It’s Paco, Jennie reminded herself. He doesn’t know who his father is, and he never will. He’s Sera’s son, and that’s all he’ll ever be.
Paco pressed his attack again, his sword a blur. There was no trace in his intent expression of the dreamy musician she’d grown up with.
I made him into this, she thought. I didn’t protect his mother. Sera wanted him to live his own life. If I’d saved her, he wouldn’t even be fighting now.
A sharp pain lanced across her wrist, and she gasped.
“Oh. Sorry,” Paco said breathlessly, his sword lowering. “I thought you’d block that.”
From the back gate rose a hubbub of voices amid bobbing lanterns and torches. It had to be a diversion created by the defenders. Jennie kept her weapon up.
Paco’s head jerked. “Tommy, they’re attacking at the back!”
The crowd parted. The floodlights revealed Mr. Vilas carrying a body.
Tommy’s voice cracked. “It’s Yuki!”
Cold shock ran through Jennie’s veins. She bolted toward the bounty hunter.
“I can walk,” Yuki said faintly. His shirt was soaked through with blood. Mr. Vilas ignored him.
Jennie looked around wildly. “Where’s Mia? Where’s—“
“Here.” Mia stumbled out from behind Mr. Vilas. She, too, was splashed with blood, and tears ran in twin tracks down her dirty face.
Jennie caught her shoulder and steadied her. “You’re hurt. I’ll carry you.”
Mia shook her head. “It’s Yuki’s blood. One of them attacked him from behind.”
There was no sign of Ross. Jennie heard her own voice as if she was another person speaking from a very long way away. “Was Ross killed?”
“No! They took him. It was Voske’s soldiers. I recognized a girl from the battle. She could generate electricity.” Mia straightened up, shaking off Jennie’s support. “We have to go after him.”
Jennie’s thoughts slogged as if she were stuck in mud, as Mr. Vilas carried Yuki into the surgery. Paco ran in after them.
Dr. Lee rushed out, shouting, “Mia!”
“I’m fine, Dad!” she called. “I’ll be right there.”
Dr. Lee vanished inside. A crowd was already gathering.
“We’re being attacked!” Mrs. Callahan yelled shrilly. “Why isn’t the bell ringing? It’s another war!”
“No one followed us.” Mia’s voice wavered.
“No one followed them!” Jennie shouted. “There is no attack!”
Mr. Horst’s voice boomed, “Everyone, go back to your stations and finish the drill!”
The hubbub continued unabated. Mr. Preston emerged from the crowd, kicked off his boots, and hurried into the surgery.
“Come on, Jennie!” Mia said impatiently. She scrubbed her filthy sleeve across her eyes, smearing tears and dust into muddy streaks. “We have to get Mr. Preston to send a rescue team.”
In the surgery, they found Yuki lying on the examination table, the upturned soles of his feet blistered and scraped raw. Dr. Lee was sponging a long sword cut on his back. A strand of bloodsucking ropethorn vine ran from a basin to Yuki’s wrist, to suck the saline solution from the bowl and transfer it into his veins. The sharp smell of alcohol filled the air. Paco leaned over him, his palm against Yuki’s cheek.
The blood, the black hair, the stillness . . . like Ross, lying dead on the ground. Like Indra, when she’d uselessly struggled to lift him. Jennie closed her eyes, but that only made the images more vivid.
Mr. Preston’s voice jolted her. “Mia, I want to talk to you. Jennie, you can stay.” He raised his voice to carry outside of the room. “But no one else comes in here!”
Yuki’s adoptive mother, Ms. Lowenstein, pushed past him, her yellow gaze fixed on Mr. Preston as if daring him to object. His sister Meredith followed at her heels.
“Nobody but family.” Mr. Preston gestured to Mr. Vilas, who shut the door in the faces of the crowd and stood with his back to it.
“He’s not badly hurt,” Dr. Lee said. “But he’s lost a lot of blood.”
“I did my best to bandage it,” Mia said unhappily. “But it opened up every time he moved.”
“Actually, Mia, you did a good job,” Dr. Lee reassured her. “Without you, he might not have even made it back.”
