The Healing Wars: Book II: Blue Fire (9 page)

Jeatar turned to me and spread his arms wide. “Welcome to the Baseeri Underground.”

U
nderground?

Danello nodded. “Like the Sorillian resistance, right? My ma used to lecture on that, but the University Elders made her stop.”

All emotion vanished from Jeatar’s face. “Exactly like that. Some of them are even here.”

“I thought everyone in Sorille died?” Danello asked.

“Not everyone.” Jeatar turned away and walked toward a woman holding practice weapons.

Had Jeatar survived Sorille?

No one survived Sorille,
Papa had whispered, unaware I was hiding under the table.
Not even those who lived.

I’d seen Jeatar’s scars the day I flashed the Slab. Burn scars across his chest and shoulders. Some things never fully healed, even when you took the pain away.

We’d seen Sorille burning. Seen the glow from the flames, a sunrise in the darkest night. We’d smelled the smoke for days as it rolled across the marshes like mist on the lake.

“He couldn’t have!” Mama cried. “All those people?”

“We should have known.” Papa sounded angry and scared. I’d never seen him scared. “He should have warned us, sent word about this.”

“Unless he killed him too.”

There were knocks at the door then, and people came in who always made Mama and Papa nervous. Mama wanted to send help, but they refused. Said we’d need those supplies ourselves. Had they been Geveg’s Underground? Had Jeatar been part of Sorille’s, or had their Underground formed after the Duke killed everyone in his city?

Not everyone.

“So they’re fighting the Duke too?” Aylin asked, her nervous gaze on the Baseeri staring at us with their cold blue eyes.

“They’re
Baseeri
,” I said. “Why would they fight
the Duke?” But I pictured the boy who’d helped me, how scared he’d been of the Undying. The pack that ran in terror thinking I was one of “them.” A quirker. Even the jail guards had been afraid. What had the Duke done to his own people that he hadn’t done to us?

“You never should have brought them here,” the woman yelled.

“What was I supposed to do?” Jeatar folded his arms across his chest. His scarred chest. If he was from Sorille, why would he care about Baseer?

“Make them someone else’s problem.” She spoke lower this time, but we were all listening now.

For a moment they glared at each other; then Jeatar left her and knocked on one of the two doors in the back. A third was on the opposite side of the room next to the practice area. He waited a moment before going inside.

The Baseeri woman now glared at us. So did the others. A sea of black hair and scowls. They didn’t want us here, but now we knew their secret and they couldn’t just let us go.

“I don’t like this.”

Barnikoff leaned close over my shoulder. His lip was split and bruises darkened his eye and cheek, all caused by Baseeri soldiers. “We’ve got your back if
you want to teach these reed rats a lesson,” he said. Others nodded and murmured agreement.

Aylin didn’t look as worried as the rest of us. “Nya, I don’t think they want to hurt us.”

We stared at the Baseeri. They stared at us. Nobody moved, except Neeme, who got up and carried a stack of uniforms to a cabinet and put them inside. She pulled another stack from a different shelf and carried them to the table. She reached into a sewing basket, pulled out needle and thread, and picked up the first uniform on the stack.

Mending them. Had she stolen old uniforms? But they looked new. Maybe she was tailoring them to fit. Having a few of those would make our lives in Geveg easier.

What was taking Jeatar so long?

The door opened and Jeatar stepped out. Another man followed him. He seemed familiar—tall, wide-shouldered, short dark hair. As he got closer, I caught a scent—metal, fire, and smoke.

An enchanter!

“We’re going to have guests, so I expect everyone to show them proper hospitality,” he said to the scowling Baseeri.

The woman wasn’t any happier with him than she was with Jeatar. “But they—”

“Will not be here long.” He shot her a look.

“You can stay,” Jeatar told us. “We have rooms in the rear, but it’ll be crowded. In the morning we’ll see what we can do about getting you home, or finding transportation elsewhere if you prefer.”

“Told you they weren’t planning to hurt us,” Aylin muttered.

I glanced at the practice weapons and the uniforms. They were planning something, sure as spit. Something they didn’t want us to know about.

“Danello?” Halima said, tugging on his sleeve. “We’re not leaving without Jovan and Bahari, are we?”

