CHAPTER
5
“You seem distracted.”
“Sorry,” Lily said. She brought herself back to the here and now with Toshi, which was a delightful brunch at a fancy restaurant by the ocean. She forced a smile, pretending to enjoy herself. “My coven is feeling very chatty today.”
Toshi was momentarily puzzled before understanding dawned on him. His brows drew together as he looked down at the pounding surf below them. “You can hear them mindspeaking right now?” he asked. Lily nodded. “How far away are they?”
“Scattered all over, enjoying the day,” Lily replied, lying with a shrug. No one in her coven was enjoying themselves. “Juliet and Tristan are near that scent bar you took me to. Caleb and Rowan are all the way east by the wall, and Una and Breakfast are having brunch at the villa.”
Toshi smiled. “Does that ever get annoying? Hearing their thoughts?”
“Oh, it’s annoying most of the time,” she said, making Toshi laugh. “But we’ve learned to give one another space when we need it.”
Reel him in, girl, Una said in mindspeak.
Didn’t you just hear me talking about space? I could use a little of that right about now, Lily replied.
Her coven was in her head, but they weren’t out enjoying another sun-soaked day in Bower City. They were watching the Hive while Lily was trying to woo Toshi into joining them.
This is hopeless, Lily said.
He wants to be claimed, Juliet coached. Keep at it.
Lily felt backed against a wall. For a moment she blocked everyone out but Juliet—the only person she felt safe enough to tell this to. What if I don’t want to claim him? What if I can’t do this anymore? I don’t want to be a leader anymore.
Lily saw possibilities racing through Juliet’s mind. Without more claimed, they were stuck in Bower City with no hope of escape. Juliet tried to picture what that would be like. She pictured the pretty gowns and the endless galas. It was the spitting image of a fairy ball where all the revelers were forced to dance until their feet bled. Juliet tried to imagine what it was like to never again be allowed to feel anger.
And without anger, Juliet said, how can anyone truly grieve? We’re all frozen inside, pretending we’re okay because none of us can get angry, so none of us can get over Tristan’s death. Least of all you. I know you doubt yourself and I know you’re hurting. I’ll give you ten seconds to wallow, and then you fight like hell to claim Toshi. I’m not living the rest of my life in a prison, and I’ll be damned if I let you do that, either.
Lily smiled to herself, some of the pressure she felt lifting off her as her sister took the weight. Okay, Juliet. Consider my butt properly kicked.
You’re welcome.
“Can you see what they’re seeing right now?” Toshi asked as he watched Lily’s broadening smile with curiosity. “Are you everywhere they are?”
“I could be, but I try to go one at a time or it gets confusing. When more than one person is sharing memories or images with me there’s a strange reverb effect.”
Lily remembered Rowan teaching her how to make a mind mosaic. The stereovision had been overwhelming, exhilarating, and in Lily’s opinion, morally wrong when done without her claimed knowing she was doing it.
“Re-what?” Toshi asked.
“Reverb. Short for reverberation?” It was a word from her world. Lily cringed inwardly and tried to cover for her slip. “You don’t use that word out west?”
Toshi shook his head. “But I think I can picture what you’re saying.” He looked down at the glass of champagne in front of him. “But what do I know? It could be something completely different from what I’m imagining. I’ve never been in anyone else’s head. The way I see blue might not even be the way you see blue.”
“It is,” Lily said. “Blue is blue and red is red for all of us. I’ve claimed thousands and it’s the same.” She rethought that. “Except for the color-blind.”
“Thousands,” he breathed. “You’ve claimed that many?”
The smallest smile tilted her lips while she held Toshi’s eyes. “Yes,” she replied.
“That’s an army.”
“An army I left behind.” Lily tugged her lower lip through her teeth and took a chance. “Unfortunately,” she whispered.
Toshi looked fearfully at the flowers on the table. “Is there a limit to how many you can claim?”
“If there is, I haven’t reached mine.”
Toshi swallowed. “Claiming must be boring for you at this point.”
“Boring?” Lily shook her head slowly. “Never.”
Toshi was leaning into the table. His willstone slipped free of his collar and swung toward Lily as if beckoned. She did want to claim him, no matter what the cost. It was a craving she would never be free of, no matter how many she lost, or how deeply she felt the loss of one in particular. This was her sickness. A never-ending hunger to claim the whole world.
A squad of Warrior Sisters is leaving the watchtowers, heading east over the wall, Rowan reported.
If we could get higher, we could see where they’re going, Caleb added. He shared what he was seeing.
Lily saw Rowan trying to mount one of the few switchback staircases built into the perimeter wall. A Warrior Sister flew down and prevented him. Hovering, she flicked her whip and buzzed her wings. Her bulbous eyes shimmered rainbow-over-black—unreadable.
We’ll have to try something else, but there aren’t that many vantage points in the city that overtop the wall, Rowan said.
Roof of the Governor’s Villa, Lily suggested. Una and Breakfast, hurry.
Toshi leaned back and motioned to the server for the check. “You’re with them again,” he said, irritated.
“I can block them out—” She could feel Una and Breakfast racing through the villa, silent and swift.
“No, don’t bother.” He pursed his lips. “It’s better if we drop the subject, anyway.”
Lily waited a few seconds before asking, “Is it?”
Toshi let loose a tense laugh. “For me? Definitely.”
She and Toshi left the restaurant and started to stroll back toward the trolley line.
I see something, Una said from the top of the villa. She used her willstone to still the air around her and strengthen the tiny muscles that shaped the lenses in her eyes, improving her vision. I think the Warrior Sisters are heading toward a forest beyond the fields of flowers.
