Dominion Rising: 23 Brand New Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels

by White, Gwynn

  Mr. Owens glanced between them, then scurried after Solon.

  Briar watched them go. “That’s it?” she asked. “Hell, I at least hoped to knee him.”

  When Grayson didn’t answer, she turned to face him. She expected a smile at her crudeness, but he was still staring after Solon.

  “Grayson?”

  He made no move.

  “You still in there?” She took a step closer, reaching out a hand.

  A clatter sounded behind her and she turned with a gasp, expecting that Solon had launched a new attack. Instead, the crane holding Eli had released, lowering him to the floor. The moment his feet touched, the bent metal pole that held his upper body unwound and fell away.

  Briar turned back to Grayson. “Did you—”

  Without warning, he fell to his knees. His eyes closed and he swayed.

  She stepped forward and caught him against her, noting the odd warmth of his armor.

  “Grayson?” She touched his cheek and found it like ice. “My God, you’re freezing.”

  “Briar?” he mumbled her name.

  “Yes, I’m here.” He had practically collapsed against her, and damn, he was heavy. She helped him lie down, though he had to lie on his side due to the metal plates along his back.

  “Briar, I’m ready to tell you who I am.”

  She smiled, about to tell him that wasn’t necessary, but when he turned his head to gaze up at her with those alien eyes, she didn’t. “Who are you?” she whispered.

  “I’m Grayson Martel.” He took a breath. “Ferromancer.”

  “Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Martel. Now, how do we get this armor off?” He’d be easier to move without it, and they definitely needed to move.

  “It’s not armor,” he muttered.

  She waited, but he didn’t elaborate. “Grayson?”

  “Call him to you,” he answered.

  “Lock?” She paused, but when Grayson said nothing, she continued. “Lock, come here.”

  The armor that wasn’t armor rolled back off Grayson’s skin, collecting into a silver sphere on the floor beside him. A moment, and the ball morphed into the familiar dragon. Well, not entirely familiar. He was a little bigger and gold now accented his scales.

  “Lock,” she whispered.

  A whirr of happiness, and he sprang up on her shoulder.

  She brushed him under his chin and turned back to Grayson. Without the armor, he was once again clad in only his pants. The scar down the center of his chest was a livid red against his extremely pale skin.

  “Grayson?” She reached out and touched his shoulder. God, he was so cold. “Are you still with me?”

  Nothing.

  She rose up on her knees, intending to push him over onto his back and gasped. Along his spine, the plates were still visible. They weren’t part of his armor; they protruded from his skin as if each vertebra had grown a silver dorsal fin. Each fin-shaped plate was perhaps an inch long at the base and tapered to a wicked-looking point. Blood oozed from the base of each one where it must have torn through his skin.

  “Lock, did you forget something?” she asked.

  He moaned and rubbed against the side of her neck. She took that as a no.

  “Dear God, what happened to him?” Eli whispered from above her. She hadn’t heard him walk over.

  Not wanting to look, but unable to deny her curiosity, she lifted one of Grayson’s eyelids. The eye had rolled back, but she could see enough of his iris to verify that his eyes were human once more.

  Leaning back, she rested her hands on her thighs. “He’s out cold.” She looked up at Eli. He was frowning at Grayson. “We can’t leave him here.” Not with those metal fins growing out of his back. “Can you carry him?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Eli?”

  “He’s a ferromancer.”

  “Yes.” She was still coming to terms with that herself.

  Eli turned his frown on her. “Did you know?”

  “Of course not.” She pushed herself to her feet. “Did you? Is that why you’ve disliked him all along?” She very much doubted that Eli knew, but at least it would be some explanation for his dislike.

  “No. I just…” Eli turned his frown on Grayson once more. “I never trusted him. I knew he wasn’t telling us everything.”

  “We took him captive. He hardly had a reason to be honest with us.”

  Eli maintained his silence.

  “Are you going to help me with him or not?” she asked.

  Eli’s shoulders slumped. “I can’t carry him through the streets with those spikes sticking out of his back.”

