When Copper Suns Fall (29 page)

“Me giving you freedom from your boring
mirrorland life, Alexandra,” Seth said. “Don’t worry. I’ll be
heading out to get Chela, next.” Jalen and I exchanged nervous
glances.

“Don’t count your headstones yet, Seth.”
Faris started toward them.

Seth lifted his hand and clawed the air
behind Lexa’s neck. “I just might start with her grave marker if
you’re not careful.”

Faris and Desi stopped walking at a place
where Lexa stood between both groups. My best guess was Lexa would
remain calm. I hoped so, anyway.

Around us, I sensed the Tainted’s revenants,
Seth’s soldiers of death. I smelled their stink even before they
walked into the open and trudged toward the border guards. Desi
adjusted the mirrors on her wrists, aiming them at the shadows
around the mall.

“Oh no.” I pointed to the left side of the
parking lot. Muriel moved in the shadows between the trees behind
Seth. What was she thinking by stalking the lead Tainted? No, even
better. What was I thinking? I’d reeled my friends into my
troubles, wired a Thoughtmaster’s car, and now sat in the middle of
something where I’d be nothing more than a distraction for
Faris.

Seth wasn’t going to take my friend without a
fight on my part. I stood. Jalen pulled me back down

“What are you doing?” Jalen said, studying
me.

“Are we just going to sit here?” I said.

“We need a plan. You can’t just walk up to a
Thoughtmaster and say, oh hey, you won’t be arresting my friend
today,” Jalen said.

He still thought Seth was a Thoughtmaster.
Dressed in his brown clothing, the stern group’s uniform, that’s
what anybody would think. “Trust me. He’s no Thoughtmaster.”

Seth’s laughter caught our attention. “Desi.
Sweet, Desi. I can’t believe you’d go against me this way. We have
a history, you and me.” Desi’s flushed face was as red as her
jacket. She shook her head, opened and closed her mouth. Desi lost
for words. That was something to be noted.

“What’s he talking about?” Faris said. She
glanced at Seth before lowering her eyes. The answer was painfully
obvious, and I was a bit jealous Faris even bothered to ask.

“Don’t feel ashamed. He’s so highly
addictive.” Ashli stepped over to Seth and pressed her lips on his
as if trying to brand him with her mouth. After a moment, they
pulled away from each other.

“Time to go. Commoners are waiting to be
taken,” Seth said to a flushed Ashli.

Border guards continued loading people into
airvans. It was the nightmare I’d had earlier come to life. A
soldier stepped up to Lexa and pulled her back toward the line of
people being rounded into the airvans. He looked like the SOCS,
dressed in black, skin as pale as soy milk. But I recognized him
even behind the dark glasses. Nathan Cozart.

“Nate. You’re all right. You don’t look so
hot, guy.” Lexa gave him a weak smile as she clutched Cherice’s
purse. Nate stopped, held a hand to her face, and lowered his head.
That was until Ashli whispered a phrase in Dcarsii. His head jerked
back up with a crack and snapped to the side, making his neck look
broken. He reached out, grabbing Lexa’s shoulders.

Shrieking, she pounded him with her fists.
“You’re hurting me, you freak,” Lexa said.

Fierce heat surged through me. I couldn’t
just stand in the shadows and watch them take my friend.

“Here’s the plan,” Jalen said. I was
beginning to wonder if he even wanted to have a plan. “You
distract, I go after Lex. Got it?” I nodded. He inhaled, clenched
his fists. Just like me, he was afraid.

“Please be careful,” I said to him.

“I’m the brave knight, remember? I got this.
Now go,” he said with a big grin.

While Seth and Ashli’s attention was on
Faris, Desi aimed the moon light reflecting in her mirrors toward
the revenants stalking out of the shadows. It was the same objects
she’d used on them that night I first saw them all at the
Cradleshack. This was my chance.

I inhaled and trudged toward Seth. “Let her
go. You promised. We had a deal,” I said and stopped in front of
him, challenging him with my gaze.

The grin he gave me was wicked, as if he
carved it on his face with a sword. “Yes, I did. And you broke our
little arrangement when you resisted my arrest. Now Alexandra will
join others with the gift of uselessness that live outside of
Castle Hayne,” Seth said.

