Illumination 3.1: Rising Storm
And then it all went to hell. Sometimes, things don’t go anything like you planned, and all you can do is keep moving.
I don’t like this memory very much.
Ajax refused one of the beds in the infirmary when he was herded there by Laurel. Instead, he sat in a chair and let one of the doctor’s assistants clean and stitch his arm. Laurel stayed beside him, her hand on his shoulder. She was probably trying to be reassuring but Ajax didn’t like it.
He watched the organized chaos in the infirmary after the Cambion attack. It looked like the Prowler that had come back with Natalie was the most injured, although there were bruises and broken bones from others’ brief encounters with the Cambion. Natalie was asleep, still on her stretcher. Even relaxed in sleep, she had dark smudges of exhaustion under her eyes.
Ajax looked away, at the thread and needle pulling together his lacerated skin. “So. Laurel. Nightfall.”
Laurel pursed her lips. “Could be tricky, with the Cambion out there. Has anybody explained to you what usually happens?”
“Storms, aggressive animals. Kentigern made it sound like no big deal, but if that’s true I’m not sure why he’d keep warning everybody about it.”
“Storms get kind of crazy sometimes, and it’s really hard to predict when that will be. Also, sometimes the teachers take the kids to the perimeter to get some live combat experience against the wildlife.” Her mouth crooked up briefly, then turned down. “And then there’s the mist. That’s always a little creepy.” She squeezed his shoulder. “But we’re all used to it.”
“How long does it last?”
“It varies, just like the days. Sometimes it’s not much longer than an Earth night. Sometimes it goes on for a few days. Weird, huh?” Laurel flashed him a grin. “Kentigern usually knows.”
“What about the Cambion, though? Will the animals outside attack it, too?”
“Maybe,” she said slowly. “The animals outside are — odd. Some of them are very like Awakened. Some aren’t. I think they’re leftovers from the pre-human history of this place. Created by Kentigern and the other towers.”
“Wait, what? Pre-hu— other towers?”
Before Laurel could do anything else other than give him an amused look, Seth appeared at the infirmary door, towing Jehane behind him.
“Please keep your arm still,” said the medical assistant sharply. “I’m almost done.”
“Oh, I’m glad they’re okay,” said Laurel happily.
Seth brushed off his father’s greeting and went to Natalie’s stretcher, where he passed his hand across her hair. Then he turned around, inspecting the rest of the infirmary.
The medical assistant snipped off the thread and sat back. Ajax sprang to his feet, ignoring the other’s protests as he strode across the infirmary. Up close, he could see that Jehane was a wreck, with red eyes and a tearstained face. He instinctively put his good arm out to steady her as she swayed, and she leaned into him.
“Great timing, big guy,” said Seth. His eyes were very bright but he otherwise seemed normal. “Why don’t you take Jehane back to her place? She’s all worn out.”
Ajax didn’t move, although he let Jehane lean on him. “So is Natalie. What happened over there?”
Jake, looking at his son intently, said, “Where’s Tanist Kiley? Is she still on the hunt?”
“No, we’re not,” said a woman standing at the entrance, who Ajax vaguely recognized as the person in charge of the Tower. “Jehane had a headache,” she added, sourly.
Seth smiled at the Tanist, and the woman added, “And I’m considering busting Seth back to unranked, because he’s demonstrated that much responsibility and accountability today. Both of you, return to your quarters and stay there.” Then she turned her attention away, as if turning them off.
“Kentigern, how is the Tower?”
There was a pause, longer than it normally took Kentigern to answer a query. “Damaged. The structural integrity is mostly solid, but there’s some functional damage. My own resources will be stretched with the upcoming trouble.”
“Is a serious storm expected?”
“Oh yes.”
There was another pause, as if the Tanist was waiting for more details. Then she said, “Where did the Cambion go?”
“I last saw it at three-three-ten, heading out. I expect it to cause more trouble before the night is over. It should be able to organize some of the creatures much as it could the Awakened.”
The Tanist blew out her breath. “I wish the Nightlights from the roll-call hadn’t returned to duty already. But no use crying over spilt milk.”
“I’m still here,” said Laurel brightly.
The Tanist gave Laurel a little smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m glad. Make sure the ranging Prowlers are warned about the Cambion, Kentigern.”