  “True.” She rubbed her chin to hide her smile. Eli would help her. “I wonder what Solon did with his coat.”

  Lock jumped from her shoulder and flew across the foundry.

  “Lock?” she called in a loud whisper, afraid to raise her voice. Solon may not be out of earshot.

  Lock didn’t fly far before landing on the other side of the busted vat. He returned a moment later, carrying Grayson’s black coat in his talons.

  “Thank you,” she said as Lock dropped the coat into her hands. She lifted her gaze to Eli’s. “Can you still manage with those metal fins? They look sharp.”

  He sighed, clearly not pleased. “As long as he don’t have nothing down his front.”

  “He doesn’t.” She stepped to the side, giving Eli plenty of room.

  Eli dropped to a knee beside him and, gripping one arm, pulled Grayson into a seated position. The scar on his chest was glaringly obvious. She saw the way Eli frowned when he glanced at it, but he said nothing. Oddly, it bothered her that Eli had seen it. Perhaps because she knew how much it bothered Grayson to have it viewed.

  Eli gripped Grayson’s other arm, pulling him closer. “His skin is cold.”

  “I know.” She crossed her arms. “I intend to put him in the cook’s bunk and fire up the stove.”

  Eli looked up.

  “Don’t give me that. The poor man is like that because he came to my defense. He almost died. He still might.” She blinked, and a warm tear rolled down her cheek, surprising her.

  Eli watched her scrub the tear from her face. “All right, Miss Briar.” With an ease she envied, he pulled Grayson over his shoulder and rose to his feet. She had to roll up on her toes to drape the coat over him.

  “For a little guy, he’s heavy,” Eli commented.

  “He’s not that little.” She’d wager that Grayson was at least six feet tall. “Everyone is small to you, Eli.”

  “I meant thin,” Eli corrected.

  She wouldn’t call Grayson thin, either. Perhaps lean would be a better description.

  “Do you reckon it’s the metal?” Eli asked, lowering his voice.

  The notion made her a little queasy. “I don’t know.” She turned back the way they had come. “I’ll walk ahead and make sure that guard isn’t around.”

  Lock made a sound of inquiry.

  Briar turned her head to study him. “You can check for us?” she surmised. “Those silver scales are eye-catching, especially now with the gold.”

  Lock stood a little taller, his next sound assertive, and maybe a touch indignant.

  “All right,” she relented. “Don’t get caught.”

  With something very close to a huff, Lock sprang into the air and flew off toward the train door they’d used to enter the building.

  Briar glanced over to find Eli watching her. “What?” she asked.

  “You understand him.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve been around him more, and his body language is very expressive.”

  “You can’t have known him for more than five days, and he’s made of metal. There’s no body to read.”

  “Just wait until you get to know him better.”

  “Uh-huh.” Eli headed for the door, Grayson’s unmoving form draped over his shoulder.

  Briar frowned after him, not sure how to take his comment, but at least he was helping her. At the mom
ent, that was all she could ask for.

  18

  They made their way through the streets, sticking to the back alleys where they could. Fortunately, this area was populated by factories, which were currently closed for the evening, so there were few people about.

  Eli walked quickly, and Briar was forced to lengthen her stride. She was almost jogging by the time they reached the docks.

  Since boatmen lived on their boats and often made overnight hauls, the docks weren’t as deserted as the streets around the factory district. She had a moment of anxiety when she found a different boat in the berth where she’d been docked, then Eli spied her boat at the far end of the pier.

  A lantern glowed on the deck of the aft cargo hold, and as they approached, she saw that the crew was gathered around the card table. The gangplank was down, so they had no trouble slipping aboard.

  “Is this how you celebrate your first night without a captain?” she asked.

  Jimmy came to his feet first, overturning the card table in his haste. Zach managed to capture the bottle of whiskey before it hit the deck, while Benji stared at them with wide eyes.

  “Captain!” Jimmy cried. “What are you doing here? Did they let you go?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “How did you get Mr. Grayson back?” Benji asked. “Is he hurt?”

