Page 36
Three days had gone by and we hadn’t encountered any soldiers along the way. I wondered if most of the King’s forces were concentrated inside the City now, around its walls, with less support in the wild. When we were at the dugout, Ruby had mentioned the raids. The boys had visited the storehouses three times in the prior month and never gotten caught. When they’d returned, the rooms were just as they’d left them, the shelves nearly bare, the lock still broken.
But even if surveillance in the wild had dwindled, it was only a matter of time before the troops were dispatched again. How long could I possibly stay in Califia? We’d left the settlement after discovering Maeve was prepared to use me as a bartering chip—a way to negotiate Califia’s independence if it was ever discovered by the King. Would I be safe there? How long would it be before I was sent back to the City to be executed? My body had changed even in the past few days. I could feel the slight difference. My pregnancy was getting harder to conceal. If the rumors were true—if the King had always suspected there was a settlement beyond the bridge—I’d have only a few months before he came to find me, to take my child away.
“It’s just over this hill,” I said, urging the horse past the rows of abandoned cars. I knew this road, had rummaged through the vehicles myself, looking for any usable clothes or tools. Once, I’d found two sacks of rice in a rusted car. Brown bugs had gotten into them and bred, thousands crawling over the trunk’s insides. “There’s only two guards who watch the north edge of the settlement, and I know them both. ”
As we crested the hill, I made out Isis up ahead, perched on the high lookout platform they’d built into one of the trees. Her hair was pulled back in a bandana. I waved, staring directly at her, but she still didn’t set down her weapon. Instead she lowered the rope ladder and climbed down, holding up her hand for us to stop. She studied my face, my hair, the tattered sweater I hugged to my body.
“Eve? What are you doing here?” she finally asked.
“I’m bringing some of the escapees from the Schools to stay—permanently. They want access to the settlement. ”
Isis scanned the crowd of us, the horses lined up, awaiting entrance. She ushered us off to her right, having Clara lead the horses down the hidden path to Sausalito. She threw up her hand when she noticed Benny, barely visible behind me. “Who are the two boys?” she asked, pointing to Silas as well, who rode with Beatrice. His hair was long and tangled. I’d secretly hoped if we moved quickly enough we could get them into the settlement and argue with the Founding Mothers later.
“They have nowhere else to go,” I said.
Her hand rested on the rifle at her side, and she smiled, revealing the gap between her front teeth. I thought of that night, how she’d come to Maeve’s house to discuss my place in Califia. She was one of the women who believed I had compromised the settlement’s safety. She’d argued so fiercely for Arden and me to be forced out, never acknowledging her doubts in my presence, always keeping that same smile as I sat with her, drinking at her kitchen table.
She studied them, trying to place their ages. I didn’t wait for her to decide. “I won’t leave them,” I said, maneuvering my horse around her. I signaled for Beatrice to move out front, following Clara down the path. “They have no one else. If you’d rather shoot me than let me in, so be it. ”
She looked up at me as we passed. Benny held on to my sides, his fists closing tight around my sweater. Isis didn’t raise her gun. Instead she just watched us as I eased the horse down the side of the hill. I steered us past some of the houses that were overgrown with moss. The recovered bookstore where I used to work was dark, a black bandana tied around the front doorknob, signaling it was closed. We passed a few more homes, the fire pits disguised with ivy nets. The horse moved down the uneven cliff ledge, and I struggled to keep balance, pressing my legs into its sides.
The bay was just visible beyond the trees. The water was calm, the last of the day’s light reflected on its surface. The familiar sight comforted me. As we turned onto Califia’s main street, the road hugging the shore, I spotted Quinn on the deck of her houseboat. She was hanging T-shirts over the side, fixing them on a few old nails. Her curly black hair had grown down her back, and she looked plumper, less muscular, than she had before.
“Party tonight at Sappho’s?” I yelled to her, hoping she heard the smile in my voice. I gestured to the girls behind me, the six horses continuing down the path.
Quinn looked up, her head tilted to one side, smirking. She went down the back of the boat and appeared on the dock, her steps hurried as she came toward us. I dismounted, letting her squeeze me to her in one of her breathless, all-consuming hugs. Her hair smelled of saltwater, a few coarse curls tickling my neck.
She pulled back, her eyes scanning the girls behind me. “Where’s Arden?” she asked. “We thought she was with you. ”
“I haven’t seen her in more than three months. ” I lowered my voice as I spoke. “She’s gone back on the Trail. She went to the siege with some of the boys from the dugout. ”
Quinn’s brows knitted together. “She hasn’t been here. ”
“And you didn’t hear anything about her? No messages? I thought she might still be inside the City. ”
“I’ll fill you in later on what’s happening in the City,” she whispered, looking over my shoulder at some of the younger girls. “We’ve heard some things that worried us. ”
Before I could say anything else I heard the soft padding of feet on pavement, and Lilac rounded the corner, her hair tied back in braids. She was holding a doll by its arm, its painted features worn off. “Mom, it’s Eve,” she yelled over her shoulder. “She has horses!”
The mare started backward but I grabbed the reins, waiting until she calmed. The girls had already dismounted behind me, some hitching the horses to trees, others unloading the sacks and giving the animals the last of the food and water. Beatrice had Benny and Silas beside her, one hand resting on each of them as Maeve came toward us.
“You’re back,” she called out. There was no feeling in her voice—no surprise, no hint of anger or confusion. She hugged her worn jean jacket to her body, steeling herself against the wind that whipped off the bay. “And I see you’re not alone. ” Her eyes settled on Benny and Silas.
All the nervousness I had felt about seeing her again was gone. So much had changed in the past months. We were both traitors now, according to my father. She had harbored escapees from the Schools. We could both be hanged. I tried to remind myself of that as she kept staring at the two boys. “They have nowhere else to go,” I said. “I won’t leave them. ”
“You know we have rules. ”
“For men—there were never supposed to be men here,” I insisted. “They’re barely eight years old. What’s going to happen to them in the wild?”
Beatrice held them tighter. “I can be responsible for them. And when they’re of age we can revisit the conversation. ”
“I don’t know you,” Maeve said, scanning Beatrice’s face. “Why would that mean anything to me?”
Behind her, a few women came out of their houses, some peering through the front windows of abandoned stores. “You shouldn’t have left without telling us,” Maeve went on, now directing the comment at me. “We weren’t certain at first if you’d been taken or if you’d gone on your own. Some of the women were worried. ”