Deception

Chapter One LOGAN

“What are you going to tell them?” Rachel asks. She sits beside me, her scuffed boots touching mine while long strands of her hair rise in the early morning breeze like fine lengths of copper wire. The dark bulk of the Commander’s compound crouches on the hill behind us, and the charred remains of Baalboden stretch out nearly as far as the eye can see.

“The truth.” My voice sounds stronger than I feel. The truth of the situation facing the tiny group of Baalboden survivors is a complex creature full of shadows and secrets. I don’t want to be the one to explain it, but I’ve done a lot of things I didn’t want to do. Including accepting the job of leading these people in the absence of the Commander, who ran into the Wasteland the day of the fires and hasn’t been heard from since.

I suppose it’s too much to hope that he fell off a cliff or got eaten by wolves.

“All of it?” She sounds strong too, but her fingers clench into fists as if she’s bracing herself. She looks past our camp—four rows of shelters made from cobbling together jagged slices of canvas, dead tree limbs, and bits of salvaged material that huddle beside the Commander’s compound like an outcast beggar too bedraggled to have any pride—and gazes south at the ruins of Baalboden itself.

“Almost all of it.” I take her hand and rub my thumb across her skin as I look away from the city. We’re responsible for calling the Cursed One to Baalboden, hoping to use the device Rachel’s father inadvertently took from Rowansmark to control the beast and destroy our brutal leader. It doesn’t matter that we never intended for the monster to enter the city itself. It only matters that it did. And everywhere we look we see death and destruction. We’re responsible, but I can’t say that to the survivors who sit scattered around the clearing at the center of our camp eating their breakfasts and thinking their own thoughts as they stare at what’s left of the lives they once knew. “I’m going to tell them what we’re up against, and what we have to do to stay safe.”

Her fingers tighten over mine. “They’re going to argue.”

“I’m going to win.”

She smiles, a slow lifting of the corners of her mouth that makes me wish I could turn back time to happier days when her smile was as impulsive and honest as she was.

She’s right. They’re going to argue. And complain. And question my judgment. I’d like to think that after three weeks of being their leader I’d be used to it. That it wouldn’t matter. But every argument, every sliver of doubt, simply amplifies my own.

I’m too young for this. Too inexperienced. What do I know about leading people? Until the fires destroyed our city, killing thousands of people in the process, I’d been an outcast. I have no formal education, no job experience beyond apprenticing with Rachel’s father, and am far more comfortable balancing a chemistry equation than dealing with most people. I keep waiting for Baalboden’s survivors to figure out my deficiencies and change their minds about electing me to lead them.

Three days ago, thirty-one of Baalboden’s survivors did just that. They declared me unfit to lead and headed east in hopes of finding shelter at one of the three eastern city-states, all of which are allied with the Commander.

I watched them go with what felt like needles in my chest, expecting the rest of the group to find me lacking and go east as well. Half dreading it. Half hoping for it. But one hundred fifty-seven stayed. And now I get to put their faith in me to the test.

My stomach feels like I swallowed an unstable chemical solution on a dare. I let go of Rachel’s hand and push myself to my feet.

The food wagon, one of only a handful of wagons we managed to salvage from the city’s wreckage, perches on the eastern edge of the clearing. I climb onto the driver’s seat, where I can be seen and heard by all.

The first time I addressed the group was the afternoon the survivors elected me as their new leader. Drake, the man who met with a small group of revolutionaries in the dark corners of Thom’s Tankard and who sent his daughter, Nola, to bring me medicine and food while I was locked in the Commander’s dungeon, gave a rousing speech that somehow resulted in a group of otherwise sane people voting a nineteen-year-old into a position of authority.

Maybe it was because he reminded them that I’d stood up to the Commander on the Claiming stage, escaped the dungeons—the only person in Baalboden’s history to ever do so—and then blew up the gate to save us from the Cursed One. Or maybe it was because out of a city-state of thousands, only a handful remained, and most of us didn’t know each other before the fires. Thanks to my public confrontation with the Commander, mine was the only face every survivor recognized. When Drake made me sound like a hero, like someone who knew exactly what to do, somehow nobody remembered that until that moment, I had been nothing but an outcast to most of them.

I doubt I’ll sound like a hero now.

“Attention!” I do my best to sound as crisp and authoritative as Rachel’s father, Jared, used to when he was teaching me how to use a sword. The hum of conversations slowly subsides. My stomach squeezes painfully as one hundred fifty-seven faces turn toward mine and wait.

“It’s been three weeks since the Cursed One destroyed our city and the Commander disappeared into the Wasteland with his entire army of guards.”

Everyone watches me in silence.

“We’ve buried our dead and mourned them. We’ve searched the buildings that weren’t destroyed and stockpiled what we could salvage. We have enough medical supplies to hold us over for several months. We have canned and dried food to supplement the game we bring in each day. We have weapons, and thanks to Quinn, Willow, and Rachel, twenty-three additional people are now learning how to defend us.”

Here and there people crane their necks to see Quinn and Willow, the Tree People Jared trusted to give the device to Rachel and me, but still, no one responds. I’m betting that’s about to change.

