‘What do you want?’ Rachel said. She was holding quite still. Behind the mask, I couldn’t see her expression, but I knew she was focusing on me.
‘I’m here to help you out of that room.’
‘Bullshit,’ Cinder snarled.
‘Turn off the beams,’ Rachel said.
‘Can’t.’
‘Then open the door.’
‘Can’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘Last guy through smashed the controls.’
Rachel swore. ‘Khazad,’ she hissed. ‘That motherfucker.’
‘There’s an emergency cut-off inside the room,’ I said. ‘It’s just under where the beams are coming from.’
Cinder and Rachel flicked their eyes sideways to look. The mirrors beneath the beams looked exactly the same as the ones covering the rest of the room. ‘That takes us away from the door,’ Rachel said at last.
‘I know.’
‘I don’t see any cut-off.’
‘I know.’
‘Fuck him,’ Cinder snarled. ‘You want us dead, don’t you?’
I didn’t answer. A few seconds ticked by with no sound other than the humming of the beams. ‘How do I get there?’ Rachel asked.
Cinder started and nearly got his arm burnt off for his trouble. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’
‘Shut up, Cinder,’ Rachel said wearily. ‘Alex? How do I get there?’
‘There’s a route through,’ I said. ‘Move your head forward and shift about six inches to the side and you’ll see the first part.’ I paused. ‘It’ll have to be you. Cinder’s too big.’
Rachel only nodded. She moved her head and shifted. ‘I see it,’ she said and began to move.
‘Del—’ Cinder said.
‘Catch me if I fall,’ Rachel said, and started sliding through the beams.
If it had been Luna I’d have been terrified, barely able to look. As it was, I watched Rachel with something like indifference. Despite everything, I had to admire her body control. She didn’t tremble at all as she crawled and stretched and balanced over and under and through the beams, heading for their source. I looked into the future and saw her slip and die in agony, and each time I spoke, telling her which way to move, when to stop and when to go. Rachel obeyed without question. Despite everything that had happened between us, in a weird way we still understood each other. I wondered what Luna and Sonder must be thinking, watching from the sealed corridor.
At last Rachel made it. She rested in a crouch, body angled to avoid the beams streaming from the opening just above her. ‘What do I do?’ she said without looking.
‘Put the middle three fingers of your right hand against the mirror just below the beams,’ I said. ‘Up. A little to the right. Now press.’
There was a click and a small section swung open. ‘There should be two crystal spheres,’ I said. ‘Can you see them?’
‘Yes.’
‘Put your finger between.’
There was a pause, then a tiny spark. All of a sudden, as if someone had thrown a switch, the beams vanished. Cinder and Rachel were standing in an empty room.
Cinder turned, looking from side to side. Rachel rose and walked towards the door. ‘It won’t open,’ I said as she disappeared from my sight. ‘You’ll have to—’
At my side, the door seemed to flash green, then crumble to powder, becoming a fine dust that hung in the air. Rachel strode through, followed an instant later by Cinder. ‘—disintegrate it,’ I finished. The room on this side of the trap was a small one, with corridors leading off right and left. Cinder and Rachel entered and stopped, facing me from only a few feet away.
Cinder looked at the smashed controls, then back at me. There was an expression on his face I’d never seen before. ‘Why?’ he said at last.
I shrugged. ‘We had a deal.’
Cinder looked at Rachel. She was studying me, her eyes opaque behind her mask. ‘Outside,’ she said at last, addressing Cinder. ‘We keep him alive, he gets rid of these bracelets.’
I nodded. Rachel stepped forward and held out her right wrist, pushing back the sleeve to reveal the bracelet. ‘Well?’
I pulled out a tool and set to work. Rachel waited patiently while I probed at the bracelet’s inner workings, looking into the future to see the outcome of every action. From time to time my hand brushed against Rachel’s skin. She didn’t react, and neither did I. I might have been her dressmaker.
I finished after five minutes and moved on to Cinder, who stuck his arm out with poor grace. He was in worse shape than Rachel; I could see patches where his clothes had been burnt away, and he smelt of ash and scorched
