The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (26 page)

“Miss me already?” I asked.

He grinned, and his hand flashed, and I found myself staring
up at the rainy sky.  All I could think of was Kor’s first lesson, while blood
filled my mouth and my lips turned numb.  A boot dug into my side.  Grinding
pain flashed across my ribs and my vision darkened.  Before I could flinch
away, another pair of hands grabbed me and I found myself dragged to my feet,
bound and helpless.  I bucked and pitched and tried to throw off my captor, but
there was Jig in front of me again.  I ducked my head to avoid one punch but
took an upper jab to my jaw.  My head whipped back.  Grunted as the boot
slammed into my chest.  Couldn’t breathe.  Stars pricked behind my eyes. 

I sagged in my captor’s grip.  Took two deep, steadying
breaths that slipped from my lungs like emptiness.  But just the fact of
breathing calmed my thoughts, calmed my nerves, steadied my hands.  I watched
Jig dance in front of me.  Felt the solidness of the other kid’s hold on me. 
When I’d gathered enough shreds of my strength, I pitched back against my captor
and kicked out with both feet.  We all crashed to the ground, me in a tangle of
arms and legs, Jig splayed flat, coughing hollowly.

My captor—Link, I discovered—was the first to recover.  He
launched up, wrapping me in a bear’s grip, his thick arm around my throat.

“How’s it feel?” Jig gasped.

Red haze fogged my vision.  I struggled, beating uselessly
against Link’s arms.  He wouldn’t let go.  I knew he wouldn’t let go, not in
time. 
Air…air…
My head throbbed…split…my skull would burst with pain…

“Boys!”

Link snatched his arms from my throat and I collapsed,
gasping, coughing.  The deep bellow didn’t register, but when I rolled onto my
side I saw Derrin standing like a force of nature in the doorway, oily red
light pooling around him on the step.

“Jig, on your feet.” 

Jig groaned.

Derrin drew himself up.  “I said
on your feet!
”

Jig staggered to his feet, clutching his arms around his
chest.  “That bas—”

Derrin strode forward and grabbed him by the shoulder,
propelling him back toward the Hole.  He stopped in the doorway and threw a
glare at me like lightning, then just twitched his head toward the old front
gate.  It took all my will not to skulk away like a beat dog, though his stare
made me feel about half my age.  Vaguely I wondered how he did it, how he
exercised so much authority so effortlessly, when he couldn’t have been more
than a couple of years older than me.  A small corner of my heart envied him
for it.

“Link,” he said, turning his fury on the boy still looming
over me.  “Get inside.”

Link picked his way carefully clear of me and slunk into the
Hole after Jig, but Derrin tarried a moment longer.

“Thought you’d already left,” he said.

“Not my mistake.”  I winced, waiting for a blow that never
came.  “I don’t need you winning my fights for me.”

He smiled, barely.  Unamused.  “Of course not.”

I picked myself up and took a step back, cursing when the
pain made me stumble.  “What’s wrong with me, Derrin?” I asked.  “Did I do
something to you I don’t know about?”

“No,” he said flatly.  He turned to retreat into the Hole,
but paused and glanced back at me.  “I’m looking for the name of the Bricks’
supplier.  Get that information for me, and we’ll talk.  If you survive.”

“The Bricks?” I called after him, but he’d already
disappeared.

Chapter 6 — Hayli

I got to the mess late for dinner, only to find that all the
skitters who had been out on long jobs at the mills and fishery had got back
early and were crammed around the tables, making a royal noise as they all
talked over each other.  We always felt like a crowd when we were all
together.  

I remembered how, when I first arrived, not a single skitter
in the group had been older than about thirteen.  That was Derrin, the oldest. 
He still ruled the roost.  Then Jig and Anuk and Red a couple years younger
than him, and Gem, Kite and Coins who were all a year older than me.  Vim and
Link had showed up the same year as me, and now I thought about it, no kids
older than us had ever joined up after.  All the new recruits seemed to come
straight from the foundling house.  Most were about seven years old like I’d
been when I finally joined up, like that kid Whip who cowered close behind me
now.

