The White Rose (19 page)

“It took Azalea a long time before she felt it. We didn’t know what her scores might have been, but probably not close to yours or mine. She couldn’t use all of the elements—she could only connect with Air. She used to have nightmares that tore up the furniture. She started sleeping outside. Said she liked it better out here, anyway.” Sil smiles and tilts her head up to the sky. “She had a big heart. She was infuriatingly optimistic. For the first time in a long time, I was happy. I had companionship. So when she started talking about saving the other surrogates and how the royalty needed to be stopped, I told her she should be happy that she was safe. Lucien agreed with me. Just about the only thing we agreed on at that point.” She chuckles. “Oh, but Azalea was young and full of hope and had never lived in the Jewel. It hardens you, living in that place. It
holds up a mirror and shows you the very worst parts of humanity. It changes people.”

I shiver.

“And she thought we could do it,” Sil continues, “that we could use the elements against them, the way they used the Auguries against us. That this was what we were meant for. That was at the time when I was looking to the past, learning our history. Lucien would do anything for Azalea, including stealing documents right out from under the Duchess’s nose. But I wouldn’t hear of any such rebellion and neither would her brother. She was safe, we kept telling her, that was all that mattered.” She rubs her forehead. “I forgot what it was to be young. To be full of ideas, to think it is possible to change the world. I was selfish. I didn’t . . .” Sil swallows and looks away from me. “I believe she allowed herself to be caught, to be tested positive as a surrogate. She knew it was the only way. She didn’t want to live my life, to be stuck on this farm forever with nothing but the wind and the trees for company. She wanted more, not only for herself, but for everyone.”

“So that’s when you and Lucien teamed up?” I ask.

Sil lets out a hard laugh. “I wouldn’t call us a team. More like an unlikely alliance.” She runs her hand over the sycamore’s bark. “This place mourned when she died. We mourned her together.” She looks at me. “And now you are here and we have hope again. Hope for our sisters locked away in the holding facilities.” She moves to stand, then stops herself. “What is she like?” she asks.

“Who?”

“The Duchess. I’m. . . curious.”

“Oh.” The Duchess is so many things, but my last memory of her is burned into my mind. “She killed my friend. Right in front of me.” My throat tightens.

“So I created a murderer,” Sil muses.

“I don’t think you’re responsible for everything she is,” I say.

“Oh, you can bet your boots I am,” Sil snaps. “I told you, her father was damned evil.” She rubs the back of her neck. “I know the other one died. The younger sister. Read about it in the paper. Turned her back on the royalty and everything.”

“Maybe that was you, too,” I say.

Sil frowns.

“Violet?” Ash’s voice drifts across the clearing. I stand up, brushing the dirt from my pants. Sil takes the portfolio and hugs it to her chest.

“He doesn’t belong here, you know,” Sil says. “He’s not one of us.”

My spine stiffens. “He belongs with me,” I say.

“He’ll cloud your judgment.”

“Like Azalea clouded yours?”

Sil’s eyes flash. “Exactly.”

“Well, I’m not you,” I say. And without waiting for a response, I turn on my heel and march back to the barn, where Ash is still calling my name.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

“S
O . . . YOU’RE SAYING YOU’RE DESCENDED FROM A RACE
of magical women the royalty tried to extinguish?” Ash says.

We’re walking back to the White Rose. I want to see Raven. But I explained to him what Sil told me.

“Do you have to say it like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you don’t believe me.”

“I do believe you,” he says. “I mean, it certainly sounds like something the royalty would do—annihilate an indigenous population. I’d like to see those papers Sil showed you.”

I doubt there’s a chance of that happening, but I don’t say that to Ash.

“I’ve been thinking about something else Sil said,” I say. “About Azalea. She could only connect with Air. I was thinking . . . maybe the Augury scores actually do tell us something useful. Maybe because Sil and I scored perfectly on Growth, that indicates that we can access all the elements.”

“That sounds logical. Though I’m no expert on the Auguries.”

I chew on my bottom lip.

“What’s worrying you?” he asks. “If you can control the earth, can’t you ask it to bring down the walls? Isn’t that what Lucien wants?”

“There’s only one of me. This power is incredible, sure, but . . . the walls are so thick. The royalty have guns. They have an army. What if I only get through one wall and find I don’t have the strength? Do the royalty even need the walls to protect themselves?”

We’ve reached the pond. I crouch at its edge and place my hand on its cold surface. I want to feel what I felt last night.

What was it Sil had said? That we must embody the element in order to connect with it.

I become the water.

