Steel Lily ARC

by Megan Curd

  Books and manila folders with papers spilling out were piled high on the edge of the desk. A rectangular light with a flexible neck craned over the center of the workspace and muted the natural light of the fire. Calligraphy pens and inkwells were scattered amongst the mess. Riggs sat behind his personal fortress, fingers interlaced and a curious smile splayed across his face.

  A boy stood beside him, silent. Riggs patted the boy’s back.

  “Thank you, Jaxon,” Riggs said, his eyes never leaving the boy beside him. I saw Jaxon flinch. Maybe that’s why he didn’t like me calling him by his full name. It reminded him of Riggs. “Asher, that will be all from you this evening. Perhaps you should go work in your study?”

  Asher nodded excitedly. “Yes, sir. That’s an excellent idea. Goodnight, sir.”

  “Goodnight, Asher.” Riggs’s eyes returned to the papers that lay in front of him. He looked bored. “And Jaxon. Goodnight as well.”

  Jaxon turned and left. I wanted to make sure he was okay, but my eyes remained on Mr. Riggs. The door snapped shut and I heard the glass rattle in the frame. I hoped he wouldn’t get in trouble for that later.

  Riggs sighed. “Jaxon is trouble, Miss Pike. You would do well to remember that.” He sorted the waterlogged pages in front of him into two separate groups, all the while chewing on his lip. He tossed a hand in the air, sending the pages flying. “Ungrateful for what he’s been provided, irreverent of the opportunities placed in front of him. No way to make him understand what I’ve sacrificed.”

  It didn’t sound like I was invited to partake in the conversation, so I remained quiet. For some reason, it was okay when I mentally berated Jaxon. Listening to Riggs do it felt wrong, like someone insulting a book they’d never read or disregarding a painting they didn’t understand.

  He looked up, a smile plastered on his face as usual. “I apologize, Miss Pike. This is none of your concern. I simply hope you find yourself in the company of some of our finer students soon.”

  I nodded.

  He stood and stretched. I couldn’t help myself. “Sir, if I may be so bold, where is your…your mechanical arm? I assumed you wore it all the time.”

  “Oh, that thing?” He gestured to the side of the desk, where the brass and copper creation I’d seen on his arm now leaned. A small piece of cardboard sat beneath it, catching oil as it dripped from one of the fingers. “That’s a prop, my dear.”

  “A prop?”

  “As the saying goes, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do,’” he said lightly. “You lived in the steam-producing mecca of our world. It was hardly appropriate for me to come and parade our dome’s electronics around. You wouldn’t trust me, wouldn’t understand. But,” he said, raising a finger as though a stroke of brilliance had struck him, “if I came and looked like one of you, you were more likely to hear me out.”

  Jaxon’s words rang in my ears. If you play your part, he’ll give you anything you want. I smiled and took a step toward the desk. “And you certainly managed to do that, Mr. Riggs.”

  I hoped my voice sounded sincere.

  Riggs smiled indulgently. He inclined his head and I saw his receding hairline. “Why thank you, Miss Pike.” He gestured to the plush armchair on my side of the desk. “Won’t you please sit? Now that you’re here, I’d love to discuss possibilities with you.”

  Riggs had an invisible pull on those around him, and I found myself following his directions without even thinking. Charisma oozed from him. It was easy to see where Jaxon got it. I reminded myself what Riggs was capable of by calling to mind images of Legs in Xander’s office. Jaxon having to wrestle Legs to the floor, Legs passed out and limbs splayed all over the blood-ridden tile. I suppressed a shudder. Was there some way I could help him? I vowed to go visit him later to see if he’d come to.

  I bowed my head as I took my seat. My mind worked in overtime to stay proper and polite. Legs crossed. A smile. Hands folded in my lap. “What do you mean, possibilities?”

  Riggs sat back down and rearranged the papers in front of him. He pushed a single blueprint to my side of the desk.

