Nameless (11 page)

“Get off of me!” Joshua said, kicking and swatting. “And don’t you dare hurt her!”

Gryphon looked between Joshua and the girl in disgust. “She’s a bloody Wolf, kid. I can’t let her live.”

“It’s Zo! It’s Zo!”

Gryphon sat back and released his hold on Joshua. “Trust me, this is not her.”

Joshua slapped at Gryphon’s hand until he reluctantly let go of the girl’s wrist. “Say something,” Joshua said to the girl.

She didn’t move.

“Say you’ll slit my throat. Say it!”

The girl pushed up to rest on her palms, brushing away wet strands of hair from her face. “Your throat is safe, boy. It’s your ox-for-brains friend who should watch his back.”

Joshua tackled her with a warm hug. “It
is
you. I knew I recognized that voice. I’ve never seen you without that mud mask thing or without your hair all wrapped up on your head. You look so … different. I mean, look at you.” He gestured at her whole body, blushing. “Why do you wear that stuff?”

“Because she’s a Wolf. She knows we kill Wolves,” said Gryphon. He used his armband to bind her wrists. He’d heard Wolf women were considered the fairest of all the clans. Now he understood why. It was a lethal beauty that made Gryphon’s senses fuzzy and his rationale distorted.

Joshua seemed to lose his voice. The poor kid.

Gryphon forced the girl to stand. His fingers wrapped all the way around her biceps. Breakable. Weak. His hold loosened, until he remembered his orders. It was as though Zander’s voice tumbled along the walls of his thoughts, stirring a sense of duty he felt toward his brothers and clan. “
If you value the lives of your family, you will kill every Wolf on sight. No exceptions.”

But how could he kill her?

The girl looked up at him, as if reading his thoughts. Her lower lip trembled from the cold of the night, or perhaps it was fear. Fear of knowing she would soon die.

“Go ahead and do it.” Zo’s legs buckled beneath her. Gryphon let her sink to her knees on the cold earth.

“You can throw my body into the river when you’re done.” The Allies watched the river. Someone would know Tess was alone. Commander Laden would send a team to retrieve her. The Ram would move south and the Wolves, with the help of the Allies, would be prepared to fight. Tess would be free before the end of this year.

She would.

Joshua joined Zo on the ground and put an arm around her. “Don’t worry, Zo. Gryphon’s not going to kill you.”

Joshua looked up at Gryphon for reassurance.

“The chief will want to question her.” Gryphon frowned. “But I’ll speak for her, Joshua.”

“You’ll
speak
for her?” Joshua jumped to his feet. He had to crane his neck to meet Gryphon’s cold eyes. “You’ll
speak
for her!” He shoved him in the chest with both hands. Gryphon didn’t even sway from the contact. Joshua pushed him again and again until his shoving turned to full-on punching. Gryphon just stood there and took it, watching Zo with a hollow expression.

They all knew what would happen if Gryphon took her back.

Zo couldn’t stand it any longer. “Joshua, stop.” She used a low tree branch to help her stand. The muscles in her back throbbed from Gryphon’s rough handling. “I can speak for myself.”

The poor kid dropped to the ground. His head hung between his knees, he grabbed two fistfuls of his own red hair.

Zo stepped toward Gryphon. “Send the boy away. For his own sake.” Zo was in no position to make demands, but the prospect of losing her life made her bold. She wouldn’t be a victim any longer.

Gryphon studied her through the curtain of his dark hair. “He has a right to stay.”

Zo stepped closer until their toes almost touched and the smoke of her breath reached his dimpled cheek. Her voice barely carried over the sound of the river. “Kill me here. Don’t hand me over to the chief’s guards.” The image of the Gate Master entered her mind. “Please.” Her bright blue eyes met his. The time for submission had passed.

Gryphon shook his head, his jaw set.

“What?” She shoved him. “Too much of a coward to do the job yourself? Aren’t you a Ram?” She had to get him angry. No one would know to help Tess if Zo’s body didn’t end up in that river.

Gryphon tensed.

Joshua got up from the ground and put a hand on his mentor’s chest while looking at Zo. “That wasn’t a great thing to say,” he forced a whisper through his teeth. “I think you should let me do the negotiating from now on.”

Gryphon pushed Joshua’s hand away. The wrap around his wounded shoulder was dark with fresh blood. The bandage needed replacing. “Why did you come to the Gate when you knew we kill your kind?” he asked.

Zo chose her words carefully. Tess’ life depended upon them. “Why are you so convinced I’m a Wolf?”

“The Wolf I captured had that same mark on his shoulder.”

Zo opened her mouth to speak but no words came. The mark of the Allies was a well-kept secret. She wouldn’t be the one to divulge it. “The waxing moon is a common symbol of hope. I’m surprised you’ve never seen it before.”

“You look like a Wolf too.” Gryphon’s face colored and he looked away.

Zo sighed inwardly. It always came back to her cursed face. “Either kill me or don’t. Nothing I say will sway you.” She folded her arms and showed him her back. It was the ultimate sign of disrespect inside the Gate. She braced herself, ready for him to strike her, but nothing happened.

