But she didn’t protest and, as the game progressed, was relieved to find that these young men mostly seemed curious about their journey. Apparently they’d already heard about it from travelers and read about it in the papers, though the story had clearly warped with each telling.
“So how’d you rob the stagecoach?” one of the boys asked Violet.
“Well, it was just a private coach, strictly speaking…”
“Did you really hang a brag for crossing you?” another asked Mallow.
“Well, from his feet, but, yeah.”
“Is it true that they call you The Knife?” a third boy asked Aster.
She allowed herself a faint grin. “If they do, that’s news to me.”
She supposed she should have had a little more faith in Eli’s taste in friends.
The boys were good-natured enough about answering the girls’ questions, too, about the Scorpions’ life underground and the dangers they faced here. Aster had already learned most of what they had to say from Eli, but it was interesting to hear others talk about it. Not everyone shared his longing for a life aboveground. They’d found happiness here.
Eventually, though, as the night wore on and they grew more comfortable with one another, the questions turned to the welcome house.
“All right, this question is for … Tansy. You’ve been quiet. How’d you end up at Green Creek?” one boy asked finally.
Sam and Aster both shot him a warning look, but then Tansy spoke up.
“No, it’s okay. It’s a question I’ve asked myself,” she said quietly. “We didn’t have much of a choice, though. My mother passed suddenly, and we needed the money.”
Mallow nodded, her hand folded over Tansy’s. “My folks just told me it was my responsibility to do my part. There was no question of me saying no when the scouts came to our door. We felt lucky I’d been chosen.”
Aster and Clementine met each other’s eyes. Aster knew neither of them had told their story to the others yet. They hardly spoke about it themselves—Aster felt differently than Clementine about the family they’d left behind, and neither seemed to want to open old wounds by trying to convince the other to see things her own way.
“Our family honestly believed we’d be better off,” Clementine said carefully. “The welcome house scouts … they’re good salesmen. They promised that we’d never go hungry, that we’d always have the best medical care in the country. And they promised Aster and I wouldn’t be separated. It seemed too good to be true.”
“Because it was,” Aster muttered. Clementine missed their family desperately, Aster knew. She blamed the landmasters for her suffering.
Aster, though, blamed their family. They should have known better. They should have loved them too much to sell them off. She would never have sold her own daughters to a welcome house, no matter how desperate things became. Aster would rather have gone hungry at home than live the life they’d abandoned her to.
You are too hard on them, Clem always argued. It’s not their fault there were no good options.
No good options—like Eli had said. Maybe her parents had been facing hardships she hadn’t been aware of. Maybe the welcome house really had felt like the lesser of two evils. The thought had always weighed on Aster uncomfortably.
But it’s still an evil. They ought to at least have recognized that.
They played another round, and this time Eli won. He looked at Aster, and he seemed to see the question tugging at her heart.
“Do you ever think about trying to find your family now that you’re out?” he asked in his soft voice.
On this, at least, Aster and Clementine agreed.
“What good would it do? We’re wanted by the whole country. We’d only get them killed,” Aster said. However she felt about them, she didn’t want that.
“Maybe after we get our favors removed and lay low for a long while, then we could try to find them, but for now…” Clementine just shook her head.
Lewis crossed his arms. “And what about you, princess?” he asked.
Violet looked up from her cards in surprise. “Who, me?”
“Who else? The landmasters work damn hard to make sure it’s only dustbloods who get swept up in the welcome house system. So how’d you end up there?”
“Ignore this fool, Violet, it’s not even his turn,” Sam said, waving him off. Aster thanked him silently. She suspected Violet was just as uneasy talking about her past as Aster herself was. But to her surprise, Violet spoke up, a hint of her old defiance creeping into her tone.
“You think I haven’t suffered?” she asked Lewis, sharp as a whip.
“I never said that,” Lewis said evenly.
“Neither of my parents were dustbloods. You’re right about that much. Sometimes a fairblood family has a run of bad luck and has to sell their daughter away. That’s how my mother ended up in the welcome house.”
“Wait, your mother was a Good Luck Girl, too?” Cutter asked. “But don’t the doctors—”
“Something went wrong when they operated on her,” Violet said before he could finish.
“Or maybe they just weren’t willing to cut a fairblood girl,” Lewis pointed out.
Violet curled her lip, and it looked like she was ready to argue the point, but then she faltered. “I’ve … I’ve wondered that myself. If it was an accident. If I was an accident. Maybe they thought they were doing her a kindness. I doubt she’d agree they did, though.”
“So … your father was a brag, then?” Sam asked, putting the pieces together.
Violet nodded. “A steel magnate, Tom Wells. When he found out he’d gotten my mother pregnant, he promised to buy her out of the welcome house—and not just keep her as a consort, like other brags do, but actually marry her. Take her to live with him in his gilded mansion on the highest hill in Northrock. It’s the kind of thing Good Luck Girls dream about. It seemed too good to be true.” She looked at Aster and echoed her words. “Because it was.”
Aster furrowed her brow. She had known Violet’s father was a brag, but she hadn’t known the details.
