Page 73 of The Only Way Out Is Up

“But two hundred stripes. That would be more than we need. You could build something that would take Vripiai to pieces.”

“I couldn’t, because I’d be dead.”

“I’d come with you,” she says. “Give me a couple more days.”

“Okay, then we’d be dead. I don’t think you’re grasping the key point here.”

“What makes you so sure?”

I shake my head. “It’s a matter of size. Do you know anything about Twisted?”

“They’re like runics, but crazy.”

“That’s not exactly right. Twisted don’t have cores or foundation sigils like runics do. With a runic, if you can get at the core, you can always kill it. Like a person’s heart or brain. Twisted aren’t like that. They’re”—I wave a hand vaguely—“distributed. Each bit connected to all the other bits. There’s no vital point to hit.”

“But you kill Twisted all the time.”

“If you hit them hard enough, you can disrupt their network, and it’ll die out.” I grope for an analogy. “It’s a bit like a fire. Blow lightly on a candle, and the flame will flicker but flare back up when you stop. Blow hard, and it’ll go out. You break them, rip them apart, and they lose cohesion.”

“So—”

“But the bigger they are, the harder it gets. That’s why you need a whole team to fight a really big Twisted. You have to hit it all together, over and over, or else it’s like trying to stamp out a fire in dry tinder. The older the Twisted, the bigger it gets. And Rotwurm is old. It’s got a territory right near the center of the Heap, and it doesn’t seem to mind when a block of concrete the size of a house falls on it. I don’t even know if it can be killed. It’s like trying to blow out a bonfire.”

“Hmm.” Ky’s brow creases in thought. “You’d need something that can output a whole bunch of power all at once.”

“Exactly. Even Bug Zapper wouldn’t be enough—”

“What about the weapon you used against Gestian?”

I pause. We haven’t talked much about exactly what happened that night; I hadn’t been sure she remembered everything well.

“That flash,” Ky says. “Very bright, all at once. I’m not a sigworker, but that sounds ideal, right?”

“That wasn’t…” In truth, I don’t know what it was. Like an EXPLODE, but not. “The light alone wouldn’t harm a Twisted. You’d have to use HEAT, or FORCE…”

“But it could work, right?”

“I have no idea. I’ve never even seen Rotwurm. All I have to go on are stories.”

“We could test it on some of the smaller Twisted.”

“Except that building the weapons would cost more than we can afford. They burn out after one shot.”

She taps her pursed lips, thoughtfully. “Maybe we can get an advance?”

“For fighting Rotwurm? Ekkeban would laugh in my face.”

Ky grins. “Let me talk to him.”

“Hey, Taj,” Ekkeban calls from behind the counter. Then, in a deeper voice, “Oh. Hello, miss.”

“Hey,” I say, but he’s not paying much attention to me.

We took a few moments in the market for some last-minute preparations. Ky undid her braid and combed out her hair into its full breathtaking waterfall, draping it over her shoulder like a river of silver. Her dress is still the same faded, patched thing, but she bought a red shawl from a vendor, and the contrast with the silver is striking. She gives him a little smile, warm but shy, and pretends to be interested in some of the junk on the shelves. I affect nonchalance and head for the counter.

“I’m gonna need some more stuff,” I tell him. “More of those reversible joints, some long spars and blades, a stack of sigils, and a few more blanks—”

“Who’s your friend?” Ekkeban says.