“People are scared,” Anders told him, “and they aren’t seeing you. They don’t know what you’re doing to protect them.”
The mayor considered this, and then he nodded slowly. “Young man,” he said, “you’re right. This afternoon, I’m going to walk through the camp. See people. Talk to them.”
“Herro Mayor,” protested one of his aides, “we can’tpossibly provide you with security.”
The mayor waved a hand at him. “If I need security in my own camp, then the problem is bigger than I thought,” he said. “It’s important. I want to see the camp. All of it.”
He was already turning back to the aides, and Hayn rested his hand on Anders’s shoulder. “We should go. Thank you for your time, Herro Mayor.”
“No,” said the mayor, “thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I need to hear from more people.”
As Anders and Hayn beat their retreat, Anders tried to make sense of what had just happened. Nothing the mayor was doing seemed best for the camp, but the man had just taken the time to explain things to Anders, to listen to him, and even to take his advice. It didn’t much change Anders’s opinion of him, but it was a reminder that, like the wolves, and like the dragons, the mayor was more complicated than Anders had assumed.
But, said a voice in his head,he only listened to you because he had absolutely no idea who you were.If he’d known you were a wolf like Ennar, or if he’d thought you were a street orphan, he’d have thrown you out in an instant.
“At least you made a little progress,” said Hayn.
“You know,” said Anders slowly, as a thought came to him, “I think we just made a lot of progress. I think I know what we have to do.”
“And what’s that?” asked Hayn.
“He listened to us,” said Anders, “because he didn’t know who we were. He listened to our ideas and our thoughts because he thought that we were like him, instead of being different. That was why I borrowed everyone’s best clothes today. I thought it might help me get in, but it did even more than that. We have to find a way to get them all to talk to each other without knowing who the other ones are.”
Hayn frowned, thoughtful. “I see what you’re saying. But how can you disguise the identities of so many people?”
“I have no idea,” Anders admitted. “But I know there’s going to be a way. All we have to do is find it. There’s an artifact for everything, Hayn.”
“True,” his uncle agreed. “There might be something in the books you salvaged from Holbard. But if you can speak to your mother again, that’s what you should do. She knew more about the artifacts all around Vallen than anyone I’ve ever met. She might even have an artifact of her own that you can find using her map.”
“She did tell me the map led to all her artifacts,” Anders said thoughtfully. “We just have to know which one to ask it for.”
“Then that’s what you should do,” Hayn said. Hehesitated, and then continued. “And will you tell her... tell her I’m sorry, Anders. I didn’t know she and my brother were in love, and I wish they’d told me. I’d have tried to protect them. I can’t help wondering if they thought I’d object like everyone else did. Tell her I’m going to watch out for you and Rayna. That you still have a family.”
Anders swallowed hard against the lump in his throat, but he nodded, and Hayn squeezed his hand.
Soon it was time for the two of them to part ways, and Anders pulled his cloak tight around himself against the bitter wind as he walked out to their landing place with Ferdie and Sam to meet Jerro, Zil, Theo, and whoever they had found that day.
But despite the cold, there was something warm inside him, and it wasn’t just because of the message Hayn had asked him to give his mother.
He didn’t know how to pull it off yet, but he knew he had the beginnings of a plan.
Chapter Eight
ANDERS WAS STILL THINKING ABOUT HIS PLANthat evening, but as night drew around them, he had to admit he was also thinking a lot about dinner.
Jai and their assistants were cooking up a big meal to welcome the newest arrivals—there were now nearly fifty children at Cloudhaven, with beds set up all over the entrance hall. It was a little crowded, but it was still a hundred times better than the cold, wet, and muddy camp, where they had nothing to shelter under except thin blankets—and some didn’t even have those, the orphans of Holbard pushed to the very outskirts of the camp.
Here, the fire was big and warm, and they had draped a large piece of canvas across the archway that led to the landing pad, which kept most of the wind out. They’d dragged mattresses from the bedrooms, so they had somewhere to sleep, and there was enough to eat. (“And if thatscary artifact warrior tries to chase me while I’m having a hot shower,” Sam had said, when they got the bathing chambers working, “then it’s just going to have to wait until I’m done.”)
It had been a long day at the camp, and Anders was glad to be home. He was still stretching out his muscles from the flight, and was on his way over to see whether he could help Jai and the other cooks when the door to Cloudhaven proper flew open with a bang.
Bryn came running out, followed by Isabina, Viktoria, Jerro, Det, and, finally, Sakarias—following the rules, they had gone in as a group so that Bryn could check a couple of the letters in the message on Drifa’s wall that she was still trying to decode.
Now, her eyes were wide, hair streaming out behind her as she ran. “Warrior!” she screamed.
And then it was through the door behind them.
The hall exploded into chaos as the children scattered to make way for the creature, and despite its huge, lumbering form, it was surprisingly quick as it pounded after Sakarias, the nearest of its quarry.
