Ros’s shoulders sink. “You don’t like it?”
“No, it isn’t, it’s just . . . ,” I falter. “It’s just that ‘Ros’ fits you so well as it is.”
She glares at me and puts her hands on her hips. “For once, I’d like to use my full name.”
I step toward her and hesitate a moment. “May I?” I ask. Ros nods. I reach for her necklace. “You already have a title,” I say. “A better title than any I’ve heard before.”
“I told you. I don’t agree with the concept of peace. Not like Grandma G does.”
“Maybe you don’t have to,” I offer. “Maybe you just need to believe in the words themselves.”
“How do you mean?”
“Rosalind the Peacekeeper,” I announce. “Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
She nods slowly, letting the words sink in. “My mother gave me this pendant. I never understood why. What was I supposed to do with it? I was so small. And it was just me and Grandma G against all that fighting, all that death.” Rosalind squeezes the pendant and closes her eyes. “I never imagined the word held any power.”
“Maybe your mother gave this to you for just that reason.” I think of my mother, then swallow my own bitter loss. I have nothing from her now that she’s gone. “Perhaps she hoped that even in times of war, you’d still have something to hold on to.”
Rosalind points at me and smiles broadly, showing her rows of bright, straight teeth. “You’re good, Miss Hartley. Be careful of this one,” she says, glancing at Ledger. “I’m telling you, she’s got everyone’s number.”
“You’re right about that,” Ledger whispers.
I smile and look at the ground. Maybe, just maybe, I managed to get through to her. Just a little.
“All right, Miss Hartley. You win,” Ros says, dropping her pendant back under her shirt. “Now I’m gonna get you pair of boolos Grandma G’s volume.”
*
We’re trampling through the woods following Ros’s lead. I figure we’re going farther this time, because Ros has brought a flashlight and she’s not talking. She’s singing.
Blow, blow, thou winter wind!
Blow, blow, thou winter wind!
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude.
As man’s in-gra-ti-tude!
Ros walks ahead of us, singing the same verse over and over, while Ledger and I follow in silence. The warm notes of her voice mingle with the sounds of the chirping forest. Soon, the sound of rushing water takes over. Ros stops and points. “The old mill is just there, beyond the ridge.”
I stare into the trees, making out the shiny face of a steep rock edge, the glint of a waterfall beside it.
“We’ll cross the river here, where it runs shallow, then make our way up the side of the falls next to the mill.” She flicks her curls as she turns to me. “You good with heights?”
“Sure,” I say, trying to sound convincing. There are a few tall houses in the Winnow, but none of them look anywhere near as high as the falls.
“Why can’t getting a volume ever be easy?” I whisper to Ledger.
“What? That?” Ledger points. “Just a little waterfall. Nothing to it.”
“Yeah, it’s not the falls we need to worry about.” Ros plucks a branch of the tree and drops it into the river, focusing her flashlight on it. It floats off so quickly we can hardly see it. “The current moves fast up here. You fall in, nobody’s going to come swimmin’ after you.” She stares at us, blinking in the dark. “You get me?” Before I know it, Ros is making her way across the river, hopping from rock to rock like it’s a game. She pauses halfway, jams the flashlight between her teeth and leaps up onto the trunk of a fallen tree before scurrying across it. “Let’s go!” she yells from the other side.
“I’ll go first,” Ledger says. “That way you have something to hold on to. If you fall, I mean.” He winks at me and hoists up the backpack.
“No, wait!” I stop him. “I’d better go first. With the backpack.”
He looks at me quizzically as I take it from his shoulders. “The volumes, Ledger. We can’t risk them getting wet.”
“Right, good plan. You go first, and if you fall in, I’ll just save the books.”
There’s that sarcasm again. I smirk at him, so tempted to shove his bare arm. But I know what will happen if I do, and now is not the time to be blacking out. So I hoist the backpack over my shoulders and get ready. “I’m not going to fall in.” Ledger crinkles his forehead.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be okay. Believe me. I’m good.”
