4. Chapter Four
Chapter four
B lossom marches me back to our room and I don’t fight her. Not because I’m in a daze like I was when Nix didn’t turn up and I didn’t want to think the worst. But because the fire that’s starting to lick in my veins is chasing me, too.
Nix isn’t dead. But he’s here, intended for Vana prison.
That’s not a huge step up.
The door to our room closes quietly, far more quietly than the protesting that’s currently rampaging through my body. There is no way, no way , Nix has done something to warrant him ending up in that prison. We hear stories of it here, but we’re not allowed to go. It’s beyond the forest at the back of our prison and any interaction with their prisoners or the workers – they don’t get the title ‘concierge’ – is strictly forbidden. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a gathering, or several, in the forest between the two groups, but it is forbidden.
What is also true, if what I learned of Vana before my duty is to be believed, is that if Nix steps foot inside that place I’ll never see him again. There have been no successful appeals to a sentence to Vana that I’m aware of, and the attendants have confirmed there are no visitors, just like here. And I realise, while I am absolutely confident in my belief he hasn’t done anything to deserve a sentence there, I will save him and River even if they have.
I just need to work out how.
Blossom tracks me as I pace our living room. She also hasn’t sat down and, instead, watches from the white kitchen as she prepares us a drink. The iridescent blue liquid she pours is not intended to soothe me, but to focus me. Bring clarity to my thoughts.
The Warden has been good to me, almost fatherly – a mentor of sorts – but he’s also loyal to his job and prides himself on his execution. Asking him to free Nix also implicates him in a way that would tarnish him beyond repair. I don’t even know if he has that power.
I start at a knock on the door, giving myself a shake as I try to steady my racing thoughts until the drink takes effect. The brass door handle is cool in my hand and I use the sensation to ground me before I find the Warden on the other side.
His uniform is as pristine, as usual, but there’s still that tiredness to him I noticed earlier.
‘Does anyone else know you weren’t collected?’ he asks softly, as the door closes behind him.
‘Just Bloss. I don’t know who else has seen me still here but I’ve only told her.’
He nods before taking a long drag of the steaming tea Blossom made him, the dainty, pale pink cup too small in his hands. He looks between us.
‘I’d like you to keep it that way. Our story is that your duty was extended at the last moment, and your collection has been delayed. There’s no confirmed end date as yet, but it could happen at short notice – that should help a bit when you seemingly disappear before next year’s collection. An exemption,’ he says. ‘We’ll say it’s an exemption to the collection dates because of the unknown tenure of your extension.’
Blossom and I nod even though I’ve never heard of there being exemptions before. She’s perched on the couch next to him, keeping a polite distance, and I sink myself into the sole tan leather armchair. It creaks a bit as it takes my weight and I tuck the emerald-green, velvet cushion against my stomach as I sit.
‘As for your collector, have you been able to get in touch with them? It was your friend Zale, I think?’ he asks and there’s a lurch in my stomach.
‘No,’ I start, the front of my mind dusting with confusion, ‘I haven’t … but it wasn’t going to be Zale – there’s been a complication.’ I glance at Blossom, who gives me a reassuring nod before looking back to the Warden and, briefly, I question if I should tell him. But there’s nothing about his kind, honest face that I don’t trust – not that I have any other option.
‘My collector is here.’
He stills, teacup part way to his mouth. ‘How is that poss—’
‘We saw you,’ I say, ‘in the receiving hall with Traelen.’
The Warden’s face pales. Something I’ve never seen it do before. His mouth opens slightly but no sound comes out as I watch the pieces come together behind his eyes.
‘Who?’ he asks, his voice barely audible.
‘His name is Nix Kilroy.’ I press my fingers into the ache that’s started in the side of my head. ‘He’s a good man, Warden, I—’
‘I know,’ he says, putting the teacup down carefully on the coffee table.
Blossom’s brows lift and I’m sure I misheard.
