City of Burning Shadows (Apocrypha: The Dying World)

by Barbara J. Webb

  Iris, for that matter. I hadn’t seen her for hours. Although, like with the safehouse guards, the litmus test was whether Spark was still alive. I could trust the people who’d been with Spark—been with me, for that matter—and hadn’t tried to kill us. Right?

  Gods, this paranoia. It was still sinking in, the implications of what Syed had said, the fact I had no way to tell shadow from friend until they tried to kill me.

  I stopped at the door, looked back over my shoulder. The Jansynians hadn’t moved. No guns were trained on me, none of them suddenly moved to shoot me in the back.

  Trust. If I thought about this too much, the fear, the suspicion, could paralyze me. I had to stay careful, keep alert, but I also had to keep moving. If we did nothing but cower in the corner, worried about enemies we couldn’t see, the city would crumble around us. And then it wouldn’t matter if we’d evaded the shadows or not.

  I offered my back to the armed men behind me, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to face the armed men in front of me.

  #

  I walked into the muzzle of Viktor’s very large gun, trained on the door. He lowered it, freeing my attention to take in Iris and Vogg, crowded together in the hall, with Spark peeking between them, and two more of the safehouse guards on either side of Vik. “How are we doing?” I managed a convincing calm voice.

  Vik gestured with his gun, waving me away from the door. “You sure Price signed off on this?”

  “I told you already.” Iris sounded impatient. Jumpy. Who could blame her?

  “It’s fine,” I said, but was it?

  Vik had talked to Iris, not Amelia. Iris had talked to me. If Iris was one of them—

  But why the elaborate ruse? Iris knew where the safehouse was. She could get in anytime. Kill Spark. Get me alone. Kill me. No need for a Jansynian security team. No need to put Vik on alert. “It’s fine,” I repeated with more confidence.

  “Priest Ash,” Vogg said, “you trust these Jansynians? You would give Spark to them?”

  “No one is giving me to anyone.” Spark pushed past him. In a situation less dire, it would have been hilarious to watch the eight-foot-tall armored lizard man defer to the willowy four-foot-nothing woman. She held up the data stick I’d brought her. “I went through the information you brought me. The satellite, I can fix it. But I need to get in there.” She smacked Vogg on the knee. “Do you hear that? I need to get in. I can’t do any good holed up here.”

  “The Jansynians want this satellite to work. And Spark’s the only one who can fix it.”

  “You sure about that?” Iris asked, her eyes locked on mine, her entire body screaming mistrust.

  I hesitated, my new friend, paranoia, kicking in. What had Seana said? Exactly? Something about working together. The importance of the project. She’d never said straight out they needed Spark, had she? That had been my idea. Had she carefully misled me, manipulated me?

  First, last, and always. No matter how much she loved me, Seana had to do what was best for Desavris. “What are our chances if they start shooting at us?”

  Vik snorted. All the answer I needed.

  Everyone was looking at me, waiting for me to make a decision. But it wasn’t really my decision to make. To Spark, I said, “I’m not sure, not one hundred percent. I believe they’re here honestly, but I want to believe that. If they’re here to kill you, then someone I want to trust is lying to me. So it’s your call, Spark. You think it’s worth the risk?”

  She nodded, her huge green eyes pleading. “I can fix it.”

  Good enough. “Iris, can you get out unnoticed?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Again with the stupid questions?”

  “I…right. Get out there where you can see. Follow us. Make sure, if something goes wrong, Amelia knows she’s been double-crossed.”

  “This is a terrible plan,” she said, then her body shrunk and shriveled until a sleek black rat stood in her place. It stood up on its hind feet, shook its whiskers at me, then scurried off.

  “Be ready,” I said to Vik.

  “For what?”

  Vogg answered for me. “To avenge our fallen bodies.”

  And then there was nothing left but to do this. “Let’s go.”

  Vogg caught my shoulder. “Priest Ash, I should go first. Then you, then Spark behind us.”

