Merchants and their families push by us. Pips hold back their wards from coming too close and say things like, “No no, that’s dirty,” and, “Don’t touch.” Once I am bumped so hard I crash to my knees. The man never looks back.
At last Lorcan turns down a street lined by small shops. One is filled with wires and small machines. Another is all white and has a picture of a man leading a horse, with an X over it. I think this must mean Drivers aren’t welcome there. A small medical clinic, and finally, a pharmacy.
It’s a green-glass building with a glowing white plus sign in the front window. Not many people are on this offshoot, and those we pass are going the opposite way, towards the market.
We have arrived, and if Lorcan is right, my family has been no more than blocks away my whole time at the Garden. The very thought is enough to make me furious.
Lorcan does not pause to give me any look, warning or otherwise, and without another word, Kiran and I push inside.
“Quick,” I hear Kiran breathe.
I want to ransack the place. To turn over every shelf until I find my family, and then to run for the mountains. But I don’t. I stay timid. I tell myself to be still.
Two people are inside. A woman and a young boy, looking down a row of glass bottles filled with different colored liquids and pills. Kiran shuffles beside them, careful not to get too close, and grabs a container of sloshing green syrup. It looks like the medicine Kyna gave him. With a small frown I wonder if he still needs it; I haven’t seen him use any since then.
He walks to the front and stands in line. I am surprised again. Kiran didn’t tell me he had planned on buying anything. Does he even have credits? This was not part of the plan.
“May I help … oh, yes ma’am.”
I turn to see that the woman and her child have cut in front of Kiran. Anger flashes over my worry, and if this were any other place I would shove her aside and tell her to wait her turn. I don’t know how Kiran stands being treated this way. The walk from the gate to the pharmacy has been enough disrespect to last me a lifetime.
I look past the pair to the Virulent woman behind the open window at the checkout counter. She has long dark hair, pinned back in the city fashion, and large brown eyes. A full chest is crowded into a tight white uniform. The tell-tale sign of her class is slashed across her right cheek.
Salma.
My knees weaken. My blood turns to water. She’s been marked. I want to kill the Watcher that did that to her.
She couldn’t have turned herself in. Lorcan’s wrong. She wouldn’t have done this to herself. She’s too vain.
But she’s still so beautiful, and I don’t care why she’s here or how she came here anymore, because I’ve found her. I’ve finally found her. I could weep from the joy of it.
The woman checks out and leaves the shop. The bell ringing overhead snaps me from my trance, and I run to the counter.
“Salma,” I croak.
Her eyes shoot up, first to Kiran, then to me. Even through the dirt and the costume and the months between us, she recognizes me instantly. Her mouth falls open. A shudder runs through her body, and then she does the unthinkable.
She slams the divider window closed.
“Salma!” I shout.
“Aya,” I hear Kiran hiss. But he realizes that he can’t stop me now. Just as I’m jumping atop the counter, shoving the glass barrier aside, he’s racing back to the front and bolting the door.
The glass comes away with a screech, and I stuff my body through to the desktop on the opposite side. There’s a credit machine here, and tall shelving units of more glass bottles. I barely register the crash of something metallic in the front room.
Salma’s running to the back corner, making a sharp turn around the last shelf. She’s afraid of Kiran; that’s the only explanation. I need to stop her before she runs out the back of the building and calls for help.
My too-large Driver boots slip rounding the corner, and I grab the edge of the shelf, knocking a dozen bottles to the tile floor. They shatter, sending shards of emerald and blood-red syrup across my pants. My eyes water as the fresh burst of antiseptic hits the air.
“Salma!”
I reach her just in time to stop her from pushing through the exit door, and shove her hard against the interior wall. I kick the door shut.
“It’s okay,” I say in a rush. “It’s me, you know it’s me!”
“Let me go!” The tears are already streaming from her miserable eyes. One hand goes to cover her scar, and the move twists something inside of me. I drop her and she slides down the wall like her muscles have given out.
