Nightfall

by Shannon Messenger

  Grady tore a hand through his hair. “We need to figure out what it is.”

  “And we’d better find a way to counteract the soporidine’s effects, in case we don’t stop them in time,” Lady Cadence warned.

  “Do you really think you can make something like that?” Sophie asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” Physic told her. “If the Neverseen can figure out how to sustain the Bucollosisia, surely we can find a cure.”

  “Especially if we team up with the ogres,” Lady Cadence added. “Soporidine is a threat to them as well, so I’m sure Dimitar would be willing to send some of his best microbiologists—but they’ll need access to Alvar to run tests. As will I. Perhaps I can convert one of the rooms in Riverdrift into a cell.”

  Sophie froze. “What if that’s what the Neverseen wants? The ogre rebels want you dead, remember? So what if Alvar’s not as drugged as they’re making us think he is, and they’re counting on us to bring him to you so he can kill you?”

  “I never thought I’d say this,” Lady Cadence said, “but I think you might be overestimating my importance.”

  “Maybe I am,” Sophie said. “All I know is that the Neverseen don’t do anything without a reason. And they just tipped us off to the fact that they know how to mass-produce soporidine—and abandoned their Nightfall facility and got rid of Alvar. They wouldn’t have done any of that if they weren’t planning something big.”

  She latched onto the terrifying thought, clinging to each thread of fear that it triggered—because this had to be what the Neverseen were trying to distract her from.

  This was why they’d moved her parents from Nightfall. To keep her too busy panicking and searching to investigate any of this.

  She couldn’t let herself make that mistake.

  But she couldn’t abandon her human parents either.

  She’d have to stay on top of everything, even if her brain felt like it was stretching so thin it might tear.

  “Okay,” Physic said, clapping her hands. “I’ll make sure the Collective sets up Alvar somewhere we can all reach him for testing. And you need to talk to Dimitar, Cadence. Will you be able to house any ogres he sends at Riverdrift?”

  “Of course,” Lady Cadence said. “But someone will need to alert the Council of their presence.”

  “I can handle that,” Grady offered.

  Lady Cadence nodded, clicking away and letting the Imparter go blank.

  “What about us?” Fitz asked. “What should we be doing?”

  “And don’t even think about telling us to go home and go to bed,” Biana added.

  “Why not?” Grady asked. “You guys look exhausted. And filthy. And freezing. You need to get cleaned up and give yourselves a little rest. Anything important can wait a few hours.”

  Sophie reached for her eyelashes. “I . . . I have to talk to my sister.” She turned to Physic. “Does she know you’re with me?”

  “I snuck out while she was sleeping. And she didn’t know you were going into Nightfall tonight. She seemed to guess that something big was happening, but I kept her distracted with the efflorescence samples. So you can share as much or as little as you think she can handle—and it can definitely wait until morning.”

  Sophie nodded, deciding to give her sister a few more hours of peace.

  “Okay, I hate to say this, but aren’t we forgetting something?” Tam asked. “I mean . . . didn’t you guys say that Alvar’s mind felt like Prentice’s?”

  Sophie’s heart stopped.

  She could barely find enough voice to say, “Does this mean the Council gave Prentice soporidine?”

  “I . . . don’t know,” Physic admitted. “The vitals match—but how would they have had any to use?”

  “No clue,” Sophie said. “But if they did . . .”

  She didn’t know how to finish that sentence. The implications were too huge.

  “We need to find out,” Tam said. “Do you think there could still be residue on Prentice’s skin, so we could test him?”

  “I doubt it. But it won’t hurt to sprinkle some reveldust on him anyway. I can’t do it until morning, though,” Physic warned. “Waking him up in the middle of the night would stress him out too much. But I’ll go there first thing, I promise.”

  “So in the meantime, you four”—Grady pointed to Sophie, Fitz, Tam, and Biana—“should go home and rest up as much as you can.”

