فصل 5

Chapter 5

THEY HELD THEIR meeting in the pink room, sprawled on the fuzzy, heart-shaped rug. As they strategized, Tamara savagely ripped lace from the hems and sleeves of some truly weird pastel-colored dresses. Pink was supposed to make people feel calmer, but all Call felt was depressed and very, very full.

“I can’t believe your original escape plan requires another escape plan,” Jasper said. “You suck at escaping.” Tamara fixed him with a glare. “I guess the more we escape, the better we’ll get at it.” After a moment, Jasper brightened. “Maybe it’s not so bad that we’ve been kidnapped. I mean, this is all very dramatic. When Celia understands what’s happened to me, she’s going to feel terrible for dumping me. She is going to hold my picture to her heart, fearing for my life and shedding a tear over the love we had. If only he would come back, she’ll think, I will beg him to be my boyfriend again!” Call goggled at Jasper, speechless.

“But, I mean, only if we don’t escape too quickly,” Jasper went on. “She needs time to find out I’m gone and work up to all that epic suffering. Maybe a few weeks. After all, the food is pretty good here.” “What if she has another boyfriend by then?” Tamara asked. “I mean —”

“Okay,” Jasper said, cutting her off. “What are we going to do? It has to be tonight.” “I already checked the windows — at least the ones in this room. It’s elemental stuff, like they use in the Panopticon,” Tamara said. “It doesn’t break. We might be able to get through it with magic, but it would take a lot of work and might trigger an alarm.” “So no going through a window,” Jasper said. “What about getting a message to Ravan?” Tamara shook her head. “To do that, we’d still have to get out of here. I could try to call up another fire elemental and send it to find her, but that’s really advanced. I’ve never done anything like it.” “Well, Master Joseph did say that I was supposed to feed Havoc some stuff from the fridge, and he must know I’ll have to walk him,” Call said. “At least that will put us outside the building.” “We won’t all be allowed to walk him,” Tamara pointed out. “Master Joseph can’t be that dumb.” Jasper frowned. “No. But there have to be other Chaos-ridden around, right? This is the stronghold of the Enemy of Death. This is where they all are.” “So?” Tamara asked, ripping another ruffle off a skirt, leaving a bunch of threads hanging down. “Isn’t that even worse for us?” Jasper slid a glance in Call’s direction. “No, because it means there are some here that Call controls. What if we walk Havoc and then Call gets one of his Chaos-ridden to fight Alex’s? It would be enough of a distraction to slip by them.” Call took a deep breath. “Maybe you two should run. You could take Havoc for a walk, just like you said, but then keep going. Havoc could help keep you safe from whatever’s in the woods, and I could stay behind to try to stop them from following you. You could bring back help. The mage world might hate me, but they don’t want me with Master Joseph — they’ll think it’s dangerous.” “Call, if we get away, Master Joseph is likely to leave here and take you with him,” Tamara said. “He won’t wait around for us to come back with the Assembly and an army. No, we’ve got to go together.” “Besides,” said Jasper, “if the Assembly catches up with you and you’re with Master Joseph, they’ll assume you’re there because you want to be.” Jasper, Call thought, had a rotten habit of being able to always imagine the worst thing people might think. Probably because his mind worked that way, too. It didn’t make him less right, though.

“Fine,” Call said. “So what’s the plan?”

Tamara took a deep breath. “The Chaos-ridden,” she said.

“We get them to fight one another like I said?” Jasper looked delighted. “Really?” “No,” Tamara told him.

“Maybe all the ones in the house serve Alex,” Call said.

“I don’t think so,” said Tamara. “Remember what he said: I made these. He couldn’t have made all the Chaos-ridden in and around the house. There are just too many. Some of them must have been made by Constantine and be loyal to you.” Call remembered the Chaos-ridden servant in the dining room and the way it had bowed its head. “I think I know where to look,” he said slowly.

The night air was cold, so they split up to get jackets and met back in the hallway outside their rooms. Jasper’s sweater had a horse on it. Tamara was wearing a long pale green dress with the lace ripped off, and her jean jacket and newsboy cap. Call had Havoc beside him on a leash.

