Having a plan seemed to cheer Navid up, and the two of them scuttled across the rooftops until their hands were raw and bleeding. Explosions rocked the night and sparks rained down, and it took half the night to make it to the dead-end alley. They spent the rest of the night huddled together in the cellar deep underground behind a locked door while the faces of the missing watched over them. Finally, they fell asleep as the sun made its way into the sky, but its rays went unseen by the exhausted pair.
It was late afternoon when they finally made their way up the stairs. Tamsin pushed the door open a crack, almost expecting to see soldiers waiting for them. There was no one in sight, not even when they reached the street.
“It’s like we’re the last people in the world,” Navid said, glancing up and down the deserted street.
She took Navid’s hand. She wanted to tell him that everything was going to be fine, but she didn’t know if that was true. They didn’t have to go far before they saw wreckage. A building on the corner had been reduced to rubble. It had been a produce market, one of the bookless shops operated by cottagers but owned by a Zunft sympathizer. Tamsin tried to recall the name, Green Timbers, or something like that. They turned the corner and the next street was worse. One entire side had caught fire, and all the row houses were reduced to ash.
“Where should we go?” Navid asked, still gripping her hand.
“Let me think for a second,” Tamsin said. She knew that wandering around in the open wasn’t very clever, but she couldn’t go back and hide in the shrine without more information. She was the author of The Right to Rule, and Colston had attacked the cottagers because of the Cessation. With every footstep through the ash and rubble, Tamsin’s guilt grew heavier. She had been a destroyer after all.
“Do you think my parents are alive?” Navid asked. “Can we see if they’re at our house?”
“The soldiers might be there,” she said. “We can’t go to the pub either.”
The pub was leveled, but she didn’t want to tell Navid that. Tamsin thought desperately about where they should go. Her father was dead, and Gavin was in the hands of the Zunft. Back on Aeren, her mother and sisters would stand by her, but they were unaware of what had happened. Maybe she should take Navid back to Aeren, but there was no way to afford the ferry.
“Ash Street Garden,” Navid suggested. “Let’s go talk to Nova.”
Tamsin nodded in agreement—maybe the Zunft had left the garden alone. On Ash Street, one store had been burned, but most of the street was undamaged. Rover engines rumbled to life in the distance. Navid glanced at Tamsin fearfully and they rushed through the open gate. Except for the broken greenhouses, which had been destroyed last month, the garden was unaffected by the previous night’s violence. But there was no one inside the walls, and Tamsin wondered if every cottager in the city had been killed or arrested. Then something moved inside one of the ruined greenhouses. Tamsin and Navid crept cautiously toward it. There was a flash of gray, and then Nova appeared. She was backing through the doorway and trying to tug an unbroken pane of glass out the door.
“Nova!” Navid called.
Nova spun around, and when she saw Navid, joy bloomed on her aged face. She fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around the boy.
“Your mother is searching for you,” she said after a long hug. “She’s staying at the Millers’ house. Do you know where that is?”
“Sure,” Navid said. “It’s the third house from the corner of River and Front Streets.”
“Go straight there,” Nova said. “Your mother will be frantic by now.”
Navid nodded. “Bye, Tamsin. I’m going to see Mama.”
After Tamsin watched him run toward the gate, she turned back to Nova. “Is it safe for him to go?”
“The Cessation is over,” Nova said. “I guess you haven’t seen the damage, but it’s over.”
“Katherine Leahy is safe?” Tamsin asked. “Who else? Who did we lose?”
Nova shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. There were a lot of arrests. Brian Leahy, for one.”
“Did the soldiers leave?” Tamsin asked. “Did they go back to North Sevenna?”
“After they burned our businesses to the ground,” Nova said.
Tamsin sank down on her heels and stared up at the gardener. “What do I do now, Nova? Tell me what I should do.”
Nova gazed down at her sadly. “Help me put this glass in. Help me make the plants grow. That’s what I’m going to do. That’s all I know how to do.”
