The Madness Project (The Madness Method)

by Bralick, J. Leigh

  I pressed my lips together to keep them from trembling. “You dan’ na him at all.”

  “Neither do you.” He leaned a little closer to me, so close I could smell whiskey on his breath. “You know something, don’t you? About Kantian?”

  “Maybe Shade made the whole thing up,” I said, shuffling a scant step back. “Maybe there was never any evidence.”

  “Oh, but I know from…other sources…that that much is true, at least. So? If you can tell me something, I’ll leave Shade alone. Right? I’ll forget all about him.”

  I shot an anxious glance at the two toughs, but they just scowled at me and didn’t say a word. “How’m I supposed to believe you?” I asked Branigan. “How do I know you won’t kill him anyway?”

  “You’re questioning these fine men’s honor?”

  “They killed a child!” I cried. “Dan’ try to lie about it!”

  He grabbed me suddenly by both arms and slammed me back against the tower of crates. “You know too much for your own good, child.”

  I stared up at him, heart racing, but all I could think was how I needed to get my arms free. If I had my arms free, I could Shift and escape. But I couldn’t get anywhere, not the way he had me pinned.

  “Kantian’s been talking to folks at the palace,” I whispered. “I’ve seen him. Seen him talking to this bald fellow.”

  I’d never actually seen that, but it seemed close enough to the truth. Maybe that’s all I needed.

  “Bald fellow?” Branigan echoed. “Tall, darkish skin?”

  I nodded.

  “Are you certain?”

  I swallowed. “And I think he doesn’t get on too good with Rivano.”

  “Well,” he spat. “Everyone knows that. I didn’t think he’d go so far as that, though…”

  As what? I wondered.

  “But it does seem to fit what Shade was saying, about the scientist,” he said, looking at his men.

  “I saw him talking to a scientist too,” I said, desperate.

  Branigan studied me, frowning. “What’d he look like?”

  I closed my eyes, trying to remember the Kalethelia celebration. All I’d seen was the spectacles, though. Grobbing useless, that.

  He had a pocket watch, the crow said. Or, the device that looks like a watch. The heavy brass one, remember? Look, look closely…I saw all of it. See my memory. We know him. We remember him.

  The image in my mind clarified all sudden-like, throwing every detail in the plaza into sharp focus. I saw the ribbons in a dancing lady’s hair, the laugh on a young lad’s face, a copper I’d never even noticed scowling straight at me. And there, standing with Kantian, was a tall, thin man, grey-haired, spectacled, with a thick blue jumper and fine, elegant hands.

  Dr. Kippler.

  Kantian had been talking to Dr. Kippler.

  But why? The scientists hate us, and we hate them. What would Kantian possibly have wanted with him?

  “His name is Dr. Kippler,” I whispered, and described him best I could. “I’ve seen him before.”

  “I wager you have,” Branigan said. He straightened up, blue eyes shifting over the crates as he thought. “That’s a good bit juice. Well done, girl. I’ll keep my word, and forget about Shade. Won’t bother him again.” I started to draw a breath of relief, but he turned and jerked his head at one of the toughs, just as he released my arms. “Kill her.”

  I saw the gun flash up and screamed, and my voice melted into the crow’s.

  Chapter 5 — Tarik

  Someone was crying. That was the first thing I became aware of, followed by the realization that I had a pillow under my head. My thoughts spun, muddy with pain. Somehow I had a sense of fleeing, as though I could see all that was me rushing away toward the horizon…rushing, rushing mad, but never reaching.

  I squeezed my eyelids together. Every sense in my body burned. Searing pain shot through my nerves, a fire raged behind my eyes. I could barely taste or smell or hear anything…only the sound of crying and the pulse of my blood at my temples.

  Finally I managed to push open my eyes. The room tilted crazily above me, everything bobbing and shrinking in sinuous syncopation. I retreated into the darkness in my thoughts. I was starting to remember…it was always the worst part of waking up.

  “Is he awake?” someone asked, close by my head.

  It sounded like Coins…

  Stars. How’d I get back to the Hole? Did they find me…?

