The Legend Thief (25 page)

"I don't understand," said Sky. "The stories I read claimed that you were seeking your father's power- that Solomon and Alexander trapped you until your heart was pure and filled with love."

Bedlam growled at him.

Sky held up his hands defensively. ''I'm not saying I believed it!"

"Hunters lie, and Solomon and Alexander lied worst of all," said Bedlam. "They convinced the other hunters that I was in league with my brother to reclaim my father's power, to reforge the darkness in the Eyes. When all along, it was they who were plotting to take it. Solomon and Alexander believed that the Hunter's Mark would allow them to control it. And they call me mad! The First Hunter herself-the greatest of your kind- held my father's power in her hands, and she gave it up. She broke the power into parts and gave half to her chosen thirteen and half to Legend's five remaining children, and she bound the power in the Eyes. She understood. To reforge Legend's power is to reforge Legend! But I saw Solomon and Alexander's plan; I would not give up the Eye willingly and they would not kill me. If they tried to take the Eye by force, dire consequences would follow. So for hundreds of years I slept, until Vulpine, my sister, sent Cassandra to awaken me."

"So when Solomon and Alexander realized they couldn't get the Eye from you, they
- "
Sky stopped himself, but it was too late.

"They stole my brother's body and his Eye?" Bedlam offered.

"How did you
- "

"I know because I taught them how to do such a thing, fool that I am! My Edgewalkers visited me for a time and kept me informed before Solomon exterminated them.

I knew of Solomon and Alexander's plans for my brother, though many of the details I have learned since awakening."

"So Solomon and Alexander succeeded-they got your brother's body-but something must've happened because Alexander returned alone, claiming that the Arkhon had killed Solomon."

"Perhaps Alexander finally betrayed Solomon in the hopes of breaking free."

"Breaking free?" Sky
queried ,
feeling confused. "Free from what?"

"Free from being a Changeling with Solomon, of course," said Bedlam, grinning.

Sky's heart stopped. "Solomon and Alexander were Changelings?"

"Yes," Bedlam replied. "Just as you are Changelings with Solomon's apprentice."

"Errand isn't Solomon's apprentice anymore," Sky retorted, wondering how Bedlam knew about Errand.

"We shall see." Bedlam chuckled.

"Why haven't I ever heard about this?" Sky asked. "None of the stories mention that they were Changelings, though that would explain how they both had a Hunter's Mark at the same time."

"They were very good at hiding it. Solomon used Slippery Wick Brew to disguise himself. And Changelings are so very, very rare. The knowledge of how to create one was lost for centuries before Alexander rediscovered it. I only uncovered their secret during training, and I kept it until the end. But tonight Morton will free Solomon if I do not stop him first."

"Your army is coming to stop Morton?" Sky asked hopefully.

"My army is coming to wipe you hunters from the face of the earth. I will burn Exile to the ground and make it my new home, near my sleeping brother, Erachnus, and my future prisoner, Solomon Rose."

"Can you help my friend? Can you help Crystal?" Sky demanded.

Bedlam stared at him for a second, and Sky could feel Bedlam rifling through his mind for images of Crystal. Sky didn't resist.

"I can help," Bedlam finally said. "But not from here."

"But if I let you out, could you?"

Bedlam considered him.
"With my body, perhaps."

"You'd have to help her first, no matter what
, "
said Sky. "And you'd have to stop your army from destroying Exile and go back to Skull Valley."

Bedlam scoffed at the proposal. "And what do I get in return?"

"Your freedom," said Sky.

"A bigger prison, you mean."

"The Caribbean has got to be nicer than a Chrysalis," Sky replied.
"Or being trapped in someone's mind."

"And should Solomon escape?"

"Then take him- trap him somewhere if you can; do whatever you want with him," said Sky. "But heal Crystal first." Bedlam examined Sky. A broken smile slipped across his face. "Perhaps the First Hunter has an heir after all. Very well, Sky Weathers. Deliver me and I will deliver your friend." Bedlam touched Sky on the forehead and Sky felt something slip into his mind. He stumbled back. "What was that?"

