Sky Raiders (44 page)

“She can free me from you,” fake Mira said. “That’s all she wants.”

Mira emphasized her next words. “What if she just wants you free from me so she can take control of you?”

Cole thought Quima looked like she was trying to act unflustered.

Fake Mira glanced at Quima with a hint of suspicion.

“You’re on to something,” Liam encouraged. “Keep going.”

“Hmmm,” Mira continued. “Why would Quima care about helping pure shaping power find freedom as a semblance? It isn’t her power. She would have no reason to feel attached. Why mother it? Guide it? What would be in it for her? Not much. Unless the goal was to trick it. Maybe she was partners with whoever stole it in the first place. Maybe the whole plan was for her to take control of it.”

Fake Mira stepped close to Mira and put a hand on her shoulder. “Drop it. If it’s a trick, it worked. I’d rather be with her than with you. My choice will never change. I don’t care if you think I have no identity. I’m content with who I
am. So is Quima. If you refuse to set me free, I’ll do whatever it takes to change your mind. Stop clinging to me. I’m not yours anymore. Let me go.”

Cole could tell that the conversation was unraveling and that it wasn’t going to go their way. What was their next move? How could they fight something so huge?

“Quima holds the reins,” Liam said, his voice urgent and hushed. “She has Carnag’s mind. But the substance of Carnag belongs to you, Mira. At some level, she knows that. You keep soaking up energy.”

“You get that Quima could have shaped you to feel this way,” Mira said, her tone resigned to failure. “You get that you’re probably only feeling what she planted with her shapecraft. You’re not making choices. You’re reacting as designed. She probably started molding you the second you were on your own.”

“Enough,” Quima said. “Don’t be selfish. I can end this right now. Give me your permission, and I will free you and Miracle from each other.”

“I’ll die first,” Mira insisted.

Mira’s fake father stepped out of the wall behind Jace and held a knife to his throat. “She doesn’t worry about herself,” the tethered semblance said. “How much do you care about your friends, Mira? Those abilities you lost haven’t belonged to you for most of your life. Let them go, and you and your friends will live.”

“What about not killing?” Mira cried.

“I never had enough motivation to take a life,” fake Mira said. “You told me I inherited that trait from you. I may have
been wrong to resist Quima on that point. My hesitation must have been you talking. Fortunately, I have the power to change.”

“Don’t give in,” Jace said.

“If she doesn’t, you’ll die, and I’ll move on to the next one,” her fake father said. “It won’t end with your friends, Mira. One by one, innocent after innocent, we’ll apply the needed pressure. You have until I reach five. One.”

“I can’t open up Carnag,” Liam said. “I’m trying to tunnel in, but she won’t let me.”

“Two.”

“How did she improve so fast?” Liam lamented. “I can’t even make a dent now. She adapts so quickly!”

“Three.”

Cole didn’t know what to do. If he attacked the semblance of Mira’s father, the fake king might slash Jace’s throat immediately. Who knew how else Carnag might attack? After all, they were inside of it.

“Four.”

“You want to hurt my friends?” Mira asked. “You want to cross that line? You asked for it.”

She pointed at the tendril tethering her fake father to the wall. Part of the tendril disappeared, and her fake father immediately dissolved, sword and all.

Mira extended her palm and a tunnel opened straight to the outside. “Jump!” Mira yelled.

Cole didn’t have to be told twice. He raced into the tunnel and held out his sword. Once he could see the ground, he pointed at it, shouted the command word, and sprang.

Looking back as he fell, Cole saw Twitch leap into the air as well. Next came Jace, one arm around Mira, the golden rope now holding Quima. All three flew out of Carnag together.

As Cole plummeted, he watched Liam swoop down to help. In midair, Jace let Liam take Mira. She made his disk wobbly, and he curved away in a rapid descent. Carnag reached out a hand and caught Quima.

Sensing the ground approaching, Cole turned to watch his landing. After rolling to a stop, he saw Jace cushion his landing by coiling the rope beneath him like a spring. The rope was no longer connected to Quima, leaving her to Carnag.

Liam and Mira landed roughly, the disk rolling away from their point of impact after the wipeout. Dust plumed into the air.

“Are you all right?” Cole asked.

“Alive,” Liam said. “My disk really wasn’t made for two people.” He was already running to retrieve it.

“How dare you?” Carnag bellowed. A huge hand reached for Mira. As it got close, Mira waved her arm and the hand vanished. Released from Carnag’s grasp, the Shaper’s Flail fell to the ground.

“Back off!” Mira yelled.

“She’s taking your energy!” Quima shrieked. “She’s using your own power against you!”

“My power!” Mira corrected.

The hand holding Quima disappeared, and the woman plunged downward, skirt flapping. A new hand formed just in time to catch her. Instead of lifting her up again, Carnag set her down.

“Contain Mira!” Quima screamed. “They want to destroy us! Stop them all!”

A cage appeared around Cole, the bars sprouting up out of the ground and connecting overhead. Through the thick bars, Cole saw Mira and Jace trapped inside similar cages not far away. Mira was chained and gagged. Twitch and Liam remained free, both of them airborne.

“Can you shape away the bars?” Liam asked.

Mira shook her head and gave a muffled, “No.”

“Carnag herself must be more vulnerable to you,” Liam realized. “The separate objects that she shapes are more removed from your influence.”

Carnag stomped over to stand before Mira. A tendril slithered forward from one foot, and the fake Mira blossomed up from the ground at the end of the tether. She stormed forward angrily, stopping just outside Mira’s cage.

“Now you’ve done it,” fake Mira said. “Now I’m furious. You’re going to free me from you, or I’m pounding all of you flat. Your friends first, Mira, then you, no matter what it does to me.”

