“I wouldn’t go that way if I were you. We just gutted a man down there, and you don’t want to get blood all over your boots. Take the Iron Web. You better get used to it. Clubs use the web, otherwise we never see the sun.”
Yoous picked at his teeth with his huge black fingers. Wardley let out a grunt and began walking back up the spiral, dragging Dinah behind him.
“You’re going the wrong way. Oh gods. Here, take this door.” He walked between two cells, and a short and narrow hallway opened up before them. It led to a thin metal door.
“No locks?” asked Wardley in disbelief.
Yoous gave a laugh. “You think a prisoner would try to escape the Black Towers? Knowing that there is more torture to come when they get caught? No, no one tries to escape. Besides, they would just escape to the Iron Web, where there are always dozens of Cards going about their day. That or fall to their death. They have no dream of escape. Their minds are worn down by the Towers themselves.” He ran his hand across the wall, black and thick and covered with a sticky sap. “Do you know the legend of the Black Towers, son?”
Wardley did, and so did Dinah, but he just shook his head. Yoous took a seat on a decrepit bench, his legs spread wide in Dinah’s direction. She looked away.
“They say the towers were here before any of us, before Wonderland proper, even before the Yurkei tribes arrived. They were always here, huge black roots, twisted into a spiral, exactly seven of them. When the Yurkei came upon this land, they worshipped the towers and built their homes around them. Time marched on, and the towers grew thicker and thicker, until they were a massive black tree, stronger than steel, immune to fire and ax. We carve the doors out where there are gaps in the roots. The Yurkei called them ‘Meis Yur,’ meaning ‘the Old Root.’ They worshipped them, but when the first Wonderlanders arrived, they saw the truth—that the Black Towers were evil. There was a sinister presence about them—they made you sick, made you crazy, made you crave touching their sap.
“You know the rest. Eventually Wonderlanders pushed the Yurkei back into the mountains where they belonged and built Wonderland Palace and its townships. The Black Towers stand as a warning to Wonderlanders—break the law and enter the Towers. Centuries came and went, and the first set of Club Cards built the Iron Web.”
“But if the wood cannot be penetrated—” Wardley began.
“Aye. It cannot be. The iron walkways are completely self-suspended. They were designed by Jackrey, the best architect that Wonderland has ever seen. All the walkways are connected, but none actually touch the towers. It’s how the Clubs get from one tower to the next, from top to bottom. Unless we are inside, in which case, we are probably there for other”—he looked at Dinah; she kept her eyes on the floor—“purposes.”
“And you never worry about someone escaping?”
Yoous stood and stretched. “You feel good since you’ve been here, boy?”
Wardley gave a defeated shrug. “I guess not, no. I feel …” Dinah could see him searching for the word. He cleared his throat. “Unsteady.”
“That’s the towers. It’s inside her roots, some sort of drug that clouds the senses and confuses the mind. Most of the prisoners here are insane, but they didn’t come in that way. The roots make sure of it.” He rose. “I shouldn’t speak any more. This prisoner needs reminding about manners.”
He began unlocking Quizzer’s cell door. The tiny man gave a howl and scuttled to the back of the cell, his fingers clawing his black cell wall. It dripped with slimy black moisture. “Give me the tree for the queen. Give her to me!” he howled.
Yoous slapped him down to the floor with little effort. “I’m thinking a finger or two will remind you not to touch other prisoners.”
Dinah gave a shudder and without thinking, turned into Wardley’s shoulder. He was smarter, and shoved her away.
“Don’t touch me!” he barked.
Yoous pointed at Dinah. “Don’t feel sorry for him. In a week’s time you will envy him. The High Treason Tower houses the worst. Losing a few fingers will be nothing compared to what’s in store for you. Now go, I need to take him down.” He yanked Quizzer to his feet. “Walk!” he screamed.
Wardley didn’t need to be told twice. He pulled Dinah’s chain toward the door. “Er, thank you!” he called, unable to hide his good manners. All he heard in reply was a bloodcurdling scream.
Stepping outside the Black Towers was the closest thing to heaven Dinah had ever experienced. The air was crisp and cool on her face, and she could breathe without fear of retching. There was about a two-foot gap between the doorway and the iron walkway. Wardley helped her to step over the space. That was good, thought Dinah, since she surely would fall to her death without his steady arms. Walking upon the Iron Web was just as terrifying as she had imagined from her bedroom balcony all these years. It shifted ever so slightly beneath their weight, a metal groan rising up from below them. Curling iron arched away from the tower, twisting to several different doors on each tower. The walkways went up and down the towers in gently sloping spirals that suddenly shot into open air before returning down to the ground. The structure soared up in the gaps between the towers, a walkway into the sky. Dinah vaguely remembered her childhood lessons about the Iron Web—it was made of one solid piece of iron, balanced perfectly around the towers, a maze of shortcuts from one to another.
If Dinah squinted, she could see all the way to the first tower. From here she could see that the Iron Web was covered with Clubs in their gray-and-white uniforms, going about their business. They looked like insects, scurrying down and around, moving without fear hundreds of feet in the air. Some carried paperwork, others steaming piles of unappetizing food or chamber pots. All had the same gloomy, focused looks on their faces. Dinah and Wardley watched with fascination at the ease in which they navigated the mazelike twists of the web.
“Come on. We’ve stood here too long. We’re going to attract attention.” Wardley began to lead her carefully down from the tower door. “Hurry,” he said with finality.
Walking as quickly as they could while attached by chain, they stepped out onto a thin iron walkway that arched between all the towers. The ground grew farther and farther away as they followed the twisty path out into the open air between the great Black Towers, humming like hives in the unflinching winter sun. They climbed in silence. Several Clubs gave them strange looks as they passed. Wardley dripped with a nervous sweat.
Being outside the Towers gave Dinah a chance to truly look at them. The black bark was shiny on the surface—it glimmered in the sunlight. Tiny striations marked each strip as it ascended into the sky, and the outline of thickly tangled roots was barely visible. I can see why the Yurkei would worship these, she thought. They are indeed “a colossal and terrible wonder.” She also had a fantastic view of Wonderland Palace from the walkway and paused to look for her apartments.
“We’re almost there,” breathed Wardley, jerking her back to reality. “We find Faina Baker, get our answers, and then we leave. I’m starting to feel bad about this.”
Dinah attempted a smile. “You always felt bad about this.”
“Don’t smile,” he snapped. “I’m not going to end up in here because you can’t keep a smile off your silly face.”
They made their way through the twisted iron until they arrived at the Seventh Tower. They both stopped outside the door: a wide hole in the roots that someone had fitted with steel.
“Take your last breath of clean air,” Dinah whispered.
They inhaled deeply, and Wardley pushed the door open. The Seventh Tower did not smell as strong as the Murderers’ Tower, and Dinah was grateful for that. However, there was a completely different feel in this dark spiral—it felt sinister, as if they