28
RETURN TO NORMALCY
“The work stoppage is over, and our city is returning to normal,” said Chief Administrator Shore.
—Zunft Chronicle, November 4
When Tommy awoke, it was a beautiful day outside his window. For a moment, he forgot that the world had turned upside down, but then he remembered the sea of sparkling glass in front of the burned-out toy store and the glow of the fires that had burned long into the night. Quickly, he rolled over and checked his chronometer. He was supposed to meet Ellie at noon, and it was now past eleven. It was much later than he usually slept, and he had missed the morning meal, if there had been one. As Tommy dressed and scrubbed his face, his heart was beating with nervousness. It seemed like the sun shouldn’t be shining today. Like even the sky should show some indication that something had changed.
On his way through the Seminary grounds to the gate, he reminded himself that he didn’t know what had happened, not for certain. Maybe every name on that list hadn’t been destroyed. Maybe his father’s ominous pronouncements were only rhetoric and not facts. On Dawson Street, he passed cottager laborers cleaning up glass in front of the boarded-up shop. For the first time in days, there were shoppers along the street. It was a lighter crowd than typical for a Saturday morning, at least before the Cessation, but everything seemed so normal.
When he got to Sebastian’s Circle, Ellie was perched on the edge of the bench. She shivered in the shadow of the old oak tree. The hood of her green wool coat was pulled up, and she was wearing black leather gloves and a scarf, but she was clearly miserable. The bench across the path was in a beam of sunlight, and he found it endearing that she was so particular about waiting for him in the correct location.
“Hey,” he said. “Are you all right?”
“I hate the world,” she said miserably. “I hate my place in it.”
He sat down beside her, unsure of what to say.
“Do you know how many explosions there were?” she asked. “They’re calling it the Night of a Hundred Fires. Abel’s Toys was the only business hit on Dawson Street, but I heard the porters talking and they said the cottager districts were decimated.”
“I guess it ended the Cessation,” he said.
Ellie nodded. “It’s horrible that your father gets to win this way. Oh, and Kristin and I are expelled.”
“Wait, what?” Tommy asked.
“It happened yesterday,” Ellie said. “That’s why I wanted to meet you up here. But it seems so unimportant compared to what happened last night.”
“It is important!” Tommy said. “What’s going to happen?”
“I’m all packed,” Ellie said. “After we’re done here, I’m taking the ferry to Norde. I’m going to stay with Kristin’s family. With Hywel missing, I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Oh, Ellie, I’m so sorry,” Tommy said. “I wish there was something I could do.”
She scooted closer to him and grabbed both his hands with her gloved fingers. “I only have a few minutes, but I need to tell you something.”
“All right,” he said. He was feeling a little choked up. Ellie was smart, tough, and spoke her mind. And now he had no idea if he was ever going to see her again.
“I didn’t really trust you,” Ellie said, struggling with her words. “Not for a long time. You were the son of the chief administrator.”
“Do you trust me now?” he asked.
“Yes, and I should have said something earlier
,” she said. “I should have told you.”
“Told me what?”
“I was with Mr. Hywel the night before he disappeared,” Ellie said. “Since I became his ward, I handled his paperwork and calendar. I spent a lot of time in his office. Honestly, I probably knew his business better than he did. He was an extremely disorganized man. Anyway, we were planning on going to Norde for the summer holiday, but that night, he got a message from your father.”
“From my father? What night was this?”
“Two nights before the August Rising,” Ellie said. “I don’t know what your father said to get him to go all the way to Aeren, but he immediately changed his plans and left for Shore Manor.”
“Wait, he went to Aeren the day before the Rising?” Tommy asked.
“Toulson Hywel wasn’t in Sevenna City when he was kidnapped. He wasn’t on Norde. He was with Colston Shore at your manor on Aeren.”
Tommy stared at her. “What does that mean? He was kidnapped by cottagers on Aeren?”
