Page 108 of The Verdant Cage
“My true colors?” Misia’s laugh is as bitter as winter wind. “You never saw my colorsat all. You only saw what you wanted to see. A vessel for your own ambition.”
If she’d hoped that would slow him, she banked wrong. Jarek attacks with renewed fury, driving both Misia and Gryphon back. The two of them fight together beautifully, mother and son moving in tandem, but it’s not enough. Jarek is too skilled, too strong. And despite it all, they don’twantto hurt him. I see the moment it starts to go wrong. Gryphon stumbles, the drugs still clouding his reflexes. Misia moves to protect him, leaving herself open. Jarek’s blade arcs through the air—
I don’t think. I just move, launching myself at Jarek. I feel the slap of steel against my side as his blade comes down at an angle, sparing my life. Still, the pain is immediate and intense, and I instinctively roll away. Lozen appears beside me, helping me to my feet while Sal and Augustus move to protect me. Oscar, Meryl, and Eero soon follow. The nearest villagers form a half circle around us, armed with tools and makeshift weapons. Gryphon and Misia move to stand alongside them.
Jarek is suddenly outnumbered, his back to the Beast.
He swipes at the blood running down his side from Misia’s wound, his face twisted with rage. He holds up his bloody fist. “ENOUGH!” he screams, voice echoing through the Valley, reverberating up the Wall. “I’ll kill you all myself if I must. I’m the only one strong enough to—”
He never finishes the sentence.
A vine as thick as a tree trunk unfurls toward him, its barbs reaching like fingertips. It comes from behind, wrapping around Jarek’s neck and lifting him off his feet. He slashes at it with his sword, but it only coils more of itself, cocooning him in a bristling, violet-green embrace.
“No!” he screams. “I am strong! I am—”
The vines contract.
There’s a wet, popping sound. Jarek’s blood rains down.
68
Perez charges toward us, his son, Leo, by his side. “Converge on the traitors!” Perez yells. “Strike them down!”
The standing Guardians, all but Misia, follow his command. They’ve been training for exactly this. Those of us he means to kill instinctually tighten our circle, our backs to one another. Sal to my left, Meryl beside him, then Lozen, Gryphon, Oscar, Augustus, and Eero. Eight of us against twice as many.
We begin moving as one toward the chapel.
I hear Boudicca trying to rally the remaining villagers in the square, perhaps vying for Jarek’s position. “David Seingalt believes there are treasures beyond our wildest dreams outside the Wall—feasts and gold and splendor the likes of which we’ve only heard about in stories! And who would know, if not our Record Keeper?”
How ludicrous that must sound with the Verdant Beast actively consuming the corpses of their neighbors. But I feel another jolt at the mention of gold, even as we’re fighting for our lives. I don’t have time to linger on it. The three of us with weapons—Lozen, Gryphon, and Augustus—are swinging them, but we’re being attacked from all sides.
“Retreat!” Gryphon commands.
We’re following his order when a sword flashes. Meryl is struck. I see her fall to the ground.
“Mer!” Sal screams. She lunges to protect her love, but she’s weaponless. Lozen intercepts the blade poised for Sal and, in the same breath, anchors herself to defend Meryl. That leaves no choice for the rest of us—Sal included—but to stumble back into the narrow cobblestone alley.
The screech of Guardian steel cuts through the air. The acrid stench of blood and sweat burns my nostrils, and I can feel the rough stone scraping my shoulder as we press back, the tight space the only thing choking off their attempts to flank us. Gryphon and Augustus hold the line like twin wolves, all muscle and instinct, but I can see them both growing weary under the weight of so many. They can’t keep fighting for much longer. Oscar’s breath rasps, and Sal swears as Eero and I drag her away from the flashing swords.
“Stop fighting us,” I hiss. “Meryl needs you alive, not dead on the street.”
My palm burns where I’ve scraped it raw against the brick, steadying myself as we’re herded like cattle down the narrowing alley. We’re trapped. Where can you run to when you live in a prison, all the golden promises of harmony nothing but lies? I nearly gasp as it comes to me, clear this time, the thought that was scraping at me when Boudicca spoke back in the square.
The secret room in the Record Keeper vault.There’sgoblin’s goldinside. And I think I know why.
“Retreat to the Record Keeper cottage!” I scream. “Through the library and into the vault!”
“The chapel is a more defensible location,” Gryphon yells. “We should double back to it.”
“The Record Keeper cottage!” I insist.
“We go, and we die,” Gryphon hollers. “I need room to fight. I can protect you inside the chapel.”
I put my hand on his back, which is soaked with sweat. “The Record Keeper cottage,” I say. “You have to trust me.”
Even from behind, I can see him tense. The others will follow him if he doesn’t back down, and if they do, we’re dead. Will he let me make this choice for us? Time seems to stand still, and then finally, he shouts. “To the Record Keeper cottage!”
Our friends react instantly. Eero, guiding a shell-shocked Salvatora, takes point. Oscar and I follow, and Gryphon and Augustus guard our retreat. The thunder of our footsteps blends with the clash of weapons. Still, we push forward until the Record Keeper cottage looms ahead. We slam into the door and shove it open, breathless and desperate. The six of us burst inside and wrench the door closed behind us just as the Guardians crash against it. Eero cleverly jams it with a chair. It’ll buy us seconds.
