Come Tumbling Down (Wayward Children #5)(35)

“It will be all right,” said Sumi. “People will die or they won’t, but either way, it’s almost at an ending, and things that are almost at an ending have a way of making their opinions known.”

“If that was meant to be comforting, you’re worse at this than I am,” said Jack.

“Not comforting; comfort comes later. How well do you know Gideon?”

“He was here before me. His door dropped him on the seashore. I suppose the Moon makes some of our choices for us, and then everyone tries to pretend that She didn’t. That’s the trouble with gods. They don’t care much how poorly they treat their toys.”

“Mmm. Does he like girls?”

That was enough to startle Jack into looking Sumi’s direction. The other girl was still picking her fingernails, but she was watching Jack out of the corner of her eye.

“I don’t know,” said Jack. “I never asked him.”

“He’s pretty.”

“I’ve noticed that much, yes, but by the time he became High Priest—thanks to the previous High Priest having an unfortunate accident involving an unsecured widow’s walk and a long plummet into an unwelcoming sea—and was hence free to court, I was already with Alexis, and I find monogamy unhygienic enough. Imagine needing to maintain a grooming regime for multiple partners.” Jack shuddered delicately. “He’s pretty, he’s poisonous, and he’s yours, if you want him. Leave me out of it.”

“You’re not my type,” said Sumi.

Jack laughed—a single harsh, mirthless bark—and as if that were the cue for the distance to distort, the walls of the village loomed in front of them, too close too quickly. They were locked against the gathered darkness. Spots of fire glowed from the top, marking the position of the watchmen.

“I believe this is my cue,” said Jack. She adjusted her glasses, took a deep breath, and called, in a voice gone suddenly sonorous, like the weight of the Moors lay across her shoulders, “I am Jacqueline Wolcott, apprentice to Dr. Michael Bleak, come to answer the challenge set against my house. Open your gates and let us pass. Our quarrel is not with you.”

“Does that work?” asked Christopher, from the back of the wagon. “Why would these people just let us in when we’re here to fight their big bad boss?”

“Because we have an army, and they enjoy their homes being unburnt,” said Jack. Her gaze didn’t waver from the wall. “You have to be at least a little bloody-minded to survive here. They know their Master won’t reward them for defending him. That isn’t how a challenge works. All they can do is die for a man who’s never viewed them as anything more than cattle. It would be senseless.”

As if to prove her point, the gates creaked open. Jack nodded to herself, gathering the reins.

“They are, however, likely to attempt to pour pitch or oil on us, so we’ll be going through as quickly as—yah!” She flicked the reins as she shouted. Pony and Bones, not bound to the physical limitations of ordinary flesh-and-blood horses, recognized this for the challenge it was and took off at a run so fast that it felt, for a moment, as if the wagon might come apart from the strain.

They dashed through the open gates directly ahead of a sheet of bubbling liquid that caught fire when it hit the ground. It clung to the cobblestones marking the edge of the village, burning. Cora and Kade watched with wide, horrified eyes as the acolytes of the Drowned Gods continued marching. Gideon raised his hand in a careless wave. The storm, which had been threatening for some time, descended. The sky tore, and water sheeted down, extinguishing the flames.

The rain was localized, and stopped as quickly as it had started. Kade squinted, and realized he could still see the torches held by the marching villagers, untouched by the downpour.

“I don’t think I like this place,” he said, and Cora began to giggle uncontrollably, still clinging to his arm.

“No one does,” said Jack, slowing the horses. “Either you love it here or you hate it here. The Moors have little time for shades of gray.”

“That’s no way to live,” said Kade.

“It’s a very effective way to die,” said Jack, and urged the horses on, an army behind them, the village to all sides. Curtains twitched as people peered out into the street, saw what was happening, and withdrew again, back into the safety of their homes, away from the coming chaos. Jack smirked.

“He’s never used anything but fear to buy their loyalty. They’re afraid of being murdered in their beds, of seeing their children transformed into monsters, and those are good, reasonable fears—”

“We have different ideas of ‘reasonable,’” muttered Christopher.

“—but they aren’t enough to make his people rise up in his defense. If we lose, nothing changes. They still live in fear. If we win, maybe things get better, for a while. Fighting does nothing, so they won’t fight.”

“Charming,” said Kade.

Jack laughed and drove on, the forces of the Drowned Abbey behind her.

They traveled the length of the village, and when they reached the lower walls of the castle, Jack stopped the horses and slid down, patting Pony’s flank before she turned to the others. The army marched on, heading for the long, winding road up to the castle. Gideon looked over at the group as he passed, and he winked, seeming pleased by their abdication of the vanguard.