“Why is he trying to get to the Nexus?”
“So he can help Kara repair the ley network.”
“Kara’s alive?” The words came out without any strength. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about anyone else since they’d been captured. He hadn’t had time, didn’t need the emotional turmoil it would cause. Not that he’d been aware or lucid during most of his imprisonment.
“We assume,” Lienta said. “She, Allan, Grant, and a few of the Wolves went to Erenthrall.”
“Erenthrall!”
Lienta shot a glance down the hall, then grabbed Cory by the upper arm. “Quiet. It’s a long story, one I can’t relate right now. Are you alone?”
“No, the rest of those of us from the University they captured are hiding in a room not far away.”
Lienta’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “They didn’t find you? Devin’s men ransacked this section fairly well.”
“We hid the doorway. They didn’t know it was there.”
Lienta looked as if he wanted to ask more questions, but he simply said, “Take us there.”
Cory led Lienta and his men—twenty-three in all—back through the corridors until he reached the hall where they’d hidden. The illusion was back up, the wall where the doorway stood appearing to be solid stone. He recognized the bodies immediately in front of the door, then groped through the illusion until he’d found it and knocked lightly. “Sovaan, it’s Cory.”
The illusion wavered and dropped, some of Lienta’s men shifting and mumbling behind him, then the door opened cautiously, Sovaan peering out.
As soon as he recognized Cory, then Lienta and the others, he ushered them inside. Cory reset the illusion outside. The room was crowded, but no one complained. One of the watchmen had brought in a torch. Cory handed out the food he’d found, then turned to Lienta.
“How did you plan to get out of here?” he asked.
“We were hoping to get back to the chasm. Hernande created a bridge, so we can cross, but I don’t know if it’s still there. We’d intended to stay with Marcus and the others, but he’s sealed himself and the Wielders inside the Nexus using the ley. He’s completely flooded the lower levels of the Needle. No one can get through.” He glanced over the University students and mentors. “How were you planning on getting out?”
“Through the outer wall.”
Lienta stared at him mutely, then said, “Right. Outer wall, it is.” He surveyed the students and mentors, their emaciated, bedraggled appearance. “We have enough watchmen to guard us until we reach the wall. Then it’s up to you.”
“I’ll be ready.”
Lienta issued orders, some of the watchmen supporting Sovaan and the others, a few simply lifting the weaker students up into their arms or carrying them over a shoulder. One of them cradled Jerrain in his arms. Only Jasom and Tara were strong enough to move without help.
They left the room, skulking through the empty halls of the temple toward the eastern entrance. Bodies continued to riddle the corridor, sometimes four or five fallen together in a group, other times a single body lying sprawled in an otherwise empty hallway. The sounds of the fighting escalated and receded, Lienta angling away whenever possible. Once, they hid in side rooms as a contingent of Kormanley enforcers raced past a cross-corridor.
They reached the eastern entrance, the door smashed in, bodies lying stacked on either side, the walls splashed with blood. The fighting here had been intense, but no one remained behind. As they picked their way down the last of the hall, the sounds of fighting grew louder in the outer city.
Crouching down in the doorway, Lienta and another watchman in front of him, Cory was shocked to discover it was nighttime. Parts of the city were ablaze, the red-orange glow of fires on all sides, outlining black columns of smoke. The stars overhead were completely blotted out, the air even within the entrance thick with flakes of ash. Cory coughed and pulled his shirt up to filter some of it out.
“The fighting appears to have shifted southward,” Lienta said. “When we tried this entrance earlier, the Kormanley were still holding it against Devin’s men. But I think we can make it to the nearest buildings without being seen.”
He singled out five watchmen, who escorted Cory, Sovaan, and Mirra across the open area toward a darkened alley on the far side. They ran hunched over, careful not to trip on the bodies on the ground. The shouts and screams from the surrounding city were louder outside, closer, and Mirra burrowed herself deeper against Cory’s side as they ran. Cory’s heart raced until they reached the protection of the walls, the open night sky overhead making him feel exposed and vulnerable.
