Aeralis (18 page)

Aaron studied me, a mixture of suspicion and concern lining his features.

“You never cried as a child,” he said, his tone softening.

The quiet observation—and the past it recalled—made me flinch. “I don’t cry now,” I snapped, ignoring the moisture in my eyes that belied my words. “Now tell me.”

“I can’t. It’s not my story to tell.”

I took a deep breath. Everything inside me screamed to shake him, to slap him, to do anything to get him to talk.

He wasn’t responding to our threats.

“Jonn looks like you,” I said. Every word hurt to speak, but I kept saying them. I kept pushing forward. “He has your eyes, your mouth. Your hair.”

“So you said before," he said, and hesitated. "You look like your mother."

I touched my face. “Ivy looks the most like her.”

His eyes were dark, full of wonder. “Ivy,” he said, as if tasting the name on his tongue. “What is she like?”

“She’s stubborn and fierce and brave. She’s strong. She befriended the Watchers.”

His eyebrows shot to his hairline. “Befriended the
Watchers
?”

“Much has happened since you’ve been gone.”

“It seems so.”

I waited.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I’m sorry for what you’ve endured. I’m sorry I was gone. I can’t change the past, but I can help you now.”

“I know you don’t trust me and my friends,” I said. “And I respect that. But maybe we can still help each other.”

He nodded.

“Tell me about Alice. Who is she?”

Aaron sighed. “Alice isn’t a
she
. Alice isn’t a person at all.”

I stared at him. “What do you mean, Alice isn’t a person?”

Aaron’s shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath. “It’s the device.”

EIGHTEEN

“I WANT TO know why the Dictator wanted Falcon arrested,” Adam said as we spoke later in the conservatory. He sat on a bench, his chin resting in his hand and his eyes following me as I paced up and down the path. “Did he know Falcon is really Meridus Borde, time traveler from the Frost’s past, or had he simply gotten into some trouble since his arrival?”

I stopped and considered the question. “They couldn’t have known exactly who they were searching for, at any rate, not if they accidentally arrested Aaron in his place,” I said after a moment. “They’re nothing alike in appearance or age.”

Adam nodded. “True.”

I resumed pacing. We were at another dead end. We didn’t know what Alice was, so it was no help in finding Borde, and we were running out of time. Anxiety gnawed a hole in my stomach.

“This Alice device Borde is looking for,” Adam said after a pause. “Aaron knows nothing about what it’s for?”

“He said he didn’t, and I think he’s being truthful.”

Adam’s brow furrowed. “If we knew what it was, we might have a chance of determining who else might know about it, or where it might be.”

“I think there’s little chance of that.”

Stymied, I sank down on the bench beside him. We sat together like that, our shoulders centimeters apart, not touching but close enough to feel the heat between us. A slow, hot energy began to build along my skin, raising the hairs on my arms and making my insides prickle and twist. I turned my head and found him watching me. Our eyes held. An invisible cord between us tightened.

Footsteps crunched on the path behind us, and the spell was broken. The air cleared and sound rushed in—the drip of rain against the glass, the echo of servants’ voices somewhere far away. A regretful smile touched Adam’s mouth. It vanished as he turned and stood to meet the person who had intruded on our solitude.

It was Korr. His stopped on the path a few feet from the bench. His gaze flicked between us, and he smirked briefly before his eyes hardened again. “Your ability to toy with two men at once is admirable, if rather tragic for the men.”

“What do you want?” I demanded, stung by his words.

He crossed his arms. “You promised me a man who could make the gate work for me.”

He was not going to accept another excuse about Aaron needing time to rest. I knew I needed to tell him something. Anything.

I took a deep breath as I looked at Korr. His mouth was curving into a scowl as he saw the hesitation on my face, and I knew he was thinking I’d lied to him, and he was thinking of how he would punish us all for that mistake. His gloved hands twitched, and his shoulders straightened into a line as sharp as a knife blade.

Desperation and anger swirled through my veins. I had to think. I stared at the ground, at the path lined with stones. Stones.

Stone.

The Wanderers
.

“This revolution of yours. You have soldiers?”

