Authors: Theresa Kay
Step one, get Lir. Step two, rescue Jace. Sounds simple enough, right? Stupidly so. How in the hell am I going to get to Lir, much less get both of us past the gates without being noticed?
I walk back toward my house, head down, potential scenarios swirling through my head to be examined and then discarded. I could just leave without him. It’s not like I’ve never gotten past the gate guards before, but what would happen once I reached the city? There’s that barrier and I won’t be able to cross it without him, at least that’s what he said. He doesn’t have any reason to lie though…right?
If only I knew who to trust. If there were only one person is this stupid town who…
“Jax!” The whispered exclamation pulls me from my thoughts. Emily steps out from between the houses on my left. “What is going on?”
Great. Just what I need. “Nothing, Emily. Don’t worry about it.”
She rolls her eyes, purses her lips and exhales. Her obvious exasperation stops my forward motion. I’ve never seen Emily any less than perfectly composed and cheery. “Look Jax, I know what you think of me…of us, but there’s a lot you don’t know.” When her gaze meets mine, there’s something new in her eyes, a hardness I don’t recognize. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I might be able to help.” When I don’t respond, she continues, “Come with me. I’m not asking you to trust me blindly, but at least let me try to help you.”
My muddled brain manages to direct my head to nod. I’m stuck anyway, might as well see what assistance she may have to offer.
* * * * * * *
Emily leads me toward the girls’ dormitories, where single girls with no adult male relatives are required to stay until being Promised. Thankfully, I never ended up there. When we arrived here, Jace made it clear that he refused to be separated from me and he fought for us to be assigned one of the smaller houses near the gate even though we weren’t of age at the time. Maybe if I had been placed with the other girls I might be different now, better? More likely, I would have never recovered without my connection to Jace pulling me back into myself. Without him there to chase away the nightmares…I would have never slept.
When we reach the front doors, Emily smiles at the man standing guard. “Hello, Seth. I’m just bringing Jasmine in so she can join our sewing circle today.”
While I try to contain my laughter and twist my face into a vapid smile, Emily bats her eyelashes at him. Seth returns her smile and waves us through without pause. Feminine wiles really do come in handy.
Once we’re out of earshot, I pause. “We’re not really sewing, right?”
Emily laughs and shakes her head. “No, I’m not expecting you to sew. I know better than that.”
I follow her up the stairs until we reach the third floor. She leads me into one of the rooms off a large common area, shutting the door behind us.
“Now tell me.” She sits on the bed and folds her hands in her lap.
I pace back and forth in the small space, putting the right words together before I speak. Keep it simple. Don’t give away too much. “The aliens took my brother. There’s one locked up in the holding cells. I need him to get into the city to rescue my brother.”
Emily’s eyes have widened and she blinks quickly. “Wow. I can’t say that’s what I expected you to say.”
I shrug. “Can you help or not?”
She crosses her legs and leans forward, resting her chin in her hand. “I know I can get you past the gate. With all the hubbub surrounding the festival tonight, that will be no problem.” She raises her eyes. “Getting your alien friend out of lock up might require a bit more planning.”
“Festival?”
“Really? Do you pay attention to nothing around you? The fall festival is tonight,” she says. “You know, food, dancing…the fall Promising ceremony.”
“Oh yeah, that.” I smile sheepishly. “I definitely don’t pay any attention to that.” Emily giggles and raises her hand as if to touch my arm, but quickly lowers it again. “So why are you doing this? I haven’t exactly been very nice to you.”
“I know how you feel about this town and its restrictions…Did you ever stop to think that others might share those feelings? Do you know how I ended up an orphan, how I ended up stuck in these dorms with guards by the door and people watching my every move?”
I shake my head, moving to sit down on the bed. Emily’s body tenses for a moment and she shoots me a look I can’t interpret.
“My mother was Promised to one of Dane’s cronies. He was twenty years her senior and not a nice man. Five years later, she fell in love with a trader, my father. He managed to smuggle her out of town and they lived on the run for nearly two years.” Emily takes a deep breath and stares out the window. “Dane had some of his soldiers hunt them down. They killed my father and dragged my mother back to Bridgelake. She was eight months pregnant.
“Her Promised husband welcomed her back… with closed fists. She had me and we lived there with him until I was ten. He’d always hit her, but the first— and only— time he went after me, she killed him. Dane had her executed. And there I was, no male relatives and too young to be Promised.” She turns to face me, her eyes shiny with tears. “My father was killed for having the gall to go up against Dane. My mother, for disobedience. Do you really think he’s not going to continue taking his revenge out on me?”
My mouth opens, but no words come out. I break away from her gaze. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” I say.
“It’s okay.” Her head down, she twists her hands in her lap.
“Why didn’t you just say all this to start with? What’s with all the sewing circle stuff?”
She raises her eyebrows. “They are always watching. Not everyone, but most of the soldiers and at least half the others. Dane rules this town and those that aren’t bowing down to him are terrified of him. I could tell you weren’t exactly itching to be indoctrinated into Dane worship, but your brother is best friends with his son. You’re pretty chummy with him too.”
I shrug when she glances at me. “I’ve known Flint forever. He and my brother were friends before we even moved here. He’s almost like another brother to me.” When her brow furrows, I rush to explain further. “Doesn’t mean I agree with everything he does. And I certainly don’t agree with the way Dane runs things.”
Emily nods. “I couldn’t take the risk of revealing myself without feeling you out first. It was the only excuse I could think of.” Her mouth turns up at the corners and she shakes her head. “Who knew you’d be so against anything sewing related.”
Our laughter fills the room and warmth seeps into me. Jace is my brother and I love him, but there’s something different about laughing with another girl. Despite our differences, Emily and I share some common ground and the fragile threads of friendship forming between us give me hope. That, plus she talked about my brother in the present tense and she’s willing to help me when no one else would.
