The Sinister Regent Page 4

  “It would make a very nice doll’s dress,” Jes said, glowering. “But yes, that worked. Now we only need to make it the rest of the way across without being seen, sneak into the castle, find Donal, and get him to contact his mother.”

  “And figure out who’s trying to steal our islands, and why those three women all look the same, and who they work for, and whether King Gregor actually sent them, and then rescue our parents.” Amalia seemed undaunted by the list. “Oh, and find out who the two missing heroes are so they can help us.”

  “Unless one of them is the villain!” Chris was still bouncy with their success, or the sunlight, or maybe just because he was Chris and he was always like this. Jes sighed as he dashed ahead across the next bridge and Amalia darted after him. Jes followed more slowly, pretending the swaying steps didn’t scare her.

  They joined a game of dance rope as they crossed the bridge, setting down their laundry bags and going on again without them. Jes spared a thought for the purple fabric that really would have been a lovely ball gown for her favorite doll, but there were more important things right now.

  The castle on West Waveborn was built onto a cliff top, with buildings following it up the slope as though clinging to its sides. The stone was strange and white, not like the gray of the other three, and it had six spires that rose from towers no wider than a single small room. Jes bit her lip, wondering where to even start looking for Donal.

  There was a small explosion from the tower furthest from them, a flash of light followed by smoke. Jes grabbed Amalia’s arm and pointed. “He’s in there.”

  Chris raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

  Amalia shook her head. “Have you met Donal? We’re sure.”

  6

  Donal was small and blond and moved like a ferret who’d been given too much caffeine. He was still smudged with soot when they made it up into his tower, and he barely looked up from his latest experiment.

  “Were you expected today? I didn’t remember.”

  Jes took a breath. “No, Donal, we’re escaping from evil identical regents who’ve tricked our parents into leaving.”

  “That’s too bad. Could you hand me that silver wire? No, the other one.”

  Chris looked ready to explode, but Amalia kicked him and motioned for him to wait. Jes handed over the silver wire.

  “Are the regents all pale women with dark hair and sharp features?” Donal asked as he fastened the wire between two parts.

  “Yes, that’s them.”

  “Hmm. I did wonder if perhaps Lady Violet wasn’t human.” Donal tightened a tiny dial. “She’s left me alone, so I didn’t investigate.”

  “Has your mother been called away like our parents?” Jes asked, while Amalia clamped a hand over Chris’s mouth. Another explosion seemed imminent.

  “Yes, yesterday morning. Here, could you give me the notched copper disc from that table?”

  Jes handed it over and counted to a hundred. Before she’d quite finished, Donal turned a hidden switch, and the little machine came to life.

  “There, that’s done. So, do you think Mom is in any danger? Oh, hello, Chris. I didn’t see you there.”

  There were many crucial questions Jes wanted to ask, but Chris blurted out first, “What does that do?”

  “It’s a voice-activated smoke machine. It should fill a ballroom with thick smoke in under a minute.”

  Why anyone would want such a thing was a question that could wait. “Yes, your mom could be in danger. We thought, since you two made the earrings for Alex, that you might be able to contact your mom”

  Donal frowned. “Unfortunately, we based those on the structures running through the islands. Anywhere on the islands or in the tunnels, they should work fine, but I doubt they’d have more than a few hundred yards of range away from here.”

  “So, you don’t have any way to reach your mother?” Amalia asked.

  “I didn’t say that. I can track her, which is one option. Taking apart Lady Violet to see what she’s up to is another.”

  Chris and Amalia gripped their swords with matching smiles, and Jes shuddered. “Isn’t torture a little … extreme?”

  Donal blinked at her. “I wasn’t going to torture her. I was going to find her off switch and analyze her programming. It’s obvious that she’s an android.”

  “Who can make an android that can pass as a human?” Amalia objected.

  “Well, my Uncle Kegan could. At least, he was nearly there the last time I saw him. Some of his machines helped in the fight to raise the islands.”

