Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'brien Read Free Book Online Page B

protested desperately. “The Enclave would at least tell me.” Who else knew this? Did Theo Rupp?
    He angled his face a little nearer, and it was the sad curve of a faint smile that finally convinced her he must be telling the truth. “It doesn’t work that way,” he said.
    She fought against the oncoming -wave of horror. “There must be something I can do,” she said.
    “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “Your parents were two of the finest people I ever knew.”
    “Don’t talk about them like that!” she said. “Like they’re already dead. Please, if you have contacts inside the wall, you must have a way to do something. Can ‘t we get in?”
    He wiped his hands slowly on his white apron, hesitating. “It’s too dangerous,” he said. “No one goes in.”
    “There has to be a way,” Gaia pressed. Her nightmares were nothing compared to this. She was suddenly furious with herself for her weeks of docile inactivity. She should have been doing something. She should have been protesting somehow. Instead she’d been serving the Enclave like a stupid little slave! She grabbed her hat off her head and ran a hand back through her hair, thinking rapidly. If the Enclave could execute innocent people like her own parents, then she no longer owed it her loyalty.
    If there was a chance, any chance at all that she could do something to save them, she would do it. She could go to the gate and demand to see Mabrother Iris as Sgt. Grey had instructed, and give him the parcel Old Meg had given her. Mabrother Iris was second only to the Protectorat, so the par’ eel must be worth something. Even now Gaia had it tied around her leg under her skirt. She’d examined it and knew it contained a brown ribbon, closely embroidered with silk threads, but the pattern made no sense to her, just as the note in her pocket at that moment was a cypher. Then it dawned on her. That ribbon was almost certainly the list Sgt. Grey had been seeking.
    It was also what her mother wanted her to destroy.
    She leaned back against one of the counters, her mind spinning.
    “There must be a way through that wall,” she said.
    Derek stroked a hand slowly down his mustache and into his beard. “Only the gate entrance is legal. Any other attempt to go inside is punishable by death.”
    She approached nearer to him and seized upon her decision as surely as if she’d picked up one of his measuring cups. She had to see her parents. She had to get to them somehow. “I don’t care about any punishment. I want you to help me get into the Enclave prison. Can you do that?”
    Derek’s eyebrows lowered in visible alarm. “Do you realize what you re saying?”
    She no longer cared that she was talking like a traitor. “Please,” she said. “I need to see my mother. There’s something I need to give her that could save her life.”
    “What is it?”
    She shook her head. “You joked that I might have a sweet’ heart inside the wall. What if I told you it’s true, and I need to see him? Forget my parents. Just help me get inside the wall. I’ll do the rest myself.”
    “I can’t afford the risk.”
    “I’ll pay you,” she said.
    He tilted his face slightly, then reached for a brown pile of dough and began to knead it, then roll it neatly into a long loaf. He set it on a floured cloth, then pinched the cloth to make a pucker for the next loaf. If he hadn’t been frowning so intently, she would have thought he was ignoring her, but she was certain he was concentrating and the kneading helped him think.
    “Derek,” Gaia said softly. “You said you had children of your own. I’m all my parents have. They’re probably worried sick about me out here all alone. Wouldn’t they want you to help me?”
    He shot her a glance and dropped the next loaf onto the cloth. “They’d want me to keep you safe,” he said dryly.
    “But I want to be with them, too. They’re all I have. You have to help me get in there.”
    Gaia stood next to the table