The Copper Gauntlet

by Holly Black

  With a whine, Havoc flopped down on the floor, clearly disappointed by all the talking. Havoc was a wolf of action.

  A few minutes later, Aaron and Tamara emerged with bags of their own.

  “Good thing we made those rocks to protect Aaron from scrying,” Tamara said, opening her hand and showing a small pile of them. “And good thing I like to practice.”

  Call stood up with a heavy sigh. “You’re both sure about this?”

  “We’re sure, Call,” Aaron said. Tamara nodded.

  Havoc barked once, like he was sure, too.

  The one gate of the Magisterium that stayed open all night was the Mission Gate, through which older students left and returned from missions and battles. Call and Aaron and Tamara sauntered along, trying to look as if they were on their way to the Gallery to eat candy or watch a movie. They passed Celia, Rafe, and Jasper deep in conversation, and some of the older students, laughing and chatting about their lessons.

  The passageway forked, one path leading toward the Gallery, the other toward the Mission Gate. Aaron paused for a moment, looking around to make sure no one was watching, before ducking into the corridor that led outside. Tamara and Call hurried after him so fast there was a pileup, and they had to disentangle themselves from one another and Havoc. By the time they were done they were giggling, even Tamara and Call. Aaron looked pleased.

  His pleased look didn’t last long, though. They tiptoed down the passage. The air slowly became warmer, and Call could smell sun-warmed rock, leaf mold, and fresh air. The passage sloped up and he could see the stars beyond the Mission Gate.

  Suddenly, they were blotted out. A slender figure rose up in front of them, smirking.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” Jasper said.

  “That is such a tired villain line, Jasper, and you know it,” said Call.

  “Why are you here?” Aaron demanded. “Were you following us?”

  “Because I knew that Call would do something eventually,” Jasper said. “I knew he’d show his true colors. What did you expect me to do, nothing?”

  “Yes, Jasper,” said Tamara with heavy sarcasm. “See, normal people, who aren’t psychopaths, don’t automatically assume the worst of everyone.”

  Jasper crossed his arms. “Oh, really? Then tell me: Where are you going?”

  “It’s none of your business,” said Call. “Go away, Jasper.”

  “Is this about a certain someone’s dad who’s gone on the run?” Jasper quirked an eyebrow at Call. “The mages wouldn’t be happy at all if they knew you were going after him. Master Rufus —”

  “Let’s kill him,” Call said. Havoc growled.

  “Master Rufus?” Aaron looked alarmed.

  “No, of course not Master Rufus! I meant Jasper,” Call said. “Bury his body under a pile of rock. Who’d know?”

  “Call, stop being ridiculous,” said Tamara.

  “Havoc could kill him,” Call suggested. Havoc turned at the sound of his name, looking interested by the prospect. Although the Chaos-ridden wolf had grown over the summer, Call wasn’t sure he could actually kill anyone, but he could sure take Jasper outside and chase him around the Magisterium a few times.

  “And I’m supposed to be the psychopath?” Jasper grumbled.

  Call wasn’t sure what it meant that he’d gone full Evil Overlord on Jasper yet still couldn’t manage to impress him.

  Aaron raised his hand. For a moment Call thought that Aaron was going to settle them down, say that Call should quit threatening Jasper and they should all just go back to their rooms. Instead, black fire sparked between Aaron’s fingers, a web of darkness. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he said, looking right at Jasper, chaos burning in the palm of his hand. “Because I really could.”

  Call was so astonished he couldn’t even react.

  Jasper blanched, but before he could say anything, Tamara slapped Aaron none too gently on the shoulder. “Stop that,” she said. “You can’t just summon chaos whenever you feel like it.”

  Aaron closed his hand into a fist and the darkness winked out, but he didn’t look any less terrifying.

  Tamara pointed at Jasper. “We’re going to have to take him with us.”

  “Take him with us? You’re kidding,” Call said. “He’ll wreck the whole thing!”

  She put a hand on her hip. “It’s not a party, Call.”

