I woke to a hard shake on my shoulders from Nicole in the middle of the night. "Wha-?" "Please, miss, you have to get up!" Her voice was frantic, worn with terror. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?" "We're under attack. We have to get you to the basement."
My mind was groggy; I couldn't be sure I was hearing her right. But I noticed behind her that Poppy was already crying. "They're inside?" I asked in disbelief. Poppy's fearful wail was all the confirmation I needed. "What do we do?" I asked. A sudden adrenaline spike woke me up, and I jumped out of bed. As soon as I was standing, Grace was pushing my feet into shoes and Nicole was putting a robe on me. What would happen to my maids?"There's a passage here in the corner. It'll take you straight to the safe room in the basement. The guards are there waiting. The royal family should already be there and most of the girls, too. Hurry, miss." Nicole pulled me out into the hallway and pushed on a section of wall. It turned, like a hidden passage from some mystery novel. Sure enough, behind the wall, a stairwell awaited me. As I stood there, Tiny bolted from her room and scurried down the passage. "Okay, let's go," I said. Nicole and Grace gaped at me. Poppy was shaking but trying to keep her cool for my sake. "Let's go," I repeated.
"No, miss. We go somewhere else. You have to hurry before they get here. Please!" I knew at best they'd be injured if they were found; at worst they'd die. I couldn't bear them being hurt. Maybe I was a little cocky, but if Maxon had gone out of his way to do everything he'd done thus far, maybe they would matter to him if they mattered to me. Even if we were fighting. Perhaps it was too much generosity to bank on, but I wasn't leaving them here. The fear made me move faster. I grabbed Grace's arm and pushed her in. She stumbled and couldn't stop me as I grabbed Nicole and Poppy. "Move!" I told them. They started walking, but Grace was protesting the whole way. "They won't let us in, miss! This place is just for the family.... They'll just make us leave!" But I didn't care what she said. Whatever their hiding place was, there was no way it would be as safe as wherever the royal family was staying. The stairwell was lit every few yards, but even so I nearly fell a few times in my haste to move. My mind was blinded with worry. How far had the rebels penetrated before? Did they know these pathways to safety existed? Poppy was in hysterics, and I tugged her down to keep us together. I couldn't tell how long it took for us to reach the bottom, but finally the tiny pathway opened up to a man-made cavern. I could see other stairways and other girls, everyone running behind what looked to be a two-foot-thick door. We ran up to our safe place. "Thank you for delivering this girl. You can leave," a guard said to my maids.
"No! They're with me. They're staying," I said with authority. "Miss, they have their own places to be," he countered. "Fine. They don't go in, I don't go in. I'm sure Prince Maxon will appreciate knowing that my absence is your doing. Let's go, ladies." I pulled on Nicole and Poppy's hands. Grace was shocked into stillness. "Wait! Wait! Fine, go inside. But if anyone has an issue with it, it's on your hands." "Not a problem," I said. I turned the girls and walked into the safe room with my head held high. There was a clamor of activity inside. Some girls were huddled together crying, others were in prayer. I saw the king and queen sitting alone, surrounded by more guards. Beside them, Maxon was holding Elayna's hand. She looked a little shaken but obviously felt calmer with him touching her. I looked at the royal family's position ... so close to the door. I wondered if it was like a captain going down with his ship. They'd do everything to keep this place afloat, but if it went down, they'd be the first ones to drown. Their little group saw my entrance and noted the company I was keeping. I took in the confused expressions on their faces, nodded once, and continued to walk with my head high. I figured so long as I looked sure of myself, no one would question me. I was wrong. I took three more steps and Silvia walked up. She looked incredibly calm. This was all obviously old news for her. "Good. Some help. Girls, you will immediately get to the water stores in the back and begin serving refreshments to the royal family and the ladies. Get going, now," she commanded. "No." I turned to Grace and gave her my first real order. "Grace, please take some refreshments to the king, queen, and prince and then come join me." I faced Silvia. "The rest can fend for themselves. They chose to leave their maids alone, they can get their own damn water. Mine will be sitting with me. Come, ladies." I knew we were close enough to the royals that they would have heard me . In my quest to have a level of authority, I'd spoken a little too loudly. But I didn't care if they thought I was rude. Poppy was more frightened than most of the people in this room. She was trembling head to foot, and there was no way I'd have her serving people half her equal in goodness in her state. Perhaps it was all my years as a big sister, but I just had to keep these girls safe. We found a little space in the back of the room. Whoever usually kept this place ready must not have been prepared for the influx the Selection would cause, because there weren't nearly enough chairs in here. But I saw the stores of food and water and could tell they would get us through months down here, if the need arose. It was a funny little array of people. Obviously, several officials had been up working through the night, and they were in suits. Maxon himself was still dressed. But nearly all the girls were in their thin nightgowns that helped you sleep in the warmth of the rooms upstairs. Not all of them had been able to get a robe on in their haste to leave. I was even a little chilly under mine. Many of the girls had piled themselves toward the front of the room. Obviously, they'd be the first to die if someone got through the door. But if they didn't, think of all the time spent right in front of Maxon! A few were closer to where we were, and most of them were in a similar state as Poppy-shaking, tearful, and petrified with worry. I pulled Poppy under an arm and Nicole cuddled her from the other side. There wasn't anything to say about the situation that was pleasant, so we stayed quiet, listening to the clamor of the room. The jangle of voices reminded me of the first day here, when they were giving us makeovers. I closed my eyes and pictured that action with the sound in an attempt to make myself as calm as I appeared. I wasn't the only one who saved their maids, America came in with Anne, Mary and Lucy, Lucy was worse than Poppy, she was almost paralysed. For once, I felt like me and America were on the same wavelength.
