The Healing Wars: Book II: Blue Fire (20 page)

I
staggered toward the open door, dented and broken but still on its hinges. The disk continued to pulse, slower now, no longer matching my heart, but stronger, each wave rolling out a little farther. I collapsed in the other room between two bodies. Lanelle and a boy. Their skin was red, scoured as if rubbed with sand, but they were alive. The Duke and his men were gone.

I shook Lanelle. “Wake up—we have to get out of here.”

Lanelle stirred, the boy moaned. I shook them harder. The disk pulsed and pain sucked at my feet. I yanked them away from the door. The wall protected us, but it wouldn’t for much longer. Already
cracks split the stone, and chunks rolled out and fell to the floor with each pulse.

“Come on!”

Lanelle’s eyes opened. She jerked and whimpered.

“Wake up!” I shook the boy as hard as I could. He woke up, eyes pained and scared.

“You!” Lanelle said, backing away from me.

I helped the boy to his feet and put an arm around him to keep him standing. I offered her my other hand. “Come with us or die here, I don’t care which, but choose
now
.”

She grabbed my hand and we clung to each other, stumbling out of the small waiting room and into the palace. A long hallway stretched in both directions. I picked the side where the blue rug was the most worn.

I found stairs leading down and followed them. A plaster wall shattered as we passed, and the life-stealing pain brushed against my back.

We staggered forward as one, almost tripping and rolling down the steps.

“Where is everyone?” Lanelle asked when we reached the next floor. A grand room, dark woods, rich paintings. No people.

“Running like us?” the boy said.

I nodded. “If they have any sense.”

I spotted double doors in the far corner and headed toward them. Plaster dust drifted down, turning the wood white and rugs a bluish gray. The room beyond looked like some kind of reception hall, so we kept moving, hunting for a door or a window that led to the outside.

“Did you get him?” Lanelle said as we paused at an intersection.

“Get who?”

“The Duke. Is he dead?”

“I don’t think so.” I didn’t see nearly enough red mist in the room to have killed him.

She huffed. “Too bad.”

I turned left, mostly because pain pulsed from the right. Glass cracked, racing along the panes like lightning across the night sky.

“Hurry.”

We found a door heavy enough to lead to the outside. The boy stopped.

“Hold on.” He pulled off his tunic and handed it to me, clearly trying hard not to look down. “You can’t go outside like that.”

I didn’t look down either. My clothes had disintegrated along with the silvery blue metal, the chained man, and who knew who else. My cheeks warmed
and I pulled the tunic over my head. It didn’t fit well, but it covered everything it needed to.

“Thanks.”

“You saved my life. Least I could do.”

I pulled open the door and sunlight blinded me. The rain had stopped and the sun hovered high in the sky. We’d been connected to that thing for hours.

“Come on.”

People were fleeing the palace. Some ran with nothing, others carried bags or artwork or food. Windows shattered and stone crumbled from the room with the disk, the damage rippling out like a stone dropped in a lake.

A pulse, and glass fell. Another pulse, and walls crumbled. People dropped, gasping, caught by the wave. We ran down the wide steps of the palace entrance, over the ruined marble walkways. Even more people were in the street, running away from the palace.

We slipped into the crowd, holding hands to keep from being yanked apart. Scared faces surrounded us, many with red skin and blisters. Soldiers ran alongside, some even stopping to help others when they fell.

“Where can we go?” the boy asked, holding tight to me.

The villa was all I knew, but by now Jeatar and the others would be gone. Either arrested or running, but they wouldn’t be there.
Please let them have escaped and gone to Jeatar’s farm.

“The docks.” Ceun might still be watching the low stone wall. With so much chaos, the Taker camps had to be less guarded now, and I could still find Tali. I looked around, unsure how to get there from here.

“This way,” Lanelle said, leading us.

I wondered if she’d been living here and then captured, or working for Vinnot until he’d needed one more for his life-stealing weapon. A small part wondered if she was leading us into a trap, but even Lanelle couldn’t be that stupid.

Either the pulsing had stopped by the time we made it to the wharf gates or we’d outrun its range. Thousands of people crammed the street, fighting their way to the front. Soldiers yelled, but no one paid any attention to them. For every step, more people shoved their way ahead of us and knocked us back.

A sharp whistle blew, followed by hooves on stone. Heads around us turned.

“Soldiers?” Lanelle asked, frowning.

“I hope not.” All these people crammed in like crabs in a trap—it would be a slaughter.

A carriage drove up. Armed men on horseback ordered the mob aside. Very few moved, though more probably would have if there’d been anyplace to go.

