Evan Burl and the Falling

by Justin Blaney

  "Good thing whoever built this place had the sense to make a cage for freaks like you."

  Through the pounding in my head I began to hear the sounds of the finishing Clanker. The hissing of the steam pipes. The roaring of the furnace. I was in the Caldroen. I tested the bars, but they were solid. There must have been a door, somewhere, but my sapience wasn't working. I couldn't find one. If there was a lock, I couldn't sense it either.

  Then I saw Pearl. She was leaning up against the cage's wall behind me. The enclosure was small, I could tell just by my shortness of breath, barely enough room for both of us. The panic was setting in already. And I couldn't remember how I got there. I couldn't remember anything.

  "Took Ballard all day to pull it out of the dungeon. Otherwise, we would have thrown you in here yesterday, before that stunt with Pearl's grave. We won't have to worry about that again."

  Yesler looked at the clock and grinned at me.

  "What," I said, barely caring, my voice raspy.

  "Won't be long now," he said without turning and walked away. "There's gonna be a reckoning. Mazol's almost back with the... well, you'll see."

  Somehow the cage must have been blocking me from using sapience. It was doing something strange with my head. Nothing felt right. I sat, huddled against the side, my arms wrapped around my knees. My mind swam as the world around me came and went like the pulsing of a Clanker.

  I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. Maybe I could get myself out of the cage if I tried harder. But when my eyes were closed, I felt like someone was watching me. I cracked my eyes open, but the only person around was Pearl. Was it my imagination or did her eyes snap shut when I looked at her?

  I stared at Pearl warily. She was still asleep, but when would she wake? I may not be able to remember how I got into that cage, but I could remember my last encounter with Pearl just fine. I didn't want to hurt her again.

  I forced my eyes shut again and felt the bars with my mind, each one from top to bottom. There were no cracks, no seams. It was as solid as the walls that surrounded Daemanhur. I held out my hands like I was trying to lift the entire cage. I thought it moved, maybe just a shudder, but it was too heavy for me.

  I was about to try again, harder this time, but something told me it was wrong to use sapience—that I had to stop. I couldn't remember why.

  I heard another voice behind me. A girl's voice. I looked, but couldn't see who she was.

  "Evan," the voice said. I scooted over and her face came into focus for a second before washing away again. It was Henri. She was standing outside the cage.

  "Help us," I gasped. I was suddenly filled with the sensation that the cage's roof was getting lower and lower and I pushed my hands up against it to keep it from crushing me.

  "Do you remember last night?"

  "I don't know, I can't think. I can barely see."

  Henri breathed out, like she was relieved.

  "Just hang on," she said. "I'm trying to get you out of there. Mazol said he would help you..." She started to leave, but I grabbed her through the bars.

  "Wait!" I said, suddenly remembering she had the affliktion and she didn't even know it yet.

  She jumped at my touch like she was afraid of me.

  I wondered how bad the rash had gotten while I was unconscious—but she didn't seem any worse. Hours must have gone by; it was well into the day. The orangish light coming through the glass ceiling told me it was almost 6. I couldn't believe how much time I'd lost in that cage. But Henri was still alive. She must be fighting it better than the others. Maybe we had a chance.

  "I need you to do something for me."

  "I'm trying to."

  "You don't understand," I said. "I need you to take something." I watched Pearl out of the corner of my eye, sure she was about to attack me at any moment as I dug through the leather sack that the skull pendant had slipped inside last night. I couldn't find the pendent. I dumped the sack upside down into my hand, counted six rubrics and looked up at Henri. The skull was missing.

  "Where is it?"

  "What?"

  "The skull pendent. The one Pearl was wearing."

  "Mazol. He took it, I think."

  "Why didn't he take all of them?"

