Authors: Nick James
As he turned to approach the vessel, he noticed a quiver of movement from the darkness. He pulled a pair of specs from the cabinet overhead and slipped them onto his eyes, magnifying his vision twofold.
The blackness stirred in front of him like a monster ready to attack. He slowed his approach.
Out of nowhere, the vessel developed a long, snakelike arm. It flew from the darkness, extending a winding tendril through the sky, directly toward his ship.
Cassius cursed. In one motion, he released the missiles and pulled up, cutting a vertical climb back into safe territory as the black extension wound after him.
The missiles detonated along the shell of Theo’s vessel with little effect. Cassius brought the Academy ship upside down, spinning so that he could make a quick escape.
Too late.
The black tendril grabbed onto his stern with an awful clamp. Metal squealed behind him. He laid on the accelerator. It was no use. Within seconds, the entire ship yanked backward.
He slammed into the console, then forced a glance over his shoulder. He was expecting to see the entire ship tear away from him. Instead, a violent thud on the windshield sent him flying with enough force to snap his seatbelt. He hit the ground sideways and rolled to catch a glimpse of the windshield. A black film of Ridium blots out the sky.
All at once, the backward pull intensified. He tried to grab onto something, but it was too quick. He flew forward through the air and collided with the console again. The speed of the movement forced him into the windshield, dangerously close to the Ridium outside.
His bracelet clamped onto the wall of black, craving to rejoin the element. He stared at the doorway to the cabin, wishing he could escape. Theo had hold of the entire ship now. He could do anything he wanted. He could smash him like a piece of tin.
Cassius closed his eyes and succumbed to panic. He was miles above the Earth, closer and closer to a lunatic who could control everything around him. And all Cassius had was fire. Fire wouldn’t do anything up here, not against Matigo’s son.
A deep rumbling sounded underneath him, then a violent tearing as the Ridium ripped the Academy ship to pieces. The cabin door splayed open, eaten by an enormous black mouth of jagged teeth—a razorblade funnel that sucked Cassius in and spit him back out.
He landed hard on dark flooring. The familiar sheen gave the entire room a pristine feel. His bracelet sunk to the ground, forcing his arm with it.
Then, Theo’s voice. Nowhere, and everywhere all at once.
“So you lived,” he said.
Cassius flipped over so that he could stare at the ceiling. It was the same color as the floor, of course. Everything was. Smooth. Black. Alien.
His eyes darted around, searching for Theo. His right wrist kept him pinned to the ground, but he kicked his legs anyway, struggling to get up. “Where are you?” His voice sounded smaller than usual. He didn’t want to sound like this, not in front of Theo.
“You shouldn’t have been so nasty to me.” The boy’s voice rang out from somewhere behind him. “I remember everything. It doesn’t change what’s going to happen, but I could make it easier for you if we’d have been friends.” Cassius squirmed on the ground, trying to pull his hand free. “I know who you are. You’re not some poor junkie’s kid from the Fringes.”
“Surprise.”
Cassius heard footsteps. Then, out of nowhere, Theo appeared beside his left leg, arms crossed. Cassius tried to kick him, but Theo quickly fashioned a coil of Ridium from the ground, keeping his ankle in place.
Cassius glared at the kid. “Did you know the whole time?”
“Not before the swarm,” Theo responded. “Not before the crimson.”
“The red Drifter?”
“Matigo’s herald.” He nodded. “Sent to Earth to kick things off when my father was ready.”
“Where is he?” Cassius strained to look up at Theo. “Where’s Matigo?”
Theo crouched, one leg on either side of Cassius’s. His smile widened—that same sick expression he’d worn when they’d first met at the Lodge. “Anywhere. And everywhere.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“A broken world like this one is so much easier to conquer.” He paused. “My father knows this. You’re all at war with each other, and you don’t even know what’s coming.”
“I saw you,” Cassius spit. “On Haven. I saw what he was going to do to you. Bring you down to the pits. Submerge you … or something.”
Theo nodded. “We’re Shifters, me and my father. There aren’t many of us on Haven, and even less that can manipulate Ridium as well as we can.” A spout of blackness emerged from between Cassius’s feet, like the eruption of a volcano. Theo grabbed hold of the top and formed it into a perfect sphere. It hovered over his hand, spinning like the model of a planet. “It won’t mean a thing once it’s all gone, but for now it’s going to help us take over this planet.”
