Threading the Needle (42 page)

And scattered through them all, she caught sight of at least five other White Cloaks.

“It's unbelievable.” Dylan couldn't mask the longing in his voice. “They all act as if nothing has happened, that nothing has changed.”

“How did they get here? Where did they come from? This must have been a node before the Shattering. Or a junction, where the ley lines met before diverging toward Tumbor and the Demesnes to the west, possibly even the Horn to the south. It would have held maybe twenty Wielders for maintenance, their families, maybe enough others to call it a town if it was a waypost for the ley barges. Not this many people.”

“They must have come here after the Shattering. Fled here, as we fled to the Hollow.”

Kara sank back into the wagon. “This is exactly what I wanted for Erenthrall. I wanted to heal the distortion, stabilize the Nexus there, rebuild Grass and the central districts so that people could return.” She gazed around the thriving tent city in shock. “The Kormanley did this?”

No one answered. Their cart trundled through the throng, everyone as stunned as Kara.

“Where are they getting all of their food?” They passed by a spit containing three succulent, charred hares. Dylan's gaze followed them with his eyes. “I didn't see any fields as we approached, or any barns with stock grazing the grassland.”

“Because they don't have any.”

Dylan and Aaron looked at her in confusion, but she could see Adder had already figured it out.

“They're getting it from the cities—Erenthrall and Tumbor. They must have been raiding both since the Shattering, but they had more people and were more organized. That must be why the resources in Erenthrall became so scarce so quickly. Remember the shards we found that had already been healed? They have Wielders. They must be raiding the shards for supplies, like us. And they were trading us for food. The Tunnelers wanted the supplies that were in these wagons.” She patted the crates around them, most of which contained sacks of grain and nuts, linens and cloth, and glass jars of canned goods. Nothing perishable over the short term, or that would spoil because of heat. “Just like the Baron. The White Cloaks stole everything and are now using it to control everyone.”

“Are they letting everyone come here?” Dylan asked, then answered his own question. “No, they can't be. The Hollow had already reached its capacity. They must have hit theirs here as well.”

“That's why the Tunnelers were trading for food. Recall they didn't seem happy about it.”

“They must not know where the White Cloaks are located, or where they're getting their food. And they're desperate enough to follow the White Cloaks' rules.” Marcus' rules, Kara thought. Or at least those of this Father he spoke of.

She wondered how many of the factions who lived in Erenthrall were being forced to deal with the White Cloaks. She couldn't imagine the Rats trading for food or allowing anyone to control them in such a way. But the Temerites? What about the groups to the south and east of the distortion—the Gorrani and the others?

How many groups had there been in Tumbor before its distortion quickened?

Kara didn't notice they'd passed beyond the tents into the central
part of the node until a shadow fell across her. She glanced up at the stone buildings to either side and the alleys and streets between them. She hadn't realized how noisy the outside square had been. There were still people in the streets, but the structures blocked most of the shouts and conversations. Windows were lit with ley globes and the warmer light of candles, reminiscent of Erenthrall before the Shattering. The buildings were only a few stories high, their architecture from decades earlier, before the Wielders had created the Nexus in Erenthrall and begun sowing their own towers and basing their construction on the ley. They reminded Kara of her flat in Eld, where she'd grown up, except these were even older, more like the dormitories at the University or the old Baron's manse at the University's heart.

Her gaze swept over the people on the street, to the shadowy figures seen through a few of the open windows, and then up toward the black spire that towered over them all. It reached into the sky, but not as high as the towers of Grass in Erenthrall. This was only a node, the spire marking the location of the junction of the ley in this area. It was only as high as the supporting towers of the Flyers' Tower had been. Still, its perfectly flat, glossy black surface sent a shudder through Kara's shoulders. It was narrow and thinned to a fine point, with no visible openings or balconies. It reminded her of the spikes on the gates, honed to an exquisite sharpness.

The wagon jerked to a halt, and Riley suddenly appeared at the back with six other enforcers.

