The Severed Tower (16 page)

“Ready weapons!” Ravan yelled, and the pirates instantly unstrapped and cocked their rifles.

“No!” Mira shouted back desperately. “No guns!” If what was coming saw a threat, they would all be dead. But the pirates were raising their rifles anyway.

The figures kept flipping forward, tumbling through the Anomalies in rapid-fire progression. They made it look easy. They made it look like a dance.

It was breathtaking to watch.

The Condensers continued to flash, lighting up the figures, and Mira made out the details she expected. They were dressed in black and gray—boots, pants, tucked-in shirts, vests with pockets, utility belts on their chests.

Black masks were pulled up over their mouths and noses, and their eyes were covered by black goggles, so dark their wearers surely couldn’t see. It made the way they flipped through the Anomaly even more impressive. They were doing it
blind.

On their left hands, Mira could see the glowing colors of the rings they wore on their three middle fingers. Each wielded a long, spearlike weapon, with glowing crystals of different colors on either end shaped into points. The colorful marks of light streaked through the air as they quickly leaped closer.

They were White Helix.

Mira ducked instinctively as the first one used her weapon as a pole-vaulter would, to flip over Mira’s head. A sphere roared to life next to her. Max howled and Mira tightened her grip, trying to stop him from leaping forward.

Two Menagerie weren’t so lucky. They stumbled backward. A sphere flashed to life; their screams were ripped away as they were yanked inside. They vanished, but not so fast that you couldn’t make out their bodies being crushed into unrecognizable things the size of thimbles.

That was all it took. Mira saw it coming.
“No!”
she shouted.

But it was too late. The Menagerie opened fire, their guns flashing and lighting up the night.

The Helix adjusted instantly, spun in different directions, some in midair, in flashes of orange and purple light.

The rings they wore were made from Antimatter Crystals, the remnants of the colorful lightning that flashed deeper inside the Strange Lands, and they had very unique properties. Touching them in different combinations could manipulate gravity, inertia, or momentum. It let their owners do death-defying things.

The black-clad figures dodged the gunfire easily, as if everything but them was moving in slow motion, weaving through the flaring Condensers as they did.

Another Menagerie lost his balance and stumbled forward. He screamed as a Condenser Sphere flashed to life—and Mira shut her eyes tight as it sucked him inside.

Ravan yelled for her men to cease fire. The guns flashed off.

As they did, the strange figures landed on the ruined cars and trucks and buses all around them. Their weapons, the strange double-pronged spears, lowered and leveled at the Menagerie. Mira could hear a slight humming fill the air from the weapons’ glowing crystals.

“No one do
anything!
” Ravan yelled. She still had her gun raised, though—as did the rest of her men, sighting at the figures that knelt above them on the ruined cars.

It was a standoff. As dangerous as that was by itself, they were still standing
inside
the Grindhouse. Even though they couldn’t see them, the Condenser Spheres were drifting, and they were running out of time.

14.
WHITE HELIX

THE WHITE HELIX CROUCHED
on top of the cars, their strange double-pronged spear weapons pointing downward at the Menagerie.

Mira prayed no one moved. The strange, goggled figures might be outnumbered three to one, but they were White Helix, which meant they could kill every single one of them if things went bad.

Mira saw the pendants on their necks now—white ones, two strands of cord twisting around each other, with thin bars in between them. It made what was called a double helix, a symbol typically associated with DNA, and Mira had never understood why they chose it as their symbol.

The White Helix were a cult, for lack of a better description. They kept to themselves, deep back in the inner rings of the Strange Lands, and they had an almost supernatural sense and understanding of it. They could do amazing things: leap incredibly high; flip through the air; accelerate their movements—all by using the glowing rings on their left hands. Their spears were called Lancets, Mira knew, and their points were made of the same crystals. Supposedly, they could pierce solid steel, but she had never seen it for herself.

No one knew exactly how many Helix there were, but some guessed it could be in the thousands. Hundreds of survivors tried to reach the cult every year, but Mira had a feeling very few made it. To join the White Helix, you had to prove your dedication. And you did it by looking for them. If you could survive the Strange Lands on your own and make it to a certain ruined city in the second ring, the stories said the Helix would find you. What happened after that, Mira could only guess.