My skin goes slippery again as I join with the pond. It ripples inside me, glassy and bright. I push out across it, and I am the wave that rises up, high over our heads. Ash gasps, and the wave and I come crashing down, spraying him with a fine mist.

I take my hand away and look up at him, suppressing a giggle.

“Sorry,” I say, as he shakes drops of water from his hair.

“You know,” he says, taking my hand to help me up, “at Madame Curio’s, they liked to keep us in competition with each other, all the time. Book a big client, and you’d get a certain number of points. Master a skill, and you’d get more points. They kept a big scoreboard up in the main hall, with a record for each companion. Earn enough points and get a reward. They didn’t want us to be a unified front. They liked keeping us separate.”

“Oh,” I say, not quite knowing where he’s going with this.

Ash senses my hesitation and smiles. “That’s what you need. A united front.”

“Of what?” Right now, the united front seems to consist of three surrogates, one lady-in-waiting, a companion, and a royal son. It’s a pretty ragtag bunch.

“A united front of surrogates.” Ash shrugs. “I mean, wouldn’t all the surrogates be capable of this power? If you are all descended from ancient warrior women?”

I gasp. Several things seem to click together in my brain all at once. I think about what Sil said earlier, how Azalea could only access Air, not the other elements. I think about the incinerator, how Raven and I put the fire out
together
. We were stronger together.

The highest concentration of surrogates is in the Marsh, in the holding facilities. Four facilities in four key locations, north, south, east, and west.

We don’t need to break down the all walls. We only need to get inside one—the Jewel.

“Lucien!” I shout. My feet feel rooted to the earth. I grab Ash’s arm. “You’re a genius,” I say.

“What is it?” Lucien comes storming out of the house, followed by Garnet and—my heart squeezes—Raven. She’s wrapped in a thick quilt, and Garnet keeps one hand at her back, as if he were afraid she might collapse at any moment. She looks tired, but healthy. Alive.

“How are you feeling?” I say.

Raven smiles at me, her old smile. “It’s like this fog has been lifted. Like a weight is gone. I feel . . . clear. Not the same as before but better.” She shoots Garnet an irritated glance. “You can tell him to stop hovering. He’s worse than my mother.”

“You collapsed on me last night,” Garnet says. “I’d like to stay within catching distance.”

It hits me then that Raven is no longer pregnant. The threat is gone.

“What did you call me for?” Lucien asks. I notice he’s changed back into his lady-in-waiting garb.

“Are you leaving?” I ask.

“I have to get back to the Jewel,” he says. “Garnet is coming with me. It would be poor form to miss his own wedding.”

Garnet grimaces behind Lucien’s back.

“I have an idea,” I say. “I don’t think I’m enough, on my own. You want me to essentially destroy pieces of the walls surrounding each circle, to integrate the populations of the Marsh and Farm and everything, so that this whole city can fight together. But it will take time to get to each of them. And we don’t know whether I’m strong enough. What if I
can only break down part of one wall? Or what if I get hurt in some way? Then you don’t have anyone to help.”

“Violet, I don’t—”

“No, listen. I assume you have Society members in each circle, right?” Lucien nods. “So let them take care of their own circles. Fight the royalty where they’ve set up their puppets, in the Bank and the Smoke and all the rest. Let the circles fight for themselves.” I remember the Thief, how well he knew the East Quarter of the Smoke. “Why mix up the circles so quickly? I agree it has to be done, but let’s pull out the royal roots first. Then we can all break down the walls together.”

“And what about the Jewel?” Lucien asks. “Who will fight the royalty where they live?”

“The surrogates,” I say confidently.

He raises an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“Ash was telling me about the necessity of a unified front. That’s what we need. They have an army of Regimentals. I think we need to fight them with an army of surrogates.”

“An
army
of surrogates?”

“There is so much potential locked up in those holding facilities,” I say. “We need to get to them, show them what they are capable of.”
And who they really are
, I add silently. I think of what Sil said to me earlier, about the Paladin being guardians of this island. “I think it’s what we were meant to do.”

“How do you plan to get into the holding facilities?”

I frown. “I’m not sure yet. But I know every inch of Southgate. And I know many of the girls there. I think they’ll
trust me. So you need to bring three girls here, from the Jewel. One from each of the other three holding facilities. The ones with the highest Growth scores. If the Growth score indicates compatibility with the elements, then we’ll need the best we can get, the ones who can access the highest number of elements.”

“And once I’ve rescued three more surrogates, and you have trained them in this power, how do you propose to get a whole host of surrogates to the Jewel?”

It comes to me in a flash, the most obvious answer sitting there all along. A smile plays on my lips. “We’ll use the Auction.”