  Briar looked up, meeting Eli’s gaze. “We got him away from that ferromancer, but he’s not well.” She pulled the coat off Grayson.

  “Dear God,” Benji said, staring at Grayson’s back. “Are those spikes?”

  Zach stared in wide-eyed horror as well.

  “That ferromancer did a number on him,” Eli surprised her by answering.

  “Sweet Jesus,” Jimmy whispered. “How did the ferromancer do that?”

  Briar bit her lip. She didn’t want to lie to them, but she didn’t think Grayson would want her spilling his secrets.

  “Did he make him soulless like that other feller?” Jimmy continued. “You said that one had all his innards replaced with metal.”

  “No, Mr. Grayson isn’t soulless, but he’s in a bad way,” she answered. “Eli’s going to put him in the cook’s bunk, and I’m going to light the stove. He’s chilled through.”

  Jimmy nodded, his eyes as wide as Zach’s had been.

  “Would you get us underway?” she asked him.

  “The boat’s not to be moved unless Andrew gives us leave.” Jimmy didn’t look happy about that.

  She hesitated. If they helped her take the boat, they wouldn’t be able to claim ignorance next time they were caught. “I can’t ask any of you to break the law, but I don’t know what to do with Mr. Grayson.”

  Zach patted his own chest and gave her a firm nod.

  “You’ll help?” she asked.

  Zach dipped his chin in agreement.

  “What about Benji? If you help me—”

  “I want to help, too,” Benji spoke up. “You’ve been very good to us and so has Mr. Grayson. It wouldn’t be right to abandon you both in your hour of need.”

  Zach clapped Benji on the shoulder and nodded again.

  “You’re not leaving me behind,” Jimmy said. “And if that damn ferromancer hurt our cook, we need to help get him healed. We’re a crew.”

  She smiled at the way he’d claimed Grayson, though it wasn’t a career choice Grayson had made. She looked up at Eli.

  “I’ll put him in the cook’s bunk,” Eli answered.

  “Thank you.” She gripped his forearm. “Thank you all.”

  “Go tend him,” Jimmy said. “We’ll get ready to shove off.”

  She agreed and followed Eli to her cabin. He lowered Grayson to the bunk with surprising care. Well, maybe the care was so he didn’t cut himself. Once he had Grayson lying on his side, he straightened.

  “He’ll probably shred the blankets.” Eli frowned at Grayson’s unconscious form. “Mattress, too, if he rolls over.”

  “So be it.” She grabbed the blanket off the end of the bed and pulled it over him.

  “You didn’t tell the crew he’s a ferromancer.”

  She straightened. “I don’t feel it’s my secret to tell.”

  Eli studied her a moment, then walked to the stove. To her surprise, he began to prepare it for lighting.

  “Thank you, Eli.”

  He glanced back at her. “I don’t like you getting mixed up in this, Miss Briar.”

  “Too late for that.”

  He grunted, but said nothing else. She turned her attention to gathering her meager doctoring supplies, though she wasn’t certain what she could do for Grayson. She didn’t even know what was truly wrong with him.

  She was filling the teakettle to heat some water when Eli turned away from the lit stove.

  “Guess I’d better get to the tiller.” He headed for the door.

  Briar watched him go, wanting to offer some word of reassurance, but she had no idea what that might be.

  Eli opened the door and abruptly came to a stop. “Miss Briar?” he called to her, though he didn’t face her.

  Unease crawled down her spine at Eli’s hesitant tone. “What is it?” She walked to the door and Eli stepped aside, allowing her to exit the cabin and join him in the cargo hold.

  She stumbled to a stop.

  “Stealing my boat again, Bridget?” Andrew asked.

  Briar stared at her cousin. “What are you doing here?” Had the jail informed him that she had escaped?

  “I hired a boy to watch the boat. He was to alert me at the first sign of anyone making preparations to leave.”

  Damn. She glanced toward the dock, but didn’t see a police wagon this time. Zach and Benji stood with a pair of the mules, though neither was hitching the team. They were both watching the boat.

