Page 89 of Skinwalker's Bane
A hand shoved under her free arm and pulled her up the next step. Devin looked around. It was Haydn. Noa clung to his back, looking over his shoulder with big eyes. He was looking at Adam. “Sauber is a Caver!” he yelled.
“This was an assassination,” Adam shouted back. “A grab for power!”
“Now he’s up there, trying to take over,” Haydn cried.
“Someone has to challenge him!” Noa said.
Adam looked down at Devin. “You must do it. You know how to talk to people.”
Devin looked up at Sauber. He was getting attention. The fighting was dying down at the front of the stage as people turned to look at him.
Sauber was a Caver? If he was, that explained what had happened here today. It had all been orchestrated, probably by Sauber himself, to deliver him to that spot on the stage. This was his moment.
He thought.
Devin nodded. “Help me up there,” she said and was glad to hear her voice emerge with most of its usual strength.
“Right.” Adam pulled her up the stairs and she felt Haydn’s hand on her back, propping her up. They stepped up onto the stage. Devin found she could walk. Slowly.
There were people all around her, shepherding her forward. Haydn. Noa. Peter Hannah. Gelin Merritt and most of Adam’s crew. Adam used his sleeve to wipe the side of her face as they hurried toward the center of the stage. “This will be the speech of your life,” he told her. “No pressure.”
“Thanks,” she told him dryly. She didn’t feel afraid, though. She wasn’t overwhelmed. All she could focus on was that Sauber must be stopped, for the good of the ship. She could do that.
“We’ve got your back,” Adam told her as he stepped away from her. She glanced over her shoulder. The skinwalkers were all gathered there behind her. Adam nodded.
Devin filled her lungs and turned back to face the crowd. “Everyone! Listen! Stop and think what you’re doing!”
More heads turned at her shout.
Sauber glared at her. “Who do you think you are?” he demanded.
The unforgiving sound system picked up his words and boomed them across the Meadow.
“Everyone, listen!” Devin shouted again. “Think of your friends. Your children! Everyone is here today. Everyone, including those closest to you. Where are they right now? Are they safe? Look around you!Look!”
The writhing seemed to slow. She could see people really were looking around them. Many of them looked puzzled, as if they were waking up and wondering how they’d got there.
“Everyone, right now, find the people you know. Make sure they are safe!” Devin coaxed them.
Sauber looked as though he wanted to jeer at her for her sentimentality, only he had learned already what happened if he spoke freely. He glared, instead.
Devin ignored him. There were cries sounding. Horrified ones. Cries for help.
“Anyone who is injured, who needs help, bring them over here, to the side of the stage. There are medics here who can help!” She pointed to the right, where the stretchers were.
Several of the people hovering about the stretchers straightened, looking around, as people moved in their direction. They spoke quickly and Devin could see they were lining them up. Triage, she thought it was called. Prioritizing the wounded.
People were listening to her. Good.
She nodded. “This is a disaster. It doesn’t have to get worse, though.Youcan make that decision—how bad today gets is up to you. Stop fighting. Help the people around you, even if they’re strangers, even if they’re Cavers. Help them, anyway. Just as you saw the fighting spread like the wind, make a decision and spread calm, instead.Do it.” She paused, gathered her breath and projected as hard as she could. “Chooseto make a difference!”
It was working. She could see people standing still. Looking around them. They were talking to each other.
Calm returned.
Devin wiped at her temple as the hot blood trickled.
“I am Manlio Sauber!” Sauber shouted. His voice was harsh and the raw note amplified in an ugly way. “You know who I am! You’ve seen and heard me speak out against the Bridge’s abuse of power many times before.”