“It’s very dark out already,” said Kentigern matter-of-factly, as if this was a response to the Tanist. The little silence after his words gave them an ominous weight, though.
Jehane pulled away from Ajax. “Thank you. I’m going home,” she whispered. “Before the doctor has time to notice me.” She vanished out the door, moving slowly.
“Unless you need the doctor, you’d better get home as well, Seth,” said Jake.
Seth raised his eyebrows. “But Dad! The Tanist just said she wished there were more Nightlights around. You’re going to need me.”
“You’ve done enough damage already,” the Tanist snapped. “If you hadn’t set a bad example, Jehane would have done as I ordered.”
Seth smirked. “Oh yes, I’m a bad example. Of course, I’m not the only one.”
“Tanist, the Reader Carta Lab would like to see you as soon as you have a moment,” said Kentigern, in a rather timely save, Ajax thought.
The Tanist pulled off her gloves and stuffed them into the pockets. “I’m on my way. Ward, debrief your son and get him out of here. I don’t even want to see his shadow until the night is over.”
Illumination 3.2: The Strange
After laying out his observations for his father, Seth strolled down the hall in the general direction of home. He took the long way, passing by the infirmary again. There he looked in the door long enough to see Natalie curled on her side, her eyes open, watching the activity.
He smiled and let the door close without going in. They could talk later, when she was safe at home. If he went in now, she’d be tempted to get into trouble on his behalf. It was like she couldn’t stop herself— and normally he didn’t mind. But she still looked tired, and he felt generous.
He strolled on, pausing every so often to inspect the damage caused by the Cambion. The path didn’t lead home, except by the most flexible of definitions. Fortunately, Seth was very flexible in his thinking.
When he was near the Tower garage, he met Elian and Rohan. The taller boy was leaning heavily on Elian, and Seth ducked under his other arm. “Let me spot you there, Elian. Did you get in the way of the Cambion, Rohan?”
Rohan grinned painfully. “Maybe a little.”
“What are you still doing over here? The infirmary’s buzzing.”
“I didn’t think it was that bad.” Rohan gave him an embarrassed look. “Bruised ribs, you know.”
“He also hit his head on the wall,” said Elian, moodily. “Then he fell over while checking himself out. He’s probably got a concussion.”
“What are you doing over here, Seth?” asked Rohan.
“Oh, I pissed off the Tanist on our way back. This is a shortcut back to my place.”
Rohan and Elian exchanged looks. Elian said, “Really? What did you do to her?”
“I told her to get the hell out of my way,” said Seth calmly. “She was trying to make Jehane do something she really didn’t want to do. I had to protect my novice. You know. As one does.”
After a moment, Rohan said, “Right. So what was Mala— the Echthros like?”
Seth wondered how quickly gossip would spread about two Echthroi instead of one. That would be interesting to see. Would the Tanist try to control the news? Well, he could always break that effort later, if he wanted to. “I’m pretty sure he’s even higher on the Tanist’s shit list than I am. He’s not your garden-variety psycho with a sword. Can you guys make it to the infirmary from here? If I stick my head in there, it could be bad.”
“Yeah, thanks,” said Elian, giving him a narrow-eyed, knowing look.
Rohan said, “I’m really glad you’re all right. Wish I was.” He looked annoyed at himself.
Lightly, Seth said, “You’d better get your head looked at, because you’re talking crazy. I’m a bastard to you, Rohan.” Seth clapped Elian on the shoulder and took the direct route home this time.
Valeria, his mother, came out from the dining room when he slammed the door behind him. “Hi, Mom! Dad and the Tanist grounded me, so,” he spread his hands and grinned at her, “here I am. Natalie’s in the infirmary, but she’s fine.” Logan and Kaylee squeezed around Valeria and darted over to him.
Valeria inspected him, then said, “Yes, your father called me.”
Seth fended off his younger siblings, lifting his hands over his head and refusing to pick either of them up. “Can’t play now, brats. I have to get cleaned up and go my room. Grounded! No fun!”
Valeria gave him a suspicious look. He was always earning looks like that, but that was okay. He had his own look, and it was very innocent. “I’ve got to stay out of the way, Mom. The Tanist said. But I’ll do the dishes later.” He stepped over Kaylee and kissed Valeria on the forehead on his way to his room.
