The Unfinished World (The Armor of God Book 2) (27 page)

Ezra took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, he quivered.

William approached them, drawn by the conversation.

“What is this?” asked Jena, hand on the railing circling the pit. “Is this the Asili itself—what’s causing all those problems with the people outside?”

“This is the Asili. The energy in there came with the creature, gives it power,” William said. “It’s been here for hundreds of years, but I don’t think it feels the passage of time—time doesn’t exist in there. It created this mountain, the tunnels and chambers. It powers your Creuxen. It keeps the creature alive.”

“We need to destroy it,” said Jena, looking down at the Asili over the railing.

“This isn’t earthly power, soldier. It’s not something we can understand or measure. Let alone destroy.”

“Someone could,” Akiva argued. “Whoever built the Creux harnessed it and created the cores, created technomancy. The cores are connected to this source, so
someone
out there knows what it is and how to use it against the Laani.”

“What’s down there, beyond the light?”

“There’s no way to know,” William replied. “All we know is that it’s deadly. More than one has met their death in this light. It’s a fall, but its touch burns.”

I know that burn
, he thought, and rubbed his bald head.

When Erin joined them by the Asili, she was pale, scared, and most of all, frustrated. Ezra still couldn’t look back at Lys to see Alice in its grasp, and she had challenged the creature openly.

“I won’t let it do this. Not to Alice,” she said, speaking through a tight throat, and looked back at Lys, who had remained silent since she spoke Milos Ravana’s name. The shifting blue light of the Asili made Erin’s features stand out fiercely. She looked down at it, immediately drawn to its light.

The monsters banged at the walls, and the city trembled.

“Jena, your plan just became our plan. We’ll get everyone out of here, because even if I have to bring down the whole mountain, I’m bringing this thing down.”

ф

It was cold and dark inside the tunnels leading to Zenith. The world around Vivian had become a tapestry of plots, and with every new turn she discovered a new layer to the design. Her nearest discovery was the large network of tunnels buried beneath Roue. As explained by Tara herself, and supported by Dr. Mustang, the tunnels began with the excavation of the Creux leaving large gaps of earth beneath the city. Eventually, these were connected to each other and repurposed to create production facilities and houses for the provisions these created.

The Blanchard home, as it appeared, was built above the excavation site of a retired Creux called Nisi Nirvana, which once belonged to the CDSL before Alice, who, like her successor, was assimilated into her Creux. Through an entrance in her basement, Tara had access to the network, and one particularly complicated route through the labyrinth dropped them inside the underground tunnel that housed the train tracks leading to Zenith.

And to think Ezra Blanchard grew up in that house, never knowing everything that was happening below and around him. It couldn’t have been easy for his mother.

“Can you imagine what would happen if Tunnelers tore through here?” Jed said as a joke, but neither she nor Dr. Mustang laughed.

“The tunnel’s protected rather well,” said Mustang. “They couldn’t even if they knew it was here.”

“I know, I was just—never mind,” he said. He had been in an odd mood ever since he left Lara back in the house. She had asked him not to say anything as final words—no goodbyes, no promises of his return, or anything else. Lara didn’t have much faith in ever seeing him again, and the tears she wiped when she left the room, not bothering to even look at anyone else, attested to the sincerity of her words.

“How long is the walk there?” she asked, switching her flashlight from one hand to the other. She was afraid of taking the wrong step on this narrow platform and falling to the tracks. The train was not coming, of course, but it was at least six feet down, and the currents that normally gave the train power would fry her alive if still functional. She doubted they were, but the fear was healthy nonetheless.

“About twenty more minutes,” said the rather unathletic Dr. Mustang, huffing and barely able to breathe. “We’re a little past halfway through the tunnel.”

“I wonder if Felix and Tessa are ready to go. I hope they’re gone when we get there,” said Jed, his boots pounding heavily on the steel platform, the beam of the flashlight trembling before them. “I don’t want another Covington situation.”

Vivian gritted her teeth.

“That was unavoidable. It was a rushed, poorly planned escape, but we couldn’t have foreseen Kat doing what she did. I worked closely with her; she masked her intentions in this terrifying way, everything she said, all her lies, were so authentic. It’s a good thing Tessa was there. Blanchard might have not made it out otherwise. This is a much simpler plan, at least for you. Making my way back alone will be the difficult part.”

“Aren’t you afraid of Heath finding out you were here, you helped us leave?” Vivian asked.

“I am, but I trust it won’t happen. If everything goes as planned, no one will even know I was in Zenith at all. The important part is getting you out of here. By then, it won’t matter what Heath does or doesn’t; it’ll be too late.”

“Why could he be so opposed to the Creux, I don’t get it. It’s like he
wants
Lys to win,” said Jed. “I’ve tried looking at this from every possible angle and I don’t understand.”

“Some of them are comfortable admitting defeat, I suppose,” Vivian said.

“But it’s not just defeat. It’s the end of everything we’ve done in this planet. How could they be so
aloof
about it? I don’t know—I just feel like there’s something we’re not seeing. Heath isn’t just a defeatist idiot. There’s something else going on. Kat was playing a part in it, and the only plans that involve murder are big ones.”

“Big plans? Like what?”

“I don’t know,” said Jed. “But if you stay behind, Dr. Mustang, please try to figure it out. You still have a part to play here.”

The rest of the way was silent, as if trying to be respectful of the situation.

After all, Zenith was waiting for them.

ф

When Erin decided that the first thing they should do was to support Jena’s plan and move everyone out of Clairvert, Ezra took a moment to visit Elena.