“Governor Winthrope won’t let you do this.
She—”

“Was the one who ordered the roundup,” Seth
said in measured words, his wicked smile widening. I turned to face
Faris. He frowned, as if Seth’s news surprised him, too. “Having
trouble with believing the messenger? Then call her up. You can
even borrow my unit.”

“Chela, please don’t let them take me!” Lexa
said. Nathan pulled her closer to one of the airvans parked
alongside the curb.

“Curse it, Chela. I told you to let me handle
this,” Faris said and took a step toward me. This time, Ashli aimed
something similar to a boomerang at my stomach.

“Then handle it,” I said, hoping that somehow
Jalen would be able to do what we planned.

“Yes, handle it, shadow walker,” Seth said
with a grin.

“No problem. Tobie, Desi, now!” Faris
said.

Time blurred and then sped up.

Tobie charged out of the shadows beside the
airvan Nathan was leading Lexa toward. Right away, I understood why
the Caduceans were considered to be riders of the shadows. They had
switched hiding spots. I didn’t even see them do it.

Behind us, Muriel pounced on and clawed at
the revenant closest to her. She’d lost her sister. A darker and
more unpredictable Muriel had taken over. I understood how she
felt, because I was focused on not losing Micah.

Bright flashes circled Seth, Ashli, and me.
Blinded, I groped at the air. Desi’s lights shined even brighter
than they did at the Cradleshack. An arm circled my waist, pulling
me away from Seth and into the bushes surrounding the area.
Faris.

From inside the bushes, I watched the melee.
The border guards that had been assisting with loading people into
airvans fell down, unconscious. The same way they did on Eight Hill
Gathering night. People inside the airvans slept, as well.

“What happened to them?” I asked Faris.

“They seem to be sleeping. Something you
should still be doing,” he said, studying my eyes. “Ashli performed
a sleep incantation. There’s something in the ale-meds that your
Tribunal leaders use to weaken your systems. “

“But why? That would mean they’re working
with the Tainted,” I said, feeling nauseous. Faris looked away.
“What aren’t you telling me? Look at me.”

“One demand at a time, please,” he said,
turning back to me, his eyes wild.

It all made sense, now. How else would the
Tainted be able to keep the border guards quiet about the fake SOCS
if they didn’t put them to sleep?

“Bad things are in the ale-meds,” Micah told
me that day in the garden. Of course, there was. Everything was
done through our regulated medicine. Micah had figured it out, and
someone wanted to keep him quiet.

Muriel—I’d forgotten all about her—jumped on
the revenant soldier closest to Seth. It struck her head, knocking
her sideways. She was determined to reach Seth, anxious to punish
the person responsible for her sister’s death. I knew the payback
demon personally, because I felt the same way about Micah.

Desi aimed her mirrors at the soldier
attacking Muriel. Her bolts passed right around Seth as if he’d
created the invisible wall again. Steam rose from the soldier’s
skin, but her rays couldn’t reach the others inching up behind
Muriel. A few more stomped out into the open.

Ashli lifted her hands above her head, her
gaze focused on Tobie and Muriel. “Stay put, Chela, do you hear
me?” Faris charged out of the shadows.

I squeezed my eyes closed. Why couldn’t I
call up the wind element I used a few nights ago? I shuffled
through every possible memory and still nothing happened.

“Move any closer and your friends get the
full beat down,” Seth said to Faris who stopped moving right away.
“Unbelievably predictable when it comes to your friends. Oh, by the
way, you’re under arrest for being a Caducean bore.”

Standing about twenty feet in front of Seth,
Faris tried a different tactic. “You know something, Seth? I’ve
watched you work with your girl, Ashli, there. Want to know what I
think?”
“I’m almost drooling to hear what that would be,” Seth said, smile
fading.

“Your girl is the juice maker in your group,”
Faris said. “And you. Well, you’re nothing more than a side-glance
to her magical middle finger.”

Ashli giggled. Seth winced. “Stop laughing at
me.”

Faris was pushing his luck button pretty
hard. But Seth didn’t know what he was up against with Faris,
either. “You hide behind the skirt, and your resurrected lumps of
meat. But we never see Seth fight.”

“And what do you hide behind? Let me take a
moment to think, for you. Dead bodies, lies, you choose. How long
do you think you’ll fool her?” Seth nodded toward me as I
approached them.

“I told you to stay put. Why do you never
listen?” Faris said to me.

“Because it’s her nature to get in the way,”
Desi said, mirrors aimed at the revenants closing in around us.

