Aeralis (23 page)

We dug through piles of faded and papers and rusted artifacts. I uncovered dozens of odd-looking curiosities, but nothing that matched the image Borde had sketched for us.

Defeat swamped me. “It isn’t here.”

“Wait,” Gabe said, turning from the shelves to face the way we’d come. “There’s another chamber in here, I remember. Maybe they have the device there. Come on.”

We went back into the corridor. This time, Gabe stopped halfway to the servants’ landing and tapped on a wall.

“Here,” he said, and pushed inward.

The panel gave way, revealing another room just as he’d promised. This one was smaller, with just as many shelves, each of them crammed with books and papers. On a table in the center of the room lay a spread of strange and wonderful instruments.

My stomach dropped at what I saw.

Among them was the Alice device.

“Gabe,” I said, my voice coming out in a strangled whisper. “There it is.”

A voice spoke behind us. “I was wondering when you would show up.”

I snatched up the device and turned as a figure wearing an eye patch stepped from the shadows in the corridor outside and into the dim light of the chamber. Gabe started in astonishment.

“Cat?”

A slight smile touched his friend’s mouth. “I thought I’d find you here, friend. This was our old haunt, was it not?”

“You aren’t supposed to be part of this mission,” Gabe said.

“I couldn’t leave you to do it alone,” Cat said. “This was our place. We always came here together. I didn’t want that to change.” His gaze fell on the cylindrical metal piece in my hands, and he sighed. “Good, you’ve found the Alice device. Come on, we have to hurry. There isn’t much time left.”

We followed him out to the stairs. Cat moved swiftly, not stopping until he’d reached the Artery. There he paused and listened.

“They’re in the ballroom now,” he said. “This way. It shouldn’t be long.”

We took a different corridor than the one Gabe and I had entered through, heading toward the sounds of the crowd. My heart thudded and my chest squeezed. I stared at the back of Cat’s head. A thought tingled at the back of my mind, and I grabbed Gabe’s arm and pulled him back.

“Gabe,” I whispered harshly. “We never told Cat about the Alice device. He never knew its name.”

“What?” Gabe’s eyebrows drew together as he turned his head toward me.

“The device. How did he know about it? He called it Alice.”

Gabe turned toward Cat, his mouth dropping open. Cat paused and looked back at us.

“Come on,” he said. “We have to hurry.”

“Wait,” I said. “I think we should talk first.”

Cat’s visible eye hardened slightly. “There isn’t time for that.”

“How did you hear about the Alice device?” I demanded. “We never mentioned it to you. Only a select number of people knew, and you were not among them.”

“Adam told me.”

“You’re lying.” I took a step closer to him.

That was when Cat drew the gun from his coat.

TWENTY-FOUR

“WHAT ARE YOU doing?” Gabe yelped as Cat pointed the weapon straight at my chest. “Cat! What—?”

“Shut up,” Cat said. “Both of you are going to listen to me, and listen well. You’re going to hand me that device, you’re going to march out this door and into that ballroom, and you aren’t going to do or say anything.”

“
You’re
the traitor,” I said as understanding dawned. “You’re the one who was leaking information. Not Claire.”

“How astute,” he drawled. “You should be an investigator, Frost dweller.” The muzzle of his gun glinted in the dim light as he waved it. “Now give me the device.”

“Cat,” Gabe said. His voice was a broken whisper. “Why? We...we’re friends. You’re like a brother to me.”

“We were never brothers,” Cat said. “I was a servant and you were a master. I never forgot that.”

“I don’t understand—”

“I’m sorry,” Cat said. “This is how it has to be. You can’t help who you are, Gabe, but that doesn’t change what I have to do because of who I am, and who I plan to be. If I can thwart your revolution, I can make a name for myself. If I help you, I’m nothing. Just another ex-servant lost in a cause bigger than himself, wondering how long before you throw me away—the way you threw away Clara.”

Gabe gasped at the mention of her. His eyes were black with pain.

“I didn’t—”

“Save your protests,” Cat said. “I don’t want to hear them.”

My palms were slick with sweat. My heart pounded painfully. My mind was screaming for me to do something. He was going to ruin the plan. The revolution would fail. We would be captured. We would all be executed. Jonn and Ivy would die.

“The device,” Cat said.

My heart ripped in two as I extended it toward him. He wrenched it from my fingers and shoved it into the pocket of his coat.

