The Healing Wars: Book III: Darkfall Read online

  “No, please,” Aylin cried as we ran. “What if he’s still alive?”

  Danello reached the other side of the bridge first. Dark shapes moved from behind another set of stacked crates, but they didn’t come forward. Maybe they were on our side, or maybe they’d seen the fight and didn’t want to take us on.

  “The boat,” I gasped. “Get back to the boat.”

  Torchlight flared ahead. Shouts from behind.

  Danello cut down a side street heading deeper into the isle. We plunged into shadows again, the close buildings masking most of the moon’s light. A putrid smell hit me, rotting food, or maybe dead animals.

  Aylin tripped and the smell got worse. She squealed, shaking her foot.

  “Ah! Get it off, get it off!”

  “Shh, what is—” Danello stopped. I followed his gaze.

  A body. Dead several days from the bloat.

  “Keep moving,” I said, trying hard not to look for more. Had it been a soldier or some poor person trying to get home?

  Orange torchlight flickered on the side of one of the buildings.

  “Are they still after us?”

  “I’m not staying to find out.”

  No boarded-up buildings on this street, just broken windows and shattered doors. Trash and wood littered the ground, slowing our steps. More dark shapes slumped on stairs and on porches; some smelled, others didn’t. We didn’t linger to see what—or who—they might have been.

  Danello took streets haphazardly, cutting back and forth, putting as many turns between us and the looters as possible. The clock tower struck two, its sorrowful bell like a howl over the dark city.

  “In here.” Danello slipped through an open door. I couldn’t make out much in the room, but it looked like some kind of shop. Counters, shelves—all bare now. We huddled behind a counter, panting. Tali stared at the bloodied blade in her hand, turning it over and over.

  “Tali, give me that, okay?” I held my hand out, ready to yank it away if she came at me.

  She stared at me, then back to the sword, and tossed it on the ground.

  I exhaled and slowly pulled it out of reach.

  No footsteps raced by outside, but faint shouts floated in on the breeze. Not close, but not far enough away to risk leaving yet.

  Aylin sobbed, pressing her hands over her face. Her whole body shook.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Soek said gently.

  Her hands fell. “No it’s not,” she snapped. “Quenji’s dead. He got eaten—how is that ever going to be okay?”

  “It’s not. I’m sorry.” He looked away.

  No one spoke. I had no idea what to say or even what to feel. Quenji was dead. He’d come here to help us and now he was dead.

  “How, uh, close do you think the boat is?” Danello asked, not looking at anyone.

  “Eight or nine blocks?” With no light and everything in and around me in shambles, it was hard to get my bearings. “Where are we now? See any signs or anything?”

  “Not from here.” He got up and crept to the door. “I’ll see if I can figure out where we are.”

  Aylin continued to sob. I held her, stroked her hair. A dozen things to say rushed into my mind, but nothing I said was going to make her feel any better.

  I watched Tali while Aylin cried. Hard as that was, it was easier than thinking about Quenji. She leaned against the wall, wiping her bloody hands on the floor. Nothing about her right now suggested she could have done what she just had.

  She’d fought like Danello, maybe even better. Moved as gracefully as Aylin. She was so small, the looters probably didn’t even see her darting between them until it was too late.

  What had the Duke done to my sister? She’d killed men, and it sure as spit didn’t seem like she’d given it any thought. She’d just gone wild, as if triggered, same as any other pynvium weapon.

  “Why did he have to die?” Aylin said. “It’s not fair!” She buried her head in my shoulder.

  “People die easy,” Tali said.

  She spoke! Her words chilled me, but she’d spoken.

  “Tali? Do you know where you are?” I asked.

  She didn’t answer, just stared at the blood still on her hands. “Too easy,” she whispered.

  I shivered, my skin hot and cold at the same time. It was just too much. Quenji gone, Tali killing, the Duke coming to destroy everything I cared about. I never should have come home. We should have stayed with Jeatar and gone with the others.