“Still don’t know what he doesn’t want you to
see, do you, Chela?” Seth said.

Faris’s left eye flinched. Seth was holding
secrets over his head, too. I kept my eyes locked on Seth instead
of Muriel-the-naive creeping around the dolphin fountain behind
him. Did she honestly think she could handle two insane people? And
where did Jalen disappear to?

“I think you’re all talk. The last two times
we met, you didn’t run, but you didn’t fight either,” Faris
said.

Seth’s smile returned, more wicked than ever.
“See now, that’s exactly what I wanted you to think.” Whirling
around in a blur, he moved to the fountain, and slammed Muriel to
the ground before any of us knew what had happened.

He snatched the pink stone away from her neck
and clawed her throat with his thumb and index finger. Ashli stood
above them, whispering in Dcarsii. Black lines covered Muriel’s
skin, leaving familiar symbols on it. The same patterns I’d seen on
my arms in the dream with Faris. Her body darkened to an ashen
gray. Ashli stopped chanting and glanced down at Seth, confusion in
her face.

Muriel jerked and cried one last time. I
started toward her, but Faris held me back. Body trembling, I
covered my head with my arms. I was numb. It was as if the life
being sucked from Muriel took my last bit of sanity with it.

“We have to help her,” I said, glancing back
at Faris.

His gaze was locked on something beside the
fountain. I followed it. Hagan had joined the melee. His boomerang
weapon was aimed right at us.

“Muriel, fight him!” Tobie charged toward
Seth.

A boomerang hit his midsection before he was
close enough to strike. Glassy material spread over his body,
coating it with something like a plastic skin. Tobie cried out,
falling across Muriel’s body, writhing around like a worm in a
clear cocoon. Hagan’s weapon was the deadliest one, yet.

I moved toward them, but Faris held me by the
waist.”Aren’t you going to help your friends?” I said.

“Chela, this isn’t some government sponsored
game. Now let me do my job.” He moved around me and slammed a
revenant to the ground.

Desi trudged over to my side and steamed up
three revenants closing in around me. She nodded at me, I saluted
her. Scoffing, she took off running toward the shadows beside the
fountain.

Faris charged into the shadows near Seth, in
the place where the Caduceans were deadliest. Across the parking
lot, Desi fell and was wrapped in the same glass prison as Tobie.
The Caduceans were trapped. Even Jalen, who had tried to use speed
to reach the airvan behind Nathan’s back, was covered in the film.
I watched it all, unable to summon the power sleeping inside me.
Even the ability to make my wings failed.

Staff above the head, Faris charged out of
the shadows and ran toward Seth stooped in attack stance, waiting
for him with a wicked grin. Faris closed the gap. Seth surged
forward, slamming into him, and lifted him by the neck as if he
weighed no more than a dish rag. Then he tossed Faris into a cement
column that crumbled from the impact with Faris’ body. Bending over
Faris, Seth lifted his head and cut off his ponytail.

“Who has your skirts, now?” Seth said.

Faris was hurt. If I didn’t do something, all
the Caduceans would be killed, and Jalen would suffocate. My wings
didn’t come out, but I used a memory of having them to move me
forward. I ran as if I were flying. I charged with all my strength,
with every desire to hurt Seth as much as he’d hurt Faris…and
Muriel. My fist struck his cheek as I ran by, ripping his head
sideways. Blood trickled out of the cut on his lip.

In my mind, Faris questioned my sanity.

“I’ll take her down,” Ashli said.

“No, you’ll take nothing of mine,” Seth said
which earned him the queen of glares from the girl who was
slobbering all over him just moments ago.

As I surged toward him a second time, he
stepped aside, blocking my fist. Instead, he reached out, latched
onto my right arm, and swung me to the ground. Needle pains pricked
into my shoulder.

I guess this was how birds with broken wings
felt.

Lying under his knee pinning me to the
ground, I turned my head. It hurt. I tried to touch my shoulder.
That hurt. The fingers on my right hand were crooked and disjointed
again. They hurt. This made that first training day I’d had at
Minders seem like a child’s game. Seth bent down close to my face,
penetrating my thoughts with his dead-pool eyes.

“Let’s play the memory game. Only, you get to
see a goodie I borrowed from my travels with Desi.” When he clasped
my right hand, a memory surged into my head.