Anders glanced across at his own companions—Lisabet’s lips were pressed together in a tight line, and she was staring straight ahead. She’d grown up with stories of duty and honor, and it must be hard for her to hear what people thought of the wolves. Rayna was barely listening to them, busy glancing up and down the stream of travelers, calculating the best spot to be when they reached the gate. She looked cold too, her cloak drawn tightly around her. And Ellukka, who had never been near Holbard before, was staring at everything with wide eyes, her hood pushed back so she could get the best possible view, blond braids gleaming in the sun.
Eventually the city gate reared up ahead. The black stone walls were high, and wide enough that the wolves could walk patrol along their tops—Anders could see two gray-cloaked figures making their rounds, if he squinted. The gates were a hardened, flame-proofed wood, thrown open just now so the people and wagons could make their way in through the wide arch. With any luck, plenty of these people would head straight to the port square where Anders and Rayna were meeting Hayn, and the children could mingle with them all the way.
Anders was just beginning to feel relaxed about the plan when the crowd ahead started to bunch up, slowing as it reached the gates. He craned his neck and felt a chill go through him as he spotted wolves up ahead, standing atop packing crates and surveying the crowd.
“Wanted,” one called, holding up a large poster. “These children are wanted. Please look at their faces and report any sightings to the Wolf Guard immediately. Wanted!”
The poster held a fair portrait of Anders and Lisabet, and a less good one of Rayna—the wolves had even arranged to have them made in color, the twins’ brown faces, brown eyes, and black, curling hair sitting alongside Lisabet’s white, freckled face, green eyes, and black curls.
“Pack and paws,” he whispered, a chill running through him that had nothing to do with the temperature. There was no way they could slip away at this late stage—they had to find a way to hidewithinthe crowd approaching the gate.
He glanced sideways at Lisabet, who flipped her cloak’s hood up over her head and slowed her pace, bending over as she did, until she was shuffling along like a very old woman, almost bent double. Because she did it gradually, no one person saw much of her transformation, and certainly not enough to be alarmed. She started to fall behind, but with any luck she was well hidden.
Rayna ducked around the side of a cart and dove beneath it—Anders caught a glimpse of her cloak as she crawled along below it, but nothing more.
Ellukka’s face was unknown, so that left only Anders to hide. In a flash, it came to him. “Lift up your cloak,” he whispered to Ellukka. Her brow creased in confusion, and then she understood. Without missing a beat she took hold of the edge of her cloak, swirling it around so it fluttered as the air caught it, smacking one of her neighbors in the face.
“Hey!” the man cried. Nobody noticed Anders sneaking in underneath the cloak, staying as close as he could to Ellukka, hidden by the billowing folds.
“Sorry!” Ellukka said cheerfully. “I was feeling dramatic there for a moment.”
The man grumbled but subsided, and Ellukka and Anders walked along carefully together, making their way through the gates. Anders could hear the guards above him still calling out their message.
“Wanted, these children are wanted. Please look at their faces and report any sightings to the Wolf Guard immediately. Wanted!”
Holbard had always been his home, and now he was a wanted criminal. Wanted badly enough that the wolves were prepared to stand by the gates each day and spread the word.
He wrapped an arm around Ellukka’s waist, steering her along the main road from memory—he’d been to the west gate plenty of times, and he was sure there was a little side alley less than half a block in on their left. She understood what he was doing, and as soon as they reached it, she peeled away from the crowd to make her way down the narrow laneway.
Rayna picked her moment and darted out from beneath the cart, scrambling in to join them where they waited in an alcove, and after a little, Lisabet shuffled along in her old-woman disguise, waiting until she reached the alcove to abandon the pretense and move in to join them. Now all four of them were safe in the little alleyway.
“Wanted posters,” she said, her voice shaking. “I mean, I knew—but I didn’t think...”
“I knew the wolves would be looking out for us,” Anders said quietly. “But I didn’t think it would be like this.”
“And someone must have described me from the Trial of the Staff,” Rayna said. “Or else someone who knows us from the street recognized me when it happened and told.” She scowled at the very idea of such betrayal, but Anders knew she was trying to cover a greater shock.
“Holbard is so big,” said Ellukka, her voice smaller than Anders had ever heard it. “I’ve seen pictures, but I never imagined—I’ve never been anywhere like this. There are so manypeople.” She was nibbling on the end of one of her plaits, clearly close to overwhelmed. Anders had never seen Ellukka anything but bold before, and he wasn’t sure what to say.
Rayna wrapped an arm around her, though, and squeezed her tight. “You’ll be used to it in no time,” she said. “You’ll forget all about how big it is. Anders, there’s only one way we’re going to get to the port, if they’re looking for us.”
“Agreed,” said Anders. “It has to be over the roofs.”
“The what?” said Ellukka.
Anders was the tallest, so as always, he boosted Rayna up until she could grab the gutter and scramble onto the roof—buildings crowded in on either side of the alleyway, blocking out most of the sky above them.
Then Rayna leaned down and grabbed Lisabet’s hands as Anders boosted her. Lisabet disappeared for a moment, and Rayna turned her head in the direction she’d gone. “Stop sightseeing and come help!”
Finally Anders boosted up Ellukka, who was heavier than the other two, but she had Rayna and Lisabet to pull, and it worked out fine. Glad he was taller than the others, since there was nobody to push him up from below, he jumped until he could catch hold of the gutter, and all three girls pulled until he was scrambling onto the grass beside them. It really was colder here in Holbard—his hands were chilled, knuckles aching from the effort of gripping the gutter.
But then he looked around and forgot all about his discomfort for a moment. Something in his heart felt like it was unfurling at such a familiar sight, like a flower’s petals turning to the sun first thing in the morning.
The rooftops of Holbard were all joined together on each block, sown with grass and flowers, so that a meadow stretched away across most of the city, gently undulating with roofs and hills. Instead of streams breaking it up, as they did on the plains outside the city, in Holbard streets provided the divisions. The city’s clever street children had bridged the narrowest of those streets and alleyways with bridges made of planks, which meant that if you knew where to navigate, you could find a path almost the whole way across the city without touching the ground.
They saw a few other children in the distance, but they were too far away to make out who they were, so Anders and his friends simply waved, and set off. “There are four of us,” Rayna said, “so it won’t occur to them that we’re the three they want.”
Ellukka and Lisabet were amazed by the rooftop meadows, trying to look all around them as they hurried after the twins. Lisabet had only seen them once or twice before, training with the wolves. For Ellukka, it was calmingly like being out on the plains. The four of them only had to head down into a street once, darting across it and into an alleyway on the far side to climb up once more.