“Make way,” a man yelled, cracking a whip over their heads, and when still no one moved, across their backs.

Nervous mumbles ran through the crowd.

I tugged at Lanelle and the boy. “We’d better move.”

“Yeah.”

We tried to walk against the crowd, get out and away from the wall and carriage, but the mob cried out and slammed us sideways. More men leaned down from the carriage and beat at those in the way, swinging long reed poles.

Another surge and the crowd broke. We stumbled into the clear spot and smacked up against the door of the carriage. I grabbed the open window to keep from falling.

A woman laughed.

I looked up. Vyand.

“You’re as wily as a mongoose, girl.”

I couldn’t breathe, and not just because Lanelle and the boy were pressed against me on either side. I had nowhere to run, no pain to shift, nothing to use to—

Vyand wore pale silk. Her hair was loose, and glossy black curls flowed around her shoulders. She hadn’t moved either, looking quite relaxed, a cup in her hand.

She flicked the other hand and the door opened.

“Need a ride?”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

She shrugged. “Suit yourself, but getting through the gates won’t be easy.”

“But you’ll capture me again.”

“There’s no warrant for it. My contract with the Duke is fulfilled.”

Did she mean it? Did she really not care that she’d found me again?

“Please,” Lanelle whispered in my ear. “I don’t want to stay here.”

Don’t blame your feet if you turn away the horse, Grannyma always said.

“Fine, we accept.” I helped Lanelle into the carriage and climbed up after her.

Vyand slid over, making room for us all. After a breath, I sat next to Lanelle, across from Vyand and up against the door in case I needed to jump out.

When we were all settled, she reached a hand out the window and banged on the carriage. “To the wharf.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The shouts got louder and more threatening as the carriage started moving. Every bump made some part of me hurt. One lunge and it could all be Vyand’s.

I had no idea what to say or do. Getting help from Vyand was like riding a crocodile across the river.

I glanced at Lanelle and the boy. Among us we could hurt both Stewwig and Vyand, fancy tracker or not. I knew there wasn’t much pynvium in Baseer right now. It could be enough to kill them both.

Haven’t you killed enough?

“You really don’t want to capture me?”

“I really don’t. I was paid for that already, and there’s no Duke around at the moment to order your recapture. “She sipped from her cup. “It was always just a job, you know. Never personal.”

“It was to me.”

For a moment, she actually looked ashamed. It wasn’t enough to let me forgive her, or trust her, but if she could feel the tiniest bit guilty, maybe there was hope for her.
And hope for me.
I’d done things I wished I hadn’t, too. Still, after everything she’d done, I couldn’t understand how she could just walk away and act like it wasn’t horrible.

“Where
is
the Duke?” I said, both hoping and
dreading I’d killed him.

“Healers’ League, last I heard. Something about getting caught in a terrible pain flash.” She smiled and toasted me with her cup. “Nicely done, by the way.”

So I hadn’t killed him. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

“You did get the ghoul, though.”

“Vinnot? He’s dead?”

“Almost sure of it.”

I smiled. It was wrong, and Tali would box my ears for it, but my heart felt lighter knowing he was gone.

The carriage reached the gates and was waved through by harried soldiers struggling with terrified people.

“Where should I drop you off?”

“Here’s fine,” I said. Vyand didn’t need to know where I wanted to go from here. She probably assumed we wanted to hire a boat. Or maybe steal one.

A boat!

Jeatar had said he had a boat waiting. If they got out of the villa, they would have headed there. Danello and Aylin wouldn’t have let him leave without me, but he wouldn’t risk everyone’s safety for
long. I had to get Tali out and get to them before Jeatar convinced them I wasn’t coming.

I opened the door and jumped out.

Part of me wanted to say thank you, but thanking Vyand seemed wrong. Another part wanted to fill her with pain ’til she screamed. “I appreciate the ride.”

“You’re an interesting girl, Nya. Maybe next time we’ll be on the same side.”

“Probably not.”

She laughed again as Lanelle and the boy stepped out of the carriage. Vyand waved and continued down the wharf. I’d guess she had her own boat docked somewhere.

“This way,” I said, heading for the wall.

“Stolen girl!” Ceun waved at me. Quenji sat beside him, a large sack between them. Aylin sat on the other side. She squealed and ran at me the moment she saw me.

“You’re alive!”

“So are you.” I hugged her as tight as she hugged me, but part of me wished she’d already left. She’d never let me go after Tali.

