Thorns (5 page)

Beside me, Ann inhaled sharply and squeezed my hand at his appearance. “He seems unwell,” she whispered.

One of the soldiers turned his head and looked at us, his eyes finding her face in that brief heartbeat of a moment, and she shrank against me. I sat up straighter and put my arm around her. I didn’t flinch as I met his gaze.

He moved on. I pressed my lips together in an effort to keep my expression neutral as I turned my face to the front of the room.

The Mayor stepped onto the platform and motioned for silence. The murmur of voices swelled and then quieted, and a tense silence swept the room.

“My people,” he said quietly. “We have a grave matter to discuss.”

Was I the only one who noticed how his hands trembled? I sat up straighter, frowning. He always began Assembly by reading the marks, our silly form of shaming those who didn’t keep all the little rules. Why was he changing it?

A glance at Ann confirmed that her father’s behavior had her mystified, too.

I opened my mouth to ask her when the door to the hall flew open, and more Farther soldiers entered. They dragged a man between them. I saw a patch of brown hair, a white face. Blood dripped from his nose.

Everyone gasped, and Ann grabbed my arm. “That’s Edmond Dyer, Everiss’s father.”

The whole room watched, spellbound, as the soldiers hustled the man to the platform and dumped him down at the Mayor’s feet. He lay in a heap, his head in his hands, groaning.

“Edmond Dyer,” the Mayor said, looking down at the man. He spoke in a monotone, as if he were reciting a list of rules. “A friend to many in this town, a loyal member of this community...or so we thought.”

Edmond lifted his head. “Please...” he rasped.

One of the Farther soldiers kicked him, and he crumpled again. Rage began to simmer in my stomach. Ann’s grip on my arm tightened. The people around me muttered in outrage, but no one moved.

“Edmond has trespassed against the safety of this town,” the Mayor said.

Trespassed against the safety of the town? What did that mean? What was his crime?

“As punishment, his property has been confiscated. He will serve a sentence of hard labor. His family will not be implicated in his crimes.”

Gasps echoed all over the room as the words sunk in. His property, confiscated? Sentenced to hard labor? What could he possibly have done to merit this?

Property was only taken from a member of the village if they were proven to be physically or mentally unfit to maintain it, or if they directly defied the orders of the Elders. What had Edmond Dyer done?

I craned my neck, looking for Everiss, but I couldn’t spot her curly brown hair anywhere. Instead I saw Dan Tailor, her former suitor. He sat hunched over in his chair, one hand clenched in a fist with the knuckles pressed against his mouth like he was holding in a shout.

“Our...
coexistence
...with the Farthers has not always been easy, but it is necessary that we remain calm and continue to cooperate,” the Mayor said. “We must not tolerate attempts to sabotage this cooperation.”

“What cooperation?” I muttered, looking hard at the Farther soldiers flanking him.

Ann pressed her fingers into my arm, reminding me to remain silent.

“Take him away,” the Mayor ordered hoarsely. His expression was blank, but he shut his eyes when the soldiers stepped past to hoist Edmond Dyer up again. He sagged between them like his legs were made of straw.

“Please,” Edmond begged, this time addressing the crowd. His voice was raspy and low, tortured. “Please...I didn’t…”

Every single villager sat frozen, stunned.

Why was no one standing up? Why was no one demanding an explanation, a trial? I felt myself rising from the bench, but Ann yanked me back down.

“Don't be stupid,” she hissed in my ear, fierce and un-Annlike. “He’d throw you to the Farthers without blinking, just like he’s doing to Edmond Dyer. Think of Jonn and Ivy.”

The Farther soldiers grabbed Edmond’s arms and yanked him toward the door. He shrieked once, a shrill sound of complete agony. The heavy oak door slammed, and the sound reverberated through the room.

I gripped the edge of the bench so tightly that my knuckles turned white, and I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste blood. Wasn’t this what we’d always feared might happen?

It was the stuff of nightmares.

Beside me, Ann shivered. Her eyes were squeezed shut.

At the front of the hall, the Mayor grimaced and cleared his throat. “Let us continue,” he said, adjusting the collar of his shirt and darting a glance at Officer Raine. “There are other matters on the agenda today.”

