It was this monstrous shape that hurled itself upon Amos McCleary, meaty fists striking into sunken cheeks. Calvin’s eyes widened in horror as he watched the Elders pummel one another. After a moment, he shook his head and ran off.
“What is the meaning of this?” a voice roared, momentarily stopping the fight.
Parson Briard strode out of the burning darkness, his robes swaying behind him like a king’s coronation vestments.
“I can’t believe my eyes. The Elders, quarreling?” He stepped forward, squinting at what was left of Matthias’s face. “That doesn’t look good, Dodson. You’ll want to have the doctor look that over. I think I saw him somewhere around the schoolyard. Parts of him, anyway.” He shrugged. “Myself, I’ve never cared for modern medicine. I think the old ways still are best. Starve a fever. Feed a cold. Put a beast out of its misery.”
There was a single gunshot, sharp and final, and I swallowed my cry as Matthias reeled back into an ashen heap. His cloak pulled away, revealing a fallen man and nothing more.
“That ought to cure what ails him, don’t you think?” Briard asked, smoke still wafting from his pistol.
Amos leaned over, examining the still remains of his former friend. “What have you done?” He turned toward the parson, his fingers tight around the bloodied walking stick. “Damn you, Briard. Damn you to hell.”
A cackle of triumph burst from Amos as he swung his cane high. I turned away in time to avoid witnessing the bloody aftermath, but it didn’t stop me from hearing it, like footsteps crunching through deep snow.
I broke into a sprint, praying the Elder would forget about me as he satiated his bloodlust elsewhere.
Rounding the corner, I could just make out the church’s bell tower, rising among plumes of wreckage and ruin. In the little square at the base of the hill were the stocks. There was a dark mass huddled against the pillory.
Sam.
Before I could run to him, two shapes broke free of the shadows, hurtling into me.
“Ellerie? Is it really you?” Merry threw her arms around me. Her voice was rasped sharp. She’d breathed in too much of the smoke and ash.
Sadie squeezed me, sobbing, her head buried at my waist. “We thought we’d never see you again. We thought—”
“Are you okay? Have they hurt you?” I ran fingers over their soot-stained faces, brushing back loose, matted hair to inspect them. There was a line of red scratches down Merry’s face, and one of Sadie’s sleeves had been torn from her dress. They’d fought and struggled. I pulled them into another hug, tears falling over them.
Merry clutched my arm. “Parson Briard wanted to put us in the stocks with Sam, but Thomas charged at him. He told us to run, to run and hide.”
“But then there was the ball of fire,” Sadie cried, her cheeks scrunched. “And fighting, everywhere. Everyone has gone mad.”
“I’ve seen.”
“They’re going to kill him,” Merry said.
“We’re going to find a way to free Sam, I swear we will.”
I cupped her cheek, unable to stop touching my sisters. I needed physical assurance that they were here, with me, and safe.
“Not Sam,” Merry said, pointing back to the stocks. “Thomas. And Ephraim.”
I squinted. It had been too dark to make out before, but there were two figures secured in the stocks, not one. The heads hanging between the wooden boards had mops of brown curls, not Sam’s bright blond hair.
“He lied,” Merry said, her lower lip trembling. “Sam. When they brought us to the square, he told the parson that the devil had been summoned to the Falls—and that the Fairhopes were it.” She let out a broken gasp. “They said the Gallows weren’t good enough. That devils need to burn. They’re building the stakes now, Sam leading them all.”
“Sam did that?” I wanted to be shocked, to be stunned and outraged. How could our brother say such a thing? I knew he was capable of mistakes—big, horrible, awful ones—but this was beyond the pale. Lives were at stake. Innocent lives.
I froze.
There it was.
Sam’s lie.
Given at exactly the wrong moment.
“We’re getting out of here,” I promised them. “All of us. The parsonage is still standing. I’ll bet their stable is too. We’ll take their wagon and make for the pass. We can try to find help and…” I glanced around, barely able to register the devastation. There would be nothing left to save, come morning. “But first we have to free Thomas and Ephraim.”
“Briard has the key,” Merry said.
Hot bile churned in my stomach as I remembered the crunch of his skull. I could not go back down that darkened street.
I raised my hatchet. “I’ve got something better.”
My first strike at the stocks missed the boards and struck one of the metal hinges.
Painful reverberations from the thwack traveled up the axe, wrenching my shoulder back as I gasped. With a cry of determination, I swung the hatchet again, chipping into the frame.
Again and again, I unleashed my frustrations and furies onto the weathered boards.
Splinters and bigger bits of wood rained down on the parched earth until the stocks broke apart with a groan.
Falling to the ground, the men listed heavily, unable to stand. Thomas had been beaten badly, and his face was swollen and mottled. His eyes were glazed over, distant and unseeing, but when Merry reached out to support his weight, I saw him press his forehead to her temple, murmuring gratefully.
Ephraim’s glasses were missing, and he squinted through the haze of smoke, his eyes raw and red.
“You brave girl,” he said as I ducked under his arm, helping him lean on me.
“I figured out her name, but it didn’t matter,” I said, unable to accept any credit. “It was too late.”
“What about Sam?” Sadie asked as we made our way toward the parsonage. “We’re not going to leave him…are we?”
Whitaker’s final words returned to me, floating in my head like a cork bobber, and I couldn’t deny their ring of truth. Sam would abandon us, turn tail and leave without a spare thought.
But did that make it right to do the same to him?
“I…We should…” I let out a growl of frustration. “I’ll go after him. Make your way to the parsonage. Ready the horses and search for whatever supplies we can take.”
“We should just leave him,” Merry said, surprising me. “After the things he said about Thomas and Ephraim…You didn’t hear them, Ellerie. They were terrible and foul. And even worse…” She pressed Sadie close to her, covering her ears. “He blamed you for everything. For bringing them here. He wants to see you burn.”