  I tried to focus my memory on the last few moments before I’d gone dark, but everything was muddled. Branigan. I could remember Branigan, so furious. They’d tried to drug me again. Or had I gone begging to them, a coward, a failure? I couldn’t recall. All I knew was that they’d tried to use it to get me to talk…again.

  Had I said anything? Had I told them?

  I remembered…a gun. A shout.

  A shout.

  I sat bolt upright, the world reeling until I thought I’d be sick, but I gritted my teeth and pushed the sensation away.

  “Bugs!” I called.

  Someone was standing close beside me, reaching out toward me, but I shoved his hand away and staggered to my feet.

  “Shade, sit down before you conk!”

  That’d be Jig, his voice coming from my other side, close by my elbow. I drove my hand out and pushed hard as I could, and heard him topple back onto the cot.

  “Wait, Shade!” Coins said. “Hang on a minute, right? We gotta talk to you.”

  “Later,” I said, my voice coming out in a growl. “Where’s Bugs?”

  I blinked a few times, and slowly my vision cleared enough that I could make out the details of the room around me. I couldn’t see who was crying, and I couldn’t quite tell if they still were, but somehow the sound of sobs lingered in the corners of my mind like they should have been mine.

  Feeling a little less dizzy, I pushed past Coins’ failed barricade, and headed out of the barracks. I could hear the lads rushing after me, but I didn’t slow down, and when Jig tried to grab my arm, I drove my elbow back against his chest. They didn’t understand. Maybe they couldn’t understand.

  “Stay away from me,” I said. “Where’s Bugs? I saw him…I’m sure I saw him…”

  I burst out of the Hole into the enclosure, and stopped dead. Just in front of me stood Hayli, her eyes red and swollen, her hair blowing across her face. She seemed perfectly calm, but she had the coldest, stillest look in her eyes that sliced the distance between us. For one agonizing moment, my heart froze in my chest.

  “Hayli?”

  “It’s all your doing,” she said.

  “What is?” I asked, suffocating. My gaze drifted past her, down, down to the wet pavement shining in the sun, down to the boy who lay there, pale as starlight. I staggered back, the ground tilting beneath me. “No. No.”

  “You did that!” she shouted, and all her muscles coiled like a spring, but suddenly Anuk was there beside her, pulling her back, holding her close. She fought against him viciously, crying, “It’s your fault, Shade!”

  I just stared at her, stricken, my heart shattering. I couldn’t even think. That boy lying on the ground, that couldn’t be Bugs. It was impossible. A trick. A cruel joke.

  I took a step closer to him, then another. But I couldn’t see him at all now. I dropped to my knees and reached out, but my hand shook, and the world shattered, and I couldn’t close the distance between us. I couldn’t touch him.

  “He died trying to save your life!” Hayli cried, still trying to pull free from Anuk. “If only he’d known what a sick, selfish, cowardly traitor he was saving!”

  Anuk tightened his grip on her. “Hayli!”

  “Traitor?” I echoed, numb.

  Hayli stopped fighting against Anuk, but she hadn’t calmed down at all. She looked angrier than ever, worse for being so still. “You told him about me, Shade?” she asked. “What’d you tell him? What’d you tell him about me?”

  “What?” My thoughts careened crazily; I had no notion what sh
e was talking about. Why would I tell Branigan about Hayli?

  “Dan’ pretend you dan’ remember.”

  “Hayli,” Anuk murmured, shifting his grip on her. “Hayli, let it be a minute.”

  I couldn’t tear my gaze from Bugs’ face, but all I saw were memories. I was choking, while all the world disappeared around me.

  “Oh, God.” I turned to face Hayli. For a split second the blaze of fury in her eyes dimmed. I swallowed, hard, but couldn’t swallow the burn in my throat. I said, “It should have been me.”

  The worst part of waking up was the remembering.

  * * * *

  Coins found me an hour or so later, sitting on the roof of South Brinmark Station. I hadn’t expected anyone to come; I couldn’t imagine that any of them would want anything to do with me now. So when Coins called my name, warning me that he was coming behind me, I wasn’t sure what I felt. Two parts relieved to three parts ashamed—or maybe angry. Maybe they were the same thing.

