The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (The Tribe) (18 page)

“He should’ve asked me for help.”

“He didn’t even ask the saurs, Ash.”

“Because they wouldn’t have let him go. Of all the stupid, reckless —” I stopped and drew in a shaky breath, knowing it was pointless to be mad at Jaz now. “Okay, tell me what happened next.”

Ember studied my face, clearly wanting to make sure I was all right, then continued: “Once Jaz reached the city and saw how many enforcers were around, he did something sensible and hid out. Fortunately, being closer to Phillipa meant he could mindspeak with her better. He couldn’t get her to stop making the shapes at first — you know how much practice it takes to control an ability — but he did get her to make the shapes less like saurs and more like snakes.”

“That’s why everyone started thinking it was the Serpent!” I felt a surge of pride. “That was smart.”

“Yeah. But Jaz was stuck. He wanted to take Phillipa out of the city, except he couldn’t rescue her on his own. He decided to wait, figuring that the patrols would eventually stop or you’d send someone you trusted to investigate when you heard about the so-called terror campaign.”

“So Daniel and Jaz tried to rescue Phillipa, and Jaz got caught?”

“Not exactly. Daniel wouldn’t help him.”

“
What?
Why not?”

“Because it was still dangerous to be out on the streets. Daniel had trouble making it to Dockside without being stopped, and Jaz’s family lives in the Hub. Daniel wanted to Run back here and get me. With my genuine tattoo, I could’ve passed any Citizenship inspection. He thought he’d convinced Jaz it was a good idea . . .”

“Don’t tell me,” I said. “Jaz tried to get his sister himself.”

“He crept out while Daniel was asleep. When Daniel woke up, he went after him, but by then it was too late. Jaz had been picked up by a patrol.”

“Of course he was picked up!” I snapped. “He looks like a Scaly now! It’s a miracle he wasn’t detained before. When did this happen?”

“Three days ago. Daniel almost killed himself Running back here, Ash. He feels really bad.”

He should have known what Jaz was planning!
But I could hardly blame anyone for believing Jaz was going to do one thing when he was going to do another, not when I’d fallen for that once myself. “Jaz will be locked up by now.”

“Yes, but think. He was detained in the city. They’ll never match his new face with his old photo, and he’s clever enough to give a false name. They’ll assume he’s an orphan.”

“And,” I said with rising hope, “orphans get sent to Detention Center 3. Which is where Connor is.”

“Exactly! The government is probably going to put Jaz in the one place where we have a friend on the inside. The next time we see Connor, we can get him to make sure Jaz is on the list of detainees to be transferred there.”

The icy feeling of dread that had seized me since I’d heard Jaz had been taken eased a little. “We can save him!”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Only — there’s something else.”

More bad news?
I wasn’t sure I could stand it. “What is it?”

“Jaz’s sister. Her name is Phillipa. But she calls herself Pepper.”

She said that last word as if it were very important. “What does that . . .? The message!
Jaz says get salt.
Jaz says get Pepper?”

“I think so, yes. He must have made contact with Hatches after he was caught.”

It would have taken a superhuman effort on Jaz’s part to reach Hatches all the way from the city, and it made me feel like whimpering again to think of him being so desperate. “Of course we’ll go get her. You and me, Em. We’ll need a plan.”

“I’m already thinking about it, Ash.”

It was ridiculous, but the prospect of a dangerous rescue mission was improving my mood. I levered myself to my feet and stared out through the trees in the direction of faraway Gull City. Wherever Jaz was, I knew he couldn’t hear me. But I sent my thoughts out anyway, along with the wish that they’d somehow reach him.

We’ll get Pepper, Jaz. Then we’re coming for you.

FIVE WEEKS AGO

I shivered, pulling my coat more tightly around myself as I peered out the doorway of storage unit number 338. From where I was standing, I could smell the sea and see dozens of units facing one another across a wide aisle, their smooth composite surfaces glowing eerily in the moonlight. The unit I was in belonged to an upstanding eighty-two-year-old Citizen named Elizabeth Douglas. Or, as we knew her, Daniel’s grandma Bessie.