“No, we’re not.”

“Good.”

The enchanter turned to Neeme. “Could you please show these people to the guest quarters?”

She nodded and jumped up, setting her mending aside.

“Follow me.”

Barnikoff and the others followed Neeme through the second door, next to the one the enchanter had come out of. I stayed behind, and Danello stayed with me. The enchanter might not have wanted to talk in front of the others, but I was ready for answers.

“What’s going on?”

“Let’s speak in my office,” the enchanter said, pointing to the open door.

So they didn’t want to talk out here in front of
their
others either. I looked at Jeatar. He tipped his head at the office.

“That would be nice,” I said.

I walked inside. It was warm, with worn books on the walls and carpet on the floor.

“Are you okay?” Danello whispered in my ear. His breath tickled the back of my neck.

“I’m fine.” But he did make it hard to concentrate when he did that.

I just didn’t like being in a room where the only person I
knew
I could trust was him. Or having thirty Baseeri between me and the exit. Or not knowing where my sister was.

“Who are you?” I asked the enchanter as he sat behind his carved wooden desk.

“Onderaan Analov. Please, sit.”

Breath left me.
Analov?
That was
my
name. Nya de’Analov. How could he have my name? How could a Baseeri have an almost Gevegian name?

I sat but didn’t stop staring.

“Nya?” Danello touched my arm.

“You’re their leader?” I said, finding it hard to speak at all.

“I’m the leader, yes.” He folded his hands and placed them on the desk. “You’re
their
leader?”

“No.”

He smiled gently as if he didn’t believe me.

“Um. What are you doing?” I hated the way my voice sounded. Squeaky. Cracked. Not like me at all. “With all these people, I mean…and uniforms and things?”

“Trying to get a snake away from the chickens.”

He sounded like Grannyma. No…

His
voice
sounded like
Grandpapa.
Looked like him too. Same eyes, same nose.
Papa’s eyes, Papa’s nose.

My chest tightened. “You’re really fighting the Duke? You want him gone?”

“My family has fought the Duke for seven years, since the day he seized power that wasn’t his. His father never intended for him to rule.
My
father never wanted it either. When he died, I swore I’d drag that greedy, warmongering fiend off his throne if I had to do it with my bare hands.”

I knew that voice. That anger. I’d heard it before.

So much yelling from the first floor. I lay in the shadows at the top of the stairs and listened, like I always did. This time Grandpapa wasn’t there. Other
men were. They smelled like the heavy black smoke that had been blowing over Geveg all day and night.

“We can go right now and rip that murderer off his throne.”

“How? Our forces were in Sorille. We can’t launch an attack now.”

“He killed them, Peleven, he killed our parents.”

Peleven was Papa’s name. The other voice had to be—

Onderaan. I trembled. No, it wasn’t possible. “Your family is here, too, then? Helping you?” That wasn’t what I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask about the uniforms, and what they were doing, and maybe even ask for help saving Tali. But I had to know if his family was alive. If they were, then he couldn’t be—

“They’re dead. He killed them all.”

Not everyone.

I squeezed my eyes shut. It was all a coincidence. This man was Baseeri, with hair dark as night. Papa’s hair had been…I sucked in a breath. Bald. Burned it all off at the forge, he used to joke. Mama was the blond one. Tali and I got our pale curls from her.

“Jeatar says you lost your family as well,” Onderaan said, his voice softening a little. “That your sister was recruited by the Undying. He says you need our help, but I’m not sure what we can do.”

I’d been in Baseer long enough to know I’d need help to save Tali. I didn’t know the secrets of the city, the patrol routes, which soldiers were lazy and which would run after you. He knew all that—and more. It shouldn’t matter who he
might
be. “There has to be something you can do. You have uniforms, weapons, all these people. You know things.”

“It’s not just her family,” Danello added. “They have my brothers too. They have lots of other people’s brothers and sisters.”

“I understand, but the Duke guards his Takers well. We’ve been trying to get someone inside, but it’s impossible.”

I scoffed, my face hot, my hands cold. “All you had to do was send in a Taker.”

Onderaan’s kind demeanor flickered. “It’s not that easy.”