  But then you’d never have found Tali.

  I glanced over at her. Heard her words again.

  People die easy. Had I found her? Or had I found only what was left of her?

  Light footsteps outside, then Danello slipped back into the shop. “I think it’s clear.”

  “Where are we?”

  “I’m not sure, but I can see the lakewall from here, so we can’t be far from the water.”

  “He thought this was so exciting,” Aylin said to no one in particular. “An adventure he could talk about for years. He never thought he could get hurt.” She looked at me. “Did any of us? I know we talked about the danger, but did we really think we could die?”

  I’d expected to die every day for the last five years. It never occurred to me not to worry about it. But was worrying the same as thinking it could happen?

  Aylin drew her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them. “Danello, you might never see Halima and the twins again. Ever. Soek, you could fall off the next bridge and die. Tali could attack the wrong person and lose. And Nya—how many people are trying to kill you? How long do you think you can stay ahead of them?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Danello sighed. “This is our home. What else can we do?”

  “Leave!” she said. “Take the skiff and dock at one of the river towns. Find your family and go somewhere the Duke isn’t.”

  “And let Geveg be destroyed?” I asked.

  She scoffed. “Like we can stop that? This is war, real war, with real soldiers and real swords and real people dying real deaths. We can’t do anything about that. We’re nothing.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Yes, it is! You found Tali, you got the enchanter’s book. Let’s go.”

  Leave Geveg? Abandon it? Grannyma’s words drifted into my ears. Eggs should never fight with stones. Was Geveg doomed no matter what we did?

  Aylin stared at me, her frown growing deeper. “What is it with you? It’s a city. It never cared about you, so why do you care about it so much?”

  “It’s my city. My family helped build it.”

  “And the Baseeri killed it five years ago. In a few weeks, they’ll finally bury it.” She got up. “I don’t want to be here when that happens. Do you?”

  I didn’t want it to happen at all.

  “Is that what you want for Tali?” she asked.

  I looked at my sister, still sitting quietly on the floor, staring at blood. I wanted her to be safe. To be herself again. To never worry about soldiers or experiments or people who wanted to hurt her just because they could.

  Even more than seeing Geveg free?

  My family might have built Geveg, but Tali was my family. She had to come first. I’d ignored that once, and look what had happened to her. I could never let it happen again, no matter what the cost.

  “Let’s get to the skiff.” I picked up the bag and the end of the rope. My heart ached, but I’d lost so much already—I couldn’t risk losing Tali again. Saints knew I’d never get her back if that happened. I’d been lucky too many times.

  We left the shop. No one said a word, but Aylin sniffled a few times. We walked single file, following Danello through the trash and the broken furniture and the occasional body. Warm breezes blew the stench away when we reached the street along the lakewall.

  I looked around. If this was the edge of the warehouse row, then the boat was about six blocks down on the left. “That way.”

  We stayed close to the buildings, i
n the shadows and behind whatever cover we could find. Froze at every sound, even when it was nothing more than the trunks of palm trees rubbing together in the wind. Once or twice we heard shouts, saw torchlight up ahead, and held our breaths until it was gone.

  It was chaos here. It was foolish to stay, much as part of me wished we could. We’d leave, find somewhere safe, start over. Onderaan probably hadn’t left Veilig yet. It would take several days at least to get the refugees settled and find supplies. We could probably get to him before he left if we started there by morning.

  And tell him you abandoned your home?

  Home was with Tali. With Danello and Aylin. It might even be with Onderaan. I owed it to Tali to find out.

  The row of converted warehouses appeared ahead, huge black hulking boxes along the lakeside. We cut across the street and hurried along the wall to the break in the neatly trimmed hedges. Slid down the path to the beach where the—

  The anchor rope lay on the ground, one end cleanly cut.

  ELEVEN

  Danello drew his rapier and scanned the beach. I stared at the cut anchor rope, guts churning.