Clearing his throat, the Warden rubs at his breastbone. ‘This timing isn’t ideal, but it’s what we have to work with,’ he says, almost to himself.
‘What timing?’ Blossom asks. ‘I’m afraid you’re going to have to fill us in – we seem to be missing a few things.’
Slowly, his gaze lifts to both of us before landing again on me.
‘If you ever repeat this,’ he says, ‘I will not only deny it with my dying breath, but that breath will be the cost.’
I glance at Blossom, her ocean-coloured eyes a stormier shade than normal.
We both nod.
‘Tell us,’ I say, a strange tightening taking a tentative hold between my ribs.
‘I was expecting that cohort of prisoners as a departure from their scheduled destination of Vana. Traelen was not.’
We let the words settle in the room, but I still don’t understand them. If the Warden was expecting Nix and River – and expecting them to come here despite a sentence to Vana – but didn’t know Nix was the one that was coming to collect me … what was he expecting him for? How does he even know about Nix if he was supposed to be going to Vana?
‘I was hoping you’d be in Parliament before their arrival,’ he says. ’But it appears our timing has been moved up. With it … some adjustments will need to be made.’
Parliament . Where my next chapter was supposed to start. My brow furrows as I consider that, by ‘adjustment’, he might mean I need to stay. That he won’t get me home.
‘I’ve done my duty, sir,’ I say when he doesn’t continue. ‘Five years of duty. I-I’m done.’ I lift my hands and let them drop back onto the arms of the chair. ‘Parliament or no Parliament, I want to leave. That’s how this is supposed to work. But now—’
But even as the words leave me, I know how much more complicated it is now. Before, I was leaving with a plan – a plan for me, and a plan for Blossom. Now, with Traelen making sure Nix and River find their way into Vana, too many parts of me are trapped up here.
The Warden shifts forward on the couch, the cushions collapsing around him, and presses his palms together between his knees, steepling his fingers towards the floor.
His voice drops to a whisper. ‘I’m sorry, Luka.’ A thick quiet fills the room as the Warden holds my gaze. ‘When we talked about your recommendation to Parliament you said you’d be happy to still work with me.’
It takes me a moment to find my voice, my mind still swirling with the arrival of Nix and River. That Claudius – the Warden of my prison and very much not the Warden of Vana – was expecting them.
He waits until I nod in agreement. A tendril of uncertainty starts to weave its way through my chest.
‘I think I am,’ I say. ‘But it doesn’t really feel like a priority right now.’
‘No, not yet, I can understand that.’ He pauses for a moment. ‘Even if the things I ask you seem unusual, would you be prepared to help me with something from here instead?’ he asks.
I open my mouth to respond but I don’t know what with.
‘I’m asking you both if you trust me,’ he says.
Yes, my brain responds immediately. My voice confirms it a little later. Blossom does the same and the Warden’s shoulders drop a fraction.
‘There is a prisoner – on the other side of the island.’ My throat thickens. ‘She is one of the few whose portalling abilities fully developed before she got here – a highly talented Shaide. I need you to make contact with her, get her to trust you. You will be able to contact her more easily, and faster, than Nix can as a guest of this side.
‘She will be the way out for him and River if they can avoid a permanent transfer to Vana – we don’t need more people on the inside of that prison. She is also the one who can get you out before the next collection if you’re not already gone – if your extension hasn’t concluded.’
I blanch. That doesn’t sound like helping, it sounds like putting us on the wrong side of the law. I will help them both, regardless of what they’ve done, I know that. But it doesn’t mean my nerves don’t skitter under my skin as I wonder what in the world has meant River and Nix have ended up here – with the goal of getting off this island again with the help of a Vanan prisoner.
‘Are they not fed dampener tipples over there?’ Blossom asks.
