by Silver Milan
“What about in Belgrade?” Ked said. “You won’t be able to hide the vehicles there…”
“No,” Walter said. “But the hunters will have no idea any of you are apprentices. We swap out the vehicles every liberty, and change the license plates. We also drop you off in random places throughout the city, in groups of no more than three. You’ll be carrying your phone and RFID ring with you at all times. If you do find yourselves in trouble, press the emergency button on the side of the phone and it will summon the closest Wayfarers to your aid.”
“How about pick up?” Michelle asked. “How do we know which vehicles will take us home?”
“You’ll be texted a time and location to your student-issue smartphones half an hour before pickup,” Walter said.
“We’re sure this texting is secure?” Michelle said. “That hunters won’t trick us into getting into their vehicles?”
Walter smiled patronizingly. “If you don’t want to go on liberty, you’re welcome to stay here.”
“Wait a second,” Brian said. “If we bring our RFID rings, won’t the hunters be able to use that to detect us if they get close enough?”
“You’ll recall that your rings came in special metal containers,” Walter said. “When you’re in public, remove the ring and place it in its container. The shielding will prevent any hunters from skimming your information and picking you out in a crowd. Take it out of the container when you return to your hotel, or when a Wayfarer asks you to prove your identity.”
“Hunters are big deal in Belgrade, aren’t they?” Ked said. “Makes some sense. Like Ariel said, apprentices are easy pickings when they’re on leave.”
“That’s why we have so many Wayfarers from our warrior class on patrol in the city and outlying areas during liberty,” Walter said. “Even so, I recommend you keep a low profile when you’re out there. As shifters, you are all especially at risk. Orions capture human Wayfarers. But they kill shifter witches on sight. As I said, if you don’t want to go on liberty, you’re welcome to stay here.”
Ariel didn’t think she had to worry about the Orions, not when she had a former dragon king protecting her.
She exchanged texts with Jett between classes that day, and explained she didn’t know where the shuttle would be dropping her off. Jett told her to call him as soon as she was in town, and he’d shadow her position using the GPS in her sat-phone, that way he could pick her up as soon as she was let off.
You can do that? she asked.
Of course.
You never told me you’ve been tracking me all this time…
I thought you knew, lioness.
No I didn’t! And don’t you lioness me. Stalker.
Listen, if you don’t like it, I can show you how to turn it off. Just activate the tracking again when you reach the city.
Fine, show me.
He called her and walked her through the instructions.
When it was done, she said: “I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were tracking me all this time. Though I guess there isn’t really much to track while I’m here, is there?”
“Honestly, I haven’t been paying much attention,” Jett said over the line. “I just check it once or twice a day to make sure you’re still safe in the tower.”
“You can be a bit overprotective at times,” Ariel said.
“I know,” Jett said. “But I have to be… you’re my most valuable treasure. See you tonight.”
“See you,” Ariel said. “Love you.”
“Love you.”
Ariel hung up. She couldn’t be mad, of course. Jett was far too sweet for that. And his intentions were good. Still, she did feel a little violated. Then again, the Wayfarers were no doubt tracking her with her Tower-issued phone, too. But at least she knew about that.
When the last class of the day ended, Ariel went to her room to change out of her robes. Her old clothing was in the locker, and she put on the jeans and T shirt. It felt weird wearing normal clothes after dressing in what was essentially a bathrobe for the past three months.
She grabbed her knapsack and emptied it out, intending to fill it with a few souvenirs in Belgrade. Then she and Michelle joined up with the rest of their crew and headed down to the parking garage to stand in line for a shuttle.
While they were waiting, a Wayfarer Ariel had never seen before—a man dressed in a crisp suit and tie—walked down the line. He was scanning the apprentices with a handheld digital reader, similar to the kind she had seen some of the guards carrying. The glasses he wore had a small metal attachment on the right lens, also like the guards: probably feeding him whatever data the handheld device scanned.
Ariel fiddled with the RFID ring she wore, wondering what information was stored on it.
