Suki and a young man step forward. She pulls a small tan pouch from beneath her cloak and unhooks the drawstring, revealing black powder that sparkles in the minimal light. The other guard produces a paste-like green goop from a tube, and together they start to coat the wall.
Arlo catches me staring and leans in. “That’s the same stuff we used to make the fireworks.”
I nod and watch as Suki sprinkles the black powder into the green paste.
“Gather round,” Arlo says, his voice harsh in the silence, and we all take a step closer to him. “Once the doors blow, we’ve got two missions.” He holds up one finger. “The first is to rescue Kyra. Rose, that’s up to you.” He holds up a second finger. “As for the rest of us, our only goal is to provide cover for Rose, and above all else, we cannot let the soldiers reach the top of the tower and sound the alarm. But no matter what happens, Rose and Kyra get out, understood?”
Everyone nods except me. How am I supposed to locate Kyra in her cell, walk over a five-hundred-foot drop, open the cage, and get back before even a single soldier reaches the alarm?
We’re doomed.
“All you need to do is to get to Kyra,” Arlo whispers to me. “Put the harness around her, and I’ll do the rest. You can do it.”
“What happens if I just turn around now?”
“We fail,” Arlo says. “And Piper probably figures out a way to paint you as a traitor.”
Death beyond the door and death behind it. There’s only one way to make it through this alive: don’t fail.
“I can do this,” I repeat under my breath.
“How are we doing over there, Tāng?” Arlo asks.
Suki looks over her shoulder, a wire still in her hand. “Almost done.”
“Okay,” he says, pulling a stunner out of each pocket. “I want you all to form a line. Rose, you’re behind me, and now would be a good time to down some of that Zarenite. Don’t hesitate once we’re in, understood? And leave room for Shĭ and Tāng to fall in behind us.”
Everyone tucks in tight together, with Arlo at the lead. Guards stand at either side of me, stunners poised straight ahead. My heart hammers in my chest. I pull on the cord tucked in my shirt and sprinkle a little of the Zarenite onto my tongue.
We’re doing this. We’re really doing this.
My hand fumbles for my own stunner strapped to my leg over my snug pants. When my fingers wrap around the grip, the Zarenite stuffed in the barrel glows. I stand on my tiptoes to peer over Arlo’s shoulder and see Suki and the other guard run back toward us, their feet pounding the stone.
There are only seconds now.
Suki starts the countdown, her voice loud in the focused silence.
“Five.”
“Four.”
Is this is really happening? This is really happening.
“Three.”
Please let everything go okay. For us down here and for Oren above trying to save the girls in the Garden.
“Two.”
And for Rayce. For the man I want to stay with, even if I can’t say it aloud.
I take a deep breath, hold it like I’m about to plunge underwater, and remind myself that I’m strong. I’ve survived the Garden and escaped it. Just because I couldn’t help Fern doesn’t mean I’ll mess up again. My eyes snap shut as Suki’s countdown ends.
“One.”
BOOM!
The explosion sends tremors down my body, and the metal doors cave.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Heat from the blast rips through my body, blowing my hair back. The banging sound echoes in the small space, nearly knocking me off my feet. My ears fill with a heavy humming, and the loss of hearing throws off my balance.
“Move out!” Arlo shouts, but it sounds jumbled and slow. He swings his arm toward the hole.
Arlo and the two guards in front move through the opening we’ve just created, and I follow their movement without thought. My feet stumble over rubble from the blast, then I straighten up in a room so massive it makes Zareen look tiny.
The blend of mold and decay hits me first, and I fight the urge to hold my nose. We’re standing on one side of a canyon made of dark gray stone. About one hundred yards away, a wooden tower sprouts up from the ground, about as tall as the highest point of the Garden’s show tent. I can almost see Rayce’s choppy writing sticking up from the base labeling it the East Tower.
Below us stretches the infamous five-hundred-foot drop, torches revealing jagged stalagmites reaching out from the mouth of the cave. Above our heads, two rows of wooden cages hang suspended in the air from a thick metal cord attached to the tops of the towers. It reminds me of a really twisted laundry line, with the caged people replacing the drying clothes. And hanging in one of those cages is our target. Kyra.
