Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia

This was getting bad. I cursed. I should have let Bastille fight, then tried to find a way to activate the swap during the confusion. Without our Talents, we were in serious trouble. I tested my Talent anyway, but got nothing. It was a very odd feeling. Like trying to start your car, but only getting a pitiful grinding sound.

I wiggled my arm, trying to see if I could get the ring of Inhibitor’s Glass off, but it was on tight. I ground my teeth. Maybe I could use the Lenses on the table somehow.

Unfortunately, the only Lenses left were my basic Oculator’s Lenses and the single Truthfinder’s Lens. Great, I thought, wishing—not for the first time—that Grandpa Smedry had given me some Lenses that I could use in a fight.

Still, I had to work with what I had. I stretched my neck, wiggling to the side, and finally managed to touch the side of the Truthfinder’s spectacles with my cheek. I could activate the Lens as long as I was touching the frames.

“You are a monster,” Sing said, still talking to my mother.

“A monster?” Shasta asked. “Because I like order? I think you’ll agree with our way, once you see what we can do for the Free Kingdoms. Aren’t you Sing Sing Smedry the anthropologist? I hear that you’re fascinated by the Hushlands. Why speak such harsh words about Librarians if you’re so fascinated by our lands?”

Sing fell silent.

“Yes,” Shasta said. “Everything will be better when the Librarians rule.”

I froze. I could just barely see her through the side of the Lens by my head on the table. And those words she’d just spoken—they weren’t completely true. When she’d said them, to my eyes she’d released a patch of air that was muddied and gray. It was as if my mother wasn’t sure that she was telling the truth.

“Lady Fletcher,” one of the Librarian thugs said, approaching. “I have informed my superiors of our captives.”

Shasta frowned. “I … see.”

“You will of course deliver them to us,” the Librarian soldier said. “I believe that is Prince Rikers Dartmoor—he could prove to be a very valuable captive.”

“These are my captives, Captain,” Shasta said. “I’ll decide what to do with them.”

“Oh? This equipment and these scientists belong to the Scrivener’s Bones. All you were promised was the book. You said we could have anything else in the room we wanted. Well, these people are what we demand.”

Scrivener’s Bones, I thought. That explains all the wires. The Scrivener’s Bones were the Librarian sect who liked to mix Free Kingdoms technology and Hushlander technology. That was probably why there were wires leading from the brightsand containers. Rather than just opening the containers and bathing the glass in light, the Librarians used wires and switches.

That could be a big help. It meant there might be a way to use the machinery to activate the swap.

“We are very insistent,” the leader of the Librarian soldiers said. “You can have the book and the Lenses. We will take the captives.”

“Very well,” my mother snapped. “You can have them. But I want half of my payment back as compensation.”

I felt a stab inside my chest. So she would sell me. As if I were nothing.

“But Shasta,” the young Librarian Oculator said, stepping up to her. “You’ll give them up? Even the boy?”

“He means nothing to me.”

I froze.

It was a lie.

I could see it plain and clear through the corner of the Lens. When she spoke the words, black sludge fell from her lips.

“Shasta Smedry,” the soldier said, smiling. “The woman who would marry just to get a Talent, and who would spawn a child just to sell him to the highest bidder!”

“Why should I feel anything for the son of a Nalhallan? Take the boy. I don’t care.”

Another lie.

“Let’s just get on with this,” she finished. Her manner was so controlled, so calm. You’d never have known that she was lying through her teeth.

But … what did it mean? She couldn’t care for me. She was a terrible, vile person. Monsters like her didn’t have feelings.

She couldn’t care about me. I didn’t want her to. It was so much more simple to assume that she was heartless.

“What about Father?” I found myself whispering. “Do you hate him too?”

She turned toward me, meeting my eyes. She parted her lips to speak, and I thought I caught a trail of black smoke begin to slip out and pour toward the ground.

Then it stopped. “What’s he doing?” she snapped, pointing. “Fitzroy, I thought I told you to keep those Lenses secured!”

The Oculator jumped in shock, rushing over and grabbing the Truthfinder’s Lens and pocketing it. “Sorry,” he said. He took the other Lenses and placed them in another pocket of his coat.

I leaned back, feeling frustrated. What now?

I was the brave and brilliant Alcatraz Smedry. Books had been written about me. Rikers was smiling, as if this were all a big adventure. And I could guess why. He didn’t feel threatened. He had me to save him.