“I don’t know,” Ellie said. “You were there that day, right? You never saw him?”
“No, I didn’t,” Tommy said. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he remembered the carriage in front of the manor house when he and Bern had set out for Giant’s Ridge. The Zunft symbol had been removed, and he’d found that strange at the time. He’d seen two figures standing near the window of his father’s library. Could it have been Shore and Hywel? There was no way to tell.
Tears filled Ellie’s eyes and she wiped them on her sleeve. “I’ll miss you, Tommy,” she said. “If things ever get better, come and visit me on Norde. Or send word to Kristin’s family, and I’ll come back for a visit. We’ll meet here and freeze together on this bench.”
Tommy put his arm around Ellie’s shoulders and hugged her. “Don’t worry, we’ll see each other again,” he said, wondering if it was a promise he could keep.
Back at Tauber Hall, he opened the door to his rooms and had an unpleasant shock when he realized that someone was already there. Bern sat in his chair with his feet up on Tommy’s desk, pretending to read a book.
“Get your feet off my desk,” Tommy said. He couldn’t believe that he’d forgotten to lock his door. “And turn the book right-side up.”
Bern grinned sheepishly at the cover and then tossed the book onto the desk.
“Hey, little brother,” Bern said. “Where have you been?”
“I went for a walk,” Tommy replied.
“You shouldn’t have left the dinner party without an escort,” Bern informed him. “Father was furious. He had a rover waiting to take us home.”
“Well, I made it fine,” Tommy said.
“The cottagers went back to work today,” Bern said. “Everything is going back to normal.”
“And is all forgiven, just like Father said?” Tommy asked.
“They should be happy they get to come back at all,” Bern said.
Tommy didn’t want to talk about politics with Bern. He wanted his brother to go away so he could think about Ellie leaving and how he felt about it. Her news about Hywel seemed especially strange. She had acted like it was a major revelation, but he wasn’t sure what it meant. Maybe the investigators should search for Hywel on Aeren, but there hadn’t been any new demands for a few weeks—at least not that the Zunft Chronicle had reported. Hywel was probably dead by now.
“Are you listening to me?” Bern asked impatiently. “We need to get going.”
“Where?” Tommy hadn’t been listening.
“To the headmaster’s office,” Bern said. “They’re meeting with everyone.”
“Why?” Tommy asked, following Bern out into the corridor. He locked the door. When they were halfway down the corridor, he went back to double-check that he’d locked it.
“You’re so annoying, Tommy,” Bern said, when Tommy caught up with him. So Tommy went back a third time and checked the door again.
They took the path around the Green, which was crowded with lads enjoying the unexpected sunshine. Many were playing Litball, their jackets strewn on benches despite the chilly temperature. A few boys greeted Bern, inviting him to come and join the game.
“I’ll be there later,” Bern called.
“What’s this meeting for again?” Tommy asked.
“It’s a check-in after all the drama,” Bern said. “Father arranged it, I’m sure.”
They reached the new administrative building, which was one of the most modern buildings in all of Sevenna. While most of the structures on campus had been built a century ago, this building was less than a year old. It seemed out of place to Tommy, like a shiny silver coin mixed in with a handful of old money. Bern yanked the front door open harder than necessary. He paused inside the threshold and glared back at Tommy.
“You’ve handled everything wrong,” Bern said. “You were so easygoing as a child. We used to get along so well, and you’ve changed.”
“We got along because I did what you said,” Tommy pointed out. “You can’t expect me to do that forever.”
“Do you remember playing toy soldiers?” Bern asked. “You were the blue soldiers, and I had the red ones. What did you call them? The Annihilators?”
“That was your army,” Tommy said. “Mine were the Falcons. And I only played blue because you took the red. They were nicer by far.”
