The Legend Thief (11 page)

"No," said Sky, glancing at Chase suspiciously. He remembered seeing Chase in the swamps, but Chase hadn't gone to the Bolger tree. He wondered what time Andrew and Crystal had arrived. Could Chase have had enough time to shoot Cass in the Grove of the Fallen and get back before Andrew and Crystal showed up? It wasn't likely, but it was worth looking into. Chase had told Sky to run; he had known Sky was watching through the Piebald's eyes and he had warned him about the hunt. Chase had an end game, and Sky had no idea what it was.

He glanced at Derek, wondering how much he was taking in.
Too much, probably.

“Worry about the shooter later," said Mom. "Use the
Bardolph
Blend for now, Herman."

Dad began throwing bits of plants, powders, and unidentifiable substances into the blender as it ran at high speed. Mom spooned a thick yellow paste out of the blender and smeared it around the remains of the tail end of the shaft. The paste, the spoon, and the shaft suddenly burst into flames.

Derek yelped.

Mom threw the spoon in the sink and Dad smothered it in baking soda until the flames went out.

The fire on the arrow faded to a dull yellow. "I think it's ready, Helen," said Dad.

Mom grabbed the tip of the arrow poking out of Cassandra's back. "You kids might want to look away for this part."

"You can't be serious!" Derek declared, jumping from his seat. "You're going to kill her! It's a miracle you haven't already! This woman needs a hospital!"

"A hospital couldn't help her right now, mate," said Chase calmly.

"Well, I say otherwise," Derek retorted, puffing out his chest.
"''m not going to let you kill her.
I'm calling an ambulance!"

"Give it a rest, Derek," said Squid. "Don't get your Speedo in a wad."

"Yeah," added Lazy Eye, "wadded Speedos are very uncomfortable."

Derek glared at Squid and Lazy Eye.

"Helen, the arrow," said Dad, drawing Mom's attention back to Cassandra.

Mom pulled on the arrow and Sky looked away. Even so, he could hear a hiss and crackle, and the room suddenly smelled like burnt hair. When he looked back, Mom held the arrow in her hands; the fire had gone out.

"This is the worst birthday party
I 've
ever been to," said Derek.

"Here, drink this," said Hannah, handing Derek a steaming mug.

"What is it?" asked Derek suspiciously.

"It's a love potion, Derek," said Hannah sarcastically. "Geez, what do you think it is? It's an herbal tea. Drink it."

"Right.
Sorry," said Derek. He took a sip. ''I'm just a little jumpy. It's not every day you see a dead
wo
-"

Hannah snatched the cup from Derek as he collapsed to the floor.

"You knocked out your boyfriend," said
Squid ,
sounding astonished and slightly impressed.

Dad glanced up, nodding in approval.

"He's not my boyfriend," said Hannah waspishly, adding, sadly, "not anymore."

"What'd you give him?" Sky asked, sniffing the mug. "Dovetail and Gossymer thread," said Hannah.

"Gossymer thread?
Like, from the huge burrowing spider thingies that burst into flame?" asked Sky.

"I don't know!" Hannah exclaimed, clearly flustered. "I got it from the pantry! Mom told me that mixing the right amounts can help people forget
things,
only ... I think I over did the Dovetail. And the Gossymer thread. And maybe the water was a touch warm."

Tick, Squid, and Lazy Eye hovered over Derek, gawping.

Derek's head rested at an odd angle and his arms and legs splayed out as if he were swimming the backstroke. A small stream of drool, or possibly tea, dribbled from his mouth.

"He looks so peaceful," said Lazy Eye softly. "Like a little angel."

Squid smacked Lazy Eye on the back of the head.

"Would you three stop staring and help him up?" Hannah reproved.

"What do you want us to do with him?" asked Squid.

"Put him in a chair or something!" Hannah exclaimed.
"Linemen- ugh!"

Lazy Eye grabbed Derek's legs while Squid lifted under the shoulders. Tick, seemingly lost in thought, grabbed an arm, which hung limply in his hands and-through some strange physics-kept slapping Derek in the face. They dumped Derek in a chair. Tick walked back to Sky and Hannah, leaving Derek to slide out of the chair.

"Tick!"
Hannah shouted.

Tick glanced back at Derek, and looked surprised to find him on the floor.

Squid grabbed Derek under the arms again and hoisted him back onto the chair. "Got it covered, bra-make your move."

Squid winked and Tick gave him a thumbs-up, crossing back to stand by Hannah. Hannah rolled her eyes.

"Hand me that apron, Lazy Eye," said Squid, his face squashed against the back of the chair.

"This one with the flowers?" asked Lazy Eye.

"Yes, that one with the flowers!
Do you see another apron?" said Squid.

Lazy Eye looked around. "Well, there's that one over there on the door."

"Just hand me the apron!" Squid exclaimed.

Lazy Eye hesitated.

"The one with the flowers, you idiot!" said Squid.

Lazy Eye tossed the apron to Squid. "I like the one with the flowers," said Lazy Eye. "They remind me of lemon drops." "We need to get you a stronger helmet, bra," said Squid.

He finished tying the apron to Derek, looping it under one arm, around the rungs of the chair, and across Derek's neck.

"There, see?" said Squid, looking over Derek, who sat slumped in the chair, tongue lolling out, right arm raised in a salute. "Linemen aren't so dumb."

Mom, Dad, and Chase worked on Cassandra, occasionally calling on Hands or Andrew for help. Sky watched quietly, feeling like he should do something, but not quite sure what. He could barely stand as it was.

"Hey. You okay?" Tick asked.

