“No. There are two more settlements. I’ve mapped them. Every person you can rally to fight increases our numbers. I’m asking you to go, talk to strangers, without being sure of your reception, and convince them to put their lives on the line, to send their sons and daughters to fight.”
“When would we…”
“I’m hoping you’d be willing to leave tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? But…”
She had a rotation in the community kitchen, and needed to pick up some things from the Tropics. She’d promised to work with the herbalists on—
And the fact she had those things to do, could have them, had helped build the structure for them? The very reasons Fallon asked her to go.
“Don’t you want to wait until the others are back from Quebec?”
“They’re due back in a day or two. We’ll know if we’ve got the support from the north. We’ve got the untapped in the Midwest. I’m asking you to begin to tap it. I’m asking you to leave home again. Only for a few days, maybe a week, but to leave home again.”
“The farm’s where we left it, and New Hope’s right here. Of course we’ll go. We’ll need to talk about—” She broke off at the knock on the kitchen door.
Starr stood on the other side of the glass with Marichu, the fast, young recruit. “Two more cups,” she told Fallon, and went to answer.
“Hi. Come in. It’s freezing out there. I thought you’d gone back to Forestville, Starr.”
“Tomorrow.”
“We’re just making tea.”
“We don’t want to bother you,” Starr began, then looked at Fallon. “You should talk with Marichu.”
“Sure. Have a seat.”
The girl looked around the kitchen, carefully, warily. She’d changed the red in her hair to a forest green, stood in the sturdy boots elves and other cobblers made for the troops.
“Let me take your coats.” Knowing Starr didn’t like to be touched, Lana simply held out her hand. “Fallon, why don’t the three of you go into the living room. I’ll bring the tea.”
“You don’t need to bother.”
“It’s not a bother.” If Starr said she needed to talk to Marichu, Fallon thought, and gestured for them to follow, she needed to talk to Marichu.
She’d neglected the fire, she realized, while she’d worked with her maps, so flicked out a hand to send it flaming again, and added a log.
The girl studied the room as she had the kitchen.
“Sit,” Fallon invited.
Starr, her face carrying scars from burns so deep even magicks couldn’t erase them, hesitated, then took a chair. Her body carried scars, too, Fallon knew, from Petra’s attack. And her heart and soul carried more, from childhood wounds.
Outside of training and battle, she trusted and interacted with few. Marichu struck Fallon as much the same. But clearly they’d clicked.
Lana brought in a tray. As Fallon walked over to take it from her, she murmured, “Stay.”
Fallon set the tray on the table. “Cookies, too. We’re in luck. I’ve got it, Mom,” she added, and began to pour out the tea. “So what do we need to talk about, Marichu?”
“I need to fight when you go to New York.”
Fallon set the first mug down in front of Starr, poured another. “The age you listed is a little shy yet for combat.”
“Not that much, and I’d have just lied if I’d known you had some stupid rule about it. I fought in D.C.”
“And you broke ranks. You weren’t on the squad for the lab and containment center.”
“So what?”
“That’s not the way,” Starr replied.
“I fought in D.C.,” Marichu insisted. “I’m faster than any-damn-body who isn’t an elf. I’m better at hand-to-hand than most of the older recruits. I won the last archery tournament, and I’m better with a sword than most. You said so.”
“I said you’d improved with a sword. She has,” Starr said to Fallon. “I’ve stayed since D.C. to check on progress with the recruits, and I’m going back to the base tomorrow. Marichu’s improved in every area.”
Fallon poured tea for her mother, herself, then sat cross-legged on the floor, took a cookie. “You broke ranks,” Fallon repeated, “and would have put an arrow in Carter after he’d surrendered and posed no threat.”
“I—” One hard glance from Starr had Marichu cutting herself off. “You’re right, and I’ve been disciplined for it. I deserved to be. And you were right, what you said in the lab. We’re not like them. We can’t be like them. I’m asking to fight, to prove myself.”
“New York’s going to make D.C. look like a scrimmage. The DU forces were strong in D.C., but they’ve dominated in New York for over a decade.”
“I know,” Marichu snapped back. “I was born there.”
Gaze level, Fallon bit into the cookie. “Were you?”
“My parents were resistance. My mother was killed when I was twelve.”
“I’m sorry,” Fallon said.
“She was a soldier.” Pride rang in the girl’s voice. “She died fighting. They found the safe house where we kept the kids. She and the others beat them back, protected all of us. She died fighting. After that, my father wanted to get me out. We argued about it a lot, but he said he was going to get me out, get me to New Hope.”
“Here?”
“Everybody knows about New Hope, but mostly doesn’t believe it. Everybody knows about The One, but mostly doesn’t believe it, either.”
No longer able to resist, she leaned forward for a cookie. “But they fight anyway. My dad made me leave. Sometimes they smuggle out kids or the old or the ones who can’t take it anymore. He made me go with a group, and said he’d find me when he could. But once we were out, everything went wrong. The crows came, and the black lightning. Everybody scattered. Then there were PWs, and they were taking everybody they could or just killing them. I got away. I’m fast, so I got away. But I couldn’t get back into the city.”
“She was hurt,” Starr said.
“It wasn’t that bad. I told you it wasn’t that bad.”
“She was hurt,” Starr repeated, “and got lost in the smoke, couldn’t find the way back in. Some resistance scouts found her, took her to their camp. Then to a small base farther south.”
“They wouldn’t take me back to New York, so I took off when I could. And…”
“And,” Fallon prompted.
“I should’ve stayed with them. I understand that now. But then, I just wanted to get back to my dad. So I took off, and I couldn’t get back to New York. I figured I’d try to come here—Dad drew out a route. It wasn’t exactly right, but I followed it. I ran into more PWs, and…”
“They hurt you,” Fallon finished. “Really hurt you that time. Damaged your wing.”
“They were going to execute me, but I got away. I still got away. Then your scouts found me.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone before, about New York?”
“I didn’t know you.”