Cole looked back at the Vulture, where Commander Rainier had a hand extended toward them, face distorted with panic and anger. He realized that with his Jumping Sword, the Vulture was comfortably within range. What if he took his chances with the legionnaires? No, that wouldn’t end well. Having lost Mira, they would make an example of him.
Mira and Twitch pulled Cole down. Only then did he realize that the others were no longer standing. They were bracing themselves. Sheathing his sword, he followed their example.
“Hold on!” Jace yelled. “Here we go!”
The prow of the Fair-Weather Friend nosed into the mist. Everything became hazy. Cole could hardly see Mira beside him. A moment later, damp darkness completely enveloped them. Looking back, Cole could no longer see outside the cloudwall. He couldn’t even see his own hands.
“Turn!” Twitch urged in the darkness. “Slow down! We mustn’t go in too far.”
“I’m trying,” Jace replied, voice strained. “It won’t respond.”
Their speed was increasing. Damp air whistled by them. The lifeboat lurched and shuddered.
“Hang on!” Mira said.
Gripping the side of the lifeboat, Cole stayed low and wedged himself into the most secure position he could manage. The wind became a moist gale, roaring in his ears. The lifeboat rattled, jerked, and jolted. He was on a nightmare bobsled ride without a track or a finish line.
What if he fell? Would he tumble through damp darkness until he starved? Would his fate be any different if he held on?
The lifeboat whooshed onward. It didn’t feel like they were turning much. Cole only saw black. His clothes and hair became soaked by the mist. He thought he heard Jace shouting, but the words were lost in the gale. The Fair-Weather Friend quaked and groaned.
And then the cloudy darkness lifted, though the lifeboat did not slow down.
Eyes squinted against the damp wind, Cole glimpsed a distant castle in the twilight, surrounded by wide grounds with walls and fences, fountains and statues, lawns and trees.
His eyes registered the encouraging sight in a flash before the nose of the lifeboat dipped down toward a swirling funnel that yawned larger than a football stadium. It was like beholding the inside of a tornado—the howling suction whirled down, down, down into infinite darkness. Wispy streams of vapor from the rear of the cloudwall flowed into the chaotic funnel, along with the Fair-Weather Friend.
Jace was on his feet, wrenching at the controls. “It won’t budge!” he yelled in frustration, face flushed with effort.
Rocketing faster than ever, the lifeboat reached the rim of the funnel and began circling down into the enormous mouth. Looking around frantically, Cole saw no escape. They were already too low to view the castle. With each revolution, the lifeboat sank deeper into the funnel. Despite the immense size of their circular path, they streaked fast enough to feel the mighty g-forces of the constant turn.
Mira yelled something, and Jace shouted something else, all words lost in the cacophony of swirling air and water. Other objects descended with them, hugging the blurred walls of the endless vortex—a damaged wagon, an embroidered carpet, a stuffed tiger, an irregular jumble of timbers, a copper birdbath. Some of the debris seemed to hold steady or even rise, but the lifeboat was definitely in a downward spiral.
With no warning, the Fair-Weather Friend rammed into a huge church bell, which crumpled the prow and produced a mellow gong. The impact sent Jace over the side of the lifeboat, tumbling into the gloomy throat of the funnel.
Twitch immediately leaped from the boat, wings appearing on his back. He dove after Jace, reaching him just before he joined the frenetic wall of the vortex. Wings fluttering, gradually losing altitude, Twitch toted Jace toward the center of the funnel. The lifeboat rapidly left the two boys behind as it continued with the wild swirl of the maelstrom.
“Did you see that?” Cole yelled to Mira.
She either didn’t hear him or couldn’t understand. She was shouting something and pointing at the bottom of the boat. Cole followed her finger to where a split in the hull was trembling and widening.
“Oh no,” he managed before the Fair-Weather Friend split down the middle, the two halves flying apart. For a moment he glided through the air, his bow hovering in front of him. He snatched it an instant before plunging into the seething motion of the vortex’s wall.