  “And I’m not going anywhere with you,” Jasper interrupted, starting to sidle along the cave wall. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t even care anymore. You’ve lost your minds. I’ll forget I ever saw anything. I swear.”

  “Oh, no you won’t,” Aaron said. “You’ll tell the mages on us the first chance you get.”

  Jasper looked mutinous. “I won’t.”

  “Sure, you will,” said Call.

  Tamara took a stone out of her pocket and tucked it into Jasper’s uniform. “Let’s go.”

  “Agreed,” said Aaron. He grabbed at the back of Jasper’s collar. Jasper yelped and windmilled his arms. Aaron’s expression was grim. “You’re coming with us,” he said. “Now march.”

  TRAVELING AWAY FROM the Magisterium was no easy task. They had to navigate through the forest to the highway, Tamara using the map on her phone to help. On the way, there was the possibility of running into elementals and Chaos-ridden animals. Plus there was the possibility of getting lost.

  Still, the weather was nice, and with the sound of cicadas and Jasper’s complaining ringing in his ears, Call didn’t mind the walk. At least not until his leg started to stiffen up and he realized that, once again, he was going to hold the rest of them back. Even on a quest to save his own father.

  If it had just been Aaron and Tamara tromping on ahead, Tamara carrying a heavy stick and shoving it in the dirt to propel her along like she thought she was Gandalf, Aaron’s blond hair glowing in the moonlight, then Call might have complained. But the idea of Jasper having something else over him grated his last nerve. He gritted his teeth, hitched his backpack higher on his shoulders, and ignored the pain.

  “Do you think they’re going to throw you out?” Jasper asked conversationally. “I mean, helping the Enemy. Or at least a henchperson of the Enemy.”

  “My father is not a henchperson of the Enemy.”

  Jasper went on, ignoring Call. “Kidnapping me. Endangering the Makar …”

  “I’m right here, you know,” said Aaron. “I can make my own decisions.”

  “I’m not sure the Assembly would agree with that,” said Jasper. They had passed out of the part of the forest where the trees were younger thanks to the fire and destruction wrought by Constantine Madden fifteen years ago. The trees here were towering and thickly branched. More moonlight spilled down through the leaves and danced along Havoc’s fur. “Call, maybe you’ll finally get your wish. You could actually get kicked out of the Magisterium. Too bad it’s too late to bind your magic.”

  “Shut up, Jasper,” said Tamara.

  “And, Tamara, well, your family has been disgraced before. At least they’re used to it.”

  Tamara smacked him on the back of his head. “Give it a rest. If you talk too much, you’ll dehydrate.”

  “Ow,” Jasper complained.

  “Shh,” Aaron said.

  “I get it,” Jasper said sourly. “Tamara already told me to shut up.”

  “No, I meant everyone, be quiet.” Aaron crouched down behind the moss-covered root of a tree. “There’s something out there.”

  Jasper immediately dropped to his knees. Tamara rolled up her sleeves and got into a crouch, one of her hands cupped. Fire was already sparking in her palm.

  Call hesitated. His leg was stiff, and he was worried that if he crouched down, he wouldn’t be able to straighten up again, at least not gracefully.

  “Call, get down,” Tamara hissed. The light between her palms was growing into a shimmering square. “Don’t be a hero.”

  Call almost couldn’t hold back a sarcastic laugh at that.

  T
he shimmering square rose, and Call realized that Tamara had shaped air energy into something that functioned like the lens of a telescope. They all leaned forward, as a valley below them sprang into view.

  Looking through her magical lens, they could spot a circular clearing with small, brightly painted wooden houses spaced equidistantly around it. A large wooden building stood at the center. It had a placard over the door. To his surprise, Tamara’s magical lens allowed Call to read the words on it. THOUGHTS ARE FREE AND SUBJECT TO NO RULE.

  “That’s what’s written on the Magisterium entrance,” he said, surprised.

  “Well, on one of the entrances, anyway,” said a voice behind him.

  He spun around. A man stood amid the fallen leaves and ferns, dressed in the black uniform of a Master. Jasper gasped and scrabbled backward until he hit the trunk of a tree.