Korr turned back to face me. “I have men,” he said.

“Enough men?”

He was silent.

“I can get you more manpower for your revolution if you give me more time.”

Korr licked his lower lip. “What kind of manpower?”

“Lots of it. Hungry for vengeance, too.” I remembered the stories I’d heard about how the Wanderers had been driven north.

“How much time do you need?”

“Three days,” I said. My heart thudded. He would refuse, surely.

Korr held my gaze for the space of six heartbeats. “Three days.”

I didn’t exhale until he’d turned on his heel and left the conservatory, and then I sagged and put a hand over my eyes.

“An interesting choice, making more promises that you aren’t sure you can keep,” Adam commented.

“What else could I do? He was ready to throw me out, or worse. I have no doubt that man is capable of killing those he no longer trusts, and I need shelter and resources if I want to find Borde.”

Adam didn’t disagree. His eyes softened as he looked at me, and he looked apprehensive, but all he said was, “Take care. You’ve got a lot of things in the air, and you’re juggling with knives now.”

~

That afternoon, Gabe joined me as I once again faced Aaron in an attempt to wring clues from him about Borde’s location.

“Why is the Alice device in Astralux?” I asked. “Did Borde say anything that might give you any idea as to what it could be, or where?”

Aaron shook his head. “No. Nothing.”

“What did he say about it exactly?” Gabe pressed.

“Not much. He said it was a device that he needed to find. He said it had been lost to him in his time, but he could recover it here. He knew who had it. That was what he believed anyway.”

“Lost to him in his time,” I repeated. “Stolen?” I thought of Gordon and what he’d attempted to do with the PLD.

Aaron considered this suggestion. “Perhaps. He seemed angry whenever he spoke about it, as if it were missing due to a great wrong.”

“You say he knew who had it? Is it with a person?”

“No,” Aaron said. “I don’t think so He was searching old records, going out at odd times. Buying shovels. I think wherever it is, he expected to have to excavate.”

Excavate
. I chewed my lip. “So someone stole it and buried it, perhaps? And for some reason Borde can’t get to it in his time, but he believes he’ll be able to find it here. Why this time? Why not any other time?”

Aaron lowered his head. “He believed perhaps he could reunite me with my family. He liked that idea. I hadn’t told him that...that I might not want to.”

I pushed away the spark of pain that shot through me at his words. I needed to focus on finding the device, and Borde with it. “Do you remember anything else, anything at all?”

Aaron shook his head.

“So if someone stole the Alice device, he must have run with it,” I mused. “Taken it far away from the Frost. But why here?”

Gabe stared at a point on the wall, thinking. “There have always been legends of Ancient Ones living on this plain once. Perhaps he believes there are ruins here, beneath the city.”

“Can you find out if there are?”

“I’ll ask my contacts.” Gabe rose and headed for the door. He paused with one hand on the knob. “We’ll find it, Lia.”

I hoped he was right.

~

Adam, Ann, and I spent the hours after dinner pouring over books about the past. They were mostly worthless—collections of fantastic legends that told us nothing of value. Gabe was still gone, speaking to Ferris and Cat and perhaps others about what they might know or be able to find out.

Ann perched on the window seat, books filling her lap and spilling onto the cushions around her. She chewed her lip absently as she read. Adam occupied the writing desk, methodically flipping through pages and making notes on a piece of paper. I was on my feet, pacing as I read, worrying and sweating at the fact that we were so close and still so far.

“Here’s something,” Ann said, and we both went still to listen.

She held aloft a book entitled
The Glorious History of Astralux and the Surrounding Territories
. “It says, ‘Regarding the origins of the Bakers’ District, legend says that it once was the location of a camp of Ancients that was destroyed in a great battle. The foundations of some of the ancient structures are said to still exist beneath the streets today.’”

“The Bakers’ District,” I repeated. “I passed through there after arriving in Astralux. It’s large, crowded. If something is buried there, how on earth are we supposed to even find it, let alone dig it up?”

“There’s more,” Ann said. “According to this book, ‘Some believe an old set of tunnels beneath the city, now used for carrying waste to the river, once belonged to this camp of the Ancients.’”

