Read Along: Hopetown - One Month Later

‘They call me the Angel of Death.’

Saba has been fighting in the Cage for a month. Very successfully. Whilst she is separated from Emmi, she maintains her fighting spirit in order to hatch a plan with new allies to escape from Hopetown and head for Lugh. There are some...unexpected twists along the way in the Hopetown we encounter One Month Later.

The guilt Saba feels for indirectly bringing about the death of the other girls under the rule of the Cage Master is palpable. The dreams she has constantly include them and their ghosts, ‘the darkness an the dreams’. Lugh is also a usual aspect of her nightmares. Yet it seems that Saba has little reason to feel so scared, ‘chainin me to my cot’; her captors fear her. They know that if she could, she’d escape. In fact she’s already tried multiple times. Saba could outwit them.

‘I’m the best thing that’s happened to Hopetown in a long time.’

Certainly, Saba is drawing in the crowds. Never lost a fight and doesn’t seem to about to, she’s the headlining act of the Colosseum. Alas, this also means she draws the attention of those she probably wouldn’t want to. Of course, this is DeMalo. ‘In charge of ‘em is DeMalo...don’t answer to nobody but hisself...the King’s second in command’, his threatening figure previously presented is growing stronger by every appearance. One of the strangest things disclosed about DeMalo in this section is that ‘he despises Vicar Pinch’; clearly he has motives of his own that Moira is not yet ready to reveal to the reader. There is seemingly an odd connection between this mysterious man and Saba, ‘Saba, I think I hear him whisper...I feel it when he leaves’. It begs the question: is something going to happen between these two in the future?

‘You wanna die. I wanna be free.’

Among the new characters we meet in this section of Blood Red Road is Helen. A girl not built to fight, the complete opposite for Saba, and yet they manage to build some kind of friendship. The kindness she shows to Saba takes her off edge, and the fact that Saba actually likes her in return is a guide for the reader to trust Helen. However, with her introduction to the novel, she brings a shocking revelation, ‘John Trask was my father...a spy for the King’. Helen’s father was the one who informed on Lugh as he was born at mid-winter; the traveller who left straight after Lugh’s birth. Helen’s death is a tragic one. Her defiance agains Mad Dog cannot save her, but Saba’s anger fuels her, ‘I know I’ll never see Helen again...I blame myself’. From Helen, Saba is able to gain valuable information regarding her brother’s whereabouts. He is not in Hopetown as she first though, but a place called Freedom Fields. ’The King’s got him...to be killed at Midsummer...so the king will live’, it is revealed that Lugh’s abduction is due to the belief that ‘his spirit, his strength moves into’ the King. This is a ritual carried out every six years in order to help the King live longer. Midsummer is only a month away. Saba is working with a deadline.

‘Gotta stay alive.’

There are old friends present in Hopetown: One Month Later. Nero is always watching over Saba as she fights in the Cage. This isn’t something received well by the crowds, ‘everybody’s skeered of him...bring death...they believe I get my powers from him’. This explicitly denotes the strong connection the two have. However, Sava makes it clear that her fighting spirit is down only to ‘the red hot’ that consumes her.  Emmi, too, is shown to be able to take care of herself, ‘figured out how to get herself into the cellblock...tougher’n she used to be...who’d have thought it?’ Saba seems almost proud of her younger sibling. It’s a touching scene when Emmi returns Saba her heartstone, after stealing it from behind Miz Pinch’s back.

‘My chance is gonna come soon. I know it will. It must come. It must.’

Yet it is in the unexpected that Saba finds refuge; onlookers from the crowd. Free Hawks. Saba first spots these girls, ‘like warriors’, in the audience. They distract Saba as she fights a ‘dirty fightin’ girl, Epona. On the return to the cellblock, Saba is approached by one of these fierce girls who calls herself Maev  and explains that Epona is one of her group, ‘We’re the Free Hawks’.  Over the next few days, Saba is able to hatch a plan with the futuristic Amazonians. This involves losing to Epona  so that the Free Hawks can save her as she runs the gauntlet, ‘we’ll burn Hopetown to the ground’.

‘I got not intention of dying.’

However, it is with a grimace on their face, that the reader realises Saba isn’t planning to stick completely to the plan. She lies about helping the Free Hawks out after she escapes, ‘I got other plans for me an Em’.

‘His name’s Jack.’

In the midst of all the plans and action, another new character strolls onto the scene. Or maybe swaggers is a more apt description. ‘Like he ain’t got a care in the world...cocky bastard...like he knows how to take care of hisself’, thus is our first impression of BRR’s infamous Jack. Saba and Jack’s meeting is filled with sexual tension, there’s no denying it, ‘our eyes meet...runs his eyes over my body...’ It is with glee that the reader races through their flirtations, ‘Like what you see Angel? You ain’t my type’, and then slows down at a more serious indication that this could be something significant, ‘white hot’. The heartstone. Saba’s heart’s true desire. Hm...