Tommy had an unexpected memory of their mother standing near the stained-glass window that she had installed in the playroom when they were little. In the afternoon, a kaleidoscope of light flowed through the colored glass, casting mottled blocks of color on the floor. That had been the boys’ battlefield—a tapestry of light on a lazy summer afternoon. Bern would get angry, and Tommy would let him have his way, and they’d go back to their innocent games.
“Sitting with the girls,” Bern said. “Making yourself an outcast with the lads. It should have been so easy for you. We are the sons of Colston Shore! When you do the wrong things, it makes my life harder.”
“This has nothing to do with you,” Tommy said.
“We’re brothers. Twins! Everything that you do reflects on me and on Father. And you’re embarrassing yourself. So you deserve everything that happens to you.”
Tommy scowled at his brother. “Same to you, Bern,” he said inadequately.
It was a stupid retort because Bern lived a golden life. At any rate, nothing bad ever seemed to happen to him. Bern opened the door wider and let Tommy go ahead of him into the foyer. They climbed the stairs and entered the gaudy waiting room. Golden couches faced each other across a mahogany table. Gilded molding accented the room and official state portraits hung on the walls. Even the wallpaper had a thread of gold running through it. No wonder Rannigan was so keen to have an office here, Tommy thought.
A soldier waited near Olberg’s office, and Bern half-saluted him when they entered the lobby.
“Mr. Shore,” the soldier said to Bern. “You can send your brother in now.”
“Is the guard a friend of yours?” Tommy asked. He suddenly felt uneasy.
“The headmaster isn’t meeting with other students,” Bern said. “He’s only meeting with you.”
“You lied to me?” Tommy asked. “Why would he want to see me?”
“Well, Father heard about you snooping in his office last night—” Bern began.
“I wasn’t snooping!” Tommy interrupted. “I can’t believe you ratted me out.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Bern protested. “Father kept asking questions, and I couldn’t lie to him.”
“You just lied to me,” Tommy said. He thought about ducking out the door, but the soldier seemed to read his mind and moved closer to him.
“Headmaster Olberg is waiting for you,” the guard said.
“This will make you a better Zunftson,” Bern said. “And a better brother.”
“How is your Honor Index, Bern?” Tommy asked. “You’re a liar and a vandal. I think you’re on the negative side of zero.”
�
�At least I’m not the one spending time with the enemy,” Bern said, turning away from his brother.
“You are. You can’t see it,” Tommy told him. But Bern was already out the door. Tommy imagined him bursting through the front door as the lads called him over to join their game in the sunshine. The guard jerked his head toward the headmaster’s office, and Tommy followed him inside the office. Compared to the garish waiting room, Olberg’s office was unexpectedly plain. The heavy drapes pulled across the window made the room feel claustrophobic. A volt-lamp glowed on the desk, which was cluttered with books and papers. Dozens of official portraits hung on the walls and the painted faces of the Zunftmen seemed to gaze down on Tommy in judgment.
“Please, sit down,” Olberg said. He nodded at the soldier. “Shut the door behind you.”
Thomas took the chair directly across from the headmaster. His heart was beating uncomfortably fast, making him dizzy and disoriented.
“I assume you’ve heard about the end of the Cessation,” Olberg said. “Welcome news, indeed.”
“Yes, sir,” Tommy said. There was an awkward silence as Olberg waited for Tommy to say something more. There were dark circles under the headmaster’s eyes and he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
“Yes, well, I suppose you’re wondering why you’re here,” Olberg said. “I received an order from the chief administrator, and I am compelled to act upon it. In the past, Seminary had autonomy from the Zunft and the actions of the Chamber, but with its dissolution, well, now it’s a different world.”
“My father sent you an order?” Tommy said. “What does that have to do with me?”
Olberg sighed. “It’s about you, Thomas. Your father says you are guilty of actions unbecoming of a Seminary student. You are to be expelled immediately.”
His father had cast him out and he hadn’t even bothered to tell Tommy himself. Tommy felt like a stray dog who had been kicked away from the door.
“What actions?” Tommy asked in a quivery voice.
The August 5 Page 22