Dr. Lee’s timid apprentice, Becky Callahan, hurried up with a jar filled with sea water and writhing strands of fine-sliced seaweed. Dr. Lee began to stitch Yuki’s back. The seaweed sutures would adjust themselves to Yuki’s movements, stretching or tightening as required. Dr. Lee had used them on Jennie a few times. They burned like fire while they were still wet with salt water.
Yuki didn’t flinch. Jennie wasn’t sure if he was being stoic, or if everything hurt so badly that he didn’t notice. The surgery was quiet except for the harsh sound of Yuki’s breathing.
Mr. Preston stepped forward. “Can you tell us what happened?”
“We were attacked,” Yuki said, the words coming with difficulty. “I left Ross. I ran away.”
Jennie winced at the bitterness in his voice.
“Yuki, don’t talk,” Mr. Preston said. “Mia, report.”
Mia gulped and clenched her fists as she gave a report that was so concise Jennie suspected she had rehearsed it for the entire journey back.
“. . . I couldn’t get my pack off,” Mia confessed at the end. “Ross and Yuki were distracted trying to cover me. If I hadn’t had my stupid pack on, maybe Ross would have gotten away.”
Mr. Preston made a dismissive noise. “Fighting eight soldiers, at least two of them monst—two with Change powers? You’re lucky you aren’t all dead.”
Jennie’s jaw clenched. Two monsters. Could they have won if she had gone, and there had been a monster on Ross’s side?
Mr. Preston went on. “Or more likely, luck had nothing to do with it. Voske’s team didn’t let you go, they made you go. It’s something he does to win people over. Not you two: Ross. Voske shows them what he could do to hurt them, like kill their friends. Then when he doesn’t do it, they’re grateful.”
“We have to rescue Ross.” Mia’s voice rose to a squeak. “Now. This minute!”
“I’ll go.” Jennie’s anxiety vanished: she had a clear goal.
“I will, too.” Yuki struggled to raise his head. “Heal me now.”
Dr. Lee pushed him flat. “You know that my power takes time off your life. I don’t use it unless it’s a life-threatening emergency.”
Paco took Yuki’s hand. “It’s okay, Yuki. You don’t have to go. I volunteer.”
“No!” Jennie was startled when her exclamation was joined by several others, from Mr. Preston, Ms. Lowenstein, and Dr. Lee.
“Hold on,” Mr. Preston commanded, and swept the room with an intent gaze.
Jennie shivered. Voske could be spying on them at any time, though no one knew how. Maybe he really did have an invisible son. Or did Mr. Preston know?
Mr. Preston let out a short breath. “No one is riding out tonight.”
Paco frowned. “Why not?”
“It’s dangerous at night. We’re already a full day behind them, and the least of their mounts don’t need as much rest as our fastest horses do. There’s no way we could catch them before they reach Gold Point.”
“We should go now!” Mia shouted. Everyone turned to look at her, and she took a nervous step backward. “Ross could have escaped. He’s really smart, you know. He could be halfway to Las Anclas, with all those soldiers chasing after him.”
Mr. Preston gave her a look of total disbelief. “I don’t think so.”
Dr. Lee cleared his throat. “I do. People tend to underestimate Ross.”
“I’ll go,” Jennie repeated. Why hadn’t she gone on the expedition in the first place? She had a Change power. She was one of the best fighters in town.
“We’ll send a mission. But later.” Mr. Preston turned to Mr. Vilas. “With you, Furio. You know the way.”
“Understood,” Mr. Vilas replied.
“We’ll discuss the details later.” Mr. Preston gave the bounty hunter a quick, meaningful look.
The bounty hunter’s black brows lifted slightly. Jennie’s belly tightened. That was a signal between people who knew each other well. She and Mia had exchanged them all their lives. She remembered how Mr. Preston had plotted with the bounty hunter when Mr. Vilas had first come to town in pursuit of Ross. They’d known each other when they were young.
Mia tugged at Jennie’s shirt—her own secret message. “When you do go, I have a new weapon I designed . . .”
As Mia spoke, she led Jennie into the hallway.
“They’re plotting something!” Mia whispered angrily.
“They’re going to talk somewhere private,” Jennie whispered back. “If we can get there first . . .”
“The infirmary!” breathed Mia. “There’s no one there now.”