"A message for the Darkhorn telling her to help you should you need it."

Sky rubbed his forehead. "So, the Darkhorn ... is she really your ...
er
·... wife?"

Bedlam raised a rusty eyebrow.

"Uh ... never mind," Sky muttered, backpedaling. "On second thought, I don't really want to know."

Bedlam laughed maniacally, darkness swirled around him, the forest fell apart, and Sky tumbled back into his own head and fell to the kitchen floor.

"-
ing
," T-Bone said, apparently finishing the sentence he had started before Sky slipped into the Edge Memory. Sky knew from experience that time didn't move the same way in the Edge.

"Sky!
Are you all right?" Mom asked, rushing over from the fridge to help him up.

''I'm fine," said Sky. He grabbed the package they had retrieved from the bowling alley and started to leave the kitchen. "Where are you going?" Mom asked.

"To fix this," Sky replied.

But before he could leave, he spotted a small piece of paper sticking out of the coffin in the cemetery replica he'd built from utensils the night before. He snatched the paper. The lid closed, the coffin slipped into the grave, and tissue fell on top, covering the coffin like dirt.

Sky opened the note:

Dear Apprentice,

Sorry I missed you earlier. Bedlam’s army appears larger than we anticipated. After careful consideration, we have determined that Exile is a loss and that a hasty retreat is in order to allow us to gather our strength in a more defensible location. As such, we will be leaving for the Academy of Legend tonight after a few remaining matters of business. Please make sure you pack plenty of clean underwear, a sharp knife, and a toothbrush. I can’t wait to introduce you to other Hunters. Once you are packed, attend me at the Grove of the Fallen-I believe you know the place. Please hurry. We have much to do, and I require your assistance with a matter of grave importance. Hope to see you soon. Come alone if you value your friends and family, and make sure to say your good-byes.

Morton

Sky crumpled the note. Morton was running and taking his hunters with him, just as Errand had predicted.

"What is it?" T-Bone asked.

Sky inspected the kitchen and realized that Alexander Drake's coffin was missing. "Mom, did you move the coffin?" Mom looked up from what she was doing, her brow furrowed as she glanced around. "No. Your father must've moved it."

"Ah. That would be it, then," said Sky, grinding his teeth.

Morton had taken the coffin-their one clue to the blade's whereabouts, aside from an insane hunter. Bedlam's army was too close and Morton was out of time. Sky suspected that this was Morton's last-ditch effort to find the blade before freeing Solomon and abandoning Exile entirely.

And if the coffin really led to the blade somehow, then this was Sky's last chance to find it, no matter the risks. "Sky, what's going on?" T-Bone asked.

"It's nothing," said Sky, shoving the crumpled note in his pocket. "You guys wait here."

Hands scoffed.
"Yeah.
Right."

Sky filled his pockets with canisters from his backpack and the duffel bag. ''I'm serious," Sky insisted, shoving the package into a pocket inside the coat to open on the way. "They need help here. I'm just going out for a bit.
Nothing dangerous."

"The fact that you feel the need to assure us that nothing's dangerous means that something is dangerous," Andrew observed.

Mom glanced up at Sky, narrowing her eyes.

"It's fine!
Really.
I'll be back in an hour, two hours tops, well before dark."

Beau shook his head. "I don't know what's going on here, but someone had better explain it to me." Cassandra moaned.

Beau glanced over at her, and Sky slipped out while every- one was distracted.

"Sky!"
Mom called after him. "Be back soon!"

The front door opened just as Sky reached it and Dad walked through.
"Sky!
Just the son I've been looking for! You look horrible. Did you burn down the bowling alley?"

"I didn't burn down the bowling alley!" Sky exclaimed, slipping past Dad and out the door.

"Oh. That's good," said Dad. "Where are you going?"

Sky ran down the porch steps.
"Out!
Mom's waiting for you in the kitchen!"

"She is?" Dad asked, looking confused.

"Oh, and Dad-Morton's hunters are about to abandon Exile to Bedlam's army," Sky said, pausing.

