The Healing Wars: Book II: Blue Fire (7 page)

Wait, the boy might know. If I could find my way back to the storeroom door, I could wait for him. If he didn’t know, his street pack might. I’d known packs like that in Geveg. Tali and I had joined one briefly when I was ten, right after Baseeri soldiers
had thrown us out of our home.

I left the fountain, my footsteps loud on the stone street. It was so quiet. No waves, no lake birds, no music from the show house. It was just…creepy. Every step echoed as if someone were walking next to me.

I bent and slipped off my sandals. I heard more echoey footsteps coming up behind me.

My heart raced. There was nowhere to go. Nothing but buildings and walls and fake shutters that should have been windows. The closest bushes were too low and thin to hide behind. I dashed to the fountain and scooted under the stone bench on the far side.

Someone was running my way, breathing fast. Maybe more than one. The echoes made it impossible to tell how many. Hard steps hit the ground close to me, then a splash and whooping laughter.

“You shouldn’t have run, girl!”

A
ll my instincts said move, run, shift,
anything
, but the warning wasn’t for me. I heard a smack as flesh hit flesh and a girl cried out, then a breathless thud. Laughter followed.

“You know it’s worse when you run,” a boy said. Probably a street pack, and he sounded like the leader. “You could have just handed over your bag, but now we’ll have to hurt you.”

A grunt, a thump, and a whimper.

Stay still. Don’t move.

I put my hands over my ears, but I’d suffered too many beatings not to recognize the sounds now. The girl cried, sharp sobs from fear and pain. I inched along the ground under the bench until I could see.
Three of them, two boys, one girl. All looked about sixteen. Another girl the same age was lying on the street, a bag next to her.

The pack leader bent toward the bag.

“Don’t, please. I need those,” the girl said, reaching for it.

“We need them more.” He kicked her and she curled into a ball.

“They won’t do you any good!”

“Everything sells to somebody.” He stomped on her leg. She screamed as something snapped. “Maybe even you.”

I rolled out from under the bench and got to my feet. They had their backs to me, kicking the sobbing girl. Killing her.

She’s Baseeri. She wouldn’t help you.

Probably not, but wrong was the same in any city.

I got to the first one before he even knew I was there. Kicked him behind the knee. He went down, clutching his leg and yelling. I barely heard him with so many other voices yelling in my head.

Tali:
Help the girl and run.

Aylin:
Stay out of it and hide.

Danello:
Roll and flank them from behind.

I dived and rolled, knocking the attacker girl’s legs out from under her. She hit the stone, hard, and screamed.

The leader was already moving as I sprang to my feet. He moved into a fighter’s stance and eyed me carefully. “Brought friends, eh?”

“Leave her alone.”

“Or what? You’ll push me over and bruise me?”

“I’ll kill you.” I smiled same as I’d smiled at Resik. I hoped it was just as unnerving. “Only you won’t die for days.”

He laughed. “Don’t see no weapon on you.”

“Maybe I
am
a weapon.”

The other boy was on his feet again, helping his girlfriend. She pressed a hand to her back and tears rolled down her face. The pack leader didn’t even glance their way.

“I think you’re lying,” he said.

I shrugged. “It’s your life.”

“Iesta, wait.” The other boy put a hand on his arm.

Iesta? This was the same pack the nice boy who’d saved me belonged to? So much for hoping they could help me find Tali and the others.

“What if she’s one of
them
?”

Iesta hesitated, then laughed again, but it didn’t sound as cocky as before. “She’s got no armor. Can’t hurt us.”

I edged closer to the whimpering girl on the street. She wore sandals, the tops of her feet bare
and within reach. I hoped Iesta was worried enough to leave us alone, but he didn’t look like the type to leave a fight. He did, however, look like the type who got angry easily. And angry people made mistakes.

“Scared of a little girl, Iesta?” If I couldn’t get Iesta to run, I’d have to hurt him. No, not hurt. Kill. No street pack I ever knew could get healing—not even the leader.
Please run.

He stopped pacing and glared. The other boy shook his head.

“See? See? She
wants
you to fight. No girl’s got guts enough for that.”

Iesta harrumphed. “Or she wants me to think that.”

He charged. I grabbed him by the arm, twisting like Danello had showed me, and threw him to the street. Surprise washed over his face as his breath whooshed out.

Got you.

