War of the Princes 02: Dragoon (22 page)

After days of eating little and sleeping less, a combination of food in my stomach and a soft bed stole me easily away to sleep. I drifted off, thinking about Rune.

I'll try.

That night, I dreamed of introducing Rune to my dad, and showing him
Rivermarch. In that dream, the weather tower still stood and I was as proud of my home as I was my family. But the sky darkened, the weather tower crashed down over us, and Eddie Elm was standing, dead on his feet. He pointed behind me, and sunk into the ground. I looked over my shoulder to see Margrave Hest riding the three-headed warhorse. She was charging straight at me, a sword held out to lop my head off. Rune stood in front of me, to protect me. When her sword slashed into his chest he disappeared like smoke. I screamed, throwing my hands up to block my face. Hest raised her arm and cut downward, driving her blade into my shoulder.

My eyes flew open and I found Sterling standing over me, with his hand on that same shoulder.
“Time to go.”

C
hapter 35: Fear and Fortune

I dressed in the clean clothes that had gotten me through the
battlefield just two days ago. The fit of my black breeches, blouse and corset were breathable and flexible; a dramatic improvement from the gown I'd worn the night before.

I fished through my leather satchel, hoping in futility that Dylan had returned my pistol. He had not. In fact, he hadn't returned at all that night. I couldn't let myself worry. I couldn't.

I pulled my hair into a ponytail, securing it with a rubber band, and strapped my boots securely to my feet. Slipping my battered night goggles over my head to rest around my neck, I swung my door open.

Kyle had returned while I was sleeping, and he and Sterling were ready, waiting in Dylan's room. The two of them turned to look at me as I entered.

“Where is Dylan?” Sterling hissed under his breath. His large shoulders were tense. A line, summoned by anger and worry, had appeared on his forehead.

Kyle made an ugly sound.
“Who cares?”

“
No Dylan, no Ruby,” Sterling said, his eyes ready to burn holes into Kyle's head. I was glad that wasn't an Ability.

“
We can't control him,” I said to my bulky friend. “Brendon knows that.”

“
Yeah? Is that what we're relying on? That he’ll just hand Ruby back if Dylan gets left behind?” Sterling asked, rhetorically.

“
I could find Dylan,” I said, knowing it wasn't a real option.

“
No, you can't,” Kyle chimed in. “We don't have time for that if we're following your Dragoon's plan.”

“
I swear, if anything happens to her,” Sterling growled.

“
We'll get her back. No matter what,” Kyle said, looking him in the eyes. I was surprised to see his reassurance actually work on Sterling. “We just need to handle things one step at a time.”

“
We'll
find
a way,” I said, grinning impishly at the horribly gaudy play on words. In truth, I wanted to run into the washroom and throw up in the bathtub, but I had to be strong for my friends and for my mother, if she was still alive.

I got them both to crack smiles.

“Wow,” Sterling said, wincing.

Kyle flipped his
pocket watch open and dangled it up where I could see. “Five minutes,” he said. “Carmine is ready for us and the cargo, and I saddled the horses in their stalls downstairs before I came back here. You and your mom will have to ride double.”

“
It's fine. Florian can handle it,” I said. Nerves were eating me alive. What if we found my mother's dead body, like Dylan was so fond of suggesting? My pulse was already climbing. “Thanks, Kyle.”

We'll find her.
It's not too late.

*   *   *

Rune's plan was flawless. The Gold Palace was asleep, with only the bakers milling groggily down the gilded halls to the kitchens. We passed two palace guards, leaning on glossy wooden statues, slumbering at their posts.

If I'd thought the Gold Palace was sleeping, the
installment fortress was all but dead. Even with a pair of extra Haven citizens tagging along, we moved through the dark and sterile passages undisturbed.

There were
Dragoons present, as always, but those few that we saw seemed to have more to worry about than our little group. I'd hoped that by walking ahead with determination, my Historian pin gleaming, we wouldn't be stopped and questioned. For once, I wished that Dylan were with us. For the time being, we were lucky.

