Wax came out a second later, blasting a manhole cover off into the air. He landed, one foot on either side of the open manhole, and increased his weight many hundreds of times — completely draining his metalmind. Then he Pushed.
His feet skidded a few inches on the concrete.
The truck crumpled as if it had hit a solid wall, the front mashing like tinfoil, doing unfortunate things to the driver. The back end of the truck lurched up into the air, then slammed down, trailing loose-leaf pages. One of the wheels rolled completely free, straight through the front window of a nearby building. A liquor store, Wax noticed with a wince. Wayne would not appreciate that.
The street fell quiet as other cars stopped, their drivers cowering in their seats or — more commonly — staring slack-jawed. Wax took a few deep breaths, his pulse racing, his body electric. His mind …
Focused on the job. He released another breath, and was surprised by how calm he felt. A part of him … a part of him had worried about returning to the field again. Worried that by experiencing these kinds of thrills, he’d view his normal life as mundane, lacking.
It didn’t happen. He could go on a chase like that through the city anytime he wanted in Elendel, as long as he wasn’t quite so flagrant about the property damage. He could even bring Max along, and have someone to share in the joy. He didn’t need this, not as he once had.
What a wondrous thing that was to confirm. He took a deep breath, then rounded the truck.
53
Marasi and Moonlight were being hunted.
Something was back there, something that seemed not quite human. It made a sound like nails or claws on stone, accompanied by unnatural growls. Marasi hurried through the blasted-out tunnel, Moonlight at her side, trying to balance their speed. If they moved too quickly, they might run straight into a patrol. But if they slowed too much, then whatever was back there would catch up to them.
So they moved in fits, hurrying a distance they could see by the light of mining lamps, then pausing to scout out their next rush forward. This part of the tunnel complex was far more built up than the one they’d come from, with many more turns. But they were able to follow the signs, heading ever closer to the Community. They passed more drywall rooms, some clearly occupied, and they had to find improvised cover several times as groups of people hurried past.
These weren’t soldiers though. Mostly workers or scientists. Judging by their whispered conversations, Entrone had ordered everyone to their quarters. There was a sense of frantic worry to the people — but also a single-minded anxiety. That helped, as they weren’t paying much attention to their surroundings.
As Marasi and Moonlight hid from one of these groups beside some boxes, Marasi worried the thing chasing them would catch up. Yet it was creeping along, not rushing. Perhaps … perhaps it was hiding too?
Moonlight eventually whispered for Marasi to wait, then ducked into a room that — through the cracked door — seemed unoccupied. She emerged moments later with two lab coats, and they started moving through the corridor as though they belonged there. The disguises were flimsy, but no one gave them a second glance, despite Marasi’s rifle.
Soon, a voice echoed through the tunnel. “Stay calm. Don’t worry. I am in the Community making preparations for our new arrivals. I want all of you to settle in and wait. This is what we’ve planned for; we are ready.”
It was Gave Entrone. His voice came from some speakers that lined the hallway — a technology that was becoming more common since its invention a few years back.
Hearing his voice finally undermined Marasi’s hope that Gave would resist the invasion. This complex, the supplies … everything about it indicated the truth. This was a bunker, the launching point of an invasion — and a place for Entrone’s favorites to be protected from the coming annihilation.
A haunting worry whispered this was only part of it. Marasi had to stop Entrone, but that wouldn’t protect Elendel from the bomb Telsin had trained on it. For that, she had to trust that Wax and Wayne were fulfilling their half of the mission. Her duty was to deal with this oncoming army. The men of gold and red.
The tunnel eventually expanded to a large cavern. But curiously, the far wall was straight wood, from floor to ceiling. And it felt like that wall bisected the chamber — which, judging by the slope of the blasted-out ceiling, was extremely large. The wooden wall had several darkened rooms built up against it. Indeed, the entire chamber was silent and mostly dark, lit only by a few emergency lights.
Marasi and Moonlight stopped at the mouth of the cavern. Was this the Community? Why split the cavern like that? Whatever the reason, the order to quarters had been obeyed, and apparently any soldiers in the area had gone to deal with TwinSoul. That let Marasi and Moonlight enter the cavern alone.
Soon after, those sounds came from behind again. Taking Moonlight by the shoulder, Marasi pulled them between two buildings beside the large wall. From this scant shelter, she watched as something entered the mouth of the cavern. It stood on four elongated legs and had an unnervingly long neck, with a head that wasn’t entirely canine. It had features that, even shadowed as they were, evoked an image that was … too human. A dog’s nose, or something approximating it, but human eyes set forward on its skull.
It had no clothing, but also no fur. Two spikeheads jutted from its shoulders. She’d heard of something like this before — Wax had encountered something similar in the tunnels beneath Elendel. Now, after studying the book Death had given her, she recognized what it was. A Hemalurgic monstrosity.
One use of the art was to create Metalborn. But the Lord Ruler had also used Hemalurgy to create twisted versions of human beings. The kandra had arisen from that work, as had the koloss. Creating those had required precision use of spikes — the knowledge of a god. If you tried to approximate such designs, you were likely to kill your subject. Or stumble into some kind of half-creation. A twisted mutation, leaving a being’s soul mangled by the spikes.
The Set, it seemed, had found a permutation that was viable but grotesque. The thing sniffed the air, then prowled carefully into the cavern. It knew they were there. It paused where Marasi and Moonlight had stopped to inspect their surroundings — a spot that was barely thirty yards from their current hiding place. The abomination made a hooting sound that echoed in the cavern, and other voices — dozens of them — replied.
Moonlight gripped Marasi’s shoulder, then pointed. She’d made a door in the side of the structure they’d been hiding by, and they slipped into a dim room built up against the wooden wall bisecting the chamber. Two windows looked through it.
Marasi didn’t have a good view through them, not from her corner next to Moonlight. The door vanished, and a few moments later scratches sounded at the wall they’d passed through. Silence followed, then a thumping at the main door. It held, for now.
Marasi unslung her rifle, glanced at Moonlight, then nodded toward the windows. Perhaps they could escape through those? She stepped over to look through, and found … a town?
Neat rows of houses lined streets within a vast chamber, bigger on that side than this one. It was lit from above with floodlights. Someone had painted imitation flowers and grass on the floor in wide swaths, and others had erected sculptures meant to imitate foliage. People in everyday clothing — skirts, trousers, day dresses — walked the “streets,” though there were no horses or automobiles she could see.