Hope in Ruins Book III: The Fountain and the City of Salt

Chapter 5: What the Knife Meant

MICA

Styx's silver airship careened towards the Unseen transport bay doors, and the doors were closing fast. They were going to crash straight into the doors.

But Mica felt the doors. She felt their metal and their energy and their movement. Every cell in her body hummed and sparked as if her very being were on fire and sparking and sizzling.

And she felt the ship.

The moving doors slowed, just for a moment, like mighty hands held the doors open. The doors held still for a breath, but it was just enough time for the ship to tilt on its side and slip between the not quite closed transport bay doors.

Then they were out in the bright and the blue and sky, and the transport bay doors slammed shut behind them.

Sailing high above the clouds, they flew into the light. She shut her eyes against the too-bright sky and tried to catch her breath and slow her heart, but her breath only came in rasping gasps.

"What just happened?" Ben asked. Mica could hear him—no, she could feel him move. She could feel him undo his restraints and stagger up to the co-pilot's seat next to Styx as if he were an extension of her. She could feel Styx's heart pounding a little too hard, straining. She could feel Stephen at her side, his hand on her knee. She could feel them all like she was a part of them. Like they were a part of her.

"Mica. Mica? Are you all right?" Stephen asked, and his words brought her back to herself, and the sensation of connectedness disappeared. She opened her eyes. Stephen was turned towards her, concern pulling at his mouth.

"Yeah. I'm fine," she said. Something dripped onto her hand. Blood. Her nose was bleeding. She pressed her sleeve to her nose. "You all right?"

He nodded and seemed to relax. "Yeah. I'm all right."

Then they sat in silence for a long time. Ben and Styx argued up front, trying to figure out what had happened—why the doors stayed open long enough for their escape, what the sirens and the emergency lockdown and the unauthorized transmission meant. Was the Unseen in danger?

How was that possible?

Mica knew she should have been concerned about the unauthorized transmission and about the emergency lockdown, but all she could think about was that strange fiery feeling she had experienced just before they careened through the bay doors and how she had felt the scrapes and rusted spots on the doors....

But those thoughts soon gave way to finding Anda. As they sailed through the sky, Mica thought about what she would say when they found her, but the words wouldn't come. All she could think of was her mother and her hammer, and Peter's dying breath, and how she would fix everything.

"Hey, you, Seer," Styx said.

Stephen roused himself and lifted his head. "Yeah?"

"What was that emergency lockdown they were talkin' about? They told me to get to some Blind Cavern and said there was an unauthorized transmission?"

Stephen went very still. "Emergency protocol states that if there is ever a chance that the city is compromised, all citizens are required to initiate emergency lockdown and get to the Blind Cavern. They shut the city down. No access in or out. They turn on the Blinds and hide everyone until the threat has been cleared."

"So they think Loraine found the city," Mica said.

"Yes."

"How?"

"I don't know."

A chiming sounded from the cockpit.

"It's from the Unseen," Styx said.