Violet moved forward again, her sword darting low. He blocked the strike, and the one that followed.
“Giving her to the Confessor wouldn’t have saved the island,” said Piper, each word coming as a grunt as their blades clashed.
“You don’t know that,” Violet said. “And anyway, we’ve all seen how you look at her. Don’t try to tell me you saved her for the good of the resistance.” She swiped low again, and Piper had to step back to dodge the blade that came at his thigh.
Then he pressed forward, striking three times fast. Violet blocked the strikes but had to retreat a few steps. Piper advanced, toe-to-toe with her. As she stepped backward, he hooked his foot behind her heel, so that she fell. When she landed, Piper was over her, knocking her sword from her hand. He knelt above her, planted his knee in her ribs, the tip of his sword at her neck.
For a second I thought he would plunge the blade into her throat. I shouted, my No hanging in the frosted air.
He kept his sword where it was and bent his head close to hers, so she couldn’t look away from him as he spoke. “Even if it had saved the island, if I’d given them Cass and Kip—who would I hand over the next time they come? And the time after that? What happens when it’s your husband, or the woman who raised you, or the child you’ve cared for? And what happens when I’ve handed all of us over, one by one? What then?”
“You should have been willing to compromise,” Violet shouted. Her hand swept the ground beside her, groping blindly for her weapon. With his own blade, Piper flicked her sword out of reach.
“There is no compromise with the Council,” he said. “Just surrender in stages. Do you really think they were ever going to just let us keep living peacefully? Maybe once, when they had no alternative. But now they have the tanks, that’s their goal: every single one of us, floating. They’re not going to stop until that happens. Handing over Cass would only have sped up the process.”
He threw his sword aside. It landed in the mud by my feet. Then he stood. He looked down at Violet, still sprawled on her back.
“I fought on the island, too. I bled there, along with you, and I grieve with you for those who died there.” He spoke loudly now, his words for the assembled crowd, not just her. “I’ll fight and bleed again when we go to free New Hobart. But I’d rather die at the wall outside New Hobart than live in a tank.”
He bent, and held out his hand to Violet. For a moment she waited. A narrow streak of blood was running slowly from the corner of her mouth to her chin. Then she took his hand, let him pull her up, and walked away.
Piper turned to the watching troops.
“Does anyone else have anything they want to say to me, about the island?”
Nobody spoke.
“Then let’s get back to work,” he said, and picked up his sword. I saw Sally’s smile as she watched him stride back to the center of the sparring ground, the troops moving quickly out of his way.
Ω
That night, I was woken by a quiet keening in the darkness. It took me a few minutes to realize that it wasn’t Xander. He was peacefully asleep, mouth open, lying close to Sally. Next to Sally, Zoe and Piper slept too, the blanket halfway over Zoe’s face.
The crying was in my head. And from the wailing I began to pick out individual voices. I heard the phlegmy gasps of little Alex, and remembered Elsa always swiping at his runny nose with her handkerchief. The high-pitched sobs of little Louisa.
“They’re taking them now,” I said, shaking Piper’s arm and whispering.
Through the hours that followed, I was grateful that he did not speak, or try to tell me that everything would be all right. He sat with me, legs crossed, and when I found myself rocking, or crying out, he did not stare or try to hold me still. He just waited with me, patient as the dark.
The only thing that I could do for the children was to bear witness. I kept my eyes closed and surrendered to the vision. I saw the wagons being hauled down the narrow street, a single lantern swinging from a hook above the driver. I