"Why would he kill his slaves? We make money for him." She sat down on an upside down bucket.
"Maybe we're worth more dead than we are alive."
"Yeah, I'm sure people from the town pay loads of money for dead children's bodies."
"It's possible." I pushed the shovel into the mud and folded my arms.
"I just don't think Mazol's involved."
"You two are getting pretty close. Aren't you?"
"What?" she stood up quickly. "No. Of course not."
"What were you two talking about then?"
"Nothing. When?"
"You know when."
"In the Caldroen? That was nothing. He was just... telling me to..."
"To what?" I moved in front of her so she would have to look me in the eyes, but she turned the other direction.
"To finish sweeping up before I left for the night."
"You do that every night."
"He was reminding me."
"Really?"
"Look, that's not the point. I mean, even if Mazol wanted to kill them, how does he do it? We're fallings. We're supposed to be immortal, remember?"
I stared at her. "Fallings are obviously not immortal, not if they catch the affliktion."
"You think he gave them the affliktion?" she said. "You think he made them lose their minds? People can't make you go crazy, even if they wanted to."
"I don't know how he's doing it," I stammered, "but that doesn't mean it's not happening."
"You honestly think he hung Little Sae up in the rafters? You think he threw Anabelle in the Caldroen? You think he—"
"I told you, I don't know how he's doing it. But he—"
"You always do this. You let your imagination get the best of you. You dream up things that aren't there."
I wished I could say she was wrong, but I had imagined quite a few things over the years that later had technically proven to be untrue. Once, when food was missing from the pantries, I was convinced Yesler was stealing it. Henri and I snuck into his room to find evidence, got caught, and earned five lashes each from my Uncle. In the end, it turned out Mazol sold the missing food so he could buy the shale-finishing Clanker.
Another time, I think I was about ten years old, I thought there was a monster loose in the castle. Each night for a week, we set traps in the hallways, but in the end all we caught was Ballard. Mazol made us both sit in one of the traps for three whole days. Then I discovered the monster was a stray cat that had found its way inside.
"This is different," I said, as heat began to rise in my chest. I had had enough of the conversation. I never knew she was keeping score—it didn't seem like something friends were supposed to do. I stiffened my neck and moved for the door, but she stepped in front of me. I tried to push past her, but she grabbed me by the arm.
"I'm not letting you go out there," she said.
"You heard Pearl's heartbeat," I said.
"If that's what it was. I could have been anything."
"What else could it be? Even if there's only a chance, don't you think it's worth trying?"
"Of course, it's just—"
"I know you think it's crazy, but it's the only idea I have."
She gave me a hard look. I imagined she was thinking about digging up Pearl's grave and finding a dead girl's body—a girl who had been like a sister to her.
"The skull pendent will tell us how they're dying. I don't know if Mazol is involved or Marcus or anyone, but we'll know when we find Pearl and get the necklace."
Suddenly my head hurt really bad. I sat down on the bucket and rubbed my temples. I didn't have any more arguments to make so I stayed silent. I couldn't tell her that I had less than a day to spend with her, to fix everything, to save the fallings from Mazol and the others. But I wanted to tell her so badly.
Henri was quiet for so long, I actually began to think about trying to tell her, at least some of the truth about me. She had read the first letter, but she didn't know about the second one. She still thought there was a chance I wouldn't turn evil. Part of me wanted to let her know what was happening to me.
The feeling built in me for what felt like a long time. I thought about what Henri had said to me in the closet, that I could decide what I would turn into. That my choices made me who I was. How much I would love for her to be right, but she didn't know what it was like to have sapience. The power controlled me, it made me do things I didn't want to do. And yet, I still wanted to talk to her about it. Maybe she could help me, if even only a little. I didn't have much time left with her. This was my only chance.
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out at first. The words weren't coming.
"Henri—" But that was all I managed to say before she interrupted me.
"If we dig her up and she's dead....," Henri started to say and her voice trailed off. I realized I had been holding my breath and I exhaled, thankful that she stopped me from saying anything stupid. Telling her would have been a big mistake.
After a moment's hesitation, she reached towards me and I thought she was going to hit me, but she grabbed the shovel out of my hands instead. I was surprised by her sudden change of mind, but wasn't about to question it. Then she took hold of my other hand and I felt my stomach tighten.
"She's alive." I said, squeezing her hand, "I promise."
I let her hand go and returned to the shack to find another shovel. As I reached into the darkness I felt again the sense that someone was inside watching me. I stepped inside a little further and felt the back wall.
"Be careful," Henri said, scratching her neck again. She sounded almost as nervous as I did.
Something inside shifted with a clank of metal on wood, then a handle fell into my face. My chest caught fire, but then I realized that it was only a rake. Just as I was breathing out, something dashed across the corner of my eye and under my legs. Henri screamed and I jumped backwards, toppling into a foot deep puddle of mud. I looked around and finally found the thing that had come running out of the shack. It was a white rabbit.
"I ought to cook you for dinner," I said and Henri laughed. "No, seriously. I would really love to eat that rabbit." I hadn't had meat in months, but there was no time to try and catch it.
