“Is this all for us?” Daphna asked.
Ireneo nodded. He began pulling boxes out and setting them on the driveway.
“Can we see what’s in them?” Dex asked. Nodding again, Ireneo pulled a box cutter out of his back pocket and sliced open a box he’d set down. Then he went back to unloading.
The twins leapt to the box and pried up the flaps like it was the birthday gift they hadn’t received. Inside were thick bundles of low-quality paper tied up with string. Dex fell back as if he’d discovered his present was a wasp’s nest. Daphna, on the other hand, was thoroughly intrigued. She pulled a bundle out, untied it, and fingered through some pages. Her eyes grew wider. After a while, she put the bundle back in and pulled out another, then two more.
“Are all the boxes full of the same thing?” she asked, turning to Ireneo. He shrugged and tossed her the cutter.
“What are they?” Dex asked.
‘‘Hold on,” Daphna replied, cutting open two other boxes. They were both filled with the same bundles. She pulled a few out and flipped through them, then put them back. “There must be thousands of these in that many boxes,” she said, slightly awed.
“Yeah, but what are they, Daphna?”
“Sir,” Daphna asked, “is this all from Turkey?”
Ireneo took the clipboard back from Dex, checked it over and said, “Yeah, from Fikret Cihan.”
Daphna was enjoying keeping him in suspense, Dex could tell, and he decided to let her know what he thought about it. He turned to Ireneo and asked if he’d mind giving him a moment to talk with his sister in private. Ireneo had no problem with this. He stepped back around front and climbed inside the truck.
“Dex, how much money did you give him?”
“I don’t know. I just grabbed a couple handfuls.”
“But why was he just sitting there, all spaced out when you went inside?”
Dex sighed. “I have no idea,” he said.
“It was weird,” Daphna insisted.
“Are you going to tell me what these stupid papers are or not?”
“Just lists of random words,” Daphna said. “Bizarre ones. They’re copies of the Book of Nonsense, Dexter. The old guy who gave Dad the Book—that’s what he was doing when Dad came into that shop!”
“He was copying it in case the First Tongue reappeared, and he had to keep copying because, for all he knew, it might appear only one Word of Power at a time.”
Dex looked into the truck and said with wonder, “He must have been doing it for his entire life. I bet he had no idea what he was doing it for.”
“But he sure knew who he was doing it for!” Daphna cried, “Adem Tarik!, who was busy trying to get Council members to have babies!”
“Dex,” said Daphna. “Latty sent Dad to get the Book of Nonsense, but also to get all these papers. Maybe that explains why she didn’t care about the actual book when Dad brought it back! She had to know everyone would come and start killing each other over it. It was a lure! What she really wanted were the copies!” Daphna’s temper flared up wildly again. “I mean, there was no way the First Tongue was just going to happen to be in the original book just because we turned thirteen!”
Dex shrugged, as if not entirely convinced. Then he seemed to think of something. “But, that’s strange,” he said.
“What’s strange?”
“Well, the only reason anyone would want the Book of Nonsense, or those copies, would be to learn the First Tongue, right? And that’s strange because Adem Tarik should already know it, right? She wasn’t part of the Council. She didn’t make herself forget it like they did. She taught the kids the language in the first place. If she wanted the book back, she could’ve writen her own copy of it, right?”
“Yeah,” Daphna agreed, “but I guess not. I don’t know what that means, and I’m way too tired to figure it out.”
“Yeah, me—No, wait a minute. Remember what Ruby told us about how the kids had to learn the Words of Power?”
“No, Dex,” Daphna sighed. “I really don’t.”
“She said they had to puzzle out the Words themselves.”
“She can’t do it!” Daphna cried. “Maybe her plan all along was to have the kids learn the language so they could teach it to her! Maybe she was blind, like Rash! Maybe that’s what she wants with us!”
“That would make sense,” Dex replied, “except for one small thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Latty isn’t blind.”