  A dome more massive than anything I could have imagined was laid out in white on the blue sheet of graph paper. Measurements and materials were listed on the left. He jabbed a finger proudly at the dome. “I want you to look at this little beauty.”

  “It’s similar to what we have here, isn’t it?”

  Riggs’s eyes brightened and he lifted his pointer fingers like a professor honing in on the peak of his lecture. “Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. This dome would be the one and only. We would unite all domes and live together in one place. It would be the restart of our world as we know it.”

  “That sounds like a great idea. The question is, why do you need me? Why do you need any of us that you have here?”

  He laughed gently. “Oh, dear Avery,”—it was the first time he’d used my given name, and it sounded like sweet honey layered over shards of broken glass—“You will soon learn that I’m a simple man with a vision. I need workers, people with abilities such as yours, to bring this vision to fruition.”

  “I doubt my ability to manipulate steam is worth much to you.”

  “But that’s where you’re wrong. You’re capable of more than manipulating steam. Like I said before, I believe you can create the elements, and that, love, is exactly what I want you to do. Create elements. Give my steel millers and alchemists the items they need. You’re very integral to my success.”

  “Say this is true,” I said quietly, hoping my voice didn’t quiver. “Say I can produce elements, why would I do that for you? I hardly decided to come here. Jaxon happened to show up on the night my home was ransacked by Polatzi and ‘saved’ me. A convenient turn of events, if I may be so bold.”

  Riggs’s congenial mask slipped for a fraction of a second, and I saw the man Jaxon spoke of that lurked beneath the surface. His lips curled and his hands balled into fists before he composed himself. He took a deep breath and swallowed his anger.

  I wished it were poison.

  “Miss Pike,” he said, smooth and sickly sweet, “It was the only way I was able to attain you in a safe manner.”

  “I don’t think Alice and I running through the streets, nearly having our lungs collapse, is a safe manner.”

  His fist hit the desk and rattled the stack of books, causing them to tumble off to the side. He puffed his chest out and swayed in his chair like a cobra waiting to strike. “Miss Pike, you’re trying my patience. I understand this has been quite a tumultuous day, but it gives you no right to speak to me in that tone. I need you to understand the delicacy of my situation. There was no ill-intent in my bringing you here.”

  I bowed my head, fear settling into the pit of my stomach. The conversation needed to be navigated to safer waters. “I apologize. It’s been a trying day. In my dome we question everything. You said that when we first spoke, remember?”

  “Indeed I do,” he said, rubbing his scrubby chin. “Perhaps I’ve been a bit hard on you. Please forgive my insolence.”

  Your insolence is probably terminal, I thought to myself, but managed to keep that internal.

  I smiled and pulled the blueprint to my lap to examine it. I tried to burn every line, every note, into my brain so I could tell Jaxon and Sari. “When can we start my lessons so I can do my part to make this dome a reality?”

  Riggs clapped his hands together, genuinely excited. “That’s the spirit I was looking for!” He came around the desk and gripped me in a side-arm hug. “Would you like to begin now? We could try for an hour, then you could return to your dormitory for the evening to rest?”

  “That sounds great,” I said, when inside I was scared to death of what he might be planning.

  With one hand on the small of my back, he gestured to the couch in the corner of the library. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  He disappeared up the black spiral staircase that was hidden in the corner of the alcove. His fo
otsteps echoed overhead and I waited, wondering how long he’d be gone.

  “Psst! Avery!”

  I jumped, and saw Sari and Alice peeking out of the nearest row of books. Sari’s hair was spiky and pointed in all directions, making her look like she licked a light socket, especially with her wide eyes. Alice looked like she was thrilled to be sneaking around. “What are you two doing here?”

  Sari waved her hands emphatically and pointed over her shoulder to the bookcase. On the topmost level, the last book had a tiny camera lens in the spine.

  Xander was right. There were cameras in more places than we could imagine.

  Alice lifted an encyclopedia and tossed it down the aisle. I heard the deep thud of the book, and watched the camera lens swivel in search of the sound. Sari took the opportunity to run to my side.

