X tore to where Dervish struggled in the water.
“Let me help you,” he said.
He reached for the gold band, and ripped it off Dervish’s neck.
twenty-seven
X handed the broken band to Regent, who looped it around his arm, then dragged Dervish up the canyon like a corpse. The other lords followed. X stayed behind a moment, watching them rise up the wall en masse. With their wild colors and jewels, they looked like an ancient race of creatures finally leaving the sea.
Up on the stadium floor, the lords stood in a ring around Dervish, and debated his fate. X couldn’t see Dervish himself, but he heard him wailing like an animal. No, that wasn’t fair: X had never actually heard an animal cry like that. Even Vesuvius, when the Countess had stolen him from Maud and imprisoned him in a box, had protested less.
X went to Regent. He needed to know what would happen next. He’d accepted that his mother would remain imprisoned in the Lowlands forever—but what about Zoe? What about himself?
Regent turned away from the circle, annoyed at the interruption. X got a glimpse of Dervish through the other lords, though their bodies were thick as trees. Dervish had stopped screaming. He sat on the ground in shock, rocking back and forth like a terrified child.
“What is it?” said Regent. “Speak.”
Abashed, X spoke only four words.
“What becomes of us?”
Regent’s expression cooled.
“Zoe will be freed,” he said. “As for yourself, I cannot claim to know. We have not even determined what becomes of Dervish. There are some here who believe this gold band should be returned to him.”
“That would be madness,” said X.
“We agree on that point, you and I,” said Regent. “Now go. Do not squander your time wondering what is to come. Give Zoe and Sylvie the whole of your attention. One of them—I don’t know which—you shall never see again.”
Regent turned his back, and once again the circle was a wall through which no light shone.
Nearby, the Cockney and the other guards were making bets about what the lords would decide—happily flinging rings and hats and weapons in a pile on the ground.
X couldn’t bear to watch.
His eyes found Zoe and the others, who sat by one of the rivers. Maud was tending to Sylvie’s and the Ukrainian’s injuries. Vesuvius was climbing bossily all over everyone, looking to nest. He settled at last on Sylvie’s lap, remembering her even after 20 years. The two of them playfully butted heads. X saw Tree watching longingly from a distance, as if everyone’s affection for one another was a fire he wished he could warm himself by.
X approached Zoe, and whispered for her to follow him.
He led her under the archway, away from the guards and the lords, away from the Screaming Man, who seemed to know everything, see everything, feel everything. He pressed Zoe against the tunnel wall, and kissed her. As he did, she released a breath into his mouth—a sigh—that made him shiver.
Zoe smiled, put a hand on X’s chest, and thrust him at the opposite wall. X all but left the ground as he flew backward. He’d forgotten that she had powers, too. He began to speak but Zoe strode toward him, and kissed him twice—once softly and with cool, parted lips, and once so forcefully that she seemed to want to find a way inside his body.
“Which kiss did you like more?” she said.
Dazed, X said only, “Yes.”
She dipped her hands just below his waistband, and took hold of his hips. He was aware of every fingertip on his skin.
“Can I tell you a secret?” she said.
“Please,” he said.
“I like these powers. I kinda want to keep them.”
“I do not think it will be possible.”
“What if I promise to only use them for little stuff—like helping people open jars?”
X laughed.
“You are in a playful mood,” he said. “I did not expect it.”
She kissed him all the way down his throat. His body felt like a fuse that had been lit.
“I’m going to take you home with me,” said Zoe. “I’m going to show you everything—everything good, everything the world’s got.”
“I pray that you can,” said X.
Zoe heard the uncertainty in his voice. She pulled back.
“You don’t believe you’re going to get out of here?”
“I want it far too much to believe it.”
Voices crept in from the stadium, and the moment unraveled. X and Zoe left the tunnel hand in hand. The lords had disbanded. Everyone in the stadium had moved closer to Dervish. He didn’t bother standing, but seemed more in command of himself now. He glared at them all from the ground.
Regent addressed the unlikely crowd.
“It is Dervish’s own doing that we are gathered in the wilds of the Lowlands, where law and morality are but ghosts,” he said. “As such, it is his own fault that he shall not have the benefit of a true trial, nor have the right of redress.”
“Prattle, prattle, prattle!” said Dervish. “Is my punishment being bored to death?”
Regent ignored him.
“It saddens—and sickens—me to announce that the lords are not in agreement about Dervish or the fate of this gold band,” he said. “We shall hear arguments for and against him. But first I think it only right that two more of Dervish’s victims be allowed to bear witness to this process. I call them to us now.”
X and Zoe exchanged a confused look.
Regent lifted his arm, and pointed at two cells on the second level of the stadium. One cell door sprang open, then the other. The metallic groans drifted down. X stood frozen, waiting to see who emerged from the first cell.
It was a woman. Not many of the others recognized her because she was wearing a new gown.
Ripper descended as if she had just been announced at a ball.
X was stunned to see her again. He thought he’d lost her forever.
Banger materialized from the second cell, looking sleepy and unkempt. The purple cowboy shirt X had given him once was only half-tucked into his jeans. Amazed that he was allowed to leave his cell, Banger looked down at the crowd, and shouted, “For the reals? Coolio!”
“He’s a good guy,” Zoe whispered to X. “But he should be in the Lowlands just for crimes against slang.”
When Ripper and Banger arrived on the stadium floor, they caught sight of Zoe, and stopped short. X waved his hands, trying to communicate that it was okay, that she was okay. Beside him, Zoe pounded her chest with a fist: I’m alive.
X pointed to where Dervish sat crumpled and diminished. Ripper and Banger saw him now, too. Another shock. Ripper streamed at Dervish, scowling. Her feet were not visible beneath her dress, so she seemed to glide through the air.
“You MAY NOT harm me, you harpy,” said Dervish when he saw Ripper bearing down on him. “I am defenseless and have ALL THE RIGHTS of a citizen of the Lowlands!”
Ripper turned to Regent for clarification. Regent shrugged indifferently: Do what you like.
Even without powers, Ripper had no trouble pulling up Dervish’s frail body. She punched him in the mouth three times in succession. When he fell, she clasped her hands, and brought them down on his head like a hammer striking an anvil.
“Did you ENJOY that?” Dervish hissed when he could speak again.
“I think you know I did,” said Ripper.
Regent called the crowd back to order. He informed them that Dervish would be allowed to speak, but that first, they would hear from someone whose life he had taken upon himself to destroy.
Sylvie stepped forward. She looked strong to X. Resolute.
X caught Ripper’s eye.
With a proud look, he told her: That’s my mother.