Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
“I’m pleased to hear that,” another man said.
I realized, suppressing a gasp, that it was Master Hayes, the highest Elder.
The last time I’d laid eyes on him, he’d been announcing my assignment in Frostbrook.
“It’s a shame to see such a brilliant mind wasted,” the master went on in a syrupy tone, as if in reality it delighted him.
“But treachery against the House is unforgiveable.”
“It’s no waste. No waste at all. I’ll make fine use of him,” the Indicator said. “Fine, fine use.”
I shook violently from more than the icy air. My fingers found Ezra’s, and we squeezed each other’s hands in a painful grip. My heart galloped in my chest. They’d stumble upon the dead Transistor shortly. We’d have very little time to locate Julian and get him back to the surface, to freedom.
There was no pretending the Indicator and Master Hayes were speaking of anyone but Julian. Horror ricocheted against my ribs. I’d never asked the stars for anything in earnest, but down here, far from their eternal gaze, I wished for Julian to be whole, to be safe, to be ours again.
My breath caught in my throat. Was I content to wait for them to find the Transistor’s body and raise a House-wide alarm? There were no other voices in the hallway. No one to protect two elderly men.
“Stay here,” I whispered to Ezra.
He tried to hold me in place, but let go as if I’d burned him. Maybe I had. There was no time to check and see, no time to apologize. And what sense was there in apologizing when I was about to do worse? I’d already killed once today. Soon, Ezra might never look at me the same.
Stepping out from behind the door that had concealed us, I briefly debated confronting Master Hayes and the Indicator, who wore a boxy white overcoat that resembled the uniforms worn by surgeons from the Healer’s Guild.
Master Hayes was wearing the familiar floor-length robes and elaborate hat that marked him as our highest Elder.
A braided sash in white, blue, and red symbolized the combined power of Generators, Conductors, and Transistors.
Pageantry. I’d believed those colors had been sacred, that Master Hayes himself had been sacred.
I decided not to announce myself. Nothing Master Hayes could possibly say would matter to me.
The only reason I didn’t kill him first was my lack of a clear angle.
Instead, I released a thick bolt of radiance with no warning at all, striking the side of the Indicator’s head.
He jerked and tumbled into Master Hayes, who caught him as if on reflex, then dropped him with a snarl of disgust, letting him fall to the floor.
The Indicator’s head made a sickening sound when it struck the stone, and a pool of blood formed beneath him.
Master Hayes stared at me. “What have you done, girl? Are you mad?”
“Yes,” I said calmly, crossing the distance between us with my hands poised to strike again.
I felt none of the horror I’d felt over killing the Transistor on the stairs.
The Indicator had deserved to die. I knew in my bones that he had caused suffering and had deserved to suffer in return.
I’d given him a quick death only because I had no time to spare, no time to see how long it took someone to die if I tortured them with a low, steady current of radiance. He’d gotten off easy.
Instead of trying to strike me, Master Hayes stumbled back, tripping on the first stair leading back up to the storeroom. He landed on his backside with a thud, the impact making him grunt with pain.
“What’s wrong? Are you out of practice?” I asked with mock concern, letting radiance flow between my hands like a child playing cat’s cradle.
Master Hayes made a trembling gesture toward the Indicator’s body. “You have no idea what you’ve done. You won’t be able to use the Generators without him.”
“Use them?” I asked with a disbelieving, humorless laugh. “I’m not here to use them. I’m here to free them.”
Now that we were down here, I knew we couldn’t leave with only Julian. We couldn’t abandon anyone to this nightmare.
“Freeing them would be cruelty,” Master Hayes said with a sneer. He pushed up to a higher step as if he could inch away from me and escape. As if he had a chance. “They cannot live in the world above. This is all they know. This is their home.”
“This is their prison,” I snapped. My radiance expanded beyond my hands, licking at his spindly legs where they sprawled out from under his robes. How had I ever feared this man and his authority?
And why … why wasn’t he defending himself?
A possibility surfaced in my mind, but surely it was too far-fetched, too absurd.
“Show me your radiance,” I whispered, needing to know I was wrong. That all the lies I’d believed hadn’t been built atop a foundation more rotten than any of us could ever have imagined.
“Stand down, child,” Master Hayes said, “and I will ensure your safety. You’re here only for Julian Gray, correct? Take him and go.”
