Firebrand

  I thought of the sleek ship moored just off Sumter. Was that one of Chief’s spoils?

  “Dare isn’t the only pirate. Chief’s a pirate too, and he’s smart enough to get his victims to sail to him. That’s what’s happened to you, right? Chief got lucky: Dare’s ship without the armed guard. See, he can live without you, but a ship that big is very valuable. And now he has it.” He kept walking. “The plan was to lock you up and leave you here, the way they left my mother. Then your parents would rush over to save you, just like my father did. I suppose they’d never get to leave after that. The rats would do the rest.”

  “If they want to kill us, why not just shoot us? I’ve seen the guns.”

  “Because killing uses ammunition. Chief won’t waste a single bullet on you when he knows the rats will do the job for him. Besides, killing’s a messy business. There are children on Sumter, in case you hadn’t noticed. Chief doesn’t want them having nightmares just because he had to kill you.”

  “How thoughtful,” muttered Alice. “And what about Griffin and Dennis? They’re children too.”

  Jerren ran his hand along the wall. “They’ll be spared, most likely. The colony needs some new blood. Especially kids young enough not to suspect anything. That’s why they kept Nyla and me around.”

  “So why are you crossing them now? You have to know your chances are better with Kell than with us.”

  Jerren had reached the end of the corridor. The light from tiny windows near the ceiling was barely enough to see by, but our eyes were becoming accustomed to it. Still, he wouldn’t look through the iron door to his right. “Chief isn’t the only one who wants your ship. I swam over the other night to check it out. Everyone always said that Dare’s ship was one of the best on the ocean. It is too, but I’ll need a crew to escape this place. I’ll need you.”

  Alice huffed. “And you think we’ll trust you?”

  “I think,” replied Jerren, “that you won’t be able to get back into Sumter without my help.” He gripped the wheel in the center of the door. “And if anyone sees you getting back in, Chief won’t worry about wasting ammunition anymore.”

  Nyla had joined her brother now. She held his free hand and tugged it gently, urging him to look through the small circular window in the door. He’d been putting it off, I realized, struck at last by the finality of what he might see through it.

  As one, they turned their heads and stared inside. Neither of them said anything after that, but I knew their parents were in there. However much he’d tried to prepare himself for this moment, Jerren was overwhelmed. He fought back tears, but it was no use. Nyla, meanwhile, simply stared straight ahead, her face hardening.

  Jerren spun the wheel in the door and pulled it open. He stepped inside the room and knelt on the floor.

  I followed Alice to where Nyla stood just outside. I didn’t want to look, but did anyway out of respect for Jerren and Nyla. They shouldn’t be the only ones to know what had happened, how low their colony had sunk to destroy any threat. Then I closed my eyes again to block out the image that I knew I’d never forget: two bodies, shrunken, mummified, arms wrapped around each other.

  Jerren fingered the remains of his parents’ tunics. They’d been white once, I was sure of it, but the fronts were rust-colored.

  Blood.

  Jerren poked a finger through tiny holes positioned over their chests. “Shot,” he murmured. “They were shot.”

  “Who would’ve done it?” asked Alice gently.

  “Kell.” He wiped his sleeve across his eyes. “He loved them. Did it so they wouldn’t suffer.”

  “What?”

  “He didn’t want them to starve, or get Plague. He didn’t want to prolong the pain, but . . . he could’ve just let them live.” He broke down in racking sobs—this strong boy, who suddenly seemed no different than the rest of us.

  I placed a hand on Nyla’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  Nyla didn’t pull away, but she didn’t speak, either. Her shoulder felt rigid.

  Jerren kissed his fingers and placed them tenderly on his parents’ sleeves. “I’m not sorry,” he said finally. “For years, I’ve known something terrible happened to them. And I’ve spent the whole time feeling guilty, wondering if I should’ve tried to rescue them. Now I know it wouldn’t have made any difference. I can stop feeling like a coward . . . a failure.”

  With a single deep breath, Jerren stood and turned his back on the grisly scene. The lingering doubts were gone now. He’d be able to move on at last.

