Turns out that if you sprint through the streets, covered in burn marks, in bedraggled clothes, vaguely incoherent from exhaustion, and with a pair of handcuffs still attached to both wrists, then you have a fairly good chance of getting arrested for it. I spent the next few hours in a jail cell while the members of New Alderburg’s best and brightest tried to figure out if there was anything they could actually arrest me for. I just took that as an opportunity to sleep and settle my stomach; I’d only been knocked out by Falem and Dr. Tersine for about five hours, and that sort of thing was never as restful as real sleep anyway.
As with the last time, it was Alonhall who arrived to pick me up. She unlocked the bars without a word, the police nowhere to be seen, then strolled over to the bench where I was sitting to unlock the handcuffs that were still sealed around my wrists. She ended up having to kneel down and pick the lock.
I realized, as we were walking through the police station, that something was different. There were fewer officers of the city guard milling around than there had been when I’d been brought in, fewer women present in general. Those that were still in the building looked a hell of a lot more busy.
Alonhall broke the silence. “You know, Emma, you really shouldn’t let this sort of thing become a habit. Eventually you’re going to end up in a cell like that without having me around to rescue you, and then what will you do?”
“I’m immortal, escaping shouldn’t be a problem,” I said. “I was about to start trying to fold myself into a perfect rectangular prism in order to be able to fit through the bars. Just to see if I could.”
I’m pretty sure Alonhall chuckled under her breath. “You seem remarkably calm, given what Laura described.”
“I’m not. I’m just. Exhausted. Probably a little bit in shock, to be honest. But Laura made it out alright?”
“Of course she did, Emma darling. Took a black eye and a few other injuries, but she escaped from the Woman in White even more intact than the last time.” Alonhall paused, and her voice became even more quiet and not a little bit bitter. “Your Laura is quite the fighter, it seems.”
A little bit of the tension I’d been holding, both in my muscles and in my soul, melted away. Laura was safe.
“Her name is Falem, by the way. And she’s just a lieutenant, not the ringleader.”
“Excuse me? You’re referring to the Woman in White?”
I nodded. “Her name is Falem. And… it’s Dr. Tersine. Dr. Tersine is a Cassandran spy, she created the wolves, she found Falem—who’s an automaton, by the way—and she tried to convince me to join her. That’s why she had me kidnapped, so she could bring me to her lab and attempt to negotiate.”
By that point we were at the front doors. Alonhall hip-checked them open, which meant she could pivot around far enough to look me in the face. She was still in her Blackbird guise, all covered up by a furred hood and cloth mask, but I got the sense of there being genuine concern behind that look.
“That is quite a bit of information.”
“Yeah, maybe you can understand why I’m feeling the way that I’m feeling right now? It’s been a lot to process. And this coming at the end of what was already a really long night, too… I’m glad Laura is safe.”
Alonhall gave me another couple of seconds as we walked out onto the street. The late morning sun was too bright for my eyes. As I squinted against the blinding light, wondering whether it was the alcohol or the electrocution or something else causing me to feel so sluggish, I nearly went the wrong direction. Apparently home was left from this particular police station, not right.
“While it is quite wonderful to hear about how close the bond between you and her has become, Emma, Laura is not the one you need to be worrying about right now.”
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fucking fuckety fuck. “What happened?”
“Falem and Tersine were quite busy last night, as were the wolves. Keep walking, Emma, I’m afraid to say that we have wasted entirely too much time as it is.”
I hadn’t even realized that I’d stopped walking. The exhaustion of the last several hours was a weight on my back, and my legs were about to give out. Still, I jogged forward, having to fast-walk to keep up with Alonhall’s long legs.
“I don’t know how Tersine found out where you lived. But she wasn’t just there for you. Anna’s been taken.”
“What? No, that doesn’t make any sense! I was just at Tersine’s lab, I would have seen her if she’d been there!” Even as I said the words, I knew I was just trying to weasel out of the truth. I hadn’t seen the apparatus necessary for making the wolves, either.
“Then there must be multiple locations,” Alonhall said. “Spies often operate with a distributed system of multiple safe houses and bases in order to provide redundancy.”
“Then we need to get her back!”
“I know. But you were our first priority, Emma, and please understand why that might have been.” After a pause for potential complaint, she continued, “Also last night, at approximately the same time as yours and Anna’s kidnappings, there were three simultaneous attacks on police outposts throughout the city. The exact same three outposts where the three surviving members of the list of targets were being held. Alexis Saintback, Violet Swallowpride, and Delilah Sandborn are all missing, presumed captured by the wolves.”
At that point I was basically numb. Or maybe knowing that Anna was gone had caused me to hit my limit of fear, and hearing about the kidnappings of women I’d only ever known as names on paper could hurt me more. I didn’t know. For a while it was all I could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other and thinking about what to do next.
“Should never have trusted the fucking cops to get anything done,” I said. “I thought those locations were supposed to be secret!”
“They were,” Alonhall said. “I’ve been assured that they are investigating the source of the leak. Not that I expect much in the way of answers.”
