Phoenix (7 page)

“You want to join the rebellion?” I say.

He nods. “But we have to get the other senators on board with the idea. I was hoping
that you and Natalie would come to Viridis with me and convince them it’s the right
thing to do.”

I look at Roach.

“We need all the allies we can get,” she says.

Sigur and Beetle both nod in agreement. I glance at Natalie.

“What do you think?” I ask.

She gives a faint nod. “All right.”

I stretch out a hand to Elijah. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

We shake hands.

“Well, this is a cause for a celebration,” Dad says, going to the kitchen and returning
with the bottle of Shine, which I know he stashes behind the boxes of cereal. “To
new friends.”

“To new friends,” we reply, raising our glasses.

The liquid begins to vibrate.

I don’t have much time to wonder about this before a low, terrifying rumble above
us makes everyone freeze.

“What is it?” Natalie asks.

I stand up. “Only one way to find out.”

We all rush outside to see what’s going on. The streets are already filled with citizens,
their faces fearful as they stare up at the night sky. Unnatural shadows swim across
the ocean of stars like a shiver of sharks, blocking out the moonlight.

Destroyer Ships.

A whole fleet of airships, each over eight hundred feet long, floating across the
city.

My blood turns to ice.

At that moment, the digital screens across the city spark to life, and Purian Rose
appears on all the monitors. We all hold our breaths. I’ve never heard the city so
silent before.

“Citizens of Black City. By now, you will have noticed my airships above your heads,”
he says.

Natalie shoots me a worried look.

“Your betrayal today did not go unnoticed by me,” Rose continues. “And as a response,
the government has made an amendment to our segregation laws. Anyone who voted no
in the ballot is now considered a race traitor, as are their children, and will be
segregated along with the Darklings. You have seventy-two hours to hand all race traitors,
and the Darklings, over to my guards. If you fail to do so, you will meet the same
fate as Ember Creek.”

Ember Creek?
Wasn’t that the city where people were yelling out “No Fear, No Power!” during the
live vote?

My suspicions are confirmed when the footage cuts to an image of the harbor we saw
this morning, except everything is ablaze. The pier is gone. The market stalls, boats
and houses all destroyed. Bobbing on the bloodred waters are hundreds of dead bodies,
their skin like charcoal. Men, women and children; no one was spared from Rose’s wrath.

Natalie grips my hand.

I stare at the horrifying image, knowing it’ll haunt me for the rest of my life. All
those people, burned to death.
Just like I was.

“I did this,” I whisper. “It’s my fault they’re dead.”

A countdown appears at the bottom of the screen, letting us know we have seventy-two
hours to comply. The clock starts ticking down—71:59:59, 71:59:58, 71:59:57 . . .

“We’ll never do it; we’ll never surrender to your demands!” Beetle yells at the screen,
as if Rose could hear him.

The camera slowly closes in on Purian Rose’s face, so that it fills the entire screen.

“I have one more message, for the boy who calls himself Phoenix—”

My grip tightens around Natalie’s hand.

“I’ve been too lenient on the rebels these past two months, and it’s allowed you,
like vermin, to multiply and spread,” he says. “It’s time I rid myself of this infestation.
The Sentry government is officially declaring war against your terrorist organization.
Anyone found to be involved in your movement will be executed.”

I look at Beetle. His expression reflects my own concern.

“Oh, and one more thing . . . ,” Purian Rose continues.

The image cuts to grainy footage of a dark-haired girl bound to a metal chair, her
head bowed, her body stripped bare. Blood pools around her feet.

“If the rebels attempt to interfere in any way, if you defy me again, I will follow
through on my promise,” Rose says.
“Piece by piece.”

The girl looks up at the camera, and Natalie screams.

It’s Polly.

ASH

DAWN BREAKS
over the city, casting misty yellow sunlight over the ghetto. After Rose’s announcement
last night, the rebels took refuge in the Legion, ironically the only place in the
city we’re safe now, because of the Boundary Wall. I barely had time to pack a single
bag of clothes and belongings before coming here.

I pick up the blue duffel bag and take out an ornate wooden box wrapped in one of
my shirts. The box contains all my mom’s keepsakes: some old photos, a lock of white
hair, a Legion Liberation Front leaflet advertising a rally in Black City, and the
diary Sigur gave me.

I flick through the journal, taking some comfort in reading my mom’s words. As I turn
the page, two photos slip out—one of the family in the forest glen, the other of her
as a teenager, with Aunt Lucinda and two girls, taken in a tavern in Thrace. I’d forgotten
I’d put them in there. I lift the photos off the floor and study the pictures, my
heart pinching at the image of Mom’s face beaming back at me.

I put the photos back in the journal and walk over to the window. All night Sentry
troops and packs of Lupines had been transporting down from the airships to secure
the city. It seems Garrick was right—Purian Rose does have another plan for the Lupines,
and now it’s clear to me what it is: he intends to use them like bloodhounds to help
hunt down Impurities. From the viewpoint in my bedroom—Evangeline’s old room, in fact—I
can see at least twenty Sentry and Lupine patrols in the city center alone.