The whole place was under the spell of dark morning. It's the one time of day when all the world is mute, and each and every sound carries farther than it would at any other point. The tapping and shuffling of our shoes on the flagstones seemed unbearably loud to me. Like Margrave
Hest would hear and intercept us at any moment, ready to smile and cut me again. Absently, I clutched my bandaged left hand. It still hurt a little, tingling, the way a healing scratch does.

I led the way to the records room. I'd never been there before, but that didn't matter. Rune was waiting just outside of the appropriately labeled wooden doors. The liver chestnut slabs of wood looked out of place in a construct so fond of stone and metal. Rune's black leather armor was immaculately cleaned, showcasing the blood red decorative details stained into the material. A pair of swords hung from his hip.

Rune looked the group over, his intense blue eyes narrowing at the sight of unfamiliar faces. He focused back on me like he was waiting for a signal that all was as it should be.

“
Rune, these are my friends, Kyle and Sterling,” I said, gesturing to them with a flimsy smile. The introduction was bizarre. Kyle had been my friend since we were six. Like opposing magnets, the meeting was like a collision of two things that couldn't possibly come together. My two lives were connecting, and it didn't feel natural.

I'd
had daydreams of the moment I'd introduce Rune to my best friends. It was a happy fantasy. Now that it was really happening, I couldn't shake the visions of my nightmare. Connecting any part of Haven and the Outside World never went well in my subconscious.

Luckily, nothing exploded.

Instead of, “Hello,” and, “Nice to meet you,” the guys responded to each other in a series of grunts and head bobs. It was all very serious and manly.

“
Hey,” Kyle added in a slightly lower voice than was natural. I thought he was trying too hard to seem appropriately macho.

“
I tampered with the duty roster last night. We should have a little more time,” Rune said to me. “Lead the way.”

I understood why he'd suggested meeting at that location. It was a sort of central meeting of halls, doors and
side-passages.

Paperglass
To Be.

A force, entirely invisible to me, guided me down a corridor with a grey brick
entryway. Rune fell in step beside me, and just seeing the bulk of him in my peripheral vision added the sharp tang of a thrill through my adrenaline-filled body.

I glanced up at him while we walked. He didn't so much as look at me.

Rune was as strange to me as the tides. Some moments he would come rushing toward me, not with words or gestures, but with something intangible that I could sense. The next moment, he'd be drawn away, unreachable. I couldn't predict him. He was right beside me in the corridors, yet as distant as Haven.

You're not a sword
. You're a person. What happened to you?

The Pull took us immediately below ground. Three identical stairwells had greeted us with black open mouths, like a trio of twisting snakes, ready to swallow us whole. The middle one
lured me onward, brass gas lamps lighting our way. The lack of electricity bothered me.

The moment I could no longer turn around and see the entry to the stairs, a thick kind of fear pressed down on me. It was primal, inarguable, unavoidable. My heart beat like the wings of a small bird, faster than one could count. I concentrated on taking one step at a time, with my right hand on the gritty, pocked stone banister. After such extended repetition, I was afraid I'd skip a step, trip, and take a
nosedive to my doom.

Though they were progressing carefully and quietly, Sterling, and Kyle passed me on the stairs. I knew they'd wait at the bottom, but hurrying to catch up with them was making me feel infinitely worse.

One step. One step. One step.

“
Are you alright?” Rune asked quietly, slowing down to wait for me.

“
Do these stairs go on forever?” I whispered, feeling hot and cold. Kyle and Sterling were nearby, but I couldn't see them anymore. Would the closeness of the place crush them the way it was crushing me?

“
It's only one flight,” he said, clearly concerned. Why shouldn't he be? I looked completely crazy. “We're nearly to the bottom.”

The stairs leveled out for two strides, and curving, plunged deeper.
“It' so narrow,” I complained, feeling a bout of vertigo.

“
Take a moment,” he said, holding out a hand to my shoulder to stop me. “Have a breath.”

Leaning my back on the banister and the wall, I did as he asked.

Rune placed a single hand to the wall and the lapping fires of the torches sputtered to their lowest flame. There was less chance of us being noticed in the near dark. The ground floor passage remained quiet. So far, Rune had been right about the patrols. They were missing altogether.

“
Try to think of a place where you cannot be reached by anything destructive,” he suggested. “Put the discomfort out of your mind.”

