When Ellersly left, Aliah ran across the bridge and cut through the woods behind the rows of Girls' Houses. When he was out of sight he pulled his hood up and zigzagged through the thick trees. He made sure to take a different path than last time so no one would follow him.
A wire fence with wooden posts marked the end of Lael's boundary and the beginning of the Borderless: no-man's land. He found a spot where the wire had been cut and continued running until the trees grew so close together the branches slapped his face. He covered his face with one arm and pushed through the trees to the other side. A large, two-story stone house came into view. Thunder Manor.
He opened the heavy wooden front door and clenched his teeth at the sharp bite of the cold steel door-knob against his palm. He leaned his forehead against the doorjamb, inhaling Thunder Manor's stale air until his nostrils burned.
The smell of privacy.
He closed the door then fumbled in the dark to find the small table he'd placed near the door, with an oil lantern and a few matches. A scrrch sound penetrated the darkness and the sulfuric match odor filled the entrance. The small face of a young man was revealed in the sudden halo of lantern light.
Aliah jumped. "Who are you?"
"I'm Zev. I... I followed you here." The boy's voice was surprisingly low and rough. His grey eyes held a hint of amber that suggested he wasn't from Lael. They flicked from Aliah's face to the lantern then back again.
"How'd you get in?" Stupid question. He never locked the door. He had no key.
The young man shrugged. "Front door. Here, let me help you."
Aliah struggled to get his boots off by himself in the dim light, but let Zev take his wet cloak and hang it on a hook by the door. "You can't stay here. You need to leave."
"Now? There's a storm coming!" The boy's face fell and a pang of guilt struck Aliah. He straightened, looked Zev in the eye, then took him by the elbow and led him to the living room.
"Sit." He pushed the wiry kid into a rocking chair then knelt before the hearth to coax the coals into flame.
"How old are you? Where did you come from?" A long drawn-out silence followed by sniffing caused Aliah to turn around. Zev sat hunched over in the chair wiping his nose with the back of his hand.
"I'm seventeen. Come from Brenton. Everything's bad there. My folks were killed in a raid a few days ago." He sniffed again then continued, "Houses burned down... not much left. We'd been waiting for help from the Division leader, Elchai, but..." Zev made a slicing motion across his throat with a finger.
Aliah rose to his feet and stepped close to the young man, bending down until his face was close enough to see the smattering of freckles across the boy's nose. He narrowed his eyes. He knew better than to believe this outrageous story. The Gracious Leader dead? He'd just chosen Aliah's best friend to receive a reward.
"Brenton?"
"Yes. I guess you'd know it as Sector Two. I'm half Brentonite. My father's from Brenton, my mother from the Borderless. I grew up in Brenton though."
Aliah's brow furrowed. "You're lying. There aren't any Sectors. I've been all through the Borderless territory. The Sectors don't exist." Aliah chewed his lower lip and put his hands on his hips.
"Nope. The Sectors exist. Every time there's a raid they just pull together and re-build."
Aliah frowned. "So why'd you come here? What do you want?" A ripple of guilt rushed through him. He wasn't with the last group that went on the raid but just knowing the Watchers destroyed this young man's family made Aliah's stomach sour.
"Want? Nothing. If I could just stay awhile until I figure out where to go. I'm real quiet. You won't even notice I'm here." The boy grinned, his amber-flecked eyes creasing in the corners.
Aliah shrugged. What was he supposed to do? Turn the kid out into the storm?
"Fine. You can stay for a few days but while you're here, you'll work for me. Keep a low profile." He reached behind Zev and pulled a black cloak from a hook on the wall. "I'm one of the Watchers around here. We uh, you know... watch and protect. Wear this. Let nobody see you. Consider yourself Recruited." He threw the cloak at Zev and walked back to the fireplace.
Zev laughed. "I'm good at stealth."
"Good. I'll explain your first assignment. If you don't follow through with it, I'll throw you out and I won't care what happens to you."
Zev held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'll do it."
Something about the boy set Aliah's teeth on edge but he shrugged off the feeling. He could manage the small annoyance if the kid proved to be useful.