“I’ll start looking through SED messages and listening in on calls,” Stef said. “Maybe someone will say something useful.”
I nodded. “We’ve been doing a lot lately. Hiking across the world. Staying hidden in a locked-up city. It seems to me the best thing we can do until Soul Night is gather information, sabotage whatever we can, and go over every step of our plan for how to stop Janan from ascending on Soul Night.”
I wanted to do as Sam had suggested as well: free the prisoners. They probably wouldn’t help us, but it would annoy Deborl.
“And keep hiding.” Sarit stayed at my side, feigning a smile, though her tone betrayed how desperately alone she’d been for the last months.
“Yes.” I looped my arm with Sarit’s. “And we’ll be together.”
“Look at your SEDs.” The next afternoon, Stef reclined against a stack of crates in the storage room, blankets cushioning her against the splintering wood. “I’ve sent a keyword-recognition program to your devices. The basic searches are already installed: messages with our names or the words ‘Janan,’ ‘cage,’ or ‘Soul Night’ will be sent to you, and voice calls with those words will buzz your SED so you can listen.”
Sam slouched and eyed his SED with distrust. “This thing is already confusing enough. You’re making it worse.”
“It’s not Stef’s Everything Device for no reason.” She smirked and waved him closer so she could help him. “Look, it’s not hard. There’s a buzz coming in now. . . .”
“This will make spying on others a lot less tedious.” I shifted through several tagged messages and glanced at Sarit, who was doing the same. “But no one seems to know what Merton brought back, only that it’s important to Janan. And I had guessed that.”
“Me too.” Sarit put her SED in her pocket. “I was thinking about the people in prison. You and Sam were talking about freeing them, right?”
I nodded. “They probably won’t want to help, but I want to do something. We can’t sabotage much without hurting people, and we can’t just tie up Deborl for a week; his house is too well guarded.”
Sarit grinned. “I think I know a way to get them out, but we’d have to wait until right before dawn.”
It didn’t take much discussion before I was convinced, and we spent the remainder of the evening preparing and going over Sarit’s plan until we were all confident we could pull it off.
Meanwhile, Stef kept an eye on her SED, monitoring calls and messages. We learned that people were afraid: afraid of Deborl and what he’d done to the city; afraid of Janan and what it would mean if he ascended, or didn’t; and afraid of the rumors of the newsoul returning to Heart. What if she ruined everything?
Hah. Maybe they thought I had a real plan that didn’t rely on dragons and poison and trapping myself inside the temple.
But it gave me a measure of satisfaction that people were afraid of Deborl and Janan. We couldn’t rely on anyone to help us—they were more likely to betray us out of fear, like we’d argued with Whit and Orrin in the library—but it was a relief to know not everyone was ready to welcome Janan.
After a short rest, our SEDs beeped an hour after midnight, and we all dressed in red, the same color Deborl’s guards wore. Our jackets and trousers weren’t exactly like the guards’ uniforms, but it was the best we could do with our limited resources and time; we were lucky to have all this cloth to begin with.
We left the textile mill, only a few sylph staying behind to guard it, and moved north toward the temple and Councilhouse. I tucked my hair into my cap as I followed Sam into the darkness.
Shadows pooled around us as we headed for South Avenue. We wouldn’t be bothered unless someone got too close. Wearing the red laser pistols shoved into our waistbands, this was an opportunity to get a look around the city. As long as no one saw through our disguises.
As we came alongside the immense cage, I dared a glance. Templelight illuminated the bars and wires and troop of guards. Whatever Merton had brought back, it remained covered and unmoving.
“What do you think it is?” I muttered as Sam lifted a hand toward the guards around the cage. They waved back. For someone who spent most of his time writing music at home, he was alarmingly good at subterfuge. Stef was a terrible influence on him.
“I wish I knew.” He hurried me along. Stef and Sarit would be waiting for us, since they’d gone straight to the market field. A big group would look suspicious, Sarit had said, because guards usually went in pairs. Since she’d been in the city the longest, I trusted her word.
After the dim road, the templelight was blinding as we crossed the market field to meet up with the others. We took a side door into the Councilhouse.
“Does it seem brighter to you?” Sam asked, shutting the door after a few sylph followed us in.
“It’s been getting brighter these last couple of weeks,” Sarit said.
Sam’s voice grew heavy. “I wonder what it will look like on Soul Night.”