The Healing Wars: Book III: Darkfall Read online

  “The Hero of Tradesmen’s Corner!”

  They cheered again, and some tossed flowers at me. More white violets.

  “We’re ready to strike back.”

  “May the Saints bless and keep you!”

  “We’re with you, Nya!”

  So many smiles, so many people reaching for me. Light touches on my arms and back as we moved through the crowd. They parted in front of me, closed in behind me. I felt like an island in a lake of reverence.

  I gripped Tali’s hand tighter, but she seemed more curious than wary, probably won over by the flowers. Tali loved violets of all kinds. Just like Mama.

  “What are you going to do now?” a man asked.

  “Uh, go see a friend.” I wanted to check on Danello, make sure he was okay.

  “Do you think we can beat the Duke?”

  They were asking me that? “I do, if we all work together.”

  “How are you going to beat him?”

  It was a real question, not someone whining about how he was too strong or too powerful to beat. They wanted to know what I was going to do. Like I had the answers.

  “I’m working on that; so is Ipstan. We’ll figure something out.”

  “We’re behind you—just say the word.”

  “Thank you, everyone, really. We have to be going now.” I waved at the crowd and they cheered again. It was strange, all those folks looking to me for help. No insults, no threats. What had changed their minds? The healing, the soldiers, or both?

  The crowd followed us through the misty rain, continuing to call out their support, ask what I planned to do next. By the time we got to Danello’s, my nerves were as tight as my curls.

  “Okay, listen,” I said, turning around and facing them. “I appreciate your, um, support, I really do, but the Duke is on his way, and we need to prepare for his attack. You should all be doing whatever needs to be done there, not following me around.”

  They nodded but didn’t leave.

  “Go ask Ipstan what he needs you to do,” I said.

  “Will you be there?” someone called.

  “After I see how my friend is doing.”

  Smiles broke out on many faces, heads bobbed, whispers wandered through the crowd. A woman at the front turned around and clapped her hands several times. “Everyone to the square. Wait there for Nya’s instructions.”

  “What? No that’s—”

  Aylin put a hand on my arm. “Let them go.”

  “But they misunderstood.”

  “And they’ll figure that out when Ipstan tells them what to do next.” She flipped her frizzy bangs off her face. “Unless you don’t want them to leave?”

  I twitched. “No, leaving’s good. Much better than staying.”

  We headed inside the boardinghouse and hurried up the stairs. I tried not to notice the old bloodstains on the landing. Or the gouges in the wall no one had sanded out yet. Aylin went to a door halfway down the hall and knocked. Danello’s father answered.

  “Oh good, he was just about to go find you.” He stepped aside and let us in. “I told him you both needed to rest, but he was up with the sun.”

  More flowers sat on the table, but no white violets. Hibiscus, honeysuckle, a few hyacinths. Baskets of food filled the spaces between the flowers.

  Danello cupped my cheeks and pulled me in for a kiss. He ended it far too soon. “Are you okay?”

  “I was going to ask you that.”

  “I’m fine, thanks to you.” He grinned. “That makes what? Twice you’ve saved my life?”

  I blushed. “I’m not keeping track.”

  “Well I am.” He thumped my nose with one finger.

  Danello’s father cleared his throat, and my cheeks warmed again. “Danello tells me you’re all leaving?”

  Aylin sighed. “We were until Nya became the patron saint of Geveg. Now I’m not so sure.”

  “I’m not—” I took a deep breath. “There was a crowd of people outside, waiting for us.”

  “For you,” Aylin said.

  “Fine, yes, for me. It’s just a misunderstanding, and Ipstan will straighten it all out, but they seem to think I can do something about the Duke and they’re waiting for me to tell them what that is.”

  Danello shrugged. “So tell them.”

  “But I don’t have a plan.”

  “You always have a plan.” He glanced at his father, who looked apprehensive. “Nya, people have been coming by since yesterday, dropping off gifts and telling me what you did—both for me and for Geveg. You can’t leave them now.”

