A Promise of Return (The Outlands Pentalogy Book 3) Read online

  THE OUTLANDS PENTALOGY

  A Promise of Return

  Rebecca Crunden

  Copyright ©2017 Rebecca Crunden

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be duplicated in any form without the written permission of the author, except in cases of brief quotations for reviews.

  ISBN-10: 1978487142

  ISBN-13: 978-1978487147

  Edited by Meredith Anderson

  Cover Design by Rachel Bowdler

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  AR129

  INTRODUCTION

  The Hidden and the Missing

  As Elara Carlow moved through Muntenia’s Cuzak Square, a mask covering her face, she tried not to look for signs of sickness. The death tolls grew a little more each day and news of outbreaks in previously clear towns was ongoing.

  She turned left down a side street and a wave of relief went through her at the sight of the familiar door. She knocked twice in quick succession.

  ‘Ellie? That you?’

  ‘Yes!’

  The door opened and Elara slipped inside. Shantos bolted the door before pulling her close and kissing her. Every time they parted, both worried it would be the last time. Every reunion felt like a gift.

  In the kitchen, everything was abuzz. Elara unzipped her bag and Shantos, Niall and Yasmine helped her put everything away.

  ‘How was it out there?’ asked Chloe. She was curled up on one of the tattered reading chairs, studying for class. The book looked large and confusing, and Elara was glad she had never had to finish school. Most of what she knew had come from being sold and from everything she learned from those around her. Thom’s stories remained some of her favourites.

  Beside Chloe sat Raphael Park, her recently assigned Complement. He seemed to like the chaos of the house as much as Elara did and had started coming over more and more. Although as far as Raphael was concerned, her name was Paige Isakov and Shantos was Jonathan Lestrange. But Chloe hoped to tell him the truth someday. When they were sure.

  There was no official warrant or missing person’s report on them, and they had no reason not to report themselves to the guards after winning their respective releases. The truth was: it was simply easier to pretend to be someone else.

  ‘Gloomy,’ said Elara in answer to her question, hanging her cloak up on the rack and retying her unruly hair into a knot at the top of her head. She had worn it short for years and had only recently allowed it to grow out; now it was constantly getting in her face. ‘There’s less guard presence, although if that’s because there’s less to worry about or they’ve just stopped caring what happens in Muntenia, is anyone’s guess.’

  ‘Only three new deaths reported this morning,’ said Jian. She had come into the kitchen from the bedroom and looked as wearily cheerful as ever. For a woman with so many mouths to feed, and the father of her children having died the year before they all met, Jian was a beacon of strength.

  ‘Only,’ said Elara darkly. ‘I can’t believe we’re at only.’

  Everyone nodded in grim agreement.

  ‘Well, I suppose that’s something,’ said Shantos. ‘Ellie, want to change before dinner?’

  Elara nodded and followed him up first one staircase and then another. When they were safely alone in the attic, Shantos closed the door and held out a hand, pulling her close.

  ‘There’s a meeting tonight,’ he whispered, not daring to raise his voice. ‘After sundown.’

  ‘All right,’ she said. ‘We’ll leave once the children are asleep.’

  They held each other for a moment longer before parting. Elara undressed and tossed her clothes into the washing machine in the corner. Shantos did the same and they both stepped into the shower. Even though everyone in the house was inoculated, none of them ever returned from town without immediately cleaning themselves.

  There were rumours that the drugs weren’t resisting all the strains, and many who were inoculated at birth in Cutta and Redland were reportedly falling sick.

  Some thought the newer drugs were stronger and those who were not recently treated were more susceptible. Others said it was only a matter of time before the Plague overcame the injections and killed off what was left of the human race. Elara tended to think it was a little bit of both, but she did not believe this was the very end.

  The end had come already.