  His job was to take the bullet for her. Or whatever the Jansynians shot out of their guns. “Not this time. I’m…cleared. I’m in their system. In the unlikely event they aren’t trying to kill us, I want to make this as relaxing for them as possible.”

  Vogg stepped back and bowed with more grace than I would have expected from a giant armored lizard.

  I put my hand on the door. Opened it. And stepped through.

  #

  Nothing terrible happened. No gunfire from the Jansynians in front of me. No gunfire from the men behind me. No sudden betrayals. No angry misunderstandings.

  And most of all, no shadows.

  All things considered, it was the best few minutes I’d had in weeks.

  As I came out of the building, empty hands held out before me, with Vogg and Spark and no one else, about half the Jansynians lowered their guns. The others kept careful watch all around us, but I was utterly in favor of that. They opened the car door for us. Spark got in first, followed by Vogg and then me. The Jansynians settled in, and we were off.

  For all that, I couldn’t relax. After the last few days, anything this easy had me suspicious. I kept turning to watch behind us, around us. Eyed the Jansynians for any odd behaviors. Snuck sidelong looks at Vogg. The one person I was sure of was Spark—

  Gods, unless they’d taken her already and this was what Syed had been talking about, that I’d become their target—

  No. No. I had to get this under control. If they wanted me dead, there were easier ways. And while the shadows could be anyone, there were only three of them. Eight Jansynians in the car, plus Vogg and Spark, plus Iris following. They could be anyone, but not everyone. I just had to stay alert and be ready when they broke cover.

  Either Seana had warned the gate security or the Desavris guards really had the best poker faces of anyone in the universe. No one blinked at Spark and Vogg in the car. Not so much as a twitch. I smiled and waved at the now-familiar security faces. It earned me a nod—the closest thing to a warm welcome I was ever likely to get.

  The guards escorted us to the lift, saw that we were settled, then sent Vogg and Spark and me up. These guards stayed below, to join the base security, and I let myself relax. “We made it.”

  Vogg stood tense, arms crossed at the glass wall farthest from the door. “It is not over.”

  The fact they’d let him keep his sword and his gun, the fact they hadn’t shot us all when we were in the car and basically helpless—a cautious optimism came to life inside me.

  And Spark, it seemed, was thinking along similar lines. “If they wanted me dead, they could have killed me,” she said. She’d pressed her fingertips and forehead against the glass, watching the world drop away below us. “Jansynians are nothing if not efficient. Why go through all this trouble unless they mean it? They could have just blown up the safehouse soon as they knew where I was.”

  “I’ll stop worrying once rain is falling on the city,” Vogg said.

  “Agreed.” I was already thinking ahead to the next few steps, once Spark was safely ensconced in the Jansynian labs. The terrorists. The shadows. I’d have to find Syed again. Check in with Amelia. Rain would solve most of our problems, assuming Spark could get the satellite fixed quickly, but it wouldn’t make the monsters go away.

  A pang of hurt struck me as we rose through the level of the Web where Copper and Micah had lived. I looked over at Spark, but of course she didn’t know—I hadn’t told her yet. There hadn’t been a chance. And this was hardly the time, as the lift slid smoothly to a stop. We’d reached the top.

  The doors slid open. The receiving room was nearly empty. Seana waited for me—for
us—alone. None of the other staff I was used to seeing bustling around in here were present.

  Behind Seana, the doors into the hallway were closed. And for the first time in all the trips I’d made through here—night or day—most of the lights in the receiving room were off. Other than the one desk lamp illuminating Seana, the room was dark. Very, very dark.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  A Run through the Web

  I reacted entirely on instinct. I slammed my hand against the lift controls. The doors closed and the lift began to descend. We had seconds, maybe, before Seana called down to override the controls.

  “We need out!” I yelled at Vogg. Had to act quickly, had to stay in motion. Couldn’t stop to think. If I stopped to think… “Can you break the glass?”

  Vogg didn’t ask questions. He slammed his fist into the glass, angled so the bony knobs over his knuckles drove directly in. It bounced off. “It’s too strong.”