Show me, Rowan said. Una relayed what she was seeing to Rowan at the wall.
It’s hard to tell, but I think Una’s right, Rowan said. They’re headed toward that stand of enormous trees.
Let me see, Lily said, and immediately saw what Una was looking at. Those are redwoods. That’s the redwood forest. Lily passed a memory of a map of the California coast to her coven. In her world, there were several places where the ocean and the redwood forest nearly touched, as it seemed to be here in Bower City.
Ask if we can get out to see the redwoods, Caleb said.
“Do people ever go outside the wall?” Lily asked Toshi as they walked along.
“Of course. Lots of people even live outside the wall,” Toshi replied. “There are farms, vineyards, small towns.”
“I’d love to see that. Maybe you can take me to a farm, or out into nature.”
“Maybe,” Toshi said vaguely. “I’d have thought you’d had enough of nature on your journey.”
“I guess I lived in the open for so long I miss it now.”
“We’ll see,” was all Toshi would say.
Toshi knows Grace won’t let you go, Tristan said.
I bet no one with a willstone is allowed outside the walls, Juliet said. That’s what I’d do if I were in charge and trying to guard how they were made.
Then we have to sneak out. Tonight, Lily said.
We have to sneak out—Caleb, Tristan, and me, Rowan said, correcting her. You’re staying behind with Una, Breakfast, and Juliet to defend you.
Like fun I am. Lily—
“So, tell me the truth,” Toshi said. “We’re not really alone, are we? Your coven has been hearing everything I’ve been saying all morning.”
Lily had the decency to be embarrassed. “They’re very protective of me.”
“I understand,” he said. “I would be, too.”
Lily smiled. “If you were mine.”
He made a strangled sound. “Can I have half an hour alone with you?” he pleaded. “Really alone?”
Absolutely not, Rowan said.
Hey, this was your idea. He’s not going to let me claim him if he can’t trust me, and if he doesn’t trust me I don’t want him. I tried it with you, and look what happened.
Lily blocked her coven out. “Done,” she said to Toshi. “You have my full attention.”
“This way,” he said. A mischievous mood overtook him. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into a run alongside a passing trolley. Toshi boosted Lily aboard and then swung up beside her with a wide grin on his face.
“Where are we going?” Lily asked, pink cheeked and breathless from the quick dash.
Toshi kept his eyes trained out the window, one hand on the rail and the other on the small of Lily’s back as they swayed back and forth with the rocking car. “Home.”
They traveled south along the water to where the trolley line ended at the far side of the wharf. The wall loomed close. The trolley came to a full stop inside a station and they had to go through a turnstile that was watched by hovering Warrior Sisters. There were no charming little restaurants by the sea here.
“What is this place?” Lily asked.
“It’s a checkpoint. Technically, we’re leaving the city although we’re still inside the wall, and entering the restricted zone,” Toshi answered. “Whatever happens, just hold still.”
A Warrior Sister flew in close to Lily, her head twitching. She got near enough so that Lily could see the pincers in her mouth dart out and swipe over her face to clean it. The Sister’s human hands played with the barbs at the end of her whip while her eyes seemed to zero in on Lily’s willstone. The Sister’s head suddenly jerked down to where Lily had her other two willstones stashed inside the bodice of her kimono. She landed on the ground almost close enough to touch. Several Workers flew from the Warrior Sister’s shoulders and landed on Lily. They started to crawl over her, trying to get inside her clothes.
“Toshi,” Lily said tremulously.
“Hold still,” he repeated, his tone both understanding and urgent.
Lily could feel them tasting her with their tiny tongues as if they were sipping nectar off her skin. She prickled with goose bumps and forced herself not to slap at them. The Warrior Sister seemed to get what she wanted, reared back, and flew away, taking all but one of the Workers with her. The final Worker stayed on Lily’s throat.
“That one will remain with you the entire time you’re outside the city,” Toshi told her. She noticed that he had a Worker on his neck as well.
“And it stays right here?” she said, gesturing to its perch just over her jugular.
“Yes,” Toshi answered. “Don’t do anything to disturb it.”
Lily looked at the other people in the checkpoint. No one but her and Toshi had willstones, but they all had Workers attached to their throats, the poisonous barbs of their stingers poised right about the jugular.
“It’s like walking around with a knife at your throat,” Lily said. She felt the Worker’s prickling feet and shivered with the knowledge that a bug was crawling on her. “Worse.”
Toshi looked at her. “It’s what you have to do so your children or grandchildren can have any chance of being chosen by the Hive one day. If any of them are lucky enough to be born with magical talent, that is.”
“And if they aren’t?”
“They wait.”
Toshi and Lily emerged from the relatively empty station to join the throngs of people jostling up and down the streets of the restricted zone. The buildings were giant concrete blocks, bare and unadorned. The streets were scrubbed, but there was a gray oppressiveness to the place, and the lingering scent of harsh cleaning chemicals was almost as disheartening as filth. Every block a sentry tower rose up from the pavement, and the platforms on top buzzed with Warrior Sisters. The Workers did not fly around pollinating flowers in their cheerful, bumbling way. There were no flowers. Here, the Workers stayed anchored to an individual, constantly threatening to take the life that hosted them.
Toshi took her hand so they weren’t separated in the crowd, and Lily soon found herself overwhelmed by the teeming throngs and pressed close to him. The sun was still shining, but there was a chill in the air. Even the people dressed in drab colors, wore no makeup, jewelry, or perfume, and they never seemed to look up. The solid mass of the perimeter wall, and the Warrior Sisters on top of it, seemed to hang over them.
“Families can wait generations in the restricted zone,” he shouted over the din. “They work whatever jobs they can in the city or outlying farms and hope that they have a child or a grandchild or a great-grandchild with talent. Only the magically talented get chosen by the Hive.”
