Twelve-year-old Carmen has a secret: she can talk to her cat Grim. But the powerful Brotherhood has banned pets, and the penalty is death.
Ward is the most wanted boy in the world. The only thing standing between him and the hangman's noose is maste...
Ward took the piece of parchment out of his pocket and placed it on the table.
"Thank you," Corvus said. "It is dear to me."
"Sorry we -" Carmen began, but Corvus waved this away.
Ward hesitated for a moment, then opened his bag and took out the Oliphant. "This is yours too," he said.
"Not any more," Corvus said. "You know who its rightful owner is."
Ward held the Oliphant out a moment longer, then nodded, and put it back in his bag.
Corvus turned to Carmen. "How's your Grandmere?"
"Okay. Back to normal, I guess."
"She's a remarkable woman," Corvus said, his voice tinged with sadness. "There's an old saying, that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. The Brotherhood rewrote the history of David Nassar to suit their own ends, and in doing so forgot the truth. A demon, carried away by a flock of birds." He smiled. "But he was no demon. He was a man. An unusual man yes, but a man just the same. And no flock of birds carried him away, though they played a part. He was pardoned under the same law your Grandmere invoked the other day."
"What if she didn't wake up?" Ward said. "What if they got there too late?"
"Then things would have been difficult."
"And why weren't you there?" Again, Ward couldn't keep the suspicion out of his voice.
"But I was."
"I didn't see you."
"Yes you did."
Ward thought back. The crowd hissing and booing. Snapper's moon face in the stalls. The brothers like birds of prey in the front row. The Blankets. Grandmere Anna's voice rising over the crowd, the Red pausing over the lever that released the trapdoors...
"The executioner," Ward whispered.
Corvus smiled. "Very good. When I heard the execution had been brought forward I went straight to the Derricks. I," he coughed, "disabled the executioner, gagged him, changed into his uniform, and pushed him out of sight beneath the scaffold. He would have been a confused man when he woke, I imagine."
"How did you disable him?" Carmen said.
"With my staff. More blackleaf?"
"No thank you."
Corvus leaned back in the armchair, the cup held between both hands. Ward had once seen a slee holding an apple like that as it dangled by its tail from a branch. Grim opened his yellow eyes, regarded the old man for a moment, then closed them again.
"I still don't understand what happened," Ward said. "When I played the Oliphant, I mean."
"Exactly what the Brotherhood said would happen," Corvus said. "You woke the Sleepers."
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Those who forget to vote are doomed to... well I'll think of something painful.
