Heartless Heirs

by MarcyKate Connolly

  CHAPTER 20

  WE’VE BEEN AT THE SANCTUARY FOR SEVERAL days, sharing more about the Alchemist Alliance with Owen and Aro, practicing spells, and doing our weapons training. And every day, Aro and Catoria have disappeared into the laboratory to work on their new recipe.

  But despite the new skills we’re learning, my mind keeps wandering back to Palinor. Darian is still there, plotting to take the throne. Working toward building his own army by stealing magic from our people.

  We must stop him.

  Which means we must return. It is only a question of when. As idyllic as this underground haven may be, our time here is fleeting.

  Every day we remain is a day Darian gains to advance his machinations. And while we can spy on him in the scrying pool, we can’t hear his words. For all we know, he could be on the verge of enacting his plan.

  The only thing he still needs is my sister and me. We’re going to have to face him. And soon.

  This afternoon, I’ve been studying old scrolls with Zandria, Owen, and Remy on the third level of the library. But I’ve lost my concentration. I replace the scroll I was reading on the shelf and capture the others’ attention.

  “I can’t take this waiting much longer,” I say.

  “Oh, thank the Anvil,” Zandria says. “As much as I enjoy these new spells, I’m beginning to feel cooped up.”

  “Same,” Remy says. “I know our original plan was to learn all we could so we can use our newfound knowledge to take down Darian, but that could take years.” He gestures to the vast expanse of the library. “We don’t have the luxury.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” I say. “Darian knows we’re free and that we know his plans. I’d bet anything he’s moved up the timeline.”

  “Then we’re going to have to make do with what we’ve already learned,” Zandria says.

  “We need a plan. Concrete steps we can take once we’re back in the city,” I say.

  “I can help with that,” a voice from behind us says, startling me. Aro gives me his best lopsided grin. “But first, we have news. We’ve succeeded—we’ve created a batch of alchemicals that will counteract the ones Darian put in the water. No more Heartless will be born once we add it to the city’s main water supply.”

  “That’s wonderful,” I say, beaming back at him. It may not cure those who are already Heartless, but to stop the plague . . . Aro is floating at the prospect.

  Owen has a thoughtful expression on his face. “Can we use that to our advantage somehow? I mean, it sounds like if we want to defeat Darian and the Technocrat king and queen, we should start with what keeps them in power: the people of the city. As long as they fear and respect their rulers, they will defend their way of life. But what if we can show them there’s another way? With the Alliance?”

  I watch Zandria’s face go through several emotions in quick succession. I already know she wants nothing more than to raze Palinor to the ground. But since we lack the means to accomplish that successfully, a guerrilla campaign against the Technocrat way of life, showing the people of the city that working together is a better way . . .

  “That might actually work,” I say. “It would undermine Darian’s work and the people’s confidence in the royals. That can only be in our favor.”

  “I have a few ideas of where we could start,” Aro says.

  “Aissa, Zandria!” Catoria calls from the bottom floor of the library. “Come to the scrying room immediately.”

  We waste no time following her. Once we’re circled around the pool, she dips the Azul amulet into the placid waters and casts the spell. Darian appears. He’s leaving the throne room and seems to be headed to the lower, research-based levels. The waters follow him down the stairs until he gets to the level where Remy and I were captured almost a month ago. He opens the door to the room where we hid, and I suck my breath in sharply.

  The last time I saw this room, there were three containers to hold the Magi prisoners and siphon off their powers.

  Now there are at least twenty. Their hulking glass-and-steel forms line every wall in the room. With the mechlights on, it’s easier to see the glass panes and the metal tubes and wires connecting the cases. It’s easier to tell they’re monstrous devices, a new form of torture for the Magi.

  Darian is ramping up his efforts. In a big way.

  Aro and Owen gasp, but the rest of us are already familiar with this grim scene.

  “So many already,” Aro whispers as if he’s afraid Darian might hear us.

