Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) (48 page)

The smoke was thick, cutting the visibility up and down the avenue to almost nothing. The distinctive smell of gunpowder filled the air.

She spotted Max, for just a moment, racing forward, then he was lost in the smoke. More shapes buzzed by above, their gasoline engines whining, but she still couldn’t see them.

“I don’t like this,” Shue said next to her, Isaac still on his back.

“Be ready,” Dasha told her Arc. Their Lancets tensed in their hands.

New shapes appeared. People. Hundreds, maybe more, surrounding them. Bright lights lit up the smoke with the sounds of more engines. The figures, whoever they were, moved cautiously forward until they were finally revealed.

They wore black gear, toted rifles and shotguns and shoulder-mounted missiles. One thing about them stood out, even in the smoke. They all had small, colorful tattoos on their wrists. On the right was a unique symbol, all their own. On the left … was a red, eight-pointed star, the points of which were filled in to reflect their rank.

Mira stared at them in a dreamlike haze. It took Isaac’s voice to connect the dots in her mind.

“Menagerie?” he asked out loud, even more stunned now.

More lights appeared in the haze, colorful flares of red, green, or blue, carried by three figures. Mira realized in shock that she knew them. Very well, in fact.

Masyn. Castor. And …

“
Avril,
” Dasha breathed.

From there the rest of the pieces fell together. Dasha and the other Helix leapt forward instantly, landing next to Avril and the others. They all hesitated, staring at one another as if in a dream, a wonderful one, and when it turned out to be real, they moved close and embraced.

It broke the tension.

Other Helix landed near Avril, Castor, and Masyn, the main force from the factory, hugging and gathering close. The smoke was lifting and Mira could see the Landships had berthed now, and the crews had disembarked. Hesitantly, the Wind Traders approached the Menagerie, and the pirates stared back oddly. Two natural enemies, suddenly finding themselves allies.

Dresden was the first to offer his hand. One of the pirates took it, and then the process continued, everyone greeting and acknowledging the other. Menagerie, Wind Trader, Helix, Phantom Regiment.

Mira’s heart began to beat. She could feel it in her chest now.

If they were here, if they were
actually
here, then…?

She pushed through the crowd, shaking hands with Menagerie and Regiment, but distracted. Her eyes were looking for someone else. Her mouth felt dry. Her hands shook.

The sound of barking echoed from her right. She pushed in that direction with growing urgency.

She saw Max, jumping up and down over a person she couldn’t quite make out. She froze, watching them. The figure pet the dog and he seemed stunned, as if Max were the very last thing he expected to see. She watched his expression change, as a thought occurred to him. She watched him stand up, watched him scan the crowd in disbelief.

And then his eyes found hers.

Mira stared across the celebrations at Holt.

The world faded away, the battle from before, the losses, everything she’d been through merged into the background. She felt tears well up in her eyes, felt the emotion building.

They stared a second more … then they were fighting through the crowd toward each other.

The tears flowed freely. Mira didn’t care about seeming strong anymore, or that others might notice. She pushed past everyone in her way, everything else forgotten but being with him. Every step she took made time seem to flow slower.

His arms grabbed her and pulled her to him. He lifted her off the ground, spun her through the air, looking over every piece of her, as if trying to convince himself she was really there, that she was whole and real and not some ghost.

A smile formed on his lips as she cried, staring down at him.

“I knew it,” he told her, nodding. “I
knew
it.”

Max jumped up and down next to them in circles. Holt lowered her, his hands caressing her face, but there was a strange look in his eye, a distance she wasn’t used to. She noticed his right wrist. It bore a full tattoo, not an unfinished one. A black bird, identical to another she had seen before. Mira stared at it, confused, back in the dreamlike state she had broken out of seconds ago.

“We should talk,” Holt said, and she looked back up at him. Nothing seemed real anymore.

41.
PATHS

THE INTERIOR OF THE POD
reformed itself into a doorway that Zoey stepped through, and the room beyond was like being inside some huge, black, metallic dome. In the center, about a hundred feet away, rose the Nexus. She could see where it passed through the roof and drifted up into the sky.