He jumped up and lunged for me again. I missed my grab and he tackled me, knocking us both down and pining me under his knees.

“Just a tough talker after all,” he said, flipping open a knife. He thrust it toward me. I grabbed his wrist, stopped it, and reached out my other hand toward the girl’s foot. Skin touched skin and my leg
burned as I
drew
her pain away, her leg broken just as I’d thought. Plus she had cracked ribs and deep bruises. Iesta hollered when I
pushed
all that into him.

“Help me!” Iesta dragged himself away, his eyes wide, his face white as mist. The other boy darted back and forth as if scared to come near me.

“What if she—”

“Get me out of here!”

The boy grabbed him under the arms and hauled him down the street until the leader started screaming and pounding on his arm. He got him to his feet and slipped an arm around his waist. They limped away in the same direction the girl had gone. Probably the storeroom I’d been in earlier.

He’d probably die there. My stomach flipped, but I took a deep breath to steady it. I’d had no choice. I’d warned him, told him to leave us alone. He would have killed me and the girl if I hadn’t shifted.
Did that make it right?

I shoved my guilt away. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t answer, her face just as scared as Iesta’s. She backed away, scraping her feet against the stone.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, my hands out. She stared at them and sucked in a breath. I hid
them behind me. “I’m trying to help you.”

“I…they…” She licked her lips, and her gaze darted to the bag and the things scattered across the street.

Blue Baseeri uniforms.

This time
I
backed away. She was military. She was with the Duke. Saints, I’d helped one of the people trying to kill
me.

I stopped, staring at her like she stared at me, each of us terrified of the other. She couldn’t be a soldier—she was far too scared. She was also afraid of the uniforms, even though they were clearly hers.

“I’m not one of the Undying,” I said softly.

“You’re like them though.”

“Only a little. I can heal.”

“You can do more than that.” She glanced into the shadows where Iesta had gone. “I’m glad, but, well. Yeah.” She laughed nervously and tried unsuccessfully to stand. Maybe she’d never been healed before. I’d seen folks disoriented from it the first time.

Her fear returned. “What did you do to me?”

“Nothing. I just healed you. You were badly hurt, so give your body time to get over the shock. You’ll be fine in a minute.”

She rubbed her leg. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

She calmed a little, enough to start stuffing uniforms into her bag. I picked one up and handed it to her.

“Thanks,” she said, voice trembling. “And thanks for helping me and healing me. I know better than to be out past dark, but I had to—” She glanced down at the uniforms, then shook her head.

“It’s okay. I don’t think they’ll be back tonight.” I walked over to the bushes where more uniforms had fallen. I picked them up and paused, glancing at the girl. I slipped a uniform under the branches and brought the rest to her. “I think this is the last of them.”

She tucked them away in her bag. “You shouldn’t be out here either, even if you are—” She stopped.

“Dangerous?”

She hesitated, then grinned. “How about ‘different’? It’s past curfew and it’s not safe.”

“I noticed.” I helped her to her feet, and she stayed on them this time. “I don’t have much choice though,” I said. “I’m trying to find my friends. A tracker caught them.”

She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. “Don’t try to find them. They’re gone.”

“I can’t do that.”

“But…” She took a breath and stared at the stars for a moment, then sniffled and looked back. “No one gets away from trackers.”

“I did.”

She didn’t say anything at first, but I could tell she was impressed. She slung the bag across her shoulder. “Maybe you could get them out, then. But I wouldn’t try if I were you.
Especially
if I were you.”

She had a point. It didn’t matter though.

“I still have to try,” I said. “Do you know where the prisoners are kept?”

“There’s a jail on Keldert Street, but if they’ve been processed, they won’t be there anymore.”

“Where would they be then?”

“He’d have them.” She looked behind me and pointed to a building I hadn’t noticed before, settled on a hill in the distance. Tall, solid, with spires and fences and walls.

The Duke’s Palace. Getting in there wouldn’t be so easy, but the jail I could do.

“I have to go,” she said. “Thank you again, and good luck, though I really do think you should find a place to hide and forget about your friends.”

Never. “Which way is Keldert Street?”

“That way. Five blocks down, turn right at the
plaza with the Duke’s statue. Follow that street until you see the Broken Nose Taproom on your right. That’s Keldert. Then it’s just a few blocks to the jail.”

“Thank you. Any gates in the way?”