“I do believe you,” he whispers. “It’s the rotted tree trunk I’m worried about. I’m heavier, Noelle. If the tree can hold my weight, it can hold yours and the books. I’m going first. Stand aside.” Ledger pushes past me and starts across. He takes it one rock at a time. When he gets to the tree, I stop breathing. The current underneath is so powerful, I’m not sure what would happen if one of us fell in.
“Hurry up,” Ros calls as Ledger makes it safely to the other side. “I don’t have all night!”
My turn. I hold the straps of the pack tight as I start across. The rocks are slippery and wet. My foot glides off a slick edge, and I plunge forward, catching my knee on the sharp corner of a rock. My other leg splays into the river, soaking through my shoe. I catch the trickle of blood from my leg. Perfect.
“Noelle!” Ledger calls to me. “Are you all right?”
“Fine! I just slipped a little.” I tighten the backpack, then stand up, regaining my balance. Round two. I take the rocks carefully, placing my feet painstakingly. At last, I’m at the tree trunk, and I decide to copy Ros and crawl across, except I look a little bit more like a clumsy human instead of a swift feline. I kneel down, and the trunk pierces my open wound. This is not going to be pleasant.
“That’s great,” Ledger calls out encouragingly. “Good job.”
“Slow job,” Ros mumbles. “It’s like you never crossed a river before. I mean, damn, I’m getting tired just watching you, Miss Hartley!”
“Shhh! I’m trying to concentrate!” I shout. To my surprise, Ros clams up. With just a few feet to go, I feel the backpack slip to the right. The heavy volumes pull me toward the water. To my horror, my own weight follows.
“Noelle!” Ledger climbs onto the tree trunk and flattens himself, reaching for me. If I stretch out, I could grasp his hand. But I don’t.
“That’s not going to work, Ledger,” I say.
He pulls back frustrated, realizing why. I’m on my own, and I have to focus. I’m hanging by the strength of my arms. The rushing current below me clatters in my ears. My arms slip, grazing my flesh against the bark. You can do this.
I clamp my legs around the trunk, using all my strength to right myself. With one final push, I manage to fling my body back where it should have been. I pull myself to the other side of the riverbank, landing gracelessly, headfirst onto the muddy bank. I wrench myself up, taking half the earth with me. My arms are scraped up, and my knee is throbbing and bleeding profusely from the gash it suffered, but the books . . . the books are perfect.
Ledger crouches down and checks out my knee. “It’s bad,” he says stonily.
“I’ve seen worse,” I say.
Ledger’s hand lifts and hovers above my bleeding knee. For a split second I think I see his fingers shaking. His expression hardens. His eyes get flinty. Then he tears his hand away and stands up suddenly. “Let’s get this over with,” he says to Ros. “Now.”
I smile a little, but I’m not sure why. Is he mad that I got hurt? And if so, why? Is it because he couldn’t stop it? Because he cannot help me? I think maybe I even know what he wants. Or maybe it’s just because I want it myself. To hold him. Have him hold me. But that’s impossible. So I stand up and hold myself, shivering from the wet, the cold, and Ros’s stare that is looking at both of us like we’re crazy.
“You two have got some serious issues.” She shakes her head. “I’m not getting in th
e middle of your weirdo friendship-love thing. Nope. No way. Don’t want any part of that.” She marches off. I look at Ledger, but he won’t return my gaze.
When we get to the falls, my heart sinks. It’s another climb. Though the rocky face at the edge of the falls has been carved with a narrow bead of steps all the way to the top, the edges are slick with algae. There’s almost nothing to hold on to. Before Ros starts climbing, she schools me. “Put your hands where I put mine and your feet where I put my feet. You move like me, you won’t fall. I promise.”
“Right. Easier said than done.”
Ros throws her head to one side. “You want this book or not?”
I nod once. “Start climbing.”
“All right, then.”
I keep the backpack on frontward, so there’s no weight pulling me back. I watch Ros’s movements and copy each placement of her hand, the angle of her feet on the slick rocks. “Slow down,” I tell her. “Please.”
When Ros reaches the top, she kneels down and takes my hand, pulling me up. Ledger watches from below as I get hauled to the ledge at the top of the falls. In seconds, he’s next to me. Grounded. Secure. I breathe a sigh of relief. “That wasn’t so bad,” I say, searching for his eyes in the dark.
