Bluewing (24 page)

The two weeks had passed. Today was the day.

Korr waited for us in the clearing, his arms clasped behind his back. He stepped forward to meet Adam and me while the others approached the wagons to get into costume and take their places.

“All is ready,” he said, his eyes flicking over our faces as if to judge our trepidation. “I’ve done everything you asked.”

“Good,” Adam said.

“And the PLD?” His voice was smooth as butter, but I detected the impatience beneath.

“You’d better hope we survive this,” I muttered. “Because you won’t get it until the Farthers have been driven from our midst.”

Korr opened his mouth to say something else, but then his gaze slid past me, and his expression shifted from cold to incredulous. “Gabriel,” he said. “Are you accompanying these zealots on their mission?”

I turned. Gabe stood behind us, his shoulders back and his chin high as he faced his brother’s scorn. He didn’t look at me.

“I am,” he said. “These ‘zealots’ have rescued and sheltered me. I owe them this, at least.”

Korr pressed his lips together but said nothing. His gaze shifted again, and his eyelashes fluttered to a squint. I followed his eyes.

Ann.

She had donned a long crimson dress supplied by Jullia, and snow blossoms filled her hair. A mask made of rags covered half her face, and a bright color stained her lips red. She looked beautiful and strange and wholly different from her village self.

Korr flicked his cloak away from his boots with one gloved hand, a gesture of frustration. “Well, I hope you do not all die, then.”

“Don’t be too kind, brother,” Gabe said. “You’ll ruin your reputation as a heartless monster.”

Korr ignored his brother and addressed me. “I cannot be here in the Frost if your plan succeeds, lest enraged and liberated villagers try to have my head on a pike, and of course my part in this cannot be known. But I will return for what was promised me.”

I nodded.

With that, he turned on his heel and headed for the path in a swirl of black cloak.

Movement stirred in the trees. The Wanderers. They slipped into the clearing and regarded us without emotion. Ivy moved to greet them, carrying the gray cloaks they would need as disguises. I saw Stone among them, and he nodded at me.

Adam touched my arm. “I’ll see that everyone is settled.”

He left me alone with Gabe. I stood still for a moment, gazing at the way the snow had begun to melt across the tops of my boots, listening to the activity around us and the silence that hovered between us. Finally, I raised my eyes to his.

“We might die today,” he said.

“Yes.” My voice was so quiet barely punctured the silence.

“Are you worried?” he asked.

And then he was pulling me into a fierce embrace before I could answer, squeezing me tight, pressing his face into my hair. I returned the hug, as if clinging to him for a moment could send strength into me that I desperately needed.

We drew apart slowly, and I let him go. He went to join the others without saying anything else.

Adam found me again. He looked from my face to Gabe’s back. His expression betrayed none of his thoughts. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“In case we don’t survive this,” he said quietly. “I want you to have no questions about how I felt.”

“Adam...”

He stepped forward and kissed me. I shut my eyes and leaned into him. He slid his hands down my arms to cup my wrists. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t cry. I was frozen in a moment with him, and it was bliss.

A shout sounded. It was time.

We drew apart. Adam touched my cheek once and then he was gone, heading for his post.

I put on my mask and took my place in the first wagon with the others who dared not be recognized by the soldiers. Those whose features would be unfamiliar to the villagers and soldiers took their places around the caravan on foot. The other three wagons carried no passengers.

My heart was a drumbeat against my ribs as the caravan began to move. The supplies at my feet jostled, and the contents of one of the boxes clinked. I put out my hand to steady it, and then I leaned my head back against the seat behind me and stared at the quivering fabric that covered the top, creating a small room around us. Gabe sat with his back to the wagon’s side, his eyes closed. Beside me, Ann stirred.

“Are you all right?”

I reached out and found her hand. Her fingers were as cold as my heart felt. I squeezed, and she squeezed back. When I looked at her, her eyes held all the things I couldn’t say. Love, fear, sadness. The only thing I didn’t see in her eyes was regret.

“You care for him, don’t you?” I asked. There was no need to clarify who
he
was. I saw in my mind’s eye Korr’s proud expression, the sly smile, the flashing eyes. He was sharp and cold and wolfish. His mouth spat sarcasm and sharp wit, and his words leaked with lies. How could she feel something for him?

