The street outside the cafe smelled of melted metal and burnt hair. The cold presence of an unseen gern made Saul shiver as he stepped onto the street behind Olivia.

  She sniffed the air. “One of them is here.”

  “You can tell?”

  “There’s something off about them. Like someone’s hiding under my bed.” Olivia wiped her damp eyes with the back of her hand.

  Saul looked down the street in the direction of one of the screams. The street appeared empty, except for a few still bodies lying on the brown stone of the opposite sidewalk. Saul grimaced and sniffed the stinking air, half hoping to figure out what Olivia had found to detect the gern, and started across the broad street toward the fallen forms.

  He stopped beside a body and looked down into the eyes of a young man, green, staring, blank. A deep gash ran down the dead man’s collar bone to his sternum, and there the gash became a wound that went all the way through to the sidewalk. Saul looked up and found Olivia standing beside him.

  She scowled down at the hole in the young man’s chest. “Gern, definitely.”

  Saul nodded. “It’s still close.” He glanced down the street both ways. “Can you tell where it is, or which way it’s headed?”

  Olivia shook her head. “I’m not that good.”

  He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the presences of the others around him. There were still plenty of makers nearby, but not as many as before, and the weight of their collective presence was lighter. Saul felt a ripple in the air behind him, like a breeze from otherwise still air. He turned. His hand moved to his sword’s hilt.

  The gern appeared, roaring, from the rip in the world it had just torn. The creature loomed over Saul, easily over ten feet tall and with two sets of legs supporting a bull-like body that ended in pincer-jaws like those of an ant. An ant ten feet tall, with beady black eyes on either side of its head.

  Olivia shoved Saul in the shoulder and he staggered out of the way of the gern’s lunging jaws. He stabilized, then threw himself further to one side. Olivia’s cattle prod released a crackle of electricity. The gern shuddered, then screamed in a high-pitched voice that could not have belonged to a human.

  Saul drew his sword and slashed at the gern’s neck in the same motion. His blade rebounded from the beast, not even drawing blood. This gern must be older than the ones he had fought back at the mansion. The protective integratus of its taph was stronger.

  “Foolish makers,” said the gern in a hiss and crackle of a voice, “You will perish on this street.”

  “I’m not a maker.” Olivia shoved the end of her cattle prod between the gern’s mandibles. Electricity blasted through the gern’s face, searing the skin and turning blue-gray flesh black.

  “And that’s not all you’re wrong about.”

  The creature roared, but could not escape the electrical shocks.

  A winged boat glided past, above the street. Saul glanced up at it and saw the boat had the black hull of a guardian craft. Olivia was too occupied with the gern to notice.

  The gern’s head thrashed from side to side. The movement dragged Olivia toward the creature, then sent her stumbling back. The cattle prod came free of the gern’s mandibles. Saul darted around the front of the wounded monster and motioned to Olivia with his free hand.

  “Get back.”

  Olivia kept her eyes on the gern. Her expression darkened. “What for?”

  Saul pointed up. “Authorities.”

  She leapt back from the gern just as a trio of swords borne by white feathery wings stabbed into the gern’s back, neck, and face. The swords drew out from the creature by beating their wings. Each one came clear with red on its blade. The gern toppled sideways into the street with a gurgle of pain. The hovering swords turned toward Saul and Olivia. Blood dripped from steel.

  “Shit.” Saul parried the first sword as it lunged at him. The second cut him along the arm. It unseamed the sleeve of his jacket and drew blood from a shallow cut. Saul twisted out of the way of the third sword. The airborne weapon sliced toward Olivia.

  She swung her cattle prod like a bat with both hands. The blow hit the blade of the sword and knocked it off course. Amazingly the cattle prod didn’t break. Saul guessed it must be reinforced with steel in the handle.

  He backed toward Olivia as the swords circled them. Grappling lines fell from the sides of the guardian boat, closely followed by makers descending on them. Saul grimaced as the four guardians landed on the street. Three of them were empty handed but muttered under their breaths, clearly instructing the swords that now encircled Saul and Olivia.

  Not good. The fourth guardian approached behind two of the winged swords. It was Jackal.

  Saul’s uncle smirked. “Looks like you made it through the passage. But the game is over, nephew.”

  Saul glared at Jackal. He felt Olivia’s shoulder brush against him from behind. She shifted, probably tracking the third sword.

  His eyes moved over the two swords between him and Jackal. “This isn’t a game, uncle.”

  “On the contrary. It explains why you have been so unwilling to kill anyone.”

  Saul pointed past Jackal at the corpse of the gern. “If I’m playing, then why is there a gern here? Uncle, they’re following the hilt of Seffuin’s sword because it contains part of Apahar.”

  “I think I would know if one of the greatest monsters in all of history and legend was lying underground in my territory.” Jackal pointed his sword toward the ground. “You always think you know best. You’re just like you’re damned father.”