  “And I know you’re going to argue that sleep will be impossible,” Physic jumped in. “But it won’t be if you take these.” She offered them four hot-pink vials. “Yes, these are sleeping elixirs. Extremely mild ones that will only last a few hours. And yes, I realize you’re not fans of sedatives. But take it from someone who’s served nearly two decades with the Black Swan. Sometimes we have to remember that we are not machines. We may not like it, but we need food and sleep—even if we have to force it. Otherwise we’ll run ourselves into the ground.”

  Sophie stared at the pink vials. “Who’s going to stay here with Alvar?”

  “Sandor will,” Grady promised. “And Grizel. Havenfield and Everglen have enough security that we can spare one night without them.”

  “And I’ll make the Songs set me up a bed in here,” Physic added. “I also promise I’ll be especially annoying,” she told Tam with a wink. “If anything happens, I’ll wake all of you up. Just take the elixirs and go home. Give your bodies the break they need and come back stronger. We have a lot of work ahead.”

  Fifty-two

  SOPHIE HADN’T ASKED Physic what was in the sugary pink sedative, knowing the answer would probably make her not want to take it. So she wasn’t prepared for the interesting dreams.

  The second she crawled under her covers, she floated off to rainbow-glitterland, complete with kittens in tiaras and cartwheeling puppies and candy islands surrounded by twirling dolphins in tutus. Everything was so happy and sparkly and bright—it made her head spin and her stomach woozy. But maybe that was the point. To make her grateful to return to reality—even if it wasn’t nearly so cute. And to be glad to wake up and find people in her room, instead of dancing anthropomorphic animals.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, pulling her covers around her chest as she sat up to face Edaline and Lady Cadence.

  “You woke me up earlier,” Lady Cadence told her, frowning as she watched Sophie slip on her gloves. “So I figured it was only fair that I get to return the favor. Especially since you insisted on sleeping until noon.”

  “Noon?” Panic wedged in Sophie’s throat when she glanced out her windows at the bright afternoon sunlight. “I thought the sedative was only supposed to last a few hours!”

  “It did,” Edaline promised. “But your body must’ve been so exhausted that once you were out, you were out. And we let you sleep because you needed it.”

  “And because it was time to let the grown-ups tackle some of these challenges,” Lady Cadence added. “Oh, don’t scowl at me like that—there’s nothing wrong with admitting that certain things need a bit more wisdom and maturity to manage.”

  “It had nothing to do with that,” Edaline insisted. “We just wanted to give you a chance to recover after an incredibly draining day. And don’t worry, Mr. Forkle is here to update you on everything that’s been happening—”

  Edaline was still finishing the sentence when Sophie sprinted for the stairs. Which was unfortunately why she didn’t realize she was still in her ruffly nightgown—with bed hair and morning breath—until she got to the living room.

  Even more unfortunate was the fact that Mr. Forkle wasn’t the only one waiting for her.

  The other four members of the Collective were there, back in their bizarre disguises. And Livvy was Physic again, this time wearing a silver mask decorated with black feathers.

  Grady was there too.

  And Alden and Della.

  And Fitz, Dex, Biana, Tam, and Linh.

  And Sandor, Grizel, Woltzer, Lovise, and Cadoc.

  And an imposing fig
ure in a jeweled circlet and cape, with features as sharp as the points of his ancient ears—which was probably the reason the Black Swan had chosen to hide their identities.

  “Good to see you, Miss Foster,” Councillor Bronte told her as she fumbled through a curtsy while attempting to tuck as much of her messy hair behind her ears as she could. “I see you were eager to get this meeting started.”

  Her face burned.

  And even though she’d been on better terms with Bronte for the last several months, her queasy stomach couldn’t forget all the time he’d spent threatening to send her to Exile.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled, slipping into the robe Edaline had thankfully thought to grab before she and Lady Cadence joined them.

  “No need to apologize,” Mr. Forkle told her. “I, for one, am relieved to see you’ve gotten some rest. I would’ve let you sleep the entire day, but I feared you might not be too happy with me if I did.”