A raggedy old woman approached Lily, moaning in a language she didn’t understand, and Toshi stepped forward quickly to intervene. He spoke a few words of Japanese and a few of something Lily couldn’t hope to place and the woman backed off, doubling over with a racking cough as she moved away.
“I think she needs help,” Lily said, looking back over her shoulder. Toshi hurried her along.
“She probably does. Everyone here needs something.”
“I’m guessing they don’t have miracle soap that keeps them young and healthy sitting around in their bathrooms.”
“No. They don’t. And the Hive won’t let us give it to them, either. They won’t let us help the people here in any way. Not medically or financially.”
Lily saw the set of Toshi’s shoulders and the grim line of his mouth. “How long was your family here before you were born?” she asked.
“Only two generations,” he answered.
“What if someone comes here and already has talent?”
“They’d still have to wait. Everyone waits.” Toshi’s eyes were far away. “I’ve never heard of anyone being chosen by the Hive who was fresh off the boat, no matter how much talent they had. If the Hive wants you, Sisters go and get you. If not, you wait.”
As they wove through the streets, Lily saw people from every ethnicity and every culture she could name in just a few short blocks. Toshi led Lily off the main thoroughfare and down a series of alleys. They arrived at the back door of a shop of some kind, and Toshi let himself in as if he belonged there.
“Toshi!” a woman’s voice called out as he pushed his way in. Lily felt Toshi take her hand and bring her forward.
“And who is this?” asked an old Japanese man. His back was stooped and his hands were knobby. Lily could see arthritic inflammation, pulsing hot and painful, just under his skin.
“Dad, this is Lily,” Toshi said, while the old man tipped forward in a bow. Lily looked from the old man to Toshi’s young face, momentarily thrown, before she remembered Toshi’s true age.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Lily said politely. She bent forward, awkwardly attempting to bow back, but it didn’t come naturally to her. A middle-aged woman came forward and bowed from a place just behind Toshi’s father. There were Workers on both the old man’s and the woman’s throats.
“You honor us, Lady Witch,” the woman said.
“My sister, Hana,” Toshi said.
“Toshi?” an old voice called out from another room. “Is that Toshi?”
“Yes, Mother,” Toshi called back to her. He smiled at Lily. “Just give me a moment. I’ll be right back, okay?” Toshi left Lily to go to his mother.
Two kids came tumbling into the room like nipping puppies. The boy was about six and the girl was younger, probably only five or so. Lily couldn’t tell if they were arguing or playing, but they both stopped when they saw her, their mouths falling open as they stared at her willstone. Lily noticed Workers at their throats as well. Anger began to rise in her, which she had to quickly tamp down when she felt the Worker on her throat flutter its wings.
Hana pulled the children against her legs and shut their mouths for them with a snap. They went scampering out of the room in a flurry of excitement and delicious terror before Lily could even say hello to them.
“My grandchildren don’t see many true witches,” Hana said, blushing. She smiled broadly and stood aside for Lily to precede her. “But come in and sit. I’ve made tea.”
“They’re your grandchildren?” Lily repeated, still getting her head around the idea that Toshi’s sibling, and probably Toshi himself, was old enough to be a grandparent.
“Yes. My daughter is working in the city. I watch them during the day. They help around the shop.” Hana made a face to show that “help” was not really what they did.
Lily smiled and looked around her. She couldn’t read any of the Japanese calligraphy, but the walls were lined with row after row of box-like drawers, each with its own label, and she could smell the different herbs and roots inside.
“An apothecary shop?” she guessed.
“Just so,” Hana replied. “And we even have a few crucibles who come from the city to shop here,” she said with pride. “Our herbs are the most potent in the restricted zone. That’s why they allowed my daughter to have more than one child. That, and because of Toshi’s talent.”
Lily didn’t know if she’d heard right. “Allowed you to have more than one child?”
Hana frowned. “Yes. It’s the law,” she said uncertainly. “One child per couple unless there is proof that there is talent in one of the families. Then you may have two.”
“Lily’s not from Bower City,” Toshi said from the doorway as he rejoined them.
Toshi’s father made a surprised sound in the back of his throat. They looked with confusion at Lily’s willstone.
“Lily’s from Salem,” Toshi explained. “She and her coven were traveling west when they were chosen by the Hive.”
They couldn’t have looked more surprised if Toshi had said she was from the moon, but they were too well mannered to show it. Hana made herself busy pouring the tea.
“We’d heard an outsider had been brought to the city,” Toshi’s father said. “We didn’t really believe it, though.”
A tense silence followed. Lily thought they might ask her questions about the east, but they didn’t. She didn’t know if they were frightened to ask because of the Hive, or if it was simply considered rude in their culture. As she tried to decide if they were waiting for her to offer information about the east or if she should keep her mouth shut, Lily watched the old man grip his bowl of green tea with swollen fingers. Even that small movement was agony for him.
“Let me,” she said, taking his hand. The rose willstone still stashed in her bodice flared, and she heard Toshi gasp.
“No, Lily!” he said, jumping forward to pull her away from his father.
Lily felt a prick at her throat. She waited to feel the whole sting, but the Worker stayed where she was, waiting to see what Lily did next.
“Easy,” Toshi said, struggling to keep his voice calm. “Just put your hands at your sides and relax.”
Lily did as she was told and she felt the Worker remove her stinger from the top layer of skin on Lily’s throat. Toshi slowly released his grip on her as the Worker stood down. Lily’s skin itched under the Worker’s barbed feet as she repositioned herself, but she didn’t dare scratch.
