The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (75 page)

“You’re Shade’s friend,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my hands on my arms.  “Name’s
Hayli.”

He pulled his head back inside a minute, then slipped out to
stand on the step.  “Where is he?  Is he jake?  Haven’t seen him about in
ages.”

“He’s jake.  Y’know, he’s, um…he’s back at the Hole.  He’s
been…busy.  Wanted me to check up on you lot, though.  Everything a’right
here?”

“It’s a’right,” Zip said, scuffing his toe.  “Why haven’t
you got a shirt on, Hayli?  You look frozen.”

I plucked at the threadbare remains of my undershirt and
shrugged.  “Look, honest?  I’m kind of on my own right now.  Someone fed
Kantian some kind of lie about me, and…they turned me out.  Got nowhere to
gan.”

“Well…”  Zip chewed his lip a bit, then waved me forward. 
“Suppose you could stay the night.  Think someone here might give you a shirt,
too.”

He ducked back into the building, holding the door for me to
follow.

“Say, why div’n Bugs come with those other kids today?” Zip
asked.  My heart froze.  “Thought he would.  I wanted to tell him, I’ve about
had a fill of this lot.  You think they’d still let me come to the Hole?  I mean,
I know you’re not…that is…”

I swallowed, hard, and jerked my gaze away from him to stare
around the dark interior of the building.  “Suppose you could.  But Bugs…”

I couldn’t say it.  Couldn’t.  I burned with regret—the
others would probably bury him that night, and I wouldn’t be there to say
goodbye.

“What’s wrong?  What happened to Bugs?”

I turned my head away.  I wanted to speak, but my eyes
burned and my throat burned and I couldn’t open my mouth without falling
apart.  A minute and I felt a small hand in mine, holding tight.  He didn’t say
a word, just held my hand like a lifeline.

I let him lead me into the old building and down into the
basement.  Hardly any folks were there.  A handful of adults, some far too old
to be sleeping on concrete floors, and a swarm of skitters from my age to even
younger than the youngest Hole rats.

“Weren’t there more of you once?” I asked.  “Thought Shade
said you used to be all crammed in here.”

“Folks left, after Durb kicked,” he said, shrugging.  “Some
of us stuck about.  Coolie’s gone completely nutter so the Twins run the joint
now.”

I scanned the cluster of folks, trying not to feel too fitsy
about how they were all staring at me.

“Why div’n Rivano take you in?” Zip asked.  “You’re a mage
like Shade, right?”

I shrugged.  “Thought it would be better for everyone if I
just left, I guess.”

A little girl was goggling at me through wisps of
white-blonde hair, her dark eyes huge in the dim light.  She couldn’t have been
more than seven, thin as a wraith and shaking like a reed.

“You’re Hayli?” she whispered suddenly, clutching her arms
over her chest.  “Bugs’s friend?”

I went and crouched down in front of her.  “That’s right.”

“Tell him I’m sorry, will you?  I div’n mean to hurt him. 
There was fire and it came out of me hands and I div’n mean it and I dan’ na
know how it happened.”

I held my breath.  I’d heard Bugs tell Shade about the
Bricks’ Flint who had burned him.  Somehow I’d never expected it to be a child
even younger than him.  She must have just come into her powers, the poor
thing.

“Come on Hayli,” Zip said.  “You can sleep over here. 
There’s a lamp and it’s sort of warm.”

I smiled at the little girl and went to my spot, huddling
over my knees on the cold stone floor.  Zip brought me a worn-out old shirt and
waistcoat two sizes too big for me, but they felt so good and warm that I
stopped shaking long enough to sleep.

Some hours later I jolted awake, heart hammering.  Through
my sleep-fuddled senses, I could’ve sworn I’d heard something bang upstairs.  I
stared about, hoping to see everyone still asleep, hoping to realize I’d just
been dreaming, but everyone was awake.  And not two seconds later, we heard the
crash again, echoing through the whole empty building.  Someone gasped.  The
rest of us held our breath.

“Someone’s trying to break down the door,” a man whispered.

Half a dozen people tried to get him to hush.

