I

Grey sucked in a long breath of cool air and exhaled slowly. His breath fogged the air and carried off lazily in the calm breeze of the late morning. The sun was finally shining through the blanket of clouds above. Nimbostratus clouds as Max had said over a week before in his lecture room.

Grey was standing on the porch of Elli’s house. The entire storm had been spent in uncomfortable solitude with no one around but Elli, her mother, and four or five other girls that were either sisters or friends of the family. But he had finally made it outside.

The creaking of the wood deck behind him was a signal that Elli had followed him out onto the porch. He examined the snow-covered town around them as she pulled on a pair of gloves and adjusted her white scarf that covered up to her nose.

“How do I look?” she said.

Grey glanced at her. He could only see from her blond hair to halfway down her nose but he could tell she was smiling at him by the way the corners of her eyes crinkled as she looked at him.

“Good,” he said and looked back to the snowy landscape in front of him. He now understood why all of the houses had such tall porches. The snow covered the ground all the way to the top step, so it looked as though the buildings were all ground level.

“It’s about five feet of snow,” said Elli, guessing what he was thinking.

She is incredibly good at that, he thought to himself as he walked to the edge of the wood deck and tested the snow with his foot. It was actually sturdy.

“Will it hold my weight?” he said

“I think so,” she said. “I have never had a problem with it but then again I’m a lot smaller than you.” She giggled and set off walking across the snow with ease. Her boots only sank a few inches into the snow.

“Hmm,” said Grey, still hesitant. He slowly put tested his weight on the powder and found that his boot only sank a couple of inches into the tightly packed snow.

“Come on slow poke!” Elli called over her shoulder. She was heading down the street in the direction of the main square. She had insisted on accompanying him to see Max and Kate.

Grey followed her gingerly. His body felt stiff with cold as it had since he had gotten to Northanger, but his side was also getting stiffer and stiffer as the days went on. Elli had been treating him since the storm set in and said he was doing well. He had stopped wearing the bandages around his midriff at last, to Elli’s annoyance. They were uncomfortable and in his opinion unnecessary. His side would no longer reopen and bleed when he bent or twisted. It just hurt like a bitch. There was still a considerable amount of bruising and itching.

As he walked atop the snow-covered road, Grey’s boots began to sink deeper and deeper forcing him to lift his knees higher as he walked. This brought back the familiar pinching, burning pain in his side and he breathed a little heavier as he struggled to keep up with Elli. She was ten yards ahead of him with her arms out wide, spinning on the spot, and looking up to the sky and laughing.

“This is great!” she said, mist expunging from her lips and he laughed. “It feels so good to breathe fresh air! Come on Grey! Isn’t this great?”

He grunted his agreement and looked around to all of the surrounding houses. He had expected to see a lot more people up and about now that the storm was clearing up. He did see movement within the dark windows behind the curtains of blue icicles over each window so perhaps they were all just waiting for someone to go outside first and were now on their way.

Grey’s foot sank a full foot into the ground and he grunted in pain as he struggled to keep his balance.

Ellie, never fooled, walked up to him with her hands on her hips and said, “You know it wouldn’t hurt so bad if you let me bandage you up again. You need to give your ribs time to set in a good position and they won’t do that unless you have something to brace them.”

He just grunted, half in response and half in pain, as he lifted his foot out of the hole in the snow. He put a hand on his side but dropped it as soon as he saw the Ellie was giving him.

“Grey…” she said, folding her arms. “It’s not enough to only apply the ointment. You’re not invincible you know. I don’t think you understand how lucky you are even now. Even Max is amazed you’re still alive!”

“Who is that?” said Grey, looking over her shoulder. He had seen a large, bald man walk by in the view through the alleyway between two houses behind her. Elli turned but was too late to see him in time before he disappeared from view.

“I don’t see anyone,” she said.

“There are no other men here besides Max right?” said Grey heading back the way they had come.

Ellie followed. “Just Max and you.”

“Hmm,” he said, shaking snow off his boot. He was looking around now, straining his ears for any sounds out of the ordinary and checking down the next alleyway.

“You know Grey,” said Elli coming up behind him. “I have been meaning to talk to you. In private, I mean. It’s been hard getting time alone together while we were all shut up inside during the storm.” Grey felt her hand grab his arm. Her touch was always gentle. He turned to face her without her needing to pull him around. She was beaming at him, her cheeks pink from the cold. “Grey,” she said again, smiling and shaking her head ever so slightly. “You’re always so distracted.” He just looked down at her. She had moved very close to him. “I have wanted to get you alone for a while now so we could talk.”

“What about?” he said. She just smiled even wider and shook her head, never breaking eye contact.

“I don’t know,” she said. He could see crinkles around her beautiful green eyes. Her smile was contagious. It was addicting. He like seeing her smile that like. She placed her hands on his shoulders. Her white gloves did not cover her fingers all the way, and as her hands moved towards his neck he expected to feel their cold touch. He was not mistaken. The tips of her fingers against his neck and chin were icy cold, but they made his skin boil.

Instinctively, he moved away, but she held him steady as though she had expected it. “Grey,” she said in a voice he would never have been able to hear if they were not so close. He felt her index finger against the raised scar behind his left ear. She had asked him about it several times while they waited out the storm, during those few moments he found himself alone with her. But not this time. He just stared into his eyes, holding him steady. Then her eyes closed. Her arms wrapped around his neck and just before their lips touched a high-pitched scream rent the air.

They broke apart. The scream was cut off almost immediately. “What was…” Elli began, but Grey was already sprinting down the road towards the place where the sound had come from.

II

The ground was suddenly very slippery. The tread of his boots flung snow up in the air behind him. Misty breath clouded his eyes, streaming over his shoulders, as his breathing quickened. He shot a glance down the next ally he came to but there was nothing there but snow and icy walls.

His side seared with pain as he ran on to the next alleyway.

Nothing there either. He was almost all the way back to Elli’s house. Grey could hear Elli calling out to him from somewhere behind but he only ran harder down to the next alleyway.

He felt like he was running out of time for whatever was happening, and he needed to be one street over. He was sure that he had seen another man before. He turned the corner of the third ally and sprinted towards the opposite street, his heart beating fast. He saw them as soon as he rounded the corner.

Two figures at the end of the alley just outside the main street. A man and a woman, he was sure of it. Grey had lived long enough in Burk to recognize what was about to happen. She was pressed up against the wall, her mouth covered with a large hand. The pair were grappling with each other, the woman pushing the man off with her hands and legs, her hair lashing around wildly.

Grey was on top of them before either had a chance to even see him coming. Grey lowered his shoulder at the last second and slammed all his weight into the man, throwing him off of the woman.

Grey felt pain in his head, neck, and side as he fell clumsily to the snow and slid over the icy ground for ten feet, well into the street beyond the ally. He dug his fingers into the snow leaving claw marks for three feet as he slowed himself, rolled over, and struggled to his feet.

The bald man was lying on his back in the snow. He had sunk two feet into the packed powder and was struggling to roll over. Behind the man, still in the alley was Sasha. Grey could tell it was her now. She had slid down the wall and was staring at the man in the snow, red-faced and disheveled looking but also furious. Elli was running up the alley towards all of them her scarf trailing in the wind behind her and her hand covering her mouth.

Grey was striding over to the bold man, limping slightly as pain flared in his injured side, before the man finally managed to roll over and stand to face him. In a hot flash of anger, Grey recognized the pudgy face of William Moore staring back at him.

“Moore!” Grey shouted, his voice reverberating on the walls of the alley.

Moore looked stunned for a moment, but then started to laugh hysterically, wiping his chin with a fist. “And there he is! The lost boy come to face me at last!” Moore’s voice boomed even louder as he raised his fists in front of his face, ready for him.

Grey broke into a run and threw all of his weight into Moore again, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into the wall of the alley. The wall shook and icicles fell all around them, as Sasha and Elli both screamed, scrambling to get out of the way.

Moore’s giant fist drove straight down into Grey’s face knocking his jaw around and grinding his teeth together. Grey fell to his knees, his palms catching him but sinking into the snow up to his wrists. He felt one of Moore’s giant hands grasp his collar and pull him up, tossing him back into the street.

Grey landed hard on the snow again, tumbling over, sending powdered flecks in every direction. He clambered up again seeing Moore advancing, laughing maniacally with his fists raised, but then out of nowhere Sasha was there: she leaped up from behind Moore, wrapping an arm around his neck, and plunged a white knife into his shoulder. Moore yelled in pain and staggered.

Grey rushed forward as Moore seized a handful of Sasha’s hair from over his shoulder and flung her down onto the snow. Sasha was quick to get back to her feet but one of Moore’s giant fists swung down, crashing into her face sending her flying back to the ground where she lay motionless.

Grey drew back his fist and punched Moore hard across the face, just as the giant of a man was able to pull the bone knife free from his shoulder. Moore roared in pain, more from the knife than the punch, but staggered none the less. Moore was at least a head taller than Grey but that didn’t matter as far as he was concerned. Grey wanted to tear the man’s limbs off with his bare hands. His ears were ringing and his chest boiling with anger.

Moore righted himself and swung a wild fist at Grey who ducked moving in closer. Moore was lumbering backward swinging wildly at Grey as he moved in closer and closer, ducking or blocking Moore’s long arms as they swung around him. Moore landed a hard blow against Grey’s chest knocking the wind out of him. But Grey recovered quickly and raised his left arm over his head blocking Moore’s next attack and followed by shoving his open right hand into Moore’s throat.

Moore, eyes wide, gasped trying to catch his breath, instinctively covering his throat. But Grey cocked his right arm back again and drove his palm up into Moore’s nose feeling a satisfying crunch as the bone broke. Moore fell straight back, blood flying everywhere.

Grey didn’t hesitate a second. He stood over Moore and grabbed the collar of his coat and yanked him up. Moore was still gasping, coving his throat with one hand and his broken, bleeding nose with the other. Grey looked him dead in the eye, as Moore tried desperately to blink away the spats of blood clinging to his eyelashes.

“I just wanted a taste,” said Moore in a choked voice. “It’s been so long.” Grey could hear him chuckling behind his hand.

Grey drew back his fist and slammed it as hard as he could into Moore’s face. He felt his knuckles cracking and popping under the force of the blow. But he hit him again, this time feeling the skin of his cold fingers breaking open, causing his own warm blood to run down his wrist. But he hit him again. And again. And again. And Again.

“Grey!”

“Grey! Stop it!”

It was Elli and Sasha calling him.

And again. And again.

“Stop!”

And again. And again. Grey felt blood spattering onto his face and neck but he drove his fist harder and harder into the face he hated so much.

“Just let me have a taste!” Moore spoke between blows to the face, still laughing. “Just a taste!”

Again. Again.

“Grey stop! Now!”

And then a new voice. Grey’s spine tingled as the voice boomed out from behind him, echoing around the still winter morning.

“GREY!”

III

Grey dropped Moore onto the snow. Moore coughed, blood dribbling down his chin. Through his blood-soaked face, Moore looked up at him and smiled, bearing his scarlet teeth and laughed again under his breath. Grey watched him lying in red speckled snow, laughing, coughing, and drooling blood.

And then he turned to face to the man he knew to be behind him.

Roman had thrown off his coat and already unfurled the leather whip. It slid back and forth like a giant black snake slithering over the snow. He had a manic look on his face, and his eyes seemed to glow with a fiery light as the sun reflected off them. “I said I would come for you!” he said, his voice reverberating off the still walls of Northanger.

“I told you!” he said, and flung the whip over his head and back down again. There was a familiar crack like lightning that echoed over the town. Grey saw Kate and Max, standing twenty yards behind Roman, jump as the sound ripped through the air. Roman moving towards him.

“I have tread every step, climbed every mountain, and crossed every river that you have!” Roman stopped ten yards away from him. Grey felt the blood on his right hand over his knuckles hardening as it turned to ice. His heart was still beating fast, and his breathing coming in short quick bursts of mist.