“No. North Quarter gate is past the jail. I really have to go.” She grinned an apology and fled, vanishing into the night.

I walked over to the bushes and picked up the uniform. Getting inside the jail was not going to be a problem at all.

I made one wrong turn and had to retrace a few steps, but I found the jail without too much wandering. Unlike the buildings in the rest of the city, this one sat alone in a square of trampled grass, a flat brick building that looked a lot like the ovens the potters used to harden their clay. Tether posts stuck out of the ground on one side, but there were no horses or carriages tied up.

Extra lamps lined the front along the street, and light brightened the barred windows next to the door. I spotted thin windows along the wall near the roof, but nothing I could fit through even if I managed to climb that high. No other windows but the ones by the door.

The thing that churned my guts though was the platform behind the building. Four gallows stood empty, the hangman’s nooses swinging gently in the breeze.
We can always add one more to tomorrow’s hangings.
I guess that’s what happened to the Duke’s prisoners who weren’t Takers.

I had to get Aylin and Danello out of there.

I slipped into the shadows half a block down and pulled on the uniform. It floated on me, the sleeves too long, the pants bunching up on the tops of my feet. I rolled up the waist so it rested better on my hips, but I still looked like I was playing dress-up in Mama’s old clothes.

I crept along the buildings, staying low and in the shadows. If I could get a peek inside, maybe I could tell if the guards were regular soldiers or Undying. As long as there weren’t any trackers inside to sense me, like Vyand had on the docks. If so, it wouldn’t matter what I was wearing.

I paused at the last corner before the open yard. Forty feet of space stretched between me and the jail. After that, maybe inches between me and any guards looking out or posted by the windows.

And if they saw me? I studied the dimly lit streets. Two led in opposite directions, one toward where the gates probably were, so that wasn’t an escape route.
The other led toward the fountain. There had been a few walled courtyards to climb into, and some trees worth climbing. Maybe I should have put some of the streetlamps out, just in case.

Just save them already.

Now or never. Danello and Aylin were depending on me. I dashed across the yard and flattened myself against the warm brick. No one raced out of the jail, or any other building. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard. If I stayed low enough, I’d be in the shadows cast by the windowsill. You wouldn’t even be
able
to see me from inside.

I slid down the brick and started sneaking toward the window. Just a few more feet and—

Arms grabbed me from behind, and a gloved hand clamped down over my mouth.

So much for easy.

I
wiggled and kicked, trying to hit a shin or a knee. My fingers dug into an arm, but it was covered in thick leather, just like the glove against my mouth. I kept fighting anyway, all along the side of the jail and even when they dragged me around the corner toward the gallows.

My feet touched brick. I shoved as hard as I could, smashing into the person holding me and knocking us both backward. We toppled over and the arms came loose. The moment I hit the ground I was rolling, away and up and—

I knew that face. I stopped running, but my heart didn’t stop pounding.

“Jeatar?”

I hadn’t seen him since he’d left Geveg, days after he’d carried me from the shattered League and hidden me in Zertanik’s town house. He’d said he was going to continue working against the Duke, but I hadn’t realized he’d gone to Baseer.

He sat up and hung his arms over his knees. “It
is
you.”

“What? How?” I took a deep breath to settle my mind and self. My instinct was still to run, to hide, but seeing Jeatar was a good thing. It meant I was no longer alone.

“Neeme told us what happened with the street pack,” he began as he got to his feet. “When she said a girl healed her and shifted pain, I knew it had to be you. Then we found one of the uniforms missing, and Neeme said you’d asked about this jail, and well, I know only one Shifter dumb enough to walk into that kind of trouble. I came as fast as I could to stop you.”

What was Jeatar involved in this time? Another secret mission for the Pynvium Consortium? “What are you doing here?”

“I live here, remember?”

“You never told me that.”

“Well, I do. Now, tell me what
you’re
doing here.” He folded arms covered to the elbow in
leather blacksmith’s gloves. The rest of him was also covered. High collar, long sleeves, with very little exposed skin.

I grinned. “You thought I might shift into you?”

“I knew you’d put up a fight if I didn’t have time to warn you I was there. Answer me.”

“I’m pretty sure Aylin and Danello are in the jail. They were captured by a tracker while trying to rescue me.” I quickly told him about the kidnapping and flashing the Undying’s armor. I neglected to mention Resik or Uncle.

