Chapter 25
Stella
“What precisely does Nell mean by this exilation etcetera?” Boden asked, turning his attention to Alphie once I calmed down and got myself under control.
“And none of this vague bollocks,” Fergus said. “Just tell us straight what is gonna happen when Nell makes her fucking decision.”
“The Five Punishments are to be banished without aid, put to death without remorse, atone without mercy, relinquish without assent, serve without end,” Alphie said.
We’d all formed a loose semi-circle around her, as if she was giving a speech. Her eyes were locked on the wood floorboards creaking under her feet as she shifted her weight. Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself, and the corner of her mouth had a slight twitch.
“The way things are carried out can vary, so I can’t be as precise as you want,” Alphie went on. “Nell has put people to death by beheading them with an ax, hanging them from a rope, burning them at a stake, and stoning them with rocks. Maybe other ways that I don’t remember anymore.”
“So it’s not all peace, love, and harmony?” Fergus asked wryly.
“Why did you say that Fae would be safe with her?” I asked – shouted in a rage, really. My composure was a very fragile thing, and I felt like I could shatter at any moment.
“We – they …” Alphie grimaced as she tripped up on her own words. “Nell and the Revvers would never hurt a child. She will be cared for, she will be loved.” She paused, as if summoning strength. “Fae is part of the exaction. She has been relinquished without your assent.”
“Nell never means to give her back,” I said, and it wasn’t so much a realization as something I needed to say aloud.
“Exaction is part of it, no matter what else she decides,” Alphie said. “She will take everything from us. Everything that might be of use to her or means something to us will belong to her. We will be left without even the shoes on our feet.”
“What about Dougal?” Fergus asked. “What’s she done with him?”
“It is as she said. Nell doesn’t lie,” Alphie claimed. “He’ll be treated in the Wellness Center. If he returns to health, he’ll face her decisions. If he cannot, he will be put to death.”
“She’s gonna murder him just because he’s sick?” Fergus asked, incredulous and horrified.
“Execution is primarily reserved for those exceptionally hostile or diseased,” Alphie said. “Despite how it may seem to you, Nell doesn’t revel in the loss of life.”
“No, yeah, she seems like a real stand-up lady,” Boden said dryly. “But if she’s not super big on the execution, and she always does the exaction, what are the most likely options for us?”
“For us?” Alphie echoed, almost as if she hadn’t thought of it before. “I only see expiation or Exbindation.”
“Why not exile?” Leandro asked. “How do we get that as an option? We just have to get the hell out of here and stay away, right?”
“I’ve only ever seen Exilation done in the winter,” Alphie said. “And only then, after all their shoes and clothes have been relinquished, and when they are alone, they are banished outside the walls.”
“That’s just another form of execution!” Fergus said in dismay. “You’ve been saying we’ve got options, but it’s all just different ways to die, isn’t it?”
“What about Exbindation?” Edie asked. “That was serving without end. So does that mean slavery?”
“Of sorts, I suppose,” Alphie admitted quietly. “But they do not serve Nell or the Reverent. They are the servants of the Loved Ones. They enter the courtyard to adorn them and clean up after them.”
I looked out the window at the extravagantly dressed zombies shuffling from side to side. Under the dark clouds, their glittering jewelry was dull, and the paint on their skin was little more than streaks of color staining their ashen flesh.
“How?” I asked, voicing a question I’d wondered since I first saw the decorated Loved Ones. “How can the servants get so near them to paint their flesh without getting torn to bits?”
“They have armor made of steel and leather, and they cover the mouths of the Loved Ones when they are being adorned,” Alphie said.
“Sometimes, the servants are still torn to bits, and eventually, they all are infected. If they served well, they will be kept with the Loved Ones. If not, they are put to death and burned to ash.”
“See, it is just another way to die!” Fergus shouted in frustration.
“I’m not the one who decides the punishments!” Alphie yelled back, her voice cracking a bit. Tears filled her eyes, and she glared up at him fiercely. “I don’t get to choose whether we live or die!”