"Are you okay?" I looked up and there was Officer Leger,glorious in his uniform. His tone was very official, and he didn't seem shaken by the situation at all. I sighed. "Yes, thank you." We were quiet for a moment, watching people get settled in the room. Nicole had obviously been exhausted-she was already asleep and leaning heavily on Poppy's side. Poppy was fairly calm, all things considered. She'd stopped crying and just sat there looking at Aspen with a kind of wonder in her eyes. "It was good of you to bring your maids. Not everyone would be so kind to people considered beneath them," he said.
"Castes never meant that much to me," I said quietly. He gave me the smallest smile. Poppy took in a breath like she was going to ask Aspen a question, but a loud yelling coursed through the chamber. A guard on the far end of the room was barking instructions for us to all silence ourselves. The silence was worse than any sound. Without a single sense to guide me, my imagination took over, producing horrific scenes in my head: rooms demolished, a string of bodies, a merciless army only feet from the door. I found myself clutching the girls nearer to me, as if we could protect one another from whatever would come. The only stirring was Maxon walking around to check on each of the girls. When he got to our corner, only Poppy was awake with me, and every once in a while, we'd have a quick conversation in breathed words, reading each other's lips. As Maxon approached, he smiled at the pile of people leaning on me. In that moment, I could see no anger left from our argument, though I really wanted to resolve it. Instead, I saw his grateful smile, simply happy that I was okay. "Are you well?" he asked. I nodded. He looked at Poppy and leaned across me to speak to her. I inhaled. Maxon didn't smell like anything that could be bottled. Not like cinnamon or vanilla or even, I remembered quickly, like homemade soap. He had his own smell, a mix of chemicals that burned out from him. "And you?" he asked Poppy. She nodded, too. "Are you surprised to find yourself down here?" He smiled at Poppy, making light of what was an unimaginable situation.
"No, Your Majesty. Not with her." Poppy nodded in my direction. Maxon turned to look at me, and his face was incredibly close. I felt uncomfortable. Too many people could see us; Officer Leger included. But the moment passed quickly, and he turned back to Poppy. "I know what you mean." Maxon smiled again. He looked like he might say more, but then changed his mind and moved to stand. I quickly grabbed his arm. "North or south?" I whisper and he looks shocked, I shouldn't know but I do, my father was obsessed with the attacks, he always knew it it was north or south. North were only robbers they never kill. The southerners are ruthless, they kill anything what looks at them weirdly. "Do you remember the photo shoot?" he breathed. Shocked, I nodded. These rebels were making their way northwest, burning crops and slaughtering people along the way. Intercept them, he'd said. These rebels, these murderers, had been slowly coming for us all this time, and we couldn't stop them. They were killers. They were Southerners. "Tell no one." He left, moving on to Fiona, who was holding herself and crying quietly.
I practiced breathing slowly, trying to imagine ways I could escape if they got to us, but I was fooling myself. If the rebels managed to get down here, it was all over. There was nothing to do but wait.
The hours crept on. I had no idea what time it was, but people who had dozed off had woken up, and those of us who had powered through the time were starting to wilt. Finally, the door opened as some guards left to investigate. More time passed as the palace was swept, and eventually they returned. "Ladies and gentlemen," one of the guards called, "the rebels have been subdued. We are asking that everyone please return to their rooms via the back stairs. There's quite a mess and scores of injured guards. It's better if you all bypass the main rooms and halls until they can be cleared. If you are a member of the Selection, please proceed to your room and stay there until further notice. I've spoken with the cooks, and food will be brought to you within the hour. I'm going to need all medical personnel to report with me to the hospital wing."
