Chapters 29-End

Twenty-ninth

  

Elizabeth fell out of the dumbwaiter into the secret passage in Adri and Walton’s apartment...now, just Adri’s. She wondered if the woman knew yet that she had been widowed.

The apartment was deserted. The stark silence of the rooms was filled only with the ticking of clocks. This place remained a haven within the chaos of the city. Surely there weren’t many such enclaves that endured untouched by the violence that had destroyed so much of Aldergate.

Chapters 26-28

(In which Elizabeth wakes as a prisoner of the Guard, attempts a daring escape, and the tunnels come under attack)

Twenty-sixth

Noises and thoughts arrived in bits and pieces, like missives adrift on an intermittent wind. The clearest signal came from her left shoulder, the pain hauling her through the veil of unconsciousness. Following its biting insistence, she acquired other details until, finally, she burst through the borderline of wakefulness like a swimmer breaking surface for a long-awaited breath.

Her arm had been wrenched into an awkward position, held as high as it would go, rotated and stuck to the wall by something wrapped around her wrist. Her feet touched the ground, though in her slumped position, the arm supported most of her weight. Her back rested flat against a hard, stone wall that felt cold and emitted a musty smell, as though the space she occupied had not been opened for a very, very long time.

Chapters 23-25

(In which the trainees get to stretch their legs a bit, attack a boat, and Elizabeth gets to act the part she was born to play)

Twenty-third

      Graves was as good as his word; though she remained the least competent of the trainees in almost every way, and light-years away from Graves himself, Elizabeth was no longer the hopeless bumbler she had been when she first stepped off that dumbwaiter.
      She learned to swing a sword, executing the delicate movements he taught her, relying more on balance and momentum than brute force. "It's almost a guarantee that your opponent will be bigger'n ye, Totem. Ye canna' win a contest of strength. The trick is to make your opponent acutely aware of this, so much so that he forgets that relying too much on strength is in itself a weakness."
      Graves showed her how to get a swordsman to overcommit with their movements, how to feign weakness and slowness, then to strike. "Ye have an advantage over almost anyone ye'll face, since they're not likely to see ye as a threat. Our side may be fooled into thinkin' ye're the second comin' of The Knife-Fingered, but The Guard'll just think ye're a girl with an obsession. They'll see ye as a lamb, and themselves as the wolves." He turned to the rest of the group. "That goes for all of ye. If they be the wolves, then what are ye?"

Chapters 21 and 22

(In which Elizabeth emerges into a war-torn city and becomes part of the revolution against Silas)

Twenty-first

     No one traveled on High Street in the early hours of that autumn morning, no one driving or walking past the burned-out wreck of a block that, months before, housed the Griff Inn. Whether it was the light drizzle, or the hour, or the fact that there was not much to see in this section of Aldergate would be difficult to discern. But, regardless of the reason, no witnesses were there to watch as a lone, dirty hand emerged from the pile of rubble that had, at one time not that long ago, been a landmark of the city. The grubby fingers were followed by a second hand, more remarkable because it was made of shining metal, and then by a head, one whose hair was caked with dust and ash. 

Chapters 19 and 20

(In which Elizabeth gets caught up in the revolution against Silas, has an altercation with the Black Guard, and brings misery to the Inn)

Nineteenth

Elizabeth paced her bedroom, her mind too busy for sleep. Every time she closed her eyes the inn’s floorboards would creak as they settled, or a cat would move through the dark night, and her eyelids would fly open in anticipation of Lang’s arrival.

She tried reading, but her eyes swam without comprehension over the pages of spiral-writing she had procured from the inn's lounge. She tried making lists of things, a strategy that always worked for her on those nights when she lay awake worrying about her mother, but her ability to catalogue had taken a vacation. Finally, she settled back onto her bed, content to stare at her metal hand.

Chapters 17 and 18

(In which Elizabeth spends some time in the Wilderness, discovers a really creepy tree, and gets discovered and threatened by a bee shepherd)

Seventeenth

    Elizabeth had only five minutes to change from her cooking-clothes into her serving ones, and that was being generous. Winnie had returned from market without half of the ingredients the dinner would require, so last-minute alterations to the menu had to be made, and what was supposed to have been Elizabeth’s free afternoon was instead spent in the kitchen, chopping and stirring to the sounds of Clara’s good-natured muttering, cursing the rationing and the shipping lines and the tides, all of which had stood in her way from presenting the dinner she really wanted to serve that evening.

Chapters 15 and 16

(In which Elizabeth discovers the cost of a flimsy disguise, becomes a pariah, and witnesses a battle of giants)

Fifteenth

"What did you tell Katrina about her play?" Flint had gone back to caring for the horses, and Elizabeth joined him, ostensibly to check on her belongings in the carriage. She had left Grim deep in conversation with Katrina and Dorveille, the actress who had played Penumbra, about details of Shade society. Grim looked as if he might have needed a rescue; it was too bright for him to slip away into the shadows.

"I should have warned you, she can be a bit defensive when it comes to her writing. I mean, she's like a mother to us all, but when it comes to her artistic endeavors, you'd best tread lightly. She may ask for honesty, but even the truest statement goes down smoother when it's sweetened with a bit of flattery."