Page 83 of The Verdant Cage
My cheek stings, but I’m no longer at risk of passing out. “Gryphon. He threw a knife at me.”
“And it’s a good thing he did,” Oscar says. “Or the other Guardians would’ve killed you a hundred times over. They’d be justified, too. The whole village saw you about to stick Leonidas like a bug.”
Meryl’s voice is softer. “He couldn’t just let you stab his friend, Rose. No matter how he feels about you.”
“He did keep you from being whipped,” Eero says, something like admiration in his voice. “Took four Guardians to hold him back when he saw you being dragged toward the posts. His dad musta thought whipping you would be more trouble than it was worth, and he waved you on to chapel.”
“Gryphon’s dead to me,” I spit out. “I saw him kissing Marina right before I came to the square.”
No one responds to that, though a look of pity crosses Salvatora’s face. It stings, coming from her. “Never mind,” I say, wishing the floor would open up and swallow me.
There’s a commotion outside the basement door. We all tense. What’s coming for us next? A few moments later, the door opens and Uncle Richard steps inside, agitated, his ginger hair floating like spun sugar around his head. Leo follows, pawing through my uncle’s medical pack.
“You can have this,” Leo says, pulling out a suture kit. “Nothing else.”
“No painkillers?” Uncle Richard protests. “No ointment for their lashes?”
Leo glares at me. “She wasn’t going to offer me a painkiller before plunging my knife into my chest, was she?” he barks. “You have ten minutes.”
He slams the door closed behind himself.
Sweet, always-flustered Uncle Richard takes stock of the scene—me crouched in a corner, Sal, Oscar, Eero, and Meryl standing nearby, the backs of their tunics shredded and bloody—and rushes over.
He comes to me first to examine my throbbing shoulder, or so I think. Instead he whispers, “We’ve waited too long. We must get you all out of here.”
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 wastheweapon, 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.”
