The Powerless Series: Complete 5-Book Set

by Jason Letts

  Cybil nodded, pursing her lips to keep back her tears. But then something hit her like a wave and she ducked into the building. Returning, she carried Will’s bag in one hand and a black uniform embroidered with a sun and a cloud in the other.

  “I finished mending it for you. It should fit perfectly now,” she said, handing it over along with the bag. They thanked her again, waving as they offered their final goodbyes.

  It took much longer for Aoi to make her way just north of Darmen to the rancher. He sat in his rocking chair, looking at the clouds. For old time’s sake, Aoi used the straw bridge to cross the dry riverbed. She climbed the steps and took a seat in her old spot on the porch.

  “It’s time for me to leave,” she said.

  “I reckon it is,” the rancher nodded slowly.

  “Mira had a bad experience. She is changed.”

  “You’ve changed too,” observed the rancher.

  “You helped me a lot. Thank you,” Aoi said.

  “You helped yourself. The only way anybody can change is if they want to.”

  Aoi got up and went into the ranch house to get her belongings. Returning a minute later, she stopped on the steps to face the rancher one last time. She had it in her heart to say something deep and profound, but she knew no matter what she said he would understand her meaning just the same.

  “Goodbye,” she whispered, and he tipped his hat to her. Aoi descended the remaining steps and began the long walk through the grasses swaying in the wind.

  Vern slipped down the ladder into the cavern. Peering over the side of the wooden walkway, he saw a few people were finishing repairs to what the spy had damaged. He continued down a few levels until he reached Westley’s apartment. He knocked on the door, nudging it gently open. He found Westley sitting at a desk reading through a hefty book. There had been some strain in their relationship, and he wondered if Westley would prefer it if he simply took his things and left. Reflecting, it seemed he’d spent most of the time fighting against his own stubbornness.

  His bag sat right where he’d left it, and he quickly stuffed it with the remainder of his belongings. He stopped at the door and glanced back at Westley, who had not stirred from his book. “Goodbye,” he sighed.

  “Wait!” Westley put the book down and trotted over. A few snacks revolved around his large waistline. Vern stopped and looked back, surprised he had gotten up and eager to know why.

  “What is it?” he coaxed.

  “It’s just that, I’m not worried for you. I know I said most shadows go too soon, but I can tell you have something great in store for you. And I’m confident you can tackle it. This war gobbles up the weak and the scared right along with the strong and the noble, but I think you’ll make a difference.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Vern said, grasping the door in his hands.

  Westley gave him a deliberate, forceful nod, and Vern could see all of his good wishes in it. Returning it, Vern thought his mentor finally treated him like an equal, like one who deserved his respect. They looked at each other like friends who carried the same unspoken purpose. Knowing no more needed to be said, Vern slipped out into the hallway and made for the surface.

  Reaching the top, he could see Mira standing down river, not too far from where the spy had first breached the bank and ballooned into a colossal beast. Will and Roselyn each made their way to her from Darmen Topside and would reach her at about the same time. Aoi had the farthest to go, and so they would need to wait for her.

  Mira didn’t say anything when they joined her by the riverbank. She had her arms crossed and looked off into the wind, the bright sun beaming overhead. Vern exchanged glances with his companions, serving to reaffirm all of their agreements about supporting Mira in her present state. A small bag of supplies sat on the ground next to Mira’s sack, and Will poked at it with his foot to see inside.

  “Why did you only get limes?” Will asked.

  “I don’t like limes,” Roselyn moaned.

  “You’ll like them well enough when they keep your teeth from falling out,” Mira chided them, killing the chance for any further conversation.

  As they noticed Aoi come around the city’s side, they saw other groups of young people leaving the city as well. They were shadows too, and they could only be going to Shadow Mountain. Among the different groups and the different colored uniforms, they spotted a few from Darmen Elite who had been part of the midnight club.

  “You know, we didn’t even get a thank you for helping them out,” Vern said, steaming.

