Page 48 of Shadows of Perl

But my brother’s face and body only shift to another persona in his repertoire: Liam, a childhood friend Yags had before we lived at Hartsboro. The only other time I’ve seen Liam’s persona was when our mother was ill and Healers were out of hope that she’d pull through. She did, but those were dreary days in the Wexton household. Even for my awful father.

Liam hooks his elbow up, dangling his arm and wiggling his fingers, pretending to play an air guitar. “I used to mess around on a real one of these with her.” He smiles. “She liked them.”

Red.

Quell.

It’s not quite the same, but I understand the acute pain of losing someone.

“I’m sorry. About Red.” I don’t know where the words come from, but I immediately want to shove them back down my throat. “Life has not been kind to you,” I add for reasons I cannot comprehend. “I wasn’t pleased to hear what they did.” Her body was never found—not in one piece, that is. If it had been, there would have been a report. I looked. There wasn’t one.

His smile is gone.

“I didn’t come here to fight. I came here to talk,” I continue.

He rests his head on the wall and hums some somber ballad. I don’t know how to get through to him when he’s this way, determined to avoid anything difficult. Then the song takes me, its melody familiar.

“I know this one.” A tune our mother used to sing. Liam hums louder. I listen as he finishes the bridge, and it takes me to a simpler time when, no matter how vicious our fights were, he was still my brother. Now it feels like there’s an entire world between us, a divide that cannot be closed. His choices brought him here, but I can practically see the blood on my hands. He’s my brother. The same brother who pulled out my first wiggly tooth because I was too chicken to do it myself. The same brother who stood with me in front of our mother when my father’s temper was bullish. The same brother who also survived our childhood.

“Yags. The Dragunhead will call you for sentencing any day now. It would be foolish to expect anything other than a death sentence. Help me sun track.”

He squints Liam’s small eyes. “You’ve aged a decade since the last time I saw you. Is it nightmares again? Have they changed since—”

“You’re as stubborn as Father.” I stare down at him and suddenly see little Yagrin, with his big eyes, the first time he saw Hartsboro and learned that he would be following in Father’s footsteps. He had trembled. I’d stood beside him. Together we had walked into my aunt’s house. If he could just follow me again now, maybe I could find a way through this mess.

“Maybe. But you’re as lost as he is.”

“Give me something I can use,” I urge him. “Either help me with tracking or tell me something about your time with Quell so I can make a case to the Dragunhead that you’re valuable alive.”

His eyes suddenly light up, his mouth bowing in a sugary grin. “You remember that time we got lost in the bowels of Hartsboro? When that old batty butler almost peed his pants explaining to our aunt why he couldn’t find us. Oh, Brisby.” He looks right at me, and it hurts to think that hope is so painful that he must run from it this determinedly.

A voice cuts through the darkness. I didn’t even hear the elevator open. The Dragunhead is outside the cell with a few others.

“Sir.”

“Jordan? I assumed I’d find you at your desk. Your brother’s sentencing meeting is this morning. Is that why you’re down here?”

The world dents at its edges. Today? I thought there would be more time…

My brother, still wearing Liam’s disguise, pales. He looks at me and we may as well be kids again.

“I need this prisoner’s sentencing delayed. I require more time with him, sir.”

Yagrin’s heart rams in both our chests.

The Dragunhead’s gaze widens in surprise.

“He is going to help me protect the Sphere with knowledge only he has,” I add. “Which he’s now willing to share.” I hold still. “When I’m done with him, we can revisit the sentencing.”

For several moments there is only silence. “If you’re sure he is of critical use,” the Dragunhead says.

“I am, sir. He is cooperating. Which makes him valuable right now.”

“The Heart has spoken,” the Dragunhead tells the others with him. “Yagrin lives. For now.” He taps his watch before departing.

Fourteen

Quell

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