The door of the warehouse clanged.
Some of the folks cried out, but they were all chained so good and tight that no one even tried to move. The door clashed again, then slowly, slowly it began to creak open. Blinding daylight streamed across the warehouse floor, drowning me and Shade in the midst of it. Four silhouettes appeared to our blinded eyes—two with guns, two tall and sturdy, both wearing hats and long coats. A minute and I saw that the two tall men were Zagger and the bald man—Dreyden Kor, who’d been ratting out the mages—and the two with guns were royal guards. I wondered what had happened to the four guards who’d been on post outside the door, until I saw their bodies, fallen where they’d stood, somehow downed by Shade’s lightning with the rest.
Zagger was the first to move, I suppose as soon as his eyes got used to the hazy darkness. He ran toward us and dropped on his knees in front of me, Kor close on his heels.
“Is he dead?” Kor asked, harsh.
I bristled and flared, because that traitor, that filthy traitor shouldn’t be anywhere near us…but Zagger caught my eye and gave me such a pointed look that I swallowed my anger.
“Dan’ you touch him!” I shouted, holding Shade tighter. “Stay back!”
Zagger pressed his fingers against Shade’s throat, and I read real fear in his eyes—fear and desperate hope. If aught could endear Zagger to me, it was the depth of his utter devotion to Tarik. He swallowed hard and glanced up at Kor.
“Alive,” he murmured. “Barely.”
“Good enough. The King wants this one brought in for questioning. Get him up.”
“No,” I hissed, suddenly alarmed. Maybe Zagger had been fooling me—maybe they really meant to turn him in. “You can’t! He’s ganna die!”
“King’s orders, miss. Back away.”
“Please,” I whispered, so soft that only Zagger could hear me. “Please dan’ hurt him.”
His gaze flickered up and held mine briefly, then he grabbed my hands and dragged them from around Shade’s body. Before I could fight back, he’d swept Shade up and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of flour, and he and Kor were retreating toward the door. Something shiny fell from Kor’s pocket as he turned, but I didn’t dare move closer to see what it was.
“Get this place locked up again,” Kor told the two guards. “Wouldn’t want the specimens to escape.”
He opened the door of the motorcar for Zagger while the two guards turned obediently to lock us back up. Then, without any warning, Kor and Zagger both spun around and lamped the two guards, taking them out faster than I could follow. The guards fell like bricks, and Zagger rushed around to the cab of the motorcar. Just before he turned to get in the car, Kor turned and gave me a smile and a wink, and nodded at the shiny thing on the warehouse floor.
And then, in a roar of steam and a rattle of wheels, they were gone.
I waited till the dust had settled, then I crept forward on my hands and knees until I could see what Kor had dropped.
For a few moments I just knelt and stared down at it, then I sat back on my heels and laughed.
It was a lockpick. Kor had left us a scarzy lockpick.
I picked it up and turned to the mages.
“Can anyone here pick a lock?” I asked, holding it up. “I can prob’ly manage one or two, but if we dan’ want to be here a month, someone else better do this.”
They stared at me. I couldn’t tell if they were hopeless, or maybe just stunned, but it took near five seconds before anyone made any motion at all. Then an older man shifted forward. I recognized him—he was the blue-tattooed man from my train car. Now that I had a better goggle at it, I saw that his tattoo wreathed his heart.
“I’m brilliant with a pick,” he said. “Bring it here.”
I grinned and made my way over to him. “You’re a Sculptor, right?” I asked, nodding at his tattoo. “Shift people’s emotions?”
“That’s right. Tag’s Lute, because I play on people’s heart strings, and because that’s what I look like.”
He puffed out his chest and I stifled a laugh, because it really was true.
For a few moments I fumbled over the lock on his cuffs, biting my tongue to focus, and finally, finally managed to free him.
“Not bad, lass,” he said, rubbing his wrists. “Little practice and you’ll be good as me.”
“Here,” I said, smiling, and gave him the pick. “I’ve got somewhere I need to be.”
