38
	When he saw Jess go down under the crush of guards, Sebastian rushed the stairs.  All he remembered was how she smelled like sweet cinammon and how it felt to have her close to him.  To lose that now would be more than he could bear.  He reached the bottom step as they lifted her up again, with her arms tied behind her back.  The two closest guards dropped their swords and fled from him, their loyalty to the city as dead as the President.  As soon as they were gone, there was Elizabeth to take their place and she caught him and pinned him against the wall.
	“There's no time for these tears.  She made her choice.  Are you going to waste this one chance Jessie has given you?” she said.
	“I'm not going to let them take her.  I pulled her out of the river once already,” he said.
	“So you're going to fight them all, by yourself?  Then what will happen to Megan?” Elizabeth said.
	The girl still stood where he'd left her with his coat draped over her shoulders.  There was still no expression on her face, but she watched everything they did.
	“That child needs you now,” Elizabeth said.
	Ahead of them was the war, with its fire running through the streets and the ear-stinging crack of gunfire.  Behind them everything was quiet except for, far away, the sound of the ocean.  Jess's scent still lingered in the air, but it was fading.  If he didn't catch up to her soon, he would never see her again.
	“If Jess dies--” he said.
	“She'll be better off.  You really don't know anything,” Elizabeth said.
	“I'll find you, and kill you, too,” he said.
	“You're too young to be saying things like that.  Get that child off the street before she freezes.  Catherine ought to have some clothes for her, and she's a good girl at heart.  She'll do everything she can for you,” Elizabeth said.
	The old vixen pushed him back to the top of the stairs and Megan took a single hesitant step towards him.  Her coat hung open, and he could see the scratches across her throat, breasts and stomach.  Then he went back down to her and fastened her jacket properly while ignoring the way she shrank from his touch.
	It was strange, with so much fire and confusion all around them, that nobody paid any attention to them.  All of Marcus's guards were gone now.  The ones who hadn't carried Jess off to who knew what had probably gone to join their fellow soldiers against the rebels.  But it was hard for him to imagine that Megan was the only person who had been put in the jail for no reason.
	“We need to find her,” he said, and he looked up at Megan to catch her attenion, “I need you to help me.  I won't leave the city without trying to help her.”
	“There's a gibbet near White Hill,” Megan said.
	Her voice was weak, and the effort of speaking made her cough, but she looked at him and when he let go of her she drew her arms around her chest to keep herself warm.
	“They wouldn't take her there, would they?  Not in all of this fighting,” he said.
	“She killed Marcus,” Megan said.
	“But if Thomas wins, she'll be a hero.  If they kill her, the rebels will kill them,” he said.
	“They will have had their revenge,” Megan said.
	“There's not one of those guards who didn't wish him dead, but ask them now and they'd all swear their love to him,” Elizabeth said  “Are you coming?”
	“After everything you've done?  We don't need you,” Sebastian said.
	“Suit yourself.  It's not that big a city, I'm sure you'll find White Hill eventually,” Elizabeth said.
	She didn't wait for them to answer but walked off the way Marcus's guards had gone.  They followed her because there was no sensible alternative, but neither of them were happy about it.  The old vixen walked with infuriating slowness, like it didn't matter to her what happened, and Sebastian found himself hating her more with every step.  He was less sure of Megan's feelings, but the girl fretted and grumbled to herself and every time Elizabeth looked back at them Megan's lips curled back over her teeth.
	“I don't trust her.  Even if she doesn't just lead us in circles, we don't know what she'll do to us once we find Jess,” Megan said, after they turned into their seventh alley in a row.
	“It doesn't matter, as long as she gets us to Jess in time,” he said.
	“And if she doesn't?”
	“I wish you hadn't asked that,” he said.
	Alley number eight widened at the end and Sebastian guessed that it led out onto a proper street at last.  He could see the burned out shell of a building in front of them and a row of little shops stretching out on either side of the wreck.  The street was dimly lit and it seemed to be empty.  Elizabeth stopped well back from the end of the alley and backed up against a wall.  Megan snorted her impatience but she stopped too and grabbed his wrist.
	“Silver Street,” she said, like that was supposed to explain it all.
	“What?  But I thought we were going to White Hill,” he said.
	“We are.  But this is where they kept her while she was still a slave.  I don't know, but I think Jess was supposed to die here,” she said.
	After too long, Elizabeth walked out into the middle of the street and kept going, with no more than a glance at the ruined building.  Megan tugged at his arm, and they went after her, but Megan kept them in the shadows, well on the far side of the street from Silver Street House, and she held on to him until they were out of its shadow.