Sovaan, Jasom, and two other students came next, with ten watchmen.
As soon as the remaining group headed across, Lienta and Tara in the lead, a mob of armored men appeared from around the southern corner of the temple. They immediately shouted, those at the front pointing toward Lienta and the rest with their swords, then charged as a group.
Lienta and the rest of the watchmen with him hesitated, as if considering making a stand, but Cory stepped out of the alley and yelled, “Run!” At the same time, he reached out on the Tapestry and released a barrage of knots beneath the paving stones between the mob and Lienta’s group. Rock exploded upward, the echoes of the explosions rolling between the buildings on all sides. Those at the front of the mob faltered, then were overrun by those behind. Jasom stepped up to Cory’s side and together they unleashed another string of explosions, the mob—some of Devin’s group, Cory was certain—falling back.
Another large group appeared to the north. “Gorrani,” Jasom muttered.
Lienta, Tara, and the rest reached the alley, Lienta motioning with one hand and shouting, “Go, go, go!”
They took off down the alley, heading deeper into the buildings. Cory turned halfway down and released two knots inside the buildings on either side, the walls exploding outward and down, choking the opening with stone debris. From the far side, he heard the two groups—Devin’s men and the Gorrani; dogs and snakes—roar challenges at each other, followed by the clang of metal as swords met armor.
Then they ran, not stopping at corners or intersections, racing toward the outer wall. People retreated out of their way, slamming doors or cowering in corners, most clutching meager belongings or attempting to protect children or loved ones. A few carried weapons. No one group had more than ten people. Only once did Lienta backtrack, when the street was blocked by the collapse of a still-burning building.
They emerged from the outer city into the tent city before the southeastern gates. More people were huddled beneath the canvas here, entire families grasping hold of each other in fear, or frantically gathering up whatever they could carry. This area looked untouched by Devin’s men or the Gorrani. But a group of looters were beating three others mercilessly for their satchels. Lienta and his watchmen slammed into them, knocking them all down, a few of them not rising after they passed.
Behind them, the sounds of fighting rose again, getting closer. The tent city wouldn’t remain a refuge for long.
They burst from the haphazard array of tents at the outer wall, slowing, nearly everyone out of breath.
But instead of the gates Cory expected to see, the section had been hastily walled up with stone.
He didn’t see any enforcers on the walls above.
“What happened to the gates?” Cory gasped. His lungs burned with exertion. He coughed and bent forward.
“Marcus destroyed them with the ley when we escaped after Tumbor collapsed. Dalton walled the breach up rather than replace the gates. Is it going to be a problem?”
Cory straightened, drawing in a steadying breath as he reached out with one hand. “It won’t be a problem at all.”
The entire gate tower disintegrated, rubble flying upward over a hundred feet into the air, illuminated by the fires of the city and the ley globes still b
urning along the wall. Cory’s ears rang from the deafening explosion, its echoes muted. He watched the stone and debris cascade down before them with immense satisfaction and an almost overpowering weariness. Those with him flinched or ducked or cursed, all except Lienta and Sovaan.
They waited as the plume of dust he’d created was blown aside by the winds, expecting whatever remained of the armies outside to come pouring in. But there was no one waiting.
“They must have all converged on the main gates when they were breached,” Lienta said.
Behind, fresh screams broke through the background fighting.
“They’ve reached the tent city.” Lienta started forward. “Everyone, through the breach! We’ll repeat what we did before—head directly out onto the plains, then circle around to the western side of the city. The Matriarch will let us in.”
He herded everyone forward, up onto the mound of rock that had once been the walled-up gates, through the fifty-foot gaping hole in the outer wall’s defenses. Cory paused once to glance back at the temple, the tent city already half overrun by Gorrani, the outer city burning in pockets, the Needle piercing the night sky above, limned in ley light.