After a shower and clean clothes, Seth stretched out on his futon. Whatever energy that had both filled him and ebbed away while he stalked Malachi had left him tired, but not nearly as tired as it seemed to leave Natalie. Still, laying down felt good.
He put his bare feet on the wall. “Kentigern, old buddy, tell me what’s going on out there.”
“Seth, my young friend. Let’s see. Things are going reasonably well in the infirmary. The Tanist is meeting with the Council. The Readers are working on my repairs. There’s a storm forming; I can feel the lightning trembling in the air already. It will start the war.” Kentigern sounded almost exactly as he always did, but something was wrong.
Seth sat up. “That’s a little severe, isn’t it? One Cambion doesn’t make a war.”
“That invader isn’t my concern anymore. We drove him off. But there are others. I’ve got to prepare for the war. The darkness reminded me. I don’t know how I could have forgotten. I hope you’re prepared to help, Seth.”
“Hey, man, anything. Who are we going to fight?”
“They’re planning an assault. I’m not ready. I forgot. I’ll have to activate the emergency defenses.”
Seth wondered what the hell would qualify as Tower emergency defenses. As far as he knew, the human inhabitants were the only things that fit the bill.
Outside of his room, Kaylee screamed in terror. Then there was a thump.
His door dented the wall as he flung it open. His sister and brother had been playing at the coffee table, but now the table and the couch had both been flipped over by an elongated semi-person swinging elastic arms around.
Seth dived across the floor and scooped up his sister, rolling with her away from the monster. It was far more humanoid than any Awakened he’d seen before, like a clay man rolled out tall and thin. It didn’t have anything resembling a face, just flapping bandages that bound it at the place where eyes and mouth would be, and around the torso and arms and legs.
Valeria sprinted out of the kitchen, a glowing toasting fork in her hand. Seth threw Kaylee at her, looked around enough to find Logan cowering in the corner, then tackled the monster. It was easy enough to knock over, barely fighting back. It flailed and flopped like a fish out of water. As he pinned it down and tried to figure out what the hell it was, it twined its ludicrous arms around him.
“Intruder,” it hissed. Seth was already bringing his hand up when he felt the prickles on his back and torso. He slashed his knife savagely across what passed for a throat. Then he threw himself away from the pinpricks, scrambling out of its loose grip as it sprouted thorns all over.
It trembled and shook, and he stabbed it again in the throat, then in the place where eyes should have been, then where a heart would be.
At last, it stopped moving. But it didn’t dissolve into water, like an Awakened would have. It didn’t bleed like a man, either.
Seth looked up. His mother had both kids gathered in her arms, and her toasting fork still glowed with the light of a stage 1 weapon. “What the hell was that?”
“Kentigern said something about invaders. Was that an invader, Kentigern?”
“Oh. Oh yes. Yes, the invaders are proving… challenging to repel. We’ll endure, though. After all, we have before.” Kentigern’s voice was very calm, as if nothing at all unusual had occurred.
Illumination 3.3: Just Like Yesterday
Natalie woke up slowly, dragged out of a deep sleep by people talking over her infirmary bed. The nap seemed to have helped. At least, the terrible exhaustion had receded into a basic weariness she was far more used to. But she still felt every one of the ‘heavy bruising and abrasions’ that Doctor Pepperman had found when he looked her over.
It sounded like an impromptu Council meeting had convened around her bed. They were discussing Jehane, who had apparently disappointed the Tanist. Natalie knew what they were waiting for. As soon as she opened her eyes they’d want a report from her. Again. At least this time she didn’t think she’d get into trouble for anything.
She tried to organize her thoughts before opening her eyes, running the events of the expedition through her mind. But as soon as she got to the point where Tainter murdered the two cops, she flinched. That memory was swiftly followed by the disturbing memory of her weapon sliding against Tainter’s collarbone. She’d never wounded a human before, not like that, not seriously.
Her father’s hand stroked her hair. “It’s okay, Natalie. You can wake up.”
She opened her eyes. “I wasn’t really asleep. Just remembering.”
“You’ll feel better if you tell us about it.” The Tanist gave her what was meant to be a reassuring smile but was more of a ghastly grimace. “What happened to Linc?”
“Is he still alive? I tried so hard—”
“For now,” said the Tanist, her voice harsh.
Doctor Pepperman glanced at her. “He’ll be fine as long as nothing else exciting happens over the next few days.”
