Chapter Fifty Theo #3
Lord Shop clicked his tongue. “You finally hit one squarely, son. The problem with giving a dog a bone, is that the dog then grows territorial. It snaps and barks at anyone who comes close. It’s best to take it away before they grow familiar with the taste.
” He took a sip of tea from his cup and sat back in his seat.
“You know, even if I translate that book for you, you’ll be no closer to finding Idia’s Seam,” Polly’s voice shook, and she looked moments from collapse.
Lord knew how she remained conscious with the pain of her hands.
“All you’ll have is the truth about how your ancestors murdered women for their own gain. ”
“Don’t be so righteous, Miss Prescott. You, of all people, are familiar with sacrifice.”
To her credit, she didn’t cow this time. Didn’t sink back into herself. “You have nothing without the Seam!”
“That’s true,” the lord allowed. “Though, the same can be said for your friends.”
“Then you’re not as smart as you believe yourself,” Polly said, spittle collecting at the corners of her mouth, a sort of delirium taking over. “You should have bled me dry rather than simply burned me, my lord.”
Lord Shop watched her over the top of his glasses. “Why?” he inquired. “To stop you from scribbling the translations to your rebel friends?”
Polly laughed in a way that suggested her mind was failing her. Her blinks lengthened. Words ran together. “Yes,” she said. “And they’ll find the Seam, long before you can. By now, they’ll have already figured it out. They’ll be on their way.”
Theo watched with increasing dread as his father simply crossed one leg over the other, sipped at the rim of his cup, and watched Polly as though she were a curious insect he would soon squash. “Oh, but I’m counting on it,” he said. “Officers?”
His call summoned three of them. They slid the compartment door aside and did not hesitate in their remit. Within a matter of moments, Polly’s arm was pulled forth. A pocketknife was produced. The piercing sounds of Polly’s screams rent the hollows of the train.
When the officers retreated, Polly’s hand was clutched over her mottled forearm, blood seeping through her fingers and into her skirt. She slipped from her seat and onto the floor, Theo just barely catching her around her shoulders before she toppled forward, unconscious.
Theo clutched his own hands over the gaping wound, hot, viscous blood collecting in the beds of his nails, dripping off the tips of his fingers.
He turned his face toward his father with unveiled fury. And his father still looked to Polly as though she were a rat.
The rat in the walls soon runs out of bait to eat. It grows frantic, it eats its young, its own foot. Soon, the rat dies. It does the work for you.
“You don’t intend to mine Idia’s Seam yourself, do you?” Theo panted, feeling an acute sense of horror settle over him.
“Of course not,” his father said from his place above, looming over him.
“What outfit of miners would you have me use? In case you’ve missed the news, they’re all currently on strike.
The only person on this continent who has a hope of uncovering Idia’s Seam is currently scampering across the countryside to do it for me.
“As I told you, son, rats are difficult to trap. It’s far better to let them run free—or at least offer the illusion of freedom.”
Theo felt bile rise up into his throat.
The train took a corner onto the bridge, the tea-colored marsh water below it stretching in all directions. The carriage swayed and sent Theo’s stomach careening. A reckoning lashed at him. An irreversible choice rearing up.
His father replaced his cup to its saucer, then smoothed his fingers over his cane while Polly bled and bled.
“Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson are leading the way to the terranium. Their presence will make itself known to me. And at this very moment, the Miners Union are turning their guns upon each other. Soon, the order of things will right itself, just as nature intended, and years from now, people will call it God’s work.
” He looked out the window at the water, silver in the night, and he sighed as though he were a tired angel delegated to earth, carrying out the necessary acts of the righteous.
“You can’t see it yet, son. But one day you will.
One day, you’ll see that this is the way of things, no matter how much you resist. Power was not meant for everyone. ”
Inside of Theo, a switch he did not know existed threw itself.
The water outside gleamed.
Theodore took Polly’s torso into the circle of his arms and pulled her to standing, and with thoughts that perhaps this breath might be his last, Theo reached outward with his mind, throwing it as far as it would reach, to every molecule of water his medium could bend.
“Goodbye, Father,” he said.
And a violent wall of water came rushing across the marsh, and the soldiers outside the compartment saw it coming too late. They only had enough time to slide back the door, to pull their Head of House into the aisle and bury him in their own bodies.
And when it hit, the train was barreled from its tracks. Windows buckled. Shouts were replaced by the titanic groan of water.
Theo and Polly tumbled and rolled with the momentum of the train.
But Theo did not let Polly slip from his grasp.
The water cradled them like a blanket.