It’s shock, it must be.
“We have to go, Salma,” I say. “Where are the twins?”
“Why’d you come?”
“What?” I kneel beside her.
“Why, Aya?”
“Salma, it’s okay. I’m here now. Everything will be all right. You don’t need to be afraid anymore.”
“I’m not going back,” she says. She will not look up to my face.
A streak of fury blinds me and the next thing I know my hands are gripping her biceps with bruising force and I’m shaking her so hard her head wobbles on her neck. She has to see reason. She has to. We don’t have time for this.
“Stop it!” I shout. “I’ll fix it, you’ll see. We’ll be safe. I promise.”
Something connects hard to the back of my skull and bright white spots explode in my vision. I release her and fall back onto my haunches. When my hand runs along the back of my head, it returns bloody.
“Leave her alone!” cries a shrill voice. I crumble sideways, still blinking hard, and register a little boy with a cap of straight black hair. A broom handle is held fast in his grip. He’s tall for his age. So tall. And the boyish fat on his cheeks is all but gone. His black eyes are as sharp as knives.
“T-tam?”
“Leave us alone!” says another voice. There, beside him, is Nina. She’s wearing a white apron, as is her brother. Her skinny arms stick out from the sleeves and grasp a metal dustpan like a knife in both hands. Her hair is wound up, much like Salma’s. In her ears hang long beaded earrings. The sign of the Unpromised.
Their clothing. The earrings. I know what’s happened then. Salma has done it. She’s turned my family in.
My throat is so tight I have to cough to speak.
“Tam, Nina, it’s me. It’s Aya.”
I need to be softer, gentler. They’re afraid, and gentleness is what they need, but it’s so hard to be calm.
Kiran appears. There’s a metallic box in his hands. A scanner box; he must have gotten it off the ceiling in the main room. He lays it on the floor and stomps the heel of his boot into it.
The twins are looking between us with frightened stares. The fear in their eyes makes me want to curl up and die.
“We’ve got to go,” I tell them. “I’m taking you home.”
They keep staring. It’s like they don’t recognize me. It’s like they’ve forgotten me, when all I’ve thought of these past months is them.
“Please.” What I’m asking for, I don’t know, but when I reach forward and grab Tam’s arm, he raises the broom as though he’ll hit me again.
“I’m your cousin, Aya,” I say, my heart breaking. “I’m going to take care of you. I’m here now, it’s going to be all right.”
Nina’s crying. She’s looking to Salma now, who is hiding her face in her hands.
“Salma, tell them. Tell them it’s true.”
Nothing.
“Aya,” presses Kiran.
“No,” I shake my head. “We have time. There’s time.” The grief is grasping at my limbs, pulling me into the floor.
Tam whispers something I can’t hear.
“What?” I ask, crawling before him and rising to my knees. But he’s so tall now, he’s a head above me.
“You left us,” he says.
“I didn’t leave. They took me. The Trackers got me.”
“You
left us!” he yells. “Salma told how you left us and went to the city. How you didn’t want us anymore.”
“We came to the city, too,” says Nina. “She said you’d be here, but you weren’t.”
“I’m here now,” I say quickly. “I never would have left you. You know that. They took me. That’s what happened. Tell them, Salma!”
She looks at me, the tears in her round brown eyes all dried up. In their place is pleading, and it makes my chest ache even more.
“We are just women,” she says. “Why must you always try to be more?”
I don’t know what to say. It’s not until Kiran grabs my shoulder that I can even look away.
“It’s true,” says Salma to the twins. “Aya was taken.”
They stare at her and then back at me. Nina’s crying. She goes to Tam, and he puts his arms protectively around her shoulders. When did he start doing that? When did he learn to take care of her? Even now I swell with pride.
“I’m taking them home,” I tell Salma. “Come if you want.”
She does not get up off the floor.
Very slowly, Tam lowers his broom.
“Come on, Salma,” he says expectantly. She doesn’t get up.
