Nameless (26 page)

Gryphon shook his head. “I can’t risk her telling anyone.”

Joshua swallowed.

The Wolf pushed up to his hands and knees. He worked up a good lather on the bar of soap. “Three?”

“Zo’s little sister,” Joshua blurted. Gryphon glared his rebuke.

The Wolf washed in something of a daze, seeming barely to notice his two enemies. “You know I could solve all of your problems, right?” He stared past them at the wall. “I could take them with me. Get them back home.”

“Where is their family?” Gryphon asked. He knew there was some logic in the Wolf’s words, but he needed more time to think things through before making any rash decisions.

“Their mother and father were killed in a raid several years ago.” The Wolf stopped scrubbing and looked Gryphon directly in the eyes. “Your people, of course.”

Gryphon nodded, his mouth dry. “I see.”

The Wolf dressed in fresh clothes and settled back down into a small mound of hay. “I feel human again. Thank you.”

Gryphon waved his hand. He didn’t want this man’s gratitude. Soon this whole ordeal would be over, and he could get back to serving his people with a guilt-free conscience.

The Wolf offered his hands for Joshua to bind him. While the boy worked, the Wolf gave him a few pointers on the proper way to secure the knot. Gryphon shook his head and cast his eyes to the rafters of the barn. The world was backward and upside-down. Every black and white was now a muddy gray.

“You’re right, that is better,” said Joshua, nodding his head. He tightened the gag covering the Wolf’s mouth. “See you tomorrow.” The boy waved before shutting the door.

Gryphon locked the door behind them and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“What?” said Joshua, his hands outstretched in innocence.

“He’s not our friend, kid. You know that, right?”

“I’m not an idiot, Gryph. I know what he is.”

“Good.”

Joshua ran off toward the main road leading into town. “Why the hurry?” Gryphon called after him.

“I want to get home early. Zo’s healing a Nameless family this evening. She might need my help,” he hollered over his shoulder.

Gryphon’s stomach twisted. All he could see was gray.

On her way back from washing her and Tess’ clothes in the nearby stream, Zo spotted Stone in the forest. He held possessively to a girl’s hand as they navigated the trees ahead of her. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought they were headed right for Gryphon’s family land. They stopped just before the forest thinned to fields. The Ram girl knotted her fists into the front of Stone’s shirt while he stroked her butchered hair. There was something about this girl that seemed familiar, even though Zo knew she’d never seen her before.

The couple exchanged soft words, indecipherable to Zo. Stone interrupted the girl several times with a kiss on her cheek, her forehead, the tip of her nose. The girl began to cry and Stone dropped to his knees, burying his face into her stomach with his arms locked around her.

The impact of what she saw made Zo forget, just for a minute, the anger and fear that she’d carried around every moment since entering the Gate. Seeing these two completely different people so much in love was like seeing the impossible in action. She found herself aching for them—not just Stone, but the Ram girl as well.

Strange.

Zo took a step closer and Stone, with some crazy extra sense, turned his head and pushed the girl behind him in the same instant. His feral features transformed to relief at the sight of Zo.

He led the young woman to Zo’s side.

“Eva, this is the healer I was telling you about. She has Striker Gryphon’s protection. The Historian says she is the key to getting you out of the Gate.”

Zo blanched. She had promised to help, but didn’t want them to think she had any influence over Gryphon that wasn’t true. “Who is the Historian?”

Eva came forward. Zo didn’t remember offering her hand, but before she knew it, Eva had taken it in both of hers. “The Historian is a friend to the resistance. She also happens to be Chief Barnabas’ grandmother.”

Zo gently pulled her hand away. She flexed her fingers open and shut. “And you trust her?”

Eva shrugged. “We have to. She’s been our only hope until you’ve come along.” Eva took a step closer. “People of the rebellion say you are working with others outside the Gate. People who want to help the Nameless.”

It wasn’t exactly true. The Allies had never focused much on the Nameless slaves of the Ram. But the enemy of the enemy is your friend. Why not enlist the Nameless to help with the Allies? If they somehow managed to escape, they could be a great help to the Cause, maybe the difference between victory and defeat.

“I’ve been sending them messages, but I don’t know how much good has come from it.” Zo looked from Stone to Eva and sighed. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you. Only don’t expect a miracle. I’m stuck inside the Gate, just like you are.”

“But the Historian said—”

“She’s wrong. I am a slave in Gryphon’s household. He has shown me some mercy, but he is not my friend or ally.”

Eva’s expression faltered, and Zo found herself desperate to say something, anything to give the Ram girl some comfort. “I’ll do what I can, but I just can’t make you any promises.”

The girl rubbed her stomach as she bit into her bottom lip. “Thank you.”

Stone stepped behind the woman he loved and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll find a way for us, Eva.” He laid his hand over Eva’s, still resting on her stomach. “For all of us.”

“Let me have a look at that broken arm,” said Zo.

