Page 124 of Sparktopia
What do I do now? Leave and go back to bed? It’s what I want to do. Desperately want to do.
But I can’t decide if I’ve found enough information. And just as I’m thinking this, Finn appears in the open door of the other room, holding a bottle of whiskey. He leans against the doorjamb, his eyes unfocused as they travel up a massive wall ofwindows with the most incredible view of the night sky, not to mention the God’s Tower.
He sighs. Drinks. Sighs again. Then he clumsily turns, walking back into the room, kicking the door closed behind him.
Is that the room I’m looking for? Is that the room Auntie told me to find?
Maybe. But it doesn’t matter. It’s the only room I’ve come across. This is the Extraction Tower. I’m here. That goal, at least, has been met. But it’s not enough. I need a yes or no on that room Finn’s currently in, one way or the other.
That’s actual information. Not good information, but what I’ve gathered so far amounts to a whole bunch of nothing.
It’s so close. There’s no way I can leave now. I need to get in there. Just a peek. That’s all I want. Just to see it one time so when Auntie asks for a progress report, I will have information she needs.
Finn is drinking. Probably well on his way to being drunk. The odds are pretty good that he’s going to pass out in that room. Which sucks, because that means I won’t be able to get in there and look around. But there is a lot to see here aside from that room. I must explore. I must havesomethingto take back to Auntie.
“Finn!” Mitchell’s distant voice floats up from downstairs and I go absolutely still. “I’m leaving. Everyone’s gone, but we’ll all be back just after dawn.”
I wait for the door to open again and for Finn to appear and answer his friend. But he doesn’t. There’s nothing but silence.
“Finn?” Mitchell calls up one more time. Then I barely make out, “Fuck it,” as all the lights flip off somewhere down below. A door bangs closed.
I wait, listening for any noises that might indicate that people are still here, but when I don’t hear anything after counting out afull minute, I push my door open wider and take a cautious look around.
The first thing I notice is that this is not a door. At least, not on the interior side of things. It’s a bookcase filled with books. I’m just about to turn away when a spine catches my eye.The Godslayer and His Courtesan.The same book I found in the sewing room back in the dorm.
How odd.
I pull it out and look at the cover, examining it carefully. Taking in the details. It’s a nice illustration, though old and the colors are fading. The Godslayer is portrayed as a beautiful man and his courtesan an even more beautiful woman. Behind them is a desert background because the most popular of the tales take place during the Great Sweep when the winds dominated the world and covered it in sand.
I have an urge to open the book and read it, but it’s a stupid urge because it’s the middle of the night, I’m spying on the Tau City Extraction Master in my nightgown, and if I get caught, my life is over. So I put it back on the shelf.
Anyway, a soft voice inside me says,there’s another copy in the dorm. You can read it any time you like.
Right now, I need to gather as much information about the Extraction Master’s palace as I can. Then I need to get the hell out of here and get as much sleep as possible before dawn breaks and the new day starts because I will not have a single moment to myself until dinner.
Even though the lights are out, the windows are so massive that all three moons in the night sky find a way to shine across the room. Cautiously, I start exploring, walking over to the stairwell first and peeking over the side of the railing. It spirals down another three levels.
But I don’t even consider going down there. The room I need tonight is up here, so whatever is happening downstairs can wait.
The problem is, there’s not much up here. It looks like an observation deck. There’s a desk, the door disguised as a bookshelf, another bookshelf on the opposite side of the room, and a scope that I know from school is used to observe the night sky, but that’s pretty much it. I do carefully, and quietly, riffle through the desk drawers, but there’s nothing in there but writing paper and pencils. No personal items of any kind.
I really need to get in that room. It’s not just for Auntie’s approval, either. It’s for the greater good. I have been chosen to make a difference in the lives of the people of Tau City.Me. Jasina Bell. I am the Rebellion’s secret spy. My name—if I succeed—will go down in history. I will be the reason why the Rebellion triumphs over the evil god. People will talk about me far, far into the future. I don’t even care if I die trying, either. Would I love to mooch off the taxpayers of Tau City for ten years the way Clara Birch did? Yes. Yes, I would. I would take that life if that’s what I was handed.
But I feel like things are progressing in a weird fast-forward way. In fact, I’m starting to get the feeling that there will be no next Extraction. I mean, Finn was pretty clear tonight. First the outburst on the God’s Tower stage and then, plain as can be, he told Mitchell Davies that he wasn’t going to go through with it.
This is when I remember that he almost spilled a secret tonight. A secret about something the Council told him.
Yes. Things have changed around here. I could feel them changing—slowly—as the Maidens were uncharacteristically called into the tower over the years. But Clara Birch’s Extraction tonight is most definitely a turning point and things seem to have reached a precipice.
As far-fetched as it seems, there might not be another Extraction. And if that’s the case, things will fall apart very quickly. Three months, that’s all we have. That’s when the next Extraction Maidens are Chosen and number one is supposed to walk through those tower doors.
Two weeks ago, if you had told me that the Extraction was on the verge of being obliterated, I would’ve agreed—because that’s my mission as a rebel—but I would not have believed it.
Tonight? Tonight it feels not just possible, but inevitable. The wind has turned. The sands have shifted.
The Rebellion could end this in a matter of weeks. And I might be the one to make all that happen.
Forget the gowns, and the coin, and the galas. I need to take every risk. I need to make every sacrifice. I need to be the one who takes down Finn Scott, Tau City’s last Extraction Master. And I don’t care if I die doing it—at least my life will have made a difference.