  Heat rushed to Saul’s face. His sword hand shook. “Never. Compare. Me. To. Him.”

  “I suppose I shouldn’t. After all, he succeeded where you failed.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Oh, but isn’t that what this is about. You want to be a worldmaker just like him.”

  Saul felt his whole body tremble. The two swords between him and his uncle floated only two or three feet from him. The sun was too bright for Nat to help. Saul gritted his teeth. He lowered the point of his sword. “Believe what you want.”

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  Jackal smirked. The flying swords drifted apart a few more feet. Jackal walked up to Saul, still holding his sword lazily.

  Saul’s hand still shook. He looked up at Jackal’s face. “I really don’t care what you think.” He swung the sword’s point up from the ground, putting just enough strength into the swing to threaten Jackal. His uncle’s guard was good. He pinned Saul’s sword to the ground with his blade. Then Saul’s fist broke his nose.

  Jackal staggered backward clutching at his bleeding face. Saul’s sword clattered to the pavement. He grabbed his uncle by the shoulders and leapt past him. The thrust from the first winged blade went into Jackal’s shoulder and stuck there, quivering, wings still beating to pull back. Jackal screamed and dropped his sword.

  The second flying sword hung in the air. Saul kept Jackal between it and him. He circled and yanked the sword that had stabbed Jackal out of his uncle’s shoulder by the hilt. The weapon’s wings immediately shrank, then stilled as metal.

  Saul faced the other three guardians. “Don’t come any closer. Order your weapons to stand down.” His hands were steady as he shoved Jackal onto his knees before him.

  The other two flying swords flew back to their respective makers. Their owners caught them. The third man, whose sword Saul still held, glowered at him. “You’ve fallen a long way, Burton.”

  “Fallen? I prefer to think of this as stooping down.”

  Olivia walked to Saul’s side. “I hate to interrupt another grudge match, but we’ve got bigger problems than these three.”

  All along the street came the sounds of gern blades slicing through the fabric of the world. A half dozen new presences revealed themselves. A stink like burnt hair hit Saul. He nodded to Olivia.

  “Don’t try to follow us.” He turned his back on the guardians. “You’ve got people to protect.” He picked up his own sword and handed the one he had taken from the guardian to Olivia.

  Another dozen gern ripped their way through the world wall nearby. Their collective presences like a cluster of cankers. He shook his head. “Looks like you’re gonna have your hands full.”

  Olivia rolled her eyes as they walked away from the guardians. Saul heard them ordering a comparator to get them back up. He glanced at Olivia. “We’re not out of this yet. Good thing gern are your specialty.”

  She shuddered. “That doesn’t mean I like seeing them.”

  They ran down the street, and around the corner by the cafe. Saul didn’t see any gern yet, but he heard a roar from down the street they had just left. The guardians started shouting.

  “Come on.” Saul motioned down a sunlight and shadow alleyway. “We can get our bearings in here.”

  Olivia said nothing but followed him into the alley. The gap between buildings led all the way to the other side of the block, and shadows fell from the eastern walls. Even if they ran into a gern here, Saul felt more confident knowing Nat could help in a fight. He and Olivia were halfway down the alley when a woman’s voice spoke from a rooftop above them.

  “Good morning. Who’s this?”

  Saul looked up. A tall black woman with short hair and a yellow scarf wrapped around her neck stood on the edge of a flat roof. On one side of her stood a boy who couldn’t be more than twelve, and on the other side a white woman, a whole head shorter than her comrade. All three of them wore complex combinations of clothes, mostly black and red.

  “My name’s Saul Burton,” he said. “I’m a—”

  "A troublemaker. I know who you are.” The black woman grinned. “I like troublemakers.” She took a step off the rooftop, but rather than plummeting down to the alley, she spread her arms. The black sleeves of her jacket changed, spreading flat so they caught the air. She glided down to the ground. “My name’s Tori, and if you don’t want to end up in some monster’s belly or one of the authority’s cells, you should come with me.”

  He didn’t doubt Tori plans she wasn’t sharing with them. Why else would she single them out at a time like this? Saul glanced at Olivia.

  She didn’t look at him but focused on Tori. Olivia and Tori locked eyes for a long moment. Olivia nodded. “We’re not gonna find a better deal.”

  “I agree.”

  Tori extended one arm and the sleeve kept going with a life of its own. The material leapt up the wall and climbed the building as easily as a snake would wriggle through grass. “Climb up.”

  The boy on the rooftop leaned over the side. “Make it quick. Boss, there’s a lot of gern about.”

  Olivia glanced at Saul as she fastened her cattle prod to a tie at the waist of her coat. He made sure his sword was secure on his backpack, then tested the strength of the line extended from Tori’s sleeve. It held him easily. Saul started up the wall.

