Twisted Sister of Mine (Overworld Chronicles) (10 page)

The first operator shook his head. "He didn't tell us. His engineering crew was supposed to be here tonight to help us with the arches."

"With the Obsidian Arch shut down, how are they gonna get here?"

"He might have to fly them over the old-fashioned way," the first said.

"All right." Shelton motioned me to follow him. "We're gonna look around and base our information off this room. If you find out anything else, let us know."

We walked down the rows of small arches. Each one stood about ten feet tall with a silver ring embedded in polished obsidian at the base. Straight aisles ran between the arches, wide enough for several people to walk abreast of each other. Shelton ran his hand along the twisting architecture of one arch, his brow wrinkling.

"What is this stuff anyway?" He shook his head. "It feels like rock, but it doesn't."

I touched the slick surface, my hand following the odd spiraling design. "No idea."

"Tell me again how you used the arch in Thunder Rock."

Looking around the room, I spotted a row of arches separated from the others by a slightly wider aisle and led Shelton there. From here we could see the travel map on the wall. I pointed out the symbols next to the map and the symbols on the floor in front of some of the other arches.

"At the time, I didn't know enough about Cyrinthian to have a clue what those meant. Now I know those are numbers, each one corresponding to an arch. You touch the button, the arch lights up. Then I think you select a destination from the map, step through, and end up at the corresponding arch at your destination."

"That easy, huh?"

I shrugged. "It's just a guess. A cherub was trying to devour my soul at the time, so I only had a few pants-wetting minutes to figure out how the arches worked."

"But from what you told us, it didn't go down like that." Shelton nodded at the symbols on the floor in front of the separate row of arches. Each one consisted of a circle with multiple lines crisscrossing it, each line extending past the edges.

"Yeah, most of the numbered arches were broken, and the cherubs cornered me at an arch like this one." I knelt and touched the symbol on the floor. "I looked that symbol up the first chance I had. It means
omni
."

"Like omnidirectional?"

"More precisely, it means all." I rubbed a hand over the slick metallic substance. "I didn't need to indicate on the map where I wanted to go. I just closed the circle and willed it to take me home."

"And we saw how that turned out," Shelton said with a wry chuckle.

"I get the feeling these arches are more advanced. Like maybe these were added separately from the others." I stood up. "Just look at the layout."

Shelton stood back and looked at the room. "I think you're right. Notice how the map is centered on the other arches, but this row juts out to the side?"

I followed his gaze and saw what he meant. "When I thought of home, the arch flashed through the images of a bunch of places—my old house was one of those—before finding Elyssa. But you want to know what's really strange about it, now that I think back?"

Shelton snorted. "Everything?"

I shook my head. "No, the arch seemed ready to take me to a location where there was no corresponding exit arch."

He took in a breath. "It could take you anywhere, no other arch required? Do you know what that would mean for travel?"

"It would be almost as advanced as the Key of Juranthemon."

"Yeah." Shelton nodded. "It'd be a close second."

The Key of Juranthemon coupled with the Map of Juranthemon allowed the user to create instantaneous travel portals between any doors, at least according to Underborn. Unfortunately, the notorious assassin now had both of those relics, having forced me to choose between saving Felicia's life, or giving him the map and key.

I inspected the omni-arch. The piano-black material was triangular where it met the polished black floor. It twisted like a vine from there, somehow gaining more angles and sides, though my eyes had trouble finding where exactly the changes in geometry took place. The linked arches, by comparison, remained triangular from one end to the other, even though they twisted en route. "The angels must have been working on a new kind of arch before the Grand Nexus blew up."

"Maybe they never got them operational." Shelton walked a circle around the arch. "Because something went wrong when you tried to use it."

I told him my theory about the cracked traversion tunnel. "It's like I fell out, but the tunnel sucked me back in."

"And you end up coming out at a broken arch in El Dorado." He braced his chin on his knuckles, eyes lost in thought. "Maybe the destruction of the Grand Nexus broke the arches."

"I'm going with that answer for now," I said. "Maybe we should give one of these a test and see if it works."

