Aeralis (17 page)

“I grew up with a father named Aaron,” I said.

He rubbed his forehead. “The fugitive. He must have assumed my identity. Eloisa was pregnant at the time. We were not well known in the village; my face was not familiar to most. She would need a provider, and no one would have known. It would be the most sensible thing for them to do.” He laughed shakily, bitterly. “How brilliant of them.”

I exhaled. This was insane. The man I’d called da was really an Aeralian fugitive?

“You’ve been back in the Frost for months now,” I said. “Yet you never came to find us. Why didn’t you return to the Frost when you came back with Borde?”

Aaron didn’t respond for a long moment. He rubbed his neck with one hand before answering. “Meridus needed my help. And I...” He shook his head and looked away at the windowpanes and the street beyond. “I’d been gone a long time. That life was like a dream to me. Perhaps you were all better off with me staying out of it.”

The words ripped through me like bullets.

Perhaps you were all better off with me staying out of it
.

Perhaps we were. I breathed in and out, sorting words in my head, suppressing insults and accusations on my tongue.

Aaron cleared his throat. “How is Eloisa?”

“She’s dead.” I said it flatly. The words landed between us like rocks. Aaron’s jaw twitched. He went to the window and sank into the place where Adam had been sitting earlier. Putting his face in his hands, he asked, “How?”

“We thought it was Watchers at first,” I said. The words came out harsh. “But she was shot by a fellow villager, a traitor who was working with the Mayor to help the Aeralians.”

“You don’t call them Farthers,” he observed numbly, staring into space.

“Not much, at least not anymore,” I said. They weren’t so far from me anymore, not since I’d learned to love one of them, not since I’d worked alongside them.

“And your brother?”

“Jonn...” I hesitated. “He has the Sickness.”

Aaron’s shoulders stiffened. He lifted his head. “The Sickness? How?”

“I brought it back with me at his request after I passed through the Echlos gate to the Frost’s past. Surely Borde told you.”

Aaron gave no indication one way or the other that I was right in my assumption. He stared at the window without appearing to see it. “And is he...is he dying?”

“Yes.”

Aaron looked stricken.

“There’s more.” I took a deep breath. “You are perhaps familiar with a man called Gordon.”

Aaron scowled but didn’t reply.

“He followed you and Borde into the Frost, but he says he lost you there. He wants something.”

“He’ll never get it,” Aaron said sharply.

“He infected my sister, Ivy.”

Aaron blinked. “Ivy?”

“My sister. Your other daughter, the one Ma was expecting when you disappeared. You never met her, and if I don’t get that device Borde is here to find, she’ll die, along with Jonn. But Gordon says he has a cure, and he’ll give it to me if I give him the device.”

Aaron was white-faced. He said nothing.

“We need to find Borde,” I bit out. “Afterward, you can go on with your life. You don’t have to come back to us. We never even knew you were missing, so don’t feel any obligation, because you have none.”

Adam cleared his throat. I’d forgotten he was there. He touched my arm, giving me strength through his fingertips. I leaned into him, and his hands slid down my arms, a silent reminder of his support.

“Where is Borde?” I said.

Aaron stared off into space. His hands moved restlessly. “I don’t know.”

“You took his name,” I snapped. “You must know something.”

“They came for him,” he said. “We were together, staying in the city, when the soldiers came to arrest him. He’d gone out to buy food, and I was in the house alone. They arrested me instead, without asking any questions, and when they interrogated me, I told them I was Falcon.”

“You gave yourself in his place?”

“They weren’t going to let me go. At least by giving them his name, they would stop looking for him.”

“Can you give us any ideas of where Borde might be now?” Adam asked.

“I imagine he fled once he heard of my arrest. He’s probably in hiding under a different name now.”

“You think he’s in the city?”

“When I was arrested, we had not yet found what we’d come for.” Aaron paused. “Yes, I think he’s in the city still.”

“Where?” I demanded.

“I don’t know,” he said. He was turning a pale color, and sweat began to drip down his face. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”

“Lia,” Adam said, laying a hand on my arm. “Perhaps he needs more rest.”

“There isn’t time—”

“A short break,” Adam said. He looked at Aaron. “The guards will escort you back to your room and bring you a little food.”

