by Julie Kagawa
“You’d need a key card and a code to access the elevators,” Mist replied. “And there will be numerous guards and security cameras along the way. If you’re with me, I can get you to the lab with minimal problems. If you’re by yourself, the second anyone sees you, our plan falls apart.” She set her jaw, her voice nonnegotiable. “Information first, then the girl. I am not budging on this.”
“Really?” I gave a dangerous smile. “So we help you out and then you’ll do the same, huh? And what’s to stop you from stabbing us in the back as soon as you get what you need?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Mist said, holding my gaze. “But you’re going to trust me, Cobalt. Because this is your only way out, and you know it. Because if you die here, your underground is as good as gone. Talon will wipe them off the map, and now they have both the numbers and the resources to do it. They’re planning something huge, something that will change both our worlds forever, and you need to know what it is just as much as I do.”
Dammit. She was right, and she knew she was right. “All right,” I growled. If the choice was either die in a Talon cell or die trying to get us all out of Talon, I’d go for the one that gave us a chance, miniscule as it was. “This is getting us nowhere. We can either stand around threatening each other, or we can just get on with it. So, how were you planning to get us out of here?” I asked Mist. “We can’t exactly open the door and stroll down the hall in plain sight.”
Mist gave that faint, mysterious smile. “Actually,” she said, holding up a key, “that is precisely what we’re going to do.”
EMBER
“She’s nearly ready.”
The voice echoed around me, hollow and cold. I spun, peering at my surroundings in confusion. I stood in the center of a vast, rocky plain that stretched on until it met the sky. Behind me, a chain-link fence encircled a cluster of familiar gray and white buildings. Seeing them made my stomach flip-flop with nerves. My old school, in the middle of the Great Basin. But...why was I here now?
“Excellent,” said another voice, seeming to echo out of the sky. “Then prepare the procedure. The drug will bring her most vivid memories to the surface first so they can be removed. Once they are gone, we’ll have to dig deeper, but this is a good place to start.”
I frowned, gazing around for the people the voices belonged to, but other than the silhouette of a buzzard soaring overhead, I was alone. A moment later, I couldn’t remember what had been said. A warm breeze ruffled the scrub around me as I gazed through the fence at the buildings that were as familiar to me as the back of my hand. I had spent so much time here, very nearly my whole life. But that didn’t explain why I had come back.
“Ember,” said another voice, closer than the last and much younger. It sounded alarmed. I looked up and saw two small figures a few yards away. They were about six or seven, with the same bright red hair and green eyes. I gasped as I realized where I was, recognizing this moment in time.
“Ember!” young Dante said again, louder this time. A lump rose to my throat as I watched him, solemn even at six years old. His red hair was shaggy and hung in his eyes as he stepped forward. “Come on, sis. Don’t poke it, you’ll make it mad. Let’s go back.”
The little girl with the red ponytail ignored him. Crouched on the balls of her feet, her attention was riveted on what lay before her. A fat brown snake with vivid diamond markings down its back sat tightly coiled in the sand, head pulled into an S while its tail rattled threateningly.
My stomach tightened. Curious and unafraid, tiny Ember ignored her brother’s repeated warnings and prodded the serpent with a twig. The snake reared back, its warning rattle growing louder, faster, but the girl didn’t back off.
“Ember!” Dante said, and bent down, grabbing her by her shoulders. At the same time, the snake lunged, a blinding streak of tan across the desert floor. Dante cried out, falling to his side, and tiny Ember gasped.
“Dante!” she cried, instantly forgetting about the snake, which slithered off and vanished under a bush. Dante lay on his side, cradling his arm and making soft whimpering sounds. I knew he was trying not to cry out, to be brave so that his little sister wouldn’t be afraid. Blood oozed from two rather large puncture marks in his skin, and the lump in my throat grew even bigger. I hadn’t realized how much the bite had hurt him until now.
“Dante,” tiny Ember said again, her eyes huge and frightened now. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for it to bite you.”
