Page 105 of These Divided Shores
“Argrid was trying to save us fromyou! They’ll be back—and you will pay!”
Lu staggered at the hatred that poured over them. The sobbing, the destruction from what had surely been an Argridian invasion—how had Elazar spun this attack? Had his defensors cried salvation as they stormed the streets, promising they were here to save the lost souls of the raiders? Had the defensors feigned a peaceful approach and turned to defense only after raiders struck the first blow?
Rosalia’s steamboat bumped against the shore closest to the sanctuary. Lu leaped off, Nayeli behind her, panic shooting through Lu the moment her feet hit the dirt road. The speed-giving Incris coursed through her, and she ran.
The hidden entrances in the tenements were open. The raiders who had been standing guard were gone. The twisting halls were bare, the stomping of their feet echoing as Lu and Nayeli and a hodgepodge of raiders chased through the buildings.
Lu stumbled into the sanctuary, the sky burnished rose gold by the setting sun.
Bodies lay all around. Alive, dead, injured—it was difficult to tell, and Lu teetered forward, the world spinning.
Nayeli grabbed her arm—to steady Lu, to steady herself as she shouted, “Vex! Edda! Fatemah!”
More names pushed at Lu’s throat.Ben. Gunnar—
Nayeli gave a startled cry and shot forward. Emerdian, Grozdan, and Tuncian raiders streamed into the sanctuary, shouting for their own people. But it was Nayeli who drew Lu’s attention.
Vex sat on the side of a road, elbows on his knees, head bowed between his hands. Ben crouched next to him, his hand on Vex’s bent shoulders; Gunnar paced ahead of them, cut back, stomped away, paced back again.
Nayeli dropped to the ground beside him. Vex didn’t move but for the rise and fall of his shoulders. Ben was the one who looked at her, whispered something that made him drop his eyes.
Nayeli screamed. She shoved herself to her feet, hands in her hair, her body doubling over in her agony.
Lu stumbled forward, one step, another. She got close enough that Vex noticed her, and he jerked back to look up at her, his face showing a wash of horror, relief, and sorrow all at once.
Hands touched Lu’s shoulders from behind. “Adeluna—”
Lu spun to face Kari. Tears stained her mother’s cheeks, dirt and blood caked over her shirt and breeches.
“What—” Lu started to ask as Nayeli heaved a sob, or a growl, or justpain.
“Some refugees told the defensors how to get in.”
The voice came from behind her. Brittle, broken.
Lu couldn’t look at Vex. Her body refused to turn back.
“Everything Elazar did to Cansu—and it wasn’t her.” He sniffed. “Edda’s dead. Fatemah, too. And—” He stopped. “Your father was here.”
Lu choked, the back of her hand to her mouth.
“He wants you.” Vex coughed on a sob and Lu finally found it in herself to look back down at him. “He had Teo. Here. He wanted to get you to surrender.”
A hundred questions. A dozen accusations. But Lu couldn’t speak.
Vex looked up, his face red and blotchy, his eye tear-glazed. His sorrow pinched in a frown of confusion. “He wanted something out of Teo too. I don’t know. I don’t—and Edda—”
Vex’s eye cut to the side and he sobbed again. Lu followed his gaze to Edda. Brave, loyal Edda, lying in the shadows of a hut across the way.
Nayeli saw her, too. She fell to her knees, weeping.
All the world had gone to glass, crystalline and fragile. Lu didn’t dare move to break it.
“He took one of your potions,” came another voice. Lu didn’t have the spare energy to be threatened by Jakes,standing free in the middle of the road. He rubbed the back of his head, wincing in pain.
Gunnar’s shoulders tensed. “You have no right to be out here now—”
“Wait.” Lu held up her hand and looked at Jakes. “What did you say? He took—”
