J. Mitchell - The Severed Tower

“And I thought this Solid was going to be a complete waste of time,” the voice continued. The other kids began to emerge, pushing through the tall stalks of wheat that surrounded them. Holt could see the colorful tattoos on their wrists, similar to the half-finished one on his. They glared down at him evilly.

They were Menagerie, and he was in very big trouble.

A final figure pushed into view. A girl with long, black hair trailing down her back, and a dark bird on her right wrist. Her perfectly clear eyes held Holt’s as she took in the sight of him. Ravan was as beautiful and cold as he remembered, and the sight of her stirred a combination of feelings, not all of them unpleasant. The look between them spoke volumes.

“Holt Hawkins,” Ravan said with fervor. “As I live and breathe.”

To his right, Mira looked back and forth between Holt and Ravan, and he didn’t have to look at her to see her bewilderment. He could guess what happened. She went to the only people she could for help—not knowing they were the very ones who were looking for him.

“Holt, I didn’t…” Mira started, then faded off, confused.

Zoey seemed to sense something was wrong, moved back toward Holt, but the pirates grabbed her. She screamed as they lifted her into the air.

“Zoey!” Mira shouted and moved for the little girl. One of the pirates grabbed her and yanked her off her feet. Mira kicked and clawed, tried to get loose—until someone put a gun to her head. It drove the point home.

Max barked and lunged. The kids kicked him away, knocked him down. It took three of them to pin and hold the squirming, violent, growling dog. The Menagerie pirates laughed. The haze of the previous battle had faded, and they could sense blood in the water now. Their violent, malicious sides were reappearing.

Slowly, Ravan knelt down and reached for Holt. He tried to pull away, but there was nowhere to go. She brushed a few stray hairs out of his eyes. The gesture wasn’t just tender, it was familiar.

To his right, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Mira watching.

“It may not seem like it right now.” Ravan leaned in close, whispering softly. “But you’re lucky it was me who found you.”

Holt didn’t answer. Their stare lasted a moment longer, then Ravan looked back to her men.

“Leave him tied and bring him with us,” she ordered. “Take the others, too. We’ll figure out what they’re worth at Polestar.” Ravan stood up and looked at Mira, who stared back with fury. “What? We honored the Solid, we rescued your friends. Not my fault you didn’t stipulate anything about us letting them go once we did.”

Mira’s stare was venomous.

She tried to break free with renewed effort, almost managed to do it, struggling to get to Ravan. Two more kids joined the others, subdued her, carried her off kicking and fighting. Holt wasn’t sure what had transpired between the two, but he could tell there was already a lot of history.

“Holt!” Zoey screamed in anguish as she was pulled away, too. Max howled after her.

But there was nothing Holt could do.

Two Menagerie pirates stood over him, smiling wickedly. Then a shotgun butt slammed down onto his head and everything went black.

* * *

AVRIL STOOD AT THE crest of a rocky hill, staring down at the valley below. The Menagerie were there, grouped in what remained of an old wheat field. They’d taken the Freebooter prisoner, as well as another boy who seemed injured, and there was the girl as well, the small one.

The one Gideon had sent her to find.

Avril watched as they started marching in a column to the east, through the wheat, leaving a trail behind them, flattening it all as they moved. It was just like them. The Menagerie wilted everything they touched and never looked back.

She felt anger begin to rise as she remembered the black-haired girl and what she’d said. Avril wanted to believe it was a lie, but she knew it wasn’t. The girl had used her name. She knew. The artifact they were carrying in that crate was just the right size. She could guess what it all meant—but even so, she just couldn’t believe Gideon would do this to her.

Then again, in his own way he’d told her, hadn’t he? One task you will like. And one you will not.

The wind picked up again, blowing from the north, and she casually tied her hair behind her head. It was warm air, and the hair on her arms stood up as it swept over her. The land was changing and it had everything to do with that little girl down there. Even from this distance, Avril could tell the Pattern joined with her just like it would with any Anomaly. It meant Gideon was right. She was the one they had waited for, as hard as it was to believe.

“You feel it, too?” someone asked next to her. His name was Dane, tall and handsome, with wavy hair and lithe muscles, and he balanced his Lancet on his shoulders, arms hanging from either end. She could feel his closeness, and she liked it. She’d gotten used to it in a way she never believed she could.

Avril nodded. “From the north, coming hard.”

“Ion Storms in the second ring. It doesn’t feel real,” he mused in disbelief. She felt his eyes on her. “The one below, the one who knew your name. You know why she’s here.”

“Yes.”

“I won’t let them have you,” Dane said with conviction. She turned and looked into his eyes—and saw the passion there. “I won’t. ”

Avril felt warmth spread through her. He would fight and die for her, she knew. Not because she was his Doyen, but because of who they were to each other when they were alone. Dane was the only person she’d ever let see her weaker side, the side that was vulnerable, and she wished she could curl up in his arms right then, but she couldn’t. The rest of her Arc was behind them, waiting, watching. She had to be strong; they had to see her as fearless.

“Sometimes we don’t have the choices we hope we will,” she replied.

“Why not just kill them?” one of the others asked before Dane could reply. “Why not just kill the Menagerie and take the little girl and be gone?”

“Know thyself, know thine enemy,” Avril simply said. “Right now, the Menagerie and the Freebooter are unknowns. We need to find shelter. We can pick up their trail after the storm.”

“Assuming there’s anything left to follow,” Dane said.

“There will be. I doubt it’s the Tower’s will for the Prime to die here.” Avril turned and lowered the black goggles over her eyes, cutting off her sense of sight. She concentrated in the way she’d been taught, felt the Charge all around her, followed it until she could see the Pattern of the land in her mind, the Anomalies that pulsed and moved all through the distance.

Then she and the rest of the White Helix leaped into the air in flashes of yellow and purple light.

MIRA AND ZOEY WALKED AT THE HEAD of the line, down an old, narrow country road, flanked on both sides by endlessly stretching fields of wheat and rotted cornstalks. Holt was unconscious, near the middle, carried next to the mysterious crate the Menagerie had been lugging.

Max refused to walk anywhere but underneath him, growling menacingly at the pirates if they got too close. Though they outnumbered the dog, none of them wanted to be the first to challenge him. Mira didn’t blame them.

Mira had kept the group moving northeast, hoping to come across one of the landmarks that pointed the path to Polestar. It would be much safer, from then on.

Theoretically.

Her ability to get the Menagerie through the Strange Lands was, at this point, probably the one thing keeping her alive, and she felt Ravan’s glare on her back constantly now.