“We sent some in and we weren’t even trying.”

That shut him up. Onderaan stared at me, his mouth slightly open. Jeatar’s eyes widened. Even Danello seemed surprised.

“Um, Nya?” he said. He shot me a what-in-Saea’s-name-are-you-doing? look.

I had no idea. I was just angry. “You have people and money and resources and all the things you
could possibly need to save those Takers.”

Jeatar put his hand on my arm. “Nya, you don’t understand.”

“I
do
understand!” No one in my family would sit back and let innocent people suffer. He was
not
family. He was
not
my father’s brother.

I was
not
half Baseeri.

“You think it’s too hard,” I continued, “or too dangerous for you to risk your fancy villa and save people you know need saving. People who could help you stop the Duke!”

At some point I’d jumped to my feet, though I couldn’t say when. I stared down at Onderaan, into brown eyes that were
not
the same shade as my father’s. As Tali’s. As
mine.

“You’d rather sit here in your safe chair in your safe cellar while cities burn and lives are ruined and say you
tried
to help, but it was too hard!”

Onderaan stared back, jaw tight, eyes hard. “No, child. We just don’t have any Takers.”

N
o Takers anywhere? “I don’t believe you. You’re just—”

“Maybe we should discuss this in the morning?” Jeatar said while Danello squeezed my shoulder—hard.

“Yeah,” Danello said, “she’s exhausted—we all are. It’s been a rough few days.”

“I’m fine!”

“No, you’re not,” Danello mumbled just loud enough for me to hear.

“I don’t think there’s anything more to discuss,” Onderaan said. “Jeatar, this isn’t going to work. I want them all out by end of day tomorrow.”

I folded my arms. The sooner I got out of here, the better. “Fine by me.”

“She didn’t mean it,” Jeatar said, shooting me a look of pure disbelief. “She spent the last week in a box.”

“Gone by tomorrow.”

“Onderaan, they have nowhere to go. They’ll just be captured again.”

“We don’t need the distractions right now. We need everyone focused, and this child”—he waved a hand toward me—“is not conducive to that.”

“I’m not a child,” I said. What did he know about me anyway? “I’ve been on my own for years, caring for my sister, my
only
family.”

“Get her out of here,” Jeatar said to Danello, who grabbed me by the arm and dragged me toward the door. Jeatar turned to Onderaan. “We need to discuss this.”

“I’m not jeopardizing everything we’ve worked for because you feel sorry for this girl.”

“It’s not that, it’s—”

Danello slammed the door shut. The Baseeri stopped and stared, drawn by the yelling in Onderaan’s office. I glared back.

“What are you doing?” Danello asked, keeping his voice low. “We need his help to get Tali and the twins out.”

“He’s not going to help us.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know you can’t trust a Baseeri!”

Danello’s eyes widened. Perhaps I’d said that a little loud. Angry murmurs rumbled through the room.

“Come on,” he said, dragging me away again toward the guest rooms. “Maybe Aylin can talk some sense into you.”

“I don’t need sense talked into me.” I needed to
make
sense of things that didn’t make sense. Maybe Analov was a popular name here. Maybe Papa just had one of those faces that looked like everyone else. Lots of people lost family in the war. It didn’t mean
anything
.

Danello shut the door behind us. The hallway was full of Gevegians. They crowded around me, looking for answers I didn’t have.

“What’s going to happen to us?”

“Can we really stay?”

“Who was that man?”

Gaunt faces, tired eyes. Scared and hungry people who would be turned out tomorrow because Onderaan was too selfish to—

“We can stay the night, but we’ll have to leave tomorrow,” Danello said, his hand still tight on my arm.

“He’s throwing us out?” Aylin said, probably the only one who seemed surprised.

Barnikoff spat. “Should have known. Can’t trust a Baseeri.”

Danello looked at me, his eyes encouraging me to speak yet worried that I might. I looked at the people gathered around us. People who
would
have been safe if not for me.

Saints, what had I done?

I was the one being selfish. I’d made deals I didn’t like before. I could have kept my mouth shut and my ears open, learned what I needed here, and convinced Onderaan to help us. I’d have had Jeatar on my side, and he’d already convinced him to let us stay.

