Chapter Seven

I’d been doing push-ups in my cell when a guard slapped his baton against the bars.

“Prisoner,” he grunted. “You got visitors.”

I continued my set until I was finished, then I got up and asked, “Who?”

“Two Soldiers and a Lieutenant. Names are Aiden, Benjamin, and Roderick. Permission to let them in?”

Part of me was disappointed that it wasn’t my family. I’d sent them a Letter yesterday. I knew it would’ve been a tight squeeze, but a little bit of hope couldn’t have hurt.

I might’ve only had two days to live.

I needed to tell my parents the truth. That I knew I was alive because of them. That they didn’t have to adopt me. That they didn’t have to do what they did when they found me. That I knew that.

And that I’d do anything to protect them from the truth coming out.

“Yeah,” I panted. Between the beating I took from those gang members and the First Prison’s apparent one-meal-a-day policy, I’d been in better shape.

The guard shuffled away without another word. I stood with my hands on the cell’s bars as I eagerly waited for my friends to appear.

I’d kept to myself in the days since my scuffle with Buzzer and the other criminals. I didn’t realize until now how lonely I’d been.

The guard returned after only a few minutes, and the relief that came over me at the sight of Aiden, Benjamin, and Roderick felt like a warm shower after a day in the wintry outdoors. Unlike last time I saw Roderick, today he looked like his usual cheery self. My friends, too, seemed upbeat.

“Hey,” I said flatly.

“What happened to your face?” Aiden asked. She tried to put her hand on mine, but the guard intervened.

As my three friends came to stand on just the other side of my cell, Roderick turned to the guard. “Please give us some privacy.”

The guard eyed my commander but ultimately acquiesced.

“Is it always so dark in here?” Benjamin asked me.

“You get used to it,” I said. “I can still see your ugly mug.” I turned to Aiden, who was looking at me with that tedious maternal concern of hers. I pointed to the bruise on my face. “It’s nothing. I got into it with a few of the prisoners. We’re good now.”

“Oh, Wyatt,” she bemoaned. “Well, we have good news.”

“Tell me you found out who really did it.”

“Not yet,” Roderick admitted. “But you weren’t lying about the hooded man at the bar. We think we know who it is.”

“Lying?” I spat.

“Hey,” my Lieutenant said forcefully. “What did I tell you? Relax, Wyatt. We’re trying to help you.”

My stomach growled, and I gripped the prison bars more tightly. “I’m not your Soldier anymore, Roderick. What’s the good news?”

“Don’t be so quick on that,” Roderick said. “You’re not quite kicked out of the Military. At least not yet. The good news is that you’re out of here. Aiden found a loophole in the original Law they charged you with. You’re accused of violating a different Law now—plain old homicide of four people. Well, three people and a Wolf.”

“You’re joking.”

“Seriously.”

I turned to Aiden and forced a smile. “Thank you, Aiden. You’re a goddamn wizard.”

After Roderick caught me up on Aiden’s scheme, my hands dropped from the bars. “Wow,” I muttered. “And that worked?”

“Don’t be so surprised,” Roderick said. “After the week you’ve had, I think you were due for some good luck.”

I shook my head. “I guess, but…I mean, I’ve never been much for politics. Always struck me as too many games for too little meat. I figured killing Creatures was more…immediate. Aiden…thank you, again. This is unbelievable.”

She smiled at me, humble but prideful. Good. I wanted Aiden to know how strong she was. She never seemed to recognize her own gifts.

“After the Assemblage, Maura took it upon herself to find Bogg,” Roderick continued. “He’s sticking around Polygon. Looks like his deal with the Assembly to sell his technology is still on the table. Anyway, Bogg decided your fate should be decided by the Mind of the Builder.”

I thought of Kara and her talk of the Great Builder. “More of this. Great. What’s the Mind?”

“Not ‘what’. ‘Who’. He’s their top dog. We have an Assembly, they have a religious order. We have a Ruler, they have a Mind of the Builder.”

I scoffed. “So my life is being put in the hands of some superstitious demagogue?”

