The Dark Calling

by Kresley Cole

  Kentarch said, "If we get into trouble, I believe I've conserved enough strength to teleport us back to the mainland."

  Jack and I jerked our gazes at him.

  "Eating does, in fact, fuel an Arcana's replenishment."

  "Well, then, that changes things, non? I doan like to be last in line, me. What do you say, Kentarch? Want to see what this chariot can do?"

  "Open it up, hunter."

  Jack glanced at me. "I know how you like to go fast."

  "Then kick her in the guts, Cajun."

  He slid a grin over at me, and I spied the resemblance between him and Brandon, his dead half brother. For a moment, I was transported a million years back to before the Flash. A sunny morning over a Louisiana road . . .

  Jack floored it, kicking up rooster-tails of sand, bouncing our way into the rush. What prize were we all chasing?

  After cutting off two drivers at once, he veered aggressively toward a third, who flinched away. He swerved around a stalled-out truck nearly as big as ours, then charged straight up a narrowing slot between two vehicles. We gained on the lead car, a souped-up buggy with oversize exhaust pipes.

  Jack feinted left, then gunned it to the right, maneuvering around the buggy. We'd just passed it when our headlights illuminated a hand-painted sign: JUBILEE. All good things flow to us.

  Joules leaned forward. "What's that coming up?"

  Through the fog, I spied a structure. I worked the spotlight higher and higher over a looming crush of shipping containers. In between them, sailboat masts jutted threateningly.

  "It's a giant wall," Jack said. Torches lit a wide opening, with a pair of huge gates. "Guess we're heading inside."

  With no idea what we'd find. As we neared the entrance, I muttered, "Please don't let this be a cannibal trap."

  We zoomed through the gates. Ahead of us was a line of men, dressed in hazmat suits and aiming rifles at us.

  "Jack!"

  He slammed on the brakes. The vehicle skidded in the sand, stopping mere feet in front of the men. Yet they made no move, seemed more concerned with holding the line--against us. Each one wore a red armband. Designating a unit or something?

  Another two dozen or so vehicles careened inside behind us as the gates began to swing closed. They slammed shut, blocking several other cars.

  My anxiety ratcheted up. "This is some kind of trap."

  Yet the other new arrivals were celebrating, yelling. "We did it!" "We're in!" "We beat the rush!"

  Outside the wall, the excluded drivers honked and cursed. What would happen to them?

  Everyone else began turning off their engines, so we did as well.

  I squinted, trying to make out what lay beyond the cordon of guards through the drifting fog. "What do you think is back there?"

  Jack rubbed his chin. "Something worth guarding. Check out those rifles. They're fitted with bayonets. Saves bullets." He gazed around, admiring the battlements. "We must be right at the trench. They built this stronghold on the edge of a drop-off, just like I built Fort Arcana."

  I jumped when a PA system crackled to life. A male announcer said, "Please remain in your vehicle. Quarantine begins now."

  My heart sank. "Quarantine?"

  "We'll be fine." Jack said. "Any car carrying a plague victim probably would've been heading for the Sick House. Not here." He patted my knee. "This is a good sign, peekon. First place I've seen with an active containment zone. Maybe life is still possible out here. We're in an actual settlement."

  Like the one we'd dreamed of building at Haven--at least, before the threat of snowmageddon. "How long will a quarantine last?"

  "I'd guess a day or so."

  "And you think it'll be safe and good inside this place?" What sort of leader would they have? A monster like the Lovers' father? Or a militia man along the lines of Cou Rouge? A freak like the Hierophant with his cannibal miners?

  All I knew about Jubilee's leader? He likely wouldn't be a great one.

  "Non. I doan necessarily think that. But what if?"

  A half dozen more hazmat men passed through the line of guards, heading toward the vehicles. They carried what looked like medical gear.

  I frowned at them. "Do you think they'll test for plague?"

  Jack tensed in his seat. "Kentarch, nobody takes her blood, no."

  The Chariot put his hand on the truck, readying to teleport. "Understood."

  The men approached us, then walked right on by. I swiveled my head around to watch them stop at other vehicles, apparently at random, to take blood samples.

  Joules huffed. "No one's interested in us? Careful that I don't feel slighted."