They were highly skilled fighters, which implied a great deal of training, and that had never made much sense. Why train to fight in the Strange Lands, where there wasn’t much use for it? And how did they get so skilled so quickly? From all accounts, the White Helix fought and did things as though they had been studying and training for a lifetime. But they were a reclusive group, and their secrets were their own.

One of them, between Mira and Ravan, slowly stood up on top of a rusted pickup. A small, black girl, with an easy grip on her Lancet. From this distance, Mira saw what looked like triggers on either end of the shaft, as if for a gun. Could the Helix fire those crystals like projectiles? The thought was unpleasant, especially with them all pointed in her direction.

Ravan’s gun tracked to the girl.

“Don’t,” Mira warned. “They’ll kill us all.”

The black girl lifted off her goggles and looked at Mira. Like Ravan and herself, the girl’s eyes were clear of the Tone. And they sparkled in a way that suggested a smile under her mask.

“You should listen to her,” the girl said. “Freebooters don’t belong in this place—but at least they understand it.” Her eyes focused on Mira in an uncomfortable way. “And yours seems to know enough to
fear
it, too.”

Mira instinctively hid her shaking hands behind her back. Was it that obvious?

“But you,” the girl said with disdain, looking at Ravan. “Menagerie
scum.
You understand
nothing.
”

Ravan’s glare intensified. “I understand you killed three of my men.” Her voice was harsh. Whatever the girl might be—pirate, thief, or murderer—she valued the lives of her crew. “And you’ll pay for that, one way or another.”

The Helix shook her head. “Is it my fault if Menagerie lose their balance?”

The pirates’ grip on their rifles tightened. The Helix crouched perfectly still, their eyes unreadable behind the black goggles.

“I won’t threaten you back,” the girl said, “there’s no need. This land will kill you all on its own.”

For the first time in the exchange, Ravan smiled. “Surviving’s kind of my strong suit. I plan on being around a long, long time.”

The girl nodded as if she expected the answer. “That’s why everyone like you is destroyed here. The only way to survive this place, the only
true
way … is to accept that it will eventually kill you.”

Mira watched the Helix girl shut her eyes in concentration and calmly reach outward. A Condenser Sphere flared to life in bright, crackling energy right next to her, lighting up the night. Max whined, and Mira held on tight, keeping him in place.

“In this place, you’re already dead,” the girl said, eyes closed. She ran her hands around the perimeter of the pulsating sphere, almost touching it, keeping it flared and visible, courting death. An inch or two more and that would be it. “Once you accept that, the fear no longer holds any power over you.”

If only,
Mira thought bitterly. The girl withdrew her hand and the Sphere vanished, blending back into the night.

“You wanna die?” Ravan seemed unimpressed. “I can accommodate that before any of your friends fire their pointy little sticks. I know a rifle when I see it, no matter how silly it looks.”

The girl smiled. “Killing us only makes the rest grow
stronger.
” At her words, the other White Helix nodded silently in agreement.

Ravan’s eyes narrowed. So did Mira’s. The Helix were definitely an eccentric bunch. They revered the Strange Lands, saw it and its artifacts as holy. Some thought they even saw the Severed Tower as a manifestation of God, but no one Mira knew had ever asked one. Freebooters and White Helix didn’t exactly get along. The Helix saw them as intruders on sacred land, vultures who picked it clean of divine artifacts. It meant, if the cult came across Freebooters, things tended to get violent. There was no way to know how many had died at the hands of White Helix, but Mira guessed it was no small number.

“Why are you so far south?” Mira asked hesitantly. “I didn’t think you came farther than the second ring.”

The girl looked at Mira. When she spoke, there was a hint of frustration. “We’re tracking Assembly. Strange ones. Fast movers. Waste of time probably, but I do as I’m told.”

Ravan’s stare moved to Mira suspiciously. Mira didn’t blame her, that answer was the last thing she’d expected. The White Helix were tracking the Hunters, too?
Why?

“And you?” the girl asked. “What brings Menagerie filth into the Strange Lands?”

Ravan brushed off the insult, but only because she seemed surprised. “You … don’t know?”

