A sick feeling settles in my stomach. I’d thought that perhaps they might have kept Talin’s mother in a prison hospital because of her skill set. But she’s probably there because she’s the patient, healing from her injuries.
A moment later, I see Jeran signing to me from the roof of one of the living complexes. He’s warning me to take better cover.
I dart away from the wall and into the shadowed alley between complexes right as two guards walk by from the area of the hospital. As they go, I glance up to see Jeran turning his head pointedly toward the hospital complex. Right as he does, I feel a hand tap me on my shoulder.
I whirl around, ready to strike, but a hand clamps down hard on my wrist before I do. I find myself staring into Adena’s dark eyes. She gives me a quick grin.
She is dressed like a Karensan soldier. Moments later, Aramin appears beside her, dressed the same way.
“Guess who stitches these uniforms,” she whispers, glancing around at the complexes.
“There are Ghosts everywhere in here,” Aramin adds as he nodsdown the path. “Especially around the hospital. Talin’s mother is being held in there.”
“You saw her?” I whisper.
Aramin nods. “Through a window. She’s being kept on the second floor of it, in her own cell.”
Cell. The hospitals in the prison district aren’t equipped with typical rooms. They are full of jail cells, the patients behind bars. And Talin’s mother must be kept in one crawling with guards.
Up above, Jeran signs down to us.
When he finishes, Adena looks at me. “Can you scale the side of the hospital?”
I nod. If there’s anything my strength is still good for, it is for doing something like that tirelessly.
Adena glances up at Jeran. “Then we will take care of the front of the hospital. When we draw the attention, Red, you’ll need to get Talin’s mother out.” She narrows her eyes. “Whatever the cost. Do not look back for us. Do not stop. Get her out of there, so that Talin can be free.”
Something in me lurches at her voice. She’s telling me to leave them behind.
“I didn’t go through all of this just to see you all die,” I snap at her.
Aramin tightens his lips. “It was never about us,” he replies. “Get her free. Talin is the only one who has a chance to end the Premier’s life. We’re only here to help.”
I stare back at them. They have survived countless rotations at the warfront, capture in Newage during Mara’s fall, near death in the arena. And yet this is where they might make their final stand, giving their lives to save the mother of their friend.
And I understand it all. Because that’s why I’m here. Because Talinis the one who has gotten me as far as I am. I’m alive because of her. The others followed her in and out of Cardinia. And in the end, she could be the key to changing everything for us.
I nod. Then I place my fist against my chest in the Striker salute. After all, I had taken this oath with Talin. I am her Shield, now and forever, my life intertwined with hers.
“May there be future dawns,” Adena says softly.
We whisper it in unison.
The others scatter into the darkness. As they go, I turn my attention up to the second floor of the hospital. I will get to Talin’s mother, so help me, or I will die killing everyone standing in my way.
As I steal through the alleys between the prison complexes, I see workers stream in and out of one of the giant storage sheds, working through the night to repair a wheel, while more come out of the second one. My curiosity piques, but I don’t stop to watch them closer as I head for the hospital. No time.
Jeran approaches the guards at the front of the hospital, dressed in soldier garb. He speaks to them, bits of his voice coming to me where I am. Flawless Karenese. The guards frown at his words. For a moment, they seem to buy whatever it is that he’s telling them, but then one of them shoves him roughly back. Behind him comes Adena. For a moment, they seem taken aback by her uniform. Their voices echo to where I am as she argues with the guards.
I turn my attention back to the building before me. Then I unfurl my wings as far as I can make them go, wincing at the pain of the movement. With a single, broken push, I launch myself up at the wall and begin to climb.
The agony lancing through my back sends shivers of sweat down my limbs, turning me hot and cold. I continue moving, even as a memory shoots through me and my other voice sparks to life.
The day after you invaded Basea, after you failed to shoot Talin and instead allowed your superior to get killed, you’d gone climbing in the woods outside Talin’s village to clear your head. You climbed and climbed, your limbs young and strong, pulling yourself up past broad leaves and thick branches until you’d reached the top. You looked down at the village to see Danna and Lei, taking bets on whether a villager would be taken back to Cardinia or shot dead right there. You saw stretchers carrying bodies away and laying them out in neat rows in the streets. Small children ran past lines of soldiers like you and wandered aimlessly in the streets’ bloody dirt. You stayed up in the tree for as long as you could, until you finally climbed back down and threw up everything in you behind the tree’s roots.
I shake my head, pushing the voice and memories aside, and make it onto the second ledge. It’s easier to see things for what they are from a higher vantage point. I look out toward the front of the hospital grounds, where the commotion Jeran started has escalated. Shouts come from below. More guards stream toward where Jeran and Adena stand, arguing with the soldiers.
I keep going. I pull myself higher until I finally reach the window leading into the corridor of the second floor.