  “What do you want, Coins?” I asked, staring down at the people straggling across the street below. “Come to give me a lecture?”

  “Come to get your help,” he said.

  He stopped beside me, arms crossed, and the way he didn’t sit down I knew something had to have gone wrong. I gave him a vicious kind of smile that didn’t seem to faze him at all.

  “You want my help? Have you noticed anything about how things tend to go these days when I get involved? Stay away from me, if you know what’s good for you.”

  “Right, whatever. Hayli needs you.”

  I shot him a dark look. “Don’t vutting lie to me.”

  Coins groaned, tugging at his hair. “I know what you’re feeling, right? Don’t tell me I don’t, because you really don’t know a thing about me, do you?”

  I studied him, holding my tongue. He was right; Coins knew everything about everyone, but no one really knew anything about him. And the shadow in his eyes made me think twice about arguing with him.

  “You think Bugs would be happy to see you like this?” he asked.

  “Shut up,” I snapped, launching myself to my feet and spinning to face him. “Don’t you dare.” A sick ache pulled on my heart. “Bugs would’ve hated me if he actually knew what I was doing.”

  “So? Stop. Do it for him.”

  I choked on a faint laugh. Coins had no idea. It wasn’t just Branigan and the way he’d helped me make my own prison, it was everything that made me crave that prison. Everything that made me want to forget.

  “You don’t know me at all, either,” I hissed.

  “What, like the fact you’ve been sneaking off to the palace ever since you got here?”

  The blood drained from my face.

  “Don’t say anything, right?” he said. “Don’t lie, don’t argue, just don’t talk. I know you’re not what you say you are. Haven’t quite figured it out yet, but. The man’s got secrets. Don’t we all.”

  “What if my secrets could kill every last one of you?” I asked, voice hoarse, drowning in the wind.

  “Good luck with that. Don’t think you could off this lot even if you wanted to, right?”

  I rubbed a hand over my mouth. “Have you told anyone? I know you can’t keep that gab of yours shut.”

  “Sometimes I can,” he said, and smiled. “Look. I don’t give half a damn about what you do. I don’t believe you’re a traitor. I think you’ve got things you do that people shouldn’t know about, but that ain’t the same thing.”

  I stared at the ground below. Everything inside me wished I could just disillusion him, once and for all, and make him see what a traitor I really was. How everything I’d done so far had resulted only in chaos and hatred and death. But I couldn’t speak. Not a word.

  “Shade!” Coins said, planting a hand on my shoulder. “Listen to me! I mean it. Hayli needs you. Stars, I wouldn’t have come after you right now if it wasn’t serious. I know you need time, but you’ll have to take it later, right? Please. He’d kill her and not think twice.”

  That snapped me from my brooding. I turned and frowned at him. “What? Who?”

  “Kantian. Somehow he’s got to thinking that Hayli’s been feeding information to Branigan about the Hole. He thinks she’s a traitor.”

  My breath hissed out. Branigan.

  “What’s he going to do to her?”

  “Give her the lash for starters. Not sure what he’ll do after that, if she’s still alive.”

  My blood scalded through me like rage. I must have got some kind of look on my face, because Coins backed a few steps away from me.

  “You think I can stop him?”

  “I think you’re the only one who can,” Coins said. “Derrin would, but he’s gone missing. The kids are a bit wild that he might have gotten turned out, too.”

  “What?”

  That didn’t make any kind of sense. I could always tell that Kantian was terrified of Derrin, but I couldn’t imagine that would give him the guts to expel him from the Hole.

  “Anyway, Kantian kind of hated Derrin, but he’s absolutely scared white by you.” I frowned, skeptical, but Coins just grabbed my arm and gave it a firm shake. “He knows he can’t control you. You muck up his plans.”

  “You know more than you’re saying,” I said, voice low. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Coins just shook his head. “I’ll tell you, but there’s no time right now. Please. Kantian’s half mad. He won’t stop with punishing Hayli. I don’t know what he’s planning, but he wants war, and he won’t stop till he gets it. And if that means pushing the King into retaliation, he’ll do it.”