  “They probably could’ve spared a day in the academy for manners, that and watching out for spies,” Will joked.

  Mira’s stony face prevented them from indulging in any laughter at the insult. Instead, they watched Aoi walk across the plain. She smiled at them and set her bag down just as Mira spoke up.

  “Finally, we can go now!” she said, and Aoi had to pick her bag right back up.

  Without another word, Mira grabbed her things and started following the river upstream. Her friends scrambled to stay right behind her, and Darmen was already far behind them when they had gotten started. Mira cruised through the thickets and the sand pits, making the others think breaks for rest would be an unrealistic fantasy. Vern stuck right behind her, even as they passed groups making the same journey.

  “You hear anything?” Vern hollered to a group as soon as they could hear him. By the time he got an answer the two groups were neck and neck.

  “Cypress Mill Academy has got a girl who can ride the wind. If she can float right up to the top, it’ll be two years in a row for them. You?” someone responded.

  But Vern and the others had already left them behind before he needed to give away any information. They marched in a line, speed walking around the bend in the river that would leave them heading east.

  “A floating girl doesn’t sound too bad,” Will said. “I could imagine gorier things we could come up against.”

  “If you’re afraid then maybe you should run away while you still can,” Mira sneered without turning around. “There’s no telling how many ways you could end up in pieces if someone overpowered you.”

  Will suddenly became very quiet, and Vern spoke, easing the tension.

  “Let’s remember our primary goal is to all make it through in one piece. It won’t do anything to help us if someone gets seriously wounded or lost on the mountain. First and foremost we’re a team, and so we should try and help each other if we can.”

  “Just don’t get in my way,” Mira whispered, making Vern clamp his jaw shut and look away to stop himself from saying anything.

  They spent the afternoon walking, continuing right into the evening until the last rays of the late-summer sun disappeared under the horizon behind them. Any reasonable person would have made camp by now, but Mira wouldn’t even stop to eat. Guided by a tiny flashlight beam, they continued eastward until they reached the base of the ridge. Following this ridge south along the forest would bring them to Corey Outpost in two days, but Shadow Mountain would take another day’s travel directly east.

  Seeing the ridge above, Mira’s companions sighed with relief when she finally relented and broke camp. Between Will, Vern, and Aoi, they carried enough material for a tent, and soon they had set it up and were relaxing their weary legs.

  “There’s enough room in here for you too,” Aoi offered to Mira, who had made a small fire and tended it on her own several feet away. She didn’t respond, but Aoi took a second glance at how she faced them. It was as if they needed to be watched more carefully than the darkness surrounding them. Though they thought her behavior strange, no one dared say anything to Mira about it.

  Settling into their cozy tent, they looked forward to a peaceful sleep, but it seemed they had only just shut their eyes when screaming awoke them in the middle of the night.

  “Who’s there? Who’s there?” Mira shrieked and they could hear her trampling through the grass. It quickly became obvious nothing but her imaginati
on haunted her, and they held their eyes shut and placed their fingers in their ears to try and block out her paranoid ravings.

  The morning arrived, and they felt like they had gotten no rest at all. They saw Mira sitting wide-awake in a small dugout in the ground when they left the tent, and they knew for sure she had not slept for a second. It wasn’t long before they found themselves back in the tent.

  “Something is really wrong with her,” Roselyn cringed.

  “Her parents were right. She should go home. This isn’t healthy,” Will worried.

  Given what went on the night before, Vern gave a forceful nod to supplement his agreement. “OK. Who is going to tell her?”

  They all glanced around, but no one volunteered.

  “I’m not afraid. I’ll do it,” Aoi said, and she got up to exit the tent. Her friends crouched around and followed behind her. Aoi met Mira’s icy glare as they approached her.

  “Mira, we’re worried about you. We don’t know what happened, but we know you need time to work through it. We want you to heal, and the best way for that to happen is for you to take the path along the ridge and go home to Corey Outpost.”