“Of course not,” I muttered to myself. “Where’s Laura? Fuck, where’s Unity? If they know where we’ve been living, then I assume you didn’t leave her at the apartment, did you?”
“Laura has a friend,” Alonhall said, emphasizing the word, “whose residence, while not precisely legal, is the sort of place almost purpose-built for hiding in. Laura and Unity are there.”
“Good,” I said. “Good.” I opened my mouth to make a joke about how I was hoping that they would still be there when we got back; but the thought was too sad, too intense to bear, so I let it go unsaid.
“Whatever plan you’ve cooked up, I’m going to need a while before I’m good for any more action. For one thing, I kinda got fried escaping from Tersine’s lab at the University; electrocution’s no good for me. And for another…I, I just need the time. With Laura, or alone, I don’t know.”
Alonhall laughed, startling me with the sharpness of her voice. “There’s no need to worry about us running off on some plan, Emma. We were relying on you to know what to do next.”
There was something sticky in her voice, reminding me of the Alonhall that I’d been on a date with at Leyrender manor so many months ago. “Then in that case,” I said. “Step one is going to Laura’s friend’s place and taking a long nap.”
Laura’s friend lived on the same side of the river as the University, but much further upriver than where I’d been living. It wasn’t what one would call a good neighborhood. In fact, a lot of it looked totally abandoned. Long ago it might have been a fairly nice place, rows of brownstones and shops and other such things, but whether because of some horrible catastrophe or just slow neglect, it had decayed over time, the stores closing, the people emptying out or moving onto the street. The place where Laura and Unity were staying looked a little different, though.
It was shorter than most of the buildings around it, a squat two stories. Unlike most of the surrounding brick, this building was built in the old Jaleran style, red wood and stone accents, suggesting that it originated from a different time. And someone had been taking the time to clean it, or at least prevent it from being overgrown with ivy.
There was also someone standing right by the front door. A Jaleran woman, tawny skin and long black hair, a pale blue dress stained with dirt and dust and dried blood. At first I assumed that this was Laura’s friend. Then Alonhall held out an arm to hold me back, her other hand going to her hip, ready to draw a knife.
“Who might you be? I’m afraid I haven’t seen you around here.”
The woman turned around. The bags under her close-set brown eyes spoke to exhaustion, but the smile on her round, full lips confided that she was being optimistic about it. “I’ve been looking for someone called the Blackbird,” she said. “I was told that she was spotted around here, and given that this building seems to be the only one with anybody in it, I thought…”
“Why are you looking for her?” Alonhall said, growing even more suspicious.
“My name is Delilah, Delilah Sandborn. I want to explain what’s been going on, with all the murders. I’m sorry for not doing so earlier; but with the events of last night, I think it’s become clear that somebody needed to clear things up.”
…
The closest thing that the squat had to a living room was on the bottom floor, where one of the apartments had had all of the non-load-bearing walls knocked down in order to be used as a kitchen. Clusters of tables and chairs surrounded a pile of bricks that served as a makeshift fireplace, giving the whole room the smell of splinters and rancid fat. Someone had tried to dispel the scent with sprigs of herbs hung above the windows, but that didn’t work either.
Delilah sat at the head of the table, with the rest of us clustered at the far side. I’d barely been able to tell Laura hello before Alonhall had rushed to clear everyone out and start the emergency meeting. Alonhall was on the opposite side of me from Laura, with Unity on the far side of Alonhall. All four of us were focused intently on Delilah as she started her story.
“So, you’ve already gathered that we were all working the same shift at the Society. That’s how we met, as it happens, we were total strangers before we got assigned to that job. But, you know how it happens. We spent enough time together that eventually we were as close as could be.
“The first one, the first victim, Olivia, she was the one who started it. She was in the biology department, you see. Around three months ago, now, one of her professors went on a trip out into the Desolation, surveying the spider population or something to that effect. She was gone for two weeks, and when she came back she had quite the story indeed.
“Apparently, the expedition had stumbled upon Forebearer ruins, somewhere out there. A small town, half-buried in the sand. But there was more to it than that. She said, also, that they found skeletons, remains of women and pack animals and even a half-century-old steam carriage. She said that it was the remnants of the, uh, Secondmire Expedition?”
At that name, Laura lunged forward in her seat, banging her cast against the table in the process. “The Secondmire Expedition! Are you sure that’s what she said?”
Delilah flinched back, nodding nervously. “If you recognize the name, then I’m certain.”
Laura turned, meeting my confused expression. “The Secondmire Expedition is sort of a legend to archaeologists. About fifty years ago this rich lady put together an expedition to search for a lost Forebearer city out in the Desolation. Vanished into the desert and never came back. Everybody with sense figures that the expedition was horribly planned and they all died of thirst, but that’s never stopped half a century of speculation. And you’re saying a biologist stumbled upon them in a Forebearer village?”
Delilah nodded. “That is what she said. The issue was that she told us all of this while we were doing the dishes together, and, and.” She paused to compose herself, hands folded in her lap and head down. “The tall woman in the white dress, she overheard us.”
