“Look at that mark, Vim,” Bugs said, jumping up and down. “He’s a mage, he’s a mage!”
Jig snorted. “Bet he’s a Farmdoll.”
“Is that what you are, trash-eater?” Vim asked, crossing his thick arms. “Useless? Some kind of third-class mage who dan’ deserve a mark?”
I rather wished I had Kor’s gift. I wouldn’t mind repeating my knife trick with Jig to remind them all not to push me. My thoughts shifted uselessly. If I fought back, they’d think they had goaded me into it. If I stood silently, they’d think they had intimidated me. I wasn’t sure which would be worse.
“Look,” Vim said. “You spooked the voice clean out of him.”
“Aw, look at you. What’s wrong, jilly?” Jig asked with mock sympathy. He dropped his voice, his glare hard as the cutting edge of a knife. “I could zotz you right now, and you’d never even see it coming, like.”
“Jig!” Hayli shouted suddenly, spinning around. “Shut it! What’s wrong with you?”
He straightened, his cheeks tinged with the faintest blush as some of the other kids laughed. For half a moment he studied me carefully, then he gave me a cruel smile and shoved past me, arms crossed, jostling me with his elbow. A sharp sting cut across my arm.
I froze. From the corner of my eye I caught the glint of a knife’s point peeking out from under his elbow. Vim smirked as I twisted my hand over to see the spreading patch of blood on my forearm, but Hayli frowned across the room at me, something like worry or rebuke in her eyes. I sighed. Even she thought Jig could have killed me just then, effortlessly, silently. I’d cheated and beaten him once, but I knew better than to think I’d ever cross him so easily again.
“Wow,” Bugs breathed, all wide-eyed admiration. “You div’n flinch!”
“He div’n even move,” Pika retorted, scrunching her nose. “Div’n see it coming.”
“But he div’n flinch!”
Pika huffed and stomped out of the room. Vim followed her a minute later, and one by one the other kids streamed out the door, until I stood alone with Anuk and Bugs. After a minute Bugs crept up to me.
“I got a bandage,” he said. “D’you need it?”
I didn’t get to answer before he darted off to his bunk, returning seconds later with a blood-crusted linen bandage.
“I got smacked down by Pika last week,” he announced, unashamed. “This was just swell at making it all better!”
“Hm,” I said, eyeing the thing skeptically. “Didn’t you think to clean it before you use it again?”
His whole face scrunched up with silent giggles. “Oy, no. It works even better now. I used it on me bloody nose a couple days ago.”
That made me laugh. “Scram,” I said. “My arm’s fine. Keep it for next time you get bloodied up, right?”
Bugs doubled over, snorting and hiccuping, and bolted back to his cot.
“You’ve got a friend, seems,” Anuk said.
I turned and met his gaze, and didn’t say a word. He’d stood aside while everyone else had badgered me, after all, and though I didn’t really want to antagonize him, I didn’t want to seem desperate for an ally either. Not to mention I’d just beaten him up. I wasn’t sure how friendly he actually felt toward me, for all he played at being civil.
Hayli came up to me suddenly, startling me.
“Sorry, Shade,” she said, and dropped her gaze, chewing the inside of her cheek. “Derrin says you can’t stay.”
Derrin stood just behind her, arms folded now, staring at me as he waited for me to leave. I took my chance, edging around Hayli and stalking straight for him.
“Was my message not clear enough?” he asked. “Should I use smaller words? Get out.”
I smiled. “What’s the worry? All I see here is a pack of wretches hanging on to the one place where they can get someone else’s scraps without having to fight for them. You trying to hide something? Because if you think I care a jot about this place or any of you, you’ve got me figured all wrong.”
Derrin nodded. “Unfortunately, I don’t care enough about you to figure you out right. The door’s behind you.”
I backed up a step, keeping my eyes locked on his. Stars, I hated this game. But resisting was pointless. So I gave him Griff’s mock two-fingered salute to the temple and turned on my heel, and strode (limped) out of the dormitory. I’d almost reached the stairs when I heard the dull clomp of Hayli’s boots behind me.
