Take Back the Skies (12 page)

Ben sighed, and they stopped outside her bedroom door.

‘Still, fifteen is quite an age to reach in this country. I'll have to get Alice to bake you a cake, or something. We'll explain everything in the morning,' he added as she went to
open her mouth. ‘Sleep well, brat. I'll try and keep her steady through the Secondary so as not to wake you.'

Cat hugged him goodnight and slipped into her bedroom, shrugging out of her heavy purse-laden coat as soon as the door was shut. She was exhausted, and it felt like every muscle in her body had turned to lead. Barely having the energy to unbuckle her boots, she crawled beneath her blankets in her trousers and undershirt, the ice still pressed to the back of her head. For now all she cared about was getting some sleep.

Cat's head was still aching the next morning when she woke up, the ice pack little more than a bag of lukewarm water on her pillow. However, the pain was bearable – and nothing a good cup of tea wouldn't help. Dressing quickly she walked out of her door – and froze. Fox's door had opened at the same time, and he emerged, stopping in his tracks when he saw her.

‘Catherine,' he greeted neutrally, making her wince at her full name.

‘William,' she retorted in the same tone.

He blinked, then scowled.

‘Don't call me that,' he muttered, heading for the galley door.

‘Then don't call me Catherine. I told you when we met, it's just Cat.'

‘That's because you don't get many boys called Catherine,' he mocked in reply. ‘Not that Cat is much better. I should have known.'

She glared, resisting the childish urge to kick him in the shin. That was a bit rich coming from someone who went by the name Fox.

‘Please, Fox, can't you give me another chance and just trust me?' she pleaded, latching on to his arm. He shook her off.

‘I did, and then you turned out to be a girl. I don't trust easily a first time, let alone a second,' he told her, pushing past her to get to the galley.

The rest of the crew apart from Harry were already eating breakfast, and smiled when the two youngest members entered. The smiles faltered when they saw the mood Fox was in, and the look on Cat's face.

‘Morning, brats,' said Matt through a mouthful of porridge.

‘Matthew, don't speak with your mouth full,' Alice scolded, spooning out two more bowls of porridge.

‘Morning, Cat. How's your head?' Ben asked.

‘Still throbbing a little, but I'll be fine,' she assured him, rolling her eyes when Alice rounded the table to check for herself.

‘Yes, that's healing up nicely,' she declared in satisfaction. ‘But I still want you taking it easy for a day or two. No working downstairs – all that heat and tyrium dust can't be good for you in this state.'

Cat wanted to protest that she wasn't in any sort of ‘state', but kept quiet, not wanting to argue with the older woman.

‘Is Harry upstairs?' she asked Ben, who nodded.

‘Yes, but we won't need him for the explanations,' he assured her, his shoulder bumping Matt's as he shifted to rest his elbows on the table. He met Cat's gaze evenly. ‘You deserve answers.'

Both men shared a look, and Matt sighed softly.

‘You were right when you told Ben last night that not all the children were being sent to war,' he began. ‘The truth is we don't know where the children are. The war ended over eight years ago, Cat. About three months after the monarchs disappeared. Mericus gained control of Erova, Dalivia have control of Kasem, and Siberene is a fully independent country. It has been since before the war was over.'

Cat gasped. Sure, she'd had doubts, but to hear the truth spelled out so plainly …

‘Then why the lies? Why the false newscasts, the war reports? Storms, why the
Collections
? If the Anglyan government doesn't need the kids for war, why are they still taking them from their families?' Why was the entire country still on rations if there was no war going on? It didn't make sense.

‘We've always assumed that they've been using them as free labour in the tyrium mines,' Ben admitted. ‘But after what you overheard, now we're not so sure. All we know is, the Collection ships go straight out to the Anglyan countryside, and the kids are never seen again.'

‘The rest of Tellus have an agreement to leave Anglya alone,' Matt explained. ‘They have a vague idea what's going on – they must do, the amount of kids that get smuggled out – but after all the damage the Anglyans did in the war, no one wants anything to do with us. They're happy to leave us to rot.'