The suit-wearing Wayfarer reached her group, and when he passed Ariel, he lowered the reader.
“You and you,” he pointed out Ariel and Michelle. “Come with me.”
Ariel and Michelle exchanged a confused glance, then Ariel shrugged and followed after the man. She glanced over her shoulder at her friends. “Don’t wait for us!”
“Hell with that.” Ked stepped from the line, turning back as he did so to address the others. “The rest of you go on ahead. If you get a shuttle, take it. We’ll meet up with you in the city.”
Ked followed Ariel and Michelle at a discreet distance. When the suit-clad Wayfarer reached the elevator concourse, Ariel and Michelle entered one of the elevators with the witch and Ked was shut out.
The Wayfarer had pressed the topmost button. Ariel had never been to that floor.
“What’s this about?” Ariel asked the Wayfarer as the elevator ascended.
He didn’t answer.
Ariel glanced at Michelle and noticed her friend was very pale. What does she know?
“What’s wrong?” Ariel asked her quietly.
“The top floor,” Michelle said. “That’s the office of the dragon witch.”
“The dragon witch?” Ariel said.
“Yes,” Michelle told her. “The Wayfarer is taking us to see the president of the Steel Tower.”
20
The elevator opened and Ariel stepped into a wide hallway.
“This way,” the Wayfarer said.
Ariel stepped onto a lush red carpet spread across the center of a marble floor. Paintings and tapestries hung from the walls on either side, between wooden pillars embedded in the marble as part of the adornments. The scenes depicted Wayfarers, sometimes at the head of armies, sometimes holding court, and usually alone.
Evenly spaced pedestals were set in front of the tapestries and harbored busts of men and women. The gold labels affixed to the edges of the pedestals displayed names and dates, and Ariel quickly realized the busts represented the previous presidents of the Steel Tower. Genevieve Elizabeth Addicott, 1731-1772. Bartholomew Mathews III, 1772-1808. And so on.
A male servant dressed in red livery was waiting near an ornate door at the far end of the hall, and he bowed as the trio approached.
The door was open a crack, and the Wayfarer pushed it open entirely to lead Ariel and Michelle inside. He closed it behind him.
Seated behind a large mahogany desk sat an imposing woman wearing a dark sweater. The folded wings of a white dress shirt collar peeked out from its top. Her hair was twisted into a long braid that fell down her right shoulder. Her features were sharp and angular, masculine. Ariel recognized her from the introductory videos she had seen on the Steel Tower’s Intranet. Just as Michelle had said, it was the president of the Tower, Savanna Kettleburn. She wore no obvious dragon bone accessories—as a dragon witch, she didn’t have to, as she could Siphon the Strength directly through her own bones.
A man sat in the visitor’s chair across from her. He wore a blazer and jeans, his hair cropped low and spiked. All of his jewelry was made of bone: earrings, necklace, bracelets, rings.
There was one other woman present, standing with her arms crossed, leaning on a bookcase set against the w
all behind Savanna. She wore a black blouse with leather leggings, her body framed by a dark blue cape. The cape’s hood was raised, covering her hair and forehead. Her eyes shone a bright blue that stood out from her pale face. A blue agate gem sat on her throat, at the center of a bone necklace. Bone sleeves completely enveloped her arms.
An odd scent pervaded the room. Ariel couldn’t quite identify it, and before she could think about it further Savanna spoke.
“These are the suspects?” the president asked.
The Wayfarer who had escorted Ariel nodded. “Ariel Dirksen and her roommate Michelle Gibbons.”
“Thank you, Grieves.” Savanna sat back and folded her hands on the desk in front of her.
Ariel’s first instinct was to say she hadn’t done anything wrong, but she knew it was best to keep her mouth shut, at least until she knew what she was accused of.
Michelle followed her lead and held her tongue, for the time being.
“Apprentices, this is Wallace Gran.” Savanna beckoned toward the man seated in the visitor’s chair. “My head of security.”