“Go find that boy of yours,” he said with a mad grin. “I’ll get these folks free.”
I nodded my thanks and stepped into the middle of the floor. “Oy, listen, everybody!” I shouted. “Lute will get you free, and then you gotta clear out of here fast. More guards’ll come, I’m sure, and I dan’ think they’ll play nice next time. So find somewhere safe and stay there. Stay out of sight! Help is coming, but you’ve got to hang on.”
“You’re one of Rivano’s, aren’t you?” someone asked. “What if we don’t like what he stands for?”
I shook my head. “Then do as you like. Not my job to change your minds. But you might find someone worth standing with, if you keep your eyes open. Just stay alive for now. That’s what matters most. And remember. You lot are mages. Let’s not get captured without a fight again, right?”
I hopped down and turned back to Lute. “Good luck. Make sure they get out safe.”
He nodded and held up his hand, thumb and forefinger spread, Wake’s symbol. I grinned and mirrored it, and turned around to Shift, but found myself face to face with Derrin again. I gulped and lowered my hand.
“Derrin.”
“Good, you’re getting everyone out,” he said, watching Lute work. “Kor came and got Shade?”
“Yeah,” I said, uneasy. “He did.”
How do you know Kor?
“Right. I told him to take Shade to Rivano and Doc. They’re holed up in an abandoned mansion on Misting Row. Not sure why they wanted to hide out in the high streets, but I’m sure Rivano’s got a reason.”
“That’s…” I backed up a step. “Misting Row?”
“Think you can find it? I’ll stay and make sure these folks get organized and out safely. You Shift and get there fast. I think Shade needs you.”
“Right,” I said, feeling a bit numb. “See you, Derrin.”
But he’d already turned away, gathering the freed mages together in the center of the room.
Misting Row. It couldn’t be.
After eleven years, I was finally going home.
* * * *
I landed just outside the front gate, but for moments after I Shifted I just knelt on the wet paving stones, staring up at the house looming above me. It was smaller than I remembered, and the front lawn had got all overgrown with trailing rose bushes and vines. The front gate sagged on rusting hinges, its boards all twisty and stained from years of bad weather. But the smell of the earth and the grass took my heart stumbling through a maze of memories.
Finally I picked myself up and walked, slow, down the path to the old red door. It stood ajar, and it creaked something fierce when I pushed on it. For a minute I just left my hand resting on the rough wood, staring back at the lawn and the gnarled trees and the sparrows flitting in the branches.
A voice traced into my mind, calling out a memory.
“Wouldn’t it be swell to fly?”
I stood next to my best friend on the front stoop, a piece of tea cake in my hand. We were watching the sparrows and the little swifts, and I…I remembered. I remembered flying. I remembered the crow. My mind was so open to mystery, then. So eager for the unknown. Must be I’d lost that somewhere along the way, and that’s why I lost touch with the crow for so long.
“I can fly,” I’d told my friend.
He stared at me through his curly hair, a scowl on his face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I held out my arms and tipped my face to the sky. “I can fly. I’m a bird. I can soar in the sky.”
“You’re not a bird, Hayli!”
>
“I can be a bird. But don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret.”
“I won’t tell anyone!” he said. “But you really mean it? What does it feel like? Don’t you get scared?”
“It feels like letting go,” I said, though I don’t think I knew what I meant by that. “It’s just me and the clouds and the wind, and I don’t care about anything else.”
“I want to fly. Someday, Hayli. Someday I’ll fly. Just you watch.”
I giggled. “That’d be swell! Griff Farro, the flying man!”
I gasped, and staggered out of the memory. Oh, God. Griff Farro.
How could I have forgotten?
The door swung open under my hand and I jumped, but it was just Zagger standing there, frowning down at me.
“You all right, kid?” he asked.
“Why’d you pick this place?” I whispered. “Why’d you come here?”
“Rivano’s choice, not mine. Come on. You better get in here.”