“It’s...okay,” Dante panted. “It doesn’t hurt that much, Ember, really.” He was lying; it was easy to see he was in horrible pain, but the younger version of me relaxed. She believed her twin so easily, and it made my throat tighten.
“Besides,” Dante went on, attempting a smile, “I’d rather the snake bit me and not you. That’s what brothers are for, twin brothers especially.”
I bit my lip, my eyes prickling at the corners as tiny Ember sniffed and scrubbed a dirty hand across her eyes.
“Stupid,” she remarked. “Now I have to tell Mr. Gordon that a snake bit you, and he’s going to blame me as usual.”
Dante winced. “You can tell him...that I was poking the snake if you want,” he said, his voice tight with pain. “Or that we were wandering around outside and I tripped over it.” But Ember shook her head.
“No,” she said firmly. “It really is my fault this time. The snake would’ve bitten me if you hadn’t been here.” She gazed at her brother in complete adoration before she sighed and rose to her feet. “Besides, he wouldn’t believe me, anyway,” she said as she dusted off her jeans, then extended a hand to Dante. “You never get into trouble.”
Dante took her arm and let her pull him upright, clenching his jaw. “Because I don’t go looking for it,” he said in a voice much too wry for a six-year-old. Tiny Ember shrugged, apparently not getting the sarcasm.
“Ember and Dante Hill!”
I turned. A man was striding across the yard on the other side of the fence, a human in a collared shirt and khakis, looking stern as he stalked forward, eyes furious. But when he reached the gate and yanked it open, taking a breath to shout something, he disappeared. Vanished like the image on the television screen when you flipped it off. I blinked, then turned to whatever he’d been about to yell at.
There was nothing. Empty desert greeted me as I looked back, a barren landscape stretching on to the horizon. I frowned and turned in a slow circle, trying to determine where I was, but there was nothing but sand, rock and emptiness as far as I could see. I shivered and rubbed my arm, staring at a spot in the dust, certain something had been there a moment ago. Something...important, but I couldn’t remember what it was.
Then the desert twisted, flickered like a bad signal feed, and everything went white.
GARRET
I walked behind Riley, my wrists bound with metal cuffs, following Mist as she led us down a narrow white corridor. A pair of identical, blank-faced guards hovered at my shoulder, their footsteps sounding in unison and echoing down the hall. Mist walked in front of us all with her head high and her gaze straight ahead. A few men in white coats passed us, but they averted their eyes or ducked into other rooms or hallways as we approached. They were humans working in a Talon building, and here, dragons were the masters.
I breathed a furtive sigh, trying to ignore the pain in my side, the puffiness of my eyes and lip. I ached, but it was bearable. Far more than I knew it should be. And Mist’s plan of getting us through the building, daring as it was, seemed to be working. When she’d handed us a pair of manacles through the cell bars and told us to put them on, we’d both hesitated, making her sigh.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she’d said in an overly reasonable voice. “If we’re going to walk down the halls in plain sight, we have to make it seem realistic. I can bluff my way through a lot, but it still has to look like you�
�re my captives. I’ll release you when the time comes, don’t worry.” Riley had still looked dubious, and she’d shot him a glare. “If my plan was to lead you into a trap, it would be rather silly for me to open the prison cell, where you were already trapped, and let you out, wouldn’t it?”
Riley had grunted. “Fair point,” he’d muttered, and snapped the cuffs around his wrists, rolling his eyes. “So, it’s the classic ‘prisoner transfer’ ruse, huh? Never gets old.”
“What if we run into Dante?” I’d asked. Mist’s eyes had glittered with more than casual suspicion, maybe even fear, as she’d met my gaze. I was a human and a soldier of St. George, I’d reminded myself. In her eyes, I was the enemy, perhaps even more than Riley himself. “He’ll certainly recognize us and want to know where we’re headed.”
“That would be true,” Mist had answered coolly, “if he were here.” She’d waited until I had locked the shackles around my wrists before unlocking the cell door. “Fortunately for us,” she’d continued, pulling the door back with a screech, “Mr. Hill had to take his leave this morning. That will make things easier, though we still have to be very, very careful. We don’t want word to reach the Elder Wyrm’s office.”