For the first time, the girl hesitated. “Don’t know what?”

“Your boss and mine came to an agreement,” Ravan replied. “A trade of sorts. I’m bringing our end of the bargain—then I’ll collect yours.”

The girl stared at Ravan disbelievingly. Her eyes moved to the large, wooden crate at the center of the line of pirates. “Gideon wouldn’t have anything to do with Menagerie,” the girl replied darkly.

Ravan was suddenly enjoying herself, Mira could tell. She had the upper hand again. “Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think. Or maybe he just doesn’t trust you all that much.”

The girl’s stare moved from the crate back to Ravan. “Menagerie are liars and thieves. Your words mean nothing. And my instructions don’t mention you. If Gideon did send for you, he didn’t tell me about it, so I have no reason to help you.” The girl’s voice was ragged and harsh, almost venomous. She was barely holding back some kind of anger. Mira didn’t know what was going on in the girl’s mind, but whatever it was, it felt personal.

Ravan held the girl’s stare easily. “Your name wouldn’t be … ‘Avril,’ would it?”

The girl’s eyes thinned. “If I see you again, Menagerie, I will end you.”

Ravan smiled again. “Now that sounds like all kinds of fun.”

The White Helix all stood up, ready to leap away.

“Wait!” Mira shouted. “Do you know what’s happening to the Strange Lands? Why it’s changing?” If anyone would know, they would.

The black girl turned to Mira and considered her, then pulled her goggles back over her eyes. “Yes.”

She touched two fingers together. A sphere of yellow light flashed around her and she launched into the air like a missile, flipping into the distance. The other Helix did, too, in flashes of similar color, and the Condenser Spheres flared as they danced and tumbled gracefully through them. The Menagerie stared after them in awe, watching them disappear into the darkness.

But, for Mira, the sight of the Anomalies brought everything rushing back.

“We have to move,” she yelled to Ravan.
“Now.”

Ravan understood. “Everyone, double-time it through—”

“No,” Mira stopped her. She handed the pegs she’d been collecting to the nearest pirate and pushed forward down the line, dragging Max with her.

“What?” Ravan asked.

“The Condensers have drifted by now, the path isn’t safe.” Mira’s heart beat heavily in her chest. It was true. They were in a lot of trouble. Mira yelled to both ends of the line. “Everyone watch me. Follow, and step where I step
exactly.
People ahead of me, stay still until I get to you, then follow with the others. And do it all as fast as you can.”

Mira let go of Max and the dog stared up at her intently. She wasn’t sure if it was Holt’s training or the dog’s intuition, but he seemed to understand that the situation was serious. Hopefully, he’d follow close behind her. She wouldn’t have time to hold on to him.

Mira grabbed a handful of washers and nuts from the pouch. The pirates in front of her quickly knelt down as Mira started throwing them into the air.

The Condenser Spheres flashed to life, lighting up the night with strobic, wavering energy. Some of them were less than a foot from the pirates, and they backed away warily.

“If any of my men—” Ravan began.

“Threaten me later!” Mira snapped. Her eyes were on the spheres, studying them, committing their locations to memory. She was going to have to do this on the fly, there wasn’t time to pathfind as she’d done before, not with all of them standing in the middle of the Anomaly. She had to focus.

The spheres flashed away and disappeared, but Mira remembered their placement. Her heart pounded as she took the first step. The fear never went away, it was always there, burning at her heels, but it took a backseat to the immediacy of the situation. There just wasn’t time to focus on it.

“Now!” Mira yelled as she pushed down the line, flinging more washers and nuts into the air, forcing the hidden spheres to reveal themselves, storing their locations in her head. Or trying to, anyway. There were more Condenser Spheres in the Grindhouse than she’d ever seen. If she forgot even one of them …

She pushed the thoughts away. She had to concentrate. She could do this, she told herself. She had to. Or it wouldn’t just be her that died, it would be dozens of people.

Mira kept moving forward, one foot after the other, throwing the bits of metal and finding the Anomalies on the fly. She was dimly aware that she had moved off the path she’d marked before, but she tried not to think about it. As she went, more and more Menagerie began to follow, watching where she stepped, moving as she did.