The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (25 page)

“Look,” Vim said.  “You spooked the voice clean out of him.”

“Aw, look at you.  What’s wrong, jilly?” Jig asked with mock
sympathy.  He dropped his voice, his glare hard as the cutting edge of a
knife.  “I could zotz you right now, and you’d never even see it coming, like.”

“Jig!” Hayli shouted suddenly, spinning around.  “Shut it! 
What’s wrong with you?”

He straightened, his cheeks tinged with the faintest blush
as some of the other kids laughed.  For half a moment he studied me carefully,
then he gave me a cruel smile and shoved past me, arms crossed, jostling me
with his elbow.  A sharp sting cut across my arm.

I froze.  From the corner of my eye I caught the glint of a
knife’s point peeking out from under his elbow.  Vim smirked as I twisted my
hand over to see the spreading patch of blood on my forearm, but Hayli frowned
across the room at me, something like worry or rebuke in her eyes.  I sighed. 
Even she thought Jig could have killed me just then, effortlessly, silently. 
I’d cheated and beaten him once, but I knew better than to think I’d ever cross
him so easily again.

“Wow,” Bugs breathed, all wide-eyed admiration.  “You div’n
flinch!”

“He div’n even
move
,” Pika retorted, scrunching her
nose.  “Div’n see it coming.”

“But he div’n flinch!”

Pika huffed and stomped out of the room.  Vim followed her a
minute later, and one by one the other kids streamed out the door, until I
stood alone with Anuk and Bugs.  After a minute Bugs crept up to me.

“I got a bandage,” he said.  “D’you need it?”

I didn’t get to answer before he darted off to his bunk,
returning seconds later with a blood-crusted linen bandage.

“I got smacked down by Pika last week,” he announced,
unashamed.  “This was just swell at making it all better!”

“Hm,” I said, eyeing the thing skeptically.  “Didn’t you
think to clean it before you use it again?”

His whole face scrunched up with silent giggles.  “Oy, no. 
It works even better now.  I used it on me bloody nose a couple days ago.”

That made me laugh.  “Scram,” I said.  “My arm’s fine.  Keep
it for next time you get bloodied up, right?”

Bugs doubled over, snorting and hiccuping, and bolted back
to his cot.

“You’ve got a friend, seems,” Anuk said.

I turned and met his gaze, and didn’t say a word.  He’d
stood aside while everyone else had badgered me, after all, and though I didn’t
really want to antagonize him, I didn’t want to seem desperate for an ally
either.  Not to mention I’d just beaten him up.  I wasn’t sure how friendly he
actually felt toward me, for all he played at being civil.

Hayli came up to me suddenly, startling me.

“Sorry, Shade,” she said, and dropped her gaze, chewing the
inside of her cheek.  “Derrin says you can’t stay.”

Derrin stood just behind her, arms folded now, staring at me
as he waited for me to leave.  I took my chance, edging around Hayli and
stalking straight for him.

“Was my message not clear enough?” he asked.  “Should I use
smaller words? 
Get out
.”

I smiled.  “What’s the worry?  All I see here is a pack of
wretches hanging on to the one place where they can get someone else’s scraps
without having to fight for them.  You trying to hide something?  Because if
you think I care a jot about this place or any of you, you’ve got me figured
all wrong.”

Derrin nodded.  “Unfortunately, I don’t care enough about
you to figure you out right.  The door’s behind you.”

I backed up a step, keeping my eyes locked on his.  Stars, I
hated this game.  But resisting was pointless.  So I gave him Griff’s mock
two-fingered salute to the temple and turned on my heel, and strode (
limped
)
out of the dormitory.  I’d almost reached the stairs when I heard the dull
clomp of Hayli’s boots behind me.

“You want some shoes?” she asked.  “Least I can do.  We’ve
got a storeroom.  Might be some trompers that’d fit you in there.”

“Thanks,” I said.  “Don’t suppose you could spare a drink of
water, could you?”

She squinted up at me.  “When’s the last time you ate?”

I had to think about that, and that fact was enough to make
her backtrack to a room that looked rather like a military canteen.

“C’mon,” she said.  She headed straight to the food line and
hung over the counter, hollering, “Nan!  Need you!”

“Y’know I can’t be giving out snacks all the day like—”  A
thin woman blustered out of the kitchen, but she stopped in mid-sentence when
she saw me.  “Oh.”

Hayli folded her hands prayerfully.  “Just this once please,
please
, Miss Nan?”