Natalie took a deep breath. “All right. There were two Echthroi. Malachi and another one. I don’t know what happened with Malachi, but the other one was… a psychopath. He killed two policemen before anybody could react.” She frowned. “They were slow, though. There was something… wrong with all of the ordinaries. They seemed half asleep, even when they saw the Cambion that dragged Linc off.”
The Doctor nodded, but the Tanist said, “What did the Cambion look like?”
“Sort of a dog-wolverine thing. It came when the psychopath whistled.” Natalie looked back and forth between the adult faces, questioningly.
Jake’s shoulders hunched. “At least two more Cambions, then. And you had no idea who the second Echthros was?”
“No. He was older than Malachi, and while he had a Stage 3 weapon, it was odd. It changed. And he was strange, Dad. He moved so fast that he could dodge bullets. That’s why he could hurt Linc so badly.”
“Why didn’t he hurt you, too?” demanded the Tanist, anger flitting across her face. Natalie stared up at her silently, astonished that she was apparently still going to get in trouble.
“Kiley, please.” said Jake quietly.
“Yes… yes. When I saw Linc—” The Tanist shook her head. “How did you two manage to escape him, Natalie?”
“I figured out how to move fast, too. I was clumsy but whatever power he had, I had too. He didn’t expect that, and when I stabbed him, he ran away. Then Linc helped me find the device attached to the transmitter that was blocking Kentigern’s portals, and we came home.”
“Dammit!” The Tanist started to pace. “They must have timed this assault to coincide with Nightfall, for maximum chaos. I can’t believe there’s a bloody they. We have to find out who the other Echthros is and where the excess Cambions came from.”
“Assault? I thought we found them?” said Natalie.
Kotone, standing beside Jake with a sling on her arm, said, “We found Malachi, yeah. It didn’t seem like a planned encounter at the time. But you slept through all the fun, Natalie. One of the Cambions came through the portal and attacked Kentigern before escaping.”
Jake said, “They had as much time to plan as we did, and the advantage that we didn’t expect what we found. But what’s the advantage of attacking at Nightfall?”
“Additional strain on Kentigern,” said the Tanist flatly. “That little device Natalie brought back is sitting in the Carta Lab waiting for the Readers to have time to study it. We should be prioritizing that, but we can’t right now. There’s just too much going on.”
“How’s Kentigern?” asked Natalie, tentatively.
“Stressed,” said Kentigern. “The wildlife is particularly aggressive tonight. I believe they’re being drawn to the Tower from a wider radius than usual. The storm is very large. I wish I could find Lailoken.”
Natalie, looking at her father, saw him lift his head in surprise. “Lailoken? Kentigern—” Lailoken had been the founder of the Guardians of the Precipice and the Nightlights, almost a thousand years ago.
Kentigern paused, then said, “I’m sorry. Did I mention Lailoken? I must have been confused. I’m a bit distracted by the repairs. A lot is happening. Can some people go outside to deal with the wildlife? That would help.” Kentigern paused, then said, “I do have emergency defenses.”
A small, wheeled utility table in the middle of the infirmary fell over with a crash. Nobody was near it. As the various diagnostic tools spun away, something pulled itself out of the pile of tools contained by the middle of the table, growing as it did so. Long arms waved as it balanced precariously on equally elongated legs, and a featureless face swiveled this way and that.
“Kentigern!” shouted the Tanist.
“Yes?” said Kentigern, barely audible over the clatter as the newborn monster swung its arms and knocked over another table.
“Is this an enemy or something of yours?”
“I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about?”
The monster looked around again. Natalie’s father pressed her shoulder and she realized she’d sat up, swinging her legs off the bed. Staff all over the infirmary scattered. Kotone grimly moved forward, placing herself between the Tanist and the monster.
But the monster didn’t move toward the Tanist. With an explosive burst of energy, it took a giant step toward the intensive care beds and flung medical shrapnel all over the infirmary. The lights flickered, making everything part of a slideshow. A tray of broken test tubes scything through the air. Everybody ducking except the Tanist. The monster hooking a hand around Linc’s bed to flip it. The Tanist standing behind the monster with a stage 3 weapon in her hand. The monster split from head to sternum, solid and artificial.
The lights steadied. The Tanist’s weapon vanished from her hand. Kentigern said, “Sorry about that. There was a lightning strike on the pinnacle, but I’ve managed it.”