“Are you kidding?” he says. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
“I’m not kidding. That wasn’t so awful.”
“Noelle, look at you.”
I stand up and brush down the front of my shirt, my shorts, and bare legs, but it’s hopeless. I’m a mess and a little banged up. But so what? These wounds will heal. I smile at him, but Ledger’s eyes have become cold and distant. I wish I could understand what he’s thinking. Is it me? Did I do something?
We head up to the old mill and follow Ros around to the small house adjacent to it. We make our way across a tired wooden porch. She clicks on the flashlight, then pushes open the door, canvasing the interior. The empty house creaks lightly as we all step inside. The walls and floorboards seem to groan under our weight as we reach what was once the living room. There isn’t a scrap of furniture except for a lone rocking chair that looks like it’s seen better days. In the corner, a tin bucket and a bundle of sticks mark some sort of temporary fireplace.
“This is where I found the radio,” Ros says. “It was the only thing in here worth anything. Whoever was living here must have kept it hidden. Under the floorboards.”
Ros disappears and then returns with a small device. Ledger’s eyes light up when he sees it. “A radio transmitter,” he says.
“A local helped me get it working again,” Ros explains. “For months and months I listened, hoping to hear something. But there was only noise. Then finally about three weeks ago, a voice came through. He calls himself Obe, says he’s from another Sovereign. A place called Fort Numb down near the gulf. He’s been giving me updates. Says he has a road into Fell directly.”
Ledger looks concerned. “How is that possible? Fell wouldn’t cooperate with any Sovereign.”
Ros shrugs. “I don’t know. But the information seems credible. He says Fell is planning on invading every Sovereign. That’s when I took Grandma G’s volume. I hid it in there.” She points to a dark portion of the house that I assume is a bedroom.
We head into the other room. Ledger and I stand aside as Ros stomps along the floor, feeling for the right board. When she hears the soft squeak of the board out of place, she kneels down on her hands and knees and pries it up with her fingertips. She reaches under and pulls out a wooden box, sealed with a thick black substance.
“I waterproofed it. The old way. Just in case.”
Ros takes a small knife from her boot and circles the black substance three times. She bashes the lid off with her fist, then holds the box out to me.
“Go on, take it.”
I reach inside. As soon as the leather hits my fingertips, I feel the strangest wave of energy. It’s here. It’s real. I turn the book over in my hands and read the cover. Volume IV.
“They’re out of order,” I say to myself more than anyone else. I had somehow expected Volume III. I feel the spine and the binding with my fingers.
“Look here,” Ros says, opening the cover. The first page says “Comedies” in big bold letters. I turn another page and read the name of the play. As You Like It.
“What’s it about?”
“I don’t know,” Ros says, sadly. “I can only read and write as far as my name.”
I scan the list of characters. “You’re in here! And so is your grandmother.”
Ros turns the book toward her. “I’m in a book?”
“You were named after a character.”
Something pops into my mind. “I bet it’s in here.” I begin flipping through the pages furiously. I see them. The words Ros had been singing in the forest. They’re right here in the book. “Ros, look!”
She peers over my shoulder. “Those are the words of my song? My mother’s song?” I nod.
“Hot damn!”
“Hot damn is right. Ros, your mother loved this book. She must have read it many times.”
She sits back on her heels, dropping her head into her hands. “No wonder they took her,” she whispers. “That was my mama’s song. She taught it to me when I could barely walk. She was one of them. She was a boolo, too.”
The radio blasts a burst of static, sounding like Pedanta’s simulcasts, only louder, more primitive.
Ros dashes to the radio. “Obe? Are you there? This is Ros! I’m here. Over.”
Two clicks, then a man’s voice comes through. “Jeez, Ros! Where ya been? I’ve been on this frequency for hours! Over.”
“Sorry,” Ros says, her voice growing small and childlike. “What is it? What’s the latest? Over.”
“It’s Pedanta. They’ve been invaded. I repeat. Pedanta is being occupied. Over.”