  “She left us,” Aylin said, voice tight. “I knew we couldn’t trust her.”

  Lanelle had taken the skiff? How? Why? It didn’t make any sense.

  “I don’t think she took it.” Danello picked up the rope and ran a finger along the edge. “Look, the rope is cut. Why cut the anchor instead of just picking it up and putting it back on the skiff?”

  “Because she was in a hurry to betray us.” Aylin folded her arms. “I bet she went for her knife as soon as we were out of sight.”

  Danello shook his head. “But why?”

  “It’s Lanelle. She’d betray us for a hot meal.”

  My heart believed Aylin, but my guts sided with Danello. There was no reason for Lanelle to take the skiff and run. “I don’t know. She practically begged me to take her with us. Why do that just to run now?”

  “Someone offered her a better deal.”

  “I agree with Aylin,” Soek said. “Lanelle only cares about herself. I was in the spire room, remember? You didn’t see her cataloging symptoms and preparing bodies for dissection. She knew what was going on, but she didn’t care. Working with the Duke helped her, so she did it.”

  He was right about that. She’d betrayed us to the Luminary as well. Told him about me and my abilities, which might have even led to the Duke sending trackers after me. “I’m not saying I trust her,” I began, “but she’s had plenty of better opportunities to betray us and she hasn’t yet, so why now?”

  Danello walked to the edge of the water and knelt by a v-shaped trench in the sand where the skiff had been. He reached down and picked up something.

  “It’s a tooth.”

  “A what?” I asked.

  “There’s still blood on it.” He brought it back to us. “I think it’s Lanelle’s.”

  Soek and Aylin looked at each other, uncertainty wrinkling their brows.

  “Why would anyone take Lanelle?” I said, gazing over the water.

  “Exactly my point,” said Aylin.

  “I don’t know why.” Danello tossed the tooth away. “But whoever did it might still be around. We should go look for her.”

  “What?” Aylin and Soek said in unison. Soek shook his head. “No, we shouldn’t.”

  “She’s obviously in trouble.”

  “So?”

  Danello gaped at the both of them. “You want to just leave her?”

  I put my hand on his arm. “If we knew where she was or who took her, then maybe we could go after her. But we have no idea where she is, and those looters are still out there. We need to get someplace safe.”

  “There is no place safe anymore,” Aylin muttered. “We’re trapped here.”

  Danello looked at me and frowned. “You too?”

  “I’m not risking everyone’s life for someone who helped the Duke kill Healers. I know she thought she had no choice, and maybe she didn’t, but Lanelle grabbed her own thorns. She probably stayed behind tonight because she didn’t want to risk her own neck by helping us.”

  Danello hesitated. “Okay. What about my old apartment? I know folks there who would help us.”

  Aylin shook her head. “We’ll have to cross another bridge. What if there are more of those looters?”

  “We’ll use a pynvium strip right away this time.” I pointed to the bag Danello was holding. “I’ll flash it and we’ll run past them. No stopping to fight, no stopping to talk.”

  She closed her eyes, her lashes wet with fresh tears. “I just wanted to go home. I wish we’d gone with Jeatar.”

  “Aylin, we have to keep moving. I’m scared too, and I want to curl up and cry, but we can’t. Not yet.”

  She looked down at the bloody tooth in the sand, then nodded. “Okay. We’ll go to Danello’s.”

  I led us back up the bank and around the outside of the isle, following the street that ran along the lake. The waves would help mask any sounds we made, and if the breeze blew right, we might even hear the bridge guards talking. Or snoring at this hour. Somehow I doubted we’d be that lucky.

  We ducked behind a row of hibiscus bushes. Another barricade was up ahead, with some kind of gate in the middle, and only two people. I scanned the street for places additional guards might be hiding, but the area around the bridge was open.

  “I think it’s just the two.” I could handle two. The strips flashed hard enough to take both out easily. And if one got past me, I still had the cut in my leg to shift.

  Danello peeked over the bushes. “Two guards seem like a weak defense against the looters.”

