The Reach Between Worlds (The Arclight Saga, Book 1) (22 page)

Secrets of the Magisterium

It was unsettling seeing the lower city from the outside in. The blocked-off crowds stared back at Taro with utter contempt.

It was a relief when Ross summoned him to the command tend. She stood with Sullen and Briego, hunched over a map of the lower city.

Briego ran his hand through his beard. “We cannot keep it blocked off forever. We must be as transparent as possible. Make it clear that Vexis is our enemy, no others.”

“The Sun King disagrees,” Ross said. “The Corruption is centered in the lower city. Containing it there needs to be a priority.”

“You spoke with him recently, did you?” Taro asked accusingly.

“In fact I did,” Ross said.

Taro stared down at the map of the lower city. “Vexis is baiting you, Imperator. She wants you to cause a riot.”

“The Corruption will spread if we don’t keep it contained,” Ross said, “And we risk allowing her supporters free movement through the city.”

“Cut off the head of the snake. Kill Vexis and this will end,” Briego said.

Taro pointed to the Downings. “Most of her supporters are here. Instead of sending an army down, send one or two disguised as civilians.”

“We’d risk them getting infected,” Sullen said.

“If you’re worried, you could send me and Kyra,” Taro said.

“Why you two?”

“Me because I know the layout down there pretty well, and Kyra is the most powerful non-adult artificer. We’ll both be immune to the Corruption. It only affects adults.”

Briego gave Ross a stone-cold look. “Kyra is too valuable to risk her like in this way.”

Ross quieted him. “You have four hours. If we don’t hear from you by then, we’ll have to take a more aggressive route.”

_____

“I’m not doing a damn thing for her,” Kyra said, practically snarling. It was about the reaction Taro expected.

Taro tried to calm her down. “This isn’t for her. If we don’t handle it, there’s going to be a riot or worse. Ross isn’t going to stop, and she’s pushing forward to avoiding giving your father enough time to stop her.”

“What can we even do?”

“We need to find Vexis. I have a friend down there that might be able to help, but we need to find him first.” He took Kyra’s hand. “Please?”

Kyra finally agreed, and they changed out of their uniforms into more appropriate clothes.

Sullen met them outside the tent. “We have to make this convincing.” He seized them by the back of their shirts and marched them towards the entrance.

“In you go,” he said, and thrust them into the crowd with considerable force. They fell hands-first onto the cold pavement and summoned theatrical tears.

A woman in the crowd helped him and Kyra up and looked over their scratched hands. “They’re just children!”

“That’s why I tossed ‘em back rather than hauling them off to jail. Next time I won’t be so forgiving,” Sullen said.

They pushed through the throngs and down the ramp. Taro had come this way a hundred times, but it looked alien somehow. Most of the market carts were closed and the shops were boarded up. The Corruption had flared dramatically in a short time, like someone had stoked the coals of a fire.

The elderly got the worst of it. Many lay sprawled out on the sides of the roads gasping for air, their faces were clammy and pale and their veins inflamed. While the symptoms were identical to what his parents had, it’d taken them a year to get to this stage. This was decidedly more rapid.

“I had no idea it was this bad down here,” Kyra said in bewilderment.

Taro grabbed her by the arm and hurried her along. “This way.”

When he saw Aris’ wagon, he breathed a sigh of relief. The back axel looked as though it had been damaged, but it was definitely Aris’.

This time he remembered to knock. “Aris,” he said rapping on the door.

Kyra was circling the wagon and looking over the markings. “A circus cart?”

“There’s even a clown inside,” Taro said.

The wagon door opened with a familiar sight inside. Lying face-down on the floor was Ashur.

“I’m busy.” Aris was holding a syringe and a cloth that smelled strongly of alcohol.

Taro pushed in uninvited. “You’re trying to cure him?”

“There’s no cure,” Aris said. “None that I can find, at any rate.”