“It’s better than certain death,” Roderick countered. “You can still come out of this. Maura tells me they don’t have Laws quite like we do. It’ll be up to the Mind and his coterie what to do with you.”

“Of course those animals don’t have Laws,” I muttered, but nodded in understanding. “So Bogg agreed to have me put on trial in front of their priest. Did he say when?”

“As soon as possible,” Roderick answered. “And we have to oblige him.”

Memory of Bogg’s tortured face flashed in my mind. “Did you see him?”

My Lieutenant shook his head. “I didn’t, no. Not since you did.”

“Right. He was just so…I don’t know anything about Wolves, but I know Bogg wants me dead.”

“It’s out of his hands, Wyatt. His feelings about you don’t matter anymore. Count yourself lucky that Aiden’s plan worked.”

I nodded. “I know. And I do. But there’s gotta be something else I can do.”

Roderick reached out a hand and placed it on mine. It felt warm.

Or maybe, in my hunger, I’d grown used to being cold.

“Wyatt, I know you. I know you didn’t become a Soldier so you could sit on your ass and watch your life happen in front of you. But you need to tread carefully, now. This isn’t the battlefield.”

“Isn’t it?” I seethed. “Someone set me up to be slaughtered.”

“And we’re on it, kid. Did you know the hooded man had a Silver Ring on, back at No Rules?”

I thought back but drew a blank. “No, I didn’t. I was focused on Kara at the time. Dammit, I was so distracted.”

“Hey,” Benjamin said sternly, and stepped directly into my line-of-sight. “Quit beating yourself up. You’ve got us, man. We won’t let you die.”

“I appreciate that, I really do. But you can’t control what happens to me when I get to the Wolves’ territory. There, I will be alone.” I turned back to Roderick. “I don’t suppose I’ll get my hammer back?”

He shook his head but looked at me with something bordering on confidence. “Sorry, Soldier. You might not be booted from the Military, but your status is purgatorial for the time being. In any case, I don’t think you’ll be able to smash your way through this.”

I nodded. “Thank you…sir. Thank you all. I know I’m a little on edge, but I owe you all my life.”

Benjamin put his hands over his heart and dramatically dropped his jaw. “That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard you say. Whoever hit your head must’ve knocked a screw loose.”

“Shut up.”

“Who did hit you, Wyatt?” Aiden asked again.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I sighed. We had more important things to discuss, but I knew she wouldn’t let it go until I assuaged her concerns. “No one important. Just a few gang members. Two Waywards and a Hurricane.”

The three of them shared puzzled glances.

“What?”

“Did you happen to catch the name of the Hurricane?” Roderick asked.

“No, not really. Inmates don’t really use their real names in here. But he went by ‘Fin’. Why?”

Roderick shook his head. “If he’s a higher-up in the organization, I’ll bet he goes by ‘Fin’ outside prison, too.”

I frowned. “What does this have to do with anything?”

“Getting there,” Roderick replied cheerfully. “After we spoke with Captain Maura about Aiden’s plan, we headed to the Capital Library. I figured we could check the Records for who’s earned a Silver Ring and compare that with who’d been in the Capital the night of the murders. It wasn’t hard—apparently only thirty-eight people wear them in all of Polygon. Of those, eleven are Assemblymen, four of whom were at Bogg’s welcome ceremony. Maura and I spent the next day speaking with three of them.”

“Captain Maura’s helping?” I asked skeptically. “She seemed eager to throw me under the jail last time I saw her.”

“She wants nothing more than to uphold the Laws and keep the peace. Aiden offered a way to do both and give you a chance to survive this, so Maura agreed to work with us. She might not show it, Wyatt, but our Captain has your back. You are, after all, within her chain of command. Your guilt would reflect poorly on her.”

“But she’d sacrifice me at the altar of the Law,” I said quietly. I wanted to be angry, but I had to acknowledge that I agreed with the Captain’s philosophy. And I couldn’t afford to take anything personally, especially now that my friends had figured out a way to get the woman on my side. “It’s fine,” I added. “Forget I said anything. You questioned them?”

Roderick nodded. “They all had alibis. Maura’s looking to confirm them as we speak. It’s why she’s not here, actually.”