“You want some shoes?” she asked. “Least I can do. We’ve got a storeroom. Might be some trompers that’d fit you in there.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Don’t suppose you could spare a drink of water, could you?”
She squinted up at me. “When’s the last time you ate?”
I had to think about that, and that fact was enough to make her backtrack to a room that looked rather like a military canteen.
“C’mon,” she said. She headed straight to the food line and hung over the counter, hollering, “Nan! Need you!”
“Y’know I can’t be giving out snacks all the day like—” A thin woman blustered out of the kitchen, but she stopped in mid-sentence when she saw me. “Oh.”
Hayli folded her hands prayerfully. “Just this once please, please, Miss Nan?”
“I just need some water,” I said. “I can do without food if it’s too much trouble.”
Nan measured me carefully, then lifted a hand to move her grey hair from her forehead, trailing flour across the bridge of her nose. “What’s he done?”
“Nothing!” Hayli said. “Oh, hurry though, before Derrin comes in here.”
She huffed. “Oy, I’m not getting crossways with him.”
But she disappeared into the scullery, returning a moment later with a mug of water and a dinner roll the size of my hand. I drained the water in one long gulp, grimacing at the faint taste of dirt and metal, and tucked the roll into my pocket for later.
“You’re lovely,” I told Nan. “Thanks.”
She fought a smile and failed. “Oh aye, gan on, pet. Dan’ forget it.”
Hayli grinned. “If you’re done flirting with Miss Nan…”
I followed her meekly out. She turned down a side hallway near the steps, narrower than the main corridor and poorly lit. At the far end it intersected with another hall, but that one seemed brighter—strangely, unnaturally brighter. Hayli caught me staring and shook her head.
“That’s the way to Rivano’s headquarters,” she said. “It always looks like that. Dan’ think about gannin’ there on your own. Rivano’s mages would have you down in a wink if they thought you weren’t invited.”
“Good to know,” I murmured. “He has a lot of mages?”
“Dan’ na how many, but they’re powerful. There are other mages in the city, but I think Rivano’s got the best of them.”
Halfway down the narrow hall, Hayli stopped in front of a plain door with peeling paint and rusting hinges. She threw all her scant weight against it, but when it just complained and shifted a little, she slammed her shoulder against it again.
“Door’s a beast,” she muttered, wrestling the latch, her hat askew from the battle. “Think…think they imagine it’ll keep us…out.”
The last word she punctuated with one fierce shove, and she stumbled as the door breezed open. For half a minute we stood blinking at the room beyond. A few streaks of dusty grey light drifted through the grime of a pair of high, slatted windows, pooling in faint patches on the floor. It almost felt like twilight, the shadows were so thick.
“Drat,” Hayli said. She grabbed the doorframe and poked her head into the storeroom, squinting into the murk. “Drat! Can’t see a thing.”
“There’s no light in there?” I asked, skeptical.
She blew out her breath through pursed lips. “Nope, what d’you think? It’s just the storeroom.” She looked me up and down. “You dan’ have a torch on you, do you?”
I patted my pockets and shrugged.
“Bother. I’m ganna gan nab someone’s.”
She flitted out of the room and squinted up at me. “Be right back. Dan’ move. Derrin…Derrin’d have my head if he saw you still here!”
I nodded and she shot off. Once she’d vanished around the corner, I stepped into the room and peered through the shadows. From what I could make out, the storeroom barely exceeded the size of my training room at the palace. A few shelving units slouched together on each side of the room. Boxes filled to overflowing lined the walls. I couldn’t see what they contained; I guessed they held castoff clothes. The objects on the shelves were harder, full of corners and sharp edges, but I couldn’t tell what they were.
Barely two minutes had passed when I heard footsteps thudding down the hall. Heavy, slow, steady. Definitely not Hayli’s. An even circle of light flashed on the cement floor of the corridor, then flitted across the open storeroom door. Torchlight. My breath hitched on a shred of panic. I had no way out. I was trapped like a thief, waiting to be caught.
Hide.
I swallowed and edged back toward the wall, watching the light freeze on the open door. As the patch of brightness constricted and sharpened, I ducked my head and held my breath, and willed myself to disappear.
