Titan Song Dan Stout (top 20 books to read txt) 📖

as a true believer, and maybe a handful of others, but I don’t think he’s infected the rest of the caravan with his chosen one nonsense. There were Barekusu deaths during the first sinkhole, and I doubt they’d be on board for round two.”

I paused. “I need to go in there.” Guyer and Gellica’s faces were strained. The thought of going in the geo-vents was taboo, and created a deep sense of unease in them, just as it did for me. I pushed on, making my case.

“I sensed next gen manna at the Barekusu camp. We know that Serrow and Vandie used next gen manna to eliminate Saul. If Weylan is using next gen manna to create the sinkholes, then I can drain whatever he’s doing it with and redirect it.”

“I don’t know,” said Guyer. “There are . . . Oh, come on!” She snatched something off the windowsill. The window slammed shut, rattling in its pane. Guyer spun to face me. In her hand was the weathered paperback, Your Death and You. “Really, Carter? You’re using it to keep a window open?”

I waved it off. “Just for a little bit.”

Jax cleared his throat and tried to redirect the conversation. “You said they have manna?”

“They have at least some,” I said. “I felt it when I was at the camp. Since I could feel it, that means that it’s next gen manna, and that means—”

“You can put the whim-wham on their spell!” Jax clapped his hands.

“That might work,” said Gellica.

I stared at Jax. “Whim-wham?”

“It’s never going to work.” Guyer tossed the book aside and returned to the couch. “You drain manna, and then you immediately need to use it, right?”

I nodded. The cold and hunger it brought made holding the magic for long periods intolerable.

“So where do you put the excess while you’re underground? I have to be up top, since you need someone on a bike who knows the territory. We’d need two sorcerers,” she said. “One on ground level, one below.”

I repeated her words, hoping that I wouldn’t have to spell it out. “We need two of you.”

Gellica broke in. “I’ve told you before, I’m not a sorcerer. I’ve learned a couple linkages, but that’s not the same thing.”

“Not you,” I agreed. “And Guyer’s right that we’ll need her in the tunnels. We need someone else we can trust, and who can navigate the streets quickly, like on a scrambler.”

Guyer frowned. “What the Hells are . . .” Her brows unfurrowed, and her eyes widened. “Oh, no. Don’t you drag him into this.”

“Harris is a cop. He wants to save lives.”

She advanced on me, jabbing a finger at my chest. “You suck everyone around you into your bullshit.”

“Is that what this is?” I indicated the room and the group gathered around to save the city. She pulled back her lips, as if she were about to list all the reasons she didn’t trust me. I pressed my palms onto the map of the geo-vents. “If you really think there’s nothing to this, then fine, leave Harris out of it. But if you do, if you even think I might be right, then you know we need him.”

“And you want me to talk him into it?”

“I want you to ask him. If he doesn’t want to go through with it, you can leave.” I sat back. “I just didn’t want you to feel like I snuck it up on you.”

“As opposed to how I feel right now?”

Across from us, Jax was studying the map of the vents. “Covering this whole area is going to be tough.”

“Gellica knows that neighborhood, but she’ll be on foot,” I said. “That’s why we need someone on a bike up top. Her and Harris? We couldn’t ask for a better team up top.”

Jax wiped his hands on his knees. “It should work.”

“It might work,” said Gellica.

“It has to.” I sat back. “Because if not, a whole Hells of a lot of people are going to die so that Weylan can satisfy his curiosity.”

“Well,” said Gellica. “Here’s hoping that our faith in you isn’t misplaced.”

42

HARRIS AND I MET UP on the edge of Estante, the shopping district that housed Vandie Cedrow’s geo-vent entrance. We stood at the corner a block from the building, acting as if we were old friends.

“What’s in the sack?” He pointed at the backpack slung over my shoulder.

“A few toys,” I said, “to help us find the way home.”

He didn’t press for details, focusing instead on scanning the street. The poor guy was nervous.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” He’d been eager enough, even volunteering before Guyer could ask for his help. But actually staring a quasi-legal action in the face is a different matter entirely.

“Not exactly,” he said. “But then, I haven’t been okay with most things since I came to this city.” He craned his neck for a view of the Mount, which stood in stark relief in the early evening sunset. “I was there at the hardware store. I was at the sinkhole. Do you really think that I’d let another Cedrow tear this city apart?”

We stood for a moment in amiable silence. As usual, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.

“I asked you this before . . .” I began.

“So why ask again?”

“Your answer keeps changing.” I shifted the backpack to the other shoulder. “Why’d you come to Titanshade?”

He sighed. “I fell in love. Big, beautiful guy named Davey. Out of school I hired in as a divination officer in Gibston. Cushy job, good benefits. But Davey was a dreamer. He was convinced that Titanshade was going to go through an energy revolution, and the ice plains would be transformed into wind farms. He sunk all his money, and a good chunk of mine, into starting up a windmill service company. I quit my job and followed him. But the wind farms never materialized, and the drilling freeze shattered the last of Davey’s hopes. He decided that the real money was in solar panels. He moved out west.”

“You stayed.”

“Had to. I’d shot