  The lift shuddered to a stop. As I’d feared. We had no time. If we got back up there…I knew…I knew…

  “Give it a running start.”

  Vogg nodded, obedient. As he backed up, I closed my eyes to focus. One chance. That’s all we had.

  Vogg ran. Eight feet of bulky muscle and plated skin. Mass times acceleration. Velocity gathered. Rearranged. Focused. All the force of him narrowed down to a pinpoint. All that energy in a single burst.

  Now.

  Vogg struck the glass and it shattered. I marveled at his unquestioning trust—if I hadn’t sucked away all his forward motion to break the glass, he would have kept going, straight over the edge and hundreds of feet to the ground.

  Vogg wasted no time questioning his good fortune. He swept his foot, pushing shards of glass over the edge, and held out his hand to Spark as the lift started once more to ascend. “There,” he pointed at a platform, twenty feet up and approaching fast. It would be close enough to jump to as we passed.

  Glad I didn’t have time to consider the consequences if we missed, I moved with Vogg again to the center of the lift. Another running start. Vogg scooped up Spark and swung her around to cling to his back. We ran together, his longer strides countered by the fact I weighed half as much and could move my legs faster. We jumped together.

  I landed hard, stumbled forward, fell. My momentum sent me rolling across the too-narrow platform. Towards the opposite edge. My head and shoulders went over—I felt the open air beneath me—

  The collar of my robe snapped tight around my neck as someone grabbed it from behind. “No you don’t, Ash.” Iris’s voice.

  As the alarms sounded above and below.

  I sat up, rubbing at my neck. Vogg, Iris, Spark, they were all staring at me. Waiting for instruction. Or explanation. “It was an ambush. They were waiting for us.”

  “The Jansynians?” Iris asked.

  “The shadows.”

  Seana. Standing there in the darkness. Ready to attack. I’d seen it in her eyes. Seen the shadow swimming in her eyes.

  I wrenched my mind away from the thought. Later—if we survived, I’d have to deal with it later. “They’re going to be looking for us. We need someplace safe to hide.”

  “We had someplace safe to hide,” Iris snapped.

  “How much do they know?” Spark asked, her voice still calm.

  They had Seana. They had her resources. “Everything. We have to assume they know everything.”

  “The temple,” Iris said. “Your temple. It’s the only way. Even if they can find it, they can’t get in.”

  The idea was brilliant, and a sure sign Iris’s mind was working better than mine right now, except for the problem of getting there. As I was reminded by Vogg, who stood at the platform’s edge, watching below. “They’re coming up. Armed men and women on hover-platforms. We can’t stay here.”

  They’d come from above, too, as soon as they got organized.

  Iris could escape, could hide, but the rest of us—we’d never slip the Jansynians. Not without a distraction. “Further in. We’re sitting ducks here.”

  We moved as fast as we dared across walkways of unsecured boards and swaying nets. Vogg took another flying leap between the thick pipe that had turned into a dead end to a platform fifteen feet below, then he and Iris helped catch Spark and me as we followed. We struggled through the maze, but it was obvious from the start we were losing ground to the Jansynian guards on their three-man platforms that flew them towards us. And as I’d feared, the lift was coming down again, with Kaifail-only-knew how many passengers.

  No way we could escape. Not like this. “Vogg, Spark, go with Iris. She’ll take you to the temple. Wait for me inside the wards.”

  “Ash—” Iris started to argue.

  “Go! I’ll slow them down.”

  A flush of red spread over her skin in a wave, but she jumped off the platform onto a net below, and turned to help Spark. I couldn’t watch them long—not if I wanted to provide cover to their escape. I just had to hope I could do enough.

  Fortunately, over the last few days I’d had a lot of practice at what I had in mind. The Jansynians thought they had a clear path of pursuit, that flight gave them an advantage. Time to see if I could even the odds.

  I knelt down, tracing invisible patterns along the splintery wood. Some charcoal or chalk would have made my life easier, but easy seemed to have taken a hiatus. The gestures helped my focus, but I’d have to hold the patterns in my mind.

