City of Burning Shadows (Apocrypha: The Dying World) (35 page)

“Where are my friends?”

“Please, Mr. Drake, the director is waiting.”

My entire body went cold. Was Seana still—had Syed and I both been wrong? “Waiting for what? What’s happening here?”

She said nothing. Only waited.

The only way I was going to get answers was to follow. So follow I did. Bloody, limping, struggling. Two guards fell in step behind us, but they didn’t grab me, or even draw their weapons on me, so it almost seemed friendly.

Once again I was escorted through the Desavris halls without any idea what I was heading to. This time, if they led me back to that familiar office, if Seana was sitting there waiting for me…I didn’t know what I would do.
 

We went up an elevator and across a wide square full of market stalls and kiosks just opening for the day. This was a part of Desavris I’d never seen. I didn’t think she was leading me to Seana’s office. Although we ended up in an almost identical hallway full of the same row of portraits that I’d looked at on my first visit.

Despite the time I’d spent with the Jansynians over the last few days, the hours I’d been in Desavris, my kidnapping from the subway, security teams hostile and un, they still all looked mostly alike. And yet, as my escort led me into an office larger and more lush than even Seana’s had been, I was pretty sure the face I was looking at was the same face that had been in the portrait at the very end of the hall. The director of directors. The man who ran Desavris.
 

“Director Artúr.” My escort gave a shallow bow.
 

His office wasn’t as bright as my jail cell had been, but my abused, oversensitive ears were still picking up a hiss that was going to get distracting. I smiled as well as I could, and wished I could glean any clue of why I was here from the expression on his face.

“Leave us, Ina.”
 

She bowed again and backed out. The security pair followed. The director stayed in his chair, watching me.

I didn’t have the energy for games. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’ve had a very long night, and I’d really like to know what I’m doing here.”

He slid a finger across his desk and the wall behind him opened to reveal a screen. On it, I saw the running footage of our fight in the satellite lab. “You broke into Desavris. You and your friends killed a number of my personnel, including one of Desavris’s directors, destroyed expensive equipment, and hacked into our systems. If anyone has the right to ask what you’re doing here, I believe that someone is me.”

“Where are my friends?”

“In custody.” Which meant they were alive.
 

He made another gesture and a second screen opened. This one sliding up out of the smooth black surface of his desk. “You are Joshua Drake, also known as Ash, an employee of Price & Breckenridge in the city below. You were summoned three days ago by Director Seana Desavris and granted limited security access by her less than twenty-four hours later. You used that access to enter and exit Desavris several times, removed a vehicle from the premises, and then on your final authorized entrance, you destroyed company property and engaged in an attack on security personnel. Hours later, you led an assault back into the building that led to the crimes I’ve already mentioned. Do you deny any of these facts?”

I shook my head, despair a weight against my chest.

He leaned over towards the screen. “Bring in Ms. Price, please.”

The hiss was growing in volume. That, along with the fact my eyes kept trying to lose focus, made it difficult to concentrate on the man who held my life in his hands.
 

The door opened behind me and a moment later Amelia was at my side. I looked her in the eye, saw the shadow of Syed looking back. She—he—it wasn’t trying to hide. I wasn’t sure how that made me feel.

The director spoke to Amelia. “I’ve looked over the material you provided me.” The screen behind him flashed through familiar-looking files. The files Seana had given me. The files I’d passed to Spark. “There is a great deal of troubling data here, especially regarding Director Seana and her husband. Evidence they were both working against Desavris’s best interest.”

“Sir,” I took a step forward, “what you don’t understand…”

“Ash.” Amelia barely vocalized the word. Artúr wouldn’t have heard it, or even seen her lips move. But I knew, I understood.

Seana’s death—they’d remember her as a traitor. She deserved better. She’d died trying to protect Desavris. She’d died doing her job and what greater legacy could any Jansynian ask for?
 

But if I told the truth, if I explained her actions, I’d have to talk about the shadows. Even if he believed me—and that was questionable enough—I’d be passing along a secret that had held for millennia, and possibly condemning this man to a death more horrible than he could imagine. A death no one else would notice. A death he’d never see coming or be able to protect himself from.

