I heard shouting, but no more gunshots. Then nothing. A few minutes trickled by in silence, then I heard the crunch of boots in gravel. The noise shifted to a steady thud, and I opened my eyes just enough to see the policemen run past, inches from where I leaned against the wall. As soon as they’d rounded the corner to the front of the factory, I got to my feet and staggered for the safety of the alleys.
Chapter 15 — Hayli
Me and the lads all set off when dusk had settled, hunting for Shade who still hadn’t gotten back. I still felt a bit odd, and every bone in my body ached like I’d fallen from a tree. Coins told me that Shade had caught me before I hit the ground, but I’d never know it from how sore I was. It’d taken me a good hour to Shift from the crow, he said, and after that I’d got all dazey and out of sorts and hadn’t started making sense for near another hour after.
Some time while I was out Jig and Anuk had got back to our meeting spot, and somehow Coins got Jig to stay put until the dust settled back by the mill. Anuk he sent home to the Hole, because he’d wrenched his knee back at the mill and was limping too bad to do anyone any good. Soon as the last coppers drove off in their black coaches, Jig and Coins were off like a shot, barely waiting for me to limp along behind them.
We split up around the riverside, combing the streets and circling our way slowly outward. I picked east as my direction, because if I knew Shade at all, I knew he would try to lead the coppers as far from the Hole as he could. For ages I wove in and out of alleys, peering through the growing gloom and the mist that curtained the city, my heart racing with fear. The crow kept urging me to let her take over the hunt, because she could see everything so much clearer than me, but I wouldn’t let her. I wanted to find Shade for myself.
I can sense him, she said, sounding smug.
I drew up, breathless, and tuned all my senses to the street.
Sense him? I asked her. How?
I taste the scent of him on the wind. His energy is everywhere around us. He’s close. Keep going.
I swallowed hard and pushed forward, but soon as I rounded the next corner I stopped dead. The world reeled. I couldn’t think, couldn’t move. Just stood and stared at Shade, lying face down in the street.
“Oh God,” I gasped.
OhGodOhGodOhGod
He tried to pick himself up. His hand slipped in the pool of blood under him, blood that streamed like a flood from the gash that split him from shoulder to wrist. He lifted his head, or tried to. It rolled to the side and dropped back to the pavement.
“Help.” His voice rasped through the rain, so quiet I could hardly hear him. “Get help.”
I froze. All I wanted was to run to him, to try to bandage him up…but I knew better. There was too much wound. Too much blood. I couldn’t do aught for him. I didn’t know anyone who could except…
Rivano’s Blood. I had to find the Blood.
“Dan’ move,” I said.
He gave a little cough that I realized was a laugh. Then, because I couldn’t just leave him like that, couldn’t leave him to bleed out in the street, I ran to his side, but he didn’t move. He didn’t look up and glare at me, or tell me to stay away. He just lay there, pale and bloody, white and red as the Istian flag.
“Shade?” I whispered.
Nothing.
“SHADE!”
I dropped to my knees beside him, his blood soaking my trousers. I reached out, hesitant, biting my lip, and laid my hand on his back. My heart ricocheted around my chest. Some little pulse of life warmed under my fingers, the hum of the earth and the clouds in a storm, but already I could feel it slipping away…
“Shade, dan’ you dare!” I shouted.
I staggered to my feet. No way I could run all the way back to the Hole, not fast enough to save him. I bit my lip, and closed my eyes, and stretched my arms to the wind.
I am weak, bruised, and my wings don’t want to cooperate. But they must, because below me I see Shade lying still in a pool of black. Everything about him is dark, and fading…but the glow of his tattoo, and the trail of a tear on his cheek. I see it all in one glance, then turn and catch the wind. I have somewhere I must go. Something to find.
What am I looking for?
My heart patters faster. I know it is important. I know…I know I cannot fail.
