Chapter 9: The Orchard
"I can't promise much," Gustav said as they walked their horses through the open inner gate of Karanese. "I can hopefully get you gear but we'll have to see," he added lowly.
"Anything is appreciated," Mercedes said. "You've already done a lot." She finished coiling the last of her hair and pinned it to the back of her head, completely off her neck, and tested her work by shaking her head side to side. When nothing fell down, she returned her hands to the reins.
"Are we still leaving at nightfall?" Annie murmured, barely audible above the sound of horse hooves and the city.
"It'd be easier," Mercedes murmured back. "We'd have to hide out here." She looked around for Oliver. When she spotted him on horseback on a corner not too far away, they nodded only slightly to indicate they'd seen the other - she was pleased to see that he'd somehow managed to get his own gear, though it'd evidently meant he'd had to change into his uniform too. She returned her gaze to Gustav, who was either putting on a brave front about what he was doing or was genuinely comfortable with it. "It may be best if we separate, and you go to the barracks alone. It'd reduce the risk to you."
"Where do I find you?" Gustav asked.
Mercedes considered a moment. While the Blue Glass was easy to find, it also brought them too close to her aunt and cousins and was a likely place that someone might watch. She didn't know Karanese as well as she would have liked. "The closer to the outer gate the better, I suppose."
He seemed to detect her uncertainty. "There's a small house on the end of the second to last left-hand road leading off this main one. Red door, four windows. It's managed to create an orchard for itself - twelve trees in two rows - should be large enough to conceal you and the horses."
There was something in the tone of his voice that gave her pause, like she'd seen something she shouldn't have, but she couldn't put his finger on it. "Sounds like you're familiar with it," she commented.
He made a face and urged his horse onward. "Five PM sharp," he said and left her behind.
Mercedes immediately made her way through the busy main street to Oliver, and he led them down an alley barely wide enough for the horses that wove them back to the Wall. "He's meeting us closer to the Wall at Five PM," she said. "Hopefully he'll get the gate open for us, too, since I don't think I have enough clout anymore."
The alley sloped downward and ended in a small cleared area that was too marshy to build on; there was a weeping willow on the far end with its tendrils of leaves stirring the breeze and the nearly dried-out remains of a pond that it'd overlooked. There were four horses doing their best to graze - one laden with most of the supplies that she assumed Oliver managed to borrow from the barracks stables, and three others that could only be the Carello stock Julia had referred to judging by their chiseled faces, arched neck and high tail - and Marguerite. No one else was around.
"What're you doing here, Marga?" Mercedes asked as she and Oliver dismounted. Annie slid carefully down soon after, but hung on to the saddle with one arm.
As always Marguerite smiled at them, the sunlight catching her chestnut hair and turning it into a veil of light. "Watching the horses for you," she answered with a happy shrug.
Mercedes gave her a stern look and opened her mouth to chastize the older girl, but Oliver interrupted.
"She helped me sneak them away," he said sympathetically.
"Wait, Jana doesn't know?" Mercedes' eyebrows drew farther downward. She could only imagine what her frugal aunt would do when she found out such valuable horses had inexplicably gone missing.
"It's fine, really," Marguerite waved a hand. "And besides, they belong to us, not her, and both Ada and Val were fine with it too. Well," she grinned, "Val took a little convincing at first." She nodded to a note tucked between the saddle and saddleblanket on the caramel-colored stallion Mercedes remembered belonging to him.
Mercedes walked over and dislodged it, unfolding it to read: "'I hate you. You still owe me. Look after him.'"
Marguerite laughed and nodded at the horse again, "That's Hellion. And those are Celia and Bruno," she nodded at the blue-gray mare and the chocolatey stallion respectively. "Grandmere Julia named them before she gave them to us."
"I can tell." Mercedes patted Hellion's muzzle, making him toss his head. She thought briefly of her father and his ranking as Julia's oft-mentioned 'second-favorite hellion'. She refocused. "We should get the loads evened-out between them," she said, mostly to Oliver. She eyed Annie, who was looking over the small herd. "You're going to ride with Oliver for the time being, at least until we get away from the Wall - I attract too much attention by myself and it seems Ol's managed to go unnoticed in all this. We'll ride out separately - if the two of you and the horses can be right beside the gate, you can slip out ahead of me once Gustav and I get it open."
"I suppose that's my cue to go," Marguerite said. "Ada got engaged yesterday, by the way - have to go help her plan." She gave a smaller smile, "I don't know what you're doing but, good luck!" She embraced Mercedes tightly.
Oliver looked up from removing some of the load from the main pack-horse. "Do you need me to walk you home?" At Mercedes' surprised glance, he suddenly recoiled nervously and busied himself with a buckle.
Catching the inconvenience it'd cause, Marguerite said, "Oh, don't worry about it - you've got enough to do here - thank you for the offer, though!"
"Tell Ada 'congratulations' from us," Mercedes said. "Hopefully we'll be back in time for the wedding." As Marguerite moved away, smiling sweetly at Oliver as she passed, Mercedes was overcome with a sudden feeling of dread for her recently-discovered extended family. Before she disappeared into the alley, Mercedes called out, "Hey Marga?"