‘The King’s here.’

The first stage of the plan works out just fine, ‘I lose to Epona...one fight down, two more to go’. Yet, it doesn't remain that way. The King pays a surprise visit to the girls’ cellblock. His mother, who is shockingly revealed to be none other than Miz Pinch, has tipped him off that Saba threw the fight. With wise words, Saba manages to talk herself out of the potentially tricky situation, but another factor also plays in. The King is wildly abusive towards his mother, hitting her, leaving her looking ‘old..frightened’, and threatening, ‘do not touch your King’. Seeing Saba’s former captor reduced to ‘a cowed dog at her master’s heels’ is a mortifying image. Yet, one can’t help but feel a little satisfied to see karma playing its role.

‘The Angel of Death’s going down.’

As news of Saba’s loss circulate, more and more flock to see her next fight, ‘the word’s out’. Even the King himself is in attendance. Jack, showing himself to be more than just a pretty boy with ‘moonlight’ eyes, figures out that something’s not quite right, ‘Angel, angel...what’re you up to?’ His observation skills have alerted him to Saba and Epona’s little talks in the courtyard and he’s seemingly concerned, ‘Be careful, Angel’. Once again, the heartstone signals that Jack is not just some boy. But there are more important things on Saba’s mind. The Free Hawks line the gauntlet at Saba’s last fight, ready to drag her down, not to her death but to her escape.

‘My last fight begins.’

It is with some intolerance that Saba eventually allows Epona to take her down. The red hot ‘fights for [her] life’ and she struggles against survival instinct as Epona attempts to make her loss look realistic. Alas, it is all for no good when a last-minute change in tradition results in the gauntlet run being moved so that the King has a better view. ‘Sick rises in my throat’; Saba and the Free Hawks simultaneously realise what this means, ‘It comes down to this. Me. Alone.’

‘And so I make it through to another dawn.’

‘Not so alone after all’, as trusty Nero comes to her aid by pointing out an escape route from the proposed gauntlet run, Saba ‘quickly lose[s] [her]self in the crowds fillin the streets’ by vaulting her way out of the Cage and the Colosseum. Ready to meet Emmi and get the hell out of there, Saba is somewhat taken aback by the arrival of Ash, a Free Hawk, who stops her, ‘The Hawks helped you out, an you cheat us’. The guilt trip works and Saba resigns herself to help take Hopetown down once and for all, ‘we’re breakin into the cellblock’. 

‘Let’s git this party started.’

Saba and the Free Hawks manage to free the girls from their cellblock by infiltrating it via the tunnels underground. But this is not enough or Saba; she wants to get Jack. After finding out he’s been locked in the Cooler section of the men’s block, she makes the dangerous and life-threatening decision to go in to find him. Led by the heartstone, ‘I feel it git warmer...he’s here’, she locates him and they escape the chaos together. Stealing as he goes, Jack gets them clothes to disguise their identities and in the action of changing, Saba notices ‘three long scars’ covering his chest, ‘claw marks’. There is little time to ponder on this, however, as Jack, in his ‘cocky, jimswagger’ way, kisses Saba. Once on her hand and one on her lips, he vows to her, ‘it’ll happen if it’s meant to happen, it’s all written in the stars. It’s all fate.’ Unlike her new man, Saba is more skeptical  and refuses to believe in destiny. But Jack’s rule – the rule of three – ‘if you save somebody’s life three times, their life belongs to you’ suggests that something definitely will be happening between these two. 

‘Maybe we can help each other.’

Reunited with Emmi and the Hawks, Saba finally escapes Hopetown. The horse she is given, Hermes – cleverly named after the Greek messenger god, known for his winged sandals that allowed him to travel at incredible speeds – lets her ride away. This time, when Saba talks of leaving Emmi behind in her search for Lugh, it’s quite clear that it’s for a very different reason than the one she had for leaving Emmi at Crosscreek. ‘I need Emmi to be safe’, the sisters are no longer quite so hateful of each other, and glad to be rid of one another. Instead, their travels have knitted them closer together and they seem to be lost without one another. The niceties don’t last for long though, as an unexpected group joins them on the road out of Hopetown.

‘It’s the Desert Swan.’

Upon realising that the Pinches are racing after Saba, she ensures Emmi’s safety by sending her and some of the Hawks to Darktrees, their summer camp. Saba, Maev and Ash stay to fight the approaching villains. An deadly arrow is fired at the Cage Master, the wheel of the landboat is knocked off, and Miz Pinch is thrown from the vehicle, ‘she don’t move’. For good measure, Saba shoots the already dead witch in her heart, ‘for Emmi’. The girls also kill the King, discovering his head covered in ‘ugly lookin open sores’, but are more concerned now with escaping the scene, before the Tonton arrive. Darktrees is their safe haven.

~Ella