Nameless (15 page)

As a child, Zo used to be afraid of the forest at night—all the reaching shadows and unseen dangers waiting to snatch her up. Wolves and bears and other beasts that didn’t enjoy being woken. Sharp rocks and hidden animal dens that could easily twist an ankle or worse.

These fears seemed laughable now after seeing Gabe chained to a wall. The unknown is only scary until the harsh reality of life is so brutally exposed that you wish you could close your eyes and only see darkness. The Ram had taught her just how scary reality could be. By comparison, they made the forest seem like just a shadowed cluster of beautiful trees.

She followed the trail upward until her breathing was labored. The farther she hiked, the louder the sound of the waves crashing into the side of the mountain in the distance. When she broke the tree line at the mountain’s summit, she nearly collapsed.

It wasn’t the climb that made Zo’s knees wobble, nor the breathtaking height that plunged so abruptly into the black ocean below. She sank to her knees and reached out over the edge of the cliff to touch the free air. A sob escaped her chest as she looked down the seamless wall of the mountain. No handholds. No footholds. Just sheer rock that ended in certain death if anyone was foolish enough to attempt the climb.

Commander Laden hadn’t exaggerated. There was no escape from this place. Not even a dangerous “back-up plan” in case the Seer discovered her involvement or Gryphon decided to turn her in.

From now on, she’d have to be sparing with the bottles stolen from the Medica supply room. Only the most vital information could be floated downriver. If Tess hadn’t followed her into the Gate, she wouldn’t have bothered being so cautious. But as it was …

Zo dragged her feet as she hiked back down to the Nameless’ barracks. She slowed her steps the closer she got to town. Once the dangerous road came into view, she took a moment to listen for patrolling guards.

A barn owl hooted in the distance. The wind rolled lightly through the trees, but no guards. She had just taken a step outside of the forest when a man dropped down from a tree above her head. Zo’s scream was caught by a rough hand clamped over her mouth.

A large man with a long scar across his face looked in both directions on the road. He held a black executioner’s hood in his hand. “If you value your life, you will not make a sound.”

The hand covering her mouth fell away as the black hood came down over her head, blocking the light of the stars and moon.

If only Gryphon knew how to write! An anonymous letter was the safest way to give his superiors information about the enemies camped downstream. The old Historian had said he was a fool not to bother with reading and writing. She’d been right about that, at least.

“What’s bothering you?” said Joshua. “Something bad happened. Tell me.”

“It’s nothing, kid. Fix your stance. A little girl could knock you over when you rest on your heels like that.” Joshua had been begging Gryphon to help him with his hand-to-hand techniques. The training session had barely begun and already the kid sensed Gryphon’s unease.

Joshua stood up and abandoned his stance. “Something’s definitely wrong. I can tell by your eyebrows. Whenever you’re worried a crease forms between them.”

“Stance, Joshua! Or we’re done for the day.”

Joshua obediently bent his knees and rolled onto the balls of his feet, his hands out, his back curved. “Fine. Don’t tell me. We can just lie to each other and pretend that everything is fine.”

“Thank you.” Gryphon suppressed a smile. “Now advance.”

They grappled until Joshua complained his back ached from being thrown to the ground too many times. He dusted himself off and received a friendly slap on the shoulder.

“You’re getting better,” said Gryphon.

“It’s about Zo, isn’t it?”

Gryphon rolled his eyes and gathered his pack. The kid could be a pesky fly when he wanted to.

“Tell me.”

Gryphon sighed. He leaned against a tree and crossed his arms. “It actually has nothing to do with Zo.”

Joshua lifted his freckled brow.

“I’ve obtained some information regarding an enemy camp.”

Joshua’s mouth fell open. “No way.”

Gryphon raised his hands. “I’m not sure if my intelligence is accurate. I want to write it down and stay anonymous.”

“Why? Where’d you get it from?”

Gryphon looked away. “I can’t say.”

Joshua shrugged. “I could write it for you.”

Gryphon snapped to attention. “Where did you learn?”

“My friend, Lance, has been teaching me. His mother’s a scribe for the Seer. It’s not that hard—”

“No one can know about this.”

Joshua smiled. “Whatever you say, only, can we do it at your mom’s house? I’m starving.”

Gryphon stared at Joshua’s scribbling in awe. He squinted, as if by doing so he might divine the meaning of the text. “You included everything?”

Joshua jammed another piece of buttered bread into his mouth, leaving little room to speak around it. “Yep.”

“You’re absolutely certain they will not know this is from me?” Gryphon inwardly growled at his own inability. He scanned the page again, following each line with intense focus.

“I’m sure.” Joshua swallowed hard and packed more bread in his mouth. “I can teach you to read, if you want.”

“Really?” The thought made Gryphon surprisingly hopeful.

“Sure.” He plucked the page from Gryphon’s hand and flipped it around. “Lesson number one: don’t read it upside-down.”

