Bluewing (4 page)

Farther soldiers.

They moved furtively, their guns at ready and their eyes wide. Three of them, all thin and black like spiders against the blankness of the snow. They passed without seeing me and vanished around the bend, leaving only their footprints behind. They hadn’t noticed mine, because I’d kept to the shady places beneath the trees where the snow didn’t fall.

My heart beat staccato against my ribs, and my hands tingled. What were Farther soldiers doing here? Looking for me? For other Thorns agents? Or looking for something else entirely?

Maybe I could find out what it was.

I changed direction and doubled back, following the footprints they’d left behind in the snow. The murmur of their voices drifted on the wind, reaching my ears in an unintelligible garble. I needed to get closer if I wanted to hear what they were saying.

My feet whispered over the ground as I crept through the trees. Ice dripped down my neck and dampened the hem of my cloak. I pressed my back against a tree, and the bark scratched me through my clothes.

Ahead, the soldiers had stopped. They seemed to be arguing. One leaned against a tree, his arms folded. The other two stood a short distance away, studying the tracks of a Watcher. As I watched, one of the men picked ice off the bottom of his boot with a stick.

I listened.

“...Fool’s errand anyway. Why Korr thinks we’ll find that fugitive after all these months...”

They were looking for Gabe.

A month ago, I’d taken a gamble and given Korr information in order to gain access to his rooms and find the key that we needed to decode my da’s old journals. I had told him that I’d seen Gabe in the Frost. That tidbit of knowledge must have been enough to motivate him to keep looking after he’d given up for months. And now he had his soldiers tramping around, poking through the snow, searching...what if they found footprints? What if they caught a glimpse of me, or one of the others?

I needed to warn Ivy, and anyone else who regularly made a trek through the Frost, lest they accidentally stumble across the enemy.

The soldiers moved on, and this time I let them go. I counted to fifty slowly in my head, and when all was silent once more, I headed back toward Echlos.

~

I reached Echlos with the box in tow and descended the staircases to the lowest level where we’d made our home. As the corridors echoed with my footsteps, someone stirred from a shadowy corner. I paused, apprehensive, until I recognized the face. It was Jullia, Everiss’s sister. Like Ivy, she occasionally made the trek out to visit us and bring news and food, but she never came alone. My sister must be here, too.

“Lia,” she said, relief filling her voice as she realized it was me. “I’d forgotten the way down...I’m glad you showed up.” She stepped into the light, and her long gray cloak fluttered like a moth’s wing.

“Where’s Ivy?”

Jullia bit her lip. “She had something to do in the forest, she said. She told me to go on alone, and that she’d catch up.”

“I saw Farther soldiers in the Frost not half an hour ago. Did you know they were making daylight expeditions this far?”

Jullia’s eyes widened. “Soldiers? Outside the Cages? Raine has said nothing about it to the townsfolk. Are they...?” She dropped her voice. “Are they looking for you?”

I shook my head. She didn’t know much about Gabe, really, and I wasn’t going to volunteer that information. “They’re looking for fugitives.”

We reached the main rooms. Arla sat cross-legged before a small fire, cooking whatever disgusting gruel we were going to choke down for dinner. Juniper was by the cots, telling stories to entertain the two youngest fugitives, a girl and boy who rarely spoke. My heart softened a little as I looked at them, but I didn’t stop. I went straight to Jonn’s table and set the box on top of our da’s miscellaneous papers that he was forever sifting through, looking for the answers to all his questions.

“Lia,” he said in annoyance. “Don’t put that here.” He tugged one of the sheets of paper out from under it.

“I found it in the ruins of Borde’s lab,” I said.

Jonn paused at the mention of Borde. After a quick glance in my direction to confirm that I wasn’t joking, he set down the paper and turned his full attention to the box. “What’s inside?”

“Not sure. I couldn’t get it open. But whatever it is, it seems to still be in good condition.”

He fiddled with the latch, but it wouldn’t give. “Hmmm.”

Gabe joined us and leaned over the table with interest. “What’s that?”

“I found it in Borde’s old laboratory. We can’t seem to get it open.”

“Break it open?” he suggested.

I shook my head. “Not a good idea.”

