Fugitive (4 page)

Nervousness twisted like a snake in the pit of my stomach. Among the guests would be members of the revolution plot against the Dictator. I had a message I was to pass to a contact. My first mission. I was terrified.

No one else knew, of course. I had to act calm.

We descended the stairs together, arm in arm. The gaslights gleamed in the chandeliers. The floors and mirrors sparkled. Fresh flowers decorated the tables in the hall and filled the air with perfume. My sister’s dress glistened beneath the lights.

My mother waited at the bottom. She smiled at us as we reached her, her lips curving up in a practiced gesture worthy of a king’s sister-in-law, as she once had been. “My lovely children,” she said. But shadows lurked in the expression, and I knew she was thinking of Korr, her other son, the dark son.

“Why isn’t Korr here?” my sister asked. She didn’t know. I hadn’t told her.

“He isn’t coming,” I said.

She turned her wide-eyed gaze on me. She’d always loved him, despite his horribleness. “What? Why not?”

“Let me give you your gift,” I said instead of answering her question.

She sighed. “You spoil me. I don’t need—”

The necklace I withdrew from my pocket silenced her. She reached for it, cupping her hand around the delicate chain and ruby pendant.

“This is beautiful,” she murmured.

“Surprised?”

“It was your grandmother’s,” my mother told her. “The Empress.”

My sister’s face glowed. She put it around her neck and turned to face the dining hall, where the food and drink waited. “Let’s go in, shall we?”

The guests began to arrive in trickles, shaking off the rain and the perpetual frowns of worry that the nobles wore these days as they entered, and slowly, the house filled with the sound of laughter and voices. My sister relaxed and began to enjoy herself. I could not. My heart thudded, and my pulse flicked against the cuffs of my party clothes. I scanned the room for any sign of Beregrin, but he was not there.

In my breast pocket I carried the paper. The paper with a message for another revolutionary, the person I would meet that night.

“Happy birthday, little sister,” I heard a familiar voice say.

I whirled.

Korr stood in the doorway, holding a bottle of wine and wearing a smile like a peace offering. He didn’t look at me. Our sister rushed to him and embraced him.

“Gabe said you weren’t coming!”

“He is often wrong,” Korr said, gazing down at her and ignoring me.

“Did you bring me a birthday present?” she asked, smiling.

“Well, I brought someone else you like.”

My mouth went dry as my former betrothed stepped into the room behind Korr with a rustle of silk. Lakin was lovely, too lovely, like a doll made of porcelain, a thing from a dream.

My sister hugged her and exclaimed over her as I turned to thread my way through the crowd. I wanted to put as much distance between Korr and me as possible.

A hand stopped me. My half-brother. I opened my mouth to snap at him.

“Don’t cause a scene,” he said, cutting off my angry words. “Not on her birthday.”

“Don’t pretend you care anything about that.”

“You’re so eager to paint me as a monster—”

“I merely seek to illuminate what is,” I said, grabbing his wrist and twisting it so the ring that had been mine caught the light. Korr said nothing, and I dropped his arm and shoved my way through the crowd.

Lakin found me by the drink table, drowning my sorrows in champagne.

“You look wretched,” she said quietly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I pinned her with a glare. Surely she mocked me.

“Gabe,” she said, and laid one gloved hand on my wrist.

I stared at it. She quietly removed it. Her lips pinched together in the way that I knew meant she was holding back words she wanted to speak.

“Say it,” I muttered, throwing back another swallow of champagne and wincing as it tickled the back of my throat. “Whatever it is, just say it. I can take it.”

“Somewhere private?” she asked, glancing around at the guests.

I raised an eyebrow. “The last time we spoke in private, it was devastating to me. Forgive me if I’m a little reluctant.”

“Please,” she said, and I relented.

She stepped into the servant’s hall, and I followed her, putting out a hand to steady myself against the heavy wooden paneling. The hum of the party was a whisper here. Lakin’s face was awash with shadows. Her eyelids fluttered as she squinted at me.

“I’m sorry that my presence here causes you pain.”

“It’s not you. It’s him.”

It was her with him. I didn’t say that.

