Escape from Harrizel (35 page)

“Has it spread that fast?”

“Some Clients’ sole duties are to report
your whereabouts to the Kings. The second you disappeared, people
started speculating.”

“Kings took it as their opportunity,” Able
sighs, “and let the rumors fly.”

“Okay,” I look to Reid. “One walk-through
and then rest. For me at least.”

“Of course. Just one walk-through and we’ll
leave. Promise.” He squeezes my hand, nodding to Tucker and Able as
we emerge again, heading downstairs into the Auditorium.

It’s more packed than usual. With all the
new Arrivals and not many lists called of late, the Castle is at
full capacity. It’s difficult to navigate the sea of bodies but
Reid and I make it down the stairwell and to the West Wall. As I’m
about to walk out, he pulls me back.

“Okay listen,” he turns, leaning in, “we
can’t be obvious like we’re flaunting you. It has to be like you
never left. You have to seamlessly move through, like you normally
would. Like you were just sick up in your room all day,” he focuses
harder, making sure I understand him, “because that’s what’s going
out about you. You have whatever they’re putting on us—berry juice
poison. But you feel fine now so you’re back to business,” his eyes
narrow, shifting between mine. “Think you can handle that?”

“Why not?” I shrug, “I’ve got the exhaustion
to prove it.”

“Good girl.”

“One lap.

“And then head straight up to your room.
I’ll be right behind you.”

I inhale deeply, ready for the final voyage.
Forcing myself forward, I keep to the perimeter of the outer Maze,
weaving in and out of bodies. Many faces are new, confused…
cautious. Still unsure of what to make of all this, of what they’ve
been told. Like I was, back when I was still an Arrival. Moving
through them, I round the South Wall, scanning each face.

Starting to head for the East Wall, someone
grasps my wrist and tugs me into the thriving pit of dancing
bodies. He pulls me close to him, his golden eyes flickering
between mine, worried.

“You all right, Fallon?”

“I’m fine,” I exhale, relieved to see
Walker.

His sights settle on the cut before taking
in the dirt on my forehead, chin and nose. His anxious countenance
turns rigid.

“What happened to your face?” he brushes his
thumb over my cheek, his eyes narrowing in anger. “Did someone do
this to you?”

“No one,” I shake my head, knocking his hand
to the side. “I’m fine, really.”

“How’d you cut your cheek here?”

“I fell,” I admit, knowing how much that
sounds like a lie. “I just fell. But I’m fine…” I try pushing past.
But he’s solid, like a wall, holding his ground and jumping to
block me as I try to dodge.

“I’m not letting go,” he leans in, lowering
his voice, “until you tell me the truth.”

Suddenly, Walker’s focus shifts to something
behind me. He’s already retreating when I’m yanked back by my elbow
and out of the line of fire, just in time for Chief and Jace to put
their bodies between Walker and Reid, who storms forward, a bull to
the red flag. The two Clansmen throw both hands on their leader but
Reid doesn’t stop advancing.

Walker’s shaking his head, palms up in
defense. “Just asking if she was all right—that’s all.”

Reid keeps going, his fists hanging by his
thighs. Once he gets near enough, once Chief and Jace give him the
opportunity, he’ll let it out. Until then, he flies forward,
gaining inches as Walker looks around him, wondering if he should
just bolt. The surrounding dancers notice the hostility and stand
back, watching silently.

I’m pulled back again and turn to find Able.
He winks at me, his eyes glazed over the scene ahead. Reid
bulldozes his way forward, spinning suddenly to his left, then
right, throwing off both Clansmen, attempting to dart past.

“Uh…be a sec!” Able dashes by, helping
restrain Reid who is nearly colliding with Walker.

“Just asking if she was all right. That’s
all.”

“Walker,” Tucker runs up suddenly, pointing.
“Head out, man.”

Chief, Jace and Able keep Reid from flying
across and using those two murderous fists he’s been itching to
use. Walker offers one final glance my way before disappearing into
the crowd. Reid goes after him, pulling all three—now four—along
with him.

And I feel it again—the obsidian stare
cutting into me. My heart picks up as I scan the nearby dancers,
taking in the entire scene.

I see him.

