Between Burning Worlds (System Divine #2) - Jessica Brody Page 0,38

tiny annotations led her to believe it was more than just a map.

It was a blueprint.

“Citizen Rousseau.” Alouette repeated the unfamiliar name Francine had just uttered, feeling a chill tingle down her spine. “You’re going to break her out.”

Francine clasped her hands in her lap and jutted out her chin. “The situation on Laterre has escalated. Exponentially. If we don’t act quickly, the planet will fall into the wrong hands, and we shall all be doomed. Rousseau is our best chance at launching a successful revolution. The people will rally around her again, just as they did before. She understands their suffering, she articulates their pain, and when she is free again, she will be their glowing lamp in a dark forest. With her eloquence, her fearlessness, and her compassion, she will light the path of change. The peaceful path. Which is why we must rescue her from Bastille.”

Something snapped together in Alouette’s mind. Marcellus had just told her, only moments ago, that two Vangarde operatives had been captured trying to break into the office of the warden of Bastille.

“Sister Jacqui and Sister Denise!” she cried. “They were … That’s what they were doing. That’s why they were arrested.”

Francine nodded, a solemn shadow passing over her face. “Their capture was an unfortunate setback.”

“Unfortunate setback?” Alouette repeated, disgusted at Francine’s blatant coldness. “The Ministère has them. They could be tortured or killed or worse! We have to help them. We have to break them out. If you can break out Citizen Rousseau, you can break them out too, right?”

Francine sighed again. “Jacqui and Denise understood the risks when they agreed to the mission.”

Numbness started spreading through Alouette’s toes. She had to remind herself to keep breathing. “But you can’t … You can’t just leave them.…”

“We don’t even know where the Ministère is holding them. Trust me, we are trying to find them, but until then, Citizen Rousseau is our top priority. And the sisters know that.”

“No!” Alouette said forcefully. The numbness was already spreading through her legs. Tears were already blurring her vision.

“We need time. And more resources. Freeing Rousseau is a vital step, but it is only the first step. We have a very long road ahead of us before we see true change on Laterre.” Principale Francine’s eyes settled intensely on Alouette. “Which is why we need your help, Little Lark.”

Rage suddenly flared up inside Alouette. “My help? Why would you ever need my help? I know nothing about any of this! You’ve kept me in the dark for twelve years! What use could I ever be to your … your … movement?”

“You are more useful than you realize, Alouette,” Francine said with a rare twinkle in her eye. “And you have not spent those twelve years in the dark. You have spent them in training. In learning. In becoming the sister—the woman—we always knew you could be. And now I am offering you a choice to join us. To help us.”

Alouette hastily shook her head and gritted her teeth. “No, you’re not. You stole that choice! You didn’t offer it to me, you thrust it upon me, without asking. The moment I stepped foot inside this Refuge, the moment you put that first Chronicles volume in my hand, that choice was robbed from me. My life was robbed from me. You can’t give it back.” She wiped her cheeks where tears were beginning to fall. “And I don’t want it back. I don’t want any of it.”

“All passengers disembark!”

The thundering voice yanked Alouette out of her reverie, and she felt the crowd around her start to move. As she followed the stream of people shuffling toward the bateau’s disembarkation ramp, she tried to push away the memory of Principale Francine’s face as Alouette had shouted those words.

She could not allow herself to be distracted by painful memories of things she couldn’t change. She had come here, to this city, with a purpose. A burning question to answer. She’d escaped from the Refuge—from that hidden-away bunker with its low ceilings; heavy, suffocating doors; and secret rooms. She’d gathered up what few possessions she had and left the only home she’d ever known. She’d boarded a bateau and sailed around the great single landmass of Laterre, journeying as far away as she possibly could from that darkness and those lies.

Until she’d arrived right here. In the city of Montfer. Which had twinkled on the horizon like a city of jewels. A city of hope.

And now she was finally, finally heading