  "I don't know. I didn't see him, I mean, I heard him talking to... Yesler." She didn't seem very sure of herself, but it could have been my imagination. I decided to let it go. I had to tell her about the affliktion before I missed my chance again; I wondered how many more hours she had to live. I had to give her a fighting chance of surviving, just in case I couldn't get out of that cage before I transformed into the monster. If the sun was about to set, that meant I had only 5 hours.

  "Henri..., I'm sorry, but I've been hiding something from you—"

  "There's no time for that." She looked around nervously, but I ignored her.

  "I saw you scratching your neck last night. Henri.... You have the... affliktion."

  I waited for her response, expecting despair, anger, sobbing. But she didn't seem surprised. Or effected in any way. I imagined she was trying to be strong.

  "Henri, I should have told you sooner. I'm really sorry."

  "Don't say that."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "That you're sorry."

  I was confused by her response, why wasn't she more upset? But it must have been the fog in my head.

  "If you can get me out of here," I said, "I can get the skull pendant from Mazol. Then we'll know what's causing the affliktion."

  From her reaction, she didn't seem to think that was going to help much.

  "Henri, I want to try and save you. I can do it, I know I can."

  "I don't know..."

  "Just find out how this cage works. There must be a key or something."

  "All right. I'll do what I can."

  I felt a wave of relief. "Just be careful."

  "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

  "I don't understand."

  "You're the one who you should be worried about Evan. You're in a lot of trouble. I heard them talking about...," she swallowed, "how to kill you."

  They must know about the time change in the letter. I don't know how they could, but they must have found out I'm going to transform today. I tried to sort out everything I had to do. Get out of the cage. Find the skull pendant. Save Henri from the affliktion. Get rid of Mazol and Yesler. Make sure they didn't kill me in the process. Run away from Daemanhur and leave Henri in charge before I changed into a monster. It would have felt impossible if I had a whole month, how was I going to get it all done in the next 5 hours?

  Henri interrupted my thoughts. "You were right about Pearl...." she hesitated, then blurted out, "I have to go now." She faded into darkness then reappeared again a moment later.

  "Look, Evan. No matter what, you have to believe..."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Things aren't like they seem."

  "What things?"

  She didn't respond.

  "Us?" I said. "If this is about that kiss—"

  "No. That was nothing. I mean..."

  My chest tightened. Of course it was nothing. It was just a kiss on the cheek... I felt as stupid as a cow.

  "You can become whatever you choose," she blurted out. "You're not what you think."

  I stared at her face, trying to concentrate on her words but my eyes kept rolling back into my head. How would she know what I was? Had Mazol told her something I didn't know?

  "Just get me out of here," I said, as I felt the edges of where Pearl bit my shoulder, afraid she might wake up any moment.

  I felt Henri's hand grab mine.

  "Don't worry," she said. "I'll talk to Mazol."

  Don't talk to Mazol. What good is that going to do?

  Henri's hand slid out of mine and she disappeared into the fog that surrounded me. I heard the sound of fabric scraping against iron and looked over to see Pearl stir. She was waking up. My stomach sank. There was no way we would bot
h survive if she attacked me again.

  Suddenly, I heard a rush of voices, the girls. They were talking about work, like they were operating the clankers, but it sounded like they were inside my head. Their voices came and went, at one point I could hear all of them at once, like I was in a crowded room.

  "Watch the brakes," someone said.

  "You're late," said another.

  "I had to take the long way. Evan's cage is blocking the stairs."

  "Who's on the finisher?"

  It seemed like random fragments of conversations. I couldn't even be sure they were all happening at the same time, or happening at all. Maybe I was dreaming.

  Then I heard Henri.

  "You said you would let him go," she said.

  I heard something, it must have been my uncle, but it was too clouded to make sense. He had come, just like Yesler said. I wondered if he had the spider from my father's letter. Could that really be the tool he planned to kill me with?

  "He's not well," she said. Her voice was clear as the tower's noontime bells. "I think he's dying."

  Mazol's voice answered, again too faded and soft to understand. I tried to clear my head. I had to hear what he was saying.