Maybe a yard away, Mantis stands solid in a
sea of thriving, grinding bodies, his black eyes narrowing on me.
He starts to move but suddenly I’m blocked.

Kelly turns, arms crossed over his shoulder.
“Shouldn’t have gotten that close. If your boy wasn’t going ape
shit right now, the perimeter would’ve been tighter,” he shakes his
head, mumbling to himself. “Ah… fuck Walker.”

“Where is he?” I step
closer.“
Reid
?”

“Probably punching the shit out of
something.”

Walker? Are they fighting?

“How long does it take him to calm
down?”

Kelly shrugs. “Could be a while.”

“Could you walk me back to my room?”

He looks around, desperately hoping to find
Reid and the others returning. This wasn’t part of his orders.

“You sure you don’t want to just wait for
him?” Kelly’s still searching, clearly uncomfortable. “I’ll wait
with you.”

“No. I’m tired. I need to lie down.”

“Um…”

But just as he starts to nod, Reid sweeps
through the dancers, the crowd automatically parting for him.
Tucker, Able, Chief and Jace follow, obvious exhaustion in their
faces. Without even glancing at me, Reid steals my hand, leading me
out of the thicket of bodies and toward the closest stairwell. The
others leave us at the steps and once we’re in the Courtyard, he
sweeps one arm under my knees and the other behind my back, lifting
me to him in one quick motion. He doesn’t stop walking—doesn’t even
slow. One second my feet are on the ground and the next, I’m in the
air.

“I’m fine,” I struggle but his arms are
solid bars, cradling me into his chest.

After a minute of refusing to let me down,
exhaustion takes over and I succumb, melting into the comfort of
his arms. He’s focused on an image playing behind his narrowed
eyes, his mouth tight, holding it all in. I’m almost afraid to
speak, to trigger whatever piece of sanity he’s grasping so I let
him carry me upstairs to my room where he places me gently down on
the bed, then quickly retreats into the shadows of the opposite
corner. A long minute passes.

“You going to tell me what happened back
there?”

He looks up, surprised, like he’d forgotten
I was in the room with him. “Sorry…” he paces, gnawing the tip of
his thumb. “I had to.”

“Had to what?”

But he shakes his head.

“Why?”

He stops pacing and looks at me. “He touched
you.”

“But he didn’t—”

“He
touched
you,” Reid growls. His
eyes shift between mine, examining me, reminding himself who he’s
talking to. He retreats to the corner of the room again. “He’s
lucky I held back.”

“
That
was holding back?”

He resumes pacing, gnawing on his thumbnail.
“If I’d wanted him dead, I would’ve killed him the first time.”

I want to ask about it, to know what exactly
happened with Ansley but it’s not the time. There is too much
racing around in my head, too much horror to contemplate. I lie
back on the bed and curl up in the navy rags, one thought rising
above the rest.

“What happened to the girl?”

“Hmm?” he looks up.

“The one from the fight… Did she make
it?”

Reid sighs and slowly shakes his head.

I feel like crying, but utter exhaustion
takes over, already willing me into a deep coma. “I’m going to
sleep.”

Reid nods but makes no attempt to head for
the door.

“Are you staying?”

“Just until you fall asleep.”

“You don’t have to…” it comes out a murmur,
my lids growing heavy.

“I’m not leaving you after what you saw
tonight. Just,” he exhales, “sleep. I’ll leave in a bit.”

“Okay…”

I think he says something after that but I’m
too far gone to know for sure.

***

Reid assumes the center position in the
overcrowded hovel.

The Rogues, Sampson, Vix, Pratt, Clark and
Griffin wait in silence as Reid motions me to the middle with him.
When I join him, he clamps his hand in mine, threading our fingers
together. “Fallon is leading us.”

“Where exactly are we going?” Clark
asks.

“For those of you who have not heard, last
night, when Fallon went missing, she was
not
taken by the
Kings as we thought. She
left
,” he stresses, “she ventured
out here—
beyond
here—and found the truth of what the
Dofinikes are doing.”

Everyone’s focus shifts to me, a thousand
questions bubbling in their nonplussed gazes. Reid is about to
explain further, answering a few of the most obvious questions but
I beat him to it, stepping in front of him to address the
group.