A brisk breeze kicks through the camp, tugging on loose flaps of canvas. I shrug my cloak closer to my shoulders, take a deep breath, and continue. “And we need people to defend us if we’re going to stay alive long enough to get to safety.”

The crowd shifts restlessly, and people begin whispering to each other.

“You mean we aren’t staying here and rebuilding? You’re taking us into the Wasteland? That’s a death sentence,” someone calls from the left. I turn and see Adam, a boy about my age. I recognize him from the group who meets daily to spar. He stands a little apart from everyone else with his arms crossed over his chest, a clear challenge in his dark, almond-shaped eyes. The uncomfortable squirming in my stomach settles.

A challenge is much easier to face than the expectations I see written across almost every other face.

Frankie Jay, a bear of a man who worked closely with Drake before Baalboden burned, folds his huge freckled arms across his chest and stares Adam down until he looks away.

I raise my voice above the murmurs spreading across the field and say, “Rebuild with what? We don’t have those kind of supplies. Besides, we’d never get the gate repaired in time to save us from our enemies.”

“What enemies?” another man calls from my right. “We’ve never hurt anyone.”

Others voice their agreement and soon conversations erupt across the field.

“Quiet!” Frankie’s voice cracks through the air like a whip, and silence descends. He slaps one large, freckled fist into his other palm in a clear message that he’d be happy to gain their cooperation with or without their consent.

I nod my thanks to him and face the crowd. “There’s a reason every city-state is surrounded by a wall. A reason every gate is guarded.”

“Yes, and all of those reasons are in the Wasteland!” a woman yells.

“For now. But what happens when word gets around that our gate is in ruins? That our city is easily plundered? That we have girls in our camp, but we don’t have enough trained guards to be able to defend them against a mob of highwaymen or worse?” I ask.

“What could be worse than highwaymen?” a girl near the front asks.

I clench my fists and prepare to lay the truth on the table, one miserable piece at a time.

“An army.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then a tall woman with brown skin and graying brown hair says, “What city-state would send an army to attack us? We’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Rowansmark attacked representatives of Baalboden in an unprovoked act of war just before our city burned, and they control the south.”

The words have barely left my mouth when Ian, another boy my age who trains with the sparring group, steps away from the wagon he’d been leaning on. The morning sun carves deep shadows beneath his cheekbones. “Why would Rowansmark do that?”

“Because James Rowan thinks the Commander stole a very important piece of tech. He won’t stop until he gets it back,” I say, and catch myself reaching toward the device strapped to my chest beneath my tunic.

“Why not just make another one? What a waste of manpower,” Adam says.

“And let a theft go unpunished?” Ian shakes his head. “You don’t know much about Rowansmark, do you?”

No, he doesn’t. Most of us don’t. Other than Rachel, I don’t know anyone in our group who’s been to Rowansmark.

“And you do?” I ask Ian.

He shrugs. “I know what I learned in school, just like everyone else.”

Since the Commander wouldn’t allow me to attend school, I have no answer for that.

“It’s a stain on their honor,” Rachel says from beside the food wagon. “Another city-state successfully stole one of their inventions and refuses to return it. Their honor can’t be redeemed until the tech is returned and the thief pays the price for his crime.”

“Plus, they may not want anyone else to be able to copy their design,” Elias, a young man who often helps guard the camp, says.

I make sure my next words are very clear. “Which is another reason why we can’t stay here. The Commander wants to copy their design, and he’s convinced I have the stolen tech. We already know the Commander allows nothing to stand in the way of what he wants. I don’t know where he went or if he’s called in a favor from one of his southeastern allies, but I do know that he won’t let this go.”

I sweep the crowd with my gaze. “The only reason we didn’t leave earlier is because those who were injured in the fire weren’t well enough to travel. And because we needed enough time to find a way for us to escape these ruins without leaving a trail.”

“Where will we go?”

“How on earth can we travel without leaving a trail?”

“Won’t we be killed in the Wasteland?”

The questions fly at me from every corner of the clearing, and I raise my voice. “We’re going north. As for traveling without leaving a trail . . .” I look at Drake, Frankie, and Thom—the burly owner of Thom’s Tankard, who never has much to say but who silently guards my back with a steadfast loyalty I feel sure I haven’t earned—then gaze out at the survivors again. “With the help of a handful of men, I’ve been working on that. We’re digging a tunnel from the compound’s basement as far into the northern Wasteland as we can get before surfacing. By traveling underground for at least a thousand yards, we’ll be impossible to track. It will be like we just vanished off the face of the earth.”

“We can’t travel underground,” a man near Adam shouts. “We’ll be killed by the Cursed One.”

“I can keep us safe.”

More murmuring, more questions, more complaints from the crowd. I grit my teeth and feel an unwelcome stab of understanding for the Commander’s absolute refusal to entertain any discussion on his decisions. Trying to get one hundred fifty-seven opinionated people to agree on a course of action is harder than trying to herd a bunch of fighting tomcats out of an alley.

