Page 44 of Chaos and Crowns

“People will be afraid; it will be chaos,” he murmured.

“Yeah that’s—oh.” What Antony was getting at dawned on her. “You think the Shadow did this?”

Before Antony could respond, Thad materialized at his side.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got trouble,” he remarked. “People are already starting to panic. The Shadow might use this as an opportunity to strike. Attack while people are confused and cut off from reliable information.”

“We need to get the signal back up,” Odelle insisted.

“The man said there was a problem with the antennas on top of some tower. Do you know where that is?” Antony asked.

“It’s hard to miss the Sears Tower,” Odelle pointed out.

“Then we should go there.” Antony’s jaw was set. “I can try to fix whatever is wrong with them.”

Odelle gaped at him.

“I know you’re good,” she said. “but these antennas are not the little things on top of radios. They’re the size of buildings themselves. Besides, I’m sure they already have technicians on it.”

“If it is the Shadow that tampered with them, normal technicians won’t be able to fix it,” Thad pointed out.

Odelle tugged at a loose strand of hair. It would be no mean feat getting Antony onto the roof of the tallest building in the city, but they had come this far. Besides, if this really was the Shadow’s plan…

“Ok,” she said with a sharp nod, “Let’s go.”

“Wait.” Thad stopped them. “I’m going to get everybody else. Try to calm down people on the streets and watch for any attacks.”

“But—” Antony wavered, looking back and forth between Odelle and Thad.

“He’s needed elsewhere,” Odelle insisted. “Besides, it looks like the Shadow is going for the entire city, not targeting me.”

Antony tugged nervously at the neck of his sweater but conceded. The trio made their way out of the building, unnoticed in the hubbub of the chaotic office. All Odelle’s coworkers were too busy trying to put out virtual fires to pay their exit any mind. As soon as they emerged onto the street, Thad loped off in the direction of the park to rally the troops.

Odelle glanced up and down the street, considering how to travel the mile or so to the Sears Tower. Any hope of catching a taxi or a bus was dashed. Cars jammed the street, and not just the normal city traffic. People hung out of open windows, yelling words Odelle could hardly hear over the symphony of horns and sirens. Not even ten minutes after the signals went down, the streets were nearly apocalyptic.

“It’ll take us about fifteen minutes if we walk fast.” Odelle almost had to shout to be sure Antony could hear her over the din. “But I’m not sure I can run in these.”

She looked down in frustration at her legs, wishing she was wearing her running blades. All that training for the half marathon and she wasn’t even going to be able to run when the safety of the city was at stake.

“How about that?” Antony pointed.

Odelle followed his line of sight to find a police horse tied to a lamppost. The accompanying officer stood on the sidewalk nearby trying to calm a hysterical woman with an equally hysterical child on her hip. He was having little success.

“A horse?” Odelle asked incredulously, eyeing the animal dubiously as it stamped at the ground and whickered, clearly affected by the press of people despite its training.

“Advantages of having lived in a time before cars,” Antony said taking Odelle’s hand and pulling her towards the officer.

“I thought Nora said the Eteria didn’t use cavalry—that the magic scared the horses,” Odelle protested, not entirely sure she wanted to add grand theft equestrian to her list of recent crimes.

“Doesn’t mean we didn’t use them for transportation. Besides, I have a way with animals,” Antony reassured.

“But I don’t even know how to get on the horse,” Odelle resisted, now only a few feet away. Somehow, she didn’t think this type of horseback riding would be anything like the docile pony rides of long-ago summer camps.

They edged up next to the massive animal, and despite Odelle’s stature, she instantly felt small. Nothing like two thousand pounds of twitching muscle and a single dark eye staring at her to make her realize the fragility of her bones.

Antony began murmuring something in Greek and the horse seemed to settle, although it still eyed Odelle suspiciously. She was reticent to take her eyes off the animal in case it decided to take a bite out of her, but she chanced a glance at the police officer as Antony unwound the reigns from the streetlight. Thankfully, he had his hands full with the mother, who was now grabbing him by his jacket as she sobbed.

Antony turned and offered the reigns to Odelle, who stared at him incredulously.