by Ellie Cypher
From outside the tent, a piercing series of howls erupted. The wolves. The unworldly chorus went on for a long time. Long enough that I grew more and more uncomfortable as the woman sat in silence smiling. As if she weren’t just listenin, but understandin. Who was she? Rack my sluggish brain as I could, I didn’t think of nothing else but—Warders.
I ground my teeth, my anger coming out as little more than muffled noise. She laughed and looked around the tent.
“What do ya say, boys? Should they see the same send-off as good old Reeves?” The blond ran a hand over the gun at her side. A revolver slid into an intricate raven-embossed leather holster. “Or should we play nice?”
Reeves. Holy stars, she had said Reeves. This was where the Rover had come from? My thoughts spun. Had she said traitor? What had he done? But more important, why did this woman clear think him dead?
“Been a little while since we had us some good and decent runners. Maybe a little predinner sport, or—” But the woman was cut off as the tent flap snapped open.
A man strode into the tent.
Next to me, Cody sat up, eyes wide as mine. Stars above, we knew that man.
CHAPTER 23 Be Not Afraid
Dev?” It came out nothing more than a raw rasp against the fabric. So quiet I didn’t reckon anyone could’ve heard me.
Dev missed a half step, his cloak just open, hand raised to the caribou antler buttons on the front. His pupils widening in recognition for the briefest of moments. Ignoring me, he strode over to stand behind the blond. Right behind her. Hand on the back of her chair. Like he were meant to be there.
“Been a while, Devlin. Thought you might’ve stayed away for good this time.” The woman’s smile weren’t friendly. “Any longer and I might’ve started to worry you’d gone and turned Rover on us.”
Rocking back in her chair, the woman laid a proprietary hand on Dev’s. Dev didn’t move. He bare breathed. “Should’ve known better.”
It weren’t clear who she meant. Herself or Dev. Going by Dev’s face he weren’t right sure either. Finally, the woman gave one pat and let his hand go. “But bygones are bygones. And none of us can really stay away that long, can we?”
I didn’t understand. I’d known Dev all my life; he lived in town. He weren’t one of these people, he couldn’t be. I tried to speak, but it were useless, the gag too tight.
“So.” The woman spun her attention back to me. “This is Harrow’s ilk then, is it, Devlin? Don’t much look it. Though why should they? Runts, as I’d expected. Harrow never did have good choices in men.” The blond eyed me, running her fingers over the smooth walrus ivory handle of the gun at her side. “Shame, really.”
Harrow. My Ma. It didn’t right register. That name on her lips. Not for a long moment. Then the world lurched below me. This woman, how did she know Ma’s name?
Dev walked round to stand at the blond’s side.
Her smile turned vulpine. “Well, that’s the deserters line settled then.” She gave a bark of laugher. My chest contracted painful. “As empty as my grandmother predicted it would be.” She turned to face Dev. “Unless there’s something else I should be aware of?”
Dev’s fingers flexed at his side, eyes flashing to mine. “No. She’s it. The only one.”
“Good. Always have preferred a clean ending. Don’t you think? Much simpler for everyone that way.”
Dev made to take a step toward us. Then stopped. Didn’t open his mouth. Didn’t raise a single objection as Cody and me were picked up rough, bodies tossed like rag dolls over the guards’ shoulders. I hissed and kicked out, struggling against my bonds. Anger and fear mixin inside me.
Next to me, Cody were doing the same. Pink-tinged saliva from where he were biting his lip fizzing at the corner of his mouth.
“Maybe not so shameful after all.” The woman were laughing now. “Spirit like that, she’ll certain make it farther than the last one. He didn’t get more than a league ’fore Rill set those rounds into the red of his spine. Isn’t that right?”
The man holding me chuckled. “I give ’em three leagues, Bass. Less if she keeps hollering like that.”
She really was going to kill us. Just like that. Desperate, I shot my pleading glance at Dev, but he didn’t meet my eye.
