Wentworth straightened. “You two have overtaxed your strength. Rest, if you can.”
She strode off to help another Mender who was working on a wounded enforcer. I sat up, my gaze falling on the open collar on the ground. “Okay, so how did she unlock that thing? She couldn’t possibly have guessed all nine numbers!”
“Mastercode,” Connor replied. “It unlocks all Gull City collars.”
“There’s a mastercode? Since when?”
“Apparently it was one of Jeremy Duoro’s ideas,” he said, stifling a yawn. He was feeling the after-effects of the Mending too. “To provide a simple way to let everyone go if the Accords ever changed. Or to give them a way to free a bunch of Illegals at once if a madman like Neville ever got hold of another detention centre.”
I had no idea when he’d found all that out and I wasn’t going to ask. Because it had just dawned on me that he didn’t know about the Accords. None of them did, and they couldn’t go for one more second without knowing it. I lurched to my feet, pulling Connor with me. We should all be standing for this. “Gather round, everyone. I’ve got news.”
Nicky ignored me; the forest smells were far more interesting than I was. Em and Jules came over, although I noticed they were keeping a wary distance between them – they came nearer to me, and not each other. I’ll get to that later. For now …
I drew in a deep breath, and said, “The Citizenship Accords are gone.”
Jules frowned. “What do you mean, gone?”
“I mean gone! Finished. Ended. The Primes voted and the Accords are done.”
Em grabbed hold of my am. “Ash – when? How?”
I explained, all the way from the poison to Grant’s betrayal and the vote.
When I finished, Connor and Jules were grinning. But Ember turned away. After a second I heard a sniffle.
“You’re not crying, Em?”
“No! You know I never cry!”
Her voice broke on the last word, and I moved across to hug her. For a while she cried into my shoulder. Then she wiped at her face, and whispered, “I knew you could do it. I always knew.”
“We did it. We all did it.” I stood back to stare into her mismatched eyes, and saw what I’d hoped to see. The weight of the guilt that she carried with her was easing. Gone. Finished. Ended. I hoped.
Jules cleared his throat. “Hate to spoil the mood, but our newfound status ain’t gonna mean much if we’re still standing around here once Neville takes the city.”
My heart sank. “You think he’s going to take the city?”
“If what happened at the Residence is any indication, probably,” Jules answered. “Enforcers just drew their weapons and started killing other enforcers.”
“I’ve never heard of an ability that could make people do that!”
“It wasn’t an ability,” Connor said. “They’re loyal to Terence. As it turns out, a lot of the enforcers working for Willis are loyal to Terence. And after the attack on the station, there were enforcers posted absolutely everywhere. Especially around key government facilities, and around the Prime.”
Putting them in the perfect position to take things over from the inside. “This was their plan all along.”
A new voice snarled, “Yes.”
Belle Willis was striding over to us. “Henry tells me that everything is in chaos. It’s a coup.” She looked in the direction of the city, and her expression hardened. “My chief of staff is still in there, and she’s organising a counter attack. She’ll either stop them – or make it cost them as dearly as possible to win.”
She wanted to be there. I knew, because it’s what I would have wanted. “If you go back you’ll be a target for every minion and every bad enforcer that spots you,” I said. “It’d be next to impossible to keep you safe, and a lot of people would die trying.”
“I know.” She sighed. “That’s why I’m leaving. The other Primes have offered to take me with them to one of their cities. But if I do that and the worst happens here, there’ll be no centre of government for Gull City other than the one Terence runs. It would be better for me to go – somewhere else. Somewhere defensible, and large enough to hold a government-in-exile.” Her gaze met mine. “Close to allies.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out where she was talking about. Belle Willis was coming to my part of the world. “You mean Detention Centre 3.”
She nodded. “If the city falls, danger will follow me.”
“Danger will come whether you’re there or not.” There was no way Neville or Terence were going to just leave the Tribe alone. Except I couldn’t have Willis expecting support I wasn’t going to be able to give. “We’ll help however we can. But we can’t be your army. Our priority is the forest.” I hoped it wouldn’t come down to having to abandon one to save the other. But if it did, I’d choose the Tribe and the trees every time.
“Understood,” Willis said. “And you should know, Ashala – I’m sending Henry to Detention Centre 2 to authorise the release of the detainees. If Terence does take the city, I’m not giving him any more victims than I have to.”
That was a good idea. No, that was a great idea. Just not quite great enough. “What about Detention Centre 1?”
“Unfortunately I can only free one centre. And there are no children in Detention Centre 1.”
Detention Centre 1 was for adults, and Detention Centre 2 was for families and kids. Only I didn’t see why she’d had to choose. “Couldn’t you send someone else to the other centre?”
“I can’t send just anyone. It has to be someone who’ll be believed when they say the Citizenship Accords have ended. Someone the Chief Administrator of the centre knows could only have come from me.” She waved her arm at the clearing. “There are no senior members of my government here. All I have is Henry, and he can’t be in two places at once.”
I grinned. “Yes, he can.”
Jules had realised what I was thinking and didn’t like it. “Bad idea, wolfgirl!”