I swallowed, my throat dry. “Jeatar is working on it.”

“Everyone, go to your rooms and rest while you can,” Danello said, sounding like the leader Onderaan thought I was. “Let’s show them we won’t be any trouble at all.”

“
We
won’t be trouble?” someone asked. I couldn’t tell who.

“I know, but look, these people are fighting the Duke. For all they know we’re a bunch of spies. Would you be happy to see us if you were them?” Grumbles all around. “Stay put, stay quiet, do as they say, and let’s see what happens tomorrow. At
the very least they’ll feed us.”

A few chuckles.

“Okay, we’ll sail it your way for now,” Barnikoff said. He glanced at me before he turned and uncertainty washed across his face. The others didn’t look at me, but they did return to their rooms.

“We’re in here,” Aylin said, opening the first door on the right. “Danello, you and Halima are next door, there.”

“Can you watch her a bit longer?” Danello nudged me toward the open door. “I need to talk to Nya.”

“Do you need me?”

“No, it’s okay. Thanks though.”

Aylin hesitated, casting me a worried look. “Everything okay?”

“It’s fine.”

She arched an eyebrow.

“We’ll talk after,” I said, shaking off Danello’s hand and walking into the room. Not as cell-like as I’d expected. A lot like Millie’s Boardinghouse, really. Simple beds, one on each side, but the pillows looked soft and the blankets warm. A small table with a lamp sat against the wall between them, a basket underneath for clothes.

It took me a moment to notice Danello hadn’t followed.

“…wrong with her?” Aylin said softly, one hand covering her mouth as if that would hide her words.

“I don’t know. She’s acting crazy. I’ve never seen her like this.”

I sat on the bed. Folded my hands in my lap. My fingers were cold and I slipped them between my knees. What had I done?

“Do you know what’s wrong?”

“No, but it happened right after that Onderaan guy showed up.”

Vyand would find us and arrest us. They’d all climb the gallows’ steps and hang. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to apologize to Onderaan. Explain why I…

I sighed and rested my forehead on my knees. Why I overreacted. That’s all it was. He couldn’t be related to me—it made no sense. I couldn’t be half Baseeri. I didn’t look like them. Think like them. I wasn’t cruel like them.

You hurt people. Killed people. Maybe that was your Baseeri side.

The door clicked shut. The bed squeaked as Danello sat next to me. I sat up.

“What happened?” His arm slipped around my shoulders. Warm. Solid. Safe.

“I got confused.”

“Confused? About what?”

“What would you do if you found out your father wasn’t who you thought he was?”

He paused. “You mean, like, if he lied to me?”

I hadn’t thought about that.
Had
they lied to me? “I don’t know.” I rested my head on his shoulder. The kind of shoulder you could count on when things got bad.

You could count on Papa.

That’s because he was Gevegian. He fought the Baseeri. Baseeri didn’t fight Baseeri—except Onderaan and the Underground were doing just that.

Papa had. Grandpapa had. Were they Baseeri?

Danello took my hand, ran his thumb across my knuckles. “Why don’t you like Onderaan?”

“He’s an enchanter.” It just popped out.

“And that’s bad?”

“No.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

“I know. I’m not sure what to do.” I had to fix this somehow. Convince Onderaan to let them stay, even if he threw me out. I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Well,” Danello said, pushing a curl behind my ear, “I think the first thing we should do is get some sleep. Then we can talk to Onderaan and tell him sometimes your mouth gets away from you. He’s
bound to need help here, and we can offer it. Maybe that’s worth something.”

“Maybe. No one in the Duke’s army knows who we are. They wouldn’t connect us with the Underground.”

He smiled, but there was worry there too. For his brothers, for his father, for me. “See? Planning already. You’ll have it all figured out by morning.”

For his sake I had to prove I was worth keeping around by showing Onderaan how we could help him.

“Thanks.” I hugged him, feeling better than I had since I got there. “I’m okay, really. You were right before, it’s been a long day. A long
week
.”

“I’ll see you in the morning.”

“You don’t have to go so soon.”

He grinned. “Okay.”