“I just need some water,” I said.  “I can do without food if
it’s too much trouble.”

Nan measured me carefully, then lifted a hand to move her
grey hair from her forehead, trailing flour across the bridge of her nose. 
“What’s he done?”

“Nothing!” Hayli said.  “Oh, hurry though, before Derrin
comes in here.”

She huffed.  “Oy, I’m not getting crossways with him.”

But she disappeared into the scullery, returning a moment
later with a mug of water and a dinner roll the size of my hand.  I drained the
water in one long gulp, grimacing at the faint taste of dirt and metal, and
tucked the roll into my pocket for later.

“You’re lovely,” I told Nan.  “Thanks.”

She fought a smile and failed.  “Oh aye, gan on, pet.  Dan’
forget it.”

Hayli grinned.  “If you’re done flirting with Miss Nan…”

I followed her meekly out.  She turned down a side hallway
near the steps, narrower than the main corridor and poorly lit.  At the far end
it intersected with another hall, but that one seemed brighter—strangely,
unnaturally brighter.  Hayli caught me staring and shook her head.

“That’s the way to Rivano’s headquarters,” she said.  “It
always looks like that.  Dan’ think about gannin’ there on your own.  Rivano’s
mages would have you down in a wink if they thought you weren’t invited.”

“Good to know,” I murmured.  “He has a lot of mages?”

“Dan’ na how many, but they’re powerful.  There are other
mages in the city, but I think Rivano’s got the best of them.”

Halfway down the narrow hall, Hayli stopped in front of a
plain door with peeling paint and rusting hinges.  She threw all her scant
weight against it, but when it just complained and shifted a little, she
slammed her shoulder against it again.

“Door’s a beast,” she muttered, wrestling the latch, her hat
askew from the battle.  “Think…think they imagine it’ll keep us…
out
.”

The last word she punctuated with one fierce shove, and she
stumbled as the door breezed open.  For half a minute we stood blinking at the
room beyond.  A few streaks of dusty grey light drifted through the grime of a
pair of high, slatted windows, pooling in faint patches on the floor.  It
almost felt like twilight, the shadows were so thick.

“Drat,” Hayli said.  She grabbed the doorframe and poked her
head into the storeroom, squinting into the murk.  “Drat!  Can’t see a thing.”

“There’s no light in there?” I asked, skeptical.

She blew out her breath through pursed lips.  “Nope, what
d’you think?  It’s just the storeroom.”  She looked me up and down.  “You dan’
have a torch on you, do you?”

I patted my pockets and shrugged.

“Bother.  I’m ganna gan nab someone’s.”  She flitted out of
the room and squinted up at me.  “Be right back.  Dan’ move.  Derrin…Derrin’d
have my head if he saw you still here!”

I nodded and she shot off.  Once she’d vanished around the
corner, I stepped into the room and peered through the shadows.  From what I
could make out, the storeroom barely exceeded the size of my training room at
the palace.  A few shelving units slouched together on each side of the room. 
Boxes filled to overflowing lined the walls.  I couldn’t see what they
contained; I guessed they held castoff clothes.  The objects on the shelves
were harder, full of corners and sharp edges, but I couldn’t tell what they
were. 

Barely two minutes had passed when I heard footsteps
thudding down the hall.  Heavy, slow, steady.  Definitely not Hayli’s.  An even
circle of light flashed on the cement floor of the corridor, then flitted across
the open storeroom door.  Torchlight.  My breath hitched on a shred of panic. 
I had no way out.  I was trapped like a thief, waiting to be caught.

Hide
.

I swallowed and edged back toward the wall, watching the
light freeze on the open door.  As the patch of brightness constricted and
sharpened, I ducked my head and held my breath, and willed myself to disappear.

Disappear, disappear, disappear…

I couldn’t tell if it had worked.  My heart hammered, and I
licked my lips, suddenly dry.  Out in the corridor I heard a sudden patter of
footsteps.

Then, “Derrin!  It’s not what…”

Hayli’s voice trailed away as Derrin appeared in the doorway
with a torch.  He twisted the long paper tube in his hands, aiming its rounded
eyeglass lens around the room.  Uncertain light flickered on its brass
fittings.  A moment later Hayli drew up behind Derrin, her eyes wide with
fear.  She stopped and frowned, just managing to turn it into a fierce scowl
when Derrin turned suddenly to her.

“Did you leave the door to the storeroom open?”