The Tanist, panting, said, “The lightning strike brought that?”
“The flicker, yes. Didn’t you notice?”
“The monster, Kentigern,” said Jake, his voice a little shaky. “How did it get in here? Has there been a breach?”
“The wildlife will breach the outer curtain if they’re not managed, yes. And the mist will be severe. Please, help me. A major storm is coming.”
Illumination 3.4: That Which Lurks In Mist
The mist crept in.
It started as a thickening in the air, and a strange, dusty taste in Ajax’s mouth. He first realized what was happening when he tried to wipe a film from his eyes and realized it was in the air. As it thickened, sound echoed oddly, and even those he stood near seemed on the other side of an unreachable gulf.
The garden outside his window was lit by a very few of Kentigern’s mobile light sculptures, just enough to turn the garden into a nightmare of shadows and fog instead of the starless blackness it would otherwise be. When lightning flashed overhead, the semi-visible canopy over the garden lit up, crackling with light. The air rumbled nearly constantly. Ajax didn’t know if it was thunder, or something else.
When Kwan showed up at his door to recruit him to help with some repairs, Ajax was watching the tendrils of mist swirl around his room. There seemed to be no way to keep them out, and he was glad for an excuse to get out of his room, even though it was the middle of the local sleep cycle. He was too adrenalized by the situation to rest.
“I thought you might not be sleeping. Everybody’s schedules get screwed up by Nightfall,” Kwan said. “Especially this one. Come on, you can hand me tools.”
“How is the mist getting in? I’ve never seen mist crawl inside a building like this before.”
Kwan hesitated. “Well, it’s worse than usual. Kentigern isn’t filtering the mist properly.”
“Yeah, but—”
“It’s not Earth mist,” Kwan interrupted him. “Trust me, you don’t want to think about it too much. We’re going to go help and supervise some of Kentigern’s assistant machines, and I’m going to work on fixing some old fans.”
Ajax helped Kwan push a laundry cart full of fan parts to the hall near the cafeteria, where a swarm of blocky polygons no larger than a child’s palm moved over a wall, taking it apart in some fashion. A few of the light motes chased the tiny machines around. The floating runes in the wall had fled away from the open part, crowding near the edges.
“We just need to be here,” said Kwan. “Find me a wrench, will you?”
Ajax dug through the toolbox he found half-buried in the cart. “So what’s this I heard about a possible breach? The Tower is like a castle, right? How could some wild animals break through it?”
“Really good engineering.” Kwan opened up a motor casing, then glanced up. “That’s not a joke. A long time ago, the wildlife in the land outside the Tower was heavily engineered towards assaulting the Tower.”
“Uh, and who did that?”
“The other Towers.” He grinned humorlessly. “Oh yes. There’s other Towers.”
“With other Kentigerns?”
“With other guiding minds, at least. Tower ghosts. There’s only one Kentigern. The other minds are barely aware these days, but at one point I understand they were wildly aggressive. A little screwdriver, please.”
Ajax found the screwdriver, then watched the machines on the wall, taking apart a square of casing down to a particulate level. “So… why?” One of the machines attacked the edge of the opening, where some of the glyphs clustered. For a moment, one of the symbols was caught, but with a struggle, it broke away and sunk out of sight behind the others.
“Why were they aggressive?” Kwan looked up again. “The Towers outlasted their creators, maybe by millions of years. And they had a mission. I think eventually they got a little confused about what their mission was.” His gaze went to the little machines. Three of them welded themselves together, and rolled out to the middle of the hall, then all of the machines stopped moving.
“Kentigern,” said Kwan gently. “What’s wrong?”
“Why bother?” said Kentigern. Then the machines on the wall jerked into movement again. “I’m sorry, that was a mistake. Where’s Lailoken?” The voice switched to a different language, liquid and beautiful, rattling off another question. Then, after a moment, Kentigern began to sing, a sad song in a liquid language that was like nothing Ajax had heard before.
The triple machine in the center of the hall started to roll down the hall. “Catch it,” said Kwan. Ajax took three long strides after it, but it stopped when it bumped up against Seth’s foot as he appeared at the corner down the hall. “Where are you going, little piece?” Seth asked.