Arlo doesn’t waste a second, holding his right stunner up and shooting a bolt at the soldier in the tower. The Zarenite finds its mark, disabling the soldier nearest the alarm. He aims his other stunner toward the swarm of soldiers rushing from the tower. He lets off two more shots, burning the cavern green.
Other stunners go off, like Arlo’s shot woke them, plunging the room into a kind of lightning storm. A handful of soldiers peek out from over the tower, their arrow tips pointed our way. The soldiers’ first wave of arrows rains down on us in response. I aim my own stunner for a guard about halfway up the tower and pull the trigger. The kickback doesn’t surprise me this time, and the bolt finds its mark. Arlo’s lessons worked.
Cutting my eyes away from the war starting around me, I search the cages hanging over the drop, combing each one for a little girl.
Man, older man, middle-aged woman, another guy.
Precious seconds tick by. Any minute, one of the soldiers could reach the alarm and it’d be over for us. All the prisoners sit up in their cages to see what the commotion is, pale hands sliding through bars, but I ignore them, locating the girl dead center on the line closest to us.
My small group of Zareeni guards advances toward the tower. They use themselves as a human barricade so the other soldiers can’t get to me. But once we reach our destination, I won’t be able to rely on them.
I add my stunner to the mix, aiming for the soldiers with crossbows. A tall Zareeni man standing in front of me falls to his knees, an arrow embedded in his shin.
He doesn’t stop shooting even though he’s on the ground. Suki takes his place, blocking me from the onslaught of soldiers charging for us with swords drawn.
The thwap of crossbows letting arrows loose booms through the cavernous space, accompanied by the zap-zap of our stunners. An arrow whizzes past my head, the air stirring from its momentum, and I duck as another one quickly follows.
“Time to charge!” Arlo commands.
Without a word, the entire party picks up their pace, stunner bolts colliding with arrow and soldier alike. Another Zareeni guard drops near me, and I pass him, noticing a pool of blood staining the dark stone red. I don’t even know his name. Rayce would. Another family he’ll have to tell—
I push the thought from my mind and plow forward with the other seven still standing. At the base of the tower, about nine soldiers charge us. Arlo disposes of two quickly, but before I can warn him, an arrow slices through his forearm, forcing him to drop his left stunner. He lets out a sharp hiss.
“Arlo!” I call over my shoulder, fighting the urge to double back to make sure he’s okay.
Suki shoots the soldier closest to her. “Go, Rose!” she yells, narrowly avoiding a sword to the head.
I duck under the swing of an oncoming sword, and the soldier goes down, thanks to a well-timed stunner bolt from someone behind me. But it doesn’t matter who. All that matters is that wooden tower in front of me. I reach the base of the wooden ramp and aim my own stunner for a soldier running toward me. The Zarenite explodes green on his neck, and he goes down. I jump over the body and keep going.
The wooden walkway zigzags its way up the looming tower. I run it like I’m fleeing the Garde
ner all over again. Sweat drips down my forehead, and if I stop I’ll probably throw up. The booming sound of stunners keeps my pace. I hold on to it, focus on it.
I have to save Kyra.
The platform is no bigger than my old cart, a square that you can only take five steps in. The soldier Arlo hit lies crumpled on the floor in a pool of leather and tiny metal links.
A huge gear that suspends the wire holding the prisoners’ cages protrudes through the middle of the platform. The crank to reel the cages in looks like it would take two grown men to move it. No way that’s an option for me.
At the back of the tower, a large bucket of water rests near a wooden trough that runs to the alarm Arlo warned us about. All it would take to end our cause is for this soldier to gain consciousness and tip the bucket over, sending the water down to power the alarm.
Over the edge, more soldiers pour in from the east entrance. The Zareeni guards have fanned out, defending the tower.