“What’s inside might be fragile,” Jonn murmured. He ran his fingers down the sides and over the lid. After a few moments of probing, he sat back and sighed. “Whatever it is, someone has taken a great deal of care to make sure it’s protected.”

Everiss and Jullia joined us, their arms linked. I looked around to see if Ivy had arrived yet, but I didn’t spot her among the cooking fires, or near the cot-tents, or at the little walled-off area of shelves where we’d gathered all the various old books and papers from the room for the fugitives to amuse themselves with when they became too bored.

“Where’s Ivy?” Jonn asked.

“I don’t know,” Jullia said, her voice whisper-soft as she detected the note of concern in his voice. “She said it was nothing, a side trip.”

Nothing
could mean all sorts of things when it came to Ivy—a winterberry bush, a bird with a broken wing, a wounded fawn. My chest tightened with concern, though, because the Farther soldiers were in the forest, and my sister did not know. She was out blithely jaunting through the snow on some fool’s errand when she could be in danger.

“I’ll go find her,” I said.

~

The land surrounding Echlos was mostly fields strewn with rocks. Icy mountains glittered in the north, silent sentinels separated from us by a black river and miles of craggy hills. To the south, forest concealed any dangers that might be lurking.

I slogged through the snow, which had half-melted in the sun and frozen again, making it look smooth and slick like glass instead of powdery white. I didn’t dare shout Ivy’s name because I had no idea how close or far those soldiers might be. I was confident they wouldn’t come close enough to discover the Echlos buildings past the shimmer-shield that hid it from view, but if they heard voices, they might be compelled to examine the landscape a little closer. So I stayed quiet, listening to the sound of the bluewings shrieking in the trees.

Most of Echlos was buried deep underground, and the land around it, which had once been a series of gardens, had been reclaimed by forests and fields. Trees sprouted up between cracks in the roof and split crumbling walls in half. I slipped over a fallen limb and rounded the corner of the main laboratory building. A branch snapped beneath my heel, and the sound was loud in the silence.

I paused. The birds had been making so much racket a moment ago...why were they quiet now? I wrapped my cloak around me and crouched down. I held absolutely still. Was it the soldiers?

Faintly, I heard the sound of someone speaking quietly.

Ivy’s voice.

Relief bubbled in my chest. I rose and turned the corner, ready to scold her for frightening us all. Ready to forgive her for whatever wounded animal she’d rescued this time. Ready to—

My legs locked and my lungs deflated as I saw what loomed in front of me. In front of Ivy.

A Watcher.

“IVY, A WATCHER!” I shouted.

“Lia?” Ivy whirled, her eyes wide and her hands fluttering out to stop me. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t just stand there! Cut your finger!”

She didn’t move.

Panting, I yanked my knife from my belt and pressed the point to my finger. A droplet of blood beaded against the tip of the blade, scarlet on steel.

The Watcher snarled and pawed the ground. It was big, twice the size of a horse. Eyes that burned amber swiveled to regard me. I didn’t have time to wonder why a Watcher was out here in the daylight, why it hadn’t killed us yet, or why Ivy was here in the first place. I drew the knife across my finger and felt the blood rush out as sweet as relief. It splattered against the snow below. The Watcher jerked away, its limbs shuddering.

“Stop!” Ivy shook her head, her long hair flying everywhere. “Stop it. He won’t hurt us. He isn’t dangerous.”

I barely heard her. Still brandishing the knife in my bleeding hand, I dragged her with me around the side of the building and out of the beast’s line of sight. Ivy tried to shake me off.

“Come on,” I said. “There are Farther soldiers in the woods, and that Watcher is out there in
broad daylight
, and we’ve got to get inside before anything else goes wrong.”

Ivy’s face paled. “Farther soldiers?”

“Yes. Come on.”

She stopped fighting me, and we ran for the entrance to the ruins, not slowing until the shade of the first tunnel covered our faces. As soon as we were inside, I turned and slammed her against the wall.

“What is going on?”

She gulped air. Her hands grabbed my wrists, but she didn’t struggle. “I don’t know why Farther soldiers would be in the—”

“That’s not what I mean. What were you doing out there? With a
Watcher
?” I remembered a flash of what I’d seen—she’d faced it defenseless, unafraid. She hadn’t been cowering or fleeing. She hadn’t screamed for help. She’d been
talking
to it. And she’d fought me when I tried to intervene. “What’s going on?” I repeated.