The ceiling was lined with thick, fragile-looking plates made of some kind of clear, silvery material. Golden energy crackled through them, lighting everything in amber. It wasn’t until Zoey saw one of the Ephemera slowly seep out from within one that she understood the source.

There must be hundreds of entities there, filling each of those panels, working together as a huge transmitter for broadcasting one thing: the Tone.

Throughout the room hovered more than a dozen Mas’Shinra royals, their incredibly complicated, crystalline shapes beaming with blue and white energy. Oddly, Zoey noticed, there were no Centurions in the room, nor any walkers of any kind. In fact, it was noticeably bereft of anything mechanical.

“Your place is here,” a voice said next to her. The woman who had been Rose motioned to a machine near them, a column with armrests and stirrups for feet and a padded backrest. At the end of each armrest was a small rod of bright metal that reflected the light from the ceiling. She was meant to stand inside, and to hold the rods with her hands.

“What does it do?” Zoey asked.

“What you wish,” Rose answered. “Allows you to control the Tone, to shape and direct it. A machine of this type has been built in every Citadel in every world we have ever conquered. Not until now has one ever been used.”

Zoey looked up at the royals and their feelings washed over her. They were beyond elated, excited and eager for what was to come. Of course, what was to come wasn’t anything like they expected, and they would be frightened before it was all over. She could already feel the fear from the woman next to her.

“Are you sure?” Rose asked, staring at her with worry. “That this is the path you must take?”

The question made Zoey hesitate. Not because it was difficult to answer, but because the answer was disturbing. “I can’t remember
not
being on this path. Do some people really get to choose?”

Rose looked down at her, a strange emotion behind her eyes. It looked like guilt. “Some do. Just not us.”

Rose offered her hand to the little girl. Together they stepped toward the machine, and the sensations from the royals intensified.

Scion,
they projected.
You are honored.

The machine looked like it had been formed out of the floor, the way it rose up. The metal was black, but entirely smooth. It didn’t ripple the way the walls did, and there were no cables or wires of any kind that Zoey could see. For a moment, she felt a twinge of fear, staring at the thing, but it lasted only a moment. She was the Scion, and she had nothing to fear in this place.

Zoey put one foot in a stirrup, felt it hold her weight, then stepped all the way in, resting her back against the support and, all at once, she gripped the two rods with her small hands.

Light and sensation flooded her mind, flooded everything she was. Her eyes snapped shut.

She could feel the Tone, could feel it slip and slide over every mountain and prairie, felt it wind its way through the ruins of giant cities and small towns, felt it push through all the dark places that dotted the surface of the planet.

She could feel the Nexus, its warmth and serenity. She could feel where it rose through the ceiling and streamed upward, into orbit where it met with the other streams from the other Citadels.

It was all, at once, glorious.

Zoey reached out, using the Tone, streaking through the minds of the survivors, hundreds at once, looking for the two people who could help her do what she had to do, the two people she—

The emotions of the entities shifted. The Feelings rose to the surface, swirling in alarm.

Zoey snapped her eyes back open, but it was too late.

She felt the cold sting of metal snap around her wrists. Two more clasps closed around her ankles, locking her into the machine.

In a panic, Zoey reached out, concentrating on the clasps, trying to force them open, to power them, but there was nothing.

With dread, Zoey realized the truth. The clasps were not mechanical, which meant there was nothing for her to control. She realized why there were no Centurions or walkers in the room. This time, they’d made sure she had nothing to use against them.

Zoey saw the woman below her, locking the final clasp in place.

“Rose…”

She looked up at Zoey, and she could see the remorse there. “I’m sorry, Zoey. Your way is just … not something we have the courage for.”

The entities, the royal ones made of blue and white, floated toward her. Zoey could sense their intentions. Icy fear spread through her. She was trapped, she had underestimated the Assembly completely.

They floated closer, she could feel their heat.

