“How much longer are you going to pretend that there is nothing wrong?” I implore him. “How many more people have to die before someone says ‘enough’?”
My father looks at me. “Perhaps you three will be the end of it,” he says. “One thing for certain. You will never know the answer to that question.”
A chill runs down my spine. Does this mean he is sending us to our deaths? Findley refuses to look at me. He keeps his eyes straight ahead as he pushes Pace along. Our guards move Jilly and me behind Findley and Pace. Jilly cries as they bind her hands. I wish I could offer her some words of comfort, but nothing helpful comes to mind. Besides, I am so very angry with my father. I would not put it past him to have brought me here just to trap Pace and Jilly.
We head to the back staircase. More bluecoats come up. There are so many about that I am certain he planned this. My anger turns on myself for not realizing it sooner. For letting my emotions carry me away.
“What are you doing?” A voice cries out. “Where are you taking them?”
It is Ellen. She gathers her skirts and runs down the hall. Jilly’s parents are behind her, concern plainly written on their faces. “Meredith!” Jilly’s father shouts. “What are you doing with my daughter?”
“Your daughter is under arrest for treason.” My father says.
“No,” Pace says. “She’s just an innocent victim. I was using her to get information. She doesn’t know a thing.”
“See?” Jilly’s father says. “Release her.”
“No,” Jilly lifts her head. Her glorious red hair tumbles from its pins and she shakes it free. “I am a seeker.” Her voice is shaky, but she gains strength as she talks. “I helped blow up the fans, and I helped the people your filchers were chasing escape from the dome.”
“Jillian, no,” her mother says.
“I would rather die believing in something than live a life with no purpose,” Jilly says. “The outside is there for us,” she continues. “Wren and Pace have seen it. I want to see it too.”
“But it isn’t safe,” her father says.
“But it is worth fighting for,” Jilly finishes for him. “Isn’t that why we are here? Because someone in the past thought that our lives were worth fighting for? Isn’t it sad that we have all forgotten that?”
“Take them,” my father snaps at Findley. I know he is angry that he allowed Jilly to speak. “To the cells. Your time of privilege is over,” he says to me. We are marched down the staircase. Above us voices raise in argument. Has my father finally overstepped his power? Surely Jilly’s father will not allow his daughter to be executed. As for Pace and me … I fear our time is up.
It is hard to go downstairs in a long dress, especially when your hands are tied behind your back and you have no way to hold it up. More so for Jilly, who wears a dainty shoe with a heel. We both trip and nearly fall several times until Findley sighs in frustration. “Help them, you fools,” he barks.
Findley will help us. He has to. He is one of us. I try to be ready, but the odds are ever so much against us. We trod past the kitchen, and the staff watches us with fear-filled eyes as we are marched out the back door and past the beautiful garden that I admired from above.
The dome soars from the ground to the sky around us. Our friends are just on the other side of the glass. I wish I could see the light of their fires, but there is nothing beyond but darkness. The three of us are herded to the drive between the house and the wall, where the same steam wagon that I was tossed into when I first met my father waits. The bluecoats actually pick Jilly and me up and deposit us in the back, where we stagger and trip until we are able to sit down on the benches. Pace is pushed in behind us and the door slammed and bolted into place.
Pace sits down next to me. I glance out the small window as the wagon jerks. I see my father talking to a bluecoat, who nods and jumps on the back as we jerk once more before it rolls into motion. This will more than likely be the last trip the wagon will make. I know from the sound of the engine that the dome is down to the last bits of coal. I see Findley now, growing smaller as we roll away. My father says something to him, and he nods before following him back into the house. Shouldn’t he have done something?
“Wren,” Pace says. “Turn your back to me and see if you can untie my hands.”
I do as he asks and our fingers fumble against each other’s. “There’s too much,” I say. “It’s too tight. I can’t find the ends.”
“Hold still and let me try,” Pace says. I comply, sitting still while his fingers move over my bonds. I look at Jilly, who appears terrified. I do not blame her. I am terrified also. I cannot help but think of Alex and how he died. Are we bound for the fires? But then I remember, there are no fires now and no furnaces left. Still, that will not stop my father. They still have the flamethrowers, and that was what they used to kill Alex and to kill many more of us shiners.
“What you said was very brave,” I say.
“I don’t feel so brave now,” Jilly says. “I really didn’t think he would dare…”
“Because you are a royal?” I finish for her.
She nods. “I’m so sorry. It is my fault. Sir Meredith caught me coming down and…”
“It is not your fault, Jilly,” I say. “I think it was his plan all along to trap us. Why else would he bring me here tonight?”
“What will become of us?” she asks
“We are going to get out of here,” Pace says. He gives up on trying to untie my hands and shifts around to face Jilly. I sit back and lean my head on his shoulder.
“How?” Jilly asks. I know she is just hanging on by a thread. “Our hands are tied and we are bound for the cells. You heard Sir Meredith. He’s going to execute us.”
I sit up and move to sit next to Jilly. It is all the comfort I can give her. “There are others. We have friends outside, and, if you are right, we have friends within.”
“Your friends outside have forgotten about you,” Jilly says. “And if the rest within are cowards like me, then we are all doomed.”
“I refuse to believe that he will execute us,” I say. And not because he’s my father. But because of Jilly and Pace.
“But he can lock us in a cell and forget about us,” Jilly says.
“As long as we are alive we have hope,” Pace says. “Which is why we agreed to our charade in the first place. You remember, Jilly. Live and fight another day.”
“I am afraid my little speech was all the fight I have in me.”
“Have faith, Jilly,” I say. I look at Pace and he smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. I am afraid for all of us that we do not have enough faith to get through this latest predicament. The people and the things that I believed in are no longer there.
All too soon we reach the government building. We pull around to the side and, just like before, into a covered area with a door so those on the street will not see who is brought into custody. I look for Findley, and he is nowhere to be found. The three of us are herded into the building and down the stairs to the cells. Pruitt gives Jilly and me an evil leer as he picks up his keys.
“Should I put them with the other chickie?” he asks.
“No,” our guard says. “Sir Meredith instructed to put the two girls in one cell and put Bratton with the prisoner that came in with them. We are to move the other female prisoner up to this one’s room.”
So I am being replaced. I can only wonder who else has had the misfortune of crossing my father.
“Bring them on, then,” Pruitt says. We are led into the long hall. Jilly and I are shoved into the first cell on the left. A guard quickly unties our hands and then steps out, slamming the door behind him. I run to the small window in the door and look out. I can barely see anything that isn’t directly in front of me, but I can tell by the noise that they are putting Pace in with Levi, in a cell that is as far away from ours as it can be.