But Giacomo’s arm froze when he noticed what looked like a soldier in bronze armor seated behind Nerezza.
“What are you waiting for?” Ajeet said, growing agitated. “Fire!”
Giacomo realized it wasn’t a soldier with Nerezza—it was Zanobius.
Giacomo’s arm dropped, and the patterns on the Straightedge dimmed.
Victoria arced upward and whooshed right past Giacomo, slapping him with a wake of air. His body and mind reeling, Giacomo stumbled back and caught himself against the stone parapet.
As Nerezza and her Genius curved through the sky, Giacomo homed in on Zanobius. What he had mistaken for armor appeared to be metal that covered part of his torso; in place of his missing arm was a bronze one.
“How in the world did Zanobius end up with Nerezza?” Savino shouted in a panic. Milena stood next to him, mouth agape.
“I … I don’t know,” Giacomo muttered. But Zanobius’s new bronze arm seemed to suggest only one possibility—that Nerezza had somehow become Zanobius’s new master.
Giacomo felt the Straightedge pulled from his grip. “If you won’t take her down, then I will,” Ajeet said, claiming the weapon. He flicked the reins, and Kavi took off, galloping through the air toward Victoria. Once he was away from the battlement, Ajeet swung the Straightedge in a downward arc, and Kavi fired off a spiraling helix of light, bucking from the force.
A blinding blaze lit up the sky. Victoria dropped, avoiding the crackling energy, but the beam didn’t dissipate immediately. It continued, eventually hitting the bow of the approaching ship, splintering its hull and pitching the vessel forward. Small figures plummeted from the deck.
Giacomo gasped—all those lives, gone in an instant. “No…”
* * *
From Victoria’s back, Zanobius locked eyes with Giacomo. Savino and Milena ran to their friend’s side, and they all gaped up at him, no doubt realizing that he had become Nerezza’s slave.
“The samraat has the Straightedge!” Nerezza shouted. “Take it from him before he brings down the other ships!”
As Victoria arced back toward the fortress, Zanobius watched the damaged vessel list to one side and slowly descend. The blast from the Straightedge had sheared off the front of the ship’s hull, causing cargo and bodies to spill out. The great, groaning beast crashed into the dunes in an explosion of dust and snapping wood.
Nerezza waved her brush, and Victoria launched a beam. The white-winged horse-Genius dodged, then looped around. The samraat slashed again with the Straightedge, sending a flume of silvery light directly at them.
Victoria shot upward, cresting over the helix, which kept on its trajectory. This time, it harmlessly broke apart into sparkling trails across the sky. Nerezza guided Victoria high above the fortress until they were flying directly above the samraat’s Genius.
“Go!” Nerezza ordered. “Get the Straightedge!”
Zanobius looked down, found his mark, and jumped.
For a moment, all he heard was the wind rushing in his ears. He spanned his arms wide and imagined sprouting wings and flying away. For the first time since Nerezza had captured him, Zanobius felt free.
The experience was fleeting.
The samraat craned his neck, and his eyes went wide as he saw Zanobius hurtling toward him. He pulled his Genius’s reins, and the horse whinnied and reared back, but it was too late.
Zanobius slammed into the creature’s hindquarters and grabbed his armor, dragging him down. The Genius bucked and thrashed, trying to fly higher. Zanobius held on tightly and pulled himself up to sit behind the samraat.
The samraat twisted, stabbing behind him with his dagger, but the blade just glanced off Zanobius’s metal skin. He pinned the samraat’s arms to his sides and wrested the Straightedge away. Then he picked the man out of his saddle and hurled him off his Genius. The samraat plummeted and crashed into a tree below.
The Genius bucked again, jerking wildly now that his warrior had been overthrown. Zanobius grabbed the reins and yanked, forcing the flying horse into a nosedive. Moments before they plunged into a long pool, Zanobius leaped away and rolled across the grass. Behind him, Kavi splashed into the water, then pulled himself out and galloped away toward where the samraat had fallen.
Straightedge in hand, Zanobius scanned his surroundings and saw that Nerezza’s two other ships had reached the fortress’s outer wall. From the decks, Zizzolan archers launched arrows, keeping the horse-Geniuses at a distance. Meanwhile, handgunners rained down bullets. The Rachanan archers on the wall scattered as the volley blasted away chunks of stone. More soldiers stormed off the ships and onto the battlements. The clanging of swords echoed across the gardens.
