Chapter 47
Saffron
“Council cabin,” Annie interrupted them from the edge of the beach. “Now.”
Saffron had never been inside the council room, it looked like most of the others, except all of the tables had been pushed together to form a single massive one in the centre. There were maps on the walls that had Saffron itching to fix perspective and shading. Caradoc was bent over more maps, the set of his mouth uncharacteristically hard. “I’ve just gotten word,” he said, without preamble. “The Program goes public in a few days with mandatory opening celebrations in the amphitheatre.”
“What’s that?” Saffron asked. She’d heard Jane talk about it in her sleep sometimes.
“It’s partly about holding public Trials in the new Amphitheatre,” Caradoc explained. “To find someone strong enough to wear the mask. And partly about letting people get killed so no one has to feed them.”
Saffron thought of Madeleine and River, and even herself; of soldiers and guns and a wall full of electricity. “They’re looking for the wrong kind of strength.”
“Maybe,” Caradoc said. “But that won’t stop them, not now. Cartimandua is not known for her long philosophical debates. They’ve started to take away anyone under the age of sixteen with any particular talent for numen or violence, the younger the better. The Tagging centres are also Testing centres. The Elysian rebels have been finding the bodies of those who don’t make it.”
“They have houses built in the Amphitheatre,” Jane added. “Where genetically coordinated couples will be forced to live and breed Green Jack babies. It’s supposed to be an honour.”
Saffron watched her carefully. “Is that why you ran away?”
“Yes.”
“Good choice. So why exactly are you going back to that again?”
“The good news is that the bounty on Jane is not public yet,” Caradoc cut in. “It’s internal. Only Directorate.” He looked up at her across the table. “I need to know everything you know about the Program and the Amphitheatre.”
Jane told them everything she could until Saffron began to think that being a girl from the Enclave wasn’t any better than being a girl from the Core. “I do not miss the City.” She turned to Caradoc. “So what does this have to do with the Greencoats?”
He smiled and it was the slow burning of a fuse attached to more dynamite than the world could handle. “Cartimandua will parade her Green Jacks around the Amphitheatre, to prove to the Elysians that she is in control. That means all of the Jacks will be in one place at the same time.”
“How do you know that?” Jane asked him. It was a lot to base on an assumption.
“Because Cartimandua is my sister.” Silence thrummed between them. Jane lowered herself into a chair. Saffron’s eyebrows disappeared somewhere under a cluster of burrs. His jaw clenched. “She started training with the Protectorate when she was sixteen, with our father long before that. He was a Director.”
“Hell of a family reunion,” Saffron muttered.
Caradoc’s mouth twitched with a ghost of a smile. “I might be the only one who can stop her,” was all he said. “At the very least, I know how she thinks.”
“And I thought Killian was good at keeping silent,” Saffron said. “I’m going with you.”
Caradoc shook his head. “We’re not taking a Jill into the City.”
“I’m not just a Jill,” she argued. “I know the City better than anyone.” She tore a map off the wall and slammed it onto the table. “Where’s the meet-point with the rebels?” When he rattled off a bunch of street names, she pointed. “There.”
“So we’ll mark it and you’ll stay here,” Annie said.
“How would you get there?” Saffron challenged. Caradoc sighed at the map, choosing a route. “That road’s blocked off because of flooding. This one is full of soldiers hanging out in the alleys. And that turn you just made? You’ll get taken out by the sniper in that building. He doesn’t have a gun, but he likes to piss out of the window.” She folded her arms smugly. “I think I’ve made my point. If you’re seriously thinking of taking on the Directorate in their own territory, you need me.”
Jane bent her head, rubbing the base of her skull. The dimming solar lamps cast shadows on the table in front of them. “What do you see, Jane?” Caradoc asked quietly.
“I don’t know,” she said, frustrated. “Horses, swords, lightning. Danger, blood. Nothing unexpected.” She tried harder, until she made a small mew of pain. She shook her head. “There’s no plan yet,” she said. “So there’s no way to know how it will go wrong.”
“Well, that’s encouraging,” Saffron said.