It squeaked something at him, and Seth nudged it. “No, we’re not the invaders. Go back to work.” He kicked it gently, turning it around, then watched as it rolled back to its companions.
“Kentigern’s confused enough to think we’re unwelcome? That’s kind of… terrifying.” said Ajax.
“He’s reliving an old war,” said Seth. “And opening parts of his outer curtain voluntarily, I think. It’s a battlefield over there.”
“I can hear you!” announced Kentigern. “You know the other Towers are going to attack. You were just talking about it.”
“Well, it’s good to be aware,” said Seth, deadpan. “Hey, Rose, Kotone. Jolie.” Three girls strolled down the hall, dressed for a war. Ajax was pretty sure the older two were assigned Nightlights; he’d seen them with Natalie a couple of times. The younger girl was around his age, and he’d noticed her in class a couple times when she hung out with Elian and Rohan.
As soon as the girls had greeted Seth, he returned his attention to Ajax, his usual insolent smile back in place. “So what are you doing here, big guy? Training to be a Reader after all? Too scared to go fight?”
Ajax took a long step and pushed Seth into the wall. “You’ve got to find a safer form of entertainment, little brother.”
Rose said, “Oh, that’s not likely. You’ve got to learn to not take Seth seriously, and then he gets bored.” Ajax released Seth as Rose looked him up and down. “As for you, you need to relax. Why don’t you come with us? We’re going to go take out some trash.”
Kotone, who was carrying what looked very much like a shotgun, pumped the lever. “We’re going to help Kenny feel better. You do look like you have some energy to burn.”
“Yes, do come with us, Ajax!” said Jolie.
The two older girls were friendly, but the younger girl, Jolie, was giving him the kind of intense inspection that he associated with some of his ex-girlfriends.
“I’d love to but I’m helping Kwan,” Ajax said, refusing to look at Seth. Some things were important, and being called a coward by Seth wasn’t one of them.
“Didn’t you manifest a Stage 2 weapon earlier, when the Cambion came through?” asked Kwan, fitting a set of blades onto a rotor and tightening them down. “You’d probably be useful at the curtain if Kentigern is that stressed.”
“Ooh!” said Jolie, and stalked over, sliding her arm under his. “You have to come. It’s a lot more useful than standing around here.”
“What about Seth?” demanded Ajax. “He’s right here.”
Seth held up his hands. “I’m not supposed to be out. If you’re caught with me, you’ll get in trouble.” He appealed to Kwan. “You didn’t see me, did you?”
Kwan grunted, and turned the fan on. The mist blew away, crowding at the far end of the hall.
“Good!” said Seth. “Off you go, Ajax. It’s time you got to know some girls.”
Illumination 3.5: Avoiding Idle Hands
“No, I don’t want you fighting,” said Doctor Pepperman pleasantly to Natalie, when she asked if she could leave the infirmary. “You’re still recovering. We’re not in desperate straits yet.”
Natalie gave the doctor a belligerent look, but struggled to explain patiently. “Wildlife is breaking through the walls, doctor. And Kentigern is sick. I don’t know how you can consider that not ‘desperate straits’.”
“The exits still work, don’t they? If things get bad enough, we can retreat to Earth. Kentigern survived for millenia without us. I suspect he could sort things out right quickly if he didn’t have to worry about our fragile lives.” Pepperman gave Natalie a look she was all too familiar with, which told her there was no use arguing with him.
“I hate just sitting around in here, especially when other people are working,” she complained.
“Would you rather sit around at home?”
Natalie considered only a moment before shuddering. “At least here I’m aware of what’s going on.” It was true. Even with Kentigern acting strangely, people regularly passed through the infirmary, reporting on the battles at the curtain as they got treatment for minor injuries. Natalie noticed how the doctor let some people who seemed more injured than her go back to the front, while keeping others, like Rohan, behind. It was, she felt, totally unfair of him to use his advanced medical knowledge to control people like that. For their own good, hah!
Doctor Pepperman set aside the tablet he’d been working on and gave her another look. “If you really want to do something, you could be my gopher. All of my people are busy. I know it’s not as prestigious as smacking down a barrus, but it’s just as necessary.”
Natalie gave the doctor a wary look. “What do you need?”
“Well, to start with, we need to get some supplies from the medical storeroom.” He pulled out a mini tablet from his desk and synced it with his own tablet, then pushed it across to her. “A list, with photo references. Everything’s sorted by numbered bin.”