“Let’s do this,” Tamara said grimly.

They crept down the stairs and into the massive entryway. It was dark, the lights dimmed. Call handed Havoc’s leash to Tamara and slipped into the dining room just as Master Joseph came down the stairs.

“What are you doing?” he demanded of Tamara and Jasper.

Call pressed his eye to the gap in the door. Master Joseph was wearing a fuzzy gray bathrobe, which ought to have been hilarious, but wasn’t. There was a cruelty in his face that he had hidden at dinner.

“We need to walk Havoc,” Tamara said, lifting her chin. “If we don’t, bad things will happen. To your floor. And your carpets.” Havoc whined. Master Joseph sighed. “Very well,” he said. “Stay in view of the house.” To Call’s surprise, Master Joseph stood and watched as Tamara and Jasper opened the front door and — with incredulous looks at each other — stepped out onto the front porch. He could see water in the distance — the river that stood between them and the mainland. The house had what was probably considered a really good view, but Call was really starting to hate it.

Master Joseph stood for a moment as the door shut after them, then turned and walked off down the hall.

Call felt a little panicked as he turned around, facing the darkness of the dining room. Did Master Joseph care so little about Tamara and Jasper that he’d let them leave? Was he trying to show them they could trust him? Or was there something horrible outside that would keep them penned in — or even hurt them?

“Master,” said a voice.

Call jumped. A shadow had loomed up out of the darkness. It was the Chaos-ridden who had bowed to him before.

He had dark hair and the coruscating eyes of all the Chaos-ridden. He limped when he walked. He must have been injured before he’d died. Sometimes it was hard for Call to remember the Chaos-ridden were all walking dead corpses. Call repressed a shudder at the thought that maybe it wasn’t hard for other people.

“Take me outside,” he said. “In a way Master Joseph won’t notice.”

“Yesss.” The Chaos-ridden turned and led Call out of the dining room and down a series of turning passages. Call caught a glimpse of a huge room with a drain in the floor like a shower, and another room with shelf after shelf of glowing elementals trapped in jars. Call thought he even saw a room with shackles bolted to the walls.

Yikes.

The Chaos-ridden led him down a last corridor to a door that opened with the drawing of several rusty bolts. Beyond it was the side of the house and the massive overgrown lawn.

He’d made it.

Woods surrounded the stretch of grass, woods with unfamiliar trees. The air was cold, too, unseasonably cold for September. They must be up north. He headed toward the woods, hugging his arms around himself. He could worry about the chill later.

“Okay,” Call said to the Chaos-ridden who had followed him, footfalls disturbingly silent. “I am going to wait here. Go to my friends — a girl in a hat, a wolf, and a boy with a weird haircut — and tell them where to find me. I mean, not with words. They won’t understand you. But maybe you could point?” The Chaos-ridden looked at him with his swirling eyes for a long moment. Call wondered if he should have described Tamara, Havoc, and Jasper a different way. Maybe the Chaos-ridden didn’t understand which haircuts were weird. Maybe they had bad taste.

“Yesss,” he said again. Although he did seem eerie, he also put Call’s worries to rest. The Chaos-ridden lumbered off toward the front of the mansion.

Call sat down on a nearby log, looking back toward the huge house. Despite all the lights he knew were on, it seemed entirely dark and lonely — abandoned. More air magic illusions. Call was going to have to be careful to look out for other things that weren’t really there.

He felt strange about leaving. It wasn’t that he wanted to stay — he didn’t like Master Joseph, he hated Alex, and Anastasia creeped him out — but he didn’t like the idea of going back to prison either. And while Tamara might want to keep him safe, he didn’t believe that was going to be easy.

The mage world wanted their revenge on Constantine and didn’t care what happened to Callum.

He felt like no one cared about Call, only Constantine.

He heard the rustling of footsteps coming toward him and amended that grim thought. Tamara cared. Havoc cared. Jasper sort of cared — or at least didn’t think of Call as Constantine.

And Alastair cared. Maybe he and his father could leave the country. After all, Alastair had never wanted Call to fall into the hands of the mages — for this very reason. He was probably prepared. And the antique sales in Europe had to be pretty special.