  “Eight!” crowed Chris.

  “So why isn’t he royalty, then?” Jes asked.

  “He didn’t want it. He told Gregor he’d rather have a good workshop then a kingdom any day.” Donal paused as though considering. “I think he was right.”

  Amalia and Jes shared a look. Gregor had given Kegan a workshop. Kegan knew how to create androids. Gregor had sent four androids to be their regents. It was what Jes’s father would call circumstantial evidence, but it didn’t look good.

  Chris turned at a sound and glanced out the tower window. “Um, Donal? There are six people with weapons headed this way. Is there another way out of here?”

  Donal looked up and grimaced. “Oh, I expect Lady Violet went into my study.”

  Amalia perked up. “Booby traps?”

  Donal smiled back. “Several.”

  Jes held up one hand. “You can talk shop later. Is there a way to avoid bloodshed and dungeons?”

  Donal stood up, slipped his latest device into his pocket, and walked across the room. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”

  Terrified. “We’ll be fine. Lead the way.”

  Jes imagined clinging to the sheer wall outside, taking a zip line between towers, or jumping to almost certain death. After refusing the last tower climb, she just hoped that she could jump quickly without having to think about it. In comparison to these thoughts, the spiral slide Donal told them about wasn’t nearly as bad.

  “It’s in the space under the staircases,” Donal explained. “More fun, much faster, and an extra way out for emergencies.”

  Jes could not imagine finding it fun, but she hadn’t faced near drowning and Amalia’s dozens of traps to back down now. “Lead the way,” she repeated and forced herself to sit down on the slide before she could change her mind.

  There were muffled sounds above her as Amalia and Chris tried to contain their own glee, but Jes held her breath, counted, and focused on not throwing up. The slide ended at last in a pile of pillows, and she scrambled out of the way before the other two could careen into her.

  “So now we can go down into the tunnels, or …” Donal paused at Jes’s head shake.

  “We had to flood them to prevent the bad guys from sinking the islands.”

  Donal shrugged. “Well, I had wanted to do some more testing, but I’m sure it’s ready.”

  7

  It was beautiful. Jes stared at the glass and bronze bubble. “It’s a miniature airship?”

  “Different design, and much smaller. I call it a skiff. Much more versatile, too.”

  Alex would be so jeal—Jes stopped mid-thought and bit her lip. Was Alex still alive? Were any of their parents?

  This workroom—just how many did Donal have?— was underground and opened out mid-cliff.

  “You built this?” Amalia asked.

  “Oh, Mom helped with this one. I just added some new features.”

  No wonder people think Queen Melia is a sorceress. I would, too, if I didn’t know better.

  Chris ticked off his fingers one by one. “We found you, we learned why the regents look the same, we may know who made them, and you can hopefully lead us to your mother and our parents. So, do you know who the ninth hero was?”

  Donal shook his head. “Mom doesn’t like being called a hero, and neither does my uncle. Was Gregor there? Maybe it was him.”

  Chris shook his head. “Gregor couldn’t investigate. It w
as a political thing. So, he sent his college friends, and I guess your mother brought along her brother, so that’s eight. I just think the ninth might be important.”

  “I wonder if he or she died, or disappeared like Dark Mathis,” Jes offered.

  Amalia frowned. “Who was Dark Mathis?”

  “The pirate leader? Didn’t you hear about him growing up?”

  The others shook their heads. “Not by name.”

  They probably don’t have former pirates for their housekeepers. Jes shrugged. “Anyway, are we waiting for dark?”

  Donal smiled. “If we did that, they wouldn’t have a chance to shoot us down.”

  “But …” The others were climbing aboard, and Jes followed. From inside, the skiff looked less like a child’s toy and more like a fairy-tale carriage. It also looked about as sturdy as a soap bubble.

  I don’t think it’s heights I’m afraid of, just falling, Jes reassured herself. She followed Donal’s example and strapped herself in, then took a deep breath.

