The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (78 page)

“What is it with you, Shade?” he asked, shuffling forward a
step.  “Why get involved here in Cavnal?  Why do you care about any of us?”

“Because no one else will.”

“Hah,” he cried.  “
I
care.  That’s what this is all
about!  Couldn’t you tell?”

I could sense the lads gathering behind me without even turning
to look.  The air around me hummed with tension.

“No,” I said flatly.  “All I could tell was that you have
more ambition than sense.”

He snorted.  “And you speak far too well to be an Istian
street rat.”

I hadn’t planned on playing this card, but the retort was on
my tongue before I could choke it back.  “What makes you so sure I was ever a
street rat?”

Derrin shot me a strange glance, and I could hear Coins
muttering under his breath.  I just prayed he would keep his thoughts to
himself, if he was as smart as I thought he might be and had put the pieces
together.  For a minute Kantian just stared at me, eyes narrowed, jaw tight.

“Who are you, then?” he asked at last.

“Someone who knows enough to see exactly what you’re doing,
and just how terribly you’re about to fail.”

He didn’t speak but his hand flashed up, pointing the
revolver at me.  I rolled my eyes and Pulled it from his hand, letting it
clatter to the ground at my feet.  Kantian stared at it, then me, eyes wide.

“You know it’s too late,” he hissed.  “Maybe you’re right
and you’re all going to die.  You should have cooperated with me when you had
the chance.  I’m going to win.  This regime is primed to fall, and I’ll be the
one to topple it.  You can’t stop me.”

I swept the revolver from the ground and aimed it straight
at the shock on his face.  Beside me Derrin shifted, but he didn’t move to stop
me, and he didn’t say a word.  My finger hovered over the trigger guard.

“Do it!” Kantian cried, his face terribly pale.  “It doesn’t
matter.  Everything is already in motion.  Killing me won’t change anything.”

I hesitated, then shifted my finger to rest against the
cylinder.  “I’d rather you live to see your failure,” I said, and tossed the
gun aside.  “Because you will fail.”

I folded my hands into my pockets and strode past him,
ignoring how he stared after me agog and speechless.  But I’d barely gone ten
feet when the air behind me shattered in a gunshot. 

I ducked instinctively and spun around, just in time to see
Kantian crumple to the ground.  And there he lay, still, dead pale, a shell
where a moment ago there had been an enemy. 

Jig lowered the revolver slowly, his gaze meeting mine
across Kantian’s body.

“You killed him!” I cried.  “Why the hell did you do that?”

“He was a traitor,” Jig said, but the way his face was so
frozen, so pale, I knew he couldn’t believe what he’d just done.

Derrin pulled the gun from his fingers without a word and
tucked it into his waistband.  The other kids just stood and stared at Kantian,
fixated by the blood pooling under his chest.  Some of them stared at Jig. 

I held his gaze a moment longer, then turned and walked
away.  For all I tried, I couldn’t think of a single thing to say to him. 
Maybe he thought he’d done right, but he’d executed a man in cold blood.  And
though the thought made my stomach churn, somehow I wasn’t sure I thought he’d
done wrong, and that confounded me more than anything. 

When I reached the gate I realized that Derrin was there on
my heels, following me doggedly.  The other lads had all vanished, even Jig. 
The voice in the back corner of my mind hoped that he would forgive himself,
because I knew how dangerous a person could be without that forgiveness.

“What’re you doing, Derrin?” I asked, stopping at the gate
to look at him.

He shrugged.  “Coming with you.”

“Look, I told you, this isn’t your fight.  Go with them. 
They need you right now.  Especially Jig.”

“Jig needs to cool down.”

“He needs someone to stand by him while he does,” I said. 
“And I can’t be that person for him right now.”

“Coins and Anuk are with him,” Derrin said, folding his
arms.

“He just killed a man,” I snapped.  “He just killed the man
who’s been watching over him and leading him for years now.  He needs more than
Coins and Anuk.  He needs
you
.”

I reached out to shove him away, but I’d barely touched him
when a surge of static chased up my arm.  I jerked my hand back. 

“What the hell?”  I rubbed my palm with my other hand,
staring at him, stunned.  “Derrin, you?”

Derrin didn’t move or glance away, but he winced as if I’d
physically pained him.  “It
is
my fight,” he said softly.