The corner of her lip curved up in a bemused grimace. She didn’t respond, but I knew the feeling well, the one where all the words scuttled away from your tongue, leaving you empty-handed and love-bruised in the wake of everything you hadn’t expressed. I slid across the bench and nestled my head in the crook of her shoulder, and she reached up to touch my cheek. We stayed that way all the way to Iceliss, sending strength to each other through the points where our skin touched.

The wagons stopped when we reached the Cages before Iceliss. I strained to hear the crunch of soldiers’ boots in the snow, the low snap of voices in the sudden silence as they demanded passes, the rasp of paper being drawn from a pocket. Juniper was our spokesman because they would not recognize him, and I listened to the comforting rumble of his voice as he answered their questions. He sounded calm.

My blood drummed in my veins, hot and frantic. The seconds scraped past.

“Go on, then,” the soldier barked.

Beside me, Ann dipped her head low and closed her eyes. Her shoulders rose and fell with a shuddering breath.

The wagons rumbled forward, and in my mind’s eye I saw the gate passing over us, the cobblestone streets receiving us. We turned left, past the Quota Yard toward the front of the Assembly Hall. We would set our caravan camp at the back of the square, near the wall.

It would not be long now.

As soon as the wagons stopped, we burst into action. Ann slipped from the wagon and threw a ragged brown cloak around her shoulders. She pulled the hood over her face so only her mask was visible, and then she turned to me and squeezed my hands.

“For luck,” she said, and then she was gone, running for her father’s house.

I dragged in a breath and released it. I donned a gray cloak. My mask was simple, just a gray strip of cloth, but across the side Ann had embroidered a bird in colors of sapphire and silver.

A bluewing.

Adam found me. He wore a black cloak and a caravan mask with gold and blue stripes. Through the holes in the mask, his eyes blazed with fierce determination. “Raine will address the people on the steps of the Assembly Hall in half an hour.”

I nodded, and we parted.

There was much to do.

~

A crowd gathered before the Assembly Hall when the Farther clock clanged twelve times. I slipped among the sea of gray and blue cloaks, carrying a tray of ribbons and baubles as part of my caravan disguise. My heart pounded, and sweat prickled against the back of my neck and across my palms.

Across the square, I spotted the wagons. Adam stood in front of them, juggling a trio of colored balls. A few people clapped politely when he caught all three balls with one hand and bowed.

I reached the steps of the Assembly Hall and turned, scanning the people’s faces, looking for Ann. I needed to make sure she was here. I counted the soldiers on the wall that was visible beyond the square. I saw at least six, all carrying guns. My stomach did a somersault. I looked behind me at the Assembly Hall. The Mayor had quietly slipped up the steps on one side and stood at the top, waiting.

There was a shout for order, and the crowd churned and parted as Raine entered the vicinity, flanked by a company of soldiers. Ann stepped into my line of vision at the end of the path that had parted for Raine. She nodded at me.

I drew in a breath. Everything was ready, then.

Raine reached the steps to the Assembly Hall. I blocked his path with the tray of ribbons.

“Buy a ribbon, sir?”

He scowled. “Get out of my way before I have you flogged.”

One of the soldiers shoved me aside with his gun, and I fell, scattering ribbons everywhere. I shrieked loudly, and gazes flew to me—the townspeople, the soldiers on the wall, the soldiers surrounding Raine. Everyone was looking at me. No one was looking at the Mayor.

That was the moment that he drew the gun and aimed it at the officer’s head.

“Raine,” he said, speaking clearly enough that his voice rang through the square. “You’ve been here long enough. It’s time for you to take your soldiers and go.”

Raine stopped. His gaze crawled to the Mayor’s gun, and then to his face. His lip curled.

“Disarm this blubbering idiot.”

The soldiers raised their weapons and started forward.

“Don’t come any closer. I’ll shoot him,” the Mayor said. His arm didn’t waver.

“Lower your weapon, fool,” Raine said. “You cannot win. You are outnumbered. If you shoot me, my men will slaughter your whole village, including you. You have no means to fight back against us.”

The Mayor smiled. “That is where you are wrong.”