“Oh, right,” Daphna said. “I told you I was too tired. I give up, Dex. I can’t deal any more.”
“Me neither. And anyway, whatever the truth is, we better get busy.”
“What do you mean?”
“By the looks of it, we’re gonna be spending the next ten hours burning paper.”
CHAPTER 13
tired ideas
Dex had to bring out another envelope, but it wasn’t too thick, and it helped Ireneo forget the deadlines that started worrying him again. It took nearly ninety minutes, but he and the twins managed to haul all the boxes into the living room. They were stacked everywhere. Awkward piles overwhelmed the couch, the chairs, the shelves, the coffee table and the floor. The tallest stacks reached as high as the twins’ shoulders.
When Ireneo finally left, Daphna called Milton. She told him Latty wasn’t feeling well and that she and Dex were staying home with her. He said that was fine because he was going to see a bunch of doctors all day anyway. Evelyn wanted them to confirm that he was recovering as fast as she thought he was. He said he might even try to talk them into sending him home in the morning if it went well.
As good as this news was, it made the twins frantic. They very briefly considered letting their father see all the bundles, thinking the incredible number of them alone might make their story more believable. But that was a long shot, and they quickly agreed it was more important to destroy any remaining source of Words of Power.
Though thoroughly exhausted, neither thought they could afford to rest at all. So, as soon as their minds were made up, the pair cleared a path through the boxes to the fireplace. Dex used one of the bundles from an opened box to get a fire started, and Daphna, sitting on the hearth, began feeding them in a few at a time once the flames took hold.
It was slow going, incinerating that much paper. The fireplace was only so large, and putting too many bundles in at once choked the flames. Also, scoops of ash had to be hauled out when it heaped up too high.
For a while, Dex tore out pages from the bundles for Daphna to throw in one at a time. They burned better, but it soon became obvious it would take days to do it all that way. The twins had no choice but to feed in the full bundles and wait. Feed and wait and scoop. Feed and wait and scoop. Both were too tired to talk. After a while, the repetition and the quiet and the steady heat from the fire finally got to Daphna. Leaning against the side of the fireplace, she nodded off.
“Daphna!” said Dex, poking her in the leg with a bundle.
Daphna jolted awake and suddenly asked, “Did you tell that delivery guy what you were doing when you went into the house?” She’d been thinking about it as she fell asleep, about the way Ireneo said he was in a hurry, but then just sat there waiting, like he was meditating or something.
“I don’t know, Daphna. Just keep burning.”
“You don’t know? It was like, two hours ago.”
“Look, Daphna, I’m too tired to remember insignificant details, okay? Just keep burning!”
“Don’t yell at me, Dexter.”
“Then stop interrogating me!”
“Interrogating you? Is there something I should be interrogating you about?”
“No, Daphna.”
“Maybe I should interrogate you,” Daphna pressed. Now that Dex mentioned it, she would like some things explained. “How about I interrogate you about how you learned to beat up an entire gang when you’ve never been in a fight in your entire life.”
Dex stood up and flung the
bundle he’d been trying to hand Daphna into the fire. “How about I interrogate you?” he challenged, stepping toward his sister.
Daphna stood up and leveled a cool gaze at her brother. They were nearly nose to nose. Dexter wasn’t going to get a rise out of her with the stupid new way he’d been looking at her when he got mad, or by crowding her either.
“Do not yell at me, Dexter,” she said again, this time through clenched teeth. “And get out of my face.”
Dex, realizing he was about to lose it, stepped away. “Fine,” he snarled, “but how about you tell me something. How about you tell me how you really got that office door open. How about that? How about you tell me how you went home and wrote a note to Latty and then got back to Dad’s room in, like, ten seconds flat.”
Daphna cut her eyes at Dex, but he could see she’d been put on the defensive.
“I told you,” she snapped, “the door was unlocked, and I ran.”