“Out.” He motioned with one hand, the other on his sword.

All four of them hesitated, but then Adder pushed Kara forward, hand on her shoulder. “Try not to get separated.”

Kara slid to the end of the wagon's bed and off, Riley stepping back. Adder jumped down behind her. Dylan and Aaron followed, Dylan leaning heavily on Aaron's shoulder.

“Can't you get something he can use to help him walk?” Kara asked.

Riley flicked a dismissive look toward Dylan. “No.”

He whistled and beat the back of the wagon with the palm of his hand. The driver pulled away, shouting to clear the way.

They were in a small square before a wide series of steps that led up to the temple that surrounded the Needle. This close, Kara could see that the temple itself was older than even the outer ring of buildings, the stone pocked. It dawned on her that it really was a temple, probably
erected before the Barons came to power on the plains, certainly before Baron Arent seized control. Which meant this was one of the natural ley nodes, a source of power for the ley system before Prime Wielder Augustus created the Nexus in Erenthrall and subverted the ley for his own uses. The architecture was riddled with symbols and stone carvings, but before Kara could do more than take in that each tier's edge was lined with statues of birds and beasts Riley shoved her forward, motioning toward where Marcus and the other White Cloaks clustered at the base of the stairs.

The square bustled with activity, mostly enforcers. A group trained off to one side, men and women working through parries, blocks, and stances without swords, focused on form. Another group sat cleaning, sharpening, and repairing weapons, armor, and tack. Based on the enforcers entering the building behind them, Kara thought it must have been a barracks, the men roughhousing and joking with each other, some already removing uniforms. A few paused outside near a barrel, using the water to scrub the grime off their faces. They'd obviously been outside the walls. Those at the barrel appeared shaken, unlike those that had already entered the building.

A breeze brought the scent of mutton and roasted vegetables from the opposite side of the square, where a cook stepped out of a doorway to toss a bucket of slop into another barrel. The sounds of a mess hall filtered out the door, along with the clatter of pans, dishes, and cutlery.

They reached Marcus and the others.

“—the distortion's edge about five days' hard ride to the southeast,” an enforcer was saying as they halted a short distance away. His back was stiff, his tone formal, his face and uniform covered in dust and dirt. Kara could smell his sweat from where she stood a few paces behind Iscivius. Carter glanced toward her from his position between Irmona and Okata, but quickly dropped his gaze to the ground. “The distortion completely engulfed Tumbor and everyone inside it, along with a radius of nearly twenty miles on either side.”

“Larger than we thought from our position to the north. What about our own men? How many did we lose?”

“There were three patrols and two excursion forces inside Tumbor at the time, taking tithes and gathering supplies. All of them are lost. Four more patrols were outside the city scouting or heading to or
returning from their own rotations. Only one of them made it, although it was close. Once the distortion quickened, they ran for it and were only a hundred yards away from the distortion when it halted. We found them and brought them back with us.”

“I'll inform Darius and Father. Go see to your men.”

The man placed a fist to his heart and knelt before Marcus, head bowed. Marcus rested his hand lightly on the man's head, like a benediction, and when he removed it the enforcer stood and headed toward the barracks.

Marcus turned to Iscivius. “Father will want your report about what happened in Erenthrall. The rest of you head to the Needle. Help with the damage control caused by the quickening. I'll be down as soon as I can to see exactly how badly our network has been compromised and what we can do to repair it.”

“What about them?” Irmona gestured toward Kara, Adder, Dylan, and Aaron.

“We're taking them to Father.”

Irmona spun on her heel. Okata and the other White Cloaks trailed behind, leaving Marcus, Iscivius, Carter, Riley, and an escort of enforcers.

Marcus turned to Iscivius. “Father will likely be in the orrery.” He began to ascend the steps of the temple, Iscivius a few paces behind him. The White Cloak glanced back at Kara a moment, then focused on Marcus' back.

