by Kyle Prue
“Are you sure I can life the gate?” Darius asked. He didn’t want another carriage situation on his hands.
“You’ll be fine. It’s a crank gate, more for show than anything else.” Rhys pushed his spectacles up his nose again. “Anastasia and Bianca will clear the sentry guards on the roof of the guard house.”
“How do we get up to the roof?” Bianca asked.
“Anastasia’s an acrobat. She’ll be fine. You can take them from far away with your knives. Just do it quietly. Once Neil’s inside he’ll break the locks on the pulley system that lifts the cart. Darius can then use his strength to operate the pulley from within. Manually. We’ll hop in and take it down to the Doctor’s workshop on the floor beneath the balcony.”
Darius exhaled and placed his head in his hands. “So we are taking the shaft, but I have to carry all of us, not to mention the cart itself.”
“Good thing you’ve been getting so much exercise.” Anastasia winked at him and he groaned.
“I hate this,” Darius said. “If dropping this thing would turn me into paste, what will it do to you guys?”
“Thinner paste,” Rhys said, confident in his answer.
“Well, I suppose we should get a move on,” the Wolf said. “To the Cliff we go.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
THE CLIFF
THE PACK
The Hyena bounded into the Doctor’s workshop with a skip in his step. “Am I too late?” he asked. “Are they here yet?”
“Do I look like I’ve just dealt with six targets?” the Doctor asked. “They’re right behind you, I assume.”
“You’ve prepared a trap right?” The Hyena placed his hands over his mouth to keep from bursting with hilarity. “Are you going to blow anyone up?”
“I might,” the Doctor said. “That box over there has a Lightborn Cuff in it. It’s for the Taurlum.”
The Hyena looked up to see Victor assembling a giant machine in the rafters. “Hi brother,” he said. “Father’s keeping you hanging around, huh?”
“Hello Lester,” the Marksman said. “I actually want to be here. These Lightborns are dangerous. Too dangerous for Father to take alone.”
“I met one of them. She deals with cyanide quite well. Well, better than most people I’ve met,” the Hyena snickered.
The Marksman above them cocked his head. “Bodies are falling up above us. I smell blood. Also smoke outside, on the balcony.”
“They’re here. You can still smell blood, even though we’ve been together for three days?” the Doctor asked his son.
“Smell lasts the longest,” the Marksman said.
The Doctor scribbled a note on a piece of paper and shoved it into his pocket. “Could be useful,” he mumbled.
“Is your pet here?” the Hyena asked, unmoved by the news that they would soon be attacked. “The monster?”
“I had it moved to our hideout in Abington,” the Doctor said.
“How’s it getting fed?” the Hyena asked.
“I left him five or six villagers. It should hold him over.”
“You should feed it flesh with a silver spoon. That’s what it grew up with.” The Hyena crawled up one of the wooden pillars and up to the rafters. He knew the drill. Setting ambushes was all about distributing your troops and your traps. The Doctor liked to call these details strands, and he liked to call the ambush itself “his web.” He certainly took to his family’s spider mascot. “I’d give it two minutes. I want to play some games with the eldest Vapros and the Celerius girl. If I look like I’m in any real trouble, turn on the machine.”
“Yes Father,” they said in unison.
From his perch he could see the Doctor leaving an injection out for Anastasia. “Is she still with us?” Victor called.
“I don’t know,” the Doctor replied. “But if I do have a spy, I’m not willing to lose her so soon. She knows who she belongs to.”
The Hyena couldn’t help but snicker as he waited with his brother. This was the best kind of joke, his favorite kind, where everyone thinks they know the punch line until the real one appears and whips them across the face. The Hyena ripped off a sleeve from his shirt and curled it into a ball. He shoved it into his mouth to stop himself from laughing during the show. He knew he wouldn’t be able to resist; after all, this was his favorite kind of ending----chaos, blood, and fire.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
THE CLIFF
NEIL VAPROS
Neil’s friends had made short work of the soldiers in the guardhouse. Lilly and her Uncle swept through the ground units like painters applying brush to canvas. Everything they did looked so smooth and calculated. That was probably because their minds worked so quickly. Bianca and Anastasia cleared the upper units with ease and soon it was up to him. It was time to make a controlled descent down the cliff face to the balcony below.
He stared over the edge for a moment and every nerve in his body tightened. This was insane. He’d never tried anything like this before, and all of his friends were counting on him. He looked over his shoulder and saw the others were staring at him. They looked as nervous as he felt. He curled his hands into fists and began to gather the power inside of him. Could he really be the Wolf’s chosen one? Forged in fire. Sounds like me, he thought.
But even if it did sound like him, did he really want it? Having these people rely on him was terrifying. He couldn’t imagine carrying all of Volteria on his back. “Neil?” the Wolf asked. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” Neil said. “I just need a second.”
“Tick tock, buddy,” Darius mumbled.
Neil rubbed his forehead. He had to focus on one thing at a time. The expectations he faced would crush him otherwise. The Doctor was his primary objective. The sick, deranged monster in the base below was waiting to see justice. He’d been responsible for Josephine’s death and the bullet hole in Neil’s back. He turned around and faced his friends one more time. He and Bianca met eyes and he tried to put on a brave face for her. She’d certainly be a better chosen one than he’d ever be. She never wavered, never crumbled, and never showed a lapse in dedication to him.
