Free The Boys of Fire and Ash by Meaghan McIsaac Page B

finding a way in!”
    “No one’s foraging,” he said, pulling out the spongy golden bricks he’d taken from the boy in Abish Village.
    He broke off a huge crumbly piece of the first and stuffedit in his mouth, then handed a piece to Digger, who waited with an outstretched, greedy hand.
    He handed a piece to Av, who sniffed at it suspiciously.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    “Some kind of Abish cake,” said Blaze through stuffed cheeks. He threw me the other brick and I caught it. I broke off a small piece and sniffed. The smell, different and spicy but still nice, made my ravenous stomach growl. I was starving. I looked at Av. He had taken a bite and didn’t seem to be enjoying it, his face scrunched up as he chewed.
    I touched it lightly to my tongue. It was pleasantly sweet. I popped the piece into my mouth. I’d never tasted anything so sweet or moist. What was Av so repulsed about? I took a huge bite out of the brick.
    “It’s just flour and sugar,” Blaze went on. “Some egg in there, bit of wolf urine.”
    I choked and spat it out.
    “What?”
    “Oh, I doubt there’s any real wolf urine in there,” he laughed. Relieved, I went back to eating. “Abish have all kinds of cakes for different things, sell them to outsiders as remedies for heartache, bad luck, and such. Wolf urine supposedly makes people strong, agile, fearless. With the war going on they sell tons to frightened soldiers and their worried families.”
    I took another giant bite, but Av was still unconvinced.
    “I doubt the Abish risk taking on a wolf every day to make cakes that they only sell for a couple of silver pieces,” said Blaze, and I nodded in agreement. “Probably just take it from local dogs.”
    I stopped mid-chew and glared at Blaze.
    “It’s good for you,” he said, then winked.
    “What’s a soldier?” asked Digger as I wrestled with my painful hunger and the sudden urge to gag.
    “Soldier?” said Blaze. “It’s a person who, I dunno, fights for…whatever someone important tells them to, I guess.”
    “Fights what?” said Av.
    “Other soldiers.” Blaze was shifting in his seat. “Other soldiers who are doing whatever some other important person told them to.”
    “Why would they do that?” asked Digger.
    Blaze was quiet a minute, struggling to figure out an answer. I watched him scratch his neck for the hundredth time that day, and caught sight of a blue mark on his skin, half hidden by his shirt. The blue was bright and rich; I’d never seen such a color on skin.
    “Put it this way,” he said finally. “Let’s say you met Rawley, the First Brother.”
    “I told you, he’s dead,” said Digger.
    Blaze rolled his eyes. “If he wasn’t dead. Say he came to you and told you his Mother was coming to the Pit, to take over, and he needed your help to fight her. Would you do it?”
    “Yes,” said Digger. Av and I nodded.
    “That’s a soldier,” said Blaze.
    “Someone who helps Rawley?” asked Digger.
    “No,” said Blaze. “They’ve all got their own Rawleys.”
    “Who?” I asked.
    Blaze sighed. We were exhausting him with questions, and I felt nervous that there was so much we didn’t know.
    “Look,” he said. “For some soldiers, the Beginning is their Rawley…and for others the Beginning is their Rawley’s Mother.”
    I didn’t understand, and by the look on Av’s and Digger’s faces they didn’t either. This Beginning, this idea, was growingmore frightening all the time. How could it be so awful to one person, how could it take away Cubby, and still be as good as Rawley to someone else?
    Blaze was facing the still marsh, his pale blue eyes looking like they did the night he’d been sleepwalking—looking inside, not out. I watched as his hand slowly reached for his belt, where the flint box had once been, only to remember it wasn’t there. He scratched at the blue mark on his neck again, almost like he had to whenever he talked about the Beginning. A question rolled around in my