I pushed myself to my feet and reached back into the shack. I managed to find a second shovel without anything else running out of the shack at me, but my heart was beating like a clanker when I finally turned back to Henri. We made our way to the edge of the greenhouse. The door that led outside was blocked, so we crawled through one of the broken windows instead, being careful not to cut ourselves on the glass.
By the time we got outside, the rain was pouring down even harder. It was hot and miserable as we jogged, I used my shovel as a crutch to help with the pain.
The wall came close to the castle on one side where it ran along the cliff's edge, but on the other side, it stretched out almost as far as you could see—a full mile. That's over 5000 feet. Even after all those years, I still found it strange that the courtyard was so large. Marcus told me there were more than 300 acres inside Daemanhur's outer walls. I couldn't imagine it being normal for castles to have such enormous lands enclosed with walls. I mean, we had a whole lake. That couldn't be normal, could it?
As we crossed the last 500 feet, I watched Henri again. She was still limping, though not quite as badly as before. I hoped that meant she was improving, but I knew deep down that she was not. I still couldn't quite put my finger on it; I knew something was wrong.
We arrived at the trunk of the great balizia tree Little Sae had fallen from when we first discovered her gift. Under it were four graves, three with a bundle of tulips on top. Henri found a small twig jutting out from the trunk that was perfect for hanging the candle lamp from. It's little flame flickered, barely staying lit on the tiny bit of wax that was remaining at it's base.
"I came by last night after shift," Henri said, explaining the flowers. She stared at the forth grave, the one that had been freshly dug that morning
. The one with no flowers.
"I didn't know anyone had been out here to dig this already," she said, a hint of 'I guess you were right after-all.' in her voice. But I wasn't about to rub it in. Until this point, I wasn't sure there was going to be that forth grave either. In a way, I was relieved to find it there. It meant my instincts were correct. But it also meant Pearl was buried, possibly still alive if the rubric was working correctly, under several feet of mud.
I stuck my shovel into the small mound of dirt and pulled a clump from the ground. My arm screamed in pain, but I ignored it. Henri looked around nervously and then joined me in digging.
"Don't worry," I said. I saw Henri look at the castle and guessed she was counting the windows with lights in them.
"We should have waited until everyone was asleep," she said.
"There's not time for that. Besides, no one will find us, not way out here." She didn't answer, but didn't look any less tense either. We worked in silence for a few, long, painful minutes. My leg and arm were hurting so badly I started to rethink whether I could use sapience to finish without risking Pearl's life—if she was still alive. But it wasn't worth the risk. Look what I did to the elusian.
I glanced over at Henri, and for the first time noticed a long, thin leather bag hanging from her belt.
"What's that?" I said, leaning on my shovel to catch my breath and give my beat up body a break.
Henri looked where I was pointing and twisted sideways, like she was trying to hide it from me.
"It's nothing," she said quickly. "Just a, a..."
"Bag?" I offered.
"Yeah. Just a bag."
"Right," I said. "Is there... anything in it."
"Can we just dig?" She pushed her shovel deep in the mud and flung the scoop out, somewhat in my direction.
"Sorry, I just—"
"Digging up graves, at night, in the rain, isn't exactly my first choice for what I could be doing right now." She had stopped shoveling and was glaring at me.
I shook my head and dug my shovel into the mud, painfully, but glanced sideways at Henri once I was sure she was no longer staring at me. Gone was the girl who kissed my cheek a few minutes ago. Why was she being so defensive about the bag at her side? What was she hiding from me? This new Henri was hard to keep up with.
She reached up to push a wet strand of hair from her eyes. She pulled the collar of her shirt down and scratched her neck for the third time. It was right where the affliktion first appeared on Anabelle. I looked more closely, but even in the dim candle light I could see it. The rash.
How could I have been so blind?
Henri had the affliktion.
She only had days to live. Maybe hours.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cevo
Thursday
10:01 pm
24 hours, 48 minutes until the Falling
Thirteen hours later, far too many of El Qir's citizens were still sobbing. I admit, I was disappointed in how they took the news of their new calling. I expected some to be upset, they were to be imprisoned inside the pavilion for the foreseeable future after all. But, there life had no purpose before. Didn't they see how much better it was to be helping me on my quest to find Evan Burl?
I sighed, realizing I should have known better. I've seen them sleeping with the pigs along the street. They weren't capable of understanding how much I was giving them.
After spending the day ensuring work was started properly in the pavilion, I could finally turn my attention to Hagnus. I sat in a high-back leather studded chair on one side of a stone table with a beveled glass top. Hagnus was strapped at the wrists and ankles to an identical chair on the other side of the table. We were in my rack room, with 11 racks of elk and bear and elephant hanging from the towering dark paneled walls. It was the same room that I had been waiting two days earlier, before my meeting with the leaders of El Qir.
Behind me was the empty plaque, with Evan Burl's name on it. I caught Hagnus staring at it and wondered why she wanted to talk to me so badly. She tried to get an audience with me before the execution. When that failed, she committed a crime in order to be selected as a Jura, knowing I would realize what she was when she wasn't killed. When she saw I was going to kill her on the spot, she said the only words that would stop me. She must have heard I was looking for Evan Burl and hoped I was desperate enough for information that she could buy time with his name.