“Yes,” Raven says, nodding.

“I don’t get it,” Garnet says.

“The Auction,” I explain. “The trains to the Auction House. We have to get as many girls on those trains as possible. And then the royalty will unwittingly get us into the Jewel. We won’t need to break down that wall. The royalty will bring us inside it on their own.”

Garnet whistles through his teeth. “I’ll give you credit, that’s pretty brilliant.”

“The Auction isn’t until October,” Lucien points out. “That’s months away.”

I bite my lip. He’s right. How long can we risk waiting? I worry again about Hazel being tested. We need to end the Auction before that ever has a chance to happen.

“It’s a place to start,” Ash says. “Coordinate attacks within each circle with the Auction and the royalty won’t know what hit them. I’d suggest the Regimental barracks and the magistrate offices for starters. Maybe even the
banks. They can’t fight everyone at once, not if they’re being attacked from within their own walls.”

Lucien shoots him a disdainful glance.

“It’s a good idea,” I insist.

He sighs. “I suppose you have some surrogate or other in mind to be rescued from the Jewel.”

I nod.

“Another friend?” he asks.

“No,” I say. “But I think she’s exactly what we need.”

And I tell Lucien about the lioness.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

“H
OW’S OUR STAR REVOLUTIONARY DOING
?” G
ARNET’S
voice is tinny through the arcana, which floats above Raven’s shoulder.

She’s perched on a pyramid of hay bales. Two weeks at the White Rose and she’s changed into a new person—healthier, happier.

“Outstanding,” Raven says. “Violet’s a natural at this.”

I become the air.

I accept the element, dissolving into weightless molecules that scoop up the individual strands of hay littered on the barn floor. They hang there, suspended. I can feel each of their tiny weights. I float them over to Raven, and they circle her like oddly shaped planets orbiting a sun.

She claps. Ash chuckles from where he stands brushing Turnip, Sil’s horse, who had been called Horse until Ash started taking care of the animals. Turnip is the nickname he gave to Cinder as a baby.

“She should try embroidery,” Garnet suggests. “Or knitting. You know, challenge herself.”

“Or maybe she should start collecting miniature tea sets,” Raven says with a smirk. “So she and your wife can have little crafts parties.”

“I’ll have you know, Coral has exactly two hundred sixty-five of those things. Trust me. She’s counted. To my face. I had to sit there and smile while she gave me a whole presentation. I mean, it’s a ridiculous obsession, but you have to admire her determination.”

“Color me impressed.”

“I’m going to pretend that wasn’t sarcastic.”

Raven talks to Garnet more than I do. They love poking fun at each other. I think he keeps her sharp. He reminds her of how she used to be.

“I thought you called for a reason,” Raven says. “Anything to report from the Jewel?”

The strands of hay fall to the floor as I release the connection with Air. I want to be fully present for this conversation.

“I haven’t seen Lucien since the wedding,” Garnet says, “so I don’t know what he’s up to. My mother has some plan up her sleeve, but no luck getting it out of her—and I can’t very well pretend to have a sudden interest in surrogates.”

“A plan involving a surrogate?” I say. “But she doesn’t have one.”

“Yes, but no one in the Jewel besides me and Lucien know that. Oh, and that new companion you guys told me about, since he obviously saw you, Violet.”

“His name is Rye,” Raven reminds him.

“How is he doing?” Ash asks, putting the brush down.

“Fine, I guess. I haven’t talked to him, he doesn’t know about the Society or anything. Carnelian is still moping over you, if you can believe it. She talks about you all the time to him. I think she’s hoping he’ll tell her some quality Ash Lockwood stories. It’s sort of sad, actually.”

“But what about the surrogate plan?” I say. I don’t want to waste time talking about Carnelian. “What could she be thinking?”

“Like I said before, she doesn’t confide in me. And I’m trying to play the perfect son, you know, marriage has straightened me out, no more late nights in Bank taverns, that type of thing.” He pauses. “But she’s definitely up to something. She took a letter to the Exetor last night. Delivered it
personally
. The last time my mother delivered her own mail was . . . well, probably never.”

“And the Society?” Ash asks, scattering a handful of feed to the chickens pecking around in their pen. “What are they up to? Any developments?”

“You’d have to ask Lucien about that,” Garnet says. “All I know is what I’ve read in the papers. And that’s because I know to look for it.”

The Society has been vandalizing royal property, hitting specific targets in the Smoke and the Farm. Mostly magistrate offices and Regimental barracks, like Ash had suggested, though Lucien would never admit that Ash had a
good idea. They are finding weaknesses in places where the royalty have their claws in the lower circles. They haven’t taken credit for it, though there was one mention of a black key being drawn on the door of a post office. Lucien didn’t sound too happy when he told us about that.

