Chapter 108 THE IRON LEASH
Chapter 108 THE IRON LEASH
The heavy brick ship bumped against our floating iron tile with a loud, hollow THUD.
Black water and yellow grease splashed over my boots, but my eyes never left the black iron collar in Arthur’s hands. The twelve silver needles inside the band twitched like the legs of a trapped bug, their sharp tips dripping with that thick, foul-smelling palace grease.
"Put it on, Aria," Arthur said, his gold tooth shining through his dirty gray whiskers. His copper coin eye gave a fast, metallic click-click as it tracked the movement of my bleeding side. "The water is falling fast. Choose now. The leash, or the trench."
Beside me, Kael let out a weak, rattling breath. His thick fingers were losing their grip on the iron plate, his body sliding toward the roaring abyss where the giant brass cogs were chewing the sea.
He's going to die if I don't move, the realization slammed into my chest, heavy and bitter. I spent all this time trying to rip the wires out of my family, and now I have to lock a chain around my own throat just to stay above the water.
A hot, greasy wave of hatred flared up from the black hole in my belly. My father had the key. My sister was a puppet. And this half-metal pirate wanted to treat me like a dog on a string. I didn't want his brick ship, and I didn't want his rebel army. I wanted to drag him down into the gears and listen to his copper eye shatter against the brass teeth.
But I needed to get to the north. I needed to tear my father’s throat out.
"If you pull that rope tight," I hissed, my voice dropping into that dark, mechanical rumble, "you better pray I never figure out how to open the lock."
Arthur just laughed, a short, ugly sound. "I'll take my chances, girl."
I reached out with my human hand, grabbing the wet hemp rope. With a hard, painful heave, I dragged Kael’s heavy body up against the brick hull of the ship. Two rebel guards with rusted iron masks leaned over the railing, hooking their fingers under Kael's leather vest to hoist him onto the deck like a dead fish.
I didn't wait for them to help me. I snapped my single black-stained wing against the rising steam, leaping over the wooden rail and landing heavily on the brick floor plates.
Arthur stepped forward immediately. He didn't hesitate. He slammed the black iron collar around my neck.
SNAP-CRUNCH.
The twelve silver needles drove straight into my throat, biting deep into my veins.
"AAARGH!"
I fell to my knees, my hands locking around the iron band as a blinding, freezing pain shot through my skull. It didn't feel like a normal cut. It felt like twelve tiny metal spiders were crawling down my neck, spinning cold silver thread straight into my purple core.
The dark smoke of the World-Eater rising from my right bone claw vanished instantly, sucked backward into my chest until my skeletal fingers felt completely hollow and dry.
"There," Arthur whispered, leaning down until his bloody whiskers brushed my ear. "The needle-grease locks the fire. You are a regular girl now, Aria. No wings. No claws. Just a maid with a debt."
I lay flat on the brick deck, my cheek pressed against the hot, oily mortar. I tried to open the black hole in my belly, but the silver threads around my neck pulled tight, choking the breath right out of my windpipe until my vision turned black at the edges.
I am trapped again, my mind screamed against the dark. Back in the cage. Back on the floor.
"Turn the wheels!" Arthur shouted, spinning around to face the cabin. "The southern trench is full! Set the rowers to the iron frost! We hunt the baker!"
The forty giant iron rowers gave a massive, synchronized slam against the water. BANG-CLANG. The brick warship lurked forward, its heavy hull cutting through the boiling whirlpool as it began to climb the tilted wall of the sea, heading straight toward the dark northern sky.
I forced my good eye to open, looking across the deck. Kael was lying near the boiler hatch, his chest rising and falling in short, shallow gasps. A rebel medic was already wrapping dirty gray bandages around his torn shoulders, but his iron peg leg was gone for good.
"Aria..." Kael croaked, his single blue eye rolling toward me through the smoke. "The gun... they took the gun..."
"It’s okay, Kael," I whispered, my throat burning with every word. "Just stay alive."
I dragged my body up against the wooden wheelhouse, my fingers digging into the rough brick seams. The iron collar felt like a lead weight, pressing hard against my collarbone. I looked out toward the bow, where the sky was turning a sick, freezing shade of blue.
My father was up there. He had my sister’s keys, and he was going to stitch the world into his oven. He thought he was safe because he had the needle snake and the master loom. He thought I was done because I was wearing an iron leash.
He forgot one thing, I told myself, my teeth grinding together until my gums bled. He forgot who taught me how to use the kitchen knives.
Suddenly, the rhythmic banging of the mechanical rowers stopped dead.
SILENCE.
The entire brick ship shuddered, the front hull lifting three feet into the air as the water beneath us instantly turned into solid, jagged sheets of gray ice. The iron oars were frozen solid mid-stroke, locked deep inside the frozen sea.
A loud, wet THUMP echoed from the top of the wheelhouse right above my head.
I snapped my neck up, the silver needles inside the collar stinging my skin. Standing on the roof of the cabin, his long silver robes covered in fresh, glistening frost, was a man I hadn't seen since the palace vaults. His face was completely gone, replaced by a giant, spinning brass clock-dial that had three golden hands pointing at the number twelve.
The clock-dial spun backward with a loud, deafening WHIRR, and a voice boomed out of the metal plates, a voice that sounded exactly like Seraphina's, but deep, hollow, and completely dead.
"The execution was scheduled for dawn, Aria," the clock face said, the three golden hands snapping down toward my throat like a pair of long shears. "The High Council does not allow its property to ride a brick boat."