No one moved. The whole room seemed mesmerized as we waited for him to continue.

“Our Aeralian friends have been with us for several months now, as you know, and I have just received word that an official representative will be joining us here.”

The consulate Ann had spoken about?

Murmurs swept the room, and the Mayor held up a hand to call for quiet. The sounds died away, and he bared his teeth in another smile. But his control was slipping, and I could read the fear in his eyes. Whether that fear was of us or the Farthers, I couldn’t tell.

“This representative will be here to ensure our safety. This is for the good of our town, and for the good of the Frost.”

The villagers around me shifted and whispered, and an undercurrent of ugly anger filled the air. But no one said anything.

“Don’t,” Ann whispered to me sharply as I inched forward on the bench.

“Laborers will construct a place for the Aeralian representative,” the Mayor continued. “They are dangerous, and not to be spoken with. They'll live and sleep in their own camps, and you are not to engage with them.”

The silence was deafening. My blood had begun a slow, anxious boil in my veins.

He paused. “Now, let's read the marks, shall we?”

~

I almost ran from the building when we were dismissed. Fire burned beneath my skin and in my cheeks. I kept my mouth clamped shut, and I ducked my head down as I passed the Farthers standing guard at the door so they couldn’t see the expression in my eyes.

Outside, the icy air fanned my cheeks. Pulling Ann behind me, I skirted the crowd and stepped into an alley between two shops.

“We have to do something.” The memory of Edmond Dyer’s shriek was burned in my mind forever. I began to pace. “Why was he arrested? Did you overhear anything from your father?”

“I don't know. I haven't heard even a whisper about this before now. And it doesn't make any sense.” She wiped her thumb along the edge of her eye, brushing away a gathering tear. “The Elders’ Circle is supposed to convene for any discipline against a villager, and they haven't. They usually come to see my father, or he meets them at the Assembly Hall. There has been no deliberation, I'm sure of it.”

“Officer Raine ordered it, didn’t he?”

She said nothing, but I could see by her expression that she thought I was right.

My stomach churned. I could barely see straight. “There was no warning, no trial, not even any specification about his crimes... And what about the rest of the family? What will happen to them? Their home was confiscated!”

She shook her head. “They'll be spread around to other families, I suppose. I should find Everiss.”

“We have to do something,” I snapped.

“What can we do?”

Resolve burned in the pit of my stomach.

I
could do something.

“Yes,” I said, grabbing her hands and squeezing them to make her focus. “Find Everiss and make sure she's all right. Let me know if there's anything I can do for them later. But right now, I need to go.”

If I didn’t get out of town now, I’d do something I’d regret. I could feel it in my bones.

“Lia,” Ann began.

I met her eyes, and her face crumpled. She wrapped me in a quick, fierce hug.

“I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you,” she whispered against my shoulder. “So be careful.”

I gave her a squeeze in answer and then stepped back. “I'll see you soon.”

She stood motionless, watching me as I hurried away.

I FELT AS though I was engulfed in a dark cloud and I couldn’t see a way out of it. I needed to get away and clear my head before I did something rash, something stupid. My boots kicked up a spray of snow as I rushed through the Cage for the Frost, and home. The wind blew in my eyes, stinging them and making them water. Or was it tears?

The trees closed over my head, obscuring the sky, and I was just a scrape of blue in a sea of white as I took the path home. Trampled snow blossoms littered my way, looking like bits of fallen sky embedded in the snow. I brushed my fingers over the blossoms dangling from my neck, my nervous habit, and hurried faster.

The farm came into view as I crested the final hill, and I stopped to catch my breath. A tendril of smoke curled from the chimney of the white clapboard house that stood alone in the center of the yard, surrounded by a skirt of snow. Footprints perforated a trail from the front door to the barn and back. Ivy must have seen to the animals already.

I needed a moment before I went into the house. I turned and plunged off the path into the Frost.

The icy branches enfolded me in an evergreen embrace. Snow swirled in my eyes and dusted my hair as I pushed through the icy vegetation in the direction of the traps. I walked quietly, keeping my ears tuned for any unusual sounds. The wild, white beauty of the forest made my chest ache. My breath burned in my lungs—it always felt colder in the Frost itself.