  He wrapped an arm around Nyla and tried to ease her away too. But however cathartic the situation was for him, Nyla obviously felt differently. Maybe she’d heard her brother talk about this for years but had never really believed it. Perhaps she’d held out hope that when she came face-to-face with her parents again, they’d be alive, just hiding, waiting for their children to join them. Whatever she’d envisaged, it clearly hadn’t included anything like the scene confronting her now.

  “We’ll bury them,” Jerren told her. “Give them a proper resting place. Somewhere we choose, that we’ll remember . . . no matter what.” His tone was intended to be comforting, but Nyla still didn’t move. She didn’t even blink.

  Alice cast me a nervous glance. “Jerren’s right, Nyla,” she said. “We’ll come . . .” Her voice trailed off as her eyes drifted past my shoulder and down to the floor. Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

  I spun around. Halfway along the corridor, the floor rippled with something even darker than the cold stone.

  Rats were advancing on us.

  CHAPTER 29

  Get off the ground,” yelled Alice.

  She leaped against the bars and pulled herself up so that she was half a yard off the ground. I followed her lead. Jerren launched himself at the bars on the other side of the corridor.

  Nyla was still staring at her parents. She seemed locked in, and no words, however horrifying, could reach her. As the rats closed to within a couple yards, I jumped down and lifted her up so that her feet rested on the horizontal bar.

  The rats were right underneath us now. Kell had warned us that they were growing desperate and aggressive, but the way they loitered just below our feet didn’t feel desperate. It felt calculated, like they were conserving energy, just waiting for their prey to fall to them.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” I said.

  Alice looked along the corridor. “If we stay on the bar, we can make it to the stairs.”

  “And then what?” demanded Jerren.

  There was no good answer to that, but staying still wasn’t an option. So Alice began the slow process of shimmying along, feet sliding by tiny degrees along the horizontal bar as she moved her hands from one to another vertical bar.

  I wanted us to move quickly, but Jerren and Nyla were looking back at the place that had become their parents’ tomb. He’d just wanted to know the truth, to give his parents the burial they deserved, but now it would never happen. Especially not when the rats divided, some lingering around us, while others scurried into the room. A moment later, snuffling sounds were replaced by the noises of something, or someone, being consumed.

  I meant to tell Nyla that she needed to keep moving, but what came out was “I’m sorry.”

  She seemed to look straight through me. Escaping was going to be impossible if I couldn’t get through to her.

  Alice climbed back to us and placed a hand on Nyla’s arm. “Come,” she said gently. “It’s time.”

  Nyla didn’t say anything, didn’t even blink, but she followed Alice now, placing her hands and feet precisely where the older girl showed her. On the other side of the corridor, Jerren continued his progress. No one commented on the sound his breath made as it caught in his throat, or the way he sniffed back tears. Or the way his sister showed almost no emotion at all.

  We kept going a
nd the rats followed, patient and organized, flanking us on all sides. We were within three yards of the stairs when Jerren stopped suddenly. “No more bars,” he said.

  Sure enough, the bars on his side ended. There was no way he could get to the stairs without first dropping to the floor, which wasn’t an option.

  “You have to jump to this side,” said Alice.

  We were less than two yards away, but there was no room for error. “I don’t know if I can,” he admitted.

  “We need you to.”

  Jerren took a deep breath and braced himself, lowered to a crouch and prepared to leap across. With one hand he clung to the bar behind him, while the other stretched out before him, ready to grab something on the other side.

  A distant scream filtered into the corridor. It was faint, but the suddenness of it surprised us. Nyla slipped from her perch and onto the floor.

  The rats, so lethargic a moment before, whipped themselves into a frenzy. She tried to pull herself back onto the bars, but before she could clear the floor, one of the rats jumped. It scrabbled at her leg, nothing but beady black eyes and sharp teeth.

  There was a deafening sound and the rat exploded in a mess of blood and fur. Jerren was still stretched out across the corridor, but now there was a gun in his right hand, pointed at the carnage.

