Nameless (Nameless #1)(30)
The bandage Zo had been rolling spilled onto the floor, up and over the woman’s fur-trimmed boots. “Madam Seer,” Zo said, keeping her eyes trained on the ground.
The Seer reached down and picked up the roll of cotton. “Such a waste.” Her artificial smile stretched in a flat line. “Are you always so careless with our supplies, Nameless?”
“No, Ma’am. I was just startled.”
The Seer sighed and motioned Zo out of the chair. “I’ve come to discuss some reports.” She sank into the chair and gestured for Zo to sit on the stone floor.
Zo obeyed, crossing her legs and clasping her hands in her lap to keep them from shaking. “Reports?”
This was it. The Seer knew she’d stolen the military records from her desk. Zo looked around the room for something, anything, to help her fight this woman, to kill her before she had the chance to order Tess’ execution. Zo would hide them in the woods. Scale the deadly cliff to the ocean. Anything to escape before they hurt Tess. There was a pair of scissors on the table. They would do the job, if she could get to them before the Seer had time to react.
“The Medica reports I received recently indicate that your patients have been well cared for. No deaths to speak of. However, there was one bit of information that I found curious.”
“Curious?” Zo managed to whisper.
“Our use of glass vials and bottles is up ten percent.” The Seer crossed her arms in front of her flat chest and stared down at Zo with her crazy bird eyes. “Do you know anything about that?”
Zo cleared her throat. “I haven’t been here for very long, Ma’am, and none of the other healers in the Medica speak to me. I am sorry, but I have no information for you.”
The Seer stared at her for a measure of time. Zo kept her head down and counted to fifty, employing some of Commander Laden’s interrogation tactics to keep calm.
Finally, the Seer rose to her feet and headed for the door. She reached for the handle and paused. “The funny thing about numbers, Nameless, is that they never lie. I can calculate down to inches the amount of medical gauze you will use this year based on a few variables that I make it my business to know. When a number stands out to me, it is because a variable is out of place.” She opened the door, but turned back to add, “I hope you are not one of my bad variables. For your sister’s sake.”
Chapter 16
Zo thought of the Seer as she rubbed ointment into Tess’ hands and feet before bandaging them up for bed. Thick calluses had formed on her sister’s fingertips, and heels, where her too-small boots rubbed against them. As usual, Tess’ eyes drooped and her head lolled to one side in exhaustion.
For Zo, sleep seemed as likely as a full stomach for a Nameless inside the Gate. Especially with the Seer’s threats of missing bottles and “bad variables” squeezing at her thoughts. Something was wrong with that woman, and it wasn’t just her manic obsession with numbers. Zo needed a backup plan. A way to keep Tess safe, in case Zo was discovered.
She pulled the blanket up to Tess’ chin and kissed her forehead. “Good night, bug.” Zo bent closer to Tess’ ear. “I’m going to take a walk tonight.”
Tess’ brow bunched up.
“Just to clear my head. Everything’s fine.”
Tess digested Zo’s explanation for a moment until her eyes fluttered with want of sleep and she rolled to her side. “You wouldn’t tell me if it wasn’t fine,” she mumbled, on her way to the place where dreams exist. Zo hoped it was a safe place. Where her back didn’t hurt and she was able to run around and play like a child should.
I have to get her out of here.
When all the other Nameless women and children in the barrack were asleep, and even Anne—who usually stayed up mumbling nonsense into the darkness—was quiet, Zo crept out into the crisp spring night. She shivered and pulled tight a thin jacket, crossing the cobbled road that divided the forest from the town. She climbed the gradual slope until she couldn’t see the torches that burned outside each of the barracks in town. Here, surrounded only by trees and darkness, Zo felt herself relax for the first time since her run-in with the Seer.
As a child, Zo used to be afraid of the forest at night—all the reaching shadows and unseen dangers waiting to snatch her up. Wolves and bears and other beasts that didn’t enjoy being woken. Sharp rocks and hidden animal dens that could easily twist an ankle or worse.
These fears seemed laughable now after seeing Gabe chained to a wall. The unknown is only scary until the harsh reality of life is so brutally exposed that you wish you could close your eyes and only see darkness. The Ram had taught her just how scary reality could be. By comparison, they made the forest seem like just a shadowed cluster of beautiful trees.
She followed the trail upward until her breathing was labored. The farther she hiked, the louder the sound of the waves crashing into the side of the mountain in the distance. When she broke the tree line at the mountain’s summit, she nearly collapsed.
It wasn’t the climb that made Zo’s knees wobble, nor the breathtaking height that plunged so abruptly into the black ocean below. She sank to her knees and reached out over the edge of the cliff to touch the free air. A sob escaped her chest as she looked down the seamless wall of the mountain. No handholds. No footholds. Just sheer rock that ended in certain death if anyone was foolish enough to attempt the climb.