by Marisa Mills
“There’s a bar around the outer edge,” I said, nodding at the pods. “If we all run and grab on at the same time—”
“Are you crazy?” Viviane snapped. “Jump of the edge of Reverie? Yeah that’s a great idea.”
“It seems a bit reckless,” Jessa said.
“You don’t have to come with me,” I said, crossing my arms.
“That’s not fair,” Alexander said. “We’re all here, but we need to be safe.”
“Jessa and Alexander should ride in the pod. The three of us will hang on the outside. If anyone falls, Lucian can catch them. Right?”
I suppose, Lucian said.
I held my breath as the others nodded. It wasn’t a great plan. I didn’t want my friends to be in more danger, but I was also starting to get some sort of sea-sickness from being on Reverie so long, like I’d lost my land legs. I felt sick and dizzy, and I was so worried about Briar and Sterling, I’d barely eaten all day.
We waited on the ledge below the station, until we saw Alexander and Jessa wave to us from a passing pod. It was only a little jump, but the height made all the difference. I counted off quickly and reached out, timing my jump just right. Viviane was right behind me, but Tatiana hesitated a second too long. Her jump was longer and she hit the metal box hard. I grabbed her jacket until she could find the rim of the cabin with her toes and hold on to the bar.
I breathed deeply, wind whipping our hair, as we began our long, slow descent towards the ground. It was a clear night, and once we got out past the halo of Reverie’s glowing crystal towers, the stars shone brightly.
“I’ve never been on one of these before,” Tatiana said loudly, over the wind.
“You should try riding on the inside next time,” Viviane grumbled.
“Really?” I asked. “You’ve never been to Argent?”
Tatiana shook her head. “I was always curious, but I had no reason to go down there.”
“You aren’t missing—” Viviane cut off abruptly, glancing at me. “I mean, it’s…nice. I guess. I’ve never been to Plumba, so it’ll be new for me as well.”
“I’ve driven across it,” Jessa said, joining our conversation through the open window. “On my way to Reverie, but we didn’t stop. Our guide said it wasn’t safe.”
“It isn’t,” I replied. “And it’s gotten worse over the years.”
My stomach twisted thinking about what kind of dangers lay ahead. The Scraps had always been a brutal place to grow up. Mere months ago, Sterling and I survived by stealing mage tech from the Dregs. I could almost see the girl I once was, out there trembling in the dark as monsters, mages and men prowled the crooked alleys. Once we were below the clouds, I realized that Argent was darker than it should have been. We were close enough to see the dark silhouettes of buildings, but the lighting was sporadic and uneven. The raging fire I’d seen in the afternoon had turned the market areas into a black plague of coal and burning embers. My eyes followed the cable downwards and saw a spray of white sparks near the ground.
I tapped on the window and pointed below. Alexander’s face went pale, just as the cable car jerked to a stop.
“What’s happening?” I shouted.
“I don’t know,” Alexander said, “but we’re not moving.”
The cable car tilted suddenly, bouncing up and down as we clung to the edge. We were still hundreds of feet above the ground. Far below I saw dark figures running away from the station.
You have to get off, Lucian said, suddenly frantic. They’re cutting the wire.
My heart pounded as I turned to stare at my friends, silently counting their worried faces in the dark. Lucian could save one of us, maybe two, but there’s no way he’d catch us all. My eyes zeroed in on a box of leather belts from the army’s uniforms.
“Follow me,” I said quickly, grabbing several through the window. I climbed up on top of the cable car, looping a belt around the thick cable. Viviane climbed up next to me on top of the carriage, and I showed her how to wrap the strap of leather around her wrists.
“Don’t let go until you reach the bottom,” I said.
She nodded, her eyes wide, and scooted to the edge until her legs dangled in the air.
“Go!” I shouted. She closed her eyes and jumped, swallowing a shriek of fear. I held my breath as Viviane zipped down towards the ground. She hit the ground hard but after a moment, I saw her stand and dust herself off. I held my hand out to Tatiana.