The clock continues to count down on all the digital screens, but alongside it now
is a scrolling list of the names of people who have been marked for segregation. These
include Darklings and anyone who voted no yesterday, such as Natalie, Dad, Beetle,
Roach, Amy, Sumrina, Michael, Juno, Stuart—everyone I know is on that list.

At that moment, an image of Polly appears on the screens. They’ve been doing this
every hour, on the hour, since Purian Rose made his speech to the city. From what
we can tell, the message last night and these hourly updates are only being broadcast
within Black City, which makes sense. Purian Rose wouldn’t want the rest of the country
knowing what’s happening here. Polly’s still strapped to the chair, shaking, afraid.
She’s in a small, dark room made entirely of steel. I wonder if she’s in a cell somewhere—maybe
like the one I was in at Sentry HQ? It looks similar. Hope briefly flickers inside
me that Polly might still be in the city, although it seems unlikely Rose would risk
that. He’d need to keep her somewhere safe and out of my reach.

Angry voices ring up through the floorboards from the council chamber below us, as
the rebels and Darkling ministers fight over what we should do. They’ve been arguing
all night. I want to tell them there’s nothing we can do. We’ve lost. Our only hope
now is to run.

I glance at Natalie, curled up in the double bed. When she wakes up, I’m going to
tell her about my plan to escape to the Northern Territories. Crossing the border
will be dangerous, but I think it’ll be worth the risk. The people there are said
to be more tolerant of Darklings. Of course, I’ll have to persuade our families to
join us. It’ll be hard bringing everyone along, but I’ll work that out somehow.

“Polly!” Natalie screams, startling herself awake.

I rush over and pull her into my arms.

“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” I say.

She rests her head on my lap, and I caress her golden hair. I wish there was something
more I could do to take away her pain.

“I think we should run away,” I say quietly, and tell her my plan.

Natalie sits up. “We can’t do that.”

“I know it’ll be hard, but—”

“Not without Polly,” she says. “If you want to leave with the others, then I’ll understand.
But I’m not going anywhere without my sister.”

I rub the back of my neck. There’s no point pushing it. She won’t change her mind,
and there’s no way I’m leaving the city without her.

We get dressed and head downstairs a few minutes later, to find everyone congregated
in the Assembly. All the Darkling ministers are there, arguing with each other while
Sigur and Logan look on. The digital screen on the back wall shows the countdown clock,
letting us know how much time we have left before the city goes up in flames: 63:42:11,
63:42:10, 63:42:09 . . .

I find a seat at the com-desk between Natalie and Amy, who gives me a small, worried
smile. Sitting opposite us are Day, Beetle and Garrick, while Elijah paces up and
down the room behind them. I know my dad and the rest of Day’s family are still asleep,
since I passed their rooms on the way here. Roach is on the phone.

“Where are Juno and Stuart?” I ask Amy, surprised they’re not here.

“They’ve gone into the city. I begged Juno not to go, but . . .” She bites her lips.
“Well, you know my sister. She always has to be at the heart of the story.”

Roach hangs up the phone. “I’ve just spoken to Flea. There aren’t any airships in
the other cities. It’s just us.”

“Has there been any update on Polly?” Natalie asks.

“Not yet,” Roach says.

Natalie frowns, making a small crease form between her eyebrows. Garrick walks over
to her and rests a clawed hand on her shoulder. Up close, I see his nails are like
shark’s teeth, all jagged down the edges. I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong end of
those.

“I’m sorry about your sister,” he says in a gruff voice. “You must be very worried
about her—and your mom?” He leans conspiratorially toward her. “I heard a rumor the
Emissary had been spotted in the Copper State.”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” Natalie says. “It’s not like she’s contacted
me.”

“No, of course not. It wouldn’t be safe,” Garrick replies. “But I’m sure if she could
get in touch with you, she’d let you know she was all right.”

“I somehow doubt it,” Natalie mutters.

Garrick squeezes her shoulder and goes to find an empty seat at the back of the oval
room.

“So what’s the plan?” I ask, the question posed to everyone in the room.

“We must defend the ghetto!” Pullo, the brutish-looking Eloka Darkling, says.

“No, we should surrender,” Angel—the female Shu’zin Darkling—replies. “We will die
here, for certain. We have no food, the people of this city want us dead, and even
if we succeed in defending the ghetto, Rose will burn it to the ground.”

“What about the Ora?” Beetle says. “We’re still going to look for that, right?”

“And my mom,” Elijah adds, giving me a panicked look. “We have to find her.”

I briefly shut my eyes, my head spinning.

“We will send a team to search for the Ora and Elijah’s mother as soon as possible,”
Sigur says, and Roach nods in agreement. “But in the meantime, we must come up with
an alternative plan to defend ourselves. We only have three days before the Sentry
bombs the city.”

“Perhaps Angel is correct,” Logan says. “The Tenth may be our best option, until you
can retrieve the Ora and rescue us. At least the youngsters will be sent to work in
the factories in Primus-Two.”

“But what about the rest of us?” Pullo fumes. “I’m not going to be sent to Primus-Three
to be used as someone’s lab rat!”

“We could try escaping,” Natalie suggests. “Ash has a plan to bring everyone over
the border into the Northern Territories.”