  “But you can,” his father told him. “Your brothers and sister need you.”

  “No, we all leave together,” Aylin said. “That was the plan.”

  “That was before Nya gave everyone hope that we could win. If she leaves now, that hope goes with her.”

  “So let her stay and you go,” his father tried again. “We can’t both risk our lives.”

  “Da, I can’t. You never believed in this fight. Ma did, and now so do I. You should go to Halima and the twins. Take Aylin with you, but I’m staying here.” He smiled at me. “I made a promise.”

  I warmed down to my toes. But I’d made a promise too. That I’d protect Tali and keep her safe, and I couldn’t do that here. Still, I also couldn’t leave when folks were so close to standing up for themselves. They wanted to fight—they were just looking for someone to lead them. No, they had that. Like Ipstan said, they needed someone to inspire them.

  We’d never be safe as long as the Duke ruled. To save Tali and all the other families, I had to help stop him. I didn’t know what I was—quirker or Saint touched—but I had a weapon that we needed most.

  Hope.

  Jeatar once said faith was no match for steel, but maybe hope was.

  “Onderaan is going to meet me in Analov Park at sunset tomorrow,” I said, taking Danello’s hand. “Master del’Sebore, Aylin—you both can go with him and Tali to Veilig. Jeatar will help you.”

  They both disagreed at once, talking over each other.

  “I can’t leave you here.”

  “We’re supposed to stay together.”

  “This is our last chance,” I said. “If we beat the Duke, we win back the entire Three Territories, not just Geveg. Even Baseer will be free again.”

  Danello’s father shook his head. “What if we lose?”

  “Then the Duke will destroy Geveg and claim our pynvium mines for himself. He’ll have so much, he’ll be able to build an army of Undying and make sure there’s no one left in the Territories who will ever oppose him again.”

  Aylin looked away. Danello’s father didn’t.

  “Is stopping him worth our lives?” he asked.

  “It’s worth mine. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth yours on your own.”

  He hesitated. “Then I’d better make up my mind by sundown tomorrow.”

  SEVENTEEN

  I guess they found Ipstan.” The crowd was outside the blacksmith’s shop, circled around him, passing his words back to those too far away to hear.

  “That’s a lot of people,” Danello said.

  Maybe a thousand, filling every street leading to the plaza and the fountain Ipstan was standing on. The rain still misted, but the sun had dipped behind the clouds.

  “We struck a blow to the blue-boys,” a girl called back, and others repeated it through the crowd. “Now is our chance to stop them,” she said next.

  “Stop them?” Aylin said. “Does he even know how many there are?”

  “I don’t know what he knows.”

  “Armor and weapons for those willing to fight,” the girl said. Then she gasped, her gaze stopping on me. “It’s Nya!”

  The word runners started to send that back until folks around me cheered. Rapt faces turned from Ipstan to me.

  “Are you leading the attack?”

  “Do you need us or can you take them all on your own?” Folks laughed, but not at me. They laughed as if I actually could take
on the blue-boys by myself.

  “Are you going to cause another Great Flash?”

  Oh no, not another sainter. They probably thought what I’d done yesterday was a Great Flash too. Like I could just command the sky to open up and rain down pain.

  “Ipstan’s the one in charge, not me,” I said, but they were asking so many questions, my voice didn’t carry far. “I need to get to Ipstan!”

  “Get her to the general!” bounced through the crowd. Hands reached out and I was moving, half dragged, half carried from person to person. Tali’s hand slipped from mine. My chest tightened. If she thinks I’m in danger…

  Aylin caught her, slipping an arm around her and hurrying along behind me while the crowd swept me forward. Tali watched, her face flickering between delight and concern. I smiled, praying it looked like I was having fun and was in no danger at all.

  I reached the fountain and was thumped onto the stone next to Ipstan with a shove. Ipstan steadied me before I toppled over the edge and into the fountain itself.

