The Healing Wars: Book III: Darkfall (24 page)

“But you have a strategy?”

“I have a few ideas.” Jeatar turned to me and smiled. “How about you?”

I glanced at Optel. “Oh, I have a plan. But we’ll need the Baseeri to make it work.”

It was midafternoon by the time we secured North Isle. We still had South Isle to worry about, but Optel admitted to not having control there like he’d been boasting. Nice to hear we wouldn’t have more looters to deal with, but that also meant we had no idea what we were walking into.

“So what’s the best bridge to take to the Aristocrats’ Isles?” Jeatar asked, shocked.

“There’s just the one that connects to South Isle.”

Ellis scoffed. “No wonder they chose that side to defend.”

“We can go by boat,” I said. “The lakeside won’t have as many hyacinths clogging it.”

“Just the blockade.”

Ellis had told us about that. The east side of the city was surrounded by boats, like our side. She hadn’t seen any smoke that suggested they had fire rocks though. We either had to get past the boats or take our chances with unknown troops on South Isle.

Jeatar tapped one finger against his lips. “Let’s go by boat. Baseeri skiff, Baseeri flag, Baseeri crew—we shouldn’t have any trouble getting through. Convincing them to help will be the challenge.”

“I’ll get the skiff ready,” Ellis said.

Jeatar shook his head. “I need you back at tradesmen’s corner. Kione was a little too pleased with the ‘victory’ here, and I don’t want him or the others thinking they can just sneak past the bridges and go after the League.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and get someone over to talk to the farmers.”

“The farmers?” I asked. Ellis just looked confused.

“There are several large farming isles right below the League and Lower Grand Isle,” he said. “Don’t you think someone should talk to them and find out which side they’re on? If we get troops down there, we can attack from all sides.”

“And risk the
food
?” I asked.

For a heartbeat he looked like he might laugh but thought better of it. “You won’t need that food if there’re no Gevegians to feed.”

“I’ll put a team on it right away,” Ellis said. “Anything else?”

“If we can work things out with the Baseeri, we’ll have to act fast, so make sure everyone is ready to move when I need them.”

“You’ll have them.”

“Now let’s go find us a boat.”

Finding one wasn’t much trouble, since the skiff they’d used to get here was still docked where Ellis had left it when she’d brought in the wave of fishermen. Jeatar hung a Baseeri flag, raised the sails, and we headed for Upper Aristocrats’ Isle.

We spotted the blockade just after we rounded the tip of Geveg. Danello started counting.

“Twenty-seven boats that I can see, and there’s got to be more behind those.”

“Pick the closest.”

“That one.”

I adjusted the rudder and headed toward a skiff a little smaller than ours. Unlike the ones patrolling the lake, this one was anchored.

“They’ve seen us,” I said. Bodies moved on deck, sunlight reflecting off their swords. “And it looks like one of the patrol boats is heading this way, too.”

“Good.” Jeatar patted my shoulder. “Easy, Nya, we want them to come to us. They’ll take us to someone in charge.”

If they didn’t attack us first.

Waiting for a patrol felt wrong, running right at one felt ridiculous, but these weren’t typical Baseeri. They had defied the Duke, triggered Geveg’s rebellion. They wanted their freedom as much as we did.

As long as they remembered it was
our
freedom, too, not just theirs.

“Wait here.” The Baseeri who’d escorted us in pointed to stone benches at the edge of a dock I hadn’t known was here. Boats filled eight of the ten berths.

“I didn’t even know they
had
a dock like this over here,” Danello whispered.

“Me either.” It wasn’t nearly as big as Geveg’s main docks, but it was all the harbor the Aristocrats’ Isles needed. It’s not like they had people coming and going all day.

Jeatar stayed standing, and his guards took positions around us. The Baseeri dock guards seemed a bit nervous about that. Oddly, neither of them wore blue. Just basic leather armor with red patches on the shoulders.

“I don’t suppose you know who might be in charge?” Jeatar asked me.

“Of the Baseeri? No.”

I stuck my hands in my pockets. The pynvium strip was still there. Not as comforting without the army backing us up, but if trouble showed, it would be enough. I’d escaped with less.