“Oh, fine,” Natalie said as she snatched up the list. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”
“Take the lift at the back of the infirmary.” Doctor Pepperman pointed it out to her, then went to answer one of his assistant’s calls.
The upper level of the infirmary was a gallery that opened onto the storage level. She recognized the honeycombed rooms and the irising doors, although this area was far from the general storage she was more familiar with. She peeked in a few doors, coming across several rooms covered with large pieces of equipment hidden under sheets. She peeked under a few of the sheets and some of the equipment seemed positively medieval.
One of the rooms seemed to be a full operating theater, and Natalie vaguely recalled that Kentigern could move the chambers around when required, lowering them into pockets specially crafted to receive the modular rooms. There was a similar pocket in the center of the school wing that they used sometimes.
Eventually, she found the storeroom with the bins that matched the numbers on her tablet. It was full of not just medications and bandages and salves, but tiny metal tools and chilly temperature-controlled cases, all mysterious to her. But there was a stack of empty bins by the door, so she took one of those and went to work, meticulously comparing the numbers and pictures.
Something clattered outside, and a door whirred. She peeked out the door, remembering the monster that had come to life in the infirmary. There was nothing in the hall, but several of the doors on the other side of the catwalk were open. As she listened, she heard the thunk of metal striking something fleshy, and in the far distance the cry of a belette, one of the more aggressive forms of wildlife. She realized that the storerooms on the other side of the catwalk must be near the outer curtain, although above ground level.
That made the open doors worrying. She put down the bin of medical supplies and crossed to the other side of the gallery. As she approached the open doors, she realized something was dripping from above. At first she thought it was the watery remains of an Awakened, but when she cautiously poked it, it turned out to be much thicker.
The first open room was half-full of white storage crates. Two of them had crumbled, spilling their contents everywhere: a sort of ooze that glittered in a metallic fashion. And the wall between this storeroom and the next had a hole melted in it.
She stooped to step through the hole, and found herself in another room, very like the first except that more of the crates had crumbled. Piles of fabric soaked up the thick fluid. Another hole led to another room, this time from the back of the storeroom. In this room, all of the crates had crumbled, but there was no goo anywhere. Thousands of tiny silvery wrappers spilled out of some of the crumbled crates. And there was yet another hole.
She thought she must be quite near the outer wall now, and wondered if something had burrowed through. Kentigern might be too damaged to notify anybody. She had to find out.
As she stepped into the next room, Kentigern gave a sort of chirrup and the light behind her went out as the one ahead of her failed to turn on. She froze, waiting for the flicker to pass. But it wasn’t a flicker. The storeroom lights behind and ahead of her were gone. She was in total darkness.
As her eyes tried and failed to adjust, she realized the sound of fighting was closer at hand. She ought to turn around and go back, she realized. Moving forward risked falling through the breach she was looking for.
The Prowlers and others fighting at the curtain would have flashlights. Probably she should have found one before going exploring, but she’d never, ever needed one inside the Tower before. The Tower lights were a constant.
She felt cold and depressed. Then she realized she really did feel cold, and that there was a faint glimmer of light ahead.
Very, very carefully, she moved forward. And after a moment, she realized it wasn’t the battle lights from outside. It was the nearly useless glow of a Stage 2 weapon.
“Hello?” she called.
The light turned toward her. “What are you doing here?” said a familiar voice. She could just make out Ajax’s broad shoulders.
“Looking for whatever made these holes. Are Rose and Kotone around here somewhere? Seth stopped by and told me he’d sent you off with them.”
She could hear his scowl. “No. If I’m not going to follow you around, I’m certainly not going to hang out with them.”
Natalie blinked. “What?”
“Uh, nothing. I found this hole and I thought I ought to guard it. There’s an opening to the outside over here. I have no idea why it’s here.”
Natalie tried to focus on what Ajax was saying now, not to puzzle out what he’d said a moment ago. “I think Kentigern’s trying to… build something. Maybe part of fixing himself.”
Ajax smirked. “Yeah? Good trick, if it works.”
“I think,” Natalie decided, “I’d better stay here with you. If it backfires, Kentigern will need our help.”
For a moment, Ajax’s eyes gleamed in the darkness. “Oh, goodie. I should have known.”
This, she did her best to ignore.
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