The sound began as a rustling that grew and grew until it was a crash of snapping wood and ripping canvas. I heard a frightened shout, and the crack of a gun. And that was when the Watcher leaped from one of our wagons.

RAINE FROZE, HIS mouth falling open in terror. The soldiers around him swung their weapons from the Mayor to the monster. The villagers in the square didn’t move. A few of them trembled visibly, but they lifted their chins and held their ground.

My lips curved into a smile, because we had a secret.

Every person in the crowd below was one of ours.

The Watcher leaped onto the wall and swatted at the soldier who had fired the gun as if he were an insect. The soldier screamed as he fell, and the Watcher snarled and prowled forward, the powerful neck swiveling, the eyes glowing in the sunlight. Another soldier fired his gun, and the bullet sparked off the Watcher’s shoulder. The monster didn’t even flinch.

“Fools,” Raine hissed to the Mayor. “What have you done? It will kill us all!”

“Wrong,” the Mayor said. “The Watcher won’t hurt any of the villagers here. It won’t hurt any of the Frost dwellers. You and your soldiers, on the other hand...”

He didn’t mention the serum, because we didn’t want the Farthers to know about its existence. He didn’t tell Raine that we’d injected every person present with Watcher-repelling serum this morning. He didn’t mention that half the crowd gathered before the Assembly Hall were Aeralian fugitives, Thorns operatives, and Stone’s people in disguise, and the other half were Blackcoats. He didn’t mention that the rest of the villagers were hidden safely away in their houses.

“That can’t be true,” Raine snapped. “Your people have been killed by them before.”

The Watcher reached a second soldier on the wall and opened its jaws. The eyes glowed red. The soldier scrambled away, abandoning his gun, and the Watcher leaped after him with a snarl.

“Shoot it!” Raine bellowed, but the soldiers were paralyzed with fear.

“Lay down your weapons,” the Mayor said, “or the monsters will attack you.”

Another splintering sound filled the air, and a second Watcher emerged from one of the wagons. This one was larger than the first. It opened its maw and released a guttural snarl. The remaining soldiers on the wall fled as a third Watcher burst from the final wagon with a rip of fabric and a crunch of wood, leaping forward with a bound of its powerful haunches. A red streak glittered down its side. Ivy’s Watcher.

“I thought these beasts only came out at night!”

“It turns out,” the Mayor said calmly, “that the Watchers have many secrets that were previously unknown. They can come out during the daylight if summoned.”

“Who did this?” Raine demanded.

“Bluewing,” the Mayor said, and that was my cue.

“Surprise.” I stepped onto the stairs and flashed Raine a thin smile. The Farther officer saw the bird emblazoned on my mask and jerked with surprise and recognition. His face turned a mottled red.

“Bluewing,” he breathed.

“You’ve heard of me?”

“I’ll see you dead.”

“Unlikely,” I said, looking behind me at the Watchers.

The third and largest Watcher was heading for the Assembly Hall. As it approached, eyes glowing, the villagers raised their fists in unison. Every hand was streaked with red. The Watcher turned away from them, heading for the steps.

Raine trembled.

“Surrender your weapons, or it will kill you,” I said.

The monster reached the steps. It looked at me, and I held out my hand. A droplet of blood glimmered on the edge of my finger. It turned away from me and headed for Raine.

“Decide quickly,” I shouted.

The Watcher roared, and the others on the wall echoed it. A chorus of snarls filled the air as more creatures surged from the forest. More than a dozen Watchers. Among them walked my sister.

Raine grabbed the rifle from the nearest soldier’s hands and aimed it straight at my heart. “Never,” he snarled.

I jumped back as his finger squeezed the trigger. Pain blossomed in my arm, and I fell to my knees. Through a haze of agony, I saw the Watcher bound forward and snatch him up in a single swoop of its jaws. Raine screamed. I turned my head away.

The other soldiers dropped their weapons and threw up their arms in surrender.

It was over.

~

Our people shed their disguises and confiscated the soldiers’ weapons. They bound the soldiers’ hands and then locked them all in their own prison cells—the very cell block from which I’d rescued my sister—both to contain them and to protect them from being mauled by the Watchers that had settled into an agitated crouch beside the village gates.