All breath was ripped from him. When he tried to inhale, vapor blasted into his nostrils, making him cough and choke. He flipped end over end, like a surfer who had wiped out on a tsunami. The tumult was deafening, the wind and water blinding. No motion he made mattered—he was at the complete mercy of the vast whirlwind.
Clamping a hand over his nose and mouth, Cole managed to filter the tumultuous air enough to gasp quick breaths. He had no sense of where he was in relation to the others or to anything else. All he knew was that he was moving very fast. If he collided with a church bell or part of the lifeboat, that would be the end.
He became entangled in the mesh of a net. It was all around him and constricted abruptly. Upon tightening, the net pulled him away from the wall of the whirlwind, out into the central void.
Swinging like a pendulum, Cole stared in confusion down the turbulent vortex at the fathomless well of darkness below. The noise was tremendous, a banshee choir that made his chest throb and his head vibrate. This was no mere tornado, no simple whirlpool, no common hurricane. This was the cosmic drain that would suck all reality into everlasting nothingness.
Looking up, Cole found that his net dangled from an insectile flying machine. Somewhat like a honeybee, and somewhat like a beetle, the wings of the machine moved in a barely discernable blur. Although crafted out of silvery metal, a mosaic of snail shells, colored glass, and macaroni decorated much of its surface.
Craning his neck as the net continued to rock, Cole found that three other flying machines had collected Mira, Jace, and Twitch, each in their own nets. Empty nets hung from an extra pair of flying machines. The machines weren’t much larger than a person. Cole saw no sign of anyone piloting or otherwise controlling them. Except for the wings, the machines didn’t seem particularly lifelike. The eyes were brass rings.
After gathering in the middle of the vortex, the flying machines rose together. Cole’s companions looked uncomfortable in their nets—Mira lay curled on her back, Twitch was folded on his side, and Jace was struggling to flip himself right-side up.
Cole realized that he was partly upside down himself, with a lot of his weight on his left shoulder and side. Clawing at the net, he tried to right himself. His efforts made him sway, but yielded little result because the net was too confining for much movement.
Though awkwardly positioned, the others seemed glad to see one another. They had to be surprised to be alive. Cole sure was. That tumble into the whirlwind had felt like the end. He tried to ask what was going on, and they shouted things as well, but nothing could be heard over the ferocious howl of the vortex.
The flying machines gradually levitated above the mouth of the maelstrom. They rose straight for some time before moving away from the cloudwall. Above them, stars appeared in the fading twilight. Beyond the frenzied mouth of the whirlwind, the castle reappeared, several of the windows lit, but many more of them dark.
Who lived in the castle? Was it the people who controlled the flying machines? Whoever they were, they couldn’t be worse than death by vortex, could they?
The flying machines moved toward the castle, flying lower as the spacious grounds approached. The landscape reminded Cole of the Brink—cloud and downward glimpses of sky until the ground suddenly began.
As the tumult of the whirlwind receded, Cole called out to Mira again. “Where are we?”
She met his eyes uncertainly. “We’re off the map. This shouldn’t be here.” Even though she was yelling, he could barely hear her.
Jace gestured for them to look ahead.
On a wide lawn below waited a human figure surrounded by a group of crude, thi
ck-limbed giants. As they drew nearer, it became clear that the figure was a woman and the giants were made of sharp, eroded stone, the sort found by the seaside. The giants formed an orderly ring, and the flying machines hovered into the center of the circle.
In unison, the flying machines dropped their nets. Cole fell a few feet, landing awkwardly on his side on the close-trimmed grass. He started scrabbling with the net, trying to find a way out.
“Keep still,” the woman demanded in a hard voice. She walked closer, hands behind her waist. Her hair was tied back tightly, her features harsh, with dramatic eyebrows and a defined jawline. Sleek black boots rose almost to her knees, and a long, slender sword hung at her side. “This is a private estate. Outsiders are not welcome. Your lives depend on the answers to two questions: Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
CHAPTER
19
ASIA AND LIAM
Cole stared up at the woman through the netting. How should he answer? He hesitated, as did the others. She stopped right in front of him, glaring down.