Eva slipped out of Stone’s embrace. “I have to go check on my sister Sara. She’s due to have her baby any moment, and she still won’t let anyone near the house.”

Eva ran off and Zo stared after her with mouth gaping.

Eva and Sara were sisters! Neither knew of the other’s plight.

It took Zo several minutes to digest this new information. She wanted to run to Gryphon and explain the situation, but she still didn’t know if he could be trusted. Trying to help a newborn survive the Ram’s cruel expectations was one thing. Condoning a relationship between a Nameless and a Ram was quite another.

Three little girls and two boys, all under the age of ten, huddled around their mother as Zo felt their foreheads. All were hot with sticky sweat. They wheezed through half-open lips, like little birds waiting to be fed. Their large round eyes looked to her with caution, piercing the dimly lit room. Zo wiped her hands on her apron. The youngest boy coughed into his threadbare sleeve. He sounded more goose than child.

“How long have they been breathing like this?” asked Zo.

“Maybe two weeks.” The Nameless mother had red, sullen eyes that had clearly not seen sleep for too many nights. The baby in her arms was Zo’s biggest concern. She could barely hear its shallow breath; the babe’s throat passage was all but closed. Slowly suffocating.

Zo went right to work, enlisting Joshua and the oldest girl to help grind ingredients while Zo took the baby from her mother.

Breathe.
She hummed another of her mother’s lullabies while rubbing healing oils on the little chest.
Breathe, my sweet.
She bounced the child in her arms and applied more oil to the baby’s neck.
Release and breathe.

If only every healing came so naturally. How could Zo not love this little angel? She rocked and loved the child until it passed into an easy slumber. Already its airway had opened considerably.

“Thank you! Oh bless you and thank you!” The mother cried without shame. Her sobs were interrupted by her own heavy wheezing.

“I think you’re next, ma’am.” Zo took the woman’s arm and led her to a straw-stuffed mattress.

“No. My children. I’m fine.”

Zo held up a hand. “You need to sleep. How will you care for them if you’re not well? I doubt I’ll be allowed to come another night.”

The woman didn’t fight her further. Zo administered to the worn woman who fell asleep halfway through the treatments. She, like the others, would recover with rest and medicine.

After several hours of working, Joshua slumped forward in a chair. “Go home, Ginger,” said Zo.

“No.” He yawned. “I’m not leaving you alone.”

“You have training in the morning and you need your rest. I’m almost done here. I know the way back.”

“You sure?”

Zo nodded while humming the simple healing melody her mother had taught her. In truth it would be hours before she finished. There were still two children she needed to work on. “Just tell Tess not to wait up for me.”

“I will.” Joshua came over and kissed Zo’s cheek like a good boy kissing his mother goodnight. “Hurry home, Zo.”

When the door shut behind Joshua, Zo touched her cheek where he had kissed her. “Good night,” she whispered to no one.

Walking home that night, Zo’s hands burned. Some of the oils tended to irritate if used in excess. A cool wind rolled over her body as she walked under the bright stars. She found herself singing lightly, swinging her medical kit as if it were a basket of flowers in summer.

She’d done some good tonight. Made a real difference in someone’s life. Those children would survive and have a mother to watch them grow up. All because of her knowledge. A gift from her own mother.

Maybe this was what she was meant to do: help the Nameless inside the Gate! A sense of power surged throughout her body, lifting a fraction of the darkness of her past. Maybe she did have a purpose beyond this suicide mission. She could help people.

Zo turned left onto the main road and practically ran into a tall figure with a terrifyingly familiar bald head and popping eyes.

“I must be doing something right.” The Gate Master grabbed the collar of her shirt before she could escape. “I was just on my way to visit you, and here you come to me instead. How fortuitous.”

An explosion of panic expanded from Zo’s heart throughout her whole body. She dropped her kit in the dirt. The Gate Master at night. Alone on an empty road. No one to hear her screams.

“The Seer wanted to come in the morning, but I thought it would be better to surprise you. Wouldn’t want to give you time to hide your little sister.” He pulled Zo to him, whipping her like a length of rope, and placed his hands on her lower back. He licked his lips. “Surprise.” His rotten breath made a stream of bile jump up her throat.

“My sister lives in the Nameless’ barracks, sir.” She turned her head and grimaced as his lips grazed her neck, just below the ear.

He laughed, his hot breath a poisonous vapor of warning. “Fine. Lie, if you think it will buy you time. If I don’t find her tonight, the Seer will in the morning. Nothing happens inside the Gate that she or her spies don’t see.” His hands moved to Zo’s rib cage. “Nothing.” He kissed the corner of her lips.

Stop!
She screamed inside. In her mind she raked her long nails across his face, gouged out his protuberant eyes, spit down his throat. In her mind she took the knife from his belt and thrust it into his cold heart. Once. Twice. A thousand times.

Outside she was a perfect statue. It was the only way to survive. For Tess. For the Nameless. For the Cause.