No Takers anywhere? “I don’t believe you. You’re just—”
“Maybe we should discuss this in the morning?” Jeatar said while Danello squeezed my shoulder – hard.
“Yeah,” Danello said, “she’s exhausted, we all are. It’s been a rough few days.”
“I’m fine!”
“No, you’re not,” Danello mumbled just loud enough for me to hear.
“I don’t think there’s anything more to discuss,” Onderaan said. “Jeatar, this isn’t going to work. I want them all out by end of day tomorrow.”
I folded my arms. The sooner I got out of here, the better. “Fine by me.”
“She didn’t mean it,” Jeatar said, shooting me a look of pure disbelief. “She spent the last week in a box.”
“Gone by tomorrow.”
“Onderaan, they have nowhere to go. They’ll just be captured again.”
“We don’t need the distractions right now. We need everyone focused, and this child” – he waved a hand towards me – “is not conducive to that.”
“I’m not a child,” I said. What did he know about me anyway? “I’ve been on my own for years, caring for my sister, my only family.”
“Get her out of here,” Jeatar said to Danello, who grabbed me by the arm and dragged me towards the door. Jeatar turned to Onderaan. “We need to discuss this.”
“I’m not jeopardising everything we’ve worked for because you feel sorry for this girl.”
“It’s not that, it’s—”
Danello slammed the door shut. The Baseeri stopped and stared, drawn by the yelling in Onderaan’s office. I glared back.
“What are you doing?” Danello asked, keeping his voice low. “We need his help to get Tali and the twins out.”
“He’s not going to help us.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know you can’t trust a Baseeri!”
Danello’s eyes widened. Perhaps I’d said that a little loud. Angry murmurs rumbled through the room.
“Come on,” he said, dragging me away again towards the guest rooms. “Maybe Aylin can talk some sense into you.”
“I don’t need sense talked into me.” I needed to make sense of things that didn’t make sense. Maybe Analov was a popular name here. Maybe Papa just had one of those faces that looked like everyone else. Lots of people lost family in the war. It didn’t mean anything.
Danello shut the door behind us. The hallway was full of Gevegians. They crowded around me, looking for answers I didn’t have.
“What’s going to happen to us?”
“Can we really stay?”
“Who was that man?”
Gaunt faces, tired eyes. Scared and hungry people who would be turned out tomorrow because Onderaan was too selfish to—
“We can stay the night, but we’ll have to leave tomorrow,” Danello said, his hand still tight on my arm.
“He’s throwing us out?” Aylin said, probably the only one who seemed surprised.
Barnikoff spat. “Should have known. Can’t trust a Baseeri.” Danello looked at me, his eyes encouraging me to speak, yet worried that I might. I looked at the people gathered around us. People who would have been safe if not for me.
Saints, what had I done?
I was the one being selfish. I’d made deals I didn’t like before. I could have kept my mouth shut and my ears open, learned what I needed here, and convinced Onderaan to help us. I’d have had Jeatar on my side, and he’d already convinced him to let us stay.
I swallowed, my throat dry. “Jeatar is working on it.”
“Everyone, go to your rooms and rest while you can,” Danello said, sounding like the leader Onderaan thought I was. “Let’s show them we won’t be any trouble at all.”
“We won’t be trouble?” someone asked. I couldn’t tell who.
“I know, but, look, these people are fighting the Duke. For all they know we’re a bunch of spies. Would you be happy to see us if you were them?” Grumbles all around. “Stay put, stay quiet, do as they say, and let’s see what happens tomorrow. At the very least they’ll feed us.”
A few chuckles.
“OK, we’ll sail it your way for now,” Barnikoff said. He glanced at me before he turned and uncertainty washed across his face. The others didn’t look at me, but they did return to their rooms.
“We’re in here,” Aylin said, opening the first door on the right. “Danello, you and Halima are next door, there.”
“Can you watch her a bit longer?” Danello nudged me towards the open door. “I need to talk to Nya.”
“Do you need me?”
“No, it’s OK. Thanks though.”
Aylin hesitated, casting me a worried look. “Everything OK?”
“It’s fine.”
She arched an eyebrow.
“We’ll talk after,” I said, shaking off Danello’s hand and walking into the room. Not as cell-like as I’d expected. A lot like Millie’s Boardinghouse, really. Simple beds, one on each side, but the pillows looked soft and the blankets warm. A small table with a lamp sat against the wall between them, a basket underneath for clothes.
It took me a moment to notice Danello hadn’t followed.
“… wrong with her?” Aylin said softly, one hand covering her mouth as if that would hide her words.
“I don’t know. She’s acting crazy. I’ve never seen her like this.”
I sat on the bed. Folded my hands in my lap. My fingers were cold and I slipped them between my knees. What had I done?
“Do you know what’s wrong?”
“No, but it happened right after that Onderaan guy showed up.”
Vyand would find us and arrest us. They’d all climb the gallows’ steps and hang. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to apologise to Onderaan. Explain why I…
I sighed and rested my forehead on my knees. Why I over-reacted. That’s all it was. He couldn’t be related to me, it made no sense. I couldn’t be half Baseeri. I didn’t look like them. Think like them. I wasn’t cruel like them.
You hurt people. Killed people. Maybe that was your Baseeri side.
The door clicked shut. The bed squeaked as Danello sat next to me. I sat up.
“What happened?” His arm slipped around my shoulders. Warm. Solid. Safe.
“I got confused.”
“Confused? About what?”
“What would you do if you found out your father wasn’t who you thought he was?”
He paused. “You mean like, if he lied to me?”
