by CM Raymond
All the members of the group looked to Ezekiel, waiting for the man to talk about the plan that would lead to the resolution of the conflict in Arcadia—one way or another. Pensively, he sipped on a teacup. Hannah wasn’t sure if he was waiting for the right moment, or just collecting his thoughts. Either way, she was ready to strangle him if he didn’t start talking soon.
Finally, he placed his cup on the long dining room table and cleared his throat. “Seems we have more in play than we previously thought. Now, I know we are all thinking the same thing. Gregory shouldn’t have gone off on his own on this one. Nevertheless, I understand the boy’s ambitions. He did it for us.”
“Damn straight he shouldn’t have. Runt’s going to get himself killed!” Karl said with a growl. He, too, had grown fond of the young noble.
“Being a runt never stopped you,” Hannah shot back with a smile. She loved the rearick, but that didn’t save him from her loyalty to another member, especially Gregory. “We’ve all risked our lives for Arcadia. Gregory is no different—there are other ways to fight than fighting,” she said.
Karl narrowed his eyes at Hannah and then fell silent. His admiration for her ran deeper than nearly anyone else he knew—and no one else in all of Irth would get away with calling him what she could.
Ezekiel cleared his throat again. “What is done is done. I am hesitant to say this, but the boy might have a point. If he plays this right, he could end the threat of the airship without immediate bloodshed, and that is something worth considering—perhaps we didn’t give his heart as much credit as we’ve given his mind. But there is still the question of Adrien. Maybe we can help Gregory through indirect means. If our plan goes the way it should, it might give us an opening on the airship. Amelia?”
The Dean sat up in her chair. “We have gained access to Adrien. He has invited me to the tower for dinner tonight. Although he doesn’t know it, I will be bringing a date along—Lord Girard and Adrien need to spend some time together. It’s not ideal, but it might be the only chance we have. Gregory has upped our timeline.”
Hannah’s heart stopped, and she almost screamed into the center of the table. She could see where this was going. While the rest of them were sitting here on their asses, Ezekiel would take a shot at Adrien. Amelia would back him up if necessary.
The power of magic and rage boiled beneath her skin. It wasn’t how this was supposed to happen. Hannah had pictured it for months. The last moments when she stared into the eyes of the man who had killed her family and ruined her life. Adrien was supposed to die by her hand, not Ezekiel’s.
Looking up, she caught her mentor’s eye. He knew exactly what she was thinking. “I know this isn’t the way some of you hoped things would end, but we cannot trade victory for personal vengeance—especially now that Gregory’s life is on the line. Tonight might be my only chance at Adrien, and I’m going to send him straight to hell where he belongs.”
Hannah gripped the sides of her seat, realizing that there was enough power building in her to take down the Noble Quarter and all them with it. She focused on an imaginary spot on the table and breathed evenly. She trusted Ezekiel with so much, and now was not a time for losing that trust. But part of her, in the back of her mind, wanted to leave the room, sprint out of the mansion and attack the man she despised so deeply. Patience is a virtue, but revenge is much sweeter.
She glanced back at Ezekiel who shook his head so slightly that it was barely identifiable, but she knew he was bidding her not to intercede.
Screw it, she thought.
“I’m going with you,” Hannah cried. “I deserve this—and you could use my help.”
“The people of Arcadia deserve for this to work,” Ezekiel said with ice in his eyes. “And I do need your help—if something goes wrong tonight, the rest of you are all we have, all Arcadia has. Would you destroy the future of a city only to have it be your hand that exacts vengeance?”
The room grew silent. Everyone at the table chewed on the tension between teacher and student.
Electricity danced across Hannah’s skin as it had so many times before. She forced herself to control the power that churned within her. She bit the side of her mouth, trying to restrict every desire to rebel against the rebellion. Then she thought of Gregory and the massive sacrifice her friend was making. Her mouth opened to speak but nothing came. Finally, she nodded in compliance. Her pride was broken, but that didn’t matter. Arcadia was all that mattered now.
“Good,” Ezekiel said. He was pleased that his student was learning not only power, but control. “There is plenty for you to do, Hannah. We need to save Gregory, whatever the cost. And Adrien isn’t the only threat. If all goes well, word of his death will spread quickly, and with it, chaos. I don’t know what shape I will be in afterward, but we need you here in case a need or opportunity arises. Parker has sown the seeds of an opposition. Hopefully, the death of the Chancellor will cause the people to second guess who they have been following all of these years. The people—even the Disciples—will be thrown into a sea of confusion.”