Tatiana’s fingers were white as she wrapped the leather belt around her wrists several times. She closed her eyes as she moved towards the edge.
Hurry! Lucian shouted.
Tatiana dropped into the air, just as the cable whipped, bouncing her higher. She screamed, plummeting before the line picked up slack again and then ricocheting forward. I was almost surprised to see her hang on so long. Viviane caught her at the bottom. Alexander pulled open the side door of the vessel and helped Jessa climb up to sit next to me. I’d just handed her a belt when the cable snapped.
My eyes widened in panic as gravity pulled the metal pod towards the earth. For a second, we were weightless. But then the cable whipped towards us through the air. Jessa reached up and grabbed it, like she was catching the head of a snake. She locked her other hand around the top of the door and I heard the metal crumple. She bared her teeth as the momentum and weight tore into her small frame. I expected her to be ripped open, a puff of guts and blood, but somehow she was holding us in the sky. The demonic runes etched into her mage tech were blinding.
“Go!” she screamed. “I can’t hold it!”
Without overthinking it, I lashed a belt around the cable and reached for Alexander’s hand. He lunged, catching me around the waist as I slid down the wire, my hands and arms burning to hold on. The leather started to burn and smoke, but it held strong until I hit the ground, ducking into a roll to absorb the shock. I tumbled to a stop, bruising my ribs on the cobblestones.
Alexander had let go first, tumbling into a pile of trash. I looked up quickly, from this distance barely making out the bump on the wire that was Jessa, the mage tech on her back shining in the dark sky like a star. Then it went out, and she began to fall.
Fourteen
“LUCIAN!” I SHOUTED, POINTING. HE flew from my extended hand like a ball of flame, that became a large bird. It wrapped Jessa gently in its talons and carried her to us, before laying her limp body on the ground. We gathered around her.
“She’s breathing,” Viviane said, putting her palm against her pale lips.
Jessa’s eyes snapped open and she took a deep, ragged breath, clutching her chest.
“What happened?” she asked.
“We made it,” I said, wiping a tear out of my eye. “Thanks to you.”
“Thanks to her demon, you mean,” Alexander said. “A normal human or even mage would never have been able to hold that much weight without being torn apart.”
“You… heard him?” she asked.
I think it was a girl, actually, Lucian said.
Jessa was still weak, but we helped her to her feet. Somehow, we’d all survived.
“I guess we’re stuck down here,” Tatiana said, eyeing the remains of the cable car.
“At least Kit won’t be able to follow us,” Viviane said. “That gives us a headstart.”
“Then we better get moving,” I said.
Under the cover of night, Argent looked deceptively serene. It was as if no war existed. Its gardens were lush and its fountains still ran. Cool breezes drifted through the marble structures. This was the place where Dorian had promised to give Briar and Sterling an apartment. That promise felt like it’d been made a century ago.
“Do you remember the last time we were here?” Alexander asked, walking in place beside me as we cut through the backstreets.
“Yes,” I said. After we’d fallen from Reverie. He’d treated me like a princess until he’d learned I was a fraud, but still, it’d been a nice d
ay. I wondered now if it was only the afterglow of cheating death. The Gardens I remembered was magical. This place was so dark it was almost spooky.
“After all this, we should come back,” Alexander said. “I can be…nicer this time.”
A shadow flitted across the ground, and Alexander tripped.
“Did you forget how to walk?” Viviane asked.
“No,” Alexander replied, sounding annoyed.
Viviane has officially moved down on the list of people I hate, Lucian said. I might even find her tolerable.
“This is the Gardens?” Tatiana asked as we turned a corner. “What happened?”
Alexander was still picking trash out of his hair as we reached the downtown area. We’d worn simple clothes we hoped would fit in for Argent, but they were still far too nice for the Scraps, which is what this place looked like. Windows had been broken into or boarded up. Graffitti tagged the stone buildings and even the flowers had been trampled.
