Green Jack (34 page)

“Actually, she
was a rebel,” he answered smoothly.

“Not a very
good one, it seems.”

Belatedly,
Saffron remembered she was a Green Jill and really ought to shut
her damn mouth. And then it didn’t matter because Cartimandua
tasered her and the volts of power snapped her back teeth together.
Roarke and Nico struggled to catch her before her head hit the
stones.“Cartimandua, enough,” Caradoc snapped. “What are you really
up to?”

“Saving my
people.”

“Then let me
help. Free the Jacks. You’ll get your food then.”

“It’s too late
for that.” She shook her head. “I’d hoped for better, Caradoc. I
really did. But now I’ll have to make an example of you.”

“Fine,” he
agreed. “I surrender. But let the others go.”

Cartimandua
just smiled again and then walked away without another word. Roarke
crouched beside Saffron, blood trickling from the corner of his
mouth. She shuddered, tasting copper. She tried to sit up, but
could only lift her neck. Her jacket had fallen open. She stared
down at herself, horror growing exponentially. “It’s gone.”

Roarke glanced
down at her questioningly.

“The leaf mask
is gone.”

Chapter
58

Jane

The
Amphitheatre was deafening. There were so many people that they
were reduced to smudges of colours. Asher propped himself up on the
fence beside Jane. “You’ll pay for that,” he said around his
swollen top lip. Jane ignored him. He looked briefly surprised, but
that might just have been a side effect of having his face smashed
into a wall.

The other
couples emerged from the houses, blinking in the hot sun. The
crowds cheered, craning to get a better look. Jane’s face flashed
on a vid screen, pale but composed. Asher stared up through his
hair, turning sideways so his bloody nose was mostly hidden. It
looked as though he was tucking her against him, wanting to be
closer. The audience cheered, throwing flowers. “Play the game,
Highgate,” he said.

Jane just felt
sick.

The pavilion
behind Cartimandua framed her with gold. Her hair was woven into a
crown again. She looked capable and strong; like someone who could
protect the Elysians. “Welcome Elysians,” she announced, her voice
like a white bird released off the prow of a ship. It mesmerized,
carried the hope of thousands as if it was nothing but more air
under its feathers. “Today we are truly one people.”

“We are forging
a path to the future. One where we do not rely blindly on numen
held greedily by another; but instead where we hold our fates in
our own two hands. Such a thing requires courage, and sometimes,
sacrifice. But I believe the City is worth it.” She waved her hand
and the metal gates set into the main archway creaked up. “And now
you see how I put the City before everything, before even my own
family.”

Soldiers shoved
Caradoc into the amphitheatre. He was streaked with green paint and
soaked to the skin. There was a gash dripping blood down his
temple. Jane didn’t know where to look; she couldn’t look away but
she couldn’t stand to see him there either.

“My brother
Caradoc, leader of the Greencoats.”

Jane pressed to
the very edge of the platform. She tried to find a pattern in the
green splotches, the blood on his shirt, anything. The electricity
humming through the wires and electric barbs woven through the
fence behind her rose the hairs on the arms.

“And my
misguided nephew, Roarke.” Cartimandua continued, looking
chagrined. “I would save them if I could, but they have acted
against the Directorate. They would tell you our brave Jacks are
not strong enough to be heroes. But I know different. Green Jacks
are the true selfless heroes. And by denying that, Greencoats steal
food from your own mouths, and that I will not stand for. I swore
an oath to stand for this City, and stand I shall.”

Caradoc and
Roarke were joined by a ragged group; Saffron, Shanti, Anya and
Nico, Livia.

And Kiri. She
was bruised, with stitches on her face and arms. Her dress was torn
but the beads still flashed. They wouldn’t have let her wear her
Seedsinger chiton, no now.

“They must be
punished with this City sitting witness. After all, what is the
point of finding new Jacks, if I can’t protect them for you?
Rebels, Ferals, Greencoats---none can break us. Today we will have
new champions strong enough to wear the mask, and today, we will
have justice.”

