Evan Burl and the Falling, Vol. 1-2 (20 page)

"Slaves?"

I frowned. "Is there a difference?"

"Employees don't get slaughtered if they take a personal day."

"Sounds like a wretched concept."

"Only for you."

"Oh, an idealist? You are beginning to remind me of my late wife."

"She was that smart?"

"I must retain the right to terminate the bad stock. How else could I get anything done?"

"They're not animals."
 

I found my pulse quickening. Hagnus seemed so familiar... But I had made a vow. I could not let this woman, this very young women, get her hooks into me. "Do not romanticize them."

"They have families."

My smile grew. "Even the little ones can dig."

"What are they doing—"

"Too many questions. I will not be interrogated." I clamped her mouth shut with sapience and smiled. "Let us enjoy each other's silence for a while, shall we?"

She glared at me, large round eyes boiling over. Fear, yes, but she was also excited. I was not surprised. This is a common occurrence with women, young and old. The way she breathed, how her lips parted when I spoke. I slid into the chair next to her. She seemed even younger. Yet children cannot master sapience like Hagnus could. I gestured to her wrists. "Why are you still bound?" I released my hold on her voice.
 

She gasped, sucked in air. "I thought you weren't using sapience."

I eyed her suspiciously. "What would you know about that?" It was just Hagnus and I. No one had to know, certainly not Mahalelel. And it was just a little bit, nothing like splashing her guts all over the wall.

Mahalelel burst through the door. "This can't go on."

"Do not be rude. Hagnus and I were in the middle of a conversation."
 

The snake-like straps uncoiled from her wrists and ankles and slithered to the ground.

To Hagnus I mouthed the word: "Impressive."
 

She rolled her eyes.

"Release the people," Mahalelel said. "Or I'll—"

"Be thankful brother, because I am going to give you everything you desire. I know you lust for ruling this cesspool of a city."

He leaned forward. "You'd make me Chancellor?"
 

"As soon as the mines are in order. You honestly believed I wanted to rule this city?"

Mahalelel nodded at Hagnus. "She's of your kind, isn't she?" Mahalelel scooted his chair, increasing the distance between them. She kissed at him.
 

Mahalelel curled up his nose. "Send her away. We have business."

"Hagnus is not long for this world. She is no threat to us."

"Why are you letting her live?" Mahalalel said.

"Funny, I was just wondering the same thing about you," Hagnus said.
 

"Our brother Terillium did something foolish. He bequeathed his first and most precious Sacrist, the Spider, to Evan Burl. Hagnus claims to have information on where I can find it."

"When will it be enough for you? How much power does one person need?"

"Evan Burl received the Spider in hopes that the boy would grow up to rule over the Cultures once Terillium was dead. Our brother believed sapience could be used for good, if it was kept in check by someone powerful enough to quench those who got out of hand. But Terillium was wrong. Sapience must be blotted out of history. Not even the Three Families can be allowed to live."

Hagnus edged closer, her hands hidden under the table. "What about you?"
 

I imagined her slipping a skewer from within her dress, a blade she'd managed to hide in the scraps of cloth that had hung from her body during the execution. I imagined her sliding the razor edge across my throat.

"After removing all remnants of the atrocity my father discovered, I will take sapience with me to the grave."

"So where is he?" Mahalelel said. "Where is Evan Burl?"

"He could be anywhere. I do not know how old he is, or if he knows the power of the Spider."

"I can tell you," Hagnus said.

I ignored her. "Mahalelel, you will rule over the people of El Qir. Give them mums to keep them docile. You will not need guards once they are hooked; they will do whatever you command to keep their addiction fed. We will use Terillium's clankers to create a third Sacrist, in case I am unable to find the Spider."

"What of the Crow?"

"Missing for hundreds of years. It may not even exist."

Hearing the slide of metal on skin, I glanced at Hagnus. Her hand moved under the table. She froze. I swung my hand. The table flew sideways. In Hagnus's hand was a black shiv.

"You came here to assassinate me?"

"I have my own vision for a better world. It doesn't include you."