  "What good would random samples do?" Kentarch wondered. "Perhaps they possess some kind of new technology."

  As we waited, I tried to block out the reverberating clangs of the people outside banging on Jubilee's metal wall, their frantic calls: "Please let us in!" "We'll starve out here!" "There must be room!"

  I asked, "What will happen to them?"

  Jack shrugged. "They could be second string, in case some of us doan make the cut."

  Not twenty minutes later, the PA announcer said, "Leave your vehicle and enter the settlement. Welcome to Jubilee!"

  When the guards lowered their rifles and left their posts, folks scrambled out of their cars, hurrying to get inside.

  Joules snorted. "So much for a quarantine."

  I worried my bottom lip. "Maybe there's another staging place."

  "I'll go in with Joules." Jack collected his crossbow, strapping it over his shoulder. "Kentarch, you stay here with Evie. Be ready to bug out."

  "Look." I pointed out a woman with a kid among the newcomers. "They might know something we don't." I wasn't confident on that score, but I didn't want Jack going anywhere without me. "I'm coming with."

  He scrubbed a hand over his mouth, clearly weighing the risks. "Fine. Hood on. Bag on your back. And try to keep your head down." He turned to Kentarch. "You keep ahold of her at all times. If we get separated, try to get back to the cave where we met up. That'll be our BOL." Bug-out location.

  The Chariot nodded.

  Once I'd covered my hair and donned my bug-out bag, Jack cast me a wary look. "Let's all stay sharp in there." He engaged the Beast's security measures, and we hopped out onto the sandy shelf.

  With Jack in the lead, Kentarch and me next in line, and Joules bringing up the rear, we entered Jubilee.

  28

  The other newcomers chattered and jostled excitedly, acting like they'd just won the lottery. As the fog shifted and the settlement came into view, I began to see why.

  Lights and music greeted us inside the walls of a sprawling, sea-floor town. Along what looked like the main thoroughfare, ships sat on rusted cradles, some connected by metal rope bridges.

  Shipping containers had been stacked high, with ladders clinging to the sides like climbing ivy. Laundry hung out to dry beside makeshift doors and windows. People lived in those tin cans?

  At the foot of one container building was an open-air restaurant with sails for a roof. Food scents made me salivate.

  Kentarch's watchful gaze swept the area. "They've got fuel here. Lots of it."

  Jack nodded. "They must be working a derelict cruise ship or something. All the boats we passed on the shelf probably had supplies just for the taking."

  He'd once told me that folks often forgot to roll ships in dry dock. But these Jubileans had been savvy enough to head to this desolate place and hit all these wrecked vessels. A ballsy move.

  Among the hundreds of residents we saw, many were smiling as they went about their business, and they waved when they passed each other.

  I even spied a few females. I nudged Jack. "Women walk freely."

  "Means they got order here."

  Kentarch asked, "How are they enforcing it?"

  "Good question." Something was off with the residents, something I couldn't put my finger on.

  Then it hit me. Aside from the hazmat guys, no
one was armed. No machetes or rifles or pistol holsters. Jack and Kentarch looked overaccessorized.

  When we followed the main street to what must be a central square, vendors swarmed us. "Hot rice! Fresh off the Queen Mary!" "Spaghetti from the Carnival Sunshine!" "Canned tuna! The chicken of the sea from the Princess of the Seas." "MREs from the USS Stryker." One merchant had nothing but peach preserves and jars of olives. Another peddled liters of liquor.

  Joules spun in a circle. "I haven't seen this much grub in one place since the world went tits up."

  Jack raised a brow at a half-gallon bottle of Jack Daniels. "Mercy me." Seeming to shake off his thirst, he asked a spaghetti vendor, "Who's the boss around here?"

  I pictured a militia type. With a big belly, jowls, and leering eyes.

  "The Ciborium rules Jubilee and all the oceans." He winked as he said, "One Ciborium in particular. You'll see."

  One what? I raised a finger to correct this guy--Actually, Circe rules the oceans--but thought better of it.

  The PA announcer chimed in once more: "Orientation begins now. Make your way toward the MSY Calices and gather in the square off the bow."

  Twelve or so official-looking men, all wearing red armbands, waved us forward along the main drag, past more container buildings. The men carried rifles with those wicked looking bayonets. I suspected the hazmat guys had done a wardrobe change.