Nerezza was already directing Victoria back in his direction, so Zanobius ran toward the great bird, but before they could meet, a blast of orange light struck Victoria from behind. She screeched and pulled up. Tito and Pietro swooped past, flanked by three horse-Geniuses. Their warriors cut shapes with their daggers, barraging Victoria with streams of color from their Geniuses’ gems.
Though his new master was in danger, Zanobius was compelled to follow her original orders: Find Giacomo and the Compass and bring them to me.
Before their arrival, Nerezza had made it clear that this was to be Zanobius’s primary objective. It took precedence over anything else.
Zanobius looked toward the battlement where he’d last seen Giacomo, Milena, and Savino, but he saw only warriors and soldiers in the throes of battle.
He stalked through the gardens, dreading his inevitable encounter with Giacomo, but before Zanobius could locate his fellow Tulpa, a horse-Genius swooped past. Her rider cut a mark with her dagger, and the Genius’s gem spun a helix of amber light around Zanobius. He leaped away seconds before the light could completely trap him, and fled. But a dozen warriors ran into his path and came at him with their swords and spears.
“Stay away!” Zanobius warned. “I don’t want to hurt you!”
But it was too late. The warriors were already upon him, slashing and stabbing.
Zanobius felt his fist hit flesh and heard the crunching of bones.
32
TULPA’S TERROR
Giacomo sprinted down a stairwell inside the battlement, Milena and Savino at his heels. He stopped at the bottom and peered out from the archway. Nerezza’s remaining two ships had docked at the outer wall, and soldiers swarmed the fortress, quickly turning the palace grounds into a battlefield. Swords clanged and sacred geometry attacks hummed. Nerezza’s army might have easily overrun the fortress had it not been for Rachana’s horse-Geniuses.
Giacomo spotted Zanobius with the Straightedge by the reflecting pool, where a group of warriors had him surrounded. Zanobius tried to wave them off, and Giacomo wondered if maybe he had been wrong about Nerezza controlling his friend. But then the warriors moved in, and Zanobius grabbed one man and threw him against a tree trunk, where he fell, unconscious. Giacomo looked away, his worst fears confirmed.
“Nerezza definitely controls Zanobius, which means he’s going to come after me.” Giacomo held up the Creator’s Compass. “And this.”
“You should stay out of sight,” Milena said.
“We can hide you somewhere in the palace,” Savino suggested.
Giacomo shook his head. “If Zanobius hands over the Straightedge to Nerezza, this battle is over. She’ll wipe out every Rachanan warrior and any Genius in sight—including ours.”
“But we’ll never be able to overpower Zanobius,” Milena reminded him. “So how do we steal the Straightedge from him?”
Giacomo snapped open the Compass, an idea taking form. “We take him by surprise.”
* * *
Giacomo careened out of a portal, coming to a stop inches from the reflecting pool. Zanobius stood across the water with his back turned, shoulders heaving with each breath. The warriors who were still standing abandoned the fight, dragging their injured counterparts out of harm’s way.
“Zanobius!” Giacomo
screamed, his voice a mix of anger and desperation. He spun open a second portal and waited.
Zanobius turned, his eyes filled with regret. But upon seeing Giacomo, Zanobius’s gaze hardened, and he charged through the reflecting pool, kicking up waves.
Giacomo held his position. Mico zipped past his shoulder and hovered high overhead.
As Zanobius closed in, Giacomo dove out of the way. With a flick of Giacomo’s pencil, Mico fired off a shot that landed squarely on Zanobius’s back and knocked him into the light.
Zanobius appeared out of the other end of the portal, which was off in the gardens. While Zanobius stumbled around, trying to regain his bearings, Milena and Savino leaped out from behind a tree, and their Geniuses barraged him with streams of green and blue, but their attacks failed to knock the Straightedge out of the Tulpa’s hand.
With a roar, Zanobius jumped straight up, grabbed a branch, and swung himself over Milena’s and Savino’s heads. He dropped down directly behind them.