The spiky-haired man turned in his seat to face the apprentices.
“We captured a servant prowling around the president’s bed chambers a few days ago,” Wallace said. “She’s confessed to being a spy for the dragons of Midnight. She told us, among other things, that she had orders to leave the window of a certain eighteenth floor storeroom open every Friday and Saturday night. She didn’t know why.”
Wallace leaned back slightly, examining Ariel and Michelle keenly, obviously wanting to gauge their reactions to the news. Ariel kept her face as blank as possible.
Wallace shrugged slightly before continuing. “By opening the window, I suspected the servant was clearing the way for another spy to enter our hallowed Tower, so I went about reviewing the video logs taken from cameras throughout the grounds, concentrating on Friday and Saturday nights. For the most part, I found nothing. Our intruder seemed to know the layout of our Tower quite well, along with the locations of our security cameras. But I did spot something, a small thing, from a Friday night two weeks ago. That day, the full moon was at just the right position in the sky, casting its moonlight down upon the Steel Tower at just the right angle to reveal an intruder.
“I didn’t actually see him, but his shadow. Said shadow appeared on the Tower exterior shortly after ten o’clock. It ascended rapidly, halting on the fifteenth floor, where it hovered for several moments. The shadow was vaguely man-shaped, and a blur on either side of the body hinted at some rapid movement, like flapping wings. I slowed the video down, and was indeed able to make out the wings.
“Now, there are very few beings in this world capable of sprouting giant wings to support their bodies like that. In fact, I know of only one kind: dragon shifters. But extending wings while in human form is something a dragon can do only while illegally uncollared. The punishment for a dragon caught flouting that rule in Wayfarer territory is very stiff.”
He stared at Ariel, and she couldn’t help but swallow uncomfortably. Her new life was falling apart right before her eyes, but in that moment she didn’t even care what happened to her: she had to protect Jett at all costs.
“Anyway,” Wallace continued, “after pausing on the fifteenth floor, the shadow ascended a few moments later, vanishing from view near the storeroom. I was puzzled as to why the intruder would stop on the fifteenth floor, so I used the position of the moon’s shadow and extrapolated his location. Turns out, he would have been just outside the mutual window the two of you share.”
Savanna leaned forward, bearing her teeth. “One of you has been breaking our laws. Inviting a dragon to your bed chambers. The question is, which one?”
Ariel exchanged a glance with her friend. She knew Michelle wouldn’t betray her. Still, the fear she saw in her eyes was palpable. Ariel knew that the Strength was everything to Michelle, just as it was to her. She couldn’t let Michelle lose it all. This was her fault.
“It was me,” Ariel said.
The president glanced at Ariel. “You? I read your report. You’re one of the top students we have, with an innate ability in the Strength the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades. I’ll be honest: I’m disappointed. I was expecting the other one.”
Ariel glanced at Michelle. “Tell her.”
Michelle dropped her gaze to her feet. “I did it. I brought the dragon in.”
“What, no!” Ariel said. Her eyes felt wet. She was touched by her friend’s loyalty. “Don’t do this.”
Michelle straightened, and raised her head to stare defiantly at Savanna. “I did it. I wanted to spite the Steel Tower. I wanted to show you all that I don’t care about your rules. Go ahead and arrest me.”
Ariel stared at her friend in disbelief, then slowly shook her head. “I can’t let you sacrifice yourself for me. You’re a good friend, the best I’ve ever had, but I have to bear responsibility for my actions.” She glanced at Savanna. “She’s lying. The dragon is mine. I… I couldn’t stand to be apart from him. We didn’t mean any harm.”
Savanna’s eyes alternately took in Michelle, then Ariel.
“Well,” the president said. “We have a conundrum. You both claim the dragon, yet only one of you is telling the truth. I tried to be reasonable with the two of you, I tried to be patient, but you leave me no choice.” Her voice grew thick as she continued: “Which of you invited the dragon to my tower?”