The door slammed shut behind Aaron, leaving Adam and me alone. Despair rushed over me in a black flood.

SEVENTEEN

“WHAT ARE WE going to do?” Panic closed my throat. Without Borde, I wouldn’t have the device, and without the device, I wouldn’t have the cure for the Sickness. Jonn and Ivy would die.

“There’s still time,” Adam said.

“And if Korr discovers that the man we rescued isn’t the man who can fix the gate for him?” I shut my eyes in despair.

“Lia.” Adam touched my elbows gently, bringing me back to the moment. I opened my eyes and looked at him. “We’ll figure something out.”

I ground my teeth and turned away. “We need to search the city. Return to what we were doing before. We have to find him.”

“And your father?”

I whirled on him. “Don’t call him my father again.”

Adam winced. “I apologize. I won’t.”

I sighed. “Gabe had a contact that we spoke to a few days ago. Perhaps he knows something. In the meantime, we should probably speak to...to Aaron again, see what he knows.”

Adam nodded.

I thought of Jonn again, and my throat squeezed. “We’re running out of time.”

“We’ll find him.”

But I wasn’t so sure.

Aaron returned a short while later, this time accompanied by Gabe. He faced me and crossed his arms, as if readying himself for the interrogation he knew was coming.

“If we can’t find Borde, then I need the device he came here to find.” I said. “Where is it?”

Aaron tipped his head to the side and stared at me. “What did your mother tell you about me? How did you know who I was?”

I bit my lip. We didn’t have time for this. “You look like Jonn,” I admitted.

His eyelids flickered.

I wet my lips. Maybe talking about this would make him more cooperative. “We had a father,” I said.

“The fugitive.”

“Yes. I never doubted for a moment that he was the real Aaron Weaver until I saw you in the death camp. I didn’t know the truth until today.”

We were silent.

“You look so much like her,” he said. Every syllable he spoke ached with something heavy and dark—regret?

It galled me to beg, but I had no choice. “Please,” I said. “If we don’t find Borde, my sister will die. My brother will die. Your
son and daughter
will die.”

“They’re not mine anymore,” Aaron said. “You said it yourself. You already have a father.”

“Had,” I said. “He’s dead, too.”

Aaron looked down at his hands, his face expressionless. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Pain filled me, but I pushed it aside and continued. “The point is, you are our only connection to Borde right now. Korr in particular isn’t going to feel any remorse about forcing answers out of you. I don’t want it to come to that, but...” I let the implication hang in the air.

Gabe spoke up. “You have a tremendous amount of loyalty for Borde.”

Aaron rubbed the back of his neck. “He was good to me. Helped me...cared for me. He was loyal to me. I’m not about to scorn that so easily.”

I bit my lip to hold in words about his loyalty to his family. “We aren’t going to hurt him. Borde is my friend. I knew him in his time. Perhaps we can help him.”

Aaron snorted. “You have your own agenda. Don’t try to pretend you care about ours.”

Helpless rage surged in me. I stepped into the hall and took a few deep breaths. Gabe and Adam followed me.

“I don’t know how much longer I can keep Korr happy with the explanation that he’s exhausted from his rescue,” Gabe said. “My brother is going to want answers about the gate soon.”

“And time is rapidly passing,” I muttered, thinking of the capsule in my sister.

“We need to return to Ferris and see if he’s found anything,” Gabe said. “Lia?”

“Yes,” I agreed. “Today, if possible. Is there anyone else you might know who could help us search?”

Footsteps padded behind us. I turned. Ann. She slipped an arm around me without speaking, and I leaned into her shoulder. Having her close spilled comfort into my veins.

Gabe nodded. “I’ll ask Cat to do what he can, too. He has contacts. And...” He paused and looked at me. “Clara could help.”

I shut my eyes. “Gabe...”

“She knows a lot of people in the city,” he said. “She’s a logical choice to help us.”

“No.” I wasn’t desperate enough to involve a potential traitor, someone who’d already betrayed me once, someone I couldn’t trust for a moment.

“Let’s focus on the plan, shall we?” Adam said.

