Page 149 of Fortress of Ambrose
“I didn’t steal anything, I swear,” the lady says, turning red as fat tears roll down her cheeks.I believe you, I want to say.
“Underskirt off. She could be hiding a dozen diadems under there.”
People shuffle, muttering under their breath.
“No moving! No speaking!”
“Jordan,no,” Quell says.
The ballroom is silent. Imalia reaches under the woman’s gown and unties her pettiskirt. It falls to her feet. She kicks it away, and I decay it down to ash to be sure there is nothing there. She pulls off the outer layers of her dress, checking each one, until she’s in a thin undergown. “Spread your legs. Now pat.”
“She doesn’t have anything,” Imalia says. The woman holds her face, sobbing. I offer her my handkerchief.
“Jordan, stop this,right now!”
“Quell, you understand how serious this is. Stand aside.”
“Search Yaniselle.”She pulls her from the lineup. “Don’t harass these people for nothing when we both know who the liar is here!”
“You stupid girl,” Yani spits. “Ube was missing for twenty minutes during the ball. He came down the stairs from the third floor, then to Sunrise Corridor.”
“Which you only know becauseyousnuck out there, too!”
Ube steps out of the line. “I was checking on the extraction lab to make sure everything was okay. What wereyoudoing out there?”
“The lab doesn’t require you to go to the third floor, liar.” Yani tries to wrestle herself from Quell’s grip. But she shakes her still.
“Imalia, keep checking down the line.” I snatch Ube by the collar, relieved he just made this painful process more efficient.
“Imalia, you will not!” Quell yells. The girl hooks her hands. The dark magic around us grows with my agitation. Shadows spill from Quell’s hands as she marches up to me.
“They already feel like prisoners!” I can feel her frustration tangled like a nest inside me, and it feels like my heart being ripped in two.
“The traitor may not be working alone. How clever would the thief be if they hid the diadem on themself? We have to pull out rootswiththe weeds. Or this place is not safe.Youare not safe. There’s no otherway now. Don’t you see? Theonly wayto protect you is tofind the thief! There’s no Scroll to save your life, Quell. I can’t”—my voice cracks—“lose another—”
She holds her chest, where she feels the storm raging inside me. “What do you mean?”
“The Scroll pieces were collected centuries ago by someone on their deathbed. They’ve probably used it, for all we know. It’s a lost cause. The history books are a lie. It’salla lie.”
All eyes in the room are on me. My side throbs so hard it unsteadies me. I hold the spot where it hurts. “Everyoneis searched. If you’re innocent, you have nothing to fear.”
When Willam steps forward, my thread of patience breaks.
“Get backin line!”
But Willam gestures for Knox to join his side, and she does. Dimara and Kedd follow, along with the twins. “We had nothing to do with this.” He circles them up, putting himself between me and them. “We wantno partin any Orderyou’rebuilding.”
Quell still holds on to Yani, but glares at me with disappointment I haven’t seen on her face in a long time. It threatens to knock my knees from under me. But she is not safe, people are getting hurt, and time is ticking on my life. Someone has to make the hard decisions, even if it’s unpopular.
“Leave here and I will hunt you down myself,” I tell Willam before releasing Ube and approaching Yani. If Yani’s the culprit, which I doubt, Willam’s crew have nothing to do with the theft. They hate each other. But if Ube’s guilty, as I suspect, he could have gotten his claws into Willam.EspeciallyWillam.
I search Yani myself as Quell insists. But she has nothing on her. I finally move back to Ube, and to my great surprise he has nothing on him either. When Imalia and I finish checking the entire line, everyone stares at me, the raging fool. I glare at the ground.All this and the diadem isn’t even here.
Cold seizes in me.
Worthless. Inept. Useless.
The world is falling apart because it’s in my hands.
