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Twenty-six
“OCHRE!” I LET OUT A STRANGLED YELP AND THROW MY arms around him.
“What are you doing here?” I say.
“What are you doing here?” he says. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the Jewel?”
I release him. “It’s a long story.”
He glances behind me. “Isn’t that the companion everyone’s looking for?”
“He’s part of the story,” I say.
“How do you know this boy?” the Whistler asks.
“He’s my brother,” I say. “Ochre, how is Hazel? And Mother? Are they all right?”
“Hazel’s going to have to be tested soon,” Ochre says. My heart sinks to settle somewhere around my knees.
“Mother isn’t handling it well,” he adds.
I shudder. My mother doesn’t even know the worst of it.
Maybe the new date is a gift. Maybe Hazel won’t have time to be tested.
If I can stop the Auction before Hazel even gets a chance to be diagnosed, she’ll never have to go through what I went through.
“Can someone please explain what happened here?” the bad-tempered man says. “Is she some sort of . . . witch?”
I forgot I was in the middle of proving myself to these people. “I’m not a witch,” I say. “More like . . .” I try to think of how I can explain it. “Like a conduit. I can call on the elements. This island has been torn up by the royalty. It wants to help. Don’t you see? This thing is bigger than all of us.” I don’t know how much to say—do I tell them about the Paladin and the original conquering of the island?
Many faces are definitely looking at me like I’m crazy. But a few seem intrigued.
“What else can you do?” the blond boy asks.
“I’d like to know that, too,” Ochre says. “Is that what they teach you at Southgate?”
“No,” I say. “That’s what they intentionally don’t teach us at Southgate. But with all the surrogates working together, we can take on their army. We can get inside the Jewel and destroy it from the inside.”
“No one breathes a word about this to anyone,” Sil says. “Or the Black Key will hear about it.”
“Does the Black Key know about this?” someone asks.
“Of course he knows,” Sil scoffs.
“Why didn’t he tell us?”
“He doesn’t tell anyone a damned thing if he doesn’t want to,” Sil says. “And look at your faces now. You wouldn’t have believed him if he did. You have to see it for yourself.”
“It’s late,” the bald man with the newspaper says. “And we’ve settled what needs to be settled. Training will start tomorrow night.” He glances at me warily. “If the Black Key accepts this surrogate, so will we.”
People begin to leave, in twos and threes, spacing it out over time so there isn’t a huge exodus from the tattoo parlor in the dead of night. That could easily arouse suspicion.
The Annabelle-girl leaves with the brother and sister. The boy leans over to me as he walks past and whispers, “My name’s Millet.”
I smile. That’s one person on my side.
Slowly, the crowd dwindles until there’s only me, Ochre, Sil, Ash, and the Whistler left.
I don’t want Ochre to leave, but I know he has to. “You can’t tell Mother or Hazel you’ve seen me,” I say. “It’s too dangerous.”
He nods. “I know.”
“How did you get involved in this anyway?”
“Sable Tersing,” he says. “There are lots of boys our age who are angry—we get treated worse than the animals at the dairy. They’ve started docking our pay for no reason at all. They whip us if we show up even a minute late. We wanted to do something, to push back, and Sable said he’d heard about this Society that was secretly undermining the royalty but we didn’t know how to find it. He said he’d heard something about a black key, so we started drawing them everywhere. That’s when the Whistler came to see us. Told us we could stop vandalizing and actually do something.”
“You can’t seriously expect I’d let you fight, Ochre,” I say. “You’re only fourteen.”
“And you’re only sixteen,” he says. “And it looks like you’re in the thick of this thing, whatever it is.”
“It’s too dangerous,” I say.
“You’re not Mother,” he insists.
“Mother would agree with me.”
“Well, it’s a good thing she’s not here then.”
I open my mouth to protest, but Sil cuts me off. “As charming as this family reunion is,” she says, “we have to be getting home.”
“Wait,” Ash says. “There’s something I have to do first.”