  While Aoi spoke with clarity and compassion, Mira ground her teeth and snarled. Angrily brushing the dirt from her legs, she stepped out of the dugout and right into everyone’s faces.

  “You tell me to go home but I don’t have a home! It burned down, remember? Everything I had is gone. There’s nothing left of me but the future. Besides, what is waiting for me there? Who is waiting for me?” she asked, crossing her arms.

  “Your parents, the rest of our class, maybe even Fortst. Corey can help you,” Will said.

  “And Yannick,” Roselyn added. “He was asking about you just—”

  “Yannick’s dead,” Mira snapped. “I watched him die fighting Widget, who was trying to kill me. So forgive me if I don’t want his memory to be a waste. He sacrificed himself so I can save my sister. I can’t give up when I’ve got so much to do. Now I’m going to go. You can do whatever you want.”

  Dumbstruck stares and open mouths watched as she swung her bag onto her shoulder and started off to the ridge. No one moved or said a thing until only the imprint of her body remained on the bare ground where she had been. Quietly, they all hustled to pack the tent and catch up with Mira. They worked so busily to set off that they didn’t realize they’d skipped breakfast.

  “Dead? I can’t believe it.” Will lamented as he grabbed his bag.

  “I do,” Aoi said. “She’s all the proof I’ll ever need.”

  “I can’t even imagine,” Roselyn muttered.

  “She has a history now, something we can’t know and she can’t yet understand,” Aoi said.

  They approached the ridge, leaving the river behind and walking uphill along rows of trees that clung to dirt and exposed rock. Large nests of carnivorous birds perched on branches reaching endlessly into the sky. The pathways grew narrow and unstable. They could see other groups of shadows beginning the ascent down below.

  “This is only a taste of what’s to come,” Vern warned.

  He could see the precipice above, and he carefully tested his weight against each stone and limb he came across. Before any of them became too exhausted, they reached the top of the ridge. Standing on the rock, they could look around in every direction and admire the magnificent scope of the world.

  Back behind them, they could see the river racing out to Darmen. They scanned the forest to the southwest but Corey Outpost wasn’t large enough to spot. And finally, they looked onward in the direction they headed. The ridge sloped gradually to the east and then ran flat for as far as they could see. The lush green of the land behind them contrasted with the barren, blighted environment ahead. Among the scraggly foliage and the brown earth, they saw Mira trekking straight out, the graying clouds following her overhead.

  It took hours of work for them to catch up to her. She always hung in the distance, never tiring and never breaking her stride. They gasped for breath by the time they reached her, but even then she would not relent. It disappointed them when she didn’t even offer the slightest acknowledgement. Her frosty demeanor seemed a bitter reward for so much toil.

  “I’m sorry, Mira, about what happened,” Vern said, but the reminder only made her hang her head a little lower and sink further within her thoughts. “You still need our help, and we still want to help you. We can’t do anything alone,” he pressed again while the others remained silent behind them.

  “Alone means never misplacing your trust,” Mira whispered.

  Far off ahead of them, the colossal heap of stone took on a different shade of gray from the dusky sky around it. Shadow Mountain stretched above the horizon and into the highest reaches of the sky, cutting into clouds that collected around its summit and clogged the sky with their dreary gray. Noticing it, they all took a deep breath in their turn and swallowed the reality of their challenge. Making it to the top seemed a life-threatening affair even without the competition.

  The hours rolled by and the sun peaked beneath the cloud cover far off behind them. Avoiding branches and prickly bushes stumped their progress and kept them from reaching the mountain’s base until late. Once it became dark, they spotted fiery red torches sitting atop tall posts that stretched around the perimeter of the mountain. Contrary to what they believed, they were not the first to arrive. A few other tents had sprung up just outside of the boundary the torches created. They didn’t need to be told that these torches would signal the moment the Rite would begin.