  “I wouldn’t have been,” Sophie agreed. “Where’s Alvar?”

  “Somewhere safe,” Squall promised. The ice crusting her features made it impossible to recognize her as Dex’s mom.

  “It’s been a very busy night, and an even busier morning,” Mr. Forkle added. “We have lots of answers for you—but before we get into them, I need you and your friends to promise to hold your questions until we’ve finished explaining. Otherwise we’ll never get through this.”

  When they nodded, he asked the six of them to take a seat on the couch—which didn’t feel like a good sign for where the conversation would be heading.

  “Don’t worry,” Biana whispered as she sat next to Sophie, followed by Linh, Tam, and Fitz. Dex squeezed in on the opposite side, sitting as far away from Sophie as he possibly could. “We all only woke up a little while ago.”

  That would’ve been a lot more comforting if the rest of her friends hadn’t looked so well-dressed and showered. Biana had even braided her hair with jewels throughout the intricate weave.

  Sophie felt even more uncomfortable when she noticed that Keefe wasn’t there. She’d told him to stay away, but . . . it seemed wrong to have everyone gathered without him.

  “Let’s see, where to start?” Mr. Forkle asked as he turned to pace the length of the bright room. After three back-and-forths, he settled on the subject of Alvar, explaining that the eldest Vacker had been moved to a cell that the gnomes and dwarves had constructed early that morning—far enough away from everything to ensure that Alvar would pose no threat. But still readily accessible for Lady Cadence and the ogre researchers who had arrived from Ravagog that morning to begin work on an antidote for the soporidine.

  “Are you guys okay?” Sophie asked Alden and Della when she noticed the bruiselike shadows rimming their eyes—not caring that she was breaking Mr. Forkle’s no-questions rule.

  “We have mixed emotions,” Alden said, fussing with his slate-colored cape. “But we’ve known something like this was inevitable ever since we found out the truth about our son.”

  “In some ways, it’s a relief to know he’s no longer out there helping with the Neverseen’s horrible projects,” Della added. “I’m just sorry we can’t learn anything from him right now—especially about where to find your human family.”

  “Which is still a priority,” Grady assured her. “I know you’re worrying that the Neverseen are using your parents as a distraction. But look at how many of us are here right now.” He waved his arms around the crowded room. “And this is still only a fraction of the resources available. So we’re more than capable of dividing our focus between projects. And we will find them.”

  “But . . . we don’t have any leads,” Sophie argued.

  “Actually, we do,” Granite told her. His voice was as crackly as his rocky disguise—which gave him the look of a half-carved statue come to life.

  “Like what?” Tam asked.

  Mr. Forkle smiled. “You kids are doing about as well with the no-questions rule as I expected.”

  “But since you asked,” Bronte jumped in, “I am one of those leads.” His sharp eyes homed in on Dex, who scooted deeper into the couch cushions. “It’s come to my attention that you possess Fintan’s cache—and no need to look so terrified. I’m glad your group managed to steal it—though I do hope you’re taking every precaution to protect it.”

  Whatever you do, don’t tell him you carry it around with you, Sophie transmitted to Dex. And don’t mention that you have Kenric’s cache, either.

  Dex gave her the briefest of nods, his eyes darting quickly away as he told Bronte, “No one’s getting anywhere near the cache unless I want them to.”

  “Excellent,” Bronte said. “You and I will be working to access the secrets together to see what we can uncover about this prisoner he’s working with. Fintan and I have a long history, so if anyone can figure out the passwords protecting his secrets, it’s me.”

  “Does that mean he chose the passwords?” Sophie asked.

  Bronte shook his head. “They’re generated by the cache itself. It’s a security feature, both to keep the secrets protected, and to provide a way for us to recover the information, should it become crucial. Each password is something that should inherently be instinctive to us, if we push our minds to trigger it—and I have several theories for what Fintan’s might be. So plan on coming to my office in Eternalia every day,” he told Dex, “until we gain access.”

  Dex definitely did not look excited when he said, “Yeah, sure.”

