We Leave Together, стр. 33

“And… who is our enemy?”

“Elishta,” I said.

“Naturally, but who else? Who has brought you crawling here for my help saying proper channels are corrupted?”

“We need to see the king,” I said.

She picked up the papers and shook them. She flipped through them. “Do I even want to know the details?”

I shrugged. “Copies have been made. We want you to make copies, too. Everyone must know the truth. Spread them to every convent, every prayer hall and sanctuary. Tell anyone that listens. This is why we came to you, to be sure you receive the truth directly. Read it from every street corner. Send it to every library, every scholar, every speaker.”

She pushed the paper back to me. “Stay for breakfast. Stay here. No one will know if you remain among the Anchorites a day. There is no contact with the outside world in here. We receive shipments in silence and veiled from one gate. We do not let our girls wander the streets wagging tongues.”

I shook my head. “Aggie was not supposed to leave your gates, either.”

“She was a demon child. Who knows what evil magic she used to escape us.”

“You should read those,” said my husband. “Send your people to us when you’re ready to aid us. We need an audience with the king.”

She put them on the ground. “I should have you arrested. It is illegal for a man to invade our convent. We are allies in this world but not the next.”

“Elishta is our enemy in both,” said my husband. “Our faiths are practical enough when it comes to that.” He pulled the wolf skin back over his back, and stretched, menacingly flashing fangs. He was ready to leave. So was I.

The Anchorite nodded. She took a deep breath. She picked up the pages. “Go, then. I will make my own decisions about what you have brought to me.”

We bowed.

Our next destination was a nobleman whose son was murdered and thrown into the water. We were going to offer him the whole kingdom. All he had to do was be ready to act when the time came to stop Sabachthani.

He would help us. Of course he would help us. He was weeping about his son when we handed him the truth. We told him what happened, and what vengeance he could take. We told him that we had chosen his noble line to support when the king died, and our support came with knowledge of his enemies.

Imam’s priests would fall in line with us, and with him.

Everyone will know. Everything hidden comes to the light. This is the revolution: No one can pretend they do not know. The Sabachthani hold on this city will crumble at the word of truth. There are faithful in this city who would fight back. There are men and women who would relish the chance to pull the Sabachthani down.

We spread these words to every street corner, every one in the city. We got the idea from Calipari and the crowns. He did it to put out the fire. We did it to start one.

***

Jona leaned against the door. “You’ve been gone,” he said.

She pushed him hard. He didn’t expect that at all. He fell back, stumbled a little, and collapsed onto a small table against the foyer wall.

Rachel was smothered in black mud. Only her green eyes gleamed through to reveal her face. Rachel raised balls of ice in her hand like she was going to throw them. Fire popped in the air like exploding fireflies.

Jona smirked. “Rachel, I’ve been worried,” said Jona. “What in bloody Elishta are you doing?”

Rachel stopped. Her throat clenched with crying. The ice dropped. “I wanted to rob you.”

Jona snatched her wrists from the air. He pulled the filthy things to his lips. He kissed first the left wrist, then the right. He wiped his dirty lips off on his sleeve.

“I’m trying to rob you, Jona,” she said. She kicked at his shins.

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in close. “You could just ask for help,” he said.

“Please, Jona!” said Rachel. She was crying now. “I don’t want this!”

“Calmly, Rachel,” he said. He wrapped his arms around her. She collapsed into him. He held her up, and the mud everywhere was a gritty, hard thing to hold, worse than jagged scales.

She pushed him off. “Jona, please.”

She looked away from him. He pressed his lips into the mud across her cheek. “I won’t let him go. I won’t.”

“Djoss?” Jona tried to go for the other side.

She let him kiss her there, too, and kept looking away from him.

She was disgusted and impatient. “He’s my whole life. I won’t let him go, Jona.”

Jona leaned back. He tried to get eye contact. “Your brother fell into the pinks,” he said, “I told you about that.” He let his forehead fall into hers. She had no choice. She had to look into his eyes. “Come on, you can take a bath and get some food. My mother went to work already. She won’t be back until sunset.”

“Are you on duty today?”

“No. I’m off today. It’s Adventday soon. It’s off day today so I can work Adventday. I should be at temple, if I went to such things.”

“Jona…”

He pressed his lips into her. “I missed you,” he whispered, “Why’d you leave me? Where will you go? Why leave?”

Rachel pushed him off. She leaned against the door.

“Jona, I have nowhere else to go right now, and I don’t know what to do, so will you stop talking about it, please? I don’t want to talk about this.”

“I missed you. Your brother is full of something terrible.”

“I won’t give up on him. Why are you trying to force me to do something I can’t, Jona?”

“You did it to me, first,” he said.

They stood still there, in the entryway. They couldn’t look each other in the face. Jona’s eyes wandered from the muddy clothes, to his hand, to her boots. “You’re filthy,”