Toshi let out a long-held breath. “You can’t use magic in the restricted zone. I should have been more clear.”
“No, I should have understood that,” Lily said, shaking her head at her own foolishness. “As if you wouldn’t heal your father—and I’m guessing your mother, too—unless something much worse was threatened. With such a dark rose stone, you’re probably a better healer than I am.”
Toshi looked like he wanted to ask her something, but he held back. He waited until they had hastily finished their tea, said goodbye to his family, and were back out on the street. They walked along in pensive silence for a while before Lily finally spoke.
“The Hive doesn’t let people in the city help the people in the restricted zone—not even family—so more aren’t tempted to immigrate,” Lily guessed.
Toshi nodded. “Population is a problem. They usually only allow one child per couple to keep it under control. I proved to have talent when I was seven, so my parents were allowed to have Hana. Apart from that, there are no perks for the people who come here. Just the hope that maybe your child will get out.”
“You wanted to bring me here the first day.”
“I wanted you to see more than the wealth and prosperity of Bower City. I wanted you to be the kind of person who cared more for people than she did for power. You haven’t disappointed me.” His eyes slid to the side as he looked at her and then drifted down to where her rose and golden willstones were hidden in her bodice. “You have more than one,” was all he dared to say.
“You saw that, huh?”
“I felt it. Keep it hidden. It makes you vulnerable.”
“I know.” She thought of Carrick for the first time in weeks. She stopped and turned to Toshi, the memory of what he and Gideon had done to her reawakened. “Can I trust you?”
Toshi took her hands and drew her against him. He lowered his head as he put his arms around her to whisper in her ear. If anyone—or anything—was watching, all they would see were two people embracing in a quiet alley. She felt his warm breath on her neck as he spoke, and the shivers it sent down her back made the Worker at her throat twitch in agitation.
“I’ve waited a long time for you. I know what you want, and I want it, too—but not here. I’ll have to make some arrangements.”
They walked through the restricted zone back to the trolley station in silence. When they went through the turnstile, the Worker lifted off Lily’s neck and she felt her shoulder loosen for the first time since she got there. On the trolley, Lily kept stealing glances at Toshi, reconsidering. His mother was sick, maybe dying. If Lily claimed him, and then left Bower City, he’d have to choose between his witch and his family.
Toshi got her back to her rooms at the villa before the sun went down. He brushed his lips across her cheek before he left her at her door.
“Did you have a nice afternoon?” Rowan asked as she entered the ladies’ sitting room. He sounded unnaturally formal even for their currently estranged dynamic, and as she neared, she saw he wasn’t alone. Ivan Volkov, Bower City’s Head Mechanic, was sitting across from him. He stood when Lily joined them.
“I did,” she said. “I didn’t know we were having guests tonight.” She switched to mindspeak with Rowan. Where is everyone?
Still watching the Hive, he replied. I felt someone disturb the ward I set on our rooms and came back to find Ivan at the door. I don’t know if he was just knocking or if he was trying to break in, but he didn’t look suspicious.
“Good evening, Miss Proctor. I’m so sorry to intrude,” Ivan said.
“Please, call me Lily,” she said, taking a seat across from Ivan. “Were you looking for Toshi? He just left.”
“No, I came here to speak with you—about Toshi, as chance would have it,” Ivan replied.
It was the first time Lily had the opportunity to study Ivan in detail. The straight-backed way he sat, his highly polished shoes, and the careful way he chose his words hinted at an era long past. Lily wondered how old he was and decided that if Toshi was in his sixties and looked twenty, Ivan could potentially be twice as old as Toshi.
Lily took an unasked-for cup of tea from Rowan with a small smile.
You’re in a good mood, Rowan remarked in mindspeak. He didn’t look at her. She could feel jealousy yawning in him like hunger, and she had to remind herself again that it was his idea that she get close to Toshi in the first place.
Toshi agreed to be claimed, she answered.
Did you claim him?
Not yet.
Why wait?
We were in the restricted zone.
So? What difference does that make?
The surveillance is so much harsher there, and I’d already caused a scene. What kind of scene?
What happened?
Lily found herself rattling off an explanation before she remembered that she didn’t need to explain herself to him anymore. I had just tried to heal his father, and the Worker attached to my throat almost stung me. Toshi guessed that I have more than one willstone and he didn’t think it was safe—
Rowan was not pleased. What do you mean, Toshi guessed?
I’ll show you the memory later. Just let me deal with Ivan first, okay?
“Excuse us,” she said to Ivan. Exchanges in mindspeak happened as fast as thought, but the rapidly changing emotions involved could still be noticeable to a sensitive onlooker. Ivan had been watching Rowan and Lily like he was at a tennis match. “You wanted to discuss Toshi?”
“Er—yes,” Ivan said, his eyes still bouncing between Lily and Rowan. “I’m afraid what I’m about to say is rather frank, possibly even rude. I’m taking a big chance by coming here, but I feel I must.” Lily motioned for him to continue. “Stay away from Toshi,” he said. “Your affinity has been noticed. Even planned upon.”
Lily nodded and smiled. “I didn’t really think it was an accident Grace has been so conspicuously absent and that he was chosen to escort me around the city in her place. Was she hoping that I’d take a liking to him and speak more freely than I would to her?”
“Just so,” Ivan agreed.
“What was she hoping to find out?”
