CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Ezra dragged me to my feet, and we ran until it felt like my lungs would catch fire and burn me up. The exposition grounds were a sprawling field of terror, onlookers scattering in all directions, huddling behind vendor carts and darting into the exhibition buildings, overpowering the ushers at the doors to seek refuge inside. My body wanted to collapse to the dirt, but Ezra kept me moving. It wasn’t until we slid down the embankment to the shore of the Sterling River and stumbled under the bridge that I could catch my breath. We’d made it to the place Nikola had chosen as a safe house.
The others were there, gathered in the lower level of the old bridge house. It was a decaying wooden structure next to the taller stone bridge house that controlled the train crossing. Nikola, sitting on the ground with Columbia pressing a bloody rag against her cheek, scrambled to her feet and embraced us. She’d lost her hat and her waistcoat, and her sleeve was torn and bloody. But she held us with a stout grip—and I knew she’d be all right.
“I thought I lost you both,” she said.
“They took Julian,” Ezra said, voice rough with emotion.
“I know.” Nikola balled her fingers into a fist and struck her hip. “There were too many Transistors and those bloodthirsty guards. I couldn’t stop them.”
“She narrowly avoided getting fried herself,” Columbia said. “Had to drag her off so she wouldn’t try to chase them down.”
I sympathized. Had I not been suffocating in the stampede of frightened onlookers, I would have followed.We’ll be there soon,I thought.Hold on, Julian.
The safe house was too empty. I wanted to hope that some of Nikola’s associates had run off or hidden, but it was more likely they were among those cut down by the House’s indiscriminate violence. The black most of us wore felt appropriately funereal. It felt right for what I planned to do.
“I didn’t know,” I tried to say, gasping to catch my breath from running. “I didn’t think they’d do something like that. I never would have let you—either of you …”
Nikola cupped my face with her cold hand. The cuts on her cheek were deep. They’d leave scars. “Do you think you could have stopped us?”
A dry sob hitched in my throat, but I was too distraught to cry. “I’m going to get Julian,” I said. “I’m going to get him back.”
I expected her to tell me not to, to tell me it was a fool’s errand, but she only nodded, her dark eyes hard. “Show no mercy,” she said.
Her words chilled me as much as they bolstered me. I thought of Maggie dying in a smoky pasture, telling me to end the Elders. Had she imagined such a bloody outcome? Had she known I’d be pushed beyond reason?
“I’m going with her,” Ezra said. He reached for Nikola’s injured cheek hesitantly, waiting for her to give a small nod of permission before pushing a loose tangle of hair behind her ear. “You need sutures. The sooner, the better. It will be more difficult to close the wounds once the tissue swells.”
“There are many more who will require medical attention before me,” Nikola said. “I didn’t realize you were a healer. You should speak of your skills with pride.”
“I’m only an apprentice,” Ezra said, ducking his head modestly. “But I’ll take a look at everyone when we return with Julian.”
My heart ached far more than my lungs did. “Have we lost?” I asked. “Was it for nothing?”
Nikola brushed tears away, smearing more blood across her cheek. “No. History will remember that the House of Industry massacred innocent bystanders at the Continental Exposition. I only wish we’d understood the depths of their cruelty. We never would have … That little girl.” She choked and covered her mouth until she composed herself. “I did not anticipate such a terrible cost.”
Columbia came up behind Nikola and held her. One of her eyes was swollen shut and purple. “There were journalists in the audience. By tomorrow, everyone will know about electricity and what they did to try to silence us.”
By tomorrow, I’d likely be dead. I knew what I was risking by going to the House to try to get Julian back. But I didn’t care. I wouldn’t be able to carry on with my life if I simply waited to find out what they’d done to him, whether his death had been quick or slow, whether it had been quiet or a spectacle to rival Nikola’s demonstration.
“We can’t delay,” I said, noticing a smear of gore on the back of my hand. I wiped it off on my trousers. “If we—whenwe return, where should we meet you?”
“Come to the gambling hall,” Nikola said. “We’ll be regrouping there. It’s closed for the exposition.”
It occurred to me that the Continental Exposition would not continue this year. The people of Sterling City were likely sheltering in their homes as word spread of the massacre and rumors spread regarding who had been responsible. By the silence that lingered in the room, everyone must have been thinking the same thing.
I took a closer look at the resistors who had managed to make it back here. Many were bleeding, others quietly crying, and some were unmoving, lost in the horrors we’d witnessed.
Sterling City would mourn its fallen for a long time.
“Is there a back way into the House?” Ezra asked. “I don’t think we’ll make it far if we walk up the front steps and knock.”
“Dry goods are delivered by barge to a back entrance,” I said. “I used to have to help unload when I was in trouble. So I’m quite familiar with it.”
Ezra made a thoughtful sound. “It can be reached only by water?”
I looked up at him with a shaky smile. “It’s a shame I don’t know a ferryman to get me there.” Absurdly, that’s when my composure finally broke and I began to shudder with the effort of holding back tears.