He knew in that moment that if he made it through the revolution, he’d marry her. He’d keep her safe from a world with men like Saewulf, the Doctor, and the Emperor. Or maybe she’d be the one keeping him safe. Either way was fine, as long as they were together. Without giving himself another chance to second-guess himself, he stepped off the cliff and let his fire slow his descent.
The Doctor had messed with the wrong group of revolutionaries. As Neil landed on the balcony, he felt fire ignite in his chest. He was in the Doctor’s web. Now he would burn it away, strand by strand.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
THE CLIFF
NEIL VAPROS
“No one celebrate just yet,” the Wolf warned as they pushed the Doctor to his knees after cuffing him. “This place is definitely booby-trapped and I doubt we’re alone. Everyone spread out.”
Things had gone as planned. Rhys really had thought things out well. However, Neil was shocked to see what the Doctor looked like. The man was a collection of deformities, loosely tied together. Neil couldn’t see a single part of him that was whole.
“I want a word with him,” Neil hissed. “For Josephine.”
The Wolf agreed. “I expected as much. Bianca and Anastasia, come with me. Let’s make sure there’s no one on the ground floor to worry about.”
They proceeded out in a tight formation, ready to disembowel anyone hiding in the Doctor’s massive workspace. As they drifted away, Neil realized he was now alone with the group that had been living at the Golden Mug with him. These were Josephine’s children and they were ready to avenge her. “You’re the one who sent that animal after us,” Neil accused the Doctor.
The Doctor stared at him. “You should be more specific. Every one of my assassins is an animal in their own right.”
“The Marksman. Your son.”
“Ah yes.” The Doctor
smiled as much as he could with his metal jaw. “Victor is all instinct. But when you back someone into a corner, you shouldn’t feel offended when their claws come out.”
Neil would have punched him if he weren’t so sure it was what the Doctor wanted. A snicker came from somewhere in the workplace and the group tensed as they swiveled nervously. The Wolf was right. They weren’t alone.
“But the most animalistic of us all is your new friend Anastasia,” the Doctor said.
Darius glared.
“You know what truly makes her an animal? It’s her instinct for self-preservation, her drive to survive. She loses a bit of humanity every time she tears off a piece of herself to escape a trap. She’ll cut you in half if it means securing her safety.”
“Shut up,” Darius said louder this time. “You’re the one who surrounds himself with ‘animals.’”
“Because I can trust them,” the Doctor said. “Animals are predictable. Nothing makes a man safer than the ability to control something with basic instincts.”
“Well, look where that predictability got you.”
The Doctor’s eyes focused on Neil who felt a chill travel down his spine. “You’re animalistic too, Vapros.”
“I’m not going to play your games,” Neil said.
“Do you struggle to sleep at night knowing that Miss Celerius is wide awake? That she constantly wonders what happened to her younger brother Edward? Your ability to sleep like a baby is animalistic.” Saliva leaked down the Doctor’s lower jaw.
Neil glanced at Rhys, who looked equally terrified. Lilly stared at them, eyebrows narrowed. “What do you think she’d say if she realized you’ve known who killed him all along? That you’ve been lying to her and letting her lie awake wondering what caused his death?”
“What?” Lilly demanded. Her words were angry but her eyes told a different story, a deep wound that had long been open. In a flash, Lilly had her sword pressed firmly against Neil’s throat. He couldn’t crane his neck but he could see Lilly. She had violent tears in her eyes.
“He’s just trying to get to you…” Neil whispered.
“Tell me it’s not true, then. Tell me you don’t know how Edward died.”
Neil stared at her and his eyes flickered to Rhys. Lie. Rhys was saying with his eyes. Don’t ruin this mission. Tell her later. “I can’t,” he said as he prepared to have his throat slit. “Jennifer,” he said simply to Lilly. “My sister, Jennifer. She killed him.”
Neil could tell that Lilly was on the verge of breaking down. “Why did she leave the body? Why did we have to wonder? Why couldn’t she have just left him in a pile of ashes?” Her whole body was quivering. “I will cut you down, Vapros. Why did she leave the body?”
Neil stared at the floor sullenly. “She loved him.”
Lilly blinked. Neil could feel the sword slightly pressing against his Adam’s apple. There was no way he’d be able to materialize out of this without being decapitated. “Don’t be a hypocrite, Lilly,” the Doctor said.
She turned on him. “What did you say to me?”
“Don’t. Be. A. Hypocrite.” He pushed each word through his metal jaw.
His eyes bore into hers. She pulled her sword from Neil’s throat and put it to his. “How am I a hypocrite?”
The Doctor’s eyes drifted up. Lilly’s eyes went with them. The Doctor’s workspace was several stories tall and the rafters seemed to stretch upward infinitely. “You’re keeping secrets as well. Doesn’t the Wolf have a right to know about his wife?”
Neil looked around cautiously. Not only was he searching for the Doctor’s ally, but he didn’t want the Wolf to hear the specifics of this conversation. “Lilly,” Neil whispered. “You might want to use your senses to find whoever’s hiding in here.”
