Even with us tied to our chairs, half the Guides on the stage had to hold Righteous, Hope and Percy down. I scrambled for something to say, to distract until help arrived. I had to believe it would. Truth would return with someone, something… Our friends who weren’t here would get free and find us. Heart and Glory would come bursting through the doors to reveal the Guides’ complicity in their abuse. Mikhail would crash through the rooftop, knives flashing, and bring down the hammer fist of justice on the scene, like a bigger, burlier Thor.
The damn humming sound I kept hearing would turn out to be an army of bees coming to sting the smutty Guides into allergic comas.Something.
But help hadn’t arrived yet. And our conversational glitter wasn’t working. Maybe Tradition could be sidetracked by a different kind of shiny. Glitter was my favorite medium. His was… “So, you do everything by tradition, huh? By the book.” Tradition nodded, his face still exposed, and I could see a hint of self-righteousness behind the somber expression. “Punishment in public, everyone watching—is that tradition, too?” I asked calmly, though I was anything but calm inside. I kept almost blacking out, and getting my words in order seemed harder bythe moment. But I would protect Sunny, and the rest of my friends. I had to. “Punishment is delivered in public?”
“It is. We have nothing to hide,” he said gravely. “Unlike some.”
“Thenwhy,” I shouted, feeling the entire Hall listening to me, “were Glory of Love and Heart of Sacrifice taken into a private room, where Guides cut out the mating feather Glory gave to Heart? Someone used Mikhail’s soul knife, which was left here for our protection, to carve out the feather that connected them. With no trial, no judgment.Nothing.Then they left them to die.”
Tradition frowned, but didn’t answer. In fact, he seemed taken aback. Not shocked, but a small worry line appeared in his brow. Had he not known exactly what had happened to Heart and Glory, or was he just miffed that I was calling him on it?
Gavriel had insisted Tradition was on the up and up. I’d seen in his thoughts that he wasn’t rotten. He was protecting what he loved: Sanctuary’s rules. Possibly, I could show him someone else was breaking vastly more significant rules than Sunny had.
“Where are the other Protectors who’ve been led out of this Hall been taken? Will you cut them, too, for daring to question your leadership? Why are you making these decisions anyway? Why not wait for Gavriel to return and guide you? Why the rush?”
The energy in the room started to pick up. No, I was feeling something from outside. It wasn’t the bees or whatever, though. It was something bigger.
On the plains of Tibet, centuries ago, I’d lived a short, cold life, brought to a messy end by a stampede of wild horses. My only joy had been the evil woman I’d taken with me, who liked branding the newborn babies of the people who scratched out a life there, insisting she was burning out their evil. This rumble reminded me of that, but it was… spiritual.
Something was coming. And when I felt a tingling on my nape, of all places, I had a feeling I knew who it was. At least, I knew who I hoped it was.
Mikhail? If that’s you, hurry. I could use some help here.
There was no answer. Time to stall.
I took a breath too fast, and my vision blurred. “Isn’t it true,” I shouted, “that Guides acted out of anger and jealousy, and injured—almost killed—two Protectors, without following any precedent or traditions at all?”
I felt a prickle of energy in my feet, as if Sanctuary were awakening again.Yes,I thought.It’s me. Help me, Sanctuary.
But Sanctuary’s power was weak and sluggish, and it was too late.
Tradition didn’t answer, merely turned away, choosing to ignore me as he watched Valor take the soul knife. Valor instructed the Guides to stretch Sunny’s wings out to each side, pulling them wide.
Righteous bellowed and lunged so violently that the Guides released him, and he tumbled, still tied to his chair, onto the marble floor of the podium. Helpless and still raging, he lay on his side, his wings trapped behind him. An answering rage bloomed in my heart.
How could this crowd watch this and not rise up? Their cowardice and apathy had to be hurting Ry as much as the physical torture had. These were his friends. His cohort, his students and colleagues. They had known him for almost two thousand years, and yet no one would speak against this treatment now? I scanned the crowd, hungry to find some sign that Sanctuary was better than the worst places I’d known on Earth. Even in prisons, there could be a feeling of solidarity. Shared anger at the forces in power.
Many of the watching Protectors had tears coursing down their faces, but not one of them moved to stop what washappening. They had been trained to obey. Taught by the very Guides who were perpetrating the crime in front of them. They were helpless to sense how wrong this all was. To farkingsmellit.
The doors weren’t opening, which meant Heart and Glory wouldn’t arrive in time to yell “I object” and reveal the truth behind the Guides’ horrific acts.
But I wasn’t helpless.
“I can smell the chihuahua pee in your souls,” I shouted at the looming Guides. At Valor. “Valor, I can smell it inside you. I don’t know how you’re hiding it, but I cansmellyou.”
“She’s mad. She must be put down,” Tradition murmured to Valor, who looked shaken. They whispered back and forth, while I focused. What could I do to save us all?
I wasn’t strong enough to pull the power of Sanctuary through me—and Sanctuary wasn’t juiced up enough to give me what I’d need, anyway. But as Sunny cried out, and I was held down physically by the Guides near me, an idea sparked to life.
A really, really bad idea.
Chapter 30
Feather
You can do this, Feather. You survived a lobotomy without even blinking. You lived for decades in a world with no effective pain medication, or high-speed internet, or Rocky Road ice cream. You’ve got this. They didn’t bring that soul knife in to give Sunny a mani-pedi. That’s your best friend, your ride or die birch, and she needs you. It’s time to do that voodoo that you do, no matter how much it hurts.
And birch, it is going to hurt like fudge.