I tried to think of an argument that would convince him to wear Henry’s face. “We need those detainees, Jules. Having more people with abilities on our side could make all the difference, especially if Terence takes the city.”
“What makes you think any of ’em are gonna join this fight, even if you get them out? They’ll have no reason to trust the government. Any government.”
“Yeah, but they might trust me. Leader of the Tribe, and all that.”
“Besides,” Connor put in, “it’s possible they won’t take much convincing once they’re told who it is they’re fighting against. Neville Rose ran Detention Centre 1 for almost five years. He’ll have plenty of enemies among the detainees.”
Willis frowned. “My concern is that he might have friends among the guards. I’ve replaced the Chief Administrator and all of the senior enforcers, but I’d only just started on the junior staff. My priority was making changes to the centre with the children. I haven’t had time to put in an entirely new staff in Detention Centre 1 the way I have in Detention Centre 2.”
That made this a risk, even though not everyone who ever worked for Neville was one of his supporters. Wentworth certainly wasn’t, and he’d been her boss until she’d seen what he was and helped to defeat him. “We’ll be careful,” I said. “But we are going to do this.”
Willis was hesitating. I could see the same concern in her face that had been there before, when we’d been in the room with Neville. She was reacting to me as if I was someone she should protect. A kid. She was years too late to protect me or any of the Tribe; we’d already figured out how to protect ourselves. We’d had to, and we weren’t going back to putting our lives in the hands of adults now.
I took a step closer to her. “I’m going, Prime Willis, and I’m telling you that as the Leader of the Tribe. And you need to respect that, because if you can’t, this alliance will never work – and Neville and Terence will defeat us both.”
She gave a reluctant nod. “What can I do to help?”
“We’ll need a vehicle,” Connor told her. I hadn’t thought of that, but he was right – the centre was hours and hours away from here, and Connor had probably tired out his ability too much to take us all that way. Besides, he’d need to save his strength for when we got there in case there was any trouble.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Willis said, and went striding back to where her husband and the other Primes were already moving people in the direction of the vehicles. Nobody thought it was a good idea to hang around here.
Jules rounded on Connor and me. “This is nuts, even for you two. You should be worrying about the Tribe, not a bunch of detainees who we don’t even know!”
“We are worrying about the Tribe,” I said. “We need more people with abilities in this fight than just us, and we especially need them protecting Prime Willis.”
He rolled his eyes. “I get that she’s your friend and–”
Connor interrupted him, “This isn’t about friendship. If, as seems likely, Terence takes the city then Willis becomes the focus of all opposition to him. If she dies and the only real threat left to Terence is the Tribe, who do you think he’s coming after next?”
Jules blinked. “Oh.”
“And,” Em put in, “until the Accords are truly gone, the Tribe will never be truly safe. The repeal is only the beginning. Now they’ve got to dismantle everything that went with the Accords, like the centres and bureaus of Citizenship and assessments. Even attitudes. That’s going to take time, and a government that’s committed to change. It’s going to take Willis.”
I could see Jules wasn’t totally convinced. He wasn’t arguing any more, though, maybe because he could see we were all totally convinced. I caught Em’s gaze. There was something I had to do for her and Jules both. “Can I talk to you alone for a second?”
We walked away from the others, far enough that they couldn’t overhear. “Listen, Em, I wanted to–”
“It’s all right,” she said. “I know what you’re going to say. You need me to go with the Prime.”
“Um. Yeah, I do. Somebody’s got to take news of everything that’s happened back to the Tribe – to both Tribes. Jaz needs to understand that a bunch of government people turning up isn’t some kind of invasion. But what I was going to say was about Jules.”
Em stiffened. I kept going anyway.
“What he did back there, walking into a room with Neville Rose wearing Connor’s face? It’s about the stupidest, bravest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do.”
She folded her arms and looked away. She really didn’t want to talk about this. I wasn’t giving up. “Your relationship with Jules is your relationship with Jules, and I don’t want to interfere in it, but there could be trouble where we’re going. And sometimes we don’t have as much time with people as we think.” Penelope’s voice echoed in my memory: You know what, Ash? I can smell eucalyptus … “Just – please don’t leave anything unsaid or undone. Not when you might regret it later.”
She was silent, gazing into the distance. Then she lifted her chin and marched up to Jules, grabbing hold of his arm and dragging him to the edge of the clearing. I watched as she started talking, accompanying the words with angry, impatient movements of her hands. Jules was silent, letting her talk.
Connor came over to me. He circled his arms around my waist and I leaned back against him with a sigh.
“Fixing the world, Ashala?” he asked. He was watching Em and Jules too.
“Fixing our world,” I replied. “Our Tribe. With any luck.”
Em was still talking, although she seemed to be taking longer breaks between sentences. She’d started to run out of words, and Jules still wasn’t speaking at all. She jabbed at his chest, and I didn’t need to be able to hear her to know what she’d said. Aren’t you going to say something?
Jules caught her hand and finally spoke. Not much, just a couple of words. I knew what he’d said as well. Forgive me.
For a second longer they stood where they were, Jules clasping Ember’s hand and Ember staring at Jules. Then Em tore her hand from his so she could take hold of the front of his shirt and pull his head down to hers for a long, deep kiss.