Mia led Jennie to the dark room. They ran barefoot to a curtained alcove, sat on the bed, and closed the curtain. Soon the infirmary door opened.
Mr. Preston said in a low voice, “Vilas, let’s make this quick. Bring the boy back alive if you can. But if you can’t, I don’t want him alive for Voske to use.”
“Got it,” Mr. Vilas replied.
The girls waited for a few minutes after the men left, then dashed into the crowded waiting room.
“What’s going on?” Mrs. Callahan demanded.
“Ask Becky.” Mia shoved her feet into her shoes.
Jennie picked hers up and ran outside in her socks.
Inside her cottage, Mia kicked tools and papers out of the way as she paced in agitated circles. “This is my fault.”
“Oh, Mia—”
Mia went on as if Jennie hadn’t spoken. “I couldn’t get my pack off. I got disarmed and knocked down. It’s my fault for not training harder—my fault for my terrible backpack design—my fault for letting Yuki drag me away—my fault for not going back!”
“Stop it. Stop, Mia. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I should have been there.”
“Whoever’s fault it is, now that bounty hunter is going to kill Ross!” Mia kicked a stray bolt across the room. “Let’s tell the whole town what Mr. Preston is plotting. Then the bounty hunter won’t even get to go on the mission. I hope he gets kicked out of town. Again.”
Jennie’s thoughts raced. Mia’s plan might work. But it depended on the rest of the town cooperating. It would be safer to handle this on her own.
She caught Mia’s elbow, halting her in mid-stride. “There’s too many townspeople who’d be happy if Ross never came back. People who are prejudiced against the Changed, and think what Ross did in the battle wasn’t that important.”
“Especially everyone who’s mad about singing trees taking over the southeast cornfield,” Mia added glumly, then brightened. “Let’s go by ourselves.”
Jennie hated having to shake her head. She wouldn’t have thought it was possible for Mia to look more miserable than she already did, but Jennie’s refusal obviously hurt her even more. “We can’t see anything, and everything out there can see us. We could ride straight into a pit mouth. No one travels across strange country in the middle of the night.”
“Ross is, right now!”
“No, he’s got to be camped with Voske’s soldiers. Ross is one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen, but even he can’t fight eight to one. There’s no way he escaped. I couldn’t have escaped. It won’t help him if we go rushing off and get ourselves killed.”
Mia folded her arms. “Okay. Then what’s your plan?”
“I’ll talk Mr. Preston into letting me lead the mission. Then I can keep watch on Mr. Vilas. If I have to, I’ll stop him myself.”
Mia gave her a watery smile. “Do it. Go now, before he lets the bounty hunter pick the rest of the team.”
Jennie hugged Mia. “Good idea. I’ll bring Ross back. I promise.”
She ran out into the town square, where Sujata and Brisa were fighting with wooden swords, brightly lit by flood lights. Jennie had completely forgotten the drill.
“Time out!” Brisa declared. “I need a drink of water.”
Sujata pressed her attack. “There’s no timeouts in a battle!”
Brisa plonked down on the pathway. “It’s a drill, and it’s over.”
Sujata’s sword drew a line of oily red dye across Brisa’s throat. “It’s over for you,” she said with satisfaction. “You’re dead.”
Brisa grinned. “Yes, I am. And that means I’m going home.”
The rest of the square was empty, except for the knots of people—defenders and attackers both—chatting outside the surgery.
At the town hall, Jennie found Mr. Preston getting a report from the sheriff’s mothers, Trainer Koslova and Trainer Crow, who were flanked by six rats. Kourtney, a black and white rat, sat up on her hind legs, begging for attention. Jennie scratched behind her ears.
Trainer Koslova said, “Nobody’s at the west wall but the sentries. Everyone else thought the drill was cancelled.”
Mr. Preston scowled. “They know perfectly well that the drill isn’t over until the bell rings Stand Down. Trainer Crow, what’s your report?”
Trainer Crow petted Ruki, the brown rat on her shoulder. “The defenders at the front gate are squabbling with the attackers over who’s dead and who isn’t. They want to know if one drop of dye to the chest is a scratch or a fatal wound.”