Karl laughed. “Aye, we cut off the head of the dragon—” he turned to Sal laying in the corner “—no offense, pal, and the rest of the monster crumbles.”
Julianne spoke up. “It won’t crumble that easily. The Capitol Guard is strong and growing every day. And we still have Adrien’s weapon to worry about. The hope, though, is that the crisis will create time for the team to storm the factory.”
Nodding, Ezekiel said, “Julianne, you should head back to the barracks to keep an eye on things. The rest of you, wait here until I kill Adrien. Then you can get into the factory. Destroy the machine. Snag Gregory. Get the hell out.”
Karl laughed. “Scheisse, wizard. What could possibly go wrong?”
The members of the rebellion joined him in uncomfortable laughter. They knew that in a day’s time, the rebellion would be over and that they would either be victorious or dead.
****
Most in the noble class grew accustomed to the constant sound of magitech. Over the past decade, since the proliferation of the technology throughout the Quarter, something in one’s proximity was always buzzing with the hum of the magical tools. It droned on, unnoticed by everyone.
Nearly everyone.
Doyle always noticed it, especially when he was in the Chancellor’s tower office. His eyes kept cutting over to the sconces on the wall behind Adrien; they glowed blue with power and resonated with a consistent tone.
“You listening?” Adrien asked.
“Huh? Oh, yes. You were talking about the Guards, sir.”
Adrien nodded. “Need to keep your head in the game, Doyle. If things aren’t orchestrated perfectly tonight, it could all fall apart.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Good. I need you to pull the Guards from their patrols tonight. Pull them from everywhere.”
Doyle furrowed his brow. The Hunters kept the fear of punishment in the hearts and minds of the common folk, and the rest of the Guard had been a key part of their strategy to hold the people in their place. It was the fear of the patrol that kept people in their houses at night and in the squalor by day. He started to wonder if Adrien had lost it.
“We can’t pull the—”
Adrien held up a hand. His face grew hard. Doyle realized he had just pushed back on the Chancellor—a forbidden act.
“Don’t question me, you worthless slug,” Adrien spat. “We can. And we will. There is something far more important that we need the men to do. Let the streets mind themselves tonight, for in the morning it won’t matter any longer.”
“What is it that they will do?” Doyle knew he shouldn’t ask, but the words just came.
“Tonight, we end our traitor problem.”
****
The sound of Gregory’s footsteps echoed through the empty corridor as he followed Professor Nikola down the factory hall. He knew full well the fate he had accepted, but his heart pounding behind his ribcage screamed at
him that it was all a mistake. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted the Guard two paces back with a magitech staff, smaller and less powerful than the one he had made Parker. He thought about his fellow students that had walked the path before him. The poor bastards had thought they were accepted into a secret society of master magicians in the making, and he couldn’t help but wonder if they had figured out the ruse by this point in the journey.
Nikola pulled open a door and nodded at Gregory to enter in front of him. When he stepped through the doorway, his heart sank. Lining the sides of the hall were rows of cells, each secured with a set of bars. The place hummed with the power of magitech.
Taking a stick the length of his forearm from his belt, Nikola tapped the cell closest to them. The blue hue around the bars vanished, and the Professor swung the gate open.
“Cool,” Gregory said, trying to play the part. “Magitech gate and a magitech key. Hope I get a chance to learn that one.”
A smile crossed Nikola’s face and then disappeared. “You are your father’s son, aren’t you, Gregory? There will be time enough for you to explore the tech we have developed in the factory, but for now, in you go.” He pointed toward the cell.
“Me?” Gregory played dumb. “In there? Where’s the rest of the group?”
Nikola laughed. “You’ll be joining them soon enough. But for now, make yourself comfortable. As comfortable as you can. Someone will be with you very soon.”
Gregory looked at the cell, and back at Nikola. He shrugged and entered. “Okay. But this is a little weird.” The kid laughed. “I get it… Some sort of initiation, right?”
Nikola grinned back. “Something like that.”
Gregory dropped onto the single cot in the cell and stretched his feet out on the dirty concrete floor. “I get it now. All right, Nikola. See you later.”
The Professor slammed the gate shut and powered it back up with his magitech key. Turning to leave, he looked over his shoulder. “Don’t be so sure about that, Gregory. Tell your father I said hello.”
Although he knew what he had signed up for, the dread of the situation sunk in when Nikola and the Guard were gone. Moving toward the magitech protected gate, he craned his neck to see down the hall. Only a few cells away, a blue light glowed brightly. It became brighter, and as it did, screams arose. A chill ran across Gregory’s neck. He was starting to wonder if he had made a terrible mistake.