“So, where do we start?”
“The festival begins in an hour,” Emily says. “First, we’ll work on you learning to have a conversation without looking like you’re about to vomit. I can distract the guards, but you‘ll have to play your part too. Then, we get dressed.”
“Dressed?”
She motions toward my clothes and I smack myself in the forehead with my palm. No wonder people were staring at me. I’m still wearing the pants from earlier.
* * * * * * *
Twenty minutes later, Emily no longer falls over laughing at my attempts to flip my hair and bat my eyelashes. She still giggles a little though. It will have to do. Emily turns her attention to my clothing.
“I don’t suppose I can just wear what I have on?” I ask.
Emily laughs. “Everyone’s going to be dressed up. You need to blend in, be more girly. I think you’re going to have to borrow some of my clothes.” My face twists into a grimace and she laughs again. “A dress won’t kill you. Besides you don’t have to wear it all evening, just until you can get to your own clothes.” She swings her feet over the side of her bed.
It takes her a moment to select a dress from the closet, but when she does my quick intake of breath causes her eyebrows to raise. “You like it?”
I hate to admit it, but I do. She’s selected a dark green dress made in a soft, flowing fabric. It’s not a work dress and certainly not a dress made for anything practical, but it’s beautiful. Long enough to brush the middle of my calves, fitted in the top and flaring at the waist. I slide into it and marvel at the feel of the fabric swishing around my legs.
Emily smiles warmly. “It looks beautiful on you,” she says when I study myself in her mirror. “It was always much too long for me.”
She walks up behind me and puts a hand on my shoulder. I inwardly cringe at the touch, but don’t let it show on my face. Emily is being astoundingly nice to me and I don’t want to insult her. I am finding it easier to be around her though. My breaths stay even and my limbs stay relaxed, so that’s progress I guess. “Thank you,” I say.
“May I do your hair?”
I nod, too stunned to do anything else, and she leads me to a chair in the corner.
It’s a strange sensation for someone else to brush my hair. Since my mother died when I was born and I lived out in the woods with only my father and Jace, I’ve never had any female companionship. Jace would have laughed if I asked him to brush my hair.
I find myself actually enjoying the sensation of Emily’s quick fingers braiding and twisting my hair and I relax into the soft touches with my eyes closed. She steps back to admire her work in the mirror and I open my eyes. She’s left a few wispy tendrils down to frame my face and has used tiny braids to pull the rest of it back from my face and create an intricate twist on the crown of my head. I’ve never seen anything like it. “Wow.”
Emily claps her hands. I’m beginning to get the impression that she’s rather pleased with herself. “Oh Jax, I always knew you were gorgeous. Your hair is the perfect shade of red to set off this dress.”
My face heats with a blush and I turn away from the mirror. “So what exactly are we going to do?”
“Dane keeps a spare set of keys to the holding cells in his office.” She waves off my questioning look and continues, “He will be officiating the Promising ceremony tonight and that’s going to be when you go in. We’ll meet up once you have the keys. The entrance will be guarded, but I’m known for delivering food to prisoners and we can make it seem like you’re just keeping me company or something. Depending on who’s on duty, one or both the guards will look the other way.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Yours won’t be the first prisoner to have a little help escaping the holding cells.”
“Thank you Emily,” I say. “For all of this. For everything.”
“You’re welcome.” Her eyes bore into me and she swallows. “Just promise me, once you’ve gotten Jace, you’ll come back here. There aren’t many people strong enough to go against Dane, but I think you and your brother are. There’s something special about you two. Even Dane knew it. He hadn’t let any young male outsiders inside in years— until he let your brother in. He hasn’t forced you to work and didn’t force you into the dormitory. He wanted you here so he’s let the rules slide for you. I don’t know what that means, but…” She reaches over and grabs my hand. I don’t even flinch. “I think with your help we could change things here.”
There’s so much more here than I had ever noticed. Have I really been in this much of a fog to miss the undercurrents in Bridgelake? What else have I missed? I want to know more, but there’s no time. Once I have Jace back safe and sound, then I can focus on learning more about how I can help Emily. Wait. To join her cause I’d have to stick around and that’s not in the plan.
I study Emily’s face, this girl who’s had so much tragedy in her life and still pushed through my walls to try to befriend me, who is helping me now even though the consequences could be awful for her.
My earlier conversation with Jace plays in my head.
It can’t be just us forever
. He’s right. “I promise Emily. I’ll get Jace and then do whatever I can to help.”
SIX
Although Emily’s plan is good, some of the details could have used a little more thought. The dress, clearly my least favorite part, works like a charm. In it I’m just another decorative sheep girl waiting for the festival and I’m able to walk down the streets without really being noticed. I practice my fake smile and my hair flip when I see a couple soldiers and they just wave me on, no recognition in their eyes. So, getting to the building that holds Dane’s office is a breeze. It’s how I’m going to get
into
his office that’s a problem.
It’s full dark now, but the front door of the building is lit up and two guards flank the door. No matter how nice my dress is or how much I bat my eyelashes, I’m not going to get past them. Based on what Emily told me though, Dane’s office is toward the back and it has a window.
I slink around the back of the building. Wonderful. Emily’s information would have been really helpful if that window weren’t about six feet off the ground and just slightly out of my reach. The brick won’t give me enough handholds to climb it and even jumping still leaves the windowsill beyond the grip of my fingers.
Good thing I know how to climb a tree. One of the outreaching branches of the poplar tree growing near the corner of the building looks like it might be perfect for this task. Cursing the stupid dress, I wrap my legs around the trunk and use my arms to pull myself up until I can grab the lowest branch. My inner thighs are scraped all to hell, but I make it up until I’m resting at the branch I saw from below.