Trainer Koslova added, “You might tell Julio that a blow to the throat is always fatal. He’s been killed at least three times tonight, and he’s still fighting.”
Mr. Preston raised his gaze to the sky. “Thank you. Will, give the signal to end the drill.”
Will Preston bolted toward the bell tower. The trainers and their rats followed in his wake.
Before Jennie addressed Mr. Preston, she made sure she had control of her own temper. “About that mission to rescue Ross. I’d like to command it.”
Mr. Preston’s thoughts were clearly elsewhere. “I’ve got someone much more experienced than you already assigned to it.”
“I’ve been training with Mr. Vilas for months now. He’s great on solo missions, and he’s all right in a team. But he’s a tracker and a fighter, not a leader.”
Mr. Preston’s wire-rimmed glasses flashed as he turned to Jennie. “What makes you think you can lead this mission?”
“I’ve been leading missions for months. You know that. You gave them to me. I brought the school patrol back safely from a rattlesnake attack. Tonight my team would have burned the granary if we hadn’t been interrupted.”
Mr. Preston said slowly, “You seem to be leaving an important one out.”
Jennie swallowed. She’d hoped he wouldn’t make her brag about her biggest failure, the mission where she’d failed to save Sera and abandoned her own team. She tried to make herself sound proud. “And during the battle, I picked my own team and led them to blow up Voske’s ammunition. We succeeded without a single casualty. On my team.”
Mr. Preston put his hand on her shoulder. She made herself hold still, though she wanted to jerk away. “That’s what I was looking for. Jennie, you should be proud of your accomplishments. Being a leader doesn’t mean that you can save everyone.”
Being a leader was exactly that. But she wasn’t going to blurt that out to a man who would cold-bloodedly sacrifice a citizen of Las Anclas.
Mr. Preston continued, oblivious to her feelings, “I like seeing you embracing your potential. Yes, you can lead the mission.”
Jennie’s nails bit into her palms. She pried her fingers open and made them hang loose, forcing her voice to come out calm. “May I pick my team?”
“That’s part of leadership. Furio Vilas goes, of course. You’ll need him to show you the way. And he can describe Gold Point’s defenses. Beyond him, I’m afraid I can’t spare more than three people. And only one Ranger.”
He doesn’t care if Ross gets back or not. And he probably thinks teenagers won’t be able to stand up
to Mr. Vilas.
“I want Indra.” Jennie could trust him. And Indra wouldn’t let Mr. Vilas intimidate him.
Mr. Preston nodded in approval. “Good choice.”
While the bell rang out the end of the drill, Jennie considered her options for long-range fighters. Meredith was more disciplined, but Jennie might need Brisa’s power. “And Brisa.”
Mr. Preston raised his eyebrows, no doubt thinking of Brisa’s Change. But what he said was, “That girl needs to work on her attitude.”
Jennie made sure she sounded respectful when she said, “I agree, but I can talk to her about it. When can we leave?”
“Wait a week. If you go now, Voske will be expecting you. If you wait, he might not be. He won’t harm Ross. He’s obviously taken him to make use of his . . .” Jennie watched for that disgusted look, and wasn’t disappointed. “. . . power.”
She had expected the wait, too. “In that case, I’d like to take Yuki and Kogatana. If he’s up to it by then.” Yuki would also back her against the bounty hunter. And though he wasn’t a Ranger, he fought as well as one.
Mr. Preston nodded. “Certainly. Now, there’s a second objective for this mission. After Gold Point built a power plant that uses energy from its dam, they became almost totally reliant on electricity. If we could sabotage the plant, Voske would have his hands so full trying to restore power to the town that he wouldn’t be able to invade anywhere for a while. Maybe years.”
Jennie hadn’t heard that before. “Have you ever sent the Rangers to try?”
“Several times. But the area’s so heavily guarded that they could never get anywhere near it. It’ll probably be the same now, but check. If you can get in, sabotaging that plant is a higher priority than rescuing Ross.”
Jennie gritted her teeth, then took a deep breath. It made strategic sense. If they could take out Gold Point’s electricity, rescuing Ross would be a lot easier.
“Absolutely,” Jennie said. “You can count on me.”
Chapter Eleven. Desert.
Ross
Hostage Page 6