“Say something!” Roman said.

Grey said nothing.

“Say something!” he said again. Roman’s lips were quivering with rage, his eyes were bloodshot, and his voice shook.

Grey watched him closely, as the whip swung back and forth over the snow.

Roman moved his wrist so fast Grey barely had time to move. The whip slapped against the ground right where he had been standing, sending a puff of snow into the air and a thunderous crack into his ears.

The whip was raised high again and Grey could only throw his hands up and shut his eyes. The whip slapped against the back of his raised hand and he felt a warm gush of blood rolling over his fingers. Grey yelled in pain and staggered, slipping in the snow and falling to one knee. The next blow cracked against his shoulder and he doubled up, covering his head.

“Stop!”

Grey waited for another strike of the whip but it didn’t come.

“Drop it!”

Grey looked up. Kate was standing ten yards away from Roman, her bow in hand aiming a bone-tipped arrow right at his face.

Roman was breathing heavy, watching her.

“You don’t know what you are getting yourself into Kate. Let us be!” he said.

“I said drop it.” Kate’s voice was steady. She was slowly moving around to come between Roman and Grey. Grey could see Linda coming down the street holding her own bow as well as a second.

Max fidgeted, looking back and forth between Roman, Grey, and the bloody mass that was Moore lying in the snow ten yards further back. Grey felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Sasha. She had a bloody nose and a dark bruise was forming on her cheek, but she looked determined.

She offered a hand and helped him to his feet. Grey’s knees shook and he wheezed a little as his side pinched painfully. Elli showed up on his other side. She squeezed his arm looking scared with her jaw set and her nostrils flared.

Linda shot an arrow from thirty yards away that landed right at Sasha’s feet and then tossed a bow through the air to her. Sasha caught it, pulled the arrow from the snow and moved around to the left side of Roman, loading the arrow and drawing it tight.

The three girls formed a triangle around Roman, Sasha left, Linda right, and Kate in the center standing right in front of Grey.

“Get out of the way!” said Roman through gritted teeth, and took a step forward. Before his first step had even landed in the snow, Kate’s arrow shot through the air and landed right in front of his toes. She had already notched a second arrow before Roman had time to gain his balance again.

“Drop it,” said Kate again.

Roman glared at her and dropped the whip onto the snow.

“You don’t know what you are doing, Kate,” said Roman.

Kate held the bow rock steady, but said nothing. Max trudged through the snow towards all of them holding his palms out. “Maybe we should just talk about all of this. Everyone needs to calm down and we can start from the beginning,” he said.

“Tell them, Ben,” said Roman. “Or are you too ashamed of who you are?”

Everyone looked at Grey. Grey’s face felt hot as all eyes, apart from Kate, fell on him.

“Ben?” said Elli, squeezing his arm a little tighter.

“His name is Grey,” said Sasha.

Roman did not look at her. “Oh, he will always be a grey, won’t you Ben?” he said in a cold voice. Mist was pouring out of his nostrils. “You can’t outrun that,” he said. “You can’t outrun me. Has no one seen the mark under your ear? Do any of you know what it means?”

“Leave,” said Kate in the same level voice. “Leave now.”

“You don’t owe him anything Kate,” said Roman, finally looking away from Grey. “Don’t let him fool you.”

“Leave,” she said again.

Roman turned slowly on the spot, looking at each person. He lingered as he looked at Sasha’s bruised and bloodied face, but he finally made a full turn and looked back at Grey. Glaring at him, he raised up his palms and said, “This isn’t over, Grey. Whatever happens now is on your head.”

IV

Moore was dragged to his feet, and both he and Roman were escorted to the gates of Northanger without a fight. Moore could barely walk straight, but eventually managed to stumbled through the open gates. Roman’s jaw was set, and his shoulders squared the whole time. He looked straight ahead, not looking at anyone, until he cleared the threshold of the gates and turned around to glared at them all again. Their furs, supplies and weapons were retrieved and dropped at their feet before the gates closed on them both.

Grey did not want to watch them go, but he did anyway. He and Roman stared at each other until the very last second. The gates boomed shut, and before the echoing had ceased, Grey was already limping over to Max’s house across the main square. Ellie followed him. The others headed for the top of the wall to make sure Roman and Moore disappeared into the wood.

“Grey,” said Ellie, putting a hand on his shoulder. “What is going on? Who were those two?”

The top three steps of Max’s house were still uncovered so Grey sat down gingerly and waited for the others to return. Elli had learned not to persist. She sat beside him quietly. Grey could feel her watching him and felt uncomfortable.

She raised her hands and touched his neck just under his ear. Grey tried to shake her off but Elli did not move away. She placed her fingers over the raised scar that she had asked about so many times before and traced the lines with her fingers.

“This is what that man was talking about, isn’t it?” she said. “This is a burn mark.”

“It’s a brand,” said Grey.

“What’s it supposed to be?”

“It’s a G,” he said, gently taking her hand and moving it away from his neck.

“What do you mean? What’s it for?” said Elli in a soft voice.

“It’s so that if I ever get lost, or stolen, or if I ever run away people know who I belong to. They know what I am,” Grey could see Kate and Max leading the others back from the main gate now. They were headed right towards them.

“I don’t understand” said Elli, in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

“It mean I’m a grey. And that I’ll always be a grey,” he said.

“When did you get it?” she said.

“When I was five,” said Grey, watching Kate coming towards them with the others. Even from this far away he knew her eyes were on him.

V

In Max’s study, Grey stood beside the desk looking up and down the rows of books on the shelves. He had always loved books. Even in the darkest of times he could always find some comfort in a book. Kate was sitting by the window, fiddling with a long feather sticking out of the end of an arrow. Max and Elli were standing over Sasha, examining her bruised face and bloody nose and checking her eyes and teeth. Linda stood by the smoldering fireplace examining Max’s collection of pipes on the mantel piece.

The only sounds came from Max and Elli as they looked over Sasha’s wounds and the crackling of the fire. Grey glanced over at Kate and saw that she was watching him. He hesitated a moment and then walked over to her.

“How are you feeling?” she said in a low voice.

“Fine,” he said, grimacing as a sharp pain shot through his side. He let out a long gargling sigh. “Welcome back,” he said.

“Thanks,”

There was an awkward silence as Grey dug in his pocket and Kate drummed her fingers on her knees. Grey saw Elli glance over her shoulder at the pair of them as she leaned over Sasha.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up,” said Kate quietly.

Grey was not sure how to answer. He felt that she had no real reason to be sorry. It wasn’t as if she had promised to be there or anything. He finally found what he was looking for and pulled out a small handful of metal arrow heads and held them out to Kate in his open palm.

“What are those?” she said.

“Arrow heads.” said Grey “They’re sharpened and hardened. I was able to finish these before the storm set in.”

Kate picked one up and examined it. He watched her closely as she ran her finger over the point and held it up to her eyes.

“It’s heavier than the bone tips you have been making. I’m sure that it will take time to get your aim right with them. I just thought they could be useful. You don’t have to use them if you don’t want to. I just…”

“They’re amazing,” she said, and a smile touched the corners of her lips. Grey felt his stomach swoop and he smiled. Then she said, “Roman told me that you were well known for you metal working.” Grey’s stomach dropped as fast as it had flown a moment before. “He said you earned a reputation for it,”

“I did,” said Grey.

“How were you able to make these?” she said, taking the rest of the arrow heads from him and prodding through them.

“It took some time,” said Grey. “I had to build a furnace out of brick and stone and I used a bone arrowhead as a base for the mold. They are a little rough along the ends because I made them in a line. It’s easier to harden them that way and break them apart later.”

“What do you mean harden? You can make metal harder?”

“No,” said Grey, “But after metal is shaped, it gets brittle, so you have to superheat it and then cool it rapidly in oil. I used animal fat, but I think it worked okay.”

They fell into silence again. Grey glanced around the room and saw Elli watching them again. She looked away as his eyes found her. Kate poked around the pieces in her hand for a while, examining each in turn and the said, “Roman called you Ben. Is that your real name?”

Before Grey could answer, Max said, “That is something I think we all would like to know.” He strode over to the window and looked down at them with his hands behind his back. “I think we should all have a talk about what just happened.”

Grey nodded and stood to follow him as Max turned around again. Max walked over to the fireplace and took a small wooden pipe from the mantelpiece. “Excuse me, my dear,” he said, stepping around Linda, who was now adding logs and twigs to the smoldering embers in the hearth.

Grey stopped in the center of the room and watched him open a small wooden box and take a large pinch of tobacco to pack his pipe. Elli was trying to catch his eye from the arm chair in front of Max’s desk, and Sasha was leaning against the bookcase, dabbing her cheek with a damp cloth.

“Grey,” said Max, his back still turned to them all. “Tell us about this place you come from.”

“What do you want to know about it?” said Grey.

Max turned to face the room, puffing on his smoking pipe and flicking his wrist to put out the small flame on his lighting stick. “What was it like?” said Max simply, smoke pouring out of his mouth and nose.

Grey thought for a moment, feeling uncomfortable with all of the eyes of the room on him. “Burk is hot,” he said shortly.

“What else?” said Max, putting a hand in the pocket of his sweater and striding over to the chair behind his desk.

Grey hesitated, trying to think of what to say. “The air is full of smog. Everything smells like sulfur from the furnaces, and the people are marked with hold scars. Everything is covered in sand from the desert. It gets in your clothes and in your skin.”

“All the people are scared? What do you mean?” said Max sinking into his chair slowly.

“No, not everyone. But workers are. The field workers have blistered hands and cracked skin. Miners cough from black lung and their eyes are red from the fumes of their lanterns. Metal workers have burns and pockmarks from the forge. You can always tell who the workers are just by looking at them.” Max listened, puffing on his pipe quietly.

“Does everyone work like that in the west?” said Sasha.

“No,” said Grey, shaking his head. “The greys do. And the other kinds of workers. The pickers are owned by another family. They work mostly on farms. There are others. All of the greys work in the coal mines and in the forges.”

“What do you mean “the greys”?” said Max.

“He means salves,” said Elli suddenly. She was sitting back in her seat with her knees pulled up to her chest. She looked up at Grey, watching him even closer than the rest. “That’s what you are, isn’t it?”

Grey did not answer. He felt his jaw tighten and he just looked down so he did not have to meet anyone’s eye. Elli addressed the rest of the room and said, “The mark under his ear that man was talking about is a brand. It’s a letter G. They marked him like they would cattle.” Grey looked back up after a moment. Elli’s eyes had a glassy shine to them. “You said you were five years old when it happened?”

Grey nodded. He could feel everyone’s trying to catch a glimpse of the scar behind his ear. It made him shudder uncomfortably.

“I don’t understand,” said Max slowly. “I… how could…”

Grey moved forward to the second chair in front of Max’s desk and sank into it. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kate moving closer to all of them. She had been hanging back by the window until then. Silence usually didn’t bother him, but he felt a great amount of pressure when people were waiting on him to talk. “I started in the coal mines,” said Grey after a while. “I lived in the barracks outside the quarry with the rest of the greys. A lot of the younger ones are sent to the mine because they’re small. Most of the older greys move the forges.”

“Roman told me that Burk is a beautiful place,” said Kate suddenly. She leaned against Max’s desk with her arms folded and her bow dangling from one hand.

“It can be,” said Grey. “Roman and I did not always see the same things.”

“He said you were friends,” said Kate. “He said that you he got you out of the mines and that you got to study together.”

Grey nodded. “A grey is usually not as lucky as I was. I was caught with a book once. The overseer took it from me. He…” Grey’s voice trailed off for a moment. He felt an unpleasant churning feeling in his stomach as the memory to mind. “A grey is not allowed to have anything. No books. He thought I stole it. I got lucky that Roman’s father saw what was happening. He made him stop, and had me taken to his home to be with Roman.”