Theo shot the black sphere into the air, where it exploded in a hundred sideways raindrops that diffused into the walls around them. “A skilled Shifter,” he continued, “can program a task—or several—in specific order, and the hunk of Ridium will carry that information until it’s completed its mission.” He stepped to Cassius’s side and sat, staring down at his bracelet. “I can feel it now. That chunk around your wrist was given a set of three tasks by a traitor to the Authority.” He ran his hand over the surface of the bracelet. “Task one: Transform from the shape of a cube to a pair of bracelets, one for the Pearlbreaker, one for his brother.”
Cassius remembered when Madame had first presented him with the mysterious black box. It had taken Fisher’s key to activate it. His wrist hadn’t been bare since.
“Task two,” Theo continued. “Relay your mother’s recording from Haven. Reveal all of the amazing things you can do to save your world.” He laughed for a second. Then his smiled faded. “Task three won’t matter much longer.”
“Tell me.” Cassius squirmed.
Theo nodded. “Your parents thought they were smart. The bracelets, even back when they were some boring box, have been programmed by a Shifter to transmit a constant signal to the stars.”
“So what?”
“So … ” He smiled. “They’re a filter. They let in the good Pearls and keep out the bad.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “Green, red … it’s different energy. It’s a frequency game, Stevenson. Like a radio blocking a certain station.” He lifted his finger. Cassius’s bracelet lifted into the air, stopping half a foot from the ground. Frozen. “Like I said, Ridium’s a powerful substance. I don’t know how the Resistance found a Shifter willing to undercut the Authority, but this little thing, along with Fisher’s, was their last great hope.”
He let the bracelet fall to the floor again. It landed against the Ridium without a sound. “There are thousands of them, Cassius, right at the edge of space, circling your planet. Red Pearls, everywhere. More than I can even imagine. This far up, you might even feel them if you close your eyes and concentrate real hard.” He smiled. “And all I have to do is get rid of you and your brother.”
Cassius winced as the coil tightened around his leg. “What about the red Drifter? He was in a Pearl. He came through okay.”
Theo nodded. “He wore a tiny piece of Ridium around his neck—the last remaining treasure in my father’s collection. It was a gamble, but Ridium attracts Ridium. The natural bond between the objects was enough to break through the transmission.” His brows raised. “That’s how I came to Earth, after all.”
Cassius craned his neck to see around the room. “You came here in this?”
Theo laughed. “Are you kidding me? All I had was enough Ridium to get me safely through space.”
“Submerged,” Cassius said. “You were submerged in it.”
“Exactly,” he replied. “And I shifted it into a kind of ship. A barrier between me and the stars. Like a Pearl, but better.” He paused. “It was supposed to be untraceable, but Madame’s radars must have picked me up when I landed. I don’t know … I guess she had reason to search the skies after you and Fisher showed up.”
A ripple coursed through the ground as he continued. “I had no memory when I got here, wandering through Fringe Town after Fringe Town until she picked me up. An accident, she’d said. I’d had an accident. That’s all.” He turned away, eyes focused on the distant wall. “But Ridium’s everywhere. It came down with the Scarlet Bombings that destroyed your cities. It’s been seeping underground ever since, waiting for Matigo to use it. Every last bit of the stuff that was on Haven is now on Earth. The entire planet’s a weapon for those who can use it.”
Cassius felt a pain in his chest, like the wind had been kicked out of him. “I thought the Scarlet Bombings—”
“Were a pre-strike,” Theo interrupted. “Yeah, they were. They set everything in motion. The warming of the environment, the fighting. Skyships. Chosen Cities. And Ridium. Everything’s been counting down to this moment.”
Cassius winced. “So what are you going to do?”
Theo grinned. “First, I’m going to let the rest of the Authority in. Then, oh great Cassius Stevenson, I’m going to kill you.”
Altair’s in full freak-out mode. I’m sure of it, even though I can’t hear the sirens anymore. If the destruction in the shopping center wasn’t enough, the lurch from the disrupted generator would send everyone on edge. We’ve stabilized now, but sudden drops in altitude don’t make for a very subtle sneak attack.