I shiver and turn back to the gear. Kicking off my boots, I run for the steel wire suspending the cages. The wood brushes my bare feet, rough and splintered, but I’m going to need to feel the wire under me to keep my balance.
All I have to do is get halfway across the chasm just once and free Kyra. Then Arlo will shoot the spiked cord into the ceiling, and we’ll be able to ride it to safety. I take a deep breath and throw a prayer up to Yun, since he seems to be the only god paying attention.
Grabbing the thick wire, I heave myself up, causing the cable to shake. I wait for it to steady, pulling myself into a crouching position.
Here goes nothing.
I rise slowly and hold my hands out to balance my weight. Inhaling deeply, I take my first step, feeling the way the strands of woven metal twist under my bare feet.
My feet move with every breath released. An old trick from my time in the Garden. The sound of arrows whirling by threatens to break my concentration, so I tune them out and force myself to forget—about Piper counting on us to make this work, about Rayce risking his life to give us the small fraction of time we need, and about Arlo and Suki in the canyon, blocking arrows and swords with their bodies.
There is only Kyra, who gets a little closer with every step I take.
A scream rips through the open air and is silenced almost as quickly. I turn toward the noise instinctively, and my body tilts to the left. The pit stretches out underneath me, a hungry mouth with rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Tightening my core to correct my balance, I take a second to catch my breath.
The gap between Kyra and me shrinks until, finally, I’m standing directly above her. Her round cage peters up to a wide point that hooks onto the metal cord. The cage is so narrow that if she were fully grown, she’d be obligated to stand, but since she’s so small, she squats down in the enclosure, her arms wrapped around her bony knees. She’s forced to balance her feet on a metal bar to keep them from sticking through the bottom of her cage, reminding me of a bird with a broken wing.
“Kyra?” I say. “I’m from Zareen. Your sister sent me.”
“Piper?” Her weak voice drifts up from below.
“Yes.” I squat. “Stay where you are. I’m going to get you out of there.”
I grip the cord underneath my feet and let my left leg down until it touches the top of her cage. The cold air reaches out and tickles the bottom of my bare foot. My right foot follows, catching the first crossbar of her enclosure, and I use it to crawl down the slender metal cage. Sweat streams down my back and forehead. When I reach the bottom rim of Kyra’s cell, I peer between the bars at the wide-eyed girl. She can’t be more than twelve, judging by her pencil-thin frame and the way her pale green dress sags against her barely there chest.
The dirt and grime covering her skin doesn’t look like it’s a natural part of her yet, meaning she hasn’t been in this condition long.
“All right, Kyra. I’m going to open your cage in just a moment. Then Arlo is going to shoot a rope across the cavern, and all you have to do is ride it down to him.”
“Arlo’s here?” she asks, sitting up from her slouched position.
“He sure is.” Whether he’s still in one piece…not so sure.
As if he heard us talking about him, the whizzing sound of the anchor echoes next to my ear. The spike embeds itself into the rock ceiling, and I follow the line back to Arlo at the edge of the canyon. He’s okay!
He’s wrapped the device around his left arm, and with his right hand he shoots at a soldier. He turns and yanks his end, throwing his full weight backward to test the security of the cord. A few rocks crumble off the ceiling, falling into the darkness below, but the spike doesn’t budge. All I’ll need to do is open Kyra’s door and help her zip down the line into Arlo’s waiting arms.
“See?” I put on my stage smile to hide my racing heart. “Nothing to worry about. Arlo’s right there. We just need to get to him. Can you do that?”
“I think so,” she says, her clenching jaw morphing her into a mini Piper.
Wedging my feet underneath the lowest bar in her cage, I unhook the metal harness coiled on my waist. Piper instructed the metalworker to weld the ends into loops for Kyra to stick her hands through.
“Just slip your hand through one end,” I say, handing the harness to her.
She holds out the metal cable and forces her shaking hand inside the left loop.
“Good. Now I’m going to get your cage open.”
Trailing a few paces to the right, I find her cage door. Retrieving the flicker from inside my waistband, I bend down and flip the small button on the side, bringing the flame to life. The heat near my face steadies my breathing.