Kyra had one foot on last step. “Who are you?” she asked Aris.

Aris cleaned off his hands with the alcohol rag. “You’re standing in my door asking me who I am?”

“Sorry.” Kyra held out her hand to shake. “Kyra, artificer.”

“Aris, monkey juggler. Charmed, I’m sure.” Aris left her hand hanging and pressed his finger to Ashur’s neck, then to his inflamed wrist.

“Can you help him?” Taro pleaded.

“I’ve already tried. This’ll be his third dose in the last week.” Aris knelt in silent contemplation.

“If you bring what you know to the Magisterium maybe it could help them find a cure,” Kyra said.

“The Magisterium isn’t trying to find a cure,” Aris said.

“What makes you say that?” Taro said.

“Until the Arclight was damaged, disease didn’t exist in Endra Edûn. They wouldn’t even know where to start. All they can do is quarantine the afflicted.”

“You know an awful lot for a circus performer,” Kyra said. “Not to mention your wagon says ‘Magister Extraordinaire.’”

Aris ignored the comment. “Wait a minute, how did you two get down here? Didn’t those morons block it off?”

“Magister Ross sent us to find Vexis. We’ve got a little over three hours before she sends in an army.”

Ashur spoke up for the first time. His voice barely rose over a whisper. “She’s not here.”

“What?” Taro said, moving closer.

Blood trickled down Ashur’s cheek. “Vexis. She’s gone.”

“Where’d she go?”

Ashur groaned and turned onto his side. “She told us the magisters did this to us. You’re saying it was her?”

Taro shook him. “Where?” he repeated.

Blood trickled from Ashur’s mouth. “You’re too late. The tower’s already hers.”

Taro and Kyra looked at each other like their hearts skipped a beat. They bolted for the door and dashed towards the surface. The clamoring masses trying to escape had swelled to thousands. Among them were agitators shouting into the crowd.

One man stood on a cinderblock shaking his fist. “Vexis warned us this day would come. They think they can herd us like sheep. This is our city!”

Taro and Kyra pushed passed the hordes and pressed up the ramp. The warders tried for a moment to stop them from passing the line, but Ross interceded.

Back in the command tent, Taro and Kyra dropped to their knees, panting and trying to catch their breath.

“Vexis is trying to take the tower,” Kyra said hastily.

“It’s a trap,” Taro added. “She knew you’d try find her in the lower city, and the tower only has a handful of magisters defending it.”

Horror swept over Ross’ face. For a brief moment she was still as a statue. Finally, she pushed her bifocals and licked her dry lips. “There aren’t any magisters.”

Kyra’s eyes widened. “What did you say?”

“All of the magisters are aiding us here. There are still over two hundred warders guarding the tower, but—”

“Warders have no chance against Vexis.” Kyra’s voice turned to icy stone, and when she spoke she wasn’t speaking to her imperator, she was speaking to her subject. “We have to go. Now.”

“The tower is still protected by the Midway,” Ross said.

“The Midway is not infallible,” Sullen said. “She may have acquired auroms, or found some method around it.”

“Caravans from Crissom Foundry can get through the Midway,” Taro said.

“He’s right,” Sullen said.”

Ross cut the air with her hand. “Regardless. Leaving will send thousands of diseased people into the city.”

“We can’t let her have the Magisterium,” Taro said.

Ross pushed a strand of blonde hair out of her eye. “There’s only one option. We have to seal-off the lower city.” She called to Magister Sullen, and whispered something to him.

“But I—” Sullen said.

“Do it,” Ross said coldly.

Sullen stood ridged. “Imperator, I can’t follow that order.”

Ross’ glare could’ve melted steel. “You will do as I command, or you will lose your commission.”

“It’s an immoral order and I will not obey it.”

Ross shoved him. “Move aside.”

She scratched an enchantment into the stone archway of the entrance, and raised her voice over the crowd. “For your own protection these ramps are being sealed. You have thirty sec—”

Someone in the crowd hurled a chunk of stone and struck her in the face. She stumbled back and her inscriber struck the ground.