I fly, and fly, and let the wind carry me and the rain dance over me. To escape, to escape…to fly away…free of the city, free of the darkness…
But suddenly I slow, and check my flight, because I remember Shade, lying in the rain. How long ago did I see him? How long have I been flying?
Perhaps he is already dead.
My heart stutters, and suddenly I remember.
I love him.
“Hayli!”
I winced and tried to focus, while the ground rocked under my feet. Anuk had a grip on me, shaking me gently to wake me up. It took me a good long second to get my bearings. Broken pavement under me, greasy light soaking me, the Hole’s door standing wide open, waiting for me.
“Hayli,” Anuk said again, his hand fierce on my arm. “You all right? The crow…she looked a bit hurt.”
My mind snapped to attention.
“I need the Blood!” I hollered, stumbling to my feet and shoving past him.
“You need blood?”
I could hear Anuk’s heavy, uneven steps as he limped after me.
“Rivano’s Blood. God, Shade’s…Shade’s…he must’ve got hurt at the riot…”
All that blood. I kept seeing his hand in the sticky thick mess of it, slipping under his weight. Blood pouring down his arm…
Anuk wrapped an arm around my shoulders and turned down the hall that led to the Clan’s wing. I’d only come this far into the Hole one time. It was cleaner here than our side, and much, much brighter. The brightness startled me, even though I’d seen it plenty of times from a distance. There wasn’t a single gas lamp anywhere, but the hall was just bright like the sun was shining in it. It had to be magic. Nothing else would have explained it. With all the snaky side passages, the hall felt like a maze, but Anuk seemed to know just where to go.
“Doc!” he shouted. “Doc, need you now!”
A door opened farther down the hall, and a spirit stepped out in front of us. At least, he looked like a spirit. A shiver ran all the way through me when I saw him. He had long silver-white hair—even longer than Kite’s—and the palest skin I’d ever seen, but he couldn’t have been more than about thirty.
“Where is he?” he asked, moving toward us. Didn’t even need to ask what we wanted.
They both looked at me for an answer, but I just goggled at them and swallowed, hard. Pika knew the streets, not me. I didn’t know any of their names.
“It’s east past the mill, maybe three or four streets out. It’s the street where the flock of pigeons always roost,” I whispered. “The one with the white pigeon…It’s all white. It’s…”
I sank down against the wall, hugging my knees, because I knew I’d failed. Come all this way, and I couldn’t even send help to Shade, because all I could remember was a stupid white pigeon.
But Anuk snapped his fingers. “I’ve seen that bird! Nests down on Greave Street, round by Tannery.”
That sounded vaguely familiar. I gave a shuddering sigh and nodded.
“Stay here,” Anuk said. “You’re exhausted. Doc and I will find him.”
“But you’re hurt!” I protested. “It’s so far…”
“Doc’ll fix me up. Right, Doc?”
Doc nodded without a word, kneeling and taking Anuk’s ankle in his hands. He closed his eyes, and his skin got a clearish kind of look to it, then he stood up all at once and strode off down the hall.
“That’s it?” I asked.
Anuk rotated his ankle and nodded. “It’ll do.”
“Hurry,” I said.
They took off running. I bent my head, staring at my hands. I’d planted one of them straight in the pool of Shade’s blood. It looked painted, it was that
red. The other gleamed pale in that strange magic light, clean and smooth.
It felt like hours had passed when I suddenly heard voices drifting down the hall toward me. I braced myself, waiting, expecting to see them carrying Shade’s dead body back to me. But then they rounded the corner and my jaw fell open, because Shade walked all on his own between Anuk and the Blood. He still looked pale as glass, but I couldn’t see any mark on his arm. No sign that he’d been on the edge of death, except that blood had stained his white shirt red.
They walked fast. I couldn’t understand why they all looked so tense, so alarmed. Doc had healed him, hadn’t he? That had to be something to be happy about.
Shade flicked a glance at me as he passed me, but his face was carefully neutral as always. Didn’t he know how close he’d come to dying? Didn’t he remember that I’d been there?