  “He’s been busy,” Catoria says. “Especially lately. He’s had several meetings with the royals and many others I do not know. Moments ago, he met with the king and queen and looked far too happy for my liking. That’s when I called for you. He’s up to something. Something big and imminent.”

  A frisson of terror and tension shivers over me. “We must leave.”

  “Yes, you must,” Catoria says. “Aro and I will finish making enough of the alchemicals needed to reverse the Heartless curse by tomorrow night. Between that and what you’ve learned here, you’ll be fit to set things right.”

  When the following night falls, we eat a quick dinner, then return to the dormitory areas to pack our belongings. Catoria has been quite clear that the girls are to stay in the girls’ dormitory and the boys in theirs. In fact, between all the traveling and separate rooms, Aro and I have hardly spent more than a handful of minutes alone together since his rescue.

  But this is our last night in the Sanctuary. I don’t know what will happen in Palinor. I don’t know if we’ll survive. As it is, we’re living on stolen time. All I know is that I want a few more precious moments with Aro before that clock runs out. And there’s something here I want to show him.

  After Zandria finally falls asleep, I tiptoe out of the dormitory toward the boys’ room down the hall. With a spell, I listen for any sounds coming from within. Once satisfied, I slip open the door and find where Aro lays on a cot. It’s a far cry from his fancy rooms in the Palace, but he hasn’t complained. He’s almost peaceful while he sleeps, except for a tiny hint of a frown at the corner of his lips. Like something in his dream makes him sad.

  I kneel next to him and place a hand on his shoulder. “Aro,” I whisper. “Wake up.”

  He stirs, and I place a finger over my lips, indicating he should be quiet. He gives me a curious—and slightly groggy—glance.

  “Come with me,” I say, offering my hand. He takes it, and I pull him into the hallway. The spell that created the lights in the Sanctuary also dims them when night falls so anyone staying here doesn’t completely lose track of time. Tonight, the hallway is aglow with a soft light. Just enough to illuminate our path.

  “Where are we going?” Aro whispers, amused.

  “You’ll see,” I say.

  “That’s quite cryptic of you.”

  I give him an arch look. “Not as fun when you’re on the receiving end, is it?”

  He laughs softly. “On the contrary.” He pulls me close. The kiss is sweet, and for a moment I can feel the bond between us tugging at my heart approvingly. I wish I could revel in this forever.

  I step back, cool air filling the space between us. “Let’s go.”

  On the bottom floor of the dormitory sector is a circular room with doors that each lead to a different tunnel. I ventured down all of them the last time we were here, though I wasn’t able to follow every path to their end. But one in particular stuck with me.

  “Here.” I open the door to a tunnel and red granite splashed with vinelike moss greets us. It takes us down an incline for what feels longer than I remember. For a moment, I worry I chose the wrong door, but then we reach the end of the tunnel, and beyond that door is what I seek.

  This place is more of a cave than a room. Slicing through it is a small river I believe is connected to the one in the scrying pool room. It winds lazily, and part of its current is caught up in a shallow pool on one side of the cave. The water is clear and crisp, and here and there are flashes
of little blue fish swimming. Everywhere we look, there’s moss and ferns and black rocks. The air is filled with tiny bursts of flickering light—glow beetles. In the daytime, everything is lit in green and gold; but at night, the magic lights mimic moonlight, bathing everything in silver.

  Catoria wasn’t certain when I asked about it, but I suspect the river widens and deepens farther along, and that the ancient Magi may have used this place for traveling. Some parts of the bank appear to have once been underwater; the stones are piled in such a way that they could’ve formed part of a dock long, long ago. But those answers are lost to time.

  Aro gapes. “Your ancestors truly crafted some stunning things.” He shakes his head. “And here I thought the garden hidden in the Palace was extraordinary, when you have all this.”

  “It is extraordinary. Just in a different way,” I say. “It’s almost like the reverse of your garden, actually.”

  He dips his head, the moonlight capturing his pale hair. “So it is.”