Disappear, disappear, disappear…
I couldn’t tell if it had worked. My heart hammered, and I licked my lips, suddenly dry. Out in the corridor I heard a sudden patter of footsteps.
Then, “Derrin! It’s not what…”
Hayli’s voice trailed away as Derrin appeared in the doorway with a torch. He twisted the long paper tube in his hands, aiming its rounded eyeglass lens around the room. Uncertain light flickered on its brass fittings. A moment later Hayli drew up behind Derrin, her eyes wide with fear. She stopped and frowned, just managing to turn it into a fierce scowl when Derrin turned suddenly to her.
“Did you leave the door to the storeroom open?”
She cocked her head and chewed her lip. “Yeah,” she said, after almost too long a pause. “Thought I’d fetch some trompers for Shade and take them to him. But it was too dark to see, so I went for a torch. Div’n think anyone’d be out and about right now.”
“Poor judgment, Hayli,” he said, but the empty room gave him no reason to think she was lying.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “Can I borrow yours a minute?”
He arched a brow and set the tube on the shelf beside the door. “Don’t be too long.”
She moved aside to let him pass, her lips puckered like she’d eaten vinegar.
“Drat!” she hissed and picked up the torch, sweeping its circle of light slowly over the shelves. The light was already fading, and she slammed the brass cap against her palm as if that would make the brightness last.
“Hayli,” I said.
I waited till she’d spun in my direction, then moved away from my hiding spot. Her eyes widened and she flashed the light in my face. I lifted my arm to shield my eyes, but it didn’t matter; the light flickered and went out, leaving just the scant half-light from the windows.
“Oh, curses!” she said.
“They don’t last long,” I said, coming forward. “Let it rest up a bit and it’ll come on again.”
“You!” She shook the thing at me. “I thought you were a Mask!”
I lifted my hands. “I am.”
“But that was… You just hid like a Cloak. Explain that. And dan’ lie!”
“I never lie,” I said, and thought, Liar.
“You’re a Maven?”
I just met her gaze, because I had no idea what a Maven was but couldn’t risk her realizing that.
Her face cleared suddenly, and she laughed. “Wonder what Derrin’d say to that! Dan’ think Rivano’s got any Mavens at all on his crew.”
“Try it now,” I said, nodding at the torch.
She frowned and clicked it, and a feeble light sputtered across the floor. “That’s enough for me,” she said.
“Let me hold it for you.”
She held it out to me without comment. I took it gingerly to avoid brushing her fingers, and shone the light into the box she chose first. For a few minutes she rummaged in silence, tossing aside a few pairs of boots that would have fit a child, and a few others botched with gaping holes. I stood behind her, one arm wrapped around my chest, and waited.
“I dan’ na why Derrin’s being so cross,” she said presently, her hands stilling on a pair of battered black boots that looked about my size. “I’d have thought he’d love to have a new mage join us.”
“Don’t worry about me. Those’ll do.”
She glanced from the boots to my filthy feet and shrugged. I managed to trade her the torch for the boots safely, and sat straight down on the floor to put them on. My feet screamed as I worked them into the dry leather, and for a few minutes after I’d fastened the buckles, I sat wincing and wondering in what universe this was any better than before.
Hayli flashed the torch in my face again. “Eee, you a’right? You look kind of pale.” I waved at her until she twitched the light away, but before I could answer she said, “Oh, never mind. I got it. Don’t worry about me.”
I snorted at her impersonation of me. “Yeah. And don’t forget it.”
She rolled her eyes and stalked past me, leaving me in sudden uncertainty. I staggered to my feet and tracked the patch of torchlight, barely avoiding suicide by storage shelf in the process. Out in the corridor she flicked the torch off and turned around so suddenly that I didn’t have time to back away.
But she just planted the bullseye lens against my chest and said, “Dan’ worry about Derrin. He’ll come about.”
I smiled. “Seems you think that’s important to me.”
I felt cruel and terrible for saying it, but I had to say it. She stared at me, head tipped like a bird’s, as if she couldn’t understand what had just happened.
