Defend the Dawn (Defy the Night #2)(72)

Allisander. Or Lissa Marpetta. I pull back farther into the shadows. Lissa hasn’t left her sector in weeks. Not since she was accused of helping Allisander to stage a coup in the palace. I’m torn between running like hell, or standing right here to find out what she’s up to.

“Fox,” Maxon says quietly, shifting closer, but my thoughts are all tangled up and I don’t realize he’s talking to me until his hand falls on my arm.

No one ever touches me, and it takes me by surprise. I jerk my gaze over to meet his.

He’s holding out the handful of coins. “Take it back,” he says. “It’s too much.”

“It’s not,” I say. “I insist.”

He frowns a little, like he’s trying to figure me out, but then a murmur runs through the crowd, and motion from the trees catches my eye.

A tall woman with deep brown skin is striding into the clearing, her hair bound back tightly, her clothing very fine, but understated.

“Arella,” I whisper.

Then I notice the man at her side, and I go absolutely still.

“You know her?” says Maxon. “She’s not the one with the horse, is she?”

I have no idea what he’s talking about. I can’t stop staring at the man walking along beside Arella Cherry.

It’s Christopher Huxley, the captain of the palace guard.

They’re followed by Laurel Pepperleaf, daughter of the most powerful baron in Allisander’s sector.

I don’t know what to do. Consul Cherry and Captain Huxley are not friends. Laurel Pepperleaf has no business here at all. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen any of them exchange words. My heart is pounding so hard that my lungs can’t keep up. Breath rattles into my chest, and I’m worried I’m going to start coughing again.

“Fox?” says Maxon.

“Thank you for coming,” Arella says loudly, her voice carrying effortlessly over the crowd. “There are so many more of you than I expected.”

“The Benefactors cheated us,” a man calls from the other side. “Who’s to say you aren’t going to do the same?”

“I’m not offering medicine,” Arella calls back.

“Then what do you have?” a woman says. “We need medicine, and they still haven’t given us enough. They took Lochlan away.”

“No one is telling us anything!” another man shouts. The din is growing, and Arella raises her arms, but the shouts continue.

“If you don’t have medicine,” someone calls, “then what do you have?”

“Information,” she says. “Please! There are patrols in the woods—”

Another shout cuts her off. “What good is information going to do if we’re dying—”

“Information on the king!” Captain Huxley shouts, and his voice is even louder. “On how he’s tricking you.”

“He’s telling you to take less medicine!” Laurel Pepperleaf calls, adding her voice to the fray, but she’s nearly drowned out by the people. “Only because he knows there will never be enough to go around!”

“Lochlan went to get more medicine!” someone else shouts. “When Lochlan returns, you’ll see!”

“That ship is a farce,” calls Arella. “It’ll never reach Ostriary. The king is getting the prince and Lochlan out of the way.”

“Fox,” Maxon murmurs.

“We have proof!” Arella continues. “Shipping logs that prove how he’s been lying to you all.”

My thoughts are still too twisted up. I can’t make sense of this. “They’re lying,” I say. “They’re lying.”

“How?” he says. “How do you know?”

His voice is so earnest, reminding me of the way he gave me his medicine. Some of these people are too trusting, too desperate. They’ll believe anything they hear—especially if it reeks of scandal.

I think of Violet with her romantic ideals of Weston and Tessa.

“Say something,” Maxon urges. “Do you want me to get their attention? What do you know? Did you hear something in the Royal Sector?”

“No!” I almost shout it, and I tamp my voice down to a whisper. “No, don’t say anything.” The absolute last thing I need is for anyone from the palace to notice me in the crowd. “I need to get out of here.”

Then someone else cries, “The night patrol!”

Screaming erupts, and people leap up from the logs and stumps, tearing into the woods.

“No!” calls Captain Huxley. “You’re doing nothing wrong! I’ll call them—”

But his voice is drowned out by the melee. These people have already been besieged by the night patrol over stolen medicine. They’re not going to wait around to see what happens.

I’m not either. “We need to run.”

Maxon grabs my hand and tugs. “Come on. I know a way.”

At first, I follow, but we’re heading south, and I need to go north. I need to get to safety. But I quickly realize that Maxon does know a way, because the path seems densely packed with underbrush, but he’s quick and sure-footed and we dart under branches and over fallen trees. I’m wheezing hard, but I will my lungs to work, to go just a bit farther.