  I pulled Nyla up to the bars and she gripped them tightly. She was shivering. The rats had retreated along the corridor now—not hiding, but keeping a safe distance, weighing up our ability to kill them all.

  “That was Rose’s voice,” I said. “We need to get back.”

  “The rats’ll chase us,” replied Alice.

  Jerren stared at the gun in his hand. “I don’t have enough bullets to kill them all. I don’t even have enough to kill more than two or three.”

  Another scream. It was definitely Rose, and there was only one reason for her to scream.

  “We go,” I yelled.

  Alice stared at me then. She raised her left hand, palm out, and I understood: She wanted us to combine elements. But fire was her secondary element. Even on Hatteras she’d found it hard to conjure large flames. Who knew if she’d produce anything at all out here?

  She tilted her head questioningly. It was a risky thing for us to try, but not as dangerous as doing nothing, so I nodded in response.

  “Jerren, Nyla,” Alice said calmly. “On the count of three, jump down and run for the stairs. Don’t stop and don’t look back. You hear me?”

  Jerren exchanged glances with Alice and me. Then he waited for Nyla to show that she understood too. She watched him blankly.

  “One,” began Alice. “Two.” Her eyes were on me. “Three.”

  Jerren jumped down and grabbed his sister roughly, dragging her along behind him. Straightaway, I leaped toward Alice. We landed awkwardly, but our hands were joined, and though I wasn’t facing the oncoming rats, she was. Her teeth were gritted and her right hand was stretched out before her, fingertips pressed together.

  As another scream from Rose pierced the air, I sent all my energy and anger and fear through Alice. I didn’t know how much power we’d wield, but it was our only chance. With the rats almost on us, she summoned a single all-consuming flame. Fueled by our panic, it erupted before us, igniting at least half a dozen rats before it disappeared just as suddenly. By then, the other rats were scurrying away, retreating to the end of the corridor and the dead bodies of Jerren’s parents.

  “Go,” I shouted.

  Alice spun around and we ran. We didn’t get far though, because Jerren and Nyla were standing halfway up the stairs, watching us.

  “I said, go,” I yelled, pushing them away. “Go!”

  Hand in hand, Jerren and Nyla sprinted after Alice. I stumbled along behind, the shock of losing so much energy slowing me down, making my steps awkward. The others waited for me halfway across the fort grounds. I wanted to scream at them to keep moving, to help Rose, but I could see that Alice was scared for me—that I wouldn’t make it, or that the rats would regroup and catch up with me, the easy target in our group. She held out her hand, ready to pull me along if need be. I might have taken it too, but then I saw the way Jerren was staring at it, as though another flame might arise as suddenly as the last.

  He wanted to ask me about it. His expression told me he needed an explanation, but just then, there was another scream.

  Now I was as fast as anyone. Pain and exhaustion were locked away. I didn’t even scan the ground for rats.

  Jerren pulled up beside me as I reached Rose and Kell’s prison. He pointed his gun at Kell, only a couple yards behind the bars. But Kell just laughed at him. After all, he knew Jerren would never shoot. Not while he had Rose trapped in his arms. And a knife pressed tightly against her neck.

  CHAPTER 30

  Recognize this, Thomas?” Kell snarled. “I think you used it to cut her hair earlier. Now look—so much more effective when you use it like this.” He pulled the knife tight against Rose’s neck, and turned his attention to Jerren. “Don’t tell me you thought the gun was my only weapon. Not on a mission as important as this one. I reckon you knew I had a blade up my sleeve. Probably wanted to see the girl get hurt. After all, Alice is the one you like, right?”

  He was trying to turn Alice and me against Jerren. I wasn’t falling for it, but a part of me did want to hurt Jerren.

  Rose was looking right at me, large eyes wild with fear. What remained of her matted hair hung across part of her face, almost obscuring a bright red mark where Kell had struck her moments earlier. I fought back the urge to thrust my arms through the bars and send a jolt of energy into him. Even if I couldn’t hurt him, I might shock him enough for Rose to escape.