The look he gives her is sombre but a tiny bit relieved. ‘That bit, Cortane manages on her own for now. She’s far too strong a Shaide for their tipples to have enough of an effect on her portals yet – something the Nuntainian government doesn’t know – it’s the wards that keep her on the island. The longer she’s there though, enduring the malnourishment and torture of the Hunters stationed there, the dampeners will start to win. But I can’t be seen anywhere near there, even the boundary walls. You will need to convince her yourselves that you can be trusted. And she has other priorities.’ He looks solemnly at me. ‘She’ll need things from you. Information.’
‘Hold on, how dangerous is she?’ I ask, so many questions exploding in my mind I don’t know where best to start. ‘Are you suggesting we get her to open us an illegal portal? What if she escapes with them?’
‘I’m counting on it,’ he says.
I blink. ‘What?’
But he only shakes his head, his short black hair not moving even slightly with the action. ‘I can’t tell you everything now, Luka, I’m sorry. River has the details of how to get in touch with her.’ He glances to the door. ‘Gain her trust, and it will work.’
‘What will work, exactly?’ I ask, trying to keep the rising hysteria from my voice. ‘I’m supposed to be getting off Prison Island – not trying to be sentenced to Vana for life.’
‘There are things afoot in Nuntainia, things that have taken years to put in place. Things I can’t risk by betraying them now. But our Government has gone unchecked for too long and I promised to be ready when the time came. That time is now.’ He stands and I stare up at him. ‘I know you – I trust you – and I need you to do the same of me. Get Cortane what she needs and she will help you get off this island, along with the others.’
I stare at him. What exactly is the Warden suggesting I get involved in? What is he involved in? How does it implicate Nix and River?
‘That’s why you’re helping,’ Blossom says. ‘Instead of just telling Luka she needs to wait another year – this is your opportunity for something else, too.’
He tugs at his open collar, the navy-blue fabric of his jacket absorbing the light, and a flicker of anger crosses his face – something so foreign for me to see on him. I glance at Bloss as an icy feeling trickles down my insides.
‘I don’t think either of you should still be here at the next collection,’ he says quietly. Firmly.
‘I—’ I start, completely unsure what to ask for any of this to make sense.
The Warden was expecting River and Nix, even if it wasn’t now. And he has connections to a prisoner in Vana that he wants me to … build on? I glance at Blossom. She’s right, whatever he’s involved in, he wants – needs – it done before the next collection, and he needs me to help. But what with, exactly?
‘Claudius’—calling him ‘sir’ right now feels unusual given how far outside our Warden/concierge relationship this conversation has gone—‘I just need to understand—’
‘I’m sorry,’ he says, ‘Traelen is expecting me to talk him through the room allocations.’ He glances at his phone. ‘I’m already late. I just needed to confirm no one else knew you weren’t collected. They’ll know the timing was tight, but the extension story will be enough for now – I will take the heat for doing it so last minute.’
‘Claudius,’ I say, stepping quickly after him, ‘please—’
The Warden looks back when he gets to the door. ‘Cortane is someone important to me, important to what I believe in, as are you. But I can’t contact her to know what gaps remain in her own tasks and knowledge of how to get back to the mainland – not without compromising us all. I need you to be a conduit for her. To get her what she needs to get herself, and those boys, out.’
His whole body thrums with tension and I can only blink at him. ‘You will need to be careful what you say, particularly outside this room.’ He moves as if to reach for the handle but pauses, sadness fracturing his features and a lancing spike of hot worry runs through my chest. ‘Just before dawn, you will be able to find the final room allocations in my office – Traelen and I will be done with our call by then. I’m sorry, Luka,’ his voice is heavy, ‘time is no longer our friend and this has become a bit of a mess. But, if you trust me – trust her – and get her whatever information she still needs, you and your friends will be home soon. And, hopefully’—he gives me a searching look—‘you’ll have taken up your recommendation.’
I didn’t sleep a wink after the Warden left and, judging by the particularly squashed and frizzy curls on Blossom when I find her in the living room, neither did she. This time I throw the tipples back – not missing the fact there is still enough for me – without registering the rhythm, nor that it’s far earlier than I would normally take them. Wake up, take the tipples; some habits are hard to break. She’s in her exercise clothes and I give her a thin smile.