I didn’t have to, though, because she read it in my silence. “Please allow me to explain.”

“I don’t want to hear words about it.” The reality was too painful. Anything she could possibly have to say would only dig into me like knives into an already seeping wound.

“You’re being dramatic,” she snapped, and I straightened as rage curled hot fingers around my throat.

“Dramatic? My evil half-brother stole my betrothed, cozied up to the Dictator, and is currently in the process of ruining my sister’s life, and I’m being
dramatic
?”

“There,” she said. “That’s better. At least when you’re angry, you’re alive.”

I exhaled heavily. “Please don’t barb me. Please, just leave me alone. I don’t want to be reminded of one more way that Korr has won. Not tonight.”

“Gabe...” She hesitated. “I think your hatred for him is unfounded.”

“Are you trying to make me angry again so I’ll feel alive?”

She shook her head. “I’m trying to tell you the truth. He’s trying to help you.”

“You’re mad.” I stared at her, at the way her features softened as she looked at me, and then it struck me like a slap.

She was in love with him.

Pain shot through me like a rainstorm of daggers. I pushed past her for the party.

“Gabe!”

My head was buzzing. I ignored her and kept going, staggering over the stoop.

A hand caught my coat and spun me around. “Careful, brother.”

Korr.

I raised my eyes to his. He was smirking, and all I wanted in that moment was to make that smirk vanish beneath my fist. I raised my hand.

Korr must have read the murder in my eyes. He grabbed my lapels and pushed me against the wall. “Don’t you dare. Not at her party. Not on her birthday.”

I made a noise of pure loathing deep in my throat. “You always know where to hit me exactly where it will hurt, don’t you?”

He patted me hard on the chest. “If you wouldn’t wear every emotion that flits through your heart on your sleeve like a lovelorn puppy—”

I swung for his face. He blocked the blow and forced my hand behind my back. I spat at him.

Korr rammed his arm beneath my chin, forcing me to look into his face. “You’re embarrassing yourself.”

“I could never be more embarrassed than I am about being related to you.”

Without responding, he reached into my pocket and yanked out my handkerchief. He dabbed his face without breaking eye contact, then he flung the square of fabric at me and released me.

I stood seething as he vanished into the crowd. My head was foggy. My ribs hurt from the brief struggle

Lakin had disappeared, too. A few guests gazed at me with a mixture of pity and curiosity, and I ducked away from their stares and headed for the conservatory. I needed to find my contact.

I slipped my hand into my jacket to check for the message. My fingers met fabric and empty air.

My stomach plummeted to my toes. I stopped. Horror drenched me.

It was gone.

NOW

I DRIFTED IN and out of consciousness. Sunlight played through the slats in the barn, and the light danced across the floor, mesmerizing me. My skin burned like fire.

My sister’s face floated before me. I could do nothing for her now. If I returned, it would be worse for them. The thought filled me with agony, and I moaned.

I needed to finish my escape. I needed to find that Thorns contact.

It was hard to calculate how long I’d been in this barn. I had spent so much time drifting in and out of consciousness.

I sat up slowly, and every muscle in my body protested, but I didn’t faint. Black spots danced before my eyes, but they faded when I held still.

Slowly, I crawled up to my knees, and then pulled myself to my feet with the help of the wall. The rough wood scraped my hands, but I barely felt it. My shoulder throbbed and my head spun. I lurched toward the door.

Footsteps outside made me pause. I drew back and pressed myself against the wall. My heart beat fast in my chest, and I felt sick. I drew in a shallow breath, feeling the stiffening rush of terror through my veins as the barn door opened.

The farm girl.

She stepped inside without seeing me, carrying a steaming bucket of water and a basket of food. She looked at the place in the hay where I’d been sleeping, and her brow furrowed. She set the things down and stepped toward the straw.

I needed to act quickly. I needed to frighten her if I had any hope of making her tell me where I was, or how I could get away.

I jumped her.

We went down together, rolling across the barn floor. She fought like a cat, arching and clawing at me, but I managed to pin her wrists to the ground. Her eyes were two black pricks of fury in her pale face as she stared at me.