  Or more likely, he’d kill her first.

  Kell was watching me again now. “Tricky, isn’t it?” he teased. “To use an element from that kind of distance. So unreliable.”

  I wanted to believe he’d used the word element by accident, but he knew what he was saying. If Jerren had harbored any doubts about what he’d seen back in the corridor, Kell had assured him that it had all been real.

  “Hers is water, I’d guess,” ventured Kell, giving Rose a shake. “Made me choke on my own spit. Dried my mouth so quick I’d swear I hadn’t drunk in days. Stupid girl’s doing it right now, actually.” He tugged at the knife and Rose winced. A thin band of blood appeared from the shallow slice mark across her neck. “Ah, so now you stop? Guess I should’ve cut you up earlier.”

  “There’s no such thing as elementals,” insisted Jerren. “It’s just a myth.”

  Kell tsked. “A myth, huh? So how did they hear our message when the radio in Dare’s cabin wasn’t connected to solar panels?”

  “Maybe they heard it somewhere else.”

  “Sure.” Kell made it sound like they were playing a game. “I like that you’re making excuses for them, Jerren. Tells me you know I’m right.” He lowered his voice, pretending to confide in us. “I must admit, I’m impressed. Chief said I wouldn’t have to worry about all of you—too young to know what you’re doing with your elements, he said. But I think he’s wrong about that. Just as well we’ve got the adults under armed guard. If you can do this, who knows what they’re capable of?”

  “What do you want?” snapped Alice.

  “For a start, I want Jerren to throw away his guns . . . both of them.”

  Jerren tossed the weapons aside.

  “Now I want you to unlock that door and open it nice and slow. This girl is in a bad way, but not as bad as she will be if you try anything. Once I’m out, I’ll be sailing back to Sumter. Alone.”

  “The rats are coming,” Nyla called from around the corner.

  Kell didn’t flinch. “Unlock the door, boy.”

  Jerren did as he was told. Kell bullied Rose out of the room. Blood ran down her neck, but that wasn’t all. Turning to the side, she rev
ealed an enormous circle of blood that stained her tunic just below her armpit.

  Nyla sprinted around the corner, her footsteps distracting us all. Rose dug her elbow into Kell’s chest and threw herself onto the ground. I grabbed her hand and pulled her away as Kell swung his blade. It sliced through the air and connected with her upper leg. Blood blossomed on her pants. He raised his hand again, but didn’t get in another swing before a shot rang out.

  Kell stumbled back against the bars of the prison, left hand clasped against his leg. The wound wasn’t as bloody as Rose’s, but the bullet had done plenty of damage. Jerren stood to my right, holding the gun.

  The older man grimaced. “Do you really think you’ll be able to escape on that ship, Jerren? You know what Dare told us. You can’t ignore it. This is our destiny.”

  “Not mine, it isn’t,” replied Jerren.

  I knelt beside Rose and tore my tunic into strips, as the name Dare ran through my mind. I pressed the strips against her wounds to stop the bleeding. She swallowed hard and smiled through her tears. I was sure I was losing her.

  “When did you see Dare?” Alice demanded. “When?”

  Kell ran a hand up the bars, pulling himself to a stand. “About a month ago. Said he’d deliver you to us. Why do you think you’re here right now? Why do you think Chief made sure you each had a sibling stay behind on Sumter? They’re our insurance. Anything happens to me, Chief’ll make sure they suffer for it.”

  “What does he mean, deliver us to you?” Alice asked Jerren.

  Jerren shook his head, confused. “It’s just what Dare said: That he’d return with something important. Something that would change the world.”

  Alice looked at me suddenly. “That’s why he tore the pages out of his log. He didn’t want us to know he’d been here.”

  “What kind of something, Jerren?” I asked.

  Realizing we were all distracted, Kell lurched at Jerren. But when he placed his weight on his bad leg, he crumpled to the ground. Jerren towered over him, gun aimed at the man’s head.