Daughter of Rebels

Chapter 3 - The Widow Swift

It was near dawn when they reached the wide, cobblestone road drew a stark, uncompromising line between the squat, cobbled-together shelters of Paradise Hill and the white-washed brick of the Order's opulent residential district. They lingered within the slum, tucked beneath a lopsided overhang made of what appeared to be shipping crates and a sheet of worn canvas. Two overturned buckets sat beneath canvas shelter, an ash-caked ceramic bowl between them. Mara sat on one of the two buckets and felt the echo of the usual inhabitants--two woman, sitting on the buckets, pipe smoke curling over their heads as they laughed together.

There was joy here, she knew.

Just not right now.

Eli sat on one of the buckets and so did she, and for a moment they both simply studied the cobblestone street, colored sickly yellow by the streetlamps that stood like sentries on the far side, spaced perfectly, every twenty strides, so that no shadow was allowed to creep in between them.

"The next guard should pass by soon," Eli said. "We'll need to move quickly. The Hive only opens at dawn."

They weren't far, Mara knew. Rather than cluster its officers together, the Order had spaced them out into a narrow ring that encircled the city, just inside the wall. "To stay connected with the people," the outreach officers said. "To keep us from losing touch with what's important." But Mara knew, everyone capable of free thought knew that it was just another means of control. No part of the city was out of sight of the Order's decision-makers. The crow's nests jutting from the roof of each palatial townhome weren't for show. They kept watch on the city within just as the towers along the outer wall kept watch on the farmland and forests without. One couldn't leave the city without passing through the clean, well-lit streets of the officer's quarters.

To reach The Hive--an enclave built into the outer wall--they had to walk those streets. There were no dark back alleys, no secret passages.

"How?" she asked. "We'll be caught."

"The guards travel in pairs, this far from the main gate, and nobody comes this way who doesn't belong. Especially not after curfew"

"But there's still guards."

"I can handle two guards at a time. We just need to get past the main road."

She wanted to argue, but his eyes flicked to her and her mouth fell shut.

They waited in silence. Nick began to stir, just as movement caught Mara's eye, two shadows stretching across the cobblestones, bobbing as they lengthened. Her heart squeezed and stuttered, but Eli ducked his head and whispered something in her son's ear and the boy subsided back into heavy sleep, hands curled into loose fists.

Odd, her brain insisted, but the thought went to tatters before she could grasp it, floating away like a dream.

Their hiding spot was too far back from the road, too masked in shadow for the guards to make them out, but she still felt exposed as the duo meandered into sight. They wore uniforms not unlike Eli's--riding trousers, loose shirts, leather breastplates stamped with the Order's stylistic torch. Their uniforms were crimson, though, designating their role as city guards. Eli and Davy wore brown, their jurisdiction beyond the wall rather than within it. The guards on the wall, she knew, wore gray, training officers green, and palace guards white. Everything in its place. Everything neat, distinct, orderly. Disorder begat chaos and chaos begat evil.

So claimed the Order.

The crimson-clad guards passed out of view, and a few heartbeats later Eli stood. "Stay close," he whispered, and she nodded.

They crept to the edge of the light and hesitated there for a breath, listening, sensing. Then, without ceremony, Eli stepped out onto the street and Mara followed. Immediately, a sense of nakedness came over her and her muscles threatened to seize. She squinted against the light, her steps fumbling as she hurried in Eli's wake. They were so exposed, whitewashed walls looming over them. A powerful, animal urge came over her, to snatch Nick from Eli's arms and run back into the safety of the slums. She could build a decent life for them there. She had valuable skills. She could help people.