“Made who stop?” said Max puffing on his pipe.

“The overseer. When a grey breaks the rules, the overseer makes an example of him.” A still silence followed his words.

“What did he do to you?” said Elli in a quiet voice. Grey did not look at her. He just shook his head, feeling his fingers curling into fists.

“Roman’s father had me carried to his home. He wanted someone his son’s age that was like me. Someone he could control, but also be a friend to his son. I remember waking up in their home in a bed with silk sheets. Roman’s father was standing over me and he told me what he wanted. He said Roman and I would be friends. That I would go to lessons with him and live in the house with them. But he said that if I ever forgot what I was, he would give me back to the overseer.”

“Where was the rest of your family?” said Max. “Where your mother and father slaves as well?”

Grey shook his head. “Roman was my only family in Burk.”

“It didn’t look that way today,” said Kate. Everyone looked at her. Grey saw her cheeks redden, and he felt his heart sinking. “I only meant that…”

“Roman is my friend,” said Grey looking down at his fits again. “I owe a lot to him. But he never saw things like I did.”

“What happened between you too?” said Kate in a softer voice than before. Her change in tone made him look up at her. She was chewing on her lip, watching him closely. He knew that she and Roman must have been talking for however long he had been here. He felt that Roman must have told her enough to make her doubt that Grey could be trusted. But she still looked like she wanted to believe in him.

“We grew up together,” he said. “I remember when I first met him I was afraid of him, but he told me that he would take care of me. And he did. He made sure I had good food to eat and there was always something to do. He protected me from the life of a grey for a long time. I got to learn from his tutors and explore the city with him. He hated studying and we were always getting into trouble. But his father wanted me to keep him in line. So I did. As we got older, Roman moved on to sailing and trading and learning his father’s business, and I was moved to the forge. I was still a grey, no matter what Roman believed. And when his father thought that I had outgrown my usefulness, he got rid of me.”

Kate moved forward as he spoke and sat on the arm of Elli’s chair. Max was still puffing on his pipe, smoke curling around his face, and Sasha and Linda had moved in closer, forming their group into a tighter circle. Grey watched all of this happening around him, feeling more and more uneasy. He was unused to people expecting him to talk so much.

But he went on. “I didn’t see Roman that much for a few years. But I gained a reputation for myself working out of the forge. I was stronger than most of the greys. They said it was because I had an easy life. They hated me because I had lived in the Grey’s house for so long. They hated me because I was smarter than them and that I worked harder than them. And the overseers hated me because I was a grey. The people in town hated me because they could smell the sulfur on my closes and see the burned hairs on my arms. But still, I was popular. Roman got me out again. He convinced his father to take me out. To give me something else to do.”

“Roman said he made you an overseer,” said Kate. Everyone was leaning in towards him. Elli put a hand over her mouth, Max leaned his elbows against the desk, and Kate continued biting her lip.

“Yeah,” said Grey, nodding to the floor. “Roman’s father made me an overseer in the forge. He had me make a knife. A really good one. And I was told to deliver it in person. When I did, Roman’s father looked it over and told me that it was the finest work he had ever seen. Then he handed it back. He gave me new cloths. I got a better place to sleep and money. I’d never had money before. And he gave me a whip. He said I was free. And then he sent me back to the forge.”

Grey close his eyes, feeling the silence pressing against his ears. “I did terrible things in that place. The greys still hated me. And I still hated the overseers. But now they loved me. They clapped me on the back and laughed when the greys would spit on my boots. They would say that I was lucky to carry the whip. They said any grey would take my place if they had the chance. I wish they could have.”

He could not break the silence that followed. The cracks and pops of the fire gave a false sense of comfort to the room. Grey kept his eyes tight shut, until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Kate kneeling beside his arm chair, watching him. She said, “You ran away.” It was not a question. “Why are you going to Stonebrook? Is that your home?”

Grey nodded.

Max said, “You were taken from Stonebrook? As a boy?”

Grey nodded again. He watched Max sit back in his chair roughly, rubbing his eyes with one hand, the pipe smoldering away in the other. “Twenty years ago when we were attacked and all the men were taken away in chains… You’re saying they all became slaves in the west? That they were marched across the plains, across the wilderness to work as slaves in Burk.”

“Yes,” said Grey.

Max covered his face with his hand, shaking his head. “But,” he said, struggling to find the words. “But…”

“What about our families?” said Sasha. The damp cloth she had been dabbing her bruised eye with earlier was balled up in her fist, completely forgotten. “Did you know of anyone from Northanger? Did anyone talk to you about us? That’s how you found us, isn’t it?”

Grey just shook his head, watching her excitement melt into disappointment. “Everyone came from a family. I heard of many places. But I knew nothing of Northanger until I came here. Everyone was sold off one by one in the city. They could have gone anywhere.”

“But they could be alive still, right?” she said her eyes glistening. “Right?”

All of the eyes before him were now had a glassy look to them. Sasha was waiting, holding desperately to an imagined hope. Max was looking down pinching his eyes closed around his nose. Elli, still curled up in the arm chair across from him, rubbed her nose on her sleeve.

“People die every day in Burk,” said Grey. “A grey never makes it for long,”

“But you made it,” she said quietly.

“Twenty years is a long time for anyone to survive in a place like that,” said Max. Again silence overtook the room as each person became lost in their own thoughts.

“Grey,” said Kate, still kneeling beside him. He looked at her and saw that her eyes were quiet clear. “Why did Roman come after you?”

Grey considered her for a long time before he spoke. “Roman’s father had a map. He had a lot of maps. A long time ago, I remember Roman and I stealing this one map out of his father’s study and charting our way across the wilderness together like we were going on a journey. We would plan out where we would stop, where we could find water, where the best spots to hunt could be. We even packed bags with supplies like we were actually going to go. But it was just a game. We were so young back then. But I knew that map would take me home, if I was ever brave enough to try and run. So I stole it. And I ran.” Grey closed his eyes, feeling his jaw clenching. “All those years later, and Roman finally realized that it had never been a game for me.”

“He saw you take it?” said Kate.

Grey just shook his head. “His father did. And he tried to stop me.” Grey rubbed the knuckles of his left hand as he spoke, looking down at the white scar. He could not know how to explain what had happened. He did not want to even try.

“I killed Roman’s father.” He had to wrench the words from his mouth, and now he could feel them hanging on the air. He could not bear to look at any of them. When he finally looked up he saw Elli looking at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. Max held his pipe with both hands in his lap and stared at his desk. But Kate’s face was steady. She put her hand on his shoulder again and squeezed gently.

“Roman called you Ben,” she said. “Is that you’re real name?”

He shook his head, looking back at the floor. “No,”

VI

Not much was said after that. People from Northanger started bursting in through the front doors at a regular rate, wanting to hear the story they had heard so much gossip about already.

Are there more newcomers in Northanger?

Are they dangerous?

Where did they come from?

Will they come back?

Max was forced to interact with each one of them in turn. Grey would catch glimpses of him holding up his hands and waving off exuberant rants about the new invasion from the west, or accusations that he had chased off the only newcomers to enter the city in over fifteen years. To cap it all off, a young nurse names Susan burst into the Max’s study in the early part of the afternoon to tell them that Kane was missing.

Grey stayed out of the conversation that followed. It didn’t last long. It was quickly decided that Kate, Linda and Sasha should gather any of the other hunters they could find and look for him in the town. They head out into the bright sunlight courtyard and split up. It looked like Elli wanted to stay with Grey and Max in the study, but a few of the other nurses soon arrived and dragged her outside to enjoy the clear skies.

Max remained busy talking with everyone that came to call and mercifully led his guests out of the study leaving Grey to sit by the bay window in peace. For once the square outside was actually very busy. It gave the illusion of a larger, more populated place. Women were heading from door to door to exchange greetings and walking arm and arm up and down the square. Some of the younger girls were throwing fists full of snow at one another and chasing each other around.

Grey did not feel well. The morning had been both physically and mentally straining to say the least. He felt tired and sick to his stomach. He thought that had something to do with his side. Double checking that Elli was not around, Grey gingerly pulled off his coat and lifted his shirt to see that his bruising had only gotten worse on his side. His ribs itched constantly and he felt like they were splintering and poking his insides if he moved or bent the wrong way.

“That still looks pretty bad,” said Max, appearing from the hall and heading towards him. Grey just continued to look down at his bruised side. He poked it experimentally and felt a sharp pain. “Stop that,” said Max, bending down a little to examine the bruising. “Has Elli been treating you?”

“She would hardly leave me alone,” said Grey, as Max straightened up.

“Hmm, yes. That happens,” he said, looking out the window and folding his arms. “You know she really likes you. I think she will do anything she can to keep you around.” Grey was not sure what to say, so he just flattened out his shirt and looked out the window with Max.

“Don’t be offended if she comes on a little strong,” he said. “She’s young. She doesn’t have much experience with men. None of them have. You are as much a mystery to them as they are to you. I’m guessing slaves in Burk did not have too much exposure to beautiful women.”

Grey shook his head. “Almost none.”

“Well,” said Max. “I am sure you have figured out that here you could take your pick.”

The pair of them laughed. Grey’s side hurt but he didn’t care. They chuckled for a while longer until silence took over again and they watched the many pairs and groups walking back and forth across the sunny, snowed in the square outside.

“Kate found a passage to Stonebrook while she was out there,” said Max

Grey could feel Max’s eyes flicker onto him, but Grey just continued watching one of the girls outside balling up a snowball and prepare to hurl it across the way at one of her friends.

“Now, you and I are the only ones that know apart from Kate herself. She thinks that the pass will be blocked come spring. I don’t know how we are going to continue trading if we can only make it during the winter months. But it’s a start a least. I figured that you and Kate, and perhaps a few others could head out to Stonebrook in a few days now that the weather is clear. Perhaps we could start building relations again. And you will finally reach the end of your journey.”

Grey nodded, thinking quietly.

“Are you happy to hear it? Are you excited at all?” said Max.

Grey shrugged. “Yes, I suppose.”

“But you have come so far? You have made so much sacrifice just to make it all the way here, and now you are just days away from your goal,” said Max, half laughing. “You seem quite calm.”

“I am,” said Grey, folding his arms loosely.

“Is Stonebrook really your home?”

“It’s where I am supposed to be I think,” said Grey.

“You think?” said Max

“Yeah,”

“Grey,” he said, “Why have you done all this? Why have you come so far on your own? What are you looking for?”

Grey thought about that for a long time. The truth was, he had no idea what he was looking for. He had no real goal other than just reaching the settlements to the east of the mountain valley. It was just a sort of end to a long, long walk across the world. He would get up each day, he would eat, and drink, and climb, and hunt. He would walk until the end.

“Sometimes,” said Max slowly, interrupting his chain of thought. “I think a person can get lost in an idea. Or a goal. I think that we can get so caught up in the things that we think we want, that we can forget what it is that truly makes life in this world so special. There was a good phrase I read somewhere…” Max rubbed his chin for a moment. “You have to stop and smell the roses.”

Grey chuckled, shaking his head.

“Look at all these books,” said Max, waving his hand towards the shelves. “I have learned so much about…about everything! Science, medicine, history, art…There are so many stories. So many places that I could hardly even imagine once existed. People used to be everywhere. There were cities with thousands of people! Thousands! I might not be able to wrap my head around even half of the things they describe, but I have been able to find one common thread. And that is simply this: life isn’t about getting to the end. It’s about finding something, or someone, to spend your time with waiting.”

“You’re saying I shouldn’t go to stonebrook?” said Grey.

“No,” said Max. “I’m saying that maybe you should find someone to take with you.”

