a world full of traps to find the armor before the source code corrupts or before the queen of the Savak finds it. This is not the time for a prank.”
“How about a question instead?” I asked. They looked at me with tested patience. “Does anyone else hear drumming?”
12
MCKENNA
The large ship shifted beneath my feet, the dark waves crashing against the hull, hiding my sneaking footsteps. I stepped in time with the soundtrack. It was so dark, I didn’t need to turn my invisibility on, but I still did because it was dramatic as all heck to step out of the shadows and reappear, look side to side, and then disappear again.
For sure they’d use that shot in the promotional materials.
The tips of my Wingship scraped against the wooden deck as I sneaked into the cabin of the boat. Sailors slept on hanging hammocks, or lounged out on the floor, while one girl slept in a large rolled mattress. She seemed young for a player, maybe fourteen. And small. A slip of a girl dressed in a plain muslin dress, freckled across the nose, her hair braided at both sides and loose curls at the top. Nothing very special, except for the player indicator hanging above her.
I flicked my wrist and a dagger shot into my palm.
Stealth mode, I thought. The soft hum sounded. I stepped around the snoring sailors, lifting my black cape so it wouldn’t trail over their slobbering faces. I crept to the sleeping girl and stood over her, with my dagger raised.
Stealth mode ended, as though someone pulled a cloak of invisibility off my face. “You made it too easy, Catherine,” I said.
The girl woke. I lunged for her, but a hand shot out of nowhere and shoved my stomach hard. I tripped over a sleeping body and fled back. The player indicator rose, and it wasn’t over the girl. Instead, it hovered over a young woman who’d slept behind the mattress—her skirt covered in fringe, her shaggy hair mussed from sleeping, and her mouth twisted into a dangerous snarl.
That made more sense. I wish I’d been able to find her photo before. I flicked my wrist, but by the time the dagger snapped to my palm, the player was on me. She punched my jaw. Clawed at my hair. I shoved backward. My wings carried me toward the ceiling. The NPC sailors awoke with angry startled grunts.
Stealth on.
I flew back, toward the exit. The men on the boat surrounded the young girl, blocking her and the player with their bodies. My chance to knock Catherine out of the game while she slept was gone.
“You can’t have her,” she shouted, searching the room for me, but not finding me. “My young queen will take back the Devani throne, and not one soul can stop our rebellion.”
She must not have drunk the seer water yet. Once she had game vision she’d be harder to tag out, especially since I almost caught her. She’d watch for me closer than I watched the standby line last time I went to New York.
This was bad. The Savak queen’s reputation would be damaged by this failed attempt. I couldn’t let anyone know how off this had gone, or else my stats would drop. I had to be scary. Who would buy a game with a weak queen? They’d shift the marketing focus toward the heroes, and I’d be edited out of the commercials. I couldn’t let news get out, no matter what I had to do to keep it silent.
I closed my eyes.
You practice what you perform. Every time I’d get caught with a dose of stage fright, Ms. Fields told me those words. I’d practiced enough. Catherine was one of the lower-ranked players. I’d run all the tutorials, researched the players, tailored my wings to the highest stats I could. So all that planning should work out now that it counted.
The humming stopped.
Sailors shouted when they spotted me.
I opened my eyes.
Stealth mode on. I landed on soft feet while the sailors fired their weapons where I’d just been. Daggers in both hands, I spun low, slicing stomachs. Then I jumped before they registered an attack. Blood dripped from my daggers as I spun in a flip. My wings caught me. I flicked the stealth mode off so I flashed visible, then on again as I kicked off against walls toward another round of sailors. Slice. Slice. Slice.
Three more NPCs dead.
Catherine threw a glass of something liquid at me. If she