and I do my best to follow him.
“What purpose do these serve?” I ask with a groan after banging my head against the wall several times.
“They’re drains,” he replies. “Flooding in the canals used to be a serious problem because there weren’t a lot of water outlets, so these were dug all over the city to divert heavy rain. Makes everything I do a lot easier since I’m small enough to fit.”
Now it makes sense to me how Astor was able to take care of himself and his mother for so long without being caught. These drains were all over the place as we journeyed through the canals. Someone as small as him would be able to get anywhere in the city without much trouble at all.
The people erupt into loud jeering as we make our way, finally reaching a set of grates that grant us a direct view into the courtyard. Hundreds, maybe even thousands have gathered around a large wooden platform built to stand well above the people like a stage. On it stands Sebastian, and behind him tied to large wooden planks are Yori and Julienne.
“Where’s Wade?” I whisper, but Astor shushes me.
His eyes are on Sebastian, who is trying to calm down the crowd after their angered outcry from learning that two rangers had been found hiding in their city. Once they’ve been quieted to some extent, Sebastian continues speaking.
“There’s one more out there,” he says, receiving more hisses and jeers from the masses. “Keep your eyes open. Don’t hesitate to report anything suspicious to the guards.”
Astor turns around away from the action, his face flushed with emotion.
“He’s taunting us,” Astor bemoans.
“It sounds more like he’s trying to use the people to—”
“No,” Astor interrupts, “we’ve been hiding for years without problem. They wouldn’t be able to find us, with or without help. It would take an army weeks to search every crevice, unless they knew just where to look, and they don’t.”
“How did they get to us so quickly then?”
“We were being followed after I found you. I knew, but I figured it’d be best not to make you panic. I just didn’t expect my mother would let them in like she did.”
“Which is why you were upset,” I say.
He doesn’t reply, but instead glances back out at the square. Sebastian is gone, which worries me, but it doesn’t seem to trouble Astor.
“They won’t kill them,” he says after a moment of thought. “It’s a trap. Sebastian is dangling them in front of us like bait, just hoping that we will be foolish enough to come out. Now. Tomorrow. Someday. My mother and Yori will be safe as long as we are. That’s the only way we can protect them.”
His words are surprisingly hopeful as he speaks them, though I don’t know how we’re going to make this work without Julienne. She did say that there were others, but the prospect of evading the soldiers and getting to them seems daunting.
“Your mother said there are others like her,” I encourage.
Astor nods.
“But not in Vanguard. We were the only two who elected to stay here instead of fleeing to other safer cities. Being close to Sebastian allowed us to keep an open eye and help some of the others stay underground. At least those who wanted help.”
He trails off, and I don’t respond. My mind wanders to Wade and what I imagine he must have done to stay alive. He definitely wouldn’t have been someone to accept help, choosing to survive on his own, though he apparently did in desperation appeal to Anastasia for aid at some point.
“Maybe we could find Wade,” I suggest.
Astor shakes his head.
“It’d be too risky, that is if he’s even still alive. Sebastian told the people to look for just one other ranger, most likely me. But if Wade is alive, he won’t be able to find us in the tunnels either, and we can’t risk surfacing to ask those who might know where he could be hiding. We’re on our own.”
“So what now?”
Instead of having an answer, Astor stares at me blankly, his eyes strained and red from a sleepless night. To my surprise, he starts to tear up a little, looking away at that instant to rub them dry.
“Sorry,” he says firmly. “No matter how hard I try, I can’t help being emotional like a helpless child sometimes. It’s useful in some ways to have such a young mind since I’m able to absorb and memorize things easily, like the layout of Vanguard’s underground canals and tunnels, but it is frustrating knowing so much, having experienced so much, and still feeling like I’m a boy on my father’s ranch.”
I put my arm around him and pull him next to me, and he smiles a little. We sit like that for a long moment.
“Thanks,” he says, coughing to clear his throat. “The reason I’m feeling so discouraged is that there’s not a lot of reason to believe we’ll find someone else to open your world stone.”
“But your mother said—”
“The others she spoke of haven’t been heard from for a long time. Even if they are out there somewhere, it will be difficult to find them. We don’t have the time to guess and hope. She should have come with us. It would have been worth the risk, regardless of what other plans she might be considering. Time is our enemy right now. We simply don’t have enough of it.”
At that instant, a thought enters my head, almost out of nowhere like a shooting star falling from the night sky. A memory of a being I am certain is powerful enough to unlock the stone. But could he ever be trusted to not turn against us?
“Is something wrong?” Astor interrupts my stupor.
“What makes you think something is wrong?” I reply flustered.
“You’d started gripping my arm so tightly that your fingers were digging into my skin.”
“Oh, sorry,” I say, taking my arm from around him and lifting my hands to my face.
I forget what I was thinking about for a second, but then it comes back, the echo of an idea so risky, so foolish, that I want to dismiss it entirely. I’m certain it will only end badly, but in my heart, it feels like the only sure choice we have left.
“I know another who can open the stone,” I say softly.
“Who?” Astor asks, eagerness in his voice.
“The Necromancer.”
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