Page 135 of The Rebel and the Rose
‘Breathe, Anouk,’ he called over his shoulder. Her eyes were bright gold. ‘It’s all right. Justbreathe.’
Too late. The nightguards fell, crumpling on either side of him. The archway shook, the joins in the grooves coming apart. Grabbing the old man under his arms, Ransom dragged him backwards with barely a heartbeat to spare. The entire structure came down with a deep, rattling boom.
Covering his head with his hands, Ransom threw himself on top of the old man. Dust showered them, shards of rock and shale nicking his arms, his hands.
Anouk’s cry rang out, her footsteps thundering closer. ‘I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! I saw the bodies and I panicked!’
Somewhere over her shoulder, Caruso stuck his head out of the carriage window. ‘Some of us are trying to sleep!’
Sitting up, Ransom swept the dust from his hair and sighed. ‘You’re really going to have to get a handle on that,’ he told his sister. ‘Preferably sooner rather than later.’
‘I just… I got spooked.’ Her forehead creasing, she knelt down beside the old man. ‘You don’t look so well, sir.’
Gross understatement. The man was half dead.
She flexed her fingers. ‘Maybe I could try and help—’
‘Wait.’ Ransom eyed him with mounting suspicion. ‘He could be one of Andreas’s mercenaries.’
The old man puffed out a denial. ‘Postmaster.’
‘A postmaster! That’s hardly sinister.’ Anouk laid her hands on the man’s chest, swatting Ransom away when he tried to stop her. ‘Just let me try. He’s at death’s door anyway.’
Closing her eyes, Anouk began to breathe deeply and slowly, her fingers twitching as they skated across his ribs, as if drawn there by some invisible magnet.
While she worked, Nadia and Caruso emerged from the carriage in matching states of bewilderment. Leaving his sister to her mending, Ransom stalked to meet them.
‘Remind me to never get on her bad side,’ said Nadia, surveying the ruined arch. ‘That’s quite an entrance.’
So much for the element of surprise.
‘We’ll have to go in on foot. Find the shadows and keep to them.’ It was early still, the streets beyond the shattered arch eerily silent. High on the hills, the red mills were still turning but Marvale was fast asleep.
‘Ransom.’ Anouk’s voice drew him back to her. The old man was sitting up now. His face was still every shade of purple and he was clutching his ribs, but there was colour in his pallor now, and strength in his wheezes.
‘Punctured lung.’ Anouk beamed. ‘This makes up for the arch.’
‘That depends on how useful he turns out to be,’ said Caruso, coming up behind Ransom.
‘You saved my life, girl,’ said the postmaster, ignoring them entirely. ‘Let me thank you. I have to thank you.’ He patted his pockets frantically and, before Anouk could stop him, he pulled out a large silver ring and folded it into her hand. ‘Take this. Please, just take it. Too big for those dainty fingers, but I was told it’d fetch a pretty penny in the market. Belonged to Hugo Versini so it did.’
With blood roaring in his ears, Ransom stared at the skullring in his little sister’s hand. The one he had worn for months already, binding him to a life of death and shadows. The one he had taken off and left on the bedside table the morning he walked out on Seraphine and didn’t look back.
The one she must have found when she’d awoken alone in that bedroom, wondering where he was.
In a low voice, he said, ‘Where did you get that?’
‘They gave it to me. Three runaways, they were. Said they had to get to the next town right quick. Bartered it for safe passage out of Marvale so they did.’
All those gruesome bruises on the postmaster’s face were starting to look a lot more sinister now. ‘Looks like you didn’t get very far,’ said Ransom, carefully.
He shook his head. ‘Surprised I got away with my life.’
Ransom’s heart climbed up his throat. ‘What about the runaways?’ It was a struggle to keep his voice even, to push back the sudden clamour of his panic. ‘What became of them?’
The postmaster shrugged, looking back towards the slumbering village. ‘They’re all gone now. Everyone is gone.’
‘Gone where?’ chorused Caruso and Nadia.