“Falem,” I said. “Her name is Falem. What happened next?”
“She forced us to tell her the whole story, then asked Olivia where that village was. She didn’t know the exact directions, apparently, but she had kept track of their location in her journal, so she promised—Falem, you said?—she promised Falem that she would give up the journal the next day. And she did bring the journal, but… I think we all knew, just from the way that she’d asked about it, that this Falem person was up to no good. So she gave the journal to Maria, for safekeeping.”
I grimaced with disgust. The pieces were all falling into place. “So when Olivia couldn’t give Falem the journal, Falem had her killed so that she could search her room?”
Alonhall swore, then, after a pause, she swore again. “All of the rooms were ransacked, but no theft took place. Because they were looking for something specific: this journal. I cannot believe that I didn’t consider it earlier.”
“Without anybody willing to tell the story, we would have had no way to know,” I said. “Wait… did Maria have the journal when she was killed?”
Delilah shook her head. “Once we realized what was happening, we… we kept passing it back and forth. We all thought that it was a bad luck charm, that whoever had the journal would be the next to die. We didn’t know what to do. The guard couldn’t do anything to stop Falem, and talking to them would just make things worse, so we just hoped that we wouldn’t be next!”
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t save Maria, or Patience, or any of the others.”
“Who had the journal last?” Alonhall asked.
“Alexis,” Delilah said. “She had it when we were taken into custody, and I doubt that she had any way to pass it to Violet after that.”
There was a moment of grim silence all around our side of the table as the implication of that sank in. It was Alonhall who broke the silence. “Alexis Saintback was taken in the same attack as you and Violet. How did you escape, by the way? We’d assumed that you had been captured as well.”
“When the wolves showed up, I realized the guards couldn’t keep me safe. So while they were distracted by the fight I just… slipped out.” Delilah sighed, staring down into her lap. “We should have just given her the journal. None of this was worth it.”
“No, you were incredibly brave,” Alonhall said in her most officious voice. “Falem and Dr. Nika Tersine are both lethally dangerous agents of the Cassandran Empire, and whatever they wanted that journal for was certainly nothing good. It’s likely that by delaying her access to the journal by so many months, you have done an incredible service to New Alderburg, and possibly even Bluerose as a whole.”
Delilah took a deep breath, blinking away tears. “Thank you, Blackbird.”
“I will make sure all eight of you receive high civilian honors, if at all possible.”
“What I don’t-don’t get is, why the journal? I-I mean, there has to have-have been other places where this village was written about, right-right? This journal can’t-can’t be the only one, can it?”
“I don’t know!” Delilah shrieked at Unity, voice rising to a point fast enough to startle me. “Maybe the professor wrote it down wrong, or maybe the killer thought that she couldn’t get away with stealing from the University. Or maybe the others all destroyed the damned thing when they found out she was going after it, like we should have from the beginning!”
That was apparently the last straw for Delilah, as she broke down into sobs. Unity went across the table to console her as best as she could, leaving Alonhall, Laura, and myself to talk strategy.
“So,” said Laura, “the Woman in White has Anna. She has Violet, and Alexis, and the journal, whatever that means. She still has an army of immortal half-human half-wolf monsters. Apparently she has the entire machine of the Cassandran espionage industry behind her. And we don’t even know where she is.”
“More or less, yeah.”
“Then we have her exactly where we want her. She doesn’t stand a chance,” Laura said with a smirk.
I lacked the energy to find the joke funny. I was running on no sleep, had recently been electrocuted, Anna was gone and I had no idea what to do. My entire world had gotten turned upside-down the night before, which would normally take weeks to process, but I was being given an hour. Someone I’d thought of as a friend and ally had turned out to be my greatest enemy.
“Where are you sleeping? I’m assuming I’m staying wherever you are.”
Laura raised an eyebrow. “There’s an empty room on the second floor, has some cots in it. But, Emma, now is not the time to be resting. Anna is being held captive, and the longer we wait, the more time the Woman in White will have to—”
“I know,” I said. “I just need an hour. Two hours. When my brain feels like it’s inside my skull again, then I can tell you everything that I’ve learned and we can figure out a plan.”
“I’m tired too, you know. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t under a fucking time pressure right now.”
I turned to Alonhall. “In your experience, will two hours make the difference between life or death? Will Tersine be able to find the completion of her master plan in the next two hours?”
“Considering how many days it took her to counterattack after our strike at the Red Chimney building, I find it unlikely.”
“There you have it,” I said. “Two hours, no more. You can even escort me to the room, if you want.”
I stood up from the table without giving Laura another chance to object. Hesitantly, she stood up and went to the stairs. I followed.
The room was nearly empty. A single table held a collection of candles, playing cards, and other detritus, and two mattresses sat on the bare floor near the wall, under piles of blankets. At least the door had a nice big iron bar near it so that you could have some amount of privacy.
Laura sat down on the mattress, and I laid down next to her, my head in her lap. “Laura?”
“Yes?”
“How much do you remember about what happened last night? Before we left the Crystal Ball, I mean.”
They really need to work on their opsec