The Severed Tower

by J. Barton Mitchell

  Now they were in the third ring. Climbing a steep hill, northeast along a highway marked as South Dakota 20, and the line of Menagerie stretched back behind her. It was a little past noon, but the sky was as dark as dusk. Strange, bluish, swirling clouds filled the air, and the rolling landscape was like a checkerboard of overgrown vegetation and land stripped bare where Ion Storms had ravaged it over the years.

  As she walked, Mira thought about Holt, and the exchange they’d had last night. At her tent with Zoey, she’d seen Ravan leaving the merry-go-round, but there was no indication what might have transpired between them. Then again, should it even matter to her, after the way they’d left things?

  Mira sighed. Why couldn’t she just hate Holt for carting her around like a trophy all that time, for almost hitting her, for not telling her about his past, for being in the Menagerie—for all of it?

  For that matter, why couldn’t she be content with her relationship with Ben?

  The answer was, she knew, because both Holt and Ben had shown themselves to be as complicated as her feelings, to be more than they otherwise might appear.

  “Why are you and Holt mad at each other?” Zoey asked. The little girl had walked beside her ever since the Compactor, but she hadn’t said much.

  Instinctively, the image of Holt almost hitting her on the plane filled her mind again.

  Mira saw Zoey react, saw her eyes narrow in thought. She knew the little girl could see the same thing in her own mind. “That wasn’t Holt,” she said. “Not really.”

  Mira nodded. “I know. But there’s more than that, sweetie. Holt was in the Menagerie.”

  “No, he wasn’t. He almost was. And that’s different, isn’t it?”

  Mira frowned in annoyance. Clearly things were much simpler for Zoey. How nice for her.

  The little girl’s hands went to her head and rubbed her temples.

  “Your head again?” Mira asked, pulling Zoey against her hip as they walked. The headaches seemed to be getting worse, but there was still no indication why.

  “Hey, you know what?” Mira said, trying to take her mind off it. “Once we get to the top of this, we’ll be able to see Polestar.”

  Zoey’s eyes followed the old highway to where it peaked atop a barren hill stripped of grass. “What does it look like? Think about it.”

  Mira smiled and did so. It was easy. She’d seen it a million times: the spiral of prismatic multicolored light shooting straight up from a fissure in the ruins of a lakeside small town that had once been called Mobridge.

  The pillar of light marked a Gravity Well, the only one that existed inside the third ring. Gravity Wells were more common in the second, like the Asimov Maelstrom and the Mix Master, but those were different from Polestar’s. They increased gravity the farther you went up, which meant they were dangerous and destructive. This one worked in the opposite way, it diminished gravity the higher it went. It had other useful properties, like vaporizing Ion Storms before they ever reached it.

  As such, it allowed Freebooters to build a permanent outpost in the third ring, something that would otherwise be impossible, something even the White Helix had never done.

  Because of the low gravity and the need to stay close to the Gravity Well’s effect field, the city hadn’t just been built near it, it had been built around it.

  The Freebooters had built upward. Impossibly upward.

  Spires of structures and scaffolds made of metal and thick wood foraged from the old city, or brought from outside, spiraled up and around the Gravity Well, high into the air above the ruins below.

  It would have been an impossible construction without the Well—buildings balanced precariously on the superstructure, stretching far higher than they should be able to, wrapping around the massive column of light, a thousand feet into the air, balconies and towers hanging out far past the edge.

  The higher you went, the less gravity there was, and at the very top sat the Orb, a spherical construction of sheet metal and glass.

  Inside it there was no gravity at all, and anyone who went there could float freely around inside, as if they were in outer space, looking out through the glass, the city plummeting downward beneath them.

  The light from the Well passing through the Orb lit it up like a signal tower that could be seen all the way to the Core. It was like a beacon, and it had always comforted Mira, seeing it from far away. It always pointed the way home.

  Zoey smiled, the pain forgotten, seeing it all in Mira’s mind. “It’s beautiful.”

  Mira smiled, too. A few minutes later they crested the rise, expecting to see everything that Mira had just thought of.