  The skiff was nearly soundless, so quiet that for a moment she could make out each of their breathing. Then it slipped out the hidden tunnel in the cliff and into open air.

  Even though it looked like she was sitting mid-air, Jes found that the height didn’t bother her at all. The ships below in the sea looked like toys, and the ocean was made of a dozen shades of blue and gray.

  “Airship on your six,” Chris warned.

  “Another approaching on your nine,” Amalia added.

  Jes looked around, trying to figure out what they meant. Who gives directions by pretending that they’re sitting in the middle of a giant clock? My friends, that’s who.

  “Does this thing have weapons?” Amalia asked, a hopeful lilt to her voice.

  “No. Mom is super stingy with weapons. But we won’t need any.”

  “But you said they’d shoot us out of the sky,” Jes protested.

  “Well, I’m sure they’ll try.” Donal sounded far too cheerful as he operated the controls, and Jes thought it likely that her peaceful ride was about to be ruined.

  The sun was setting behind the castle so that as they moved, they went from bands of bright light to bands of shadow.

  “Incoming!” Chris yelled, and Jes jumped, despite the harness. Donal adjusted the controls, and they jerked to one side. It felt to Jes like her stomach had been left behind. The air where they had been the moment before erupted in flame and shrapnel.

  “Close enough,” Donal said cheerfully and pushed the controls all the way forward. They slanted toward the blue gray waves, faster and faster, and Jes smothered a whimper, closing her eyes just before they hit.

  There was a slight impact, and then Jes opened her eyes again to confirm that they were still alive. “Wait, this thing goes underwater?” A spotlight lit up their path. The harbor was deeper than she’d expected, although a shipwreck was impaled upon a rocky spire to one side. A school of blue and yellow fish darted out of their way.

  “This is the coolest thing ever!” Amalia crowed.

  “I want one,” Chris nodded. “But it needs weapons.”

  Donal grinned. “It has other things, though.” He hit a button, and pieces of twisted metal rose up beside them, headed for the surface. “Now they’ll be sure they got us.”

  “Where to now?” Jes asked. She watched the fish go by through the glass. Water was so much calmer than dropping out of the sky.

  “Mom is east-northeast, so somewhere on the mainland. Probably near the capitol city, where my uncle lives.”

  Amalia and Jes exchanged glances again. “Do your mom and your uncle get along well?” Amalia asked.

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Donal answered, adjusting their course. “We only see him a couple of times a year, but he’s pretty cool. He likes to make things like I do.”

  Since you couldn’t even talk to Donal when he was in the middle of a project, that didn’t guarantee that Kegan and Queen Melia were close. On the other hand, Donal was a great friend once you got his attention. Jes shook her head. There were too many questions and not enough answers.

  Donal pointed out the weird crystalline vents that powered the islands when they rose and fell. “My uncle has been studying them in between all his other projects. Imagine what we could do with that kind of technology!”

  Jes bit her lip. Lady Umber knew how to raise and lower the islands. Where else could she have learned that?

  * * *

  An airship would have been faster, but Donal’s skiff could beat every surface ship she’d ever seen. The water looked darker and more dangerous after the sun had fully set, and Donal piloted them past shadows just beyond the spotlight’s reach that could have been reefs or sea monsters.

  She drifted off to sleep, and when she woke, she saw that Amalia and Chris were asleep, too. Donal still piloted the skiff, his eyes intent. Jes unstrapped and made her way forward.

  “Can you teach me how to pilot?” she whispered.

  Donal grinned. “Sure,” he whispered back. “It’s pretty easy. Pull back to go up, push forward to go down. This lever on the left to go left, this lever on the right to go right.”

  He unstrapped and moved over for her to take his place. Jes sat down and grasped the controls gingerly, then a little more firmly as she felt them vibrate. She made tiny changes experimentally, enjoying the sense of control.