“Don’t lie,” she said humorlessly. “I’ll know. Spit it out.”
“I’m Cole,” he said. “I’m not from here. The Outskirts, I mean. I came here to help my friends who got kidnapped, but I was taken as a slave and sold to the Sky Raiders. I was escaping from them with some friends.”
“You,” she said, approaching Twitch, “are not as you appear.”
Cole noticed that his wings were gone. Had that been his special item? Wings?
“I’m not,” Twitch said. “I’m from Elloweer. I was taken as a slave as well.”
“How did you revert to your true form?” she pressed.
“I have a ring,” he said.
“And you?” she asked Jace.
“Why do you care?” Jace replied.
“You’re all trespassers,” she barked. “I handle any intruders.”
“You have a name?” Jace asked.
“I have three—Judge, Jury, and Executioner. Answer me or perish. Who are you? Why did you come here?”
Jace gave a reluctant sigh. “I’ve been a slave since I can remember. I never knew my parents. I was sold to the Sky Raiders because my owners hated me. I was escaping with these guys.”
“Escaping into the cloudwall? Do you know nothing?”
“We were cornered,” Jace said.
She gave a single nod and walked to Mira. “And you?”
“You can probably guess by now,” Mira said.
“I cannot,” the woman said. “You are not as you appear. There is a potent shaping bound to you. Something I can’t readily identify. And I sense a degree of power in you as well.”
“Are you a shaper?”
A slight sneer curled her lip. “You’ve never met my equal.”
“I do a little shaping,” Mira said. “Maybe that’s what you’re sensing.”
“Evade my questions at your peril,” the woman said, snapping her fingers.
One of the stony giants stomped forward and raised a misshapen fist above Mira. The big rocky limb was large enough to flatten half of her with one blow.
Jace’s golden rope flashed out from his net, coiling around the woman’s throat. “Call it off,” he growled.
A young man swooshed into view, standing on a silver disk the size of a manhole cover. Not older than twenty, he had boyish features and mischievous eyes. He wore a fuzzy brown jacket and alligator-skin boots, and he held what looked like silver salt shakers in each hand. Knees slightly bent, he hovered perhaps ten feet off the ground, although the disk had no visible means of propulsion.
“That’s enough,” the young man said in a friendly tone. Pointing at the rope, it unraveled from the woman’s throat and fell limply to the grass. Chopping a hand toward the stone giant, it turned to cardboard and staggered back a few paces.
Glowering, the woman turned to the newcomer. “This is none of your affair.”
“I did make the fliers,” the young man corrected. “And I overheard the conversation.”
Jace kept flicking his wrist, but his golden rope didn’t respond any differently than an ordinary rope would. “What did you do to it?”
“I cut it off from you,” the young man said offhandedly. “Don’t worry. If we like you, I can set things right. It’s a pretty cool rendering. You got it from a sky castle?”
“You’re ruining the interrogation,” the woman seethed.
“Be honest, Asia,” the young man said. “The interrogation was getting messy.”
“I was about to sever the rope—”
“Which would have wrecked it,” the young man inserted.
“I had the situation under—”
“Asia, a simple thank you would—”
“What have I told you about using my name in front of outsiders?”
“Maybe it was your codename,” he said with a wink.
Cole tried to stifle a laugh.
The young man on the disk glanced his way. “They can’t be all bad. This one even has a sense of humor—and that’s while lying in a net after nearly getting drawn into a terminal void.”
The muscles in her jaw clenching, Asia took a controlled breath. “Let me do my job.”
“What about our new captain of the guard?” he asked.
“I sent him to fetch reinforcements,” Asia said. “He’s all right for monitoring semblances, but these are our first living intruders in ages.”
The young man waved a hand at them. “They’re escaped slaves. It fits. It rings true.”
