Mira opened her mouth to speak before she realized she had no idea what to say. She had always thought the only option was to destroy her artifact. But what if Lenore meant what she said? What if she really could get her life back, a life she had come to believe was lost forever … and still have the threat of the artifact gone?
But … did she really want that life back? So much had changed for her since then.
“Your hesitation makes me hopeful,” Lenore finally said. “I’m glad you’re considering it.”
“This … isn’t something I ever thought about. It’s … I don’t know what to think,” Mira admitted. “But there’s something I don’t get. You said you would establish that the Gray Devils had it. But how could you do that without using it?”
Lenore looked away, and her mood seemed to darken. “You always think a problem through to the end, Mira. It was one of the reasons I trusted you. And why I miss you, too.” When Lenore looked back up at Mira, there was an unpleasant glint in her eyes. “You’re right, of course. We couldn’t expect the other factions to just take our word that we had the power. We would have to demonstrate it.”
Mira’s gaze turned dangerous.
“There are those who would volunteer to have your artifact used on them,” Lenore said.
“Volunteer?” Mira demanded.
“Those whose loyalty to the Gray Devils is so great, they would make the sacrifice.”
“No, Lenore,” Mira said, shaking her head in disgust.
“Just consider it, for a moment—it isn’t as insidious as it sounds. We have members who are close to Succumbing and have no desire to join a resistance group and live near a Presidium. They know they’re lost, no matter what, so why not do something in the end that matters?”
“How can that possibly matter?” Mira asked heatedly.
“Because it’s an end with a purpose. One that profits their faction and strengthens its position! Isn’t that more meaningful than just ambiguously disappearing into the wilderness to lose their minds?”
Mira sighed, closed her eyes, turned away.
“Just once, Mira,” Lenore assured her. “Only once. Isn’t it worth the one time, for all the good that will come from it?”
Mira was silent a long moment, and Lenore said nothing further. She had made her argument, and it was Mira’s decision now. She would be lying if she said the proposal didn’t make sense on some levels, or that a part of her didn’t want her old life back. She and Ben could navigate the core together, and as hazardous as it was, she knew that if they worked together, they could beat it. They could see the Severed Tower.
But everything in Lenore’s scenario was at the mercy of one thing, and it was that one thing that Mira knew would be the failing of anyone with access to the artifact she had created: human nature.
“You say ‘just once,’ Lenore,” Mira finally replied. “Just once. And I think you really do believe it. But you and I both know Midnight City has a short memory. The factions will be intimidated for a while, your Points will go up. But it won’t last. The others will forget, eventually. The fear will fade—it always does. And the Points you earned from the artifact will start to drop.” Mira slowly turned back around to look at Lenore, held her gaze without trepidation now. “I know you, Lenore—you won’t let that stand. Not when the Points start to circle the drain, not you. You’ll use it a second time. And it’ll be the same justification: just one more. But when you’ve done something twice, three times doesn’t seem so awful anymore. Four seems even less. Five. Six. Another enemy who could just disappear. Another rival it would be nice to no longer have to worry about. I’m sorry, Lenore, but I don’t think you have the strength not to use it. I’m not sure anyone does.”
As Mira spoke, Lenore’s glare slowly turned darker, but she remained quiet throughout.
“The answer is the same as before,” Mira said. “The answer is no. It has to be destroyed. And if you let me destroy it, if you can give it up, like you should … then I will come home. I’ll be proud to.”
Mira stood silently after she finished, watching Lenore, but the woman just remained quiet and motionless, like a statue, perfectly still. “Is that your final answer, then?” Lenore asked.
“Yes. It’s the only answer I can give.”
Lenore’s calm demeanor evaporated in front of Mira, her expression changing subtly into a muted form of disgust. “You would come home?” she asked mockingly. “You would come home? You have no home. I offered you salvation. Forgiveness. A genuine compromise, and you throw it back in my face for the same selfish, misguided reasons as before.”
The words stung, but Mira kept her composure. “Only you would call what I’m doing selfish,” Mira retorted calmly. “And if everyone else here feels the same way, then you’re right, this isn’t my home. It never was.”
“Ben said you would never come around,” Lenore remarked. “I believed you would see reason. But he was right about you, of course. He knows you better than anyone.”
Something about what Lenore had just said was off, and it took a moment for Mira to figure out what it was. “Ben knows you want to use the artifact?”
Lenore gave Mira a pitying look. “Oh, Mira, how sad. You really don’t know? Didn’t you even at least suspect? Or did your feelings for him cloud everything?”
Mira didn’t like where this was going.
“How do you think I learned about the artifact?” Lenore asked. “How was it I knew with time enough to stop you from taking it out of the city? Did you never wonder that?”
In truth, Mira never really had wondered. Everything had happened so fast after she was caught, and then there was her escape, and she had been on the run ever since. She didn’t have time to think the details through. But Lenore was right: It didn’t add up.
“It was Ben, Mira,” Lenore said venomously. “Ben came to me. Told me what you had made in the lab. And that, like a fool, you wanted to destroy it.”