A portcullis
rose on the other side of the amphitheatre. The crowd waited
expectantly, ravenously. There was already blood in the sand from
previous fights. Warriors streamed in, armed with maces and swords
and clubs. The horses spat sand from under giant hooves. They
weren’t Protectorate soldiers, trained and orderly. These were men
and women talented at violence. They were fighting to be the next
Jack, fighting to kill Jane’s friends, fighting because they wanted
to.

She was glad
the others were at least allowed weapons as well. She supposed it
wouldn’t have been an entertaining fight without them. A massacre
did nothing for morale, but a sacrifice would make the crowd feel
fierce and untouchable.

A small woman
wearing leather went for Caradoc. Her slender swords sliced at him
and though he was fast, she was faster. She kept advancing until
his shirt was shredded, the skin stained red beneath. He finally
went low and Saffron whipped one of her knives at her.

Roarke and Nico
were shoulder to shoulder, blocking sword strikes from above and
flashing hooves below. Nico went down, disappearing from view. Jane
gasped, hands tightening on the fence. She couldn’t see him, only
more weapons, more horses, more warriors. She couldn’t see Kiri
either. The crowd thundered behind her, pressing against them like
the sea.

The fight went
on and Cartmandua’s examples weren’t falling as quickly as she’d
anticipated. The audience stamped their feet, beginning to favour
the underdogs. At a signal from Cartimandua the warriors who were
still able to move, melted away. Kiri was on her knees, alive but
wounded. Anya gripped her spear, the sunlight flashing off the
copper, Shanti at her side. Nico lay with his leg bent at the wrong
angle and his chest a raw mess of flesh and splintered bones.

Numen shot up
Jane’s spine, as if she didn’t already see flashes of blood on the
sand and Saffron lying too still again every time she closed her
eyes. And abruptly, Jane couldn’t watch anymore. She
couldn’t—wouldn’t—stand apart and read the omens in her friends’
blood. Not when she could make those same omens a weapon. Not when
she could help.

The house was
circled with barbed wire and electricity to keep the crowds from
coming too close but there was nothing to stop her from dropping
down the front of the platform and onto the sand. Because it was
madness, suicide. Who would choose it over the luxury of the house
rising up behind her?

Jane swung over
the decorative fence, dropping into the amphitheatre. Her left
ankle throbbed dangerously, and refused to take her full weight.
The crowd surged forward, desperate to see what would happen now.
Jane limped towards her friends, finally feeling numen coursing
inside her. She couldn’t look at Nico, it made her breath stutter
in her throat.

Saffron was the
first to greet her. “You’re an idiot.”

“But I missed
you,” Jane returned. She tried to smile because, under the
circumstances, it was the most defiant act she could imagine.

“Like I said.
Idiot.”

Caradoc shifted
so his back was to hers. “Something worse is coming.”

The growling
came from everywhere. The arches were empty, iron portcullis gates
slamming shut. The sand shifted under their feet. “What’s
happening?” Kiri asked.

Jane steadied
her. “I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry later,”
Caradoc snapped. “Fight now.”

The trap door
opened under the sand, lifting platforms into the arena. Acid-green
eyes flashed. “Cerberus,” Saffron swore.

Directorate
videos hadn’t truly been able to convey their strength and their
alienness. Jane mind staggered, trying to associate them to dogs,
boars, anything familiar, but the combination was too grotesque.
Powerful muscles hunched under fur, lips peeled off teeth the size
of icicles. Even the audience members, safe behind their fences,
leaned back slightly.

In seconds,
jaws clamped around Roarke’s arm, spattering saliva and blood.
Saffron jabbed a dagger into the back of the Cerberus’ neck and it
screamed, shrill and sharp. Roarke wrapped the ruin of his sleeve
around the wound. The Cerberus took off, running erratically.
Shanti gave a shout of warning.