“Call!” Tamara said, running up to him. “You made it.”

Jasper looked at the Chaos-ridden and shivered. Havoc kept sniffing the air nervously. In the distance, there was a howl.

“He can help us some more,” Call said, pointing to the Chaos-ridden. “Take us to the nearest, biggest road.” “Yesss,” said the Chaos-ridden. “Thisss waaay.”

Bracing himself for another long walk in the dark with his leg aching, Call pushed himself to his feet.

The five of them made their way by the moonlight as quickly as they could, Havoc scouting ahead and then doubling back. Call lagged behind. He wasn’t used to walking anymore. His only exercise for several months had been pacing his cell and heading to the interrogation room. His leg burned.

Luckily, the Chaos-ridden matched his stride to Call’s.

“They’re going to notice we’re gone,” Jasper said, with a pleading look at Call. “They’re going to come after us.” “I’m going as fast as I can,” Call whispered back angrily. He hated that this had happened because of him and he was the one who was slowing them down.

“We won’t be easy to find,” Tamara said, with a glare at Jasper. “They don’t know which way we went. And I bet they don’t know we have a guide with us.” Call appreciated her sticking up for him, but he still felt bad. His spirits lifted a moment later, though, when the ground dipped down toward the inky-black asphalt of a road wide enough to have two lanes.

Havoc barked once in excitement.

“Shhhh!” Call said, although he was excited, too.

They scrambled down the hill.

“Um,” Call told the Chaos-ridden. “I think you’re going to have to wait here, okay? We’ll come back and find you.” The Chaos-ridden immediately stopped moving, standing as still as some horrific statue. Call wondered if someone would drive by and try to stick him in the back of their trunk, the way Alastair often did with statues he found by the sides of roads.

“If there are cars,” Jasper whispered as they hurried down the road, looking for a better-lighted place to try to catch a passing vehicle, “there must be a bridge, a way off this island …” Call hadn’t thought of that, but the logic lifted some of the pressure off his chest. Maybe they were closer to freedom than he’d thought. If there was a bridge and they could hitch a ride over it, then they were practically already out of Master Joseph’s reach. He glanced up and down the road — seemingly deserted. They’d passed around a corner, so he could no longer see the Chaos-ridden.

Suddenly, lights swept toward them. Tamara gave a little gasp. It was a delivery van that read FLOWERS OF FAERIELAND in sickeningly sweet script along the side.

“A flower delivery van,” said Jasper, sounding relieved. It did seem pretty unsinister, considering what else was on this island.

Tamara darted out into the middle of the road, waving her hands. She could have made a much bigger beacon with fire magic, Call thought, but that would have terrified an ordinary person.

The van pulled to a screeching halt. A middle-aged man with close-cropped hair and a backward baseball cap stuck his head out the window. “What’s going on?” “We’re lost,” Tamara said. She swept the newsboy cap off so her braids fell down, and batted her eyes innocently. With the pastel dress, she looked like someone who’d escaped an Easter egg hunt. “We rowed over to the island to look around, but our boat drifted away when we weren’t looking and the sun went down….” She sniffed. “Can you help us, mister?” Call thought the mister was laying it on a little thick, but the guy seemed sold.

“Sure,” the man said, looking bewildered. “I guess. Um, hop on up, kids.” As they approached, he threw out a ropy arm. There was a big black tattoo on his bicep that looked a little like an eye. It seemed weirdly familiar. “Whoa, whoa. What’s that?” He pointed at Havoc.

“It’s my dog,” said Call. “His name’s —”

“I don’t care what his name is,” said the guy. “He’s huge.”

“We really can’t leave him.” Tamara looked at the guy with huge eyes. “Please? He’s really tame.” Which was how Call found himself, Jasper, and Havoc being loaded into the empty back of the truck, which had no seats, just windowless metal flooring and walls. Hugo (which was the guy’s name) brought Tamara up to sit beside him in the cab. She threw Call and Jasper an apologetic look as Hugo pulled the metal door down, locking them in.

“Betrayed,” said Jasper. “Once again, by a woman.”