  “I’ve only got seventy seconds before the camera comes back, so listen. I’ve been doing some digging, and I think I uncovered some stuff about Riggs.”

  My eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

  She pressed a finger to my lips. “Riggs is coming back. Meet me back at the room, and I’ll show you. Alice is going to hunt down a paper trail if she can. Xander—”

  The sound of Riggs’s boots on the metal steps echoed, causing us to jump. “I need to go make sure I’m not on the cameras. Come straight back to the dorm when you’re done here. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

  Before I could make a sound, she slipped back into the rows of books and left me alone with my jumbled thoughts.

  Maybe Riggs wasn’t the wolf that Jaxon thought he was.

  Maybe Jaxon wasn’t a wolf, either.

  Or maybe I was deluding myself.

  Riggs came down the stairs with a smile. “All right, I thought we’d start out with a bang,” Riggs said. He was holding an empty glass bowl. “In the long run, I want to see if we can get you to change elements, but today I’d like to see if you can create one: water.”

  I laughed at the incredulity of it. “You want me to create water?”

  “Well, not create, no. Have you ever heard of the idea that molecules never go away, but instead they simply alter their construction? For instance, water can freeze into ice, or become steam. You already know how to create steam.”

  “I don’t create steam, Sir,” I corrected, “I just multiply what’s there.”

  Riggs held his hand up. “But that’s where you’re wrong. No other steam Elementalist could produce as much power as you could in Dome Four, correct?”

  “Yes, but — ”

  “But that’s where your ability differs. You create your elements. Sure, it’s easier to do it when you already have some of the element in front of you, but I believe you can make the elements bend to your will. I want you to try to fill this bowl with water.”

  The thought of having the abilities that Riggs described both excited and scared me. What would happen if he were right? What if Riggs was trying to help me? I looked at him hopefully. “You really think I can do it?”

  His smile was encouraging. He sat down beside me and put his hand on my shoulder. The leather shifted under his weight, and even while sitting down, he towered over me. “I don’t think you can do it, Miss Pike. I know you can. Give it a go.”

  I turned my attention onto the bowl and thought about water. Not the dirty, insect-ridden water of Dome Four, but the pure water that danced in the fountain here. I thought about rain falling from the heavens. Of beautiful waterfalls depicted in photographs, of rivers and streams and oceans that were once unpolluted and drinkable.

  Nothing happened.

  Riggs’s smile fell ever so slightly. “Are you trying, Miss Pike?”

  Embarrassment crept in. “I…I think so.”

  “Try harder. Focus your entire being on your end goal,” he coached.

  Still, nothing happened.

  Riggs sighed, and stood once more. “Let’s try another element.”

  He walked to his desk, where an unlit candle sat on the edge, its wick still white. His eyes scanned over to me and he appeared to be in deep thought. I glanced at the bookcase, and saw that camera lens was focused on me. I quickly averted my eyes.

  “What are you looking at, my dear?” Riggs asked.

  “I was searching for inspiration,” I said, hoping he hadn’t followed where my eyes strayed. I didn’t know whom to trust, and I didn’t want to put my hope in someone that would ultimately let me down. Riggs seemed too good to be true on all accounts.

  “Very well,” Riggs said, seemingly mollified by my response. “I would like you to try to light this candle.”

  “I’ve never done anything with fire before.”

  Riggs’s voice was kind as he pulled the bowl away from me and replaced it with the candle. “Then I guess it’s time you tried, isn’t it?”

  I swallowed, and hoped fire would consume the wick. That a blue-hot flame would emerge from nothing, simply because I wanted it to.

  Because Riggs said I could.

  It didn’t happen.

  Instead, I swayed in my seat from the exertion, the familiar exhaustion from creating steam creeping through my body. It felt like I’d given three weeks worth of steam in the two feeble attempts.