Anya planted
the end of her spear and leapt into air, her sandals skimming its
knotted spine when it charged blindly at her. Jane wasn’t sure if
there were spikes suddenly protruding from the fur. She didn’t have
time to wonder, as the Cerberus, denied its first victim, turned
baleful eyes on her and Kiri, huddled together. Numen ignited
Jane’s spine until she might have had spikes of her own. There were
only shadows and light and the tingle in her legs, urging her to
move. She dodged, dragging Kiri with her. Kiri was slow, bleeding
from various wounds. The Cerberus watched her hungrily, nostrils
flaring. When it attacked, Caradoc was suddenly here, knocking them
back. Jane she landed in the sand between his feet. Maddened by the
blood and the shouting, stamping crowd, the other Cerberus pressed
closer, snarling.

I am the
earth where seeds of wisdom grow
.

“On your left,”
Jane shouted, and Caradoc shifted to block. He had a short sword;
enough to discourage an attack but not enough to truly stop it.

“Saffron,
drop!” Jane ordered, feeling her pupils go white. Time became veils
of light and colour. Saffron dropped and the Cerberus who had
sighted her, jostled into another, who snapped back with a crack of
teeth. They turned on each other in a fury of jaws and claws.

The battle
continued, too slow and too quick, as Jane struggled to see an
escape. She scanned the amphitheatre, dark arches, butter-coloured
stones, flash of weapons. Cartimandua stood on her dais, silently
furious. The barbed wire at her feet looked like metal vines.

Red dust, light
through slats of wood, blood in the sand.

Jane blinked.
Light through slats of wood. The trap doors had closed after
regurgitating monsters onto the amphitheatre floor. But they were
still there, and one of them was lit from beneath. Light shot
through the gaps, just like the omen.

“We need to get
to the door,” Jane shouted at Caradoc.

Jane dragged
Kiri across the bloodied sand. The audience shouted excitedly,
assuming the two girls were about to get eaten. Caradoc stabbed a
Cerberus in the eye. Blood spattered on the back of Jane’s leg. His
teeth followed, but it was a graze, not a full bite. It stomped,
whining with panic and pain.

Anya smashed
her spear down into the spine of a soldier aiming at Shanti. He
crumpled, silently. Shanti smiled her thanks, just as he rolled
over, blood sputtering from his lips. He had just enough strength
left to fire his gun. The bullet tore through Anya’s eye. Shanti
leapt forward, screaming, but it was too late. Blood pooled in the
sand under Anya’s head.

Shanti tried to
drag Anya’s body away from the charging Cerebus. Jane grabbed her
arm. Shanti snarled, drawing back to hit her. “Anya wanted you to
live,” Jane shouted, ducking her head down but not letting go.
“That was her point. We have to go, now.”

Shanti finally
stepped away from her dead spear-sister.

Jane hated to
leave Nico behind too. They deserved better, even dead. Saffron
kicked a Cerberus in the nose when it snapped its jaw at Roarke’s
leg.

“I’m getting
the hang of th----.”

The trap door
opened beneath them, dropping them into darkness.

Chapter
59

Saffron

Saffron’s bones
were made of iron. Her entire body was rusty. Adrenaline was the
only thing keeping her from creaking to a complete stop.She’d been
apart from the leaf mask too long. She tried not to think about the
fact that she had no idea where it was—in the tunnels,
Cartimandua’s pocket, anywhere. Roarke was grimacing and green with
pain. Jane helped Kiri to her feet. Caradoc was already standing,
sword ready.

They were
alive. For now.

There were
cages all around them. Cerberus bit at the bars, growling and
barking. The ground shook and sand trickled from the ceiling.
They’d landed in the hypogeum under the amphitheatre.

When the first
soldier burst out of the shadows, Caradoc stopped her from stabbing
him.. Her knife arm felt clumsy and it sent a new terror shivering
through her. “Sympathiser,” Caradoc explained curtly. There were
two tiny lines scratched into the button of his cuff.

“Liang,” the
soldier introduced himself. “I can get you out but we have to
hurry.”

“Where do they
keep the Jacks?” Caradoc explained as they ran down a dusty tunnel.
Even now he was a Greencoat.

“There are
Jacks are in the yard,” Liang pointed at the tunnel offshoot.
“They’re going to be paraded through the amphitheatre between
Trials.”