It was weird to be back in Gull City, and the weirdest thing of all was that I’d forgotten there were things I love about it — the winding streets, the quotes from Hoffman etched into walls and over doorways, and the tang of salt in the air. I also like the way you can read the history of the city in its architecture. The oldest parts are cobbled together out of bits and pieces of the old world, while the newer sections are filled with gleaming composite structures, built once people had gotten the recyclers working. But none of that was enough to make up for the constant creeping terror that I would be detained. I didn’t know how Em had been able to stand it in the week that she’d been here. Her genuine tattoo let her ride the Rail without fearing the close scrutiny of a spot Citizenship inspection, so she’d made it to the city much quicker than I had. I’d only arrived this morning. But every moment in this place had been a scary one, even with a fake tattoo on my wrist and the security of knowing that Briony believed Ember and I had gone deep into the Firstwood to check out a new campsite.

Ember had gone to fetch Pepper a while ago, and I wondered uneasily if something had happened. Maybe the kid had gotten last-minute jitters and changed her mind. But from what Em had told me, Pepper had been a willing ally ever since Ember had made that stupid snake wriggle at her. Jaz had told his sister that if he didn’t come for her, whoever showed up in his place would identify themselves with the sign of the Serpent. I’d laughed when Daniel had explained that, thinking only Jaz could invent a secret wave for an imaginary Illegal. Then I’d realized that Jaz had been trying to protect the Tribe, making sure Pepper couldn’t link anything to us if she was found out and questioned before we could reach her. And I’d felt like crying instead.

There was a noise in the distance, and I huddled in the unit, straining my eyes to see into the night. A gray-coated figure emerged from the darkness, leading a dark-haired child, and I ran out to meet the two of them. “Any trouble, Em? Did anyone see you?”

She shook her head. “We were fine. This is Pepper.” I smiled down at Jaz’s sister, and Ember pressed Pepper’s hand into mine. “Let’s go, huh? You take her, and I’ll go get our stuff.”

I could hear the strain in her voice, and I knew she wanted to get out of here as much as I did. I began walking, pulling Pepper with me as I looked for a gap running down the side of one of the units. This place was organized so that the main passageway was crisscrossed by a narrow corridor every fifty units and a much bigger one every hundred, but it was the smaller space I wanted. While it was better not to be shut in when I Sleepwalked — mostly because I could, and would, smash my way out — I wasn’t comfortable falling asleep out in the open, either. Not here in the city, with no friendly tuarts to stand guard.

I found a gap and ducked into it. Pepper was quiet, but she didn’t seem worried, which was making
me
worry that she didn’t understand what was going on. We’d decided not to break the news about Jaz being captured yet, but Ember should have explained everything else. Except I knew what Ember’s explanations could be like.
Too many big words and not enough full stops.
Halfway down the narrow space, I let go of Pepper’s hand and said, “Pepper, you do know we have to leave your mom and dad behind? But,” I added quickly, “it’s going to be much safer for you where we’re going.”

There wasn’t much light between the units, but even so I could make out Pepper’s ferocious scowl. “I’m
glad
to leave them behind. I remember when they made Jaz go away.”

“You do?”

“I woke up when he was climbing out the window. He said one day he’d come and get me, and he did! Well, he had important things to do, but he sent Ember.”

Right.
I strongly suspected that before the mindspeaking had brought Pepper to his attention, Jaz had forgotten all about coming back, because he’d never so much as mentioned a sister. But I wasn’t going to tell her that. “Jaz wanted to make sure you were safe.”

She drew herself up proudly. “I climbed out the window and down the tree even quieter than he did when he’d run away.
And
I helped Ember throw my suitcase into the ocean.”

“That’s great! You understand that people will think you drowned? Your parents won’t notice you’re gone until morning, and when they find your things in the sea . . .”

My voice trailed off. I couldn’t see Pepper’s exact expression, but I swear, I could feel her looking at me like I was an idiot. “Of course they’ll think I drowned. Didn’t Ember tell you about my note?”

“Your note?”

“I wrote, ‘Dear Mom and Dad, I’m running away to sea, like Captain Albatross.’ It was an excellent note. Ember said so.”

“It sounds like a terrific note. Who’s Captain Albatross?”

Her mouth dropped open. “Don’t you read?”