She turned curiously.
Mercedes realized she didn't know how to phrase her concern without alarming her, perhaps unnecessarily. "Just - keep safe, please. And thank you. We'll be back soon."
"We trust you!" Marguerite said, and left.
The amber light of evening filtered through the small, mostly overgrown orchard, as though carried on the breeze that smelled of apples and plums. The three of them barely spoke while they waited, eyeing the outer Karanese gate looming in the distance. Occasionally one of the horses would grumble quietly to itself or scuff a hoof through the grass. Mercedes distracted herself by passing her eyes over the house Gustav had spoken of with such familiarity - little more than a cottage, with a shabby thatched roof overgrown with a couple of generations of vines and a broken windowpane toward the back that indicated its abandonment. She wondered what its significance was, as well as why it remained unoccupied when overcrowding was still such an issue and living space at a premium.
Mercedes stood slowly when she heard a horse approaching; its shadow arrived on the street and the grass before it did, and then Gustav emerged past the corner of the house. He glanced casually over his shoulder and then directed his horse into the orchard and a stronger breeze came with him, chilling her bare arms, rustling the branches and causing an over-ripe fruit or two to topple to the ground with comforting, soft thumps. He dismounted.
"Thank you," she said, looking past him to see the canvas-covered cargo behind his saddle that could only be gear. "I hope it didn't raise too much suspicion?"
He stopped in front of her and Oliver and Annie wandered closer to be privy to the quiet conversation. "Not too much, but we shouldn't push our luck," Gustav said. He unwrapped the cargo and began to untie it, and it was then that Mercedes realized it was only one set - her own, judging by the kill marks she'd scratched into the side - and four extra cylinders of gas. This hadn't been in the plan but Mercedes had to allow Gustav his own judgment, and support it. They caught one another's eye, and Annie's objection followed a second later.
"Not only won't you let me ride by myself, but now you won't arm me?" Her voice was stronger than it had been since she'd woken.
"Listen to yourself," Mercedes said, rolling her eyes and turning on her heel. "Do you really think I'd arm you? I said you have to earn your freedoms and I mean it. Besides, like you need gear to defend yourself should it come to it."
In contrast to the passivity she'd seen the last couple of days, Mercedes saw a flash of anger and frustration. Mercedes felt her body tense and didn't have to look to know Oliver and Gustav were doing the same. "You don't trust me. Fine. I don't trust you either. We knew that from the beginning. So before I go anywhere with you you're going to answer me this: where are Reiner and Bertholt?"
"They're out there," Mercedes answered with gritted teeth. "The last they were seen was when they kidnapped Eren and the Scouting Legion rescued him; they retreated. I don't know where but they're not in these Walls - you and I are going in the same direction, whether we like it or not."
She and Annie challenged each other's eyes for a moment; she watched Annie's face shift from the anger and defensiveness to worry and despair, and finally to stoicism again as she moved away. In seeing those emotions in Annie Mercedes was reminded that she felt the same, but equally as quickly clamped down on them. Annie was moving more confidently now and Mercedes knew that her physical vulnerability and emotional docility wouldn't be an advantage for long. At her nod, Oliver shadowed Annie surreptitiously a few paces, disguising it by checking the horses.
Mercedes turned back around and, with Gustav's help, armed herself with the gear he handed to her piece by piece. They worked in silence for a minute or two and in it, Mercedes felt the first flutter of nerves. Would Annie continue to work with them? What would they find at Shiganshina?
She barely heard Gustav say, "I should be able to get the gate open for you."
"Thank you," she murmured. She checked the blades - they were all fresh. Another moment's silence, and then she asked, "Whose house is this?"
Gustav hesitated, then locked one of her gas cylinders into place. "Mine. I bought it a couple of years ago from the son of the original owner, who'd moved away after his parents died and didn't want anything to do with it anymore. Figured I'd fix it up once I was ready to start a family." He made a soft noise of surprise. "I suppose no one really knows about it, come to think of it."
Mercedes looked at the moss creeping its way up the nearest stone wall, at one point painted white. She wondered if he would ever get the chance to settle, now that she'd gotten him involved. Would even those less complicit, like Adrienne and Marguerite? A couple of times she'd wondered about it for herself and Jean - a house like this, maybe, or even going back to the ranch one day - but if it wasn't likely for more innocent individuals, then what hope did she have?
"Jean - your fiance?"
She wasn't sure she understood the question but its closeness to her thoughts - as close as Gustav was while he fitted the reel at her back - made her laugh, partially in discomfort and partially in jadedness. "No," she said, because it seemed the most appropriate response. "He's not."
"But he's why you're going."
"One of the reasons."
"To one day have a home and a family with him, if anything's left of us in the Walls. We want the same future and that's why I'm helping you, if you were wondering." He finished with the reel and they stepped away from one another. They transferred the spare gas cylinders from his horse to another. "Does anyone know about that future you wish for?"
