The Fifth City Read Online Free PDF

rolled down Neve’s cheeks, but she whispered, “You can stay in the back workroom, my uncle won’t notice you there.”
    Neve wiped her cheeks with the backs of her hands, then got to her feet.  She continued on as if nothing was the matter, and quietly led Sylvia into a smaller workroom.  The girl left to find a blanket for Sylvia, even though Sylvia protested—she had her own.
    When Neve returned, her face was dry, though her eyes were red.  She silently handed Sylvia a pillow and blanket.
    Sylvia was struck by the girl’s emotion at the tales of the battles.  She couldn’t believe her luck in stumbling across this girl, perhaps the one person in Lightcity who had noticed anything wrong.
    She studied the room, noting the two exits—one, the door they had come through, and the other, a window above the workbench.  She plopped down on the hard stone floor.  It would be no worse than sleeping on the trail.
    Before Neve left, she turned and spoke.
    “I’d like to come with you.”

 
    Five
     
    Neve sat on the hard wooden stool at her desk all night, unable to let herself sleep.  At least she had stopped crying.
Her fault .
    The other cities had been attacked, with explosives she had helped make—and even worse, that she had created and sold to Skycity.  It was all her fault.
    How many were dead because of her?  How many ripped from their homes?
    She had never been to Riftcity, but her mind ran rampant with imaginings of citizens being thrown from the cliff walls into an endless ravine below; of fires that burned the rock face; of the people forced out of their homes.
    How many had she sent to death because of her stupidity?
    Eyes puffy and swollen, she finally stood, stretching out her aching back.  It must be nearly time anyway.
    She slipped into the hallway, and her heart twisted as she passed her uncle’s room, his snoring a constant ebb and flow of noise, even through the closed door.
    At one point in the night, after the tears had long dried on her cheeks, she had written him a note.  A cowardly thing to do , she told herself again as she folded it in half.  But not as cowardly as standing by while someone else worked to fix the problem you created.  She had to go, she had to make this right.
    She placed the note squarely on the floor in front of her uncle’s door, and lifted a hand to rest on the wooden door frame.  She pictured his outrage at her desertion; guilt boiled her stomach at the thought of Harry having to hide the fact that she was gone, if anyone noticed.
    Falcon might.  Neve couldn’t believe she had thought of him as a friend, her first friend in a long time.  As if being clumsy weren’t enough, she had always been inept with words, too; never knowing the right thing to say.  And when she did speak, it always came out the wrong way.  But Falcon had been nice to her; he seemed to like her, and her clumsiness.  He said it was charming.
    She brushed the thought of Falcon aside, and gave the villa one last miserable glance before she opened the back door, careful not to let it squeak.
    She was relieved to find the Rider still in the small workroom, having thought she might leave without her, especially after Neve’s cowardice had shone through last night in front of the younger, braver girl.  She had to make it right.
    “Ready?” Sylvia whispered as she pulled on her shoulder pack.
    Neve nodded.  She was as ready as she would ever be.  She had stocked a leather satchel with some clothes, and food she didn’t feel too guilty taking from the kitchen.
    The pack hung from her shoulders like the new weight she bore in her heart.

 
    Six
     
    The streets of Lightcity were still barren in the early light, and Sylvia’s quick pass by the Scouts’ barracks told her they had not left yet, what with the amount of shouting their captain seemed to be laying on them.
    She quickly returned to Neve, who stood in the shadow of a villa by the edge of the wall.  The somewhat older