“Barely, but we made it. I think Jovan has a future as an army commander one day. You should have heard him ordering us all around.” She noticed
Lanelle and her grin vanished. “What is
she
doing here?”

“She’s going with you.”

“Oh no she isn’t. You can’t trust her!”

Lanelle winced and looked away.

“Vinnot was experimenting on her. I think she’s learned who she can trust now.”

Aylin snorted.

Lanelle huffed back and looked at me. “I’m pretty sure I can trust
you
, but that’s as far as it goes.”

“Good enough?” I asked Aylin.

“No, but I can see you’re not changing your mind, and we don’t have time to argue.”

“Then it’s settled.”

Aylin’s eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute, what do you mean, ‘she’s going with
you
’? You mean us, right?”

“No. I’m going after Tali.”

She sighed, and for a heartbeat, guilt washed across her face. “I was afraid you’d say that.” She whistled, and arms grabbed me from behind.

“Hey!”

“We had a feeling you were going to try to stay,” Danello said, holding me tight enough that I couldn’t touch his skin. And Saints help me, right now I really wanted to.

“Quenji, grab her legs.” Aylin picked up the sack
while he reached for me. I kicked, struggling in Danello’s arms.

“Let me go!” No one helped, and I wasn’t sure what I’d do if someone did.

“I’m sorry, Nya, but we’re not letting you get yourself killed.” Aylin looked at me, tears in her eyes. “Jeatar scouted the Taker camps. The Duke has all his men there now that the palace is gone. Not even you can get in.”

“Yes I can!”

Quenji finally got my legs, and he and Danello started carrying me down the dock.

“Don’t do this, please. I need to find Tali.” Tears ran down my cheeks. How could they do this to me? They were my friends, my family. Tali was their family, too. They couldn’t
do
this!

“We’ll find her—just not today,” Danello said, his voice breaking. “We’ll have to come back.”

“No!”

Lanelle and the boy followed us, but neither did anything to help me either. I’m pretty sure I saw Lanelle smile.

“This is kidnapping.”

Aylin shook her head. “This is love. We love you too much to let you die, and you
will
die if you go anywhere near that camp.”

Halfway down the dock I stopped fighting, too
tired to struggle anymore. Smoke darkened the sky, fear and pain filled the air. Who knew how many lives had been lost since last night? How many more might be lost if this really did spark a civil war? I couldn’t leave Tali here. I just couldn’t.

“But she’s still out there.” My throat didn’t want to let the words out. I’d failed her, lost her. Left her to the Undying and whoever seized control of them now that Vinnot was dead. Jeatar had said the Undying were twisted, bent to the will of their commander.

Even if I found her again, would she still
be
my Tali?

Aylin put a hand on my shoulder. “I know, and we’ll find her.”

“How? We’re running away.”

“We’ll come back for her. But we can’t stay, you have to know that.”

Tali.

I stared at the smoky skyline one last time as they carried me belowdecks.

I
’d never forgive them for this.

“Open this door right now!” I pounded on the cabin door, but they’d locked me in. In with my guilt, my anger, my anguish. They were supposed to be my friends. Not even Onderaan would have done this to me.

“Let me out!”

They didn’t. I wasn’t sure if they were even out there. It was too hard to hear anyone in the hall over the creaks as the boat left the dock and bobbed on the waves. For a long while, voices shouted on deck and canvas flapped in the wind.

And still, no one opened the door.

I dropped onto the bunk when my hands were
too bruised to bang on the door any longer. After a minute, a soft knock rapped from the other side.

“Have you calmed down?” Danello said.

“No.”

“Will you hurt me if I come in?”

“Yes.”

A pause. “Okay. We’ll be waiting out here, so tell me when you’re ready to talk.”

Never. Not after what they’d done. I grabbed a footstool and flung it at the door.

“You made me abandon my sister!”

“I know, and we’re really sorry about that. It hurts us, too.”

I threw something else. I didn’t bother to see what it was. “Not enough if you left her there.”

“If we’d thought for a minute we could have saved her, we would have stayed in Baseer with you.”

I wanted to call him a liar. Scream it at the top of my lungs, but Danello didn’t lie. Aylin did, but not to me.

I dropped onto the bunk. Why did they do this? I had to know. I needed to see their faces, look into their eyes, and ask why they left Tali behind.

“I won’t hurt you,” I said, and was almost certain I actually meant it.

Danello must have had doubts, too, because he
waited a minute before opening the door. He stuck his head in, cautious and ready to jump back.

“I can come in?”

“Yes.”

He did, shutting the door behind him. Someone else locked it again.

