When Copper Suns Fall (28 page)

Frustrated about the previous night’s
discovery and Faris’s jerky attitude, I stalked off toward the
dragon slash angel statue, a diversion tactic. Let them think I’m
angry. They’ll calm down. I hoped.

Could this day get any more complicated? Yes,
and it did.

Desi emerged from the bushes and stalked over
to where Faris stood. She spoke to him as if Jalen and I were
invisible. “That girl Mabry said he sent to warn Nina is here.
She’s all busted up.”

They all started toward the house. I stayed
back. Faris turned back around as I stood there. “Where were you
last night? I was worried.”

“I had things to take care of.” He massaged
his neck.

“Stop it, Faris. I know everything, now.”

He frowned at me. “Got it all figured out,
huh? What do you know? I’ll tell you. Nothing.”

“Nina needs to see you, Faris.” Desi had
returned. He trudged toward the house without another word or
glance in my direction, leaving me with her smug smile just before
she turned and stalked off behind him.

* * *

On the way to the ballroom, I sensed a change
in the atmosphere around me. The mood was different from the night
before. The sun gave the dark golden walls a misted glow, a direct
contrast to the scene in the ballroom. The hallways were clear. The
fledglings were silent. It was almost as if the four of us were the
only ones who existed.

The first thing I saw when we entered the
room was a girl with tangled brown hair and a bloody face lying
across the sofa. Sitting beside the girl, a weeping Muriel patted
her forehead with a cloth. Tobie stood over Muriel, massaging her
shoulders.

“Mabry, Desi, can’t either of you do
anything?” Muriel said, face crumpled and tear-stained. Nina shook
her head in a slow motion.

“Her wounds are old. They’re too far gone for
any of my tonics to work,” Desi said.

“I need to speak with you,” Mabry said to
Nina. “Maybe we could go outside to discuss?” They glanced at the
bloody girl and disappeared into the hallway.

Locking her fingers in Muriel’s, the girl
managed to whisper a few sentences. Muriel listened to her a
moment, and then stood. With a trembling lip, she took a few
breaths before she could speak. My stomach flipped a few times. Why
did I have a sky-diving hunch that what Muriel was about to say
involved me, or would affect somebody here because of me?

“Dresille says…she wants to tell us the
Tainted are planning some sort of coup tonight. Something to do
with the mall. They’ve…” Muriel stopped talking and turned to
Faris. “Look what they did. They cut her pretty hair, branded her
skin.” Sobbing, she dropped back down to the girl’s side, dabbing
the swollen tattoo on her chest. The whole moment was
heartbreaking, and I couldn’t help but yearn for Micah. It had been
over a month, since I last saw him. Would I ever see him again?

“What’s that mark?” I asked Faris. I’d seen
the star with eight points sitting in an octagon before. It was
different from the one on Faris’s chest.

“Tainted’s brand. The mark of imperfection,”
he said.

“Like marking territory?” Jalen asked.

“Somewhat,” he said.

“Explains the mall coup thing, then. Fresh
sushi in commoner form must be on the menu.” Desi glanced at
me.

The truth choked me like a pollen storm.
“Lexa.”

All heads turned toward me. Jalen bopped his
forehead. “That’s right. Our girl is on-duty tonight. I’m out of
here.” He trudged toward the front door.

“I’m behind you.” I started after him. Faris
grabbed me by the elbow.

“What can you do, Wood? And Chela, this is
exactly what the Tainted wants. For you to panic and head straight
into a trap,” Faris said.

Irritated, I yanked my elbow away. A
honeysuckle scented breeze drifted through the room. “It’s my
friend, Faris. She’s in danger because of my lies. I’m going.”

“No, you’re not.” He blocked my path to the
door. “You’re not going either, Wood.”

“Like hell, I’m not,” Jalen said.

Tobie moved into Jalen’s path.

“Do it, Tobes,” Faris said.

“No. Sit down. Now,” Tobie said. Without a
word in protest, Jalen turned and kind of glided back to a
chair.

“Are you blind? Do you not see what they did
to Muriel’s oath sister? We don’t know Lexa’s the target,” Faris
said.

“If you had the slightest clue what friend
meant—maybe if you hadn’t spent the last sixty years sheltered in a
make-believe world, then you’d understand.” He winced. My words hit
hard. Right away, I regretted speaking them.