Riley’s face had turned the color of glue. “Wait,” he’d gasped, staring at her. “Did you just say the Elder Wyrm is here? Right now? In this building?”
Mist had nodded, and he’d staggered back a pace. “Shit. You couldn’t have mentioned that earlier? Holy Mother of all that is holy...why? What’s here that would bring the Elder Wyrm out of...”
He’d stopped, his face going even paler, and I’d guessed the reason at about the same time.
“Ember,” I’d muttered as he’d given me a dark, slightly glazed look. “That has to be why Dante was so eager to bring her back, why there was an army of dragons at that site. The Elder Wyrm must have sent him in person, and it has something to do with Ember.”
“Now you see why we have to do this quickly,” Mist had said, her cool voice tinged with fear. “If the Elder Wyrm discovers my betrayal, none of us are leaving this place alive.” She’d glared at us again. “So, the two of you follow my lead and do exactly what I say. No heroics. We might get out of here in one piece.”
She’d walked to the door of the prison block and pushed it open. A pair of guards, the same dragon clones that had ambushed us that night with Dante, had entered the room, and Riley had stiffened.
“Don’t worry.” Mist had turned and smirked at him, as if she’d known what he was thinking. “The vessels have been trained for obedience and to follow the commands of certain dragons in this location. I happen to be one of them. They don’t disobey orders, they don’t talk back and they don’t ask questions. We’re going to walk through the building in plain sight, and no one will stop us.”
She’d given an order, and the clones had surrounded us, staring straight ahead as they’d moved into position. Riley had snorted, his expression curling with disgust. “Take a good look, St. George,” he’d muttered. “This is what Talon wants us to be. Soulless, mindless and obedient. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Elder Wyrm wants to get rid of us all and replace us with these things.”
Mist had opened the door again and peered down the hall. “We’re clear,” she’d said quietly, and glanced back at us. “Stay close, keep your heads down and don’t say anything unless I tell you to.” She’d straightened and taken a furtive breath, as if steeling herself. “All right, let’s go.”
I’m coming, Ember, I’d thought as we moved out, the clones flanking us and Mist in the lead. Wherever you are, just hang on a little longer.
We’d walked out of the room into a narrow cement corridor, which had turned into the long, well-lit hallway we were walking through now, with white tile floors and doors lining either side. A few humans in long white coats or business suits wandered the floors but, much as Mist had said, kept their heads down and paid us no attention when we walked past with the clones.
“Miss Anderson?”
A thin man stepped into the hallway, his black eyes narrowing as he stopped us in the corridor. With a chill, I realized it was the dragon that had interrogated Riley and me last night. I saw Riley’s shoulders tense, saw the muscles in his arms tighten as he clenched his fists, and hoped he wouldn’t do anything rash. The Basilisk gave us a wary look, then turned to Mist with a frown.
“Where are you going with the prisoners?” he asked, his sibilant voice grating in my ears. The same smooth, hissing voice that had informed us, again and again, that it would be better if we just told him what he wanted. “I was going to interrogate them again in a few hours.” He eyed us with a hungry smile. “Perhaps this time, a more delicate approach is required. We will see if a scalpel and a pair of pliers can encourage them to talk.”
Riley smirked. “Maybe you should try that on yourself, Luther,” he said mockingly. “It would certainly be an improvement.”
The other Basilisk turned on him, eyes narrowing to black slits, but Mist broke in before he could say anything.
“You had your chance, Luther,” she said, disdain coloring her voice. “Mr. Hill was not pleased with the results of your interrogation and has put me back on assignment. Your skills are no longer required.”
Luther bared his teeth with a hiss, making me tense. For a split second, I could see his other form, a thin black dragon with mottled green wings, looming over the girl. A chill raced up my back, even as the blood in my veins boiled. The image had been so real; I had never seen anything like that before.
