To them it almost felt like this new leader was going to share some of the wealth . . . not just with the Wanteds, but with the Necessaries who were willing to work for it. And that was unheard of.

Aaron didn’t fear their reaction. He allowed the murmur of the crowd to build and settle again on its own. He smiled a rare smile at them, and they seemed to move toward him just slightly, as if they wanted to hear more.

That was precisely how Aaron wanted to leave them.

» » « «

Back in the Haluki home, with Haluki closeted and Bethesda nodding off to sleep, Liam Healy, hands shaking in light of what he was about to do, quietly opened the pantry door and knelt down. He removed Claire’s gag and held a cup of water to her mouth. Weak, she didn’t argue. She drank it down.

He replaced the gag, looser this time, closed the door, and locked it again just as Bethesda stirred and looked up. “Everything all right?” she asked, smacking her lips together in a disgusting sort of way.

“Same as always,” Liam said as calmly as he could, his heart in his throat.

She yawned and laid her head on the table to sleep again.

Inside the closet, for the first time since she’d entered the house, Claire Morning felt the faintest glimmer of hope.

Two rooms away, Haluki mourned for his family and his dearest friend alone.

» » « «

On the way to the palace after the speech, Eva Fathom turned to Aaron from her usual spot in the high priest’s vehicle. “You were very well-received, as expected, Associate High Priest Aaron Stowe,” she said evenly, as the old Secretary might have said to Justine.

“Quite,” Aaron said. “And we’ll be cutting the ‘Associate’ part. For simplicity’s sake, of course.” Secretly he was enormously pleased. “And as for you,” he began, turning to her with an eyebrow raised. He regarded her for a long moment.

Eva froze. It brought back the memory of Justine telling her she’d be eliminated soon. She watched the barbed-wire shadows flying over her skin and felt a frightening sense of déjà vu. “Yes,” she said.

“I promised you that your loyalty would be rewarded with getting your old job back.”

“I remember,” Eva said. She waited in deepest dread for him to say, “But . . .”

But he didn’t. Instead he said evenly, “I’d like to take you on as my secretary if you are willing.”

Eva felt a flood of relief build up inside of her, aching to be let out with a large sigh or a laugh or a whoop. Instead she answered affirmatively in the traditional way of Quill. “May Quill prevail with all I have in me.”

Aaron Stowe, the Wanted’former assistant secretary to the High Priest Justine; former future senior governor; former outcast, conniver, and head of the Restorers; murderer of the highly acclaimed Mr. Marcus Today; and current not-really-associate high priest of Quill through despicable means’looked out his window at the tops of cornstalks and coconut trees and enormous berry bushes of the flourishing Favored Farm as the Quillitary vehicle sputtered and chugged along. And he smiled.

He had just one final visit to make today.

Alex’s Message

He couldn’t think of a time when he’d been more nervous, except maybe at his Purge. Now Alex stood before the tired faces of hundreds of despondent Unwanteds, crammed into a small plot of cement and weeds, all the way down to the shoreline and spilling out the gate into Quill. All of them, filled with respect for the land and the fallen leaders they once served, were loyal despite the dire circumstances. They waited, exhausted but patient, to hear a single word of hope that would help them get through the day and keep them from desperate measures’like looking for shelter in the place that once sentenced them to death.

As the water was passed around, each Artiméan took a few swallows, no more, without having to be told, everyone confident in their fellow Unwanted to be reasonable. Sean Ranger pulled Alex aside and gave him the latest news, confirming that Mrs. Haluki had indeed died as Henry reported, and that the rest of the injured had found secret respite in a sympathetic Necessary’s home on the outskirts of one of the quadrants. “And then there’s the high priest,” Sean said. “Aaron’s got him captured, but we’re not supposed to know that. Most of Quill doesn’t know that. Aaron has just declared that Haluki appointed him as some sort of associate high priest, with equal power.”

Alex stared at Sean. “You’re not serious.”

“I am.”

Alex stared thoughtfully at the gate, not really seeing it. “Wow.”

“I know.”

“Well,” Alex said, clearing his head. “I guess he’s really going after it. I’m pretty sure he’ll go full speed ahead and do everything he can to keep us from existing, then.” He was surprised at how calm he felt about it. Maybe it could be chalked up to knowing where Aaron was and what he was doing that gave Alex a bit of serenity. “How are you getting this information?”

Sean hesitated. “I’d rather not say at this moment.”

Alex frowned. He got an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach again. Sean was up to something, always sneaking into Quill and not telling Meghan what he was doing, but Alex didn’t have time to worry about him right now. He remembered what Mr. Today once said about being honest if you wish to prevail, so he looked Sean in the eye. “Sometimes I wonder if I can trust you.”

Sean held his gaze. “I swear you can trust me, Alex. I swear it on Meghan’s life.”