“I’m going. So move,” I said, using
stubbornness to hide my shame. Everyone stared at us. The scented
breeze increased.

“Smooth, you got Spoiled Fry all worked up,”
Desi said.

My thoughts were consumed by images of Lexa
being mauled like the girl on the couch. I was prepared to do what
I needed to save my friend.

“Don’t make me do this,” Faris said.

“Do what?” I said, spinning around to face
him.

“This. Hush now.”

Funny how two words can make the whole world
turn black.

Chapter Twenty Three – The Riders

A pair of black wings burned and flapped,
trying to put the fire out. Singed flesh; I could smell it in my
dream. Screams, distant but piercing
, filled
the
air around me.
I
ran along the
shores of Batts Grave until I came to a forest filled with large
trees. They reminded me of the shadow tree in the woods surrounding
Chelby Rose.

I
was out of breath,
and out of time as black blobs plastered with faces of people
inside them closed in around me: Lexa, Micah, Leezra, Father,
calling my name, crying out for help. Dropping to my knees, I
covered my ears to block their screams. Many had died because of
me.

And then Faris called my name just before he
emerged from inside the trees.

Desperately trying to defend my loved ones,
he sliced Tainteds, their faces filled with rage. I stood,
gold-hilted sword gleaming in my left hand. Where did it come from?
It didn’t matter. I only knew I had to save my friends. Spinning
around, I sliced the blob closest to me and gasped. It wasn’t a
Tainted. It was Faris. He had stepped in front of me and was
blocking them. Blood oozed from his midsection, his eyes darkened
to empty, dark pools. I screamed.

“Wake up, Chela.” Jalen hovered over me.
Still gasping, I focused on his face. “Your boy better be glad you
woke up.” I let him help me into a sitting position on the couch
where he embraced me. Confused and disoriented, I glanced around
the room. It was empty except for a grim Nina and Mabry.

“Where did everybody go?” I asked still
reeling from my dream. Nina stepped over to the couch before
answering my question. Numbness filled my head. I still had a vague
memory of Faris and me arguing just before I slipped into that
nightmarish dream.

“Be still, now,” Nina said, “You’re just
fine.”

“What did Faris do?” I said.

“A sleep incantation,” Mabry said and glided
back into the hallway, his hands cupped behind him.

“Okay, that explains everything,” I said,
feeling slightly annoyed.

“Sleep spells have been found to be most
useful for people who don’t always understand the danger around
them,” Nina said.

“I know how dangerous the Tainted can be,” I
said.

“Is that, right? Then know that Muriel’s oath
sister has died,” Nina said. I glanced at Jalen’s drooping face,
feeling winded by yet another crummy thing indirectly caused by me.
“I understand your newfound abilities allow you to feel some sense
of invincibility. But in the end, you are no good to us lying six
feet under Tainted grounds.”

“Tainted? I thought that group was pretty
much a dead deal,” Jalen said.

“Quite the opposite. They’re more than
determined to rebirth the Tidal Years,” Nina said. “And they’ll use
Chela to do it if they have their way.”

“Then why is the Tribunal feeding us lies,
making us all think we’re safe?” Jalen said, voice rising. “You’re
one of them, part of the reason Lex is in trouble. Now you say they
want my other friend? And don’t even get me started on the
ale-meds. People need to know the truth.”

I thought Nina might impale him. Instead, she
sat down, sighed, and lowered her head.

Everything made sense now. Muriel’s presence
at Minders, her writing in the computablet every night, the stuffed
animals she wouldn’t let anyone touch. She had enrolled to get
information on her oath sister’s disappearance. This was also the
third time Faris had screwed with my head. Now I was mad, maybe not
super furious, but close enough, anyway. Before I placed one foot
on the floor, I heard knocks, fast and hard. Could only mean one
thing…trouble. And it was. Six-foot-tall trouble in the shape of
Thoughtmaster Oxendine stepped through the door. Nina opened the
door wide. He bowed his head and walked into the foyer.

Oxendine was the man I overheard talking
about Micah as if he knew something about his condition. He
followed Nina into the ballroom, briefly scanned me with his eyes,
and bounded over to embrace Mabry who had eased back into the room.
I didn’t even see him walk in. Mabry could teach both the Trackers
and the SOCS a thing or two about stealth.

He cupped his right hand over Mabry’s,
something I’d learned was a greeting among the Caduceans,
specifically the alchemists in that group.