Shelton shook his head, eyes wide. "Hell no, kid. I ain't taking the chance of ending up in angel central. Let's look around more and see if anything else sticks out. Then I got more questions for those operators."

I couldn't blame Shelton for his caution. For all I knew, trying to power an omni-arch could cause a catastrophe. The way my luck had run, it was likely. We looked around for a while, and Shelton interrogated the operators, but they had little more to offer than they had earlier, so we left and headed back toward the door leading to Queens Gate.

The vampire protestors were back at it again, I noticed, and we had to wait in line since the security guard who'd screened us earlier was still intent on harassing everyone. I just hoped he didn't do body cavity searches. The line remained long as ever, thanks to the broken arch preventing people from departing and forcing them to seek a place to stay in Queens Gate.

"You've got to be kidding me," Shelton said, his lips curling into a snarl when it was our turn. He scowled at the guard. "We just passed through here a little while ago, and the arch is shut down, so it's not like anyone else could've come in."

"People come in from London all the time," the man replied, raising a haughty eyebrow as if daring Shelton to challenge his logic.

"But you remembered us when we came in!" he said.

The guard, however, was more or less like a honey badger. He just didn't give a damn.

After clearing us for reentry, the man turned to the next in line, his wand ready to violate their every secret.

Shelton grumbled under his breath.

"He's just doing his job," I said, though my heart wasn't really into defending the guard. I just wanted Shelton to shut up before he got us into trouble.

"Look at the moron, lording it over everyone like he runs the place." Shelton pshawed. "Give someone a little bit of power, and they abuse the hell out of it."

I glanced back as a man with a bright red bowler perched atop his bald head bypassed the line of people and sauntered up to the gatekeeper. He said a word or two, and the gatekeeper motioned him past. "Man, this place really lets the elites get away with anything."

Shelton had apparently seen it, too. "It's all about politics." He took out his arcphone, flicked the screen and looked at it for a moment. "Sweet."

"What is it?" I asked.

"I got some buddies up at the Science Academy," Shelton said. "I texted one, and he got us access to an empty dorm room for the night."

"There's our silver lining," I said, trying not to think about Elyssa. I noticed most of the people who'd come back were headed down the yellow brick road to Queens Gate proper for lodging.

We turned toward the rocket ship, boarding it with a group of frustrated adults dragging along tired kids who looked about elementary school age. I almost asked Shelton why such young kids were here, but remembered what Miles had told me about the schools accepting kids as young as ten.

Even though the rocket was the size of a subway train car, people occupied more than half of the bench seats stretching lengthwise along the curved hull of the transport, with room to stand in the center. Shelton and I took spots near the middle. The man with the god-awful red bowler stepped inside a moment later. He glanced at us, making eye contact with me for a second before sitting on the bench opposite us in the front. I found it hard to stop staring at the man's gaudy, red polyester suit and his shiny, white shoes. A red polka-dotted shirt with a lacy collar attempted to murder my eyes from beneath the polyester jacket.

"Isn't that a crime against humanity?" I said, motioning my head toward the man.

Shelton sputtered with laughter, not even trying to conceal the object of our mutual derision. "Man, that can't be for real." He touched his chin in thought for a moment. "Although I do remember one of my teachers at the university who loved to wear robes with fake fur on them." He shuddered. "There's no accounting for taste."

Turning my eyes away from the bizarrely dressed man, I said to Shelton, "Tell me again why there's a science academy in the Overworld. Isn't that more of a nom thing?"

He chuckled. "You know movies with mad scientists?"

"Like Frankenstein?" I asked.

"Yeah, kinda like that." He motioned toward the robot with the fishbowl head and blinking lights as it greeted everyone and announced departure in a robotic monotone. "Just look around, man. Think of robotic spiders, flying saucers, and levitating skateboards. Science Academy is every nerd's wet dream."

I couldn't deny that. "I take it the Arcanes and techies don't get along?"

Shelton gave me an
are you serious?
look. "In case you failed to notice, they're purists at the university. Hell, they only just allowed arcphones, and that's because so many parents complained to the council about having to write letters instead of being able to text or call their kids."