“Now move,” he said.

Gabe’s face was the color of ash. He joined me as I stepped toward the door, my mind spinning with plans. Perhaps if I spun and smashed the gun from his hand. Perhaps if I ran. Perhaps...

“Not a word,” Cat snapped, “or I won’t hesitate to—”

A stone bust of the Dictator swung from the shadows and connected with Cat’s skull. He dropped like a sack of turnips, and I leapt for his gun. Clutching it, I scrambled up and pointed the weapon at whoever had just knocked our captor out.

Red hair. Startled eyes. Skinny face.

“Clara?” Gabe stuttered.

She set the bust down with a thump and blew a strand of hair from her forehead. “I didn’t think I was going to make it in time. You’re pretty lucky I did.”

“What are you doing here?” I lowered the weapon slowly. “How did you know?”

She shrugged delicately. “After Gabe kicked me out for being a spy, I knew
I
wasn’t the spy, but he was right about someone leaking information. The evidence was there. So, I did some investigating of my own. Turns out, our friend Cat here makes regular trips into the Prison District to play cards with the guards. He took one such trip just before your friend’s excavation was raided by soldiers and that device confiscated. It didn’t take me more than two seconds to figure out what was going on.”

We stared down at Cat’s unconscious body. Gabe rubbed a hand over his eyes. “So it was Cat. I can’t believe it.”

“I have never betrayed you, Gabe.” Clara took his hands with hers and tipped her head so she was looking into his face. “Never. You can check the records. My family was always loyal.”

“How did you know?” he stuttered.

“I overheard you asking Lia to find the records, and it wasn’t hard to guess what you were after. You wanted to know if it was my family who betrayed you, who caused your arrest. It wasn’t.” She withdrew a paper from her coat and threw it down. “I found the records myself. Look. It’s been Cat all along.” She glanced at him. “I suggest we tie him up.”

I crouched down and pulled the device from Cat’s pocket. Cradling it close, I stood and moved to Gabe’s side before tucking it into my pocket, the one closest to my heart. I pulled ribbons from my hair and bound Cat’s hands and feet.

While I worked, Gabe picked up the paper and turned it over slowly, as if any quick movements might cause it to disintegrate into dust. His eyebrows pinched together as he read.

“Now come on, we have to hurry,” Clara said. “There isn’t much time.” She strode down the corridor without waiting for us.

Gabe and I exchanged a glance. He slipped the paper into his pocket, and we hurried after her.

The ballroom retained some of its vestiges of the old glory days. Gold-gilded chandeliers illuminated arching ceilings and walls hung with intricate tapestries depicting Aeralis’s history. One caught my eye—it showed a great battle of fire and blood, with gleaming white buildings like I’d seen in the Compound being destroyed by ships from the sky.

The Dictator sat on a dais at the far end of the room, flanked by several of his officers and a few soldiers in gleaming gray and brass. He was younger than I’d imagined, and handsome, with a mouth full of sharp teeth that glittered in the light of the chandeliers as he smiled. Above the dais hung a massive clock, the one decorative element in the room. The hands glimmered faintly in the gaslight. In five more minutes, the clock would strike ten, and we would make our move. We couldn’t delay any later than that. Everything had to be timed perfectly, or the people coming through the gate wouldn’t be able to complete the jump.

Korr stood near the Dictator, his chin high and his expression unreadable. He spotted me in the crowd and raised his eyebrows. I nodded slightly to let him know that we’d been successful. We had the device.

Korr said something to the Dictator. He had one hand on his pocket, where the device was located. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. My throat was dry. My skin prickled with sweat. I edged along the crowd, trying to get closer to Adam and Raven.

A clatter of feet rang out, and a voice cut through the hum of the crowd.

“Stop!”

My stomach plummeted as Cat staggered into the ballroom, accompanied by a soldier. A trickle of blood dripped down his forehead, and his wrists were red and raw where his ropes had been. His eyes swung around the room and fixed on the Dictator.

Heads turned. People murmured. A hush fell over the proceedings.

“Your Eminence,” Cat gasped. “There are traitors in this room plotting to take Aeralis from you!”

Korr stilled. At various points around the room, I saw Ann, Raven, and Adam freeze. All eyes were on Cat.

“Who is this?” the Dictator demanded, rising from his chair.

