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

far, and our old home is a death trap. We’ll do whatever it takes to survive here.”
    â€œEven so. Who’s in charge?”
    Gaia felt a certain ironic delight. “I’m our elected leader. You’re looking at the Matrarc of New Sylum.”
    Myrna’s gaze went from Gaia to the caravan of walking people with their burdens and back to Gaia. “That figures.”
    Gaia offered Myrna a canteen, but the doctor had brought a bottle of her own, and while the older woman drank, Gaia lifted Will’s binoculars again. The wall, with its massive blocks of limestone, appeared taller than before, and now that she was nearer, she inspected a new wooden layer that had been built along the top. A parapet connected the towers so soldiers could walk along the continuous top length, at least along the legs of the wall that overlooked Wharfton.
    She adjusted the focus on a soldier who had his own pair of binoculars aimed back toward the caravan.
    Gaia lowered the binoculars and turned to the doctor. “Are you spying for the Protectorat?”
    â€œWhy? Do you have something to hide?”
    She had a point. Gaia glanced over her shoulder to where her young messengers waited discreetly for orders. “Tell Leon Vlatir and Mx. Dinah to join me, please,” she said to one. “They’re both behind me a ways.” She gestured to another. “Chardo Will went ahead. Find him and ask him to come back, too.”
    The messengers sprang off.
    â€œMy scouts were supposed to ask a couple of my old friends in Wharfton to start stockpiling water for our arrival,” Gaia said. “Would you have any idea if that’s happening?”
    â€œI don’t know. Derek Vlatir is the one who told me your scouts had been taken in. He always knows what’s going on.”
    â€œHow do you know Derek?” Gaia asked, puzzled. “He still lives outside the wall, doesn’t he?”
    â€œSo do I, now,” Myrna said, and jogged up her chin. “I told you things have changed. I took over your old house on Sally Row. I hope you don’t mind, but it didn’t look like you were coming back. I’m running a blood bank there.”
    â€œBut isn’t that illegal? How did all this happen?” Gaia asked, amazed.
    â€œOutside the wall the blood bank isn’t illegal,” Myrna said. “You began it all by stealing the birth records. It took the Enclave a few days to realize you gave them to your red-headed friend, Emily.”
    â€œEmily! How is she? Is she all right?”
    â€œDidn’t Leon tell you? The Protectorat took Emily’s baby to persuade her to give the records back, which she did, of course. But then the Protectorat accused her of having copies made. When the Enclave still didn’t give Emily’s son back, she and her husband went berserk.”
    â€œThey would go berserk. Especially Kyle,” Gaia said. “Leon left around then, so I don’t know what happened after that.”
    People kept streaming past on Gaia’s left, glancing over curiously. Her standard made a rippling noise in the wind, and its shadow flicked in the dust.
    Myrna took another sloshing swig from her bottle. “Enclave parents were afraid that birth parents from outside the wall would track down their advanced children to steal them back,” she said. “There was a panic, so when Emily’s husband was caught coming under the wall to try to get their son back, there wasn’t much sympathy for him. I imagine you recall the punishment for breaching the wall.”
    Gaia hugged her sister closer. “Execution.”
    â€œExactly,” Myrna said.
    Gaia couldn’t believe it. She touched a hand to her forehead, horrified.
    Leon arrived then and slid a hand around her waist. “What is it?” he asked quietly.
    â€œEmily’s husband Kyle was executed,” Gaia said, her voice tightening. “Did you know