Then he turned his back on it all and stepped out into the darkness of the plains.
Twenty-Three
“WE AREN’T GOING TO MAKE IT all the way to the Nexus in this barge,” Grant said.
He gripped the railing before him with white-knuckled hands as the entire barge creaked and groaned and shook around them, as if buffeted by a strong gale. It was being hit with strong gusts, but it wasn’t wind. The sail thrashed beneath the lashing currents of the ley, Kara concentrating hard to keep it under control. The Wolves in the compartment below with Allan were howling in protest, the voices nearly drowned out by the roar of the actual wind at this height and the thunderous ley geyser ahead.
But it wasn’t the ley currents that threatened to tear the ship apart that would keep them from the Nexus. It would be the ley itself, when it reached a concentration high enough to consume the organic material of the barge.
“I’ll get us as close as I can,” Kara said. They were already over the districts surrounding Grass—Eld first, where Kara had seen Halliel’s Park and the neighborhood where she’d grown up, and now Green. The streets were flooded with ley, the surviving buildings islands in rivers of white. The ley geyser spouted out of the shattered dome of the Nexus before them, surrounded by the sheared-off towers that had defined Grass. The jagged shards of the Amber Tower rose above the rest off to starboard, its tan-orange hue glowing with reflected ley light against the vivid blue sky of late dawn.
Grant leaned over the side, gazing at the streets below, then pushed back. “We’re passing out of Green into Grass.”
“You’d better warn Allan. When we get closer, we’ll need to descend into the hull so that we’re near Allan. In fact, if there’s any spare rope around, we should lash ourselves together, along with our satchels. We aren’t going to come down easy.”
Grant stared at her. “Right.”
He released his death grip on the railing and lurched his way to the hatch that led below deck. The barge dropped suddenly as he reached it, and Kara’s stomach rolled queasily. He clutched at the hatch’s side until she’d righted it, then descended, the Wolves’ howls rising plaintively in the background.
Kara focused on the sail, eyes straight ahead at the massive plume of ley rising far above them. It grew as they drew nearer, until she had to crane her neck to see its top. The shuddering of the barge increased, and she began to lower it closer to the ground until they were hovering a bare ten feet above the river of ley beneath them on a direct course for the Nexus. Buildings ruined by the Shattering rose on both sides, windows gaping down at them, walls cracked or collapsed in sections. Once the height of luxury and power, the balconies and intricate stonework now looked desolate and worn.
The barge dipped again, Kara gritting her teeth to bring it back level. They were still too far from the Nexus. She didn’t want to have to walk far once they went down to street level. She didn’t know how long Allan could hold up against the force of this much ley. She didn’t know if it would hold up at all. She’d never seen the ley so riled up, so violent, so beautiful.
She waited until the base of the ley filled her entire vision, to where spume from it rained down around her in globules and splatters, threatening to hit the ship. The buildings fell away, a ring of what had once been parks appearing on either side. She lifted the ship up over a ridge of debris from the broken towers and then began to bring it back down in a gentle glide.
At the last moment, before the hull hit the lake of ley that surrounded the inner towers, she turned her back on the geyser and sprinted for the hatchway. She stumbled on the steps as she shouted, “Get ready! We’re coming down now!”
She found Allan and Grant at the base of the stairs, tethered together with rope. Grant threw her one end and whistled for the Wolves. They bounded close, their fear over the shuddering barge overriding their tendency to keep their distance. Kara tied the rope as quickly as she could, already sensing the ley brushing up against the bottom of the barge, then screamed, “Brace yourself!” as she grabbed hold of Allan and Grant. They hunched down into a crouch, Kara’s face pressed into Allan’s armpit, her eyes squeezed tight, the Wolves burrowing their noses between their chests. Grant howled, his chest vibrating with the haunting sound.
Then Kara let go of the ley.