“Right,” Dex said. “Then why don’t you just keep your questions to yourself, and I’ll keep mine to myself.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
Having reached this accord, Dex went back to handing over bundles, which he did with overt hostility. Daphna snatched each one from him and jammed them into the fireplace as soon as there was room. When individual boxes were empty, Dex cut them up to be burned along with the pads.
The twins worked this way for several more hours, taking only a short break for sandwiches. Slowly, very slowly, the number of boxes began to dwindle. Not another word passed between them all the while.
Eventually, the twins’ tempers fizzled. Both started thinking about Latty, and both had similar thoughts. They wondered what it meant that she was Adem Tarik, that they’d lived under the same roof with her, that she’d been, for all intents and purposes, their mother.
Daphna continued to seethe about the betrayal. All she could think about was finding a way to lash out at Latty. There can’t be anything wrong with getting back at people who’ve intentionally hurt you, she thought—not if you’re in the right, not if you want justice! An image of Wren’s and Teal’s strangling blue faces floated across her mind’s eye. It was all the convincing she needed.
Dex’s primary feelings were confusion and dismay. He cast his mind back over life with Latty. Beyond her constant fussing, beyond her meddling in his and Daphna’s every affair, the only thing he could see was what looked for all the world like genuine love and concern. As far as he could tell, she couldn’t have cared for them more had they’d been her own flesh and blood.
How could the world be so phony? he wondered. His father, who’d always appeared to care little or nothing for them, was actually full of love—and now Latty turned out to be—what, he didn’t know. But she killed their mother. What kind of world was it where no one was what they appeared to be? Dex had refused to give any real thought to the possibility that the book they’d found really belonged to God. But, now that he considered the matter, if God really did create the world, what was he thinking? Why would he make a place where people can murder your mother when she’s only trying to do good? Why would he make a place where people can travel halfway around the globe to deceive you, hurt you, try to kill you—just because you were born to certain parents?
And, Dex thought, his confusion slowly transforming into dark resentment, what kind of God makes a world where your life has to suck because you can’t read because your eyes weren’t wired to your brain right?
Even these thoughts petered out for the twins, who finally let their minds go blank. It wasn’t exactly sleep, but it helped. There was something mesmerizing about the repetitive work involved in all the burning, and the flicking tongues of fire devouring the pads were hypnotic, too.
It took nearly six hours, but finally the last bundle was burned. The twins looked at each other warily when they’d finished, exchanged grudging nods for their accomplishment, then grabbed their overnight bags and staggered toward their rooms. The sun was already starting to go down.
Daphna sank into her bed. She opened her bag, took out Asterius Rash’s Ledger and put it on her lap. In her current state, it was nearly impossible to read, especially after having stayed up all night squinting at Emmet’s weird writing in her sleeping bag, but she needed to learn as much as she could. Events were spiraling out of control, and the only thing comforting her now was the incredible potential of the Ledger.
So far, she’d only been able to make those two words work. She had to keep trying new ones. If she didn’t come up with some more subtle skills, Dex was going to catch on to her, for sure. Daphna didn’t feel badly about lying to her brother anymore, not with the way he’d been acting.
She opened the book and chose a Word at random. It took a moment to make it out, but when the letters finally came into focus, she said it out loud. It sounded Chinese. Nothing happened.
Daphna was about to try it again, but a crude voice outside her slightly open window distracted her.
“Shut up!” it hissed.
Antin.
With energy she didn’t think she still had, Daphna lunged to her light switch, flipped it off, then crawled on her hands and knees over to the window, still holding the Ledger. Antin was outside, laying into one of his gang.
“I’m not gonna tell you again,” he warned, “the guy snuck up on us in the dark. He’s a coward!”
It took a second for Daphna to realize he was talking about Dex.
“I’m telling you, Antin,” a boy protested, “I was looking right at him when his sister went ape. He said something, and then the next thing I knew, he was gone. Then I saw Poly go down. All of the sudden he was just lyin’ there bleeding.”