“Did you have something to say, Mr. Drake?”

“No, sir. I’m sorry. It’s been…my head.” I stepped back next to Amelia.
 

Artúr continued, addressing Amelia. As he would. She was the boss. “In light of your cooperation, your willingness to hand over all data stolen from Desavris—”

“We didn’t—” Amelia drove her heel down on my toes. I shut up.

“As well as your promise to abdicate any claims of ownership for the project for which your employees oversaw the conclusion—”

“Wait, what?” I pulled my foot away. “What are you talking about?”

“The satellite,” the director said patiently. “And it’s completion. Have you not seen?”

Another swipe across his desk and this time the whole ceiling opened to a high, arched window that gave us an open view to the sky. The cloudy sky. Now I recognized the hiss, clearer now there was nothing between us and the glass.
 

Rain. It was raining. Steady and solid and real. We’d done it.

Artúr took my slack-jawed stare as an invitation to keep talking. “Given your position with the city leadership and the fact that I cannot in good conscious hold you responsible for actions driven by one of my own, I am releasing you and your employees back into Miroc. I want to make it very clear, however, that you are no longer welcome guests within the Crescent.”

“We understand,” Amelia said. “And we thank you for your forbearance.”

“Security will escort you out.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Day by Day by Day

I lay on my bed in the dark and listened to the rain.
 

My apartment had no windows, but I could hear it through the walls. A soft, steady sound. The sound of life. The sound of hope. The sound of tomorrow.
 

Since coming home, I’d slept, I’d stood out in the rain, I’d slept, I’d filled containers full of water, and I’d slept again. I still hurt. Probably would for days. And that was just my body. I hadn’t begun to sort through everything that had happened. I didn’t know how to start.

A soft knock interrupted the zone of thoughtlessness through which I’d been floating. Before I could answer, I heard the knob turn and the door swing open. The lights clicked on to reveal Amelia standing in the doorway.

“That was locked.”

“A minor inconvenience.”
 

I sat up, leaned back against the wall, unsure what to say to my boss-turned-ancient-nightmare.
 

She closed the door behind her and walked over to sit in my only chair. “When will you be returning to work?”

“Is there work for me to come back to?”

“More than ever.” Syed had settled in. Amelia’s every gesture, from the angle of her head to the way she smoothed her skirt as she sat were perfect. “The city needs putting back together. My father—”

“No.
Not
your father. Amelia’s father. But you’re not her anymore.”

She sighed. “I thought you understood better, Joshua Drake.” She hesitated, corrected herself. “Ash.”

“Don’t. Please don’t…don’t talk like her, don’t sit like her, don’t
be
her. Not here. Not when it’s just us.”

She slumped, leaned forward to balance her elbows on her knees and rest her forehead in her hands. “This isn’t easy for me. It’s so strange. This body. It isn’t mine. I was me for so very long.” She looked up, the shadow a roiling mass of black in her eyes. “I’m not like the rest of them. I still remember who I am. And now I remember who she is. And we’re not the same. We’re not…”

She took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and was Amelia again. “This isn’t over. There are others out there, other children of my father. I have to find them, destroy them. Before they do to others what they tried to do here. And for that, I need your help.”

I hadn’t been able to face yet the things that had happened here. I couldn’t begin to think about hunting down more monsters. “I’m just…gods, what did you call me? A buzzing insect? You don’t need me.”

“You know what we are. You can see us. You can kill us. You are invaluable to me and a living threat to them.”

I knew the truth of it, but still…I couldn’t. “It’s just magic. Surely you can find someone else with the gift, have them do whatever I did.”

“I don’t know what you did.” The flash of anger was pure Amelia. “And even if I did, am I supposed to interview one human after another? Tell them what, exactly? Measure their aptitude for this work…how? It’s bad enough I have to humble myself to you and ask a favor as though I were some…” She took a slow breath, calmed. “No, Ash. You are the one who can help me. Iris and Spark and Vogg can also be valuable, but they can’t do the things you can do.”

