Page 33 of The Infinite Glade
Minho didn’t like Alexandra guiding their path. “We should have gone out farther around this. It’s too shallow.” Ocean rocks jutted from the water on both sides. “Rox, can you see anything up ahead?”
No answer.
“Roxy?” Minho said it louder.Where in Level Hell was everyone?
“Minho . . . come look! Quick!” Roxy waved at Minho from the back of the ship. Behind theMaze Cutter, in the opposite direction of the sky where Minho steered, there were red and pink lights. The Remnant Nation had flare guns for alerts, but nothing in those colors. . . . Minho had spent hundreds of night-watches on the wall, staring up at the night sky, but he’d never seen this before.
“It’s weird, I know,” Orange said, motioning to the wheel. “Roxy asked me to give you a break so you could go look. I guess it’s some phenomenon or something.”
Minho looked back at the sky. “It’s alright, I got it. The waters are too shallow here and—” Something caught his attention. Commotion from the others.Sadina waving that damn book around, the one Alexandra had been eyeing from the moment they found that crazy Pilgrim. The woman held her hand out. “She’s going to take Frypan’s book.” Minho looked at Orange and then back at Sadina and Alexandra at the end of the ship.
“She’s obsessed with Sadina and her family.”
“Yeah.” Minho watched Alexandra as the same exact fingers she’d shoved down a man’s throat to kill him grabbed the book from Sadina’s hands.
Minho couldn’t take it anymore.
Orphans own nothing. Not even what they’re given.
“Go . . . I got this,” Orange said, taking over the wheel.
Old Man Frypan had given that book to Sadina. It was a part of her family’s history. If Minho had the privilege of a family history, he’d have protected it with his life—and he’d do the same for his friends. His hand traced the trigger of his gun as he walked the deck to Alexandra.
“It’s simple,” Alexandra was saying, gently caressing the book just as she had the Great Master’s face before she killed him. “Everything comes back to the digits and the Flaring Discipline.” She marveled at the cover and the pages. “I’ll hold on to this so it doesn’t get lost or damaged.”
Alexandra spoke with Sadina as if the girl were stupid, which she wasn’t. Naive, yes. Stupid, no. Minho truly despised this woman.
“No,” Minho said loudly. “Give her that back.” He reached for the book but Alexandra pulled it away from his grasp.He should have broken her fingers when he had the chance.
“Hey . . . it’s alright . . .” Trish’s eyes held a strange panic in them that Minho hadn’t seen since Isaac and Old Man Frypan separated with Jackie and Ms. Cowan.
“Steady . . .” Roxy said with an arm held out against Minho. He fell back into a soldier’s rest position, which is never a position ofrestbut a less threatening stance. He just wanted to protect their lives and their belongings. Didn’t anyone see that?
“That book ishers,” Minho said with more than a hint of threat in his voice, despite the calm stance. “It’s her family’s story. Don’t take it away from her.” He couldn’t understand why the islanders were looking at him like he was crazy. Orphans didn’t have much, but at least they had respect for each other.
Alexandra was not fazed. “Oh, you see, I wouldn’t dream of taking itaway. I want to do the opposite—to keep itsafe.” She hummed along and turned away from Minho with her killing cloak. Minho stepped forward, wishing he could choke her with her own Pilgrim’s wool right there and then. Have her meet the same end as the Great Master.
“It’s okay, son.” Roxy grabbed Minho’s arm. “Let her see what she can find in it and maybe she can help us untangle something with those digits.” She patted Minho on the back encouragingly, but it felt like she was trying to pat out flames of war.
He took a deep breath.
“We’re safe with the Godhead,” Trish insisted. Minho could think of a dozen dangerous things safer than being with the Godhead. That woman had brainwashed these people.
“Precisely. What better way to protect this special artifact than to keep it with the Godhead.” Alexandra danced her fingers through the pages and the wordGodheadsent Grief Bearer–sized lashings down Minho’s body.
“Keep it safe with the Godhead?” Minho mocked her and pointed back to the shores that were no longer in sight. “Your city burned to ashes and you’ve said nothing in retrospect or regret about it. No guilt. No sadness. Just an acceptance of defeat.” He turned to the others, everyone staring at him with wide eyes. “The people who once trusted the Godhead—and even those who refused to—they’re all dead or dying right now. . . . Because ofyou. Tell me how all your dead Pilgrims weresafe?”
“Minho!” Roxy pulled him closer to her, but he resisted. He stood tall.
“It’s true.” Minho straightened his shoulders. “Answer me, how are those dead along your shores considered safe, Goddess?”
“Man . . .” Dominic sighed and covered his face with his hands.
“You guys refuse to acknowledge what’s happening right in front of your eyes. She’s a terrible person, and a worse leader. She could be leading us right into a place that doesn’t even exist right now. Or a place where we’ll be held captive and killed!” He pointed toward the icy ocean ahead.
Sadina took a crack at him. “Minho . . . this is theGodhead. . . we’re in her?—”
Minho walked fearlessly up to the supposed Godhead, and no one, including Alexandra, moved. He stood in front of her and made sure to take up as much of her personal space as possible. “Sadina received the book as a gift from a close friend, and she won’t be giving it away, not even to the Godhead.” He grabbed the top of the book and pulled it, but in a quick snap she pulled it back.