Avery and I stumble back to the main corridor of the Skyship, stopping at a maintenance directory on our way. The nearest storage center is one level below us, not far. It’s a matter of blending until we get there. We can’t allow a security team to get the jump on us, not when we’re so close.
My mind flashes to Cassius. It’s not a productive thing to worry about, but I can’t help but wonder if he’s alright. Theo was a deadly opponent even before Lenbrg. I know Cassius is strong—he could take us all down if he wanted to—but is it enough?
I brush the thought aside and try to envision the mission before me. I see us breaking into the storage room. I imagine the explosions. Pearls, everywhere. Light, everywhere. So bright I have to shield my eyes. I feel the buzzing—how great it is to break one, how dangerously empowering. I try to imagine this as an assignment. School work that needs to be turned in. Goal. Objective. I bet this is how Cassius sees things all the time. If I can tap into his wavelength, I can be like him. A soldier. But it fits worse than that too-tight suit I had to wear during Visitation Day last spring. I’m not the guy that gets things done. My life’s been a series of starts, not finishes.
Avery and I crouch against the wall outside the storage center. “They’re gonna be on edge,” I say. “After what happened in the reactor, they’ll be sending teams down.”
She nods. “We’ll have to be quick. They don’t know what you can do.”
A tremor runs down my spine. “I can feel it, even through the wall. There are dozens of them, just sitting there.”
Avery grabs the pistol from my side. “Here, let me handle this.”
“You’re gonna shoot them?”
She blinks. “If there are guards.”
“It’s on stun, right?”
“Don’t worry about it,” she says. “I’ll do what’s required to protect you. I used to be a decent shot in my day.”
“But—” I stop myself. She doesn’t want to hear it. She doesn’t care how much I hate hurting people, how selfish I feel when these kinds of things happen because of me. She’s right. This became a war weeks ago. There are casualties in war, some of them innocent. There will be a whole lot more if we let the Authority invade.
The energy hums around me like a swarm of insects, tugging at my skin, trying to work its way inside. I swallow and block it out for now. It’s too scattershot, anyway—too far away to be of any use.
I take a deep breath. “Let’s go.”
We sidestep to a pair of wide doors. Avery keeps the pistol close. The foyer of the storage center will be open to the public. It’s part of the Tribunal’s effort to increase Pearl education, or at least that’s what they say. They even grant field trips to kids so they can spend a day learning how the energy is processed. God, I hope there are no kids here today.
I hear whispers immediately. They’re calling me, like old friends. A trail of invisible energy pulls me forward. I’m a fish on a hook. My fingers tense at my side, then ball into a fist. I don’t even realize I’m doing it.
An oval door spreads apart in front of us and reveals a wide, empty foyer. Avery grabs my wrist, pulling me back to her side. She knows the energy is strong. It’ll yank me forward too fast if I let it. “Easy,” she whispers.
I shake my hand and try to wash the bristling prickles from my skin.
A crescent-shaped stone desk sits at the far end of the entry room, manned by a single receptionist behind an extended computer pad. A pair of armed guards flanks her on either side some distance down the wall. They stand beside thick columns that support an arched glass ceiling. Fancy.
My feet tingle. A wave of Pearl energy pushes my legs forward in awkward steps toward the desk. Fast, until I’m almost running. Avery struggles to keep up. I push back on my heel, but instead of stopping, it catches on the ground and I’m pulled to the side. My hand moves up from my pocket to my hip, forcing out my left elbow. It’s hardly subtle.
The receptionist notices. She shifts uneasily in her seat before standing. We’re not even halfway across the room before she motions for the guards to intervene.
Avery raises her pistol. “Stop.”
Instantly, I realize how pathetic this is. The weapon might scare the receptionist, but it sure as hell isn’t going to intimidate the guards. They’re outfitted with all the latest defenses. One wrong move and they’ll blow us to bits. I’ve gotta do something.
My eyes close. When they open again, it’s like I can see right through the wall behind the receptionist. I mentally catalog my way through the Pearls in the store rooms beyond. My heart beats fast. They call to me, each one. Whisper and hum, a collection of eggs ready to hatch. It’s almost too much. I push my hands over my ears. Avery glances nervously at me.
The receptionist throws her hands in the air, head darting between the guards, expression frantic.The soldiers pull weapons from their belts, each about three times the size of Avery’s pistol. So much for taking them by force.