The softness in her face gained rigidness as if steel girders had been shoved into place. She shifted, wincing from the wound in her gut.
"The Halls have taken everything from me," said Jade, glaring in defiance as she held her arms around her stomach.
"Are you a Rider?" asked Aurie.
Pi's head snapped around. "What's going on, sis?"
Jade didn't answer. She seemed confused by the question.
"I don't understand."
"On my previous visits, I encountered a being called a Rider that can attach itself to other people and get them to do what it wants. It's attacked me on two separate occasions. I think that's what Semyon's trying to warn us about. These Riders were an early foe of the patrons, and they banded together to fight them. As far as I know, you're a Rider, returned to finish the job."
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Jade, meeting her gaze.
Aurie studied her expression for clues. If it was a lie, it was a skilled one.
"That's why Jade's trying to take down the Halls," Aurie explained to her sister. "Because it's not really her, but this creature."
"I'm not so sure," yelled Pi from the front. "Don't you think I would have known?"
"I don't know," said Aurie. "I couldn't find anything about them. But why else would Semyon bring me to this time and place? It has to be about the Riders. Which means they're a grave danger to our reality. Otherwise, why bother?"
"I get what you're saying," said Pi. "I have the same thoughts about the significance of this time and place. But I don't know about Jade."
"Are you two just going to talk about me while I'm sitting here?" said Jade, frowning.
"Why yes, we are, until you come clean with what's really going on, and even then, I'm not sure I can trust you," said Aurie, grabbing onto the side of the wagon as they hit a big bump.
Jade grimaced, then panted in exhaustion.
Aurie sighed at the wounded girl. "Let me help you with that. Pi stopped the bleeding, but I can reduce the pain. At least so it's not so awful."
"Why would you do that if you think I'm the enemy?" asked Jade.
"Maybe I'm not sure if you're the enemy, and even if you are, it's not right to make you suffer."
After the spell finished, Jade looked on the verge of tears.
"What's wrong? Is it not working?"
"It's working," said Jade. "But it's hard to explain what's going on. But I will, because of, well, I've screwed everything up so far, and" —she gathered herself, taking in a quivering breath— "I see what you two have and it makes me ache. You see, I hate the Halls because I had a sister once. Older. She joined Coterie. She was a top student, assistant to the patron when he decided he didn't want her anymore, had her killed. How can he do that? Just decide that someone isn't worth keeping around and take them away from me? She was my sister. I loved her. I miss her."
The weight of what had happened to Jade came down on Aurie. If Pi had died because of the Halls, how would that have made her feel? Would it have changed her? She knew if it'd happened the other way around, Pi could have easily turned out like Jade.
"What was her name?" asked Aurie, so softly she wasn't sure Jade had heard it over the rattling wagon.
Jade blinked in thought. "Adler." She hung her head in remembrance.
In that noisy silence, Pi glanced back and mouthed the question: "Telling truth?"
As far as Aurie could tell, Jade hadn't lied. Aurie nodded, which released the tension from her sister's forehead and shoulders.
Aurie crouched down and handed Jade a water pouch they'd taken from the soldier she'd tossed over the side. Jade drank from it greedily, water spilling across her chin.
"What the balls?" exclaimed Pi from the front.
"Soldiers?" asked Aurie, glancing behind them.
"No."
"Patrons?"
"It's hard to explain. Come see."
As soon as Aurie looked over the front bench, the breath was stolen from her lungs. "Mercy..."
The wagon was cresting a hill, giving them a view of the landscape ahead. It looked like the world had been melted down, a vast desolation. Fields were as barren as a desert. Jutting blackened stumps stuck up from the earth like rusty pipes.
"The Engine," said Aurie.
"We haven't fixed anything yet," said Pi, pulling on the reins until the wagon skidded to a stop.
Gusts of wind created dust devils in the dead fields, whirling like living things. Aurie could taste the aridness, like decanting a mummy's bones.
"Celesse is still out there. About to take control of Arcanium," said Aurie absently, reminding them of the hidden danger facing them. "If we don't get out soon."
