Page 59 of The Verdant Cage
He’s placed an incredible amount of trust in me. More than I probably deserve, given my history. I nod and pinch the webbing near my thumb, sewing what I’ve just learned with what Gryphon said about his father wanting me in their house.
“There’s more,” Augustus says.
My eyes fly to his face.
“I think Jarek’s hoarding food, distributing extra to the people in his favor. The Guardian Houses I’ve entered to work on their plumbing seem to have more on their counters than the rest of us.”
“You’re right,” I say. “I’ve seen it for myself.”
My new friends were spot-on: Jarek is a danger to us all. He’s destroying the paradise and peace we’ve built in Noah’s Valley.
“I’m only telling you the truth of this because of what you’ve done for Wendy and Hephaestus,” Augustus says gruffly. “And because I trusted your mother. She was a good and honest woman. You should know what you’re getting into, and I’ve got a piece of advice to accompany that.” He leans forward, pressing down on the table with his pointer finger. “When you’ve got nothing else, search for anger. It’s an excellent companion, at least for the short term. Doesn’t need to eat or sleep or shit.” He leans back abruptly, holding up his hands. “And that’s my debt repaid.”
“May the Wall always protect you,” I say. Our sincerest expression of gratitude has never felt more fitting.
Something in his face softens, a crack in the stone. “Please be careful, Rose. This Council doesn’t like questions. They like answers even less. And please, don’t go to the closed-off area of the Wall. Whatever the truth may be, there’s a reason the animals avoid it.”
I nod, my throat tight, and pack up my census materials.
Augustus seems about to say more, but he’s interrupted by Wendy’s strangled cry.
Augustus is up before I can speak. I follow him out the door, the sunlight temporarily blinding me. I blink and see Lino Chihuly of the Glassworker House running past. He clutches the limp body of his son to his chest. Without thinking, I sprint after them, the soles of my shoes pounding dry earth, Augustus cursing behind me.
The path leading to the Apothecary cottage is winding, and villagers step aside as Lino barrels through. “Please,” he keeps saying, “please, please, please,” in a rhythm that matches his desperate footfalls.
I know before we reach the clinic. I know from the blisters at the boy’s nose and mouth, visible when I catch up to his father. I know from the stillness of the boy’s dangling hand. I know because I’ve seen this before.
The Vex is back.
36
Uncle Richard is hunched over a mortar and pestle when we burst in, grinding some concoction. His eyes widen as he takes in the scene, then narrow with dreadful recognition. He sweeps his work aside with one motion, clearing space on the table.
“Lay him here,” he commands.
Lino lays his son down with such gentleness that it leaves a hollow ache in my chest. The boy’s blond curls are damp with sweat, his freckled face slack. There’s a slight spatter of something black at the corners of his mouth, across the blisters. The same stain I saw months ago, when the first victims of the Vex began to die.
Uncle Richard leans in, listening for breath, feeling for a pulse. I already know he won’t find them.
His shoulders sag as he steps back from the table. “I’m sorry. He’s gone.”
There’s a silence then, vast and cruel. The Glassworker collapses into a chair, cradling his son’s hand like he can still warm it with love, making a sound I’ll never forget—a raw, animal keening that seems to come from outside his body.
“He was fine this morning,” Lino chokes out.
I step closer to Finn, my eyes tracing the boy’s form. That’s when I notice his shirtsleeve has a faint, still-drying splotch at the wrists, like it’s been dipped in an orange liquid.
Or water with a high metallic content.
Water only available in the forbidden part of town.
Uncle Richard sees it, too. “He visited your old workshop in the quarantine zone?”
“Absolutely not,” Lino swears.
“Is anyone else ill in your household?” I ask. “Even a tickle in the throat, a low fever?”
Lino shakes his head.
