J. Mitchell - The Severed Tower

As she walked, Mira thought about Holt, and the exchange they’d had last night. At her tent with Zoey, she’d seen Ravan leaving the merry-go-round, but there was no indication what might have transpired between them. Then again, should it even matter to her, after the way they’d left things?

Mira sighed. Why couldn’t she just hate Holt for carting her around like a trophy all that time, for almost hitting her, for not telling her about his past, for being in the Menagerie—for all of it?

For that matter, why couldn’t she be content with her relationship with Ben?

The answer was, she knew, because both Holt and Ben had shown themselves to be as complicated as her feelings, to be more than they otherwise might appear.

“Why are you and Holt mad at each other?” Zoey asked. The little girl had walked beside her ever since the Compactor, but she hadn’t said much.

Instinctively, the image of Holt almost hitting her on the plane filled her mind again.

Mira saw Zoey react, saw her eyes narrow in thought. She knew the little girl could see the same thing in her own mind. “That wasn’t Holt,” she said. “Not really.”

Mira nodded. “I know. But there’s more than that, sweetie. Holt was in the Menagerie.”

“No, he wasn’t. He almost was. And that’s different, isn’t it?”

Mira frowned in annoyance. Clearly things were much simpler for Zoey. How nice for her.

The little girl’s hands went to her head and rubbed her temples.

“Your head again?” Mira asked, pulling Zoey against her hip as they walked. The headaches seemed to be getting worse, but there was still no indication why.

“Hey, you know what?” Mira said, trying to take her mind off it. “Once we get to the top of this, we’ll be able to see Polestar.”

Zoey’s eyes followed the old highway to where it peaked atop a barren hill stripped of grass. “What does it look like? Think about it.”

Mira smiled and did so. It was easy. She’d seen it a million times: the spiral of prismatic multicolored light shooting straight up from a fissure in the ruins of a lakeside small town that had once been called Mobridge.

The pillar of light marked a Gravity Well, the only one that existed inside the third ring. Gravity Wells were more common in the second, like the Asimov Maelstrom and the Mix Master, but those were different from Polestar’s. They increased gravity the farther you went up, which meant they were dangerous and destructive. This one worked in the opposite way, it diminished gravity the higher it went. It had other useful properties, like vaporizing Ion Storms before they ever reached it.

As such, it allowed Freebooters to build a permanent outpost in the third ring, something that would otherwise be impossible, something even the White Helix had never done.

Because of the low gravity and the need to stay close to the Gravity Well’s effect field, the city hadn’t just been built near it, it had been built around it.

The Freebooters had built upward. Impossibly upward.

Spires of structures and scaffolds made of metal and thick wood foraged from the old city, or brought from outside, spiraled up and around the Gravity Well, high into the air above the ruins below.

It would have been an impossible construction without the Well—buildings balanced precariously on the superstructure, stretching far higher than they should be able to, wrapping around the massive column of light, a thousand feet into the air, balconies and towers hanging out far past the edge.

The higher you went, the less gravity there was, and at the very top sat the Orb, a spherical construction of sheet metal and glass.

Inside it there was no gravity at all, and anyone who went there could float freely around inside, as if they were in outer space, looking out through the glass, the city plummeting downward beneath them.

The light from the Well passing through the Orb lit it up like a signal tower that could be seen all the way to the Core. It was like a beacon, and it had always comforted Mira, seeing it from far away. It always pointed the way home.

Zoey smiled, the pain forgotten, seeing it all in Mira’s mind. “It’s beautiful.”

Mira smiled, too. A few minutes later they crested the rise, expecting to see everything that Mira had just thought of.

But Mira gasped at what was there instead.

The column of light that marked the Gravity Well was still there—but nowhere near as bright. It was faded, dim , and most shockingly, the Orb wasn’t lit. In fact… it was gone, as if a giant hand had ripped it away. Mira stopped and stared in shock as the pirates behind her began to top the rise, too.

“It doesn’t look like it used to, does it?” Zoey asked.

Mira was too stunned to answer. She felt dread forming in her stomach. What could have happened here?

The rest of the city seemed to still be there. She could see the twinkling lights up and down the Spire, the buildings and the support structure, twisting and wrapping around itself in a way that should be impossible. She could see the old town that sat at its base, and the wall of steel and mortar that surrounded it.

“Polestar?” Ravan’s voice asked behind Mira, unimpressed. “Kind of expected more.”

Ravan and the rest of the Menagerie had piled up behind Mira on the hill, staring at the city in the distance. Holt was at the back, hands tied, his eyes on Mira. The irony of their switched roles wasn’t lost on her, but it didn’t give her any pleasure.

“Something’s wrong,” Mira told Ravan. “The Orb is… gone. ” It still didn’t seem real, but all you had to do was look to see it was.

“I don’t know what that means,” Ravan said impatiently. “Should we go or not?”

Mira couldn’t see any movement in the city, but then again, they were too far away for that. “I think—”

Zoey moaned and collapsed to the ground.

“Zoey!” Mira knelt down to her. Max barked behind them and ran past the Menagerie to reach Zoey. The little girl was conscious, but she was barely holding on.

Holt shoved his way past the Menagerie. They tried to stop him, until Ravan waved them off. Hands still tied, he knelt down next to her with Mira.

“What’s wrong, kiddo?” he asked with concern.

“I can feel something building,” she said weakly. “It hurts in my head, like it’s inside and outside at the same time. I think we… should run…”

Holt and Mira looked at each other in alarm. And then Zoey’s eyes rolled up into her head. She sunk into the old road and went still.

“Zoey!” Mira shook the little girl, trying to wake her, but it didn’t work.

Strange thunder echoed above them suddenly. Everyone’s attention moved to the sky. The dark storm clouds were swirling faster and more powerful, growing darker and darker. Flashes of color danced in between them—red, blue, green…

Max growled as the wind whipped up, and Ravan’s black hair blew wildly behind her. “Red, what’s going on?”

Mira slowly stood up from Zoey, staring into the sky. All she could do was shake her head in disbelief. “Zoey’s right,” was all Mira said. She could hear the shakiness in her own voice. “We have to run.”

Lightning flashed out of the clouds above—but not like any normal lightning. This was a thick and vibrant bolt of blue.

It hit about a mile away, and a blast of cobalt light erupted into the air where it did. The crack of thunder that rolled over them was so loud, it almost knocked them to the ground.

“Jesus,” Holt said in shock.

Mira grabbed Zoey’s limp form and ran down the highway as fast as she could toward Polestar. Green lightning flashed from the clouds, and the massive blast of sound that followed it overpowered everything. She had no idea if the Menagerie were following her and she didn’t care.