I snuggled back into him, warm and safe. It felt good to just
be
.

Much sooner than I’d have liked, someone knocked softly on the door. Danello grumbled but got up and answered it.

“Everything okay in there?”

Aylin. I should have known.

They spoke in whispers for a minute; then Danello left and Aylin slipped inside. He had obviously told
her what had happened, which suited me fine. I wasn’t in the mood to think about it again.

“I don’t know about you,” she said, flopping on the other bed, “but I’m exhausted. I don’t think I can even think straight anymore. I probably can’t even talk without tripping over my own tongue.”

Subtle she was not. But it was sweet of her, telling me in her own way it was okay to have lost my mind.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” I said. “And I’m sorry I got you arrested.”

She rolled over and faced me. “It wasn’t your fault. I knew we could get caught when I agreed to be sneaky with you.”

“Still.”

“Pfft.” She flicked a hand my way. “What are friends for? I mean, really, if you can’t count on your best friend to go to jail with you, what good are they?”

I smiled. “You do have a point.”

“I am wise beyond my years.”

“This is also true.” I slipped off my sandals and crawled into bed. By the time I reached over to turn down the lamp, she was already asleep. I left it on, the pale glow comforting. I’d be able to see anyone who might sneak into the room. I’d noticed the door
didn’t have a lock. I hadn’t checked the main hall door though. We might be locked in even now.

Worry about that in the morning.

I had enough to worry about tonight.

Noises woke me later that night. Thuds, muffled cries, worried words. I was on my feet before my eyes were fully open. Aylin was still asleep. She hadn’t even taken off her shoes.

“Aylin, wake up.” I pressed my ear against the door. Quiet.

Doors slammed, but it didn’t sound like it was in the hall. Aylin mumbled and rolled over. I left the door and stepped onto her bed, then listened against the wall.

“Aylin!”

“Mmmm?”

“Get Danello.” I slipped out the door, tiptoeing to the entrance to the main room. I cracked the door.

“…waiting for us,” a man was saying. “I don’t know how.”

A scoff. “A jailbreak alerted half the city,” a woman said.

Our jailbreak? She thought we were responsible for whatever had happened?

“Oh come on, Siekte,” said Jeatar. “The jail was nowhere near the League.”

“You don’t think breaking out political prisoners would have alerted them? Put all the Duke’s soldiers on guard?”

“Quiet, both of you,” Onderaan said, sounding tired. “How bad is she hurt?”

Hurt? I pulled the door open a little farther and peeked out. Six people stood in the room, three I hadn’t seen before, wearing Baseeri uniforms that were probably from Neeme’s stash of stolen ones. Another woman lay on the couch, hurt badly from the look of it. A man was on the floor, just as injured.

A door opened and Danello came up behind me. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“I think a plan went bad. Something about the Healers’ League.”

He and Aylin crowded around me and looked out.

Siekte was pressing a folded cloth against the injured woman’s stomach. The cloth was already dark with blood. Not good. She ignored the man on the floor. Onderaan didn’t, though. He knelt and slapped him across the face.

“How did you know we were coming?”

The man groaned.

“Answer me!”

Aylin pulled away from the door. “Um, I’m thinking his uniform might be real.”

If so, then he might be able to tell me where Tali and the others were.

“Traitor,” the soldier said.

“You’re killing innocents and I’m the traitor?” Onderaan slapped him again. “Did someone tell you we were coming?”

“Why is everyone in the hall?”

We spun around. Neeme stood behind us in a nightdress, rubbing her eyes, her hair a tousled mess.

“Someone got hurt,” Aylin said.

Neeme’s eyes opened wide. She shoved past us and ran inside, dropping to her knees by the woman. Siekte tried to keep her back but failed.

I stepped forward, but Danello grabbed my arm.

“We should stay in our rooms.”

“I have to know what’s going on.” I ventured out, Danello and Aylin behind me. We stood off to the side, but Jeatar spotted us. He frowned and tipped his head toward the door. I shook mine.

Neeme sobbed, then sucked in a sharp breath.
She looked around wildly, first to the door, then the room. Her gaze fell on me. Jeatar swore.

“Help her, please,” she asked me. “Heal her like you did me.”