The Severed Tower by J. Barton Mitchell Read Free Book Online

shouted from ahead of them, a boy’s voice, somewhat soft, but it carried regardless. “Mira!”
    Holt looked up at the sound.
    The Crossroads was a ghost town this far in, but sitting under a thick, gray canopy was a group of about twenty kids. The canopy was made of tough fabric, strung back and forth between three old fighter jets, marking off a pretty large area of ground. Holt could see sleeping cots, a cooking area, a pool table and showers—and he saw something else, too. From the top of the fabric structure a flag flew, outstretched in the wind. Deep gray and white, with a laughing devil’s face, a forked tongue snaking out of its mouth, horns on its head.
    It was the Gray Devils outpost, Holt realized, but, did that mean…?
    Someone appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Mira. Holt’s first thought was that the Gray Devils were attacking, but it only took one look to know that wasn’t the case. A boy lifted Mira off the ground and spun her.
    He was about her age, with lean muscles under a gray utility shirt. His eyes were full of the Tone, and his hair was razored close to his scalp, leaving a dark outline of color over the top. He had a pair of black-rimmed eyeglasses on his nose, and he smiled up at Mira as he spun her around once, twice … and then kissed her.
    It was a short kiss. That was Holt’s only consolation. But still, Mira didn’t push him away. When it was done she just stared down at the boy with a mixture of emotions.
    “Hi, Ben,” she said in a low, conflicted voice.
    It felt like somebody had just stepped on Holt’s heart.

 
    4. BEN
    BENJAMIN AUBERTINE had never been classically good-looking. He was lean and agile, in good shape, but most Freebooters were. He had sharp features set in an angular face, and a detached self-confidence behind his eyes. His hair was something he didn’t have an interest in maintaining, so he kept it shaved close, leaving a thin layer of black over his head that gave him a hard-edged look that belied his true nature.
    In reality, Mira had never seen Ben fight anyone, never seen him lift a hand in anger, never seen him mad at all. Maybe that was because he had no reason to be. Ben could talk himself out of anything. Mira once watched him convince some Crossmen Freebooters who’d lost their supplies in the third ring that choosing not to rob Mira and himself would ultimately result in two hundred and thirty Points for each of them on the Scorewall. They’d believed him, and he’d been right. That exact amount was figured into their totals when they got back, due to their navigation of the third ring without food or equipment.
    Moments like that were reasons why Mira had been pulled to Ben. She rarely found herself attracted to conventional sorts. She was drawn to different qualities, like intellect or creativity or some unique personality quirk. Even with Holt, for all his obvious physicality, her feelings for him mostly stemmed from his wits, his ability to improvise, his calm under pressure.
    It was the same with Ben.
    Ben was brilliant. He was brilliant everywhere, but most of all in the Strange Lands. He was made for it. His ability to quickly solve complex problems was why he was the best Freebooter in the world. He could study an Anomaly once and have it mastered, could always pass through it from then on, faster than anyone else. His brain was like a sponge for details and patterns, and once something was learned, he never forgot it.
    Looking at him beaming up at her, his eyes sparkling in spite of the Tone, she saw the other reason she’d been attracted to him. Ben relied on facts and logic and numbers, and it made him almost emotionless. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be who he was, someone who went the direction his mind pointed him, not his heart.
    But it had always been different with Mira.
    With her, he smiled. His masks dropped. He shared secrets and dreams, he was a whole person, not an automaton. She was the only one who brought that out in