Ros pauses at the receiver. “It’s your friends,” she says. “Fell’s infiltrated the first Sovereign. They’ve taken over.”
“We have to help them.”
Obe’s voice pipes up. “Do you copy?”
“Yeah, I copy. What the hell are they doing there? Over.”
“They’ve got their guys all over the city, word has it. They’re looking for someone. A girl from Vale 1. They say she’s a traitor, Ros. They say she has books. Books like ours. That she’s a reader.” The receiver drops in Ros’s hand as her eyes lift to meet mine. “It’s you, isn’t it?” she asks, her voice so quiet it scares me. “You’re the one they’re looking for. You’re from Fell.”
I nod slowly, afraid of what’s coming next. I hope Ros is on our side now, that somehow in just a few short hours, I managed to convert her.
Obe’s voice pipes up through the noise. “Ros? Ros!”
She covers the receiver with her hand and shakes her head. “What should I say?” she whispers to me.
“I don’t know, Ros. The truth?”
“Ros?” Obe calls. “What’s going on? What’s happening? Is someone there with you? Over.”
“Yeah, that’s right, Obe. Someone’s here . . . over.”
The silence of static clicks in and out at a deafening level. Just when I can’t stand it anymore, Obe’s voice returns. “She’s there with you, isn’t she? Over.”
Ros doesn’t answer.
“Ros, you listen and listen good. If the girl is there with you, she has to leave. Immediately. Fell isn’t going to stop until they find her. You’re the next Sovereign east of Pedanta. They will come to you. Over.”
“I know!” Ros yells into the receiver. “But where are they going to go? Over.”
“They? What do you mean they? Over.”
“I mean she has people, over.”
“Send them to me,” Obe says. “Give them directions here. Over.”
Ros nods furiously. “He’s right. You have to go. You’ll be safe in Fort Numb.”
“I can’t stay on this frequency any longer. Over,” Obe says. “Just send them. Tonight. Do you copy?”
&
nbsp; “Copy that, Oberon. They’re coming to y’all at Fort Numb,” Ros says. “Over and out.”
The radio clicks into silence. Ros switches it off. My body is tired, dirty, cold, but my mind is sharp and clean. Oberon, whoever he is, is right. We have to leave Ardenia, and we have to leave tonight. I hate to think about what the day will bring if we don’t.
NOELLE
TWENTY-SIX
My grandfather sits outside of Grandma G’s tent, waiting. “Everything okay, kids?”
“Ros got a transmission from another Sovereign,” I tell him. “Pedanta is being occupied by Fell.”
“And they’re coming here next,” Grandpa surmises. “We have to warn the people.”
“No!” Ros shouts. She lowers her voice. “We can’t do that. It will only panic them.”
“Well, we can’t just leave them to the slaughter!”
“There won’t be a slaughter, Grandpa. It’s us they want, remember?”
“And the volumes,” Ledger adds. “If we leave tonight, there will be nothing here for them.”
Grandpa nods. “Ros, can you take us back to the RV?”
“’Course. Just wait here a spell.” Ros disappears inside the tent. Minutes pass. I can tell Grandpa is getting nervous. He starts rubbing his hands together. His eyes look tired, his face worn with worry.
A moment later Ros returns with a large pack. She swings it over her shoulders and clips a strap around her waist. “I’m comin’ with you.”
“What?” I say.
“I’m comin’ with you. To Fort Numb. To see Obe.”
“What about Grandma G? What about your people?”
Ros’s eyes moisten, but she blinks back the tears. “Look, y’all have been here no more than a few hours, but I guess you can tell. I don’t belong here. Never have. I want to help. I want to do something.” Ros takes a step toward me and lowers her head. “You promised me.”
Grandpa stares at me, quizzically.
“She’s right. I didn’t think it would happen so quickly. But I did promise.”
“Promise what?” my grandfather asks.
“I promised Ros she could join the new Rising. When it was time.”
“Hang on just one second, Noelle,” he says, pointing to our group. “We are not the new Rising. There are others out there. Others who are more capable, who are ready.”
Blood, Ink & Fire Page 22