I gasped when I turned the corner and saw three of the king’s armed guards hanging from a rope that had been strung across the central square. Lights flickered and I realized they’d been hung with a strand of white festival lights. They flickered on and off, revealing the men’s bruised faces.
“This is treason,” Alexander murmured, his brows furrowing.
“I guess they didn’t like the idea of the king stealing their food,” I flung back.
Shapes emerged from the shadows, and in moments we were surrounded, by what looked like the city guard in gray uniforms with dark, angry faces. A man stood in the center, strutting forward with a flaming torch and his sword drawn.
“Who goes there?” he shouted.
“I am Prince Alexander,” Alexander said.
So much for going undercover, Lucian hissed.
“Prove it,” someone shouted. “Show us some magic!”
“Really?” Alexander said, rolling his eyes. He drew out his pen and sketched a few sigils on the ground. Ice crystals spread like flowers, then broke into a pile of snow.
“Thank goodness,” the man muttered, putting away his sword. “Though it’s a little late for reinforcements, and your lot seem far too scrawny for the job.”
“What happened here, Captain?” Viviane asked.
“Rebels, mostly. Though it seems half of Plumba flowed through Argent, grabbing what they could before we chased ‘em off to scuttle back under the rocks they came from.”
“But how did they get in past the gates?” I asked.
The captain jerked his chin and we followed him through the dark alleys. The front gate was closed and blocked with a row of twenty guards, but not far away a massive boulder had crushed through the wall, leaving deep crevices on either side.
“Came down about a week ago,” the captain said. “Just looters at first, we caught a bunch of them, but then our force was overrun and our jail full… when the fire broke out, there are too many of them.”
“I understand Captain,” Alexander said. “It’s not your fault.”
“Of course it’s not my fault,” the man growled. “King’s forces marched down here, demanded all our grain and gold piled into the cable cars. Made us sign receipts for them, promised we’d get all of it back, then fled out through the woods with our food to feed his armies. Half the town went with them, to work as service to the troops, in one way or another.”
“Maybe it’s for the best,” Viviane whispered. “If Reverie does fall, there will be less casualties. At least down here.”
“I’m sorry,” Alexander said, “but we’re not staying either.”
“Figures as much. You’re not exactly warriors, are you?”
“Not exactly,” I said, surveying our small team.
“Well then, godspeed,” the man sighed.
“I’m afraid I have some more bad news,” Alexander said. “Some rebels just cut the wire to the cable car. At least for the moment, there’s no way up or down. But think of it this way, when the war is over, the king and his soldiers won’t be able to return to Reverie without fixing it. They’ll probably stay down here and help rebuild.”
“Excellent, so Argent can be rotted out by the king’s soldiers, whoring and drinking and gambling.”
“These are trying times,” Alexander said. The man nodded to his men, and they swung open the heavy gates of the city, revealing the scorched wood on the other sides and barren wasteland behind.
Tatiana gasped, but Alexander took her arm and led her towards the opening. Viviane and I followed, holding Jessa between us. Her mage tech had gone silent. She could walk, barely, but dried blood glistened from her lips and chin.
My eyes lingered on the tall walls surrounding the city and the armed guards. I was tempted to leave Jessa here, so she could rest, but Claribel’s wasn’t that far away. We just had to pick up Briar first.
“What if we fail?” I whispered, glancing up at the beacon in the sky, the floating Kingdom of Reverie, shining through the dark clouds, brighter than the moon. “Shouldn’t we at least warn them?”
“If the war goes badly, Reverie is in danger,” Alexander said. “Someone has to hold Argent. But think of it this way, without the cable car, nobody else can get up there.”
“Unless they’re already there,” Viviane muttered.
“Even so, without Wynter’s blood, they can’t get in. The safest thing for everyone is to get you as far away from Reverie as possible.”
