“
Something might have gone wrong,” Rune said, looking up at the body. “If he had weak Abilities, there'd be less to drain...”
“
He'd die sooner,” I finished. “I wish I knew who he was, so I could talk to his family.”
“
Maybe...” Rune began to respond, but Dylan cut him off.
“
There's something else over here!” It sounded urgent, so we followed his voice.
Fifteen paces away, behind a unit of shelving overstocked with bags of coal, Dylan was standing beside another mechanical creation. It was partially obscured behind great burlap
curtains that Dylan drew away. Soft blue light poured over him, making his blond hair change from gold to silver. The machinery beside him was much smaller than the Monarch, and stationary. A central chamber with an exterior engine, billows and pumps was looped with thick tubes that connected it to two ten-foot-tall cylindrical drip systems. One was yellow, like a moldy beehive, with dark shapes piled up from the bottom. The other made me freeze up from head to toe.
“
What is this thing?” Dylan said, pacing around it like a nervous animal. “Do you know, Thayer?”
“
No.” He sounded just as bewildered as Dylan.
“
I do,” I said, surprising myself.
Chapter 29:
The Voice
Slow drips of liquid sent ripples, each equally spaced from the last, onto the inner surface of the
half filled cylinder. Smooth, aquamarine water glowed, creating a pure light that smelled faintly of raw oxygen and carbon. In the large, clear container, I marveled at the substance, wondering if looking through it would show me a gateway to another place. It didn't. Just like the pool I'd passed through three times, it only offered a brightly lit reflection as innocent as any liquid.
“
It's beautiful,” Rune said quietly.
“
It's dry water,” I told them, as if they'd understand.
Rune certainly didn't.
“What?”
Dylan was holding the light of his Shadow Chaser up to the yellow cylinder.
“What in bloody hells is
this?
” he said, groaning as though he might retch. A hint of manic fear raised the pitch of his voice. “Bodies! Human bodies, they're all broken, and a
Lurcher.
They're dead.”
In an alignment of the worst timing possible, Dylan's Shadow Chaser retreated into the shade of Dylan's thumb, and left him only the aquamarine light.
“My light's out,” he said, fear growing to panic. Dylan stumbled, tripping over rubber-coated wires in his haste. “My light's out! We need to get out of here.”
“
Everyone, close your eyes, now!” Rune roared suddenly.
“
What?” Dylan exclaimed, his voice breaking.
“
Just do it!”
In my peripheral vision, a pair of large, evenly spaced white eyes, jostled toward us. The tall, thin figure of the shadow man broke from the darkness when he entered my light.
Bands of black shadow clung to him. He peeled away from them with every step. I snapped my eyes shut before letting myself look at him.
Rune's voice was thick with warning.
“It's the Voice of the Prince.”
“
Speak with me.” The voice came, smooth as grease, just over my shoulder. I recalled the electric ball from my hand. “Someone is here. Come, speak with me.”
I couldn't hear a single footstep, or any sound beside Dylan's rattling breath and my heartbeat slamming in my ears. The voice was at my side now.
“Come. It's all been a misunderstanding,” the Voice said coaxingly. “All will be forgiven. Speak with me, you will not be harmed. If you have questions, I can answer them.”
I had many, but I wasn't an idiot.
The Voice moved away from me. “Speak with me, I'll listen.”
In my life, I'd never had real cause to be afraid of the dark. Now, standing in a warehouse, surrounded by the dead, without even the mild comfort of a wall to lean my back on, my perspective changed. The
Prince, in some form or another, was gliding around us, trying to root us out of hiding. I was exposed, and I couldn't even use my senses to save myself. Even as I quaked with fear, I was not one to hide beneath my blankets. Something inside dared me to open my eyes and stare him in the face.
“
Have you gone?” the Voice asked, sounding the picture of innocence and sincerity. I cringed inwardly, holding as still as I could. “Don't be afraid, I'll find you.”
The
far away sound of heavy things clattering to the floor on the opposite side of the warehouse made me jump despite my efforts to remain calm.
