by C. M. Hayden
“We’ll never be able to get it right-side up,” Ven said. “The one next to it is a better bet.”
“Maybe, but that left engine is going to take weeks to repair,” Kyra said.
“Do we have weeks?” Ven said. “Food, for instance...”
“We should scour these wreckages farthest from the heat vents, they should have food stores,” Yoresh said. “In these temperatures, plenty should be preserved.”
“We’ll break into teams.” Kyra pointed to four artificers. “You four follow Yoresh and find food. I’ll get a better look at that airship.”
Taro accompanied her. They looked through four, until they found one that was acceptable. The first one was too small, the second had its entire ventral hull torn to shreds, the third looked like it had been scavenged and was missing its reactor. The last one was by far the most intact. Long icicles hung down from the name Eventide on the side of its hull.
The engine room was the only real concern. Pieces were missing: the shaft connecting the rudder to the steering controls, the door to the reactor chamber, not to mention the coolant injection system.
All three power cells were intact but completely dead. Kyra pulled them out and held them under her arm, then stripped two cords with copper prongs on the ends and wrapped them around her elbow and shoulder.
“Well?” Ven asked, when they returned.
“The Eventide is our best bet,” Taro said.
Kyra nodded. “It’s going to take some serious work, but it might be doable. All three power cells are dead.”
Taro looked up at Magisterium root, running past the junkyard and into the Waystation. “Is there a way into that thing, without going through the Waystation?”
“You should be able to cut through the side,” Kyra said.
“That might trigger a defensive construct,” Suri said.
“Taro handled it on his last visit. There shouldn’t be a problem,” Kyra said.
“I do.”
“With respect to Taro,” Yoresh said, with his thick Sahaalan accent. Taro wasn’t sure if he was trying to be tactful, or if he just didn’t know the proper words to use. “Perhaps we should have someone more able bodied.”
“I’m perfectly able,” Taro said. “Besides, Ven will be with me.” He shoved one of the power cells into Ven’s hands.
“We’re all gonna die,” Ven said.
Kyra handed the power converters to Ven as well, then lifted an aluminum rod from a pile and used it to draw a map in the oily soil. She pointed down one of the drawn corridors. “This is where you need to get.”
Taro burned the image into his mind. He’d seen it before in Ross’ office, but he never expected to have to use it again.
Kyra pointed to two copper clips on the end of the power cells. “Connect it to the relay until this arrow touches this notch.” Kyra raised her voice to the others. “If you’re able to work, we’ll assign you to a group. Main priorities are patching the hull, repairing the rudders, scouring other ships for parts.”
Ven tied the power cells and cables into a pack, flung it over his back, and started toward the root. Taro started to follow, but Kyra stopped him. She glanced around, nervously, then placed her hand on his arm. “You really are in no condition to do this.”
“I’ll be fine. Like you said, there are no constructs down there. It’s just a walk in the park, right?”
“Just be safe.”
“I’m always safe,” Taro said, with a boyish grin.
Ven called from the other side of the clearing. “C’mon Taro, priorities.”
Taro caught up with him. There was a waft of steam, coming from the warm metal of the root. Taro tapped it with his knuckle; it sounded hallow. “I guess this is as good a place as any.”
Ven took out his inscriber, etched a long rectangular doorway into the metal, and pressed his hand to it. The edges crackled like a firework and the metal fell inward.
They stood in complete silence for a full minute, waiting to see if something would come charging at them from inside. When they were sure it was clear, they entered. The inner parts of the root were lined with black rock like a cave. The frame of the tremendous construct was lying in the ash and looked as though it had been picked clean of parts.
They made their way to a broken metal walkway that extended over a pool of hot molten rock. On the ceiling and ledges were rumbling cylinders that seemed to be soaking up the incredible heat coming from below. Taro was used to it from his time at Crissom Foundry, but Ven was having trouble breathing.
They cautiously approached the gap in the walkway.
“There’s no way I can jump that,” Taro said, leaning against his walking stick.
“I can...maybe,” Ven said, though his eyes looked positively terrified.
“Are you sure?”
Ven tightened his pack and took a deep breath. “Is there another way around?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then I’m sure.” Ven exhaled hard. “Okay, okay. It’s nothing. It’s just like any other jump...just, over a pool of instant death.”
“I wouldn’t say instant. It’d probably take at least a few seconds for the heat to melt through to your organs.”
“Not helping.” Ven stretched his legs, crouched, and leaped over the gap. The tips of his feet touched the rail and he leaned forward, struggling to stay on; but he couldn’t quite make it. Just as he slipped, he grabbed the edge of the walkway with his fingertips.
Ven’s fingers sizzled as he pulled himself up, and it left crosshatch burns all over his hands. He made a tight fist and winced, but he continued toward the power conduit. It was a large, rounded stone pillar with steel ridges along the sides. On the cave walls were silver prongs and, every few seconds, electricity arced from the prong to the nodes in the walls.
Ven approached the conduit with his head down.
“Do you see the relay?” Taro shouted.
“I don’t know, there’s a lot of writing here. Cordaveron vale is the one, right?”
“Your Deific’s better than mine.”