Neither did Ash, but I think that’s because he’d rather be out with the vandals. I know he’s frustrated by our isolation, and his lack of an active role in this revolution. I can see it in his face now and the tense set of his shoulders.

“I’m going for a run,” he says. He scratches one of the goats behind the ears and stalks out of the barn.

Ash runs the perimeter of the White Rose at least twice a day. I think it helps him channel all that pent-up energy.

“Was it something I said?” Garnet asks.

“No.” I sigh. “He’s just frustrated.”

“Tell me about it. At least he doesn’t have to sit through a lecture on the difference between bone china and porcelain.”

“And which do you prefer?” Raven teases.

“Oh, bone china, definitely. Did you know it’s the whitest of all dinnerware?”

Raven and I laugh.

“I have to go,” Garnet says abruptly, and the arcana goes silent. Raven catches it before it hits the hay bales. She hops off them and hands it back to me.

“What do you think the Duchess is up to?” she asks.

“I don’t know. It’s worrying that she still talks as if she had a surrogate.”

“Yeah,” she says. “You don’t think she stole one from some other royal woman?”

“I think that would have been front page news.”

“Probably.” Raven purses her lips. “I’m going to make some tea. Want some?”

I nod. “I’ll be in in a minute.”

As soon as she is out the door, I sigh and throw my arms out wide.

I become the air.

Hundreds of pieces of hay rise up as I join with the element. It’s exhilarating, the sense of weightlessness Air gives me. It’s like flying with my feet on the ground. I soar up to the very top of the barn, bringing the hay with me.

Turnip stamps her feet.

The arcana buzzes in my hand and I release my connection with the element.

“She’s on her way to you,” Lucien says. Pieces of hay drift down and land in my hair and Turnip’s mane. She shakes her head and lets out a snort.

“The lioness?”

“Lot 199, yes.”

I hate that neither of us know her name.

“What did you tell her?” I ask.

“I didn’t
tell
her anything,” he says. “We can’t approach this in the same way I did with you. I’ll get the girls to you the safest way I can.”

“Which is how?”

“My original plan,” Lucien says, with a bite of impatience. “I dosed her wine with the serum. In the nick of time, too. I think the Countess of the Rose was about to arrange for her to have an
accident
.”

I shudder at his meaning. “So . . . she’s going to show up
here and have no idea what’s going on?”

“I’m doing my part,” he says, “you have to do yours. She’ll be on the two o’clock train arriving at Bartlett Station tomorrow afternoon. Look for the key.”

“I always do,” I say.

I
T’S VERY COLD THE NEXT DAY
. I
WRAP MY SCARF TIGHTER
around me and pull down the earflaps on my hat.

Sil gave me a ridiculous pair of goggles to wear, tinted to hide my eyes. Just to be safe, in case anyone is looking for me.

“I want to come,” Ash says, as he hooks up Turnip to the cart.

“Not a chance,” Sil says from the driver’s seat. Ash spares her a cold look before turning back to me.

“I want to come,” he says again. “I want to
do
something.”

“I know,” I say. “But . . . it’s too dangerous. What if someone recognized you again?”

“With your pretty face, you can bet someone will call the Regimentals as quick as you can say Halma,” Sil says.

“Violet disguised me once,” he says. “She could do it again.”

“Ash . . .” I hesitate. “That was using the Auguries. I don’t . . . I don’t want to use them anymore.” This is only partly true. I can still use the Auguries, but it’s more concern for Ash’s safety that holds me back. I won’t risk his life.

“Right,” he says curtly. “I get it.”

“Will you take care of Raven for me while I’m gone?”

“Raven can take care of herself now.”

I put my hand on his arm. “We’ll be back soon. Maybe . . . maybe you can come next time.”

Ash nods, but I know he doesn’t believe me. He gives Turnip’s flank a pat, and storms off to the barn.

I sigh and climb up next to Sil.

“That companion is getting on my nerves,” she says.

“He’s not a companion anymore,” I say as the cart lurches forward. “I wish you and Lucien would remember that. And he’s . . . frustrated. He wants to help.”

“How is he supposed to help? Seduce our way into the Jewel?”

“You don’t understand anything about him.”

Sil laughs.

The ride through the forest is very different from that night Lucien brought me here. The sky is a clear, cloudless blue, the air cold and crisp. My irritation fades, replaced by my excitement at finally being out of the boundaries of the White Rose.

“We need to make a stop first,” Sil says.