“
It's a diversion. Run,” Dylan's voice was scarcely over a whisper.
My eyes were open in a flash. In the fading dimness of the aquamarine light, the three of us fled like the room was crumbling in behind us. It may as well have been.
* * *
The artful layers of my skirts pulled me down, dragging at me. Sprinting in a dress one bow short from being a ball gown h
ad not been an easy task. I was under the distinct impression that the thing was trying to kill me. Overheating from the exertion, my ribs pressed painfully against the bodice with every breath.
We had taken shelter in a conference room adjoining the Silver Palace. Rune ignited the leafy chandelier above and gave us some light. The room was stuffy and clogged with the dust and dirt of disuse.
The tables and chairs within were covered with white sheets.
I crashed backwards, slamming against the thick wallpaper, gasping for air like a fish out of water.
Dylan had something to say, as usual. “An exercise regimen might do you some good.”
“
Shut... up,” I wheezed, buckling over my knees in a very unladylike manner. Regaining just enough of my breath to speak, I turned to Rune. “I used to hide like that from people when I was five, and it never worked. Why couldn't he see us when we closed our eyes?”
“
I don't know exactly,” Rune said, ever alert. He checked the way we'd come to see if we'd been followed, and clicked the door behind us. “It was a rumor I hoped was true. They say the Voice is nearly blind and deaf. I've heard it described that he sees only monotone blotches and blurs, and he can't differentiate sounds easily. One thing I know for certain is that if you make eye contact with the Voice, he can see and hear you very clearly. If you look into his eyes, you'll look through him and see Prince Raserion.”
“
That's crazy,” I laughed. No one else did. “How do you know
that
?”
“
I've looked,” Rune said somberly.
“
You've seen the Prince?” I asked, blinking.
Rune nodded.
“I have.” He said it like there was more. No elaboration followed.
“
Splendid,” Dylan said sarcastically. “Thank you, by the way, for that pleasant adventure, I was hoping I'd nearly die today. Oh, and you're welcome for getting us out of there. Now that we're past the pleasantries, what was that thing with the vats of dead bodies and glowing liquid?”
“
The way all those tubes were hooked up, it looked like a compression system,” Rune said.
I was going to be sick.
“Definitely,” Dylan agreed. “The bodies and the Lurcher were being wholly drained, inside and out. It was like they were melting. That glowing stuff must have been the result. I've never seen a machine like it.”
Rune's
face was pinched with thought. “You said you knew what it was.”
I was deflated, poisoned with disgust.
“I don't know about the machine. The blue stuff seems a lot like water until you touch it. It's freezing cold and I know this sounds crazy, but it's completely dry.”
“
Is it a new way to drain people? Does the Prince drink it? Absorb it?” Dylan asked with apparent horror.
“
No,” I said quickly, feeling filthy. I'd submerged myself in the stuff three times. “I mean, I don't know what he does with it, but I don't think it can be consumed. If you climb into it, you drift like you're in regular water, all of your pain goes away, and you don't even have to breathe.”
“
You sound like you know a lot about it,” Dylan said, not bothering to hide his suspicion. He was fidgeting more than normal and radiating nervous energy. “Would you mind explaining that?”
“
The dry water, it's like a shortcut, a direct tunnel between two far away places,” I told them. “You can travel miles and miles within seconds. It doesn't sound possible, but it is.”
“
Is this something you have in Haven?” Rune asked.
“
Only secretly. It's how I found you.” I shuddered convulsively. “There was a sealed mausoleum above the one I used. There were faces carved of all of the people who'd died there.”
“
A monument to those killed to make such a passage,” Dylan said thoughtfully.
I held a hand over my mouth.
“There were children.”
“
Don't think about that,” Rune cut in.
“
The writing over the pool said not to let you in,” I said, looking at them and feeling like a shadow of myself.
Rune surprised me by smiling faintly.
“You haven't.”
“
So,” Dylan said, stalking up and down the room in short circles. “We've had the capacity to drain the power from human beings for centuries. That hasn't changed. No one has ever seen this machine, but if you've found the liquid it produces, it means this technology is centuries old as well. The Prince must be guarding it. Explains the Voice lurking in the shadows when everyone else is investigating the explosions.”