“What?” I ask.
He looks at the Whistler. “I’m going to need one of those key tattoos.”
“DOES IT HURT?”
Ash places his hand gently on his shoulder, where the Whistler put the bandage after he’d burned Lucien’s symbol into Ash’s skin. The cart rolls over a rut, and Ash winces.
“It’s just a little sore,” he says.
I’m freezing and exhausted by the time we get back to the White Rose. And I desperately miss my brother. The short time with him only made me yearn for home. It must be nearly three o’clock in the morning, but there is a light on in the living room.
Raven is awake in the rocking chair. Sienna must have gone to bed.
“How did it go?” she asks, putting down the book she was reading.
“I saw Ochre,” I say.
She sits up. “What? What was he doing there?”
“Joining the forces of the Black Key.”
“How was he? How are your mother and Hazel?”
The arcana begins to buzz. I yank it out of the knot at the base of my neck.
“Something has happened.” Lucien’s voice is exhausted but tense.
“Are you talking about the Auction?” I say. “I went to a meeting with Sil tonight, they’re saying the date has been changed. Do you know why?”
“Someone has betrayed me.”
“What?” I gasp. “Who?”
“It will be dealt with,” Lucien says. “And the informant only knew a small piece of this puzzle—that the October date would not be safe. But it gave the Electress the very excuse she needed.”
“Excuse for what?”
“She wishes for her daughter to succeed the throne,” he says. “You and I know the Duchess foiled any plans for her to have a daughter from the last Auction. Now she has another chance. Unfortunately, this means our timetable has been moved up considerably.”
“But we still don’t have girls from Eastgate and Westgate yet.”
“They will be arriving on tomorrow’s train. I didn’t have time to vet them properly—I hope they will be sufficient.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine.” I bite my lip. “Lucien, the people at the meeting tonight . . . they were frightened of me.”
“Did you show them your power?” he asks.
“Yes.”
There is a pause.
“They simply do not understand you,” he says.
“They loved Ash,” I say with a grin. Ash makes a face and I can practically hear Lucien rolling his eyes.
“Yes, I’m sure they did.”
“He’s going to help train them, you know. To fight.”
Raven raises an eyebrow at Ash, and he shrugs.
“That’s . . . fantastic.” Lucien’s sarcasm is palpable.
“I’d like to go to more meetings,” I say. “I want to know the people I’m fighting with.”
“You can discuss that with Sil,” Lucien says. “But for now, remember your purpose. Train the other surrogates.”
The arcana drops into my palm.
“So,” Raven says to Ash, “you’re going to be the new major general of the Black Key’s army?”
He laughs. “I’m glad I can finally do something.”
“You know how to fight.??
?
“Yes.”
“Can you teach me, too?”
“I . . .” Ash frowns and glances at me.
“Raven,” I say. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
She levels me with her glare. “I want to be strong. I want my body to feel strong again.”
It’s her decision. After all she’s been through, she’s earned it. “All right,” I say. Then I let out a huge yawn.
“We all better get some sleep,” Ash says. “Especially since it seems we’re getting some new additions tomorrow.”
As Raven heads upstairs to bed, and Ash and I make our way out to the barn, I can’t help hoping that whoever comes tomorrow will be as bold as Sienna, kind as Lily, and smart as Raven.
We’ll show all the people in this city.
Surrogates are not just silly girls, to be bought and sold and treated like pets or furniture.
We are a force to be reckoned with.
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
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Twenty-seven
SIL AND I FETCH THE CRATES FROM BARTLETT STATION the next day at noon.
The two girls could not look more different from each other. I stare down at them as Ash pries the lids off the crates.
One is very tall, with pale skin and long blond hair. Her legs are cramped in the small space. The other is tiny and dark with a mop of brown curls.
We carry them to Raven’s room and lay them out on the twin beds.
“I remember her,” Sienna says, pointing to the small girl. “I saw her at the Longest Night ball.”