A lifetime passed before she heard the crunch of his approaching footsteps.

Gryphon walked around to face her. This was it. Tonight she would join her parents on the other side of this cruel life. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Please let Tess be safe. Please let her not mourn my death. Let Commander Laden find her.

Warm hands clamped down on her tied wrists.

Zo’s eyes shot open and all of her fears raced back in one swift, agonizing moment: torture, no body for Laden’s men to find, Tess alone, the Gate Master. “No, no. Don’t take me back there. Please!” her voice slipped and cracked. “Please! I’ll do anything! Just don’t take me to the Gate Master!”

Gryphon pressed the blade of his short sword to her neck. “I don’t trust you, Wolf,” he whispered. “If you ever do anything to harm my people, I swear I will end your life in a way that will make you regret ever surviving this night.”

Joshua ran up and hugged Gryphon. “Thank you! Thank you!”

Gryphon yanked the band from her wrists and walked away, leaving Joshua and Zo to stare at his back in the moonlight.

Zo sunk to her knees. “I don’t believe it.” She held her unbound hands to her cheeks, her jaw hung slack.

Joshua put an arm around her. “Welcome to the family, Zo. I think he likes you.”

Gryphon punched a tree. Not a good idea, but enough to take his mind off the girl, if for only a moment. He took off on a wild sprint through the mountains. He pushed himself past the point of fatigue, weaving through evergreens, jumping over rocks and streams until he reached the peak he’d visited the day Joshua should have died.

The first day he met the young Wolf healer.

He panted to catch his breath; his head hanging in shame. Zander’s warning assaulted him.
If you value the lives of your family, you will kill every Wolf on sight. No exceptions.

He should take the girl to the guards for questioning. What they did to her shouldn’t be his concern. It shouldn’t. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bring himself to walk her to the chief’s interrogators.

And they called him a hero?

How could he kill the girl who had saved Joshua’s life? She’d more than earned her place inside the Gate.

Right?

Gryphon balled his fists and yelled at the mountain peaks to the south. A battle cry that brought him to his knees. No matter how hard he tried, the truth overpowered any excuse he conjured for letting her walk.

The truth was he didn’t only spare her because of Joshua. He spared her for the same reason he’d spared the young Raven boy in the field.

He hated himself for it.

He was weak.

Like his father.

A melody ran unchecked through his mind. Tragic and beautiful, the lyrics moved with clouded understanding of this young woman, a girl really, whose eyes were blue wells of mystery and whose countenance was a lonely grave of sadness. It didn’t make any sense, but somewhere beneath the pretty face of his enemy was a person he wanted to know. To understand.

Gryphon had never realized treason could be so complicated.

Only one man might be able to help him know if this girl was a threat to the clan. Who could explain the mark on her back, and clear his dark suspicions. Only he had the power to make Gryphon’s shame bearable.

The only question: Would the Wolf prisoner talk?

“He won’t tell the Gate Master.” Joshua rolled his eyes for the fifth time. “I’m telling you, once Gryphon makes up his mind, it’s done. You don’t need to worry.”

Zo shook her head. The only thing worse than a Ram soldier was an unpredictable Ram soldier. “I can’t take any chances. There are other things I have to worry about. Other … ” she wanted to say “people” but it was better not to remind Joshua of Tess. He hadn’t asked about her sister since the day they left the Waiting Room. Hopefully he’d been in so much pain at the time that he didn’t remember her.

They reached the main road, barely visible in the darkness. Left would take Zo back to her barracks, right led to the city center and Joshua’s training barracks housing the other adolescent boys his age.

“Just promise me you won’t do anything crazy.” Joshua’s forehead wrinkled, making him seem older than thirteen. “I’ll talk to Gryphon.”

Zo nodded and Joshua attacked her with a hug before taking off at a jog down the dark road. She watched him go with mouth gaping. Did he really just hug her? She needed to lie down. A person could only take so much surprise in one night.

“Hey, Zo.”

Zo whipped around to see Tess. She had one hand on her hip and a sinister smile plastered to her face.

“What are you doing here? If someone saw you … Tess, you’re in huge trouble.”

“I’m in trouble? You can’t leave in the middle of the night without telling me where you’re going. I know you have your little secrets,” she wiggled her fingers in the air, “but you need to tell me when you’re leaving, so I don’t think some soldier has snuck in and carried you off.” Her hand went right back to her hip, her gaze daring Zo to tell her she was wrong. She looked just like their mother when she got this way.

Zo sighed. “You’re right, Tess. I’m sorry.”

“Of course I’m right! Now who was that boy?”

“First, tell me what you planned to accomplish by sneaking out?” said Zo.

Tess looked at the ground and dug her toe into the dirt. “Everyone’s talking about a Wolf. A man they captured. They say they’re going to kill him in front of everyone. They say we all have to watch.”

Zo cringed. Her hand shook violently as she tried to tuck a loose piece of hair behind Tess’ ear.

“Do you know who it is, Zo?”

Zo frowned. “No, I don’t,” she lied.