The Healing Wars: Book III: Darkfall by Janice Hardy

snapped, hadn’t yelled, hadn’t done any of the things I might have done if my little brothers had been pestering me for hours. “Stay with Ouea. She’ll take care of you until we’re done in Geveg.”
    “And then you’ll come back for us?” Halima asked, twisting one blond braid around her finger.
    “Promise.” He knelt and hugged her tight. “I’ll always come back for you.”
    Was being able to say good-bye harder or easier than just losing someone? I didn’t know if I’d have had the strength to let Tali go, knowing I might not ever see her again.
    “Find Da,” Bahari said, hugging him when Halima was done. “Bring him back with you.”
    “I will, I promise.”
    We all got hugs too, and Ouea herded the little ones back inside the house. I took Danello’s hand. It trembled, and he grabbed mine tighter.
    “They’ll be okay, right?” he whispered.
    “Safer than we’ll be. Ouea won’t let anything happen to them. And Quenji’s pack is staying, too, so Zee and Ceun will look after them as well.” So much more than Tali ever had.
    He took a shaky breath and nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”
    “We’re all loaded up,” Quenji said, smiling from the driver’s bench of the wagon. “How far to Geveg?”
    “Two or three days.”
    He made a face. “Sounds boring.”
    We climbed in the wagon and took seats on the wooden benches on both sides. Not the most comfortable ride to Geveg, but we’d manage.
    Quenji snapped the reins, and we rumbled down the road, everyone quiet save for the occasional cough. I watched the farm fade away in the night, unable to shake the feeling I was leaving family behind.

FIVE
    W e rolled into Dorpstaad, one of the few places in the marshes big enough to be called a town. It sat on the edge of the lake, with blue-reed marshes on one side and rich farmland on the other. Wasn’t much more than a few dozen trader posts, but it did have the ferry dock to Geveg Isles, a traveler’s house, and one coffeehouse—a welcome sight after two days on the road.
    Beyond the buildings the lake sparkled, but Geveg was hazy, and thin tendrils of smoke curled above the rooftops. Fires.
    “Jeatar did say they were rebelling.” Danello sounded calm, but he had to be worried about his father. “Doesn’t look too bad though. No worse than the riots a few months ago.”
    It had to be worse than that if the Gov-Gen had been killed. But I knew hope when I heard it.
    Quenji parked near the stables and arranged for a paddock and a place to store the wagon. It was too expensive to ferry them across, and there were few places to store them in Geveg if we did. Between what Quenji had no doubt stolen and what Danello had won from the soldiers playing cards, we could afford a few days’ keep.
    I stretched my sore muscles. “Let’s find out when the next ferry is.”
    The ferry dock was empty. Not even the usual beggars crouched by the pilings or resting under the mangrove trees. The ferry itself sat empty at its berth at the far end of the dock.
    “Maybe it’s not running?” Aylin shielded her eyes with her hand and gazed over the water. It was flat today, barely any breeze to stir the surface.
    “Or they’re not letting it dock at Geveg,” Danello said. “That’s the easiest way to keep people from leaving the city.”
    “Or coming into the city,” I added.
    This would be a problem. Without a boat, we weren’t getting into Geveg. A few fishing boats were docked at other berths, plus one skiff that looked fancy enough to belong to an aristocrat.
    “If you know how to sail it, I can steal it,” Quenji said, following my stare.
    I’d had enough of jails and cages for a while. Besides, we needed to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible. “Let’s see if someone is willing to take us across first.”
    Lanelle snorted. “No one is going to risk their neck to help us .”
    “Us, maybe,” said Aylin, “You, no.”
    “Let’s look around.” I sighed. You’d think after two