Riley prodded Kara and Adder forward. They followed in Iscivius' wake, Dylan, Aaron, and Carter behind. At the top of the first tier, they cut left across a wide plaza. The stone statues of animals were separated by fat rounded urns that Kara had mistaken for crenellations from the plaza below. No plants grew in the urns, but they were filled with dirt. She could imagine what the temple had looked like with spiked grass or even small trees sprouting from them, the edges of each tier clearly defined. The use of animals for the statues also made more sense. As they moved toward a set of worn wooden doors with metal hinges to one side of the steps, she noted that the plaza itself wasn't a flat field of monotone stone. The flags were of varied browns and greens and yellows, all of different sizes, set in a pattern, like a mosaic. The result was a flowing river of color, oddly soothing, centered on a white stone circle. More urns lined the wall of the next tier between the windows and
a few entrances, some with doors, some without, along with benches and scattered niches set into the walls. All of it was worn and faded with age and disuse.

Marcus shoved the door open, the hinges groaning, and they entered the ancient temple. The corridor beyond was lit with ley globes in niches to either side, revealing that the hallway wasn't rectangular. Instead, the walls angled slightly inward, the ceiling narrower than the floor. It was wide enough for two people side-by-side, but Kara still felt as if the hall was collapsing in on her as she and Adder followed Marcus and the other White Cloaks. The sounds of their footfalls and the rustle of cloth and scraping of armor from the enforcers filled the hall, Kara's skin prickling at the eerie echoes. They passed doorways and corridors, most shrouded in darkness, a few lit with more ley globes, but the sense of desertion lay heavy across her shoulders, even though the halls had obviously been cleaned. No one had lived here for decades, if not longer. She could smell the history on the air, dry and dusty and gritty, like stone.

They entered a huge room, twice as wide as it was deep, the far wall curved, the open windows looking out on bright sunlight and the shining black surface of the Needle. Without looking, Kara knew that the windows looked down on a hollow, likely filled with stellae, like the one she'd visited in Halliel's Park with Ischua. Except here, the Needle took up the center of the hollow, directly over the natural ley node. Before she could be drawn across the room to the node, like iron to a lodestone, she glanced upward, and her heart surged up into her throat, cutting off her breath.

In the hollow of the cavernous ceiling overhead, a large ley globe burned a brilliant red-gold, like magma, roiling and seething. Eight other ley globes surrounded it, circling in larger and larger orbits, each globe a different color—a swirling blue, a vibrant green, a dusky red, blue-green-brown covered in clouds, an orange striated with violet, a sickening yellow like pus, a cold white that burned, and a purple so dark it was almost black. They ranged in size from the purple, which was no larger than Kara's fist, to the orange-violet, which could encompass her entire body. The red and yellow orbs were encircled by rings. The largest four had smaller globes orbiting them, and between the orbits of the orange-violet globe and the blue-green-brown one, a blue-white light the size of the end of Kara's thumb pulsed, a tail of sparkling white light trailing behind it.

“What is it?” Adder asked, as Marcus and the White Cloaks headed off to one side, where a group of four men were seated at a large table. Riley started after them, but turned when he realized that all five of those from the Hollow had halted just inside the chamber. The rest of the enforcers paused around them, fidgeting.

“It's an orrery.” Kara pointed. “That's our sun and the other eight are the planets. Those smaller orbs are the moons, and the one trailing light must be a comet. That one there, with the clouds, is Wrath Suvane. You can even see the continents through the cloud cover.”

Kara's gaze dropped to Riley. “How did we not know this was here?”

“What do you mean?”

Kara gestured to the temple. “This temple doesn't feel as if it's been lived in or used for decades, and yet this orrery is by far the most beautiful I've ever seen depicting the heavens. The orbs are detailed in color. All of the moons are represented along with that comet. And without checking, I'd guess that the locations of the planets in their orbits, as well as the moons, are accurate. It's a stunning feat of ley manipulation. How is it that no one in Erenthrall ever mentioned it? The Wielders should have learned of it in our studies.”

“Unless the Primes kept it secret,” Dylan muttered behind her, too low for Riley to have heard.