"You have nothing on Evan Burl?"

"He—"

"You have been wasting my time?" I watched her grasp at the invisible fingers contracting around her neck. She gasped. The coal blade fell to the groundwork.
 

"Did you actually think..." I stepped toward her. "You did; I can see it. You actually believed you could come into my own house and kill
me
."

Mahalelel moved to the door.

"Stay." I slammed the door shut. "I must remove every last remnant of Hagnus's kind, and you are going to help me little brother."

She searched for the clenching fingers, but there was nothing to find. She gasped. "You let the others live—"
 

"Who?"

"The children."

"What are you talking about?"

"You sent them to Daemanhur. The babies."

"Tell me what you know!" I squeezed harder.
 

"That's where you'll find Evan Burl. That's where Terillium sent him."

"Impossible."

She flicked her fingers. A scrap of parchment appeared between them. I summoned it.

Evan Burl's falling

Daemanhur Castle

10:49 in the evening on March 27 1522
 

I shook the note at her. "Where did you get this?"
 

Hagnus's face went purple. I loosened my grip.
 

"Terillium put you up to this, didn't he?"
 

She gurgled. I released her. She collapsed.

"I..." She sucked in air. "I stole it from him."

"Why did you wait to show me?"

"I wanted to see what you knew."

"You were going to kill me," I said.

"I wasn't, I swear."

"I saw the blade. Did Terillium make that too? He said he was crafting one. A knife that could eradicate even the most powerful sapient. And now it is mine."

"No, I-I wanted to make a deal with you."

I slapped her. "This note does nothing for me without a rubric."

"That's where you sent the children?" Mahalelel said. "To Daemanhur?"

"Terillium set me up. It was his idea." Daemanhur castrum is the place I most want to forget, and now, the place I most desperately need to get to.
 

A trickle of blood ran from Hagnus's nose. "I can help you get there."

"There's nothing you can do for me."

Hagnus snapped her fingers. A vialus rubric appeared, floating above her palm.

I pulled at it. She closed her fingers.

"Where did you get that?"

"I have a deal for you," she said.

"That rubric is inanimate. It is no good to me."

"We both know you can activate it."

"So, is that your deal? The rubric for your life?"

"I want to be your partner."

I laughed. "I do not have partners."

"You do now."

"I can just annihilate you and take the vialus."

"If you kill me, you never find out what I know about Evan Burl."

"I know everything."

"Terillium hid this from you. It's your brother's darkest secret."

"How can you possibly know what I know and do not know?"

She smiled. "It's obvious."

"Enlighten me."

"If you knew what I know about Evan Burl, you'd be far more afraid of him."

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Evan

Thursday

10:05 pm

24 hours, 44 minutes until the falling

How do you tell your best friend she has hours to live? Or that you might be the one responsible?
 

I stopped digging and opened my mouth, but it hung empty and dry. If I'd been killing Roslings by making them wear rubrics, how had Henri caught the affliktion? She'd never worn the rubrics—

You let her hold the clanker, remember?

No, it can't be. The skull will show us the truth. I'll prove Mazol is the murderer. Or Dravus. I haven't blacked out since—

You were asleep for hours today.

I was locked to the staircase.

You undid the shackles.

I pushed my shovel deep into the mud, pulling clod after dripping clod from the earth. Brown, sticky sod, like blood. The rain poured down. A vision appeared in the mud. It spread, snaking up my legs and the trees and the sky until it enveloped me.
 

Dravus drove his old rickety cart through the castle gates into the jungles. In the cart's bed lay a splintered wooden crate with clumps of mud and dirt clinging to its side. A gravebox, large enough to hold two or three, freshly dug from the ground. It rattled. Someone was inside, someone who wasn't dead.
 

I stood in the cart, staring down at the gravebox. The lid lifted with a moan. Pearl lay face up with lifeless eyes, staring at me, dwarfed by the oversized box. Under her torn dress, a scarlet rash that covered her neck and arms. At her collarbone, in place of the skull pendant I'd given her, was a tattoo of a spider.
 

