“No way to stop the caldera,” I said, “but if we stop Janan from ascending, perhaps that will put everything else back in order.”
“That sounds impossible.” Sarit leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “It sounds a little crazy, too. I believe what you’ve said about Janan, but it sounds crazy.”
“I know.”
Stef put her SED in her pocket. “I agree with Ana about stopping Janan.” When she met my eyes, I knew she was thinking of Cris and his sacrifice, and everything else that had happened inside the temple. “But let’s debate that later, because there are other things we need to discuss before everyone passes out from exhaustion.”
I shot her a grateful look. I didn’t want to discuss a plan for stopping Janan in front of all these people. Particularly since I didn’t have a plan.
She looked at all of us. “Deborl and his friends want to harm newsouls. We know this. The laws the Council has been working to pass won’t do anything to deter them. But the truth is that we’re all in danger.”
I studied the crowd, their weary postures and disbelieving looks. “The best thing for newsouls—and anyone who wants to help them—is to get out of Heart.”
“We’ll have to go very far to avoid the eruption,” Orrin said. “If the caldera does erupt, Range will be nothing more than a hole in the ground. Everything surrounding Range will be covered in ash as high as Ana. Beyond that, there will be yet more ash. The air will be toxic across most of the continent, and ash in the atmosphere will drop the world’s temperature. Animals will die, and crops won’t grow.”
“How far away will people have to go to be safe?” I thought of the globe and how big the world had seemed, not half an hour ago.
Orrin shook his head. “Everywhere will be affected somehow, but the farther we travel, the better our chances of survival.”
“Both from the eruption and Deborl.” I swallowed hard. “Please consider leaving Heart soon.”
“This gives me a good place to lead into the next bad news,” Stef said. “It seems Sam and Ana weren’t the only target tonight. Every Councilor who approved the newsoul protection laws has been killed. Frase, Antha, Finn, Sine: they’re all dead.”
5
PHOENIX
“THEY’RE DEAD?” I lurched to my feet, SED tumbling off my lap. “No—”
Everyone was speaking at once, outrage and grief flooding the room in torrents. People shouted, “Deborl will pay!” and “We need to call the guards!” Several people pulled out their SEDs, but Stef lifted her voice.
“Stop!”
Everyone went silent.
“Here’s the truth of the matter.” Stef looked around the room. “We don’t know who’s involved with Deborl. He and the others escaped prison during the earthquake, that much we do know, but how? Did something shift and free them? Did they do it on their own? Or did someone help them, knowing the earthquake and eruptions would be the perfect cover?”
“No one can predict earthquakes,” Moriah said.
“Deborl might be able to.” I cleared my throat. “He replaced Meuric as Janan’s Hallow—Janan’s representative—and since the earthquake was connected to Janan’s ascension, Deborl might have known something would happen. When friends visited him in prison, he’d have been able to warn them and ask for assistance.”
Stef nodded. “But how he did it isn’t as important as the fact that he did escape. I asked all of you to come here for one of two reasons: either Deborl is an immediate threat to you, or there’s no question where your loyalties lie. But everyone else? We don’t know. We have to assume they’re with Deborl.”
Forty people against the world.
They began muttering among themselves, and I caught Sam’s eye. He flashed a sad smile, like he knew I thought this was hopeless.
“So what do we do?” Lorin asked. “We won’t change everyone’s minds about newsouls, or siding with Deborl. Not even if we can find proof that he killed half the Council. He’ll convince them he did the right thing.”
“Like I said, we leave.” I bent to pick up my SED, and put it into my pocket as I sat. “I’ve already been exiled.” Did that still stand if half the Council was dead? “I want newsouls to leave, too, for their protection. As for the rest of you? You can stay, or you can go with the newsouls. They’ll need your help.” Assuming they could travel far enough from Range in the event of an eruption. If the only way to stop the eruption was to stop Janan, then the future looked very bleak. But I would try, even if it killed me. “The safest thing for everyone—newsouls and oldsouls alike—is to go far, far away.”
“Then we all go—where?” Lidea asked.
I shook my head. “Talk with Whit and Orrin about where the safest place will be. Far away. That’s all I can guess.” I pressed my mouth into a line and glanced at Sam, who just looked sad. “There’s something else I have to do, so I won’t be going with you. Not the whole way, at any rate.”