  At the end of the street a gigantic yacht sat on a cradle.

  Kentarch said, "It must be lined up parallel to the very edge of the trench."

  Elevated platforms had been attached all around it. Ground spotlights lovingly illuminated the exterior.

  The pristine vessel looked totally out of place among the other Flash-fried wrecks.

  Jack narrowed his gaze. "Looks like something my father would've wanted."

  Even Mr. Radcliffe couldn't have afforded a rock-star megayacht like that.

  On the spacious front deck was a seashell throne worthy of the Priestess herself. Colorful pennants snapped in the breeze.

  In addition to all of us new arrivals, a crowd was gathering. As we waited for the "orientation," Kentarch kept close to my side, Jack standing on my other.

  The armband guys filed out onto the deck. Were they the Ciborium? Of varying ages, they flanked the throne, but none of them sat in it.

  A petite brunette in a fancy silver ball gown exited from the yacht's interior, seeming to glide across the bow. She wore seahorse earrings and a seashell belt and had an unfocused, blissed-out look in her eyes. She was attractive in a soft way, like a stoned fashion model.

  She gracefully took the throne. The leader of Jubilee was a she? A young she? The girl couldn't have been much older than Jack.

  When cheers broke out, I peered around. Most of the men in the audience looked as if they were in love with her.

  She waved a fragile hand, and everyone fell silent. "Welcome, new Jubileans," she said in a scarcely raised voice. Even the winds seemed to die down for her.

  I wished Sol were here to experience the spectacle. The master of self-expression would've appreciated her themes. As would Circe.

  "As many of you know, I am Lorraine Ciborium. My guards"--she indicated the armband guys--"are all Ciborium as well. Our family welcomes you to our settlement, a place of dreams. Whenever we have more bounty than we have hands to harvest, we signal to the old coast, to the faithful awaiting, and open our gates. You are the latest to receive the fortune of entry. Here there is no slavery, plague, or cannibalism. Here we salvage everything we could ever want. All good things flow to us."

  The armband guys and most of the crowd repeated, "All good things flow to us."

  Which sounded a little creepy. Still, I was psyched to see a woman leader. She'd have to be better than the ones we'd crossed swords with before.

  Right?

  Lorraine continued, "The Ciborium are on hand to help newcomers acclimate to life in Jubilee. Our currency is food and fuel. Aside from plenty to eat and warm fires for all, we have a restaurant to prepare feasts, tailors for new clothes, and machinists. We have religious officiants and a physician."

  Jack gave me a meaningful look. "Maybe somebody to deliver Tee?"

  I gazed away. How long did he think we'd be here?

  Lorraine said, "Jubilee has been made possible because of creativity, ingenuity, and dreams." She seemed distant, almost detached--nothing like the charismatic leader Jack had been--but the people here seemed to revere her.

  Maybe a girl leader was exactly what the world needed.

  "Use your imaginations and follow your hearts," she said grandly, then added in a darker tone, "along with the rules. If you break the laws of Jubilee, you will walk the plank." A ground spotlight flared to life, directing our attention to the trench side of the ship.

  Two sailboat masts had been soldered to the side deck, jutting out at forty-five-degree angles over the trench, a plank attached between them. Like a suspension bridge to nowhere.

  A pair of armband guards with bayonets shoved a bound man toward that plank.

  "Please! No!" the battered-looking prisoner begged. "I didn't do anything wrong! They set me up!"

  Lorraine spoke over him: "Though all good things flow to us, this thief tried to smuggle out three cans of tuna, valuable protein, from the trench."

  All around us, the crowd chanted, "Plank! Plank! Plank!"

  She nodded to the guards. They jabbed those bayonets at their prisoner, forcing him onto the plank.

  Halfway out, he yelled, "Please, no! I didn't do what they said--" The plank pivoted at its midpoint like a seesaw, dumping the man.

  He screamed all the way down--what seemed like an entire minute of horror. How deep was that trench?

  I gazed around at the Jubileans' satisfied expressions and whispered, "Did the theft of three cans merit death?"

  Kentarch answered, "There are strict laws and swift justice. Considering the alternatives . . ."

  Widespread kidnapping, rape, murder.