My anger flared, but only for a heartbeat. It hurt too much to fight anymore. “Aylin’s not coming in?”

“No. She’s more afraid of you than I am.” He smiled warily. “But not by much.”

“Kidnapping me was her idea?”

He nodded.

“And you agreed?”

“I knew she was right. You’d never leave unless we forced you.” He took a tentative step closer, hands clasped in front of him. “I didn’t want to lose you.”

So we lost Tali instead.

“How could you do this to me?”

He winced, glanced away, but met my gaze again. There was sadness there. “We didn’t know what else to do.”

“So you chose leaving?” I felt the urge to throw things again.

“We had to make a choice. You or Tali. We knew we couldn’t save you both, and we knew we couldn’t
save Tali. We did what
you
would have done.”

Breath left me.

Danello nodded slowly. “It was hard, but we made a choice for someone who couldn’t. You.”

I closed my eyes, fighting back tears. It wasn’t a choice I would have made.
But you did when you chose saving Aylin and Danello first.

Soft footsteps crossed the cabin. I opened my eyes.

“What if she dies?” It would be my fault.

Danello sat next to me, still wary. “She won’t. She’s tougher than you think. You taught her how to survive, just like you taught me.”

“What if it’s not enough?”

“It will be.”

I stared at him, wanting to pound my fists against him almost as badly as I wanted to curl up in his arms.

“I am so, so sorry, Nya.”

I buried my face in his neck and sobbed. He held me, stroking my hair and telling me everything was going to be okay.

But it wasn’t. It might never be okay again.

The boat pulled up to a weather-beaten dock that looked like no one had stopped there in years, but the
wood was solid and reinforced if you looked closely. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make it look old and unused.

Six wagons were waiting for us, all with drivers and armed guards. They greeted Jeatar respectfully, the rest of us politely. We had more gear and supplies than I’d have expected, and they stowed it as we found seats. I wondered how they’d known to be there until a small cage of messenger birds was unloaded. Jeatar must have told them we were coming.

He always had an escape route planned. Probably why he was still alive.

I didn’t speak on the ride in. Aylin tried to talk to me, but I just stared at the marshes, then the fields and rolling hills. Miles of them as we rode deeper inland. After an hour, we reached a stone wall with a heavy gate, and one of Jeatar’s men let us through. The wall didn’t look old at all, but strong and fortified. It stretched as far as I could see on either side of the dirt road. Jeatar’s farm must be huge if this was the boundary to it.

“Wow,” Aylin said as we approached the farm itself. “This is amazing.”

I had to agree. The farmhouse was even bigger than the villa, two stories tall, with huge trees in a
vast courtyard. Vines of flowers wrapped around a wooden fence that enclosed the main grounds. Well-tended fields spread out for miles, with silos and barns and other buildings I didn’t recognize. I’d been to the marsh farms a few times with Mama, but not enough to know much about them.

“You could fit all of Geveg into those fields,” Aylin said.

I nodded.

Men and women came out of the farmhouse to meet us and carry the supplies inside. Halima and some of the other children raced ahead, chasing butterflies through the gardens. The Underground members scanned the area as if sizing up its defensibility. I doubted they had to worry about that, though. Jeatar seemed to have more than enough guards out here.

I stepped off the wagon. I had nothing to carry, nothing I owned anymore. Birds sang, cheerful and unaware.

Tali would love it here.

Jeatar pulled open double doors and stepped inside the farmhouse. The rest of us followed. A pretty, plump woman appeared from what smelled like the kitchens and walked to Jeatar’s side. Too old to be a wife, though it had never occurred to me
before that Jeatar might
have
a wife.

“That’s the guest wing there,” he said, pointing down one wide hall on the right. Dark wood floors shone under the light from tall windows. They were all open, and a whiff of honeysuckle blew in on the breeze. “Ouea will show you to your rooms and take care of anything you need. There’s a bath area at the end of the hall, though there are only rooms for four at a time. You’ll have to take turns. Dinner will be in a few hours, but there’s food out now if anyone’s hungry.”

Folks hesitated, torn between food, a bath, and a soft bed.

“It’ll be there no matter when you’re ready.”

Some laughed and followed Ouea down the hall. Others went for the baths and the kitchen. Jeatar caught Aylin, Danello, and me before we could leave.

“Your rooms are upstairs,” he said, pointing over his shoulder. “It’s safer there, more security.”

“Thank you,” I said. Danello smiled and hurried after the twins and his sister, already heading for the food. Aylin lingered, but after a moment, she left us and walked upstairs. She stopped halfway.