The man finally came back, along with two others. One wore a uniform—red, just like the guard patches. The other looked like a typical Baseeri aristocrat. Well dressed, well fed, and well accustomed to staring down his nose at folks. Which couldn’t have been easy considering the size of his nose.

“You have five minutes,” he said.

The bluntness surprised me, but Jeatar didn’t even hesitate. “I represent the Gevegian half of the resistance. If you’re as organized as I’ve heard, you’ll know the Duke’s army has mobilized and is headed here. Our best chance to defend Geveg is if we work together and coordinate attacks.”

“Work together?”

“Combine our resources, our forces. Create a solid base on which to defend the city.”

“Protect your bunch of freeloaders, you mean?”

I rose. “Excuse me?”

Nose Man folded his arms. “You think parading a bunch of orphans around is going to make us more sympathetic?”

“Considering you people turned us
into
orphans, I doubt it,” I said. “We came here to help save
you
.”

He laughed. “We don’t need saving. We have everything under control.”

Jeatar grabbed my shirt, right at the small of my back, and tugged me to a stop. “There are two legitimate and separate forces and one formidable enemy. No matter what you think, you
don’t
have him under control.”

Big Nose scowled. “You have no resources, you have no soldiers, you have nothing worth forging an alliance with.”

“They have
me
,” I said. Jeatar tightened his grip on my shirt, scratching my skin with his nails. His expression hadn’t changed, but it was clear I shouldn’t have said that.

“And that matters why?”

“Because, Neuss,” a woman said, coming down the docks behind him, her glossy black hair in a perfect bun at the nape of her neck. “If anyone can defeat the Duke, it’s her.”

Danello gasped. “Saints, Nya, is that—”

“Vyand,” I whispered. “That’s Vyand.”

W
hat are
you
doing here?” Last time I’d seen her, we were all trying to get out of Baseer. She’d already been paid for bringing me to the Duke and hadn’t cared that I’d escaped him. She claimed that unless someone paid her to capture me again, she had no interest in me. She’d even helped us get past the gates and the panic to reach the wharf.

Had she been hired to find me again?

Or kill me?

No, Vyand was a tracker, not an assassin. If she was here, it was because someone paid her to be. Money was all she cared about.

“I was about to ask you the same question,” she said.

“How did you find me?”

“I wasn’t looking for you, didn’t even know you were in Geveg. I had business here and was just leaving.”

“You work for the Duke,” I said.

“I did a few jobs for him, yes. But I don’t work for anyone but myself.”

“Then why come to Geveg?”

She smiled her cat’s grin. “That’s my business. I am curious why
you’re
here, however.”

“Maybe that’s
my
business.”

She chuckled. “Wouldn’t it be interesting if we had the
same
business?”

We wanted an ally against the Duke. Vyand didn’t care what happened to anyone but herself, and she sure wouldn’t risk her life for a bunch of people she didn’t even know. She was here for another reason. Knowing Vyand, it couldn’t be good.

“You have that look again,” she said. “You’re up to something. I do love your little plans.”

“You know this child?” Neuss asked.

“I’m surprised you don’t. What is she asking you to do?”

“Protect the whole—”

“I don’t want your protection, I want an alliance,” I said.

“A unified army against the Duke,” Danello added. Jeatar stayed silent, though his eyes narrowed as he stared at Vyand.

She smiled, ignoring Danello and scanning Jeatar head to toe. “My, my, aren’t you intriguing. The strong silent type?”

Jeatar turned back to Neuss. “It’s in your best interests to relay my message up the chain of command. I’d hate to see the Aristocrats’ Isles fall because you were too shortsighted to inform your superiors.”

Neuss snorted and spun on his heel, muttering something about worthless ’Vegs as he left. His guard followed. Vyand stayed.

“You could have handled that better,” she said.

“He had no intention of helping us.”

“And no power to. You need to speak with Balju. He’s the man in charge.”

Jeatar paused, studying her again. “Could you make the introductions?”

“What? No!” I stepped between them, a hand out to either side. Danello moved with me, keeping his gaze on Vyand and his hand on his rapier. “We can’t trust her,” I said. “She’ll probably turn us over to, I don’t know, one of the Duke’s spies.”

“No, I won’t.”

“Then why are you here?”

She smoothed her hair and looked at Danello. “What have you been whispering into her ear? Does she really think everything is about her?”