  After the Devastation and then generations spent below the ground, followed by survival on a planet that had changed radically from the one their ancestors inhabited, the Plague seemed a very anticlimactic sort of ending to the human race. To die now would make no sense. She liked to think that humans, even if only a small number, would carry on long past the outbreak of the Plague. But hysteria was like opium, and many fell prey.

  When she and Shantos had finished cleaning themselves off, they got dressed in dark clothing. Elara plaited her hair close to her head and pulled on a tight cap that kept any sign of the blonde strands from showing. As both of them were enslaved before they could be Complemented, they had gone to the tattooist a few months before to get matching marks. Adults did not walk around with clear faces. It would draw a considerable amount of attention if they got much older. Thus, a dagger adorned them both from left temple to cheek. If anyone asked, they said it was because Shantos’ father was a master blacksmith. In truth, it was an ode to the arena where they met.

  Down in the kitchen, the children were all gathered around the large table. Elara and Shantos took their seats on either side of Jian near the head of the table and everyone began passing food around.

  Elara piled her plate with sticky rice and steamed vegetables, meat stew and cheesy potatoes, and several slices of bread. She was still small as a beanpole, but no matter how much she ate, she never felt truly full, and no matter how often she snacked, none of it ever stuck. She always looked dangerously thin and her cheekbones were far too sunken for her age. The years of malnourishment had done damage.

  ‘It’s amazing, everyone,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Thank you for doing the shopping,’ said Jian with a tired smile. How she had managed nine children before they moved in with her and started helping out, Elara could not fathom.

  With a wink, Elara shovelled more food into her mouth and listened to Hana and Martin talk about what they had done at class that morning. Niall was strangely quiet and fidgety, and when Jian asked him what they had done, he stabbed angrily at a pea.

  ‘We went to Sparrow Prison,’ he said quietly. ‘We saw someone hanged.’

  Everyone stopped talking. Most children in Muntenia went to the academy in the mountains, but the poorest went to Greystone Hall, a rundown shithole in the middle of the city. Niall was the first in the Chang family to have gone since his father. Martin, a year below Niall, would have to watch the disgusting display next year if something wasn’t changed.

  Yvonne, Yasmine and Chloe had never gone on the yearly class trip to Sparrow Prison. It was believed that girls were more likely not to rebel if told of what would happen, whilst boys were more likely not to rebel if they saw what would happen.

  ‘Niall,’ said Shantos, and everyone looked over at him. ‘You know that what they did is wrong, don’t you?’

  Niall fidgeted nervously in his seat. ‘They said if we said things like that then we’d be hanged, too.’

  Shantos stood and walked over to the little boy. Bending down in front of him, Shantos hugged him tightly and Nial
l’s small hands balled into fists against his back.

  ‘It’s not fair,’ said Niall. ‘The man only stole to feed his family! We’ve all done that. If we hadn’t, we’d be dead.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Shantos. He leaned back and ruffled Niall’s long black hair. ‘Inside this house – and only inside this house – you can talk about how wrong it is. How awful they are. But only to the people here. Never to Raphael. Never to Troy. Never to Arthur.’

  Niall nodded. ‘Like we don’t talk about betting at the arena and who you two are.’

  ‘Exactly,’ he said. ‘And if you ever need to talk about what they made you see today, you can always come to me. I’ve seen much too much, too. I will always be here to listen to you, all right?’

  Niall nodded, looking slightly less horrified than he had a few moments before, and as the conversation moved on, he managed to eat about half of his plate. Elara pulled out a bar of chocolate she had been saving for later and passed it to Niall. His face lit up and she felt a rush of success.

  Once everything had been cleared up, Elara and Shantos pulled on their boots, hid their handguns and daggers beneath their cloaks, and slipped out into the dark silence of the shut away city.

  Guards patrolled the streets infrequently, and it hadn’t been hard to learn their routine. Slipping through the shadows like rats, they made their way to Green Street.

  There was a tense moment when they came up behind a pair of guards wandering around off-duty; but at last, tense and perspiring, they reached the Huang and Gold house and knocked on the door.