Maybe that’s why Derrin didn’t even think twice about
accepting Shade.  He didn’t fit the mold.

The last few skitters straggled into the mess, grabbing
plates of food and squeezing onto the benches.  I went more slowly, because it
didn’t matter.  Nobody would shove over for me anyway.

“Hayli!” Pika called, seeing me standing with my plate by
the wall. 

She sat on the edge of her bench, but she waved me over
anyway.  I smiled.  Of course, Pika would try.

“There’s no room, Pika,” Red said, spreading his elbows
out.  “Only room if you’ve earned it.”  He shot me a nasty look.  “Gan away and
stand with Jig.  You’re both in the crab trap anyway.”

I scanned the wall and spotted Jig sulking at the back of
the room.  His face almost blended with the wall behind him, he was that
pale—all but the start of a bruise blossoming under his eye and a swollen red
lip.  He had his arms all wrapped up around himself like he’d fall apart
otherwise.  I winced, wondering what kind of trouble he’d got into.  Me and Jig
didn’t always get on, but I didn’t like seeing him hurt.

He met my gaze briefly and looked away, dark and angry and
about as inviting as a viper pit.  I didn’t have time to make up my mind about
talking to him, though, because just then Derrin walked into the mess.  Some of
the skitters stopped talking, sending a hush over the group, and everybody just
goggled at his bloody knuckles as he claimed a plate of food.  No one said a
word to him, though.  You knew better than to ask him stupid questions when he
looked like that.

Soon as he’d got his food, he tracked straight toward me. 
Some of the lads muttered smart comments about how I was sure to get whupped on
account of Shade.  I swallowed and pretended not to see him, but I couldn’t
ignore him when he stopped right in front of me.

“Finish up, Hayli,” he said.  “Kantian wants a word.”

Red smirked, the way that always made his fine face turn a
mite ugly.  “Now you’ve done it.”

“Red, I’ll have a word with you if you keep it up,” Derrin
said, so dead calm that Red got terribly pale and everyone else got terribly
quiet.

I caught Anuk’s gaze and thought he seemed almost concerned,
which got me feeling a bit odd, but I just shoveled in the rest of my taters
quick as I could and escaped before anyone else could volunteer more nasty
remarks.  Derrin followed me, to my surprise, but he didn’t say a word the
whole way except to tell me that I’d find Kantian in his quarters.

When I got there, Kantian was thumbing through some
papers—wanted notices from the looks.  He didn’t even glance up at me.

“You wanted to see me, Boss?” I asked.

“Heard rumor you were trying to do a bit of recruiting,” he
said.  “Is that true?”

I shot an anxious glance at Derrin, but he just shook his
head, ever so slightly.  I gritted my teeth.  What was that even supposed to
mean?

“I met a mage,” I said.  “Thought he might be useful.”

“Useful…?”  He glanced up at me finally, arching a brow.  “I
thought Rivano already knew all the mages in the city, and had recruited the
ones who would listen.”

“Except Shade’s not from Brinmark.  He’s from Istia.”

Both brows shot up at that.  “Really.  Is he a powerful
mage?  Who are his family?”

“That div’n quite come up.”  I bit my lip and added, “He got
turned away.”

Kantian chuckled, coming over to stand in front of me.  “I’m
not surprised.  Well, little Moth, how is your Shifting coming?”

“A’right, I suppose.”  I shuffled my feet.  “I Shifted by
accident the other night.  Thought I saw someone looking at me, but that’s all
I really remember.”

“By accident, you say?  How peculiar.” 

I blushed, but didn’t tell him what I’d told Rivano. 

“Listen,” Kantian said.  “I’m interested in this Shade
character.  I want to know why he’s here.  What he’s looking for.  Can we trust
him?  Is he working for anyone?  I want you to track him down and find out what
you can, and bring me any information you can get.”  He took my chin, sending a
flash of cold down my back.  “Understood?”

“Should we let him stay here?” I asked.

“That’s up to Derrin,” he said, surprising me.  “Now scram.”

I followed Derrin out into the barracks, still muddling over
what Kantian had said—and how he hadn’t whupped me—when Derrin stopped and
turned to me.

