Unknotted

The Sparkers, driven by promises of sugar and freedom, moved faster than I anticipated. I flicked on the headlamp and slid into the chamber. The magnets in my gloves and boots clicked sharply against the metal walls. I reached to close the door behind me when footsteps echoed on the high breezeway that crossed over the generator room. Quickly, I turned off the headlamp and hunched behind the cover of the chamber.

“The seller has postponed the meeting again.” The voice was young, like a boy entering adulthood. Though he seemed to be delivering unfortunate news, he sounded impressively chill about it.

“If we didn’t need the hybrid, I’d butcher him for parts.” The second voice was deeper, older, crueler. “When is the new meeting?”

“Tomorrow. At some burger joint.” A rustle of paper. “Um… Chubby Burgers? On the outskirts of Lothny Creek.”

A pause. “Is that Keadan or Namen territory?”

I couldn’t help it. With trigger words like “seller” and “meeting” and “butchering for parts,” my interest in their conversation was piqued. Talking like that, they had to be up to something nefarious. Up to something I should know about. I dared a peek out the maintenance door.

The older enchanter had his back to me. He was tall, broad shouldered with jet black hair peppered with white on the sides. The younger had the looks of a boy from one of those pop bands Peth adored. Shaggy hair that, with a jerk of his head, he flicked from his pretty face. He was all bright white smile, soft eyes, and peach-fuzz jawline. He looked too nice to be in a shady line of work.

Boy Band shrugged. “Could be changing as we speak. It was in Namen’s boundaries this morning, but last reports said Keadan is making headway.”

“Hybrids,” the other man growled.

Boy Band’s face scrunched in confusion. “I thought we wanted them fighting.”

“We do.” The enchanter marched across the breezeway. “Doesn’t mean their constant border wars aren’t a nuisance. Will the meeting’s location change if the battle goes poorly?”

Boy Band held up his phone, keeping stride with his companion. “Want me to call—”

Their voices vanished behind a closed door. I glared at the obstruction barring me from discovering who Boy Band intended to call, then turned back to my task. Quickly, I led the Sparkers up the chamber to a release valve and held it open while they escaped.

“Keep to the shadows,” I instructed. Simpleminded as elementals were, they followed directions impeccably. “Descend into the storm drains. Sugar and directions to safety will be waiting.”

I had to trust that the head of the Ebbing Society had organized his portion of this operation. Helt was more reliable than the Core, so I had no doubt further assistance awaited the freed Sparkers.

After the last Sparker escaped, I pulled a tube of glue from my belt and squirted a generous amount around the seal of the pressure valve. The stronger-than-your-average glue was one of Peth’s special blends. Though heat resistant and unnaturally strong, it wouldn’t hold forever. Just long enough to cause the desired effect. I glued all the release valves shut before descending back into the generator room, then onto the boiler room.

There, I took fist-sized bundles from the large pouch on my toolbelt, lit the slow-burning wicks, and tossed one in each furnace, along with handfuls of sugar cubes. The smoke from the wicks was laced with a powerful sedative that would offer the dying Sparkers relief from their pain and make them sleep through the chaos that would soon befall the factory.

I noted the time on my watch. We had fifteen minutes to clear Broshot properties before being snagged in our own trap. I ascended the stairs to find Peth waiting.

“Do you have Jik?” I whispered, taking my toolbox.

Jik, smiling widely, peeked out from the curtain of Peth’s thick ponytail. “My turn to push the button.” He vanished back into her locks.

The floor rumbled, and steam in the boiler room hissed. The overhead lights flickered on. Gears groaned back to life, the automobile assembly line kicking back into motion. A shout of victory rose from the factory floor, as if the low-level enchanters and magic-dependent gremlins had spurred the factory back into action themselves. How Jik could stop and start an operation this big by the simple push of a button, I hadn’t a clue. Lucky for me, he was on my team. At least until he gave up hope in pursuing Peth.

I stopped at the office door to find the enchantress behind her desk. “Job’s all done.”

“Too easy,” Peth agreed with a shrug. “The system was jammed. Cleaned it out and replaced a fan.” She lifted a piece of twisted, grimy metal and offered it to the enchantress. “Crazy how something so small can shut down the whole operation.”

The enchantress held up her pristinely clean hands, unwilling to touch the offering. “Yes, very crazy.”

I checked my watch. Ten minutes. “Looks like we finished ahead of schedule. That will be twenty-five hundred.”

“Twenty-five hundred?” The enchantress drew back, appalled.

“Well, the repair was a thousand. As per our agreement, finishing on time doubles that. And five hundred for our rush service fee. Could argue that should also be doubled. Will that be cash or credit? We don’t accept checks.”

The woman inhaled through her nose. “You’re a crook.”

I snapped a card reader device into my phone jack. “Make sure to leave us that outstanding review on Howl.”

“Of course,” she said tightly, tugging her blouse straight. She rustled around in her desk drawer.

I checked my watch again. Seven minutes. That was barely enough time to walk out of the factory. The enchantress freed a card from her wallet and ran it through the reader, which pinged when it accepted the payment. I pretended to tip my cap. “Pleasure doing business.”

Peth led me down the hall. The two enchanters from the generator room were heading our direction. My grip grew slick on my toolbox. My toolbelt filled with incriminating items felt heavy and conspicuous.

I finally received my first look at the older enchanter’s face. He was stocky with an intimidating build. His short hair faded into large sideburns. The depth of the black surrounding his neon irises was emptier than the Void.

I slid half a step behind Peth. Most dynamists had no interest in trolls and ignored them entirely. If these two were what I thought they were, then I, a hybrid on Tredema inside a Broshot factory, would catch their attention. And attention was one thing that I loathed.

Closer up, I could see Boy Band’s irises were surrounded by dark gray—an indication that he wasn’t as strong as his associate, but he was on his way to becoming so. He didn’t acknowledge Peth and, despite my attempt to avoid his notice, he offered me a charming smile and a wink as he passed.

I pushed my glasses up my nose and giggled, as if his smile had the power to make me lose all sensibility—a humiliating display that he lapped up as a kitten does milk. Then, I hit the camera button on my glasses. Maybe Helt could identify these two enchanters while I sorted out what devious deeds they were up to.

Peth, with Jik tucked in her collar, and I made it outside into the dim light of Tredema’s daylight just as our time ran out. I glanced back at the factory’s doors and checked the time. The bundles I put in the furnaces would only burn for ten minutes, during which the steam should have built to an unsustainable level with the release valves glued shut.

“Jik…?” I stepped back to see the smokestacks. No steam was rising from them, so the valves were shut still. “You said it would take fifteen minutes.”

“I said about that,” Jik snapped. “Depends on how much pressure was already in the pistons.”

“Coming up short again, Jik,” Peth grumbled.

Thunder shook the ground, bumping me into Peth. Black smoke erupted from the factory’s windows. Smirking, I broke into a run for Bruce. “Think the enchantress will still leave us a glowing review?”

Peth laughed. “Probably not. It’ll take weeks before they have that place up and running again.”

I unlocked Bruce and hopped in. “Want to work a portal tomorrow, Peth?”

She closed the passenger door rougher than necessary. “Not really. Why do you ask?”

“I have a sudden craving and I think there’s a burger joint on Cenzia that might help satisfy it.”