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Your favourite ball of sunshine,’ said Shantos. ‘Open the door.’

  There was a click as the lock unlatched and they slipped inside. A gust of warm, incense-heavy air welcomed them as they walked in. They hung up their cloaks on the coat rack by the front door and made their way into the sitting where David, Sarah, James and Mischa were sitting.

  ‘Hallo, you two,’ said David. ‘Wine?’

  ‘Please,’ said Shantos. He held up a box. ‘I brought cakes.’

  ‘Bless you,’ said Mischa. Recently returned from famine relief in the Southern Lands, Mischa never turned down food. Whether it was perpetual hunger, fear of being hungry, or guilt at the thought of uneaten food when there was an entire country dying and rotting away, she never let anything go to waste, nor turned anything down.

  Elara took a seat at Sarah’s feet and leaned back against her knees. Sarah had quickly become one of her favourite people. Stunningly beautiful, unendingly kind, and now the closest thing to a big sister Elara had, Sarah always made time in the week for Elara to drop by and have tea with her.

  ‘What are we talking about?’ she asked, accepting the glass of wine James passed to her with a smile.

  Sarah, who had begun to plait Elara’s hair absently, said, ‘Madeline’s new referendum for the Law of Turnover.’

  Originally, the Law of Turnover decreed that any citizens who held suspicions regarding their neighbours – or anyone around them – was legally obliged to turn them over to the guards – and the closer the person was to them, the more they were rewarded. The referendum stated that healthy citizens must turn against sick ones so as to prevent the spreading of the Plague. If you rightly turned someone over for having the Plague, you were sent an inoculation kit. There were already cases of neighbours falsely reporting each other. ‘Plague fraud’ was a phrase Elara never thought she would hear.

  ‘Lovely,’ said Shantos. He sat on the ground across from Elara and she kicked off her boots before resting her feet on his lap. He placed a warm hand around them as he lit up a cigarette and blew out a tornado of smoke. ‘Good thing none of my neighbours know who I am.’

  James grimaced and blew a cloud back at him. ‘It pays to keep out of sight these days.’

  ‘It pays to keep out of sight most days,’ amended Mischa.

  Everyone murmured their agreement.

  ‘How’re the little bits?’ asked Shantos, nodding to David. ‘You went up to visit them yesterday, no?’

  The Gold and Huang children went to school fulltime at the academy in the mountains, a good three-hour flight from the main city. It was a heavily guarded, well-fortified prison-turned-school, but it was also one of the safest places in the Kingdom. The moment the first wave of Plague appeared on the broadcast, all visits to the academy had been cancelled. Now only occasional visits were allowed, and only by parents holding inoculation cards.

  ‘Good,’ said David. ‘They miss home and they’re scared. Not much can be done about that, though. I’m more worried about Ravi.’

  Shantos glanced at James. ‘What’s wrong with Ravi?’

  Sarah had told Elara once that one of the reasons James trusted the Anteros brothers as much as he did was not solely because Nate had saved his and Sarah’s lives multiple times. When Deepika killed herself, just shy of her twenty-first birthday, it was Thom’s endless connections and influences that ensured all three of the Huang children were placed on the Guarantee of Perpetual Innocence. It was a list – very small – of children whose innocence was determined by law, and they could not be arrested or detained until they were sixteen. Every single one of James’ visits with his children was recorded as a result, so much of what he could say to them was hindered. They were the safest in the Kingdom, but it meant James never had proper talks with his children until they were home.

  ‘I have no idea,’ he said, slightly melancholy. ‘He’s been sad for years. Half of me thinks that’s just what he’s like. He was such a happy child, though.’

  ‘Maybe he misses you,’ said Mischa, taking his hand. ‘It can’t be easy on a child to spend the majority of time away from their parents.’

  ‘Possibly. Tae and Aoife seem fine.’

  ‘They’re younger. They don’t have any memories of Deepika.’

