Page 117 of Ashes of Gold
“Saisa.” She grips my shoulder.
“Saisa.” I grip hers, too, trying to keep my frazzling nerves calm. If we have to fightagainstall the Yakanna… that could be a big-ass problem. I blow out a breath. One issue at a time.
She shifts on her feet, the location insignia on her armor glowing. “True Yakanna stand with you, Rue.” She sets my hand back on my bare right shoulder. “Remember who we truly are.” She rubs the scars on her arm, her eyes tilting at the corners. “Some of us had almost forgotten,” she says, before running off.
An eeriness keeps me crouched there, still, watching her go. When we ran for our lives, were almost burned alive by those traps, Zora didn’t flinch. A chill skitters up my arm. But here, just now, Zora was utterly terrified.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
BRI IS HUDDLED OVERher bag of gadgets, and there are actual wires coming out of her hair.
“You have a little something.” I point. But she misses the joke, pressing her glasses to her nose. Sweat rolls off her brow, but she catches it with the back of her hand before pressing the thin end of a wire into an open hole in her suction gadget.
“You sure this is gonna work?” I ask.
She chews her lip, unblinking, as she braids three wires and presses them into another end. Her eyes widen and she taps a red button at the top. It lights up, flies from her fingers through the air, and snaps to my wrist with aclink.
“Yes!” she says. “It’s the same technology I used in the HologrifX, from the heat-seeking fire arrows. You remember?”
“We almost died. I definitely remember.”
“I calibrated it to suction to objects imbued with magic.” A piece falls off the top and she pushes it back on. “Your cuffs, for example. The onyx!”
I’d asked her to help me brainstorm some way to collect the onyx quickly. Carving it from their wrists won’t be easy or quick, but once we get it out, we need to hightail it to the grave site.Bri’d mentioned she had an idea that just might work.
I pluck the suction gadget from my wrists and it’s like pulling off a starfish.
“Bri, this is good.”
She holds a matching silver ball with a handle on the end. “And I made two. One for Julius. Just need to add the handle to this one.” She smiles hopefully and I squeeze her shoulder.
“I’ll leave you to it, then. There’s someone I need to speak to.”
But she doesn’t even respond, back to her hyper focus.
If the Chancellor’s coming, he’s going to come at night, I’d bet. To take us unawares. Little does he know, we’ll be ready. I climb up and out of the lair, careful to peek first before coming out aboveground, Zora’s words floating through my memory. The lead is in piles just past the barbed wire, beside the dumpster where we found Doile’s blood. I touch the stone and a chill moves through me, like my fingers have been dipped in ice water. The cold creeps through my bones and my magic quivers as if it can sense the restraint the lead brings. I snatch my finger away and the cold feeling dissolves, magic pooling, warming my fingertip. This won’t be easy.
I flip through a spell book for a stretching spell. The pages crinkle with each turn. How do I work with something so poisonous I can’t touch it? I grab a gray lump from the cart, biting back the discomfort coiling in my chest, and set it on the ground.
“Iwi yaka,” I say, aiming at it. It wiggles, then stills. I step closer and the world threatens to spin. I squat, catching myself with a hand on the pavement. My fingers trace the text in the book and I sound out the words again, straightening my back when I say it. “Iwee yakaz!”
The lead glows, rising in the air. It convulses, stretching, folding over on itself as it widens like dough being kneaded. A chill sweeps toward me and I walk quite a ways back, far enough away from its power to subdue me. It contorts into a thin sheet, about the size of a poster, then eases to the ground.
“Iwee yakaz,” I say again. It pulses but doesn’t move. That’s as big as it’s going to get.
I move closer but its toxicity is magnetic. I give it wider berth, clinging to the warmth that hums inside me. This might just work. I turn over the cart of lead and spread them out, lining them up in neat rows. My arms are heavy and ache from the weight. I try not to touch them too much, fighting off the chill as I spread them out with my fingers. When they’re all laid out, I retreat until they’re very small in the distance.
“Iwee yakaz,” I say, pointing at the first row of chunks of lead, waving my hand in one smooth motion over it. The lead stretches to a plate and I move on to the next. It takes a while, but by the time sweat crawls down my neck, I hold my arm up blocking the sun and it’s done.
I slip back underground, and the corridor is lined with bodies slipping on armor. The Macazi don’t have any traditional armor, but they wear chunks of lead around their necks, dangling from their wrists, as wide circles in their ears. I keep a distance and steady my steps, feeling my magic hesitate the longer I’m near them.
“Joshi,” I say as turquoise sprigs of hair appear on my peripheral. “Go on up and grab those sheets of lead I made. Take a few people with you. They’re heavy. Line them up down here against the walls. Start at the entrance and focus on the common areas.”
“Got it,” Joshi says, snapping a strap across his chest that holds an assortment of knives, which I’d guess are made of lead. “You going to be down here while we do it?”
“Yeah, I’ll have to be.” I shift on my feet. The idea of being down here while the ability to use my magic slips from my fingers frankly scares the shit out of me, but I see no way around it. “Have you seen Taavi?”
“I haven’t. Not since she returned with the lead.”
