Page 104 of The Verdant Cage
“Update,” Gryphon demands of the new arrivals.
“We might have gotten the balance to shift toward our cause,” Augustus says. “Until Jarek decided to make an example of the others.”
“What others?” I ask. I don’t want the answer.
He looks at me mournfully. “He executed Richard.”
My knees buckle. Gryphon catches me, holding me tight.
Sweet Uncle Richard with the perennial dusting of carrot-colored hair across his cheek because his razor always missed. I hadn’t gone a day in my entire life without seeing him, not until I was moved to the Tzu cottage.
And now he’s dead.
Augustus continues. “He tied Meryl, Eero, and Oscar to the whipping posts again.” He rubs the back of his head, clearly uncomfortable. “And your grandmother and Florence alongside them. He said they’re all traitors, but that it’s your fault.” His eyes grow flinty. “Because you’re the one to blame, he says, he’ll trade you for them. Either you surrender, or they’re Harvested.”
Sal’s blinking away tears. “They all knew what they were agreeing to,” she says, trying to give me a brave face. “They knew tonight might go this way. It was a risk they chose to take.”
I shake my head.No.I cannot hide out here while they die.
“Don’t turn yourself in, Rose,” Gryphon says, reading my mind. “We only need a little more time. My father’s weapons are gone. All that’s left is to destroy the tablet, the basket, and the Verdant Beast.”
“I can destroy the tablet if I can only get my hands on it,” I say. I’m thinking as quickly as I can. “I’ll tell Jarek I think there’s more information on there to kill the Verdant Beast.”
“He’s already looked at it every which way,” Gryphon says. “Him and the Record Keeper. Any information on there, they know of.”
My brain is working frantically. “Then I’ll tell him I need to talk to him privately, away from the others. That there’s something my mother told me that I need to tell him. He’ll follow me! And then I can drug him.”
“How?” Sal asks.
“Will this help?” Albert rolls over to me. He hands me the medical kit I had to give up when I moved to the Tzu house. I have no idea how he got his hands on it, but I’m deeply moved. I slide the kit’s strap over my head, peeking inside at the syringes, salves, tinctures, and medications. I feel the familiar weight of it pressed against my shoulder and exhale. Reclaiming this piece of me is a comfort beyond measure.
“Thank you,” I say to him.
“I’m so sorry, Rose.” He looks unbearably sad.
“When I followed you through the village that day, when you first led me to the caves. Did you shoot over my head?” I thought it was a stone from the sky at the time. That was before I saw the weapon that tore a hole through Jarek’s arm.
He nods. “I was just playing.”
“And you told Jarek you’d help him to make more herbicide?”
Albert nods again. “It’s not just Jarek, though. He thinks he’s the one in charge, but the Record Keeper is the real mastermind. He’s been working behind the scenes this whole time.”
I look to the others. “It’s true. David Seingalt admitted as much onstage.” I watch them wrestle with this before turning my attention back to Albert. I go absolutely still. “And the Record Keeper ordered you to use that same weapon you fired over my head to kill my mother?”
I hear the whisper of Gryphon’s steel—this is the first he’s heard of Albert’s treachery—but it’s far too late for that.
Albert’s voice comes out as a moan. “He said she was poisoning the Valley, and that if I didn’t do something, Marina would die. I trusted him because he helped me upgrade my chair. And I just had to pull a trigger. He said it wouldn’t even feel real.” He swallows a sob. “I made a terrible mistake, Rose. One that cost us both our moms. I’m so sorry.”
I have nothing to say to that. It’s the truth, and he’s going to have to live with it.
“Let me get all this straight.” Lozen is tossing her knife in the air, catching it. Tossing it in the air, catching it, never missing even though she only has one functioning eye. “The Record Keeper is the original traitor—he’s really the one behind Jarek and the Guardian army he’s created, who are—all but me—gathered in the village square right now. And Jarek has the tablet. You’re going to do what, Rose? Sashay over to him, flash your eyes, and tell him you need just a private moment of his time to share a secret your mother told you, and he’s going to believe you because you resemble the only woman he’s ever loved? Gross, by the way.Then, once you have him far enough away, you’re going to plunge a syringe in his neck, grab the tablet, and smash it against the nearest rock?”
I nod.
“Easy peasy.” Lozen rolls her eyes. “Best plan ever.”
“I refuse to allow this,” Gryphon says. The moonlight is strong enough to reveal the agony etched on his face.
