped calm Aina’s nerves at first, but the sight of stars gathering in the sky through the window put her on edge again.
Is he in chains? Is he being tortured?
Would they ever sit on a rooftop again, holding hands and speaking of things on
ly they could understand together, their hearts beating as one? And what did it mean that she wanted to?
She tapped her fingers nervously on the windowsill, trying not to imagine every terrible thing the Diamond Guards would do to Teo if he withheld any information on her.
To distract herself, she cleared her throat and said to Raurie, “You don’t have to come with us, you know. It’s dangerous. You saw what happened to Ynes just for being around us.”
Raurie shifted uncomfortably, holding tightly to her shawl again. “It’s more my fault than yours, isn’t it? Aunt June and I agreed to do the tracking spell for the Diamond Guards.”
“I’m the last person to judge you for doing what you had to do to survive,” Aina said with a long sigh. “They would have killed you if you didn’t do the spell. You shouldn’t come with us just because you feel guilty.”
“I’m not going with you because I feel guilty. Teo doesn’t deserve to be in this mess, and I want to help him, but that’s not completely the reason either. Let me ask you something, Aina. Did you have family or friends who died because of their beliefs?”
“My parents,” Aina said instantly. “You said yours did too.”
Raurie nodded. “Did your parents hide, or did they worship out in the streets where everyone could see?”
“Only in our home and at worship services underground.”
“Then you know that hiding didn’t help them.”
Before Aina could reply, Ryuu cleared his throat and looked up from the blueprints.
“Here, a section of the subway tunnel abuts the lower corridors of the prison in the Tower,” he said, tapping to a drawing he’d made. It was of a corridor juxtaposing the tunnels still under construction, with another sketch of a grate halfway down the corridor. “That’s a ventilation shaft they installed recently. We can go through the vent into the prisons.”
“So, there’s an unlocked entrance from the prison into the subway system?” Aina asked. “I thought Steels were supposed to be smart.”
Diamond City Page 17