by Gin Hollan
His wounded hand hung bare, untouched by the gold, bleeding slightly as it sat clenched at his side. The gold layer seemed protective, laying more like clothing, but didn’t cover the wounded hand. No point in it covering the wound, since it needed to breathe and leak, and other health-related things. Could he operate the formula needed to move the mountain range like that?
Tamden was laughing, rolling around the ground in his amusement but Arabeth refused to let him distract her.
She’d stopped one problem only to face another. He’d find another way, she knew. Her need to protect the people of Blastborn was as unchangeable as his was to destroy them. It was no longer a matter of why. They were down to how.
As Arabeth stared at the giant golden madman, she felt the urge to join in Tamden’s laughter. This was all like a waking dream, surreal but malleable, changeable, she realized. He wasn’t threatening her life. Not directly.
“I’m not sure you’ve heard, but I’m not easily intimidated. You’ll have to do better than that.” As she spoke, she mentally reviewed the list of formulae. “Do you know what surprised me most, when I found myself on the Vensay side of the mountains?” she asked, hoping to distract him.
“You? What do you know of Vensay?”
“I’ve been there. While I was, I heard stories. Lots of stories. Precisely, that not long ago, friends of yours had taken to the notion that we’d make decent test subjects for some of their more radical ideas. They altered my progenitors, using their blood as an excuse.”
“Just get to the point—I’m not going to be impressed by your flowery speech and imagery,” he said, his exhaustion beginning to show again.
“It’s sad that you want to destroy your own great grandson. Sad, really. He is brilliant.” She dropped one iteration of ‘great,’ hoping to make the situation more personal.
She stepped forward a bit, hoping to use the same tactic and type of restraints to immobilize Howard as she had with Tamden.
“I am like Tamden. I have no family that survived. What about Vensay surprised you?” He brought her back to her first statement.
She paused, trying to remember what she had wanted to say. “Bikes. Specifically, bikes with two small wheels. We only have the kind with one big wheel and one tiny wheel. It seems terribly self-aggrandizing to ride propped up for all to see. I have no use for them. But is Vensay, they have two wheels of the same size, stopping around mid-thigh, though. They have real potential.”
He smirked. “I may have overestimated you.” He followed his words with a harsh, biting laugh.
She feigned surprise. “I’m not sure I follow.”
Howard spun around and held his exposed hand out. All his fingers curled back into a fist except for the one that sprayed out a trail of fire around her. Arabeth realized the gold layer over his skin had kept her from seeing the formulae symbols being activated on his skin, taking away her chance to predict what he was going to do.
The circle fell to the ground in a circle around her and she attempted to step over the ring. Her boot caught fire and she pulled it off and threw it at the ground where the ring was. The ring was unchanged, but the boot was gone now, reduced to a small pile of ashes.
Marble suddenly flashed forward and leapt up, biting the exposed hand then darting away again.
The fire around Arabeth disappeared and she raced the last few steps between her and Howard, reaching for a wrist restraint as she did. He turned more quickly than she thought possible and grabbed her wrist, twisting her arm and forcing her to turn away as he brought her arm up behind her in an arm lock.
“I don’t want to say that you are being foolishly obstinate in this, but you’re not even trying, girl,” Howard said.
Momentarily flustered by his renewed strength, she stalled a moment.
“Why does everyone feel the need to point out my gender? Will it be less painful when you realize you’ve been defeated by a girl in the end?” she asked.
Arabeth twisted her body to move her upper arm and elbow tight to her body. When she did, his hand slipped off, so she stepped forward, away from him, pulling him off balance. His hold was weakened enough for her to turn and slap a wrist restraint on one arm. She was glad she didn’t have to slam him in the face with her elbow, the way Sam had taught her.
As he regained his feet, she grabbed his other wrist and put the two together. Automatically, the restraint slapped around, locking the wrists in place.
He stood up, smiling. “That was kind of clever,” he said. “But watch this.”
The hair on Arabeth’s arms started to stand up and she watched him closely.
“I don’t need my hands free to use formulae, you know. It’s all in the mind,” he said.
“So is crazy. That doesn’t mean a lot in the real world.” Arabeth watched him for any sign of change. A rumbling from her left set her teeth on edge. She looked and saw what looked like an entire battalion of automatons headed their way.
“How is that for the ‘real world’?” He laughed. “I’m going to send them all to your beloved Blastborn. It’s going to take too long to sink it into the ocean.”
“Why would you sink us into the ocean? We have the same heritage, the same blood. We should be allies.”
He laughed again. “I thought so, originally. Now it seems you’ve done more harm than good. You are right. I am pleased to say, I found Tristan and moved him and his wife to a safe place. Now, my family will have total control of the formulae. We will control not just this continent, but this planet.”
“What if Tristan is not your only family? If you had other descendants in Blastborn, what would you do then?” She hoped he took the bait.
“Tamden warned me you were full of curious ideas.” He turned to look at his little army.
Arabeth knew she had to change his mind, somehow . . . but how?
