Green Jack (32 page)

He hugged her
back, his arms sliding around her waist. They walked for a few more
minutes before they finally reached the rebel headquarters, which
was just an abandoned platform, like the markets. It had a small
kitchen, with chairs and tables and weapons. Wooden bridges led to
the other side which was mostly cots and hammocks. Saffron peered
down the dark tunnel dubiously. “Remember when those soldiers found
the market that one time?”

“Tunnels have
conveniently caved in on both sides,” Killian assured her. “And we
post better guards than the markets. We got this, Saffron.”

Kilian was
greeted warmly, and Saffron wondered abruptly if he would consider
returning with her to the forest, or choose to stay with the
rebels. She liked them a little less for it. “Welcome,” said a man
with a sword on one hip and a taser on the other. “I’m Titus.”

Saffron
recognized him. She and Killian had watched him save the
blue-haired boy from the Taggers from their balcony. Caradoc
introduced himself before Roarke could claim is identity.

“Finally, we
meet in person,” Titus said genially. Despite it all he looked
strangely fatherly, at least ten years older than Caradoc and with
an arm slung over the shoulders of the girl who had helped him in
the alley that night. “My daughter Vix.” She was short, pale from
living underground but also sharp as a blade. She and the others
couldn’t help staring at the Ferals.

When Titus
noticed, he ordered them to clear out. They shuffled away
reluctantly, the hammocks swaying overhead. “We don’t get a lot of
visitors,” Titus told the Ferals. He was friendlier than Caradoc
but he had the same worry lines at the corners of his eyes. She
trusted it more than his smile.

Still, she kept
the leaf mask hidden inside her jacket.

Chapter
54

Jane

Jane followed
the captain through the Enclave streets, escorted by three
additional soldiers. Everything looked the same, from the painted
doors to the pots of peppermint leaves; she was the one who was
different. Even so, all she could think about was Kiri. They
stopped at the main Cella, the marble gleaming in the torchlight.
Her mother waited in her best dress even though it was the middle
of the night. Jane sagged with relief. One more person who was
safe. And if her mother was safe, her sisters would be as well.

“Is this your
daughter?” the captain asked her mother.

She looked down
her nose at Jane. “Yes.” She didn’t say anything else, didn’t ask
after Jane’s bruises or her disappearance.

“Very good,”
the captain said. “Thank you, Lady Highgate.”

Lady Highgate.
That was new. Jane felt mildly ill wondering what her mother had
done to gain the new title. “Are you here to take me home?” she
asked softly, knowing very well what the answer would be.

“Of course
not,” her mother replied. “Not until you’ve proven yourself to the
Directorate. Until then, I’d have preferred you’d actually
died.”

Jane swallowed
a surprise sting of tears, and moved from the vestibule and into
the domed rotunda without a word. They crossed the mosaic floor,
patterned with leaves and eyes. The Pythia statue loomed as
beautiful as ever in the empty Cella, standing guard with the other
Green Gods. They took Jane behind the statue and down an aisle of
columns, into a set of basement rooms she hadn’t even known
existed. “I don’t understand,” she said. “Why can’t I go home?”

“I told you,
there’s a bounty on your head. We sent word to headquarters. Until
then, you’ll answer some questions.”

“Of course,
captain.” It was strange how easily her voice went meek, her eyes
downcast. And yet finally, it felt like a shield, not a sword to be
wielded against her. The sword belonged to her now. Suddenly, her
eyes were lowered to hide a surge of triumph and determination.
“May I have some water?” she asked when he pointed to a bench
inside a room lit by candles and with a glass wall, dark as scrying
mirror. “I’ve been running for days.”

He nodded to
one of the soldiers who scurried away. The room was cold and empty
and white. The water she was given tasted like mint and she smiled.
“It’s good to finally be home.”

The captain
paced in front of her, eyes narrowed. “You say you were abducted
while on watch?”

“Yes, captain.
I thought I saw something while on patrol and went to
investigate.”

“Why didn’t you
raise the alarm?”