Pearl lurched at me, screaming. She scratched; her skin bled. "Take it back! I don't want it anymore!" I reached out, to stop her from hurting herself, but when I leaned forward she disappeared in a wisp of smoke. Losing my balance, I fell into the gravebox.
 

The lid slammed, closing me inside. I fought to escape. Panic rose in my chest. I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe.
 

A sense grew inside me that I was not alone. I used my hand to probe the dusky void. Something was there, smooth and cold like iced meat. Lightning flashed, filling the box through a crack.
 

Henri's face, inches from mine. Drained of blood, covered in rash. Her eyes snapped open.
 
The lightning ceased; darkness enveloped us. But I could still see her eyes. Lit by flames from within.

Her lips parted, but they did not move as she spoke. "Look what you've done to me."

A thud—my shovel struck wood. I felt Henri staring at my back. Were her eyes still burning? The blood pumpery rubric pounded inside my pocket. I felt the gravebox lid, clearing off mud to find its edge. I pushed the shovel under and pried, ignoring the pain from Pearl's bite and the exhaustion and the fear of Henri's flaming eyes. With the creak of rusty nails, the lid cracked open. Pearl screamed.
 

I was right.

A glow flickered in the distance. An oil lantern bobbed through the longgrass.
 

"Who's there?" Pearl said.

"It's me, Evan."

Shadows flashed across the tree limbs above us. Then voices. I turned to Henri. "Hide!" She darted behind the balizia's gnarled trunk. The screaming Shades at the gate rose in pitch. I peeked over the mound of dirt. Two shadows approached.

"Where am I?" Pearl said.

I crouched low. "Quiet. Someone's coming."

Rain pounded in my ears. Thunder clapped in the distance. I strained to hear, surprised to find I could make out the voices over the storm and the screaming Shades.

"I thought that was the plan," said the first. Yesler.
 

"Do you have any idea how much danger we're in?" said the second voice—Mazol. "If we're here when Cevo comes, if he finds all the Roslings cold and stiff and then he sees we're planning to make off with the ember and the Spider and the money?"

"Cevo don't know about Evan Burl. He don't know Terillium hid the gimp here."

"But he wants that Spider bad. He'll find it eventually. And when he does, he'll figure out we've been working him and Terillium against each other." Mazol's shadow turned, moving a step in my direction. They each had shovels.

"The automatons will activate soon," Yesler said. "Why don't we just execute the gimp and run?"
 

"We're lucky that syringe didn't kill him." A thunder clap rang out, shaking the ground. I strained to hear their voices over the downpour, but even with my heightened senses, I was having difficulty.

"He's gonna slit our throats if we don't do him first."

"Evan Burl is our only chance of seeing the summer with our heads still attached to our shoulders. We can trade him to Terillium or Cevo in exchange for our lives."

"You're dancing with death, keeping the gimp alive, that's what I say."

"We're immanis deeper in than that. The Cultures are coming. I can feel it."

I found the shovel and crawled over to the gravebox. Something seemed to be growing warm in my pocket.
 

"So what are we gonna do with the gimp?" Yesler said, "if he goes crazy on us?"

I pushed the shovel under the lid of the gravebox and heaved.

"Ballard's got the cage, in case it comes to that. And we've got the automatons."

Footsteps approached. The lid lifted a half inch and I forced the shovel head in further.

"Almost there Pearl," I whispered.
 

I pried on the lid again. The heat in my pocket burned my leg. I yanked out the leather sack of rubrics. My wet fingers sizzled. The sack fell into a puddle at my feet. The water bubbled and steamed and hissed.
 

"What's that noise?" Mazol said. I stomped at the bag, trying to bury it in the mud. The water frothed; the hissing fell to a simmer. A pulsing dusk rose from the gravebox's lid. Shadows grew deeper around us. Bubbling water around my feet exploded. The leather sack shot out of the water. Mazol's lantern flickered, like its energy was being pulled to the grave. A shape rose from the gravebox—the skull pendant and necklace. It passed straight through the lid. The necklace slid into the sack like a snake into a hole.