“We have to verify—”
“They’re obviously not the vanguard of a conquering army.”
“They could be spies.”
The young man paused. “True.”
“We have hundreds of legionnaires coming this way,” Asia said.
He cocked his head thoughtfully. “Also true.”
“We can’t risk exposure.”
The young man faced them. “I’m Liam. Are any of you spies? Answer out loud.”
“No,” Cole said.
The others said the same, their answers overlapping.
“What about you?” Liam casually asked Mira. “You really are linked to a very unusual shaping. What’s the story?”
“What is this?” Cole asked. “Good cop, bad cop?”
“What?” the young man exclaimed, leaning back and covering his eyes. “You know about good cop, bad cop! Who told you? Asia, he knows!”
Asia faced the young man imploringly. “Would you please just let me—”
“Pound them into the lawn?” the young man interrupted. He stopped, as if considering. “They might make decent fertilizer . . . but no, I think we’ve heard enough. We’ll let You Know Who be the final judge.”
“You want to bring possible spies before You Know Who?”
“If they’re spies, then we’ll turn them into fertilizer. No, better—we’ll make wishes and chuck them into the terminal void.”
“And if her peculiar shaping is letting the girl communicate beyond the cloudwall?” Asia pressed.
“Have you sensed transmissions from any of them?”
“The shaping has strange connections beyond her,” Asia said.
“Right, but no communication,” he said. “They’re not spies. If they are, he’ll figure it out, and we’ll punish them. I’ll take the blame.”
Asia sighed in defeat. “Why do I put up with you?”
“Because it isn’t your choice,” he said.
“You’ve got that right,” she huffed.
Liam faced Cole and his friends. “If you’ll hand over any weapons, renderings, or enhanced objects, I’ll untangle you from those nets.”
“What if we refuse?” Jace asked.
“Don’t worry,” Liam said. “If he likes you, you’ll get it all back. I don’t even want any of your . . . Well, I kind of want the rope, but I’ll get over it. Come on, let’s have the stuff. It’s getting late.”
He was right. Only the last traces of twi
light remained in the sky above. Many stars were out now.
Cole was having trouble unsheathing his Jumping Sword. “This is sort of hard with the nets.”
“Valid point,” Liam agreed. “Promise you’ll be cool about it? Without the nets, if you try something, we’ll have to sick the grunts on you.” He pointed to the cardboard giant, and it turned back to wave-worn stone.
“We’ll behave,” Cole said.
“What about you, rope boy?” Liam asked.
“If you don’t mess with us, I won’t mess with you,” Jace pledged.
“I guess that’s fair. Promise? Double-dog promise?”
“I think that’s ‘double-dog dare you,’ ” Cole put in.
Liam looked at him in surprise. “You’re right. What’s a really strong promise?”
“ ‘Cross your heart and hope to die,’ ” Cole said.
“Oh, I like that,” Liam replied. Looking at Asia, he jerked his head toward Cole. “This one could be useful.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Do you all swear to be good?” Liam asked. “Cross your hearts and hope to die? I need verbal confirmation.”
They all agreed.
Liam waved a hand, and the nets blew free of them, becoming gaseous and quickly dispersing in the air.
“You’re good,” Mira said.
Liam shrugged. “I’m not completely useless. Let’s have those items.”
Cole handed over his shawl, his bow, and his sword to Liam.
Twitch hesitated with his ring. “This means a lot to me.”
“I’ll take good care of it,” Liam assured him. “I wouldn’t even have a use for it. I’m not from Elloweer.”
Twitch handed it over. Jace gave up his inert rope. Mira surrendered her Jumping Sword.
Liam returned to Cole. “You still have something small.”
“I forgot,” Cole said, taking the jewel he had gotten in Parona from his pocket.
Liam held it up and scrutinized it. “Never mind. It’s not worth the trouble to keep it with me.” He handed it back. “You hold on to it. Or don’t. Either way, you won’t lose it.”