“Prisoner of war?” Dayne asked.

  “Clothes are Guldish,” Nidina said, kneeling down outside the bars beside the corpse, the back of her hand shielding her mouth and nose. “Might be connected to one of our spies though, I guess.”

  “Did we have enough spies here to fill these cages?” Laze asked.

  “Not even close,” Nidina answered.

  “They may have put her in here to hide her with… well… whatever they were keeping in here,” El said.

  “Are we sure she was a spy?” Dayne asked. “She looks young. Maybe a teenager?”

  “None of our spies were that young. They’ve been in place here for years. They’d all be in their thirties, at the youngest,” Nidina said.

  “Child of one of our spies? Maybe they figured out who she was related to,” Laze offered.

  “Or, maybe something else entirely,” El said. “Let’s check another building and see what they’ve got stored in there.” With that, she gave the body on the floor one last look, then retraced her steps to the door.

  Hand on the knob, she paused to listen and feel for the telltale footsteps of the golems. Nothing, so she cracked the door and peered outside. Just a sheet of falling white snow. Was it heavier? Or just her imagination from being inside.

  “C’mon,” she said to the three behind her, doused her light, and slipped outside. Their tracks in the snow were barely visible, the falling snow already filling them in. Looking both ways, she continued along the wall, only quickly checking back to make sure the last one out, Dayne, closed the door behind them. Of course he did.

  El stopped at the corner of the building, eyeing the snow down each of the intersecting streets. Still no sign of any golems. Was the one they saw the only one on patrol? What the Blaze was going on in this city?

  She gestured quickly with her hand, then dashed across the street as best she could in the deep snow. They were going to need to fly at some point, and likely soon. Was she making a mistake by having them go on foot? No, she needed to trust her gut on this. She’d keep them on the ground until they absolutely had to take to the air.

  With the main door of the building on the cross street to her left, that would put the side door straight ahead of her, a mirror to the building they’d just left, and she continued along the wall until she found it. There, she paused and tried the handle while the others caught up. Locked.

  “Laze, if you wouldn’t mind,” El said, and pointed toward the lock.

  “You got it,” Laze said.

  SCHWAAAAaaaaa…

  Like before, the lock melted in a flash, and Laze gently pushed the door in, darkness once again greeting them.

  “Burn it, this one is even worse.” Laze took a step back, her hand reflexively going to her mouth.

  “Ugh,” El said before she could stop herself, the smell like a miasma with physical weight crawling out of the building and settling on them.

  “Do we have to go in there?” Nidina asked.

  “You’re the one who wanted to explore the buildings in the first place,” El said. “Didn’t you say we’d never get another chance like this?”

  “I’ve changed my mind. It won’t matter once we’ve got the Ember anyway,” Nidina replied.

  “Too bad,” El said, and pulled the electrum sheet from her belt, ignited it, and stepped inside.

  She stopped as soon as her light fell on the first cage, and somebody walked into her from behind.

  “What the Blaze, El?” Laze asked, but then her light joined El’s.

  “What’s the hold up?” Nidina asked.

  “Burning burn it,” El said, and walked further inside so the others could join them.

  “These… these can’t be spies. Or even the families of spies,” Nidina said when she and Dayne had come inside, their lights joining El’s and Laze’s on the pile of corpses in the cage.

  El slowly shifted her light up, then to the left. Corpses filled every cage. Hundreds of them.

  Somebody vomited behind her, and her throat reflexively gagged in response. El managed to keep the contents of her stomach down, but all she could do was shake her head at the scene in front of her.

  Long seconds passed as three lights scanned the darkness, and when the fourth finally joined them, El struggled to find her voice. “Cause of death?” she asked, gritted her teeth, and stepped up to the closest cage. Her light fell on the face of a young child, maybe five or six years old, from the size, the skin blue even under the warm light from her hand. A woman’s arms, probably his mother’s, wrapped around his chest and held him close despite her blackened fingers.

  “No obvious wounds,” Dayne said from further down the cage. “They aren’t dressed very warmly, and no blankets of any kind. How cold do you think it is in here?”

  “Below freezing,” Laze said, and rubbed her arm with her free hand. “How strong are the Guldish Sparks?”

  “Weak,” Nidina said. “Controllers have the strongest, but even they’re closer in strength to our groundies than to us. The average person on the street? They might as well be Sparkless when it comes to cold like this.”

  “I can’t even imagine freezing to death,” Laze said.

