***
I was on Savannah’s floor, and I only knew that because she was over top of me, her voice calm and her expression blank as she tried to gently wake me. My body snapped upwards, and I looked around, frantically trying to reassemble the moments leading up to my awakening. I was halfway through her door, which seemed to imply that I had lost consciousness and fallen inside. The sky outside was just newly beginning to turn dark blue, and when I had left the jail, it had been dark purple. Not long had passed at all.
“Easy.” Savannah told me firmly, when I went to jump up. “No. Sit for a second. Take it easy, honey.”
My hand was still closed tightly around the rings. I did not look, but I could still feel them, and they felt heavier now.
“Tell me they know how to make jewelry. The Old Spirits.” I rambled at Savannah, “Not the Bachums, the cave-people. Tell me that’s one of their crafts up there.”
She looked confused at first, but then her gaze looked off from me as she thought hard.
“Well, there are mines up there, and I think diamonds can be found in rivers sometimes. At least that’s what I read once. But if it’s one of their trades, I don’t know about it. But then, when I was there, they were still getting things up and running. Why?” She pushed my hair away from my eyes with both hands. “What happened, Brynna?” Her eyes traveled down when my hand twitched. “You’re bleeding, sweetie. Come on. Stand up.”
She led me into the kitchen and sat me down in one of the wooden chairs.
“Did you sew these pillows?” I asked her, because I was sitting on a very soft, very comfortable pillow.
“I did. The chairs needed some sprucing up.”
She returned to the table with a bowl of liquid that she had squeezed from an acid-root. She tapped my closed fist in a silent command for me to open it, but I did not register it; already, I had begun to stare off into space again, thinking of all that had been said between Paul and me.
“Come on, sweetheart. Open your hand up.” Savannah urged me, and gently, she peeled my fingers open. The rings clattered onto the table, and once again, the sound startled me. For a long time, we both stared at them, Savannah and me both looking at the rings with equal consternation. Our hands touching gave me effortless access to her thoughts, and I learned that she thought James had proposed.
“No. No, it’s not that. And things are complicated in that respect, but nothing compared to this.”
“What happened, Brynna?”
I looked up at her.
“Paul is here.”
Just like mine, her skin lost all color immediately, and her eyes widened.
“How?” She asked, “How did he find us?”
“He did not. I sensed him out there, and James and I brought him here. Savannah, I have left something crucial out of our discussions. It is something that has the power to destroy everything. A part of me wishes I had refused it straight off, but I did not, and now, I am suffering with it, and…”
“What did he offer you?” Savannah asked instantly. She finished bandaging the cuts my nails had made in my palm and then grasped my hand with both of her own.
“What?” I asked, “Does he do that often? Offer things, I mean?”
“Not to me.” She replied quickly, “I want to clarify that, just so you know that all of this is hearsay. But I watched them exile several people, and before they left, Paul said he would personally teach them how to become spies. That’s what we heard in the cave, anyway. The people who ended up in the cave were the ones who had failed the spy tests.”
“That’s not exactly the same thing, Savannah. When Adam and I got captured by them, Paul took me away from Adam so we could talk. He said that my mother was alive, and if I let Adam lead me back to Janna’s village, and then I delivered Adam and Janna to him, he would let her go. He would give her to me.”
“You didn’t say no? You said you would do it?”
“No! I said I would consider it.”
“God, Brynna…” She sighed, and her hand came up to cover her mouth. “That’s almost as dangerous as saying you would do it. Adam…”
“I know. He will not handle this well. But if I tell him what is going on, and tell him that we can trick Paul…”
“You can’t trick Paul. Brynna, you are very smart. You are one of the smartest people I know, but he is a…” She stopped, “He’s evil. He is a criminal mastermind, okay? You don’t know how much Tyre values him for that! If you try to pull one over on him, all of it will fall apart. He will tell Adam everything, and then Adam will do God knows what to you! I know you two have gotten closer, but if he finds out that you have even entertained the thought of this, he will kill you!”
“So, what should I do? I could not trade Adam or even Janna, for that matter. I could not trade one of my own, even for my mother, and you know how what I did to her has… irked me! I could get her back by force, but in the meantime, I have to deal with Paul possibly telling Adam everything. And then what?”
“If Paul tells Adam, the consequences will be catastrophic. If you tell Adam, on the other hand, he might take it better.”
“Do you think?”
“I know it. Do you think Rachel can come over and watch the kids? I’ll go with you.”
“No. No, it’s okay. I’ll be fine. I don’t think you want Paul to see you, do you?”
“He’s locked up in a room, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, but…”
“Then, I’ll be alright. Give me a minute, let me change my clothes, and then we’ll go.” She started to hurry off into her room, but before she disappeared from my sight, she stopped and turned around. “We’re going to figure this out, honey. We’re going to resolve it. I promise.”
I nodded but said nothing. Even without my power to See telling me that a violent upheaval was in the near future, I knew that soon, everything would change. Soon, the heavy, impatient tension in the air would settle on us, and the consequences of that shift were too great and terrible to even begin to imagine.