“World fixed,” Connor said, and I could hear the laughter in his voice. And the regret, for what neither of us had been able to fix. We missed Pen. That only made it more important to do everything we could to change things in the way that she’d wanted.
I looked up at Connor and grinned a fierce, wolfy grin. “Let’s go free a detention centre.”
THE RUNAWAY
GEORGIE
Sometimes I knew where to be. Sometimes I didn’t. Today I did, and it wasn’t in the caves.
I left Daniel sleeping. He was tired from staying up all night to help with the map. I left the map as well, which was showing me the same thing it had shown me ever since I’d taken Mr Snuffles to the wolves. None of the other people who’d gone to the city were dead but they all could be. They could be dead in the next moment, or the next, or the next. Ash was in the most danger of all, and because she was in danger the world was too. Except wherever there was danger there was Jules and his choices were the difference between living and dying. He was the shelter from the storm. I told that to Daniel and he said Jules was truly one of us after all.
The trees grew thinner and then they stopped. I was at the lake. It was always quieter here than the rest of the forest, as if it were wrapped in silence. Sometimes I came here to be alone in quiet, only I was never really alone since Ash’s grandpa was in the water. Today I was even more not-alone, because there was a brown desert cat sitting on the shore.
“Hello,” I said. “You’re Starbeauty.”
She turned green eyes away from the water and towards me. You are Georgie. When I come here, you are the one who greets me.
I’d never heard anyone make such perfect sense. “Yes. And this is where I greet you when you come.”
Starbeauty inclined her head. You are trying to save her.
“You know Ash is in danger?”
I am the third.
I had known Starbeauty would be here but I hadn’t known she was the third and that worried me. How was I supposed to help Ash if I missed something so important? “I didn’t know that.”
You did not need to know it. I knew it.
“But you’re here! Shouldn’t you be where Ash is?”
My choices are made here. The one whose choices are to be made there is with her already. She paced towards me. Hold out your hand.
I did, and she opened her mouth to drop something in my palm. “What’s that?”
A taffa bean.
Ash had a lot of things to say about taffa and none of them were good things. “I don’t think Ash would want me planting taffa vines in the Firstwood.”
You do not plant it. You put it beneath your tongue. It will help you to see.
I examined the bean, which was small and shiny and red. “But I don’t use it now.”
No. You will know when it is time to use the bean. Only it will not show you all things. Because to know the tree you must study the bark. But if you are studying the bark you cannot see the whole of the tree.
I nodded. “No one can know all of near and far.”
You have wisdom. It is because you are of cat.
“I am?”
You see the future. Cats see the future. Therefore, you are of cat.
That made perfect sense too.
There was a sudden rush of air and Daniel appeared at the edge of the trees. “Georgie. I was worried about–” He stopped as he caught sight of Starbeauty. “Hello.”
I am Starbeauty.
“I’m Daniel.”
You are honoured to meet me.
“Ah – yes, I suppose I am.”
She returned her attention to me. He is yours. You are of cat. Therefore he is of cat, and all that is of cat belongs to me. She flicked her tufted ears towards the forest. I wonder what else in this place belongs to me.
“I don’
t know.”
I shall find out.
Starbeauty stalked away, vanishing into the undergrowth. Daniel stared after her. “That cat is exactly like Ash said she was.”
“How else would she be?”
He turned towards me and smiled. “No other way. Is Leo with her?”
Leo was who Starbeauty lived with in Spinifex City. Ash said, Leo thought Starbeauty was his pet and Starbeauty thought he was hers. “No. When she comes here she comes alone.”
Then I frowned, because Daniel was still smiling and there was something strange about it. Or there wasn’t. It was how he always smiled, and Daniel smiled a lot. Only I had that wrong. Daniel smiled at me a lot, and there was nothing strange about it. What was strange was that I’d never understood what it meant before.
“Daniel! You love me.”
He went so still he seemed to stop breathing.
“You love me like Connor loves Ash,” I said. “And like Jules loves Ember.”
“No, Georgie. I love you the way I love you.”
I walked forwards until I was standing right in front of him. “Are you sure?”
He choked back a laugh. “Am I sure? Georgie …”
Daniel thought it was funny. I smacked my hand against his shoulder. “It’s a serious question! Because you could love anyone and sometimes people find me hard to understand.”
He wasn’t smiling any more. “Have I ever made you feel that way, even for a second?”
“No. But people live for a long time, Daniel. Futures go on and on and on. One day you might want someone everyone understands, and that isn’t me.”
He reached out to put his hands on either side of my face, brushing his thumb lightly along my cheek. He was shaking although it wasn’t cold. “Georgie, you see things no one else sees, and when I’m with you, I see things no one else sees. You make me extraordinary. Why would I ever want to be with anyone else?”
I stared up at him, seeing myself reflected in the green of his eyes. I’d always thought Ash was the only one who could pull me back from a future. I’d been wrong. The picture Daniel had of me was one that would always draw me to wherever he was. Except I was too far away from him even though I was standing close. There was air between us and there shouldn’t be. There shouldn’t be anything between us.
The Foretelling of Georgie Spider Page 11