“My mother waited six years for him,” Violet went on. “Six years—she was in love with that man. But he never came back to the welcome house, and when she realized that he never would, she killed herself. Left me nothing to remember her by but the bedtime story she used to tell me and her suicide note.” Violet shrugged then, and took a drink of root brew. But Aster saw her jaw clench as she swallowed.
“I can see how crushing that would have been for her,” Cutter said quietly. “Thinking she’d get out and have a real life, freedom—”
“Freedom?” Aster said, turning to Cutter. “She’d still have been marked by a favor. Would have been a man’s property for the rest of her life. Issued papers she’d have to show to any lawman who saw her out on the street. Don’t ever think that any Good Luck Girl finds freedom in Arketta.”
Cutter looked down at his hands.
Aster turned back to Violet, who shifted uncomfortably.
“And your father never came back for you, either?” Lewis asked into the silence. “You’ve still never met him?”
“Not yet.” A strange darkness flickered over Violet’s face. A strangeness that Aster had never seen before. “But one day.”
Sam’s expression softened. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said.
There were murmurs of sympathy all around. They had all lost something. That was why they were here.
So much suffering in the Scab, Aster thought, taking a sip of the root brew and savoring its sweetness.
It was time they left these mountains behind for good.
16
They left Camp Red Claw early the next day.
As much as she wanted to put the Scab behind her, Aster was reluctant to go aboveground again. Traveling in the mines could be treacherous, yes, but traveling in the woods was even worse. Still, they had no choice—the Scorpions hadn’t yet finished their tunneling through the Scab, and couldn�
�t have taken them much farther north.
“It’s not so different, your work and the Scorpions’,” Clementine said to Zee as they made their way up a new mine shaft, leading their horses by the bridles. The mouth of the mine was still just a distant spark of daylight, and Eli escorted them, his face hidden beneath a soft-brimmed hat.
“What do you mean?” Zee asked.
“Well, you both help people cross the Scab,” Clementine explained. “The only difference is, the Scorpions’ people are on the run from the law.”
Aster’s and Eli’s eyes met. Perhaps he, too, was remembering their conversation.
“That’s actually why we work together, you know,” Eli said quietly. “Rangemen and Scorpions. Most rangemen are dustbloods, so they try to help when they can. But Zee’s one of the best I’ve met.”
“Not the best?” Zee said, indignant.
Eli smiled. “Your cardplaying skills leave a little to be desired.”
Zee and Eli were leading the group, while Clem, Tansy, and Mallow followed and Aster and Violet brought up the rear. Everyone else seemed as well rested as they’d ever been—even Mallow wasn’t limping too much—but Violet’s eyes were hollow, her face drawn. It was as if all of the truth telling last night had drained her.
“You doing all right?” Aster murmured.
Violet didn’t look at her. “I’ll do better as soon as we’re out of this ripping mine. Crawling around in the mud isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.”
Well, it was better than being torn apart by vengeants. She could at least show a little gratitude for the hospitality they’d been shown, Aster thought irritably. But, at the same time, she knew Violet well enough by now to understand that her bitterness was usually something she hid behind.
“Your mother…” Aster began. “What was she like?”
“Pretty clear, isn’t it?” Violet snapped. “A fool for loving a brag, and even worse for leaving her daughter with nothing but a cursed favor on her skin.”
Despite the harsh words, Aster could hear the love in her voice.
“The story she told you … the note she left—” Aster gently prodded.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Violet cut her off.
Aster didn’t push further. It wasn’t as if she wanted to talk about it, either. But after spending the day with Eli, she supposed she could see why it might have been a good idea. Talking … it helped.
The slope steepened, and conversation tapered off as everyone leaned into the incline. Though the air was cool, sweat had already broken out along the groove between Aster’s shoulder blades. No doubt once they got outside in the heat, her whole body would be covered.
Back to reality, she thought grimly.
At last they reached the mouth of the mine. This mine shaft had let them out in the woods, on the opposite side of the hill from where they’d entered. Eli went first, checking for raveners before waving the others through. The horses whickered excitedly as they stepped out of the darkness.
“All right, this is as far as I go,” Eli said once they were all out.
“I can’t thank you all enough,” Zee told him. “You’ll let your brother know how grateful I am for his help, won’t you?”
“We ought to be the grateful ones. You brought a lot of joy with you, let us keep a piece of it.”
Zee smiled and touched the brim of his hat. Then he mounted his horse. Mallow and Tansy did the same. Violet squinted in the sunlight, her shadow stretched out behind her like a battle flag. Then, taking a drink from her canteen to steel herself for the day ahead, she too climbed into the saddle.
Aster and Clementine were last. Aster lingered, wanting to thank Eli as well, but, as always, the words didn’t come easily. He seemed in no hurry to return to the camp, raking his hat off his head and closing his eyes as he let the sun paint his face. For the first time since Aster had met him, he seemed to be at peace.
“Eli,” she said finally, not wanting to break the moment. He opened his eyes, and she cleared her throat. “You thank your brother for me, too, hear? It’s not often we meet honest men like you two. We’ll miss your company.”
