Hollowpox The Hunt for Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend Page 0,96
impenetrable.’
‘But Ezra Squall can’t get in.’
‘No, he can’t,’ said Jupiter. ‘Because our borders specifically keep Squall out. They’re impenetrable to him, but not necessarily to ordinary people in the Republic. It’s just that most ordinary people in the Republic have no idea the Free State exists, and if they do, they don’t know where it is or how to get here. But, as I say, there are ways inside.’
‘Such as through a clockface in a giant mechanical spider piloted by a madman,’ said Morrigan, recalling her own strange journey to Nevermoor, two and a half years ago. Jack laughed at that as he dropped into an armchair next to hers, swinging his legs over the side.
‘Well, quite,’ Jupiter said with a small, quick smile. ‘If you’re fortunate enough to know a handsome and enterprising redhead with friends in border control, that’s one way. If not, there are various other … informal passages into the Free State.’ He cast a fleeting look at Fen, who yawned widely. ‘Or for those trying to go it alone, there’s a long and dangerous trek through the Highlands. They’d have to get up over the cliffs first, though, and before that they’d have to sail from the east coast of Prosper across the Harrow Strait, which is very treacherous water.’
‘And they’d have to do it in a small enough boat to go unnoticed by the Coast Patrol,’ Fen pointed out.
‘But it takes days to cross the Harrow. Someone infected with the Hollowpox would probably never make it that far.’
‘And if they did, there would still be wild dragons to contend with, and the cave-dwelling clans of the Black Cliffs,’ said Jupiter. ‘And if they survived all that, it would take weeks to come down through the Highlands, and then—’
‘I’m telling you, Jove, that’s not the way they came,’ Fen interrupted. ‘Without inside help, the only viable way to make it from the Republic into Nevermoor within a matter of days would be via the River Juro, flowing in directly from the Harrow Strait. And the Coast Patrol monitors the water traffic and checks all boats in and out, every single one.’
‘What if they swam?’ Jack suggested.
Fenestra scoffed. ‘Good luck to them.’
Morrigan remembered what Francis had said about the venomous river serpents, Great Spiny Demonfish, Waterwolves and Bonesmen lurking in the Juro. No one could swim through all that. The whole thing seemed impossible without … a vessel.
Morrigan felt an idea gathering in her mind. She sat up very straight. ‘Fen, what if they weren’t in a boat above the water? Then they wouldn’t be seen by the Coast Patrol, right?’
Jupiter’s brow furrowed. ‘Mog, what are you getting at?’
She told them about the vessel she, Francis and Thaddea had found in the pawn shop on Grand Boulevard, and what Francis had told her about submarines and spies.
‘And the shopkeeper said something about – Oh, what was it? He said it wasn’t a local design,’ she said. ‘That it was bona fide property of the Wintersea Party.’
Jupiter narrowed his eyes. ‘I’ll have Inspector Rivers look into it. Good intel, Mog.’
Morrigan inched forward to the edge of her seat, suddenly remembering what she’d most wanted to tell him. ‘Jack saw the green eyes! In the three Wunimals last night.’
Jupiter looked from one to the other in surprise. ‘He – you did?’
Jack nodded. ‘It was really weird. Bright, glowing green, and … sort of …’
He trailed off, and Morrigan took over, telling Jupiter all about the three Wunimals and how the light had flown out of their bodies just as the Hollowpox peaked, as if the light was the Hollowpox itself.
As he listened to the story, Jupiter’s jaw clenched and unclenched repeatedly, the way it did when there was something he’d been holding back. ‘Jack … one thing I don’t understand about what happened last night. If there were infected Wunimals at the party, why didn’t you say something to Fen or Kedgeree? Couldn’t you see they were—?’
‘They weren’t infected,’ Jack said emphatically. ‘It wasn’t like what we’ve seen at the Bazaar, Uncle Jove, I swear. They weren’t, you know, hollow. Then, when everything went dark –’ (Jupiter glanced at Morrigan; Fen had evidently told him about the shadowmaking too) ‘– it was like the culminations we’ve seen at the Bazaar, but … faster. Like the Hollowpox was on fast-forward.’
Morrigan described what it was like when the green lights left the infected Wunimals’ bodies, how they’d swarmed around her and then split apart. ‘And I’ve been thinking. Jupiter, what