Gryphon ruffled Joshua’s red hair. “You’re lucky I like you.” He left the boy to his food and walked out of his family home. With Joshua’s words clamped in his fist, Gryphon set off to plant his information and relieve some of the guilt of his betrayal.

Zo struggled to breathe through the thick hood covering her face. Her bound wrists burned. Blood rushed to her head as men took turns carrying her over their shoulders. It was a bumpy ride that made her want to be sick inside the hood.

There was no point in risking her captors’ anger by voicing the questions rolling around inside her head. Why would a Ram do this? She was their property! Where were they taking her? She could only hope they didn’t connect her with Tess. Had Gryphon already broken his promise to keep her identity a secret?

After an incalculable amount of time, the guard carrying Zo stopped and set her on the ground. When Zo found her feet she resisted the urge to force her knee into the man’s stomach and run. A cold knife slipped between her wrists, cutting the ropes with ease. “Take hold of the ladder and start climbing.”

Zo grasped the rung of a rope ladder. “What do you want from me?” Her throat was a desert and she didn’t trust her legs to stand without keeping a firm grip on the ladder.

“Climb.” The voice sounded younger than she expected.

Obeying, she reached blindly for the next rung and began the vertical climb. The ladder swayed and jerked as someone followed her. After several minutes of climbing, Zo had to stop and rest. How high was she? Her breath came hard as she hugged the ladder. The muscles in her forearms throbbed. Someone below tapped on her boot. “It’s not much farther.”

Zo nodded through her hood and reached for the next rung. Her boot missed its footing and her arms couldn’t support her weight. She screamed as she fell, knowing she’d already climbed too high to survive the impact.

The fall lasted both a lifetime and an instant. The person below caught her around her middle with one arm. The wind rushed from her lungs and she cried out in pain. The man growled with effort as he pulled her between himself and the ladder. “Quick, I’m going to lose you.”

Zo grasped the rungs, grateful for the support at her back. She felt herself crying, but didn’t have the breath to sustain the emotion, making her sound more like a barnyard animal than a girl who had just faced her own death.

“We need to get off this ladder. Climb with me.”

Together they worked their way up another dozen rungs before a pair of hands wrapped around her wrists and hauled her onto a platform. She clung to the man who held her, desperate not to accidently step off the ledge. Her stomach churned as vertigo set in. She felt like she was falling to one side even though her feet were planted on the floor.

“This way,” the man said.

The planks of the floor moaned beneath her clumsy feet. The sound increased as others behind her reached the platform and followed. A heavy wool curtain brushed her arm as she walked into a space where the sounds of the forest muted. A room? They pushed her to sit on a soft sort of pillow and pulled the hood from her head.

Zo squinted against the light of a single candle burning in the center of a room. The walls were a patchwork of dark wool that moved like water from the wind outside. A motley group of men and women sat in a circle surrounding her.

“Who are you? What do you want with me?” She could tell they weren’t Ram by their worn clothing and the dirt that lined the wrinkles of their skin. But they also didn’t carry the defeated expression of the Nameless.

A tall man with heavy arms clasped his hands together. He leaned forward. “I am called Stone.” He gestured around them. “Welcome to the Nameless Nest. It was built by my late friend, a Raven, whose death you witnessed in the last prizefight. Do you remember him?”

Zo swallowed down the bile rising in her throat as the gory images of the prizefight assaulted her thoughts. She nodded, her mouth dry. “I remember him.”

“We’ve been watching you, healer. We watch all the new Nameless when they enter the Gate. Even your little sister.”

Zo’s fingers curled into talons. “Don’t. Talk. About. My. Sister.” Adrenaline poured into every crevice of her being. She was tired of being bullied. No more! “Just tell me what you want.”

The man stared. Five seconds passed. Ten. “You’re different. It’s more than just your healer status. I can almost sense the fight in you. You are not really a Nameless, are you?”

The ragged men and women in the circle leaned forward to hear her answer.

“Why else would I come to the Gate?” Zo’s voice barely carried over a whisper.

Stone’s brow lifted, accentuating an uneven scar along one cheek. “There are rumors that the clans outside the Gate are working together.” The light of the candle danced across the planes of his wide face. He inched closer and dropped his voice. “You’re fresh from the outside, healer. Tell us what you know.”

“I don’t know anything beyond rumors.”

Zo wanted to tell them everything about the Alliance of the clans, of her work as a spy inside the Gate, but how could their knowing help her cause? All it would take was one Nameless to talk, and Zo and Tess were as good as dead.

The leader reached out and grabbed her arm. “Will the clans unite against the Ram?”

Zo yanked her arm away. “I don’t know.” The lie was a mountain crushing her chest. All these rebels wanted was a little hope. They defied the Ram enough to meet. Didn’t that qualify them for at least a portion of her confidence?

This is not my fight,
she reminded herself.

The man’s lip curled in disgust. “I don’t believe you. And if you can’t provide us any information, we can’t afford to let you live.” At a wave of Stone’s hand, two men stepped forward and took Zo by the arms. “Throw her off.”