The Legend Thief (14 page)

"You think Morton is Bedlam?" Andrew asked.

Sky shrugged. "Morton, Chase-who knows? Bedlam's looking for Alexander's blade, so he's likely to pick someone in the know, and neither of them was at the Bolger tree."

"It's not Chase," said Andrew. "He was here when Crystal and I arrived."

"And he was here the whole time?'' Sky asked.

Andrew nodded. "The whole time we were here. It took us a while to dig out, so maybe he could've slipped away before we got here. But there's no way he could've shot Cass and made it back in time."

"Get in the car!" Hannah yelled.

"Looks like it's time for us to go," said Hands, looking at Hannah's beat-up car nervously. "She's a good driver, right?"

"That car was new when she got it," Sky lied, but it was a lie close to the truth; the car was beat-up when she'd gotten it, but it was far more beat-up now.

Hands guffawed.

"Before you go, shove this up your nose," said Sky, handing them some barrow weed he'd taken from Mom's pantry.

They looked at him as if he were crazy.

"
It's
barrow weed," Sky assured them. "It'll keep Bedlam and the Darkhorn out of your head." Hannah laid on the horn.
"Now!"

T-Bone, Hands, and Andrew glanced nervously at the car, and then back at the barrow weed. They shoved it up their noses.

Hands sniffed. "Why can I smell the color brown?"

"Side effect," said Sky.

"It's
mintier
than I would've expected," said Hands. Sky smiled.

Hannah laid on the horn again, and this time she didn't let up.

"See you guys tomorrow," said Sky as they scuttled away, saying good-bye. "I hope."

Sky ran through thick vines. Gourds as big as houses smashed around him. A shriek shook the earth. Spinning, Sky found a fiery face staring into his soul, burning green eyes malevolent and menacing. The Jack's awful mouth seemed to smile, and the green fires inside its skull flared even brighter. The giant jack-o'-lantern head rose up, and the Jack pulled a broken man forward and held him up for Sky to see.

"Phineas
... ,
" Sky muttered, his voice cracking with emotion.

Phineas looked up, his face bleeding and terrible ... and then the Jack yanked Phineas back and
away,
and Phineas dis appeared beneath a mountain of vines and gourds and flaming green fire.

Sky screamed as he stumbled and plunged into a swamp filled with laughing corpses. He swam frantically, the water freezing around him. A giant man latched onto him and pulled him close, his face half pockmarked flesh, half coppery metal.

A black Eye of Legend on his forehead stared back at Sky, darkness spilling out.

"Hello again," Bedlam cackled.

Sky screamed.

He raised his hand and light shot out of his Hunter's Mark, driving the monster back. Sky fell through the swamp as if it were air, water splashing around him. His nostrils filled with smoke, and then he stood on a mountain ledge overlooking a charred wasteland. The mountain he was on sat in the middle of a much larger volcanic crater. Rivers of molten rock flowed through a strange blackened forest below, and he saw two more mountains, also within the crater, off in the distance. Fires burned bright in the wasteland, their crackling filling the night with haze and haunting sounds.

Sky reeled back from the edge. Behind him, a giant cave led deep into the mountain's fiery heart. A shadowy figure stood in the mouth of the cave, gesturing for him to come closer.

Sky approached, knowing it was stupid but unable to stop himself.

The man's hood covered his face so that Sky could only see the lower half. Sky's heart beat against his ribs, threatening to break through. The Shadow Man ... it had to be the Shadow Man ... the one who'd ruined his life, who'd turned him into a Changeling with Errand. Finally Sky would know who he was....

Sky reached out to pull back the man's hood....

And found nothing. The empty cloak dropped to the round.

Sky felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped ten feet in the air.

Errand started laughing.

"Errand?" said Sky, shocked beyond words.
"Errand!
You jerk! If you weren't already
dead ,
I'd kill you!"

"That was classic!" Errand chortled.
"Seriously.
You should've seen your face." Sky threw a stick at him.

"Hey!" Errand cried. "Lighten up-aren't you happy to see me?"

"I would be if you were real and not just another part of this nightmare," Sky replied.