“Listen to me. Rowansmark is coming for us from the south. The Commander will be coming from the east. A river cuts us off to the west. North is the only logical choice. We’ll travel to Lankenshire. They have no alliances with the Commander or Rowansmark. We’ll try to secure an alliance of our own with them.”

“And if we can’t?” Ian asks, and several heads nod in agreement.

“I think once they see what we bring to the table, they’re going to want us on their side.”

Ian laughs. “A tiny remnant of survivors with barely enough skill to find food and water? Why should they extend us any kind of protection?”

I take a deep breath. “Because we have the tech that was stolen from Rowansmark, and it will be worth a small fortune to another city-state.”

I let the words fill the clearing. Let my voice ring out so no one doubts that we have to leave before our enemies arrive and that I can keep us safe while we travel. Ian stares at me in silence, and I turn to find the rest of the group staring at me as well.

“Shouldn’t we give it back?” someone asks.

Others murmur their agreement, and suddenly I’ve had enough.

I straighten my spine and speak as forcefully as possible. “That piece of tech is going to keep us safe as we cross the Wasteland. And it’s our only leverage for creating a new alliance. Besides, who would we give it to? To the Commander, who has already killed innocent people in his efforts to get his hands on it? He’d abuse the power in this tech just like he abuses everything else he touches. To Rowansmark? That would be giving them unlimited power over every other city-state. No one could stop them.”

“What do you mean?” Adam asks.

“The tech the Commander tried to steal from Rowansmark is a device that can call and control the Cursed One,” Rachel says, her voice cold, her blue eyes sharp. “Who knows how many of those they’ve created? If we give it back, then we voluntarily give Rowansmark the power to obliterate any city whose leader falls out of favor with James Rowan. Or to obliterate us.”

I nod. “But if we keep it, we can protect ourselves from the Cursed One while traveling through the Wasteland, and we can prove to other city-states that Rowansmark is a true threat. And given enough time, I can duplicate it so that our new allies aren’t defenseless.”

“That’s your plan?” Ian asks. “Duplicate stolen technology and turn it against Rowansmark?” There’s a curious intensity to his voice.

“Yes.” I don’t try to justify myself. I don’t have that luxury. I have one hundred fifty-seven people to keep safe, and two power-hungry leaders to thwart. I’ll do what I must.

“Why didn’t you use it?” Adam asks, and the pain in his voice echoes the pain inside of me. “If you have the tech, why didn’t you save Baalboden when the Cursed One tunneled under the Wall?”

“I tried. The device malfunctioned.” Before the murmurs can start up again, I throw a hand into the air, palm out, and say, “I’ve fixed the problem. I can’t turn back time and save our city, but I can keep us safe until we make a new alliance. Our only other choice is to sit here and wait for either the Commander or Rowansmark to destroy us. I’m not willing to do that.”

The people whisper and shift closer together, but no one offers another argument.

“We leave in two days. Sooner if we can manage. Drake, Nola, and Thom are in charge of packing up our supplies, loading the wagons, and completing the tunnel. If they ask for your help, you will give it to them.” I wait a beat, but no one questions me. “We’ll need a map of the northern territories, especially the road to Lankenshire. Has anyone been there?”

A voice speaks up from the middle of the crowd. “Many times. It’s about an eighteen-day journey. Maybe twenty with a group our size.”

I glance at the speaker, a short, weathered man with wispy gray hair and a brilliant purple cloth tied in a bow at his neck. He crushes a battered hat between fingers as brown and bent as twigs as he meets my gaze.

“Jeremiah Krunkel, sir. Head groom to the Commander for nigh unto thirty years. Done my fair share of travel.”

I stare him down. “Thirty years of loyal service to the Commander. Why not leave with the others three days ago and seek asylum at one of the southeastern city-states? Why follow me?”

Jeremiah’s pale eyes lock onto mine. “Figured thirty years of brutality was more than any man should have to bear.”

“Fair enough. Can you draw me a map?”

Jeremiah stands and shoves his hat onto his head. His fingers curl and twist like hairs held too close to a fire. “Have a bit of trouble holding a quill these days, but I’ll manage.”

“There are drawing supplies inside the compound. Meet me there in twenty minutes, and I’ll show you.” I look at the rest of the crowd. “We’re going out through the tunnel. I’ll collapse the basement ceiling in the compound to cover our tracks. It will be like we simply vanished. Until then, though, we have two days and a lot of work to do. Let’s get started.”

As the crowd slowly disperses, I gaze out past the city’s Wall at the vast expanse of the Wasteland that stands between us and safety.

Best Case Scenario: Everything runs smoothly, and we’re able to leave within the next two days without anyone realizing where we’ve gone.

Worst Case Scenario: Rowansmark or the Commander arrives before we leave, and I’m forced to flee across the Wasteland with a group of untrained, inexperienced men, women, and children while an army closes in behind us.

Because I’ve never once known anything to go according to plan, I dismiss the group and then head to my tent, where my pack of salvaged tech supplies beckons to me. I might put most of my faith in the tunnel, Rowansmark’s tech, and the steadily improving fighting abilities of those who are training each morning, but it never hurts to have a backup plan.

Just in case.