Shadows of Asphodel (28 page)

Carol nodded with a grim smile.

“Nearly lost one of our pilots,” she said, “before we figured out why.”

Konstantin clambered onto the trolley and scooted into the cockpit of the automaton.

“That’s why we need Wendel,” he said.

Ardis clomped forward, towering over him, and waited. He fiddled with something inside the second prototype, then crawled back out and leapt down from the trolley. He ran to a workbench and grabbed a notepad and a brass instrument that resembled a pocketwatch, though the dial clearly didn’t measure minutes.

“But now,” he said, “interference will be our friend!”

Konstantin climbed onto the trolley and pried open a panel in the automaton’s chest. He clipped the instrument to a wire inside the hulking machine and stared at the dial. He jotted down notes, his pencil scratching furiously.

“Archmage Carol?” he said. “How far is it to the other end of the laboratory?”

She shrugged. “Two hundred meters, exactly, if you start at that mark on the floor.”

“Exactly?”

Carol laughed. “They didn’t build me a track to test the speed of the automatons, so I measured one out myself.”

Konstantin stared at her like she had given him all his Christmas presents early.

“Perfect!” He pointed at Ardis. “Walk to the other end of the laboratory.”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

Ardis marched down the laboratory. The archmages followed in her footsteps.

“According to my initial reading,” Konstantin said, “we should be looking about seven kilometers southwest of here. So with a baseline this small, our triangulation will be primitive. But it should be better than nothing.”

When they reached the other end of the laboratory, Konstantin halted Ardis.

“Let me take another reading,” he said.

The archmage clipped the pocketwatch lookalike to a wire within the guts of the automaton, took notes on the reading, and then leaned over a table. He scribbled a page of mathematical computations, frowned at the numbers, and scratched his head with his pencil. Carol stood watching with crossed arms.

“Never liked trigonometry,” Konstantin muttered.

Carol leaned over his shoulder. “Need help?”

He curled his arm around the paper and dragged it closer protectively.

“I need a map of Vienna,” he said.

With a bemused smile, Archmage Carol nodded and sprinted away. She returned a few minutes later with a rolled map.

“Thank you,” Konstantin said, and he snatched the map from her.

He spread the map on the table. With his tongue poking from his mouth, he sketched out a few points over the city. He circled one of the points, then lifted the map to show them both. He jabbed the pencil at the map.

“There,” Konstantin said. “South of Vienna, in the town of Liesing.”

Ardis shook her head. “What’s in Liesing?”

“An industrial area.” He frowned. “A lot of factories. Abandoned, under construction. They could be keeping Wendel anywhere.”

Ardis caught his gaze. “Then we should start looking.”

~

Under cover of darkness, they drove from the Academy of Technomancy with a questionably borrowed truck and an even more questionably borrowed automaton. With Konstantin behind the wheel, Ardis sat shotgun with her sword across her knees. She kept glancing in the side mirror at the bulk in the back.

“Are you sure you tied down the tarp?” she said.

“Ardis,” Konstantin said, “for the nth time, I’m sure. They won’t see us coming.”

She clenched her fingers around the scabbard.

“The Grandmaster is meeting with Margareta tonight,” she said. “This is it, Konstantin. We don’t have time for mistakes.”

“I don’t intend to make mistakes.”

“Then you might want to double-check the tarp.”

“Ardis!”

Konstantin looked sideways at her, and she glared at him. He softened his voice.

“We won’t let them take Wendel,” he said.

She stared straight out of the windshield and tried to ignore the stinging in her eyes. Waiting never satisfied her.

“How much farther?” she said.

“Twenty minutes,” he said. “Twenty minutes, and then we can find him.”

She nodded and counted down in silence.

“And remember,” Konstantin said, “be extremely careful with the automaton. We only have two prototypes, and we have to bring this one back in one piece. I don’t want a single dent or scratch on it. Do you swear?”

“I swear,” Ardis said. “I won’t scratch your precious automaton.”

A corner of his mouth tugged into a crooked smile.

They left behind the glittering lights of Vienna and drove through the darkness. Ardis listened to the humming of tires on road and let it lull her into a trance. Her mind circled through the same thoughts again and again.

She had to find him. She had to save him.

Not until now did she realize how much she feared losing him forever.

A hollow hurt lingered inside Ardis. She hugged herself, pretending she was only cold. She waited without speaking until Konstantin pulled into a weed-choked empty lot. Brick factories loomed in the shadows.

“Are we here?” she said.

Konstantin nodded at the truck’s odometer.

“That’s about seven kilometers,” he said.

When he killed the engine, it was deathly quiet, broken only by the sound of rain.

“I need you to pilot the automaton,” he said, “while I take some readings.”

“That’s why I’m here,” she said.

Ardis opened the door of the truck and jumped outside. She grabbed Chun Yi from the seat, gripping the scabbard in her hands, and craned her neck to look at the black sky. Wind scattered rain onto her face.

Konstantin flicked on a flashlight and yanked off the tarp from the automaton.

“Get in,” he said.

She blew out her breath, steaming the air, and climbed into the back of the truck. Hesitating, she handed the archmage Chun Yi. She had been holding it so tight, the scabbard’s sharkskin left its pattern on her hands.

Konstantin held the sword gingerly. “What do you want me to do with this?”

“Hold onto it for me,” she said.

“I could leave it in the truck?”

She shook her head. “We’re not leaving my sword.”

Konstantin sighed, then tucked the scabbard under his arm. He steadied her with a hand on her elbow as she lifted herself into the cockpit of the automaton. She fumbled for the ignition, then turned the key. The automaton hummed to life.

“Good,” Konstantin said. “Let me take the first measurement.”

