The Legend Thief (20 page)

- M

On his paper, Sky took his best guess and wrote:

Ursula,

STill
hunting Cassandra.
Phineas and Errand are Slippery and in place. Give love and
picTure
to Nikola. Look for The Marrowick delivery on
The
seTTer
in The
piT
between The
bedposTs
-sponsor is unclear (i.e., I
don’T
know who The Marrowick is working for or why They’re giving us The delivery)…beware. Cassandra wants
iT
,
Too
;
waTch
ouT
for Harrow Wrights (children of Bedlam That look human
buT
can
bursT
into flame, Throw
molTen
meTal
, and develop hardened armor as They cool).

-Malvidia? Morton?

"You think Phineas is alive?" Hands asked.

"Morton does, and I've got suspicions of my own as
well ,
especially if Phineas drank Slippery Wick Brew," said Sky. "And
Errand .
.."

He filled them in on his dream from the previous night. "We don't know anything for sure," said Sky. ''I'm not going to get my hopes up again. Maybe P is someone else-this is all guesswork; I'm just filling in puzzle pieces. But until we know more, P is Phineas. And I think N is Nikola, the janitor."

"The janitor?"
Hands asked.

"Long story," Sky replied, not wanting to go into all the details, "but basically, I ran into him last night and he had half a picture-a woman who looked familiar. He dropped it before he ran off. Here, I've still got it."

Sky pulled out the picture of the dark-haired woman and showed them.

"Never seen her before," said T-Bone. "Me neither," Hands added.

Sky stared at it ... Where had he seen her? He put the picture away. "Well, apparently it was supposed to jog some memory in Nikola. He's a former hunter and he helped Phineas build the prison. It could be important."

"And M?" said T-Bone. "I don't see how M could be Malvidia or Morton. Malvidia doesn't know Ursula lives in Exile, and Morton wouldn't help anyone except, apparently, Solomon Rose."

Sky took a deep breath.
One crisis at a time.

"Well, 'on the setter in the pit between the bedposts' is talking about the bowling alley," Hands observed.

"It is?" Sky asked.

"Yep.
It's bowling slang: setter-i.e. pinsetters in the pit; between the bedposts, a seven-ten split," said Hands. "Whatever the Marrowick delivered, it's at the bowling alley or was-and it's probably sitting on the pinsetter for lane eight or m.ne."

"The bowling alley again, huh?
Well, I guess it's a start; we know the Marrowick was there, after all, and it didn't have any thing with it when it left," T-Bone stated grudgingly, apparently wishing, as Sky did, that they had more to go on.

Sky couldn't imagine why the Marrowick would have the blade or why it would leave it at the bowling alley for Ursula, but clearly the Marrowick was wrapped up in all this somehow.

He tapped his finger against the table as he considered their options. "All right," he said finally, "it sounds like the bowling alley is our best lead to finding the blade.
How about if we meet there in an hour?"

"An hour?
Why not just go there now?" T-Bone asked.

Sky
hesitated ,
not wanting to tell them about his promise to help Nikola out of fear they wouldn't understand. "I've got something to do-nothing important; just personal stuff. Besides, it'll take an hour to retrieve our gear and gather Crystal and Andrew; you two don't need me for that anyway."

T-Bone nodded slowly, his eyes full of suspicion. "Okay ...we'll meet you in the sewer near the bowling alley in an hour, then."

"Good," said Sky. 'The blade is the strongest piece on the board right now. Whoever controls it controls Exile's future, for better or worse. We have to find it before Morton and Bedlam."

The sensation of falling is not unlike that of climbing, only in the opposite direction and with a much more disappointing end.

As Sky watched Felicity Anne Finley tumble toward the earth, he couldn't help but contemplate the strange complexities of girls and gravitational forces.

Last year Felicity had just been a girl trying to help him recover his pocket watch, using a kiss as a distraction. But now she was something else ... something horrible . . .

"Nice dismount, Felicity! Keep those elbows tucked!" yelled Hannah as she and another cheerleader caught Felicity in their arms and set her on the ground.

Sky sighed.
A cheerleader.
Honestly.

"Trying out for the team?" asked a voice behind him as he lugged a saxophone up the bleachers.

Turning, he found Chase Shroud standing at the bottom of the steps, eating a large, soggy sausage.

Do I look like I’m trying out?’ Sky snapped. “Besides, tryouts were two months ago.”

“Ah, but there’s always room for talent,” said Chase taking a big bite of sausage. “Sorry, I’m being rude,” Chase
continued,
mouth full. “Care for a bite?” Chase held out the sausage, offering it to Sky.

“No. Thanks,” said Sky, watching streams of grease drip past the rain-soaked bun and onto the bleachers. "You realize your sausage is getting wet, right?
From the rain?"

“If we waited for the rain to stop in England, we'd never eat sausage." Chase took another big bite and smiled through the resulting mustard-
stache
. "You're not still sore I trounced you this morning, are you?"

"No-should I be?" Sky headed back down the steps toward Nikola's instrument-filled shopping cart. They'd had to make a few trips, and it wasn't the smoothest ride, but it'd helped. He glanced around until he spotted Nikola carefully rearranging the instruments into geometric patterns, and completely messing up Mr. Dibble's seating arrangement. Sky sighed. He'd have to fix it.
Again.

