“We move around.” Jin’s voice was a low grumble, the kind you listened to in the subways before it slid to the back of your subconscious as white noise. “You hear things. If you’re paying attention.”
“Oh, yeah?” said Chae Rin. “And what have you heard?”
“Trafficking rings being attacked.” Jin propped his elbows up on his knees and leaned over, resting his chin on intertwined fingers. “Around Europe, mostly. Though I heard of some attacks in Northern Africa. Lots of high-powered weapons being stolen. And people.”
“People?” Lake wiped the sweat from the mountain trek off her forehead. “Stolen people?”
“Or maybe they left on their own.” Jin’s haunting gaze was on her, bottomless and black as the lagoon. “Not too long ago, I heard of an empty camp in the forests of Romania. We’d dealt with the people there before—turf war. You can’t escape that kind of conflict when stepping into another gang’s territory. But if what they say is true, it’s not something we’d have to worry about again. The camp was torched. No bodies. Just footsteps and ashes . . . and ghosts.”
“Come on, you don’t actually believe that, do you?” Lucas laughed, but he couldn’t hide his shiver even from underneath his heavy mountain jacket.
“He appeared with the wind and left no trace when he was gone,” Jin said. “That’s what I heard.”
“Yeah.” I looked at the other girls, my expression grim. “We know someone like that.”
“So what?” Chae Rin folded her arms. “In the middle of attacking trafficking gangs, he took a bit of time off to kill a Canadian politician? Well, he’s been busy.”
“The only camps I’ve heard of being attacked were those who move high-powered weapons, like ourselves. These weapons aren’t just from the Sect, either. Some are military-grade, new models.” Jin looked at me when he added, “And luckily for us, there are even some newer weapons that would be a danger to you Effigies.”
My body tensed, but he shook his head. “Some of that is for sale and some of that is for our own protection. If we need to fight Saul, we’re prepared. But knowing what he can do, I’m not sure even we’d win if he ever strode into our camp like he did all the others.”
“Are you sure he’s really doing all that?” Lake gripped the straps of her knapsack.
“I’ve been doing this long enough to know there’s a grain of truth in every story out here.” Jin lowered his arms, letting his hands dangle in the space between his thighs. “We do what we do and stay under the radar. But if even we can’t stay out of Saul’s way . . .” He looked at his son. “If you say you can stop him, then do it. I’ll do what I can to help.” He nodded to a group of men lugging silver cases to the vehicles. “Unload one of the smaller vans—we can spare one.”
“Thanks, but even if we can get to where we need to go, we can still be tracked by the Sect,” Chae Rin reminded us. “As long as they can track our cylithium.”
“Wait.” Lucas almost dropped the beer in his hand. “The Sect can track you?”
He wasn’t the only one staring at us. It was a good thing Abril had just finished stitching me and bandaging up my throbbing arm, because I could sense our time here running out.
Jin was already on his feet. “You should have told us from the beginning. Everyone, finishing loading. We’re heading farther west.”
“Well,” Lake started, twisting quickly to avoid the bodies rushing by her, “it’s not like the Sect cares about illegal activity out here.”
“They’ll care about it if it has to do with their stolen shit, miss.” Lucas nodded to Abril, who got up from the cooler and joined the rest, though not without giving us one last glare.
“Stolen . . .” The light bulb went off. “Inoculation!” Rubbing my sore arm, I stood from the ground. “Jin, you said you guys have weapons that could be used against us Effigies. What about an inoculation device?”
Chae Rin narrowed her eyes. “Are you crazy?”
“If our powers go dead, they may not be able to track us.”
“You may be right,” Belle said.
Jin ordered his people to unload some of the silver cases, and after some frenzied checking, they managed to find a case with five long black tubes lined up on the inside. They were a little smaller than the one I’d used against Saul. That one had been disguised as a pen, but it was too bulky; these were streamlined and sleek. It fit into my palm when I picked it up, and if I ignored the little silver pump at the top, I might have thought it was a pen shooting out ink instead of Effigy poison or whatever it was that jammed our powers.
“I didn’t know they’d made more of these,” Lake whispered, peering over my shoulder as I studied it against my palm. “Maybe because of Saul?”
“Yeah. Maybe.” Chae Rin didn’t sound convinced. “Put that back. Hey, we’re taking this. Anyone got a problem?”
If they did, I doubted anyone wanted to fight her over it.
“You can take the van at the far end of the line.” Stopping next to Derrek, Jin pointed toward the rusty-looking old one at the curvature of the restful lagoon. “You’ll have to head north to get into town. Lucas will give you a map.”
“Thanks,” said Belle. “We’ll take our friend and drop him off there.”
Naomi had still given us a mission. Find the secret volume. Maybe find out the truth about Saul while we were at it. With the counter running down, we’d have to move quickly.
“Girls.” Jin stopped us just as we began toward the van. “Saul’s hand reaches far. Not even we here in the mountains are safe.”
Nobody in Jin’s group stopped moving and loading long enough to say so, but their uneasy gazes told me as much.
“We’re all counting on you.” He gripped the shoulders of his son. “All of us.”
That was the burden Effigies couldn’t escape. But we weren’t running away. We nodded our silent promise before setting off.
25
NATALYA STOOD BY THE FOOT of the bed watching as the old man rushed his wheelchair back and forth in his cubicle-like bedroom carrying handfuls of clothes and shoving them into one of several suitcases. I’d slipped into this memory comparatively easily this time, maybe because Natalya was still reeling from her previous banishment. I knew it wouldn’t last long. I could sense her will getting stronger. But Baldric had told only her the way to the secret volume. Whatever I needed to see here, I’d need to see it fast.