He disappeared into the house and I followed him in, trying not to notice how everything was exactly as I remembered it. How nothing had moved, nothing had changed, since that night my parents had been taken away. We came into the front parlor, heavy with dust and memories. Doc hovered over the burgundy couch and Rivano stood by the lattice window, while Kor sat in an armchair, twirling his hat back and forth.
Rivano turned to face me, and my face caught fire.
“What’s she doing here?” he asked. “Don’t you know that she’s marked?”
Kor grinned. “You want to send me away, too?” he asked, and I caught my breath as Rivano turned to stare at him. “We are our own masters most of the time, you know,” he added. “When they’re not trying to control us directly. We’re not automatons just because we have a metal tattoo.”
Rivano’s face darkened, but a minute and he just waved a dismissive hand and turned back to the window. I let out my breath and crept the whole way into the room.
“Shade?” I asked.
Doc glanced up and beckoned me over. “Slowly coming out of it. Crazy lad, he turned himself into a lightning device.”
“What did you say?” Zagger asked. “How would you know about a thing like that?”
Doc smiled, a ghostly kind of thing, and ran his hands through his white hair. “I know because I tried to treat Destri’s wounds from the radiant energy machine, and he showed me the lightning device.”
“Who’s Destri?” I asked, kneeling down by the couch. Shade lay there perfectly still, but at least his cheeks had got some color in them.
“Scientist,” Doc said. “Genius inventor.”
“My uncle,” Zagger growled. “Now tell me how you know him? And tell me why the hell he would ask a mage to heal his wounds?”
“He had no choice. None of your doctors could help him. And I owed him a favor anyway. It’s a long story.”
Shade’s head twitched, and I reached out and took his hands, smiling when my fingers prickled at the touch. Doc took it for a way to escape Zagger’s questions, and placed his hands on Shade’s temples. I watched, breathless and a bit horrified, as Doc’s whole body seemed to fade, as if I could see clear through him. Shade’s lips parted and he drew a ragged breath, and Doc released him with a thin gasp.
“Shade,” I whispered. “Wake up.”
He groaned and rolled onto his side. I winced, because before he moved I hadn’t seen the marks at the corners of his lips like burns, as if he’d been gagged by a heated wire. My finger brushed over one of the marks.
“What is that?” I asked Doc.
“From the electricity, I wager,” he said. “It’ll fade soon enough. Shouldn’t scar.”
I let my fingers rest against his cheek, my heart pattering like mad. His hand reached up and took mine, twining our fingers together.
“Hayli?” he murmured. “Where—”
I swallowed and bent my head. It took him just a moment to get oriented, then he pushed himself upright and stared around the room, his gaze pausing on each person before resting on me. His fingers brushed across my cheek, while some vague puzzled look filled his eyes.
“We got free?” he asked.
“Derrin…” I swallowed. “Derrin got Kor to come and spring you out. We got the others free and I came here.”
His mouth twitched in a smile. And he kept holding my gaze, until he suddenly seemed to remember that other folks were in the room with us. He dropped his hand and turned to Rivano.
“Rivano,” he said.
“Your Highness.”
Chapter 15 — Tarik
I flinched, my hand flashing instinctively to my head—the easiest thing for me to identify. But my fingers brushed over Shade’s shaved scalp, not Tarik’s unruly hair. I struggled to sit a little straighter, but every nerve in my body was shooting pain like I’d been struck by lightning. Then again, that was essentially what had happened, back at the factory.
“You know who I am,” I said.
He smiled. “I’ve always known who you were. It just took you a little longer to catch on.”
That made me smile in spite of myself. Kor had said he’d always intended for me to meet Rivano, but I’d never imagined that Rivano would already know about me—that he would already know what I was.
I flicked a glance around at the other people in the room. Doc smiled at me, looking rather less worried than the last time I’d seen him. I met Zagger’s gaze and he nodded once, some pained shadow of remorse and contrition in his eyes that cut my heart. I gave him the best response I could. I grinned. He didn’t take it as well as I’d hoped, though; he turned away abruptly, head bowed, and strode away to stand by one of the windows. Kor gave me a look: It’s to be expected.