“I’m not certain.” Ivan frowned, his aging boxer’s face creasing deeply between the brows. “Toshi has more talent than any mechanic I’ve ever seen, present company excluded, of course.” Ivan tipped his head to Rowan, who nodded back. “But I fear he has some radical tendencies that have prevented him from advancement thus far. I have petitioned to make him my second for some months now, and as yet I have not received an answer. Make no mistake, Toshi is being tested as much as you, my dear, and I would hate for his involvement with you to—well, there’s no way to put this delicately—ruin not just his chances of achieving his goal, but his life as well.” Ivan leaned toward Lily. “It’s possible that you’re too valuable to imprison, but mechanics are not witches.”
“I’ve been imprisoned before,” Lily said quietly. “And I have no intention of repeating that experience or allowing it to happen to anyone I care about.”
Her answer did not satisfy Ivan. “Toshi has been my apprentice for forty-two years. He thinks he knows how Bower City works.” He looked at Lily with a mixture of fear and sadness that had been tempered by the weight of decades. “He thinks he understands, but I can’t convey to you the extent of his miscalculation, and I’m afraid once he recognizes his error it will be too late.”
Ivan looked down at the floor, momentarily lost in his own misgivings, before standing. “That is all I came to say. Both too much and too little, I expect.”
Lily and Rowan stood. “It’s been a pleasure,” Lily said. She furrowed her brow. “I think.”
Ivan smiled. “You are a dear girl,” he said. As he lifted her hand to kiss the back of it, she felt him wedge something about the size and shape of a toothpick between her fingers. “I do hope the best for you,” he said earnestly.
He dropped her hand and turned to Rowan, giving him a polite little bow before leaving.
He slipped me something. Why wouldn’t he just give it to me?
He must be hiding whatever it is from the Hive, Rowan replied.
I have no idea how to look at it without being seen, she told him.
Rowan’s eyes darted around at all the flower arrangements in the room.
There’s no place to take it out here. I’ll think of something, he replied. Give it to me.
Lily moved close to Rowan in order to hide the exchange. She put her hand into his and felt the texture of his skin on hers. He grew still as she swept her eyes over the familiar curve of his shoulder and the cut of his jaw just above her eyelashes.
She saw again his dream of California. She didn’t know whether it was a memory she was replaying in her head or whether she was picking up on Rowan’s thoughts, but she could smell the barbeque, see the bluer-than-blue swimming pool, and hear the comforting murmur of friends’ voices laughing and chatting in the backyard like he’d imagined once. She glanced out the window. The golden California sun was lowering to meet the ocean, warm and lazy.
“We’re here,” she said, breathing in the scent of jasmine and taking in the magnificent view. “We made it.”
“Not all of us,” he replied. She looked at him and remembered. This wasn’t his dream, and Tristan was dead.
Rowan let go of her hand, taking what Ivan had given her with him, and moved away from Lily. She stayed where she was, wondering if she was ever going to get used to this.
The rest of her coven arrived shortly, breaking the tension between them. They shared images of what they’d seen while they were scouting for a way to leave the city. It did not look promising. While the coven went about the outward business of pouring tea and eating fruit and cakes and acting merry like they were on holiday, they showed Lily the difficulties they’d encountered when they’d tried to find a way out of the city.
It looks like you can walk in or out whenever you want, Juliet said anxiously in mindspeak while she nibbled on a cinnamon scone, but you can’t. Tristan and I tried and we got stopped.
And it wasn’t just because it was us. We noticed that no one else was going in or out, either, Tristan added.
Lily sipped her tea and looked out the window. Toshi took me to the restricted zone today.
She shared the important parts of what she’d experienced that day with her coven, but stopped short of showing them when Toshi embraced her in the alley. He’d only done it to conceal the fact that they were whispering to each other—if concealment is possible with a Worker at your throat—but still, she felt strange about it. She didn’t want Rowan to see it. She ended the memory right after Toshi guessed that Lily possessed more than one willstone.
Toshi is willing to let me claim him, but it’s too dangerous for him, she explained. He’s been set up to get caught trying to join my coven, or at least that’s what Ivan thinks.
Rowan recounted Ivan’s visit in mindspeak, but chose not to replay the memory. Lily didn’t know why he avoided it, but she noticed that since he’d been back he hadn’t shared any memories with her.
I’m going to inspect what Ivan gave to Lily, Rowan said. He stood up and went into his room. I don’t think there are any Workers in my bed, so I’ll pretend to be taking a nap and look at it under the covers. The rest of you should go about your own business as if we’re not sharing mindspeak.
Lily took her tea out onto the veranda to watch the sun set. Juliet joined her, while Caleb, Tristan, Breakfast, and Una went into the men’s sitting room to play at being relaxed by lounging in the leather chairs and pretending to read. Lily could feel the tension in them mounting as they sat too still and neglected to turn the pages of their books. She had to remind them all to breathe. It was a few minutes before Rowan contacted the coven again.
It’s a map, he said. The coven could feel how perplexed he was. He shared what he was looking at with the rest of them. I think it’s a way out of the city.
In double vision, Lily saw both the sanguine stain of the sunset over the rim of her teacup and the micro-thin sheet pulled tight between Rowan’s fingers. It took her a moment to realize that she was seeing a cross section of the city that focused mainly on what was belowground. There was one building aboveground that was used as a landmark, and what seemed to be a series of dug-out spaces below. Breakfast was the first to recognize the structure that was the point of entry aboveground.
That’s Hearing Hall, he said. It ruined my joke.
The caverns beneath it look like the Stacks in Salem, Juliet said. Where they grow the bio-assets.
Lily felt a spark of recognition from Rowan. You’re right, Juliet, he said. These tall, narrow rooms are the perfect size and shape for skinlooms and this main cavern is perfect for womb combs. But it’s huge. Much larger than what we had at Salem.
Um . . . what’s a skinloom and what’s a womb comb? Because they both sound utterly nauseating, Una interjected.