Ariel’s breathing became difficult. It felt as if a vise had wrapped around her chest. She recognized the sensation for what it was. Compulsion. It was an ability very few dragons possessed naturally, Jett being one of them. But Jett had told her witches of a great enough power could mimic the ability with Weaves. Ariel hadn’t been using the Strength long enough to develop the ability to sense Siphoning, so she didn’t know either way.
Those thoughts helped distract her from the vise that was crushing her windpipe, and so far she had managed to resist answering.
“Which one?” Savanna repeated, eyes boring into Ariel.
She couldn’t breath. Couldn’t…
“It was me,” Ariel blurted out.
Savanna glanced at Michelle. “You were not involved?”
Michelle squirmed. Then: “No.”
Savanna studied Michelle. “Then what would you do when the intruder came?”
Michelle answered immediately this time: “I stayed in my bunk and slept.”
“The intruder would come inside your room?” Savanna said.
“No,” Michelle said. “Ariel would sneak out through the window when he arrived, then she’d return an hour later.”
“You knew it was a dragon shifter?” Savanna pressed.
“Of course,” Michelle said. “Ariel told me all about him.”
Savanna’s eyes turned to Ariel, boring into her. “What exactly would you and the dragon do when he took you to the storeroom?”
“We were lovers,” Ariel said.
Savanna frowned in distaste at the word. “So this dragon has broken two laws. Not only is he uncollared, but he flouts the First Rule of his people as well.”
“He’s already been punished for breaking the First Rule,” Ariel said. “He was banished. His property, his treasure hoards, confiscated.”
“Oh really?” Savanna said. “What is the name of this dragon?”
“Jett,” Ariel said.
Savanna raised an eyebrow. “As in, the former King of Midnight?”
“That’s him,” Ariel said. “And he’s going to kick your ass if you hurt me.”
Savanna smirked. “We’ll see.” She glanced at the escorting Wayfarer who still stood behind Ariel, the one named Grieves. “Search them.”
Grieves did so. He took away Ariel’s Tower phone and sat-phone. He only found a Tower phone on Michelle. He promptly put the items on the desk, along with their RFID rings.
Savanna picked up the sat-phone. “A personal smartphone?” She swiped at the screen and then glanced at Ariel.
“The PIN?”
The compulsion tightened around Ariel’s chest, and she instantly revealed her passcode. She slumped, disappointed by her own weakness.
Savanna studied the screen, occasionally touching or swiping. She handed the phone to the security head, Wallace. “Save a copy of her text messages. We’ll enter them as evidence.”
“Understood,” Wallace said. He glanced at Ariel. “And the apprentices?”
“Arrest them both,” Savanna said.
“But I admitted that I’m the one who invited the dragon,” Ariel said. “Michelle’s innocent in this.”
“Yes, but she lied to me, president of the Steel Tower,” Savanna said.
“As any good friend would do!” Ariel said.
“While it’s noble she tried to protect you, I can’t allow her actions to go unpunished.” Savanna glanced at Wallace. “As I said, arrest them both.”
Wallace gestured and Ariel’s arms were forced behind her back by invisible hands and then hers wrists were bound together. Michelle experienced similar binding.
The compulsion abruptly lifted from Ariel’s chest and she was able to breathe freely. She took a few quick gulps of air along with Michelle beside her.
The hooded witch behind Savanna leaned forward and whispered quietly into the president’s ear.
“What are you going to do?” Ariel said.
Savanna looked away from the witch and smiled. It did not touch her eyes. “You’ll see.”
21
Ariel and Michelle were brought to the dungeons underneath the tower. With its cool, dank corridors made of stone bricks, the place looked like it had been created in medieval times. Empty alcoves, sealed off by long metal bars, were hewn into the walls. The only upgrade seemed to be the LED lighting system in the roof.
Wallace led Ariel and Michelle down stone steps to a second level. He walked them past a glass-walled monitor station manned by a guard and into another corridor line with empty prisoner cells. He stopped in front of two open alcoves that faced one another.