Closing my eyes, I breathed in and imagined I was out in the open air of Haven Valley, sitting beside the Wendy River with Ruby and Kyle. Thinking of a safe place helped clear my phobia, but only long enough for the stresses of my responsibilities to settle in and choke me. I blinked my eyes open.

“Can I imagine you there with me?” I asked, more serious than wistful.

“
Not me,” he told me. “But maybe Rocco Thatcher.”

A grin curved my lips and giddiness bubbled up in me. I felt myself washed in warmth. The pressure of everything was really getting to me.

When he was sure I was steady, Rune led me the rest of the way down the stairs. I felt stupid for having such an annoying problem and I wondered if he'd lost any respect for me.

We found Kyle and Sterling flattened on either side of the stairwell, both frantically motioning to us to be quiet and hide.

Trouble had found us. Or was it the other way around?

C
hapter 36: An Army of Friends

Outside was a wide room
, broken up by short square pillars and a low ceiling. We didn't need to suppress the lights here; the place was already dim and dank. There was a drain in the center of the room, with dark streaks trailing into it. From where I stood, it was impossible to tell whether it was grime or blood. The smell of the place was putrid.

Worse than the room was the company. A group of four Dragoons stood in the entrance directly across from us. We'd be discovered in moments. I slipped behind Kyle, leaning against the wall as closely as I could.

Rune gestured for us to wait. He squared his shoulders, lifted his chin and strode directly inside. The eyes of the other soldiers were on him at once. I wanted to stop him. Could he really fight so many? The Pull and the Spark competed within me. I couldn't concentrate on both of them at once. I felt the line pulling me toward my mother, into the room, but my control of electricity had become an instinctive defense mechanism. The tug of war between Abilities was distracting. If Rune needed my help, I had to focus.

To our surprise, the other soldiers stood at attention upon seeing
him. At twenty, he was younger than a few of them, but that didn't alter their level of respect for him. “You're late in your rotation,” he said to them. There was a cutting edge to his voice.

“
We haven't been relieved yet,” one of them said to him.

“
You're relieved now,” Rune said.

“
By who?” another asked. “The next shift isn't here yet.”

“
By me,” Rune said, giving him a threatening look. “It's my responsibility today to make sure this rotation happens on time. I'll deal with the tardiness of the other group when they get here, now move, before I report you to your Commander.”

“
Yes, Cormorant,” the soldiers echoed, and I could hear their marching footsteps growing rhythmically faint. We would have been in a lot of trouble if they'd left by the stairs we were hiding on. Every moment was a gamble. I exhaled, letting the tightness out of my chest.

Rune stood across the room, waiting until they were gone. It wasn't over. One pair of footsteps returned.

“Permission to speak freely sir?” There was a hard edge to the man's voice.

“
Granted,” Rune said tentatively.

The tightness returned to strangle the life out of my chest. I wanted to throw up.

“I don't like this, sir. You shouldn't be relieving us. If
they
want to rotate, that's fine, but I'd prefer not to be relieved until our replacements have arrived. I'd rather stay at post. Sir.”

How would he handle this one? I couldn't see any graceful way to do it.

Sterling rose to his feet and strode out of the stairwell into full view of the other Dragoon.

Rune was shaken.
“No!”

“
What the hell is this?” the other Dragoon barked.

I peered out from behind the wall to see Sterling walking toward the soldier with his arms held out in surrender.
“You've got me,” he said. “I was trying to escape, but I didn't make it. Fair's fair.”

Rune was tense. I could see the indecision on his face.

“You wouldn't happen to know this man, would you,
Cormorant
?” the Dragoon asked, not bothering to disguise his suspicion. The soldier clapped his hand on Sterling's arm, and wrenched it behind him. Then he abruptly let go. The Dragoon let his arms drop to his sides and blinked, over and over. Dumbfounded, he looked over his shoulder, and then spun in a circle like he suddenly had no idea where he was.

The man turned to Rune and pointed vaguely. He opened his mouth to say something, and stopped himself two or three times before getting any actual words out.
“Do you...? Should I be...? Is this...?”

Sterling had the Ability to make people forget. He'd done it!