“I work in your intelligence unit,” Cat managed. “Your Eminence, Prince Gabriel is here in this room right now. He and his friends knocked me out and tied me up when I tried to stop him, and I just managed to get free.”

The Dictator smiled. It looked like a snarl. “The prince is dead,” he said. “You speak lies.”

“He is here,” Cat insisted. He turned a wild circle and caught sight of Gabe. “There he is!”

The crowd withdrew as soldiers closed around us. One pushed me to my knees, and I heard the click of a gun near my ear. Two of them seized Gabe’s arms.

The Dictator curled his fingers in a command to bring him closer, and the soldiers forced Gabe forward into the middle of the room and pushed him to his knees. One pressed a gun to his head.

Korr didn’t move from his place beside the dais. His hand tightened around his glass, and his lips whitened as he stared at his brother on the floor.

I couldn’t breathe. The plan could continue without Gabe. He was not the heir. Would Korr sacrifice him to save the revolution?

“There are other traitors here,” Cat said. “Her,” he said, pointing to Raven. “And him.” He pointed at Adam.

Soldiers flanked them and dragged them forward. Adam didn’t struggle as one guard struck him in the face. When he turned his face back, blood ran from his nose.

The Dictator surveyed them without comment and turned back to Gabe. He paced a circle around him, hands clasped behind his back. Instead of losing his temper, he laughed.

“Korr,” the Dictator said, turning to face the nobleman. “It seems your brother is alive. What a surprise, eh?”

“Half-brother,” Korr said. His smirked faintly, but his eyes were cold and hard.

“What should we do about this?” the Dictator asked.

It was a test. Cat couldn’t denounce Korr—he didn’t know the nobleman was involved—but if Korr tried to save Gabe’s life, his own would be lost.

“Kill him,” Korr said. “Of course.”

Gabe kept his eyes fixed on his brother’s face. His expression never changed.

I saw a movement at the edge of the crowd. Clara. She pressed a hand over her mouth at the scene before her—Gabe on the ground, weapons trained on him, Korr’s impassive face.

“And how should I do that?” the Dictator mused. “A bullet to the head?”

“Too messy,” Korr said. “You’ll ruin the party. Besides, you should do something dramatic. Make an example of him.”

The Dictator smirked, and I realized where Korr had learned that particular expression. “Do you have any ideas?”

Korr withdrew the PLD from his pocket.

We had one minute remaining before the jump time. One minute before everything would be lost. My heart beat so hard I could hear it. Nausea crawled in my throat.

“I obtained this in the Frost,” Korr said. “It’s that device I was seeking, the one with great power. The one only I believed was important. Do you remember?”

“Yes, yes,” the Dictator said, with a tone of boredom creeping into his voice. “You and your devices. It is real. You are vindicated.”

“It’s a portal,” Korr said. “Let’s send the prince through it.”

The Dictator tipped his head to one side, suddenly interested. “Where does this portal lead?”

Korr’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Somewhere truly, wretchedly horrific.”

“How delightful,” the Dictator said.

Korr crouched down to one knee and unfolded the device.

Thirty seconds before jump time.

I clenched my fingers so tightly that they went numb. My nails dug into my palms.

Korr activated the device.

Blue light shot up from the PLD and filled the ballroom. The people screamed and trembled. The soldiers wavered in their places beside the Dictator as crackles of energy radiated out like lightning, forming a circle.

The Dictator’s face was ghoulish in the glow. He surveyed the effect of the PLD with delight.

“Throw him in,” he said. “But first—” He looked at the soldier who had the gun to Gabe’s head. “First make sure he won’t ever come back.”

Horror blossomed on Korr’s face. He threw himself forward against his brother, knocking Gabe aside just as the soldier fired. Gabe skidded across the floor. Korr fell to the ground, one hand clutched to his side and blood seeping through his fingers. The Dictator’s expression twisted in something ugly as understanding dawned.

“You,” he shouted at Korr. “Traitor!”

That was when the clock struck ten.

The blue rippled and stretched, and then Restorationists and Wanderers were streaming through it side by side, guns in hand. The room erupted in chaos. Gunfire echoed through the room. The soldiers whirled in confusion. Raven disarmed the man guarding her with one well-placed elbow to his face while he gaped at the PLD in astonishment. Adam leaped to his feet and grabbed Cat, holding him in a chokehold. Guests in silk and velvet fled screaming into the halls before Korr’s men managed to shut the doors to the ballroom.