Grey looked at him. Max just gave him a half smile and nodded to the window. Grey looked down to see Kate walking beside Sasha along the snow, laughing and holding her bow loosely at her side. Her cheeks were pink with cold and her hair curly from the moist air. Then he saw Elli. She too was laughing, enjoying the town’s newfound freedom from the storm. She was with her friends but still stole a glance across the square to the window where he and Max stood. He was not sure if she could see them, but he thought her smile widened a little before she turned back to the others.

VII

No one was able to find Kane. They said it looked as if he had just made a run for it. Supplies were missing from the kitchen and Sasha thought the tracks looked as if he headed for the gates and over the wall. They all assumed he was headed back west to the plains. The rest of the day was quiet for Grey. He was happy for it, but his mind was still racing. He thought of Roman and of Burk. He thought about what he and Max had talked about.

And he thought of Kate. As the day drew to a close, he waited for a chance to talk to here but none came. Once everyone started heading off to bed he had just about given up. He decided to head into the dining hall and sit by the fire for a while before it died down for the night and when he opened to door he was pleased to see Kate sitting before the hearth, bundled in a blanket.

She looked up as he entered the room and said, “Hey,”

Grey nodded to her slid the door closed behind him. He felt a sudden emptiness in his thoughts. For most of the day he had been thinking of how much he wanted to talk with her, and now that he saw her, he was not sure what to do. He crossed the short distance to the hearth and stood beside the chair opposite her. “Do you mind if I join you?” he said.

She just nodded to the chair and he sat down. Grey looked at her for a moment and then cleared his throat and looked at the fire instead. He folded his hands in his lap and let the warmth wash over him. The heat made his eyes water.

“I just finished a new set of arrows,” said Kate, reaching down to the floor beside her. She picked up a handful of fresh arrows with gleaming metal tips. “The balance is pretty good. I think I will try them out tomorrow.” She held them out and Grey leaned forward and took them from her.

“They look good,” he said, rubbing the metal tips with his thumb and for forefinger.

“I’m surprised you stayed here,” said Kate. Grey just raised his eyebrows in response, handing the arrows back. He noticed that she was holding a small square something in her lap. “I mean, stayed here tonight instead of with Elli. You have spent so much time with her since the storm set in.”

“Oh,” said Grey, nodding slightly.

“I heard her asking you if you wanted to go back to her house and stay with her family,” she said. “I just figured you would have wanted to.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Oh,” said Grey again, nodding. “Yes, she thought I should. But I’m fine here for now.” She just nodded, looking from his face to the fire. Her hands were clasping the object in her lap. Grey took the following silence to try and formulate what he was feeling into words.

“You know, almost everything I know about you came from Roman,” she said, her eye flickering from the fire to his face to catch his response. Grey just frowned. She went on, “He told me about Burk and about how the two of you grew up together. His version seemed so much nicer than yours.”

Grey nodded slowly. “It was different for us. He had his family. His father. And I had…” his voice trailed off.

“Not much I’m guessing,” she said.

“Not much,” he said.

She gave him a little, half smile and said, “I have something for you. Roman said it was yours. It’s how he knew you were here.” She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and held out the small book she had been holding in her lap. Grey leaned forward and took it, confused for a moment. Then he realized what it was and stared down at it in shock.

“Is that the same book the overseer caught you with?” she said. Grey stared at the book, open mouthed. He never thought he would see it again. Once he had lost his things in the wood, he knew it would be lost forever. “Grey?” said Kate.

“Huh?” he said, looking up at last.

“Is that the same book you had as a boy?”

Grey nodded and started examining the familiar cover again. He opened it up and started flipping through the pages.

“Where did you get it?”

“My mother gave it to me. A long time ago,” he said.

“Did she teach you to read?” she said.

Grey nodded, feeling a smile spreading across his lips. “She used to put me in her lap and read to me. She had me follow along until I could read it to her. We read all kinds of books together.”

“What happened to her?” said Kate.

Grey felt his smile slide away. He had thumbed all the way through to the last page, and he gently closed the book. “I don’t know,” he said. There was a long silence, where Grey just stared at the book until he finally knew what he wanted to say. “Kate, I want to talk to you about Stonebrook.”

“Okay,” she said, leaning forward and brushing her hair behind her ears again. “What about it?”

“I need to get there as soon as possible. And then I need to find Roman,” he said.

“Why do you need Roman?” she said.

“I can’t keep running from him,” he said. “I need to get to Stonebrook, and then I need to find him and we can settle… everything.”

“What are you going to do when you find him?” she said.

Grey just shook his head. “I don’t know.” There was another long pause. Kate leaned forward in her chair, resting her elbows on her knees and considered him. After a while she said, “When I was talking to him, he made it sound like you two were good friends. But something was off. He talked about you like you were different. He always talked about how his father seemed to control everything you did. I don’t think Roman saw that as anything unusual.”

“Roman’s father owns a lot of greys. And now Roman owns all of them. It’s just how things are,” said Grey. “I got lucky and got to see what it’s like to be more than just a grey. But Roman doesn’t know what it’s like to be a grey. He never understood why I wanted to leave. He tried to give me everything he thought I wanted. But I didn’t want to be an overseer. I didn’t want to hurt people. And I didn’t want to be in Burk.”

“You wanted to go home,” said Kate. Grey nodded. “So, when do you want to go?”

“Tomorrow,” said Grey.

“Tomorrow?”

Grey nodded again. “I know Roman. And I know it won’t take him long to find me again. I don’t want anyone here to get hurt. I need to get to Stonebrook, and I need to find him as soon as I can.”

“He can’t get back into Northanger if that is what you are worried about. Max has us taking shifts on the wall. I am taking over for Linda pretty soon. You’re safe here for now.”

“Can we leave tomorrow?” said Grey.

Kate hesitate and finally nodded. “We can leave tomorrow,”

“Good,” said Grey. He felt strange now that there was a definite plan for leaving Northanger. And even stranger that he was only days away from Stonebrook. But he thought of Roman and felt as though a heavy weight was pressing on his stomach. He knew that Roman would not stop until he found him. But he did not want to hurt him.

“I think you should get some sleep,” said Kate. “You look a little pale. We can leave early. Max said we should bring Sasha with us, or one of the other hunters. We will make good time, and once we reach Stonebrook, we can start figuring out how to open up some more permanent ways of traveling back and forth. Maybe we can bring some people back with us.”

Grey was not really listening. He was watching her talk and feeling some of his stress melting away. He was worried that she would not want to help him. After what she had learned from Roman, and heard what he had done to make Roman hate him so much. As though she had been reading his thoughts she said, “I know Roman blames you. But I don’t,” she said. “I mean, I guess, I understand why it happened. I don’t think you had a choice. And I don’t think Roman could understand that.”

A moment later the door opened and Linda came in looking very pink faced and cold. She shivered and came over to the fire as fast as she could, hurriedly greeting the two of them. Her arrival was Kate’s signal to go. She stood up, leaving the blanket in her chair, and said she was headed upstairs to grab her things for a shift on the wall. “I’ll be back before daylight,” she said, as Grey stood up to follow her out of the dining hall. “We’ll get everything ready and leave as early as we can.”

Grey just nodded as they walk into the hall and he looked at her. He wanted to tell her how he was feeling, but he could not find the right words. He was pleased that she trusted him. But a part of him felt like he did not deserve to be trusted. He wanted to tell her how she made him feel, but he didn’t know how. He just looked at her, taking in her face in the dim lamplight of the entryway.

“Grey,” she said. “I want to be there when you find him.”

Grey blinked. “What?”

“I want to be there with you when you find Roman. It doesn’t have to end like you think it does. I can talk to him. We can figure it out together. I want to help you.” Grey blinked again and shook his head. Before he could answer, Kate said, “I’m coming with you. We can talk about it tomorrow. But I’m coming with you.” She gave him a half smile and then backed away towards the stairs. “Get some sleep,” she said. And then she turned and went up the stairs two at a time.

Grey watched her go feeling dazed, but he smiled. Linda came out into the hall a moment later. “Is Kate heading to the wall?”

“Yeah,” said Grey.

“Good,” she said rubbing her hands together. “I’m heading back to my family for the night if anyone is looking for me. Good night, Grey. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” he said, and nodded his goodbye as she head out the front door.

VIII

In his room, Grey took stock of his things. He had his pack and his small stock of supplies. He had nothing else to pack besides for his book. He held it in his hand, examining the dark cover again. He smiled and gently placed it in his pack and closed the flap. Now he was ready. He did not feel tired. He felt restless. He was so close to the end. He had come so far. And yet, there was a lurking worry in the back of his mind about Roman. He knew what was coming, but he had just pushed it out of his head. All that mattered was getting to Stonebrook. To his home. But Roman would still be there. And that was something that would not go away.

He thought about what Kate had said and he felt the knot in his stomach loosen slightly. It felt good to know she believed in him. But he did not want her to get hurt. And a part of him felt that she should not be on his side because Roman had every right to hate him.

He heard a muffled crashing sound of breaking glass through his open door. Grey’s thoughts came to a halt as silence followed the sudden noise. He strained his ears, but heard nothing out of the ordinary. Whatever it had been sounded like it was somewhere above him on the second floor.

Grey walked over to his open door and peered down the hall to the entryway. All was quiet and the laps beside the door still burned brightly in the dark house. He crept into the hall, still straining his ears, and walked towards the entryway. As he came into the light of the lamps by the door, he blinked and felt a definite chill running down his arms.

Then he saw that the front door was open slightly. He stopped and stared at it. He grabbed the handle and pulled it open to look out at the dark night. The square outside was bathed in milky light from the moon above. The snow almost glowed. But there was no one there. He stuck his head out and looked left and right along the porch, straining his eyes looking at the buildings across the square. He saw no other lights. All the windows were dark.

He stepped back and began to close the door quietly. But he stopped, looking down at the wood floor. A bit of snow had been tracked into the entryway. He looked at it for a moment, trying to remember if he had noticed anything before opening up the door. Then he followed the flakes of snow and saw a clear path leading up the stairs.

The second floor landing was dark. He stayed as motionless as possible and strained his ears for even the slightest sound. He even held his breath, listening and staring into the darkness above. But there was nothing. Grey headed up the stairs, his stretching shadow creeping along beside him on the wall. As he reached the dark landing, he saw that the door to Max’s study was open and dark within.

When he crept forward, his boot landed in something slimy and he took an involuntary step back. He could not see anything well. The light from the entryway only cast a dim glow on the ceiling. He sniffed the air, trying to figure out what was coving the floor, and crouched down low. He dipped his finger into the slimy substance and rubbed it between his fingers. It was sticky and slightly warm.

Blood? he thought.

He felt his heart beat harden against his chest. He sniffed the substance on his fingers. It smelled sweet and earthy. He considered it for a moment and then dapped his index finger against the tip of his tongue and spat it about again.

Not blood. It was oil. From a lantern maybe. He shifted positions and felt glass crunching under his boot. There was the broken lantern, he thought. He straightened up slowly, examining the dark outline of the broken lantern a few feet away from him on the ground. The hairs on his arms were on end. Breaths were coming slowly and quietly. He moved towards the dark study, his boots slipping on the oil, and peered inside.

To his left, moonlight streamed in through the open curtains. Everything looked still and quiet. Grey took a few steps inside and his boots landed in a shallow puddle and his nose stung with the fumes from the oil. The ground was covered with it.

Every sense in his body tingling, Grey moved quickly around the room, looking for the source of the spill. When he reached Max’s desk he slipped violently and threw out his hands to catch himself; His fingers landed on the slimy spines of books on the bookshelf, and on the oil-soaked desktop. Grey righted himself and flung the oil off his hands as best he could and headed for the door.

He knew what was happening. He should have known the second he first saw the oil in the second-floor landing.

“KATE!” he shouted.

A huge shadow jumped out at him from the dark corner next to the door just as he shouted. A long arm swung at him. Grey threw up his hands to protect himself and was hit hard with a heavy wooden object. He slipped in the oil and fell on his back. All the wind was knocked out of him. Booming laughter erupted above him and before Grey had a chance to recover, a large hand seized his ankle and yanked him into the landing outside the study. He slid over the oily floor like it was a frozen lake top, and slammed into the opposed wall next to the stairs.