"Sky, it's me. I'm really here," Errand insisted. "I pulled you out of your dream and brought you to this place. We're edgewalking."

"Yeah, right," said Sky. "That's exactly what I would say if I wanted to convince myself that you were still alive."

Errand sighed. "Look, this is dangerous, and I don't have much time. How about if I tell you something you couldn't possibly know? Would that convince you that this isn't a dream, that I'm not some figment of your imagination?"

"Maybe," Sky replied hesitantly. "That would depend on what it was. After all, if I didn't know it, how could I be sure I wasn't lying to myself? If I really wanted to believe you were still alive, wouldn't I just make something up that sounded real, even if it wasn't?"

Errand kneaded the bridge of his nose as if a headache was coming on. "That is messed u p i n so many ways."

Sky shrugged. ''I'm a complicated guy; what can I say?" "Look, Sky, Morton doesn't care about saving Exile. He and Phineas are mortal enemies and have been for centuries. Maybe he thought you were Bedlam, and maybe he's afraid of what you might become with the marks, but I suspect his hatred of Phineas was part of it as well. Morton would love to see Exile burn to the ground."

"If he doesn't care about Exile, then why is he here?" Sky asked. "Why bring all the hunters if he doesn't want to stop Bedlam?"

"I didn't say that he didn't want to stop Bedlam," said Errand." Morton does want to stop Bedlam-that's why he's .1fter the blade-but he only cares about stopping Bedlam from destroying his
own
hunters. Morton believes that if he can find the blade first, we'll lose our only possible bargaining l hi p. Bedlam and his army will destroy Exile, and then Morton and his hunters can march in and either finish off what's left of Bedlam's army, or-if needed-use the blade, and the promise of freedom, to strike a deal with Bedlam. But getting the blade, stopping Bedlam, and destroying Exile-those are all secondary. That's not why he came."

"So why, then?"
Sky asked.
"If Morton was so afraid that Phineas might rise from the dead, then why come here at all?"
"Think about it," said Errand. "What connection could Morton possibly have to Exile that would force him to come out of hiding and face his bitterest enemy, the hunter he fears more than anyone or anything else?"

"
What .
..
you
can't mean Solomon Rose," Sky scoffed.

“I'm surprised that's the best you-and by 'you,' I meant ‘I’— can come up with."

Errand smiled. "Solomon was more than just Morton's apprentice-he was his adopted son. Until recently, Morton believed that Solomon died fighting the Arkhon. It came as quite a shock when Morton discovered that Solomon really h
,1d
taken the Arkhon's body. The funniest part is that Solomon spent centuries trying to tell Morton precisely that, but every time Solomon tried, hunters trapped him. The Arkhon was one of the greatest liars in history, so none of the hunters believed him when he claimed to be the great Solomon Rose!"

Errand laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world, but Sky didn't join in.

"What's wrong?" Errand asked. "You have to admit that's funny."

"It's just
... ,
"Sky said slowly, "that's a horrible lie. Parts of it are just ludicrous, and the other parts absurd. It also implies that
you're
the one who told Morton that Solomon was the Arkhon, since no one else knows, but that doesn't make any sense, either, because why in the world would you ever do that?
And ,
seriously, could that story be any more complicated? It's not the kind of lie I would make up because it's so outrageous that I'd never believe it. There's nothing in it that makes me want to believe you're still alive. If anything, the opposite is true, which makes me think you might just be telling the truth . . ."

Errand grinned broadly and held out his arms, welcoming a hug.

Sky picked up a rock and threw it at him.

"Ouch! Hey! What was that for?" Errand complained.

"It's been a year, Errand!
A YEAR!"
Sky bellowed, pushing Errand repeatedly. "And you told Morton about Solomon! Are you insane?"

"Sorry," Errand yelped as he fended off Sky's blows.

"Sorry? SORRY? That's all you can say?" Sky yelled, punching him. "You let me believe you were dead for a year, and Morton's hunters nearly killed me! What happened, Errand?

Why didn't you come and find me?"

Errand pushed Sky back. "And then what, Sky? Would you have brought me home to meet your parents?
To become part of your family?
Maybe like a new pet?"

"Yes!" Sky shouted.