“I heard about that this afternoon. We have people who pay attention to what the Undying do.” He frowned. “That’s when I started worrying you were here.”

“So is Tali.”

“Was she captured, or did she follow you here?” he asked. I didn’t like the look in his eyes.

“Captured. The tracker said she was making some kind of decision.”

He closed his eyes a moment, then opened them. “Then we might be able to save her.”

“You know where she is?”

“Maybe. Captured Takers are given a few days to make a choice. Train at the camps or
work
for
Vinnot.” He frowned, uncertainty wrinkling his face.

My breath caught and my feet were ready to run again. “He’s still doing the experiments.”

“We think he’s doing more than that.”

“We have to get her out of there. Where is she being held?”

“Most likely in one of the secure buildings near the main gates. Getting in won’t be easy, but if we go right now, we might get her before she’s moved. If not, she’ll likely be gone in the morning. Breaking her out of the camp will be impossible. We’d have better luck finding her if she chose Vinnot.”

I shook my head. “She’d never choose that.” Not after what Vinnot had already done to her.

“If they decide she’s too young to fight, she won’t have a choice.”

I didn’t want to think about that. “The camp. Is that what I saw on the way in?”

He nodded. “Most of the Duke’s army is garrisoned there. City defense is housed at the citadel inside the inner walls near his palace.”

I’d never get in there unless I
joined
the army. I looked at the gallows. “What about Aylin and Danello?”

He hesitated. “The prisoners in this jail are
scheduled to hang tomorrow.”

“Then we have to rescue them tonight.”

“I’m sorry, but it’ll be hard enough trying to convince the others to help Tali. They won’t do both.”

The others again. My head swam with so many questions and fears. I couldn’t leave Aylin and Danello here, not if they were going to be executed tomorrow.

“If Tali goes to the camp,” I began, the words almost impossible to say, “will she be okay?”

Jeatar looked at me as if I’d just suggested handing her over to the Duke myself. “We can’t get her out of the camp. It’s
inside
the fort, heavily guarded to keep people in as well as out.”

“But she won’t be hurt or killed?” My heart broke just saying it.

“You’ve seen the Undying. You know what they do.” He gave me a sad look. “Few want to suffer all that pain or inflict it on others. But the commanders make them. They twist minds and bend wills and create the weapons the Duke wants. How long do you think Tali can last in there?”

I had no idea. She could be stubborn when she set her mind. And she did know how to get what she wanted. She’d try to be brave, but I’d protected her most of her life, and she hadn’t faced half of what I
had. Saints, was I really thinking about this?

“Nya, if you want to save her, we need to go now.”

Saving Tali meant letting Aylin and Danello die. Saving them meant risking Tali’s mind. Her Healer’s spirit. Five years of Baseeri occupation couldn’t break that spirit. Neither could Vinnot. She’d be okay longer than Aylin and Danello would.

“No,” I said, hardly believing it myself. “I have to save my friends first. They’ll be dead by tomorrow. Tali will still be alive. They need me more right now. I can’t walk away and leave them here.”

He didn’t say anything for a while.

“You can’t just throw on a uniform and walk in there either. That uniform is twice as big as you are.”

I looked at him. Tall, broad shoulders, twice as big as me. “It’ll fit you.”

“Absolutely not.”

“You can pretend to be a tracker and bring me in. We could walk right in and straight to the cells.”

“No.”

I pulled off the baggy uniform and straightened my own clothes underneath. “Here, put this on.”

“You’re not listening to me.”

I put my hands on my hips and gave him my
most serious stare. “Jeatar, you know me. What makes you think I’ll let you talk me out of this?”

He stared back, his gaze far more serious than mine. I held out the uniform. He stared a second longer, swore, and snatched it from my hand.

“If you get us caught, I’ll hand you over to the Duke myself.” He pulled the shirt over his head.

“No, you won’t.”

I didn’t catch his mumbled reply through the cloth, but I probably didn’t want to anyway.

“It’ll be fine,” I said. “You drag me in there like you just arrested me. We go into the cells and look for Aylin and Danello.”

“You really think it’ll be that easy?”

“Yes.” It had to be. Any harder than that and we probably didn’t stand a chance.

“Uh-huh.” He pointed to my wrists. “I arrested you and you aren’t even bound?”

Hmmm. “I could hold my hands like this.” I made two fists and pressed my wrists together.