On his way out, two things caught his eye: first, Akiva was standing in the middle of the city square, looking up at the pillar as if studying it. In the short amount of time it took Ezra to cross the city towards the atrium, Akiva had moved around the structure, never taking his eyes from it. He remembered noticing Akiva’s interest in it before, and wondered if the Asili had begun to affect him like it had affected Erin and Garros.

Then, once outside, he noticed something else: Lazarus was gone. At some point between his last visit to Elena and this one, the giant Creux had stepped away from the others, all of which remained down on one knee. He’d talk to Erin about going out and trying to track him; they needed to know what Lazarus was doing, especially now that they knew that it had a mind of its own.

Ezra tried to focus; between the Alice monster held by Lys, Lazarus, and Malachi, his head had become a battlefield for terrifying and pessimistic thoughts. He needed a little light.

He found Elena, as he had before, curled up into a ball at the end of her cave. This time, Ezra had taken a blanket from Malachi’s home and wore it around his shoulders on the way out of the city. No one asked, but he had prepared an explanation in case anyone did: he needed it for his Creux. No one would ask questions.

She smiled when he put the blanket around her, and immediately wrapped it around her own shoulders, inviting Ezra to join her under its warmth. “Thank you very much. You look pale, are you all right?”

“No, not really, but I can’t talk about it right now,” he said, still trying to avoid thinking about the deadened version of Alice who spoke the devil’s words. “I got some news for you, though. I told you about my friend, our plan to move everyone out of Clairvert, to the islands in the wasteland. It’s happening, right now. Erin and—well, my friends, they’re planning it. You’ll be able to join the others. Isn’t that great?”

She smiled, and it still told him that she didn’t quite believe him, like she had lost all hope. At least, if not entirely sincere, the smile was warm. She took his hand under the blanket, and looked down at it. “This blanket. Where did you get it?”

“It’s Malachi’s,” he said, looking at her eyes to gauge her reaction to the name.

And her reaction was exactly the one he had expected—and hoped for. Her eyes went wide, then avoided Ezra’s altogether. It was at that exact moment that Ezra confirmed his suspicions.

“He misses you,” he said. “He thinks you’re dead. So does your dad.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied.

“Elena, please. He told me about you last night. About what happened, and about you and Farren—”

“
Don’t
.”

“What happened?”

“What do you think?”

“You were going to marry him, weren’t you? That’s what Malachi said. Was it . . . did you even want to do it?” Ezra asked, and she shook her head. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about it at all, but he needed to know. “Elena, was it . . . Malachi told me that Farren was the one who covered for you when it began.”

“He said that?”

“But he didn’t, did he? Other than the things you know about us and the Creux, you seem to be perfectly fine. I heard the people in the Caduceus; I know what the Asili does, and you don’t have it. Farren made the whole thing up, didn’t he? You didn’t want to marry him, so he just found a way to punish you for it.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, Ezra,” she said after a long silence that doubled as a confirmation. Ezra clenched his jaw so hard he felt his teeth would crack. She tightened the grip of her cold hand on his, and kissed him. “Listen, if what you told me earlier is true, then we can move out of the city. I’ll join my brother and my father, and it won’t matter at all. Right?”

“But it does matter. He can’t get away with doing this to someone. Malachi has no idea. Your father—”

“
Ezra, they can’t see me
. If you tell them you found me here you’ll regret it, I promise. Please just let it be.”

He didn’t want to lie, so he said nothing. Of course he had every intention of exposing Farren for the selfish liar he was. How could she not want to bring her father and brother the comfort of knowing that she was still alive?

“Something has to be done,” he said, and walked out of the tunnel. “I can’t promise you anything.”

He walked between the folds of the atrium and into Clairvert, and as though it had been orchestrated by something much larger than him, Ezra immediately walked past Captain Farren.

“You keep going in and out of the city, it’s strange; people never leave and you do it so casually. What’s out there, other than your machines?” he asked with a voice that suddenly stank of venom. “You can tell me.”

“Nothing,” Ezra said, and continued walking.

But he didn’t get very far. Farren grabbed him by the arm, and this felt too aggressive. “Hold on.”

Ezra turned around, nose flaring, and put all of his weight into a heavy jab to Farren’s face. His fist caught the man in the nose, and both felt and heard it crack. Though he immediately recognized what he did as a mistake, he smiled when he saw the captain’s now-crooked nose begin to bleed. “Don’t you touch me again, you lying sack of crap.”

Farren smiled, wiping none of the blood on his face, and spat. Ezra’s pride turned sour, into fear.

“Come here,” he snarled.

Ezra took a step back and prepared for the attack, but Farren’s reach was greater and his hand much stronger than he anticipated. It was easy for the captain to grab ahold of Ezra’s robe, and with one precise and malicious movement, he pinched the nose ring, and
pulled
.

He screamed out as Farren tugged at the ring, and there was vicious cruelty in the action. He could almost hear the cartilage tearing. Tears began to form in his eyes as he grunted under the excruciating pain.

Then Farren was on the floor. The sound of his armor clanking rang across the atrium.

“Try that again and I’ll tear out your goddamn throat.” It was Garros; his face was red, his neck muscles and veins bulging like a furious bull. “I don’t care if he took the first swing.
We’ll
deal with him. Not you.”

Garros turned his infuriated eyes to Ezra.

“And we will.”

Malachi was suddenly there, helping the captain up to his feet, and looking at Ezra. Farren’s eyes were lost, not knowing where to look or if they could even remain open. “What happened here? Ezra?”

“Malachi, I need to talk to you, need to tell you something,” Ezra said, still angry and embarrassed, wiping the tears the pain had squeezed from his eyes. He shot a look at Farren, who remained discombobulated by Garros’ powerful strike. “In private. You’ll want to hear this.”