Jade struggled to her feet and leaned against the bench, gasping at the view.
"Why aren't they chasing us?" asked Jade.
"I don't know," said Aurie.
A soft chime rung, and three ghostly ropes appeared in the air before them.
"Our rides have arrived," said Aurie, reaching out.
Pi knocked the dirt from her face, glancing suspiciously at the rope. "I'm not going back."
"What?"
"You see that." Pi stretched her arm towards the desolation. "The Engine is trending towards explosion, and we have no idea what a time bomb will do in Invictus. That energy needs to be dissipated. Longakers said you were coming here and using magic, and that was reducing it."
"Yeah, but our battle back there didn't make a dent in the change," said Aurie.
"Because we haven't used enough," said Pi. "But I have an idea of how I can use more."
"And that is?" asked Aurie.
Pi raised an eyebrow in Jade's direction, who noticed and said, "Yeah, I get it. You don't trust me."
"Why would I? You acted like you loved me, stole my jacket and pin, and tried to kill my sister."
"I still love you," said Jade.
"That's not something you say, it's something you show. You showed me who you really are," said Pi. "I feel bad about your sister, but that's no reason to take it out on the rest of the world."
While they were talking, Aurie watched as the dead zone crept towards them, grass yellowing and wilting, before shrinking into dust. The desolation moved like a living thing. It made Aurie's stomach crawl.
"Hey, you two. We don't have time. This place is falling apart," said Aurie. "Are we leaving or staying?"
"I'm staying," said Pi steadfastly. "You go, stop Celesse from taking Arcanium. I'll stay and figure this out."
"You don't have to do this," said Aurie. "You're only in danger if you stay. You could leave. The Engine or the collapse of the Halls won't affect you."
"No way, sis. You couldn't convince me to leave even if I was on fire."
Her sister's love made her chest ache.
"I'm staying, too," said Jade.
"No. I can't trust you," said Pi, turning on her.
"You need help. You can't take on an army by yourself," said Jade.
Pi shook her head. "You'll only slow me down."
Jade crossed her arms. "I'm not going back. I have to make this up to you. Like you said, you can't talk about love, you have to show it. Well, I'm showing it."
Pi looked at Jade like an older sister saddled with a tag-along younger sibling. Whatever feelings her sister had had for Jade, they'd been annihilated by the betrayal.
"I guess I can't stop you from staying, but if you get in my way, I will make you pay," said Pi.
Aurie gave Jade her fiercest expression and pointed towards the sky with a forefinger. "Remember, I'll be up there with your body. You do anything to my sister and I will feed you to hungry sharks."
Jade looked on the verge of tears. "I'll be good. I want to help."
"Before I go, Pi. I made these." Aurie handed the three apple seeds over. "I believe the arsenic is active. You should be able to put them to use."
"I know a few spells," said Pi, shoving them into a pocket on her dress.
Aurie pulled her sister in for a l
ong hug, fingers digging past the crust of dirt on her dress, squeezing until her eyes hurt.
"Dooset daram."
"Dooset daram."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"Tell me why you stayed," said Pi, from behind the bench as they rushed back towards Philadelphia, leaving the desolation behind. Jade was at the reins, holding them with one hand while the other was clutched around her stomach. The wagon bumped along the road, dust billowing from the iron-clad wheels. The smell of fire was in the air, and Pi didn't think it was from a chimney.
"I told you why I stayed."
"I don't believe you," said Pi.
"I understand. I don't deserve your trust," said Jade. "I'm sorry. I guess my hatred for the Halls, for taking my sister, blinded me to what I had with you. I saw an opportunity to get back at them."
"I don't believe that's the only reason you stayed," said Pi forcefully.
When Jade shook her head, choking back a sob, Pi felt the villain.
"What was your sister like?" asked Pi, trying to change the subject.
Jade blinked heavily, mouth opening like a fish out of water.
"Your sister, Adler, what was she like?"