“It usually is.”

She laughed. “Not this time, Nya. I’m here to conduct business, nothing more. I had weapons, Balju needed weapons. I have more weapons, if you or your handsome man here wants to purchase any.”

Jeatar actually looked like he was considering it. “What do you—”

“No. It’s
Vyand.
”

“Excuse us.” He dragged me off to the side. “You need to calm down.”

“And you need to remember that woman kidnapped me, sold Tali to the Undying, and handed Danello and Aylin to some Baseeri jailer to be executed. I’m
not
going to work with her.”

“I’m not asking you to. But if she can get us into the same room with Balju, we’d be fools to refuse her help.”

“She’ll trick us somehow.”

“I doubt it. There’s nothing in it for her.”

Trust Vyand. No, just believe her. Take her at her heartless word. I glanced over. She waited, as perfectly pressed as ever. Saints knew how she managed to stay so neat. Maybe not even dirt wanted to be near her.

“I guess Danello can stab her if he has to.”

Danello nodded. “I’m willing to do it even if I don’t have to.”

Jeatar shot us both stern looks. “You want to wait on the skiff ?”

“No.”

“Then stay quiet, don’t tell anyone who you are, and let me do the talking.”

I folded my arms. “If I can’t say anything, why am I even here?”

“You wouldn’t let me leave you behind.”

True.

“You also know the area, and I don’t,” he continued. “If something went wrong, I figured you could get us out of here.”

“I’m your protection?”

He grinned. “More of a guarantee.”

“Anytime now,” Vyand called. “I haven’t got all day.”

I raise my hands in surrender. “Fine, I’ll shut up and be dangerous.”

“Thank you.” We walked back to Vyand. “We accept your offer.”

“Which one?”

“The introduction to Balju,” I said. Jeatar glared at me.

“I don’t believe I made an actual offer on that, but why not? Getting you two together should be fun.”

“Where does he live?” I ignored Jeatar’s glare.

“The terraces.”

My stomach fluttered. I hadn’t been back there since the Baseeri soldiers threw us out.

We followed Vyand to the street. Servants hurried past, most carrying baskets and crates. The canals may have been clogged, but the streets were swept clean, the hedges trimmed, the trees neatly shaped. Wrought-iron fences surrounded the villas, and flowering vines of various types provided some privacy.

“Wow,” said Danello under his breath. “This place is as nice as where the Underground’s villa was.”

We passed the turnoff for the gardens and headed for the bridge. Soldiers stood guard on either side, their red uniforms glowing in the setting sun. Even their swords sparkled.

“This way,” Vyand said, turning onto one of the long avenues that cut the isle in half. “Down near the end.”

No fences on these villas. High stone walls in shades of white, pink, and gold surrounded them instead, with gates of sturdy wrought iron with family crests carved into them. I recognized some, though the families had been gone for five years. Did the Baseeri know what the crests meant? Maybe they thought they were decorations.

I don’t know what would have made me angrier—if they didn’t know or didn’t care.

Yellow petals drifted on the wind, falling from the flowering trees along the sidewalk. They gathered on the grass like pale, sweet-smelling carpets. Children laughed and water splashed. So different from the sounds on the other side of Geveg. At least today.

“Girls!” Mama ran across the grass toward the fountain. “Come inside.”

Tali giggled and kicked more water at me. I didn’t splash back, my gaze drawn past Mama to the soldiers running toward the bridge.

“Tali, Nya, out of that fountain right this instant.”

Someone screamed. Then another person. Harsh clangs rang out and Mama gasped. She grabbed our hands and hauled us out of the water.

“Nya, hurry!”

That was the first attack. Not the invasion that came a few days later but the one that surprised us all. A small force sent to kill the Governor, destroy our ability to organize and fight back. Not that different from what they were doing now with the Undying.

“It’s beautiful here,” Danello said. “I’ve never even seen that kind of stone before. And enamel on the gates? That must cost a fortune.”

My steps slowed, my heart raced. The street ended up ahead in a graceful cul-de-sac lined with curved hedges. A two-story villa of cream-colored stone sat at the end. Dark rosewood shutters shaped like butterfly wings hung on the second-story front windows. Tali’s room.