Whispers of speculation ceased as Meuric began: “Weeks ago, Janan gathered his warriors on a quest to deliver our people from death. We all know someone who’s died from plague or attack or hunger. We all know the fear of wondering whether we’re going to be next—that any moment could be our last.
“We inherited this world where fearsome creatures draw ever nearer. They invade our forests, threaten our Community, and destroy what’s left of the old city—and our hopes of one day resurrecting what was taken from us during the Cataclysm.” The other Councilors nodded at Meuric’s statement, and a low hum of agreement swept through the hundreds of thousands of people. The heat of all the bodies crammed into one building made my head swim. I felt sweat pour down the back of my neck, and I wasn’t the only one. The sour stench of hot, fearful bodies filled the Center.
The Center held only a quarter of the Community. There was no safe place for us all.
As though he sensed my thoughts, Meuric spoke up again. “Since the Cataclysm, humanity has grown scarcer and scarcer. If we don’t fight back, soon we will cease to exist altogether.”
Mutters rippled through the audience, carried by an undercurrent of fear. I shivered, too. I couldn’t help it.
“Indeed, many of you came from other Communities—from cities that are now gone forever.” Meuric lifted his voice to shout over the echoing whispers, shifting, and sniffing. “Humans used to be the strongest of creatures, the most feared, because we have superior minds. But now we are so few, and the creatures who hunt us have abilities we have no hope of combating.”
Someone nearby was sobbing. Next to me, Stef and Fayden wore hard, unreadable looks.
“Janan is tired of burying our people,” cried Meuric. “And so am I. I’m finished hiding from our enemies, quietly rebuilding after they’ve gone. I’m finished being hunted. I’m ready to fight back. That is what Janan wants for our Community. That is what he left to pursue on his quest.”
The assembly grew utterly quiet. This was what they’d been waiting to hear: where Janan was. What Fayden, Stef, and I already knew.
“Janan took his best warriors on his quest to deliver us from death. But when he was close to success, our enemies swooped down and seized him—and the rest of his warriors. Janan: our leader and our deliverer. Janan wants so much for us—and has risked so much for us—but now he needs our help. All of our help.”
In the immense chamber filled with people packed shoulder against shoulder, squeezed into small spaces, and pressed against walls—there was not a sound above the rustle of breath and clothing, and the creak of metal benches and stands.
Tension grew thick, palpable. Every eye was trained on Meuric.
“Janan is being held alive. I know that much.” Meuric gazed all around the Center, as though he could meet everyone’s eyes. “He will be kept alive, according to what I’ve learned. That gives us some time. And the upper hand. The enemy believes we will not pursue, but we’re about to shock them: we’re going to free Janan. All of us.”
There was a collective gasp, and Meuric had to shout over the flurry of whispers.
“Pack what you can carry. This will not be an easy journey, so prepare yourself for anything—everything. In one month, we will leave this place and travel north into unknown lands. In one month, we travel toward new life.”
8
NOT EVERYONE WAS willing to leave the outskirts of the city.
Riots erupted throughout the Community, sending people to the Center to be treated for injuries. Plague victims were quarantined even more fiercely—taken to forgotten quarters of the old city and left with food and water and a handful of barely trained medics to treat hundreds of people.
People began stealing food and supplies from one another, and scavengers were in even more demand, sent to retrieve necessities in the old city. Stef’s trap was abandoned, and the three of us hardly saw the inside of the concert hall. Instead, Stef and I accompanied Fayden on his scavenging missions, both for provisions for the three of us, and for what other people sent him to find.
It was hard work, made even more difficult by the dilapidated state of the buildings. We braved rotting floors and roofs that shuddered in the faintest of winds. Where homes and towers had slumped sideways after earthquakes, we had to secure ourselves with rope and slide or rappel into treacherous areas; all the easy marks had been looted long ago.
Animals prowled the ruins, hunting for food. When it was my turn to stand guard, Fayden armed me with a lit torch and ordered me to shoo away anything that drew too near. Feral cats and dogs slinked around the edges of whatever area we searched, while snakes, spiders, and insects filled the cracks and crevices of this ancient city.
Conditions in the Community deteriorated. Fayden and I saw Father only once, days after we’d sneaked into his house and stolen our belongings. We stayed with Stef, hidden in his parent-free house whenever we had to return to the Community. Some nights, we just stayed in the old city like Fayden used to do.