  “Unless they’re working with the looters,” Soek said.

  Great. One missed guard, one shout, and who knew how many people might show up to rob or kill us.

  “We’ll have to risk it,” I said. “I’ll go out alone with the pynvium. You all stay back. Even if more show up, stay—”

  “Are you coming out or are you planning to hide all night?” someone shouted from the bridge.

  We looked at each other. “Is he talking to us?’ Danello said.

  “The longer you hide, the more nervous you’re making us.”

  They had to be talking to us. “They don’t sound like looters,” I said. “Maybe we should go out there.”

  “I’ll go. Be ready to run if they try anything.”

  Danello rose and walked slowly toward the bridge. “Who are you?”

  “Why don’t you tell us first.”

  Danello paused. “We’re Gevegians trying to get home. My family’s apartment is on that isle. On Market-Dock Canal.”

  “Your name?”

  “Danello del’Sebore.”

  Soft mumblings for a few seconds. “What about the others?”

  Danello waved us over. We left the bushes, staying close together. I nudged the pynvium strip up my sleeve, an easy drop back into my hand if we needed it.

  “My friends. It’s been a long night. We just want to get someplace safe from the looters.”

  They seemed satisfied. Then one man stepped closer. “Why is that girl on a rope?”

  I winced. “She’s my sister. She’s, uh, a little off. I didn’t want her to wander away.”

  “There’s a lot of blood on you two.” He moved a hand to the sword on his hip.

  “Looters attacked us and killed our friend,” Aylin said, her voice raw and sad. “We barely got away.”

  His hand came away from the sword. “I’m sorry about that. They’ve been a problem for weeks now, but there’s not much we can do about them.” He gestured behind him, and a woman walked out and opened the gate. “Come on through.”

  “Thank you so much.”

  My chest loosened the moment we got off the looters’ isle. There were honest Gevegians here, folks we might even be able to trust.

  “Better get home quick as you can,” the woman said. “We have patrols out, but it’s hard to protect the whole isle. It’s really
not safe at night.”

  “We noticed,” said Soek.

  We hurried past the blockade and followed Danello toward his old building. The streets were just as dark, but occasionally cracks of light seeped around boarded-up windows on the lower floors.

  “That’s it there,” Danello said, pointing at a wooden building with a brick foundation. Unlike a lot of others, his had shutters, and all of them were closed.

  The building door was open, the stairs up even clear, though not clean. Danello practically ran to the third floor and down the hall. He tried the door to his old apartment.

  “Locked,” he said. I wasn’t sure if he was glad about that or not. His voice sounded odd—shaky and hopeful at the same time. Maybe he thought his father had come back here when he didn’t find us at the town house.

  “So knock,” I said gently. “Unless you still have the key.”

  “Lost that a long time ago.” He took a deep breath and rapped softly.

  No answer.

  He knocked harder. Someone coughed and a bed squeaked, but I couldn’t tell which apartment it came from.

  Danello knocked again, rattling the door. Soldiers knocked like that. Plenty of sounds down the hall this time: chairs dragged across the floor, voices murmured, soft cries.

  “Who’s there?” A gruff voice, thick with sleep. Didn’t sound like Danello’s da though.

  “I’m looking for Master del’Sebore,” Danello said. “Is he here?”

  “Don’t know any del’Sebore.”

  “Please, sir, is he here?”

  The door behind us cracked open. If I hadn’t been standing right against it, I’d never even have heard it. I turned. A single eye peered out through the crack.

  “He’s looking for his father,” I whispered.

  The crack widened enough for an old woman to appear, her face thin, her eyes scared. “He’s with the soldiers,” she whispered back.

  My heart clenched and I reached for Danello’s arm.

  “He was captured?”

  “Nah, our soldiers.”

  “Saama!” Danello said. The door opened all the way, and the thin old woman held out her arms. Danello fell into them for a hug. “Do you know what happened to my da?”