remained standing. “I’m a Rider—Sylvia. You?”
“Neve.”
“How do you know about Meadowcity’s battle?”
Neve gave an exasperated sigh and propped her head on her hand. “I was in the pub, sitting in the corner,” she began in a whisper.
“I don’t think they ever noticed me. They were talking about a journey they were taking tomorrow—something important. And then they said—” she paused, and her eyes flicked up to the ceiling in thought, “ thanks to that bloody fight in Meadowcity, we don’t have enough boats now .” Neve’s eyes were wide, staring at Sylvia as if she might have the answer.
Sylvia looked away, then smacked her hand to her forehead as her mouth popped open. So they were right! Of course Greyling had wanted Meadowcity to make boats, he had an island to get to!
And now Sylvia’s plans would change, thanks to this girl.
“They’re leaving tomorrow?” she asked, her mind already beginning to churn with waves of new plans for her mission.
Neve nodded. “They didn’t say where, but some of them were sad they couldn’t go, like it was a treat.”
The fifth city. That would be a treat for the Scouts, wouldn’t it? Sylvia was sure that’s where they were headed.
“Can I stay here tonight?” Sylvia asked as she looked around the workshop, taking in the different tools and the enormous furnace, which was still glowing faintly. “I’ll leave tomorrow.”
Neve reached up, perhaps unconsciously, to put a hand on her throat, where Sylvia’s dagger had pressed.
“I’m sorry about that,” Sylvia said immediately. “It’s just…” She paused, wondering how she would explain this mess they were in.
“Look, let me at least tell you what’s happened in the other cities.” Sylvia raised her eyebrows and pointed to the floor next to the girl, and Neve nodded. She sat facing Neve, and noticed in the weak light of the slumbering furnace that the girl was only a bit older than herself.
“Skycity attacked us.”
Neve’s bony eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hair, but Sylvia went on. “They attacked Riftcity too—they’re still there, forcing them to work, mining the limestone for powder to make the bombs. But Meadowcity managed to fight, and they’ve left us alone. We stole some of their bombs.”
“We know Greyling is after something,” she continued. “We think he discovered another city, somewhere south of Meadowcity, on the water. But he needed the Four Cities to do the work so he can take the other city by force.”
“But what’s it like here?” Sylvia asked. “Are they forcing you to make the explosives?”
Neve winced, and her brow creased as she spoke, hushed in the darkness of her shop. “There was no attack here,” she shook her head sadly, but her eyes held an even darker emotion.
“Our Governor told us that Skycity was helping the Four Cities, organizing a defense against the threat. She locked down the city, and the Scouts arrived. She made an agreement to produce the orbs for them, there was a contract…”
Lightcity’s Governor had given in to Greyling’s threat. She had bent and given up her city to his control.
Sylvia would always remember that evening when she had delivered Governor Gero the message from Skycity, the one that would have made them into Greyling’s pets, just like Lightcity was now. But Gero hadn’t given in.
“They attacked you with the bombs?” Neve asked in a tiny voice.
Sylvia nodded. “Riftcity was damaged the most. All of the bridges were destroyed, entire parts of the walkways blown from the cliff.” Sylvia stopped as she saw Neve’s eyes become bright, and a tear leak out of one eye.
Neve stared down at her lap, face half-hidden behind her hand.
“Listen, we’re trying to find a way to stop them,” Sylvia said in as soothing a voice she could manage. She had never imagined her spy venture would unfold like this.
Thick tears