The ship bucked and plummeted. She tensed for the sound of splintering wood as they crashed, but that never came. The ley was too intense, soundlessly annihilating the barge around them as it sank. Instead, they slammed into the stone paving of the park and rolled, Kara screaming as her exposed arm scraped across gravel and rock. But she didn’t let go, Allan and Grant clutching her even tighter. One of the Wolves was wrenched away, its claws raking her thigh. It gave a sharp bark, cut off oddly as if severed with a blade.
They ground to a halt, Allan jerking out of her tenuous hold as the back of her head hit the ground. She moaned and brought her free arm up to her forehead, her other arm trapped beneath Grant. Opening her eyes, she found herself staring up into a solid wall of ley.
She jolted upright, then shrank back. They were surrounded by ley, a half sphere centered on Allan with a radius of barely twelve feet. Her free arm had landed a few feet from its edge, which moved as Allan began to rouse on the other side of Grant.
“Careful,” she said in warning, her voice sounding odd in the confined space. “You’re the only thing standing between us and the ley.”
Allan stilled, taking in the small area of ground around him, littered with the metallic elements of the barge—nails, pulleys, joints. Grant sat up, still holding one of the Wolves under one arm. It struggled until he gave a short bark and growl, then he released it. The second Wolf scrambled to its feet and shook itself, padding forward to sniff at the ley.
“Where’s the third Wolf?” Kara asked.
“I tried to hold onto him,” Allan said, “but when we hit the ground . . .”
“He must have fallen free and gotten caught in the ley,” Grant said. A simple statement, but it throbbed with grief. He huffed and stood, brushed himself off, rearranged the satchels slung over his shoulder, then glanced up. “How do we find our way to the Nexus? I can’t see anything but ley.”
“It’s that way.” Kara pointed. “I can sense it.”
Allan stepped closer to her. “Lead the way.”
She felt a tug on the rope tied around her waist.
“We should shorten the rope,” Grant said, already retying his section.
Kara did the same without comment.
They walked forward tentatively, Kara in front, Allan in the center, Grant behind, the two Wolves to either side. Within a few steps, boulders emerged from the wall of ley, sections of what had once been one of the towers, the veins
of a leaf patterning one side. Kara wondered if it had been part of the Flyers’ Tower. They picked their way over it, then across the field of stone debris on the far side. The sphere shifted with Allan, smooth and silent. The ley ebbed and flowed around them, Kara tracing its currents as they moved forward. They’d been halted more than once by its swiftness while traveling the tunnels beneath Erenthrall, its strength too great for Allan to remain standing, but here the currents were weaker because the ley was spread out over such a wide area. But they’d have to be careful. They were approaching the source; she expected its strength would increase.
They reached a set of wide steps and ascended to the base of the tower, passing by the gaping mouth where there had once been a grand wooden door. The courtyard on the far side was littered with the desiccated remains of ley carts. The garden was a desolate series of stone paths wending around bare, sculpted beds, a few wrought-iron benches appearing out of place among all the stonework.
A wall forced them to sidetrack to an exit gate, then they crossed another street to another garden, a second tower, a courtyard with an empty fountain and a statue of a woman holding a child on her hip. Another wide street, and then they came up against the wall that surrounded the Nexus.
When they found the gate that opened onto one of the sets of stairs leading down into the circular depression where the crystal-domed building stood, Kara and Allan shared a look. The last time they’d been here, Hagger and his own Wolves had trapped them on the steps as they’d attempted to flee the quickening of the distortion. The Wolves would have killed them all if the distortion hadn’t sealed them in a shard of reality where time had halted. Allan had gotten them out, using the same strange ability that kept the ley from them now.
They descended with Grant and his Wolves at their side. Over halfway down, they ran across a sword, Allan picking it up. “It’s the one I drove through Hagger’s chest.” He tossed it to one side, next to a belt buckle and assorted metal buttons and a ring.
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