1269_UgliesFreeBook

406 Scott Westerfeld
Special Circumstances, Tally showed them the plastic handcuff
bracelets still encircling her wrists, and invited them to
try to cut the cuffs off.
One new legend towered above all the rest. Maddy had
decided that the brain lesions couldn’t be kept a secret anymore;
every ugly had the right to know what the operation
really entailed. Tally and the others spread the rumor
among their city friends: Not just your face was changed by
the knife. Your personality—the real you inside—was the
price of beauty.
Of course, not every ugly believed such an outrageous
tale, but a few did. And some sneaked across to New Pretty
Town in the dead of night to talk to their older friends faceto-face,
and decided for themselves.
The Specials sometimes tried to crash the party, setting
traps for the New Smokies, but someone always gave a
warning, and no hovercar could ever catch a board among
winding streets and rubble. The New Smokies learned the
nooks and crannies of the ruins as if they’d been born there,
until they could disappear in a heartbeat.
Maddy worked on the brain cure, using materials salvaged
from the ruins or brought by city uglies willing to
borrow from hospitals and chem classes. She withdrew
from the rest of them, except for David. She seemed
particularly cool to Tally, who felt guilty for every moment
she spent with David, now that his mother was alone. None
of them ever talked about Az’s death.