Giacomo screamed, “Look out!” but they were too far away to hear. He raced into the portal, willing himself over to his friends.
As he scrambled out of the light, Giacomo found Zanobius holding Milena and Savino by their collars, their feet dangling above the ground. Giacomo fired off a shot from Mico’s gem and hit Zanobius in the back, but he didn’t release his grip. He slammed Milena and Savino together, and their heads collided with a crack. Giacomo froze in horror as Zanobius dropped their unconscious bodies on the grass and turned to face him.
With a swipe of his pencil, Giacomo targeted the bronze appendage. Back at Niccolo’s, Zanobius had escaped his trance when Milena shattered his stone arm. Maybe destroying this new one would have the same effect. But no matter how many times Mico’s beam struck it, the arm wouldn’t break.
Out of the corner of his eye, Giacomo caught a glint of sun off steel. He stumbled back as Ozo sped past, sword raised. The mercenary’s eyes were wide with rage, his scream full of vengeance. He leaped at Zanobius.
Giacomo felt like he was reliving a nightmare.
* * *
Zanobius backed away from Giacomo and turned to face the onrushing mercenary. It was like they were back at the piazza all over again.
Ozo’s sword cleaved the air. Zanobius raised the Straightedge and deflected the steel with a clang. The mercenary staggered, raised his weapon again, and met Zanobius’s gaze with eyes burning with hate.
“You’re not getting away this time!” Ozo shouted.
To his right, Zanobius glimpsed Giacomo creeping up on him, pencil raised, his Genius hovering next to him. But the moment Zanobius turned to go after him, Ozo swung once more.
Zanobius spun back around. With a clang, he batted away Ozo’s sword with his metal hand, then took a swing with his other fist. The mercenary sidestepped the punch and parried, cutting a sizable gash up Zanobius’s fleshy forearm.
A flash of red filled Zanobius’s periphery, and he was hit from behind. He lurched forward, trying to regain his balance. Ozo sliced low, this time lancing Zanobius’s thigh.
“Thanks for the assist!” Ozo called to Giacomo.
“Just don’t kill him!” Giacomo pleaded.
“And here I thought we were fighting on the same side!” Ozo resumed his assault.
While his two opponents traded words, Zanobius picked a stone off the ground, and using a technique Enzio had taught him, he flung the rock like he was going to skip it across the water. The rock clipped Mico’s wing, and the Genius let out a pained squeal and darted away. Giacomo went down to one knee, clutching his side. Zanobius offered a silent apology.
With Giacomo temporarily incapacitated, Zanobius focused back on Ozo, who was charging fast. Zanobius lifted his bronze arm in time to catch the sword’s thrust, and they met in a shower of sparks. The mercenary had withdrawn his sword and readied himself for another strike when a high-pitched scream startled them both. For the first time, Ozo’s attention turned away from Zanobius.
Across the gardens, a little girl, no more than six years old, looked around in terror as she ran through the middle of the battlefield, soldiers and warriors clashing around her.
“Soraya!” Giacomo shouted, climbing back to his feet.
The moment the mercenary saw the girl was in danger, his vengeful scowl melted into an expression Zanobius had never seen in Ozo before—true fear. The girl wasn’t a random lost child, she meant something to Ozo.
“Get out of there!” Ozo bellowed. He glanced back at Zanobius like he was trying to decide whether to attack again, then he turned and raced toward the girl.
With Ozo out of the picture, Zanobius turned back to Giacomo. Mico flew in staggered bursts and landed on the boy’s shoulder.
“Turn over the Straightedge!” Giacomo demanded. “Please! If Nerezza gets her hands on it, more people are going to die. I know you don’t want that.”
More people dead, because of me … The thought was like a dagger in his heart.
Zanobius searched his mind for any trace of self-control he might have left. A single thread was all he needed, something he could pull to unravel Nerezza’s hold over him. He found nothing.
Zanobius gripped the Straightedge tighter. “I can’t.”
“Then I have to take it from you.” Giacomo arced his pencil, and Mico fired a blazing beam that hit the end of the Straightedge, causing it to fly out of Zanobius’s grip and splash into the reflecting pool. Another swath of light hit Zanobius with enough force to send him sprawling.
By the time Zanobius was standing again, Giacomo was already in the water and recovering the Straightedge.