“Speaking of stories, we have a series of journals and log books in our museum,” she started. “It’s not much of a museum - good for genealogy and the like. The rest of the books are more lies than truth, I’m afraid, but I think you would find some of them an interesting read. Of course, once Blastborn is gone, so are they. You'll never know what you missed. I know you trust Tristan, but I also know he would do almost anything to gain power.”
He paused, then the gold layer on his body disappeared. He brought up his arms. A new glow grew out of his forearms, surrounding the wrist restraints. Both ends clicked open and the restraint fell off.
Arabeth’s jaw nearly dropped in surprise. Once again, her time and training in Bail Enforcement saved her. Arabeth quickly pulled out a tranquilizer dart and threw it at him. It sank deep into his thigh, causing a yelp.
He swatted the dart away and seemed to waver a moment. Droplets of liquid came out of the puncture wound where the dart had hit, dampening the fabric. Not blood? She frowned. What percentage of his blood was silver, anyway?
Before Arabeth realized it, his hands were forming shapes and signs as he muttered under his breath.
A moment later a gust of wind hit her straight on, knocking her down. The wind continued, swirling around her and lifting her up a hundred feet into the air before dissipating.
Years of horseback riding had given her an instinct for falling. She tucked her head to roll, dissipating some of the impact by using her arms and hands to push herself away at an angle before rolling to her feet. It was a one-in-a-hundred move and she had rarely succeeded when she needed it.
When she realized she'd pulled it off, she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Her adrenaline was up now. Her focus was all on Howard. No more distractions. Seeing him prepare another formula brought to mind one of her own.
Before he could finish, she had the ground under his feet rupture upwards, expelling the dirt in a spray under and around him. It was enough to knock him onto his back a few feet away and bury him in a couple inches of soil.
He scrambled to his feet and quickly brushed the dirt off. Arabeth noticed his hands dimly glowed,
being disrupted while only halfway through his own formula. The look on his face showed he was in pain, but she couldn’t tell if it was from being knocked down or from the formula being held partially complete.
Arabeth sought out something quick she could do, just enough to disrupt him again. Again, she chose dirt.
As she used wind to gather the loose dirt up into a dust devil, she directed it to travel in his direction, picking up more of the loose dirt as it went. When it reached him, she had it surround him as a barrier, then formed it into a circular brick wall.
Immediately, she realized her mistake. She couldn’t see what he was doing now. Her only advantage was that he couldn’t see her either. She directed the dirt devil to lift off the ground about ten feet and then dissipate, hoping to disrupt whatever he was planning, not damage him. She hesitated, setting him back on the ground but keeping the swirling barrier around him.
“We can stop this now and talk it out,” she said, not expecting him to agree. He might not even be able to hear her over the wind.
She looked around and noted how close Marble and the kits were. They really should leave, she thought. If Howard tried to attack them, they would be defenseless. She waved them off, hoping they understood she meant for them to back up. Way back.
On the horizon, she saw that the little army of automatons had come to a stop. Apparently, they were at the end of their directions. The only other automaton she had encountered required line of sight to operate. Maybe that was their trouble. Howard couldn’t concentrate.
Was there a way she could use them? They were simple machines, following simple directions, after all. If he was using a formula to operate them, that meant she could do it too.
The wall around Howard crumbled, drawing her attention back.
“Now, where were we?” he said. “Ah, right. The destruction of Blastborn.”
Arabeth spun to see if the army was moving again, but they weren’t. She turned back to see what he was doing now.
“You have inspired me,” he said. “I must’ve been overthinking this. I simply have to cause a few ground-splitting earthquakes and have the city swallowed whole. That would destroy Blastborn fairly thoroughly. I could have finished this all days ago. If I follow up with a series of wildfires, I could be done by dinnertime.”
Arabeth felt her composure slipping as the truth of what he said sank in. He really could do that. He had to be stopped now.
“That would be genocide. You can’t do that,” she said.
“No,” he laughed. “The genocide will come after dinner, when I destroy your sister city down at the coast.”
Arabeth’s heart was pounding in her chest, making it harder and harder to hear her own thinking. The heavy tromp of mechanical boots neared. The vibrations shook through the ground and up through her heels to the top of her skull. Subconsciously she recognized it, and before she realized it, she had a plan.
“Rorigard!” she exclaimed, over-joyed at his arrival and grateful that she still carried the device Rorigard had given her earlier. “Capture both Howard and Tamden. They’re a team!” She pointed at Howard first.
Howard turned and seemed to shrink back, away from the serenthex. It came to a standstill near him, but then just stood.
Still, he made an adequate diversion. Recalling the gold barrier she had around the constables, she did the motions required and put one around Howard. She didn’t know if he had a counter for it. Hopefully he didn’t it.
As the barrier encircled him, Rorigard and Marble both came charging forward.
Why wasn’t Rorigard inside the serenthex? She’d have to find out later.
“Rorigard, can you get the serenthex to capture this guy?” she asked.
Howard let out a yell and ran at the barrier. He bounced back off it. The bare skin that had touched it now smoldered black. He must have known that would happen. Why did he do it?
Howard stood in the center and prepared a formula, eyes set and focused, but not using his hands to draw the shapes. With a grunt, he let it loose toward her. It ricocheted off and bounced back at him, making him duck and twist to avoid both the attack and the barrier.
