Whisperworld
Chapter 26
We circled around the north gate to the far side, where I knew that the ruins were thick and visibility from the wall was low. Jacks led us out from behind the leaning pillar of a concrete overpass to the lumpy foot of the city wall. Overhead, the sky had gone from white to a pale, washed-out green.
“Kiyu, get Ahmet up there first,” Jacks ordered in a quiet hiss. “Sidney, I want to know if anyone’s coming. I don’t care if all they’re thinking about is how much they need to take a piss.”
Sidney nodded and Ahmet stepped up to the wall. He held his spear across his chest and whispered to Kiyu that he was ready. My girlfriend — yeah, I was pretty sure Kiyu was my girlfriend by now, though this wasn’t exactly the time or place for the relationship talk — raised her hand and Ahmet lifted off the ground. His cloak didn’t swirl in the wind; the cloth was pressed tight against his body by the grip of Kiyu’s power. She deposited Ahmet at the top of the city wall and he waved down to us.
I went next, then Jacks and Sidney. Finally, Kiyu flew up and we crouched along the top of the wall while the Whitefingers unscrewed the pieces of their spears and tucked them away under their cloaks.
“Someone’s coming,” Sidney whispered.
I checked right and left, then spotted a pair of green-clad men mounting a ladder just down the curve of the wall. For now, their attention was on navigating the rungs, but at any moment, they might look up and see us.
“Everyone jump,” Kiyu instructed.
I balked at the edge of the wall. It was thirty feet high and had nothing but hard-packed earth to break my fall and legs down below, but Kiyu gave me a shove. Everyone else just jumped over at Kiyu’s command. Something caught me roughly a few yards off the ground and I jerked in the air. It was still a lot softer than the dirt, though, and Kiyu lowered us the rest of the way more slowly. We pressed ourselves against the base of the wall as the Blackthumbs reached the top. They would have to look straight down to see us.
We could have killed them, I supposed. We outnumbered the pair more than two to one, but I was glad that Jacks hadn’t ordered it. In a way, those two Greenguard were just like Zach. They were only defending their homes under the guidance of the Gardeners, and I didn’t want to kill them for that. Everyone who died was one less person we saved today. And each body increased the chances of the Gardeners realizing that Whitefingers had breached their city.
Jacks and the rest finished unscrewing their spears and hiding them away. I paused to make everyone rub dust into their cloaks and gloves, concealing the salt stains there. Nothing would get a Blackthumbs’ attention quicker than actual white fingers.
As we slipped out away from the wall, I could see why Thorn must have ordered the pruning. The roads of Angel City had become camps, full to bursting with refugees. Tents had sprung up like greenhouse seedlings, choking the streets with people all trying to carve out a place of their own in this last refuge.
We slipped into the road and moved along the edges of the crowd, trying to blend in. They were thickest around the scale farms and cactus patches, of course. The banter of lively barter was too loud. Every voice was strained and a hundred shouting arguments raged all at once. The sellers were raising their prices in the face of dwindling supply and high demand. Everyone was hungry and frightened and felt cheated. A pair of uniformed Blackthumbs jogged across the square, pushing through huddled people to break up a fight that had started over some roast snake.
More Greenguard patrolled along the road, crossbows in hand. They stopped people — apparently at random — and forced them to kneel while one placed a hand on the frightened citizen’s head. The Halo lit up, flickered and scanned, then finally turned green. With a shove, they sent the citizen stumbling away and began searching for their next subject.
“We can’t let them test you two,” I told Kiyu and Sidney, cocking my head slightly in the direction of the roaming patrol. “They can detect your abilities.”
So we crept away from the Blackthumbs and I pulled Zach’s hat low over my eyes. If any of them recognized me — and everyone in the Greenguard knew Julia the troublemaking traitor by now — then we were fucked for certain. I nodded to a side street at the edge of the market and we made our way toward it, trying not to hurry or look over our shoulders too much.