He sighed and shook his head.

“Wait.” I looked at the ropes hanging from the gallows. “Do you have a knife?”

He pulled one out and handed it to me.

I hurried over, my flesh crawling as I ran up the gallows steps. I tried not to imagine Aylin and
Danello swinging while Baseeri cheered, but the image wouldn’t leave my mind. I cut one of the nooses down and ran back. “This will work.”

“Yeah, I suppose it will.” He didn’t sound happy about it though. He looped the rope around my wrists, tying it with a knot that pulled free when he tugged on it. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Arrest me already.”

He grabbed my upper arm and pulled me toward the jail’s entrance. I stumbled along next to him, off balance with my arm yanked up so high. He didn’t have to make it
that
realistic.

We entered the jail. Bright lamps lit the room and I squinted, blinking until my eyes adjusted. By then all four guards were on their feet and staring at us. I guess the bright lights weren’t because they didn’t like the dark.

“One more for the camps. Did I miss the pickup?” Jeatar said as if he said this every week. He paid no attention to the men with hands on their swords, or the dangerous looks they gave us.

I scanned the jail, trying to act like a scared girl looking for an escape. A long counter ran across the front of the room, with a waist-high gate at one end. A cage sat in the middle, enclosing a heavy door that probably went into the cell area. We’d need keys to
get through both doors.

“Identify yourself,” one guard said. A sergeant, judging by the rank markings on his collar.

“Geheim, East Quarter. Can I just leave her with you? I’m late meeting friends at the alehouse.”

I marveled at Jeatar. I’d never be able to lie that smoothly.

The sergeant frowned and the others snorted. “I don’t know how they do it in the East Quarter, but here we finish the work we’re given. Do it yourself. Yosel, show him back.”

“See if I buy
you
a drink later,” Jeatar mumbled as Yosel walked over and unlocked the cell door in the cage. I spotted the pynvium rod hanging on his belt as he passed. The other three guards had them as well.

Yosel stepped aside and let us enter. Then he followed us in and locked the cell behind him. I glanced at Jeatar, and though he didn’t look back or even twitch, I was pretty sure he knew what I meant. We’d need that key to get out. And Sergeant Do-It-Yourself might notice if we came out without Yosel.

The heavy inner door swung open and we stepped inside the jail proper. Stink and heat rolled out and my nose wrinkled. We walked into a narrow foyer
with brick walls on both sides, with another barred gate at the front.

“Cell five is empty,” Yosel said, locking the heavy door again. From what I could see, the entire cell area was T-shaped with the entrance in the middle. “It’s to the right.” He opened the last gate and started down the aisle. Cells lined both sides, maybe seven or eight feet square. Just enough for two narrow cots.

I counted as we walked. Twelve cells long, six on either side of the door. Most were full. My stomach clenched tighter as we neared the end of the right side. Danello and Aylin
were
there! But…

“Oh no!”

Jeatar glanced down, but Yosel didn’t. Halima was there as well. So were Barnikoff and a dozen more people from Geveg. They stared at me with sad, lost eyes. Vyand must have captured everyone who’d tried to rescue us.

She must also have Danello’s brothers. Enzie, Winvik, all of them! What about Soek and the other Takers from the town house? Did anyone escape?

“Cell five.” Yosel stuck the key in the lock.

Jeatar pounced, slamming his elbow against the back of Yosel’s neck. He crumpled without a sound. People jumped to their feet.

“Shh!” I said quickly, tugging on the rope around
my wrists. The knot came free and I shook the rope away. I went to Aylin and Danello’s cell. They stuck their hands through the bars and I grabbed them.

“I’m so happy to see you,” Danello whispered. Aylin nodded fast in agreement.

“Me too. We’re going to get you out of here.”

Jeatar unlocked the cells, even for those I didn’t know. I’d bet most of these folks probably hadn’t done anything anyway.

“Here,” Jeatar said, tossing the keys to Danello. “Lock him up.”

Danello dragged Yosel into a cell and relocked it. Jeatar already had Yosel’s sword and pynvium. He handed the rod to Danello.

“You know how to use this?”

“Yeah, squeeze the end and snap your wrist, right?”

“Right.”

“So what’s the plan?” Aylin said.

“There are three more guards out there. We’ll have to—”

The heavy door opened. “Yosel? Everything okay in there?”