After a time, Jade responded. "She was a lot like yours, tall and smart and beautiful. I miss her."
Pi tried to gauge the truth, but she didn't have Aurie's ability to spot lies. Not that it was infallible. Pi didn't trust Jade not to betray her at some point and didn't plan to give her an opportunity.
The road led them back to the Schuylkill River. Jade pulled on the reins when they saw the barricades set against them. Bonfires had been built along the road. The fields on both sides of the river contained a host of British infantry, cavalry, and cannons.
"Are you sure we have to get to Philadelphia?" asked Jade.
"I'm not going into the city, but we have to go past it to get where I want to go."
"Where?"
"I'm not telling you."
Pi needed to use magic, and a lot of it, or the Engine would explode. She didn't have the capacity, but she knew a place that did. Whether or not it would work inside the dreamstate, she didn't know, but she hoped the connection between the patrons and the city would facilitate the transfer.
"Give me a moment to construct a shield," said Pi. "Then we're going to hit that line like a battering ram."
Using a belt knife from the soldier, Pi carved runes into the wagon, anchoring points for her shield. The barrier was Daring Maid spell work modified with lexology and reinforced with dangerous magics from Coterie. The whole setup was a house of cards. If one part fell, the whole barrier would collapse around them, killing them both, but she didn't have much choice if she wanted to withstand cannon fire and hailstorm of musket shot.
"Where are the patrons?" asked Jade.
Pi admired the shimmering shield around the horses and wagon, built like the prow of a ship, or a cowcatcher on the front of a train.
"I see Semyon, but not the others. I have a feeling we'll find out if we get through this. Aim for the side without Semyon."
As they began their charge, Pi tried hard not to tense up. She filled the shield with as much faez as she could muster. A metallic haze sheened into existence. The first musket balls reflected like hail on a tin roof. Cannon blasts thudded, ricocheting into the earth. As the British cavalry charged, sabers raised, Pi found herself screaming, voice amplified by the enchantments threading through her body.
She closed her eyes upon the impact, horses and men flying in all directions, ignoring their screams to maintain the shield. The second impact, crashing through the barrier on the dirt road, turned wagons into deadly man-sized splinters, shattered iron cannons, and pulped soldiers like thrown tomatoes.
The runes carved into the wood sides of the wagon caught fire in the blowback. Pi stumbled around the careening wagon, smashing her shoulder against the iron cage, putting out the fires with her hands, leaving blisters on her palms and fingertips. She cooled them with her breath, then checked behind them to see the line of soldiers—those that had not been destroyed in the impact—coming down the road in pursuit like a horde of angry hornets.
"The shield's gone," said Jade.
"It had its use," said Pi, gripping the back of the bench, leaning forward into the wind.
The road winded along the river, curling away when the terrain became uneven, but always coming back to the waterway. Fishermen on boats threw nets into the murky water, oblivious to the pursuit.
When they neared a wooden bridge wide enough to fit two passing wagons, Pi instructed Jade to turn away from the city. A nearby wooden cottage rotted to mush as they thundered up the road.
"How do you know we won't be blocked by the desolation?" asked Jade.
"Don't worry about it. Keep going."
The truth was that she didn't know, but hoped that Semyon's psyche was trying to tell them the solution. If the way was blocked then she knew they were on their own.
Pi was leaning down to grab the water pouch when the patrons attacked.
Priyanka leapt over a stacked stone wall, forcing Jade to duck under a fan of flying daggers. Celesse rolled from behind a copse, distracting Pi with a fireball that had to be countered with a collapsing orb of water.
As the wagon careened to the left side of the road, Bannon Creed lumbered from behind an illusionary wall that matched the verdant field, wearing his ghostly armor and shield, wielding a massive shimmering broadsword that sliced through the legs of the horses, killing them instantly.
Untethered, the wagon jumped the bodies, heading towards the rock wall. In the moments before being thrown, Pi noticed a fourth figure, who had likely been maintaining the illusionary wall that Bannon had hidden behind, appear. She assumed he was Malden Anterist, but had no time to satisfy her curiosity as she flew out of the wagon.