"What?" Dad exclaimed. "How do you know that?"

"Call it a hunch," Sky replied. "Also, in an hour or two Morton's going to try to break into our house to free the Arkhon, who's really Solomon Rose, his former apprentice."

"I know who Solomon Rose is," Dad said, sounding far less surprised than Sky would have expected. "We'll be ready for him."

"I-" Sky started, choking up, not sure what he intended to say, but feeling the need to say something. ''I'll be back in a little while. Good-bye."

"Good-bye? Sky! Sky! Where are you going?" Dad yelled after him.

But Sky kept running.

Sky slowed as he approached Crenshaw’s family crypt on the edge of the Sleeping Lands. ARGRAVE IS YOUR GRAVE the plaque read. But he hadn’t slowed because of the plaque. Unlike last night when he had passed this place, the giant stone door was now open.

He was in a hurry- he needed to get to the Grove of the Fallen- but he also knew that Nackles and Rauschtlot were hiding in the Sleeping Lands and that they preferred dry places to wet places, and this area was about as dry as it got in the Sleeping Lands. He didn't know exactly what Morton had planned, but he felt fairly sure that this "matter of grave importance" involved burying him. "With Hunter's Mark the buried dead shall shimmering blade hold in my stead." Sky was the only one besides Errand, wherever he was, who had a Hunter's Mark, and thus the only one besides Errand who could truly solve the riddle. The question was: Once Morton buried him, would he dig him up again?

Morton's message was vague. He'd told Sky to pack, which implied that he intended to take Sky to the Academy of Legend and subject him to further humiliation. But Morton had also told him to say good-bye to his family and friends. That could imply that Morton meant to kill him. Either way, Sky could use an ally, and a Gnomon who could burrow through the earth seemed like the perfect choice.

Sky crept into the Argraves' family tomb. Inside, he found a room that might once have looked stately and impressive but now was old and moth-ridden. Stained paintings hung askew on the walls, and the fixtures were tarnished, the stones cracked and moldy.

In the center of the room he saw a giant stone coffin a sarcophagus-the top of which had been carved into the shape of a grumpy man who appeared very much put out by his death.

"Well, I can see where Crenshaw got his looks," Sky muttered.

He crouched down, put his hand on the stone floor, and tuned his Hunter's Mark to Earthspeak. Rauschtlot's voice came through as a faint whisper, too quiet to make out, but nearby. Beyond that, Sky felt the earth rumbling strangely to the southeast near Arkhon Academy, like thousands of feet stomping on bleachers to "We Will Rock You."

With a pang of guilt, Sky realized that the homecoming game had begun. Of course, even if he could have kept his promise to Mr. Dibble and attended, he didn't have an instrument to play; Nikola had stolen his tuba.

Sky started to pull his hand away, but then he noticed one more vibration coming from deep, deep below. At that moment, he realized how Bedlam's army was coming to Exile without anyone noticing: They were coming from under the earth.

Sky shivered. The tremor felt as if it was still far away, but there were so many vibrations ... thousands of them. He was running out of time.

Sky took a deep breath and surveyed the stone floor of the Argraves' tomb, noticing that the mold was slightly discolored and worn, as if someone had walked upon it recently. He followed the discolored path and found himself standing in front of a tarnished torch holder on the far wall.

"You've got to be joking." He reached up and turned the torch holder sideways. The top of the sarcophagus opened, revealing a ladder within.

Sky laughed.
"Real clever.
No one ever would've figured that one out," he said sarcastically. "Rest assured, dead Argraves, your trap-building expertise has been passed on."

Sky crossed to the open tomb, listening for voices, but his ears couldn't detect anything.

He climbed down the ladder into the darkened catacombs below. He found water at the bottom that came up to his knees and a tunnel leading into the dark. Sky's eyes adjusted and he saw that the passage was broken and branching, with bits caved in and other parts sloping down ward into pools of water and, beyond, the burial rooms of the pickled dead.

