“Um, no.” I manage to choke the two words out from behind my scarf. “They’re scientists. Working on biogenetic weapons. Our name is . . . Chen,” I say, picking one of the most common names in the City. I hope he takes the stumble as a sign of nervousness. It isn’t every day you meet any member of the First Circle, much less the City Premier.
“With General Hong? If I come across your parents, I’ll tell them what a beautiful girl you are. Smart, too. You have good taste.” He laughs and winks at Yi-lai. “Tell your father hello for me, son.”
“Yes, sir.” Yi-lai makes his nod almost a bow.
“Oh, and I heard something from the Watch an hour or so ago.” He puts a hand on Yi-lai’s shoulder, his voice a shade quieter. “Take your friend home. The Jiang girl is making some kind of trouble down in the Third Quarter. I doubt she would try to come all the way up here, but there’s no sense in taking the risk. Not with the family’s history.” He pats Yi-lai’s shoulder, his eyes already wandering away. “I’ll have to go talk to the General. He must be so disappointed. After all the years they invested in that girl . . . a spy and a murderer, just like her mother. But don’t you two worry. The Watch will have her up on the Arch with her eyes closed next to Jiang Gui-hua before you can say ‘Sleeping Sickness.’?”
Every word drills holes into my chest, and my breaths begin to come out as sharp bursts of fog in the frozen air. Yi-lai’s grip on my arm tightens, as if he’s worried I might lash out and hit the Premier. But the Premier takes his wife’s arm and nods to both of us before leading her down the street.
Yi-lai lets out all his breath at once, as though he’s been holding it the whole time. He pulls my arm through his and we walk linked together, moving up the Steppe, the highest section of the First Quarter in the City. “You okay?” he whispers.
“He . . . he doesn’t even . . .” I can’t make myself say more, waiting for the slow burn of anger to smolder down before trusting my voice.
“Yeah, he’s sort of a miserable old bag, isn’t he?” Yi-lai gives me a cautious, concerned sort of look when I don’t answer, but doesn’t attempt any more discussion as we climb higher into the First Quarter, where all the scientists and the First Circle live. Lights bloom all around us in the dusk, street lamps lighting our way up the hill toward the massive homes. Massive like the library, tiered hip-and-gable roofs peek up over the walls surrounding each First family compound.
When my voice doesn’t feel as though using it will break glass, I finally end the silence between us. “You’re quite chummy with the Premier, aren’t you? Members of the First Circle don’t stop for just anyone.” I grip the stolen red star on my collar, the points like a knife on my palm. “Yi-lai, right? Now that we’re involved, would you like to tell me a little more about yourself? And maybe why you’re helping me, especially now that I’m suddenly a murderer and a spy instead of an annoying little Fourth?”
The stressed look is back on Yi-lai’s face, and he doesn’t seem to be listening very closely, concentrating instead on the paving stones under our feet. The quick pace he’s set is becoming more and more difficult as my ribs grind against each other. “Would you mind slowing down, at least? I’m kind of broken. It’ll be harder to keep up the act if I start crying or something.”
He immediately slows a little, but not enough. “Not scared, are you?” he asks.
“Scared out of my mind, and no, that is not meant to be a joke.”
“Why would that be a joke?”
“It’s sundown.”
He looks blank. “Are you scared of the dark?”
“Um . . .” I’m starting to feel eyes on me, peering over the walls of each home we pass. “I have to take Mantis at daybreak and nightfall or . . .”
Yi-lai stops our speed walk up the hill and looks me dead in the eyes. “I didn’t even think about that. What are we going to do?”
“Well, if I start to go funny, you could probably take me. I have two broken ribs. And I think you’ve got me on reach.” I stretch one arm out as if to compare, but a wave of nausea and pain washes up from my ribs at the movement, forcing me to carefully arrange it back by my side.
“Are you listening to yourself?” He laughs in disbelief. “Your head is on the line and . . .”
“Yours too. In more ways than one at the moment,” I say.
Yi-lai shakes his head. “I’m just surprised. If the Watch ever comes after me, you won’t find me cracking jokes.” Pursing his lips, he says, “We probably have Mantis in the house, but I don’t know where. We’ll find it.”
“You aren’t infected, I’m guessing?” He shakes his head and we continue to walk, passing homes that seem to be getting more and more ornate, the lights glowing out from the windows with warmth. Something about his outline seems familiar, every house we pass washing his features with lamplight. His eyes and mouth especially send a sting of recognition across the back of my mind.
Wait.
I stop, my mouth clenching shut. He doesn’t break stride, giving me a questioning tug when I don’t follow.
I know where I’ve seen him. Yi-lai sits in the huge painting set opposite Traitor’s Arch in the City Center. Yi-lai and his father, the Chairman. The words come out in a strangled whisper. “You’re the Chairman’s son.”
He doesn’t quite meet my eye, pulling my arm a bit harder in an effort to start me walking again.
“You are. Sun Yi-lai. I knew I’d heard that name.” The Chairman’s family is almost the stuff of legend, like gods from Before living up above us in a flare of glory, hardly ever finding it necessary to show their faces. I put a hand to my forehead, nausea blooming in my stomach like an acid bouquet. “Why did you keep me back from those Seconds at the gate? Is the Chairman going to put me back to Sleep? Like her?” I pull away from him, glaring. “I didn’t do it! I didn’t have anything to do with bombs or with SS or anything that happened—”
“I want to help you.” He squares off, looking down at me. “But I won’t be able to do it if the Reds hear you yelling.”
I blink at his use of the Seconds’ nickname. I didn’t know Firsts called them that too. “Why, then? Why in Yuan’s name would you help me?”
He looks at the ground. “You look just like her. Your face, anyway.”
Goose bumps prickle down my arms.
“I didn’t ask how you recognized me,” I hiss. “I asked why you’re dragging me from the library, one of two places guaranteed to land just about any non-First comrade in a prison cell, to the other: the top of the Steppe.”
“Look, Sev.” He grabs my hand again, and we start walking. “I know you didn’t blow up the Aihu Bridge.”
“That isn’t an answer, or even logical. Where are you taking me? How am I supposed to just blindly follow you?” And what does she have to do with it?
He shrugs. “Where else can you go?”
CHAPTER 6
THE CHAIRMAN’S BASEMENT WINE CELLAR is cramped. It seems as if it should all glow with mystery and a special sort of grandeur, but mostly it’s just dusty. A wine rack takes up two walls, the corked mouths forming patterns in the dark wood. The air is cool and slightly damp, making me feel as though I need to change my clothes. No windows. One tiny door that leads into the deepest, darkest corner of the basement. One sputtering bare bulb that illuminates the last bits of dust clinging to my coat and hands. It all looks a bit boring to belong to someone who is supposed to be so wise, his ancestors ask him for advice.
The racks leave barely enough room for Yi-lai and me to sit across from each other, legs uncomfortably crossed. Now that I have time to look at him, Yi-lai is younger than I thought. Maybe two or three years older than I am. Too old for us to have been friends before Mother showed her true colors, though I probably wouldn’t have remembered anyway. The warm light of the bulb flickers across his face, hollowing out his high cheekbones and making him look underfed and gaunt. An odd contrast to broad shoulders and a muscular chest. When he notices me sizing him up, he smiles and opens his eyes extra wide. His eyelashes are so long they practically shadow the rest of his face. He’s handsome. And I’m pretty sure he knows it.
“So what do you think?”
“Of what?”