“Coppers?” a girl squeaked.  “We’re not doing nothing
wrong!”

“Quiet!”

For endless moments no one spoke or even twitched.  It
didn’t matter.  We heard the door at the top of the stairs slam open, then a
dozen pairs of boots came marching down toward us.  Someone screamed when the
men appeared.  They weren’t city coppers.  They weren’t Cavnish troops,
either.  These men were different.  They wore leather armor like street thugs,
with goggles and helmets and heavy boots.  And the weapons they carried weren’t
any as I’d ever seen.  They looked a bit like a gun, but the air hummed like
they carried something besides bullets.

“All right, listen up,” the man in the front said, taking a
step toward us.  “We have information that you are harboring Jixies.”

People murmured, and some woman sobbed in terror.

“Send them forward, and we’ll be on our way.”

Silence.  He waited about five seconds, staring at all of us,
scanning each of our faces.

“No?” he asked. 

He held the strange weapon up by his shoulder, then reached
to his holster with his left hand and drew a plain revolver.  And before anyone
could even flinch, he aimed and fired.  A middle-aged man reeled back, crimson
washing the front of his shirt.  The woman beside him screamed and grabbed him,
and half a dozen folks started weeping in terror.  I looked at the little girl,
shaking, wide-eyed, petrified with fear.

I’m not a mage,
cried the old, terrified voice in the
back of my thoughts. 
I’m not a mage, I’m not a mage…

Yes I am.

I got to my feet, ignoring Zip’s panicked hand on my arm. 

“I’m the mage,” I said.  “I’m the only one here.  Take me
and let the rest of these folks be.”

“Hm,” the man said, and leveled his strange device right at
my heart.

His finger twitched.  A blaze of light zapped between us,
and suddenly I was on the ground, arms limp, legs frozen.  I could breathe, but
pain raced up and down every nerve in my body.

“She told the truth,” the man said.  “Interesting.”  He
snapped his fingers.  “Looks like that little girl got it too.  Good to see the
device works as promised.  Cuff them both and send the rest for processing. 
Second unit, proceed to the next.”

Someone tried to rush at the group of men, but he never made
it past the place where I lay paralyzed.  I could only watch as he crashed to
the ground beside me, the sound of a gunshot still ringing in my ears.

Chapter 9 — Tarik

The night wind sang with urgency.  As soon as I stepped out
of the Hole, I felt the energy buzzing around me, a waiting, an expectation,
breathless and wide-eyed.  If I closed my eyes, I could almost hear the voices…murmuring…building
and building…

“Shade!”

I lurched a step and spun around.  Derrin stood close behind
me, anxious and uncertain.

“What?” I snapped.

I pressed a hand to my head and staggered a step back.  It
almost felt like being under the heel of Branigan’s cheap drug, but with all
the pain of clarity and none of the forgetting.  I could feel the world
spinning and the draw of the stars behind the clouds, and nothing made sense. 

“You look like hell,” Derrin said.  “Do you need me to come
with you?”

“You couldn’t if you wanted to,” I said, smiling faintly. 
“Sorry, Derrin, but I don’t think even your talents could get you where I’m
going.”

“You might be surprised.”

I shook my head.  “This is something I’ve got to do on my
own.  But listen.  Listen!”  I held up a hand, pointing at the night.  “The
wind is crying, and there’s blood in the streets.”

“Shade?  What’s gotten into you?” 

I just stared at him, trying to gather my thoughts, when
nothing around me made sense. 

“You’ve got to pull yourself together,” Derrin said. 
“Please.  We need you.  These kids need you.  You may not like it, but you’re a
leader to them.  You’ve got to keep them going or they’ll give up.”

“Why me?” I whispered.  “Am I their shattered king?”  I
doubled over my knees with a gasp of pain.  “Oh, God.  I can’t even tell what’s
real anymore.”

My tongue scraped the roof of my mouth.  If only I could
forget…forget…

“Snap out of it, Shade!  I know what you’re thinking, and
you’re better than that.  You hear me?  You’re better than that!”