****
He sat on the edge of the cot, trying to talk himself into some sort of calm repose. Hannah, Ezekiel, and the rest would not forget about him, but Gregory knew that there was nothing more important to his friends than ending Adrien’s unjust reign in Arcadia. They would sacrifice Gregory to complete their mission; they would sacrifice anything.
The sound of the door clanging open caused him to sit up straight. A beautiful woman dressed in all black to match her jet-black hair stood in front of his cell.
“Who are you?” he asked, easing as far back in the cot as he could.
“Don’t worry, precious. Just think of me as your new babysitter. Now, get off your ass and come along with Nanny,” Alexandra said as she unleashed the magitech locks and ripped open the door. “You don’t want to say no. Otherwise you may get a spanking.” Her perfectly straight teeth shined in the magitech lighting.
“Elon,” Gregory muttered, staying where he sat. “I need to see Elon.”
She laughed. “Soon enough, precious. Daddy dearest is busy right now, but you’ll see him before it’s over. I promise. Now—” the sweetness in her voice turned to broken glass “—get moving.”
Gregory stood. Giving the woman the widest berth possible in the confined cell, he stepped around her and headed out into the hallway
Her high heels clicked their way down the hall. “Turn right,” she called.
Gregory’s stomach churned, and he considered making a break for it. Failure to see his father hadn’t even been on his list of possible outcomes. Now, he only hoped he got a chance to appeal to Elon. If not, he’d be a goner. Not only would he not stop the madness, but his final act in the world would be contributing to the amphoralds that powered the war machine.
“In there,” she muttered, pointing at a metal door.
He turned the knob and pushed through into the largest room he’d ever seen. Stone walls stretched three-stories high and were supported by enormous girders that must have been raised by magic. The footprint stretched out nearly as long as the Capitol Lawn. He stood in the largest structure inside the walls of Arcadia.
While the room impressed, the thing that was truly breathtaking was the giant ship taking up residence. Although his father’s blueprints had dimensions scrawled throughout, the monster was larger than he could have ever imagined. It filled a substantial portion of the room, its wings spanning out nearly touching the walls on either side.
Men with magitech cuffs were moving around beside it, putting on the perfecting touches. The body work on the ship was exquisite. He could see the cockpit and the wings that would control the ship’s movement. But his eyes wandered to the thing that most interested him. Up underneath the behemoth clung the artifact that Julianne had brought back from the Frozen North. A half dozen engineers busied themselves using magitech torches to weld the device to the underbelly, while others rushed around, connecting what looked like long strands of rope. He realized that it was the wire through which the amphorald power would run to fuel the device.
A hand pushed him from behind. “Pretty much your wet dream, Brainiac. What do you say we get a closer look?”
Without giving him time to respond, Alexandra shoved him toward a stairway leading to the catwalk that circled the room. He climbed the last step; the plank flexed beneath his feet. Gregory looked down to the factory floor two stories below and then continued to the right. He knew where he was going and what his job would be when he got there.
Damn it, where is he? Gregory thought.
The possibility of not finding his father before it was too late hadn’t crossed his mind. One of many weaknesses in this plan, this one might turn deadly.
“My father? I wanted to tell him about the Scholars’ Program,” Gregory said with a grin. He hoped that his acting was better than his physical magic.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw the woman smile. “I’m sure you’ll see him eventually, but an old friend of yours needs a hand first.”
The walkway led into the ship, and Gregory walked down a narrow corridor. A strong blue light shone on the other end. Alexandra was leading him right toward it. Gregory brought up the ship design in his mind and traced their path. He knew where she was taking him.
As he entered the engine room, it took Gregory’s eyes a second to adjust. He saw two men with parchment on clipboards taking notes as they observed the magitech core. It was massive, larger than a horse cart, and it contained more than enough energy to power the ship.
Gregory’s eyes grew wide when he realized that the technicians weren’t inspecting the amphoralds. Instead, they were taking in the battered and broken form of a young magic user. Clifford, a guy who had entered the Academy a year earlier, was a physically strong kid, who was good at magic. He grew up a few houses away from Gregory in the Quarter. While they weren’t best friends, he and Gregory were friendly enough.
Nausea took over as he inspected Cliff’s face. It was bloodless and gaunt. Although only one year older than Gregory, he looked like he had aged three decades. His hair had turned shock white, and his once strong body was withered and frail. Gregory had a loose idea of what they were doing with the young magicians, but seeing it firsthand made his knees go wobbly.
His reaction was part act to keep up his deception, but mostly an honest response. “What the hell have you—”