A vein in her throat pulsed. She licked her lips. “It’s not what you think.”

“What, you mean this isn’t some wounded baby raccoon that you can bring home? That’s right, Ivy. It’s a Watcher. I saw one break two men’s necks a few weeks ago as easily as I might break a twig.” I snapped my fingers, and she flinched.

“I...”

“Tell me,” I demanded.

She shut her eyes and turned her face away from me. “He isn’t dangerous,” she murmured.

I barked a laugh at the sheer absurdity of that statement. My sister, ever the insane one. Farther fugitives, Blackcoats, and now this? Trying to cozy up to a Watcher? She’d finally embarked on her greatest mission of misguided mercy yet. “How long have you had this delusion?”

“I’ve been visiting him for almost two months,” she mumbled.

“Two months,” I repeated, thunderstruck. And it hit me—all the times when she’d been out in the woods claiming to be gathering berries. Had she been doing this instead? And what exactly was...this?

“Tell me everything.” My tone left no room for argument, and she made none. With a shaking voice, she recounted a wild tale of stumbling across a “wounded” Watcher in the forest, and how she’d taken pity on it and eventually befriended it. Or rather, him, as she kept saying. As if a Watcher could be male or female.

“They are machines, Ivy. They aren’t alive. They can’t feel.”

“I know they’re machines,” she countered. “I’ve seen where they sleep. They need sunlight for strength. It’s why they only come out at night.”

I’ve seen where they sleep..
. She knew where the Watchers’ lair was? Where they went during the day?

“That one was out in daylight,” I countered.

“They can come out during the day if they’re activated. They’re more docile then, less prone to attacking. But that one is especially safe. He’s friendly.”

“No Watcher is safe,” I said. “I don’t want you going near one ever again.”

“Lia—”

But there wasn’t time to argue about it now. We needed to get below before anyone else came looking for us. But the conversation was far from over. “We’ll talk about this more later, Ivy Weaver,” I said, and dragged her with me down the corridor.

We reached the room where the others waited. Jonn and Gabe were both sitting at the table, and I stalked toward them.

“Don’t tell them,” Ivy begged, grabbing my sleeve.

I had no intention of keeping her secret. I shook my head and continued walking, and when I reached the table I opened my mouth to spill everything. But Jonn spoke first.

“The Blackcoats have sent us a message.”

The Blackcoats
. The band of vigilantes who’d formed to deal with the “Farther problem.” So far, they’d managed to get several of their members killed, arrested, or injured. And they’d only succeeded in making Raine angry, like hornets stinging a bull. Apprehension filled me.

“How did they find out where we are?” I demanded. “Who delivered this message?”

Jonn looked at Jullia.

“I received this to pass along to the Thorns,” she said softly, withdrawing a folded piece of paper and handing it to me.

“Who knows that you have contact with us?”

She simply shook her head.

I unfurled the note. My fingers were still shaky from the encounter with the Watcher.

To Whom It May Concern,

Previously our two groups have had divergent goals, but the time has come to band together against a greater enemy. The Farthers will consume us all if we do nothing. If you are willing to consider ways that we might work together, meet us at the Hunters’ clearing beside the river at midnight in three days’ time.

—the People for the Freedom of the Frost

“The People for the Freedom of the Frost?” I asked.

“That’s what they call themselves now,” Ivy said, the first words she’d spoken since we’d returned. “They have new leaders, new objectives. It is not just young people now. Many villagers have joined, more and more as Raine’s policies and excesses become more intolerable.”

“What else has changed?” I was too agitated to sit, so I paced.

“Raine confiscates property or arrests those he considers suspicious on trumped-up charges,” she explained. “The soldiers are everywhere. Food is scarce. Everyone is angry and restless. If we strike now—”

“We?”

She was silent.

I couldn’t speak. Had she rejoined the Blackcoats in addition to her insanity with the Watchers? I wanted to shake her. But I only curled my fingers into fists and turned to the others. When I spoke, my voice was sharp as a knife’s blade.