I looked both ways down the hallway before struggling out of the ruined dress and pulling on the clothes that she had brought for me. A pair of shorts and a shirt; they were the plain sort of clothing that I’d run around in back at the village. She must have found them in my backpack. The sols didn’t wear these sorts of clothes—especially not the shorts—but the village dwellers often had to overcompensate for the heat and the lack of cooling methods with sparse clothing.
“I have no idea. They rarely ever show themselves anyway. What the hell have you done, Willa? Why the hell have they singled you out? Do they know that you snuck into Topia?” She lowered her voice for that last part, eyes darting around as if she expected some of the robed bullsen-balls to just pop into existence down here.
“I …” I opened my mouth, closing it again. I have no idea. “Maybe this was Rau. He seemed to be really angry at the Abcurses, and they told him that I was Coen’s plaything. That Coen was fond of me, or something weird like that. So maybe this had nothing to do with me … maybe this was a punishment for Coen.”
Emmy’s frown deepened, her eyes sparking with warring concern and anger. If I didn’t know her for the goody-sol-lover that she was, I would have thought that she was actually pissed at Coen, and the others, for bringing me into the middle of a god-battle.
“They got called up there,” she said gently. Her voice almost resigned. “All five of them.”
“To the god-box?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m going up there,” I announced, striding past her.
“And how did I know that you would say that?” She set off after me, able to keep pace with me far too easily for my fragile ego.
“Because you’re secretly a rebel, and your mind works just like mine?”
She snorted, which I took for a no. “I’m glad you’re okay, Will. I was terrified. I thought that Coen would kill you. I feel like your bad luck has gotten so much worse since we arrived here.”
“Nah.” I shook my head, peering up a few different stone staircases, trying to figure out which was the way back up. “We’re friends now, even if they won’t admit it. And I’ve only stabbed one person since we came here. One! I mean … yeah … it was a god. But still. Coen wouldn’t kill me.”
“I came to the closet early this morning to check up on you, but you weren’t in there. I assumed you told them everything.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice. Five let me sleep in his room.”
“Five?”
“Siret. Trickery. The one who’s always kind of smirking.”
“Five as in Dorm Number Five?”
I finally found the right staircase—with no help from Emmy—and grabbed her hand to drag her after me, which was a nice reversal of sisterly roles. “You’re so smart. Why can’t all people be as smart as you?”
“Most people are.”
“Does that make me dumb?” I asked, faking an offended tone.
“It makes you special,” she teased, squeezing my hand and taking the lead, because I was definitely floundering all of a sudden. So many hallways. Barely any light. Plus, my legs were sore, so I kept trying to avoid stairs. Which was stupid, because we needed to go up.
Eventually, the pain in my chest began to lighten, and my body seemed to naturally turn in the direction of the Abcurses, intent on delivering me straight to them. They would have loved that. I needed to make sure they never found out. I had planned on reaching the room and planting myself outside, sticking my ear to a wall or notching the door open just enough to hear things clearly. I had hoped that both the gods and the Abcurses would decide to utilise their apparently private moment to spill all of their secrets, and that those secrets wouldn’t be harmful to me in any way, shape, or form.
Willa Knight’s involvement in all of this is just a random accident. Yeah, that’s what they were going to say. Wait, no. Who is Willa Knight? That was better. They wouldn’t even know my name. That dweller we made you fight? You’re crazy. That sign was supposed to say Willis Ninny. Silly Abcurses.
I was so happy about what I was expecting to hear, that I barely even noticed the door in front of me opening. I stopped when I caught sight of Aros, who exited the room followed by Yael, Siret, Coen, and then Rome. They all lined up, facing me, and Rome shut the door firmly behind him, not admitting any more people into the hallway.
“Oh hey.” I scuffed my shoe against the carpet. “Fancy seeing you guys here. You all done with the secret meeting?”
“We heard you,” Yael announced, flicking his eyes to Emmy for a moment, before returning them to me. Oh, right. They heard my thoughts. Oh shit. Why didn’t I think of that?