“So you think,” I muttered.  I straightened up.  “All right,
see?  All better.  It was just a voice.”  I winced; that didn’t make sense
either.  “Something’s coming, Derrin.  Can you feel it?  It will fall apart if
we don’t raise them up.”

“What will fall apart?  Raise who up?  Stars, you really are
going mad.  She was right.”

“Of course she was right.  Find her, Derrin.  Please?  I
can’t stay.  But get them out of here, because something is coming and none of
them are safe.  Watch out for Kantian.  His hands run red and his heart is
yellow.”

“We know he’s a traitor.”

“Then why are you waiting?  Get them out of here!”  I spun
away, striding for the gate, but I paused to call over my shoulder, “Tell
Rivano.  It isn’t safe.”

I’d gotten halfway across the enclosure when I noticed Bobs
crouching like a grotesque on the guard post, waving his chubby arms frantically
at me.

“Shade!” he called.  “Gotta tell you something!”

I jogged toward him.  “What’s wrong?”

“That kid who showed up earlier, remember him?  The one who
brought you that note about the sea wall?  Well, he was just here, just a
second ago and I asked him what he wanted and he said you needed to come back
and I asked what that meant and he said he div’n na but that he just needed to
tell you that.  What did he mean, Shade?  Are you in trouble?  Where do you
need to gan, Shade?  What’s gannin’ on?”

I took a deep breath for him and held up a hand.  “Come
back?  That’s all he said?”

“Eee, that’s right.  Come back but I dan’ na where except
maybe you should gan back the same place you went last time?”

“Last time?” I echoed.

“Yeah, after you got the note, you left that evening, so I
thought for sure you must’ve ganned off somewhere to find whoever gave you the
note, div’n you?”

His round cheeks puffed, letting his breath out.  He was a
smart kid, that one.  I’d thought for sure he wouldn’t know what I was up to,
but apparently he figured it out.  Sometimes keeping secrets was just too hard.

“Thanks, Bobs,” I said.  “That gives me a good ken.”

“Sure thing.”

I turned and glanced over my shoulder, a sudden bitter ache
pulling at my heart.  For just a moment I thought I’d heard Bugs hollering
after me, begging me to let him come along.  But they had taken him down to the
Clan, to be under the mages’ protection until we had time to bury him.

I closed my eyes.  I could see him in my thoughts, wide-eyed
and grinning like a mad thing, calling, 
“What’re you ganna do, Shade?  You
ganna gan find Hayli?
”

And I knew it was just my imagination, but I closed my eyes
and told him, “
I’m sorry, Bugs…I’m so, so sorry.  Can you ever forgive me?
”

I couldn’t even get my mind to make up a reply to that, for
Bugs.  There was a space in my thoughts where there could have been
forgiveness, but instead it only held silence.

I sighed and headed toward the place where I’d met Zagger,
hoping that I’d interpreted the kid’s message correctly.  But Zagger wasn’t
there to meet me.  Kor was.  He lounged against the wall, hat slouched low over
his eyes, but as soon as he heard my footsteps he snapped up and spun toward
me.

“Shade, thank the stars,” he said, grabbing my arm.  “Was
afraid you wouldn’t figure it out.”

“What the hell is going on?” I asked. 

“Shut up and listen to me.  You’ve got to get to the
palace.  See if you can’t reason with the King.  He’s ordered a full-scale
crackdown on the mages.  All of us are in danger.”

“Kor,” I said, drawing back.  “All of us?”

He hesitated, his eyes searching mine.  Finally he sighed
and said, “He knows about me.  He knows I was the mole.”

I gritted my teeth, but figured it was pointless to ask him
how Trabin had found out.  And he didn’t even ask if I had done it.  His trust
shamed me.

“You know he won’t listen to me,” I said.  “He’d sooner
disown me than change his mind.”

“Well, you’ve got to do something.  Look, I brought you your
clothes.  Please.”

“What kind of crackdown?”

Someone strode past from the shadows, and Kor and I both
turned our heads a little aside, but the man didn’t even glance our way.

“Ostensibly, he’s going to round them up and ship them
off…somewhere.”