I stared after them as they disappeared through the double doors at the end of the hall, wondering where they were going.
A minute and I couldn’t bridle my curiosity, so I crept down the corridor after them, crouching below the level of the glass windows. The doors didn’t shut very securely, and I got a good drift of their talk as I got closer.
“What’s this about?”
That was Derrin—but what was he doing here, deep in the Clan’s turf? Coins had told me once he wasn’t sure Derrin really worked for Kantian. Maybe he was right…
“Tell him,” Anuk said.
“Tell him what?” Shade cried, fear or fury in his voice. “I’ve got nothing to tell.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Doc said, so soft and lilting I almost couldn’t hear him.
“Would one of you please explain?” Derrin asked.
I held my breath.
“He healed himself,” Doc murmured.
What?
“How do you know?” Derrin asked.
“What—” Shade started.
“Hayli came to get us, because Shade had been injured. We got there, but as you see—Shade’s fine.”
I pressed my eye to the crack between the doors. They stood in a wide room, all dark paneled and lit with that weird blue light, out of place among the Hole’s cement walls and gas lamps. Derrin faced me, arms crossed as he stared at Shade.
“You’re sure Hayli wasn’t mistaken?” he asked.
“Not possible,” Doc said. “She had enough blood on her—and there was enough blood where we found him—to prove it.”
Derrin studied Shade a moment, frowning. “You’re a Mask.”
I bit my lip. If Shade had really healed himself, and if he’d moved objects he wasn’t even touching…that meant he had four gifts. Four. I didn’t even know that that was possible. I just kept remembering what Rivano had said about Aces, and the danger of so many gifts… And Aces only had three.
“Yes,” Shade said.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Shade folded his arms around himself, shoulders hunched. It was the first time I’d ever seen him look uncertain.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m just a Mask. I played a mean trick on Hayli, that’s all. She thought it was real. Don’t blame her.”
Derrin dropped his arms and turned away, swearing. Doc had a keen gaze fixed on Shade. I hadn’t noticed before, but he had the uncanniest eyes I’d ever seen. Pale and translucent as green glass, sunk deep in his pale skin, half-hidden by the streaks of long white hair that drifted over his face. He had them a bit narrowed now, sharp and disbelieving.
Me, I was shaking with rage and confusion. That couldn’t be the truth, could it? He hadn’t been playing a trick. My mind flitted back to the sight of his arm, the edges of the wound gaping so wide I could have laid my fingers inside it. I swallowed the bitterness in my throat. Remembered his hand, slipping in the blood. Remembered the feel of his life, slipping away.
He was lying. Oh stars, I knew he was lying. I just couldn’t figure why.
“This is nonsense,” Derrin said.
Shade shifted aside, and I imagined the shame that must be written on his face. But then he turned to glance at Derrin, and all I saw was that cold indifference that he wore like a mask.
“Can I go now?”
“Yes,” Derrin said. “Get out of here.”
I scrambled back from the door, running doubled-over back to where I’d been sitting before. I’d barely made myself look innocent when the doors swung open and the three of them came spilling out into the hall. Anuk just met my gaze and strode right on past me, but Doc stopped outside his door and grabbed Shade’s arm.
I couldn’t hear a word they said, but I watched, curious, as Shade listened intently to whatever Doc told him. He didn’t flinch away from him, but then, he only ever flinched away from me. Doc seemed positively excited, shaking Shade’s arm every few seconds as he tried to make some point. And still Shade just stood, watching him quietly, never even reacting.
After a moment I realized Doc wasn’t excited. He had a look like terror or desperation on his face, like he was begging Shade about something. When he fell silent, finally, Shade turned his head aside, murmuring something I couldn’t hear. Doc stared at him a long moment, then he threw his hands in the air and retreated into his room, slamming the door behind him.
Shade shoved his hands in his pockets and swung toward us. I wanted to shake him myself, because for all Doc’s frenzy, he didn’t seem the least bit unnerved. It drove me crazy.