I had difficulty getting it all straight in my head. "But don't arcphones mix science and magic?"

Shelton took off his hat and brushed it against his side. "The School of Magical and Scientific Synergy is the part of Science Academy that deals with mixing the two, but most of the other departments deal in pure science."

I felt my forehead wrinkle more than usual. "I don't get why the university and academy can't just get along. Arcphones are freaking sweet."

He chuckled. "One word: elitism. Arcphones allow those with less inherent arcane talent to compete on a level playing field with powerful naturals. The naturals don't like that. That's one reason the Arcane Tourney is limited to non-technological foci, like staffs and wands without built-in generators."

From the perspective of pure ego, it made sense, even if it was all wrong. "Are the techies as stuck up as the Arcanes?"

He waggled a hand in a so-so fashion. "The Grand Experimental Expo is sort of like the Arcane Tourney, except it's about inventing the craziest stuff possible."

"Sounds like a grown-up version of a science fair."

He nodded. "It's a heck of a lot more entertaining than the stupid Arcane Tourney, I'll tell you that much."

I stared out the window as the top of the mountain loomed closer. "It would be so cool if they'd share with noms." I shrugged. "I just don't get why it has to be so top secret. We could have spaceships and travel the universe."

"Didn't you hear what I said earlier?" Shelton said, his voice gruff. "Elitists like my dad will never let that happen. Why would you allow the noms to have that kind of power?" He narrowed his eyes. "And before you get any bright ideas about giving arcphones to your high school buddies, you should know giving Overworld technology or magic to noms is a capital offense."

I gave him a wounded look. "I know it's all hush-hush, geez."

"Yeah, well the penalty is death or eternal banishment to the Gloom. I still don't know which is worse." He shuddered. "I had to fulfill a bounty on someone I knew. I didn't know at the time they'd broken that particular law, or maybe I would have turned it down."

"Wow, Shelton. You cashed in a contract on a friend?" I shook my head. "Now, that's low."

He stared at me with narrowed eyes for a moment. "She wasn't my friend. Just someone I went to school with."

I didn't know whether to admire Shelton for doing his job despite the circumstances, or to despise him for doing his job
because
of them. I tried not to judge the man, but it was hard. One minute he could be a complete butt muncher, and the next, he could be rescuing my butt from a bad situation. He'd allegedly been involved with Vadaemos, the same demon spawn who'd killed Meghan Andretti's father. He'd also tried to kidnap me and my father for a bounty. Shelton was either a very complicated person or a complete schizoid—and I didn't know which.

The episode with his father and revelation about his brother made me all the more curious. But it nothing short of a nuclear bomb seemed capable of penetrating Shelton's protective armor.

I decided to abandon the subject for the time being as the rocket climbed toward the mountain where Science Academy awaited.

The rocket bumped down on a landing pad. The robot pilot swiveled at the waist and said in a robotic monotone, "We have arrived, Earthlings."

We stepped outside onto a sidewalk made of a strange material that looked almost like liquid mercury, though not as shiny. The moment our feet touched down, the material surged beneath us. I yelped in surprise, much to the amusement of a group of geeks just behind us. The pathway carried us into a large tunnel. A white glow suffused the corridor, gleaming off the polished chrome-like material on the walls. Beams of red light scanned us as we went through and, at the end, a hulking robot with giant cylindrical guns on the arms strode our way on legs bent backwards like those of a kangaroo.

"Identify," it said in a cybernetic voice.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Shelton said. "Doesn't this joke ever get old?"

The gun barrels whirred to life, rotating so fast they were a blur, and a single red eye in the center of its chrome body blazed to life. "Identify."

"Ignore it," Shelton said and headed toward another moving pathway.

Staring at the spinning guns, I sidled up to Shelton, placing him squarely between me and the robot, even though I noticed the other passengers from the rocket were ignoring the contraption as well. The man with the red bowler paused at the end of the branching path, his eyes locking onto mine. He tipped his bowler at me, winked and smiled, then took the opposite path away from us.