Page 84 of The Verdant Cage
Fury tears through me. I live not because I’m a boon to the Valley, not because I matter, but because Jarek can’t face his own guilt. I want to scream.
“So what do we do?” Sal asks.
The wave of gratitude I feel at the “we” makes me weak.
“We get you kids out of here. That’s first. Then we figure out what’s next.”
I’m about to ask who my uncle’s “we” is when there is a jostling outside the basement door. “Quick, Uncle,” I say. “Anansi requires his insulin, and Beate the Potter won’t make it if she doesn’t get her nitroglycerin today. Hephaestus should be all right for a few more days without his willow bark.”
I barely have the last word out of my mouth when the basement door flies open. “Time to go,” Leo commands.
“I promise I will, Rosie,” Uncle Richard whispers. He pulls a small pot out of his waistband and shoves it into my hand as Leo approaches, then he holds up the needle he hasn’t used. “But I haven’t finished my sutures,” he tells Leo.
“Should’ve worked quicker.” Leo touches his sword’s hilt in case his words weren’t clear.
Uncle Richard sighs and stands. “You know what to do for a wound, Rose,” he tells me. “Trust the process.”
The inflection in his voice is soft, but I catch it.Trust the process. What process? Being confined to a basement? But Leo is leading him out. I glance at the tin of arnica and echinacea balm he’s snuck me, and then into the astounded faces of my friends.
“Do I want to hear more about this killer…thing?” Oscar asks.
“You don’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway.” When I describe the attack I witnessed, they have outrage, then questions, and finally, acceptance.
“It’s got us trapped in here,” Eero says, his voice laced with fear. “How do we kill it?”
“I don’t know,” I say grimly. “It’s strong, or Jarek would have simply hacked it up by now.” I take as deep a breath as my wounds allow. “But I think I finally know what Jarek and Misia plan to do on Friday.”
52
Everything I’ve learned since Jonas’s cruel Harvest has coalesced into a single, awful vision. Jarek’s worship of the Founders’ items, the food and the newfangled weapons and that pile of explosives that Gryphon said is his father’s passion. How Jarek is having his Guardians train with noise makers so they learn to fight without being thrown off by loud explosions. The cage-like structure Eero had said the Carpenter House was being forced to build to keep somethingout.
“I think Jarek wants to blow open the Wall.” My whole body is shaking. “He craves power. And wants things he cannot have. I’ll bet he imagines both lie Beyond.”
I expect gasps, argument. Instead, all four go as still as stone.
“Gryphon also suspects that,” Meryl finally says.
The ground seems to drop out from beneath me.
Meryl looks at the others. “It’s time we tell her everything. No more secrets. They’re hungry and they bite everyone, especially the ones keeping them.”
“None of us knew if we could trust you,” Oscar says matter-of-factly. “Even after you started training.”
I’m flabbergasted. “But you trust Gryphon!”
“We do.” They nod, practically in unison.
“And it’d save us a lot of time if you did, too,” Meryl says. “He suspects his dad, and he wants to stop him.”
“How?” I ask. I don’t bother responding about Gryphon. She can’t seriously expect me to trust him while admitting he’s kept a secret this huge from me.
“We don’t know yet.”
A stone apron of exhaustion drops onto my shoulders. So many secrets have led us to waste so much time. I hold up the balm. “The sooner we get this on, the better you’ll feel.”
They hesitate, and then Oscar turns, lifting his shirt. I try not to weep at the sight of his swollen, bloody back. I apply the ointment as gently as possible. He flinches at my touch and then sighs. I made the balm myself. It draws out pain, reduces swelling, and speeds up healing.
“Did Gryphon know about the vines?” I ask. I think not. He seemed genuinely stunned by the earlier attack.
