Halo (Blood and Fire Series (A Young Adult Dystopian Series)) (35 page)

There doesn’t seem to be any harm in telling her the story, so I do, leaving out a few key factors. I don’t tell them about how terrified I was when I thought I was going to drown. And I don’t tell them about fighting Ryka, either. They listen intently as I recount details about the closed-in fences surrounding the river, and how I was swept away with the floodwater from the rain. Ella frowns with concern when I tell them how I vomited endless on my knees with no one but Jada to keep my company, before I came across Ryka for the second time. Everyone else just sits, taking in the story. No one interrupts. By the time I’m done, I feel sort of stupid. The story doesn’t seem very impressive now that I look back on it. Leaving the Sanctuary without a plan, nearly drowning, only to be swiftly followed up by nearly poisoning myself to death with contaminated water. Not the grand tale of escape I would have preferred it to be. Without Ryka’s intervention, I probably would still be wandering around the forest, or maybe I would have been snared by one of Jack’s traps. I stare at my feet, now beyond caring how dirty my boots are, and listen to the silence that follows. It doesn’t last long.

“It sounds like this fence is pretty well maintained,” James offers. He’s wearing a very full knife belt in comparison to my paltry three blades. They flash as he leans back and crosses his legs at the ankle. “There’s a chance we could go down there and cut a way through, but that would negate the ‘softly softly’ approach.”

“Wait, you’re going into the Sanctuary?” I gasp.

“We’ll explain in a moment,” Jack tells me. James ignores my interruption and cracks his neck.

“I still think we’re better off sending a two-man team. We could go through the river just as Kit did. That way, the Sanctuary municipality won’t be alerted to our presence.”

“But getting twenty or thirty people out that way would be impossible,” Alastair adds. “A pathway should be cut through the fence where it enters the tree line close to the aqueduct. The breach will be much harder to detect that way.”

“I agree,” Ella says, straightening out her skirts. “The element of surprise is key here. With such a time sensitive matter on our hands, it would be easy to charge blindly into the city before we’re too late. Yet, a subtle entrance is of the utmost importance if we’re to accomplish our goal.”

I glance around the room, my eyes as wide as they will go. “Which is?”

Jack pats my knee, but everyone else pretends I haven’t even opened my mouth.

“I still think this is madness,” Bartholomew says. “Who are we to get involved in the Sanctuary’s dealings, anyway? They’ve been aware of Freetown for decades. We receive much-needed trade from them that we’d be hard-pressed to manage without during the wintertime. It’s foolishness to bite the hand that feeds us.”

Jack stiffens next to me. “The Sanctuary does
not
feed Freetown, brother. I won’t have it said that they do. We’ve been an independent entity for as many years as I care to remember.”

“And yet who do we get our wheat from when the ground is frozen solid, Jack? The beets for our livestock? The materials to make our clothes?”

“And where do they get their weaponry for that carnival of a performance they call an amphi-match each month?” James snaps. “This isn’t about food for the people of Freetown to you, Bartholomew. It’s about the money that lines your pockets. The Sanctuary’s money. Tell me, what have you been spending all your currency on within Freetown’s limits? The real men living in this town trade in blood and sweat, not gold and silk.”

Bartholomew rocks in his chair, hissing under his breath. His fury practically pours off him. From the other side of the fire, I almost admire the way James doesn’t even blink at the string of curse words that pour out of the thin man’s mouth. “You’re a fighter, James. I don’t expect you to understand that there are ways to make a living with your mind in place of ending the lives of your fellow town’s folk.”

James’ eyes flash murder, still fixed on the burning fire. “And you are a coward, my friend. I don’t expect you to understand that there is honour to be had in making a living with your hands, either in the fields or in the pit, instead of hiding away behind your dusty stacks of papers. But let me tell you this: any time you begin to imagine you can
out-think
me with that big old brain of yours, whatever the venue, please feel free to try and prove it.”