Dev pulled out a large piece of paper, smoothing it down onto the table in front of the woman. “Galle’s found a breech along the eastern face of the rock, and more bodies. On top of that a good number of the markers are clear broken in half. It might be from the shaking, but it—”
“The creature’s been getting stronger.” The woman’s eyes sparked eager. Hungry. Dangerous. Like she wanted it.
“Or someone else has been trying her bars,” Dev said troubled.
“I would like to see them try.” Bass mused, fingers running along the edge of her jaw. “But true or not it won’t matter for long. The stars know all we need is one more piece and I’ll get my shot; finish this once and for all.” The woman knocked her hand on the table. A moment later and a map appeared in the hands of the man behind her. She studied it, frowning. “Get ’em out of here. I’ve a war to finish.” With a single wave of her hand, we were dismissed. “Devlin, I am gonna need you to take Rig and go see to the tunnels in town. I’ve had reports of strange fires—”
Her words cut off as we were pulled up and out into the night. But my mind were clean stuck. This woman had known my Ma.
CHAPTER 24 Without Cause
It were hours before I knew anything but the cold press of the floor where the men had thrown us.
I flickered in and out of sleep. Startled every time I woke to be lying in the same place and not getting dragged out over the ice. Despite the hood keeping the world in darkness, I tried to stay awake. But it weren’t no good. The hunger and cold and pain were just too much and my eyes closed.
At first I thought I were dreaming. Cause what I felt were a loosening. The breaking of the ropes binding my hands. Then the flush of a blade, feather light and freezing against my wrists. I hissed against the back of my teeth, my eyes shooting open. Pain from muscles held still for too long spasmed up my arms. A million tiny pin pricks up my skin.
“Don’t shout,” the voice behind me hissed, “or you’ll wake camp. We don’t have much time clear.”
The bindings fell to the floor at my feet and I kicked them away, spitting the cold taste of copper from the inside of my cheek to the floor. That were when I turned. And looked up into the face of the man standing over me.
“The stars are you playing at?” I growled.
Tossing the rest of my bindings behind him, Dev grunted. “I’m sore sorry about back in the tent with Bass.”
He were trying to change the subject.
“Is this what you meant when you told me I shouldn’t trust no one?” I stared at him, struggling up to my feet. Legs felt like they was made of rubber. Dev offered a hand. I batted it away. “Don’t need your help.”
Dev winced as if I’d struck him. “You’ve every right to be angry with me, I won’t say you don’t. Stars knows I certain would be if I were you. Your ma would be.”
Still glaring, I stood. Body shaky with the effort. Stretching the tender muscles of my arms, rubbin where the bindings had bit at my wrists. We’d been thrown into some kind of storage tent. Broken tables and boxes stacked up against one another in a far corner, packs in another.
“Dev—or should I call you Devlin,” I let the name snag, pull. “You tell me straight. Were my Ma mixed up with these people, with Bass?”
Dev hesitated. A hitch no longer than a breath. My heart sank. Ma had never told me where all those stories had come from. Or where she had come from.
“Bass don’t know what she’s saying. We don’t tend to take too kindly to the children of deserters round here, you understand.”
“My ma weren’t no deserter.”
Dev sighed, his eyes heavy. Troubled. “Your ma were different, Jorie, even from when she were young, anyone could see that plain as
ice.”
I opened my mouth.
“Don’t,” Dev cut out. “I can’t say more, not now. It’ll just make it worse for you. Just know that your ma, whatever else she were, she weren’t like Bass, not in the way you’re thinking.” The answer were fast and hard.
“Then what was she?”
“Your mother. And a good woman.” His tone brokered no question. “And she deserved more than the shake she got in this world, I know that. Whatever else she were or weren’t, don’t matter now. That hurt is a story best left for another time.…” If there were another time. The unfinished statement threaded the air between us. Finally, Dev held up his hands. “I ain’t given you much, and I’m sorry for it. But I swear I ain’t never lied when you asked.”
“Maybe, maybe not. How could I know? What I do know is that it’s easy to lie to someone when they don’t know to ask the right questions.”
“Leave it, please.” Dev’s eyes flashed with an emotion I didn’t understand. “I ain’t lied to you, Jorie. But if we don’t get you out of here, truth won’t matter one way or the other. It’ll already be too late.”