“Wait,” Boden said, as if something had occurred to him. “Remy was here in the winter. You told me that before. What did Nell do to her?”
“Nell never got to decide for Remy.” Alphie shook her head. “She escaped.”
“So there is a way to escape from here?” Leandro asked.
Alphie shook her head again. “Not from the barracks. She was held in the Wellness Center. I don’t know a way out of here.”
Boden, Leandro, Edie, and Fergus had been trying to figure out a way to escape. With the bars on the windows and the locks on the door, just getting out of the room was a difficulty.
Outside the door were armed guards, a courtyard of zombies, and a community of close-knit flamboyantly dressed devotees who would immediately notice that we didn’t belong. After that were more concrete walls with armed guards in the bastions, and locked iron doors.
Not to mention that Dougal and Fae were being held in two separate locations, the Wellness Center and the nursery, so we’d have to find them and get them out.
“Alphie, please!” Edie begged her. “There has to be some way to get us all out of here alive. You know this place better than we do. Help us get the fuck out of here.”
“I-I am trying,” Alphie stammered.
Suddenly, the harsh clangor of bells rumbled through the air like ominous thunder. The metallic ringing echoed off the concrete, making the sonorous sound nearly deafening.
Alphie’s eyes widened as she turned to look out at the courtyard in horror. “Is it dusk already?”
“What’s going on?” Leandro asked with his hands pressed to his ears even as the clattering came to an end.
“No, no.” Alphie whimpered and scurried back into the corner of the room, pressing herself as far away from the windows as she could. “I cannot be made to bear witness again!”
She collapsed to the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees. She rocked herself and cried and shook her head, her curls flying about.
“Bear witness to what?” Edie asked, rushing over to comfort her. “What’s happening?”
“Alphie, what does Nell do for expiation?” Fergus asked, coming to a frightening realization before I did.
I looked back out the window and realized the zombies were no longer shuffling about. All of them had turned their attention to the arched gate on the north wall of the courtyard.
In the barracks behind me, the others were frantically shouting over each other and at Alphie. I tuned them out as I focused on seeing what the zombies were about to do.
As I stepped closer to the windows, the distant but blood-curdling sound of someone screaming became audible.
Then the north gate of the courtyard opened, and the screams were loud enough that everyone could hear.
Everyone else in the bunkroom fell silent and slowly joined me at the windows to bear witness.
Four Revvers in armor tossed two women into the courtyard.
The armor I only caught a glimpse of, and it looked like a metal trash can covered in spikes with a football helmet on their heads.
What I noticed the most was the women and the way they were tossed into the zombies like a bag of trash into a pit.
As the women landed roughly on the hard cobblestones, the Revvers left and closed the north gate behind them.
From where I watched, I couldn’t discern the women’s ages. Somewhere between twenty and fifty, maybe. But they were both a little chubby in tattered, filthy clothing. There were fresh wounds on their arms and calves with bright red blood scenting the air.
The zombies were already lumbering toward them, having been summoned by the screams. The women turned, limping and running toward the door, but neither of them reached it before they were swarmed.
The entire horde of Loved Ones descended on the two women. At first the women screamed, somehow louder and more desperate than before, but soon they stopped. Then it was only the wet sound of tearing flesh and teeth gnashing on bone.
My mouth began to water, and I felt like throwing up and sobbing. I pressed my palm against the glass, and I breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent of rotting decay, coppery blood, and impending rain.
And then, almost all at once, the zombies straightened out and shuffled off again. When they cleared enough that I could see the women, there was nothing but bloody bones and rags left.
That’s when I finally noticed Nell, the Allmother, standing on a second story balcony outstretching over the courtyard.
Beside her were at least a dozen other Revvers, all dressed in gaudy clothing.
Each and every one of them had watched the zombies feast, and they all were smiling and laughing, as if it had been some wonderful play put on for their enjoyment.
“Boden,” I said, summoning him away from his attempted interrogation of Alphie.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he came over to join me at the window. “You shouldn’t have watched that.”
“I know how we can get out of here,” I whispered and looked up at him. “I need the Revvers to feed me to the zombies.”