Oladel Adewole

"Oh, no, not now!" said Adewole. "Ofira, can your people distract the autogyros? We need time. Do not put anyone in danger, but see if you can divert them." The owl flew off, calling to the other birds. As word spread, the flocks and singletons tacked to follow her. They met the aircraft just a few hundred yards away and circled in a clogging cloud. Some of the sparrows got too close. Blood and feathers sprayed as a gyro's rotors sucked them in. It sputtered but stayed aloft.

A second wind gained Adewole a weak but determined energy. He stumbled to his feet, but the quaking knocked him back down. "Alleine, stop," he cried, "you will bring the Ossuary down on our heads!"

"Down, down, down," she chanted, a blow punctuating each word. The stones parted; the dent became a crater; she jumped into it and hammered at its bottom. "Down!"

"Alleine, listen to me, you must stop, you will kill us," cried Adewole, but the din overwhelmed his voice. Each punch sent dust, pebbles and ever larger rocks raining from the ceiling.

"Karl, you must stop this. She is a child, we do not understand what she may do," pleaded Adewole.

"So you said when I killed you," said Deviatka, "but I'm not worried what it wants to do. It will do as I say."

Adewole staggered down the stairs, coilgun trained on his former best friend. "That worries me even more. Put down the Lyre."

Hildy gasped and stood up from her perch on the desk. "You can't expect me to believe that. A technology that powerful--that's approaching magic!"

"Magic, yes, it does sound like that, does it not?" Adewole switched tacks. "What makes black mercury so powerful, Hildy? Have you isolated what it might be?"

"Black mercury? What about it? What does it have to do with the rising of the island?"

"The ancients of Cherholtz--the city that became Risenton--called it ichor. It means 'blood of the gods.' It is more than a mechanical propellant. Yes, it can be used for that, but if one knows the old secrets it can be used for magic. The Risentoners make an oath at thirteen never to use magic and metal together, and I have discovered why: the ultimate fusing of magic and metal to create power akin to a god's, a Machine God, if you will." Hildy cocked her head and crossed her arms, but he pressed on. "The manuscript I have found details how to make such a god, and I have discovered what happened when he did. The God raised the island a thousand years ago. Thousands, perhaps tens, hundreds of thousands, died." At this point, her not believing him almost appealed. He could say, Ha ha, I was only joking, Miss Goldstein, no, I really need to get back up there because... Because what?