Nada's Escape

14- Farewell.

Soon Penny is looking better, asleep on the floor as Macie forces the second initiate, Liza, to drink a glass of water. She too is looking a little sickly and worried at the thought that the chicken may have been undercooked, as Macie claims. I am not sure how long it takes for food poisoning to take effect but I'm pretty sure it occurs in those who eat the food and leaves those who refuse to eat untouched. The opposite here has happened. And all the Huntsmen, Macie assures me, are worried but as healthy as they've ever been.

A knock sounds at the door and I tense for action, perhaps expecting an artillery assault next. I open the door, which is unlocked anyway, leaving a gap just wide enough to see who it is. Finley. I am not going to deal with his shenanigans on top of this.

I am halfway to slamming the door again when he pushes a couple of coat hangers through.

"I'm sorry. I went and got some spare clothes and a few cloths. Hopefully they'll help clean this up." He says.

I take them slowly, hissing as I do. "What happened to the plan, amigo?"

"It's still on," he promises. "Didn't you read the note in your hat?"

"No! I care about results, not secret messages. I should have known." Should have known he was feigning interest in helping just to distract me from my real escape plans. I shake my head bitterly. "Thanks for nothing."

I quickly shut the door. Macie frowns at me and calls after Finley. "No really, thank you!"

So she orchestrated that little delivery too. I want to be annoyed at Macie for bossing everyone around... except that she isn't acting like a worm today. She is acting as like a survivor. Only a fighter would be suspicious enough to guess that a worm fainting was due to Huntsmen poison.

Unfortunately now I'm worried that I've left my hat out there at the table with a secret note in it. Why would anyone think that offering someone a hat meant, please read my message?

Ten minutes later, I am faced with my own question as and Fern slips in on orders from Amy. I simply shake my head, calling off my ingenious plan. With a poisoner on the loose it doesn't feel like the best time to be kidnapping people. Instead I whisper to Fern that she and the others should fill the Huntsmen's glasses to the brim with the suspect lemonade. I want to be sure they are immune.

An hour onwards with no more clarity on the poisoning I carry Penny, angelically asleep in a clean pink polka-dotted dress, towards the gate. Macie has insisted that we walk in a line, Penny and I in the middle, to highlight our 'united strength despite adversity'. Seeing the four of them, our sponsors, lined in front of the gate with the sun behind them, it feels like we are the leaders of some near-defeated army coming to treat with the enemy for our meagre lives. I guess we kind of are.

When we reach them Henry steps forward as if to take Penny but I halt out of reach. I meet his eye with steel in my gaze.

"I'll take care of her," he whispers.

"Make sure you do," I reply, though the statement is entirely inadequate. I glance at Penny's tiny, curling eyelashes and feel her quiet warmth against my torso. I want to pick Henry up and shake him until he realises just how serious the welfare of this little girl is. Instead I watch his teeth silently worry into his lip at her form and I carefully pass her over. He nods to me and then begins a slow stroll out to the open gates.

Macie gives the Liza a big hug in front of me whispering how proud she is in her ear. When they break apart her sponsor holds out his hand and she moves to take it but I stop her. Maybe she isn't as helpless as Penny but I feel like I can't let her slip away into the hands of someone who could take advantage of her. I press her into a hug and whisper.

"Don't take his hand. Don't let him touch you. Ever." I pull back and can see a question hanging from her lips. I pressed a finger to her mouth.

"Trust me. Stay safe," I say and let her go. She doesn't take her sponsor's hand but follows him out through the gates without a fuss.

Now there are four.

I glance at Finley and then look away. Macie's ancient sponsor has a strangle-hold on her hand and she is nodding silently at the nonsense story he is spouting. She senses my gaze and turns to cough behind her hand, making a disgusted face at Finley and I before turning innocently back to her sponsor.

I smile ruefully. Finley's face is touched with amusement too but when he looks at me it is like he is trying to tell me something more than that. Like he is happy for me?

He reaches his arm out before him, holding up the cream hat I'd left at the luncheon table. The sun dips low enough to get in my eyes and I squint at him, measuring. I take the hat, my fingertips sliding against the warm felt.

"Goodbye." I say, intoning each syllable slowly so that he can't misinterpret me. Leave me alone. I mean to swirl away from him then but something sticks me in an awkward half turn to leave. I glance at him once more but am merely dazzled by the setting sun.

"See you tomorrow," he replies too late, clinging to my future with words. I leave without reply, turning my back on the wide open gate for a few more locked doors. I wonder after today if they'll restamp my file. A fighter or a lady?

I run my finger around the inside of the hat brim until it catches on a piece of paper. I'm halfway back and when I turn only Macie and her sponsor are left at the gate. I slide the note out and unfurl it.

I have allies who can help us. With their help, we can save all the girls from right under the council's noses. I promise. I can tell you more once you've met with them.

On reading those words my heart leaps with hope, despite my attempts to strangle that dangerous emotion. Yes, he's promising, but he's vague. It's a lot of effort to go to merely to distract me from escape, but then again hasn't Finley had three years to hone his strategies? I can't respect words, I decide, even those secreted away from the council's eyes and ears. I can only respect actions.

I secret the note back into its hiding place just as Macie extricates herself from her sponsor and walks towards me.

"I pray I never find myself tied into that green ribbon," she sighs once she's caught up. Two days ago I would have been surprised, but Macie has proved herself to me today.

"Ditto for red," I laugh. We have more things in common than I'd ever thought. Perhaps Macie is the most pernicious fighter of us all.