Cress

Chapter 1

Book One

When she was just a child, the witch locked her
away in a tower that had neither doors nor stairs.

        Her  satellite  made  one  full   orbit   around    planet   Earth   every sixteen
        hours. It was  a  prison  that  came  with  an  endlessly breathtaking  view—
       vast blue  oceans  and  swirling  clouds and  sunrises  that  set  half  the world
       on fire.
                When she was first imprisoned, she had  loved  nothing  more than  to
         stack her pillows on top of the  desk  that  was  built into  the  walls  of  the
         drape her bed linens over the screens, making  a  small  alcove  for  herself.
         She would pretend that she was not on a satellite at  all, but in  a  podship
          en route to the blue planet. Soon she would land  and  step  out  onto real
          dirt, feel real sunshine, smell real oxygen.
             She  would  stare  at  the  continents  for  hours  and  hours, imagining
         what that must be like.
              Her view of Luna, however, was always to be avoided. Some  days  her
          satellite passed so close that the  moon  took  up  the  entire  view and  she
         could  make  out  the enormous  glinting  domes  on  its  surface   and   the
          sparkling cities where the Lunars lived. Where  she,  too,  had  lived. Years
          ago. Before she'd been banished.
            As  a  child, Cress had  hidden  from  the  moon  during those  achingly
           long hours. Sometimes  she  would  escape  to  the  small washroom  and
           distract herself by twisting elaborate braids  into  her  hair. Or she would
        scrambled beneath her desk and sing lullabies until she fell asleep. Or she
           would dream up a mother  and  a  father,  and  imagine  how  they  would
          play make-believe with her and read her adventure stories and brush her
          hair longingly off her brow, until finally—finally—the  moon  would  sink
        again behind the protective Earth, and she was safe.
                   Even now, Cress used those hours to crawl beneath her bed and nap or
            read or write songs in her head or  workout complicated  coding. She still
             did not like to look at the cities of Luna;  she harbored  a  secret  paranoia
          that if she could see the Lunars, surely  they  could  look  up  beyond  their
          artificial skies and see her.
               For more than seven years, this had been her nightmare.
                But now the silver horizon  of  Luna  was  creeping  into the corner  of
          her window, and  Cress  paid  no  attention. This  time,  her  wall  of  invisi-
               screens  was  showing  her  a  brand-new   nightmare.  Brutal  words  were
             splattered across the  newsfeeds, photos and  videos  blurring  in  her  vi-
            sion as she scrolled from  one feed  to  the  next. She  couldn't  read  fast
           enough.

                   14 CITIES ATTACKED WORLDWIDE
                   2-HOUR MURDER SPREE RESULTS IN 16,000 EARTHEN
                      DEATHS
                 LARGEST MASSACRE IN THIRD ERA

                       The net was littered with  horrors. Victims  dead  in   the  streets  with
                 shredded abdomens and blood leaking  into  the   gutters.  Feral   men-crea-
           tures with gore  on  their  chins  and  beneath  their  fingernails and  staining
              the  fronts  of  their  shirts.  She  scrolled through  them  all  with   one hand
             pressed   over   her mouth.   Breathing  became  increasingly difficult as the
               truth of it all sank in.
                 This was her fault.
                  For months she had  been  cloaking  those  Lunar ships  from Earthen
          detection, doing  Mistress Sybil's  bidding  without question,  like  the  well-
           trained lackey she was.