Mira felt her heart thudding in her chest, felt her knees begin to weaken. “You’re … lying,” she said, her voice cracking. Suddenly, her throat felt very dry. “I … don’t believe that.”
Lenore smiled. “Think, Mira. Who else knew? Was there anyone else who could have told me? Anyone?”
The truth was, of course … there wasn’t. And Mira knew it. But, still, she refused to believe. “Why would—?” she trailed off, uncertain. The world seemed dreamlike now.
“Why would he do it?” Lenore asked sarcastically for her. “Why would he betray his best friend, the person he loved? Ben’s best friend has always been himself, Mira. What was the one thing he always wanted? More than anything else. The thing he asked me for repeatedly.”
“An expedition,” Mira managed, but her voice was nothing but a whisper now. “A fully supplied expedition into the core, so he could try for the Severed Tower.”
“And now you see,” Lenore replied. “He traded what he knew about your artifact for your position as the top Freebooter in Midnight City, for your Points, and for the opportunity to lead a Gray Devil expedition into the core. And I was only too happy to oblige him, if it stopped you from destroying what you made.”
Mira felt sick to her stomach. It all added up, and she was ashamed at never having put the pieces together herself. But still, she didn’t want to believe it, couldn’t believe it.…
Lenore moved away from her. “The ironic thing is, you’ll give it to me, regardless. After I’m done, you’ll tell me everything I want to know, you’ll hand it to me yourself. It will take months, most likely. Months and months of pain in the dark. You’ll be an example to the others, that even the highest of us can fall. And when it’s time to demonstrate to the city the power of what you’ve created … it will be you who your artifact destroys. In that way, you can make amends for all you’ve done … and for how much you’ve hurt me.”
Lenore looked back at Mira, and her eyes held both malice and triumph.
“Guards!” Lenore shouted, and waite
d on the doors to open behind her, for the two burly Gray Devils to enter and bind her prisoner again and take her away to the cavern dungeon.
But the doors didn’t open.
Lenore looked to it, annoyed. “Guards!” she shouted again. When the door remained shut, she strode angrily toward the entryway, grabbed the handles, and swung the doors wide open.
The guards were there, but not as before. Now they were in heaps on the floor, unconscious.
Mira saw Lenore’s eyes widen, then look down the cavern tunnel for any sign of—
There was a hissing sound, a whine of energy, and then the air in the shape of a large sphere flashed once, twice, and shimmered away, revealing two people and a dog standing in the doorway.
Holt was holding a copper pipe he had picked up somewhere. Lenore was stunned, and Holt smiled back.
“You must be Lenore,” Holt said. “Heard a lot about you.” He swung the pipe hard into Lenore’s head. She spun crazily and dropped to the floor, out cold like the guards.
Holt looked up at Mira proudly.
Mira didn’t react. “Took you long enough,” she said, and Holt frowned.
36. GRAY DEVILS
HOLT FROWNED BACK AT MIRA, held up the small compass pendant of Zoey’s. “Hey, I’m sure this thing’s way easy to use outside,” he said, “but in this place, it’s a little harder.”
Zoey reached up and grabbed the pendant from Holt. “You said I could have it back,” she complained. Holt sighed and let her have it, then held up the Shroud artifact Mira had made earlier, wrapped in duct tape.
“This thing’s toast, right?” he asked.
“Toss it,” Mira replied, and he threw it to the floor. “Did you ditch Los Lobos?”
“Yeah.” Holt grinned and held up Marcus’s big hunting knife, admiring it. “And look what I got.”
Mira patted him on the face. “That’s so cute. Where’s my pack?”
Holt handed over her backpack and watched as she started digging through it. “Was it like you thought?” Holt asked. “Your old room?”
“They trapped it, yeah,” Mira said as she pulled out an artifact of some kind. “Too bad they didn’t know getting caught was part of the plan.”
“What now, we find your thing? How far away is it?”
Mira stood up, looking around the room. “Not far at all,” Mira said, stepping over Lenore and moving to the corner of the room where the photographic equipment sat.
“What’s that one, Mira?” Zoey asked, looking at the artifact Mira was holding. It looked like several different combinations woven into one, with coins, batteries, two magnets, a big yellow marble, and strips of copper wire, all wrapped in tape.
“A Rectifier, sweetheart. It cancels out artifact effects, shuts them off.” Mira passed the Rectifier through the air in the corner, and as it moved, blurred trails of light followed after it, like lens flares in a photograph. It was a disorienting thing to watch; it made Holt wince. Everything seemed to waver and shimmer in the air where Mira passed the thing, growing brighter and brighter. Then something materialized and fell toward the ground.
Mira caught it before it landed—a small black bag. Holt looked at it. “You hid the artifact here?” he asked in surprise. “In the Ice Queen’s lair?”
“Last place she’d look, right?” Now Mira gave him a devilish look.
Holt was impressed. Mira was smart and clever, self-sufficient, and yet still vulnerable. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her—that much was clear—but that didn’t mean she didn’t want someone to try. Her red hair hung loosely around her neck, and even though only a few flecks of green peeked through the black in her eyes now, she was still beautiful, he thought. Had there been a time when he really didn’t think so?
“You sure are something,” he said.
