J. Mitchell - The Severed Tower

Dane had lowered himself to a crouch, instead of centering his balance on his knees. It was a mistake. Holt had been in enough fight-or-die situations to develop his own instincts, and he lashed out and swept Dane’s left foot completely off the floor. The Helix lost his balance and tumbled backward with wide eyes.

Holt twisted around, and when he did his fist connected hard with Dane’s jaw and sent him crashing down. The Lancet burst from Dane’s hands and skittered toward Mira. She grabbed and aimed it at the boy. She might not know how to fire it, but she could definitely thrust it forward.

The other Lancets around them all pointed at her and Holt, but it didn’t matter now, and she and Dane both knew it. They might kill them—but Dane would die first. She kept the blue glowing spear point at his throat.

“You think that’s the first time someone’s pinned my arm?” Holt asked sourly, staring back at Dane. “You guys really have been out here too long.”

Out the corner of her eye, past all the humming spear points, Mira noticed one odd thing. Avril’s Lancet wasn’t raised. She just stared at the charged situation around her.

“Stand down. Everyone,” she said with slow, pointed words that dripped with anger.

“But—” one of them started. Avril kicked outward in a blur of motion, her body covered in bright white light. The boy towered over the small girl, but he went flying backward as if he weighed nothing, and slammed to the ground. The others stared at her warily.

“I am Doyen,” Avril’s voice was ice, “and it displeases me to repeat myself. Stand down. Now. ”

The others immediately lowered their Lancets and took two steps back, but their eyes stayed on Holt and Mira. So did Dane’s.

“Dane,” Avril said slowly. “Apologize for your actions.”

“What?” The boy’s eyes shifted to Avril’s. There was shock in them. “Avril—”

At the use of her first name, Avril’s stare turned to pure heat. Her voice was barely audible. “ What did you call me?”

The anger in Dane’s face dropped away immediately. He looked down, clearly aware of some grievous transgression. “Forgive me, Doyen. I… forget myself.”

Calling Avril by her first name apparently was a violation of some rule, and her reaction showed it was a bad one to break. But he hadn’t just used her name, Mira noticed. He’d used it with familiarity. He was used to calling her that, it was obvious, and it made her wonder about the relationship between Dane and Avril when they were alone, and whether or not that was against the rules, too.

“You have dishonored this Arc,” Avril spoke with venom. “You have attacked a helpless enemy without provocation, and, more importantly, you have lost your weapon to the hands of that enemy. You will apologize to both of them and when you are done, you will spend your meditation period and the entire trek to Sanctum practicing walking Spearflow. Maybe that will help you learn to hold your Lancet with a tighter grip. Do you understand?”

Dane forced himself to look at Holt and Mira, the glowing, pointed end of his own Lancet still aimed at his throat. “I… apologize for attacking you. It was dishonorable, and shameful to myself, my Arc, and my Doyen.”

Holt and Mira glanced at one another, unsure.

“Ask the Freebooter if she will give you your weapon back,” Avril told him.

Dane looked sharply up again. Avril stared back coldly. “You look surprised. Have you forgotten all your oaths, or just this one? You have committed ai-Katana. Your weapon now belongs to your enemy. She can keep it if she wishes. It is her right, but that will be the end of your honor.”

There was a slight hint of pain in Avril’s words. A glimpse of feeling that only another girl would notice. Mira’s suspicions about her and Dane were all but confirmed. It hurt Avril to punish him this way, but she had no choice. She was a leader. She had responsibilities beyond her own feelings, and the revelation stirred something in Mira. Images of the Mix Master flashed in her mind.

Perhaps she and Avril weren’t all that different.

Dane’s gaze slowly shifted back to Mira. She saw a mixture of emotions there. Shame, anger, fear. “Freebooter, my weapon is yours,” he said slowly. “May I… have it back?” The words, it was clear, were incredibly painful for him to say.

Mira looked at Holt. He just shrugged. Her choice.

She held the Lancet against Dane’s throat a moment longer—then handed it to him. Dane slowly took it and stood up. The tension in the gymnasium began to release.

“Spearflow,” Avril said tightly. “Now. The rest of you will do double meditation to ponder and learn from Dane’s mistakes.”

Dane turned and moved away without argument. So did the others. Avril, however, stared at Mira and Holt. “I apologize for Dane. He is… passionate. It’s his weakness,” she told them. “We have that in common, Gideon says.”

“Passionate’s… definitely a good word for it,” Holt replied, rubbing his wrist.

Mira saw the girl’s eyes drift downward to the unfinished tattoo. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes,” Holt said.

Avril nodded, her stare hardened. “Archer’s dead. Isn’t he?”

At the words, Holt stiffened. “Yes.”

Avril’s eyes never left the tattoo on Holt’s wrist, but they filled with some kind of deep, complicated emotion. Mira had no idea who Archer was, but Avril had certainly known him, and her feelings on the matter were conflicted. “Did he… die well?”

“I wish I could say he did,” Holt answered, and there was something dark in his voice.

Avril’s grip on her Lancet tightened. “It doesn’t matter. The Menagerie will not have me. My place is here.”

“You have my word,” Holt said back carefully, “I am not here for you, and I am not Menagerie.”

Avril held his stare a moment more, then turned and moved off toward the others. Mira watched the girl walk away, finally feeling her pulse starting to calm. “What was that all about?”

“Avril is the reason Ravan and her men are here,” Holt answered. “They’re trading whatever they’re carrying in that crate for her.”

“Trading… For a specific White Helix?” It didn’t make sense.

“She’s not just a White Helix. She’s Tiberius’s daughter. ”

Mira’s eyes widened in shock. “As in Tiberius Marseilles? ”

Holt just nodded. Mira looked back to Avril, at the other end of the gym, with new curiosity. Tiberius Marseilles was a famous figure and for all the wrong reasons. He was powerful—the founder and leader of the Menagerie pirate guild. And frightening. She knew, she had dealt with him once, long ago, made a deal and almost gotten killed for it. Her reward, her only reward, had been the Solid she’d used to make Ravan help her rescue Zoey, and it was no small thing to get, that Solid.

“Did you know her?” Mira asked, eyes still on the girl.

“No. She left long before I showed up. Didn’t exactly see eye to eye with her dad. Not like her brother, anyway.”

“Archer?” The pieces were starting to fit.

Holt nodded. “He’s dead now. It’s why Ravan’s here.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“Archer and Avril aren’t Tiberius’s natural children,” Holt said. “He traded for them, at great expense. Twins, Heedless like himself, a girl and a boy. He wanted a legacy, something to last once he was gone. Archer and Avril would have carried on the Marseilles leadership of the Menagerie into the future, but Avril didn’t stick around. She came here.”

Across the distance, Avril caught Mira’s gaze for a split second before she sat down with her men, crossed her legs, rested her palms on her knees, and closed her eyes. Silence fell over the gym as the White Helix’s meditation began.