“All else aside, perhaps my presence may remind them that no guild operates in half measures when it comes to loyalty to their King.” Leona grinned faintly to herself, savoring the idea of having an entire guild under her boot and hanging on her every beck and call.
“Indeed.”
“Then I make my heading for Ter.2,” Leona declared. “And this time, I will not fail you.”
“See that you don’t.”
Magic popped and the link between them fizzled. Leona lowered her hand from her ear. They would move a lot faster with their gliders than Cvareh would be able to travel in the Underground, even with two renegade Ravens. She had time before he would emerge again—if he emerged again. Though, Leona knew if he were lost to the creatures of the depths of Loom, she would be disappointed at fate for stealing her kill.
Yes, she started up the stairs, Cvareh and the Wraith will be mine. But she wasn’t going to be made a fool a second time, and she was no longer going in blind. Leona now knew what type of forces she was up against.
“You look surprisingly chipper,” Camile assessed as Leona returned to her prior place.
“We’re heading back to Ter.5.”
“Oh?”
“We need to pay the Revos a visit.” Leona flexed her fingers, sheathing and unsheathing her claws. They were trusty, reliable weapons. She hadn’t been like her sister, adopting every new killing tool that came into existence; she’d favored the tried and true methods of slaughtering her enemies for years. But that was up on Nova, and here on Loom the fights were different. “Cvareh had a pistol.”
“A fragile one,” Camile scoffed.
“So let’s get some better ones.” Leona bared her teeth, showing that the matter wasn’t up for discussion. The Revos would give her something the world had never seen before, something so powerful that it would slay even Wraiths, and Dragons who could manipulate time.
26. Arianna
From the brief and tumultuous explanations of Florence’s last time in the Underground, Ari understood why it was called “The Ravens’ Folly.” The Guild wasn’t known for their building skill or logical city planning—however good they were at cartography and public transportation. The Underground was mazelike at best, hellishly backwards at worst—from all the different “builders” adding on at their own discretion. If that wasn’t enough, the deepest parts were said to be occupied by some of the most wretched creatures found anywhere on Loom. And, unlike the Harvesters who occupied the mines of Ter.1, the Ravens who ventured into the Underground were not outfitted regularly with weaponry from the Revos to keep such monsters at bay.
It wasn’t until Arianna was grasping onto the side of a strange mine cart-like transportation machine, with two Ravens laughing gleefully at every pitch-black corner they took at break-neck speed, that she grasped the concept of the Underground also being described as the “Ravens’ Playground.”
“Is this it?” Helen called back to Will. “This is the best she has?”
“Rusty!” Will replied with a shout, pulling another lever on the contraption housed in a back compartment of the vessel. Arianna focused on it—trying to figure out how it worked—rather than the mind-numbing feeling of being hurled through the unknown while trusting the most annoying girl she’d ever met at the wheel and the clinically insane at the engine. “Flor, you have any grease?”
“When have I ever carried grease on me?” Florence couldn’t plaster herself any tighter against the side of the cart if she tried.
Ari hated seeing her distressed. But there was something about the girl’s fear she found the slightest bit endearing. Despite Flor’s Raven tattoo, she was a wrench in a toolbox of screwdrivers here. Ari had only ever known her pupil as a Revo in training. But now she saw clearly why Florence had felt the need to flee the Ravens. There would be no way the girl could pass the mandatory Dragon tests imposed on Guild initiates to cull out those who lacked talent and manage the population they’d sent into a spiral when they’d removed Loom’s breeding policies.
“You had to pick this cart. Didn’t like the other rider,” Will huffed.
“We’d need two riders and only one of these,” Helen answered. “Stop complaining and just manage my speed!”
It wasn’t long before Cvareh was emptying the contents of his mostly empty stomach over the railing. Ari laughed with the rest of them at his expense and he alternated the rest of the day between fuming and panting softly, muttering prayers under his breath to Nova’s endless pantheon. At least, Ari assumed it to be the rest of the day.