Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 93948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
I hate that the words I’ve so longed to hear feel like she’s saying goodbye.
Chapter 32
Siobhan
It’s been the better part of a decade—longer, really—since I’ve been in Lyari. With the highest concentration of Cŵn Annwn and nobles in the capital city, it’s the one place in Threshold my identity is truly a liability.
Now it doesn’t really matter.
We anchor off the coast and swim to shore just as the sun touches the horizon. Most of the island is settled in residential areas, with a decreasing amount of space for farming as the years go on. It forces the population to be dependent on trade to get food, and somehow that food never quite makes it outside the city walls—at least not without having the prices marked up first. It means that folks have started leaving Lyari behind for smaller communities on different islands.
It’s a problem that will need solving if we want the future to be as hopeful as we’ve all dreamed. I hate knowing I won’t be here for that outreach, for those changes.
The house we take temporary shelter in has the appearance of being abandoned for years—decades, even. The door hangs half off its hinges, wood swollen by the sea air, and even Bowen has a difficult time wedging it open. Inside, it smells faintly of mildew, mold sprouting in the corners where walls meet ceiling.
“Great,” Lizzie mutters. “Now we have to worry about black mold.”
No one bothers to respond. Nox pulls the water from our clothes. I dig out some food from the bag the Yothians gave us and pass it around.
“Time to go over the plan,” Bastian says. He pulls a rotted wooden table to the center of the room and sets out a handful of rocks that are apparently supposed to represent Lyari. “The Council’s building is right here.” He points to a triangular rock. “If we time it correctly, we can slip through when they change shifts.”
Maeve nibbles on her bottom lip. “We’re just going to…walk in? Aren’t there guards inside?”
“Yes.” Bastian sets two smaller rocks next to the triangular one. I’m not sure what these are supposed to represent. Guards? “The Council keeps normal hours. By the time we make it to the city, it will be late—later yet when we reach the library. I’ll use my glamour to keep us hidden. Nox and Lizzie will incapacitate the guards as we come across them. Once we reach the library, Evelyn will neutralize the magic on the case around the horn and Bowen will break it. We blow the horn and then this is over.”
It does sound too simple to work. A thousand things could go wrong…
It’s still the best plan we have.
Lizzie looks like she wants to jump out of her skin at the state the house is in, but she’s not so distracted that she misses the chance to say, “Why are we doing this alone? Don’t you have a network of rebels that stretches the span of Threshold? They could get us up-to-date information and actually, you know, help?”
I’m already shaking my head. “Unfortunately, that’s not possible.”
She narrows her eyes. “What do you mean, that’s not possible?”
“We don’t have many people on Lyari.” Bastian glances up from his crouched position. “And the ones here are high-risk, so they are roughly three degrees removed from Siobhan and the rest of us. If we go to them for help, they won’t know or trust us. It will just waste time we can’t afford to lose—and amplifies the risk of being caught.”
Guilt and frustration are live things inside me. It wouldn’t matter if we had other people to help because I’m the only one who can do what needs to be done. I can’t say that without explaining what Dia told me. Instead, I focus on Lizzie’s suggestion. “The only reason we’ve been able to work for so long is because the network is just that—a network. I only have direct contact with a handful of people. That wasn’t always the case, but it became necessary as the number of people in the rebellion grew. It protects everyone. If one person is caught, they can only draw a connection to one or two of the others.”
Lizzie makes a face. “It does make sense when you put it like that. It’s still inconvenient.”
“Yes.” We would have had to change things dramatically to draw people together to fight. I’m not even certain it would work.
Thankfully, that’s not something I have to worry about any longer. I just have to get to the horn.
“I won’t know if I can neutralize the magic until I see it,” Evelyn says quietly. “If you’re betting on me, it might be for nothing. This is a serious risk.”
Bastian looks at the increasingly chaotic layout of rocks, his brows pulled together. “The current Council is the one who brought the horn out to display instead of keeping it locked in a vault somewhere. Enough of the old members had died off that the younger ones decided to change the way they handle artifacts. The magic will be ritual, and even if the flavor is different than yours, you should be able to find a way around it.”