  “Never figured you for a loyalist, Coins.”

  “I’m loyal to the Hole. I don’t want to see these kids pay the price for Kantian’s ambition.” He gripped my arm tighter. “Hayli won’t be the last.”

  Chapter 6 — Hayli

  I saw a whole sea of faces staring at me, but I couldn’t make out a single one of them. Usually when Kantian gave a kid the lash, he did it quiet-like, in secret, never calling anyone out in front of the group. But he’d sent the whole lot of skitters up to watch my fate, and he’d even brought in some men—real, grown men, armed with revolvers—to make sure all they did was watch. And the way he held so tight to my arm, I guessed there was more rage than justice in what he’d got planned.

  “Why’re you so scared of me?” I hissed. I tried to get my hands free, but he had them knotted together good and tight.

  He shot me a furious glare. “You know things you shouldn’t.”

  “You mean that man you’ve been talking to, that scientist? Dr. Kippler? I div’n betray you, Kantian. You betrayed us first!”

  He spun, hand flying. I felt my hands hit the pavement, pain shattering up my arms and flashing across my cheek. Some of the kids cried out, but Kantian just grabbed my elbow and hauled me back up. I stumbled, my gaze frantically searching the little crowd. Wasn’t there anyone who’d help me? Just one? Kantian wasn’t going to punish me. He was going to execute me. I knew it with a certainty, all at once, and I swallowed hard on a sob of fear. I wouldn’t be afraid. Never.

  If only I hadn’t driven Shade away. Oh, God. Those things I’d said… An image flashed into my mind—his face, stricken with grief and horror and utter desolation. And I’d taken that wound and ground my heel into it. Me. The one who should’ve stood by him. I’d turned on him, and who knew if maybe…maybe I’d driven him to his death…

  I closed my eyes and let Kantian lead me to the stone column the kids used as a goal post for their ball games.

  “Not a word,” he hissed in my ear. “Keep that to yourself.”

  My lip stung too badly, or I would’ve spat at him. Instead I just glared at him. The skitters had started whispering, their faces awful pale. I finally spotted out Jig and Anuk by the wall, tense and furious, but I knew they wouldn’t step forward. Couldn’t. Not with those revolvers flashing on the belts of Kantian’s toughs, warning them all away. I was alone.

&nb
sp; He shoved me toward the pillar.

  “Kantian!”

  One shout, and my heart froze. All the skitters fell silent, all at once. Kantian and I both turned to see Shade striding straight for us. The kids parted around him, staring at him wide-eyed, but I had to bite my lip to keep from falling apart.

  “Shade,” Kantian said, hand like a tourniquet on my arm. “Back off.”

  Shade didn’t even slow down. He was an oncoming storm, all rage and darkness, his white tattoo burning like lightning. When he’d almost reached us he stopped suddenly, and before anyone could move, his hand flashed out, the grey light shining off the barrel of a gun.

  “Let her go,” he said. “Or I swear by Wake I will make you.”

  “Shade!”

  Everyone started looking about in confusion, because that was definitely Derrin’s voice, but no one had seen him for ages. And yet there he was, standing next to Coins. Shade’s gaze flicked back toward him, but he didn’t so much as flinch. Didn’t remove that gun, pointing like an accusation at Kantian’s head. The toughs stood statue-still, hands hovering over their revolvers. Any minute and they’d decide they’d seen enough, and it’d all be over.

  “Shade, stand down,” Derrin said. “Stand down!”

  The muscle in Shade’s jaw tightened. For an endless long minute he didn’t move at all, then all at once he flung the gun aside. We were still watching it clatter across the pavement when Shade grabbed Kantian by the front of his jacket and slammed him against the pillar.

  “You think she was the traitor?” he hissed.

  I stumbled a step away from them, heart pattering, throat burning. One of the toughs grabbed me from behind, his arm like a chain across my shoulders. I wanted to beg Shade to stop, to get away, but I knew he’d never listen to me. He grinned, a mad, feral kind of grin, madder than ever because of the terror in Kantian’s eyes.

  “I’m the one you ought to punish.” He shoved Kantian one last time, and released him. “So let her go.”