She was already tired from the efforts of the day and the energy this battle had demanded. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep this barrier up, and its draw was not light.
Rorigard climbed inside the serenthex and closed the front. They had done this before. She would drop the barrier on his signal, and he would do the capture properly. The serenthex was built for this job.
To her surprise, the serenthex dropped to one knee and Rorigard fell out, unconscious, his limp form hitting the ground. Startled, she nearly dropped the barrier. Why wouldn’t the serenthex do its job? What had it done to Rorigard?
Howard stared a moment then turned to sneak away.
She felt a tug on her pant leg and looked down to see one of the fox kits pulling at the cuff. It let go and looked over at Marble. Arabeth followed its gaze. The small fox's mother stood on three legs, resting the fourth one on a translucent white rock.
Crystals! Arabeth realized. She hadn’t used them in conjunction with any of the formulae, and they were supposed to make even the most complex ones manageable. But how could she get one out when she had to hold her hands in this awkward gripping position?
“Okay, Marble. Remember how to get a treat out of the satchel?” she said.
Howard frowned and the confusion on his face nearly made Arabeth laugh. Calm now, she crouched down so that the satchel was at a height the fox could reach. Moments later, Marble had the crystal pouch open and had dumped them on the ground.
“Purple, please,” Arabeth said.
Marble picked a purple crystal up with her teeth and climbed up onto Arabeth’s back, then balanced out her arm to her hands. Purple would open a portal. It wouldn’t open inside the barrier, but she could walk him over one. Thankfully, crystals didn’t need a lyar to send someone into the prison.
“Considering how much time you have spent underground, and how your big plan was to bury Blastborn under a mountain if you couldn’t send it off into the sea, this seems appropriate,” she said. She was connecting it to the underground prison, where Howard would return to existing in stasis, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. Let him panic for a moment, she thought. He’d earned that much.
The ground opened up underneath him and he let out a short yelp as he fell. She shut the portal with a snap and dropped the barrier.
// Chapter 28 //
ARABETH PACED outside Rorigard’s hospital room, not wanting to disturb his rest. Howard was locked away and life in Blastborn continued, its citizens blissfully unaware of just how close they’d come to annihilation.
For reasons she had yet to understand, the serenthex had fallen to pieces. She’d put the parts in a big wooden box in the back of her large workshop. She wasn’t sure how to tell Rorigard. He flittered in and out of consciousness, and seemed disoriented when he was awake. He didn’t recognize her or where he was.
The doctors had assured her that, physically, he was sound. His mind was another matter. She was advised that he ‘should’ be a resident of the hospital for quite some time.
There was only one doctor she trusted with his long-term wellbeing, and he was on his way. She needed him to hurry. It was mid-afternoon already, and Tamden was still out there, somewhere. As long as people with silver blood existed, Tamden would find someone else to manipulate. How he’d gotten out of the restraints, she couldn’t tell. They lay on the ground, intact and closed when she looked to where he was last.
The entrance doors opened with a rush and Arabeth jumped as they slammed into the walls. Her friend’s expression belayed conflict.
“Can we sit down somewhere?” Melanie asked. “Chasing after Maralise and Tamden is a full-time job. I need water.”
“There is a small cafeteria. Let’s get you food, as well,” Arabeth suggested.
As they took a seat in the cafeteria, the few who wer
e in the room stood to leave, giving them an odd glance as they went.
“I’ll never get used to that,” Melanie said.
“Don’t mind them. Tell me about Sam.”
“Well, Maralise is gone. You probably knew that. There was no way she’d stay, considering who her fiancé is and all. The wedding is weeks away, but she’s very busy getting everyone’s approval.”
“And Sam?”
“Sam is Sam. I hear your new friend is not responding to treatment here.”
Arabeth stared, wondering why Melanie was stalling.
After a moment of silence, Melanie said, “I’m sorry, Arabeth. Sam won’t be calling on you. Not yet, at least. He’s going to talk with Harbertrope, then return to Vensay.”
“Do you know why he broke off our engagement?”
Melanie’s face went red and she coughed into her hand. “I’m not the kind to understand him. You know that.”
“But did he say anything to you? You’re my best friend. He must have said something.”
“These past months have been confusing for all of us, finding out just how big the world really is. To be honest, he doesn’t have time to do the family and kids thing, and it wouldn’t be fair if he tried. He’s never been the kind to follow his heart. Not with conviction.”
Arabeth sat silent a moment. Melanie’s words made sense, at least on the surface. She knew it was like this between them, but part of her held out hope that things could change.
“So, he was playing games with me, sorting out his own issues at my expense.”
“Don’t say it like that, Arabeth. He’s just confused and overwhelmed. He’s got a lot he’s trying to do.”
“Still, he’s never coming back.”
Melanie shrugged. “Who can say? He might wake up one day and see what he’s left behind.”
“You wouldn’t know how to find a geophysics expert, would you?” Arabeth asked. The mountains moving, as insane as it was, would have ramifications beyond borders changing. She wasn’t going to try and put them back without consulting an expert.