I sighed, and nodded. We walked through the gates, into the smoldering remains of the market areas surrounding the walls, and the soldiers closed the reinforced steel doors behind us. My heart pounded as I heard it click shut. Somehow I didn’t think that was a lock I’d be able to pick.
I led the way, pausing every ten minutes to crouch in the shadows, listening for trouble. This place was out of sight from the guards at the gates, so we were on our own. We passed the smoke-filled alleyways of the markets, emerging deeper in the commercial area of the Scraps. Most stores were closed, but some merchandise was worth a premium during conflict, like companionship, intoxication or stolen goods. A woman in a veil lifted her skirts as we passed, revealing a thin leg as her face pulled back into shadow. A man whispered gruffly, pointing to a stash of silverware that gleamed under the lamplight.
The marble had become cracked and broken concrete littered the streets. In more than one place, an entire building had been squashed, forcing us to walk around the large chunk of stone that stretched into the sky. Lucian drifted into my shadow and followed along with us. Every now and then, I caught the sight of his serpentine form sweeping over the ground.
I noted the position of the stars above. If we went through the narrow alley to our right, we’d be heading south—straight for the Scraps. Straight for home. My heart leaped at the thought of the small room I shared with Briar underneath the train station.
“Everything is so broken here,” Viviane whispered. I frowned, but kept my mouth shut. She wasn’t trying to be cruel, but it reminded me of something Alexander had said once, that nothing good came from the Scraps. But then I thought of Briar’s crippled leg, Sterling’s missing finger, and the row of cuts down the inside of my arm. Maybe we were broken. No one left the Scraps in one piece.
“It wasn’t always,” Tatiana said, her tone hushed. “From what I’ve read, the Lower Realms were once as beautiful as Reverie. But then the world flooded, and those who could, moved to the skies. After the waters receded, people moved down here again and rebuilt themselves. But during the first war with Aubade, Reverie’s forces chose Plumba as their battleground.”
I didn’t know that. I figured the Scraps had always been just as squalid and dirty as they were now; the pits and boils of Plumba a perfect foil to Reverie’s perfect crystal spires.
“How did you survive in such a place, Wynter?” Jessa asked.
There was a time when that question would’ve made my heart race with panic, but I reminded myself that these were my friends
. They already knew where I was from. They’d just never seen how bad it really was.
“Scavenging mostly,” I replied. “There are really only two ways for a young woman to survive in Plumba. The first is stealing, and the second is…”
“Selling your services to wealthy men?” Alexander asked.
Which was exactly what had happened, Lucian said.
I laughed, picturing Dorian as a wealthy John, and me in painted skirts. Even though I still didn’t agree with how he’d done things, I’d been lucky it was Dorian and not someone else who’d bought me. I grimaced when I thought of how much worse of a buyer I could’ve had.
“Something like that,” I said. “Although most employers won’t put quite so much importance on education… or give you a title afterwards.”
“I’m assuming there isn’t any regulation regarding that line of work either,” Alexander said, sounding uncomfortable.
“Not unless you’re working in Argent,” I shrugged. “Here, it’s…do as you like to whoever you like. Long as they’re willing and you’ve got coin.”
“How horrifying,” Viviane murmured. I smiled in the dark at her moral indignation. I never judged the girls that made a living on their backs. Few had any choice in the matter. But then I remembered, Viviane was never just a spoiled mage. She’d grown up thinking she was Eleanor’s daughter, until after the accident during exams when she’d torn a hole through Reverie. For awhile, she’d thought she was Nick and Gwen’s daughter, but she wasn’t even that anymore. If not for Claribel switching our baskets, this could have been her home. She could even have been one of those girls.
We fell into silence, occasionally cut by Tatiana’s observations or one of my friend’s questions. The sky was beginning to lighten, which made it easier to see. I knew my friends had to be tired; they weren’t used to walking as much as I was. And even Lucian was mostly quiet. He must have used a lot of magic saving Jessa. An hour later, we were nearly at the subway entrance.