  “Master Lemuel,” he gulped. “But I thought you — I thought they —”

  “Fired me from the Magisterium?”

  None of them spoke for a long moment. Finally, Aaron nodded. “Well, yeah.”

  “I was offered a leave of absence, and I took it,” Lemuel said, scowling down at them. “Apparently, I’m not the only one.”

  “We’re on a mission,” Tamara said with vast sincerity and not a little annoyance. “Obviously. Otherwise, why would we have Jasper along?”

  She really was a good liar, Call thought. He’d acted like it was a bad thing. But right then, he was glad.

  Jasper opened his mouth to protest — or possibly tattle — when Aaron clapped him on the shoulder. Hard.

  Master Lemuel snorted. “As if I care? I don’t. Run away from the Magisterium if you want. Use your magic to get into nightclubs. Joyride on elementals. I don’t have any apprentices to look after anymore, thank goodness, and I certainly have no intention of looking after any of you.”

  “Uh, okay,” said Call. “Great?”

  “What is this place?” asked Aaron, craning his neck to look around.

  “An enclave of like-minded individuals,” said Master Lemuel, making a shooing motion with his hands. “Now run along. Go.”

  “Who’s there?” asked an older woman with freckled and sun-browned skin, wearing a saffron-colored linen dress. Her white hair was braided up onto her head. “Are you terrorizing those kids?”

  “We know him,” said Tamara. “From the Magisterium.”

  “Well, come on,” the woman said, turning and beckoning them. “Come have a cold drink. Hiking through the forest is thirsty work.”

  Call looked over at Tamara and Aaron. If Jasper started complaining about being their prisoner, would Master Lemuel find it funny? Had he heard that the Alkahest was stolen? Call was sure he wouldn’t find that part amusing.

  “We should probably just get going,” Tamara said. “Thanks and everything, but —”

  “Oh, no, I won’t take no for an answer.” The woman hooked her arm with Aaron’s, and Aaron, always polite, let her begin to lead him toward the encampment. “My name is Alma. I know what kind of awful food they feed you up at the Magisterium. Just stop in for a visit and then you’ll be on your way.”

  “Uh, Aaron,” Call said. “We’re kind of in a hurry.”

  Aaron looked helpless. He clearly didn’t want to be rude. Social pressure was, apparently, his kryptonite.

  Master Lemuel looked more annoyed than pleased, so probably that meant it wasn’t some kind of trap. With a sigh and a speaking look between himself and Tamara, he followed Alma and Aaron down a gentle sloped incline toward one of the houses with a small porch and blue-painted stars on the door. Inside, Call could see a little kitchen with long wooden shelves lined with hand-labeled bottles. A wood-burning stove smoked in the corner, a hammock swung in another, and a quaintly painted table with chairs was in the center of the room. The woman opened a cabinet, which was full of misting ice. She stuck her hand inside and came out with a pitcher of slushy lemonade, the glass cloudy with cold and several slices of lemon floating inside.

  She placed a few mismatched glasses and started to fill them. Aaron snatched one, guzzled it down, then winced in pain.

  “Brain freeze,” he explained.

  Call thought uncomfortably about gingerbread houses and old ladies and didn’t take a drink. He didn’t trust Master Lemuel and he definitely didn’t trust anyone who could put up with Master Lemuel either.

  He did, however, sit down on one of the chairs and rub his leg. He couldn’t remember anything bad about sitting in fairy tales.

  “So, this place?” Tamara asked. “What is it?”

  “Ah, yes,” said the woman. “Did you see the sign above our Great House?”

  “ ‘Thoughts are free and subject to no rule,’ ” repeated Tamara.

  The woman nodded. Master Lemuel had followed them to the house. “Alma, I know these children. They’re not just trouble — they’re the epicenter of trouble. Don’t tell them anything you’ll regret.”

  She waved vaguely at him and then turned back to the kids. She pointed at Havoc, who whined a little and moved behind Call’s chair. “We study the Chaos-ridden. I see you have a wolf with you — a young one. The Enemy put chaos into both humans and animals, but while the chaos seemed to rob people of speech and intelligence, animals reacted differently. They continued to breed, so that the Chaos-ridden creatures of today never knew the commands of a Makar, because there wasn’t one, until now.”