“It was more an idea than an actual plan,” I admit. “I don’t even know how we’d get
everyone out of the city.”

A Transporter flies over the ghetto, making the walls rumble. We hold our breaths
until it passes by. It makes no attempt to land.

“How come the Sentry guards haven’t come to get us yet?” Day asks.

“I can only presume Purian Rose has ordered them not to take us until the deadline
has passed,” Sigur says. “He wants the people of Black City to fail, to give him an
excuse to burn the city to the ground.”

“Then why give us three days to hand everyone over?” Day says. “Why not firebomb us
now, like he did in Ember Creek, if that’s his intention?”

“He needs the prisoners, so they can work in his factories or be experimented on in
the Tenth,” Garrick says from the back of the room. “He made an example of Ember Creek,
so the people of Black City would be scared into doing his bidding.”

“It worked,” I mutter.

There’s a bang as the oak doors to the Darkling Assembly burst open, and Juno and
Stuart race into the room. They’re both breathless, their hair and clothing a mess,
and Juno’s cradling her left arm. Stuart’s carrying his camera, which he immediately
plugs into the digital screen at the back of the room.

“It’s madness out there!” Juno says.

Amy hurries over to her sister. “Are you hurt?”

“It’s just a sprain,” Juno replies. “You guys need to see this.”

Stuart presses Play on his camera, and everyone in the room quiets down as we watch
the video recording. The first set of footage shows hundreds of people in the town
square, demanding that Sigur send out the Darklings, while countless Legion guards
line the wall, ready to die to protect their people.
My
people.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually glad we’ve got that bloody wall,”
Roach says.

Stuart fast-forwards the video and stops on some footage of Sentry guards setting
up more roadblocks around the city, complete with machine gun turrets and tanks. No
one will be able to leave by the roads. The next shot is at the train station, where
some families are being ushered onto an armored train.

“Hang on, are those people evacuating?” I ask.

Juno nods. “That’s this morning’s latest development. Anyone who hands over three
or more Impurities to the guards will be given a ticket to leave the city.” She tosses
a blood-soaked train ticket onto the table, with the words
EVACUATION PASS
printed on it in bold red letters. “I got that off a dead guy who’d been mauled by
some Lupines. I guess he pissed them off.”

Garrick’s mouth twitches slightly.

“A few of them tried to grab me and Stu, but we fought them off,” Juno continues.

I turn the ticket over in my hands. It has a silvery rose-shaped watermark on it to
prove its authenticity. It must’ve taken weeks to get these printed up. Anger rages
inside me. Purian Rose has been planning this all along—he guessed I’d vote against
him. I’ve played right into his hands!

“The rest of the country needs to see what’s happening here,” Roach says. “We have
to warn them, before the airships move into their city.”

“Can you hack into the SBN news feed and broadcast this?” Sigur asks.

Juno shakes her head. “We already tried.”

“The government’s somehow jamming any signals going into or out of the city,” Stuart
explains. “We can’t broadcast anything, unless it’s within the city limits.”

The video footage cuts to an image of a young couple hunched over a tiny figure lying
in a pool of blood. Everyone in the room falls silent as the crying mother faces the
camera.

“Why aren’t you helping us, Phoenix?” the woman sobs into the camera. “We supported
you, and this is how you repay us? You’ve abandoned us!”

Juno mutes the digital screen, but it’s no good—I can still hear the woman’s words
ringing in my head.

Roach strikes her palm against the com-desk. “We need to be out there, fighting!”

“But what about Polly?” Natalie says. “If we interfere, she’ll be killed.”

“And what about all those people who supported us yesterday?” Roach says. “
They’ll
be killed if we don’t act now. We have a duty to protect them.”

“Can’t we just wait until we know where Polly is?” Natalie says.

“Every minute we waste, more people are being taken,” Roach replies. “Is your sister’s
life really worth more than theirs?”

Natalie lowers her blond lashes. “Do what you have to,” she says quietly, getting
up from her seat. “If you need me, I’ll be upstairs.”

She leaves the room, and Day and Amy hurry after her.

Elijah stands up. “Excuse me, but I need to make a phone call.”

“You can use the telephone in my office,” Sigur says.

“Thanks,” Elijah replies, walking out of the room.

The others start planning our attack while I wander over to the window and gaze up
at the sky.

A Transporter carrying another batch of prisoners cuts through the clouds of ash that
hang over the city, making it rain with black snow. The aircraft is an armored tiltwing,
nearly one hundred feet long and big enough to carry up to fifty passengers at a time.
Painted in large, bright red letters on the side of the ship are its name and number.
This one’s called
Marianne 705.
Nearby, a second Transporter called
Roselyn 401
flies up to another Destroyer Ship hovering over the Park. I’m guessing the name
relates to the Destroyer Ship the aircraft belongs to, and the number distinguishes
it from the others in its fleet.

The giant digital screens across the city blink, and Polly’s image appears on the
monitors again. She looks petrified. I tear my eyes away from her, ridden with guilt,
knowing we’re about to sentence her to death by defying Purian Rose’s orders.
God, are we doing the right thing?