She cocked her head and chewed her lip.  “Yeah,” she said,
after almost too long a pause.  “Thought I’d fetch some trompers for Shade and
take them to him.  But it was too dark to see, so I went for a torch.  Div’n
think anyone’d be out and about right now.”

“Poor judgment, Hayli,” he said, but the empty room gave him
no reason to think she was lying.

“Sorry,” she muttered.  “Can I borrow yours a minute?”

He arched a brow and set the tube on the shelf beside the
door.  “Don’t be too long.”

She moved aside to let him pass, her lips puckered like
she’d eaten vinegar.

“Drat!” she hissed and picked up the torch, sweeping its
circle of light slowly over the shelves.  The light was already fading, and she
slammed the brass cap against her palm as if that would make the brightness
last.

“Hayli,” I said.

I waited till she’d spun in my direction, then moved away
from my hiding spot.  Her eyes widened and she flashed the light in my face.  I
lifted my arm to shield my eyes, but it didn’t matter; the light flickered and
went out, leaving just the scant half-light from the windows.

“Oh,
curses!
” she said.

“They don’t last long,” I said, coming forward.  “Let it
rest up a bit and it’ll come on again.”

“You!”  She shook the thing at me.  “I thought you were a
Mask!”

I lifted my hands.  “I am.”

“But that was… You just hid like a Cloak.  Explain that. 
And dan’ lie!”

“I never lie,” I said, and thought,
Liar
.

“You’re a Maven?”

I just met her gaze, because I had no idea what a Maven was
but couldn’t risk her realizing that.

Her face cleared suddenly, and she laughed.  “Wonder what
Derrin’d say to that!  Dan’ think Rivano’s got any Mavens at all on his crew.”

“Try it now,” I said, nodding at the torch.

She frowned and clicked it, and a feeble light sputtered
across the floor.  “That’s enough for me,” she said.

“Let me hold it for you.”

She held it out to me without comment.  I took it gingerly
to avoid brushing her fingers, and shone the light into the box she chose
first.  For a few minutes she rummaged in silence, tossing aside a few pairs of
boots that would have fit a child, and a few others botched with gaping holes. 
I stood behind her, one arm wrapped around my chest, and waited.

“I dan’ na why Derrin’s being so cross,” she said presently,
her hands stilling on a pair of battered black boots that looked about my
size.  “I’d have thought he’d love to have a new mage join us.”

“Don’t worry about me.  Those’ll do.”

She glanced from the boots to my filthy feet and shrugged. 
I managed to trade her the torch for the boots safely, and sat straight down on
the floor to put them on.  My feet screamed as I worked them into the dry
leather, and for a few minutes after I’d fastened the buckles, I sat wincing
and wondering in what universe this was any better than before.

Hayli flashed the torch in my face again.  “Eee, you
a’right?  You look kind of pale.”  I waved at her until she twitched the light
away, but before I could answer she said, “Oh, never mind.  I got it. 
Don’t
worry about me
.”

I snorted at her impersonation of me.  “Yeah.  And don’t
forget it.”

She rolled her eyes and stalked past me, leaving me in
sudden uncertainty.  I staggered to my feet and tracked the patch of
torchlight, barely avoiding suicide by storage shelf in the process.  Out in
the corridor she flicked the torch off and turned around so suddenly that I
didn’t have time to back away. 

But she just planted the bullseye lens against my chest and
said, “Dan’ worry about Derrin.  He’ll come about.”

I smiled.  “Seems you think that’s important to me.” 

I felt cruel and terrible for saying it, but I had to say
it.  She stared at me, head tipped like a bird’s, as if she couldn’t understand
what had just happened. 

“Maybe I’ll see you around,” I said.  I backed a step, and
thought I ought to leave without another word.  But I couldn’t just walk away
like that.  So I flashed her a smile—a real smile, sincere as I’d ever been—and
said, “Thanks for the boots, Hayli.”

Her eyes widened, and I left it at that.  I was halfway down
the hall when she called after me, but I kept walking, and didn’t even let
myself glance back.  I wanted to stop.  Stars, I never would have thought that
being accepted here would mean so much, or that getting kicked out would hurt
so badly.  I’d never felt anything like it before.

I left the shelter of the Hole and walked straight into
Jig.  I imagined he’d been waiting for some time, his arms folded and a fierce
scowl on his face.  I groaned, mentally, and stopped as close to him as I could
make myself.