"Really?"
Errand shouted back.
"Because from what I hear, you still haven't told them about me-or about
you."

"
Wha
... how do you know that?" Sky asked.

"Does it matter?" said Errand, looking Sky in the eyes.

Sky squirmed. He unclenched his fists and turned away, unable to meet Errand's gaze. "Look, you disappeared. What did you expect me to do? Say, 'Hey, Mom and Dad, let me tell you about this kid who might be your son, but now he's dead, and oh, by the way,
I'm also a Changeling?'"

"Ah, I see," said Errand, "so you didn't tell them about me to protect
their feelings."

"Yes!"

Errand raised an eyebrow.

"Fine.
No," Sky admitted. "I didn't tell them about you because ... because ..."

"Because you didn't want them to wonder if you were really their son," said Errand, "or worse: resent you for taking his place."

Sky clenched his fists and looked away. "I know how you feel," said Errand.

They looked across the burning valley for a time, each lost in his own thoughts.

"What is this place?" Sky asked, finally breaking the silence. "A small volcanic island in the Caribbean," Errand replied. "We're on one of the three smaller mountains within the main crater, a crater you might know better as Skull Valley."

"Skull Valley!
This is where Cass disappeared-where Phineas found her journal! This is where she freed Bedlam!" Sky exclaimed. "We searched everywhere for this place, even California!"

"Bedlam keeps it well hidden," said Errand. "You won't find it or remember it unless he wants you to, or you know how to avoid him. This is where Solomon and Alexander trapped him, and where he spent years gathering his army once he awoke and took control of Crystal's mom. I visited here a short time ago. This is my memory of the place."

"How do you know all this, Errand?"

A fiery ball suddenly appeared over the distant mountains. "Is that ... is that the sun?" Sky asked.

Errand glanced over. "We should get moving."

He grabbed Sky's arm and the mountain fell apart around them. Sky yelped.

They plunged into nothing, dropped through a swirling electrical storm that Sky recognized as the Edge, and crash landed in a forest.

Sky jumped to his feet. "Warn me next time!" Errand grinned. "Where's the fun in that?"

In the distance Sky saw a massive glowing wall made of multicolored stained glass that was filled with bizarre mechanisms, dark liquids, and odd mists, like breath captured on a cold morning.

Sky marched toward the wall. "I don't understand
... .
Why is Solomon's prison here? Is this a memory, too?"

"An Edge Memory generated by Phineas and Nikola's machines," Errand replied, examining the strange colors roving through the wall. "And more than that: a one-of-a-kind singularity."

"Isn't 'one of a kind' the definition of a singularity?" Sky quipped. He stopped in front of the wall and raised his hand to touch it.

"Careful," Errand warned. "Not too close."

Sky paused. Beyond the wall he saw Pimiscule Manor and the broken grove where he and Errand had fought each other. And within the grove he saw one tree still standing, arms reaching upward, giant black wings unfurled ... just as he remembered. "Solomon."

Before entering the prison, Solomon had shifted into an Echo-a gigantic treelike creature that could either grow deep roots and dream with other Echo, or break those roots and fly. Centuries ago, before Solomon took the Arkhon's body, he gouged out the eyes of every last Echo and left
them
blind, save for the sensory organs in their branches. Last year, during their fight with Solomon, Errand had gouged out Solomon's eyes with a candleholder.

Through the wall, Sky could see those terrible dripping eyes, as if Errand had just ripped them open a minute ago rather than a year.

Sky backed away from the wall. Solomon didn't move. "You still don't get it," said Errand. "Solomon and I were never trapped in time; not really. We were trapped
here.
In the Edge.
In a memory of Exile."

"Still not getting it," Sky admitted. "Isn't the Edge that stormy place between minds, the place we just dropped through?"

'The same," said Errand. "A trained edgewalker can create places in the Edge by weaving those forces together- the light and dark. They're called Edge Memories. But that's all they are: memories.
Shadows of places.
Most fade over time or are ripped apart by the storms. So long as your dreams and memories stay in your head, they're protected. But once you put them out here in the Edge, the storms will do their best to rip them apart. Still, a few Edge Memories survive-places like this, places I might show you someday.
Amazing places.
And horrible places ..."