“I’ll see you again,” I mimic, adding my own promise to the mix. “One way or another.”
“All right, break it up. Quit yer lip-wrestlin’ and love-talkin’ and get yer butt over ’ere,” Skye says.
Jade laughs and the sound pulls saltwater into my eyes. I’m glad for her—bloody sad that she’s leaving me for now, but glad that she’s found her sisters, that she’s going home.
And so am I. Back to the sea, to a new life as the Admiral of the Soaker fleet, where we’ll trade and live in harmony with our new Stormer friends on the shores. From now on we’ll swab our own decks, repair our own sails. Given the dangers in fire country right now, the Heater children will stay with the Stormers, protected, until a time when it’s safe for them to return home.
“Are you sure you won’t come?” Jade says, one last time.
“My people are broken and scared. They need me,” I say, wishing I was born to a regular sailor—that my duty was only to myself.
She nods, kisses me on the cheek. “I understand,” she says.
And then she walks away. She walks away and I just watch her.
Chapter Forty
Siena
I hold hands with Jade as the miles fall away under our feet. Jade wanted it to be the three of us holding hands, Skye included, but Skye said that’d be too wooloo, even for sisters. But she walks close to us, just listening with a half-smile on her face as Jade tells us stories, some that make us want to rush back and beat the living tugblaze out of the Soakers, some that make us laugh, and most that make us love her all the more. When she tells ’bout chucking her scrub brush at Huck, everyone laughs and Skye gives a “That’s my sister!” She looks like she wants to clap her on the back, too, but Jade’s still too injured and everyone’s scared to touch her.
I try not to think ’bout my mother—not much anyway—’cause each time she springs to mind I start to cry. She woulda loved to see the three of us t’gether again.
The guys, Circ and Feve and Dazz and Buff, along with Wilde, seem to realize we need some sister time, and they pretty much leave us alone, laughing and telling jokes and whatnot. It’s strange how well everyone’s getting along now, especially Dazz and Feve. I don’t know how I feel ’bout that, but after what happened on the journey to storm country, I guess I understand. Plus, I can’t really hold a grudge against Feve forever, can I? Not after all he’s done since his stupid mistakes.
When we make camp for the night, Jade finally stops talking and yawns, curling up on my lap ’fore Circ and Feve have even had a chance to make a fire. When the fire’s cracklin’ and the day is long gone, giving way to the moon and the stars of a cloudless night, Wilde tells us everything she’s been holding back while we prepared to leave storm country.
“Your father”—she motions to Circ—“arrived in ice country two days past. The Tri-Tribe spies have been watching the Glassies closely. As always, they were preparing for battle, getting their fire chariots shined up, cleaning and organizing their fire sticks. Nothing unusual.” She pauses, looks for questions. We just wait.
“The Glassies rode out in their chariots,” she continues, “and our spies followed them from a safe distance. They picked through the old village.”
“Thank the sun goddess we left,” I say.
She nods. “They would’ve killed us all. Our spies took a risk, got closer while the Glassies were combing through the village. They overheard things.”
“What sorts of things?” Circ says, sitting ’side me. He runs a hand through Jade’s hair, all delicate-like, his leg touching mine comfortingly.
“That we’re savages. That eventually we’ll turn on them. That if we aren’t exterminated we could ruin everything.”
“We’re savages?” Feve says. “We’re not the ones rampaging across fire country trying to murder every living thing.” I’d hate to be the stick he’s holding. He snaps it in four places, throwing each into the hottest part of the fire.
“I don’t know much about the Glassies,” Dazz interjects, “but none of this makes any sense. They always seemed peaceful enough when they came to see Goff.”
“That should tell you something right there,” I say. “That they went to see Goff in the first place. He was a baggard and a half.”
“True,” Dazz says. “It’s just strange, is all. Don’t they live in some sort of an icin’ bubble or something?”
“The Glass City,” Wilde says. “A huge dome of glass. It keeps out the bad air somehow. They live longer than the rest of us.”
“They don’t get the searin’ Fire,” I add. “You know, the Cold.”
“Then why venture out at all?” Dazz asks.
“Like I said,” Wilde says. “They’re scared of us. They think we’ll attack them, maybe crack open their bubble, let the diseased air in. But it wasn’t just the people of fire country they were calling savages.”
Skye’s eyes flick sharply to Wilde’s. “What does that mean?”
“They spoke of the risk of the Icers too. How now that King Goff has been overthrown they can’t trust the people of ice country either. They said they want to cleanse the lands from the desert to the mountains to the sea.”
“I’ll kill them,” Dazz says, pounding a fist into his hand.
I know right away he’s thinking of his mother and sister.
“We don’t have much of a choice,” Wilde says evenly. “They’re forcing us into a war. The Icers too. We’ll have to stand together.”
“And what of the Stormers and Soakers?” Buff asks.
“They’ve chosen a different path. They’ll wait until they have no choice but to fight,” Wilde says.
“Cowards,” Feve says. “They’ll let us die against a foe that would kill them too.”
Jade stirs in her sleep, but doesn’t awake. “Don’t let her hear you speaking like that,” I say. “She’s fallen for one of the cowards.”
“Don’t be so certain of your judgments,” Wilde says, “somehow I don’t think it’s the last we’ve seen of our friends by the great waters.”
~~~
Another day of walking and talking and occasionally laughing passes by us, borne on the strange wings of fate. It gets hotter as we go, the forest on either side of the wide swathe of grass we’re walking on thinning with each mile. The grass is disappearing too, giving way to hard-packed dirt, and eventually the beginnings of the desert.
I see a prickler, standing alone and resolute like a sentry into fire country. He taunts me as I pass; must be friends with Perry.
Suddenly, Wilde stops us. “I feel blessed by the sun goddess to know all of you,” she says.
“Yer our sister, too,” Skye says.
I nod in agreement.
“Thank you,” she says. “I mean all of you though, the Icers included.” Dazz raises an eyebrow and Buff smiles widely.
“We’re lucky to know you too,” Buff says. “All of you.”
“But I won’t force any of you to fight,” Wilde says. “Hiding is an option, and I won’t stop you if that’s what you choose—there’s no shame in it.”
“Burn that,” Skye says. “I don’t know ’bout anyone else, but I’m fightin’. Our leaders have failed us. Our father, Head Greynote Roan, was selfish and arrogant. Scorch, King Goff was a hysterical madman. And this Admiral Jones guy was the biggest baggard of all, controlling the tribes like pieces on some gameslab. We gotta be better’n they were, unite together to fight fer our homes, our lives, our children and our children’s children. This is our home and we won’t give it up. I won’t give it up.”
“Unity,” Dazz says suddenly.
“Yeah, that’s what I mean,” Skye says. “We’re stronger together’n apart.”
“We’re with you,” Dazz says, speaking for all of us. “We’re all with you.”