“Good. What about the fourth Assemblyman?”

“His name is Jared. Unlike the others, he wasn’t at his Capital office. And since he’s a Junior Assemblyman, he was only here for a few days. Now he’s back in his City. But I’m pretty sure he’s our guy.”

“Why’s that?”

“Two reasons. One, everyone else we questioned was a woman. From what I understand, the hood at the bar had a man’s build. I didn’t even want to bother interrogating the others, but Maura insisted. And two, he missed the latest Assemblage. As a Junior Assemblyman, he’s allowed by Law to do that, but it’s suspicious.”

“We reviewed all of their Records,” Aiden added. “And Jared’s was by far the most interesting.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked. For the first time in a while, I felt hopeful. “Any criminal history?”

“Yes, but it’s more complicated than that. Wyatt, are you sure it was a Hurricane gang member who assaulted you?”

“That’s what he said, at least. And he had their tattoo.” After a brief pause, I added, “For the record, it was three-on-one.”

“Jared used to be a Hurricane,” Roderick said. “You know that the Ruler awards a Silver Ring to person a year, typically given to someone who acted heroically in defense of Polygon. According to the Records we read, six years ago, the Military caught Jared in black market trading. Apparently, he made a deal with the Assembly. He’d continue to work with the Hurricanes as a double agent, and in return, he’d have his criminal Record expunged. This went on for a couple years, and Jared helped get plenty of his former buddies tossed in prison. Apparently the gang found out the truth after a year or so.”

I thought of Fin standing over me in the prison yard as the other goons held me down. Had Jared put him there?

“Judging from personal experience,” I said, “they don’t seem like the type to just let a rat go.”

“The Records don’t say exactly how it happened, but Jared managed to kill a few Hurricanes on his way out. By the time his cover was blown, he’d done enough damage that the gang’s activities were diminished by ‘an order of magnitude’. Letters were sent out about what Jared had done, and he became something of a hometown hero in Mass City. He won a Silver Ring and ran for an Assembly chair in short order.”

“So he does have a dirty history,” I said, and I laughed with manic joy. “You found him. The hood. And he’s killed people!”

“In self-defense,” Aiden clarified. “We don’t actually know the extent of what he did when he was a Hurricane.”

“But you’ll be damn sure we’re gonna find out,” Benjamin added.

“Maura thinks we should be careful,” Roderick said. “We have the element of surprise on our side.”

“But I don’t have time on my side,” I responded.

“We have a plan,” Aiden said. “He’s married to a woman named Poppy. She’s a Philosopher of Knowledge. We’re going to talk to her first and see if we can learn anything useful.”

“She’ll just tell Jared you’re poking around.”

“If she does,” Roderick answered, “we’ll make sure it’s not before we confront him.”

“What about the Hurricanes?” I asked. “Maybe they know something about him.”

“Already on it. It might be tricky to track one of them down in Mass City, but we know they have a presence there. I’m going to ask around once we arrive.”

I nodded and pounded a fist into my open hand. Despite my empty stomach, despite my battered body, I suddenly felt alive.

Screw Kara. Screw Buzzer, Chopper, and Fin. Screw the Wolves’ weird religious mania. Screw Jared. Screw whoever was behind this madness.

My friends had my back, and that was enough.

It had to be.

“You’re good people,” I whispered. “I don’t know what to say.”

“There’s more you should know,” Roderick said. “Bogg has already spoken with his people. They’re expecting you. And he’ll keep them posted if we find proof that someone else killed his daughter.”

I frowned. “He sent them a Letter?”

Roderick shook his head. “They use what they call ‘communicators,’ apparently. Instant communication across the continent. Go figure.”

Wolves have engineered some of the most astonishing creations, I remembered Clovis saying at Bogg’s welcome ceremony.

Such a savage people with such ridiculous beliefs. And yet…

“So what now?” I asked.

“Letters went out today to every Delivery Node in Polygon, explaining what happened to Kara and your punishment. Maura’s officially put me in charge of the investigation, which was left out of the Letters, for obvious reasons. These two have notified their Lieutenants that they’re using their time off for the next several days, so they’ll be coming with me. We’ve already sent a Letter to Mass City’s Fortress to expect us.”