Ven unpacked the equipment, dug each of the power cells into the dirt and connected one end to the capacitor. The wires sparked and crackled.
“Is it working?” Taro shouted.
“I think so. I just need a few more seconds.”
When one cell was full, Ven moved the cables to the next. But when he was on the last one, an arc of electricity shot out and blasted him through the chest.
His body shook and flew underneath the arcing power nodes. When the current faded, his body went from violent convulsions to completely still.
Taro didn’t even think it over. He got a head start, pushed his walking stick onto the edge of the grate, and vaulted to other side. He wobbled for a second and fell, face-first, onto the burning-hot walkway.
He recovered quickly and pulled Ven from the conduit. There was a gash across Ven’s torso, and his heart wasn’t beating. Taro knelt over him and pressed his hands onto his chest. After a dozen compressions, Ven coughed and stirred.
Ven groaned and turned onto his side. He was clearly in a great deal of pain; his fingers were burned, his chest was bleeding, but a goofy smile appeared on his face. “That was shocking.”
“I save your life and the first thing you have to say is a stupid pun?”
Ven wobbled to his feet. “What about electrifying?”
“I’m starting to regret saving you.”
“But it was quite a power trip, am I right?”
“One more word and I’m shoving you in.”
Taro gathered the power cells together into the pack, and they used his walking stick to vault back over the gap. When they were outside, they slumped to the ground and took a moment to cool down.
Taro beat out his shirt. It stuck to his skin, drenched in sweat. “We did it.”
“Just wait ’til I tell your girlfriend. Leaping to my rescue like the hero in some crappy Celosan play.” Ven feigned a swoon. “My hero!”
&n
bsp; Taro pushed him away. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Uh huh. Yeah. Sure.”
“Can we not talk about this?” Taro said, exasperated.
“Taro, as your friend, it’s my solemn duty to make fun of you at all opportunities. Don’t worry, your incredibly obvious secret is safe with me.”
Taro pulled himself up. For a moment, he lost himself, staring into the snow. “You know, she really is something else.”
Ven patted Taro on the back, and they walked back to the others. “I know, I know.”
Chapter Thirty-eight
Abandoned
Kyra breathed like a weight had been lifted off her. “I think we just did the impossible.”
There was a great deal of cheering throughout the engine room.
“There’s one matter to tend to,” Ven said. “Assuming we don’t fall apart midair, what’s our destination?”
“Going back to the city is suicide,” Edrin said.
“Kyra is the ranking artificer. It is her decision,” Yoresh said.
Kyra tapped her fingers on the rumbling reactor frame. “We’ll start with Tyrithia. There’s a strong magister core stationed there.”
Taro had been listening, intently. “No,” he said. “We should start with Ashwick.”
“Ashwick?” Kyra said skeptically. “Why?”
“Taro, I know you want to get home as much as I do, but Ashwick is tiny,” Ven said. “There are dozens of magisters in Tyrithia, including my parents.”
Taro wasn’t sure how to proceed. On one hand, he knew they had to go to Ashwick first. Exposing Vexis was the only way to beat her, and Mathan’s back-alley mansion was bound to have information.
Taro decided that it was time. Kyra would understand, she had to.
“Can I talk to you, in private?” he asked.
They climbed above deck and into the captain’s cabin. Ice caked the walls and cracked windows, maps and books littered the floor, and the door hung by one hinge.
Kyra stood a stool upright and sat.
Taro took her hands. “We have to go to Ashwick.”
“Okay, spill. What do you know?”
“It’s where Vexis’ whole operation started. It’s where they created the Corruption. If we can find out exactly what Vexis is up to—”
“Slow down. How do you know their plans are in Ashwick?”
This was it. “Before I knew who Vexis even was, Victor Mathan recruited me for some long-term work. All I had to do was...well...join the Magisterium.”
Kyra’s eyes shifted from left to right, like she was trying to parse everything at once. “So you joined the Magisterium to help her?”
“I didn’t know who she was at the time. I’ve wanted to tell you for so long, but I just wasn’t sure how to do it.”
There was an extended silence as they sat. For a moment, a tiny smile appeared on Kyra’s mouth, but seconds later everything came crashing down.
“You unbelievable son of a bitch.”
“Kyra, you have to believe me, I didn’t know.”
Kyra hushed him. “No lies, no obfuscation, no excuses. That night the Magisterium lost power, did you or did you not help Vexis escape?”
Taro opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Kyra struck him across the face, twice, once with her palm and again with a closed fist. Taro made no motion to defend himself. Kyra looked like she had to physically restrain herself from breaking him in half.
“Kyra, please.”
“Please? Is please going to bring back my dad.” She punched him again. “How dare you. How dare you touch me.”
Taro scooted away through heaps of debris. “Vexis was—”
“She’d be rotting in prison, if it wasn’t for you.” Kyra spoke in a rambling stream of consciousness. “I should’ve known. Vexis let you live. Those creatures wouldn’t attack you. You were the key to all of this.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It is! It’s that simple! You had a choice. You could’ve told us at the beginning.”
“I’m sorry,” was all Taro could manage to say. “Can you ever forgive me?”