I was saved from having to respond to that by Ember coming around the corner of the unit, carrying a pack slung over her shoulder. She passed me the flask I’d brought from the Firstwood. Taking hold of it, I hesitated, glancing down at Pepper. She seemed pretty tough, but if anything was going to scare her, it would be what was coming next. “Pepper, do you know how we’re going to get to the forest? I’m going to . . . to . . .” There didn’t seem to be a good way to say,
I’ll be Walking through the world with my eyes all white, and I won’t really see you or anything else since I’ll be dreaming, but I should be able to get us out of the city by doing something impossible.

I looked at Ember, who shrugged. “There’s no good way to explain Sleepwalking, Ash. Pepper knows it’ll be very strange but she’ll be perfectly safe. Don’t you, Pepper?”

She nodded vigorously. “Ember will take care of me.”

With an effort, I bit back the words,
I’ll take care of you, too!
It was good that the kid liked Ember, especially since Em would need to reassure her if things got scary.
I just wish she liked me as well.
Comforting myself that I’d have time later to win her over, I opened the flask and took a deep drink of the sleep-inducing concoction. Then I handed it back to Ember and stretched out on the cold ground, closing my eyes and letting the tension drain out of my body. Which wasn’t that easy, because this was still new to me. It was only in the last year that I’d been able to control my ability at all, thanks to some techniques Ember had devised. After much experimentation, she’d discovered two key things about Sleepwalking. First, in order for my ability to activate, I needed to realize that I was dreaming. Second, it was possible for me to send a set of simple instructions to myself between when I was almost asleep and when I was actually asleep.

I let my mind drift, allowing thoughts to pass by without holding on to them, and I started to lose awareness of my surroundings. There was no Ember, no Pepper, no storage units, and no city. Only me, floating in nothingness. I imagined a piece of paper in my hand and concentrated on what I had to do.
Take Pepper and Ember. Make sure no one sees you. Get to the Firstwood.
I would have liked to give myself more detailed instructions, but we’d discovered that three basic ideas was the absolute limit of what I could manage to keep in my head in a dream. Pouring all my will into those thoughts, I repeated them over and over until the words appeared on the paper. I let the note go, watching it float away. Relief washed over me. There was nothing more to think about, and I could let myself slip into unconsciousness now. I started counting backward.
Ten, nine, eight . . .
With every number, I seemed to grow heavier, sinking into the dark.
Four, three, two, one —
and I was asleep.

I was sailing in a boat across the ocean, enjoying the feeling of the wind on my face and the sight of the albatrosses swooping through the air. Suddenly a small, brown-skinned girl appeared in front of me. Her big eyes shone out from beneath her tangled dark curls, and I could see every tiny detail of her face — the long eyelashes, slightly crooked eyebrows, and a scar on her cheek from where she’d fallen down the front steps when she was two. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and it broke my heart. Because this was Cassie, and Cassie was dead.
I’m dreaming. None of this is real.
The second I realized that, Cassie vanished. A piece of paper materialized in her place, and I glared at it, hating the lifeless thing for not being my sister. Then I grabbed the note, read what was written there, and knew what I had to do.

The boat and the water and the birds winked out. In their place, buildings sprang up everywhere, one after the other, until I was surrounded by hundreds of menacing structures that stared down with blank window eyes and howled at me out of long door mouths. I started to search, ignoring the eerie wailing of the doors as I tried to find my friends who were trapped somewhere in this horrible place.
There they are!
Leaping forward, I threw my arms around the enormous black crow and the furry brown kitten, hugging them against me.
They’re okay. We’re all right.

Only we weren’t, not really. The three of us were in terrible danger, and we had to run. But we needed to be careful, because the buildings were watching. They thought they saw everything, but they didn’t know how special we were, and if they found out, they’d swallow us whole.

I tried to make a protective bubble around us, a magic bubble that would turn whatever was inside it invisible. But I couldn’t get it to form. I concentrated harder, fighting to rise above my fear.
This is MY dream, and I can do ANYTHING I want!
With terrifying slowness, the bubble shimmered into existence. The crow and the kitten and I floated within it, bobbing in our perfect sphere. From the outside, we were a passing gleam in the night now, a faint glistening in the air. Grinning my defiance, I looked up at the buildings, which could no longer see me. Then I bent my knees and jumped.