‘That's awful,' Cat breathed, and Fox snorted, the first sound he'd made since they'd sat down.

‘That's politics,' he retorted. ‘They get along much better without us, and don't want to risk the Anglyan government
trying to regain control. If we happen to kill ourselves off by putting all the children to work, it's no skin off their noses.' His voice was grim, and Cat shivered.

‘You think that's what they're doing, then?' she questioned intently. ‘Killing off the commoners by taking the children?' It would make sense; gods knew her father and his associates would love to be able to toss all the commoners into a storm and be done with it. ‘Hang on,' she murmured, pausing. ‘You said the war ended about three months after the monarchs disappeared, right? And then the Collections began?'

Ben nodded, and Cat felt unease grow in her stomach.

‘That's around the same time the aristocracy took over government. I remember there were about two or three months after their disappearance when everything was up in arms, and no one was in charge. Then my father and his colleagues took over.' Her mother had been absolutely inconsolable when the monarchs had disappeared. Queen Mary had been her closest friend. Cat could barely even remember them, having been only six when they disappeared, but she remembered asking her mother why she wasn't having lessons with Prince James any more. She'd hardly seen her father over those few months.

‘What a coincidence,' Fox muttered under his breath, earning a scolding look from Alice. ‘What? I'm just saying. The country went to the storms once her father and his ilk took over running it. All the deception is down to them.'

It wouldn't surprise Cat to find out that her father was aware – and in favour – of a plan to wipe out the commoners. The overseas effort wasn't his department, but he no
doubt knew the man who had come up with the idea. He liked to involve himself in all aspects of government.

‘You've known this since the beginning, then?' she asked Alice. ‘You and Harry. And you haven't done anything?'

‘What could we do, lass?' Matt cut in. ‘We'd be arrested as soon as we dared say anything. They're already blackmailing half the people who know into keeping quiet. Anyone not in government who has to leave their ship in another country is told they can keep all their kids in exchange for silence. Like you saw, it's impossible not to find out the truth as soon as you step on foreign soil – the government knows it can't hide it. They threatened for years to take Fox from us. He's too old now, but we know what's at stake.'

‘And what about what's at stake for all those people who aren't being blackmailed?' Cat retorted angrily. ‘Those people whose children are being taken from them for no good reason? Those people starving on rations, living in fear of foreign invasion?' She turned to Ben, eyes wide and imploring. ‘How can you stand back and let it happen when you know how it feels to lose someone to Collections?'

‘What do you propose we do, then?' Fox cut in, voice flat. ‘Go on, government girl. Tell us in your infinite wisdom how we should be fixing this whole mess all by ourselves.'

Cat swallowed, steeling herself and meeting his eyes defiantly.

‘We infiltrate the government building,' she declared, her voice shaking. ‘I've been sneaking in and out of there since I was barely old enough to walk. It'll be harder now I don't have my … family influence.' She coughed, looking away as Fox's eyes flashed with something hateful and ugly. ‘But it
can be done. We get in, find out why they're really Collecting the children, and we get enough evidence of their corruption to trap them in their own lies. Even if – even if the rest of Tellus doesn't care, maybe we have some people left in Anglya who
do
care enough to fight back.'

There was silence after her words, in which Cat tried to look as confident as she sounded, before Matt let out a bark of laughter.

‘You've certainly got guts, I'll give you that,' he remarked.

‘Something needs to be done, before it's too late,' Cat reasoned. She couldn't help but wonder, however, how often she'd come close to uncovering things. If she'd just made it through those locked doors, just
once
, things could be so very different. If she'd overheard the right conversation, or read the right letter. Then again, her father probably would have beaten her for sticking her nose in his business. She couldn't believe it had been eight years and no one had tried to stop them, though. Did people not care?

‘Don't be ridiculous,' Alice scolded. ‘We didn't spend years risking our necks smuggling just to throw it all away on a suicide mission. It's an awful situation, Cat, but there's very little we can do about it.'