Skinlooms are huge frames to grow sheets of wearhyde, Tristan replied. Womb combs are vats that house ice lattices, which we use to grow both cultured meat and tame Woven.
I’m having a hard time picturing it, Breakfast said.
I’ll show you, Tristan said, and shared a memory of the Salem Stacks.
. . . I watch my feet go down steps carved right into the bedrock. So many steps. They don’t just go down, they also go out. It’s strange to think that by the time you actually reach the main cavern, you’re out of the city and what’s above you is the Woven Woods. I wonder what they’re doing up there.
Rowan has already been down here for hours. No idea how he handles the smell. Blood, blood, and more blood. No amount of cleaning can get the scent of it out of the rock. Maybe it’s because he’s an Outlander. He’s been covered in blood since the day he was born.
I reach the bottom of the steps and pass the rooms that house the skinlooms. I see a new apprentice mechanic—Gavin is his name, I think—pull out one of the tall, thin frames of the looms from the wall. It glides silently on its casters as Gavin stirs his brush in a bucket of culture, preparing to paint it on the frame. In two days it will be ready for harvest—a perfect sheet of wearhyde. They are what gave the Stacks their name, but I always thought that name was wrong. The skinlooms aren’t stacked on top of one another; they stand upright, like books on a shelf. I don’t know what you’d call that, though.
I enter the main room—a cathedral that soars up and up, the walls and ceiling lit by sconces that glow with magelight. The sconces seem to float like little bubbles of light against the rough-hewn rock. Below the ancient stone and eerie magelight are the stainless steel vats that hold ice lattices. The womb combs. Some of them are enormous, and they’re the reason the cavern is so high. My teacher told me they were made to grow the greater drakes—huge and terrifying as the mythical dragon. They only grow greater drakes in New York now, and even then only rarely. It’s been a long time since the Age of Strife when the Thirteen Cities warred with one another. Mechanics used to ride those things into battle. That must have been a sight to see. I’ve always wanted to fly.
I peer around a few of the smaller womb combs up front and spot Rowan three rows down. I go to him. He’s pulled out one of the lattices so he can inspect the crop of tame Woven embryos that are growing inside the hexagonal cells. It looks like a sheet of honeycomb that he’s holding up to the light. A dark speck of life is nestled in the center of each cell. I have no idea how he can do that barehanded. It’s like he doesn’t even mind the freezing cold of it. Inside the cell, cupped right around the embryo, heat is maintained by the crucibles who tend them. The rest is kept several degrees below zero. Less infection that way, but torture to touch, or at least I think so. Rowan sees me and gives me that lazy smile of his.
“Good morning,” he says.
“Afternoon,” I correct, and then catch myself when I see his smile turn into a grin. “I know I was supposed to be here at nine,” I begin, already explaining myself. Why do I always feel like I have to explain myself to him?
“Don’t worry about it. Come and help,” he says. He’s understanding and forgiving as usual. I don’t know what’s more annoying. That he’s genuinely better at everything or that he’s so damn accepting of the fact that everyone else is so flawed . . .
Sorry, Tristan said, abruptly ending the memory. I didn’t mean to
go on like that. Sorry, Ro.
It’s okay, Rowan replied.
Lily could feel their friendship repairing. The frayed edges of where their personalities met up were weaving themselves back together as if neither of them could remember why they were fighting.
The sun had set and the lights from the city below were winking on, terrestrial echoes of the stars above. Such a pretty prison, she thought. Lily put down her teacup and went inside.
The cavern in the map definitely looks like the Stacks, only much larger, Lily said, trying to get back on subject. But why would Ivan give this to us? Rowan—you said you thought it was a map out of the city.
Yes. Rowan directed their attention to the far end of the cavern. There was a steady rise in the gradient and a small opening at the end. That could be a tunnel to the surface.
Maybe, Caleb said. But that brings up another question. Why would Ivan want to help us get out of Bower City?
Lily took a guess. Ivan thinks Grace is trying to trap Toshi. If I claim Toshi like she’s planned, he’ll get caught and go to jail. I think it’s because she wants to replace him with Rowan as Ivan’s second. Toshi is strong, but Rowan is still stronger.
He’s definitely trying to protect Toshi from something, Rowan said.
Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s you.
It was clear that between the two of those options, Rowan felt that she was the greater threat.
I’m not out to ruin anyone else’s life, Lily said, stung. She thought of Toshi’s parents—his father’s swollen fingers and the sound of his mother’s voice, sickly and weak in the next room. She let her coven view the memory with her. Toshi has family here, and they need him. I’ve decided that claiming him isn’t an option anymore, even if he is willing. She started looking through her things for something suitable to wear. There’s only one way to find out why Ivan really gave us the map. We follow it, and maybe get out of here tonight.
She let her coven go back and forth, arguing. There were a dozen reasons to wait and a dozen reasons to act immediately. None of those reasons mattered to Lily anymore. She just wanted out of Bower City.
Lily was dressed in a dark silk tunic, pants, and flat black shoes, and sitting patiently at the end of her bed with the lights off by the time they realized that she was going with or without them. She even had a bag of salt in one pocket and a small jar of the miracle soap in the other, just in case they actually made it out of the city and found themselves on the road back to Salem.
Okay. But we’re going in three small groups, not as one big herd, Rowan insisted.
Lily stood and went into the bathroom. She lit all the candles she could find there and began gathering their energy slowly so as not to disturb the Hive. She didn’t know if fueling her mechanics would be considered an act of aggression, and she wasn’t about to take any chances alerting them. Their best bet at avoiding the Hive was to act as calmly as they could. A witch wind whistled through the window and Lily slowed her harvest until the wind lowered to a soft moan.