  Lorraine stood, the breeze ruffling her dress. She seemed frail, no match for an apocalypse--or for a settlement mainly composed of men. How did she keep power?

  "Obey the rules, my dear ones, and dream of bounty. My heart is with you." She turned to go, followed by more cheers.

  "We love you, Lorraine!" "All good things!" "Long live the Ciborium." I heard one woman yell, "Our queen of hearts!"

  As the crowd dispersed, Kentarch said, "Time for recon." He jerked his chin toward what looked like a raised observation deck at the edge of the trench.

  Jack nodded. "Let's go."

  We climbed the slippery metal steps, then eased toward the cobbled-together guardrail to peer below us.

  Covering the trench wall were old nets and dangling debris. Milky-white shells clung against gravity. Oversize spotlights shone like movie premiere lights in reverse, illuminating the crevasse.

  "Jaysus," Joules breathed. "Take a gander at that."

  What must have been hundreds of feet down, wrecks littered the trench--tankers, cruise liners, submarines. The recovering ocean lapped among them and had reclaimed some, but ships were still visible as far as the eye could see.

  Jack said, "When the Flash struck, they must've all got sucked down there, piling up."

  Swells sloshed between the walls of the vessels, a giant wave machine. Winds howled in the confines of those artificial cliffs. Flecks of foam wafted upward like blowing snow.

  With rhythmic banging and welding sparks, scores of men worked on the wrecks. A spiderweb of pulley systems stretched down to the ship graveyard.

  Jack's gray eyes glimmered. "For true, they've got more bounty than they know what to do with."

  I asked him, "How much could there possibly be?"

  "One of those subs"--he indicated an enormous one balanced precariously on top--"might've been provisioned for a months-long mission under an ice cap. Lots of cans and freeze-dried packs. And we're talking three full meals a day."

  Joules said, "
That cruise ship over yonder would've been outfitted for thousands of Yanks to stuff themselves."

  Jack pointed to the zigzagging stairway attached to the trench wall. "See those steps leading to that ocean liner? It's gotta be the gateway for the entire operation." Metal wires and ladders led from the liner to other vessels. "Connecting them for access is clever. I'd bet they even cut out sections from the hull to reach ships beneath. Must be like a maze to work." The possibility of navigating it clearly had him stoked.

  I couldn't summon the same enthusiasm. "Sounds dangerous to me." I didn't see any women heading down to salvage, but I wasn't surprised. There were so few of us left; I doubted Jubilee would've allowed it.

  Kentarch said, "Great risk, great reward."

  When a sudden spray of welding sparks cascaded below, Jack flashed me a grin. "Sourcing in wrecks? This is my goddamned dream job. Sign me up." He loved all things inventive. Jubilee was like an altar to inventiveness. He all but vibrated with excitement.

  "How cool will this be?" With his skin nearly sparking, Joules said, "Never been on a ship before! Much less a submarine."

  "I like it here," Jack said. "Feels like industry. Like possibility."

  At that moment, he and the Tower looked like teenage boys.

  Kentarch remained reserved. "How long will we remain here? I need to return to the mission."

  Joules flushed, as if he'd briefly forgotten about Gabriel and now felt guilty. "Me too."

  I thought, Me three, but said nothing.

  Jack cast me an appraising look. "You got a clock on your interests as well. So do we set a time limit?"

  "How can we?" I wiped sea mist from my face. "It all depends on Circe."

  Kentarch gestured to the trench. "As you said, this must be where the Priestess wanted you to go. And now we've arrived. Can you sense her nearby, Empress?"

  Not at all. Yes, my instincts had told me to come here; were they as wonky as my sense of direction? "Um, not as of right now." In fact, the ocean felt dead. I had no special connection to the sea or its creatures, but I could sense life. This water had none--as if the ocean had gone numb.

  No wonder Circe sounded increasingly exhausted. Maybe she suffered from more than the bitter cold. Maybe she suffered because there were no more mysteries of the deep.

  Joules crossed his arms over his chest. "Say the Priestess finds a weapon to kill the Hanged Man. Me and Kentarch canna help Evie wield it, or we risk getting caught by the sphere." He looked at Jack. "Are you goin' to let the Empress storm the castle to fight Arcana by herself?"