Free Flight of the King by C. R. Grey Page A

doors.
    â€œNow,” Tremelo said. “Tell me what was said in the assembly.”
    Hal spoke up first, unfolding the note with the missing letters.
    â€œThis ‘Reckoning’ thing, she has it set for the Equinox,” he began. “And it’s going to be big—she’s planning to hold a giant Fair in the city, and
she’s invited the whole school. There’s going to be a Scavage game, vendors, and a Science Competition.”
    â€œJust like the one King Melore held, when he was killed,” Tori said, nodding.
    Tremelo was silent for a moment as he brushed his mustache nervously with his thumb and forefinger.
    â€œI too made a discovery this morning,” he said finally. He gestured to Fennel the fox, who sat upright and alert next to Tremelo’s desk. “With Fennel’s help, I was
able to find some plans—blueprints—for a very advanced machine Viviana is commissioning.” He cleared away some books on his desk and smoothed out a large sheet of paper with a
messy conglomeration of shapes and curves drawn on it. Bailey and the others crowded around the desk to get a better look.
    â€œThis casing here is engineered to hold something very powerful,” said Tremelo, tracing his finger around the outer border of shapes. “Given the construction, the piece in the
middle is likely volatile, whatever it is. One thing I
can
tell, it doesn’t run on electro-current—it’s got some sort of other source.…” He trailed off.
“Some of this is familiar—the shape of the casing is conducive for amplification, but of what?” He tapped his finger against the blueprint, lost in thought.
    â€œSir?” said Tori.
    â€œYes. Anyway,” said Tremelo, shaking his head. “It’s impossible, at this point, to decipher what this machine is meant to
do
, but it’s very likely involved
in her plans for this big event.”
    â€œSo, if we can figure out what the machine is for, then we can stop her from using it?” Bailey said.
    Tremelo nodded.
    â€œAnd there’s only one way to find out what it does, though it involves some serious risk,” Tremelo said. Bailey sat up a little straighter. “We have to make our
own.”

“CONSTRUCTING THE CASING should be simple,” Tremelo continued. “I have all the supplies we’ll need in my workshop. The middle
part—this orblike object—that’s what we’ll need to research.”
    He began to name parts they’d need to collect as Tori wrote down the list. Gwen tried to pay attention, but she was still somewhat lost in the shock of the day. The sight of Viviana on the
campus today had triggered a panic that had nearly paralyzed her. She’d had fun dressing up in Phi’s clothes—almost enough to feel normal again. But as soon as she’d seen
the gray uniforms of Viviana’s guards, and then Viviana herself, her hands had begun to shake. And when those guards then edged closer to the woods, she’d felt dizzy.
    Tremelo had been furious.
    â€œYou’re not my student—I can’t tell you what to do,” he’d said after Phi and Tori had shuffled her through the halls to his office. “But I feel
responsible for you. And you’ve proved yourself just as foolhardy, just as obstinate as—” Gwen was sure he was about to say
Bailey
, but he stopped himself. “If you
had been seen by anyone who knows you’re not a student, how would you have explained yourself?” She, Bailey, and Phi had not even thought that far ahead.
    As the group walked from the Applied Sciences building to Tremelo’s garage workshop, Tremelo kept close to Gwen.
    â€œOnce we’re done here tonight, you’ll return to the tree house. If anyone sees you in the meantime, I’ll say…I’ll tell them you’re a visiting cousin.”
He sighed. “Not that that wouldn’t raise