“Maybe I’ll see you around,” I said. I backed a step, and thought I ought to leave without another word. But I couldn’t just walk away like that. So I flashed her a smile—a real smile, sincere as I’d ever been—and said, “Thanks for the boots, Hayli.”
Her eyes widened, and I left it at that. I was halfway down the hall when she called after me, but I kept walking, and didn’t even let myself glance back. I wanted to stop. Stars, I never would have thought that being accepted here would mean so much, or that getting kicked out would hurt so badly. I’d never felt anything like it before.
I left the shelter of the Hole and walked straight into Jig. I imagined he’d been waiting for some time, his arms folded and a fierce scowl on his face. I groaned, mentally, and stopped as close to him as I could make myself.
“Miss me already?” I asked.
He grinned, and his hand flashed, and I found myself staring up at the rainy sky. All I could think of was Kor’s first lesson, while blood filled my mouth and my lips turned numb. A boot dug into my side. Grinding pain flashed across my ribs and my vision darkened. Before I could flinch away, another pair of hands grabbed me and I found myself dragged to my feet, bound and helpless. I bucked and pitched and tried to throw off my captor, but there was Jig in front of me again. I ducked my head to avoid one punch but took an upper jab to my jaw. My head whipped back. Grunted as the boot slammed into my chest. Couldn’t breathe. Stars pricked behind my eyes.
I sagged in my captor’s grip. Took two deep, steadying breaths that slipped from my lungs like emptiness. But just the fact of breathing calmed my thoughts, calmed my nerves, steadied my hands. I watched Jig dance in front of me. Felt the solidness of the other kid’s hold on me. When I’d gathered enough shreds of my strength, I pitched back against my captor and kicked out with both feet. We all crashed to the ground, me in a tangle of arms and legs, Jig splayed flat, coughing hollowly.
My captor—Link, I discovered—was the first to recover. He launched up, wrapping me in a bear’s grip, his thick arm around my throat.
“How’s it feel?” Jig gasped.
Red haze fogged my vision. I struggled, beating uselessly against Link’s arms. He wouldn�
��t let go. I knew he wouldn’t let go, not in time. Air…air… My head throbbed…split…my skull would burst with pain…
“Boys!”
Link snatched his arms from my throat and I collapsed, gasping, coughing. The deep bellow didn’t register, but when I rolled onto my side I saw Derrin standing like a force of nature in the doorway, oily red light pooling around him on the step.
“Jig, on your feet.”
Jig groaned.
Derrin drew himself up. “I said on your feet!”
Jig staggered to his feet, clutching his arms around his chest. “That bas—”
Derrin strode forward and grabbed him by the shoulder, propelling him back toward the Hole. He stopped in the doorway and threw a glare at me like lightning, then just twitched his head toward the old front gate. It took all my will not to skulk away like a beat dog, though his stare made me feel about half my age. Vaguely I wondered how he did it, how he exercised so much authority so effortlessly, when he couldn’t have been more than a couple of years older than me. A small corner of my heart envied him for it.
“Link,” he said, turning his fury on the boy still looming over me. “Get inside.”
Link picked his way carefully clear of me and slunk into the Hole after Jig, but Derrin tarried a moment longer.
“Thought you’d already left,” he said.
“Not my mistake.” I winced, waiting for a blow that never came. “I don’t need you winning my fights for me.”
He smiled, barely. Unamused. “Of course not.”
I picked myself up and took a step back, cursing when the pain made me stumble. “What’s wrong with me, Derrin?” I asked. “Did I do something to you I don’t know about?”
“No,” he said flatly. He turned to retreat into the Hole, but paused and glanced back at me. “I’m looking for the name of the Bricks’ supplier. Get that information for me, and we’ll talk. If you survive.”
“The Bricks?” I called after him, but he’d already disappeared.
Chapter 6 — Hayli
I got to the mess late for dinner, only to find that all the skitters who had been out on long jobs at the mills and fishery had got back early and were crammed around the tables, making a royal noise as they all talked over each other. We always felt like a crowd when we were all together.
The Madness Project (The Madness Method) Page 19
