in the tunnels of Caesar’s Square, Guardsmen killed by Cal’s sol-
diers, killed by our foolish plan. The memory of red blood burns, but
so does the thought of silver. Lucas, a friend, a protector, a Silver with a GlassSword_txt_des1_CS6.indd 29
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kind heart, executed for what Julian and I made him do. Lady Blonos,
decapitated because she taught me how to sit properly. Colonel Macan-
thos, Reynald Iral, Belicos Lerolan. Sacrificed for the cause. I almost
retch when I remember Lerolan’s twin boys, four years old, killed in
the explosion that followed the shooting. Maven told me it was an acci-
dent—a punctured gas line, but now I know better. His evil runs too
deep for such coincidence. I doubt he minded throwing a few more
bodies on the blaze, if only to convince the world the Guard was made
of monsters. He’ll kill Julian too, and Sara. They’re probably dead
already. I can’t think of them at all. It’s too painful. Now my thoughts
turn back to Maven himself, to cold blue eyes and the moment I real-
ized his charming smile hid a beast.
The bunk beneath me is hard, the blankets thin, with no pillow to
speak of, but part of me wants to lie back down. Already my headache
returns, throbbing with the electric pulse of this miracle boat. It is a
firm reminder—there is no peace for me here. Not yet, not while so
much more must be done. The list. The names. I must find them. I must keep them safe from Maven and his mother. Heat spreads across my face, my skin flushing with the memory of Julian’s little book of hard-won secrets.
A record of those like me, with the strange mutation that gives us Red
blood and Silver abilities. The list is Julian’s legacy. And mine.
I swing my legs over the side of the cot, almost thwacking my head
on the bunk above me, and find a neatly folded set of clothing on the
floor. Black pants that are too long, a dark red shirt with threadbare
elbows, and boots missing laces. Nothing like the fine clothes I found
in a Silver cell, but they feel right against my skin.
I barely have the shirt over my head when my compartment door
bangs open on great iron hinges. Kilorn waits expectantly on the other
side, his smile forced and grim. He shouldn’t blush, having seen me
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in various stages of undress for many summers, but his cheeks redden
anyway.
“It’s not like you to sleep so long,” he says, and I hear worry in his
voice.
I shrug it off and stand on weak legs. “I guess I needed it.” An odd
ringing in my ears takes hold, piercing but not painful. I shake my
head back and forth, trying to get rid of it, looking like a wet dog in
the process.
“That’ll be the banshee scream.” He crosses to me and takes my
head in gentle but callused hands. I submit to his examination, sighing
in annoyance. He turns me sideways, glancing at ears that ran red with
blood however long ago. “You’re lucky it didn’t hit you head-on.”
“I’m a lot of things, but I don’t think lucky is one of them.”
“You’re alive, Mare,” he says sharply, pulling away. “That’s more
than many can say.” His glare brings me back to Naercey, when I told
my brother I didn’t trust his word. Deep in my heart, I know I still
don’t.
“I’m sorry,” I mutter quickly. Of course I know others have died,
for the cause and for me. But I’ve died too. Mare of the Stilts died the
day she fell onto a lightning shield. Mareena, the lost Silver princess,
died in the Bowl of Bones. And I don’t know what new person opened
her eyes on the Undertrain. I only know what she has been and what
she has lost, and the weight of it is almost crushing.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going, or is that another
secret?” I try to keep the bitterness from my voice, but fail miserably.
Kilorn is polite enough to ignore it and leans back against the door.
“We left Naercey five hours ago, and we’re headed northeast. That’s
honestly all I know.”
“And that doesn’t bother you at all?”
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He only shrugs. “What makes you think the higher-ups trust me, or
you, for that matter? You know better than anyone how foolish we’ve
been, and the high cost we’ve paid.” Again, I feel the sting of memory.
“You said yourself, you can’t even trust Shade. I doubt anyone’s going
to be sharing