Struggling to regain his feet, his hands slipping and sliding in every direction underneath him, Grey caught a glance of the massive silhouette standing framed in the doorway to the dark study. “Get up!” shouted Moore. “Get up, you worthless grey!”

Hatred boiled in Grey’s chest as Moore’s booming laughter filled the whole room. He slipped and slid trying to get his feat underneath himself. A soon as he got his feat underneath him he lunged forward, fueled by a desire to break every bone in Moore’s body. But before he had taken more than a step, another blow came out of nowhere and knocked him flat on his face. Someone else had emerged from the pitch black hall.

Grey shook his head, hearing Moore laughing even louder now, and saw a slim figure standing above him. “Well, well, well,” said a raspy voice. Sparks flared as the man lit the lantern in his hands. A flickering light came to life bathing Kane’s face in a dancing light. “Look at what we have here,” said Kane bearing his yellow teeth at him. “Thought you saw the last of me, did ya?” Kane kicked him in the ribs and Grey doubled up, yelling in pain.

“Leave him!” shouted Moore from the door to the study. Grey looked up and saw Moore light the broken lantern in his hand as well, casting even more light into the second floor landing. His bruised and cut face was illuminated from below, giving him a demented, almost demonic look.

Kane took a step back, whipping his nose with a thumb. “I heard them all looking for me today,” he said. “Thought I made a run for it, just like I wanted ‘em to. But I was still here! Just waiting to let my new friends back in that fancy gate of yours.” He cackled as Grey struggled to get to his feet, holding his aching side. He held the second floor railing with one hand and yelled in pain as he stood up straight. He looked from the Kane’s wicked grin on his right to Moore’s manic laughter on his left.

Moore was still laughing as he held his lantern up high over his head. He looked right at Grey and said, “Come one then, Grey! Try and stop me!” Grey glared at him, holding his side in pain. “Come on!” shouted Moore. Grey lunged at him, yelling in pain and fury. As soon as he made a move, Moore spiked the lantern onto floor. The oil covering the floor and walls caught instantly, and fire raced down the hall, up the walls and into the study. Moore had a wild glee in his eyes as the flames shot towards to ceiling and Grey threw up his hands at the sudden surge of light and heat.

Kane yelped and dropped his lantern, adding to growing inferno. He bolted down to stairs covering his face. Grey only caught a glimpse of him, and when he looked back across the flames at Moore, he saw him spread his arms wide and charge right through the flames at him.

Grey dove for the stairs behind him, but Moore caught his coat. Grey was yanked backward, and before he had a chance to catch his balance, he felt Moore’s hands wrap around his neck and start to squeeze. Moore lifted him clean off his feet and held him high in the billowing smoke. Eyes streaming from the blaze all around him, Grey could barely see Moore’s demented smile as he laughed and held him high. His giant sausage-like fingers squeezing harder and harder, his eyes glinting in the smoke and ash from the fire, Moore said, “Grey!”

Grey kicked him as hard as he could, his fingers trying desperately to pry off Moore’s hands around his neck.

“I want to kill you myself right here!” Moore said in a growling voice. His puffy, blistered face gave him a sick, demented look. “But Roman has a better idea!” Grey kicked him again, his legs flailing around desperately. Spit flew from his lips onto Moore’s hands as he struggled to retort. “I can’t hear you, Grey!” said Moore through booming laughter.

Smoke was filling the room quickly as the flames grew higher and the oil burned hotter. Grey could barely see. He could barely think. He felt his head starting to buzz and his fingers and toes were tingling like they were falling asleep.

“We’re going for her first! And then we are coming back for you!” Moore reared back and threw him as hard as he could. Grey felt the wooden railing along the second-floor landing break against his back. He felt his stomach swooping as the earth pulled him down. He felt sweet, cool air rushing into his lungs, burning against his crushed throat.

And then a thundering crash resounded in his ears! All the wind he had managed to suck in came rushing back out. Splintered wood was landing on the floor of the entryway all around him. Grey’s ears were ringing, his vision blurry and his head pounding. He blinked furiously trying to see through the haze of smoke and roaring fire above him. His chest felt crushed like someone had dropped a boulder on his ribs.

He saw shadows moving above him on the second floor. He tried to follow them, his mouth gaping trying to suck in air like a fish pulled from the sea. It was Moore again. He was covered with a large blanket and there was another person clasped in his arms. She was flailing and fighting with everything she had. Grey could barely see, but he knew it was Kate. He could see her screaming at the top of her lungs, but all he could hear was the roaring flames and the ringing in his ears.

Air finally came back into his lungs. Grey gasped and coughed, fighting to breathe. His body was burning with pain. Then he saw Roman. He was right behind Moore and Kate. They were running all down the stairs, covering their faces against the billowing smoke. Moore ran past him out into the night, dragging Kate with him. Grey tried desperately to grab hold of him. To trip him as he rushed past, but his limbs were moving too slowly. He revolved on the ground, hands shaking, turning to see Moore dragging Kate into the milky night and disappear.

A hand grabbed the collar of his singed coat and rolled him back over. Grey blinked quickly, wheezing for air, and looked up into the soot-covered face of Roman Grey. Roman lowered the blanket covering his mouth and watched him. Grey reached up to grab the scruff of his neck but Roman swatted away his hand easily.

“You know what’s going happen,” said Roman. His eyes looked glassy and his voice shook. “You did this, Grey. You did this.” Grey tried to speak but his voice sounded like a croak and his throat stung as if he had tried to swallow a mouthful of gravel. Roman leaned in, tilting his ear closer to him.

Grey croaked again and managed to say, “I’ll… find…you…Roman…”

Roman leaned back, a white-toothed smile peeling across his chapped lips. “Yes. Yes, you will!” He laughed, crouching next to him, his glassy eyes boring into him. “That’s right Grey! It’s your turn!” Roman patted his cheek, a nasty look stealing over his face. “Come and find me!”

Then he was gone. Grey was left to stare at the raging fire high above him. Smoke curled against the ceiling, rolling over and over like black ocean waves on a stormy sea. Grey rolled over onto his side, reaching for the door. He shouted in pain as his fingers clawed at the wood floor and he lifted up his body trying to crawl forward. He slowly pulled himself onto the snow-strewn porch and then tumbled down the steps onto the powdered snow.

The cold felt soothing against his burned arms, but everything still stung and burned. He looked up at the square but could only see snow and dark windows. Firelight blazed from behind him casting an orange glow over the buildings and burned through the soft moonlight above. Grey struggled forward, not sure where to go, or how far he could make it, or if it was even worth it. The snow was hardening all around him and his clothes were beginning to soak through as the blaze behind him began to melt the snow.

Steam was now sizzling around his face. He could go no farther. Grey rolled onto his back and saw flames billowing out of the windows above him, licking the walls and cracking through the wood. He followed the trail of smoke upwards into the clear night sky. And he watched the stars above. So bright and clear. They twinkled above him with the glowing moon. He wanted to close his eyes. He was finished. He could go no farther.

He felt his eyes fluttering. The sky was growing darker above him.

“Grey…”

It was a voice from somewhere far away. A male voice.

“Grey!”

Max was leaning over him, shaking his shoulders roughly.

“Grey, wake up! Get up!” said Max.

“Max…” Grey said in his choked voice. There were others around him. Hands were pulling him up to his feet. Grey roared in pain as he straightened up and fought to gain his footing. He leaned against Max, who supported him.

Linda and Sasha were beside him, both covered in soot, their hair and clothes singed. Max too was covered. It looked like he had dressed quickly, throwing on boots and pants over his pajamas. He was still wearing a heavily scorched robe.

There were women everywhere. Crying, hugging each other, staring open mouthed, holding their hands on their heads in disbelief. Grey looked at all the different groups gazing at the raging fire, doing nothing. They were helpless. There was nothing to be done anyway. Grey saw the nurses from the back of the hospital wing covered in soot and coughing uncontrollably like Linda and Sasha.

“Did everyone make it out?” said Grey, coughing into his shoulder.

“I think so,” said Max. “I think we all made it in time.” His voice was low and tired.

“What happened?” said Linda beside him.

“Moore,” said Grey. “And Roman. They made it back in. Kane let them back in somehow. Did he ever talk to Roman while he was here?” Max just shook his head, shrugging helplessly.

“They took Kate!” said Sasha. “I was right there with her! They took her! Why would they do that?”

“Because she knows how to get to Stonebrook,” said Grey, letting go of Max and standing on his own.

“What?” said Sasha. “What do you mean?”

“She found a pass to Stonebrook. And that’s where they are trying to go,” said Grey. “They need her to take them.”

“But…but…” said Linda

“They must have somehow found out that she knew of a pass through the mountains. It would be easier to take her than to find the map. My bet is that they have already tried. Maybe she hasn’t even started one yet. Now they have the only person in Northanger that knows how to reach Stonebrook.”

“Even if she had finished a map… it’s gone now,” said Linda, as they all stared at the raging fire.

“But they don’t want to go to Stonebrook!” said Sasha. “They just wanted you! They wanted you, Grey!” Grey was watching Max, who had taken a few weak steps closer to the roaring building.

“No,” said Grey, as Max fell to his knees. “Roman doesn’t want me.”

“What do you mean?” shouted Sasha over the roaring flames. “They were looking for you! If he doesn’t want, you than what does he want?”

Max gazed up into the flames looking very much alone, kneeling in the snow. Grey took a few painful steps forward and put a hand on his shoulder, looking down at him.

“My books,” said Max, not looking at him. “Everything. All of it. Years and years of work. Gone.”

Sasha came up beside them. “Why would they do this? Why? Grey, what does he really want?”

Grey could not stand to look at the tears running down Max’s face. So he looked back at the splintering building before them. There was a creaking, crashing sound as the roof collapsed inward and sparks and flames shot up in violent torrents into the sky. The women screamed and moved back but Max, Grey, and Sasha did not move.

“To get even,” said Grey. “He wants to get even.”

IX

Morning light peeked over the mountains to the east giving a warm glow to the valley. Grey sat on the damp earth beside Max, their backs facing the still glowing embers of the leveled hospital. The heat from the fire had melted away the snow in the square leaving a cool, slightly damp surface for them to sit on.

Grey felt the early morning sun on his face and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He listened to the popping and cracking of the leveled building behind him, felt the warmth of flames against his back, heating his clothes and skin, and he relaxed.

Grey and Max were the only people outside. Everyone had gone back to their homes after the flames began to die down. Grey thought that most would sleep late because of the long night they had all shared.

“What do you think Grey?” said Max. “What should we do?”

Grey opened eyes and looked over at Max. He looked tired and old. He sat with his legs crossed and leaned back on his arms looking out at what was left of Northanger.

“We can still farm,” he said. “Our livestock is presumably untouched. When spring comes, we can rebuild. It will take time. We don’t have the same amount of abled bodies that we used to, but it is possible. We should start harvesting trees soon.”

Grey watched the lines of his face dropping into a tired frown as he spoke.

“It will give us something to do at least. Something to keep them preoccupied. Northanger has maybe ten good years left before the older ones start to get sick. Before more and more accidents happen. Before even more people become dependent on the young and retire to the sitting rooms to sew and nap away the afternoons. Sooner than they know, these girls will be left all alone. No one will be here to guide them. And they will have no one around for themselves to guide. Just a group of dwindling, ageing woman left all alone. Life here is over. The cycle is over. There are no children to teach. And no books to read to them. Northanger is already dead.”

Grey leaned back on his arms as well and looked back at the western mountains. “Okay,” he said.

“Okay?” Max said, with a half laugh.

“Northanger is dead,” said Grey. “So we leave in the morning.”