I hadn’t thought about that. Had they lied to me? “I don’t know.” I rested my head on his shoulder. The kind of shoulder you could count on when things got bad.
You could count on Papa.
That’s because he was Gevegian. He fought the Baseeri. Baseeri didn’t fight Baseeri – except Onderaan and the Underground were doing just that.
Papa had. Grandpapa had. Were they Baseeri?
Danello took my hand, ran his thumb across my knuckles. “Why don’t you like Onderaan?”
“He’s an enchanter.” It just popped out.
“And that’s bad?”
“No.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“I know. I’m not sure what to do.” I had to fix this somehow.
Convince Onderaan to let them stay, even if he threw me out. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Well,” Danello said, pushing a curl behind my ear, “I think the first thing we should do is get some sleep. Then we can talk to Onderaan and tell him sometimes your mouth gets away from you. He’s bound to need help here, and we can offer it. Maybe that’s worth something.”
“Maybe. No one in the Duke’s army knows who we are. They wouldn’t connect us with the Underground.”
He smiled, but there was worry there too. For his brothers, for his father, for me. “See? Planning already. You’ll have it all figured out by morning.”
For his sake I had to prove I was worth keeping around by showing Onderaan how we could help him.
“Thanks.” I hugged him, feeling better than I had since I got there. “I’m OK, really. You were right before, it’s been a long day. A long week.”
“I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You don’t have to go so soon.”
He grinned. “OK.”
I snuggled back into him, warm and safe. It felt good to just be.
Much sooner than I’d have liked, someone knocked softly on the door. Danello grumbled but got up and answered it.
“Everything OK in there?”
Aylin. I should have known.
They spoke in whispers for a minute; then Danello left and Aylin slipped inside. He had obviously told her what had happened, which suited me fine. I wasn’t in the mood to think about it again.
“I don’t know about you,” she said, flopping on the other bed, “but I’m exhausted. I don’t think I can even think straight any more. I probably can’t even talk without tripping over my own tongue.”
Subtle she was not. But it was sweet of her, telling me in her own way it was OK to have lost my mind.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” I said. “And I’m sorry I got you arrested.”
She rolled over and faced me. “It wasn’t your fault. I knew we could get caught when I agreed to be sneaky with you.”
“Still.”
“Pfft.” She flicked a hand my way. “What are friends for? I mean, really, if you can’t count on your best friend to go to jail with you, what good are they?”
I smiled. “You do have a point.”
“I am wise beyond my years.”
“This is also true.” I slipped off my sandals and crawled into bed. By the time I reached over to turn down the lamp, she was already asleep. I left it on, the pale glow comforting. I’d be able to see anyone who might sneak into the room. I’d noticed the door didn’t have a lock. I hadn’t checked the main hall door though. We might be locked in even now.
Worry about that in the morning.
I had enough to worry about tonight.
Noises woke me later that night. Thuds, muffled cries, worried words. I was on my feet before my eyes were fully open. Aylin was still asleep. She hadn’t even taken off her shoes.
“Aylin, wake up.” I pressed my ear against the door. Quiet. Doors slammed, but it didn’t sound like it was in the hall. Aylin mumbled and rolled over. I left the door and stepped on to her bed, then listened against the wall.
“Aylin!”
“Mmmm? What?”
“Get Danello.” I slipped out the door, tiptoeing to the entrance to the main room. I cracked the door.
“… waiting for us,” a man was saying. “I don’t know how.”
A scoff. “A jailbreak alerted half the city,” a woman said.
Our jailbreak? She thought we were responsible for whatever happened?
“Oh come on, Siekte,” said Jeatar. “The jail was nowhere near the League.”
“You don’t think breaking out political prisoners would have alerted them? Put all the Duke’s soldiers on guard?”
“Quiet, both of you,” Onderaan said, sounding tired. “How bad is she hurt?”
Hurt? I pulled the door open a little farther and peeked out. Six people stood in the room, three I hadn’t seen before, wearing Baseeri uniforms that were probably from the stash of stolen ones Neeme had. Another woman lay on the couch, hurt badly from the look of it. A man was on the floor, just as injured.
A door opened and Danello came up behind me. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“I think a plan went bad. Something about the Healers’ League.”
He and Aylin crowded around me and looked out.
Siekte was pressing a folded cloth against the injured woman’s stomach. The blood was dark. Not good. She ignored the man on the floor. Onderaan didn’t though. He knelt and slapped him across the face.
“How did you know we were coming?”
The man groaned.
“Answer me!”
Aylin pulled away from the door. “Um, I’m thinking his uniform might be real.”
If so then he might be able to tell me where Tali and the others were.
“Traitor,” the soldier said.
“You’re killing innocents and I’m the traitor?” He slapped him again. “Did someone tell you we were coming?”
“Why is everyone in the hall?”
We spun around. Neeme stood behind us in a nightdress, rubbing her eyes, her hair a tousled mess.
“Someone got hurt,” Aylin said.
Neeme’s eyes opened wide. She shoved past us and ran inside, dropping to her knees by the woman. Siekte tried to keep her back, but failed.
I stepped forward, but Danello grabbed my arm.
“We’re supposed to stay in our rooms.”
“I have to know what’s going on.” I ventured out, Danello and Aylin behind me. We stood off to the side, but Jeatar spotted us. He frowned and tipped his head towards the door. I shook mine.
Neeme sobbed, then sucked in a sharp breath. She looked around wildly, first to the door, then the room. Her gaze fell on me. Jeatar swore.
“Help her, please,” she asked me. “Heal her like you did me.”