Placing his Hunter's Mark on the wall, Sky felt his way toward the nearby vibrations, which he could make out as voices now. The sound traveled through the earth to his Hunter's Mark, and he heard it as if he was standing next to the speakers, listening with his ears.

"I think our break is about over. We should relieve Nackles and the others," said a familiar voice. Sky hesitated for a moment: The man was speaking Gnomon.
With a British accent.
Almost no one spoke Gnomon, or any monster language, for that matter.

"Yesss,
Winston,"
Rauschtlot replied. She made a hissing, popping sound and Sky realized she was laughing.

"Oh, don't laugh!" snapped Winston Snavely, the hunter who had appeared so dramatically during training that morning. "Winston's a fine chap. A fine chap with a fine first name and Snavely's not a whit behind it, so don't call me anything else unless you intend to get me into trouble. These biscuits are delicious, by the way! Wherever did you get them?"

"I
maaade
themmm
," Rauschtlot hissed.

Something fishy was going on, and Sky suspected that whatever it was had little to do with the creepy one-eyed fish circling him. He veered into a sloping passage that led upward and out of the water, which now reached his waist. A faint light flickered up ahead.

"Really?
I had no idea you baked! And you just mixed the erfskin right in?" asked Winston.

"Yesss," said Rauschtlot.
"
Nacklesss
gatherrred
the erfssskin before the collapssse."

Sky remembered what Andrew had said, about how Nackles had only come to the east cemetery last night to gather some sort of baking fungus- erfskin, by the sounds of it, whatever that was.

"Ah, yes ... last night," said Winston quietly, a note of sadness in his voice. "I really wish I could have arrived in time, but I was unfortunately detained below. Sky performed exceptionally well, wouldn't you agree?
Beyond what I could have imagined.
And, as they say, all's well that ends with biscuits." Sky heard crunching sounds, and then Winston started up again. "These biscuits really are remarkable, and I can hardly taste the erfskin at all! It should really come in handy next time a tunnel decides to collapse on me. Thank you for the gift, Rauschtlot."

"My pleasssure, Winssston," said Rauschtlot, sounding pleased at the compliment.

Sky reached the end of the passage and peeked into a small burial room. He gawked at what he saw. Rauschtlot and Winston sat on two large rocks, one on each side of a sunken sarcophagus. A woman was carved into the top of the stone
coffin,
hands resting on her chest, and within those hands, Rauschtlot and Winston had placed a pot of tea. They each drank from dainty ceramic cups while snacking on cookies, or biscuits, as Winston had called them.

Winston gobbled up the last of his cookies and drained his tea. His clothes were a mess; it looked like a tunnel really had collapsed on him.

"Well, Ubiquitous," said Winston, patting the stone woman's stomach as he stood, "you were a horrible hunter, but you make an exceptional table."

Rauschtlot picked up the pot of tea, the cups, and the plate with the remaining cookies, and swallowed it all in one big gulp, storing it, Sky knew, in one of her stomachs for later use.

Winston glanced over and Sky ducked back into the shadows, but it was too late. "I see Morton has already taught you to be sneaky-a useful skill, all in all. It must be nice to have such a fine master."

Sky exhaled and stepped into the room. "I wasn't being sneaky-I was being cautious."

"An interesting way of putting it," said Winston.

"You and Morton don't seem to get along," said Sky, slowly walking into the room, his eyes drifting from Winston to Rauschtlot and back again.

"You could say that," said Winston calmly. "Things have been a bit
peckish
between us since he murdered my son."

Sky stopped where he stood. "Morton Thresher killed your son?"

"Not in a way anyone could prove," Winston replied. "What exactly is it that you want here, Sky? It seems to me that there are safer places you could be at the moment. Of course, if you were looking for safety, you could have heeded Chase's warning to flee Exile last night and saved us all a spot of bother."

"How did you know Chase warned me?" Sky asked. "Because he told me," Winston replied. "And now you've put yourself in Morton's hands and given him the keys to the Arkhon's prison."

"I didn't have a choice," said Sky defensively.

