“I just remember the room was white. Everything in it was white. It scared the blazes out of me,” I said. “How could they have found me? I was a blithering bird!”
“The place where they found you. Have you ever woken up there before?” he asked.
“No. Never.”
“Maybe they happened on you by accident. Perhaps you followed someone there?”
“Why would I’ve done that?” I asked.
He tipped his head, almost like a shrug. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, if I did, I dan’ remember it,” I said, scowling.
“Do you think you might be able to find your way back?”
“No!” I cried, more panicky than I meant. “I mean, I was completely conked when they took me there, and again when they threw me back out.”
“Crows are some of the most intelligent animals in the world,” he said, his eyes flickering. “Would the crow be able to find it? This is important, Hayli. This could change everything.”
I sighed and leaned onto my knees, blushing a bit because I’d never even thought about how wonderful the crow could be. She’d always just been a way for me to fly away, to be free, to forget.
“I suppose I could try,” I said.
The little pipes out in the park were coughing up their sulphur stench again, but the wind batted it mostly away from us. I cleared my throat a bit and tried not to breathe too deep. More than anything I wanted to ask Rivano about Mavens and Aces, and how Jig had called mages “broken,” but I wasn’t sure I had the nerve for it.
“How is your Shifting coming along, anyway?” Rivano asked, before I could make up my mind.
“Oh, swell,” I said. “I think I’m starting to remember bits of what happens when I Shift.”
“Excellent,” he said, and smiled. “As I said, crows are fantastically intelligent. Do you know, some of the palace boffins have shown that crows can recognize different humans, and that they can even use tools? Perhaps those would be helpful qualities for you.”
“I never knew that,” I murmured.
“Kantian will let me start bringing you on a bit more to help us, if you’re interested.”
I stared at him. A cascade of all kinds of feelings poured over me, until I didn’t know what I felt or what I wanted. It got me scowling a bit, which probably made Rivano think I wasn’t keen on it, but if he did, he didn’t show it.
“I think so,” I said. “At least…I’m not quite sure what I think. Would I have to leave the Hole? Live over in the east wing?”
“If it pleases you.”
“All my friends are in the Hole,” I whispered.
That caught me a bit surprised, because for so many years I’d never been able to say that. I’d had Pika, who didn’t know any better, and Coins and Derrin who’d always looked after me, but that was all. Now…even the thought of never seeing Jig and Anuk got me feeling a bit saddish.
“You would still be in the same building,” Rivano said, but I knew better, because I rarely saw any of his mages or any of the other Clan members for that matter. “Well, think it over. You don’t have to decide just yet.”
He turned as if to go, so I balled up all my courage and said, “Wait! I need to ask you something.” When he just paused and studied me expectantly, I swallowed and said, “Jig said you call some of the mages broken. What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Some,” he said. “Not all. Usually having one gift is perfectly safe, but having more than one… Well. That can become a bit dangerous. You see, having a gift of magic is rather like having an imprint on the soul. But something can only be imprinted once, so, for a soul to receive more than one gift, it must…fracture. And it fractures once for every gift.”
“But there’s only Mavens and Aces, right? Three is the most?”
“I’ve heard legend…well, it’s only legend. As far as I know, yes, three is the most that a mage can usually survive, and Aces are often…not the healthiest of people. Each fracture amplifies the soul’s power, but takes it a little farther from its sanity. The price for such power is the mage’s humanity.” Rivano turned to me, his eyes brilliant. “But what a price. Humanity, to become a god.”
I shivered, and wanted to draw away, but I couldn’t. “That’s not what I think of when I think of God,” I said. “That sounds a bit wrong to me. Dangerous.”
“So it is,” he said, sighing. “It’s the age-old dream, though, is it not? And there is something admirable in the desire, even if it does verge on the perilous. Just imagine, Hayli. Someone with enough power could change the world. Could save the world from all this madness.”