Mist faced the furious Basilisk and didn’t back down. “If you are displeased, take it up with Mr. Hill,” she said. “Or, better yet, you could go straight to the top. I am sure the Elder Wyrm will be very interested to learn of your failure.”
The blood instantly drained from his face. “N-no,” he stammered, backing away. “That’s not necessary.” He gave us one last glare, eyes gleaming, before turning an oily smile on Mist. “Well, good luck, Miss Anderson,” he said, his tone oozing. “Perhaps your techniques will succeed where mine did not, but if you need any help, or expertise, you have only to call.”
“Thank you,” Mist said icily. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Luther nodded, gave us one last smile and continued down the hall. Mist watched him until he turned a corner and was out of sight, then glared at Riley.
“If you don’t want us to be discovered, Cobalt, perhaps you shouldn’t antagonize everyone we come across.”
Riley grinned. “Worried, Miss Anderson?” he replied. “I thought you wanted this to be realistic. It would have been more suspicious if I just took the slimy bastard’s insults and didn’t say anything.”
Mist shook her head. But she didn’t say anything else as she led us down the corridor again, moving a little faster now, until we came to the elevators near the end of the hall.
“Get in,” she ordered as the doors opened. We did, and the clones followed, flanking us inside the box. Mist pressed a button, the doors slid shut and the elevator began to ascend.
Mist motioned briskly to Riley and inserted a key into the cuffs at his wrists. “I have your phone, Cobalt,” she said as the shackles were removed. “When we get to where we’re going, I need you to contact your hacker friend and explain the situation. I hope he’s as good as everyone seems to believe. From here on out, we have to move as fast as we can.”
“What are we looking for, anyway?” Riley asked.
Mist hesitated, then turned to me. “I’m not entirely certain,” she admitted, unlocking my restraints. “But that computer is supposed to hold the plans for...something big. Something that has to do with the vessels, and what the Elder Wyrm intends to do with them. There have been rumors circling about something called the Night of Fang and Fire, which I admit sounds cheesy but is troubling all the same. My employer would like to know exactly what this Nigh
t of Fang and Fire is.”
Riley and I shared a glance. The Night of Fang and Fire? It certainly sounded like we should be worried about it. At the same time, it made me desperate to get to Ember. To get us all out of here and find someplace safe before the world exploded in a hellstorm of dragonfire.
The elevator stopped, and the doors slid open to reveal an office-type floor, though the hallways were dark and looked deserted. The only lights came from the glow of screen savers through open office doors.
“Stay here,” Mist told the clones, who didn’t so much as blink at her. “Guard the elevator until we return.” To us, she jerked her head down the hall. “The room isn’t far. Let’s go.”
Following her lead, we hurried down the corridor, turned a corner and paused at a plain office door with narrow floor-to-ceiling windows on either side. Mist produced a key card from a cord attached to her belt and slid it into a slot reader near the handle. The door beeped once, and we slipped inside.
A large desk with a single computer sat in the center of the room, and Mist quickly shut the inner window blinds before turning to us. “Here,” she said, tossing Riley a phone. “Call your friend. I figure we have a couple minutes before night security comes by, so make it quick.”
I carefully pulled down the blinds a crack and peered into the darkened hall, watching for moving shadows or flashlight beams, while Riley spoke urgently into his phone.
“Wes.” His voice was a raspy whisper. “It’s me...No, I’m not dead, obviously...Yeah, we were caught by Talon.” He winced. “Ow. Dammit, will you calm down? We’re fine, no one is dead yet.” He frowned, and his voice became a growl. “Look, just shut up and listen, all right? I don’t have a lot of time.”
A thin white beam flashed down the hall before a shadow turned a corner and came toward our room. I motioned to the others to be silent and pressed back against the door. Riley and Mist ducked behind the desk, Riley hiding the phone in his jacket to snuff out the light, and we held our breath as a human passed in front of the windows. His shadow slid over the blinds, and his footsteps knocked against the tile floor as he went by, not slowing, and faded away into the dark.