But I was checking back at the Greenguard, of course, when I ran smack into Sam Garza. I took a step back and shook my head clear, but by the time I realized who I was looking at, Sam recognized me, too.
“What?” he gasped. “But I thought they executed you!”
Sam looked at the cloak covering my fatigues, then at the others gathered around me. He might not have been able to tell they were Whitefingers, but I was sure that he didn’t have to be a yin to feel the guilt I was projecting.
“Julia…” Kiyu warned. I glanced over my shoulder again and saw the Blackthumbs circling the market perimeter toward us.
“Climb,” Sam whispered. He pointed to a ladder that led to the second story of a leaning gray-white highrise.
Jacks urged everyone up quickly and then threw himself down flat on the terraced ledge. The Greenguard stopped at the mouth of the street and saw Sam. They turned and pushed through the crowd toward him. Jacks swore softly and began pulling the sectioned spear out from under his cloak.
Sam leaned closer to a group of refugees sitting with their backs against the nearest alleyway wall and whispered something to them. I couldn’t make out the words, but Sidney held up his hand to me and Jacks, shaking his head.
Sam thrust his hands into his pockets and turned away down the street, but the Blackthumbs whistled sharply and pointed to him. Sam stopped, eyes wide. One of the Greenguard leveled a crossbow at him while the other one appeared to be asking a question, to which Sam stammered an inaudible answer. The Greenguard didn’t seem pleased with whatever he said, though. The one with the crossbow grabbed Sam by the shoulder and gave the dyer a rough jerk. Beside me, Sidney looked nervous, but his hand remained raised.
Wait.
Kiyu was as taut as a steel cable beside me. The Blackthumb forced Sam to his knees and the other placed a hand on his head. The Halo beeped and the floating image of Sam’s brain lit up with scan lines. The halo-gram flashed green, flickered and then went dark. The two Blackthumbs exchanged a glance. The one wearing the Halo pressed the button again, but the halo-gram didn’t reappear. The battery must have finally died in the ancient piece of technology. The other man yanked Sam to his feet once more.
“Go on, then,” he said.
Grumbling, the two Blackthumbs made their way into the street again and back toward the Greenguard base. I grabbed the edge of the roof and swung onto the ladder, beating Jacks down to the road. I tapped Sam’s shoulder. His shirt was dark and clung to his skin with sweat. Sam flinched violently at my touch and spun to face me, but then he relaxed and stepped further down the narrow street.
“I didn’t rat you out,” he promised.
“Thanks.” I looked at the refugees huddled along the alleyway. Every one of them dropped their eyes and refused to meet my gaze. “What about them?”
“I said I’d tell the Blackthumbs that they were dreameaters if they talked. They won’t say anything. But what are you doing here?” Sam asked. “Do you know what’s going on? They say the storms are at the city walls.”
“They are,” I admitted. “But we think we can help. You should get out of here.”
“Wait, I want you to meet–” Sam stopped and looked over my shoulder again.
I spun, expecting to find more Greenguard, but Sam brushed past me toward a woman carrying a baby in a sling across her chest. She paused when Sam called out and he leaned over the infant, smiling broadly in spite of the tears shining in his eyes.
“That’s not her daughter,” Sidney said. I hadn’t even realized that the yin was standing next to me. “She’s Sam’s baby girl. You saved her.”
I shook my head. “No, not me. It was Zach. We were supposed to give her to the storm. But Zach just couldn’t do it.”
“Zach did that?” Jacks asked.
I stood up straight and looked the tall, scarred Whitefinger almost in the eye, but he said nothing else.
If I survived any of this, there would be time to meet the baby girl later. Before Sam could introduce me, we hurried out of the crowded street. I felt eyes on me everywhere and asked Sidney if he would be able to sense if someone spotted us.
“Maybe,” he said uncertainly. “There are an awful lot of people here. It’s… noisy.”
