“Can I kill Telsin?”
I’m counting on you trying to. But … I’m not certain. She might be so highly Invested that you can’t. If so, Telsin will die only if Autonomy withdraws her power.
“I’m still going to want your help.”
I—
“What can you do?”
I … I do not know. I can perhaps stun her. Briefly interrupt her Connection to Autonomy. Maybe.
“Be ready,” Wax said, raising his reloaded gun in one hand, then seized Wayne by the arm. Wayne nodded and held on. Wax Pushed off the nails in the carpet, sending them soaring up into the mists and onto the rooftop.
Wax felt better immediately, entering the mists. His fatigue washed away, his pains fading. The mist was something ancient, older than Harmony. It had seen the Ascendant Warrior and the Last Emperor stop the end of the world. It had seen the Lord Ruler rise before that, and protected — perhaps threatened — the world when it had been new.
You’ve done something to me, Wax thought at Harmony, nudging them to the side and landing on the roof. Odd things have been happening to me all day. Is it an aftereffect of holding the Bands?
No, Harmony said. It is something else. But it didn’t work as I’d hoped.
Mists wrapped around Wax as he walked across a cold rooftop to confront Telsin. Her eyes glowed bright red, painting the nearby mist bloody. It stayed away from her. The way a dog lurked outside the range of a man who had kicked it in the past.
“You’re right,” she said. “I have underestimated you.”
Wax stopped a distance away, Wayne at his side. Behind Telsin was a hulking contraption with the rocket on top. Hidden from sightlines below by the “construction” at the perimeter of the rooftop, it was bathed in floodlights. Engineers worked on it furiously, sparing him nervous glances.
“Wayne,” Wax hissed, gun trained on Telsin, “go help those engineers take a lunch break.”
“Gladly,” Wayne said, hurrying over. It didn’t take much work to get them corralled into a corner.
Wax stood there, gun on Telsin, feeling … unnerved. He’d made it this far. He’d found the rocket. This should be it, shouldn’t it? But what did he do now?
Don’t get blindsided again, he thought. Six years ago, she got the better of you. She must have something planned today too. Don’t fall for it.
“So,” Telsin said, her eyes glowing brighter, “here we are. Now you’re going to let me destroy Elendel.”
“Like hell I will,” Wax growled.
“What would you give up, Waxillium,” she said, “to save a planet? How many people are you willing to sacrifice to do what needs to be done?”
She stepped closer. He cocked Vindication, thrusting it forward. Rusts.
“Autonomy likes you,” Telsin said. “She called you a masterpiece. I disagreed, but here you are, and I find myself persuaded. Harmony knows he’s growing impotent, that Discord is near, and so he created you. A sword. Who can act when he cannot.”
She stepped closer, ignoring Vindication. And why shouldn’t she? Harmony had said the gun wouldn’t do anything. Her smile as she advanced reminded him of when she’d turned on him. Of how it had felt to be betrayed by his last living kin.
That moment. That terrible moment when he’d realized that by saving her, he’d not only gotten himself shot, but potentially gotten Steris, Marasi, and Wayne killed as well.
That horrible moment lived on. Like crystallized agony deep within him. One last tie to his old life. He needed to defeat that as much as he did her.
“Do you think Harmony could do it?” Telsin asked, gesturing to the rocket. “If this were the only way to protect the people of this world? Could he sacrifice one city to save the rest? Or would indecision freeze him? Like a constable on their first day on the job.”
Rusts. She didn’t seem the least bit concerned by their arrival. Something was wrong. Something was profoundly wrong.
“Well,” Telsin said, “I’m strong enough. I’ll see it done.”
Rusts, rusts, rusts. This was all wrong. A quiet conversation on a rooftop? A doomsday device apparently stopped? And yet Telsin was so rusting confident.
You’re not merely a sword, Wax, he thought. You’re a detective. That’s the life you chose. Be the person you decided to be. Not the one you’ve been assigned to be.
Wax focused his thoughts, pushing away the pain of betrayal. Think. You found those charts of launches. None of them could travel far enough. So …
He lowered his gun. “It doesn’t work.”
Telsin froze.
“The delivery device,” he said. “All this time, and it still can’t lift a bomb this big, can it? You’d have fired it by now if it could.”
Telsin shrugged.
The detective in him grasped for connections. If she legitimately thought that the world would end if she didn’t destroy Elendel, she’d have launched it anyway. On the hope that it worked. Because if she failed, everything ended anyway — so why not try?
Feeling cold, Wax raised his hand and increased his weight. Then he Pushed against the rocket. The whole construction collapsed, and the enormous weapon — the bomb — hit the rooftop with a resounding, hollow clang.
It was a decoy.
Telsin’s eyes went wide.
He turned and looked across the city, softly blanketed in mist, made indistinct — like a dream. Here in the mists he could think; he could make the connections that had eluded him all day. Where was the bomb?
They’d been planning this for years … waiting until the delivery device was ready. Building the launchpad high to give themselves the best chance. Those were the right threads. He’d followed the correct clues.
Problem was, in the end, they hadn’t been able to get it working. So when Wax had arrived earlier in the day, they’d panicked. They’d moved their bomb somewhere else. But where? Surely they weren’t going to deliver it by train or by road. Too obvious. Plus, he’d told Steris to close both routes into the city. So what? They had to move and install their bomb on a new delivery device. So …
The docks, Wax realized, pieces clicking into place. They were genuinely surprised when I located the tunnel from the mansion. Why put their lab out there near the docks, instead of secure in this tower or one of the caverns?
Because they had another delivery method, a backup. In case the rocket never worked. And when I arrived in town they acted, taking the bomb from here to …
He spun, searching the darkness, and somehow he was able to see through the mist. As if it thinned just for him. Distant, beyond the city, he picked out the trailing lights of something out on the open sea. An enormous warship, a Pewternaut-class vessel that had been docked all day. A show of force, he’d thought.
But also the fastest way to carry something large toward Elendel. A method that couldn’t be stopped by a railway or road blockade.
The bomb was on that ship.
“She thought you’d find it,” Telsin whispered. “I think she prefers you to me. I’m … not sure how I feel about that.”
Wax’s mind raced. How to stop it? He rushed up to the edge of the roof, looking between the steel rods of the construction facade.
“Wax?” Wayne asked, hurrying up. “Nearly gave me a heart attack when you toppled that bomb there. What’s going on?”