Bluewing (16 page)

He laughed. “Well. Not quite.”

I waited for him to elaborate on his lies.

“Oh, I see that doubt in your eyes.” He released Gabe and gave him a shove between the shoulder blades, sending him stumbling toward me. “Korr the monster couldn’t possibly want anything but the blood of children to feed upon.” He waved a gloved hand. “Do you really think I have the slightest shred of loyalty for the Aeralian dictator?”

Gabe reached my side and grabbed my hand. He and I exchanged a glance.

“Well,” Korr said, taking obvious note of our handclasp but not commenting on it. “I don’t. I’d like to see him overthrown, and I belong to a group of loyalists called Restorationists who want the same.” His eyes crawled up to our faces again, and he scrutinized mine so thoroughly that I felt as if his gaze might strip the flesh from my bones.

“You won’t get the crown,” Gabe said hoarsely. “You aren’t in line for it.”

Korr fixed him with a withering glare. “If you think for a second that I want that, then you’ve never known me, brother.”

Gabe didn’t respond. His fingers squeezed mine so tightly I winced.

“So, do we have a deal?” Korr asked me. “Your assistance with a few matters in exchange for mine?”

“What could you possibly propose to help us with?”

“For one thing, you’re all starving. You need food and supplies if you’re going to survive the rest of the winter.”

“We—” Gabe began, and stopped when I shook my head at him.

Korr lifted an eyebrow and looked at me.

I was unwilling to admit anything about the levels of our deprivation to him. He was the enemy. He was fishing for information, trying to assess the extent of our weakness. We couldn’t give him anything. Besides, with the greenhouse and the meager stores from the mansion cellar, we had enough. We could scrape by. But I’d rather let him think we had nothing. That way, he’d underestimate us when he and his soldiers tried to chase us down.

Korr shrugged at my silence. “Fine. Perhaps more importantly, I happen to know the whereabouts of a few people you may care about. Ann Mayor...and that revolutionary, Adam Brewer. And I’m willing to exchange that information for certain assistance, as I said.”

Ann. Adam.

My stomach flipped. It was as if the floor opened beneath me and the walls crashed down. He was offering the one thing that had seemed impossible until now—the information about our friends. My heart throbbed. I dared not accept this poisoned gift he was offering, but oh, how I wanted to do so.

Korr gazed at me steadily. “You may not trust me now, but you must if you ever want to see them again.”

I found my voice. “Another trap? You arrange for their capture and deportation so you have something with which to ensure our compliance, just as you did with my sister?”

His eyes narrowed. “Actually, no. Your precious Adam was apprehended miles from here, on Aeralian soil, caught red-handed in the middle of a mission. I had nothing to do with it. Ann was implicated in the matter, and Raine wanted her taken out and shot as an example to the village and that lapdog of a Mayor. I managed to save her by taking her to Aeralis under my protection, where she remains now. And I can bring her back here in exchange for what I need, although why you’d want her here in this dangerous, desolate land, I don’t know.”

“Don’t pretend you care what happens to her,” I snapped. “Of course we want her back. This is her home.”

His gaze flickered at my harsh words, and a prickle of something like wonder touched me. Could this heartless creature be harboring some shred of feeling for Ann?

I shoved that thought away for later, when it might be useful to examine it. Right now I was face-to-face with the snake, and I couldn’t afford any distracting musings.

“And as to your sister,” Korr said, “you’re fortunate that I had her captured before Raine got wind of things. He might have ordered her shot too, you know. I merely cooled her heels in a cell for a few hours until you could arrive and take her off my hands. And of course, so you could show me where you were keeping house these days, and I could make you my offer properly.”

His offer. His miserable mockery of an offer. I trembled with rage. “And what exactly is it that you want from us?” I asked, making every word sharp as the cut of a knife.

“My girl,” he said, as if surprised I even needed to ask. “I need access to the gate at Echlos and the PLD.”

Another fist of shock punched me. I struggled to reply in an even tone. “The PLD was lost—”

“I know you got it back,” he interrupted. “Don’t try to pretend otherwise. Ann told me what happened.”

An unidentifiable emotion stabbed me in the gut. It might have been the feeling of everything falling to pieces. “I...”