Sky thought Tick was talking to him, but then he saw him leaning against the counter making goo-goo eyes at Hannah.

Sky longed to move out of earshot, but there was nowhere else to go.

Hannah rolled her eyes. ''I'm fine, Tick. It's not like this kind of thing doesn't happen
all the time."
She glared at Sky.

"Not involved. I'm not involved," Sky muttered, sliding farther away and looking everywhere but at Hannah and Tick. "Oh. That's good," said Tick, his eyes never leaving Hannah.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You
know .
..
in
case you weren't. Okay, that is."

Hannah watched him for a moment, opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. "I need to check on Derek."

"Yeah.
Sure. I understand," said Tick.

Hannah looked at Tick a minute more and then crossed to Derek, yelling at Squid and Lazy Eye to get out of the way.

Tick glanced at Sky. "I should probably help her, shouldn't I? She probably needs my help. Swimmers, you know." Without waiting for an answer, Tick set off after Hannah.

Sky sighed, wishing he had his Rubik's Cube, or any puzzle really, just something to keep his hands occupied. He circled the counter, opening drawers. He found some thread spools, twine,
some
paper clips. He started playing with them, throwing in some knives and forks. He tossed in some spatulas, paper towels, and rubber bands.

As
his hands worked, his eyes drifted to the coffin.

Someone had left a message on the inside of the lid: "With Hunter's Mark the buried dead shall shimmering blade hold in my stead." Clearly Cass had dug up the grave looking for Alexander's shimmering blade, hoping, Sky supposed, to find it before Bedlam did. But someone had beaten her to it and, based on the clumps of grass Sky had seen mixed in with the dirt piles, he suspected that the robbery had happened a long time ago. The grave robber, whoever it was, had taken the blade and Alexander's body as well. But who would take it, and why? And was the riddle really saying what he thought it was saying: namely, that to get the blade, someone with a Hunter's Mark had to bury himself in the coffin? He hoped not.

According to Phineas, Sky was the only creature alive who had a Hunter's Mark. It was the reason Solomon Rose had come to Exile in the first place-to steal Sky's Hunter's Mark by becoming a Changeling with him. It was the only way to get it if you weren't born with it, and Solomon had lost his Hunter's Mark when he'd taken the Arkhon's body. In the process, Solomon had gained the Eye of Legend, but he wanted both marks-the Eye of Legend and the Hunter's Mark. He had even complained to Sky that someone had cheated him out of both marks centuries ago. Maybe there were lots of Eyes of Legend-Bedlam had one, after all-but according to Phineas, there was only ever supposed to be one creature at a time with the Hunter's Mark, and Sky was the first to have it in over four hundred years. Or maybe Errand was the first.
Either way, Errand was gone, and
Sky was once again the only person with the Hunter's Mark, which meant-if his interpretation of the riddle was correct-that he was the only one who could recover Alexander's shimmering blade.

Of course, he wasn't about to bury himself to find out if he was right.

Sky lost track of time, his hands moving, his mind wandering, looking for answers but only finding more questions.
"Sky?"

Sky looked up and found Mom watching him, a strange look on her face. "What are you building?"

Glancing down, Sky saw that he'd inadvertently built a very complex trap. The bottom of the trap looked almost like a stage, with paper towels overlaying a framework of twine and spatulas stacked end-to-end. A hole surrounded by mounds of wadded paper towel was cut in the middle, and a small coffin made of stacked knives bound with twine sat next to the hole. Forks and spoons rose like trees across the stage, and he'd threaded twine through the utensils, attaching it to various thread spools to serve as weights and counterweights. A small person made of bent paper clips and paper towel stood on the edge of the utensil forest, a loop of twine under his feet.

Sky flicked a fork, causing it to topple. Vines tugged, weights shifted, trees fell. The loop closed around the paper clip person's legs, jerking him into the air, where he hung upside down. An arm made of knives set in a T swung him over the stage, dropping him into the coffin. The coffin lid closed and the coffin flipped into the hole.

Sky blew on the mounds of paper towel and they drifted in, filling the hole.

"How ... unique," said Mom, apparently at a loss for
words.

Sky glanced around and saw that the procedure was over Dad was cleaning up. Cass
lay
on her back, unconscious, the wounds bandaged. Crystal stood over her, holding her mother's hand. Andrew and Hands hovered nearby. Hannah, Tick, Lazy Eye, and Squid had disappeared somewhere, while Derek slumped in his chair, arm still raised in a salute.

There was no sign of T-Bone, which was worrisome. If the hunters had captured him, as they had Beau, then things were going to get very complicated very quickly. Sky had played nice so far, even if the hunters hadn't. He'd given them a chance. He'd left it up to Malvidia to make a deal that kept everyone alive-a risk since she was still an unknown, but a risk worth taking. Plus, Sky might still have some leverage. He knew that Alexander's shimmering blade could somehow be used to free Bedlam, ad it was quite possible the hunters didn't have that information. It wasn't in any of the stories Sky had read, the ones like
The Edge of Oblivion
that claimed Bedlam wouldn't break free until his heart was pure and filled with love-so ridiculous. Not to mention that if the hunters did know how important the blade was, they never would have buried it with Alexander in the first place.

Phineas had taught Sky how to build traps and solve puzzles, but the greatest lesson he'd taught him was that true hunters didn't hunt creatures; they hunted
peace,
the most elusive prey of all. Sky had given the hunters a chance, but if he had to raise every monster in Exile and make a deal with Bedlam and the Darkhorn to save T-Bone and
Beau ,
he'd do it. Nobody messed with his friends.
Nobody.