“Gentlemen, now is not the time!” Jack runs his hands back through his hair. “Bartholomew, I appreciate that your business will suffer if the Sanctuary discover we have a hand in any part in any of this, but unfortunately that is not what we are here to debate. It’s already decided that we will intervene. Right now, we are trying to determine
how
.”

Bartholomew’s chair creaks as he rises, his stretched out shadow drawing tall and thin on the opposite wall. “I see that the republic is fallen,” he mutters. “Good evening, gentlemen.”

“The republic is hardly fallen because you can’t get your own way, you stupid man,” Alastair snaps. He grabs hold of Bartholomew’s sleeve and tugs hard so that the frail man falls off balance and lands back in his seat. “Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face. There are lives at stake here.”

My head starts swimming at this comment. “Whose lives are at stake? Can someone please tell me what all this is about!” My voice rises to a strangled shout, and finally,
finally
, people pay attention.

Ella
tsk
s and reaches out to take my hand. The contact is obviously meant to reassure me but just puts me on edge. I tolerate it, though, as she says, “It appears there are some people within the Sanctuary’s limits who are in danger of being terminated. The municipality have found out about the cells operating across the city. They know there are somewhere between twenty to thirty individuals whose halos aren’t functioning. Right now they have technicians sweeping the city, trying to locate them. It’s been decided that we need to step in and help them escape before they are discovered. That’s why anything you can give us about the layout of the Sanctuary, as well as access points in and out of the fences, will be a massive help. The information could be vital in saving those people.”

I grip hold of my chair until my hands hurt. The burning in my arm gets infinitely worse as my body tenses. “How do you know this?”

“The radio broadcasts,” Jacks says. “I told you when you arrived here that we listen to the amphi-match reports. That’s not the only thing we pick up. On a daily basis we hear all the radio communication that takes place within the Sanctuary.”

My stomach clenches. “So this is real. They’re going to kill those people?”

He nods. Cai’s face forces its way into my mind. All I can think about is the fact that some of those people were the ones who helped him, protected him, taught him how to camouflage himself in amongst the unfeeling populous. How to survive. “We definitely have to help them,” I say. “I have to go with you.”

An amused smile tugs at the corner of James’ mouth, but no one else finds my statement entertaining.

“That’s not happening, child. All we need from you is the information. Like Ella said, anything you can
―
”

Jack gets cut off when I leap to my feet. “I’m not asking, okay. I have to help. I know the Sanctuary like the back of my hand, every back alley and shortcut through the place. I can’t explain that in enough detail, and you aren’t going to want to find your way around with a map if the technicians are combing the city, are you?”

Jack huffs out a deep breath and plants his hands on his knees. “You’re not going, Kit. Now, you can either help us in this manner, or we can rely on what I remember myself. Which is it going to be?”

“What? You’ve been inside the Sanctuary?”

Another nod from the old man. “I was like you once. I found a way out and I took it, but that was forty years ago. Things will have changed since then. I don’t want to send my people off on an already dangerous mission with old information if we have perfectly good, reliable data to replace it. Will you help us?”

My jaw practically hits the dirt. So that’s why Jack has always been sympathetic towards my halo-wearing tendencies. Or at least given me room to consider that I might want to put it back on at some point. He knows how hard it is to deal with the onslaught of fresh emotion because he, himself, has been in my shoes. He used to wear a halo. “Yes,” I whisper. “Yes, I’ll help you.”

“Thank you.”

We spend the next hour talking over potential points of entry into the city, and not much is decided. I tell them everything I can but somehow it doesn’t seem enough. When we disband for the night, it feels like my legs are rough-hewn rock, heavy to lift and unsteady. Jack lingers behind to talk with Alastair and the rest of us go our separate ways. I’m halfway back to my tent when I realise I’m not as alone as I thought. I freeze beside the copse of silver birch that marks the track leading back to my new home, and listen.
 

“James,” I say out loud.

“You have good ears, Kit. Not much of an advantage in an eight by eight pit, but still, useful.” The man himself steps out from the shadows and leans against a tree trunk, absentmindedly chewing on a stalk of grass. He takes it out of his mouth and points it at me. “I thought you and I should have a small discussion.”

