Though the physician excused me from training and watch, my mother
doesn’t seem to care. Her note to me is an order to r eport to training
field two for hand - to - hand combat. I pocket the bloodroot serum — it will
have to wait — and spend the next two hours attempting to ke ep the Combat
Centurion from beating me to a pulp.
By the time I change into fresh fatigues and leave the training field,
tenth bell’s come and gone, and I have a party to go to. The boys — and
Helene — will be waiting. I shove my hands in my pocke ts as I walk. I hope
Hel loosens up a little — at least enough to forget that she was so irritated
with me earlier. If I want her to set me free from the Empire, making sure
she doesn’t hate me seems like a good first st ep.
My fingers brush up against the bottle of bloodroot in my pocket. You
told Laia you’d take it to her, Elias, a voice chides me. Days ago.
But I also said I’d join Hel and the boys in the barracks. Hel’s already
mad at me. If she finds out I’m visiting Scholar slave - girls in the dead of
nig ht, she won’t be pleased.
I stop and consider. If I’m quick about it, Hel will never know where
I’ve been.
The Commandant’s house is dark, but I stick to the shadows anyway.
The slaves might be in bed, but if my mother’s asle ep, then I’m a swamp
jinn. I prowl around to the servants’ entrance, thinking to leave the oil in the
kitchen. Then I hear voices.
“This hidden trail — where does it let out?” I recognize the speaker’s
murmur. Laia.
“The docks.” That’s Izzi, the kitchen slave. “Is that where you’re
going? ”
After listening a moment longer, I realize that they’re planning to take
the treacherous hidden trail out of the school and into Serra. The trail isn’t
watched, solely because no one is stupid enough to risk sneaking out that
way. Demetrius and I tried it without ropes on a dare six months ago and
nearly broke our necks.
The girls will have a hell of a time making it across. And it will be
doubly miraculous if they make it back. I start after them, thinking to tell
them that the risk isn’t worth it, not even for the legendary Moon Festival.
But then the air shifts and freezes me in my tracks. I smell grass and
snow.
“So,” Helene says from behind me. “That’ s who Laia is. A slave.” She
shakes her head. “I thought you were better than the others, Elias. I never
imagined you would take a slave to your bed.”
“It’s not like that.” I wince at how I sound: like a typical bumbling male,
denying wrongdoing to his woman. Exc ept Helene’s not my woman.
“Laia’s not — ”
“Do you think I’m stupid? Or blind?” There is something dangerous in
Helene’s eyes. “I saw how you looked at her. That day when she brought us
to the Commandant’s house before the Trial of Courage. Like she w as water
and you were just dying of thirst.” Hel collects herself. “Doesn’t matter. I’m
r eporting her and her friend to the Commandant right now.”
“For what?” I’m astounded at Helene, at the d epths of her anger.
“For sneaking out of Blackcliff.” Helene’s practically gnashing her teeth.
“For defying their master, attempting to attend an illegal festival — ”
“They’re just girls, Hel.”
“They’re slaves, Elias. Their only concern is pleasing their master, and
in this case, I assure you, their master would not be p leased.”
“Calm down.” I look around, worried someone will hear us. “Laia’s a
person, Helene. Someone’s daughter or sister. If you or I had been born to
different parents, we might be in her shoes instead of our own.”
“What are you saying? That I should feel sorry for the Scholars? That I
should think of them as equals? We conquered them. We rule them now. It’s
the way of the world.”
“Not all conquered people are turned into slaves. In the Southern Lands,
the Lake People conquered the Fens and brought them i nto the fold — ”
“What is wrong with you?” Helene stares at me as if I’ve sprouted
another head. “The Empire has rightfully annexed this land. It’s our land.
We fought for it, died for it, and now we’re tasked with ke eping it. If doing
so means we have to ke ep the Scholars enslaved, so be it. Have a care,
Elias. If anyone heard you spouting this trash, the Black Guard would toss
you into Kauf without a thought.”
“What happened to you wanting to change things?” Her righteousness is
getting damn irritating. I t hought she was better than this. “That night after
graduation, you said you’d improve things for the Scholars — ”
“I meant better living conditions! Not setting them free! Elias, look at
what the bastards have been doing. Raiding caravans, killing innocent
Illustrians in their beds — ”
“You’re not actually referring to Daemon Cassius as innocent. He’s a
Mask — ”
“The girl’s a slave,” Helene snaps. “And the Commandant deserves to
know what her slaves are doing. Not telling her is tantamount to aiding and
abetting the enemy. I’m turning them in.”
“No,” I say. “You’re not.” My mother’s already made her mark on Laia.
She’s already gouged out Izzi’s eye. I know what she’ll do if she learns they
snuck out. There won’t be enough left to feed the scavengers.
Helene crosses her arms in front of her. “How do you plan to stop me?”
“That healing power of yours,” I say, hating myself for blackmailing her
but knowing it’s the only thing that will get her to back down. “The
Commandant would be mighty interested in that, don’t you think?”
Helene goes still. In the light of the full moon, the shock and hurt on her
masked face hit me like a blow to the chest. She backs away, as if worried
that I’ll spread my sedition. As if it’s a plague.
“You’re unbelievable,” she says. “After — after everything.” She sputters,
she’s so angry, but then she draws herself up, pulling out the Mask that lives
at her core. Her voice goes flat, her face expressionless.
“I want nothing to do with you,” she says. “If you want to be a traitor,
you’re on your own. You stay away from me. In training. At watch. In the
Trials. Just stay away.”
Damn it, Elias. I needed to make up with Helene tonight, not antagonize
her further.
“Hel, come on.” I reach for her arm, but she wants none of it. She throws
off my hand and stalks off into the night.
I gaze after her, poleaxed. She doesn’t mean it, I tell myself. She just
needs to cool down. By tomorrow, she’ll be rational — I can explain why I
didn’t want to turn the girls in. And apologize for blackmailing her with
knowledge she trusted me to ke ep secret. I grimace. Yes, I’ll definitely wait
until tomorrow. If I approach her now, she’ll probably try to geld me.
But that still leaves Laia and Izzi.
I stand in the dark, considering. Mind your own business, Elias, part of
me says. Leave the girls to their fate. Go to Leander’s party. Get drunk.
Idiot, a second voice says. Follow the girls and talk them out of this
lunacy before they get caught and killed. Go. Now.
I listen to the second voice. I follow.