“What does that mean?”
Dev shook his head. “Never you mind. Only know that if I could change the past, I would. But even here there ain’t no one who can do that. Your parents were good people. They were my friends. Not bringing them back to face Bass were a choice I made long ago. It were the right thing to do, no matter the consequences.” He fixed me with a look. “Just like getting you out of here what’s right. And if the consequence is that it interferes in Bass’s plans, all the better.” When his gaze returned to mine I near to took a step back. “I can help you, at least. Let me do that.”
I scowled. But there were something in his voice. A pleadin desperate tone I ain’t never heard him use before. Like he were drowning. A man reaching for the last knot in the throw line over the rail, the sea ready to swallow him whole. And in that moment I made a choice. The past were the past. But right now—right now I needed help. And Dev were offering.
“Fine, but that don’t mean I have to like it,” I grunted out. “Or you.”
“No, you don’t.” Dev gave a flicker of a smile, proud if I didn’t miss the mark, and began unbinding Cody’s wrists. Once the ropes were off, Cody were quick to jump to his feet. Fighting rope-bound legs, he stumbled to my side, his expression tight. A wicked set of black bruises already forming under his eyes. I’d enough concussions to know that look. His head likely felt like it were gonna explode.
Dev gave the pair of us a once-over. By his face, he must have seen it too. Whatever he had been planning on saying, he swallowed instead. I didn’t like secrets. Especially not when they weren’t mine.
“Can I ask you one thing?” Dev asked, slipping his knife under his belt.
“Depends,” I said.
“Can you just tell me why you’re out here,” Dev said. “I don’t need to know everything, but I do need to know what you think you are chasing.”
“What we’re chasing?” Not who. “That’s a mighty strange way to phrase it.” The words were out, belligerent like, before I could stop ’em.
“Running, that’s what. And one hardly expects to find their innkeeper mixing with your kidnappers in the middle of a frozen death trap. So I am certain you’ll excuse us if Jorie doesn’t answer you.”
I stared at Cody as if he were a stranger. Maybe that concussion were worse than I’d thought. But he didn’t look out of it. Gone was that fuzzy look; in its place were something cold. Firm. Something that looked just like me. I weren’t entire sure it were a good thing.
Cody were glaring at Dev. And Dev were staring at Cody. I took a step between them. Enough. Enough of this. Dev were right. We needed to go. And we needed help. His would be far preferable to what I were sure Bass were gonna offer.
“Bren. Dev, for stars’ sake, it’s Bren we’re after. That’s the why and the who of it. We’re chasing after Bren.”
To his credit, Dev looked surprised. “Tell me.”
I hesitated.
“Stars, Jorie, please. I know what you must think of me, and I deserve it, deserve every last curse of it. But please, tell me what’s going on.” Dev ran a hand through his hair, gaze sweeping between Cody and me. “Let me help you. It is the very least I owe your family.”
I looked over at Cody.
“Your choice,” he said.
He were right. This was my choice. Everyone had secrets. Didn’t always make them your enemy, though knowing them didn’t always make them your friend either. Dev may not have told me the truth, not all of it, but neither had I.
I straightened my shoulders, squared my jaw.
So be it. Breathing deep, I told Dev most everything, or near enough to it—the dead man that night at the house, the Rover, the note. Only thing I faulted at mentioning were the map. If they knew the Rover, the less Dev knew about what I had, the better. My confidence only went so far. Yet with each word, with each detail, Dev’s scowl grew deeper. His expression beyond troubled. As if I were confirming more than just what he already knew. As if all this made some kind of horrible, awful sense.
That made one of us, at least.
“The fact that you are trying to save your sister and not interfering in her plans won’t make Bass go lighter on you none. She don’t take well to strangers, even ones she should be abiding,” Dev said. He started to pace. “The sooner we get you two out of here the better. Your parents were good people and even better friends. And stars above, no matter what happens next, I ain’t about to let their daughter get hurt out here, not if I can help it.”