  "I won't do it," she said.

  It was hard to make out, but his voice was getting clearer. "You'll do what I tell you," he said. "That was the deal."

  "Not if you don't keep up your end."

  "Watch your mouth, brat." He was getting more and more clear, but then a chorus of other voices flooded the conversation and I couldn't make sense of anything.

  "Take it, quick!" someone yelled.

  "Not that high, not that high."

  "All right, it's all done up here. Go ahead."

  "Keep it moving."

  The voices got louder and louder until I covered my ears and yelled. When I put my hands down, everything was silent again. I listened carefully, searching for Henri's voice. Quietly, it grew in my mind until I could hear her and Mazol arguing again.

  "I think he's starting to figure it out," Henri said.

  "You better make sure he doesn't," Mazol said.

  "What if I can't"

  "Then it'll be the whip."

  Other voices started crowding in again, but this time they all seemed to be about the same thing.

  "Do you see that?" someone asked.

  "What is it?"

  "Something is up there."

  "Why aren't you working?" Mazol yelled. "What are you all staring at?" This time his voice wasn't in my head—I realized he was yelling loud enough I could hear him from the cage.

  "It's falling," a voice in my head said.

  "Something's up there. Look, through the ceiling," another voice said.

  "It's getting closer."

  I pulled myself up to the bars and looked out at the room. Everything was clear for the first time since I woke up. I was on the first level; Mazol and Henri were standing at the top of a staircase about 50 feet away on the first level. I saw other girls standing next to the clankers all around the towering room, staring up at the glass ceiling. Even Ballard and Yesler had stopped and were looking up.

  Glancing behind me, I saw Pearl move again, one of her eyes cracked open. I turned slowly back to see what everyone was gawking at, worried she could wake at any moment and attack me while my back was exposed.

  I stared up, past the blazing furnace, past the lake sized Caldroen filled with boiling water, past the six levels of walkways and balconies filled with clankers, past dozens of iron spiral staircases, all the way to the wide glass dome that capped the hollow, tower-like room.

  The thunder storms we had been having for days were gone and the sky was deep red from the setting sun. I thought I saw a dark shape against the sky through the glass—whatever it was, the shape was growing larger. But my eyes lost focus again and I fell to the ground. The entire room plunged into an unexplainable silence.

  My ears felt plugged like when they were full of water. The clankers were spluttering to the point of explosion, yet they weren't making any noise, and no one was paying any attention.

  All the voices, which just a moment ago seemed like they were in the cage with me, now seemed strange and distant, like there were large empty rooms and tightly shut doors between us.

  Shouts echoed in my ear. I stared up through the bars. My sight came and went. I saw several girls backing up towards the edge of the room. People's mouths were moving, but I couldn't hear their voices.

  Then there was a great crash. I saw the glass ceiling shatter and through it, a girl in a bright orange dress fell. Glass rained down, hitting each level of the Caldroen room like a fountain on the way to the ground. It hit all around me like a thousand disharmonious notes. Shards cut my skin as I jumped on Pearl to shield her.

  But the girl was still falling. She'd barely fallen five feet in the time it took the glass to fall ten times that distance

  Her hair was floating as if underwater, and her body moved gracefully through the dusty air making billowing waves like a hand through smoke.

  About twenty feet down, where the furnace bulged out like a fat man's belly, she collided with its cast iron walls. I winced, expecting her frail looking body to break as it bounced off. But she went straight through as if the double-wall metal ribs were made of paper.

  Huge crashes and sounds of bursting supports reverberated through the room as she plowed through the great machine like a herd of elephants charging through fields of grass.

  I caught glimpses of her through the furnace's vents as she continued to fall, a bare foot here, an arm there, passing through the flames. A dragonfly hovered in front of my face, it's wings beating as slow as the pounding in my head.