Mercedes thought for a moment and realized, "No."
"Then maybe when you get back, we should make a greater effort toward obtaining it. I'm hoping to take Pixis' place one day; I'd like you to stand alongside me as a Captain, or higher. You were right when you said the roses are dying." They paused beside Sabine. Gustav looked thoughtful and stroked her mane and she leaned into the touch, nudging his shoulder playfully with her velvety nose. "More and more lately I've come to think that we've been misguided into believing that the Walls were a sanctuary where we could flourish if only we were could be rid of the corruption that tried to rot us. We can't derive our strength from it anymore - we have to reach farther out, go beyond, and then come back."
"A walled garden," Mercedes mused, remembering Julia's words.
He nodded to himself. "Maybe I knew this all along and that's why I bought this house - I had to get away from it before I could come back and treat it properly. I don't know - and it's none of my business, really - but it seems that's what you have to do, too, in more ways than one. Maybe he had to, too."
Mercedes recognized the reference to Jean, and looked away. She breathed in deep. "You'll be all right, here?" she asked.
Gustav conjured a smile. "I'll manage, and Pixis isn't compromised yet. Still plenty of thorns." At her smile, he averted his attention to the sinking sun, "You should go, while there's still enough light to get far enough away. I'll go get the gate to open. Good luck."
He swung himself into his saddle, nodded to her and Oliver, and ducked under the low-hanging bows of the trees until he was in the street, and then rode away. Mercedes waited until she couldn't see him anymore before she stirred back into action again.
"Loop the horses, Ol'," she said. "And go ahead and make your way with them to the moat by the gate, with Annie. I'll take one with me for show, and go down the main street so Gustav has a point of reference."
"Sure, Boss." Oliver unlooped one of the horses and tied it instead to Sabine's saddle pommel.
"As soon as the gate's open enough, go - don't wait. Once we're out, head straight until we can regroup. Don't engage any Titans you encounter unless it's necessary." Mercedes slapped him on the back. "Be safe."
Final preparations made, Annie reluctantly got into the saddle in front of Oliver, the scarf still pulled far over her head. Mercedes saw the small herd off; instead of going right, like Gustav, Oliver took them left to go the back route to the gate.
Once the numerous clips and clops of the hooves had died away, Mercedes mounted Sabine and took one last fortifying breath of the trees and the earth and the sweetness of the wrecked garden. She reached into her shirt, pulled out Jean's draft of a letter, kissed it, put it back; her heels nudged Sabine's ribs and they moved forward.
She used the street that ran parallel to the main drag for as long as she could, and rode slowly to give both Oliver and Gustav time to get in position. No one seemed to pay her too much attention despite her wearing maneuvering gear without a uniform. The sun was sinking below the rooftops and consequently, came in slats through the buildings, blinding and illuminating in turn. When the houses and business petered out and she could go no farther, the no-man's land of the potential breach zone and the moats stretching in front of her, she turned right one last time to re-enter the main street. She glimpsed Oliver moving into position in the shadows at the base of the Wall to the left of the gate; from this distance it was difficult to tell Annie rode with him, for which she was grateful. Mercedes stopped in the middle of the road to wait for the gate to rise. She turned her head to look back at Karanese and who exactly might see her leave.
Her blood ran cold, colder than she felt it to be already. On horseback a few meters away with a retinue of six soldiers pointing rifles in her direction, was Commander-in-Chief Zackly, an amused smile on his face; Gustav lay prone on the cobbles in front of him and the back of his head was bleeding. A few civilians had gathered behind the small force, their faces curious and uncertain.
"Why, you look positively dressed for war!" Zackly said.
Mercedes sat up straight in her saddle, attempting not to be intimidated. One hand instinctively drifted toward the rifle in its saddle-holster.
"Don't bother, little cat," Zackly called to her in that overly-familiar way she so detested. "I'm going to let you leave, though I'm not sure what it is you're up to."
Though this confused her, she drawled back, "Is that so?"
At Zackly's nod, one of the soldiers shouldered his rifle and raised a red flag, waving it high. There were several shouts and tremendous clanks, and a rumble as the gate began to draw up. The ground shook.
"I figure you belong out there, anyway," Zackly said over the noise. "And it will entertain me. What a headline it'll make tomorrow, don't you think? 'Dead Warden Rides Out Alone, Joins Titans'!"
Mercedes scowled at him, clenching her reins, watching the flag continue to wave like her temper. She eyed Gustav, wished there was something she could do. The air currents stirring at her back were trying to pull her out of the gate. She swallowed hard, and it felt like thorns were pushing down her throat.
"I must say, I'm interested to see how you'll fare out there, until I let you back in," Zackly continued, his chin raised. "But don't worry, I will let you back in eventually - you know how much I enjoy it!" He grinned.
She just about heard the whinny of the other horses as Oliver urged them out; Zackly looked over her shoulder, intrigued and frowning. She took it as her cue. Mercedes turned Sabine and the spare, and bolted.