“Was she nice?” I ask.
“I didn’t talk to her.”
I clench my teeth but say nothing.
Sienna and Raven wait downstairs—I felt it better for the new girls to see one face at a time. Plus, Sienna isn’t the best welcoming committee.
The blonde is the first to wake up. After the unpleasant effect of Lucien’s serum has passed, I hand her a glass of water. She gulps it down and looks up at me.
“You!” she exclaims. “I remember you. You played cello at the Exetor’s Ball.” She looks around the room. “I’m not in the Jewel anymore, am I?”
“No,” I say.
And just like that, she bursts into tears.
“Oh, thank you,” she says, clutching my sweater. “Thank you, thank you . . .”
Her name is Indi. I take her downstairs to meet Raven, Sienna, and Sil. It’s immediately apparent that Indi has one of the sunniest dispositions I’ve ever encountered—friendlier even than Lily. They look similar, too, with the same blond hair and big blue eyes, but Indi is much taller, taller than Raven. And her skin sags on her bones, dark circles under her eyes.
“It was awful there,” Indi says, as Sil puts a mug of tea in front of her. “My mistress would shut me in a closet sometimes when she had company over. Oh, this is lovely,” she says, taking a sip of tea. “She’d forget about me and I’d be left there for a whole day. She was young, just married, and she was more interested pleasing her husband. I heard her tell someone she only bought a surrogate to see what the Auction was like. I started to worry . . . I mean . . . the Electress’s surrogate died and then there was one girl I went to Westgate with and I saw her a few times, at the Longest Night ball and a couple of other parties and then she was gone.” She looks around the room, taking in the handwoven rugs, the homemade furniture, the cast-iron stove. “I like this house,” she says. “It’s very comfortable, isn’t it?”
“It is,” I say. “I’d better go back upstairs before the other girl wakes up.” I look to Raven. “Can you fill her in?”
“We’ve got this,” she says.
Indi is still chattering away as I head back upstairs.
It takes the little brunette another half hour before she wakes. Her reaction is the same as Indi’s—violent response to the serum, greedily drinking the water, and then bursting into tears.
Unlike Indi, her tears aren’t joyful.
I manage to get her name—Olive—before she starts shouting.
“Where am I? Where is my mistress? Take me back! I want to go back the Jewel.” Olive’s green eyes are glassy under her thick brown curls. “How could you do this to me?”
Before I have a chance to say anything, she runs out the door and down the stairs. I follow her and she stops short at the sight of the four women sitting around the dining room table.
“I remember you,” she says to Sienna. “You broke the rules. You drank champagne when you weren’t supposed to. I saw you at the Exetor’s Ball.” She turns to me, as if I had suddenly become her ally. “I told my mistress and she was pleased, yes she was, she knew I would never do that to her. Be obedient and be rewarded, that’s what she always said.” Olive claps her hands to her chest. “Oh, my poor mistress, what will she do without me?”
“She’ll survive,” Sienna snaps. “And so will you.”
Indi shoots her a look. She gets up and puts her arm around Olive.
“It will be all right,” Indi says. “I think they’re trying to help us.”
“I want to help my mistress,” Olive says with a giant sniff.
“You don’t have a mistress anymore,” I say gently.
“Yes I do, she’s the Lady of the Stream and she needs me!”
She collapses into sobs on Indi’s arm.
“We need to show her. Let’s get this over with,” Sienna says. “Maybe when she goes to the cliff she’ll understand.”
“I’ve never been on a cliff before,” Indi says, stroking Olive’s hair and glancing around as if it might be hidden under the sofa or behind the loom.
“I want to go back to the Jewel,” Olive moans.
I’m surprised by Olive’s reaction, and her complaints are unsettling. I’d never imagined any surrogate who’d spent any time in the Jewel actually defending the royalty. “You’re right, we should show them now,” I say to Sienna. “Raven?”
Raven is hunched over, holding her head in her hands.
