The Rebels of Gold (Loom Saga #3)(13)
Arianna’s stomach shot into her chest as she went into a free fall. She clutched the dagger with all her might.
The wooden bridge groaned under her, sagging with her weight. Arianna tumbled and dug her free hand into the grooves, using claws and splinters to gain purchase on the decaying walkway.
Now her nerves raced. Her chest heaved. Her eyes dilated, adrenaline providing a clarity no magic could ever match. Arianna grinned into the blackness, holding her cooling dagger away from both herself and the wood.
It felt good to be back at work.
She rolled onto her stomach and hopped up. Letting the fading heat of the dagger continue to give her just enough light, Ari summoned her gold line back to her spool. When it was wound up tightly, she focused on her next challenge.
The door was old and rusted, and the lock looked equally frail. Arianna sighed. She had so wanted an actual challenge when it came to breaking into the guild—the opportunity to exercise a bit of finesse.
With a smash of her boot, the door nearly fell off its hinges and alerted the ghosts of the Ravens’ Guild to her forced entry. This doorway had been long forgotten; not a soul stirred in the dark tunnel it revealed. She moved forward fearlessly, guided by the light of her dagger.
Eventually, she came to a circular room with six connecting archways. Arianna paused in the room’s center. Bruising had started to blossom on the fingers that clutched the dagger, working up her wrist with slow purpose. As her magic exhausted, her body began to break down, one burst blood vessel at a time.
She had to find her way up before her light faded.
In the thin layer of dust that coated the floor, a single track led from one hall to the other. Someone must be using this old intersection.
The two halls breathed from one to the other as if they were old friends, whispering little secrets. Wind pushed the flaps of her coat against the backs of her calves ever so slightly. Arianna chose her path based on the knowledge that cool air sought out warmer temperatures.
Her suspicion was affirmed as the hallway began to rise. The faint roar of engines guided her upward past two forks.
She was nearly breathless from magical exertion by the time she saw light, and Ari took a moment to compose herself. The faint glow of a doorway three pecas away told her she’d finally found a way out. She didn’t know if it would lead her into the guild proper; she wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d somehow overshot the hall entirely.
Arianna tilted her head back and closed her eyes, letting her breathing slow and her skin mend. In so many ways, she was her best in moments like this: alone, working for what she needed, taking odd jobs with a clear beginning and end.
But that would mean leaving Florence adrift in a rising sea of chaos. It would mean never seeing Cvareh again. Arianna didn’t want to admit why that fact put such a profound ache in her chest. A life of crime and obscurity would have to wait, at least for now.
Arianna opened her eyes and kept moving.
The doorway opened onto a walkway above a large track. As she crossed the threshold, a trike came whizzing around a far corner, speeding underneath her in a blink. She couldn’t even make out that a person was driving the machine, and for that reason alone she was confident there was no way the Raven would’ve seen her as anything more than a rogue guild member wandering the halls.
The Ravens’ Guild had a helix of two tracks spiraling around a central core. The only way to get up, according to Louie, was by driving one of those chaotic machines to the desired level. Down the curving track, a large yellow “2/1” was painted on the far wall.
Well, that’s convenient. She didn’t have far to go. The item Louie had asked her to procure could supposedly be found on level two—the main train terminal for the guild.
In the distance, another catwalk loomed above the track. She waited for two more trikes to pass before casing her line and perching on the railing. The drivers may not notice a random person on the catwalk, or a relatively thin golden line, as they no doubt focused more on not dying in a splatter on one of the curving walls . . . but they would likely not be able to miss a woman swinging from walk to walk.
The sound of an engine in the distance announced the impending arrival of another rogue trike. Four more sped by, then there was a brief stint of quiet. Arianna took her chance, jumping off and using her magic winch box to pull her to the far walk.
It only took three more leaps to arrive at the landing for level two. Steam billowed out from a large archway, half-blocked by a heavy steel door that hung partially closed. The tinny screech of train brakes echoed through the halls.
Arianna watched as men and women flowed in and out of the entryway. Louie hadn’t warned her of this.
The Ravens’ Guild managed the shipping and transport for the world, often using their guild hall itself as a key hub. It made sense there would be only one entrance—an entrance that could be locked down in the case of a nefarious force trying to gain entry.
Arianna did the only thing she could think of: wait and watch. Ravens pulled up in their various vehicles, parked them, and went about their business. There was seemingly no order to their comings and goings.
If only I’d brought my grease pencil. Etching the guild’s mark on her cheek would have made things easier, but she was hardly dissuaded. It was almost mechanical now, seeing different ways to gain access wherever she wanted to go.
Arianna fastened the toggles on her white coat as high as they went, obscuring most of her face to the nose. She reached under the catwalk and ran her hand along the thick layer of exhaust grime that coated the wood and iron from years of use by all manner of vehicles. As suspected, her gray skin was turned black; Arianna rubbed it on both hands and applied it to her cheeks, then to her coat.