“I wasn’t sure
if there was actually anything to raise the alarm over. It was dark
and late and I was tired. By the time I realized what was
happening, it was too late.”

“How did they
get away? The parapet is manned at all hours. We have sentries,
patrols.”

“I don’t know,”
she said regretfully. “I’m a novice Numina, sir, not a soldier.
They put something over my mouth and I was unconscious for
hours.”

“And where did
these men take you?”

“I didn’t say
men, captain,” Jane returned. Caradoc had warned her they would try
to trip her up on the details. “There were both men and women, I
believe. I can’t be entirely sure. I was blindfolded most of the
time. But when I finally escaped I was on the edge of a
forest.”

“You were there
for two months?” he asked dubiously.

She blinked.
“Has it really been that long?”

The pressure of
his silence threatened to break her. She bit her tongue to keep
from babbling. She jumped when the door opened and the soldiers
snapped to attention, even the captain.

Cartimandua.

She wore the
same tunic, her blue eyes shrewd and sharp. Jane could see the
resemblance now, the same stubborn jaw as Caradoc, a certain slant
to the cheekbones. Homesickness burned through her.

“Thank you for
sending word, captain,” Cartimandua smiled. Her dark hair was
braided and coiled over her head like a crown. Knives bristled from
the tops of her boots. The Directorate tattoo between her
collarbones was dark as a jet pendant. “Jane, again.
Interesting.”

The last thing
Jane wanted to be was interesting.

“You left jus
after we assigned you to the Garden,” Cartimandua continued.

“I didn’t
leave,” Jane said. “I was taken.”

“How
unfortunate. And did you happen to mention the Program to our
captors?’

“No!”

“Hmm. And why
did they take you?”

She swallowed.
“I assumed they wanted an Oracle. They kept asking me to read
omens.” She could hear Caradoc’s voice in her head: tell as much of
the truth as you can.

“And they did
this to you?” Cartimandua approached, gaze flicking from bruise to
bruise to blistered feet.

“Yes.”

“And still you
told them nothing?” She half-smiled. “You must be tougher than you
look, Jane. I’m impressed.”

“You’re
assuming they knew about the Program to ask me,” Jane pointed
out.

She raised a
brow sharply. “This one’s clever,” she murmured to the captain. She
turned back to Jane who was trying not to squirm as her spine began
to tingle.

Not now, she
pleaded to herself. Please, not now.

“And you
somehow managed to escape, and so close to the Trials. How
convenient.” Cartimandua circled Jane so slowly she felt like a
sparrow trapped in a cat cage. And she knew the exact moment
Cartimandua saw her numina mark. Her fingers closed over Jane’s
nape, digging in painfully. “Captain, you may go.”

“But surely…is
it safe?”

Cartimandua
turned her head slowly. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

The soldiers
bowed and hurried out. Cartimandua slammed Jane into the glass
wall. Jane’s cheek cracked against the glass, igniting her bruises.
“You’ve met my baby brother, haven’t you, Jane?” She jabbed at
Jane’s blinded eye tattoo. “What a bother he’s always been.”

Jane felt blood
tricking from her temple. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She clicked her
tongue. “I don’t like it when people play me for a fool, Jane. It
makes me cranky.”

Jane tried to
swallow, but her neck was contorted at the wrong angle.

“You know, your
mother is most cooperative. A shame it doesn’t run in the family.”
She tapped on the wall twice and the room behind it was suddenly
flooded with light. The mirrored glass showed Kiri tied to a chair,
crisscrossed with ropes and blood. Her left eye was swollen
shut.

Jane struggled
in earnest. “What have you done to her?”

“The council
wanted me to take your family into custody.” She smiled, as if
sharing a secret. “But I was a girl once too, Jane. And often, our
friends are our true family. Especially at the Collegium, I’m told.
I never tested strongly for numen, I’m afraid. Unlike you.”

Her spine
tingled. Cartimandua was doing all of this as much because she had
no numen of her, as because she needed to protect a City.

