Threading the Needle (22 page)

Finally, Cason and Ren retreated. Someone signaled, and Sorelle pulled back from their vantage. “Come on. Cason wants to talk.”

They descended through the building down the central stairwell, doors opening up onto apartments on either side. It had once been a high-end apartment complex, the banister made of solid oak, with chandeliers overhead and windows with stained-glass panels above and to either side. Cason and Ren were waiting for them on the second-floor landing, Cason with a helmet tucked in the crook of her arm.

“They're gone. The Rats left nearly an hour ago, your friends with them. My watchers report that at least one of them was killed.”

“Which one?”

“One of the Dogs.”

“Adder or Kent then. The others?”

“Alive. The remaining Dog has been beaten badly. The man about your age has a ruined knee. The others are helping both of them walk. The focus of the Rats' leader seems to be on the woman.”

“They must know Kara's a Wielder.”

“Which is why we need to stop them. Now. Before they force her to do something we'll all regret.”

“Like what?”

Cason ignored him. “My watchers have been following them. They've headed across the river, to the edge of the distortion. But they're a good hour ahead of us. We need to move quickly.” She twisted the helmet up in a smooth gesture and slammed it onto her head. The nose guard, eye slits, and cheek protectors blunted her features, made her look fiercer. “Once we're beyond sight of the Rats' lair, we'll abandon the buildings, use the streets. We need speed more than secrecy now.”

The Tunnelers surrounding them were already in motion. Cason and Ren led the group out through a gaping hole in the wall to the next building.

Sorelle grumbled something under her breath, then sighed and motioned Jaimes, Laura, and the rest of them forward.

Kara turned her attention back to the distortion. She knew Fletch's threat was real. Kent's death proved that. She had no doubts that Richten itched to inflict more pain on them. He'd barely controlled himself on the roof the night they'd been captured.

“Don't do it, Kara. Forget about us. Don't let them ha—”

The sentence ended in a choked off cry of pain and the thud of a body sprawling to the ground. She spun to find one of the Rats with an arm wrapped around Gaven's throat, the wagonmaster's back arched, the blade of a knife an inch from his left eye. Adder was already pushing himself back up to his knees, one arm holding his midsection where he'd been kicked earlier.

Fletch hadn't moved. “Should he be first? Or one of the others? Which one do you care about most?”

Kara swung back toward the Rats' leader. “I care about all of them.” Then she stepped forward, descending the stairs. Fletch's eyes widened slightly in surprise as she passed, but he said nothing. Richten shouted orders as the group shifted down to the plaza, closer to the distortion. She glanced back once to make certain the others were being brought forward as well, then focused on the shards ahead of her. At the same time, she reached for the ley, tapped into the potential lines around them.

There were three. Two thin lines were nothing more than the remnants from a disrupted node. Before the Shattering, they would have channeled at least five times as much power, and the node itself would have branched off in more directions. But the distortion had interrupted that configuration, so only two lines remained. They shot off toward the northeast and west.

The third line contained more ley, but was deeper beneath the city, harder to reach.

She tapped into the two smaller lines as she halted a few paces away from the distortion. The shard's face before her was amber in color, the plaza beyond tinted a dull orange. Like the shards she'd seen before, it was littered with abandoned carts, luggage, and assorted odds and ends thrown aside as people fled. She didn't see anything living—horses, animals, or people—but the yarn hair on a dust-covered doll tossed to the ground a few feet inside the distortion moved as if tugged by an occasional gust of wind. So time inside this distortion wasn't halted. The shard didn't reach all the way to the armory. There were five other
shards visible along its edges, and she suspected at least one more underground. Two of those intersected the armory, with most of the building caught in one of them. Of the other three, one was adjacent to her and appeared to be filled with smoke or fog. Another was deeper inside the distortion—

And was filled with ley.

She shot a glance toward Fletch, but the Rats' leader was staring hungrily at the armory. He sensed her look and turned toward her.

“Do you need a demonstration?”

“Richten already provided one.”

“Then get on with it.”

Kara motioned toward the shard. “Healing a shard of this size isn't easy. I'll need help.”

“From who?”

“Him.” Kara pointed to Dylan, standing on his own now. “He's a Wielder as well.”

Dylan's look of betrayed shock could not have been faked. His mouth hung open, eyes wide. Adder began searching the distortion. He stilled when he noticed the shard full of ley, eyes dropping to Kara.

“Do it.”

Richten shoved Dylan forward, following a few paces behind.

“What are you doing?” Dylan's voice was panicked. “I thought I was supposed to keep my mouth shut.”

“You were. But I need your help. You need to hold the edges of the shard stable while I work, or the whole distortion might collapse.” She tried to indicate the ley-filled shard with her eyes, but Dylan was too distracted to notice. “I'm going to need
even more
help once this first shard is down.”

Dylan still seemed oblivious, but behind them Jack perked up. She didn't think he'd noted the ley-filled shard yet, but at least the tracker was paying attention.

She grabbed Dylan's arm. “Just hold the edges, like before.”

She turned toward the shard, pulling the ley toward her as she did so. Dylan reached out as well, but his hold trembled. She wasn't certain he'd be able to maintain the edges, but she said nothing. Instead, she formed the needle as she'd done before. “Ready?”

Dylan's hold on the shard solidified.

She pierced the face of the shard, controlling the collapse as the hole
widened. Behind her, Richten let out a whoop of triumph, the Rats beyond following suit. The air released from the shard gusted into her face, smelling like rain. The ground beyond was damp, as if a light shower had passed by a short time before.