“Did you get those boots to your friend?” he asked.

I swallowed.  He had a knowing kind of light in his eye, the
sort that made me think twice about lying.

“He got them,” I said.

“Lucky you didn’t have to hunt too far for him.”  I scowled
and he said, “Come on, Hayli.  I know he was still here.  He had those boots on
when Jig just about killed him out in the enclosure.”

“Jig did
what?
”  My face burned, prickling with
little angry flames.  “That—”

Derrin held up his hands.  “Calm down.  He’s been dealt
with.”

I stared at his knuckles, and thought of the purple bruise
framing Jig’s eye.  “I see,” I said.

Derrin baffled me sometimes.  He had tried to protect Jig
from Kantian’s punishments, but now he’d gone and walloped him hard for picking
an unfair fight with Shade.  I reckoned he lived by some kind of code of
justice.  I just hadn’t quite figured it out yet.

“Don’t think Jig’s too keen on Shade,” Derrin remarked,
studying me.

“Who is?” I asked, sullen.  “Guess it’s a good thing you drove
him off.  I’m sure Jig thanks you.”

Derrin didn’t react, not that I’d expected him to.  He just
gave me a long look and walked away. 

A few steps later he stopped, but didn’t turn around.  “I
gave him a job,” he said.

And then he was gone.

I stared after him, the voice spooked clean out of me.  I
couldn’t even holler to call him back.  He gave Shade a job?  I couldn’t get a
job out of Derrin no matter what I did, even though he’d said he would take me
on and train me. 

I was still standing there frozen and fish-mouthed when Pika
popped up beside me, her red hair all in a tangle and hanging in her eyes.

“You jake, Hayli?  Kantian div’n wallop you, did he?”

“No,” I said.  I scowled down at her, resting my hands on my
hips.  “Pika!  What’d Shade ever do to you?  Why’d you gan ganging up on him
with Jig and Vim?  He’s
my
friend.”

“He ain’t your friend,” Pika said, hands on hips—my little
mimic.

“Well,” I sputtered, because I supposed she was right about
that.  “He’s sure not my enemy.”

“That still dan’ make him a friend.”

Before I could think of a retort to that, I caught a goggle
of Link sitting at his cot, nursing a scraped elbow.  I narrowed my eyes and
stormed past Pika, and without even thinking I threw myself into him.  We both
crashed onto the cot, and then I was up on the bed with my knee on his chest
and both hands balled up in knots.

“Hey!” he cried, staring up at me all egg-eyed and flushed. 
“What gives, Hayli?”

“Were you there?  Helping Jig ‘cause Jig’s not man enough to
take on Shade alone?  Is that what happened?”

Vim chuckled from somewhere behind me, then popped into
view, leaning against the stone pillar.  “Not interrupting, am I?  I had no
idea—”

“Shut it, Vim, or you’re next!” I hissed.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he said with a slow smile.

My face caught fire, and I snapped.  I dug my knee into
Link’s chest as I climbed over him, and, standing on the bed like a mad thing,
I punched Vim hard as I could in the face.  Pain shattered through my arm, and
before I could shut my mouth I yelped in surprise.  Vim reeled back, holding
his jaw and laughing.

“What’s so—
ow!
”  I clutched my hand to my chest. 
“You boys do that for
fun?
”

Link picked himself off the bed, joining his brother’s
laughter.  My cheeks burned redder than ever as I climbed down from the cot.

“Sorry, Hayli,” Vim said, the voice muffled behind his
hand.  “I was just slagging you.”

Vim apologized…?

“Well, it wasn’t funny.”

Link snorted.  “You should’ve seen your face.”

I spun on him.  “You!  I’m not finished with you!”

“Oh, come off it, Li.  We just taught him a little lesson. 
No harm done.”

“Jig’s face says otherwise.”

“I’d wager it does,” he said, smirking.  “He’s been skulking
like a cat since Derrin took him out back.”  The smile faded and he said,
“Listen, I dan’ got much against Shade.  He fights a’right.  Takes a punch
without whining.  But.  He’s not one of us.”