  ‘He thinks I don’t want him.’

  ‘They’ll thank you when they’re older,’ said David bracingly. ‘The mess we make of our own lives doesn’t need to affect them. My children know nothing of where I spend my days and will never be implicated for my crimes. It’s better this way.’

  Elara frowned. ‘I don’t think I could keep my opinions from my children for so long.’

  ‘Wait until you have them,’ said James, rubbing his bloodshot eyes. ‘I might not be a great father, but I sleep better knowing that my children won’t end up in Redwater, scars on their backs like Nate. And I don’t have nearly as much money and sway as the Anteros family.’

  ‘I suppose,’ she said, her thoughts still on James’ children. When she was twelve, she had fully expected to have her first child at sixteen. Now that she was sixteen, she found that she felt nowhere near ready to take care of anyone else. The Chang children and the Club, and most of all Shantos, were all that she could take. How the others were handling so much boggled her mind.

  ‘Any word from Cutta?’ asked Shantos. ‘Your friends?’

  Neither Elara nor Shantos knew Nadia or Blaise, but after the murder of Hamish Anteros, there had been no news from the west. Not from Thom, not from Charles. Not from anyone.

  ‘No,’ said Sarah, worry evident in her tone.

  Elara frowned. ‘Why would Blaise kill Thom’s father?’

  ‘I would have,’ said James. ‘Loathsome bastard.’

  David added, ‘Blaise has been talking about it for years. Said he owed Thom as much as Nate.’

  Sarah raised an eyebrow. ‘Did Nate ever find out about TC helping them?’

  David shook his head and lit another tocker. ‘None of us were stupid enough to tell him.’

  ‘Ahmad and Eloise would have died two years sooner without TC’s intervention,’ said James, scratching the side of his face. ‘TC refused to go to meetings – which is fair, as all of his connections were built to ensure he had a thousand ways to get Nate out of trouble – but for the amount of shit he did for us, he might as well have been a member. I think mostly he wanted to know th
at the Council would side with him over Hamish if it ever came down to it. And Viktor would’ve, too.’

  Elara rubbed her eyes. ‘This whole Kingdom needs to be taken apart.’

  There was a sudden loud, hurried knocking on the door and everyone stilled.

  No one was expected.

  James snatched all the papers off the desk and hid them behind the bookshelf as Sarah walked slowly towards the door and pressed the codebox button. ‘It’s after curfew,’ she called. ‘Come back tomorrow.’

  Everyone held still, hearts hammering as they waited for the answer.

  ‘It’s me, beautiful. Open the door.’

  Sarah froze, hand trembling over the receiver.

  David said, slightly horrified, ‘Why isn’t he in the Outlands?’

  ‘Please let me in, Sarah. There are guards coming!’ hissed the voice.

  Sarah scrambled to unlock the door. A tall figure slipped by her and pulled his hood back. A mess of dark hair, remarkably similar to Thom’s, tumbled out and the man ran a hand through it, somehow making it even wilder. He had a shikra tattooed on the side of his face and a roguish glint in his eye. The sort of man who was handsome and knew it, but was charming all the same.

  ‘What are you doing here, Blaise?’ said Sarah, coming up behind him. ‘Where’s Nate? He went to the Outlands after you.’

  Blaise raised both eyebrows. ‘I didn’t go to the Outlands. I wouldn’t even know how to navigate that minefield. Only Nate and Archie could have done that. They were the ones with the bloody blueprints. I’ve been in Clearbow.’

  ‘Then who killed Hamish Anteros?’ asked David.

  Blaise grinned. ‘TC.’

  Everyone in the room stared at him.

  ‘I’m assuming we all know Thom?’ said Blaise, glancing from face to face. ‘Or Nate? Anyone know both?’

  They waved at him to continue.

  ‘Right,’ he said as he took off his coat and lit a cigarette. ‘Ah, Thom showed up in Anais at Marko and Diana’s. We got him transport out.’