“I’m sorry to have put you through that.
Believe me when I say it wasn’t intentional. But as much as I hate
to admit it, I’m glad it happened,” I inhale a large gulp of air.
“I needed to find this to tell you. What they’re doing to us—what
they’ve
done
.”

“Which is?” Kelly asks.

“I found everyone who’s been taken. They’re
way out past here.
Far
,” I give it a moment to sink in, so
they understand what I’m saying, “where they wouldn’t expect us to
go. Where they think we’d never be able to get. But I saw them… and
you will too.”

“Well what’d you find?” someone asks. “Are
they alive?”

“Are they okay?” another voice pops
through.

“What’d you find?” a third voice tries.

“Rogues,” Reid addresses the room and
everything falls silent again. “It’s time we move out.”

“Fallon,” Sampson gently asks, “just north
of Ellae? How far?”

“About twenty minutes if you’re going slow.”
I catch Reid’s grimace next to me. He shuts his eyes, shaking his
head, punishing himself for allowing this—allowing me to be out
here, all alone and in the dark. I focus on Sampson again, “Which
you should. Especially at the forest.”

“Ready to lead the way?” he heads to the
door across the way, the Rogues parting for us. He unlatches the
wooden door and opens it to the darkness.

“If you’ll light it,” I glance to his
babeeb.

Sampson holds his arm out, the golden
glowing sphere hovering just above his open palm as we move into
the darkness of the tunnel. We’re only underground for a few
minutes and take a couple of different tunnels when we come to a
wooden stairwell. Sampson leads everyone outside and once he closes
the trunk’s door behind us, Reid turns to me.

“Straight ahead?” he asks.

“Where’s Ellae?”

Sampson gestures ahead and to the left. We
take off in the direction, following his guide until falling upon
the broken city. A few murmurs of excitement, confusion—mostly
shock—float behind us as we move in and out of Ellae’s aged walls.
It takes about twenty minutes to move past Ellae, to where the lush
jungle ends and a great field of monstrously large Banyan-like
trees begins.

This is where my stomach gets queasy.

My foot lifts only to drop again, wishing to
remain where it is. It doesn’t make sense—on an animalistic
level—to return to a scene so unnatural. I know what I’m walking
into. They don’t. It’s easier for them.

“Fallon,” Sampson rests on my shoulder. “Are
you alright?”

It’s not the time to chicken out. I made a
deal I’d take them and that’s what I plan on doing. Reid takes my
hand in his, threading our fingers. This little gesture gives me
the last bit of courage I need. Taking a heavy breath and one
hesitating step—the first of many—we emerge into the darkened
forest, the soft glow of Sampson’s babeeb lighting our path.

He keeps a good pace on my left, his long
legs gliding over the roots with easier strides. Pratt is near my
right and the Rogues, spread thin just behind her. We come to the
tremendous roots and I take caution, climbing over slowly,
instructing the others to do the same.

We’ve only passed a few trees when Sampson
turns to me, keeping his babeeb outstretched. “Which way?”

“Just a little further,” I veer toward the
left, the group following the new direction with fast, furious
steps. We’re getting close. But the silence makes me nervous and
for a moment, I wonder if I imagined the whole thing. Is it
possible it was all in my head—some crazy, brutish nightmare? And
if that’s the case, what kind of credibility would I have left?
Just as I’m cursing myself for hallucinating the whole thing, an
agonized cry rips through the night air, stunning our migration to
a halt.

Reid looks to me, searching for
confirmation. This is what I heard, right? I nod, moving forward
but he keeps me behind him as we go. The others condense around us,
the moan ahead growing louder. We step into the first wave and
holding my breath, I scan the horrifying scene.

At first, you don’t realize what you’re
looking at.

I remember now.

You think it’s just another tree, the same
as the hundreds you’ve passed… but then they start moving. The body
parts. The vacant eyes staring ahead, intently and at nothing. The
fingers, wiggling erratically, then hushing to a still, only to
spasm again.

“What the…” one of the Rogues mutters as a
scream breaks out. I think it’s Pratt. Vix catches her before she
hits the floor and turns to Sampson.

“Sympse?” Vix whispers softly, glancing
around the lot.

“They’re
people
,” Able exclaims. “On
the trees—they’re people!”