AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Tessa
We’ve retreated back to stand among the army. The rebels haven’t killed any more consuls, but they seem to have an endless collection of their glass explosives, because they toss them at anyone who rides close. They’ve built their fires ever higher, and their chants vary between kill the king and we want medicine.
I’m on the fringes, but the king is surrounded by advisers. “The long bowmen can take out some of them,” an army captain is saying to him, “but they’d be able to kill the consuls before we could save them all.”
Harristan runs a hand along his jaw. His eyes are hard and tired.
He doesn’t have to say it, but I know the truth anyway. If they storm this dais, they’ll kill everyone.
I look back at the Circle. I can see the shadows of people moving around. They must be equally tired—and frightened.
Iwonder if Karri is a part of it.
I step away from the army, and no one stops me. I ease silently over the cobblestones to stop in front of the flames where I know Lochlan waits.
A glass bomb comes flying out of the smoke, and I jump out of the way. Flaming bits strike my skirts anyway.
“Hey!” yells a soldier, but I put my hands up and face the flames.
“Lochlan!” I shout. “Lochlan, please. Please talk to me.”
The shadows move and shift, and then he’s visible, but barely.
“I have nothing to offer you,” he calls.
“The king wants to find a solution,” I say desperately. “Please. He doesn’t want a war. He wants to help.”
“He had time to help.”
“He’s going to kill you,” I cry. “Do you understand? He’s offered everything he can.”
“He’s already killing us,” Lochlan says, and I can hear the matching emotion under his words. “You know that, Tessa.”
“I know. I know.” And I do know. That’s always been the problem. There’s never enough medicine to go around. “But . . . ?maybe . . .”
“Maybe what?” Lochlan calls. “Maybe the rich people will have their way and we’ll go back to the way it was? No, Tessa. No.”
“No,” calls a man’s voice from behind me, and I have to do a double-take when I see that it’s Corrick. He’s on horseback, leading a man through the haze by a rope.
Then I have to do a triple-take, because that man is Consul Sallister.
“You’ll have medicine,” says Corrick. “Eight weeks. From Allisander Sallister himself. He’s pledged his assistance in finding a way to make Moonflower petals available to all.”
“I said six,” Allisander hisses, and Corrick kicks him in the shoulder.
“Tell them,” Corrick says. “Tell them you will grant eight weeks of medicine to all citizens if they will stand down.”
“Yes,” Allisander calls. “I will grant eight weeks of medicine to all citizens.”
A few people have moved forward to join Lochlan at the edge of the dais. One of them looks like Karri, and she’s moved close. I watch as she intertwines her fingers with his.
Oh. I somehow missed that.
“We’re already receiving medicine,” calls Lochlan. “From the Benefactors.”
“It’s tainted!” I call back. “It’s laced with something else. You’ve been tricked.”