It all came back to the same thing: she wanted terribly to get in the same room with me.
I knew her game; I just didn't know why she was playing it yet.
"Aren't you going to ask me?" she said, her voice quivering.
"Soon." I had only spent a few minutes with Hagnus, I was still sizing her up. More can be learned from the eyes than from the mouth—or maybe it's just that I prefer not to have to listen to people talk. I think I can count on my fingers the number of times someone has said something that I wanted to hear. Ironically, this could turn out to be one of those times.
What I'd learned so far was that Hagnus was good at lying—at least she thought she was. I'm sure she had plenty of practice hiding what she was. This was why I waited. I wasn't ready to begin the interrogation because I knew she would just lie. I had to get her ready to tell the truth.
She had to realize it was unlikely the evening would end well for her. Either she didn't really know where Evan was and I would kill her for lying or she would tell me where to find him and I would kill her because she wasn't any more use to me. I had made a vow, after all.
But my usual methods of getting what I wanted—which included many variations of the highly motivational tool known as pain—didn't always work. In Hagnus's case, she might just start blurting out whatever came to mind as soon as I pulled one of her fingernails back. That would be counterproductive.
No, I wanted her to trust me. This was not something I had a lot of experience in. I needed to make her feel safe enough to give up what she knew voluntarily. I needed to be charming. I needed to think. But I couldn't concentrate. I kept getting distracted by the thought of my hands around her neck.
Finally, she interrupted the silence. "What are you doing to those people?"
I didn't answer at first, caught up in my day dream, but she persisted.
"I heard screaming."
"They are quite safe."
"I heard people talking in the halls. I heard you were... killing them."
I laughed, but inside I was wondering how long it had been since Hagnus took a bath. I might have to change into an old pair of gloves before I strangled her. No, I was getting ahead of myself. I had to make her feel safe first. "Why would I harm my own employees? That would make the work take longer. Some, I grant you, made foolish decisions and had to be eliminated."
"You speak of them like they're animals."
I should have been furious with her tone, but instead found my pulse quicken with excitement. One of my wives was a fireball and about the same proportions as Hagnus, but I hadn't been married in a very long time. What was I thinking? Hagnus was filthy and a sapient. I vowed to kill every last one of her kind—I couldn't afford to let her get to me. Plus, she was filthy.
"What else are they?"
"They are people. They have families, children."
"The short ones are with them," I smiled reassuringly. "Don't think of me as a monster. Besides, I don't discriminate. Everyone with hands can dig."
"What are they digging?"
She was irritating me and I felt like ripping out a handful of her hair, but I restrained myself. That would not help me earn her trust.
"You ask too many questions," I said, gritting my teeth. "Weren't you enjoying our silence?"
She stared at me with eyes that conveyed so much emotion. She was afraid of me, yes, but not to my surprise, I found she was also excited by me. The way she breathed, how her lips parted when I spoke. It would have been flattering, had she not been a filthy dog. Besides, she was a practiced liar. She could just be tr
ying to manipulate me.
But then again, who could blame her for finding me exciting? Maybe she really was attracted to me. Perhaps I could use it to my advantage—indulge her, drop a few secrets, make her feel safe. Then, when her guard was down, I would find out the truth about Evan Burl.
I crossed the room and sat on the arm to her chair, but the arm had big knobs sticking up ever few inches that were very uncomfortable. After shifting several times, I pulled out a chair next to her and sat in it instead. She seemed nothing more than a frightened teenager, eyes as wide as goblets, though I knew she was much older than she appeared. Sapience did terrible things to anyone younger than sixteen—people just can't handle that kind of power until they're older.
"Why are you still bound?" I gestured to her wrists, wondering if I was doing a good job relating with her.
"What do you mean?"
"Let us be truthful with each other. I know these are nothing to you." Her eyebrows furrowed and I thought I had said something wrong, but then she relaxed her shoulders. The straps unslithered like a snake from her wrists and ankles, falling to the floor.
"Impressive." I inspected her more closely. She wasn't as ugly, nor quite as dirty, as most of the citizens of El Qir—at least she didn't smell like elephant—but I couldn't remember having been so close to a street dweller like her in many years. It was all I could do to not run from the room.
I tried to think of something to say, but my mind was blank. Finally, I settled on, "Honestly, have you ever even heard of a bath?"
"I've been in your dungeon for 6 days! They didn't even feed me every day."
"And did they force you to roll in the mud—" I stopped myself. She was getting upset. I needed her to relax. Holding my breath, I scooted a little closer to her. I forced myself to reach out and take her trembling hands in mine—thankful I had changed out of my favorite pair of gloves before coming to see her. It seemed like something I'd seen people do sometimes, a comforting gesture. But after a long moment, I couldn't take it anymore. Jerking back, I turned my head away from her so I could breath more easily. I composed myself and turned back to her with my best smile.
Evan Burl and the Falling Page 18