I frowned. Derrin had talked about that before, too, how the world was going mad. I never felt quite as young and ignorant as when he went chunnering off on that notion, because I’d never seen more of the world than the streets of Brinmark and the stories of the Herald, most of which I could never make horns or heads of, anyway. And for all that, for all that I knew mages were in trouble in the city, and the poor were poorer than ever, and steam cars and aeroplanes and other monstrous machines I’d never dreamed of were prowling about the palace grounds, I couldn’t understand what the madness was. I didn’t know why Derrin and Rivano seemed so spooked.
“Jig said he wants to join the Clan,” I blurted. “What’d you tell him to make him decide that?”
He laughed. “I didn’t tell him anything. He comes now and then to our rites. I suppose he has found the meaning and comfort in them that the rest of us have.” He started to walk away, but glanced at me over his shoulder with a smile. “You should come with him some time.”
I watched him walk away, murmuring to myself, “Maybe so.”
Chapter 13 — Tarik
I found my way to South Brinmark Station, hoping to use it as an anchor point to find my way back to the Hole. I had a fairly good head for directions, once I knew where I was starting from, and so, though I’d only been to the Station a handful of times in my life, it felt more familiar to me than the rest of the streets.
The massive brick building had once been the pride of my city, with its glass-arched roof and splendid steam engines. Lately it had fallen on harder times, as the streets around it shifted to disrepute. Some of the windows were cracked; grime and soot painted strips of the red bricks black. It was still the waypoint for half a dozen destinations in Cavnal, so a heavy detail of police patrolled the platforms and bays to protect the well-to-do travelers from the loiterers looking for a handout or a pocket to pick.
I stood across the street from the Station, watching a steam train smoking across the green fields toward Brinmark, whistle blowing and gears churning. Half a dozen tracks found their way into the Station, while another handful of lines for freight trains made lacework of the rail yard south of the building. They lay closest to the river as it twisted eastward, flanked by a row of bare, dark-trunked trees on a low embankment.
After the passenger train pulled into the Station, I made my way across all the tracks to the farthest line. Up in the yard, a few freight cars waited for an engine, their heavy doors slung open for last minute inspections.
I stood in the middle of the track on a sodden plank and stared at those cars, and for the thousandth time in my life, my heart ached with the desire to jump into one of them and go wherever fate would take me. To get away. Leave it all behind. I wanted it now more than ever, with a fierce and burning need like hunger.
I’d told Kor. I’d told him where the Hole rats lived; I’d told him the place they called home. I’d betrayed them already. And it wasn’t even the worst betrayal, because I imagined my father’s investigators would have found out that information soon enough anyway. But my heart burned with shame as though I’d sentenced them to death.
How much worse would it get?
And still…the thing that frightened me more than anything was how much I wanted to succeed. To get the Bricks’ trust. To find out the name of the supplier. To get into the Hole and solve all the mysteries. To prove De
rrin wrong about me. To prove my father wrong. I wanted it more than I’d ever wanted anything. I imagined I wanted it enough that no price would be too high to pay for it. And I was afraid of what I might do.
“Saw you at the Hole, didn’t I?”
I jumped and turned. A kid about my own age sat on the embankment behind me, watching me. He twirled a coin through his fingers, back and forth, in a way that reminded me infuriatingly of Kor.
“Didn’t see you,” I said. “How long have you been there?”
He shrugged. “Long as I have been, right? Planning on cutting town?” he asked, and nodded toward the freight cars.
“Not really. Who are you, anyway?”
“The tag’s Coins,” he said, flipping the coin in his fingers.
I rolled my eyes. “I can’t imagine why.”
He grinned and tugged his hands through his mop of black curls, spiriting away the coin as he did.
“You’re from the Hole but you’re not throwing punches at me. What’s that all about?” I asked.
He laughed, one long, drawn out ha! “Yeah, so, I’m not with Anuk’s crew, right? Not a Meat. Don’t do much of the old one-two, y’know,” he said, miming a punch.
I eyed him sidelong. The kid was even lankier than I ever was as Tarik, half a head taller than me and all arms and legs and eyes. It didn’t surprise me that he wasn’t a Meat—though his honesty about it did.