Cody, who had been standing at the back fiddlin with something on one of the stacks of boxes, walked over to my side. Hands slipping into his pockets. Our shoulders bare touching. I stood straighter. Taller. I weren’t the only person out here looking for their family. Or what justice were left for them.
“Tell us what you are not saying,” Cody said. “Tell us who you are.”
Dev stopped his pacing. “Take too long to tell it, honest. Most of it you’re better off not knowing. Stars”—he ran a hand over his beard—“most things I would be better off not knowing.”
“But you aren’t just average criminals out here, are you?” Cody asked. Before Dev could answer, Cody turned to me. “These people, Jorie, they aren’t Rovers. They’re Warders. This is a Warder camp. It fits, all the stories, all the tales. We’ve been taken hostage by Warders.” His voice went all over strange. Some mangled mix of awe and anger and fear. Don’t know that I could blame him.
“Hostage? It ain’t that simple, and you ain’t that lucky,” Dev said gruff.
“Tell me I’m wrong. That if Jorie or I walked out of this tent, Bass would just let us go,” Cody demanded.
“It ain’t like you’ve got a lot of choices out here,” Dev said, visibly trying to control an uncharacteristic flash of temper. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.” The two of them stared at each other.
Sudden as a storm, realization struck me. “Dev, Walter Colburn, the man from home. What do you know about him?” I darted a glance at Cody. That were what was bugging him. His uncle. Cody thought Dev knew his uncle. Or, I furrowed my brow, were it the other way round?
“You don’t know what’s your messing with,” Dev said. “It’s complicated.”
“Then uncomplicate it,” I said. Cody’s eyes flashed grateful, my stomach dropped. I turned back to Dev, smiling wide enough to show the white blaze of my teeth. He might be right, but so were Cody. “And make it quick.”
“All I know for certain is that Bass don’t have what Walter were killed for, she never did. She wouldn’t need to. He were just flat-out wrong about that. He should’ve known better than to keep pressing about it.” A deep sadness swept over Dev’s face. “I’m telling you the truth, as much of it as I can, you need to believe me, Jorie, please. For your parents’ sake, you need to trust to me, it ain’t safe for you here.”
&nbs
p; “I—” Next to me, Cody sucked in a long breath, but just as he did, raised tones cut the air. We froze. The voices grew closer. Louder.
The eager braying of wolves—Tracers—joined the fray. The scar on my face began to itch. Fear, real fear, flashed cross Dev’s face. Same as it pitted in my gut. The time for talking were done. Believe him or not, we’d only one choice.
I stepped up to Dev’s side. “Then let’s get the stars out of here.”
“You can start by taking these.” Dev handed me two guns. A silver-and-ivory revolver and a lean barreled rifle. Both of ’em had seen better days. “They aren’t much, I know. But I’ve never seen Bass not get what she wants. May take her days or weeks but she’ll find you. And I don’t know what she will do when she does.” He placed the guns in my hands before striding to the back of tent. Lifting up a flap of canvas, Dev pulled in two large packs. Both stocked with heavy furs and food. He cinched the tops closed.
I slid the revolver into my pocket. The other I handed to Cody.
“I know it ain’t all you need, but it’s all I can get. I got some of the things Bass’s men took. Put them at the bottom of that pack.” The faintest trace of wetness appeared at the corner of his eyes. He wiped it quick away.
“What about Fen and the pack?” I asked.
“Already taken care of. I don’t forget my own,” he grunted. He shifted, tugging at the edge of his coat.
I studied him. I had so many questions that needed answering. But only one I really cared about deep down. And if these were Warders and they knew Rovers…
“Dev?”
“Jorie?” Dev furrowed his brows.
“Do you think she’s still alive?”
“Aye, I do. Girl like Bren is worth more to a Rover alive than she is dead.” A troubled look passed over his face. You know that sure as I do. “So you get her back, Jorie, you hear me. You get Bren back. There ain’t much I can say I am proud of in this world, but knowing your family were one of them.” He looked me straight in the eye. “And so are you. Your parents saved me once. And it’s high time I returned the favor.”