“We’ve got to find those tunnels,” I said. “When can we go?”

“Night will be best,” Adam mused. “We need to assemble what we’ll need. Shovels, pickaxes, lanterns. We’ll need enough people to help us dig, and we don’t exactly know what we’re looking for, not yet. These tunnels could span miles. Ann, is there anything else in that book?”

“Nothing,” she said, flipping through the pages.

“Maybe Gabe will know something,” I said.

A knock sounded at the door. When I opened it, Clara stood outside. We regarded one another for a few seconds before she spoke. “I understand you’re looking for someone.”

It took all my self-control not to slam the door in her face without replying. “My activities are a private matter.” I turned back to the library.

“I have information that might help you.”

I stopped.

“Gabe said you were looking for a man who calls himself Falcon,” she said.

“Gabe was not supposed to involve you.”

She ignored that. “It’s an unusual name, Falcon,” she said, and paused. “It tends to stick in people’s minds. I might have discovered something you’ll find interesting.”

“Tell me.”

“There’s been talk of a man asking questions at the Blue Mouse,” she said. “It’s an inn and tavern. He gives no name, but he told one man that he could leave him an envelope beneath the rain barrels in the square, marked with a sketch of a falcon.”

“Where is this inn?” I demanded.

“By Grayman Square, in the Bakers’ District.”

My heart stuttered at
Bakers’ District
. I shut the door and leaned against it to steady myself as I absorbed the news, and the realization that I might have just found the clue that would find Borde and this mysterious device.

“What is it?” Adam asked, his tone half wary, half hopeful.

I met his eyes. “I think we’ve found a place to start looking.”

NINETEEN

MIST FILLED GRAYMAN’S Square and made ghostly shapes out of the buildings surrounding it. Lights glowed in some of the windows, casting a streak of gold across the puddles in the street. Somewhere close by, I heard the rattle of a carriage and the mutter of voices, and my stomach twisted. So far, we’d seen no soldiers, nothing to threaten us. Yet we were all wary. An aura of foreboding filled the wet night air and coated my lungs, making it difficult to breathe.

Adam kept pace beside me, silent and grim in his gray coat. A hat hung low over his face, hiding his eyes, and he looked like an Aeralian gentleman out for a stroll, but his movements were too controlled, too careful, too tense for him to be out on a casual walk. Gabe and Cat kept step behind us, speaking in low tones. They too wore gray coats and hats that covered most of their faces, and Gabe also wore an ascot that practically buried his chin to disguise his features further. As they spoke, Gabe laughed quietly under his breath, and the sound of it was foreign to my ears. I almost never heard him laugh. I was glad for his friendship with Cat, glad that something made him happy in this grim time.

The sign for the Blue Mouse appeared out of the mist. We stopped.

Adam glanced at the door. “I’ll go inside and see what I can find out.”

“I’ll scout around and see if there’s any sign of those tunnels,” Cat volunteered.

“I’ll stay with Gabe,” I said. “We’ll wait for you.”

Adam opened the door and stepped into a swath of light and sound. The heavy oak swung shut behind him, plunging us into misty darkness once more as Cat slunk around the side of the building, leaving Gabe and me alone.

Dripping punctuated the silence as unspoken words crawled in my throat.

“Clara told me she talked to you,” Gabe said.

“Yes.” The word was sharp. “You shouldn’t have talked to her. Promise me you didn’t tell her anything else.”

He was silent.

“Gabe?”

“I...I told her about the device, too,” he admitted.

“You did
what
?”

“She’s helped us,” he protested. “The information she provided has gotten us this far, hasn’t it? I thought maybe—”

I didn’t wait for him to finish. Words failed me. I clenched my fingers into fists and strode for the door.

“Where are you going?” Gabe called.

I wrenched the door open and stepped inside the inn.

The interior of the Blue Mouse was dark, and smelled of beer and bread. A fire blazed in a cavernous stove at the far end of the room. Stools lined tables shoved against the outer walls. In the center of the room, a man plucked at a stringed instrument and sang in a wailing voice.