Max laughed openly. “Where exactly do you plan to go?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it does matter!” said Max

“You said that there is no future here. So what difference does it make?” said Grey.

“The difference is life! We are at least safe here. Whatever is left of us can live out our lives in safety and relative comfort among friends and family.”

“Whatever family is left. Whatever friends survive,” said Grey.

Max pushed forward, hunching over his crossed legs, and wiped his hands together removing the excess dirt. “There is no place left to go. Kate was the only one who knew of the pass to Stonebrook. And she is the best mountaineer in Northanger. Most of us can’t make that climb. And we have no time to prepare; it will be blocked come spring.”

Grey nodded.

“You yourself have traveled across the plains to the west. What do you think? Is there anything out there worth leaving for? Is there hope for us out there?” said Max.

Grey shook his head. “No. There is nothing out there.”

“Then we are right where we started,” said Max digging his fingernails into the damp soil and flicking dirt away. “Trapped in this valley. Mountains on all sides. No way out.”

“How long did it take Kate to make it to Stonebrook and back?” said Grey, looking east at the sun peeking over the mountains bringing light to the valley.

Max scoffed, examining his dirty fingernail. “Oh, I don’t know. Two and a half weeks. Maybe a little less. But that doesn’t matter since we have no map.”

“So about eight days, maybe ten, to get from here to Stonebrook through Kate’s pass now that she knows where she is going. She will delay them as much as she can as well, but Roman has his ways of getting what he wants. I don’t think we have more than ten days. If they manage a good pace they may make it in seven days even.”

“Seven days then,” said Max.

“So we leave in the morning,” said Grey.

“Who?”

“Everyone,” said Grey, gently rolling onto his side and pushing up off the ground. He grunted in pain as he stood, feeling his ribs grinding and pinching under his skin. His arms and neck were burned from where Moore had choked him and his lungs hurt from inhaling so much smoke. That coupled with the purple bruises around his neck, made breathing steady a painful and arduous task. Therefore, he made his movements as short and gentle as possible, and his conversation as quiet and simple as he could.

Max chuckled. “Grey, there is nowhere for us to go. We cannot all go to Stonebrook even if we tracked Moore and Roman through the pass. We would not make up the time. The tracks will be covered in a few days’ time.”

“You’re right,” said Grey. “Sasha could track them, or maybe Linda, but we need them.”

“What for?”

“Protection,” said Grey, wincing as he stretched his body upright. He placed a hand over his broken ribs and scared side feeling the warmth emanating off his skin from the injuries.

“Protection?”

“Get everyone together,” said Grey. “We are leaving for the Boneyard pass in the morning.” He took a painful step forward, limping as pain shot through his body when he put weight on his injured side.

“What?” said Max from the floor behind him. “Grey we can’t go through the Boneyard! How many times have we told you; So many of us have died trying to get through that pass! And no one from Stonebrook has managed to make it here from the other side either, you know.”

“If they have even tried,” he said. Grey continued to limp away, his mind on the metal store a mile or so away. It would be a painful mile. He could hear Max scrambling to his feet behind him.

“Grey,” said Max jogging up beside him. “Stop. You can’t keep going like this. You could be bleeding internally. You need rest!”

Grey shook his head.

“Grey!”

“Max!” said Grey turning on him. “Get everyone together. Tell them to take only what they can carry on their backs. Tell them to bring any weapons they have. And tell them we leave in the morning. You said the trip takes four days. Four days Max: to get through the Boneyard, find Stonebrook, and beat them there.”

Max stared at him, his mouth open.

“There is no future here,” said Grey. “You said it yourself. If we stay, we are all dead already. I didn’t come all this way to die here. The world is moving on without you outside these walls. It’s time you caught up.”

Max looked down at his feet, wiping his chin. “I don’t know Grey,” he said.

“What did you tell me about all those books,” said Grey, pointing to the rubble behind them. “You said that they all had a common thread. Life’s not about just making it to the end. It’s about what you do in the short time you have, and about who you choose to share it with. Do you want to give that up, and just wait here for the end?”

Max looked up at him and shook his head.

“Then we leave in the morning,” said Grey, and he limped on, heading for the metal store.

X

The metal blade he had formed before the storm had fallen on the vallye was waiting for him inside the metal storeroom. Right where he left it. He picked it up gently and examined the uneven surface, running his thumb along the dull blade.

It was far from his best work, but he felt pleased with it. Especially with the tools he used to make it. Without a level anvil, he was amazed that the blade was as straight as it was. He thought back to that last afternoon before the storm had really started to come down. He wished he had gone straight to the gate to see Kate. But he had stayed at the metal store and started forming the metal arrowheads he planned on giving to her.

Elli dragged him inside just in time. The stormed had started raging out of nowhere. But he took the arrowheads with him and had plenty of time to sharpen them as he waited by the window for the storm to end.

Grey sighed, heading back outside of the metal store, wondering if Kate would ever get the chance to use those arrowheads.

He stuck the dull blade into the snow and set to work uncovering the furnace. The pit he had dug had long since been filled with snow, but it did not take him long to uncover the top of the furnace and to start filling it with wood from the top end.

As he waited for the furnace to get to temperature, slowly melting the ice around it and forming a shallow cocoon, he began working on the leftover animal fat. He would need it for the hardening process. He did his best mixing it with snow to water it down and then moved it closer to the fire to thaw.

Elli arrived after a few hours. It was about mid-day. The sun was shining off her golden hair and the wind carried small strands along behind her.

“Grey,” she said, standing a few feet away from him.

Grey nodded to her and continued working. He was doing his best to drop the dull blade into the scorching furnace beneath his feet.

“Grey, stop,” she said, hugging her arms around herself. Grey glanced back at her again and saw a tear running down her cheek. It was like a small diamond glistening in the sunlight on her face.

He dropped the knife into the furnace and straightened up, watching her.

“You’re going to kill yourself!” she said gesturing at him pathetically. “You need to stop! Now!”

Grey scowled at her, feeling confused, and then looked down at himself. Blood had soaked his entire side again. His old wound had reopened and bled through his shirt and coat leaving an evil looking black stain on his side. He put a hand to it and felt the frozen blood, hard on his clothes, and peeled away the jacket to look at the shirt underneath glued to his side.

“You haven’t even slept have you!” she said, striding up to him and peeling the shirt back to look at his side. She clapped a hand over her mouth and gasped, seeing the skin underneath.

“I’m f…” Grey began

“You’re not fine, Grey!” she said, glaring at him. “Look at you! I think you re-broke your ribs. You might have broken more! Your whole side is black with bruising and your stitches broke completely!”

Grey pushed her hands away, but she held tight to his bloody shirt.

“Stop it!” she said again. “Grey, stop! Stop moving! Stop working! Just stop being you for a second! I can’t even see how you are walking! Let alone working! You might have internal bleeding; Max says that you have been coughing all morning because of the smoke! You’re not invincible, Grey!”

“I never said I was,” he said

“Then stop!” she said. She glared at him for a long time, more tears running down her cheeks.

Grey felt completely at a loss for words. “I…” he began, trying to think of how to say what he was feeling. “I don’t stop.”

Elli suddenly wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him. They stood there for a long time. “Why do you do this to yourself?” she said in a choked voice. “How can you keep going like this, in so much pain?”

“It’s what I do,” he said. Nothing had hurt until she had said something. But, standing there with Elli’s arms wrapped around him, Grey’s whole body ached, and stung, and burned. But he did not want to let go of her.

“Are you really taking us to the Boneyard?” she whispered, loosening her grip around him, and looking into his eyes.

Grey nodded.

“We leave tomorrow morning?” she said.

Grey nodded again.

She closed her eyes and placed her forehead against his. Her breath warmed his lips. Then she let go of him. She turned and marched away, and she didn’t look back. He watched her wiping her cheeks with the ends of her white scarf as her hair drifted in the eastward wind, shining in the sunlight.

XI

Night fell. The moon shone as brightly as the stars above his head. Grey lifted the bright orange and white metal out of the furnace one last time and carefully aligned it above the trough of animal fat. Leaning away as far as possible, Grey dipped the blade into the trough, which erupted into rivulets of steam and bubbling liquid. The glow of the metal snuffed out almost instantly.

Grey wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand and waited for the blade to finish cooling. He pulled the glistening, oily, metal out of the animal fat bath and held it up to the glow of the furnace to examine it. Greenish oil dripped like blood from the tip into the fire, hissing and causing small spirals of steam to shoot up into the night. The blade itself was dark, almost charcoal in color. It was very unlike the things he would make out of purified steel in Burk. This metal was a composite of some kind. He wondered about its durability but there was no point worrying about it now. It would be good, or it would not.

XII

The walk back to town was a slow one. He limped down the path over the snow wincing on every other step. The blade was heavy and he still needed to sharpen it. And he had to find something to wrap around the base as a handle.

Grey could see lights in the windows of every building he walked by. Most of the doors where open and he could see girls walking back and forth inside, tossing things into rucksacks, or else just holding onto random items they must leave behind. Max must have made his rounds.

Eyes found him again as he limped down the street. All of the lanterns along the main street were lit, and the town bright, so he was very visible. Some watched from the second-floor windows. Some emerged onto their front porches and watched him as he walked by. Grey felt a creeping heat in his stomach and an ebbing flow of guilt coming over him.

He was not sure where to go now that Max’s home had been burned down, so he headed to the only other building he was familiar with; Elli’s home. As he drew nearer, he was happy to see Max’s silhouette framed in the doorway. He was leaning against the doorframe and holding what Grey knew to be a pipe to his lips. Smoke curled above his head as he waited on the porch for Grey to draw nearer.

“Good evening, Grey,” he said.

“Max,” said Grey taking the porch steps very gingerly.

“I suppose asking how you are feeling would be pointless?”

Grey grunted a laugh and Max stepped aside letting him pass into the entryway. Grey looked around and saw Elli standing by the fire in the sitting room. He caught her eye and she looked away pointedly and walked out of sight.

“Hmm,” said Max behind him, his teeth clicking against the bone pipe as he placed it in his mouth. “Not a good sign.”

Grey limped into the sitting room towards the fire and dropped heavily into a chair. Immediately, he regretted this move as sharp pains flared in his side and chest as his body bent into a sitting position. Max stood over him as he growled in pain and fought to find a comfortable position in the chair.

“It is going to be a long journey on no sleep you know,” said Max, blowing smoke down at him.

Grey just pointed to the mantel and said, “Could you grab that stone up there for me?”

Max walked over to the mantelpiece over the fire, lips tight around the end of the pipe and hands in his pockets. He picked up the fist-sized rock on the mantel and examined it. He weighed it in his hand and brought it over to Grey. “What is it for?”

“It’s sandstone,” said Grey. “I used it to sharpen the arrowheads I made for Kate.”

“Huh,” said Max nodding. “I supposed it makes sense. Sandstone is a porous rock. I suppose that works better?”

Grey nodded and settled into his seat by the fire, gripping the rock in one hand and the dull blade in another.

“I suppose Kate may never get to use those arrowheads now,” said Max turning back to the fire.

Grey began running the sandstone over the flat of the blade’s edge. The ringing sound that emanated from the metal made his ears tingle.

“What do you think, Grey? Will they kill her? Use her?” said Max quietly.

“Roman will not let anything happen to her,” said Grey.

“How are you so sure?” said Max looking down at him. “Grey, you might think you know someone, but think about what has happened. He came all this way just to find you! To hurt you!”

“To get even,” said Grey dragging the stone over the blade again.

“Whatever,” Max sat down in the chair opposite him and leaned forward running his fingers through his wispy hair. “I’m just saying that from what I know of them, Roman and Moore are just like the men from the west that I have always remembered.”

“Roman will not let Moore touch her. He will protect her from him,” said Grey running the stone over the blade in a mechanical motion.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t see where you get your confidence in him. What happened Grey? What happened between the two of you?”

