Chapter 12: The Chips
Three days after the well was finished, Gray Bone's man returned from Silver Spring.
Not Gray Bone himself. A young hunter under him. Called Wolf. His horse was nearly dead from the run. An arrow was buried in his left shoulder.
By the time Violet reached him, Wolf had already fallen from the saddle. Finn held him up. Blood poured between Finn's fingers.
"Where's Gray Bone?" Violet asked.
Wolf looked at her. His lips were white. "Captured."
Leon crouched down and checked the wound. "Barbed arrow. Who shot it?"
"Silver Spring guards. They caught us drawing the granary map. Gray Bone told me to run. He stayed back." Wolf gasped for breath. "He told me to tell you—the map is on him. He didn't give it up."
Violet stood.
Leon looked at her. "What are you going to do?"
"Go to Silver Spring."
"You're insane."
"Gray Bone is in my hands. The map is on him. Astrid knows Gray Bone is Gray Rock Tribe. She knows I sent him."
"That's why she took him. She's waiting for you."
"Yes." Violet said. "She's waiting."
Leon grabbed her arm. "You go there, you die."
"I don't go, Gray Bone dies."
"You go, you both die."
Violet shook off his hand. "Then what do you suggest?"
Leon said nothing. He stared at her. His amber slit pupils narrowed to a line in the sun.
"I'll go." He said.
"You—"
"Gray Bone is my man. I'll get him out. You stay here."
"Astrid is waiting for me. If you go, she won't release him."
"She will. Because I'll bring men. She'll release him in exchange for her own life."
Violet stared at him. "You'll trade yourself for Gray Bone?"
"Gray Rock Tribe doesn't leave its own behind."
"If you die, what happens to Gray Rock Tribe?"
Leon looked at her. "Then I won't die."
He picked up Wolf's blade from the ground and sheathed it.
"Stay here. Wait for me."
He turned and walked away.
Violet stood where she was. Her fingers clenched.
"Leon."
He stopped.
"When you come back, I'll teach you to read."
Leon didn't turn around. But his shoulder moved. Almost like a smile.
He left.
---
Night. Leon had not returned.
Violet sat by the fire. Silver Spring's map lay spread before her. Her fingers traced the possible routes Leon might have taken. East wall. Drainage ditch. Granary. Barracks.
Darryl walked over. "He'll be fine."
"How do you know?"
"He's Leon."
Violet said nothing.
"You're worried about him." Darryl said.
"I'm worried about Gray Bone. The map is on him. Without that map, our whole plan falls apart."
Darryl looked at her. "You're worried about Leon."
Violet didn't answer.
Hoofbeats sounded in the distance. One horse. From the south.
She stood.
A rider burst from the dark. Gray cloak. Astrid's man.
"Astrid sends a message. Your man is in my hands. Your map is in my hands. Your wells—I know where they are."
He threw something to the ground. A blade. Leon's blade.
Violet's fingers tightened.
"Astrid says—on the day of the Trade Market, you come yourself. Bring all your people. Bring all your water. Bring all your maps."
He paused.
"She says—in front of everyone, she'll cut off Gray Bone's head. Cut off Leon's head. Fill in your wells. Burn your maps. And then—"
He looked at Violet.
"Then she'll make you kneel."
He rode into the dark.
The camp went quiet.
Everyone looked at Violet.
She bent and picked up Leon's blade. There was blood on it. Not Leon's blood. The hilt was clean. Blood on the edge. Someone else's blood.
She tucked the blade into her belt.
"Darryl."
"Here."
"Wake everyone up. Fill in all the wells."
Darryl's pupils tightened. "Fill the wells?"
"Astrid knows where they are. She'll send people. Fill them in. She gets nothing."
"If we fill the wells, we have no water."
"We still have two maps. Two more well locations she doesn't know about. She knows where the wells are. She doesn't know where the new ones are."
Violet looked at Darryl.
"Fill them."
---
Late night. Everyone was filling the wells.
Violet stood by the fire, watching the first well disappear under stone and earth. Finn stood beside her. Covered in mud. His eyes were red.
"Cecilia. Do we really have to fill it?"
"Fill it."
"But—"
"Astrid knows this well. She'll send people. She'll poison it. She'll use it against us."
Finn looked down.
"Water can be dug again. People can't." Violet said. "Fill it."
Finn picked up his shovel and jumped into the well.
Violet stood there, watching the first well vanish bit by bit. Her fingers gripped Leon's blade. The blood on the edge had dried.
Darryl walked over. "Second well is half filled. Third one hasn't been touched."
"Leave the third one."
"Why?"
"Only Gray Bone knows the third location. Astrid doesn't."
"Gray Bone was captured. He'll talk."
Violet looked at Darryl. "He won't talk."
"How do you know?"
"Because he waited three years for his brother's grave. He waited three years. He won't talk."
Darryl stared at her. A long time.
"You're betting he won't talk."
"I'm betting."
Hoofbeats sounded in the gorge. Many of them. From the south.
Darryl's face changed. "Silver Spring."
Violet turned to everyone. "Stop. Put out the fires."
The fires were stamped out. The camp fell into darkness.
The hoofbeats came closer. Torchlight flickered through the gorge.
Violet crouched behind a tent. Leon's blade in her hand.
Thirty men. Silver Spring markings. The one in front wasn't Astrid. A man. Gray-white hair. A scar running from his forehead to his chin.
The Silver Spring guard captain. The one whose life Astrid had spared.
He sat on his horse, looking at the empty camp. At the filled well.
"Where are they?" He asked.
No one answered.
"Where's the water?"
No one answered.
He stared at the filled well. The scar on his face twisted in the torchlight.
"Cecilia Winter." His voice came from the dark. "Astrid says—you're clever. Cleverer than anyone."
He paused.
"But clever people don't live long."
He threw something to the ground. A finger. The one with the bone tooth necklace.
Gray Bone's.
Violet's fingers tightened on the blade's hilt.
"Trade Market day. Astrid will be waiting." The guard captain said. "You come. Gray Bone lives. Leon lives. You don't come—"
He looked toward where she was hidden.
"She'll send a finger every day."
He rode off. Thirty men followed him.
The camp went quiet.
Violet stood up from behind the tent. She walked to the center of camp and bent down. She picked up the finger. The bone tooth necklace still on it.
Her hands were shaking.
Darryl walked over. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
"You're shaking."
"I'm fine." She wrapped the finger in cloth and placed it inside her coat. "Keep filling the wells. Dig new ones tomorrow. The day after—"
She looked into the southern dark.
"The day after, I'm going to Silver Spring."
"You said the Trade Market—"
"I can't wait that long."
She turned and walked into the tent.
Leon's blade was at her hip. Gray Bone's finger was against her chest.
She sat in the dark and spread the map across her knees. Drainage ditch. Granary. Barracks. Guard rotation. Fifteen seconds.
She rolled up the map and placed it inside her coat.
Three months. She couldn't wait three months.
---
End of Chapter Twelve
The wells are filled. A finger is severed. Leon is missing. Astrid is forcing her to enter the game early. Three months is too long. She has decided not to wait. Silver Spring's walls. The drainage ditch. The fifteen-second guard rotation. All of it is on her map. She just hasn't told anyone—this time, she isn't planning to walk away whole.