  But Mira gasped at what was there instead.

  The column of light that marked the Gravity Well was still there—but nowhere near as bright. It was faded, dim, and most shockingly, the Orb wasn’t lit. In fact … it was gone, as if a giant hand had ripped it away. Mira stopped and stared in shock as the pirates behind her began to top the rise, too.

  “It doesn’t look like it used to, does it?” Zoey asked.

  Mira was too stunned to answer. She felt dread forming in her stomach. What could have happened here?

  The rest of the city seemed to still be there. She could see the twinkling lights up and down the Spire, the buildings and the support structure, twisting and wrapping around itself in a way that should be impossible. She could see the old town that sat at its base, and the wall of steel and mortar that surrounded it.

  “Polestar?” Ravan’s voice asked behind Mira, unimpressed. “Kind of expected more.”

  Ravan and the rest of the Menagerie had piled up behind Mira on the hill, staring at the city in the distance. Holt was at the back, hands tied, his eyes on Mira. The irony of their switched roles wasn’t lost on her, but it didn’t give her any pleasure.

  “Something’s wrong,” Mira told Ravan. “The Orb is … gone.” It still didn’t seem real, but all you had to do was look to see it was.

  “I don’t know what that means,” Ravan said impatiently. “Should we go or not?”

  Mira couldn’t see any movement in the city, but then again, they were too far away for that. “I think—”

  Zoey moaned and collapsed to the ground.

  “Zoey!” Mira knelt down to her. Max barked behind them and ran past the Menagerie to reach Zoey. The little girl was conscious, but she was barely holding on.

  Holt shoved his way past the Menagerie. They tried to stop him, until Ravan waved them off. Hands still tied, he knelt down next to her with Mira.

  “What’s wrong, kiddo?” he asked with concern.

  “I can feel something building,” she said weakly. “It hurts in my head, like it’s inside and outside at the same time. I think we … should run…”

  Holt and Mira looked at each other in alarm. And then Zoey’s eyes rolled up into her head. She sunk into the old road and went still.

  “Zoey!” Mira shook the little girl, trying to wake her, but it didn’t work.

  Strange thunder echoed above them suddenly. Everyone’s attention moved to the sky. The dark storm clouds were swirling faster and more powerful, growing darker and darker. Flashes of color danced in between them—red, blue, green …

  Max growled as the wind whipped up, and Ravan’s black hair blew wildly behind her. “Red, what’s going on?”

  Mira slowly stood up from Zoey, staring into the sky. All she could do was shake her head in disbelief. “Zoey’s right,” was all Mira said. She could hear the shakiness in her own voice. “We have to run.”

  Lightning flashed out of the clouds above—but not like any normal lightning. This was a thick and vibrant bolt of blue.

  It hit about a mile away, and a blast of cobalt light erupted into the air where it did. The crack of thunder that rolled over them was so loud, it almost knocked them to the ground.

  “Jesus,” Holt said in shock.

  Mira grabbed Zoey’s limp form and ran down the highway as fast as she could toward Polestar. Green
lightning flashed from the clouds, and the massive blast of sound that followed it overpowered everything. She had no idea if the Menagerie were following her and she didn’t care.

  It was an Antimatter Storm, a big one—and it should have been impossible. This was the third ring. Antimatter Storms only existed in the fourth, but those types of rules had stopped applying fairly recently.

  Zoey hung limp as Mira ran. She had to get her to Polestar, it was the only shelter they had. She just hoped the Gravity Well could repulse Antimatter Storms as well as Ion. It had never had to do so before.

  With Zoey’s weight, Mira ran slower than everyone else, and the Menagerie began passing her, heading down the hill. To her left she spotted Holt, running with tied hands.

  Then more lightning flashed and he was blown to the ground as a red bolt struck just a hundred feet away. Where it hit, the ground erupted in a mound of glowing red crystals.

  Ravan slid to the ground next to him and cut his bonds with a knife. “Don’t guess you’re going to run in the opposite direction, are you?” Mira heard Ravan say. Holt got up and started running again, followed by Max, barking and howling with each lightning hit. Thunder rolled constantly around them like cannon fire.