  “You have to really watch the edges of your light so you’re prepared to adjust before you have to.” Donal helped her navigate around a reef, then sat back and watched her. A large object in front of them moved out of their way just as Jes was about to go around it. She stared after it for a moment, open mouthed, then looked ahead again.

  “What was that?”

  Donal shrugged. “Big shark, small whale, baby sea monster. We don’t look like food, so nothing is likely to bother us.”

  Jes shuddered. The water didn’t seem quite as soothing, but it was still fun to feel in charge.

  “Do you want a nap?” she asked. “I’ll wake you if anything gets interesting.”

  Donal checked a few instruments, then nodded. “We’ll be getting to the mainland just before dawn. I’ll set an alarm for a bit out so we can all wake up and get ready.”

  He went back to her seat and strapped in. In a few minutes, his breathing had slowed to match Amalia and Chris. Jes looked out into the endless dark beyond her spotlight and maneuvered the skiff from side to side.

  Reefs rose up from one side or another, and fish big and little darted out of the light as she approached. Once, a mass much larger than the last creature moved directly in front of her, and she moved north as it shifted south. An enormous eye just caught the light as she skimmed on by. Not a baby this time. It was both terrifying and oddly peaceful to venture on like this. If I knew my people were safe, I’d be happy doing this.

  It was a little over twenty-four hours since the controls had flooded. Lady Umber and the others couldn’t close the vents until they closed the doors that had flooded the tunnels. They might have ways to go underwater—did androids need to breathe, and did water hurt them?—and she had to assume that they knew how to fix everything she’d done. Draining the water without the vents help would take time, and it would take even more time to build the pressure up in the vents. If they were completely on top of things, they could sink her island in just over another twenty-four hours. Half the time she’d delayed them was already gone.

  By the time the alarm woke the others, she’d made some hard decisions.

  “Saving our parents has to be our second priority,” she said firmly as Donal took the controls back from her. “We have to stop the androids from sinking our islands.”

  Chris opened his mouth to argue, then shut it. Amalia scowled, but nodded. Donal frowned.

  “I’d say that Mom was the best person to stop them, but it’s true that Uncle Kegan would be just as useful.”

  Jes took a deep breath. “Donal, what if your uncle was the one who built the androids?”
/>
  Donal tilted his head as though thinking. “He might have built them. I don’t think he would have planned for them to be used this way. But if he did, then he’s the most important person to stop. Either way, I think we should go to him first.”

  Amalia nodded, one hand on the hilt of her sword. “So, can you get us there without being seen?”

  Donal nodded. “Uncle Kegan’s workshop is right off the Silent River. I can get us right to his back door.”

  8

  The Silent River split off from the Song River just east of the capital and traveled straight from there to the sea. It was not, Donal informed them, especially quiet, but it lacked all the waterfalls and sharp turns and unexpected shallows of the Song. This made it perfect for an approach by the skiff.

  They moored the craft by the river’s edge, just as the sky was turning red. After they had all clambered ashore, Donal sank the skiff down to the bottom of the river so no early morning craft would run aground on it.

  While South Waveborn had seemed strange to Jes because of its trees, and West Waveborn because of its white stone castle, the mainland was just alien. Dozens of different types of birds flew and called around them, and odd furred mammals scurried by in the underbrush. Plant life was everywhere, and thickets and trees crowded directly up to the water’s edge.

  Donal led the way through a series of hedges that he explained was a maze. “The key is just one seventh expressed as a decimal,” he explained, “starting with right.” He sighed at their blank looks. “Point one four two eight and so on. First right, fourth left—easy.”

  They just followed him, not arguing the point. The maze led them to a back door that was locked.

  “I’m sure I have explosives on me,” Donal muttered.

  Amalia pulled a pin from her hair. “Let’s save the explosives for after they know we’re here.”

  I am the most boring person in the whole world, Jes decided. I don’t swordfight, I don’t blow things up, and I don’t know how to pick locks. At least the last was something she might be interested in learning.