Page 93 of City of Stone and Silence

“Apparently,” Garo says, “we’re more virulent than they expected.”

All the carnage hadn’t helped the Immortals in the end. It might have made things worse. By the time the rioters reached them, the mob’s blood was well up. Black-armored soldiers were torn apart, not by magical force, but with bare hands. Men battered their knuckles bloody against chain veils, turning the faces underneath into pulp. A group of young women, robes spattered crimson, beat a Melos adept with stones until she roasted in her own armor.

I did this. Puppet strings. Monster. I’m sitting here, in a clean robe, when I ought to be sodden with blood.

And for what?

Someone dumps a bucket of water on a bloodstain in the road below. I blink, aware that I’ve missed something. Everyone politely pretends not to notice. None of us have gotten any sleep, and now the sun is climbing up over the wall that encircles the Eleventh Ward like a noose.

“We need to break out,” Garo says. “Get past the walls.”

“Impossible,” Hasaka says. “We’d be slaughtered if we tried an assault.”

“Even if we could get past the cordon,” someone else says, “what would it gain us?” The speaker is an older woman. Hotara, my mind supplies. One of the original leaders of the riots. “They’d still crush us in the end.”

“We need to get out of the city!” A younger man I don’t know. “If we can get through the outer defenses, we might—”

“Don’t be stupid,” Hasaka says. “In open country we’re just a rabble. The Legions would cut us to pieces in a day.”

“Then what?” the boy says, almost pleading. “Hide? Throw ourselves on the Emperor’s mercy? What in the Rot did we do all this for?”

“Our best chance is to negotiate,” Garo says. He sounds so confident. “Get the Emperor to declare a general amnesty, and press him for our demands.”

“Down with the Immortals!” several people shout. “Down with the draft!”

Garo nods. “But right now we don’t have anything to negotiate with. That’s why we need to break into the upper districts. The government will let the Eleventh and the Sixteenth burn to the ground, just to make an example. If we can take the Fourth, or the Second, then we’ll be threatening the property of people who actually matter. As far as the Emperor is concerned, I mean.”

“That still doesn’t tell us how we’re going to get through the walls,” Hasaka says. “Kahnzoka was designed for exactly this problem. If the Ward Guard use their siege engines on us, they could flatten all of the Eleventh Ward in a few hours.”

“They haven’t yet,” Giniva says. “That means something.”

“It means they’re still hoping to salvage this,” Garo says. “So we have a little time. If we can—”

“Garo,” I say abruptly. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”

Everyone looks at me, and I realize I’ve been silent throughout the meeting. Hasaka clears his throat, nervously.

“Of course,” Garo says. “Hasaka, Hotara, can you put the word around that we’re looking for ideas?”

I stand up, and he takes my hand and leads me to an adjoining room. We’re on the top floor of the former Immortal safe house, which was their barracks. The large common room overlooks the front entrance, and lets onto several smaller chambers, all laid with austere sleeping mats. As the lair of a squad of secret police, it’s depressingly normal.

The cells, apparently, are down in the basement. I haven’t dared to look yet.

“How are you doing?” Garo says, sliding the door closed behind us. “Did you manage to sleep at all?”

I shake my head, mutely. Every time I close my eyes, I see flames.

“You don’t have to stay here,” he says. “We can—”

“I’m staying.” Of course I’m staying. This is my fault.

“All right.” He leans against the wall, smiling. Even with the bags under his eyes, his hair rumpled and spiked with sweat, he looks like a hero. I wonder what would happen if I kissed him now. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I just…” I pause, toying with my braid for a moment. It’s coming undone. “You’re in there making decisions.”

“Someone has to,” Garo says. “Especially now. After last night…” He shakes his head. “Unless we do something, when they finally move in, it’s going to be a bloodbath.”

“So you’re setting yourself as leader? You’re comfortable with that?” I twist my braid around my hand and squeeze. “What if you get it wrong?”