"Just keep watch," the Marcellan said. And he closed the door on the blasphemy.
The Baker was waiting for them at the end of the rickety bridge. There was someone with her, and even from a distance Gorham could see that the shape was wrong. Human, yes, but changed. Chopped.
They'd been running, desperate to reach the exit up from this Echo before Rufus did. They knew that once he was out in the city, he'd either be lost forever or he'd reveal himself and the Scarlet Blades would capture him. After that, it would be a short walk to the crucifixion wall.
"Has she come to-" Peer began.
"There's no guessing with her," Gorham cut in. He felt his old lover glaring at the back of his head, but he walked on ahead.
"Have you found him?" Malia called.
"No," Nadielle said. "I sent the Pserans deeper to search."
"If they find him?" Peer asked.
"They'll take him back to my laboratory and keep him safe," Nadielle said. "They're grieving, but they're also mine."
"Is she yours too?" Gorham said. The five of them were standing in a rough circle now, and the small, misshapen form at Nadielle's side was blinking at Gorham with big, wet eyes. She was a woman, but beneath her simple clothing her chest was flat, and her body seemed almost formless. Her long hair hung bound with fine bone clips, her mouth was slightly open, and she looked back and forth between them all, never settling her gaze on one of them for more than a heartbeat. She could have been thirty years old or eighty.
"Yes," Nadielle said. "And she's very special."
"So what can she do?" Peer asked. "Fly? Burrow? Juggle?"
"She can help us find out exactly what's going on," Nadielle said, not rising to Peer's bait.
Gorham glanced at Peer and shook his head, but then he saw how scared she was. Nadielle's blocking our way across the bridge, he thought, and he listened for the flap of leathery wings, looked for the pale skin of a surviving Pseran manifesting from the gloom. He wasn't scared. But there really was no guessing with Nadielle.
"We need to find Rufus," Peer said. "That's the absolute priority, so if she can help us with that-"
"She can't," Nadielle said.
"Then why are we all standing here like spare cocks?" Malia asked.
"Rufus has left the Echoes," Nadielle said. "Another exit, half a mile from here. He's gone up into Crescent, and last I heard he was heading north."
"How do you know?" Peer asked.
"It doesn't matter how I know!" Nadielle snapped, and for the first time Gorham saw fear in her eyes. She's not grieving for the Pseran, he thought. She's terrified!
"What do you need?" he asked.
"You. Come with me. We're going down, way down, to find out whatever it is that's got the Garthans so agitated. You told me about Bellia Ton, the river reader. After that I… investigated further. There are other readers realizing that something's terribly wrong."
"But Rufus-" Peer began.
"Is a part of it all," Nadielle said, more gently now. "So you're right, he's a priority. But something incredible has begun, and I need to know. I need to check."
"Know what?" Malia asked. "Check what?"
But Nadielle ignored the question. Instead, she stroked the small woman's hair and smiled at her. The woman's expression did not alter.
"Why do you need me?" Gorham asked.
"To read me when we get there."
"Read you? I'm no reader. I've never done anything like that. I wouldn't know-"
"I can teach you. We have to go. Peer, you and Malia need to find Rufus. Malia, use your Watchers, however many are left. Find him, and bring him back down to my rooms. Do it any way you can, but it's important-it's imperative-that you keep his existence from the authorities. The Marcellans can't know about him. Nobody can know about him. Do you understand?"
"Yeah," Malia said.
"Do you understand?" Nadielle was almost shouting now, and Gorham took a step back, frightened for her, frightened of her.
"Yes," Peer said. Gorham looked at her, but she would not meet his eye.
"Because he might be the answer," Nadielle said, muttering now. "My mother wrote that she wasn't certain, but it seems it was all true. There's something in him that meant he survived. Out there, in the Bonelands. Something in his blood."
"And you can copy that?" Peer asked.
"I can try," Nadielle said. "But only after this."
"You're going with them?" Malia asked Gorham.
"Yes," he said. The Baker's uncertain, and more than that-she's scared. He was cold and felt the weight of Echo City's present bearing down upon him. He looked up at the dark ceiling of this place, invisible in the gloom, and imagined all those people up there going about their lives with no concept that everything could be about to change. And then he thought of Rufus. He lived out there for more than twenty years. The idea of that was shattering.
"We should go," Nadielle said, and Gorham felt a rush of pure panic. He went to Peer, stood before her, and waited until she met his eyes.
"I'll see you soon," he said. She only nodded, and he resisted the compulsion to reach for her, to hug her until she could understand. "Peer, there's so much I should say to you."
"Starting with sorry again?" she said, glancing at Nadielle and back to Gorham. Then she laughed. It was humorless, that laugh, and bitter, and as she pushed by him, he searched for any sign of regret at uttering it. But her face was hard, her eyes stern.
"I'm sorry," he said to her back. She raised one hand in a casual goodbye. As Malia started after Peer, Gorham reached out and grasped her arm.
"Take care of her," he whispered. Malia nodded. She knew about grief and loss, and as Gorham watched them crossing the bridge, he felt comforted knowing that Peer was in good hands.
"Thank you," Nadielle said when the others were out of earshot. He had never heard her sound so vulnerable, and when she slipped an arm around his waist and kissed his cheek, he wanted to push her away, hear her say something cutting or derisive. He needed her back to how she always was, because weakness did not sit well with the Baker.
"What the crap is this, Nadielle?"
"I'm not sure. I have suspicions." She shivered, hugging her arms across her chest and nodding at the short woman. "She'll help us find out, one way or another."
"You say we're going deep. To talk to the Garthans? Is she chopped from one of them?"
"I've already spoken with the Garthans," Nadielle said. "And you're right, they're scared. That's why we're going deeper than that."
Gorham felt his stomach drop, and the hairs on his arms prickled. "Deeper…"