Cat's lips pursed, her brow furrowing in frustration. Surely they could do something?

‘There's one thing I don't understand,' she began, frown deepening. ‘Before I left home, my father told me they wouldn't be needing Collections much longer. He said the war was coming to an end. If there was no war in the first place, what on Tellus was he talking about?'

There was another long silence, and Ben and Matt shared a glance.

‘It's true, then,' Matt said, looking grim. ‘There were rumours something big was happening. Something was changing. We dismissed them as just talk, but if Hunter was talking about stopping Collections … they must have all the kids they need for whatever they're planning.'

‘Surely if they stop taking the sprogs, that's all that matters?' Fox groused.

‘Don't be thick,' Matt retorted, ‘if they stop taking them, it means they've finished what they needed them for. Gods only know what that may be.'

Fox scowled, but a slow smirk tugged at Ben's lips, his eyes calculating. ‘We'd need information first,' he murmured thoughtfully. ‘Guard shift schedules and locations. Then blueprints, schematics …' He looked up at Fox, raising an eyebrow. ‘You've been wanting to find out what's actually going on for years.' The sulky teenager shrugged to acknowledge the point, but he didn't seem any closer to agreeing to Cat's suggestion. Ben broadened his appeal to the whole crew.

‘Cat's right; we've been letting it lie for far too long now. The government seems to be escalating their plans, and who knows what their next step is. We need to stop them before they can implement it. And I think it's time I found out what happened to my sister.' He met Cat's eyes with a tentatively determined expression, and she grinned back.

‘Hardly much point in arguing the matter,' Fox remarked. He looked at Ben. ‘You're right about one thing. If we're going to change something, it'll have to be soon, before it's
too late. Any Collection from now on could be the last.'

Fox's sudden acquiescence came as a surprise to all of them, and Cat smiled hesitantly at him. He met her eyes, his expression blank for a long moment, before he smiled back. It was barely there, but it made her beam.

‘I still think it's a death wish,' Alice said. ‘But you have a point – something needs to change. If anyone can manage it, we can. Especially with Cat's inside knowledge. Anyway, we do nothing until Harry's had a say.' Her brow was ridged with worry lines, but there was something in her eyes that made Cat sure the woman would do everything to convince her husband to go along with things.

‘We can talk to Harry about it at lunch,' Matt suggested, pulling his pocket watch from his waistcoat. ‘But for now, we'd all better get to work. Except you, Cat. It's rest and recuperation for you,' he ordered. He and Ben got to their feet, slipping into quiet conversation as they left the galley.

Cat was aware of Fox following her as she made for her bedroom, intent on taking a bath to clear her head, but didn't acknowledge him until they were outside his room, when it became clear he wasn't going to leave her alone.

‘Did you want something?' He didn't rise to the bait.

‘I hope you know what you're doing,' he said instead. ‘This isn't one of your little fantasy stories where everything has a happy ending. People could die.
We
could die.'

‘People are already dying,' Cat retorted. Whether the children were in the tyrium mines or elsewhere, they certainly weren't likely to be alive and well. ‘Something needs to be done. I'm just surprised you're agreeing with me.'

‘Like you said, something needs to be done.'

Cat paused, taking several moments to get the words out.

‘Are we all right, then? Last night you all but hated me!'

Fox's gaze fell to the ground, and he scuffed the toe of his boot against the floorboards.

‘Last night I found out that not only are you a girl, but you're a government girl. Excuse me for reacting badly to that information,' he said quietly, walking past her to enter his bedroom.

She followed. She wasn't going to let him escape
that
easily.

‘The others managed to react just fine,' she said, sticking her booted foot in the doorway as Fox tried to shut the door on her.

‘I'm not the others. I've not met a single government brat who wasn't an arrogant, egotistical scumbag.' His posture was tense, his shoulders hunched. He looked like he was preparing to either run or fight.