“
There may only be one such machine,” Rune offered.
“
Or he simply doesn't want to risk anyone else stealing the technology,” Dylan said, tapping a finger against his chin. His restlessness was making me uncomfortable. It was like watching a stick of dynamite and wondering how long or short the fuse was. “Regardless, he may have other such ports to travel between. Explains how he's been noted to vanish from cities without warning.”
“
More importantly,” Rune said gravely. “He's making another passage.”
“
I have a feeling he'll need a lot more than that,” I said, remembering the size of my aquamarine pool.
Dylan grimaced.
“That's a lot of bodies. I wonder if they were alive when...”
“
Axton
,” Rune warned.
“
Well, the Lurchers couldn't have been, at any rate,” Dylan said, plowing ahead. “No one has ever taken one alive. Now I understand why the Margraves were so keen on us preserving the bodies of the ones we've killed. They must have some essential elements needed to make the stuff.”
“
There weren't any Lurcher carvings in the mausoleum,” I said. The eel-headed, hound-bodied creatures that guarded the outer mountains surrounding Haven were biomechanical, part flesh and part machine. Perhaps there was something in them that sped along the process of making aquamarine water.
Dylan looked at me with
sharpness in his hazel eyes. “Your pool was probably made with Lodestones, like you. Lodestones possess more energy than the rest of us. It'd probably require fewer lives.”
“
Gross,” I said, folding my arms. “Another reason he's after us.”
“
It's why he's making it now,” Rune stated with enough clarity to convince me he was right. “He's caught some of your people. He may know the way to Haven. If he does, he'll want an easy way to get in and out. He's preparing.”
“
And he's repairing the Monarch,” Dylan said, pacing again. I wished he'd stop. “Testing it out with Lodestone blood, like the poor fool you found.”
“
What will the Monarch do?” I asked, wondering if I should plug my ears and run away as fast as I could.
“
It's a machine like any other. Runs off steam and coal,” Rune explained, shifting his weight and frowning deeply. “But it has another purpose. The Monarch can kill every person with any variety of Ability within a mile radius. Lodestones are strapped in to the upper deck and slowly drained. I imagine the blast is aimed outward, so as not to destroy the Lodestones. The energy they provide allows the weapon to function.”
I was rattled.
“H-how can it only target the people with Abilities?”
Rune sighed, glancing at the ground before moving his blue eyes to mine.
“It copies the energy they contain, multiplying it within them. The result is an overabundance, an overflow.”
“
Just tell her,” Dylan said, glaring at Rune.
Rune looked away.
“They explode.”
Dylan mimed the word,
“
Pop!
”
“
Everyone
explodes
?”
“
Everyone with the tiniest amount of Ability,” Dylan said, leaning against the wall opposite me. “Now you know why it's called a war machine.”
Rune looked uncomfortable.
“It can destroy an entire army. Cripple a whole city. In the Northern Kingdom, they think it's just a legend. It's been over six hundred years since anyone there has seen the Monarch. Here, in the West, we know better.”
“
Our Prince loves his history lessons,” Dylan added, unhitching from the wall. He couldn't seem to hold still.
“
Then why is it none of you knew that the Lodestones were people?” I asked.
“
Only battles are thoroughly recorded. We've been at war for,” Rune was at a loss. “We don't even really know how long. Sometimes buildings are damaged. Sometimes texts are lost. This one story survived. With the kind of damage the Monarch could inflict, it lived on in infamy. Someone simply forgot to mention that the Lodestone fuel would be human.”
“
Lucky me,” I said, feeling abysmal. Nothing in the world could have consoled me in that moment. Not crawling into my bed at home, not a hug from my dad, not a steaming mug of cocoa, not even Rune, standing a couple paces away from me. I was sure I'd just seen with my own eyes, evidence of why my people banded together and sealed themselves away into Haven's impenetrable mountain range. It was a killing machine called the Monarch.