Mira gave an unintelligible response.

Fake Mira waved a hand, and the gag disappeared.

“Flail, attack Quima!” Mira shouted.

The flail zipped toward where the dark-haired woman stood, still looking flustered from her near-fatal fall. When Carnag lunged to defend Quima from the flail, Mira yelled a different command.

“Flail, attack me!”

The flail boomeranged around toward Mira’s cage.

Barely recovering from the lunge, Carnag dove, grabbing the flail just before it collided with the thick bars.

Fake Mira waved a hand, and Mira was gagged again.

Carnag slowly stood up.

Cole craned his neck back to gaze up at the giant. She was so big! It was weird to think that something so enormous could come from Mira. According to Liam, the part that truly came from her wanted to return. Carnag was colossal and terrifying, but in the end, according to Mira, she was just a semblance.

Cole fingered his shawl. Would it have a chance of influencing something so powerful? Could he put it on something so huge?

“You’re willing to die,” fake Mira said. “And you’re willing to get your friends killed. So let’s demonstrate the result of your choices.” She pointed at Jace. “Father tried to deal with that one. How about him first?”

“Get me out,” Cole whispered. “Open my cage.”

“I’m not sure I can,” Liam said. “Even with Carnag’s attention elsewhere, it’d stretch me to my limits.”

“You have to,” Cole said. “I have an idea.”

“That’s more than I’ve got,” Liam admitted.

Two bars on Cole’s cage disappeared. Liam lurched in the sky, almost falling from his disk, but he managed to right himself.

Racing from his cage, Cole dashed toward fake Mira. She was facing away from him, her attention on Jace. Carnag tromped over to that cage and raised a foot above it.

“Last chance,” fake Mira warned.

“Don’t give in,” Jace demanded bravely.

Running hard, Cole unclasped the shawl. Quima watched Jace’s cage. So did Mira. So did fake Mira.

“Mmmmphf,” Mira said, pointing at her gag.

“Fine,” fake Mira said. “Last chance. But if I don’t like what you have to say . . .”

She waved a hand and the gag vanished again.

Cole reached fake Mira and wrapped the shawl around her shoulders from behind hurriedly, clasping it with nervous fingers. Fake Mira looked over her shoulder at him, her expression perplexed.

“Okay, Miracle,” Cole said. “I need you to lie down.”

Miracle immediately squatted and stretched out on the ground.

Heart hammering from his sprint and his desperation, Cole stared in stunned relief. He could hardly believe it was working! Not wanting to lose momentum, and trying to sound casual, he continued, “Carnag needs to carefully step back.”

Carnag took a step away from Jace’s cage.

Quima rushed at Cole, her eyes brimming with rage. Twitch slammed into her from behind, both of them tumbling to the ground. Liam landed nearby, waved a hand, and ropes bound Quima. A gag covered her mouth. Eyes bulging, Quima jackknifed frantically.

“Miracle,” Cole said kindly. “All of Carnag should lie down. Gently, though.”

The giant mishmash of objects and substances crouched down, then spread out on the field on its back. The people inside the cages clung to the bars as their floors became walls.

“Very good,” Cole said. “Now open a way out for the captives. Once they’re clear, I’m going to ask you to part yourself from that big body. You’ll cut that little cord that connects you to all that junk and just be our size.”

Before he had finished talking, Carnag’s cages dissolved. Jace’s cage evaporated. Mira’s cage disintegrated as well, and her chains fell away. On the ground nearby, Quima squirmed, desperately trying to make her stifled protests heard.

Eyes shining, Mira hurried over to Cole. “You can get up now, Miracle,” Cole instructed. “Just your normal-size self. Let the big Carnag part of you stay on the ground.”

With the tendril still in her back, fake Mira got to her feet. Legionnaires and other prisoners poured out of Carnag.

“Everybody out!” Cole called. “Everyone back away!” He watched to make sure the cells were empty.

“Looks good,” Liam said.

“Go ahead and disconnect from that big body,” Cole suggested.

There was a pause, and fake Mira’s lip twitched upward in a sneer. Then the tendril fell from fake Mira’s back.

“The cloak is smoking,” Twitch whispered.

He was right. Wisps of steam or smoke were rising from the shawl. Cole stood near enough to feel the heat. Despite this, fake Mira showed no discomfort. In fact, she looked serene.

“Miracle,” Cole said hurriedly. “Your power actually belongs to Mira. The real Miracle. It needs to return to her. Give Mira her powers back.”

“Oh wow,” Mira said, her voice choked with emotion. “It’s coming fast. I can feel it.”

Fake Mira pivoted to face the real one. Anger ignited in fake Mira’s eyes. Then her face contorted in hate, and her body quivered. The shawl smoked heavily and burst into flames.

“How dare you!” the fake Mira screamed, wheeling on Cole, her gaze promising murder.

With a wave of her hand, Mira sent the flaming shawl fluttering off to one side. “Miracle!” Mira commanded, her eyes intense. “Don’t blame him. I think you’re just angry with yourself.”

Baring her teeth in a sneering grimace, fake Mira turned and charged the real one. Mira held up a hand, and fake Mira stopped short and started floating a little, her arms and legs spreading unnaturally wide. Mira glared at her duplicate, jaw clenched, sweat beading on her brow.

“What are you doing?” fake Mira asked, her voice strained.

“Taking what’s mine,” Mira said. She spread her hands apart, and fake Mira tore in half with a burst of light. When the flash was gone, so was all evidence of Mira’s semblance.

34

M
ira dropped to her knees. She stared at Cole with wide eyes.