The archmage opened the front panel of the automaton and hooked up the pocketwatch lookalike. He bent over the dial and rubbed rainwater from the glass with his sleeve, then squinted at whatever the numbers told him.

“Not far from here,” he said.

He unhooked the device and pointed his flashlight about forty-five degrees to their left.

“The interference is strongest that way,” he said, and he waved her onward.

Ardis jumped from the back of the truck and landed in a crouch. She pressed the automaton’s knuckles into the dirt and pushed herself to her feet. The pneumatics of the metal limbs pumped with smooth power.

“Follow me,” Konstantin said.

She lumbered alongside him. The automaton left deep footprints in the dirt as it softened to mud in the rain. They crossed half of the empty lot, and he held up his hand to stop her. He took another reading on the device.

“Turn clockwise. More. Less. Stop.” He unhooked the device. “Walk.”

She did as he said. They walked for a few hundred meters, stopped, took another reading, turned right and kept walking. Rain silvered the air like scratches on glass. Water trickled down the cold metal skin of the automaton.

“Somewhere,” Konstantin murmured. “Wendel has to be here somewhere.”

Ardis scanned their surroundings. The nearest factory looked out at her with shattered and empty windows. Deep within the darkness, a light flickered for no more than a second, then vanished. She froze and stared at the factory. Faded white letters had been painted over the doors, but she struggled to read the German.

“Konstantin,” she said. “Look. I saw a light over there.”

He ran the beam of his flashlight over the lettering.

“
Sargfabrik
,” he read. “Coffin factory.”

They shared a glance, and she felt a slithering of unease.

“It looks abandoned,” he said. “Are you sure you saw a light?”

“Yes,” she said.

Konstantin backed away from the factory and reached into his pocket.

“Let me take another reading,” he said.

She waited for the archmage to do so. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears.

“The interference is off the charts,” he said. “He has to be here.”

“I’m going in.”

She left him behind in three giant steps and stood at the threshold of the factory. A padlocked chain hung across the doors. She wrapped the chain in her metal fist and snapped it like it was no more than a stray thread.

“Ardis!”

Konstantin sounded horrified enough that she glanced back. He stood gawking at her.

“Stop,” he said. “You can’t go in there with the automaton.”

“Isn’t it fully functional?” she said.

“Yes, but it’s only a prototype.”

She paused. “Prototypes are made to be tested.”

He bit his lip and tilted his head.

“We can’t risk it,” he said.

She tried to smile. “I won’t scratch it, I promise.”

“We would jeopardize Project Lazarus.”

“More than we already have?”

He squared his shoulders. “Ardis, get out of the automaton.”

She narrowed her eyes, then unlatched the cockpit door and hopped out of the automaton. The archmage’s sigh clouded the air.

“Give me my sword,” she said.

He held out Chun Yi, and she buckled the scabbard to her waist. He caught her by the wrist and looked into her eyes.

“Don’t,” he said. “We don’t know who’s inside there.”

“We know Wendel might be.”

“We won’t be any help to him dead.”

She stared at the factory doors, zeal burning in her chest, and drew Chun Yi. Flames shivered over the blade and hissed in the rain. Konstantin squinted and retreated from her sword, and Ardis wondered if he mistrusted blood magic.

“If we turn back now,” Ardis said, “we might never find him again.”

“We should assess the situation first,” Konstantin said.

“Fine.” She reached for the broken chain. “Let me start.”

The doors squealed open on rusty hinges, and the mustiness of decay rolled over Ardis. She stepped into the gloom, her legs tense, her arms in a wary fighting stance. The coffin factory’s ceiling, spiderwebbed with mildew, floated high overhead. Decrepit iron machinery hulked like the black bones of giants.

The floorboards creaked under her feet. She glanced at a machine with a press in the shape of a cross. Clearly, the factory hadn’t profited enough from the dead. She wondered if the Order would, once they had their necromancer back under their command. She also wondered how they planned to break him.

If they hadn’t already broken him.

Rain drummed on the roof. She furrowed her brow. That couldn’t be the roof. There should be a second story above them, judging by the number of windows. She found a zigzagging steel staircase and followed it upstairs.

Half of the roof had collapsed. Rain splattered on the floorboards and splintered furniture. There must have once been offices here. The faint glow of distant streetlamps leaked through the jagged chasm in the ceiling. In the shadows beyond, she could barely see the opposite wall and the jumble of dark shapes there.

One of the dark shapes moved.

A small movement, but enough to make her clench her sword. She slid her feet forward, wary of rotten floorboards. Chun Yi burned brightly enough to light her way. Slowly, the darkness yielded to her sword’s fire.

Until she saw who waited for her there.

Wendel slumped against the wall with his hands shackled above him. He lifted his head. Blood stained his mouth and trickled down his jaw. His long hair had been hacked away, and the ragged remnants fell to his chin.

Ardis sucked in her breath, then ran across the rain-streaked darkness.

“Wendel!” she said. “Wendel. I’m here.”

He looked at her, his face tight, and parted his lips. More blood dribbled down his mouth.

She crouched beside him. “Are you alone?”

He shook his head.

Pain glittered in his eyes. No, it wasn’t only pain. Fear. Panic. She swallowed past the fierce ache in her throat and checked his handcuffs. The chain looped through the iron frame of a window with shattered glass.

“Wait here,” she said. “Let me get Konstantin.”

Wendel yanked against his handcuffs. The chain rattled. She looked into his eyes, and she saw his face twist. He shook his head.

The incessant roar of rain filled the silence, broken only by the sound of breathing.

The tiny hairs on Ardis’s arms prickled. When she climbed to her feet, Wendel shook his head, harder, and the muscles in his arms strained. But she wanted to break him free, and she needed the automaton for that.

A floorboard creaked, and armored hands closed around her neck.