“Tell me something, would you?” I asked.
He got to his feet and drifted a few steps toward me. “Maybe.”
“How many mages are in Kantian’s group?”
“Besides little Hayli, you mean?”
“You know Hayli’s a mage?” I asked. “Thought she seemed to be keeping it a bit hushed.”
“Nobody keeps secrets from Coins,” he said with a huge grin. “Well, let me think…” He drew his brows together dramatically, arching one to a severe point. “Think the new kid’s a mage. Third class though, nothing special, right? Doubt he’ll ever get Rivano’s eye.”
“And that’s it? You’d think Kantian would want others.”
“Eh, Rivano gets the pickings.”
“Not Hayli?”
“She’s too new. Not new, but, y’know. Inexperienced. Rivano’s got an eye on her, though. Gift like that? Oh, yes, he’s watching.” He whistled.
“What about Rivano’s mages? Has he got any Ghosts on his crew?”
He jutted his lip. “Not that I know of. I’ve heard of Ghosts, but I’ve never seen one, right? Never saw a Mask either till you popped up.”
Strange. Maybe the Ghost had nothing to do with Rivano, I thought. But if not him, then who?
I hadn’t met Rivano yet, but I didn’t like the notion that he’d been behind my father’s assassination attempt. Zip had called him a mean man, but so far I hadn’t seen anything about the way the Hole operated that made me want to believe it. Maybe he didn’t take care of all of the city’s poor, but the Hole certainly kept some of the kids alive.
“Well,” I said, tucking my hands in my pockets. “Thanks for not attacking me, but I’ve got to head on.”
“Looking for the Bricks’ supplier?”
I’d started to turn away; at that I stopped and slanted him a glance over my shoulder. He took a few steps back and just watched me, then finally he threw his hands in the air and beckoned me energetically. I realized almost too late that the growing noise in my ears came from a freight train bearing down on the rail yard, and I jumped clear of the track just in time to avoid being flattened.
“How’d you know?” I asked, above the roar and squealing of the train.
He grinned. “Heard Derrin ask you, that’s how.”
“I didn’t see you there…”
“That’s what they all say,” he said, tapping his finger to his forehead. “So listen, there’s this fellow named Bolin, right? He’s got a crew runs east of Coolie’s, deep in the thick with Trip and the sweets smugglers. He’s had this vendetta against Coolie for ages and ages, and finally got paid a whopper for some dirt he passed on to Vanek Meed, know him? So Vanek’s itching to get the Bricks turned out, but here’s the problem. He’s got a debt big as your head to guess who? Yup. Coolie’s supplier. Now everyone knows that if a supplier’s mad at you, then he can do whatever he wants to you. No holds barred, right? Because even Vanek Meed bows to that lot.”
I stared at him. I thought I’d understood about three of every ten words he said, but strung together, I couldn’t glean an ounce of sense from it.
“So…” I said, frowning. “What’d you just say, and how the hell do you know all that?”
He looped his thumbs through his belt and tossed his head. “It’s what I do,” he said. “That and, y’know, look fine for the ladies to admire.”
“Seriously?” I asked, skeptical.
“Well, some of them. Well, I think Kite thinks I’m fine. Well…maybe she just thinks I’m funny.”
I just stared at him for a long moment, then I turned and said, “So Bolin ratted out Coolie to Vanek Meed. And Meed wants to bring the coppers down on Coolie, but can’t because Coolie’s supplier would have his head if he did.”
“Right? The supplier isn’t calling in Vanek’s debt in exchange for Vanek not calling the buttons down on the Bricks. Get it?”
Buttons? I thought. Brass buttons…police. Right.
“Got it,” I said. “But, that really doesn’t help me figure out who the supplier is.”
“Oy!” Coins said, flicking his fingers above his head. “I give you all that, and you say, that doesn’t help! Ungrateful cad.” But he grinned as he said it, baffling me. “So I see. You don’t play this game yet. Fresh out of Istia, right? Up there you prob’ly just bump off enough of a fellow’s family to make him sing, right? Well, we do it with finesse here.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but figured it would do me no good. Hayli and Jig were bad enough, but listening to Coins was making me dizzy.
