Chapter 2

Something’s going on downstairs, Mica can hear her brother say something but she can’t tell what. They’re all too far away from the monitor. If only she could get closer to hear better.

“Why are you here?” Ollie’s voice asks, raising his voice.

Who? Mica snatches up the monitor and puts it to her ear, her curiosity getting the better of her. Then she closes her eyes, pained. She could have just moved the damn thing from the beginning. She rolls her eyes and blames both of them for her exaggerated care. They take special joy in destroying her soul. Mica mouths several curses but they soon peter out. She has some listening to do.

“Well, that is an interesting way to speak to your chieftain,” a male voice says.

Is that…Ilixo? He’s the chieftain of the region and he’s a pretty big deal. According to Randy, nobody saw a white man from the settlers win the trials, but he did. He is still unbeaten almost a century and a half later. He used to be a magnet mage, the kind that creates the power sources that attract magic and power everything around them, but then he thought he’d be better as a leader.

Randy, she can tell, has always been a little jealous. His skill is in influencing magic so he could direct and repair the machines, power sources included. He can’t make them from scratch so he has always considered it as a personal insult that somebody can wield that sort of power and let it go to be chieftain.

But Ginnie also said that Ilixo wasn’t as all-powerful as he seemed. Apparently, she knew—probably heard her parents talking, that’s how she had all her opinions—that he was barely hanging on. Nobody seems to like him and there had been many betrayals over the years, from what Ginnie said, but Mica could never trust Ginnie.

What was Ilixo doing in Mica’s home?

“Chieftain,” Wes says cheerfully. “Would you like something to drink? Tea? Ale?”

“See, demon?” Ilixo has a cruel, mocking voice. And who’s he calling demon anyway? “That is the proper way of addressing your superior.”

“I had a contract, I fulfilled it. We’re done,” Ollie answers in a cold voice. “That means you leave us alone.”

“Hm, what an interesting way of looking at it,” Ilixo sneers. “Na?ve, to be sure. But interesting.” There’s a pause and then, “The ale, if you please.”

Her brother’s voice is strained. “Certainly,” Wes says.

“I will not hesitate to—”

But Mica never finds out what Ollie will do because he’s neatly overridden by Ilixo, “There are people who will find out where I am if I disappear. People who may not like me, but they do not like a demon either. What makes you think I will hesitate to bring attention to your little…” A pause. “Family, is it?”

A growl, surprisingly animalistic. Wes, then. His is a skill meant solely for the growing things. It means that it has kept him young, but he can’t influence mechanicals. He is, however, known for getting along great with animals, even clockwork ones seem to like him a lot, and with time he’s borrowed small things from their behavior.

Ollie speaks next. “Are you threatening us? Them?”

Another pause. “Of course I am, Oliver.” Ilixo’s voice sounds amused, even though Mica doesn’t see the humor. “That is what I do.”

“What do you want?” Ollie sounds defeated.

“I am glad you asked!” Ilixo says as if he’s praising his dog. His way of speaking is getting on Mica’s nerves. “There is a necromancer that got too big for his breeches. I need you to…cut him to size.”

“I’m not working for you anymore!” Ollie shouts.

“Ollie,” Wes says. He’s…scared? “Think!”

“I am thinking,” Ollie says desperately. “If I do this, he’ll just ask again. And again. We’ll never escape him.”

There’s silence after that. Mica presses her ear closer to listen better. It pokes back and she almost lets a yelp loose. She loves mechanicals, alright? She loves that they mostly have an open face, she loves the principles of perpetual kinetic movement that they all follow, she loves how they’re sturdy if not exactly easy to repair, and she even likes the look of the gears. She’s isn’t somebody who hates going forward and being smart and making things easier for everybody. She isn’t…It’s just that they’re pointy!

“I am willing to swear an oath,”Ilixo finally answers.

Somebody snorts.

“I’ll definitely believe it,” Ollie says, this time mockingly. “Out of the goodness of your great heart, you’ll even keep it.”

“We can make it binding,” Wes chimes in.

“Wes,” Ollie sighs. “We’d be trying to outfox the fox. You don’t know him as I do. There will be some way for him to wiggle out of it, there always is. And he will take advantage. If we’re lucky, we come up with something airtight, he’ll makehis escape hatch.”

“Perhaps I should let you two confer?” Ilixo asks. “Do listen to him, Oliver. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders, not one full of steam.”

There are signs of a struggle and Wes asking over and over, “What else can we do?”

“Move,” Ollie answers with a growl. Mica has never heard him growling before. “We can’t stay here anyway. Who knows who he told?”

Move? From Haven Thirty-eight?! Leave their whole lives behind, people they care about and who care about them? Leave Randy? How can they?!

“I’m sorry,” Ollie says. Although Mica understands that they must’ve gotten close to the monitor, he seems like he’s talking to her. “There is no other way.”

Mica closes her eyes, the pain of going turning physical.