  The cheers started again, probably loud enough to be heard all the way at the League. It worried me for a moment, but after losing the attack yesterday and then hearing us cheer today, the cheers might actually make the blue-boys worry.

  “What do we do, Nya?” a man cried.

  “When do we take them on?”

  “We’re with you, Shifter!”

  Ipstan looked at me in almost the same worry-or-joy way Tali had. He scanned the crowd, larger than I’d realized now that I was higher and could see. There had to be well over a thousand people, and all looking to me to do something.

  Well, I’d done what Ipstan had hoped. I’d gotten them looking. It was up to him now to tell them what to do. “So? What do we do next?” I asked.

  “Collect your gear,” he shouted, another uncertain glance my way. “Your squad assignments will be decided within the hour.”

  “Is Nya leading the attack?”

  His smile twitched. “She’ll work with me and my officers on strategy. Don’t worry, she’ll be instrumental in our attack and our victory!” He grabbed my hand and raised it in the air. “Together we will stop those blue-boys and make Geveg safe again!”

  The crowd went wild, stamping their feet, waving their arms, cheering. Ipstan kept hold of my hand and pulled me off the fountain and toward the blacksmith’s. Men and women in chain-mail armor lined the walk to the door. His officers? Surely they weren’t his guards.

  “I’m glad you decided to help us,” Ipstan said once we were inside.

  “My friends and sister were behind me. I can’t—”

  “They’ll be brought in, don’t worry.” He gestured at one of the folks in chain mail. “People really respond to you.”

  “They were there when I woke up. I had nothing to do with it.”

  “You inspired them.” He pushed open another door and we headed upstairs. “I tried, but I couldn’t bring them together like you have. We stand a chance now, a good one.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  “Take back the League. We can do it if we act tonight.” Ipstan stood at the head of the table. His officers took places around him, eyes shining, excited. “There’s a big storm coming in, and we can use it as cover. Get right up against the League before they even know we’re there.”

  “What about the bridge guards?” his commander asked. I hadn’t caught his name, but I was pretty sure he’d worked on one of Ipstan’s fishing boats. “They have both Upper and Lower Grand Isles protected, and we can’t reach the League without taking one or both of those.”

  “Nya can deal with them.”

  “They’ll be expecting that,” I said, trying not to imagine the new scars or the pain. Did I really need to go in first? Where was Danello? He understood military strategy better than I did, and this plan didn’t sound all that safe. “They won’t let me get that close again.”

  Ipstan shook his head. “No one survived yesterday’s attack. They don’t know what you did. If we’re really lucky, with all the rain and confusion, they won’t even see you.”

  That seemed like a lot of luck to rely on. But hadn’t I relied on less?

  “What did we find out about their pynvium weapons?” a woman with spiky blond hair asked.

  “I don’t think they have any left. Nya’s the only one who’s flashed any pain in weeks.”

  I frowned. “What about those orbs the blue-boys had?”

  “They’re out by now.”

  I wasn’t so sure, but Ipstan’s officers didn’t seem to care.

  “Numbers?”

  “Minimal on the bridge, under a dozen. A few hundred on the isle itself, the rest in and around the League. Best estimates on the remaining garrison say five hundred total.”

  “That’s all?” I said. “The Gov-Gen’s garrison had been ten times that before. What happened to the rest of his—”

  Danello and the others walked into the room. Ipstan rubbed his hands together. “Wonderful, everyone’s here. Now, this is what we’re going to do…”

  Rain splattered against the windows, tap-tap-tapping like tiny feet scurrying across the glass. I adjusted my armor—leather like most folks in the resistance wore. Ipstan had offered me one of the few sets of chain mail, but it was hard to walk in it. I couldn’t fight if I couldn’t stand. I asked him to give it to Danello instead.

  Ipstan had organized his squad leaders and grouped everyone up hours ago. He’d handed out weapons and armor at sunset, created a chain of command. Not everyone knew every detail of his plan, but his officers and squad leaders knew where to be and when.

