After what felt like hours of walking and tripping over tree roots, we reached the Spirit-Hunters’ camp just north of Laurel Hill.
If I’d thought the Spirit-Hunters’ accommodations at the Exhibition were crude, it was luxurious compared to their new home. From Daniel’s worktable they had crafted a lean-to against a tree, and next to that they’d stacked what remained of their tattered belongings. A table leg was splintered—the work of the spirit, perhaps?—and the same lone lantern from their lab hung on a branch and illuminated the area. There was no campfire, and I could see no food.
Joseph staggered from beneath the lean-to. I gawked at his appearance. He wore no gloves, no waistcoat, and no hat. The impeccably dressed gentleman I’d come to know was worn away.
He raised an eyebrow at Daniel. “Dare I ask why she is here?”
“She wants to go into Laurel Hill,” Daniel said. He explained to his leader all that had happened since my escape several hours before. Well, not entirely all. He skimmed over the kisses—though I did hear a strain in his voice when he described how he had found me.
When Daniel finished his story, Joseph turned to me. “Is all this true, Miss Fitt?”
“Yes. And call me Eleanor.” I glanced around the tiny camp. “Where’s Jie?”
“Dealing with one of the Dead. It escaped not far from here, and Jie lured it from camp. I...” He swallowed. “I was too tired to electrocute it.”
“I can see you’re exhausted.” I gestured to the lean-to. “You live with too few comforts to stay strong. You can’t keep fighting the Dead when you’re in such bad shape.”
“You’re one to talk,” Daniel retorted. “You were in an explosion!”
“And my injuries are nothing compared to the deaths of the last few days.” I set my jaw and turned my hardest stare on Joseph. “We must go in and stop Elijah. Tonight.”
“That is not possible. Your brother is too powerful for us.”
“So you intend to live here in the woods forever? Protecting a city that hates you?” I snorted, putting as much disgust into the noise as I could. “You’ll waste away from overwork.”
Joseph lifted a shoulder. “Do you have an alternative?”
“Yes. I can go inside and stop Elijah. He won’t hurt me.”
“Even if you speak the truth, Eleanor, can you do what is necessary to stop him?” Joseph’s voice was low, as if his concerned words were intended for my ears only. Despite all that had happened to him, he was still worried about me.
“Yes.”
“How? How do you intend to do it?” His eyelids lowered. “If we go in to stop your brother, we have to be certain we can succeed in destroying both him and his army. If we are killed and fail...” He shook his head. “If we fail, there will be no one to stop him. No one in Philadelphia can survive the corpses in this cemetery.”
I pushed back my shoulders. “Then I will find Elijah, and I will kill him.”
Daniel stomped in front of me. “You don’t get it, Empress. You can’t just go in and kill him, or we’d have done that a long time ago. The army’s gotta be put to rest first. We have to remove all the spiritual energy that animates them.”
My eyes flicked to Daniel. The lantern light made bottomless holes where his eyes would be. “Why?”
“If your brother gets killed, then the leash snaps. They need the necromancer to command them, otherwise, every single corpse in Laurel Hill will turn rabid.” His voice dropped. “They will hunt you down and eat you alive. Then those hundreds of Dead will break free from Laurel Hill and ravage the city. We can’t stop the Hungry if they’re not contained.”
“He is right,” Joseph said. “Like all cemetery fences, Laurel Hill’s iron bars were only constructed to contain the occasional corpse. It cannot withstand an army of violent, powerful, desperate bodies.”
The thud of footsteps in the forest hit my ears. I swiveled around, my arms up and ready to fight.
Jie jogged into the clearing. Her black braid was wrapped tightly around her head, and in her hand she held a sword, which flickered in the yellow light.
Her eyes lit on me, and she grinned. “You’re alive.”
“So are you.” I inclined my head toward the sword. It was as long as her arm, two-edged, and tapered to a point. Though it gleamed, I could see it was chipped and dented.
Her smile widened as she moved to my side. “One Hungry corpse is easy, yeah? It’s the whole army I can’t fight.”
“Where’d you get that sword?” I asked. “It looks ancient.”
She snickered. “I think it actually is ancient.... Like, Roman, yeah? It was just lying there with a bunch of other swords, so I took it.”