When the face was healed, Kara stepped forward and picked up the doll. It was wet, but not so soaked as to keep the breeze from ruffling the light blue dress.

“Now the next one.”

Kara lifted her eyes to find Fletch standing close, his body unnaturally still.

Kara dropped the doll. “We need to wait.” She motioned toward Dylan. “He needs to recover. You've beaten him so badly he doesn't have much strength.”

Fletch took one small step closer. They were almost nose-to-nose now. “Heal the next shard, or he dies.”

“I don't know if—”

Fletch gestured with one hand, and before Kara could protest Richten had snapped a knife from a wrist sheath into his free hand and jerked Dylan to his side. No one moved. The Rats had quieted, the air throbbing with anticipation.

“Do it.”

Kara moved into the healed shard, the scent of rain sharpening. Overhead, a layer of the shard filled with smoke passed by. To the left, the face of the shard that contained the ley pulsed a bright white, almost blue. She could feel the energy trapped there, seeking a release. The shard was engorged, ready to burst. Another face ran beneath the ley's shard, angled upward at a steep pitch. She dared not look at it or the ley, kept her attention focused on the slanted wall of the shard that cut toward the left side of the armory and the trees at the far end of the plaza. As she moved, the Rats and their captives followed, a few stationed outside as guards. She caught Adder's attention and tilted her head toward the right, away from the ley. He edged in that direction. A few of the Rats did as well, but mostly they spread out, filling up the opened area of the plaza.

Fletch stayed behind her, wary, just out of reach.

Standing before the next shard, Kara raised her hands, clenched her teeth, and closed her eyes so that she could focus. “I've never done this by myself.” She reached for the shard's face and split her attention, half
of it surrounding the edges, trying to hold them stable, the rest intent on forming the needle needed to pierce the barrier. “If I can't control it, it may set off a chain reaction. The entire distortion could collapse.”

She thrust the needle home. The tension holding the face stable snapped, and she tried to control the resultant collapse. But it was too taut, her attention too divided. It slid from her grip, and with a cry she braced the edges. The face cut through the air, sliced through the limbs of the trees, then slammed into the edges. The force sent tremors through all of the distortion's surrounding structure, but it held. She didn't think it would have without her assistance. The severed tree limbs crashed to the ground, the thickest as wide as Kara's thigh. One of them split with a resounding crack.

Then silence, for a single breath, two.

The Rats erupted into another cheer that dissolved into a carousing chant. Kara exhaled harshly as she lowered her arms, then opened her eyes. The left side of the armory sat feet away, but still locked inside the distortion, beyond reach.

Fletch's hand wrapped around Kara's upper arm, the grip painfully tight. “One more to go.”

“Are you mad! I barely controlled that collapse. Didn't you feel the distortion shudder?”

Fletch jerked her close again. “I need what's in that armory. Release it now, or I will kill you and wait for this other Wielder to regain his strength so that he can do it himself.”

He'd drawn his own knife, she noted, the blade poised near her stomach. “No. I'll do it.”

She shook free of his grasp and faced the remaining shard. She raised her hands, closed her eyes.

But instead of reaching forward and preparing the armory's shard before her, she stretched back with her senses and seized hold of the shard containing the ley. At the same time, she nudged Dylan with the Tapestry, felt the Wielder start in surprise, then tentatively reach out and join her. He hadn't picked up on her earlier hints or warnings; she hoped he was paying attention now.

She formed the needle and bolstered the ley shard's boundaries. Drawing in a deep breath, she centered herself and tensed.

Then, from the direction of the library, outside the distortion,
someone screamed—a high-pitched cry of agony—followed by a bellowed warning and the clash of weapons.

Kara's eyes snapped open and she turned, arms still raised. At her side, Fletch took a step toward the open plaza, the rest of the Rats, including Richten, doing the same.

On the library steps, two bodies lay sprawled, arrows jutting up from their backs. A third girl—the one letting out the blood-curdling scream—had fallen to her knees, her left arm held out before her, an arrow pierced through her bicep, sticking a good four inches out the other side. Blood dripped from the tip. She tried to struggle to her feet, but another arrow took her in the throat.

As she fell forward, people swarmed out of the library doors and into the plaza. The Rat who had bellowed the alarm lurched forward, and as if it were a signal, the rest of the Rats outside the distortion surged after him in a wave. The leader of the attacking force—wearing a helmet that hid the majority of the face—raised a long sword and met them, the two forces grinding together in a melee.

“Underearthers!” Richten spun toward Fletch. “What are they doing here? We're far outside their territory.”

Fletch didn't answer. “Mouse, head back to the lair and warn the others. Richten, get everyone else out there now!”

The Rats' leader turned on Kara, but she didn't wait to see what he'd do.

Arms still raised, she drove the needle into the ley's shard.

The barrier between the ley and the world outside the distortion flashed with a ripple and then burst like a soap bubble. The trapped ley cascaded down from the opening, the white light behaving like water. Fletch jerked around in time to see it slam into the canted shard beneath it and pour down the funnel toward them. Kara tensed as she held the edges of the shard, aware that the ley was bearing down on her—

But then an invisible wall formed before her.

The released ley roared down on them like a flood and engulfed the nearest Rats, their screams cut off as the intense raw power of the ley annihilated them. It slammed up against the shards on either side in spumes, more and more of it pouring out from above. Dylan roared in defiance as it slammed into the shield he'd thrown up, sloshing up over and around Kara, Fletch, Dylan, Richten, Gaven, Adder, Jack, and six other Rats. All of the rest of the Rats inside the distortion turned to run,
most of them caught by the ley as it surged out through the opening and into the plaza beyond.