  He reached the top and climbed onto the roof. Olivia followed him close behind. Maybe she was worried these makers would leave her behind, but maybe she doesn’t know they are makers. But earth born exiles wouldn’t last long as renegades on Hidria.

  Saul looked back down the side of the building to see Tori bounding up the wall, barely seeming to use her lines. She surmounted the wall. “Leel.” She looked at the boy. “How many are there?”

  “More than fifty, maybe sixty. That’s just on this block.”

  “Sixty gern? This is an invasion.” The white woman peered into the alley below. “Why are they all showing up now?”

  “No idea, Una.” The lines shrank back into Tori’s sleeves and her sleeves shrank back to almost nothing, revealing arms criss-crossed with the lines of narrow white scars.

  Saul took a deep breath. “I know why the gern are coming now.”

  Leel scowled, eyes still closed. “They’ll sense us if we stay here.”

  Olivia frowned at the boy. “How can you tell how many there are?”

  Una breathed a sigh. “Leel’s a prodigy of a sensor. And he’s right, we better go.”

  “I got the news. You two know what brought the gern.” Tori turned to Saul and Olivia. “And you’re gonna tell me everything once we get out of here, so I can protect my city.”

  Saul nodded. “It’s a deal.”

  “Right.” Tori strode across the rooftop. “Una.”

  Una walked to the center of the rooftop and raised one black-clad arm. A red and black-feathered hawk alighted on her forearm. The sight of the red bird reminded Saul of Irene, Irene who was still probably somewhere in this city, Irene who was helping Luther.

  Saul grimaced. The bird called and then flew off Una’s arm. As the bird took off its body began to grow. In a few seconds, the bird was three times the size of Saul. Una leapt onto its back.

  “I’ll keep an eye on the authorities.”

  Tori motioned for Saul and Olivia to follow her as Una left the rooftop on bird back. “It’s not far to our base.”

  “I’ve got your names,” Said Olivia. “But who are you people?”

  “I’m the queen of this city.” Tori paused in her walk and grinned. “My gang runs the streets.”

  Olivia stared at her for a moment, then started after Tori alongside Leel. Saul followed them.

  Tori helped bridge the gaps between rooftops for Olivia and Saul, with more lines from her sleeves, and they made their way a few blocks to what looked like a rundown castle of brownstone that took up most of a block on its own. Its towers rose above the nearby buildings. Saul climbed a line from the nearest rooftop to one of the castle’s lower parapets and dropped down beside Olivia. Leel followed him, then Tori. Una and her bird circled overhead.

  “Welcome to our humble home.” Tori turned to Leel. “Gather the others.”

  “Will do, boss.” The boy scampered away to a turret, then disappeared inside.

  Tori raised her eyebrows at Saul. “Its time to share. What’re you doing here, Saul Burton?”

  His brow furrowed. “You know who I am?”

  “Relax. I heard the news and put it together with what I already knew about you. You used to be an aspiring worldmaker, but it times have been tough. You were exiled, so that puts you on the wrong side of the law now that you’re here.”

  He sighed. “I’m chasing a man with a broken sword.” Even inside this castle, he sensed more gern entering the world, but his feelings weren’t acute enough to say exactly where.

  Hopefully the boy, Leel, would do better and keep them from being surprised.

  “And you know why all these gern are showing up?”

  "They want the broken hilt. Its what’s left of Seffuin’s sword, the one he used to defeat Apahar.”

  Her eyebrows went up again. “You serious?”

  “I’d have a better lie if I wasn’t.”

  Tori folded her arms, then turned to Olivia. “And who are you?”

  “My name is Olivia Jordan. I’m from Earth. I hunt gern.”

  “She helped me get here.” Saul folded his arms. “She’s a warrior.” Like Irene. “You can trust us not to get in your way.”

  “I saw what you do to people in your way, back on the street.” Tori whistled. “Count me on your side. Who are you chasing?”

  “His name is Luther Mansard. He can turn people into world gates just by touching them. I saw him go through one that led to Mortressa.”

  “There are fifteen million people in the city. You think he’s gonna be easy to find?”

  “His gates release a lot of energy. Someone must have noticed when he came across.” And then there’s the view from somewhere high up.

  Tori nodded. “That’s a solid thought. The lord of the city has flunkies to keep track of that sort of thing in every district. The authorities are gonna be busy with the gern for a bit. This might be the right time to get that info.”

  Saul smirked despite the pain beginning to build from the new wound on his forearm, with the recession of adrenaline. “Good thing we ran into you.”

  Tori’s grin returned, broad and beautiful. “I just want help with one little thing once you’ve got the info.”

  “What’s that?” Olivia asked in a soft voice.

  Tori pointed over the parapet to the center of the city where the massive Lord’s Tower supported the world gate. “Get me in there.”