“And we yours. Wander well, Aster.”
He dipped his chin in a bow, and Aster climbed up into the saddle behind Clementine, her gaze cast forward as they rode into the thicket of the woods.
* * *
Aster stacked the silver coins by tens as she counted them, her lips moving silently. Ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three, ninety-four …
Clementine was counting, too, double-checking her math. It was late afternoon, and they had come to rest beneath the low-spread branches of an old tree. Aster had been both dreading this moment and impatient for it—the moment when they would find out if they’d stolen enough shine for Lady Ghost.
“We shouldn’t have spent so much buying fresh supplies from the Scorpions,” Tansy said, watching anxiously.
“We needed that stuff. And Sam gave us a good deal,” Zee argued.
“Shut up and let me concentrate,” Aster muttered. They were almost done, and she had no patience to start over.
One hundred eleven, one hundred twelve, one hundred thirteen …
Aster placed the last coin on the last column.
5,114 eagles.
“Five thousand one hundred and fourteen?” Clem asked tentatively.
A relieved smile broke over Aster’s face as she nodded, confirming the number.
It was official—assuming that Violet’s information was correct, they had enough shine to have their favors removed.
“So we don’t have to rob anyone else?” Violet asked. She seemed detached despite the good news, turning over a fossil of a seashell in her hand.
“Not as long as we’re careful with our shine,” Aster replied, sweeping the coins back into their purse.
“We still could rob another brag, though … just, you know, for the hell of it,” Mallow suggested, grinning.
“Mal, no. You almost died last time,” Tansy said.
“Almost. I’m still here, aren’t I?”
Aster shook her head. “The bank was a mistake. I shouldn’t have forced it. No more big risks like that.”
“A mistake? How? It got us the rest of our shine,” Mallow argued.
“It also almost got us caught,” Violet said dryly.
Aster couldn’t even argue with Violet this time. She drew the coin purse closed and looked up at the others, letting the glow of her excitement warm her and fuel her courage.
“Listen, I’ve been thinking.… I’ve been meaning to … I owe you all an apology,” she finally managed. There. It’s out. “I got reckless back in Scarcliff, and you all paid the price.”
Tansy furrowed her brow. “You think we blame you? You’re the one who got us out of there.”
“Yeah, the rest of us were ready to give up, but you stayed strong,” Mallow agreed.
“Well, there’s a difference between strength and stubbornness,” Aster said.
“Aster—” Clementine shook her head. “I’d be dead if it weren’t for you. We’d all be dead, a dozen times over.”
Aster glanced at her sister.
“We’ve all made mistakes out here,” Clem went on. “But we also know we all want what’s best for each other. That’s what matters. It’s not like back at the welcome house, when Mother Fleur was always trying to set girls against each other. There’s trust here.”
“Yeah, and you can trust us enough not to let you make too big a fool of yourself,” Mallow said. “So try not to worry too much.”
Even Violet was nodding now, and the glow in Aster’s chest grew just a bit brighter.
“Thanks for that,” she mumbled self-consciously.
Night fell. Though Aster already missed the relative safety of the Scorpions’ camp, there was something comforting about the familiarity of their routine. Biscuits sopped with bacon grease. Blankets rough but warm. The dead howled but kept their distance. The stars glittered like
tears.
The next day they set out for Clearwater, the last decent-sized town in the Scab. It had been three weeks since they’d fled Green Creek. Three weeks of racing through the Scab, which they’d never once left in their entire lives, and now they were almost through it. Beyond it stretched the green valley of northern Arketta, and already the woods were changing as their group neared the edge of the mountains, leafy oaks and ash trees taking over from the bitter-bark pines, dry red dirt slowly turning to rich brown soil.
Clearwater was also the last town until Northrock that would have a welcome house—outside of the Scab there were very few dustbloods, and very few Good Luck Girls as a result.
This would be Zee’s last chance to find his sisters.
“Are you sure you want to risk me going into Clearwater?” Zee asked as they rode towards town. They were about a mile out, and the sun was just beginning to descend in the sky. “We already have your shine, and we’re almost out of the Scab. I can come back this way myself, after taking you to Lady Ghost.”
“You’re going now,” Aster said. After their close call in Scarcliff, it was tempting to make a straight line for Northrock. But she was all too aware of what Zee had sacrificed in helping them—if there was even a chance that they could help him find his family, Aster was going to take it.
Zee was clearly relieved, though he didn’t say so. “All right,” he agreed. “You all just wait for me here, then, and keep an eye out. If there’s trouble, go on without me. I’ll catch up.”
Zee spurred his horse forward while the others dismounted and took cover in a stretch of low bushes. The Bone Road was just visible through the trees, winding down towards Clearwater.
Violet tied up her horse. “I hope he finds his sisters, but I don’t reckon he will,” she said to no one in particular.
None of her usual biting commentary this time, just a simple statement of fact.
“Where do you think they are, if not at a welcome house?” Clementine asked, worry plain on her face.
“Who knows?” Mal muttered. “Dustblood girls go missing in the Scab all the time. The law never wastes much time looking for them.”
The Good Luck Girls Page 21