Mira smiled and untied the bag. She pulled out a very large, very strange-looking artifact combination. It wasn’t a simple one like the others Holt had seen; this one was made up of over a dozen different objects (that he could make out), all tied together with linked silver chain and purple leather twine. The main aspect of the combination seemed to be an antique gold pocket watch on the exterior of the artifact. A silver δ was ornately etched into the watch’s metallic cover.
Mira held it in her hand, staring down at the thing that had cost her so much. Holt could sense her trepidation. “Want me to carry it?” he asked. Considering how much he disliked artifacts, it wasn’t a small gesture.
“No,” Mira said. “I made it, I should be the one to deal with it.” She stuck it in her pack and looked up at Holt.
Holt nodded, then glared at the unconscious form of Lenore. “What about her?”
Mira forced her gaze back onto Lenore’s still body. When she did, Holt couldn’t tell if she was frightened, remorseful, or angry. It might have been all three. “Leave her,” Mira finally said in a low voice.
“She won’t stop coming after you, you know, not after this. She’ll send the entire faction to find you.”
Mira looked down at Lenore, her face the same combination of emotions. “I’m not going to kill her,” Mira said firmly. “I’m not her, and I never will be. Let’s get out of here.”
“How are we going to do that without the invisibility thing?” Holt asked.
Mira smiled up at him. “It’s called a Shroud. And I said not to worry—we have a plan.” She took Zoey’s hand and quickly started moving.
“Okay.” Holt frowned after them. “Is it possible I could know the details of this plan at some point?”
“Trust me, you’d rather not.” Mira and Zoey ran through Lenore’s cavern toward the balcony at the opposite end. He and Max followed.
The view from the balcony was amazing. It looked out over the residence hall from above, the dozens of platforms circling down the steep walls of the cavern to the floor far below, and all the bridges and ladders that connected them. The waterfall was directly underneath, roaring up at them, and the cavern’s highest walkway passed just seven feet below.
From here, they were almost close enough to touch the two big Gray Devils banners that hung from the ceiling, and the static hum of the big Illuminators that were lighting them and hovering in the air a few feet away floated around them.
Mira slipped on her pack and looked at Zoey. “Get on my back, honey.” The little girl jumped up and wrapped her arms around Mira’s neck.
Holt stared apprehensively at the cavern floor far, far below. “Are we jumping?” he asked uneasily. “Tell me we’re not jumping.”
“The tunnel up here is tight and one-way,” Mira said. “It takes too long, and we need to get out now. Plus, if anyone’s coming up to check on us, we’re screwed. We jump to the banners, ride them down, jump off. They’re bolted into the ceiling—they’ll hold us.” Mira moved to the ledge, seemingly unbothered by the sheer drop below her. “In theory.”
“That’s comforting.” Holt groaned, looking down at the giant drop with trepidation. “And how’s Max supposed to get down?”
“I’m sure the mutt will figure it out,” Mira said, looking at the dog unpleasantly. He growled low back up at her.
“I bet he beats you down to the floor,” Holt replied.
“You’re on,” Mira said as she leapt from the edge, sailed through the air, and grabbed hold of the huge gray banner. The giant piece of fabric sailed backwards, propelled by her momentum.
Holt picked Max up, leaned over the edge, and carefully dropped him. The dog yelped slightly as he fell, then landed on the walkway underneath them. When his legs stopped wobbling, he looked back up at Holt.
“Go!” Holt said, pointing to the floor far below. The dog took off in a dash, circling down and around the walkway toward the bottom of the cavern in a blur of motion.
Mira was still hanging from the banner, gathering it all up into her chest. She wrapped her arms around it … and started sliding down it like a pole.
Holt frowned as he watched her, envying how easy she made it look
. He studied the second banner, the same distance away. He exhaled his tension, long and slow, trying to work up the courage for the leap. “In theory,” he skeptically said to himself. Then he ran and leapt off the edge.
He flew through the air, felt it rush around him, saw the gray of the banner coming toward him.
Holt slammed into it, tried to grab it … and missed badly, kept falling.
In a panic, he felt the angle of his flight shift to a downward trajectory toward the ground. The gray fabric flared all around him, and he tried to get his hands around it, but it was going too fast now.
Any moment, he would run out of banner to grab, and slam right into the floor.
He did the only thing he could think of. Marcus’s hunting knife was still in his hand. Holt drove it down into the banner as he fell.
The sharp blade punctured it easily, catching the fabric. It jarred violently when Holt’s weight slammed onto it, and he almost lost it. But he held on, grabbing it with both hands.
The knife ripped through the banner as he fell, slowing his fall. And the sharp sound of tearing fabric echoed throughout the cavern.
The big knife sliced through the remainder of the banner; then Holt was free-falling again toward—
He slammed into a rope bridge just below him, and the whole thing shook loudly. Above him, the huge banner swayed and rocked, split in two … and tore loose from the ceiling, falling downward in a flurry of gray fabric.
Holt, wide eyed, tried to roll out of the way, but it was too late. The giant mass of falling cloth buried him as it crashed down, pinning him under its increasing weight.
Midnight City: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) Page 26
