Nightshade City by Hilary Wagner Page B

slipping out from under Killdeer’s control. The sector majors had grown lazy, not paying attention, which allowed families of rats to sneak away in the night. Nightshade City would soon be just that—a city.
    As the two walked, Vincent took in the enormity of Nightshade. He couldn’t believe how much Juniper and the Council had accomplished already. He felt so comfortable in Juniper’s company that he thought it all right to ask him a delicate question, one that had been nagging at him since they met. “Juniper, I hope you don’t mind my asking, but what happened to your eye?”
    “I don’t mind at all,” said Juniper. “It’s rather a timely story, I suppose.” They walked into the hall that Vincent and Victor had first come through, the rotunda with the three entrances and the unusual symbols.
    “What is this place called?” Vincent asked.
    “We were going to name it after the city, it being our main gateway and all, so I assume it will be Nightshade something or other,” said Juniper. “What would you call this place?”
    “Well,” said Vincent, looking thoughtfully around the hall, “how about Nightshade Passage?”
    “He’s a genius, just like his father!” said Juniper. He gave Vincent a good-natured slap on the back. “I like it!”
    “I like it too,” said Vincent, studying the room. “The symbols posted at each archway, what do they mean?”
    “As you can see, each symbol is different. If you look at the carving by the entry you boys first came through, you’ll see it looks like a Topsider’s house—a bit crude, mind you, but a house all the same. It indicates the Topside corridor. Now, this entrance, the one you and I just came from, has the mark of Mighty Trilok, an M with the T centered through it. It honors the original Ministry and marks the passageway to our fair city. Last but not least,” said Juniper, walking towards the third entrance, “this is the mark of Killdeer, those three jagged scratch marks, rather childish for a grown rat, if you ask me. His infamous mark obviously represents the Catacombs.”
    Juniper gazed down the unfinished corridor, then went on. “The Catacomb tunnel is not yet complete. That will be done the day of the invasion. When the time is right, we’ll swiftly excavate the remainder of the corridor that leads to the many quarters of our supporters still in the Combs. With the Ministry and its army none the wiser, we’ll break through the ground of these quarters, which lie scattered all over the Catacombs. I’m hoping for one mind-boggling surprise. I want that crusty white rat’s mouth to drop,” he said firmly. “It won’t be long now.”
    His voice lightened. “I believe I cracked you on the cranium at this very doorway,” he said, regarding the scuffle marks on the floor. “I followed you boys the whole way down from the Reserve.”
    “I knew I smelled someone familiar,” said Vincent, “someone from Father’s time.”
    “That you did! Now about my eye. That, my boy, is a classic. Come sit with me on this hard and uncomfortable floor, and I’ll let you in on the particulars.” They sat in the center of the rotunda. “Well, now,” he said, “just so you’re aware my eye is not damaged, dead, nor simply crossed, the fact is, it’s gone, carved unceremoniously out of my head and coldly splattered against the wall of some dark, lonely corridor in the Catacombs some eleven years back now. This happened just days before the Bloody Coup, staged by Killdeer, Billycan, and their unseemly band of miscreants, who, apart from Billycan—who was a Topside lab rat—had all been expelled from the Combs, banished years prior by Trilok.”
    “Why were they cast out of the Combs?” asked Vincent.
    “Many, including Killdeer, had committed murder. Trilok banished the lot of them for terrorizing citizens. He thought banishing them Topside would be enough of a punishment, even though we all pushed for imprisonment. Ragan and Ulrich predicted