From the corner of his eye, Taro caught Ven and Suri peering through one of the cracked portholes. They’d heard everything. While Kyra’s eyes were white-hot anger, theirs were bewilderment.
Kyra seized him by the collar and pulled him onto the deck. She pressed him over the embarking ramp. “Get off my ship.”
“He’ll die out there,” Suri said.
“I sure as hell hope so,” Kyra said.
Tears streamed down Taro’s face. “It’s okay, Suri. I’m going.” He hobbled down the ramp into the snow. “Kyra...I...I love you.”
Each of Kyra’s words was slow and deliberate, and felt like a knife through Taro’s heart. “I do not love you.”
Those were the last word’s Taro heard as he touched the snow. By now, the commotion had dozens of artificers above deck.
A moment passed and the ramp retracted. The Eventide’s beams creaked and the engines kicked up plumes of snow as the ship rose.
Taro watched the ship speed off without him. He wished he could just curl up and die; and as he sat there, he realized he’d soon get his wish.
Chapter Thirty-nine
Run Away
Taro had become a part of the airship junkyard. Like the mountains of scraps, or the cracked fuselage his head rested against. The worst part was that he knew he deserved this.
The air stabbed at his cheeks; and his eyelids closed, for what he expected was, the last time. But as they touched, he heard something he didn’t expect: a voice. A very familiar voice, followed by the clang of metal. It was coming from just beyond a nearby airship’s hull.
It was Aris, picking through scraps and hurling pieces into two piles. Every so often, he’d glance back at his wagon and shout.
“You clinking piece of crap.” He stripped the insulation off a pipe. “How am I supposed to find another distributor valve? I’m going to freeze my ass off out here. Some smuck’ll find me in a thousand years, frozen solid.”
Taro hurried toward him as fast as his leg would take him. “The escape pods on the Morning Star have distributor valves.” He pointed toward the smallest airship. “That one there.”
“Taro? What the hell are you doing out here?”
“Vexis threw us out.”
“Well, yes, but I figured you were dead.” He motioned for Taro to get inside. It wasn’t much warmer than the outside, but at least there was no wind. “Are there anymore of you?”
“Plenty. They fixed up one of the airships here and flew off.”
“Brilliant.”
“Thanks, it was my idea.”
“But you’re still here?”
Taro dodged the subject. “I don’t suppose I could get a lift to Ashwick?”
Aris feigned a groan. “I’m just so busy aimlessly wandering around. Afraid I’m going to have to kick you out and let you die of hypothermia—of course I’m going to give you a lift back, you idiot.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s a miracle I found you at all. If the Old Girl hadn’t decided to fracture her distributor valve, I’d be ten miles away by now.”
Aris retrieved the part from the Morning Star and went to work, unscrewing the old valve with his bare fingers and installing the new(ish) one.
Aris peeked up from the hatch in the floor. “Don’t look so glum. You’re going to get to go back home to your family.”
“For how long? Vexis won’t stop with Endra Edûn.”
“She’s already won. The city is hers, the Sun King is dead. There’s not much either of us can do. I’m going back to my old job.”
“Job?”
“Magister Extraordinaire! Plenty of traveling, meeting new people, getting as far away from that godforsaken city as possible.”
As Aris blabbered on about his plans to go from city to city performing magic shows, Taro finally understood.
He sat u
p and looked Aris directly in the eyes. “How long have your memories been back?”
Aris looked like he’d just been punched in the gut. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You’re running. But you’re not running from Vexis, are you?” He spoke his last words slowly. “What do you remember?”
Aris closed the hatch and went to the wagon controls. When he yanked the drive lever down, the wagon lurched forward.
“What does it matter? Vexis won and nothing’s going to change it, so I might as well move on.”
“You coward.”
Aris stopped the wagon. “Get out.”
“You don’t mean that. You’re not going to send me out to die.”
“You’d be surprised what I’m capable of.”
“You’re leaving because you’re ashamed. What did you do?”
“I don’t want you here anymore. Please go.”
Taro started for the door. “There’s no way I’m going to survive out there. You want that on your conscience?”
Taro stepped one foot outside, before Aris stopped him.
“Just be quiet until we get into town,” Aris said. “After that, we’ll never see each other again.”
Aris shut the door, and the wagon resumed its trek. He stared out into the tundra like a statue.
“I’m old, Taro. Older than you can imagine.”
“You’re not a magister, are you?” Taro asked somberly. “You’re the magister.”
Aris wrung his hands. “I was a prisoner. Forced to toil to keep the Arclight active, cursed with immortality to continue my task until the end of the world. Vexis helped me escape. Without me, the Arclight couldn’t function...so many people were suffering. But I couldn’t go back to that hell. Dr. Halric devised an elixir that would remove the memories that plagued me. I should’ve known that my body would resist it.”
Aris fished through a drawer and took out the memory elixir. He shook the contents. Aris sifted through some papers and books tucked underneath a counter. They were the books he’d recovered from Dr. Halric’s laboratory.
“The Arclight is the templar of the living world. Mishandled, it could kill every living thing in Endra Edûn.”
Taro felt his heart thump in his chest. “Why would she...”