With that, people stood and started moving like nothing had happened. Some people even looked bored. Except for the faces of people like Lucy and Poppy, it seemed everyone took the attack in stride, as if it were to be expected. My room had been ransacked. Mattress on the floor, dresses pulled out of the closet, the pictures of my family torn up on the ground. All of my paintings had been destroyed, my prized painting of maxon had a bullet through the head. The southerners weren't playing nicely. It took quite a while to set things right, since we were all so tired. We managed, though. Grace even found some tape so I could put my pictures back together. I sent my maids to bed the moment I got my tape. Nicole protested, but I wouldn't have any of it. Now that I'd found my ability to command, I wasn't afraid to use it. Once I was alone, I let myself cry. The fear, even though it had mostly passed, still had a hold on me.
That attack scared me, my maids could have been murdered. I could have been murdered. That was traumatising, does this really happen regularly? I had to compose myself. All of my makeup was destroyed, some of my Necklaces were missing. I tried to fix my blusher when there was a knock on the door. I hoped it would be Maxon. "Hello, dearie." It was Silvia. She had a little pout on her face that I supposed was meant to be a consolation. She scuttled right past me into my room, then turned and took in what I was doing, it looked like packing.
"Oh, don't tell me you're leaving, too," she whined. "Honestly, it was nothing." She wiped the whole incident away with her hand. I wouldn't call it nothing. Couldn't she tell I'd been crying? "I'm not leaving," I said, tucking a hair behind my ear. "Are others going home?" She sighed. "Yes, three so far. And Maxon, dear boy, told me to let anyone who wants to leave go home. Arrangements are being made as we speak. It's so funny. It was as if he knew girls would be leaving. If I were in your position, I'd think twice before leaving over all this nonsense."
Silvia started walking around my room, taking in the decor. Nonsense? What was wrong with this woman? "Did they take anything?" she asked casually. "Some jewellery, but look at this." I said holding up the painting, she ignored and walked over to me and handed me a tiny portable phone. "This is the safest line in the palace. You need to call your family and tell them you're fine. Don't take too long, now. I still have a few girls to see." I marveled at the tiny object. I'd never actually held a portable phone. I'd seen them before in the hands of Twos and Threes, but I never thought I'd get to use one. My hands trembled with excitement. I was going to hear their voices! I dialed the number eagerly. After everything that had happened, it actually brought a smile to my face.
Mom picked up after two rings.
"Hello?" "Mom?" "Florence! Is that you? Are you okay? Some guard called to tell us we might not be able to get ahold of you for a few days, and we knew those damn rebels had gotten through. We've been so scared." She started crying. "Oh, don't cry, Mom. I'm safe." I looked over at Silvia. She looked bored.
"Hold on." There was a bit of movement. "Flo?" Amie's voice was thick with tears. She must have had the worst day. "Amie! Oh, Ames, I miss you so much!" I felt the tears rising again. "I thought you were dead! Flo, I love you. Promise me you won't die," she wailed. "I promise." I had to smile at such a vow. "Will you come home? Can't you? I don't want you there anymore." Amie was practically begging.
"Come home?" I asked. I felt so many things. I missed my family, and I was tired of hiding from rebels. But I was getting more and more in love with Maxon, I couldn't leave now."No, Ames, I can't come home. I have to stay here." "Why?" Amie moaned. "Because," I said simply. "Because why?" "Just ... because." Amie was quiet for a moment, thinking. "Are you in love with Maxon?" For a minute I heard the boy-crazy Amie that I was used to. She'd be fine. "Umm, I don't know about that, but-" "Flo! You're in love with Maxon! Oh my gosh!" I heard Dad yelling, "What?" in the background and then Mom's "Yes, yes, yes!" "Amie, I never said-" "I knew it!" Amie just laughed and laughed. Just like that, all her fears of losing me vanished. "Amie, I have to go. The others need the phone. But I just wanted you all to know that I'm okay. I'll write you soon, I promise. Tell Jamie and Robb I love them!" "Okay, okay. Tell me about Maxon! And send more treats! I love you!" she yelled. "I love you, too. Bye." I hung up the phone before she could ask for anything else. The moment her voice was gone, though, I missed her more than I had before. Silvia was swift. She had the phone out of my hand in a matter of seconds and was walking to the door. "There's a good girl," she said, and disappeared down the hall.