“About what?” I don’t trust him. James has a power-hungry motive for everything, from endlessly working to persuade Jack to let women fight in the pits, to killing off Ryka’s father. There has to be some such motive now.

“So distrustful,” he smiles.

“You shouldn’t have cut off my hair if you wanted me to trust you,” I tell him.

 
“It hasn’t occurred to you that I was only trying to help?”

“I doubt that.”

The hint of a smile plays across his face. “And I know why. You’d have to be blind to miss what’s going on between you and Ryka. From an outsiders’ perspective it must be hard to understand how he can have forgiven me for killing his father. But he understands how things are. Freetown’s is a harsh reality, but it’s ours. People die here. And there’s always someone on the other end of the offending blade, right?”

“It’s not like that, James, and you know it. It was premeditated. You planned the whole thing with the priestesses!”

He shrugs, but his eyes pierce into me, fierce and challenging. “I never said the priestesses were involved. And are you saying you never strategized in order to win your matches in the Colosseum? Were none of the men and women you killed on the arena floor mothers or fathers?”

Bile leaps up and stings the back of my throat. I fought and killed people of all ages before, when I was under the influence of my halo, and goodness knows the Sanctuary often expected Falin to have children. I look away, mortified that he is probably right. “Just—what are you doing following me, James?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“I know Ryka has been watching over you if you’re out at night alone. He’s not here right now, so I was simply seeing you home safely.”

I pull myself up, my hands automatically going to the daggers in my belt. “You don’t need to do that.”

Focusing on where my hands rest, he steps towards me. “I just wanted to make sure Joshua and his loutish friends didn’t chance upon you in a dark corner, girl. My apologies.” He goes to turn away, but I call out after him.

“I’m not your responsibility, James.”

He smirks over his shoulder. “So the Gods are merciful, after all.”

“I’m not Ryka’s responsibility either. I can take perfectly good care of myself.” I expect James to laugh, but he doesn’t.

“I saw you in the pit. I know exactly who you are and what you’re capable of.” He goes quiet, just staring at me. I shift uneasily and point my thumb over my shoulder.

“I’m going home. You should, too.”

He nods, still watching me over his shoulder. “When you locate Ryka, tell him to come and see me. We’re going to need to discuss how we’re breaking into your old hometown.”

“What?” No way is Ryka getting involved in this. It’s dangerous, and with that temper of his he wouldn’t have a hope of concealing his emotions once he got inside. “That’s not a good idea.”

“I don’t make the rules.”

“Well, if he’s going, then so am I!”

“You’ll have to convince Jack before that happens. I somehow don’t think he’s going to change his mind any time soon.”

I cringe, knowing that what I’m about to say is going to cost me, if not monetarily then definitely in pride. “You could talk to him.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not my responsibility.” The corner of his mouth twitches like he wants to smile.

I growl, clenching my hands into fists. Gods, this man is difficult. “Please! I—I guess I would owe you.”

James’ body language changes fractionally, and his smile finally develops. “I see. And you would repay my favour without complaint when I asked it of you?”

 
“I’m not…I’m not doing anything…
weird
with you, before you even think
―
”

James barks out a sharp burst of laughter, tipping his head back so that his Adam’s apple bobs up and down. “I don’t want to have sex with, you strange girl. I’ve never struggled finding willing participants for that. No, perhaps I’ll just ask something of you one day. It will be nothing more than a simple yes.”

I scan his facial expression, looking for anything nefarious. It’s a pointless task, given that
everything
about James seems potentially nefarious. He’s just so confusing. Is being able to go back into the Sanctuary with Ryka, to keep him safe, to repay some of the debt I owe to Cai by helping his friends, worth this deal? Feels like a deal with the devil. I swallow and do my best to shove the niggling
Don’t You Do It!
out of my head.

“Fine.”

“Wonderful.”

“When am I going to have to agree to this ‘something’?”

James tosses the grass stem from his mouth and shoves his hands in his pockets, evaporating into the darkness. “Oh, don’t worry. It will be very obvious when the time comes.”