Caleb took command as he’d done on the trail. Una and Tristan with Lily first, he said. I’ll go with Juliet second. Breakfast, you and Rowan last.
I’m going with Lily, Rowan insisted.
No you’re not, Caleb ordered. You go with Breakfast or you don’t go at all.
Lily could feel Rowan struggling with this and resisted the urge to support him. Let’s go, she said, ending the conversation. She changed the energy she’d gathered from the candle flames into force and flooded her coven’s willstones with power. She felt them all stretch and sigh as they soaked in her strength.
They waited for the sounds of the villa to die down, and then left their apartments in the groups and in the sequence that Caleb had designated. As Lily flowed through the darkness, Una and Tristan on either side sweeping her along with them, she connected her coven each to each, unifying them even though they were physically parted. Caleb’s caution, Tristan’s thrill, Una’s prowl and pounce, were all joined into one. Rowan’s unease at being away from Lily was like a twanging note in the song, out of tune with the rest.
The coven made their way through the foyer, through the side door, and down the long passageway connecting the villa to Hearing Hall. There were no locks on the doors and each group of the coven breezed through, so fast and silent with Lily’s strength in them that they neared invisibility. Lily knew the Workers were there, but she doubted even their multifaceted eyes could see her preternaturally swift coven under the cover of night.
The map was in Lily’s mind’s eye as she glanced around Hearing Hall. The oculus let in a beam of bright moonlight onto the marble floor, but the light was lost in the silver-black shadows among the pillars. The air was heavy, and the empty space was anxious for them to make a sound for it to amplify. The weight of silence was a ringing pressure inside Lily’s ears. She saw something move among the pillars, just off the edge of her vision. She snapped her head around to find it, but there was nothing there.
The other two groups joined hers shortly.
Look for the way down, Rowan said in mindspeak as he and Breakfast caught up to the rest of them.
The doors, Tristan replied, already moving to them. One goes to the villa, but what about the other two?
Caleb sped down one passageway, his connection to Lily getting thin as the crystals in the marble distorted his willstone’s vibration. He came back shaking his head.
It leads to another government building. It looked like offices, he said.
Tristan tried the third door, and it opened into emptiness. There are no stairs. How do they get down with no stairs?
You’d need wings, Breakfast said, joking.
Rowan leaned through the open door and let his magelight brighten, trying to judge the distance down. His light never reached the ground. Yes. You would, he said in all seriousness. Then he launched himself over the edge.
Lily felt her heart fly into her throat. She pushed her way through the others and knelt at the precipice to watch Rowan’s magelight descend into darkness. By the time he reached the bottom it was only a faint glimmer. Rowan’s feet, then knees, and then hands met the ground as he dispersed the energy up through his body in stages, ending with the thwacking sound of his palms slapping down. Lily’s skeleton jolted and her teeth clacked together along with Rowan’s.
I’m all right, he said. He stayed in a crouch for moment, checking his surroundings before straightening up. Two of you will have to make the jump carrying Juliet and Lily, but everyone else should be able to make it.
Lily was still shaking when she felt Tristan pick her up in his arms and jump. She clutched at his neck and held her breath as she dropped down into the smothering belly of the earth. Even as she fell, Lily could feel the deadening hum of quartz in the soil around her. It was like entering a tomb.
Her whole body rattled with the impact of their landing. Tristan did his best to shield Lily from it, but even fora witch-fueled mechanic it had been a long drop. Lily felt Rowan’s hands catching her and running over her lightly to scan for any damage.
I’m not injured, she told him privately in mindspeak. He removed his hands, but ignored the group order and stayed nearby as the coven began to move through the gloom.
They fanned out and let their magelight increase by degrees, but the space seemed to go on forever.
“It’s three, maybe four times the size of the Salem Stacks,” Juliet said. The sound of her voice made Lily jump, but then she realized there was no reason to continue in mindspeak. There were no Workers down here. Nothing living at all, except her coven.
“But the same layout,” Tristan added. “Look. Here are the rooms for the skin looms.”
They passed by a series of tall, skinny passageways. Breakfast pulled one of the looms out of the wall. It was three times his height, but it rolled out easily enough on casters that were set into tracks on the floor.
“Empty,” Breakfast said. “Guess they don’t have much use for wearhyde here.”
“Why would they?” Una said. “They can get fine Italian leather if they want. They can afford it, too.”
Lily nodded and started to move toward the hulking shapes occupying the main cavern. As she approached the first of many rows of womb combs, she could tell it was old. She put her hand on one of the stainless steel sides and imagined it full of ice lattices, each little cell housing a Woven embryo.
So many Woven, Lily thought. She brightened her magelight as much as she could without blinding herself, but she couldn’t find an end to the procession.
“I’ve never seen so many,” Rowan said, echoing Lily’s thought. “Not even in New York.”
“Is the New York Stack large?” Una asked.
“The largest of the Thirteen Cities,” he answered. “Growing tame Woven is their main industry. Most of the city is underground on what you know of as Long Island. But this is even bigger.”
“We should try to find the back wall. That’s where those stairs are on Ivan’s map,” Caleb said.
They started to work their way down the rows of womb combs, every step bringing them deeper into the disorienting vastness of the space. Support pillars sprouted out of the floor and started to divide up the main area into smaller sections, confounding their sense of direction. Soon it was difficult to tell which of the sections led left, right, or straight on to the back.
“We’ll split into our groups again,” Caleb said. “Everyone stay in contact through Lily.”
Her coven reached for her mind. Lily built a web of rapport that spun out as her coven dispersed in search of the back wall. The rows skewed on a diagonal as the size and shape of the womb combs changed.