“I’ll speak with Cat tomorrow.” Gabe rubbed his forehead and avoided my eyes. “He has contacts all through the workers section.”

“And Korr?” I asked.

“I’ll deal with him,” Ann said.

~

Gabe and I slipped through the streets of Astralux together. We didn’t speak as we moved through the throngs of people crowding the sidewalks. The mist curled around us, dampening our hair and coats and making our faces moist. Steamcoaches and carriages rumbled past in the streets, splashing muddy water over our feet.

My chest hummed with anxiety. Every minute that we didn’t find Borde was another minute of Jonn’s life that slipped away like the mist through my fingers, another minute that the capsule in Ivy’s body continued to dissolve.

Gabe caught my eye and smiled faintly to show that he understood. He reached out for my hand, and I let him take it. He gave my fingers a squeeze, and I drew a shuddering breath.

“We’ll find him,” he said just before we turned the corner that led to Ferris’s door. “Clara knows some people who can ask around.”

“I told you I don’t want her involved in this,” I said. “Gabe, you suspect her of being a spy. You think she might have betrayed your family.”

Gabe blanched. I stopped and grabbed his arm.

“You already told her, didn’t you?”

He bit his lip. His eyelids fluttered as he squinted toward the street. “Lia—”

“No,” I said, my voice low and sharp. “I told you no. And you did it anyway.”

“She knows the city well. She has many contacts, more than anyone else on our team. She can help us.”

“Do not involve me in your misguided attempts to validate her usefulness. I do not trust her, she might be a spy, and now you could have put my family’s lives in further danger!”

“Or I could have saved them,” Gabe hissed.

I shook my head. Fury made it hard to see straight. Whirling, I stalked for Ferris’s door and slammed my fist against it.

The knob turned, and Ferris appeared. He listened for a moment to the sound of my ragged breathing, then Gabe’s quiet footsteps as he approached.

“Gabe,” he guessed. “And your friend. Lia? Has she been running? She sounds winded.”

I didn’t speak. I couldn’t form words. I cast a wrathful glance at Gabe, and he cleared his throat.

“We wanted to know if you had found any information.”

Ferris leaned against the doorframe.

“It’s been a tricky business finding this man. He’s a slippery one. Doesn’t leave much of a trail. But I did find one thing.”

“Yes?” Gabe said, hope blossoming in his voice.

“A man calling himself Falcon has been making inquiries about this person.”

He handed Gabe a scrap of paper, and I drew closer to see what was written on it. A single word.

Alice
.

“Alice?” I asked. “Alice who? Was there any other name, any other identifying information?”

Ferris shrugged. “No. I don’t know who she is, or what it means, but I can keep looking.”

“Yes, please do,” Gabe said, and slipped him a handful of coins.

Ferris closed the door, and we returned to the street. Gabe stole nervous glances at me, but my anger at him had been temporarily waylaid with this recent development.
Alice
. The name hummed in my mind as I turned it over and over. Who was Alice? Why was Borde looking for her? Did she have the device?

“We’ll tell Cat and Adam, and they can use this new information to search,” Gabe said. He didn’t mention Clara.

I was too deep in thought to respond.

~

Aaron’s face revealed nothing as I sat across from him in the library. We were alone. I’d hoped perhaps if we spoke one on one, I might have a better chance of convincing him to talk. I was familiar looking at least. Maybe that meant something to him. He clearly didn’t trust any of us, but especially not the others.

It was a slim hope, but hope nonetheless.

He looked much better now—color had returned to his face with the regular meals and bathing, and his hair was clean and slightly curly. When he gave me a belligerent look, he reminded me of Ivy, and it made my chest ache with a mixture of bewildering and painful emotions.

I cleared my throat and arranged my features into a neutral expression. “We’ve been making inquiries in the city. We’ve learned some new information. Information about Borde’s mission here.”

Aaron didn’t say anything.

“Who is Alice?” I asked.

His eyes widened slightly before narrowing into slits. “I don’t know.”

“You’re lying. Borde is looking for her. Who is she? A friend? A descendant? What’s her family name? Does she know about the device?”

He shook his head.

I leaned forward. Frustration welled inside me, forcing itself out the corners of my eyes in furious moisture. Tears.