“Are we sharing a room?” she asked me, voice trembling. I hadn’t spoken to her since we’d
left—
Tali, you left Tali
—Baseer, but she hadn’t stopped trying.

She’d done what I couldn’t do. I hated it, but Aylin saw things I didn’t. She figured people out better than me. She often just
knew
the right thing to do, no matter how complicated it all seemed.

“Yes, just one room,” I said, wanting to smile but unable to. Not yet.

Aylin did it for me, her relief as bright as her smile. “Okay. I’ll get a good view, too. Best on the floor, don’t you worry.” She dashed the rest of the way up, and I heard doors opening and closing.

“She knew you’d be mad, but she did it anyway,” Jeatar said, more than a touch of awe in his voice. “I’m glad she did. I don’t think anyone else could have stopped you.”

“No, probably not.” I could have convinced Danello to let me go if it had been just him. Not that he would have attempted it in the first place. Odds were he’d have tried to talk me into leaving, then stayed with me when I didn’t. I’d have gotten us both killed. “Aylin’s right more times than not.”

He nodded, still looking sad. “I wish I could have done more.”

“A helping hand is never wasted.”

He chuckled wryly. “Saint Nya, Sister of Optimism.”

Me? A Saint? Hardly.

The wind blew the curtain, sending a sunbeam across his eyes. He squinted, annoyance wrinkling his face. For a heartbeat he looked like the Duke. He even had the same eyes.

Siekte’s voice echoed in my mind.
Who cares about legitimate heirs? There’s no one from that side of the family left.

And Jeatar’s quiet whisper.
Three. There were three brothers.

Maybe I wasn’t the only one with a Baseeri uncle.

“You’re—” I bit my tongue, silenced my question. It was crazy to even
think
it. Crazier than the idea of me being a Saint.

“I’m what?”

“You’re wealthier than I thought,” I said instead. “This farm. The villa.” That was a guess, but he’d called it
his
house, and even though Onderaan had appeared to be in charge, he’d deferred to Jeatar, protected him, defended him.

They defied the Duke, forced his hand. All they had to do was turn over—

Turn over what? Or more likely,
who
? Jeatar’s
father? Jeatar had barely escaped Sorille when the Duke burned it. The Duke went after Sorille because his rival was there.

Jeatar had money, power even, though he was obviously hiding it. He cared about what happened to people and tried to make their lives better, when he clearly could hide on this farm forever and ignore it all. But he didn’t. He fought for something he believed in, no matter what the cost.

What if that cost is Tali?

I wouldn’t let that happen. Onderaan was connected to Jeatar, Grandpapa was connected to Sorille. My family was connected to his family, and though I didn’t know how, I knew why. We all wanted to stop the Duke. We were all willing to make sacrifices to do it.

“It’s family money,” he said, and the sadness was back again. “Not much left.”

“Oh.” Because he spent it to stop the Duke? Helped fund the Underground, kept them fed and armed and safe as possible?

“Come on, let’s get you some food,” he said. “I know you’re hungry.”

“I always am.” I followed him into the kitchen, sunny and bright like the rest of the farm.

My brain whirled. No, it had to be a coincidence,
a trick of the light. If Jeatar
was
the legitimate heir, Onderaan would have known. He would have told people, used Jeatar to rally both the Underground and those who secretly opposed the Duke. He would have presented him to the High Courts and exposed the Duke’s crimes.

Unless Onderaan
didn’t
know.

Jeatar might be hiding from all of us. Trying to do in secret what the rest of his family couldn’t—stop the Duke, restore independence to the Three Territories, and end the wars. Hiding was smart since the Duke would certainly kill him if he discovered he was still alive.

But hiding wasn’t going to work. The Duke wasn’t going to stop, and if by a Saint’s luck he
had
died in the flash, the wrong people would try for the throne and nothing would change but the owner of the boot against our necks.

None of us would be safe. Not me, not Tali. No one.

Jeatar handed me a plate of sliced fruit. “You have that look again,” he said as if that worried him.

Maybe it should. “I was just thinking.”

He nodded, compassion in his eyes. “We’ll go back and find Tali when it’s safe, I promise.”

“I know. I was thinking about something else.”

His eyebrows rose. “Really?”

I nodded. “Really.”

Like a future where we wouldn’t have to hide, where we could march right into Baseer, into the camps and free Tali and every Taker the Duke ever kidnapped. Where the Undying would be disbanded, and no one would ever experiment on Takers again. Where the people of Geveg and Verlatta and even Baseer could work and play and live in safety.

A future with Jeatar on the throne.