“Now,” Coins went on, “now you just got to think. What do you do with all that noodle, right?”
God, if he says, right? one more time, I will strangle him, I thought, but I just said, “Noodle?”
“Facts and figures, mate. Facts and figures.”
Kor wanted me to hide in the shadows, to wait and listen and play the careful, patient game of making myself invisible. Maybe that was Tarik’s way, but it wasn’t Shade’s. If I were Shade, I would…
I’d know exactly what to do.
“I have to go see Vanek.”
Coins whooped. “Atta way to use the think steak!”
“Think steak?” I echoed, stifling a snort. “You made that up.”
“Aw, hell, I knew it’d never catch on. But you like it, right? Think steak, right?”
“It’s…uh, it’s swell.”
“Fantastic! Well. This way, then.”
He grabbed my elbow and pointed north, but when he lifted one long leg to strike out, I shook him off.
“What’re you doing?”
“We’re going to see Vanek Meed!”
“I think…I think I’d better go alone.”
“Never a smart plan. Look, mate, safety in numbers. You don’t want to face any of these chums single-handed. Big mistake. They’ll dice you up for snacky bits.”
In the end I gave up and let him lead the way, since at least he seemed to know where to go. We headed north across the tracks, and I spotted the Troyce & Fallon factory away to my left after a little while. Then we switched directions and headed east, weaving well clear of the Bricks’ building and avoiding the sweet shop where I’d tangled with Anuk and Jig. After about ten minutes of brisk walking, we emerged onto Front Street, a wide avenue lined by slightly less dilapidated buildings than the ones a few streets south. Coins stopped in front of a tall iron gate and shoved his hands in his pockets.
I walked a few more steps forward and took hold of the bars, peering through at the monstrous building beyond. Somehow I didn’t think it had been intend
ed for a house. It looked more like an abandoned sanatorium. Three stories of dirty brick and smashed windows stood under a steeply pitched slate roof, its walls strung with veins of ivy, dead and bare in the winter cold. The only beautiful thing about the place was the last fading gold of the autumn oaks scattered across the lawn.
Under my hands, the gate squealed and shifted in its lock.
“This is the place?” I asked Coins. “You’re sure?”
“Sure as sugar,” he said. I arched a brow. “Sugar? No? Aw, hell, I liked it.”
A shadow shifted near the dark gate house, and a moment later a man in a black coat and coach hat came striding toward us.
“Beat it!” he shouted, his voice a terrifying bass. “No trespassing.”
“Not interested in trespassing,” I said, letting go of the bars and lifting my chin. “I’m here to see Vanek Meed.”
He was good; he didn’t even blink. Didn’t even hesitate. He just said, “You’ve got the wrong place. Scram,” and turned to walk away.
“I’ve got information for him.”
Coins shifted behind me, like he was trying to catch my attention. When the man kept walking, I turned to face him.
“What?”
“Seems he’ll only answer to a passcode,” Coins said, frowning. “Forgot about that. You won’t get past him, no matter what you say.”
“And you don’t know what it is?”
He laughed, self-conscious. “Yeah, not exactly. Look, I’ve tried to get close to hear what goes on at the gate before. But I’m not a damn Cloak and even I couldn’t get close enough without being seen.”
“You’re not.” I grinned. “But I am.”
“But I thought you were…I thought…”
“Yeah,” I said, dragging out the word. “Just between us, right?”
Stars, now I’m starting to sound like him.
“Right.” He tapped his forehead, then grabbed my arm and hauled me a little way down the street, under the tangled bare branches of a sweet gum tree. “So look. Someone will be along pretty soon. Vanek gets visitors every night around the dinner hour, just like clockwork, and they all go through that gate. So. I’m thinking, you go plant yourself next to the gate and turn all invisible like you do, and then just…hang tight and listen for that word.”
The Madness Project (The Madness Method) Page 25