Find Giacomo and the Compass and bring them to me, Nerezza’s voice whispered once more.
As much as Zanobius wished for this fight to be over, he knew it had only just begun.
* * *
Giacomo climbed out of the pool, his lower half soaked. He tucked the Straightedge under his arm and readied the Compass, scanning his mind for a place that would put him out of Zanobius’s reach.
But as his fellow Tulpa prowled closer, a new plan began to emerge. Giacomo was tired of Zanobius trying to capture him. Maybe it was time to turn the tables. If Giacomo could trap Zanobius, he could focus on taking out Nerezza. Once she perished, her hold over Zanobius would die too.
Just like when you killed Ugalino, Giacomo’s conscience reminded him. Do you really want another death on your hands?
Giacomo took no pleasure in the thought, but considering all the terror Nerezza had inflicted on others—Niccolo, Pietro, my parents—she deserved her fate.
With Zanobius closing in, Giacomo pictured the one place in the fortress where he had the best chance of confining Zanobius. He spun the Compass and dove into the light.
He spilled out into the cellar beneath the palace, slamming against the wall. With a ruffle of feathers, Mico chittered and picked himself up off the floor. Giacomo looked up at the relief sculpture, where Vrama’s image loomed over him. Giacomo shuddered, scooped up Mico, and scrambled behind a pillar at the far end of the room.
Once the portal jettisoned Zanobius, it began to contract, and its light began to wane. Giacomo waited patiently for the chamber to turn pitch-black. That was when he would strike.
Zanobius stalked from pillar to pillar, moving closer to Giacomo’s position. The room dimmed, turning Zanobius into a charcoal silhouette.
As the last of the portal glimmered away, Zanobius spotted Giacomo and lunged. Giacomo leaped out of the way and fired off a red blaze from Mico’s gem. A chunk of stone near Zanobius’s head burst into dust.
The room plunged into total darkness.
“Why did you bring us down here?” Zanobius shouted, his voice echoing through the chamber. His heavy footfalls stomped louder, then softer as he moved away.
Giacomo tiptoed from pillar to pillar, picturing the staircase at the far end of the room. Once he found it, he would bolt to the surface and cave in the stairway behind him, trapping Zanobius underground.
/> At least that was the plan. But Giacomo hadn’t counted on getting lost. He had passed through this room several times on his way to Yaday’s chambers, but torchlights had guided him. He blindly groped his way through the darkness until his hands finally met the wall.
He slid his hand across the rough stones until he found the passageway, but as he entered, he hit something hard. Something metal.
“I’m sorry, Giacomo,” Zanobius whispered.
Mico screeched. Giacomo fumbled to open the Compass, but Zanobius shoved him, jarring the Tool from Giacomo’s hand. It clattered onto the floor.
There was no sense in staying in the dark now. Giacomo flicked his pencil, and the room lit up red from Mico’s gem. But Giacomo hadn’t been able to see where he was aiming, so the light skirted over Zanobius’s head and exploded above the passage. The stones crumbled and clogged the stairway. Now they were both trapped.
Mico’s gem pulsed dimly. Zanobius picked up the Compass with one hand, Giacomo with another. Using his two free arms, he dug through the rubble. “I have to take you to Nerezza now.”
“Don’t,” Giacomo pleaded as he struggled against the metal arm. “Resist her!”
“I’ve tried!” Zanobius snapped. “I can’t release myself from Nerezza’s control. But there is one way you could set me free.”
“How?”
Zanobius shoved aside more stones, easily opening the passage. So much for Giacomo’s plan. “Use the Straightedge to destroy me. I watched it take down that ship, surely it has enough power to put an end to me.”
Giacomo couldn’t believe what Zanobius was asking of him. “End you…? No!”
With the rubble now cleared, Zanobius carried Giacomo up the stairs. “I’ve suffered enough. I’m a scourge on this world. It’s the only way I’ll ever be at peace.”
Even in the dim red light, Giacomo could see that Zanobius’s eyes had been turned from blue to black. They looked soulless, like Vrama’s eyes had. Or the eyes of a Lost Soul.
Giacomo’s fingers grazed the Straightedge’s surface. It called to him, begging to be used.