The truck started up. Call felt his muscles relax as soon as they were rolling. He might be sitting in pitch-black with Jasper, but he was getting away from Master Joseph and Alex.

“You know,” he said, “that kind of attitude is not going to help you get Celia back.” A light sparked. It was a slight ember of fire magic, burning in Jasper’s hand. It illuminated the inside of the truck and Jasper’s thoughtful scowl.

“You know,” he said, “it doesn’t smell like flowers in here.”

Now that he mentioned it, Call realized he was right. And there were no stray petals or stems on the floor near their feet. There was an odor in the van, but it was a chemical one — more like formaldehyde.

“I didn’t like the look of that guy,” said Jasper. “Or his tattoo.”

Call suddenly remembered where he’d seen that eye symbol before. Over the gates of the Panopticon. The prison that never slept. His heart thumped. Could the guy be a guard meant to take him back to prison?

In the front of the van, Call heard Tamara say, “No, not that way. No!” Hugo said something in return. They hit a dirt road and started bumping around, so Call couldn’t quite make out the words.

Then they lurched to a stop. After a moment, the back of the van opened.

Master Joseph stood at the foot, a stern expression on his face. Hugo had brought them back to the Enemy of Death’s stronghold.

“Come along, Callum,” he said. His voice was even and calm, but Call could see that his hands were in fists at his sides. He was furious, even if he didn’t want Hugo to see it. “We must talk. I’d hoped to do this tomorrow and under better circumstances, but I can’t have you wandering around the island.” Tamara climbed out of the passenger side, looking stricken. Call and Jasper clambered out of the back of the truck, followed by Havoc, who put his nose against the palm of Call’s hand, clearly confused about everything that was happening.

Unfortunately, Call understood all too well. Master Joseph’s prison wasn’t the house — it was the whole island.

“It was an honor to kidnap you, sir,” Hugo said to Callum with a wide grin. “You probably don’t remember me, but I saw you in the Panopticon.” He tapped the tattoo on his arm. “I was there, too, locked up, you know, ever since the war. Lots of us were. But once you came, we knew it was going to be all right. We never stopped believing in you, not even when they said you were dead. If anyone can rise, it’s the Enemy of Death.” Jasper and Call looked at Tamara, who had her hands over her mouth. The strike on the Panopticon hadn’t just been about freeing Call after all. Master Joseph had used Anastasia to help him get Constantine’s old followers out, too.

“I don’t want to be on this island,” Call said. “Don’t you think that if you’re serving me, you should do what I want?” “Thank you for bringing them back so swiftly,” Master Joseph said, before Call’s words could have any effect on Hugo.

Hugo grinned again, nodded to Call, and climbed back in his van. “Good luck getting your memories back,” he said. “You’ll remember soon enough why you want to be here.” With a heavy heart, Call watched the van pull away, taking their escape plan with it.

He was dejected enough to follow Master Joseph back into the house, with Tamara, Havoc, and Jasper behind him. Master Joseph took a key out of his pocket and unlocked a parlor they’d never been in before. It appeared to be unheated, easily as cold as it had been outside. There were double doors on the far side of the room and two couches in the center.

Master Joseph beckoned for them to sit, but remained standing.

“I could strip you of your magic and your life,” Master Joseph said. “I could take your power for myself. Would you prefer that?” “If that’s what you were planning on doing, then what are you waiting for?” Call demanded.

Tamara and Jasper both half rose from the couch as if they thought a fight was coming. Havoc growled.

Master Joseph only laughed, though. “I have a proposal for you … how about that? Callum, once you complete the task I set for you, you can leave the island with your friends if that’s what you still want.” “A task?” Call asked. “Is this some kind of trick thing where I have to tame an impossible elemental or separate dirt from sand on an entire beach?” Master Joseph smiled. “Nothing like that.” He flung open the doors at the far end of the room. After a moment, Call and the others joined him at the entryway.

Inside was a large, white-painted room. There was nothing in it but a metal table. On top of the table lay a body that was perfectly preserved, covered to the neck by a thin white sheet.

“The task,” he said, “is to raise Aaron Stewart from the dead.”