The small fire eats against the thick bar, dripping glowing red drops of steel into the cavernous pit below. The flicker slices the rest of the way through the bar, and the door pops open. My slippery fingers fumble as I go to tuck the flicker into my pocket, and it slips from my grasp.
A tiny gasp escapes Kyra’s mouth as we watch the flicker plummet toward the ground. One wrong move and that could be us.
“It’s all right,” I say to her. “I’m finished with it anyway.”
She nods, but her eyes don’t leave the ominous fall.
I twist around to face Arlo. “Are we good to go?”
The remaining five guards have surrounded him. I can’t tell if one of them is Suki, but I selfishly hope she is. Aside from welcoming me to Zareen with a stunner to the face, she’s been good to me. The rest of the platform resembles a graveyard scattered with arrows, swords, slain rebels, and stunned soldiers.
“Ready!” Arlo yells, his voice bouncing off the walls.
My nerves squeeze my throat, threatening to choke me. Rising to my full height, I reach for the cord Arlo shot over and pull it toward me.
“Now, Kyra,” I say. “All you need to do is wrap the end of your harness around this cord and stick your hand through the other end.”
She doesn’t move.
“This is going to work?” she asks, her voice shaking.
“I’m sure of it.” Kind of.
She gulps down a breath of air and closes her eyes. Clasping her hands into tiny fists, she pushes to her feet. When she opens her eyes, I see the same determination that used to gleam from Clover right before a knife was thrown at her.
She walks over to the cord I’m holding and loops her harness around the wire with shaky hands.
“On three, push off, okay? Right into Arlo’s arms.”
“Right into Arlo’s arms,” she repeats.
“One.”
“Two.”
She looks at me one last time, weighing whether she should trust her life in my hands. I want to tell her that she isn’t trusting me, she’s trusting her sister, but there isn’t time.
“Three!”
Kyra pushes off her enclosure with eyes shut tight and body rigid. I watch as she zips toward Arlo’s waiting arms.
The sound of crashing metal draws my attention away from Kyr
a. My eyes shoot to the eastern entrance as a group of at least twenty soldiers race down the stairs. One of them near the front has a crossbow aimed directly at Arlo. Before I can call out, the crossbow fires and an arrow zips through the air, burying itself into Arlo’s middle.
Kyra collides with him, pushing the arrow in farther. Arlo cries out sharply as he falls back with his arms wrapped around her. She’s safe. But his end of the cord slips from his grasp, leaving me stranded over the chasm without an easy way to get down. I hold my breath, waiting to see if Arlo stirs.
“Get back over here, Rose!” Suki calls out, waving for me to go. “I’ll make sure he’s okay.”
Her words spur my stagnant body into action. I pull myself back up the cage, reaching for the thick cord at the top.
Just as my fingers grab the wire, a piercing shrill rings out in the cavernous room, nearly causing me to lose my grip. I pull myself onto the wire, gritting my teeth against the earsplitting sound that rips through me.
One of the soldiers reached the alarm.
Suki supports Arlo with one arm and fires her stunner with the other hand. One of the other rebels tucks Kyra behind himself, and they retreat toward the hole we blew in the wall. Relief washes through me like cool water.
All I have to do is get to the tower and back through the makeshift door.
With the alarm ringing and my limbs shaking, I head back, ignoring everything around me. Just one foot in front of the other, until all of the wire disappears.
I jump onto the wooden platform, feeling it creak underneath my feet, and take in a deep gulp of cold air. Almost safe. Now I just have to get down to Arlo and the others. We didn’t do it all before they sounded the alarm, but at least we got Kyra.
Tears spring to my eyes, blurring my vision. I swipe at them with the back of my hand to keep my view clear, but I can already feel the crushing weight that has smothered me since we blew through the wall lifting. Almost like I could accomplish anything. Like the world is mine. All I have to do is take it.
The hilt of my stunner cools my fingers as I rush to the wooden ramp, ready to make my way down.
Garden of Thorns Page 22
