Page 47 (1/2)

Her chest ached against the bones of her corset, straining against the stays as she panted her way closer to the river Her skirts tangled around her ankles, twisting around her knees and trying to slow her, but failing She kicked herself free and pushed onward

The texture of the streets beneath her changed They shifted from the wood slats of lifted ays as those side paths ended, then became the slick cobbles of humidity-damp stones that slipped beneath her feet despite her rubber-bottomed boots She stuainst a large, cool, stone square that turned out to be the foundation of the equestrian statue directly in front of the church

Gazing up at it, she wondered if it, too,But the rider and horse both kept their silence

Back behind the church, or soasps and sether and continued onward, toward the ornate, dark church doors illu electric torches on either side She turned to pass the toward their source

A tall black fence cordoned off the church’s back yards

It walled off the gardens

A croas gathering Josephine joined it at full speed, stopping herself hands-first against the rails, leaving bruises on her palms that she wouldn’t notice for days She thrust her face between the bars and gazed openrass of the shadowed yard behind the city’s holy Christian center

There on the ground, faceup in a state of peaceful repose with ar

On the lawn around her, iteold coins were pitched through the gate with a prayer, shortly to be joined by hastily iris after another went sailing over the fence or through it, to land in a gentle plunk near the serene, still body

Josephine wrapped her fingers around the chilly bars and struggled to breathe She watched the ss and beads, the twine-twisted bracelets and bootlaces, the flowers, pebbles, and nails They accumulated around the queen’s corpse, yet none landed upon her They gathered like a full-body halo, drifts of clutter, a fog of tiny gifts dredged from pockets and purses

"No," she said in half a breath, and with the other half she said, "Not yet It’s too soon," she added "There’s too ht to the spot by whateverfrohout the Quarter They joined her at the fence, gawkers who stood with eyes wet and heads bohispering prayers or

No one heeded the curfew, and as the sun set more fully, the Texians came out to see the fuss The first who came started with commands to disperse, then saw the uncanny tableau spread out within the fence They recognized the body lying there and stopped yelling their orders They, too, joined the lookers at the fence, drawn up close and made quiet by awe, or shock, or some other odd familiarity that told the

So of this?" Josephine knew that whoever this was, he’d find his silence, too But she recognized the voice and turned to spot the speaker At the nearest corner where the gas laht under a colored child’s expert spark, she saw Horatio Kor dawn on hi that, a nervous kind of horror Their eyes met across the noded side street

They shared the ether

Thirteen

Andan Cly ran his finger over theto read He traced the curve of the Mississippi River gently, lifting his hand to see a detail here, a notation there The ed, amended, and scrawled across to make it more pertinent to the present situation This sheet included not only the serpentine bends and miniature ports that dotted the way between the city and the ocean; it also included the canals, both commercial and semiprivate--and the docks that Texas likely didn’t know about

The electric la only the oil laht

Outside, there were no sounds of soldiers or rolling-crawlers Nopatrols The Texians had left--at least, those ere leaving were long gone, and no , so the ti touches on the plan before putting it into action

Night had not yet fallen, but it was co, and it would be there within the hour--black and thick, a perfect shield froiant machine hidden inside the nondescript storehouse

"These are the forts, ain’t that right?" Cly asked, poking at a spot in the river just past a bend that kinked sharply north and to the east

"Fort Saint Philip on the north bank, and Fort Jackson on the southern one," Deaderick told him "Fully manned, mostly by Confederates"