Chapter 51
I’m speechless. Fortunately, Salvatora is not. “What do you mean, get us out of here?”
Uncle Richard glances toward the door, then back at me. “Jarek has forced our hand.” He smooths my hair, keeping his voice low. “We haven’t got much time. Rosie, I need you to pay attention.”
“Shouldn’t you stitch her up first?” Meryl asks.
He pulls aside my tunic, revealing the injury.
It’s crusted with blood, but it’s clear the wound isn’t deep.
The dagger only skimmed the surface. Either Gryphon was very good or I was very lucky.
“She doesn’t need it.” He cleans the edges of the cut with a small cloth as he speaks.
“Rose, listen,” he says. “Augustus told us you saw the killer vines. Florence and I never would have kept it a secret if we’d known what it would unleash, but it’s too late for anything but regret. ” Tears brim in his pale brown eyes.
Meryl sucks in a breath. “Did you say killer…vines?”
He nods. “You know the ones. Clinging to the Wall, rooted in the evacuated industrial district. The vines are carnivorous.”
Eero gasps, and I wonder how terrified the even younger Peter Martinez must have felt, seeing them come to life for the first and last time.
“It seems to feed on mammals. You notice how purple the leaves have looked lately?”
I had, in passing.
“Henrietta believed the color change coincided with the increase in attacks. We think it signals maturation.” Uncle Richard looks around the dark basement, lingering on each of the battered captives before turning his attention back to me.
“We were hoping to have a few more days to plan how to fight it, but clearly that isn’t an option. ”
We hear noises beyond the cellar door, like an argument.
Uncle Richard talks faster. “No more secrets, Rosie. We believe Jarek has known about the monster for months and that he’s been trying to poison it.
We also believe Henrietta confronted Jarek about the poison the morning of your wedding.
” He touches my cheek. “And that he had her killed for it. How, we still don’t know. ”
I’m running through the hunches that Uncle Richard has just confirmed when I feel my eyes bulge.
Now that I know the Guardians and Peter died by different means than my mother, it’s so obvious: it wasn’t just a weapon from the vault that had killed Mom—it was the weapon, charging on the Tzu roof.
And Jarek had commanded one of the only three villagers who wasn’t expected at my wedding to shoot her with it.
Albert.
How had Jarek found out the boy was still inside the Wall? And more importantly, if Jarek knows I’m onto him, why hasn’t he killed me yet?
“Why am I still alive?” I ask.
Uncle Richard’s laugh is humorless. “Personally? I think you look too much like your mother. He killed her once, from afar. Perhaps he couldn’t bear to do it again.”
Fury tears through me. I live not because I’m a boon to the Valley, not because I matter, but because Jarek can’t face his own guilt. I want to scream.
“So what do we do?” Sal asks.
The wave of gratitude I feel at the “we” makes me weak.
“We get you kids out of here. That’s first. Then we figure out what’s next.”
I’m about to ask who my uncle’s “we” is when there is a jostling outside the basement door.
“Quick, Uncle,” I say. “Anansi requires his insulin, and Beate the Potter won’t make it if she doesn’t get her nitroglycerin today.
Hephaestus should be all right for a few more days without his willow bark. ”
I barely have the last word out of my mouth when the basement door flies open. “Time to go,” Leo commands.
“I promise I will, Rosie,” Uncle Richard whispers. He pulls a small pot out of his waistband and shoves it into my hand as Leo approaches, then he holds up the needle he hasn’t used. “But I haven’t finished my sutures,” he tells Leo.
“Should’ve worked quicker.” Leo touches his sword’s hilt in case his words weren’t clear.
Uncle Richard sighs and stands. “You know what to do for a wound, Rose,” he tells me. “Trust the process.”
The inflection in his voice is soft, but I catch it. Trust the process. What process? Being confined to a basement? But Leo is leading him out. I glance at the tin of arnica and echinacea balm he’s snuck me, and then into the astounded faces of my friends.
“Do I want to hear more about this killer…thing?” Oscar asks.
“You don’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway.” When I describe the attack I witnessed, they have outrage, then questions, and finally, acceptance.
“It’s got us trapped in here,” Eero says, his voice laced with fear. “How do we kill it?”
“I don’t know,” I say grimly. “It’s strong, or Jarek would have simply hacked it up by now.” I take as deep a breath as my wounds allow. “But I think I finally know what Jarek and Misia plan to do on Friday.”