“Where?” I ask. I’m not sure I realized how stir-crazy I was going, but now that we’re out in the world again, I’m bursting with energy.

“I have to run an errand for His Royal Keyness,” she says.

We emerge from the wood and I gasp—when I arrived in the Farm, it was dark and I was in a barrel for most of the journey. Now that I can see it . . . there is so much space. I’ve become used to the wide field surrounding the White Rose, the familiar ring of trees that encompass my whole world.

I’d forgotten how big the real world actually is.

Fields stretch out as far as I can see. We’re on top of a hill, and in the distance, nestled in a little dip between hills, there is a small town, chimney smoke and pointed rooftops. A big farmhouse looms off to my right, amid neatly trained rows of yellowing grass. I wonder what will be growing here when the seasons change. My most vivid memory from that fateful train ride to Jewel is the colors of the Farm. The pinks, the oranges, the greens . . . everything is dull yellow and rusty brown now.

But I still find it beautiful.

“Which Quarter are we in?” I ask.

“The South,” Sil says.

“My brother, Ochre, works in the South Quarter,” I mumble and smile a little. It’s nice to feel close to someone in my family, even if it’s only pretend. The South Quarter is huge—he could be anywhere.

Thinking of Ochre makes me think of Hazel. Again, I worry about the timing of this plan. We’ve got to stop the Auction before she can be tested. I wish it wasn’t so far away. October feels like ages from now. It’s only January.

As we pass through the town, I find it hard not to gape at everything. The people, women in long wool dresses and thick cloaks, men in overalls and big furry hats; the houses, shingled in dark reds and yellows; the grocer’s, the magistrate’s office, the tool-and-seed store. And then I have to laugh at myself because I lived in the Jewel for three months and saw so many incredible things and now I’m awed by a greengrocer.

We pull up in front of a tavern. A painted sign, carved in the shape of a tree, creaks in the wind. Bold letters on it
proclaim the tavern’s name,
THE WISHING WELL
. I smile, wondering whether the owner is a fan of the children’s folktale. There is a white square of paper plastered to a signpost out front. I can barely make out the words.

WANTED. FUGITIVE.

The paper is weathered and faded, but Ash’s face is still clearly recognizable. It sends a shudder through me. I was right to keep him at home. Sil ties up Turnip.

“Keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking,” she mutters. “We won’t be here long.”

The Wishing Well has a broad wooden porch and a balcony overlooking the street. Strains of music can be heard from behind its windows, framed with white lace curtains. Its façade is painted a friendly yellow. It is a very far cry from the taverns I saw on the Row, in the seedy area of the Bank.

The interior is as pleasant as the exterior. The bar is made of dark, polished wood, with three shelves behind it containing gleaming bottles of spirits in all shapes and sizes. A mirror on the wall lists the specials of the day in big, loopy handwriting. Tables are scattered across the pale wooden flooring, only about a handful of them containing customers. A wizened old man on a barstool sips whiskey from a dusty glass tumbler, riffling through the
Lone City Herald
. A man in a striped shirt plays piano in the far corner of the room.

“Sil!” the barman cries, emerging through a pair of swinging doors that lead to, I’d guess, the kitchen. He
carries a plate of roast chicken and green beans smothered in almonds. My stomach gurgles. “Be right with you.”

He hurries off to deliver the food while Sil and I take seats at the bar. I notice that Sil chooses bar stools as far away from the smoking man as possible.

“He knows he’s not supposed to call me that,” Sil grumbles.

“Do you have a code name, too?” I ask.

Sil’s lips pucker, and her cheeks darken ever so slightly. She ignores me and instead grabs an extra copy of the
Herald
and pretends to scan through it.

“It’s been quite some time since last I saw you,” the barman says, coming over to us. He pulls a bottle off one of the shelves and takes out two glasses. “The usual? And who’s your young friend?”

“No one,” Sil says, putting down the paper. “And she’s not drinking.”

The barman must be used to Sil’s bluntness—he nods and pours two helpings of whiskey into the glasses, taking one for himself. Sil downs hers in one gulp.

“Here.” She removes a brown-wrapped parcel from inside her coat. “Something to help the Shepherd boy.”

The barman’s face falls. “Ah, yes. He seems to be recovering well, considering.”

“Considering what?” I ask. Sil throws me a sharp glance.

“His grandfather wanted to sell him as a lady-in-waiting,” the barman says in a hushed voice.

“But he botched the job,” Sil says. “Damn near killed that poor boy.”

“How awful,” I gasp.

“Yes.” The barman eyes me suspiciously and I drop my gaze. He turns to Sil. “Do you have any message from the Black Key?”