Nina walks tentatively over to me, and after a long, searching gaze, places her forehead against my stomach. The tears stream from my eyes, and my arms, that have longed to hold her all these days, are finally filled.
I remove her earrings and feel them burn my palm.
“Get up!” Tam orders Salma. She looks away from him with shame.
I grab her arm, preparing to hoist her up. The last chance that I will give her. She shakes me off and turns away. I drop the Unpromised earrings, and they make a nest of beads in her lap.
“Let’s go.” I turn away, my heart tearing, and we head to the front of the building.
I don’t look back. Not once.
CHAPTER 22
KIRAN MOTIONS FOR LORCAN to lead the palomino into an alley between the pharmacy and the doctor’s office. There we empty the hides from the leather sacks and hoist the twins into their places. I notch small holes in the sacks so they can breathe, and hope that no one notices how the shape of these packs has changed completely from the full stuffing of before.
The twins don’t complain. They’re the bravest kids I know.
“Aya,” Nina whispers as I place a fur over her.
“Yes?”
“The Driver boy can talk.”
I smile. “I know. But it’s a secret, okay? We can’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t. I’m good at secrets.”
“Quiet now.”
She doesn’t make another sound. The last I see of her is the reflection of her eyes in the darkness, just before I cover her with a pelt.
I blow out a slow breath through my teeth and prepare for what’s to come.
We begin our journey back towards the front gates. Lorcan’s sticking to side streets, avoiding the main drag. We step over a body in the alley, its eyes red and swollen from the plague. I’m glad the twins don’t see him, but I can’t help but wonder what other horrors they have seen since Salma brought them here.
Downtown, the music has begun and the market has opened. I can hear the screech of the speakers, even half a city away. It pumps a new urgency through me.
When the neighborhoods end, we have to cross back onto Main Street to enter the business district. Walking this way places us directly beside the Garden, and my heart beats harder as the familiar chain fence and its cameras come into view. The rec yard is empty today—the girls must be inside for one of the Governess’s presentations—but in my mind I can see them in their black dresses, standing in their groups by the water, calling to the men who walk by on their way to work.
I hear the clatter of livestock on the pavement up ahead and think for a moment that it might be the man with the goats. I’m wrong. It’s a team of four horses, already saddled, tethered to a single rider on a prancing black gelding. I glance up as we approach. The man has a thin face with high, ashy cheeks. Greasy gray hair. A turned-up snout.
Ferret Face. Aran. The Driver from the barn where Kiran worked.
I place my hand protectively on the leather sack, feeling Nina adjust beneath. Kiran is on the other side with Tam. Lorcan still leads the palomino.
Aran looks at Lorcan and nods quickly. He glances over to me next, and I can feel his stare burning right through my forehead. He knows who I am; he must. There’s no reason for him to look at me this long. The need to run hits my feet, and I begin pushing faster. But Lorcan keeps the same steady pace.
Aran pulls to a halt. A quick glance up reveals that he’s looking over the animal’s back, directly at Kiran. His face grows tight with confusion. Even over the sounds of the horses stamping impatiently on the cobblestones, I can hear his sharp breath.
We walk on briskly, leaving Aran open-mouthed in the center of the street. I pat Nina reassuringly, but this time she doesn’t move. Neither of them have made a sound. They’re both doing so well. They know how important it is to stay still.
That or they’re unconscious, smothered by the stench and the weight of the pelts.
We cannot reach the gate fast enough.
When we pass the Black Lanes I don’t look over to see the posters hanging on the wall of the brothel. I keep my head down and my feet moving.
At last we reach the Watcher station, the most dangerous part of our journey. Now, if the twins—especially an Unpromised Nina—are found, we will be lucky to hang. More likely, we’ll end up bleeding in the street at the end of a Watcher wire. I shove these thoughts from my mind. There is nothing we can do now but push forward.