  The flickering firelight glowed overhead, and the group marked out some open territory along the edge and began to make camp. Finally eating after a long day’s journey, they watched other shadows trickle in from opposite directions. Many small campfires filled in the gaps between the tall torches, and neighbors settled in on either side of their tent. A light rain began to fall from the black clouds above.

  “So what is your plan, Mira?” Vern asked.

  Mira gave him a piercing glare, carefully scanning for a signal of his intentions, and then ducked inside the tent so she couldn’t be overheard. The others were pleased to go inside because a crisp breeze speckled their skin with goosebumps.

  “There’s no telling how soon this’ll begin, and we should at least have some idea of what we’re going to do,” Vern argued once they were all inside.

  “I’m going to run up the mountain and I’m not going to stop until I make it to the top,” Mira said

  “You can’t really think that’s going to work. Everyone is going to be doing that,” Will reasoned.

  “Yes, but if anyone gets in my way they’ll be sorry,” she hissed.

  Mira reached into her bag and pulled out the rubber gloves. She slipped her hands into them and then pulled the Leyden Jar out of the bag. The others gazed at it apprehensively.

  “I don’t even want to know what that does,” Will shuddered.

  “No, you don’t,” Mira said, stashing it back in the bag. “And that’s just one item available to me. I would hate for it to get used on one of you, so you need to make sure to stay out of my way.”

  Her ominous tone made them uneasy. They’d vowed to do what they could to protect her, but falling victim to one of her tricks seemed an awful reward for such loyalty.

  “I would think the most dangerous part would be right at the beginning, what with everyone being stuck side by side out in the open before the climb even starts,” Roselyn said.

  Everyone nodded along with her reasoning.

  “That doesn’t mean it will be any easier up near the top. The steeper it gets, the easier it would be to get knocked over an edge. A long fall from way up there would be the end for anybody,” Will added.

  They eagerly talked over their strategies and tried to forget that anything bad could happen when it came time to start. The wind blew against the side of the tent and fanned the fire in front of the tent’s opening. Voices sifted through the howling gusts and splattering rain. Ris
ing above the noise, a heckling laughter invaded their space. As much as it unsettled them, it also seemed strikingly familiar for its offensiveness. A gaggle of footsteps shuffled through the brown grass. All eyes in the tent turned to the flapping entrance. It became obvious they had been sought out.

  A few fingers reached inside to grab the flap. Pulling it to the side revealed a pale face and a crooked smile beneath short white hair. Though the uniform showed he was from Darmen Elite, it was his light eyes and their condescending gaze that gave away his identity. “Looks like the little defective damsel made it to town after all! If The Shadowing didn’t do it, I guess it’s up to me to teach you what happens when the abnormal bite off more than they can chew,” Neeko jeered contemptuously.

  Some laughter broke out behind him, but Neeko waited in the entranceway to watch his impact. Will looked to the side at Mira. She stared up at Neeko’s face intently and her teeth began to chatter. Open mouthed, Will’s eyes darted between the two of them. Vern attempted to defuse the explosive situation that had just begun, quickly offering a cool response.

  “I wouldn’t be too quick to criticize others if I were you. Your team failed to detect a spy, much less do anything to stop him. Why don’t you go join your friends and try to avoid your next big blunder?”

  “Oh yeah, I heard about that. It’s funny, we got rid of all the monsters in our team. What are you still doing with yours?” he mocked, his eyes cast down at Mira, begging her to do something.

  “I feel sorry for you,” Aoi whispered. Will kept his eyes on Mira, whose breathing grew heavy. She clenched her fist and spooked Will with the venom in her eyes.

  “Don’t worry,” Neeko went on, “Getting knocked out first here doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be eliminated first on the war front. It would just make sense.”

  Unable to take any more, Mira’s quivering lips opened, an unspeakable revulsion cutting through her voice.

  “If you don’t leave right now, I’m going to rip your heart from your body.”