  We wander slowly, hand in hand, following the curve of the river. He’s delighted when one of the glow beetles lands on his shoulder.

  “Is it magic?” he asks.

  “No, nature.”

  “These are real creatures?” His eyes widen. “Surely some spell gave them the ability to cast this light.”

  I laugh. “I promise you, no. You can find them in the woods sometimes too. Usually on warm summer nights, though not in these quantities.”

  He marvels at the tiny creature until it finally flits off.

  “All my life, I’ve been told the greatest creations were born from the minds of Technocrats. My parents used it to justify any destruction they or their forebears wrought. They’d plow down an entire forest or hunt animals until they were nearly gone. Mine the same shafts until they were stripped bare of their resources. It was all for a greater good. To clear the path for Technocrat ingenuity. For most of my life, I believed it earnestly.” He stops and faces me. “I was wrong. We all were. Traveling with you, seeing more of the world, I know now that there were already many incredible things around us. But we ignored them. Our own foolish egos have thrown the whole world off-kilter.”

  He grips my hands tightly. “It needs to be righted. I know your sister and your friends have doubts about my allegiances. That’s understandable. My parents are the king and queen, after all. My interest may have started with my connection to you, but I hope that you, at least, believe me when I say I’m as devoted to the Alchemist Alliance’s cause as any of you.”

  The fire in his eyes is one I’ve seen before—in the labs when he spoke of wanting to cure the Heartless. He’s well on his way to achieving that goal thanks to the Alliance.

  “Aro, when you get that gleam in your eye, I believe every word you say. I know your allegiance is true.”

  He lifts me off my feet and swings me around, laughing. Even when my feet touch the mossy ground again, I still float. Aro’s kisses leave me feeling both weak and powerful at the same time.

  Our love may not be one we chose. It may not be sensible. And it will likely get us both killed.

  Yet, somehow, this spark between us, the magic that binds us together, a love that defies all reason—that is our resistance. And we’ll fight tooth and nail to preserve it.

  Finally we decide we must return to the dormitories and get a little sleep. As we leave the river sector, a strange sinking feeling descends on me. Like I’ve just closed the door on an old friend I may never see again.

  I can’t help feeling that this night was the calm before the storm. The deadly pause before everything explodes.

  CHAPTER 21

  IT TAKES US TWO AND A HALF DAYS TO journey back to Palinor. We’re careful to steer clear of the place where the Magi set up their makeshift camp. While my sister and Remy still don’t welcome Aro’s presence, his insight into the machines and how they’re used by the Technocrat soldiers has proved invaluable. He prevented us from falling into no less than half a dozen traps on the way to the city. Remy seems to be forming a begrudging sort of respect for him, but my sister has yet to follow his lead. Owen, however, gets along with everyone.

  We’ve decided to make the hidden Magi library room our base of operations inside the city. It’s well concealed in the labyrinth beyond the drainage tunnels, and only Aro was investigating that sector before. We can brick up the entrance he pulled down and make a hidden door instead. If by some unlucky chance we’re found out, we will have a whole labyrinth of tunnels and escape routes to flee into.

  But first we need to get back into the city. No small task for five fugitives. If my parents were here, they’d think what we’re planning is suicide. While Zandria and Remy are not yet convinced Technocrats are worthy of the consideration the Alliance would give them, we all agree we’d rather die trying than hide in safety while our friends and foes destroy each other. And as far as I’m concerned, if we’re going to mend the divide between Magi and Technocrats, the time is now, or never.

  Aro has proven most helpful in this regard as well. Since he regularly snuck out of his rooms in the Palace, he knows the secret ways into the city. And he knows which ones are the least used.

  We hide in the woods, just out of range of the Technocrat scouts, and make our plans. We’re surrounded primarily by mechanical trees, which Owen is somewhat disturbed by. It’s one thing to know what the Technocrats did to the lands surrounding the city; it’s another to see it firsthand. The metal trees are oddly pretty, but they smell and sound and feel bizarre to most Magi.

