Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
SOFIA
S ofia watched Ocon’s sneering face disappear into darkness as the door shut. His eyes glinted with an impotent rage that made her gleeful and she saw the moment Micael noticed it, his own eyes going hard.
“Need I remind you, you’re not in charge here?” Micael said, voice low and icy.
“I didn’t say I was.”
He didn’t acknowledge her statement, waving the others off with a sharp look. When Sofia attempted to follow Javi, Micael’s large hand landed hard on her shoulder, stopping her from moving. Her cheeks burned hot.
“I want you out of here by tonight. Go back to the city and clear your head.”
Sofia’s mouth dropped open, not bothering to hide her anger. “I have another day before I’m expected back.”
“Then you’ll have time to let off steam and relax before you go back to work.”
“I’m staying. I’m not a child to be sent to her room.”
Micael turned on her, eyes black and hard. “No, but you are under my command. I don’t trust you. I saw you with him and that was after you failed to follow directions and almost ruined the plan we’d been putting in place for over two dragon blinks. Your part in the plan is done and the resistance thanks you.”
The words were hardly grateful, each one a sharp shard of glass, slicing at her.
“You realize who that is, right?” she said, voice going thin in the way she hated. She took a breath. “He’ll have insider knowledge on the castle, the prison, and half the royal and military quarters.”
He’ll be able to get her back into the chief commander’s house. Into his study where he kept his books.
“He’s not who we expected, but he’s going to play the same role either way. We’re getting Dia and Sari back unharmed. And that means delivering that man in there unharmed .”
“We can still interrogate him. Get information while we have him.” She wasn’t going to let up. Micael knew how she felt about this plan from the start. The crown didn’t negotiate with the resistance and the chances of this trade working were thinner than a dragon’s wing. But he was desperate and desperation lead to stupid decisions, even for him. “Just in case this plan doesn’t work.”
She hated the way he blanched at the words but they had to be said. There was a chance the king and chief commander wouldn’t negotiate the lives of their prisoners, even for the life of General Ocon’s own son.
“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. Until then, you’re needed back at the inn keeping an ear out for any news about the kidnapping and the crown’s reaction.”
He turned away, the dismissal clear, and she was left standing alone in the darkened hall trying not to think of the man that sat just out of reach.
* * *
“I know the stakes just as well as anyone,” Sofia said, throwing her sparse possessions in her bag without much care. She usually only carried a few trinkets from her time before the resistance and a single outfit when she came in and out of the city. It was best to pack light while committing treason.
Flor was standing across the room, already packed. Her eyes were focused on the door, as if she were waiting for Javi to come bursting through the door at just the wrong time.
“It’s his granddaughter,” she said, as if it explained everything.
“I know that,” she snapped. “Javi’s sister is in that prison, too. But he and his moms aren’t acting like idiots.”
Flor’s eyebrows pinched together in the way that reminded Sofia of her mother with a small pang of grief.
“How would you know? Have you even spoken to Javi since Dia was arrested?”
Sofia opened her mouth to respond, but Flor cut her off, reading her mind. “And talking to him about how you’re going to kill the chief commander and king in revenge is not what I mean. They’re already grieving. He doesn’t show it because it’s Javi, but I’ve heard him crying into his pillow at night, and his mothers have already completed the ritual to send Dia to the Depths if she dies.”
“She’s not going to die,” Sofia said with as much conviction as she could muster. “If Ocon can get us into the prison, we can break her and Sari out.”
“You assume any information he gives us under duress can be trusted.”
Sofia wanted to argue more, but Javi did walk in then, dark curls hanging limply in his face. Perhaps Flor was right. She looked at her friend, truly looked at him, for the first time in weeks and she saw the deep purple bruises beneath his eyes that his tight smile couldn’t hide.
“I shouldn’t have been worried about you leaving without me, Sofia. You manage to take forever to pack even when it’s just a single dress. As if Micael’s going to change his mind.”
“We can only hope one day he grows a brain.” She matched his smile, throwing an arm around his shoulders and placing a kiss on his cheek. “And I would never leave without dramatically complaining to you about it, anyway.”
Flor rolled her eyes, but joined the hug, wrapping her own arms around them.
Javi seemed to suddenly notice the bag slung across Flor’s shoulder.
“You’re leaving, too?”
“Micael said that I’m due back the day after Sofia anyway and I could help with?—”
“Babysitting me and making sure I don’t get into trouble,” Sofia interjected.
Flor elbowed Sofia, hard enough to hurt. “With gathering information now that the plan is in effect. Micael wants to know if the king or chief commander makes any proclamations or moves.”
Javi’s face went pale, but his smile didn’t falter. Sofia had to give him credit for never showing his hand. Even after cycles, she never knew exactly what he was thinking or feeling. But she understood he had to be hurting. Dia was six cycles his junior and barely associated with the resistance thanks to his own work in keeping her out of it. But five weeks ago, when she’d been arrested for being on the wrong side of the gates past curfew, she’d had a small dagger on her. It had been barely the size of a thumb, just large enough for self-protection when Javi wasn’t home to watch her. It was enough to have her sent to the prison on illegal possession and suspected resistance ties. And he had been the one to gift it to her.
Micael’s own granddaughter was arrested two days later trying to get a message to Dia and found guilty of conspiracy. The only reason they weren’t dead yet was because the chief commander suspected, rightfully so, that they had information regarding the resistance. Sofia could only imagine what the two girls had been put through in the five weeks they’d been imprisoned. She was extremely familiar with General Ocon’s methods of interrogation. Neither of the girls knew exactly where their base was, but they had enough information about the resistance’s activities in the city that if the girls had broken, the entire resistance would have been arrested or killed by now. Sofia didn’t know how long two girls, barely sixteen cycles old, could survive the torture.
