Niffin flicked his eyebrow. Breaking into the mask-maker’s shop was the least of their indiscretions in Isolas. “Any damages or losses will be properly recompensed.”
This early in the morning, few people would be wearing Stagioni di Magia costumes, but Brigette hoped she and her friends look like tired revelers on their way home from an all-night party.
Gideon mounted his big black horse and stroked the beast’s neck. He caught Brigette’s skeptical gaze. “You want to take Evie’s horse, or do you want to ride Wallah with me?”
Adrenaline and survival instincts had kept her going long after she might have otherwise passed out, both from pain and exhaustion. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to manage a horse on her own. “Ride with you, I guess. I’ve never been much of an equestrian.”
Malita exited the store carrying a bundle of plain white masks designed to completely cover everyone’s faces. She also handed out colorful capes made of cheap, flimsy material. Put together, Brigette hoped their disguises looked convincingly festive.
Following a map Malita and Niffin had copied during their visit to the library, the troop hurried out of town, sticking to back roads and byways. If the Council searched for them on main roads, canals, or trains, they would come up empty-handed. Still, Brigette wouldn’t relax any time soon. Escaping Isolas had been the easy part.
The true test of her Magic was still to come.
Beyond the city’s borders, they found themselves traipsing over a rutted and worn trail winding between ancient olive groves. Huge trees lined the path like gnarled old men, casting shade, offering relief from the hot morning sun.
“Now that we are not in such a hurry, can you tell us what happened at the basilica?” Niffin had shed his mask and cape along with everyone else’s when they’d passed beyond Isolas’s borders, but he kept on his hat and spectacles. “When we got your signal, we feared the worst.”
“Pesce was a traitor, as we’d expected,” Gideon grumbled.
He summed up their raid on the basilica, and Brigette listened close to the parts she herself hadn’t witnessed. She waited for him to say something about her failure to participate, but he left those details out.
“Faercourt knocked me out and disappeared with Evie. If it weren’t for Brigette, I never would have made it out of the basilica or off that island.”
Heat rose in Brigette’s face. There was a bit of begrudged respect in Gideon’s voice, and she knew she deserved none of it.
“If Faercourt took Evie,” Niffin said, “they are surely headed for Inselgrau.”
“Not just Inselgrau but to Fallstaff,” Gideon said. “The literal seat of Evie’s kingdom. Her home. That’s where Le Poing Fermé has established its base.”
“Then that’s where we will reconnect with her.”
“What if Jackie takes Evie somewhere else first?” Malita asked. “Maybe he will hold her as a, um...” She glanced at Niffin. “Eru?”
“Captive?”
She nodded. “Maybe he will keep her as a captive somewhere else. He knows Evie has friends who will come for her.”
“I can track Evie if she still has the token I gave her,” Brigette said. She’d managed to hold her seat behind Gideon by sheer force of will, but she was fading fast. “But I’ll need a quiet place, a rather large and detailed atlas, and some food and rest. I won’t be much good to Evie, or to any of you, if we don’t take a break soon.”
“There is a sizeable town north of here,” Niffin said. “But it is on the train line. That means a good chance of finding a decent inn and food, and maybe a town official’s office with an atlas. But it also means—”
“A greater chance of the Council finding us too.” Brigette sighed. “It would be best if I went into town alone.”
“Not alone.” Gideon’s objection was forceful. “That’s too risky, and right now, you’re our most valuable team member.”
“Nice of you to call me a team member rather than an asset. Or a weapon. But I’ll have a better chance of going unnoticed if I’m on my own.”
“I will go with you.” Malita’s stern expression implied she expected objections from her companions, particularly the male ones, but was prepared to stand her ground. “You must have a partner, Brigette. The danger is too great on your own. Let that partner be me.”
***
The group reached the small town of Florrenco near sunset. Brigette had napped on the way there, passed out against Gideon’s broad back. When she’d gone limp and almost slid off the horse, he’d tied a rope around her, fastening her securely against him.
An annoying cramp in her neck nagged her as she dismounted. Sleeping at such an awkward angle likely had something to do with it. But if not for that nap, she never would’ve had the energy to sneak into Florrenco with Malita, this brave and stubborn girl. Malita might, at first, have seemed the least valuable among them. But she was possibly the bravest and most loyal of all. Brave because she had no Magic, no thunder, no muscle, brawn, or real fighting experience to depend on. Her bravery was raw—the stuff of legends.
Brigette understood why Evie considered Malita her best friend.
Before the two young women left Gideon and Niffin hiding in a vineyard at the edge of town, Gideon gave Brigette Evie’s Thunder Cloak and explained how it worked. “Evie would want you to use it.” Worry stormed in his gray eyes. “And she’ll kill me if anything happens to you.”
“Have some faith,” Brigette said. “We’re going to get you back to your girl.”
Once they reached the heart of Florrenco, Brigette and Malita crept through back alleys and side streets, each girl looking over her shoulder until they reached the town square. They paused, peering around the corner of a dry goods shop, and studied their surroundings. A stuccoed fountain burbled in the center of the square, sparkling from the light of the gas lanterns being lit by a pair of young boys on stilts. The surrounding shops either had closed or were in the process of shuttering their doors. The square appeared mostly empty.
“Brigette,” Malita said, “I would like to ask you a question.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” She and Malita hardly knew each other—had barely spoken to each other. Brigette had answered Evie’s questions sufficiently to gain her trust, but Evie was gone, and now Malita likely needed some reassurances.
“Why do you do this? Why are you here?”
Brigette had asked herself the same question a dozen times and still hadn’t found a satisfactory answer other than the fact that working with Evie was better than slowly dying in an apothecary storeroom. That reason wouldn’t satisfy Malita, though. “In the beginning, Evie offered me a chance to escape, so I took it, and that’s all it was. A clean slate and a chance to start over. But since I’ve been with you all, for the first time, I’ve seen that there’s something more than just pain. There’s something worth living and fighting for. I could be wrong, but I’d like to find out for sure, either way.”
Perhaps Brigette’s answer had sufficed, because instead of asking more questions, Malita said, “Maybe the train station has a large map to show all the places the train goes.”
“I agree, but if I were the Council, that train station is the first place I’d look for us. It’s the first station on the line from Isolas.”
“Then you must use the Thunder Cloak.”
“No.” Brigette shoved Evie’s coat into Malita’s arms. “I can conceal myself. You take the cloak and use it to get supplies.” She pointed at the entrance to the dry goods store beside them. “I need beeswax candles, a platter or bowl to hold water, and several full waterskins.”