  Riggs steadied me as I put a hand over my eyes. Obviously something was happening, even if the results weren’t visible. The room was suddenly too bright, and a headache thrummed at the base of my neck. When Riggs spoke, his voice was paternal. “It’s okay, I was foolish to expect you to produce any real results on the first day. We’ll try again tomorrow. Meet with me here in the library. Please get a good night’s sleep, we have much to do.”

  I pushed the bile threatening to rise in my throat back down. “Excellent.” I stood to go, but Riggs addressed me again.

  “And Avery, I would like to talk with you about the location of your parents.”

  Heat spread like wildfire to my limbs. They weren’t dead. I hoped for it so long, but he’d all but confirmed it. I was afraid to hope, afraid to ask the question I’d prayed to know the answer to for so endless nights. “My parents; they’re not dead?”

  “No, no, they’re very much alive. If we work together, we can manage a reunion.”

  His words were saccharine sweet, but the meaning behind them was clear: work with me and I’ll give you your parents. Don’t work with me, and they remain a mystery.

  I forced a smile that made me feel as fake as Riggs. I glanced back at the arm that sat by the desk. It had been fully functional when he wore it in my dome. My eyes returned to Riggs, who held me captive in his gaze.

  “May I have proof? You know, to give me something to work toward?”

  He smiled. “Are you saying that you don’t trust me, Miss Pike?”

  I spluttered, trying to think of a response to get us out of dangerous waters. “I—no, it’s just that—I meant…”

  Riggs held up his hand to silence me, his smile never faltering. “No need to explain yourself. I understand.”

  He went to his desk and rummaged in a drawer for a moment before pulling out a tablet. His movements were swift and sure, as though he’d done this numerous times. The tablet began to ring, and a voice came on that I would know from anywhere.

  “Mr. Riggs, what do we owe this honor?”

  It was my mother.

  “Mrs. Pike, I was wanting to make sure you were doing all right in your new quarters?”

  “Oh,” my mom’s voice said, audibly strained. I wondered what her new quarters were like. “They’re wonderful. Thank you for checking on us.”

  “No problem, ma’am. I have a surprise for you as well. I’ll bring it in a few days.”

  “That’s very gracious of you, Sir.”

  Mr. Riggs looked directly at me as he spoke, his face full of—what was that? Sincerity? “I am nothing if not concerned for the people in my charge.”

  “That you are, Mr. Riggs.”

  Without another word he hung up, his eyes never leaving mine. “Is that enough incenti
ve for you?”

  I wanted to say yes. I wanted to say no. He’d called my mother, and not even offered for me to speak to her. Her voice—so gentle, just like I remembered it, yet so foreign—echoed in the recesses of my mind like an old song that I remembered every lyric to once the music began. I wanted to hear her again, wanted to speak to her and tell her everything that had happened these past years. Tell her about Legs and Jaxon and Alice and everything.

  Riggs broke into my moment by clearing his throat.

  I hadn’t realized my head was in my hands; that I was crying, until I had to look up to him.

  His eyes were eerily familiar.

  Then I realized they were Jaxon’s.

  “Do you believe me now?”

  “I do.”

  He broke his magnetic gaze and returned to the papers on his desk. “Good.”

  I took that as my cue to go and backed out of the library.

  With a smile as dangerously kind as his, it would be suicide to turn away.

  My heel touched the door and I turned to leave, but Riggs’s voice called from across the room. “And Avery, next time you look for cameras, be more inconspicuous. It’s a rookie mistake.”

  So he’d known there was a camera. Of course he did.

  I straightened my shoulders and stood tall as I opened the door. “I’ll be sure not be a rookie for long.”

  Riggs chuckled. “With the friends you’re making, I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

  CHAPTER

  FOURTEEN

  My thoughts raced as I walked through the empty atrium. Riggs talked about other students, but I never saw anyone else today. What did he do with them? Lock them away in cages? If he really was crazy, it didn’t bode well for the others’ well being.

  Down the dormitory hall I heard laughter, as if attempting to prove me wrong. To prove that I was the crazy one, that I was the one not appreciating everything Dome Three provided. Riggs wasn’t abusing my parents, wherever they were…right?