“I guess Maura’s staying here,” I said somewhat disappointedly.

“She’s a busy woman,” Roderick responded. “She has other responsibilities. But I’ll be corresponding with her as often as I can.”

“That’s too bad. Her Godlet would’ve been useful.”

“We can take care of ourselves,” Benjamin added with a cocky grin. “I’m a good shot.”

Roderick put an arm around my friend. “He’s not the only one. Besides, if we’re careful, there won’t be any violence.”

I pointed at my face. “Let me know how that goes.”

My Lieutenant snorted. “It’s good to hear you joke again, Wyatt. Just tread carefully with the Wolves. Prudence is your friend.”

“Got it, Dad.”

“We’re leaving for Mass City tomorrow. The Train ride is a little long, since the city’s all the way out west, by the Ocean. But it won’t be long until we’re chatting with Jared’s wife.”

“If she’s at the Academy,” Aiden added.

“Such a downer,” Benjamin muttered. “Relax, Aiden. There’s no reason a Philosopher wouldn’t be there.”

“Aiden has a point,” I said. “And you do, too, Lieutenant, about being careful. Things have been weird. We don’t know who we’re really dealing with, or what’s going on. Don’t assume anything.”

“Caution, coming from you?” Roderick teased. “You do listen.”

I thought of everything I hadn’t told my friends about the last few days, but I just nodded silently at my commander.

“The Wolves are going to send an airship to Polygon sometime in the next few days,” Roderick continued. “It’ll land just outside the Capital. Someone will come to escort you there.”

My mindset shifted as his words reified what was about to happen. I was no longer a lamb to be slaughtered, and that was certainly a good start. But I was about to be sent to an alien world, surrounded by a people I didn’t trust or understand. Hell, just the idea of entering a vehicle that flew through the sky terrified me.

“I haven’t seen my family,” I said quietly. “What if…” I bowed my head as my vision blurred. “If I don’t…if I don’t come back, please tell them that I love them. And that everything I did, I did for them.”

“You’re coming back,” Benjamin asserted. I looked up to see his eyes narrowed and his oversized jaw locked in place.

“Promise me you’ll tell them.”

My best friend’s face softened. “Alright. I promise.”

“Thank you,” I managed to whisper, despite the lump in my throat.

“We’re going to go now,” Roderick said delicately. “Is there anything else you want to ask, Wyatt?”

I shook my head. “I’d thank you again, but I’m worried they’d arrest Benjamin for assaulting me.”

Roderick smiled and put his hand out. I glanced at the shadow of the guard on the far side of the dungeon and then back at my commander.

I met his grip with my own.

And my friends left to prove my innocence.

I shuffled back to the only furniture in my little cage. I plopped down on my unkept bed and sprawled my limbs.

Aiden saved me once already. And now my friends were off to the western end of Polygon, where the shores kissed the boundary of civilization. I was excited twice over—once for escaping government-sanctioned decapitation, and once more for the hope that my friends could somehow prove that Jared—or anyone else—was responsible for the horror show at the hotel.

And I was terrified of what came next.

And I hadn’t seen my parents.

The emotions were just too much. My eyes exploded as tears flowed eagerly down my sunken cheeks.

I don’t know how long I lied there, whimpering and crying with an overheated heart.

I kept my head down the next two days, trying my best not to obsessively anticipate.

“Wyatt,” a commanding, if slightly contemptuous, voice said.

I approached the bars of my cell. On the other side stood a short, stocky man in a blue-and-white three-piece suit. He eyed me up and down with a snarled lip, and I straightened my back as I saw the pin of an Assemblyman on his lapel.

“You,” he said to the nearest guard, “let this boy out. He’s coming with me.”

I heard the click of a button being pressed, and the bars slid downward in uniform, mechanical fashion until my cell was open to the rest of the bleak prison.

“Bind him,” the Assemblyman commanded, never taking his eyes off me.

The handcuffs grated against my wrists, but I kept silent.

Roderick would’ve been proud.

“The Wolves have arrived to take you away,” he said to me. “Let’s go.”