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing!” Antin railed. “You all panicked. You freaked. It’s that simple. And the next time you hand me that load, you’re the one who’s gonna disappear. Got it? When the rest of those wimps get better, I’m gonna kill them. Now I’m telling you, we’re gonna find out what the big mystery is all about right—”
Daphna didn’t hear the end of Antin’s rant. With her face aflame, she got to her feet and stormed out of the room. The fact that Antin and who knew how many of his goons were about to invade her home was suddenly the furthest thing from her mind. Daphna was running by the time she reached the kitchen. She tore open the basement door and practically flew down the steps. Only a lucky grab at the banister halfway down saved her from winding up on her face at the bottom.
Dex, sitting at his desk, was too stunned by his sister’s kamikaze attack on the stairwell to put the Book of Nonsense away. He’d been leaning over it, but was now looking wide-eyed at Daphna, who was draped over the railing, her face twitching with rage.
“I KNEW IT!” she finally managed to scream. “I KNEW IT! That’s why you ran ahead of me with that can. What an idiot I am! No wonder you soaked it in lighter fluid! Let’s finish the job for the Council,” she mocked. “We’re the only one’s left to do it, Daphna! You thought I’d talk you out of it, huh? YOU NEVER INTENDED TO DESTROY IT! As soon as you looked inside it in Dad’s room—!” Daphna went suddenly silent. Dex hadn’t said a word or moved a muscle.
“But,” she said, losing steam and thoroughly confused, “you can’t read. How—when you can’t see the—Wait a minute! I showed you the book ’cause the words were changing. They were moving around. You can read it, can’t you? The moving words look steady to you, don’t they? You learned how to make yourself invisible, and that’s how you beat up all those boys, and you learned a way to make the delivery man stay when you told him to!”
Dex smiled in a disturbingly satisfied way. He nodded.
Daphna’s fury redoubled. “YOU’RE A LIAR!” she wailed. “YOU’RE A LIAR, DEXTER WAX!”
Dex still wouldn’t speak, but his smirk was getting wider and wider by the second.
“What!” Daphna demanded. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because you learned how to teleport, and t
hat’s how you got into that office, and that’s how you got home to leave that note so quickly.”
Daphna, poised to unleash an even more howling attack, went pale.
“That’s ridiculous,” she snarled, but it was a lame protest. How could he know? “What are you, some kind of mind-reader now?”
Dex laughed. “No, I’m a palm reader.”
Baffled, Daphna looked down at her hand. It was still clutching the Ledger. She sighed, defeated and finally aware of what a massive hypocrite she was.
“Emmet destroyed it, eh?” Dex said. “I guess we’re both idiots, huh?”
Brother and sister regarded one another cautiously now, unsure how to proceed. They were deadlocked. They’d both lied. They’d both acted selfishly, possibly jeopardizing everything they were trying to accomplish.
“Dex,” Daphna said when the staring contest wore her down. It didn’t take much. “I’m glad you know. I’m glad you did the same thing. I’m sorry, but—”
“But what?”
“I’m beginning to think it doesn’t matter what we do, good or bad. In a way, it’s like we have no choice anyway.”
“What?” That made no sense to Dexter, and he was far too sleep-deprived to puzzle it out.
“It’s like Emmet said to me,” Daphna explained, “if Time is endless, we’ll live a trillion times, and we’ll do everything: good and bad and in-between. It doesn’t really make a difference when we do which. It’s like, if I make the right choice now, it just means I’ll make the wrong one later. It’s almost totally random. So, like I said, it’s just the same as having no choice at all.”
“That’s a really touching apology, Daphna,” Dex muttered, but his thoughts went immediately to his own insights. If that were true, and he’d understood correctly, he wouldn’t have to worry about whether he’d gone too far with that board.
“You don’t need a trillion lives to see how random the world is,” he said, “you only need one. Just look at us. One kid gets born with everything and the other one gets screw—”
Book of Knowledge Page 10