“Don’t scream,” I hissed.

THEN

THE MESSAGE FOR the revolutionist contact was gone from my pocket. Horror settled over me like a blanket of freezing ice. Had I dropped it among the guests?

No.

In an instant, I knew what had happened.

I whirled and looked for Korr. There he was, by the stairs, his hand on Lakin’s arm. His smirk twisted into a lying smile as he gazed down at my sister. I might almost have believed he loved her, my sister, if I didn’t know how much of a traitor he really was.

The blood in my ears roared. My fingers twitched. A hot, heavy feeling twisted around my throat, and I stepped forward as if in a dream.

Korr looked up and saw me. His expression changed as I shoved aside a guest and headed for him.

“Gabe—”

He threw up one hand to stop me, and that was when the door in the foyer splintered with the sound of snapping wood. It sounded like bones breaking.

Guests screamed, gasped, and scrambled away as the sound of boots clattered in the hall.

Soldiers.

The room filled with silence that spread like a mighty rush of water, closing over our heads and drowning us. My mother and sister stood still, staring, as soldiers entered the room. Their gray uniforms looked like costumes beneath the glitter of the party decorations, but the cold malice in their eyes was real.

"Gabriel," my mother whispered.

One of the soldiers took my arm. “By order of His Excellency, the ruler of Aeralis, you are under arrest.”

This was Korr’s doing. My whole body was hot and cold; my face was numb to my lips. I opened my mouth to shout at him, but I could say nothing. The words died on my tongue.

“Search him,” someone ordered.

My sister made a horrified sound, a noise between a scream and a plea.

The soldier yanked my arm, and I came alive again. I whirled on him with a snarl, my hand raised. I was a prince. They could not—

The butt of the rifle came from the side, out of my field of vision. The sound of it striking my nose rang out in the silence. I fell to my hands and knees. The world spun. My vision faded in and out, and a buzzing filled my ears. I braced myself against the floor and tried to untangle my senses. Gradually, I felt my hands again, pressed against the stone floor.

Something was dripping.

Blood.

My nose was streaming blood.

The pain came after, in a nauseating wave that made my knees buckle and my hands clench. I shut my eyes and tried to think beyond the pain.

They hauled me to my feet. Blood ran down my lips and neck. My nose was broken, maybe. I forced my eyes open and met my sister’s—she was weeping without sound, the tears making trails of silver down her cheeks—and saw that my blood had splattered across her face and hands. Across the front of her new dress, red mingling with the gold. Lakin held her. They stood together, clinging to each other.

The soldiers turned my pockets inside out. They pulled off my coat and rummaged through it, checking the lining, the collar. I was numb; I felt nothing as they searched me. I did not even feel relief that the paper was gone, that I could not be proved a traitor, that my life was perhaps saved, at least for now, by that single fact.

I looked at Korr, and his face was expressionless. His eyes were like flint, hard and black and glittering.

He had saved my life by stealing that paper, but he’d had me arrested. What was his plan? What was he doing?

The soldiers took me out into the night. Rain fell from the sky in splatters and mingled with the blood on my face. The drops were cold. They hid any tears that I cried as the men holding me shoved me into a prison wagon and slammed the door shut.

NOW

SHE STARED BACK at me and shook her head to show that she wouldn’t scream, just as I’d ordered.

“How far is the village?” I whispered, my voice rough as stones in the silence.

“The village is less than a mile,” she replied, without hesitation. Her voice was strong, fearless.

I shifted, and pain shot through me. I’d moved too quickly, grabbed her too hard. My body hurt everywhere. An ache started at the back of my neck, making my hands shake.

Her eyes slid over me, as if assessing my weaknesses. I pushed down harder on her wrists to keep her pinned as I shoved away the pain and focused on my questions.

“How far to the gate?”

The skin between her eyes pinched. “The gate? You mean the village gate?”

Was she pretending ignorance? I didn’t have time for mind games. “The mountains, then.”

“The farm sits in their shadow,” she hissed. “But killing me does nothing to help you. You are too weak to get far, and the Watchers fill the woods.”