  Sophie tried to offer him a sympathetic smile, but he didn’t look her way.

  “We’ve also spoken to Lady Gisela,” Granite said, making Sophie sit up straighter. “Sandor gave me Keefe’s Imparter last night, as well as a piece of his soiled cape. And she was so shocked to hear about the state of Nightfall that she agreed to meet me there to see for herself.”

  “You met with Lady Gisela?” Sophie clarified.

  Granite nodded.

  “Please tell me you arrested her,” Biana begged.

  “I said the same thing,” Bronte grumbled.

  “We considered it,” Mr. Forkle told them. “But Gisela is too cautious not to be prepared for that. And at the moment, she is of far more use to us when she has the freedom to investigate certain things on her own. Apparently the Neverseen stole something rather important of hers when they cleaned out her facility—something she called the Archetype.”

  “Did she say what it was?” Fitz asked.

  “Only in the vaguest possible terms,” Granite said. “Gisela is smart. She knows we have no alliance—though she kept claiming we were fools not to offer one. And she’s clearly well trained at hiding secrets from Telepaths. I tried invading her mind while we were together, and I was only able to hear her most bland observations.”

  “Sophie and I could’ve gotten past whatever blocking she was using,” Fitz argued. “You should’ve brought us with you.”

  “I wish we could have,” Granite told him. “But Gisela demanded that the meeting be strictly between her and me. As I said, she’s smart. She didn’t even let me see her face.”

  Sophie wondered if that had to do with her scars from the shamkniv—not that it mattered. “Did she say anything about what Nightfall was supposed to be?”

  “She said it’s a testing facility, designed to measure worthiness. But she refused to say who she’d been planning to test or what would happen to those ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy,’ or how those determinations were made—even when I suggested that the Black Swan might be open to a bargain. The only other information she gave me was to confirm that the third level in Nightfall was used for their soporidine experiment—and she only confessed to that when I revealed we had Alvar in our custody.”

  “Why would you tell her that?” Fitz snapped.

  “Because I had to let her think she’d forced me into revealing a crucial secret. Also because I wanted to see her reaction. She was genuinely shocked. In fact, it’s why she was willing to explain a few details about the soporidine. She d
idn’t give any clues as to the drug’s ultimate purpose, of course, or how much of the scheme was Fintan’s plan instead of hers—but she did reveal that each of the twenty fire sites had different variables to alter the protein’s effect and potency. And she thinks Alvar was exposed to the strongest variation.”

  “Of course,” Sophie mumbled.

  “Which is why Mr. Dizznee and I should get started on that cache,” Bronte noted.

  “Wait,” Sophie said as he removed a pathfinder from his cape. “What about Prentice?”

  Mr. Forkle shifted his weight. “Before I answer that, I need to remind each of you of your promise to hold questions until the end. Can you try actually sticking to that for this next part?”

  He waited for all of them to agree before he nodded to Physic.

  She stepped forward, adjusting the tilt of her mask as she told them, “I tested Prentice this morning. And I didn’t find any marks like what’s on Alvar’s heel.”

  Sophie was trying to decide if she was relieved, when Physic added, “But there was a small glowing dot in the center of his palm. So he was definitely exposed to soporidine.”

  Fifty-three

  HOW COULD YOU do that?” Sophie shouted at Bronte. “Do you have any idea how close we came to losing Prentice for good?”

  She regretted the words when Alden’s face went from pale to gray.

  Della must’ve noticed the change as well, because she wrapped her arms around her husband, holding him close and whispering in his ear.

  “I didn’t do anything to Prentice,” Bronte said calmly. “And for the record, neither did Emery or Alina. Or Terik—though I’d think his injury in Lumenaria would be proof enough that he’s not involved with the Neverseen, without my needing to say so.”

  “He’s not lying,” Mr. Forkle added before Sophie could make that very accusation. “I spent the majority of the morning in Eternalia personally questioning all twelve Councillors, and I kept my mind open to their thoughts to ensure their honesty.”