“So,” I said, to Rivano. “If you already knew who I was, why did you never let me meet with you?”
“I told you,” he said, gently. “You didn’t know yourself yet. I needed to be sure of you, first. It was a long wait, but you are indeed everything I’d hoped you would be. Or will be, hopefully, if you can keep out of that mess you’ve gotten into.”
I frowned. Somehow I didn’t know quite what to make of that—it might have been flattering, if it hadn’t sounded so alarming. Hayli shifted, her fingers tightening on mine, but beyond that she just sat with her head bowed, a rock to steady me.
“How long have you been waiting?” I asked.
He leaned back against the window frame. “I was a close companion of your father, Godar Eyid. When the world learned that Elanar was with child, he was convinced the offspring was his, not Trabin’s. He sent me here to find out if it was so. I’ve been there your whole life, watching and waiting, waiting to see if you would have the gifts that would show your heritage.”
I grimaced and leaned over my knees. “That isn’t very comforting, you know. How would you like to find out you’d had someone observing you your entire life? And you were willing to wait seventeen years on the chance that I’d turn out right?”
“Just listen,” he said, holding up his hands. “Don’t judge me too quickly. Did you know, I was there at the sea wall in Ridgemark? I was the Wind that pushed you to the edge. I was trying to test you. Because unfortunately for me, a Wind is the least powerful of all the first-class mages, and any mage child who carries more than one gift can deflect the work of a Wind, can exercise the power of a Wind. Haven’t you ever noticed how the wind blows harder when you’re in the throes of some strong emotion? It’s a power that exists as a sort of…background noise. At any rate, I was too early. You weren’t ready. You didn’t know yet what you were. But I Woke you up.”
“Zagger, how long have you known about this?” I asked.
Zagger turned, anger like embers in his eyes. “This is the first I’ve heard,” he said, his voice a low growl. “You could have killed him!”
“I wouldn’t have killed him,” Rivano said. “It wouldn’t have been the last time I saved his life, either.” I arched a brow, prodding him to explain. “I was there when you were fift
een and you dove from the bell tower like a madman with a death wish that could change everything. I was the Wind that carried you down. And still I could not get through to you. I saved your friend’s aeroplane. I deflected the bullets that were meant for you…and still, and still I thought you would never seek me out.”
He paused, and I waited, staring at the dust-blanketed table in front of me. But I was really aware of nothing but Hayli’s hand in mine, her wrists crusted with blood, her skin cool and soft. I flicked a sidelong glance at her and realized she’d been studying me quietly, some deep sadness hiding in her eyes.
“I was never here to start a rebellion,” Rivano went on, “or gather the poor and cause a threat. But do you know who gave your father that idea? Dreyden Kor, your mother’s brother, who has been helping me this whole time, my eyes and ears in the palace, whispering rumors to the King, trying to orchestrate every last event that would finally force you to find me.”
I turned to Kor, but he just leaned back against the wall with his arms crossed and an insufferably smug smile on his face. Zagger’s face turned a ghastly shade of white and he barreled straight for Kor like a bullet, but Kor just flicked his hand up at his side, showing a revolver.
“Don’t even waste my time,” he said, and tilted his head to catch Zagger’s eye. “We’re on the same side.”
Zagger hesitated, glancing my way. I knew what he was thinking, because I wondered the same thing: What side is that, anyway? I couldn’t even tell, anymore.
“And then one day,” Rivano continued, “a Mask showed up at my front door searching for me, looking like the spitting image of my Godar—thanks to Kor’s influence, I suppose, as a signal to me. And I thought, finally. Finally, he is here.” He turned to stare out the window, his hands folded behind his back. “Did you know, Kor started the rumor that you’d been killed abroad. It was supposed to be a way to release you—and release your father—from the scandal of your true parentage. It was supposed to be a way to let Tarik die and let Shade rise up. But Kor couldn’t explain that to Zagger before Trabin’s panic drove Zagger to find you.”
The Madness Project (The Madness Method) Page 61
