Winterbay by J. Barton Mitchell

Author:J. Barton Mitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

An Idea

Mira’s hands were a blur as she finished the first combination, listening to the hum as it Interfused. Above, the bridge had been retracted back into place, which meant Reiko and Armitage would be on their way down soon. Mira didn’t know how much either of them knew about artifacts—given this was Winterbay, the odds were good they didn’t know much—but she couldn’t take that chance. If they recognized what she was making, it would send up red flags, and red flags were not what she wanted Armitage to see right now.

She shoved the first combination in her pack and went to work on the second, stringing together a mixture of batteries, paper clips, pieces of mirror, coils of copper wire, dimes, quarters, and vials of silvery dust. It was a three-tier artifact, three separate combinations merged into one, and she finished the first just as she heard the door at the top of the stairwell open.

Mira’s heart beat frantically; her hands shook. She’d never made such a complicated artifact so quickly, but she didn’t have a choice. She had to concentrate. The hum filled the air as the second tier Interfused.

The door to the room shook … but it didn’t open.

Mira had shoved the dead bolt home right after she closed the door. It should keep them out long enough for her to make the third tier and finish the—

She heard the metallic sound of a key fitting into the lock from the other side.

Mira’s eyes widened. The simple idea that Armitage might have a key had never even occurred to her. She’d bought herself seconds only, not minutes.

She forced her hands to move, placing one component after the other in a mass with the previous two tiers, blending them together, making sure the alignment was right and the polarity of the coins was correct and doing it all at breakneck speed.

The lock clicked. The door began to groan open.

Mira wrapped the components with green thread into a roughly triangular shape. The air flashed, and there was a hum as the artifact Interfused. She shoved it into her pocket and, at the last minute, grabbed her pack from the workbench and flung it toward the corner of the room.

Her heart pounded as the door opened.

“Time’s up. Pencils down.” Armitage stepped in, followed by Reiko. He was carrying the heavy black case with the radiation symbol, and the sight of it was almost enough to make Mira forget her anxiety. It was a reminder of why she was taking all the risk.

“Why’d you lock the door?” Reiko asked, her eyes finding Mira the moment she stepped inside. Her daggers hung from their sheaths on her chest.

Mira shrugged. “Room full of artifacts in Winterbay. Guess I’m paranoid.”

“Paranoia’s a very good trait,” Armitage replied. “Keeps you alive. It’s what I would have expected from a Freebooter.”

The three stared at one another in silence. If they had any suspicions about what she’d been doing down here or what she might have seen, Mira couldn’t tell.

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