  Mira looked ahead. Polestar was near, she could see the tall, makeshift wall encircling the old city ruins. A huge steel gate made out of the rusted remains of cars blocked their way inside. It was sealed. Hopefully, someone would see them coming and—

  A lightning strike, a thick flash of green, blew Mira off her feet. She crashed down and Zoey fell from her grip, hit, and rolled limply away.

  Mira screamed, then watched as Holt grabbed Zoey and kept running. Mira felt Ravan’s hands yank her up, pulling her along. “Always saving your ass, Freebooter!”

  More lightning flashed, more discharges of energy, more strange glowing crystals erupting from the ground all around them. More Menagerie were sent flying in the blasts, or inadvertently impaled themselves on sharp glowing crystalline masses.

  Mira saw Holt and Max, with Zoey in tow, reach the massive gate ahead. In a few more frantic steps, so did she. It was painted with a giant, multicolored δ.

  Mira slammed into it hard, hoping to wake up whoever was on guard duty. “Hey! Open the gate!” She banged on it furiously. “We’re out here!”

  What was left of the Menagerie, about twenty pirates, skidded to a stop. The lightning continued to flash down, and behind them the barren countryside was now a debris field of glowing crystals. All it would take was one hit at the edge of the wall to fry them all.

  Ravan kicked at the gate. “Find handholds! Get this damn thing—”

  The gate shuddered and slid open on the creaking wheels of the bottom cars.

  Everyone dashed inside, and Mira looked up. The storm swirled above, but whenever it got close to the beam of the Gravity Well, it dematerialized into the air. The city was repelling it. Mira exhaled a relieved—

  Everyone froze at the sound of gun hammers clicking into place, and stared into the barrels of more than twenty rifles.

  The Menagerie responded quickly, their own weapons flashing out. Thunder rolled everywhere in the air.

  “Hard as I try, I can’t think of any reason why I should let armed Menagerie scumbags into my city.”

  Mira recognized the voice instantly. Her eyes found its owner, standing easily in the middle of a group of Polestar kids, presumably guards, all armed and ready to shoot. He was a tall boy about Mira’s age, the most muscular kid in sight, black, and his name was Deckard.

  No one moved. The two groups kept their rifles and shotguns pointed at each other.

  Deckard calmly scanned the faces of the Menagerie in front of him, until his eyes found Mira among them—and then they widened in surprise.

  “Mira Toombs,” he said with disdain. “Well, that makes up my mind for me. Toss ’em all back outside.”

  Everyone tensed as the Polestar guards moved forward.

  “Deckard, stop!” Mira yelled angrily. “We have a sick little girl with us!”

  Deckard looked at Zoey’s limp form in Holt’s arms with disinterest. “Sounds like more of a ‘your problem’ than a ‘my problem.’”

  Mira glared at him. “You’re honor-bound to accept Freebooters into Polestar.”

  Deckard smiled. “Don’t see any Freebooters here, Toombs. All I see is a bunch of low-life pirates—and you.”

  Deckard was always an arrogant prick, but he respected obligation, more than anything else probably. Mira forced herself to speak with authority.

  “You know the Librarian’s edict,” she told him sternly. “You were there when it was made. Let us inside. Right now.”

  Mira made herself hold Deckard’s stare. After a moment he spat in disgust. “Fine. Already let your partner in. Distasteful as it is, might as well let you in, too.”

  Mira’s eyes widened. “Ben’s here?”

  “Showed up last night after the Orb fell, him and ten Gray Devils.”

  Ten men? That was half the number he set out with.

  “The Menagerie can stay until the storm passes, but they ain’t coming in the city,” Deckard continued. “And they’ll have to do away with their weapons.”

  Ravan shook her head. “I don’t think so. Kinda feel naked without my guns, you know?”

  Deckard crossed his arms. “It ain’t negotiable.”

  Mira turned to Ravan. “If they kick you back outside you’re all dead.” More distorted thunder rolled around them as if to punctuate her point. But Ravan didn’t seem to care.