Rune's expression was hilarious. His head was tilted slightly to the side, his eyebrows were pulled up in the middle and he had the most profound frown of perturbation. I cupped a hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing out loud. He had no idea what Sterling's Abilities were. He probably thought the man had very suddenly gone insane.

Sterling shook the arm that had been twisted and rolled his shoulder back, the way athletes tend to do. He grinned comfortably at the
Dragoon, who was a deadly adversary only a moment ago, and brought a hand down on his shoulder in a companionable sort of way.

“
That way,” Sterling told him, pointing to the exit where the other Dragoons had gone.

The man blinked at him with all the expression of a block of wood.

Sterling patted his shoulder. “It'll all come back, well, not all of it. Most of it will come back. Go. That way.”

The
Dragoon grinned. “She made the best steak,” he said, dreamily, and wandered out the way the other Dragoons had gone.

Rune looked at Sterling
in disbelief. “Was that you?”

“
Yeah,” Sterling nodded, while the rest of us filtered out of hiding. “I can make people forget. Or remember. It's easier if I know something about them, but I just made him think about his favorite memory. Helps to distract them and get them moving again.”

“
I've never seen that one before,” Rune said approvingly. “Nicely done.”

“
Thanks.”

“
That worked,” I said, impressed. There was no time to marvel. Delving within, I pushed the Spark aside to focus on the Pull.

Paperglass
To Be.

I took a step out into the dingy room, feeling as though I'd crossed some invisible and
malignant border. The lightness of the moment dissolved.

“
That was intense,” Kyle said. I'd never seen him so nervous. He was walking gingerly, like he expected the floor to eat him. “Good accidental collaboration. I think I just figured out why I thought I was blacking out after math class in eighth grade. If you really wanted to copy my homework you could have asked.”

Sterling shrugged at Kyle.
“I did.”

“
Wow,” was all Kyle would say to that. On a regular day, he probably would have bantered on for a while, but he was far too busy looking paranoid.

“
What's a cormorant?” Sterling asked Rune.

“
It's my rank. I lead a squadron. A team of Dragoons.”

“
Oh.”

I was probably more interested in the answer than Sterling
was.

Cautiously I led the group within. I had no doubt
that this room was a prison. Great doors surrounded us. Some were solid wood, others black iron, and some even stone. Each held a massive clockwork lock, recessed into one side. This was where they'd hold people with Abilities. A regular door could not keep in a person who mastered the control of wood or metal.

“
It's also a water bird. Fishermen use them, the cormorants. A band is fastened around their throat so that they can catch fish and not swallow them. Some believe that's why the Prince created the title. We are effective at catching or destroying our enemies, but are not yet allowed to swallow them.”

“
Drain them, you mean,” I clarified.

Rune was one footstep behind me.
“Yes.”

I sighed, looking between the doors of the dismal room.
Before Rune had been taken, he used to go fishing with his father. He'd been terrible at it, or so his little sister, Lina, had told me. I wondered if he identified with the fisher bird now. “Let me guess, the next rank above yours is Commander?”

“
It is.”

Of course.
“Great.”

“
Would you look at these doors? They're all different,” Kyle marveled, bringing up the rear of our group. He had gone ashen. His owl eyes were unblinking as he haphazardly spun in a circle and walked backwards to get a full view of the place. His voice came low, and more serious than I thought I'd ever heard. “People die in here.”

His words gave the horrible odor of the room new definition. I gagged.

Uncertain whether I'd pass straight through the chamber and on to some other network of tunnels, I came to a dead halt. An invisible rope dragged at me. One of the Flying Fish's heavy mooring lines may as well have been tied around my middle, pulled taut.

Could this really be it? Holding my breath, I slowly turned to my right
and found myself facing a sinister iron door, bleeding rust from its thick bolts.

Paperglass
.

I took a step toward it.

Paperglass.

Another step.

Paperglass!

I was face to face with the weeping door. A rectangle of a thousand evenly spaced
pinholes was the closest thing to a window that the door was equipped with. I couldn't see in, but the Pull nudged me forward until my boots had no more room and my body was pressed up against the gritty iron. There was no doubt in my mind. My mother was in there.