  “It wouldn’t have been quick, even with their weaker Sparks,” Dayne said. “This many people would’ve huddled together to share body heat. Hours at the least, but more likely days. Very slow. Very… unpleasant.”

  “Do a quick check for survivors,” El said, but nobody moved.

  “El,” Nidina said quietly. “What are we going to do even if we find one? We’re the enemy. We can’t stay here and take care of them, and we certainly can’t take them with us.”

  “If they recognize us,” Dayne added. “You… you know what we’d have to do to protect the mission.”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  El reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. Burn it. “You’re right. Sorry. I just can’t believe this. Are they all Guldish?”

  “Clothes suggest as much,” Nidina said. “I think these might be some of the missing citizens. Definitely not soldiers.”

  “But why was the other one almost empty, when this one is full-to-bursting?” El asked, and scanned her light up and up. Even the higher levels of the cages were full of people, limbs hanging out between bars, bodies crushed underneath each other. Why wouldn’t they have spread them out if the other building was empty and this one was so full?

  “No idea,” Nidina said. “None of this makes sense.”

  “Not at all,” El agreed. “Let’s get back to the source of the flashes and see if they’re connected to however that fortress is being fueled. Focus on getting the Ember and figuring… this… out later.”

  The other three nodded, their faces screaming just how much they wanted out of that building.

  El led them back to the door, once again cracking it and checking outside, then quickly exited.

  “I can’t believe I’m happy to be back in the snow,” Laze said, closing the door behind her.

  “It’s definitely better than in there,” Nidina agreed.

  “Yeah, let’s go find the source of the…” El started, but had to cover her eyes and turn away as the world stained a phosphorous orange while a booming sizzle crescendoed and vanished.

  “Burn it, that’s really, really bright,” Laze said, echoing her earlier complaint while all four of them rubbed their eyes to banish the spots.

  “Means we’re close, though,” El said, and jogged down the street in the direction of the latest flash.

  Two blocks later, she held up a hand to halt the others, then ducked down into the snow. “Do you hear that?”

  “Some kind of… grinding?” Dayne asked. “Like something heavy being dragged.”

  “You’re right,” Laze said. “Put your hand on the road under the snow. You can feel it too.”

  El scooped the snow around her foot, then placed her fingertips on the road like Laze had suggested. Sure enough, the vibrations were unmistakable, but getting weaker. “It’s being dragged away from here,” she said.

  “Should we follow?” Nidina asked.

  “Not yet. Might just be another golem on patrol for all we know. Let’s keep going,” she said, stood, then cautiously continued down the street. “Are we still in the golem forge, Nidina?”

  “Yes,” Nidina answered. “It takes up a full quarter of the city. If any parts of our reports are to be trusted—”

  “Something about that building is different.” Laze pointed ahead and to the right.

  El looked up and down the street, then crossed over to the other side and continued down. When she got to the corner, she peeked around. “You’re right. Some kind of dome. Wait, something’s happening,” she said as the curved roof began to glow. “Cover your eyes!”

  Following her own advice, El turned and crouched down, her arms coming up to shield her face, and she didn’t remove them until the sizzle faded.

  “Seems they’re back at it. Whatever it is,” Nidina said.

  “Let’s get a closer look,” El said. “Keep your eyes open. They’re bound to be soldiers or golems around here.”

  “How about we get off the main street? Take the alleys between the warehouses?” Dayne offered, and El was already nodding along before he finished.

  “Good idea. Golems shouldn’t be able to fit in there.” El doubled back the way they’d come to the first narrow alley. Narrow, that is, compared to the wide streets. It was still a good ten feet wide, but the monstrous golem they’d seen earlier would never be able to fit.

  But would it need to? It could probably just go through the buildings if it wanted to. Best to just not get seen then.

  The snow in the alley was just as deep as the main streets, and the four slogged behind the warehouse to the first cross-alley.

  “Hey, I think I can almost see the where the temple is from here,” Laze said. “Look.”

  El turned where Laze was pointing, and sure enough, she could almost make out hints of the column of sunlight through the falling snow. “One more alley,” El said, then continued behind the next warehouse and turned left at the corner.

  As soon as she could see the ends of the buildings flanking her, she crouched lower in the snow and continued forward like that. It was slower going, but getting spotted now would make everything up to this point a complete waste.

  “There’s that grinding again,” Dayne whispered.