He'd tried to strike up a conversation with Nikola several
times,
to thank him for what he'd done, but Nikola hadn't said a word.

At least he wasn't on the field with Andrew and his step whatever, Jasmine and Ermine. Hannah had apparently let slip that Andrew was at the manor with Crystal, and Jasmine and Ermine had swooped in and snatched him up to do their dirty work, threatening to tell their mother that he was playing hooky if he didn't do everything they told him to. Andrew held their pom-poms while they formed a human pyramid with the other cheerleaders and bossed him around with fake Shakespeare lines-evidently their required reading for English class.

"Drop the
pom
and
pom
once more, dear friend, and to the breach with you and your dumb head!" yelled Jasmine as Andrew dropped a pom-pom.

"Up and up you go and with breaking chords, you fall with whole discord and bottom breaks!" Ermine chirped as several cheerleaders tackled Andrew and started hoisting him to the top of the pyramid against his will.

"That's horrible! It doesn't even make sense!" Andrew exclaimed, struggling to break free. "Wait, was that a flatulence joke?"

Sky just shook his head. He felt bad for Andrew, but he couldn't help him at the moment, not until he was finished. Then they could make good their escape and meet up with the others in the sewer near the bowling alley.

"Sure you wouldn't like a bite?" Chase offered again.

"No.
Really.
I'd better not," said Sky, watching in disgust as Chase took another huge bite.

"Suit
yourself
," said Chase, shrugging, his mouth full of food.
"Nothing like a good hanger."

''I'll take your word for it," said Sky. "Where did you get that anyway?"

"Made it," said Chase. "In London we slaughter our own sheep."

"Really?"

"Just taking the mick, mate," Chase replied.

"Oh.
Right."
Sky had no idea if that was.
good
or bad. "Did you want something, Chase, or did you just come to lie to me some more?" he said, lugging up another instrument.

"Morton asked me to keep you company."

"You mean he wants you to watch me in case I find the blade," Sky retorted.

Chase grinned. "Sure you wouldn't care for a bite?"

Someone screamed on the field-a wild, feral sound.

Sky jerked his head around expecting some horror to come crawling out of the earth. Instead, he saw the football coach, Coach Blackburn, waving his clipboard and screaming at the top of his lungs as he followed Tick across the field. Tick looked exhausted and fed up with practice.

Squid and Lazy Eye, looking perplexed, followed a few steps behind the coach.

"Well," said Chase, "this looks interesting. You know, I've always secretly fancied American football."

Coach Blackburn stopped midfield and threw down his clipboard. Tick kept walking, removing his pads as he marched toward the cheerleading mats.

Sky smiled. It seemed like small pleasures were the only pleasures he got these days. He'd learned to take advantage of them whenever he could, and this particular pleasure, however small, was going to be very pleasurable indeed.

Hannah glanced up, noticing Tick for the first time, a look of absolute dismay crossing her face. Tick stopped in front of Hannah, and the cheerleading squad went silent.

Hannah held her breath.

''I'm here to try
ou
- "

"No!" Hannah shouted, cutting him off. "Tryouts ended two months ago!"

"Come on, let him try," said Felicity, coming to Tick's defense.

"It's not like you didn't get your own special tryout last year." "The siren's lips call truthful sounds ashore," said Jasmine, smirking.

"I-" Hannah started, but Tick turned away, jaw set, and walked toward Jasmine and Ermine, who tittered as he approached.

"I was just joking in the hall!" Hannah
cried .
''I'm sure quarterback's a very challenging position! Why don't you go back to it?
This isn't putting you in my good graces!"

Tick grabbed Jasmine and raised her above his head. Jasmine balanced on his hands on one leg, holding the other leg out.

"Well, that's fine and
all but-
" Hannah began.

Tick launched Jasmine into the air. She flew upward, kicking out in splits before landing in Tick's outstretched arms. Jasmine put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek, but Tick had eyes only for Hannah.

Sky might have been seeing things, but he could have sworn Hannah's cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink.

"That's impressive, but-"

Tick set Jasmine down, nearly dropping her. She stumbled to her feet, glaring, but Tick had already started backing away to the far side of the mat. He took a breath and then started running. He planted his hands, becoming a blur of spins and flips, twists and turns-a symphony of incomprehensible motion-coming to a perfect stop in front of Hannah, his chest heaving.

"I-"

Before Hannah could finish, Lazy Eye and Squid tackled Tick and dragged him back across the field, gathering his pads as they went. Tick kicked and screamed about wanting to be a cheerleader-clearly he had snapped-but Squid and Lazy Eye didn't let go.

Hannah watched silently as Coach Blackburn berated Tick and Tick yelled back, refusing to play tonight unless the coach called off practice and let them rest. Tick threatened to go back to the cheerleaders again. Coach Blackburn finally relented, and the players headed for the showers.

As the last player left the field, Hannah turned back to the cheerleaders, most of
whom
were smirking at her. "Practice is over!" she yelled.

Sky smiled.
Small pleasures.

"That's quite a show," said Chase, finishing off his sausage. "I think your friend's given you the slip."

Sky glanced down and saw Andrew still on the field.

"Not him, the other guy," said Chase, pointing at the instruments.

Nikola was gone.

And he had taken Sky's tuba.