“I bring bothersome news,” Oxendine said in
that god-like voice. He glanced at me before continuing. So the
governor hadn’t put all of her stock in me as the lone Minders Camp
spy. “President Pinkerton will not grant your forgiveness plea for
the champion. She either returns to camp with me, or we have been
ordered to proceed with the arrest. You know what happens next,
Nina.”

“I won’t allow it, Josief. You know the camp
is saturated with Tainted spies. They’re planning to use this in
some way,” Nina said.

“I cannot prove the entire Thoughtmaster
group has been corrupted,” Oxendine said. “However, I do know
commoners are being rounded up by the dozens tonight.” Fear danced
in my chest. Did Seth keep Lexa’s secret?

“I promised James I would look after her,”
Nina said. “We can’t risk losing one of the last Epiclesium. We
need their memories.” That’s all I was for the governor: a target,
a goal, a memory keeper.

If I didn’t return, I would be sent to stand
before the Judges, and then I’d be sentenced to something worse
than facing Tainteds. I’d be taken into the Barrows, a city of
frozen prisons in the mountainous regions of the polar caps. It
would hurt Father if that happened.

And I’d never get Micah’s cure, or save Faris
from the thing inside him.

No, I couldn’t allow any of that to happen.
While they griped at each other over my usefulness as a free girl,
I slipped out of the room, pretending I needed a moment to clear my
head. I couldn’t stand there any longer pretending Lex wasn’t in
any trouble. Or that Faris hadn’t spoken in my mind since he did
the strange thing to me.

Jalen was on to me before I even said a word.
We slipped into the hallway and stepped into an alcove.

“What’s the plan, Chela the Fair?” he
said.

“We put that supercharged speed of yours into
action.”

He smirked. “I’m afraid to ask what you’re
talking about.”

“You should be. But we have to save Lexa,
right?”

“I can’t sit around here waiting for Toulan
to do what I can do better, if that’s what you mean,” Jalen
said.

“Well, then prove it. We need a unicar.
Thoughtmaster Oxendine’s is out front.” I held my breath, hoping
Jalen would see the same amount of usefulness in me that the
Caduceans seemed to be riding on. Otherwise, our punishment for
what we were about to do would go down in the archives as the most
idiotic rule breakers ever.

“You’re saying I should wire a unicar? And
not just any old unicar, but a Thoughtmaster’s?”

“Yours is locked away,” I said.

“Toulan got you all screwed up that bad,
huh?”

“No, it’s just that I have faith in you,
Mr.-I-Can-Do-Anything-He-Can, but better.”

“Mm-kay. You’re on,” he said, puffing up with
a smug look that challenged my sarcastic one. “Let’s do this.”

So we snuck out the back, through the
gardens, and took Thoughtmaster Oxendine’s unicar.

* * *

The mall parking lot was filled with people
being ordered into white airvans. Jalen eased the car to a stop
just before we reached the front. We got out and hid inside bushes
growing along the curb facing the mall’s entrance.

Winds blowing over the Wall whispered and
breathed rotten odors over the parking lot. A chill settled over my
skin. I had a crazy feeling about how the night would end, and I
wasn’t sure I was ready for whatever that might be.

I scanned the crowds for Lexa. And then I saw
the purse, shiny and red, standing out among the crowd. Lexa held
it as if it were a crutch as she walked among other people heading
toward the airvans. My heart sped up.

Where was Faris?

Jalen pointed at the top of the building.
“Look, do you see him?”

It wasn’t Faris, though. Tobie sprinted
toward a lift on the left side of the mall. When he hopped up on
it, the chain he’d used to raise his body hit the side. A clang
shrilled through the air. Before I could blink, Seth and Ashli
strolled out into the open, directing the border guards shoving
people into the airvans.

“All of us want this, don’t we, prince? Keep
hiding in the darkness like grime babies,” Seth said to no one in
particular. He scanned the forested areas on either side of the
mall where I assumed Faris and Desi hid.

Lexa spun around, leaving her place in line,
shoving a border guard who obviously didn’t know how feisty my best
friend could be. Now that was the fighter I knew Lexa was. She
trudged up to Seth and Ashli, stopped, and gasped when Desi and
Faris hopped down from the mall rooftops. “Faris Toulan? Did I—you
hopped down from a fifty-foot building. What gives here?”