As much trouble as I was having sitting here talking to the monster inside Amelia, I couldn’t imagine what Iris would do. “Can you understand how hard it is for us? Amelia was my boss, my friend. And to Iris she was even more. And now Amelia’s dead, and we know she’s dead, but you’re still right there, in front of me, and it’s…well, it’s awful is what it is.”

“I’m sorry. I truly am.” She stood. “But there is a greater cause to serve, and I know because she knew that you’ll want to help. You’ll come to me. You’ll work with me. You won’t be able to do otherwise.”

I didn’t answer. We both knew she was right. I’d crossed a line I couldn’t un-cross. “Not today, okay? I need some time. I can’t face the office. I can’t face the work. I can’t face…” I sighed, and just said it outright, “I can’t face you.”

If Amelia—if Syed took offense—she/he gave no sign. “When you’re ready, of course.” She stood. “I’ll leave you to your recovery.”

She paused at the door. “I did bring a gift. If you can drag yourself outside to see it.”

Curiosity overcame the static weight of my melancholy. I followed her out.

The Jansynian bike sat next to the porch. The rain gave it a silvery sheen, beautiful and utterly out of place in this neighborhood of run-down apartments. I stared.
 

Amelia smiled. “Spark made a few adjustments. It should run for you without the need for any Jansynian devices.”

I nodded. I owed her thanks, owed both of them thanks, but my mind was still too worn to summon the words.
 

“I’ll see you soon.” With that, she left me alone.

#

The rain continued. I spent an afternoon sitting on the porch, talking to my lizard neighbors as they came and went. The fires in the city had ceased to be a problem once the rain started, but the fights and the looting and the general chaos had taken days to calm. Now, of all things, flooding was sending the city into a panic and all the temporary employees were on sandbag duty.

No one knew how the rain had started. The bird priests were trying to claim credit, but my lizard friends said no one much believed them. I kept my mouth shut, nodded along when they said they just hoped it was a sign of good things to come. That we’d made it through our purgatory and the world was coming back to life.

The rain continued. I slept without nightmares, woke long past the sunrise we couldn’t see through the clouds. And on the fifth day since we’d come down from the Crescent, I got on my bike and rode it into the city.

Not to go back to P&B, although I rode past the building. I rode past Amelia’s house, past Kaifail’s temple, past the safehouse where Spark had hidden. It wasn’t until I dared approach the Crescent that I found who I was looking for.

Iris sat on the platform where Copper had built her home. I joined her, letting my legs dangle off the edge into nothingness. We sat and watched the rain sheet down from the Crescent above, a thin wall of water that encircled the Web and made it feel like we were all alone in the world.

Neither of us spoke for a long time. That was fine. The rain made a peaceful sound. I considered how generous the Jansynians were being, letting it go on this long. Or maybe they hadn’t figured out yet how to turn it off. Although Amelia had handed over all the files, I wasn’t sure if Spark had included instructions.
 

“I considered just flying away,” Iris finally said. She spoke softly, her voice barely intelligible above the patter of the rain.

“You still could.”

“Where would I go? The whole world is broken. Miroc isn’t even the worst of it. And now I know…” She waved her hand out, towards the desert and beyond. “They’re out there. More just like the ones who killed Amelia. My people’s worst nightmares, and they’re real and they
killed Amelia
.” Her hand clenched into a fist. “I loved her, Ash. My people, it isn’t in our nature to settle down, to stay in a place, or as any one thing, but I stayed with her. I would have stayed with her until the end. And those
things
took her away from me.

“I’m going to find them. I’m going to help you, and I’m even going to help
him
, that thing living behind her eyes. We’re going to hunt them down. Every last one of them. And then when it’s over, when we’ve ended that nightmare, you’re going to help me. You’re going to help me put her to rest.”

I took Iris’s hand and squeezed it. “Yes. I can do that. We can do that.”

After that, there was nothing more to say. We sat together, staring out at the rain. And the city it was bringing back to life.