“I’m not done with you yet,” Lilly barked. Her eyes remained on the Doctor.
“I understand that. However, we might not get a chance to finish this if the Doctor’s trap kills us.”
She closed her eyes and extended her hands as if she were trying to keep her balance. Neil kept his eyes on the Doctor. She opened her eyes and looked up. “There are two bodies up in the rafters and a pretty large machine of some sort,” she called loud enough for the Wolf to hear.
“I’m getting the same thing!” he called back.
The laughter from the rafters resumed and the Doctor joined it with a metallic chuckle. “The Hyena is hard to plan an ambush with. But we can’t help but include him. He’s just so much fun.”
The Hyena laughed harder above their heads. “Whenever you’re ready,” the Doctor said with confidence.
Suddenly the machine far above them spurred into a low hum and the small lights and dials on its sides revealed the Doctor’s two servants spinning dials on either side. “What is that?” Darius asked.
“Wait for it,” the Doctor commanded.
The low hum began to go up in pitch little by little as if a cat were walking across a giant piano. Clumsily the makeshift melody climbed higher and higher until Neil could no longer hear it. “I’m done with this,” Lilly said. “Your head is coming clean off of—“
She dropped to the ground mid-sentence and began screaming in agony. Across the room the Wolf also began groaning in pain. The Hyena cackled and the Doctor joined him. Only the Marksman stayed quiet. “What’s happening to them?” Rhys asked.
The Doctor put his hands up calmly. “They share a special ability that comes with sending vibrations through the air at a certain frequency. We learned to duplicate that frequency and send it right back. Imagine a super powerful dog whistle that weighs half a ton.”
“Tell me how to turn it off,” Neil demanded as he ignited his hands. “You’ve still got half of a face to lose.”
The Doctor’s eyes blazed. They were in his web now. Bianca began tossing knives at the machine with reckless abandon, but they either bounced off or the Marksman caught them before they could hit anything crucial. “Naturally,” he said. “The only way to turn it off is with a key. You’d be lucky to find it before their eardrums burst.”
Neil began to panic. He could feel his heart racing and his face reddening. In contrast, the Doctor looked calm and collected as the room went to chaos around him. “Where’s the key?” Neil demanded again.
The Doctor looked like he wanted to laugh again. “Sorry. I won’t be sharing that detail.”
Neil’s placed his ignited hand close enough to the Doctor’s face to inflict pain. “Want to lose what’s left of your face?”
“See that chest over there? If you can figure out how to open it, you’ll be rewarded with the key.”
Neil glared at him. “I’m not playing your games.”
“Then your friends will spend the rest of their short lives on this floor screaming. It’s up to you really.”
“I’ll get it open,” Darius said confidently.
“Did I mention that breaking the box results in the deformation of the key? Minor detail, Mr. Taurlum. I’m sure you can do it though. I’m sure you’re not stupid.”
Darius snorted. “You can’t bait me.”
“It’s okay,” Neil said. “I’ll get it open.”
He darted over to the box, but made sure to keep the Doctor in his peripheral vision. This was more than likely a trap. The Doctor actually looked frustrated. He probably did want Darius to try and open the box instead. The box was a simple wooden one with no lid and no discerning features beside steel rivets equidistant apart on either side. Neil picked up the box and noted that it was unusually heavy. There was definitely something in there. Upon examining the bottom he found a small hole just bigger than his hand. He tried to look inside but couldn’t see much besides something that looked like a latch. Neil experimentally placed his hand inside the hole and realized his mistake before he could withdraw it. A steel circle about the size of a bracelet latched onto his flesh and the box closed around his arm. “What the?” Neil said as he stifled the whimper of pain that threatened to escape his lips.
“A what?” Neil asked as he tried to keep his heart from leaping out of his chest. “Well you’ve made a mistake. If anyone can handle a bit of fire, it’s me.”
The Doctor shook his head. “Of course you can, Neil, but what about your friends? What about your friends or your little girlfriend? Is their flesh fireproof?”
Neil tried to materialize out of the hold of the box, but he found himself unable to focus his energy. “As long as that metal band is attached to your wrist you won’t be able to use your powers,” the Doctor said. “Unless you can manage to get your heart rate over one hundred and thirty beats per minute.”
Neil shook his arm violently.
“Neil?” Rhys said frightened.
“You’re a monster,” Neil said.
“And you don’t have much time left,” the Doctor spat. “You decided to come into my home and squish the spider. You have no right to feel betrayed when your own stupidity drives you into the web. Isn’t that just life? Sometimes you’re the boot and sometimes you’re the bug.” He licked his upper lip. “I wasn’t supposed to kill you, but plans change. The Emperor will understand.”
Neil turned to Bianca. He could see his own terror reflected in her eyes. “What do you suggest I do?”
“I have a window,” the Doctor said. “The quickest way to get away from your friends might just be gravity.”
Neil didn’t have time to think or to question the horrors of what he was being forced to do. He ran to the floor to ceiling window. He slammed the box against it until it cracked. “Neil, slow down,” Bianca begged.