The traps were all empty. I swallowed curse words and turned for home. And all the dark, broken thoughts and fears swept over me like a muddy wave. Every single piece of my life had crumbled. My parents were dead. Gabe was gone. Farthers had occupied our village. And now my best friend might be in trouble, too.

I felt so helpless.

I stepped on a branch, and the rotted wood snapped like a shot beneath my boot. I paused and scanned the trees around me out of habit, and the feeling of being watched that always hovered at the edge of my awareness in the Frost slipped across my skin. I exhaled. My heart beat faster. And I realized I was looking—hoping—to see a flutter of blue cloak, a head of dark hair.

But he wasn’t there.

My whole body went still as an idea came to me, clear as a rush of cold wind.

I let my lips curve into a grim, determined smile.

~

Jonn watched me all through dinner, his eyes narrowed. He read my moods better than anyone, and I was sure he’d sensed my sour temper. I swallowed the dry bits of potato and kept my gaze on my plate. Across the table, Ivy toyed with her food and jiggled her foot beneath the table.

We were a silent bunch.

“How are things in town?” Jonn asked when I thought I was about to scream from the weight of the unspoken words and my anxieties pressing against me.

I shot a glance at my sister. “Assembly was, well... Ivy, can you put more water over the fire for the tea?”

“You can say it in front of me,” she snapped. “I’m not a child anymore. What happened at Assembly?”

I bit my lip and looked at my twin. He fumbled with his fork a moment before nodding, and I dragged in a deep breath. “They arrested Edmond Dyer. They took away his home and his livelihood and sentenced him to hard labor.”

“What?” Jonn’s knife clattered against the table. “Why?”

“The Mayor fed us a ridiculous story about him endangering the village.” Just repeating it made my throat prickle and my skin itch with fury. “Farther soldiers threw him to the ground, kicked him, dragged him away... I’m glad you weren’t there to see it, either of you.”

They both blinked at me, stunned.

“And what do you think they really arrested him for?” Jonn demanded.

“A show of power...retaliation... They’re trying to frighten us all into submission.” Anger surged through me, making my hands shake as I gathered up my utensils and piled them on my empty plate. I thought of what else had happened, Leon and the rest—I had much more to tell Jonn, but not in front of my sister.

Ivy pressed her fingers over her mouth. “Are they going to take our farm away, too?”

“What? No. Of course not.” I grabbed my empty plate and stood. My stomach still twisted with hunger, but we’d eaten all I dared spare from our food supply for the day. We would just have to tighten our belts until we got the weekly rations. I gathered up an armful of dishes and carried them to the kitchen. I dropped them in the sink and leaned against the wall, closing my eyes.

I needed to leave the signal for Adam to see. I took the lantern down from the hook on the wall and reached for the matches.

“I need to get something in the barn,” I said, heading for the door.

Ivy sat white-faced, shaking in her chair, and Jonn was trying to calm her down. They barely heard me.

I ducked outside. The wind had kicked up again, bringing a flurry of snowflakes with it, and the specks of white danced before my eyes and melted against my lips. Above my head, the Watcher Ward danced and clattered. The sun had shrunk to a glowing coal behind the snow clouds, and a bluish haze bathed everything in twilight.

Swallowing to ease the dryness that filled my mouth and throat, I lifted the lantern and headed for the trees. When I hung out this lantern, I would signal Adam. He would come. And I would give him my answer.

Was I really ready to do this?

My footsteps were wet snapping sounds in the thick silence, and the wind trailed cold fingers through my hair. I stopped by the trees and fumbled for a match, striking it twice before the flame sputtered to life. I hung the lantern on a branch, and the halo of light it cast illuminated a hard circle of white around me but did nothing to penetrate the wall of shadows that signaled the beginning of the Frost.

Prickles crawled over my skin as I stared once more into the mouth of the Frost, straining to hear and see what lurked beyond, testing my own resolve as I stood there, facing the brink of night and the promise of Watchers. Whispering sounds slid from the trees as the wind whipped through the branches and moaned over the snowdrifts. A mothkat screeched in the distance.