“Shade!” I called, willing him to come faster.
He glanced toward me under his lashes, almost bashful.
“You fibbed him?” I asked, soon as he got close.
He grinned at me, a warm, honest grin that I didn’t expect at all. I blushed like a silly thing and clenched my hand to keep from smacking him.
“Thought you might be listening,” he said. He rubbed his jaw and contemplated the blood on his shirt. “Sorry, Hayli.”
“For what? I know you weren’t pretending. I thought…”
My voice clammed up on me, burning my throat with tears.
“I wasn’t pretending.” He kicked his heel against his other toe, chewing the inside of his cheek. “Thanks for going for help.”
“What happened?”
He studied me a long while, so long that I could feel my blush turn to fire. Curse him. He always knew how to unwind me.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Wish I did.” He shrugged abruptly, the bewildered grief vanishing all in an instant, and backed a step away from me. “Well, that’s that. Later, Hayli.”
He tipped his fingers to his temple and moved past me.
“Shade, wait! Dan’ walk away. Not this time.”
He turned and found me with my hand outstretched, even though we both knew I wouldn’t dare try to touch him.
“What happened to you?” I asked. “How’d you get hurt? You dan’ have to tell me aught else. Just tell me that.”
“I fell,” he said, eyes glinting.
I swallowed, hard. “And that shooter? D’you know who that was?”
He walked a few steps backwards with that infuriating swagger of his. “Does it matter?” he asked. “Guess I got crossways with someone, someone who didn’t want to be beholden to me. He almost got the upper on me. But now I’ve got the upper on him.”
“How’s that?”
“He thinks I’m dead.”
I swallowed. “What did Doc tell you just now?”
Shade stared straight at me. The corridor’s weird magical light reflected in his eyes, a chaos of grey and green and silver like lightning, all turbulence and bewilderment. But he had the strangest, stillest look on his face, his lips set in a slight curve, jaw tight, brows drawn in. Then, bizarrely, the corner of his mouth quirked like a smile, or maybe a grimace.
But all he said was, “He thinks I’m dying.”
Chapter 16 — Tarik
“Shade.”
I pried open my eyes to see Hayli standing over me, holding a piece of paper in her hands. In the low light her face had a
ghastly cast to it, pale and tired and drawn with worry. I pushed myself up onto an elbow and rubbed my hand over my face.
“Stars, Hayli, what time is it?”
“It’s early. I know. But Bobs saw some coppers out on the streets already. They were putting up these.”
She fluttered the paper at me, so I sat up the rest of the way and took it from her hand. A photograph of my face—Shade’s face—stared back at me, right under a large block of print that priced my life at 500 kips, for inciting violence in the streets and calling for the overthrow of the monarchy. My mouth twitched in a smile.
“Well?” I asked, handing it back to her. “What about it?”
She stared at me. “Your scarzy face is plastered all over the city, Shade. They’ll not stop hunting you till they’ve got you. You’ve got to hide.”
I snorted. “No. Not ganna happen.”
“They’ll catch you!”
I stood up abruptly, almost too close to her. “You know how many people are dead because of what happened yesterday?” I asked, cold. “All those people saw me there. All those people acted because of what I told them. Oh sure, I could change my face, go into hiding. But what would that do but tell them that all those people died for nothing? No. I’ve gotta deal with this. I’ve got to face this on my own. I’m not going to hide.”
“Shade,” she whispered. “I dan’ want them to catch you.”
My heart gave a little jump, drawing the blood from my face. But I just slipped past her and said over my shoulder, “Don’t worry about me. They won’t catch me. Not yet.”
I’d almost made it to the gates when Kantian stepped out of the shadows beside me. Somehow I managed to check the instincts I’d been honing in my training with Jig, a mere second before I slammed my fist to my side. I let out all my breath and turned to face him.
“Heading out?” he asked, peering at my face in the fickle light.
“Figured it would be smart,” I said.
The Madness Project (The Madness Method) Page 45