  She looked at Aaron.

  “Havoc responds to Call, not me,” said Aaron. “And Call isn’t a Makar.”

  “That’s very interesting to us,” Alma replied. “How did you find Havoc, Call?”

  “He was out in the snow,” Call said, brushing the back of his fingers against Havoc’s ruff. “I saved his life.”

  Tamara gave him an incredulous look, as though she thought that Havoc would have been fine without him.

  “Havoc was born Chaos-ridden,” said Alma. “There are no humans like that. Humans can’t have chaos put into them; the human Chaos-ridden are made from the freshly dead.”

  Aaron shuddered. “That sounds gruesome. Like zombies.”

  “It is gruesome, in a way,” said Alma. “There is an old alchemical saying: ‘Every poison is also a cure; it only depends on the dose.’ The Enemy managed to cure death, but the cure was worse than the original condition.”

  “Master Milagros says that,” said Jasper, narrowing his eyes. “Were you a teacher at the Magisterium?”

  “I was,” said Alma. “At the same time that Master Joseph was there, experimenting with void magic. So were many of us. I helped with some of his experiments.”

  Tamara tipped over her lemonade glass. “You stood by as Constantine pushed chaos into people, into animals? Why would anyone do that?”

  “The Order of Disorder,” Call whispered. They had to be part of it. In the book, it had said they’d turned to researching Chaos-ridden animals. Where else would they find Chaos-ridden animals than in the woods around the Magisterium? They were the creators of the Alkahest.

  Alma smiled at him. “I see you’ve heard of us. Haven’t you ever asked yourself what Master Joseph and Constantine Madden were trying to do?”

  “They were trying to make it so no one ever had to die,” said Call.

  Everyone looked at him oddly. “Way to pay attention in class,” Aaron said under his breath.

  “We are all beings of energy,” said Lemuel. “When our energy is expended, our lives end. Chaos is a source of endless energy. If chaos could be placed safely inside a person, he or she could feed off that energy forever. He or she would never die.”

  “But it can’t be,” said Aaron. “Placed safely inside a person, I mean.”

  “That’s what we’re still trying to determine,” said Alma. “We’re working with animals, because animals seem to react to chaos differently. Your wolf has chaos inside him — he was born with it inside of him — but he still has a personality, he has feelings, doesn’t he? He’s as alive as you are.”
r />   “Well, yeah,” Call said.

  “And he is absolutely, definitely, not ever going to snap and eat our faces,” Jasper interjected. “Right?”

  “Who can say?” offered Master Lemuel. He certainly appeared to be happier here than he had been as a teacher at the Magisterium, Call thought. Half of his mouth was turning up as though he might actually smile.

  Jasper slid down in his chair. “Crud.”

  Tamara glanced around. “So if you’re studying Chaos-ridden animals, do you catch them? Do you keep them in cages?”

  Alma smiled and eyed Havoc in a way that Call didn’t like. “So tell me about your mission. What’s your assignment?”

  “I thought you said you didn’t care where we were going,” Aaron said to Master Lemuel.

  “I don’t. I didn’t say nobody would care.” Lemuel’s half smile turned into a full, malicious one. “It’s not easy to run away from the Magisterium.”

  “Drew sure found that out,” muttered Jasper.

  Master Lemuel flushed. “Drew wasn’t really trying to run away. Everything he said about me was a lie.”

  “Look, we know that,” Aaron said, raising his hands in a gesture for peace. “And we are on a mission, just not one that everyone at school knows about. So if you could tell us the fastest way to the road —”

  There was a commotion outside.

  A middle-aged man with a bald head and big bristly beard rushed into the room. “Alma, Lemuel! The Masters from the Magisterium are coming this way. It’s a search party.”

  Lemuel looked smugly at Call and the others. “Not running away, huh?”

  “Just for the record,” said Jasper, “these people kidnapped me and are forcing me to go with them on a stupid mission to —”