Different Woven, Rowan thought. He was whispering to himself in his head, but Lily was in such close contact with him, and he was keeping so close to her physically, that she overheard.
Greater drakes, most likely, based on the size, he continued. Lily got an image of a dragon creature with iridescent skin, giant talons, and stunning wings. It was so large several people could easily ride it.
By the tanks for the greater drakes is where they made the mascots. The image that flitted through his mind looked like an enormous dragonfly-serpent hybrid, clinging to the mast of a tall ship. It seemed to scan the sky, looking for danger, and its double-decker wings filled the sails with wind while it wrapped its long, scaly tail protectively around the rigging of the ship. Lily assumed that had to be a mascot.
Back there, the medium-size womb combs must have been where they made the guardians and other mammalian mixes. Lily got a glimpse of one of the guardians that they chained to the bottom of the greentowers.
So what are these smaller vats for? They aren’t really womb combs. There are more of these than any other, but I can’t think what would grow in them. Fast germinating Woven—the kind that hatches from an egg, mostly likely. Rowan pictured something that looked like wild Woven to Lily. They were mostly insect, but also part reptile or mammal, and none of them were the same. Who would want to grow so many, and why?
The vats stood like sentinels, lined up in perfect formation in the long-forgotten dark.
“It’s an army,” Lily whispered. A chill ran down her spine as she said it, and she knew she was right.
Rowan turned to her, discarding the notion out of hand. “No, this type of Woven serves no purpose. They’re made from the leftover genetic material of the useful Woven, like the guardians, drakes, mascots, and cleaners—cleaners are mostly insectoid,” he explained, seeing her confused look. “After you make a few batches of useful Woven you just throw whatever remains into one of these vats and see if anything good comes out of the mix. You have to destroy ninety-nine out of a hundred because all that most of them can do is eat and fight and . . .” He trailed off, a stricken look on his face.
“Pretty accurate description of the wild Woven around the Thirteen Cities, isn’t it?” Lily said.
“No, because wild Woven reproduce like crazy.” Rowan shook his head, unable to accept what was staring him in the face. “We make sure they’re sterile—all of the Woven that we make in the womb combs are sterile. They can’t reproduce.”
“So how did the wild Woven start reproducing?” Lily asked gently.
“It was almost two hundred years ago. An accident—”
“Really?” Lily took a deep breath. “What if it wasn’t?”
His eyes looked inward, and Lily could feel the skin on the back of his neck begin to crawl. “There are so many vats,” he said, starting to think the unthinkable.
“Enough to flood the continent with wild Woven,” she said. “And if you make it so they can reproduce, you’d only need to use the vats once.”
Lily ran a finger through the film of ancient dust that lay on the otherwise-pristine vats. The questions that she’d been asking for months and the answers she’d been given that didn’t sit right with her started to come together into one terrible truth.
“What if the wild Woven were designed to reproduce like crazy, designed to be poisonous so humans couldn’t survive by eating them, designed to attack humans even if they weren’t provoked? There are too many things about them that don’t make sense, too many rules, unless you start thinking that they weren’t an accident.” She tapped the side of the vat. “These certainly weren’t made on accident.”
Rowan sat down hard on the dusty ground. He was looking into the empty palms of his hands, but he wasn’t seeing anything. Lily sat down next to him and leaned her back against the steel. She could feel a thousand thoughts running through his head, like clouds racing across a wind-blown sky, and she waited. The thought clouds in his mind turned dark and crackled with lightning. Finally, he looked up at her.
“We need to find out why. I need to know what happened, not just guess,” he said. “Ivan knows. That’s why he sent us down here.” He laughed bitterly. “A parting gift before we walked out the door.”
Lily nodded. She could feel a yawning pain building in him at the thought of all the people he’d lost to the Woven. Of the childhood that was stolen from him by violence and hunger. She wrapped her arms around him and let him squeeze her tightly to the ache in his chest. No matter how many times Lily tried to push him out, Rowan managed to dig down deeper into her. He was fitted inside her so tightly now that no blame or bitterness between them could keep her from wanting to protect him from this terrible lie he’d lived with all his life.
Lily. Come quick. You have to see this.
Rowan and Lily jumped to their feet, both of them feeling the urgency in Tristan’s call in mindspeak, and hurried in his direction. Lily noticed that the floor had begun to slope upward, when she slipped on something. Rowan’s hand shot out and steadied her before she fell to her knees. She looked down.
“What is that?” she asked. She and Rowan inspected the coating on the floor. Rowan crouched down and touched the slippery substance, rubbing fingers and thumb together.
“I think it’s wax,” he said.
They kept moving forward and noticed that the wax also covered a pillar they passed. The rows of womb combs and vats ended, and the coating grew thicker until their feet were sinking into it.
“I see the rest of the coven’s tracks,” Rowan said. They continued on, careful of their footing, as they went down a series of ever-shrinking tunnels.
The passageway continued to narrow until they were walking down a thin tube. Hexagons rose out of the surface. Lily could smell something sweet in the air. She saw Rowan breathe it in.
“Honey,” he said. He looked around. “We’re in an old honeycomb.”
They reached a bottleneck and had to squeeze through. The cavern they entered was stuffy, and it smelled of musk and honey. Lily saw her coven’s backs. They were facing something. She felt their shock as they parted and let her through.
Sunk deep into the wax was a giant throne. On the throne, propped up by many velvet pillows, reclined the satin-clad torso of a woman. Trailing off to the side where her legs should have been was a pale, distended abdomen that ballooned up and out of the throne room into titanic proportions. Atop the human torso were the ovoid head and bulbous eyes of an insect, and around the Queen’s neck hung a golden willstone.