  Five trios of armed Jansynians flying through the Web. All near-identical to my eye. I’d have to deal with them one at a time, because I wouldn’t be able to keep them separate in my head.

  All five had continued chasing Spark, Vogg, and Iris. I wasn’t sure if it was good or bad that I was lower on their priority list. For now, it meant I could work undisturbed.

  The lead group cut down, flying through a gap in the girders about twenty feet below my friends. In a second, they’d be ahead of Iris and the rest, cutting them off.

  I focused in on one of the loose-boarded walkways just above them, and with a hurried gesture and practiced twist of my mind, redirected some of the momentum of the last group of guards into the boards. The walkway splintered and boards spun down, right into the heads of two of the lead Jansynians.

  Another vehicle swung wide, on a route that would bring them around to flank. This time I pulled energy from the still-moving front car into a nearby net. This plan worked even better than the boards, as the netting came free and tangled around the hover-platform, fouling its engine somehow. They wobbled and sank, unable to continue pursuit.

  The third and fourth guard trios broke off from the pack and turned back towards me, drawing their guns as they came. Which answered the important question about their instructions regarding me—apparently I was a legal target to kill.

  I didn’t have the time or the tools to do a complete energy transference like I’d used to stop the car that had been chasing us. And I didn’t know enough about how the hovercrafts worked to be sure I could duplicate what I’d pulled off with the net. Which left only one choice.

  I ran.

  #

  I heard gunfire behind me. Vogg handling his pursuers. I tried to look back, but one of the big support struts blocked any view of my companions, and then I had to pay attention to my own footing.

  A shot from a Jansynian weapon burned through the plank I was running along. I jumped for a wide girder just below as another shot blackened the thick guy-wire above my head. The girder was as wide as I was tall, but slanted more than I’d realized. I couldn’t catch my balance and fell forward. I caught the edge, stopped myself from rolling off, but the fall had cost me any chance at escape. The Jansynians rose up on either side of me.

  I still had the gun in my robe. With however many bullets were left after I’d shot Micah. But what was the likelihood I’d be able to hit anything I aimed at? The Jansynians weren’t going to be cowed by me waving a weapon at them. If anything, it would get me killed faster.

  They wer
e so close. Close enough I could hear Seana’s voice issuing from their communication system. “Leave him! The Fyean’s your target.”

  They spun in the air, flew away, and I was out of tricks to stop them. No time for any magic grand enough to cause them real problems. No way to give chase. I just had to hope I’d given Iris and Vogg enough of an opening to manage their own escape.

  Seana. How had they…I had to warn Amelia. Had to let her know what happened. I couldn’t call her—didn’t dare use the wireless now that…

  The next step. I had to focus on the next step. A message to Amelia, and then get Spark safe into hiding. One thing after another, and I wouldn’t stop to think. I couldn’t…oh gods…Seana.

  I’d left the bike at the safehouse. Without it, there was no way I could get to Amelia’s house and back. But I could make it to P&B. Best case scenario, someone would be in the office. Worst case, I could leave a message. Even if Amelia wasn’t in, someone else would be able to get it to her.

  My heart pounded all the way down to the ground. Halfway through the climb, the adrenalin wore off and by the time I got to the street, I was more tired than I’d ever been in my life. No choice but to push forward, and so I did. I held myself to a walk, tried not to draw any undue attention. Once I got to the tube station, once I made it downtown, into the crush of people, I’d be safer.

  Safer. Not safe.

  In the tube station, I tried to watch every direction at once, but didn’t spot any Jansynian faces or anyone at all who seemed to be paying undue attention to me. Even once I was on the train, though, I didn’t relax. The car was near empty, and no one approached me, but still I couldn’t relax. I did what I could to steady myself by running through the pattern that would show me any Jansynian surveillance. I didn’t see any of the telltale blue glows, but I wasn’t confident of my concentration either. Possible the magic wasn’t working at all.