The Rebels of Gold (Loom Saga #3)(31)

“Was the box developed for the last rebellion?” Powell asked.

“Indeed.” The metallic contraption that occupied her chest, for the first time, seemed loud, as if it wanted to drown out her words—to conceal itself forever under her skin and harness and coat. Arianna pressed onward. She would utter this once, and then never again. “I worked with other guild journeymen in the rebellion on the box. We struck close a few times, but the difficulty lay in finding a way for the blood to remain clean, and the Fenthri body free of rot.

“That was when Eva—” Arianna touched her wrist where Eva’s link mark was dated in ink underneath her skin. “—a fellow Alchemist in the rebellion . . . made a discovery.

“We worked with a Dragon then, one who claimed to seek Loom’s liberation. Who claimed to be on our side. He brought a flower from the sky world of Nova.”

“A flower?” Willard clarified.

“Just so,” Arianna affirmed. “Eva noticed that her reagents didn’t deteriorate in the presence of the flower.”

“Why?” Of course the Vicar Alchemist would be the one to inquire.

“I confess . . . I never fully understood it,” Arianna admitted. “But, together, we found a way to temper gold with this particular flower.” She withheld the name for now; it was too early yet to give them key details. She and Florence still held power as long as they held pertinent information.

“And how does all this relate to the box?” Dove asked.

“Don’t you see?” Willard couldn’t stop himself. “A metal that purifies the blood by merely being in its presence.” He looked back to her. “Do the qualities imbued by tempering wear off?”

“They haven’t yet.” Arianna saw his somewhat confused look and knew it was time to elaborate. “It was critical for all blood to pass through the box continually, to be purified and prevent rot. All blood passes through one location.”

Arianna brought her thumb to her chest.

It was a dark sort of amusement seeing who in the room could follow the relatively simple logic she was presenting them. Willard was the first to get it, followed by the other Rivets. Dove seemed the first, and one of only two, to get it on the Ravens’ behalf. It gave her some faith that all the vicars seemed to put it together.

“Eva performed the surgery, both to implant the box and the subsequent organs to test that I would not fall.” Arianna drew the sharper of the two daggers crossed at the small of her back. “Naturally, I cannot show you what the box looks like at this moment, as I vitally need it where it is. But I can assure you that the operation continues to be a success.”

Arianna wrapped her fingers around the blade and drew it quickly across her palm. She held up her hand for the room to see. Blood, the color of molten gold, dripped from her palm and, in true Dragon fashion, quickly evaporated when exposed to the air. Her wound magically healed over; just like that, all signs of her being the Perfect Chimera disappeared.

All signs, excluding the shock in every set of eyes around the room.

“Traitor to Loom!” One of the Revolver journeymen was on his feet, finger pointed at Arianna.

That certainly wasn’t the reaction she’d been expecting.

“You had this weapon and kept it from us? We could have been fighting the Dragons all along.”

“I do not think a Revo should point fingers about concealing weapons from Loom.” Helen’s biting remark was thrown from the back corner but echoed throughout the whole room.

“Do not speak of what you don’t understand, little crow,” a master Revo cautioned.

“I kept it from Loom because I did not think we had the capability to unite together to use it effectively.” Arianna didn’t need to defend her decision, but she couldn’t stop either. She looked to the vicars, rather than the boy. She didn’t care if some little pistol understood, but the vicars must.

“And look at us proving you right . . .” Her Dragon ears picked up Powell’s murmur. She was liking him more and more by the moment.

“Furthermore, Perfect Chimera would mean war—something I didn’t think Loom could stand more of.”

“That shouldn’t have been your call to make.” Vicar Ethel gave her a wary stare. “It should have fallen to the vicars.”

“And what tribunal? I created the box following the One Year War. There was no effective communication among the vicars, especially none that wasn’t monitored by Dragon ears.” Arianna met the other woman’s gaze. “Furthermore, the Dragon we worked with . . .” Arianna couldn’t bring herself to say Finnyr’s name. And she wouldn’t, not so long as there was any likelihood that they would need to work with House Xin. She wouldn’t taint the relationship out the gate. “He was working for the king all along. We had spies from every angle, and that was before the box was even well known.

“He was the one who infiltrated the rebellion and brought the Riders upon us. It was the dying wish of Eva, of Master Oliver, of every other Rivet, Revo, Raven, Harvester, and Alchemist involved that the research we produced be destroyed, rather than sequestered by the Dragon King.”

The room was silent, an instinctual mourning toward the mere idea of destroying information.

“But you didn’t destroy it?” Willard asked hopefully.