“Please, no, I only want to—”

Zoey screamed as the first entity burned into her body, and the world went white. A second pushed inside, and the pain tripled. A third moved for her.

The Feelings swelled up, trying to help, but they were outnumbered fighting its own kind inside the little girl’s tiny form.

Zoey screamed again, but not with her voice. It was a primal scream that came from her mind and she was still gripping the rods of the Machine, which meant it burst into the Whole and overtook it completely.

When it did, she felt a mixture of emotions from the millions of Assembly entities connected through the Whole. Shock and horror from some, ferocious anger from others, and still, from more … approval. A terrifying complacency in what was occurring, and it was all spreading, not just to the Mas’Shinra inside the Citadel, but to the rest outside.

The searing pain expanded as the third entity pushed into her form.

“You will survive,” Zoey heard Rose’s voice from somewhere. “But only long enough. You will Ascend us, Zoey, whether you wish to or not.”

Zoey screamed again as the entities merged into her, felt the Feelings struggle and fight, but it was in vain.

She was being torn apart. Her mind was being overridden.

She felt her grip on the rods tighten, felt herself reach out into the Tone, following its path, a stream through mind after human mind outside the black walls of this horrible place. She knew what they were about to make her do, exactly what she and the Nexus had committed themselves against.

Zoey was about to merge the Assembly entities into every human being on the planet.

42.
TICKING CLOCK

HOLT STOOD INSIDE
the old factory with the other leaders. The Phantom Regiment, what was left of them, stood apart. Isaac was in his “chair,” a small-framed buggy with thick, treaded wheels. Railings wrapped and twisted all through the factory’s interior, probably so Isaac could move through it. In fact, the entire place had been repurposed. Sleeping quarters, a cooking area, storage, a workshop near the old forge, and some kind of elevator lift attached to one of the unused smokestacks that stretched through the metal ceiling far above. It looked like it had once been a very livable, comfortable place.

Max lay next to Holt, feet wrapped around his boot. The dog hadn’t left him since he’d gotten back, and Holt couldn’t help smiling. He was one of two parts of his life he never thought he’d see again, yet had somehow gotten back.

Mira was within the Helix and Wind Trader camps. He could see the bonds that had formed between them, no different than the ones he’d made with Masyn and Castor and now Avril. Olive stood amid the Captains, back with her own people. Her task, taking a Landship to Faust, the lair of the Wind Trader’s mortal enemies had pretty much been a suicide mission. Yet, there she was, back in the fold.

The walls rumbled from distant explosions. The Assembly had been pushed back, but it wasn’t going to last long.

They had a foothold now, a small one, and as impressive a force as they had, the truth was they owed most of it to Mira’s artifact. It was funny, in a way. That thing had caused so much misery, and yet had turned out to be critical for everything to come. Did that vindicate it? If it let them reach Zoey, as far as Holt was concerned, it did. He realized just how high a price he was willing to pay to have her back. Holt glanced at Mira … and saw she was studying him as well.

Holt had no clue what she was feeling or thinking. To be honest, he didn’t even know what
he
was thinking. The shock of finding her hadn’t worn off, even if a part of him had always believed it, throughout everything that had happened. But so much
had
happened, and that was the problem, wasn’t it?

After all, it wasn’t just him who had changed, it was her too. He could sense a new strength in Mira. The way she held herself and gave her opinions. The way the Landship crews and the Helix went quiet whenever she spoke. Whatever she’d been through to get here, it had been just as tough a path as his.

After another moment, Mira averted her eyes back to the conversation.

“How many fighters do you have left?” The question came from Avril, standing between the Helix Doyen and the Menagerie leaders. Both groups seemed to claim her now, and they looked at each other with distrust. It was an odd sight.

“Maybe a hundred,” Isaac replied, his voice low.

Holt felt a jolt go through him. The Phantom Regiment had been more than two thousand strong, supposedly. They’d been counting on their help, but it looked like they were out of the game. One more problem that needed addressing.