Her spell-aided reflexes allowed her to roll into a fighting position the moment she hit. Jade was not so lucky, landing awkwardly in the soft soil.
The four patrons collapsed towards Pi. She reflected the next batch of flying daggers, not at Priyanka, who she knew would expect it, but at Celesse, who at this point was the weakest of the four. Celesse screamed as one impacted her shoulder and another went into her left thigh. She collapsed to her knees and cried out as she wrestled the blade out of her thigh.
Before Bannon or Priyanka could reach Pi, she pulled the apple seeds from her pocket, spat faez onto them until they ignited into a smoldering fire, then cupped her hand and blew through the tube, sending a billowing poisonous smoke at them. The pair were forced to go around the cloud.
This gave Pi a chance to grab Jade by the shoulders and pull her upright. Jade grimaced but looked ready for action.
"Back to back. We can beat them."
Pi's fingers flew through the Five Elements like a concert pianist. Bannon fought through the spells using his ghostly shield for cover, while Priyanka nimbly dodged, throwing a never-ending stream of daggers from a sheath.
"I've got this," said Pi. "Take care of Malden."
"That's the Coterie patron?"
"Yes!"
Pi snuck a glance at the man approaching from the road. She couldn't make much out. He was waving his hands in big circles, summoning the wind that rose around him like a cloak, sending dust and clumps of grass bouncing across the field.
"Stop him, Jade. If he finishes that spell, we're toast!"
Pi superheated the air around Bannon until he retreated, keeping Priyanka busy with an earthen snake that was trying to constrict around her legs.
When Pi sensed no faez coming from Jade, she turned to look, right as Jade smacked her with a spar of the wagon across the forehead. The world spun around Pi until she landed on her back.
From above her through a fog, she heard Jade say, "Thank you for saving me! She's a Rider and she made me drive that wagon for her. She wants to destroy your world!"
Pi fought through the fog to refute the betrayal. Her lips smacked together, but she couldn't mus
ter a word. Unconsciousness came like a flood, carrying her into oblivion.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Semyon Gray's quarters were crowded with unfamiliar legs as Aurie returned to her body from beneath a table where wires ran across the room to sensors on her patron. She recognized Celesse's upper crust New York accent amid the fervor, along with Professor Mali, who was shouting like a Marine drill sergeant. Above it all, the whine of the Temporal Engine had become an ear-shattering pulse. The computers on the tables were red-lining with alarm, and the faez in the air was so thick, it choked her like smog.
"You cannot make the transfer!" yelled Professor Mali. "You'll kill those three young women."
"It's not my intent, Joanne, but if you don't allow me to take control of your students and fix the Engine, there won't be a school to worry about."
"Please, we have to give them more time," said the professor, desperation in her tone, yelling over the whine.
"You know there isn't time left to give."
Before another word could be spoken, Aurie crawled from beneath the table. Heads spun towards her when she appeared. Both Arcanium professors were in the room, along with Celesse and three mages from Alchemists she didn't recognize.
"See, she's out. I can begin now."
Celesse had a bookish look with her hair pulled high, stylish dark rimmed glasses and a librarian's aesthetic, if that librarian walked the runways of Paris. She was dressed for the part of savior.
"My sister is still in there," said Aurie, grimacing as the pain in her shoulder reminded her that she'd been shot earlier. It appeared by the sheen of bright blood that the worst of the damage had been delayed by a slow spell.
"Then get her out," said Celesse. "And whoever that other girl is too."
"She shot me," said Aurie, yelling to make herself heard. "She wanted to take the Halls down. I pulled her in there to keep her from killing Semyon."
Professor Mali gave her a look, but Aurie couldn't explain.
Celesse cleared her throat. "Well then, I guess we don't have to worry about her. Fetch your sister and then we'll be done with this. Quickly, before this artifact kills us." She snapped her fingers twice to indicate her impatience.
Gathering of Shadows Page 22
