She didn’t ask for permission, and no one protested her decision, not even the wardens’ governor. Caris stood from the table as Honovi turned to address them. “I’ll get theCelestial Spriteready for launch. We can leave within the hour. Meet us at the hangar once you have everything.”
“I have a few more questions, if the wardens’ governor doesn’t mind,” Blaine said, remaining seated.
Delani waved a hand at him. “We’ll continue.”
Caris figured Delani would be happy to see them gone as much as they would be to leave. She followed Ksenia out of the room and down the hall to where Nathaniel waited at the far end on a bench. He stood when they stepped out of the room, waiting for them to approach.
“We’re leaving the island,” Caris told him.
“So soon?”
“We accomplished what we needed to by coming here, and there is news people must hear.”
Nathaniel offered his arm, and she curled her hand over the bend of his elbow. They followed Ksenia down hallways and stairs toward the exit. The mechanical fans didn’t do much to cool the heavy air inside, and it was almost a relief to leave the building. The sun was past its zenith, sliding into the early afternoon. Their flight west would chase the sun for hours.
“Will every resupply station have the chemicals to make the pain pills?” Caris asked as they walked.
“Caris,” Nathaniel sighed.
“You don’t always have to take them, but I want them to be available when you feel you need to.”
“The smaller resupply stations most likely won’t. You’ll be better off sourcing the medicine from one in a city. Supplies there are more likely to be in stock. The pills only help with the pain, though. As I’ve said before, they aren’t a cure,” Ksenia said.
Nathaniel grimaced. “I know they won’t stop me from being controlled again. Is there anything that could?”
“We need to research the spell construction more. If theKlovodgets his hands on you again, he’d be able to take control. The clarion crystal Caris wears will let her know if the control has returned, so at least your people will have a warning.”
Caris couldn’t stop herself from lifting a hand to touch the slight lump beneath her blouse that was Nathaniel’s ring and several shards of clarion crystal. One was a small oval-cut piece marked with the fractal base pattern of his mind. The pale rose color would bleed red if theKlovod’s control returned. The pendant acted like the tip of a clarion crystal–tipped wand, the focus for the aether-backed magic that Ksenia had performed. It was a different cut from the shard that had been spelled to act like a compass. Nathaniel still didn’t know about that one, hidden in his chest.
“I’ll keep watch,” Caris promised.
She meant it to be comforting, but she knew all the ways that the precautions could be subverted—that Nathaniel could be subverted, as he already had once before.
The entrance to the laboratories was inside a squat building whose thick walls and slanted roof were made of concrete and metal. The lines etched into every available space weren’t images of constellations but precisely laid containment spells meant to hold in all manner of disasters that might befall the laboratories below.
The building was always guarded, both by wardens and by automatons. The bipedal machines with their Zip gun arms recognized Ksenia and didn’t so much as twitch in their direction. The heavy metal door with its wheeled lock wouldn’t be out of place in a bank vault. Few wardens had keys to the entrance, as it was a restricted location, but Ksenia was the warden in charge of the laboratories below. Her key gained them entry into the building, the baked-in heat of the space like an oven.
Caris started to sweat almost immediately, waiting as patiently as she could for Ksenia to open the solid metal door built into the ground. This, like the ones set into the building, was reminiscent of a vault door or, perhaps, the entrance to a bomb shelter. The door, when it broke apart in the middle and rose open on quiet gears, was even thicker than the one leading to the building.
As safety measures went, Caris wasn’t sure if it was to keep people in or out. Considering what was done in the laboratories—tithes made into wardens, dangerous experiments on poison, to say nothing of the revenants that were dissected—she supposed it didn’t matter, so long as the doors could be locked and hold against a threat.
They descended into the laboratories, the air cooling as they went. Ksenia led them to a laboratory whose setup wouldn’t be out of place in an apothecary. The wardens working on mixing chemicals barely looked up at their arrival, each wearing goggles and gloves, though no gas masks. Caris absently touched the gas mask hooked to her corset belt, assuring herself it was still there.
“The chemicals used in the pills have an aether base due to magic, but it won’t interfere with the spells keeping your clockwork heart beating and the self-destruct spell at bay,” Ksenia said.
Ksenia passed over a tin rather than a jar, a multitude of tiny, pale green pills piled inside. Nathaniel took it with fingers that didn’t shake, staring at the warden. Caris so very badly wanted things to be different than they were, but that was an impossible prayer to be answered.
Nathaniel swallowed audibly. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Don’t thank me. What was done to you is an abomination that should not have been created. Consider this an attempt to right a wrong.”
Nathaniel nodded and tucked the tin into his trouser pocket. He opened his mouth, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by a terrible, echoing boom that thrummed through the walls of the underground laboratory. The floor didn’t shake, but Caris instinctively braced herself even as she hunched her shoulders.
“What was that?” Caris asked, looking at the ceiling. “A training class?”
Ksenia stared upward, eyes narrowing, one hand reaching over her shoulder for the poison short sword strapped to her back and the other for the wand at her hip out of what must have been pure reflex. “No. We don’t train with ordnance on the main island.”
Caris sucked in a breath. “Ordnance?”
