“Everyone is here by choice, Delta,” the General says coolly. “Even you. So here is your choice: stop lying and tell me how to read the map, or in three days’ time, your mother will be executed.”

Chapter Ten

I am visibly shaking as the gunner from the Barrel—Reed, the General had called him—leads me to my quarters. His falcon is perched on his shoulder, its head tilted so it can keep an eye on me.

I walk with my jacket clutched to my chest, my shirt still hanging open at my back. Even having shown the brand to the General, even knowing that a copy of it now sits somewhere in his fortress, it pains me to walk with my skin exposed. But Reed’s pace is nearly beyond my means, and I worry that if I stop to pull on the jacket, I’ll fall behind and anger him. And I heard the General’s orders when he stormed from the meeting room. If I try to run, if I attempt to undermine the Loyalist agenda, if I upset anyone in any way, I am to be punished in whatever way my current guard deems fit, so long as it doesn’t damage the map. I take it that means anything but a whipping. I don’t want to find out.

Bedrock is a maze of stone corridors and stairways. Windows line most of the halls on one side, but the setting sun basks everything in a brilliant glow, and I’m hopelessly lost within minutes. We’ve descended several flights of stairs when Reed passes through a cloth doorway and into a bedroom. A window framed by sheer curtains overlooks Bedrock, and a small nightstand sits beside an honest-to-gods mattress. I’ve slept only on bed mats my whole life.

“Is this some type of joke?”

Reed frowns. His ram-skull mask is pushed back on his forehead, revealing that he is young—not much older than I am. I wonder how a person ends up working for the General. If he was born into this or if he believes all that Loyalist garbage the General spews. My pack was loyal to the gods, too, and we didn’t hold people against their will.

“The General wants you to be comfortable,” Reed says, and his expression is so sincere, I feel like punching him.

“Sure he does. Right up until he murders my mother for something I can’t give him. I’m not lying. I don’t know how to read the map.”

Reed swallows and nods, almost sadly. “If that’s the story you decide to go by, it’s your choice.”

“It’s not a choice, you rusted idiot. Not when he holds all the power and I literally can’t win.”