Elli strode into the room and headed for a coat rack beside the fireplace. She grabbed her white scarf from a hook and threw it around her neck quickly, not looking at Grey who was only a few feet away.

“Elli, my dear,” said Max with a smile. “The two of us could use some warm company right now I think. Why don’t you pull up and chair and…”

Elli marched right passed him out of the room again without a single word.

Max watched her go, his eyebrows raised, and then turned back to Grey. “What was that all about?” he said.

“She is upset,” said Grey looking down at the blade in his lap.

“I can see that,” said Max with a chuckle. “I suppose it has something to do with you?”

“She is upset because I was working on this today and my side started bleeding.”

Max laughed, slapping his knee with his pipe. “Is that what she said?”

“She said I was going to kill myself,” said Grey frowning at Max as he chuckled and wiped the corners of his eyes.

“Oh, lover’s quarrels,” he said. “Forgive an old man for his interest. I can’t help feeling glad to see such a thing can still exist in this world. I have gone so long without seeing it.”

“Lover’s what?” said Grey, the sandstone stopping halfway up the blade.

Max just shook his head smiling to himself. “Grey, you don’t understand.”

“No, I don’t,” said Grey. “There is no reason for her to be upset. I am the one who is bleeding.”

“Oh, she is in a lot of pain too, Grey,” said Max leaning forward in his seat and resting his elbows on his knees.

“What happened?” said Grey.

“You happened,” said Max with another chuckle. “You Grey. I think that Elli feels the pain of your injuries just as much as you do. More even! This here, after all, is the closest I have heard to you complaining about pain in all the weeks you have been here!”

Grey blinked at him, feeling a sort of anger building in his stomach. He did not like the way Max laughed at him as if he understood more than he did about pain.

“Grey, you just don’t understand,” said Max slowly, smiling into the fire. Warm light reflected off his eyes. “Elli has been working on you since the night you arrived. She knows every scar and every tick on your body. She has seen the pain you have been through; she ran her fingers over them and mended them as best she could. She is still trying. She worries about you. And she hurts for you.”

“What do you mean?” said Grey.

“We hurt for the people we love. We watch them struggle and stress and ache, and it hurts our hearts and our minds. Elli hurts for you. And thank god she does, because you sure don’t do it yourself.”

Grey watched Max chuckle away in his chair across the fire from him. “I don’t think I follow you,” he said.

Max sighed and looked at him closely. “Grey. How have you made it this far, after so long?”

Grey did not answer.

“What has been pushing you every single day? What has made it hard to sleep and easy to rise in the mornings to push on and on and on. What is in the east waiting for you?”

“I just…” Grey began. “It’s where I think I am supposed to be.”

“You think?” said Max raising his eyebrows.

Grey nodded.

“No,” said Max. “It is more than that. You are not driven by revenge. Not hate, and you can’t be motivated by nothing. So, it must be something else. Is it an aching in your stomach? Is it a long lost memory? Is it a smell that touches your nose when you least expect it that brings you back to better times? Is that what you are looking for in the east?”

Grey’s stomach felt oddly empty and his body warm. He did not know what to say. He did not know what he felt.

“We call that love,” said Max smiling. “And I think you can count yourself lucky, for love has found you here. But I am sorry to say that it is not with Elli.” Max went on. “And I think she knows that. That is part of why she is upset, I think.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” said Grey.

“Please,” said Max. “I have said it before. Northanger’s time is limited. Now I think it’s finally over. We are on our way out tomorrow. But Grey, you who have been heading east for so long, tell me; are we headed to Stonebrook tomorrow? Or are we headed to find Kate?” Footsteps were coming up behind Max from the opposite room.

“What’s the difference?” said Grey.

“That difference means the world, my friend. You yourself said that we are heading to where you think you belong. So, where are we headed Grey?” said Max, placing the pipe between his teeth again.

Elli appeared again and stood beside Max’s chair glaring down at Grey. Max looked up at her, then back to Grey, and then stood up with a grunt. “Think about it, Grey. What are you really looking for? It might not be that far away.” He nodded to Elli and patted her on the shoulder.

Grey took a deep breath through his nose and watched as Max left the room.

“Are you going to be doing that all night?” said Elli, her arms folded.

“Just until it’s sharp,” he said looking down at the blade in his lap.

Elli pursed her lips for a moment and then grabbed the chair Max had vacated and dragged it over beside him.

“Give it to me,” she said.

“Why?”

“So I can do it,” she said, her hand outstretched.

“No,” said Grey.

“Grey, give it to me. You need to sleep. Let me help you. Let someone help you for once!” Grey frowned at her. She glared back. “Teach me how to do it,” she said.

Grey gently handed her the blade and the rock. She took them in her hands and a lightness came into her expression for a moment. She took a breath and said, “Okay, so how does this work. You only sharpen one side?”

Grey proceeded to explain the process of sharpening the blade with the sandstone. Elli listened intently. Grey placed his hands over hers and guided her through the movements carefully so she could understand the slow repetitive nature of the exercise.

“It needs to be as even as you can make it,” he said, watching her slide the rock up the edge of the blade.

“I think I got it,” she said, smiling at him.

He smiled back and nodded. “Now just keep doing that for a few hours and it should get a pretty sharp edge.”

They looked at each other for a long time. At least it felt long to Grey. Ellie broke the silence and said, “You need to sleep, Grey. You need rest. Max and I will prepare some ointment for your side later tonight and we can get a brace to strap to your chest as well. It should help your ribs set, but your movement might be restricted a little.”

Grey just nodded, not really listening anymore. Now that his mind was set on sleep, his body was beginning to fade. He began to stand up and felt the pain in his ribs stabbing at his abdomen and down into his hips. He fell to his knees on the wood floor with a roar of pain.

Before he had a chance to try and stand again, Elli was there on her knees beside him, guiding him down onto the floor. Grey let her lead him and, after a second, he found himself lying on his back with his head in her lap. He felt incredibly comfortable and warm.

He could not remember feeling so comfortable ever before. Elli was stroking his hair gently and speaking softly to him. He had no idea what she was saying, but her voice washed over him like a warm blanket. He could see Max framed in the doorway at the far end of the room holding back the others from coming in to investigate the yell of pain. He was shooing them away and sliding the door shut. Grey blinked and looked back at the fire, feeling the warm flames licking his eyes. He blinked slowly and savored every stroke of Elli’s fingers through his hair.

XIII

“Grey, wake up,” said Elli.

Grey opened his eyes slowly. His head felt heavy and his body stiff. He was still in the sitting room but had somehow made it onto the sofa. He could see the fire still burning strong in the hearth, but sunlight was also peeking through the windows opposite him.

Elli was sitting beside him, her fingers stroking his hair. He closed his eyes again.

“Grey,” said Elli.

He did not open his eyes. He felt warm and relaxed on the sofa. Elli’s hand felt good running through his hair. She was sending goosebumps down his neck in relaxing, easing waves.

Then she stopped.

Grey opened his eyes again. He turned his head to look up at her. Elli smiled at him. “Good morning,” she said. “Come on. Max has already started gathering people at the gate. You said first light didn’t you?”

Grey nodded.

“Well, it’s first light,” she said.

Grey sighed and pushed up off the couch. Elli helped him. His body felt stiff and sore. As he sat up, his chest had a series of hot stinging pains shoot down into his stomach and into his sides.

“Easy now,” said Elli, holding him steady as he hissed in pain through his teeth. Elli helped him to his feet and walked with him to the front door, which was open to the early morning light shimmering over the eastward peaks.

Elli left him standing in the doorway. She retreated into the house saying she would be back in a moment. Grey watched the stillness of the morning. Northanger looked deserted already. In all of the misty mornings he had seen, the town and the square had a quiet look to them, but now it was different. Most of the doors and windows were open. There were no lanterns either burning or resting on any of the porches. No eyes watched him from the second floors. The snow out front was heavily trodden and muddy from the amount of traffic. But that was it. Nothing else. It was deathly quiet.

Elli came up beside him again and tapped him on the shoulder. Grey turned to her and saw that she was holding up his pack.

“I thought it burned in the fire,” said Grey.

“No,” she said. “Max grabbed it from your room. He ran to every single room looking for stragglers before the fire got too far. He made sure everyone got out.”

As she spoke, Grey looked through the pack and found all of his supplies. Rope, flint, the old map, and his book. He gave the book a gentle squeeze and closed the pack. He slung it over his shoulders and the movement caused a great amount of discomfort. Elli helped him.

Leaning beside the door was Grey’s newly sharpened knife. Elli picked it up and handed it to him with both hands. Grey looked at it for a moment as it lay on her palms. The blade was about as long as his forearm, polished, and a dark grey color. The end was pointed and sharp. Elli had even taken what looked like some old cloth and woven it over the bare metal handle. Grey picked it up and held it out.

It felt heavy and sturdy. He ran his thumb gently along the sharpened side and listened to the blade sing under his touch. “Well done,” he said.

Elli beamed at him. “It took a long time.”

“Thank you,” he said, and with a practiced motion slide the knife over his shoulder into the slot in his pack. “Let’s go,” he said, turning back to the deserted town, and the pair of them headed into the street.

“It doesn’t feel real,” said Elli as they made slow progress through the snowy street. “You and I made this walk two days ago, and everything was like it always was. And now we are leaving forever.”

Grey put a hand to his side as they trudged on. He felt shooting pains all down his left side every time he shifted his weight. Elli glanced at him a few times but she did not say anything about his side. At the end of the road, the pair of them turned right and headed into the square.

Max’s hospital struck the eye first as one entered the square. It was a massive black scorch mark on the otherwise perfect scene. And having been the largest building in Northanger, the burned wreck left a blank space much larger than any other spot could have. It made the rest of the town look sort of blank or unfinished.

Grey heard a rumble of noise meet him as they headed for the gates. All of Northanger waited for them. Somewhere close to two hundred people where there, no one talking much, but all moving about organizing supplies on sleds or adjusting their packs. Around the edges of the group were a few woman herding sheep and a small number of cows.

They all stood in front of the open gates, looking out at the seemingly untouched wilderness beyond. As they approached, more and more of the women noticed them. Elli and Grey started to walk through the crowd as it parted for them. Before they knew it, almost all eyes were on them and the crowd split letting them pass to the front and stand at the gates where Max was waiting, a pack slung over his shoulder and leaning against a tall walking stick. The silence pressed on his ears heavily. The only sound seemed to be his breath and the muffled crunching of the snow under his boots.

It felt like a long time before he and Elli managed to reach Max. Grey stopped beside him and turned back to the crowd. Everyone was watching them. Waiting for them.

“Well,” said Max softly, his thumb scratching at his walking stick absently. “I guess this is it.”

Grey nodded, also watching the silent crowd.

“Lead the way,” said Max, clapping him on the shoulder. “And good luck to us all.”

Grey turned his back on the people and looked out at the wood beyond the gates. Everything was still and beautifully untouched. Snow rested on the eves of the canopy of trees. The sun rose steadily in the valley casting an early morning orange glow to the already green, white, and blue colors of the rocks and trees and snow.

He let out a slow, steamy breath. Elli’s hand slipped into his and squeezed his fingers gently. “Ready?” she said.

Grey looked down at his hand now held in hers. Her fingers were soft and delicate, and his callused. He could see the very tip of the white scar of his arm streaking over his middle knuckle. Elli was looking at the wood, her face set.

“Let’s go,” he said.

XIV

“I can’t sleep,” Elli whispered sitting down beside him.

Grey was sitting by a large fire watching the clear sky above him. The stars were bright. He had seen a few shooting stars already that disappeared beyond the curve of the black sky above.

Elli settled herself close beside him in the dirt, bundled up in a large blanket. She shook her head and shivered a little, hot air streaming past her lips and glowing on the firelight. They sat in silence for a long time. Grey turned his attention back to the stars and listened to the creaking trees all around them, the chirping cicadas, and the occasional grunt of a cow on the opposite side of the camp.