For a moment, I wondered how he could know who I was here for. Then I recalled that the Generators had been orphans like me before they’d been taken down into the cold to serve not Progress but unfathomable greed. No one longed for them. No one was coming to save them.
“I told you I’m here for everyone,” I snarled, using my radiance to grab him by the ankle and yank him back down a step.
I ignored his howl of pain as his trousers melted into his skin.
Julian would be pleased to discover that I’d finally learned how to manipulate my radiance with precision.
It felt like another limb, like I could now reach far beyond the limits of my flesh. That I could reach anything.
Right now I only wanted to reach Julian.
“Who is that?” Master Hayes asked in a wet, pained way, flailing his hand at something behind me. I didn’t need to look to know it was Ezra.
“Start searching for Julian,” I told him without turning. “I’ll deal with this one.”
I heard his footsteps as he ran away from us, down the dim hallway.
“Don’t do this, girl,” Master Hayes said. He didn’t remember me. He didn’t know my name. I’d been nothing to him.
“It’s just the two of us now,” I said, grateful that no one would witness what I was about to do.
“You can have anything you’d like,” Master Hayes called to me desperately, curling forward to try to dislodge the rope of radiance that held him by the ankle, slowly burning through layer after layer of skin.
He patted at the radiance helplessly, only scorching his hands in the process.
“Wealth. Unimaginable wealth. You can travel. Buy land. Walk away from this, and I’ll make sure you won’t regret it. ”
He wasn’t defending himself with radiance. Feeling sick, I grabbed one of his bony hands. “You’re no Child of Industry,” I spat.
It was only flesh. Mishappen joints, papery skin. Nothing but blood under the surface. No radiance, nothing to make him worthy of calling himself our highest Elder, our master.
“Don’t—” he started to shout.
My hands wrapped around his throat. Instead of attacking with radiance, I crawled onto him and used my muscles, my rage, my grief.
Snarling like a rabid animal, I dug my fingertips into his tendons and found the thick cartilage of his windpipe.
He was made of moving parts, like a machine, and I knew how to dismantle machines as well as I knew how to repair them.
Master Hayes would soon be beyond repair.
He tried to fight me off, but he had no leverage. His manicured fingernails broke my skin as he clawed at my hands The blood made me feel wild.
“I’m going to tear down everything you built,” I told him, emphasizing each word with a brutal thrust of my arms until his head bobbed side to side like a broken doll.
He wasn’t making sounds or fighting me, and I realized distantly that he was already dead.
But I wasn’t finished. Maybe I’d never be finished.
“You will be remembered as a coward and a thief and a fraud. The fall of the House will be celebrated long after you’re nothing but dust! ” I cried.
Someone grabbed me from behind, and I let out a wail of incoherent fury, enraged to be dragged off Master Hayes’s body.
“Jo! Josephine!” Ezra shouted, lifting me until my feet weren’t touching the ground. “Stop it. He’s as dead as he’s going to get!”
I kicked the air, trying to buck him off, but aware enough not to lash out with radiance. “Master Hayes was lying,” I said, making senseless, horrified sounds with every exhale. “They’re using us. All of us.” My words choked off into bitten-off screams.
“I need your help,” Ezra said, his breath against my hair the only warm thing left in the world. He carried me down the hall, away from the men I’d killed. “Please, don’t leave me alone down here, Jo. I don’t know what to do. Julian. He’s …”
This was no time to lose my senses. Something snapped back into place in my mind, and I fell silent so abruptly that Ezra turned me in his arms, searching my face as if expecting to discover that I’d fainted.
Cautiously, he set me on my feet, and I let the dim hallway swirl around us until my vision cleared.
Shuddering, I asked, “He’s what?”
Ezra’s expression did something that made my heart feel as bruised as Master Hayes’s mangled throat. “Come with me,” he said.
Ezra led me down the dim hallway. I had to jog to keep up with his long-legged stride.
We passed a series of doors with barred windows.
Glancing, I saw that each led to a small cell.
At first I thought they were empty, but I began to spot figures in dingy gray clothing huddled on the floor or asleep on cots.
“None of them responded to me,” Ezra said, noticing how my attention caught on each door. He sounded numb. “I called out and they didn’t stir. We need to help Julian first.”