“What’s wrong?” I say, hurrying to her side.
“She’s been twisted up,” she says, speaking to her feet. “Not the way I was but . . . she believes their lies. She loves them. It hurts.”
I put my hand on her knee. “We can wait. You don’t have to take us there now. It’s all right.”
Raven’s head whips up. “Of course I can take you there. It’s better there anyway.” She rubs her temple. “I wish she’d stop crying.”
We take Olive and Indi outside to the pond. The chill from last night has lifted; the sun is dazzling in a cloudless blue sky. It’s almost warm.
Ash is running laps around the field—he’s not wearing a shirt, and his back muscles ripple as he runs.
“Who’s that?” Olive asks, her tears stopping for the first time.
“He’s someone you’ll meet later,” I say. Indi’s eyes are glued to Ash’s retreating form.
“Let’s do it by the pond,” Sienna suggests.
“Where are you taking me?” Olive asks. I keep a tight hold on her hand and am glad that Indi seems to have the same idea.
“What a charming house,” Indi says, looking back at the White Rose. “And the air here . . . it’s so clear. Clean.” She takes a deep breath.
We stand in a circle at the edge of the pond. Raven takes Indi’s other hand as I take Sienna’s. Olive tugs against me.
“What is she going to do?” she asks.
“We’re going to show you who you really are,” I say.
“So stop trying to fight it,” Raven adds. “Because you can’t.”
She closes her eyes. Sienna and I do the same.
I hear a faint shriek from Olive as the cliff pulls us to it.
This time, the trees on the cliff are caught in a windstorm, their branches shaking and creaking as the wind howls. Dry brown leaves fly in the air around us. I’ve never felt this space so charged.
I see Olive and Indi, on the far side of the spiral statue, and they have that same look on their faces that Sienna did when she first saw the ocean, a mixture of awe and reverence.
We stay here for a few minutes, letting the power of this place soak in. When we return, Olive and Indi look down and see flowers—dark green and lemon yellow—around them.
“What was that place?” Indi asks, bending down to stroke her flowers. Even as they wilt under her touch, new ones bloom.
“What did you do to me?” Olive asks, stepping backward. “I feel . . .” She clutches her chest. The trail of green flowers follows her. “I don’t . . .”
The arcana begins to buzz in the knot in my hair.
“I’ll be right back,” I say to Raven and Sienna. “Stay with them.”
I run back to the house, ripping the arcana out.
“Lucien?”
“It’s me,” Garnet says. “I need to talk to you.” His tone is urgent, like it was the night I first heard him on the arcana. “There’s something I thought you’d want to know. My mother received a delivery late last night.”
“What was it?”
“A surrogate.”
My heart plummets. “How could she have gotten another surrogate? The Auction hasn’t happened yet.”
“I don’t know. I saw a girl arrive. She was handcuffed and blindfolded. And Dr. Blythe came to the palace this morning.” He sighs.
“Does Lucien know?”
“I’ve been trying to get in touch with him. I expect he’s fairly busy, now that the Auction date has been moved.”
“So you heard about that, too.”
“Yes. It’s like a bloodbath here. Hardly any of the surrogates from last year’s Auction are left alive. Everyone knows the Electress wants her daughter to rule. The Auction has been moved up, making it more likely she’ll have one. So any surrogate who is pregnant with a girl is essentially useless.”
“They’re killing their own surrogates?”
“Yes,” Garnet says grimly. “And you’re not safe if you’re a surrogate carrying a boy, either, because you can bet some rival House is going to try to take you out.”
I shudder. “This is going to be harder than we thought.”
“It was always going to be hard,” he says. “I’ve never . . . it’s like . . .” He lets out a growl of frustration. “I see them all now. The surrogates. I never noticed them before. Except now I see her, in every one of them.” I know he’s talking about Raven. “I see you in them, too,” he adds quickly. “They’re all people now, frightened girls who are paraded around on leashes and locked up in medical rooms. It’s disgusting.”