“I have not been in the wood since I was a little girl,” Elli whispered.

Grey nodded, remembering the story she had told him weeks before.

“I thought I would be braver now that I am older, but…” she quieted for a moment.

Grey saw another shooting stare far above fly across the sky like gentle streak of lightning.

“I’m scared,” Elli said in an even smaller voice. “I feel like I am just a little girl lost in the wood again. During the day, I am fine with everybody around me, but when it gets dark, I feel like everything is pressing in on me. I can’t stop seeing the trees moving like there are leaning in. I feel like I am hearing things in the dark, outside of the firelight.” She leaned her head against his shoulder and moved closer to him.

Grey looked down at the mess of golden hair resting on his shoulder, and then looked around at the dark wood. The trees towered over them, and the branches reached out at them like spiny fingers. The many fires that surrounded the camp cast eerie shadows up and down the trunks and cast long shadows over the dirt behind them, doubling the thickness of the wood.

“When I was in Burk,” Grey began, looking back up at the stars. “I stayed in a small bunk in a tent outside the quarry. They would squeeze fifty of us into these small, smelly tents every night. No one could talk. No one could move. I felt alone at night. And scared. But sometimes, I would get a top bunk, and my face would be a foot away from the canvas. And sometimes there would be a hole or something above my head and I could look up at the stars. The stars were the same in Burk as they were at home when I was a boy. So at night, I have always looked up. It helps me remember where I am going.”

Elli’s head lifted off his shoulder and she looked up at the stars with him. Grey felt a sort of twinge of regret as he remembered those nights, laying on his back and looking through a small hole above his head at the stars.

“Grey,” Elli whispered. “How did you get this scar?” Her hand slipped into his and she placed her head on his shoulder again. Grey looked down and saw her thumb running along the white scar over his knuckle.

“It was my last day in Burk,” said Grey. He remembered it like it had just happened. “I decided to run and I was caught. Moore found me. And he took me to Roman’s father. Moore told him that I was steeling and that I was trying to run. And there is a punishment for both of those things in Burk. Thieves lose their hands, and a grey that runs is given to the overseer. Roman’s father said I should get both. They pinned down my arm and Moore stuck a knife in my shoulder right here.” Grey tapped the back the shoulder Elli was leaning against with his free hand. “Not too deep, but deep enough. And he made a cut from there down to my fingertips. He has done it before to other greys. When he does it right, their hands are never the same afterword.”

Elli gasped. “How did you get away?”

Grey clenched his jaw remember the night. Blood was pouring down his arm and his hand was twitching uncontrollably. He remembered the searing pain and he remembered them letting him go, and laughing. “Roman’s father did not think I would fight back. He expected me to take my punishment like a grey is supposed to. So they let me go. I was on the floor and Roman’s father said I was pathetic. That I was weak. That I was a coward. He said I betrayed his trust. But I fought back. Moore ran away but Roman’s father didn’t.”

Grey watched Elli’s fingers tracing the scar. “I,” he began, but stopped. “I killed him,” he said at last. “I killed him my knife. The one he ordered me to make. I could barely hold it because I was shaking so much. And I was bleeding so badly. But I killed him.” The fire popped and sputtered away, cradling the following silence. “Moore came back with Roman. I saw him holding his father as he died. And I ran.”

“He didn’t give you a choice,” said Elli, after a while.

“I had a choice,”

“You would be dead if you didn’t do anything,” said Elli. She scooted closer to him, getting more comfortable. “Why was he so mad that you wanted to leave?” she said.

Grey did not answer. A few minutes later, she was asleep on his shoulder, her fingers still entwined with his. Grey felt very uncomfortable, but he did not want to move and wake her. A part of him felt at peace. His stomach felt light and his skin tingled as air from her nose grazed his arm. He wanted to stay there.

Another part of him felt uneasy. He did not know how to explain the feeling. It was as though he did not want her to expect anything from him. He felt like he was leading her to believe that she could get closer to him if she continued to act the way she did. But he did not want her to be too close to him.

Or did he…

She made him feel good in a strange sort of way. He found her to be confusing and almost annoying at times, especially when she was trying to work on his side or some other cut or bruise. But she did care about him. That was something he was not used to. It felt good.

The howl of a wolf reached his ears from far off to the west. Elli did not wake but Grey thought her hand might have squeezed his a little tighter for a moment.

Grey sighed. Three long days in the wood and they were making slow progress. It felt slow to him at least. If Max was right, they would finally be at the Boneyard sometime the next day in the afternoon. Grey looked up at the stars again and let his mind wander between Elli, Kate, Burk, and Roman Grey.

XV

“Why is it called the Boneyard?” said Grey.

He and Sasha were at the front of the group, about fifty yards ahead of the closest followers. It was around mid-day and the sun was shining on them from far above. Bird songs echoed around them, mixed with the sound of fast-moving water. The day before, their path had intersected with that of the river. There were chunks of ices floating in the water but it was getting more and more clear as they moved further down the valley.

“Uh,” said Sasha, scrambling over an uprooted tree, following close behind him. “Well it has always been called the Boneyard,” she said.

“Is it where you would get most of your bones for making tools?” said Grey.

“No, we get those from what we hunt. I don’t think there was much hunting going on this far east of Northanger. There could have been though. I think it’s called the Boneyard because of how it looks. I haven’t been there since I was little but I remember thinking that some of the towers looked like old bones, or ribs, or something.”

“Towers?” said Grey, looking at her over his shoulder.

“Yeah, towers.”

“You mean like buildings?” he said.

“I think so. Some of them look like old buildings. And some are just tall rusted metal spires. I remember my father taking me there for the first time and telling me that some of them would be taller than the tallest trees in the wood. And he was right.” Sasha came into step beside him, wiping her hands together and looking up at the canopy. “There is no fog today so I think you should be able to see all the way to the top.”

“How much longer until we get there?” said Grey.

“I don’t really know,” she said. “But I think we should be there soon.”

“Keep your bow ready,” said Grey.

She nodded and unslung the bow from over her shoulder. Grey let her go ahead of him and motioned for Linda, thirty yards behind them to catch up. Linda unslung her bow as well and hurried her pace to catch up to Sasha.

Grey waited for Max to catch up and fell into step beside him. Max looked tired and pained. He leaned on his walking stick for support as he took the uphill slopes on their up and down path through the wood.

“What do you think?” said Grey. “Are we almost there?”

“I would say so,” he said, panting a little and wiping sweat off his brow. “It’s hard to believe I could be sweating in this cold!” he said with a short laugh. “I had not realized how old I really am.”

The air was still thin and cold, but the snow was thining. Here and there they would find small patches of ice clumped at the base of trees or around large stones, but they had made good progress down the valley away from the peaks. It definitely made traveling easier, but the mornings still brought thick layers of frost over the ground that would not melt until well into the afternoon leaving everything around them damp.

“Sasha says that there are towers in this Boneyard,” said Grey.

“There are,” said Max. “Tall metal towers.”

“Metal towers? And buildings?” said Grey, pulling Max up to the top of the small incline.

Max leaned over, catching his breath. “Take a look,” he said, nodding in the direction of the downward track towards the end of the valley.

Grey looked. Far below them was the end of the valley. The tapering lines of the ridged mountains snaked their way to the level ground and forest beyond. Grey could see a large mix of tall green pines, maples and spur trees that held leaves of bright orange and red. The rolling hills and rocks continued to stretch for miles. There were scattered fields of green grass. To the south was a large lake twinkling in the sunlight. And running along the edges of the water and mixing into the forest was what could only be the Boneyard.

Grey stared in astonishment at the towering spires of metal that sprouted from the ground like black leafless trees. They were spread out at strange intervals and were all different heights. Some were grouped close together. Some stood alone. Some had large beams running horizontally across bonding the spires together.

Grey understood the name. Now that his eyes could take in the site, the metal towers did look like the bones of some colossal beast. Sasha had said that they looked like ribs and he could see why, especially on a few of the wider towers, which had multiple horizontal beams layered up and down the length of its height.

“Incredible.” said Max “Just incredible. What do you think?”

“I think,” said Grey, “that I have never seen anything like it.”

XVI

They had turned south following the spine of the valley down to the Boneyard, while the river turned north down a steep path to a waterfall Max said could be seen from the gates of Stonebrook. They would have to make it down to the lake to the south, through the Boneyard at the end of the valley, and then swing back up north and around the steep end of the mountain base.

The walk down to the Boneyard did not take long. Within a few hours, Grey was beginning to see the change in the wood. The pines became thinner, the sky more visible above. The rocky terrain became more and more forgiving, giving way to dirt and grass. The trees were smaller and farther between, and the air was thick with moisture.

Then the terrain changed again. The ground became harder and harder. The grass gave way to a mixture of pebbles and dust.

“Everybody is getting nervous,” said Sasha in a low voice beside him. She too looked on edge. She had drawn an arrow and was patting the tip against her knee as she examined the wood around them.

“How many bows are there in our party?” said Grey looking back to the followers fifty yards behind him.

“Maybe ten,” she said. “That’s all the hunters. Max has us all on the outskirts of the group at all times for protection.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Grey, coming to a stop. A glint of silver had caught his eye. Careful not to aggravate his side any more than necessary, Grey bent down and brushed away the dust covering a thick metal slab. It stuck out of the ground at an odd angle. He had the impression that whatever it was was buried deep in the earth. He slowly scanned the area around them and saw more. Small metal pieces twinkled in the sunlight all around, embedded in the earth and rocks. He could not tell how big or small any of the pieces were, but he could see them glinting here and there like tinny fallen stars over the earth.

Muffled footsteps over the grassy landscape behind him brought the arrival of Linda.

“Hey,” she said. Grey stood up shakily biting his lip as pain shot through his legs and side. “What do you think?” she said. “Max thinks we should stop here and send out a couple of people to scout the area ahead.”

“No,” said Grey. “We it’s safer in numbers.”

Sasha nodded to him, but Linda went on. “I don’t know Grey. None of us knows what is out there. Every single person that has come this far has been killed by those savages that live in there.” She nodded ahead of them into the calm wood.

“Not savages. I don’t think there are any people here,” said Grey.

“Why not?” said Linda

“I think it’s something else,” said Grey.

The two girls exchanged a look. Sasha tapped her knee a little faster with the bone tipped arrow and said, “What then? You think it’s some sort of monster…The beast?”

“Shut up Sasha!” said Linda. “I’m freaked out enough as it is! I don’t need you telling stories about a big smelly monster.”

“Did Kate ever tell you about our few days together in the wood?” said Grey, ignoring her. Both girls nodded. “Did she tell you about a large animal that would track us during the night? An animal that would circle outside of the firelight?”

Both girls nodded again, and Linda said, “That was the bear! The bear that you fought off.”

Grey shook his head. “No it wasn’t. It was something much bigger. Kane spoke to me about an animal that lives here at the end of the valley. He said it smelled of rotten meat and sweat. He said that they had bad breath that you could smell them a mile away. That is the animal that followed Kate and I through the wood. And that is the animal that lives there.” Grey pointed straight ahead towards the Boneyard.

“Oh shit,” said Linda as she exchanged looks with Sasha again. “Roman and Moore talked to us about an animal like that the night they came to Northanger. They said it had bad breath. They said it killed three men that they had been traveling with.”

“There you have it.” said Grey turning away from their white faces. “I am not quite sure what kind of animal it is, but in my experience, when it comes to predators, you are safer in larger numbers.”

“Do you think it’s some kind of big wolf?” said Sasha.

Grey shrugged, starting to walk again. “I don’t know. But I think whatever it is likes to hunt at night, so let’s keep moving and get through before dark.”

“Maybe we should stay here tonight then!” Linda called after him. “We would leave in the morning!”

“We are upwind. Whatever it is has smelled us already. Tell everyone to get their lanterns and torches ready.”