“We’ll get them back,” Sofia said, the words slipping out before she reminded herself she couldn’t make such a promise.
Javi squeezed her shoulder, but didn’t say anything. Perhaps he knew how empty a promise it was.
“We should head out,” Flor said. “I want to make it to the mangroves before dark.”
They said their goodbyes, Sofia purposefully ignoring Micael. But she gave Viola and Carmen an extra tight hug, pressing a kiss to each of their cheeks as if it might bring their daughter home sooner. Javi stood beside his mothers, his blood-mother, Viola, holding his hand tightly in her own.
“We’ll be back in less than a week,” Flor said as Sofia stopped at the lip of the cenote, not ready to take the first step back toward Suvi.
“They’re wasting an opportunity by not questioning him,” she said, looking back at the cenote as if she might will Micael to change his mind and call them back.
“I’m sure they’ll do so, but you’re assuming he’ll give us anything.”
“He would if we put a blade to his throat.”
Flor gave her a flat stare, rolling her eyes once she was sure Sofia was looking at her.
“Do you truly think their plan will work?” Sofia’s voice was quiet, too afraid of her words echoing down into the cenote where Javi and the others might hear.
“It’s the best one we have, and the sooner we get to Suvi, the sooner we’ll know what’s happening.”
Flor pulled Sofia toward her, linking their arms before turning south.
* * *
They walked in silence, their soft footsteps and breaths the only sounds to challenge the general hum of the forest. Even though they were still a few hours’ travel from the wall, neither of them wanted to speak. The sun was starting to set and it was all too easy to slip from one shadow to the next. But, as much as they’d built a system for coming in and out of the city unseen, there was always the chance that a scout’s habits would change or they’d run into the military out here. And even though plenty of king’s men might arrest them, it was always easier to simply shoot the rebels and leave them to rot out here in the forest. It was less paperwork. Micael always enjoyed reminding them that he’d lost a few members of the resistance that way over the decades.
They made it to the mangroves shortly after dark, when the sun had tucked itself away behind the horizon, leaving the stars and moons to rule the sky. The dragon’s eyes were opening, the two moons wide crescents already high in the sky. It made it easier to move, but easier to get caught, as well.
The mangroves twisted their way along the western coast of the peninsula, their branches and roots a dense wall between the land and sea. It wasn’t the easiest path back into the city, but it was the one that guaranteed stealth. Even at low tide, the scouts didn’t venture too far into the area, fearful of the crocodiles, the blood monkeys, and the other fanged creatures that made their home here. But the Dragonborn had never forgotten the knowledge of their ancestors and it was easy enough to avoid angering the creatures. Just don’t splash around or make eye contact with the monkeys and you’d rarely be bothered.
It was just coming on low tide and the ocean that normally flooded the area had receded just enough to reveal the bridge of tree roots that stretched and twisted across the low waterline. They both removed their shoes, more sure on the wet roots of the trees in their bare feet. They made their way across the twisted trees, never even touching the water. It was a long and arduous journey, taking another hour to cross the small span of shore, but they bypassed the wall completely—the Dereyans never managing to build the stone structure through the thick mangrove trees.
They’d made the mistake of tearing down the eastern mangroves when they’d first settled down and decided to claim the entire southern tip of Wueco as their own. Now the entire sector of the city flooded twice a day with the flow of the tides. Not that the Dereyans cared when they simply ensured their people never had to live in the drowned quarter.
Sofia and Flor made it back to Suvi before the first moon had even set and they were back at the Wall’s Inn less than an hour later. Luckily, despite how strict the Dereyans were in tracking the Dragonborn by day, even they didn’t like traveling through the edge of the slums at night. The only soldiers this side of the inner gates were either in their barracks along the wall or tucked safely away in a room at the inn with a Dragonborn or two for company.
The only people they passed were huddled in shadowy corners of alleys or swaying as they made their way down the street. Flor walked with one hand on her club, staring down anyone who dared make eye contact with her. The small blunt weapon was the only one Dragonborn were allowed legally by the crown. Sofia, branded for treason, wasn’t even allowed that. She’d simply taken to wearing enough iron rings on her right hand that any passerby might second guess trying to rob her. The smell of the city felt suffocating, even at night when the worst of the filth was hidden by the dark, but she could still smell the human feces that lined the alleys and the constantly thick stench of sweat and vomit and grime that coated her throat when she breathed. She hated it here, even though the inn had been their home for five cycles and every night in the small and dirty-floored room was better than a night on the streets.
The back rooms at the Wall’s Inn where she and Flor rented a space were relatively quiet when they arrived, the other employees who lived there having gone to sleep hours before. But even back here, the sounds of the inn seeped through the walls, moans and slurred curses, the sounds of passion that constantly vacillated between pain and pleasure, anger and lust. Alcohol and sex: the chorus of the city as Sofia had come to know it. She’d gotten used to falling asleep to the sounds of grunting men and yelling women after a sun cycle living here, but it was always a bit of a shock returning from the forest.
Sofia didn’t even bother changing out of her dirty travel clothes. She simply slipped her muddy sandals off, haphazardly wiped her feet on the meager rug in the center of their small room, and flopped onto her cot. Her eyes were already closed and she didn’t even hear Flor finish changing before she was asleep, the sounds of a woman’s long, overdrawn moan through the wall the last thing she heard.