  “Several of the mechtrees are tunnel entrances,” Aro says. “The ones that hide tunnels have a specific pattern to their lower branches.” He draws a tree in the sand with a cluster of three branches on its right side. “The middle of the cluster is the lever that opens the portal. Some of the older ones have a root lever instead, if I recall, but not most.”

  Zandria’s arms are folded across her chest, but even she seems impressed. I nudge her. “See? I told you he could be useful.”

  A faint hint of a smile crosses her lips. She knows I’m right, even if she won’t admit it.

  “But which one of the portal trees is safest to use?” Remy asks.

  Aro considers, then draws a circle in the dirt. “This is the city,” he says, placing an X on the side closest to us. “This is where we are right now. Here and here”—he draws an X on the eastern side of the city and another on the southern side—“are where the most travel happens, so those are heavily manned. The north side, where we are now, is the next heaviest manned, and the least is the west. That’s where we’ll enter.”

  “And if you’re wrong?” Zandria asks.

  Aro shrugs. “Then we’d better be ready for a fight.”

  “See that you are,” she says, then stalks off with Remy and Owen close at her heels.

  Aro frowns. “Did that not go well?” he asks.

  I laugh. “It went very well, actually. Zandy just doesn’t want to admit having you around could be a good thing. But keep up the good work and she might eventually.”

  “I’ll do my best.” He catches my hand and tugs me toward him. My breath catches in my throat.

  “We should get ready,” I say.

  “Yes, we should,” he agrees, then he kisses me and the forest disappears for a few precious moments.

  “Excuse me?” Owen says, startling us apart. “Sorry to intrude, but it’s getting dark and Zandria asked me to fetch you.”

  I shake my head. Of course she did.

  We rejoin the others and prepare to sneak back into Palinor. We cast our protective spells—cloaking and silencing—and work our way toward the mechtree Aro recommended we use. There are more patrols in the woods surrounding Palinor than usual, and several times we are forced to stop and hunker down behind a tree until they pass. Owen and Aro are particularly nervous, but for different reasons. For Owen, this is the first time he’s really seen Technocrats. He was raised to believe they’re monsters, so realizing their uniforms
are all that distinguish them from us has to be a strange feeling, to say the least. And Aro . . . these are people he may have been friends with. Now, they’d kill him or deliver him to Darian and his whims. Both have every right to be frightened.

  We all do.

  To our relief, we reach the tunnels without incident. When we finally turn the corner where the magic-infused marble begins, Aro and Owen both gasp. They’ve glimpsed it at the Sanctuary, but there it’s ubiquitous enough to be hardly noticeable. Here, it’s wildly out of place.

  “So this is what Darian was after. I’ve seen smaller pieces like it in his lab. He’s been experimenting with it.”

  “We know,” I say. He’s betrayed the Magi in so many ways that sometimes it’s hard to keep track. I almost forgot about this component.

  “You said the ancient Magi made this?” Owen asks. He reaches out a hand to touch the arch over our heads and smiles when he feels the magic tingle in his fingertips. “And it keeps its magic, even here.”

  “They did. Like with the Sanctuary, where they hid the whole complex underground, they preserved the library in a case of marble kept alive by some of the rescued spells. And when they got word the Technocrats were coming, they secreted out the books that once resided here to the Sanctuary.”

  “And then my grandfather’s father built his Palace on top of the rubble,” Aro says, sadly. “I wish all this destruction hadn’t taken place. We were fighting over foolish things. Fear of those who are different. Greed, a desire for more power. When we could have made peace and shared that knowledge and power instead.”

  “Especially if the Alliance had gotten their way,” Remy says. He hasn’t said much about how he feels about the Alliance. He’s here because of his dedication to me and Zandria—though he has little choice now that his father has all but disowned him. And I know he’s bitter about that.

  When we reach the door that once bewitched us, I pull the key out of my pack and open it. The room is just the way we left it—with one issue Zandria and I should address.