  “You’re supposed to be in jail,” Andrew reminded her.

  Fisting her hands, she took a step closer. “How dare you lock me up for taking my own boat.”

  “We’ve been over this. You’ll be returning to that jail cell and as a repeat offender, I doubt you’ll get out any time soon.”

  “She’s not going anywhere,” Eli said.

  “Aye, that’s the truth,” Jimmy said from the roof of her cabin.

  Andrew lifted his gaze to look at her crewmen. The lantern light caught in his eyes, making his pupils contract.

  Briar gasped as she noticed that his eyes were no longer green. His irises were steel gray and appeared to be made of fine, overlapping layers of metal that slid over each other as his pupils shrank.

  “Andrew,” she whispered. “What has Solon done to you?” Had all of this been Solon’s idea? She had known Andrew would be angry about the boat, but arresting her had been so over the top.

  “Done to me?” Andrew abruptly grinned, a manic glee in his metallic eyes. “He’s given me immortality.”

  Briar stared at him.

  Andrew barked a short laugh. “You look envious, Bridget.”

  “I look horrified. You let him make you soulless.”

  “The process is not yet complete, but it will be once I sell the boat.”

  “Huh?” Yes, he had lost his mind.

  “The money, Bridget. All my funds are tied up in investments. The only asset I can make liquid is the boat.”

  “You’re paying him to make you soulless. Well, that’s not so bad then.” She rolled her eyes.

  “I’m paying for this huge international gala he’s planning.” Andrew stood a little straighter, clearly proud of the fact.

  “Solon’s throwing a party?”

  “It’s none of your concern. You’ll be rotting in jail.”

  “No she won’t,” a new voice said.

  Andrew spun away from her, clearing her view of the gangplank. She blinked in surprise as Uncle Liam stepped onto her boat. Something glinted in his hand, and she saw that he held a small pistol like none she’d ever seen. Though the shiny silver metal was suspiciously familiar.

  “What’s happened to you, Andrew?” Liam asked.r />
  Andrew’s manic grin didn’t falter. “I’ve been given immortality.” He spread his hands, offering himself as an illustration.

  “Oh no, lad. I’m afraid you’ve been deceived. You are simply another man’s toy.”

  Briar frowned at Liam’s word choice. Solon had called Owens his toy.

  Andrew dropped his arms and glared at Liam. “No, it is you who’ve been deceived. I will show you.” Without warning, he sprang at Liam.

  Briar gasped, well aware of the strength and speed of the soulless. She was about to shout a warning when Liam fired.

  A bolt of red light shot from the muzzle of the little pistol, though it didn’t make a sound. The light hit Andrew square in the chest. He jerked to a stop and threw his arms wide. His body convulsed, though he didn’t move or fall. He threw back his head, and like the time Grayson had attacked Owens in that alley, silver light erupted from Andrew’s mouth and eyes. An instant later, he collapsed on the deck with a hollow thump.

  “What the hell?” Eli whispered.

  “Is he…dead?” Briar asked.

  “No more dead than he was,” Liam answered. He walked past Andrew’s prone form without a glance. “Where’s the ferromancer, Briar?”

  “What?”

  “I know that was his construct around your throat today. Is he holding you captive?”

  Briar blinked, suddenly understanding Liam’s strong reaction when he noticed her necklace earlier.

  “It’s quite the reverse,” a familiar, though winded voice answered.

  Briar spun to find Grayson clinging to the frame of her cabin door.

  “Step over here by me, Briar.” Liam had the gun trained on Grayson.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  “I might have retired, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t recognize a bloody ferromancer. A fully cast ferromancer standing in the doorway of my goddaughter’s cabin.” Liam’s voice rose at the end. “If you’ve touched her…”

  “I haven’t done you, or her, any wrong,” Grayson whispered. “But I know my words are lies to your ears. Finish what you’ve come here to do. In the end, you’ll be doing the world a favor.”

  “What the hell are you two talking about?” Briar demanded. “Do you know each other?”