  But now the furnace itself was tipping perilously. The Caldroen on top, filled with enough water to flood the entire first level, creaked and moaned. Its weakened supports caved under the weight and everything began to fall, tipping as it came. Mountains of boiling water and a thousand cartloads of iron were crashing towards the ground.

  Right on top of where Pearl and I were caged.

  I saw girls and Yesler and Mazol and Ballard fleeing for the doors, crouching wherever cover could be found. But Pearl and I were stuck. We were going to die.

  For a moment I was too shocked to think. But then I remembered Henri. The affliktion. I still had twelve hours to save her and Pearl. I couldn't give up on them. Or the other fallings.

  Without thinking, I pulled myself to the bars that caged us in and began prying them apart with all my strength. At first, just like before, nothing happened. My head burst with pain, but I just grimaced and bore it. I looked up and was amazed to see we weren't crushed yet. Everything was happening so slowly. I still had time. Barely.

  I heaved even harder and the bars began to twist. They were thicker than my arms, but they were bending. Something in them was resisting my sapience, but I was still stronger. They were 8 inches apart and I pushed harder. The gap grew to 10 inches. I tried to squeeze through, but it was too tight. I shoved my elbow against one side and my hands against the other until it was just wide enough to wriggle my body out.

  I looked up to see a wave of boiling water coming straight at me. I reached in, barely finding Pearl's hand with my slippery fingers. I pulled her through the bars and, holding her with one arm, jumped as high and fast as I could, catching the rail of the first level. My feet dangled in the air, Pearl's limp body hanging at my side, both of us just inches from the scalding water as it rushed past. It hit the ground with a thunderous clap followed by a sea of brick and stone and iron. Waves crashed around us, but I managed to get our feet out of the water's path just in time.

  I pushed Pearl on the platform first then pulled myself up, falling onto my back, huffing like a steam engine. I looked up to see others staring down at the scene below us. Most of the water found its way out through the broken windows and receded until all that was left was a tangle of debris that filled the first floor of the room like a machine made of great t
angled snakes and brambles. Even my cage, as strong as it had been, was crushed beyond recognition.

  I realized suddenly that my mind was completely clear. Something in the metal must have been keeping me from thinking or seeing clearly. It was hard to know what really happened and what was only imagination while I was confined inside those bars.

  Everything below me sloped upwards from the center of the room like a log cut in two. Lying in the middle of it all was the girl. She was unharmed, not a hair was out of place. Even her shimmering dress wasn't torn. She was young, perhaps not even eleven-years-old.

  But none of that caught my attention.

  I stared at something black around the girl's wrist. It was a chain with little trinkets. Even from this distance, I recognized them. Rubrics. I can't explain how, but I felt this girl was dangerous. There was no chance this girl had fallen on Daemanhur castle by accident, somehow I wondered if she had come for me. What if she had a message for Mazol, a back up plan incase Mazol didn't get the note in the book. Could Terillium know somehow that I was still alive?

  I jumped down and landed knee deep in a pool of water caught in a huge iron bowl that used to be part of the furnace wall. I scampered over the wreckage, but when I looked up, Mazol was already standing next to the girl. He stooped down and pulled the rubric bracelet from around her arm. I remembered that my sapience wasn't being controlled by the cage anymore. With a flick of my wrist, I ripped it from his grasp. The bracelet flew through the air and landed in my hands with the rustling chime of fine metal.

  The moment it touched my skin, I felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my hand. Not knowing what else to do, I slipped the bracelet inside my pocket and the pain immediately disappeared. Any doubt I had about them being real rubrics was gone now. There was something inside this bracelet that hurt when you touched it. Well, I may not be able to use them, but at least they were mine.

  I looked up at Mazol; the indecision on his face made me smile. I was about to pluck him into the air so I could ask my questions and finish him off, when a shape appeared over the girl. It was a man. A ghost. He was wearing a long leather coat. He stooped down next to the girl and whispered something into her ear.

  Could the girl be alive? After that fall, after the boiling water and the countless tons of brick and metal?