“Get it!” someone shouted.

The crowd rushed passed the warders like water against rock. Ross tried in vain to reach her inscriber while being pummeled and crushed. The mob didn’t stop with her; they charged at the others like rabid dogs.

The younger artificers made a run for it. Suri, Ven, and Pipes tried to get away, but were pulled to the ground and beaten mercilessly. The masses were so thick, Taro couldn’t get close enough to help them.

Ross spat and cursed. “You will stand your ground,” she shouted. “You are soldiers of the Sun King.”

“What a joke.” The voice cut through the violence like a sharpened knife. Vexis strolled into the riot, stepping over the bloody bodies. Dr. Halric followed closely behind her, looking exceptionally pleased.

Those holding Ross let her go and she staggered to her feet, desperately searching for her inscriber. Vexis sauntered over and wiped some of the blood off Ross’ lip. “How does it feel knowing that you lost?”

“I haven’t lost.”

“Oh, that’s right, you couldn’t possibly know this, but the Magisterium—” she gestured towards the tower in the distance and then to herself, “—is mine. The lower city, as you can see, are mine. Crissom Foundry is mine. Even many of your warders are now mine. And just wait until you see this bit.” Vexis motioned Dr. Halric closer and he removed two identical vials from his coat.

“The Sun King is dead,” Vexis said loudly. The crowd erupted into murmurs.

“You admit you killed him,” Ross said accusingly. When her glance fell onto the vial a twinge of fear passed over her face.

Vexis grabbed both sides of Ross’ collar and pulled her closer. “Now, you know what this is, don’t you? Go ahead, it’s okay. Tell everyone. It’ll make you feel so much better.”

Ross pulled away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Vexis stretched her arms and pressed her hands to the back of her head and addressed the crowd. “The Sun King suffered from the same Corruption that that afflicts us. This was his medicine.” She grabbed one vial from Halric with her left hand and the other with her right hand. “But this is what he’s been taking for the last month. It’s a placebo, about as useful as herbal tea on a plague.”

Magister Sullen had two of his teeth knocked out, and was cradling his jaw. It was difficult for him to speak, but he managed it. “Nobody in the Magisterium would do such a thing.”

“Oh, but you’re wrong. See, here’s the fun part: we found his actual medicine tucked away deep inside of the Imperator’s office.”

Every magister and artificer’s eyes were now on Ross, who looked as though she was trying to formulate her next words.

Vexis’ smile widened. “I can almost hear the wheels in your head turning. Go ahead, deny it. Every moment you stand in silence makes another magister realize exactly what you are.”

Ross’ eyes darkened. “I wasn’t trying to kill him. I just needed him sick enough to stay out of my way.”

Her fellow magisters looked at her in horror.

“Amelia... no,” Briego said.

“He was weak,” Ross said. “If I’d left it up to him, he would’ve destroyed us.”

Vexis had never looked so triumphant. “I rest my case. There remains only one thing to do. We have to fix the damage you’ve done to this once great city.” She pointed two fingers at Ross, and her arms constricted to her sides. “Break her hands.”

The people seized Ross by the arms and legs and pulled her to the ground. Two men held her arms down and bashed her fingers with a cinderblock until they were a bloody mess. Ross’ anguished cries were the only noise in the square, juxtaposed with Vexis’ incipit smiling.

“You will never hold an inscriber again,” Vexis said, then addressed the crowd. “Bring them.”

Vexis marched them to the city gates in the freezing cold. It was only now that Taro realized the control Vexis now exerted over the city. None of the warders tried to stop her, whether through fear of her or the thousands following.

They reached the long, icy causeway leading into the tundra. “The magisters will be dealt with as Ross has been. As for the artificers among you, I’ll give you a choice. Stay here and we’ll relieve you of your ability to ever inscribe again.”