“You’re a mage!  But how in blazes did you keep that a
secret from everyone?”

Keeping it a secret in the Court was one thing, but here on
the street, when anyone could be a mage of one sort or another?  That was
impressive.

“It’s not terribly hard when you act aloof,” he said,
frowning.  “Keeping your distance.  But I expect you understand that.  I’m just
not sure I know why.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t be daft, Shade.  I’ve seen how you look at Hayli. 
Hell, I’ve seen how she looks at you.  But I’ve also seen how you never touch
her.  I know you want to.  You’ve got to be stronger than most lads, I expect,
to keep your distance as you do.  I’m just trying to figure out why you’ve
bothered.”

“I’ve got reasons,” I said, my face foolishly hot.  “But
Derrin.  Does Rivano know you’re a mage?”

“Why do you think I’ve been working for him?  But everyone
in the Hole had to believe I was ordinary, or I’d never have been able to get
close to Kantian, to see what he was up to.  Fat lot of good that did, in the
end,” he said, with a pointed glance at Kantian’s body.

I let out a breath and strode through the gate, waving him
along with me.  A moment later I heard his steps chasing me down.

“All right, so, you’re a mage,” I said as we walked.  “But
that was a pretty strong charge.  What’s your gift?”

“Wasn’t anywhere near as strong as the shock you gave me,
I’m sure.  What are you, Shade?”

I flicked a glance at him, amused because he wouldn’t answer
me, and because I wasn’t about to answer him.  He met my gaze and nodded.

“Fair enough,” he muttered.  “So, what are you planning on
doing?  We can’t just march into Brinmark Station and attack all the coppers
and guards they’ve got.”

“Making it up as I go,” I said. 

Derrin gave me dangerous glare.  I knew he didn’t like
walking in blind, but I hadn’t asked him to come with me.  If he wanted to
stick around, he would have to do things my way.

“Look,” I said.  “All I know is I’ve got to find Hayli.”

“Whatever secret you’re keeping from her, you should just
tell her.”

I snorted.  “If only it were that simple.”

“Why can’t it be?” he asked.  “Why does it have to be
complicated?”

“Because it isn’t about me,” I said.  I sighed and added,
“Sometimes you have to accept that you’ll lose so that others can live.”

He shook his head, his breath hissing out, smoking on the
cold air.  The street was eerily empty, even more than usual.  A deadness hung
around us, waiting, watching.  I half expected coppers to come spilling out of
the surrounding buildings at any moment, but they never did.  All alone and
silent we walked, hearing nothing but the sound of our boots on the street
cobbles and the harsh jarring of a flock of rooks in a nearby tree.

But nothing could have prepared me for what we found when we
got closer to the Station.  The whole place swarmed with police and guards in
uniforms I’d never seen before, and temporary fences had apparently gone up
overnight to corral the crowds of south-streeters.  Even as we watched, a long
police wagon drew up and spilled some twenty more people onto the street, only
to be rounded up and herded into the nearest enclosure.

“Good God,” I said, stopping where I was.  “Look—those
people with the cuffs, those are probably mages.  But what about the rest of
these folk?  They’re rounding up everyone.  Everyone from the south streets,
not just the mages.”

“This is madness,” Derrin hissed.  “Doesn’t anyone know
what’s going on here?”

I hesitated.  For a moment I contemplated rushing back to
the palace and demanding to see the King, but I knew what would happen if I
did.  If I returned as Tarik, the palace guards would arrest me again.  If I
returned as Shade, they would shoot on sight.  Using my gifts I could probably
evade capture for a time, but I couldn’t fight and try to seek diplomacy at the
same time.  And even if I did manage to get an audience with Trabin, by the
time I finished Hayli might be gone…or dead.

“Come on,” I said.

“Shade, hang on.  As soon as we get close, they’re going to
bag us.  We’ve got to be smart about this.”

I met his gaze.  “Well,” I said.  “You’re assuming I don’t
want to get bagged.”

“You’re grobbing insane,” he said.  “What good can we do
from inside those fences?”

“A lot more than I can do from out here.  Stay if you like.”