Travelers and traders are still attempting to enter the city. Outside, the man with the goats has finally organized his crew and is attempting to enter. The small white animals are bleating loudly, finally tied together by different ropes.
One of the Watchers registers our presence with a stiff tilt of his head. Without prompting, Lorcan opens his long black coat, revealing that the jewelry pieces are now gone. He hands back the red business pass, which we’ve used for less than two hours, and the Watcher takes it. There are no questions asked about any weapons, food, or machinery.
The man leads his goats through the gates just as we are approaching.
The second Watcher sees us from the station and heads our direction. I can feel the cool knife I’ve moved from the sack to my hip and hope that I don’t have to use it.
He goes to Kiran’s side first, intent to check our goods rather than ask the security questions he thinks we won’t understand. His monstrous shoulders tower over the bowed back of the stallion and Kiran’s hunched form.
Lifting the leather covering, the Watcher reaches inside, inches away from where I know Tam is laying. My eyes focus on the wire strapped to his chest. Every hair on my body prickles.
Before we came, Lorcan promised me one thing. If something happened to me, he would get the twins out of the city. I feel that promise now, riding on my shoulders like a storm cloud ready to burst.
I will trade my life for Tam and Nina’s.
At that moment Kiran falters backwards, and when he does, he trips over a goat. In his attempt to right himself, he stumbles into the owner, who releases the ropes binding the small herd together. The goats pull all different directions, bleating while their owner yells at Kiran.
The goats escape down Main Street.
Kiran is brilliant.
The man chases after the herd. The Watchers appear as though they might follow, but first point us through. On the way by, I see one pick up his messagebox and begin typing what I assume is an alert to his comrades stationed farther down on Main Street about the incoming chaos.
The gray wall looms high above on either side, disappearing into the mist and smog as though it was an illusion to begin with. As though this victory is not real. But it is.
We are free.
* * *
THE WITCH CAMPS ARE sti
ll empty in the daylight, but I am guarded all the same. I will not make it out just to see our success destroyed by a Watcher mutant. I stare at the rusted machines as if my gaze alone will protect us. No one will stop us now.
Finally we cross the bridge. We enter the tree line, and though I want to shout with joy, I keep steady. I won’t relax until we’re high upon my mountain, surrounded by our Tracker traps and hidden from the city below.
Hastily, we unhook the bulging leather sacks straddling the horse’s back, and Tam and Nina, smelling rank and slick with sweat, poke their heads out. Despite my relief, it hurts inside to see that Nina’s face is wet with fresh tears.
I kiss her cheeks and then round to Tam, who doesn’t even look at me as I set him on the ground. He tears his apron off, stomps it into the dirt, and walks away.
A part of me will always hate Salma for this moment.
* * *
WE ARRIVE AT THE plateau just before sundown. A brook halves the clearing, and on the opposite bank a half-crazed Daphne is poised, aiming a loaded bow at us. She drops it with a clatter. Before I know it, she’s sprinted across the short distance and is hugging me hard.
“Were you going to shoot me?” I ask as the air is squashed from my lungs.
She starts to laugh, but there’s a hiccup in there too.
“I don’t even know how to use it.”
I’ll have to remind myself to teach her later. If she’s going to live out here with us, she’ll need to know how to hunt and defend herself.
I stop myself, shocked that I’ve come to expect that Daphne’s going to live with us. The thought of her moving on to a town like Marhollow bothers me. I think back over the last weeks, but cannot pinpoint the moment I started thinking of her less as a half friend and more as a half sister.
An instant later I’m tackled by Brax, who pins me to the ground with his giant paws. He licks my face and nuzzles his wet nose against my neck. I giggle despite myself and bury my fingers in his coat. Silently, I thank him for giving me hope all these months. For making me remember what’s important.
“Ooh!” yells Nina. “Aya’s got a wolf, Tam!”
He only shrugs.
“You want to meet him?” I ask. Tam shakes his head and stalks to the edge of the stream alone. I rise to follow, but Kiran stops me.
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