As we closed in on the Greenguard base, the roads began to clear. Not because there were fewer refugees here, but because the patrolling Blackthumbs and their crossbows kept everyone away. We no longer had to squeeze between tents and people, but that meant that it was harder to conceal ourselves, as well. I led the Whitefingers toward the base at a brisk, business-like walk. Fast enough, I hoped, that we would look like we knew exactly what we were doing.
I didn’t tempt fate by heading straight for the front gate, but circled the tall fence and its coils of sharp razor wire. I didn’t see anyone in the training yard. All of the Greenguard were out working the city or guarding the Stormsphere, I guessed. The base itself should be nearly empty. Except for Gregory, if he was the lazy ass I suspected him to be.
“I don’t sense any thoughts in the yard,” Sidney said.
A pair of water boys made their way across the far end of the street, but they leaned together as they walked, gossiping. It was as clear a shot as we were going to get. Kiyu quickly flew us up over the fence, panting a little with the effort. When we landed on the other side, I unfastened my cloak and handed it to her. With any luck, my uniform would be enough to move unnoticed and unremarked until we made it to Gregory.
We made our way swiftly across the yard in the direction of the blocky concrete base, but two Greenguard were heading toward us from the front gate. Sidney cursed. He hadn’t felt them coming from the crowded market… I shushed him and kept us moving. I waved to the other Blackthumbs.
“Hey there,” I called as cheerfully as I could manage.
It was the same pair that we evaded as they scanned the market crowd. They had dawdled on their way to the base, probably reluctant to report the broken Halo, and we had beaten them back.
“What are you doing here?” one of them called out. “Who the hell are these people?”
They were uncomfortably close, but for the moment, the two Greenguard were focused on the Whitefingers and hadn’t recognized me. Yet.
“They say they’ve got some information for Chief Gregory about the Whitefingers,” I lied quickly. “They want to get some barter out of it.”
I turned and motioned everyone toward the door, bringing up the rear with my crossbow pointed at Ahmet’s back.
“Hey, wait! What’s that?”
The Blackthumbs jogged to catch up with me. One of them was pointing to Ahmet’s spear — the end had caught in the hem of his cloak. Ahmet darted a quick glance down and pulled the spear away out of sight, but it was already too late. The other Greenguard whipped their crossbows up.
“He’s armed! Take him down!” one of them shouted.
There was no way we could simply walk into the base now. Kiyu and Sidney both threw their hands up in surrender, but the nearest Blackthumb’s finger twitched on the trigger of his crossbow.
Shit.
I heard a thud, a shout and then everything turned into a storm of steel weapons and swirling cloaks. I whirled and fired. A body slumped to the ground. I heard another crossbow twang as I yanked the knife from my belt and went after the closest green shape. He ducked a jab from Jacks, who wielded his spear in pieces, smashing the blunt end into the other man’s gut. I caught the Blackthumb with a slash to the arm that sent his empty crossbow sliding across the ground. He was still reaching for his own blade when the point of Jacks’ spear emerged red and dripping from his throat.
I spun with my knife held ready, but Kiyu had already finished with the reinforcements from the Greenguard base. The doors had been smashed off their hinges and two bodies lay in crumpled heaps inside. One of them groaned and curled slowly into a fetal ball, but the other didn’t move at all.
Sidney and Ahmet lay sprawled on the ground, though. Ahmet had a bolt buried between his ribs, probably right into his heart. Sidney had been shot in the side and blood bubbled from his mouth as he struggled to breathe. Jacks pulled him inside the base and tried to help Sidney sit up. The yin cried out in pain. I was no healer, but I could hear air whistling through the hole in his side. It didn’t sound good.
“I’m fine,” Sidney said. Blood ran down his too-white chin. “I can make it. Just help me…”
Jacks heaved Sidney up to his feet, slinging one of the yin’s arms over his broad shoulders. Sidney coughed and blood poured from his mouth, soaking his shirt in red. He slipped off Jacks’ shoulder before anyone could catch him, fell to the ground and did not rise again.