  El didn’t bother responding, reaching the street and hunkering down in the snow to get a good look at the domed building across the way. The other three quickly joined her, and they all crouched there, just their heads above the line of snow.

  “Look, that’s the source of the grinding sound.” Laze pointed down the street to their right where a large golem pulled a wide, flat-bed trailer. “That looks like one of those cannons on the fortress.”

  “This must be where they build them,” Dayne said. “That’s what they’re working on, getting the fortress finished.”

  Must be… but then why was something nagging at the back of El’s mind about the domed building? “Anybody see a way in?”

  “The cannon looks like it came out down that way,” Nidina said.

  “Bound to be guards or golems,” Dayne said. “Look over there.” He pointed the opposite way. “Another door like the ones these warehouses have.”

  “We’ve gotten lucky with… empty… warehouses up to this point. What do you think the odds are this place is also empty?” El asked.

  “Pretty slim,” Dayne replied.

  “But I don’t see another option. We’re going to have to risk it,” El said. “If it comes to a fight, prioritize getting out safely. Meet-point is the roof we observed the fortress from. Just make sure you don’t get followed. Questions?”

  The other three shook their heads.

  Laze drew her electrum hilt, and El led them across the street to the door Dayne had spotted.

  “Make it quick, Laze,” El said. “Nidina, you’ve got point. Dayne, you’re in the rear.”

  “Roger,” they all said, and Laze put her electrum hilt to the lock, but tried the handle first.

  “It’s not locked,” she whispered.

  A trap? No, they couldn’t know about El’s wing. “Go, go,” El said, and Laze stepped to the side while Nidina opened the door and ducked in. El was close on her heels, with Laze and Dayne following.

  The door closed behind them a second later, and the four crouched in the dark room, hands on their electrum hilts, while their eyes adjusted.

  Catwalks stretched above, the area below with them full of twisting pipes and bulky equipment, while a single square of dim light glowed ahead.

  Heavy steps echoed on the metal grating, and El pointed toward the maze-like pipes and squeezed her way in, the others doing the same wherever they could.

  CLUNK. CLUNK. CLUNK. CLUNK.

  El watched as the golem walked right above her. It couldn’t be much bigger than a person, maybe eight feet tall, and wiry, like somebody really athletic. Not like any of the combat golems she’d seen. How many different kinds of constructs had Guld been able to hide from them?

  “Something’s going on in there.” Nidina gestured toward the square of light.

  “Go,” El said simply, and waved to Laze and Dayne to head in that direction.

  Squeezing through the nest of pipes, El got as close as she dared to the square of light and the large room beyond, and settled down to observe. Ahead of her, another of those cannons got pushed into the center of the space.

  That cannon already looks finished. What are they doing with it? Wait, something about this looks… familiar.

  El tore her eyes away from the three-barreled cannon and focused her attention on the room itself. Electrum walls, from the looks of things, but, no, the room didn’t appear square. It was tough to see from where she ducked, so she held up a quick hand to tell the others to stay in place, and dropped to her stomach and belly-crawled forward under the last line of pipes.

  There, that was better. El rolled to her side and peered up into the room. She was right. The room was spherical in shape. Where had she…

  El’s eyes widened. That was it!

  It was just like Felps’s project! Was this the technology they’d stolen?

  KA-CLUNK. KA-CLUNK. WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR.

  El watched as parts of the spherical room’s outer wall began to turn, like rings, with people dangling from wrist manacles rotating out. Within a minute, the wall was full of people squirming from where they hung. Blood dripped down their arms from the tight metal around their wrists, dirty clothes covered emaciated bodies, and weak groans of pain echoed off the walls. There had to be at least a hundred of them. Men, women, children, and the elderly.

  What are they…?

  The electrum wall began to shimmer, tinting the room a faint orange.

  Burn it!

  El flipped over and quickly waved at the others to cover their eyes as the light intensified, already almost blinding.

  With no choice but to hope her friends saw her, El curled up into a ball and stuffed her head as far as it would go into her knees.

  The flash was so bright, it was like it went straight through the back of her head, and the sizzle vibrated her body like an earthquake. But it was over quickly, like the others had been, and El quickly rolled over to see what they’d done to those people.

  But, the people were gone.

  Did they rotate out?

  Movement caught her attention.

  The cannons barrels raised and lowered, shifted left and right, and then, all at once, shuddered and sat still.

  Shuddered, like it was… alive.