Without waiting for his answer, I turned and strode straight
for the barricades, a knot in the pit of my stomach as I considered how these
coppers might be primed to shoot me on sight too.  I considered changing my
face to get inside, but before I could make up my mind, I caught sight of a
familiar figure moving through the crowds.

Kor.

I stopped where I was, feeling sick—not just because of him,
but
for
him.  When I’d first met him, I would never have recognized the
pain in his eyes, but now, even from my distance I could see it in his face and
the way he moved. 

He left a knot of prisoners, wiping his hands again and
again on the front of his coat, and just as he passed in front of the
barricade, he turned and caught sight of us standing there.  His hands dropped
to his sides, and all the color bled from his face.  I could see his lips part,
and I knew the word he breathed:
No
.

“Look smart!” one of the coppers called, and suddenly we had
five rifles trained on us from behind the barricade.  “It’s the Zealot!”

Zealot?
I thought. 
I’m not a zealot.

“Ready!” cried a man in a sergeant’s uniform.

Not my sergeant.  I swallowed the bitter grief and held up
my hands.

“Wait!” Kor shouted, striding toward them and shoving one of
the rifles aside.  “Bring that one in.  His Majesty has other plans for him
than a bullet.”

They exchanged glances, but at a signal from the sergeant
they lowered their rifles, and four of the coppers rushed to grab us.  I shot
Derrin a warning look and submitted to being shoved and dragged toward the
barricade.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” one the policemen asked.  “He’s got
that same mark.  Brazen.”

Kor came to stand in front of me, holding my gaze for the
longest time with something like despair in his eyes.  I lifted my chin and
stared straight back at him.  For a moment he didn’t move at all, then he let
out a faint breath and gripped my arm.  I grinned, just a little too savagely,
and pushed back against the static charge.  He hissed in pain and jerked away,
glaring at me like I’d bit him.

“Yes,” he snapped.  “That one’s a mage.”

“What about the other one?” the sergeant asked.

I didn’t pull my gaze from Kor’s, but hardened it a bit,
trying to pass some meaning to him.

Let him go
, I thought. 
Let him get away…I don’t
want his blood on my hands too.

Kor turned and studied Derrin briefly, then reached out and
grabbed his forearm.

“No,” he said.  “That one’s clean.”

The sergeant shifted his weight.  “Should we arrest him for
conspiring with the Zealot?”

I stifled a snort, because that title seemed so foolish to
me.  I didn’t even know how I’d earned it.  For goading a few disgruntled
workers into a protest?  They were just desperate for a scapegoat, that was
all.  I’d given them the perfect target.

“Don’t bother,” Kor said.  “As soon as we get this mess
cleaned up, it won’t matter.”

The sergeant didn’t seem entirely convinced, but Kor snapped
his fingers at Derrin and pointed him off down the street.  Derrin flashed me a
bewildered glance but I just nodded and let the guards lead me through the
barricade.  I didn’t turn around to see Derrin go.  I couldn’t.  Not if I
wanted the guards to believe that Kor was telling the truth.

All around me the murmur of voices faded away, and I felt
dozens of gazes fixed on me, watching me curiously.

“Leave him to me,” Kor told the guards, once I had been
brought in and handcuffed.  “I’ll take care of it.”

The sergeant’s mouth twitched, but he saluted and waved his
constables after him.  For a few moments Kor and I stood facing one another,
him staring at me, me scanning the crowds, desperate to find Hayli.

“You were supposed to go to the palace,” he said suddenly,
voice low.

My gaze snapped back to his.  A faint uneasiness crept over
me.  “I did,” I gritted.  “I went back.  Zagger had me arrested. 
Zagger!
 
He betrayed me.  And why is it I think you aren’t surprised about that?”

“I’m not surprised, but you’ve got it all wrong,” he said. 
“Foolish boy, don’t you
see?
  It was meant to protect you.  We were
trying to get you off the streets, not to mention away from the King.  We were
trying to keep
this
from happening!  But now you’re here and I can’t
pretend that you’re not a mage.  You’ve had your face plastered all over the
city for days now.  These people all know who you are.  They all know
what
you are.  I’m sorry.  We tried.  But I can’t protect you anymore.”

“But…he said it was by the king’s orders,” I said,
bewildered.  “I was arrested on charges of treason.”

He gave me a weary look.  “Of course he said that.  Only the
King would have the authority to order your arrest.”