  The storm hit just as he’d hoped, heavy wind and rain but no lightning to pick us out in its sudden brightness. Gray light reflected off gray rain, everything washed out in the twilight.

  I turned to Soek, back in the pynvium armor. The second set didn’t fit him nearly as well, but he’d added extra padding to fill in the gaps. “We’re crazy for trying this, right?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Nuttier than pecan pudding.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Danello squeezed my hand, but he looked worried. The storm would hide us like Ipstan said, but the rain also made it hard for us to see. What if he was wrong about the numbers? What if the defense was tighter? What if what if what if … It rattled through my mind like the rain on the glass.

  We waited in the staging area, a wide strip of warehouses behind a row of workshops. Ipstan had decided to attack Lower Grand Isle, claiming the upper isle would be more heavily guarded since that’s where yesterday’s attack on us had come from. He’d posted extra guards and soldiers there to distract the blue-boys and make them think we were planning to defend that area. After all the noise this afternoon, they had to suspect something was up.

  The door opened and Kione walked in. Water gusted in behind him.

  “Slight change of plans,” he said, expression grim. “We got a better look at the area beyond the barricades. It looks like there’s a command tent a few blocks past the bridge, in the square that intersects the main roads. If you can reach that, you might be able to take out their command staff.”

  I knew the square he meant. Day vendors set up carts there in the summer, and street performers danced and sang for coins.

  “The general wants to clear the way through for you and Soek.”

  “Ipstan’s leading the attack?”

  “He insisted.” Kione glanced around and leaned close. “Said he wanted to fight alongside you. That it would be good for morale for the troops to see you two together.”

  And good for his reputation.

  Danello raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “Yeah. Everyone’s excited about it.”

  We had hope and faith in buckets. Steel now, too. Ipstan was confident, but I wasn’t so sure. You didn’t just hand someone a sword and expect them to know how to use it.

  “Soon as you break through,” Kione continued, “the rest of us will cross the bridge, secure
the area, and wait for you to clear out the square before moving in. We’ll work outward from there, secure the bridge to League Circle, and prepare for the final assault on the League.”

  “Okay.”

  “When you hear the quarter-bell chime, head out to the rally point.” Kione wished us luck and headed back out.

  “You can do this,” Danello said softly. He and his da were in one of the rear squads. Danello had wanted to join Ipstan’s squad, but I’d made Ipstan promise to keep Danello back. He had the right to fight same as the rest of us, I just didn’t want him on the front lines doing it. Not unless I could be there to watch his back. And his front. Saints, all sides of him.

  “I’m scared,” I said. So much pain waited for us—for me.

  “You have six hundred people standing right behind you. Including me.”

  All stuffed into buildings and hidden in alleys between here and the Lower Grand Isle bridge. They wanted what we wanted and were willing to die to get it. If they could risk their lives, I could risk some scars.

  The tower chimed and we headed toward the street perpendicular to the bridge. People stepped aside and let us pass, their faces frightened, hopeful, far too eager.

  Ipstan stood in the rain with his command staff; all of them wore a white violet patch on their armor that hadn’t been there earlier. He nodded a greeting.

  “The weather is helping us out. Our people are prepared and ready,” he said, then turned to me and Soek. “Now it’s up to you two.” He pulled out a silk cord.

  Soek held out his hand and I took it, lacing my fingers through his. Ipstan tied the cord around our wrists, tight enough to keep us from yanking free, but not so tight it hurt.

  “Three blocks,” Ipstan said. His face was stone-still, but his eyes held fear despite his confident speeches. “Do whatever you have to do to make it to that command post. We’ll be right behind you.”

  Three blocks. Through soldiers and barricades and an awful lot of pain.

  Danello took my hand, ran his thumb across my knuckles. “Don’t die,” he said, regret in his eyes.

  “I won’t if you won’t.”

  “Deal.”

  Ipstan and the white violet squad moved out toward the bridge. Soek walked beside me, his pynvium armor gray in the downpour, like everything else. We moved across the bridge, the rain masking our footsteps and any clinks of our armor.