  “How about, as an alternative, we just kill this guy and his little guards, take this place for our own?” Her tone was dangerous.

  The rifles in the Polestar guards’ hands all tensed. So did the Menagerie’s.

  “Ravan…” Holt said warningly. More thunder echoed from behind the gate, the sky flashing green and blue.

  Ravan kept her rifle pointed at Deckard, considering. Then she relented. “Fine. Just so no one can say I can’t be diplomatic. Boys … disarm.” The pirates all dropped their guns to the ground. When they did, the Polestar guards started gathering the weapons up, along with all the Menagerie’s gear, even the big crate they’d been carrying.

  “Put everyone but Toombs and the little kid in the old sheriff’s office,” Deckard ordered. “Cram ’em into the cells if you have to. Leave ’em there ’til we get this mess sorted.”

  Ravan stared up at the big kid. “Such generosity.” She and her men grudgingly let the Polestar guards push them down one of the old city’s few streets, toward its abandoned town square.

  Before they took him, Holt moved to Mira and handed her Zoey. The little girl was still out cold. Max whined underneath them, staring up at Zoey.

  “Take Max, too,” Holt told her. “They might kill him otherwise.”

  Mira nodded, studying him. Holt looked back. This was the closest they had been in a long time. “Holt…”

  “Just go, Mira,” he said quietly. “Do what you have to do now.”

  Holt held her gaze a moment longer, and then one of the guards yanked him away, down the street with the others. Mira stared after him until he vanished.

  26. POLESTAR

  MIRA WATCHED HOLT AND RAVAN LED AWAY into the old city ruins. She knew where they were taking them. It used to be the Mobridge sheriff’s office in the town square. It still had its jail cells, and Deckard used them when people got unruly.

  But what could she do? Zoey’s weight in her arms reminded her she didn’t have a choice, at least not right now. So she ran until she finally caught Deckard.

  “Take the kid up to the infirmary,” he said. “Too busy to deal with you right now.”

  The Gravity Well flickered and pulsed in front of them, a giant column of light burning into the air, disappearing into a ceiling of swirling clouds thousands of feet above. She could hear its familiar soft hissing. Oddly, it always seemed the same volume, no matter how close you were. It was pleasant, usually, like a soft
whisper, and she had always drifted off to sleep listening to it.

  But now it sounded … wrong. It wasn’t a constant tone anymore, it was fragmented, it came and went. Hearing it chilled Mira. What was happening to this place? To everything?

  Polestar itself surrounded the column of light. It was made of two sections: the Mezzanine—the circular, ground-level courtyard—and the Spire, the city itself that rose up into the air around the Gravity Well.

  The Mezzanine was made completely of concrete, but it was anything but plain looking. It was scored in jagged patterns, each piece either colored with some kind of metallic sheen stain, or had bits of hundreds of different shiny things set into it—glass bottles, mirrors, polished stones, even gems.

  The light from the Gravity Well shimmered down and lit it all in a flickering, ever-shifting blaze of color, and the effect was dazzling.

  But it wasn’t all that serene anymore.

  At the other end of the Mezzanine lay what was left of the huge Orb, and Mira’s stomach clenched at the sight.

  The massive ball had fallen and crashed violently into the ground. The bulk of it was crumbled over several ruined buildings from the old town. The rest of it was shattered into millions of shards that covered the Mezzanine like some kind of strange, otherworldly snowfall, all of it flickering and reflecting the light from the Well.

  “My God,” Mira said.

  “Yeah,” Deckard replied. He sounded exhausted.

  “What happened?”

  “The Well weakened last night. Gravity at the top increased and the weight of the Orb was too much. Rest of the city’s fine, though.”

  Mira looked skeptically up at the Spire, as it wrapped and climbed a thousand feet into the sky. She could still hear the sputtering, hissing sounds from the Well.

  “When the Well’s back to normal we’ll rebuild,” Deckard continued. “Right now I gotta calm everyone down.”

  Mira stared at Deckard, aghast. “When it goes back to normal? What if it doesn’t? What if it weakens even more? What if it goes out, Deckard?”