“Listen to me,” Korr said, and for a moment all his usual sly smirking and posturing was replaced by a fierce earnestness that shone from his eyes and laced his voice. “I must have access to both the gate and the PLD in order to overthrow the dictator. I know you have it. You’re using it for child’s play—shuttling survivors back and forth, playing at exploring, pretending to use it. But you’re wasting it. I can free a nation with these devices.”

I took a step back. His gaze narrowed, and he seized my wrist. He brought his face close to mine. I was fixated by the gleam of his teeth. They were sharp, wolf-like.

“Don’t be a fool, Weaver. Don’t refuse the only chance you’ll ever have to get your friends back. Trust me, you won’t get another.”

“I’ll never trust you,” I hissed.

Korr dropped my wrist and stepped away. “Fine. I will deliver Ann Mayor to you as a gesture of goodwill.”

My heart thumped. “Bring her to me unharmed, and then we’ll talk about the PLD.”

“I will bring her here, to this desolate ruin, so you had better not flee the Frost in the meantime.”

I made no promises. I said nothing.

With one last look at us, he turned on his heel and vanished into the darkness with a swirl of his cloak.

Shaken, Gabe and I stood alone, staring at each other. Finally, we shook off our mutual stupor and walked together to the cellar.

“What now?” he asked in a low voice. “You aren’t seriously considering making a deal with him, are you?”

“Of course not. I’ve promised him nothing yet, and I won’t. But I’m willing to risk further contact with him if it means even a chance of getting Ann back.”

We opened the hidden door and descended the steps to the cellar below, where we found Ivy wrapped in blankets and sitting at Jonn’s table. Juniper and Jonn talked quietly over a pile of books, the ones I’d found in the ruins of Borde’s study.

My gaze slid over the new place we’d started to make into a home—the dirty stone walls streaked with fresh soot from candles we’d lit, the earthen floor trod with footprints, the cots and bundles of bedding on the ground, the shelves of canned food, Jonn’s new table, constructed from pieces of a shelf laid across two large stones from upstairs. It was a grim place, but there was something cozy and warm and safe about it, too. We had food and shelter, and we were safer here from soldiers and cold and Watchers than anywhere else I could imagine. And now we’d have to leave again. Korr knew where we were. Our location had been compromised.

Where would we go now? Back to Echlos? On to a new ruin? We were running out of options. Our back was pressed to an icy, hungry wall.

I needed to tell Jonn immediately so we could make plans. My stomach shriveled at the prospect of breaking the news to him, but I didn’t wait. I couldn’t. I crossed the room to his table.

“Where’ve you been?” he demanded when he spotted me. “Ivy and Juniper came down ages ago.” His gaze cut to Gabe, and he grinned knowingly. I knew what he was thinking, and it only made what I was about to say worse.

The words stuck in my throat. He looked happy. In his mind everything must be perfect. Ivy was with us. We were safe now. He even seemed to think Gabe and I were patching things up between us.

And I was about to shatter it all.

“There’s been a complication.”

Jonn’s eyebrows drew together sharply. I supposed he’d come to recognize that tone to mean things were about to implode.

“What complication?”

I explained tersely, using as few words as possible as I laid out the information that would ruin everything we’d worked for in finding this place. “Ivy’s arrest, our easy rescue of her—it was all a trap,” I finished. “He wanted to find us, and now he’s going to return with soldiers and arrest us all if we don’t flee.”

Jonn sat unmoving for a few minutes, staring at a spot on the ground. When I tried to speak, he held up a hand for quiet. His lips moved a little, but nothing he said was audible to me. Finally, he raised his head and tapped a finger against the table.

“Why not bring the soldiers with him now?”

“I...what?”

Jonn leaned forward. His eyes burned bright as they met mine. “If Korr really wanted to arrest us all, why didn’t he bring the soldiers with him when he followed you?”

“Because they’d attract far too much attention,” I said. A burst of irritation flared in me. “Don’t tell me you think he’s telling the truth, Jonn.”

“All right, so maybe he doesn’t bring the soldiers tonight,” Jonn argued. “But he could have. He could have brought three or four with him easily, armed with weapons, ready to arrest us. And if not that, why didn’t he simply note the location of our hiding place and return tomorrow with even more soldiers? Why speak to you first? Why give you the chance to get away?”