"That's the way traps work," said Winston. "If it gave you a choice, it wouldn't be a trap. Now, what is it you wanted?"

"I saw the door open," Sky replied. "I thought I might find Rauschtlot and Nackles here."

"Of course," said Winston.
"How rude of me.
Rauschtlot, are there any biscuits left?"

Rauschtlot opened her mouth and pulled out the plate of cookies. Sky looked at .the cookies, curling his lip in distaste. "No thanks. I'm good."

"Here, take some for later, then," said Winston, giving Sky several large handfuls. "They might come in handy if you find yourself in a tight spot- a not altogether unusual circumstance for you, from what I hear. Erfskin is quite a rarity. It can make you as strong and resilient as a Gnomon, if you take my meaning."

"I think I do- take your meaning, that is," said Sky, shoving the cookies into a coat pocket. "Thanks."

'That's a smashing coat," said Winston admiringly. "I used to own one just like it.
Bit scratchy."

"Yeah," said Sky. "It's less itchy if you wash it."

"Ah ... that's the secret then," said Winston, smiling.

"Would you mind if I talked to Rauschtlot in private?" Sky asked.

"Not at all," Winston replied. ''I'll just wait over here." Winston strolled off down the tunnel, whistling to himself. Sky rushed over to Rauschtlot. "Rauschtlot, are you all right? Is Nackles okay?"

"Yesss," she hissed in Gnomon. "Winssston and I are old friendsss."

"What are you doing here?" Sky asked.

"Collapsssing tunnelsss," Rauschtlot hissed.
"Bedlam's army comesss.
We lead them to Erachnusss to face huntersss. Keep Exile sssafe."

Sky nodded. It made sense. The area where the hunters trained was familiar, out of the way, and full of traps. It was the only place where they might have an advantage against what ever monsters were coming through the earth.

"Smart," said Sky appreciatively. He was glad someone else was thinking about saving Exile, because right now all he really cared about was Crystal. Fortunately, finding the blade and freeing Bedlam saved Crystal and Exile-but Crystal first. "So you've been here the whole time?" "Deeeeper," Rauschtlot replied.
"Tunnelsss of earrrth eeeater."

"The earth eater?
You mean Paragoth?"

Rauschtlot nodded fearfully, her eyes darting around as if saying Paragoth's name would make her magically appear. No hunter, as far as Sky knew, had ever seen Paragoth and lived. All they'd ever found was evidence of her passing and the gargantuan otherworldly tunnels she had left in her wake far, far below.

"She is clossse," Rauschtlot hissed.
"She makesss the tunnels for Bedlam's arrrmy."

"Is she working with Bedlam?"

"Yesss," Rauschtlot replied.
"But they fearrr her.
They ssstay far away or die."

Sky frowned. Paragoth, according to the stories, lived deep down where it was warm and dark, and where she could eat the molten earth to fuel her fires and heat her belly. She left behind tunnels that were hundreds of feet across and teeming with strange life. It was even rumored that Paragoth was the mother of the Gnomon, though Sky wasn't about to ask Rauschtlot if that was true; she looked frightened enough as it was.

The news complicated matters because it meant Rauschtlot had more important things to do than help him.

Sky glanced back at Winston to make sure he wasn't listening. Winston was whistling happily, a tune Sky recognized from the song "There Once Was a Flowering Botanist." He'd heard it many times while growing up. Winston did a little jig to his whistling, ending it with a twirl.

From the minute Winston had appeared that morning Sky had been suspicious of him. Like Hands and T-Bone, Sky just assumed that anyone he met was a fraud or a shifter of some sort, until proven otherwise. Winston's strange conversation with Rauschtlot had heightened Sky's suspicions, but that song-sung to him so often when he was young-confirmed it: Winston wasn't who he appeared to be. And now Sky knew exactly who he was. Part of him was thrilled beyond belief, but another part of him-the more vocal part- was swelling with anger at the deception and the pain it had caused. For now, at least, Sky was content to let Winston keep up his charade since Winston didn't seem to care enough to end it. But Sky wasn't going to make it easy for him.