Neither of us talk, my mind still whirling through our conversation with the Warden last night and the hours after Blossom and I talked it around and around trying to understand everything he was trying to say. For the past five years, I have done everything in my power to fulfil my duty to an exceptional standard – a standard my father might finally be proud of. Now, it seems I am being asked to risk having all that hard work thrown away. Or, do nothing but my duty and watch my friends disappear into Vana?
We share a quiet breakfast of fruit and pastries, despite it still being nighttime really, before I quickly tug on my own gear and we sneak down the stone stairs off the end of our balcony. The balcony itself only has room for a small, two-person table and chairs. The external wall to our apartment and the balustrade are made from the same brown-grey stone bricks that make all the arches around both the outside of the immense building and the internal hallways.
These stairs though have guard rails on the side that are open to the sky and there is far less distance to fall. At the bottom of the three-storey drop is the beginning of the sparse but lush concierge gardens – a place where more than one raucous party has been held, the sound warded from the rest of the prison lest we disturb any of the prisoners.
I’m slightly out of puff as we weave our way down, our running shoes landing in the soft grass. It’s a touch wet underfoot and the surface gives a little, the sensation comforting after the hardness of the stone stairs. I glance back up at the prison, each of the concierge staircases running along and across the side of the wall like stone roots climbing up from the grass below. Their shapes are almost otherworldly in the near dark, the space lit by tall, gold posts dotted around the garden. The balls of light at their tops held only by gold cages.
‘We’ve got about three hours until breakfast,’ Blossom says. The breakfast that’s put on for the prisoners. The one Nix will be at.
After I’ve found what room he’s been allocated.
The Warden’s office is in a separate wing to the concierge residences and accessing it from the outside will be the easiest option to avoid questions from other concierges. A guilty warmth moves across my collarbones, but I try to remind myself we’re not doing anything wrong. At least not as far as the Warden is concerned. A fact that makes my head spin. I don’t let myself think about what laws we might actually be breaking if we do make contact with the Vanan prisoner.
The staircase to the Warden’s balcony snakes up the wall the same as ours, but is much closer to the edge of the island. From the upper part, it’s almost tempting to try and fly into darkness. I close my eyes as the abyss of the dark calls to me, asking me to float away with it. Blossom pokes me in the behind and I take the next step.
Shimmying open the far left window – the one that doesn’t quite catch – we ease ourselves in. It’s darker in here than outside without the garden lights and the stars that decorate the sky, and Blossom takes her phone from her bra, a tiny ball of light leaping from the screen.
I make straight for his desk. Forcing myself to go carefully, slowly, I make sure everything I touch goes back exactly how it was but come up empty-handed.
Blossom trails the bookshelf, running a finger over the spines as she goes.
‘We should read more,’ she whispers absently.
The drawer of the large, pale timber desk moans fractionally as I pull the brass handle and slide it out.
‘He’s got books on all sorts of magic in here,’ Blossom continues as she walks, taking the light with her.
I squint at the papers sitting in the top drawer. They’re clearly marked ‘Guests’ and my heart leaps.
‘Here’s one about Karaylia – I’ve heard their wings are incredible in real life. Have you ever met one of them?’ she asks, a wistful tone in her question.
‘Bloss, light,’ I say, taking my own finger and running it down the list. ‘My father was obsessed with Karaylia,’ I whisper absently. ‘River is Karaylia, actually. And, yes, their wings are incredible.’
She hums absently before walking on silent feet to join me and the list comes properly into focus. It’s short but clear, and perhaps stupid – River and Nix share a room. Depending what they’ve been accused of, I don’t think that’s a strategy I would use. But I won’t deny it makes life easier for me. Having them together was obviously a deliberate choice of the Warden’s. And Traelen didn’t object, it seems. The Warden must have been particularly convincing.
‘Room 18,’ I say, unable to keep the smile from my voice.