“Because he’s a sadistic man and he likes playing games,” I said.

“Or he truly wants a deal, and he’s willing to cross the Frost at night alone to make it. He’s even offered to help us get Ann and Adam back. He’s a cunning man. He doesn’t make stupid mistakes, not as simple of mistakes as those. I think maybe he’s telling the truth. Maybe he really does want to work with us.”

“I don’t trust him, Jonn. I won’t.”

My brother sighed. “Well, we can’t go anywhere tonight, not with this number of people and the danger of Watchers.” He looked around the room at the sleeping fugitives. “And what about Ann? What if he brings her here, and we’re all gone?”

“I’d come back and find her,” I said. “I can move quietly alone. I can elude any soldiers he might bring. But the rest of us have to get out of here.”

“I think he’s telling the truth,” Jonn repeated.

“And I think you’re insane. This is
Korr
we’re talking about. Ask Gabe. He can’t be trusted.”

“I shall ask Gabe,” he said, scowling. “I’m sure he has many insights he can offer us. He grew up with the man, after all. What does he think?”

“He doesn’t trust him, of course. And neither should you.”

Jonn was clearly resolute, and I didn’t have the strength to continue arguing with him that night. I’d run through the Frost twice, sneaked into the village, rescued Ivy, and faced Korr’s insanity. Every last drop of me was spent. Exhaustion paved my veins with roads of stone. My eyelids were leading a rebellion against my will to keep them open, and the lids were winning. I stumbled toward an empty cot, sank onto the mattress, and surrendered to unconsciousness.

~

When I woke, I found Everiss bending over me, her forehead wrinkled with what looked like concern.

I jerked upright. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“You slept so late...are you well?”

“I’m fine.” I threw back the blanket that had become wadded around my waist and swung my legs over the side of the cot. Every muscle in my body protested as I moved, and my skin hurt in various places where I’d been scratched by branches the night before. My ankle throbbed for some unknown reason. But I had other things to worry about today. I looked around. The cellar was nearly empty.

“Where are the others?”

“Jonn and Gabe needed them upstairs,” Everiss said. “To help with the camouflage project.”

“Camouflage project?” I repeated. What was she babbling about? “What’s going on?”

I didn’t wait for her to explain. I grabbed my cloak and climbed the steps to the upper level to see what madness awaited me.

Six of the fugitives were in the kitchen, following orders as Jonn directed them from a chair. Gabe stood at the far end of the room, waving a pair of men forward as they struggled with what appeared to be a section of crumbling wall paneling.

“What’s going on?”

“Good morning, sister,” Jonn said. His voice was cheerful again. Too cheerful.

My eyes narrowed. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“You didn’t say good morning.”

I crossed the room in three strides and braced my arms on either side of his chair. I wasn’t playing silly games, not when we had no time, and he knew it. “What are you doing, Jonn?”

He dropped the smile. “We decided we can’t move again, not with the food sources and the greenhouse here.”

“
We’ve
decided? Who is this
we
?”

“Me. Gabe. Juniper. The other fugitives.”

“You went over my head! You decided without me.”

“You were sleeping,” he said.

“So we just sit here, waiting to be arrested?”

“No. We’ve decided to take the route of subterfuge instead.”

“Subterfuge?”

“Yes.” He waved a hand at the wall they were bringing in. “We’ll disguise the entrance to the cellar—it’s hard to see anyway—and then we’ll create a false location elsewhere in the house where it would appear that we had been living, but fled. If Korr brings any soldiers, he’ll simply think we ran away.”

Everyone gazed at me hopefully. I was their unofficial leader, and they knew things would go smoothest if I agreed.

I crossed my arms and chewed my lip. It was a good plan, and I wasn’t afraid to say so, even if my brother did get a little smirkish at my admission of such. “This might work.”

“Might?” Jonn protested. “It’s a solid—I daresay brilliant—plan.”

“Might,” I repeated firmly. “And where’s Ivy?”

“She’s upstairs, helping create the false settlement rooms.”

I headed for the hall, following the faint murmur of voices. At the top of one of the staircases, another group of fugitives pulled bits of debris into heaps and arranged small stones to make fire pits. Ivy stood by the far wall, fiddling with the broken furniture.