“We had to
question her, you understand,” Cartimandua said, pleasantly, as if
they were discussing scones. “I’m reasonably certain that she’s no
threat---at least not to the Program, and certainly not now. It’s
too late to stop it. I was going to let her go.” She sounded
disappointed. “But she appears to have become rather useful.” She
released Jane. “So I’ll ask you again. What is Caradoc
planning?”

“I don’t know!”
Jane replied frantically.

Cartimandua
signalled and a soldier stepped forward to slap Kiri across the
face. Blood dripped form her nose, spattering over her. “Please,”
Jane shouted, pounding on the glass. “Stop,” she begged
Cartimandua. “Please, stop.”

“You have the
power here, little novice,” Cartimandua replied, leaning against
the wall. “Your words can stop this.”

Jane rubbed her
eyes. Kiri’s face kept fading away to other images, some past, some
future:
red dusted rooftops, the oppressive heat of the farm
dome, Saffron lying too still, Caradoc’s blue eyes watching her
through bare branches.

“I’m sure my
handsome brother filled your head with romantic stories of Green
Jacks and life in the woods. You probably ate strawberries every
day. Do you know what the Elysians eat, Jane? Mud and protein
paste,” Cartimandua said. “My brother is the villain here, not me.
He hoards the Green Jacks. We try to feed thousands, but he gets
the ballads and the pretty girls sacrificing themselves for
him.”

She shook her
head. “Do you have any idea how many lives we save? And still, the
Elysians fight us at every turn. They have babies whom we feed,
just to have them raised into rebels. It’s exhausting, frankly. And
if I was as heartless as you’d like to believe, I’d snap your neck
and hers. After long hours of torture.” She shrugged. “But I’ve
never trusted torture. It’s not very efficient.”

Jane tried to
close her eyes, to stop the visions. But it was too late. She knew
her pupils had changed, and Cartimandua had seen it. She pulled a
syringe out of her pocket, filled with pale blue liquid, and jabbed
it into Jane’s neck. On the other side of the glass, Kiri
screamed.

Jane sagged,
weak and dizzy. She was no longer made of flesh and bone and numen,
she was mist and smoke and might float away entirely. This wasn’t
part of the plan. There was a plan, wasn’t there? She couldn’t be
sure anymore.

Cartimandua
guided her to the bench. “What do you see, Jane?”

Jane tried to
push the images away. She bit her tongue, her lips, trying to stop
the words from flooding out. She tasted copper.

Cartimandua
crouched beside her, waiting patiently. “It’s a truth serum,” she
explained with a kind of gentleness that sent shivers skittering
down Jane’s spine. “There’s no point fighting it.”

The back of her
neck was on fire but the rest of her might as well be drowning.

“Tell me, Jane,
what do you see?”

Chapter
55

Saffron

Titus’s war
room was just like Caradoc’s: maps and screens and too many mouths
moving. Strategy was never her strong suit. She usually jumped in
and learned how to swim before the waves dragged her under. Or
Killian pulled her out.

“I don’t want
the government,” Titus said wearily and Saffron had the impression
it wasn’t the first, not even the hundredth time he’d said it.

“Then why do
all of this?” She waved at the maps and the screens and the quivers
of green-tipped arrows in every corner. She’d always wondered why
the rebels bothered doing what they did.

“Someone has
to. And if they raise our children to be good little Directorate
soldiers and clerks, we’ve lost the City. We’d never get it
back.”

“So why not
take over completely?” Nico asked.

“They have
their job to do and I have mine.”

“Which is?”

“Karma,” Titus
replied with a stark smile. “It’s checks and balances. We make sure
they don’t go too far.”

“And what do
they do for us?” Saffron asked sourly.

“They feed us.”
She snorted. He didn’t smile. “How would you feed a City this
size?”

She didn’t have
an answer for him. Titus and Caradoc mulled over more contingency
plans, Nico and Livia argued, and the rebels sharpened their
weapons. The Ferals stood against the damp tiled walls on the
platform and tried not to breathe the dank air.

“Are you sure
about this?” Saffron asked Killian. She’d gotten used to the sky
endless and uncluttered above her. The tunnel walls pressed too
close. “We used to laugh at the rebels.”