The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (47 page)

“What’d you do to Joren, Shade?” Bugs asked.  He had his
feet up on the bench under him as always, crouching like the carved grotesques
on the drain pipes.  “Did you kill him?”

I tipped my mug of water toward him.  “No.”  I left it at
that a moment, then met his eye and added, “Though I think he rather wished I
had.”

Bugs hooted and bounced on his feet, and gulped down half
his cup of water.

Before he could holler anything else at me, Anuk leaned over
and asked, “Did we get the meet set up with Joren’s informant?”

“What informant, Shade?” Bugs asked, jostling my arm.

“Someone who says they’ve got dirt for Rivano. 
Royal
dirt.”  I tried not to shudder as I said it, because ever since the meet, I’d
been worried sick about what kind of vicious information the man Branigan might
be spreading about my family.  I glanced at Anuk.  “We’ll meet at Chancy’s
tomorrow afternoon, and I’ll explain everything.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when someone came
behind me and laid a hand on my shoulder.  I jumped, always afraid Hayli would
forget to keep her distance, but she hadn’t come down to dinner yet, and no
static charge traced down my arm at the touch.  Bobs stood behind me, eyes wide
in his round face, a slip of paper in his hand. 

“Shade, someone left this for you.”

“What?  Who?” I asked, slinging my leg back over the bench
so I could stand up.

Hayli walked into the mess at that moment and took one long
look at Bobs, then me, and without even the ghost of a smile she headed for the
food line.

Bobs was shaking his head, his cheeks pink with
embarrassment.  “I div’n get a good look at him.  Just some kid.  I was sitting
on post and he showed up and div’n seem like he belonged and he asked if I knew
you and I said I did and he asked if I’d take this to you so I said I would.”

He stopped and drew a long breath.

“He knew about the Hole?” Derrin asked, arms folded, trying
to glare at me and Bobs equally.

“No, dan’ think so.  He looked lost, so I asked what he
wanted, and that’s what he said.”

Derrin met my gaze and held out one hand, beckoning.  “Let
me have a look.”

I shrugged as if I didn’t care.  Bobs handed him the paper
and bolted, and everyone else waited in silence while Derrin unfolded the note
and scanned it.

“All right,” he said, and gave it to me.  “Makes no sense.”

I retrieved it and read the single line scrawled in an
all-too familiar hand:
Remember the sea wall.

“How ominous,” I said, and shoved the paper in my trouser
pocket.

Jig watched me, curious, but he didn’t speak.  I couldn’t
quite make sense of Jig the last few days; he still didn’t seem particularly
friendly to me, but he was always first to volunteer when I asked for help, and
the last to leave my side when we got back.  It rather confounded me.

“What’d it say?” Bugs asked, bouncing on the bench. 
“Shade!  What’s the secret note say?”

“Remember the sea wall,” I said, knowing Derrin would only
be suspicious if I didn’t answer.  “I’ve got no notion what it means.”

“What’s a sea wall?”

“Well, it’s a wall that holds back the waves.  Some are
built by people, but some are just cut in the rock from the sea.  In Istia,
there are huge stretches of cliff that are old sea walls, but you wouldn’t know
because the water pulled back a long time ago.”

“Did you ever gan to a sea wall?” Bugs asked.

I met his eager gaze with as dark and somber a glance as I
could conjure.  “Once,” I said.  “But no one would know about that.  At least…”

I lifted a shoulder in a shrug and settled back onto the
bench, applying myself to my plate of bangers and mashed potatoes until
everyone else lost interest.  When the other kids had finally disappeared into
the lounge for the evening, I took my chance and slipped out of the Hole as
quietly as I could.  But halfway to the gate I heard footsteps behind me, and I
turned to find Hayli there, tailing me.  She had a skittishness about her, as
though she’d just fly away like a bird if I gave her the wrong kind of look. 
Somehow I found myself smiling at her.

“Evening, Hayli,” I said.  “Heading out?”

She paused, tilting her head to study me, her eyes narrowed
and suspicious.  I wondered why, until I remembered I was still smiling.  That
would be enough to make me suspicious, too, so I turned my head aside and
stared at the ground.

“Are you?” she asked.  “That was a bit rum, that note.”

I stuck my hands in my pockets and kicked at the pavement. 
“Well, someone’s trying to track me down, I guess.”

“Someone you want to avoid?”

I met her gaze.  “Someone who ought to know enough to avoid
me,” I said, pitching my voice as low as I could.

Her eyes widened, but she just wandered a step closer and
asked, hesitant, “You want some company?”

“I need some time alone,” I said.  “Nothing to do with you,
Hayli.  Just…I’m still getting used to being surrounded by folks all the time.”

She nodded, giving me a half-hearted kind of smile.  “I get
that.  Be safe,” she said, and backed away.

I waited until she’d disappeared into the Hole and the door
had settled behind her before strolling out through the gate, with a two-finger
salute to Bobs.  I had to walk as if I knew where I was going, but I had no
idea how I would find Zagger in the dark streets, when Zagger probably didn’t
even know where
he
was.  But I’d barely reached the nearest alley when a
small hand shot out of the shadows and grabbed my wrist.

“Shade!”

I peered through the darkness, but couldn’t see the face
belonging to the hand. 

“Who’re you?”

“He’s waiting to talk to you.  Two streets north of the
Bricks.”

The hand released me, and I heard a scuffling in the
shadows, then nothing.  I let out my breath and headed east toward the Bricks’
building, my fingers fiddling with the hilt of the knife in my sleeve. 
He
might be Zagger like I expected, or it might be some kind of trap.  I didn’t
care to be surprised.

Two streets up from the Bricks, I found Zagger right where
he was supposed to be.  He leaned against the wall near a rubbish bin, just
outside a circle of misty lamplight.  I could tell he was trying to blend in,
with a tattered cap and threadbare scarf, but just his posture made him stand
out.  Even though no one else was wandering the streets just then, I kept
glancing over my shoulder like a thief, expecting to be found out. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed, coming up
alongside him.  “If anyone saw us together it could completely blow my cover.”

“Nice to see you too,” he said.

He studied me with furious attention, as if that could
somehow teach him exactly what had happened to me over the last few weeks.  I
softened a little.

“I am glad to see you.”  I shoved my hands in my pockets,
trying not to feel so self-conscious about the way I must have looked.  “How’d
you get word to me?”

“Kor helped.  That was one of his lads who delivered the
message.”

I frowned up at him.  If he’d asked Kor for his help…

“What’s wrong, Zag?  Why are you here now?”

“Slight problem,” he said.  “You’ve got to come back.”

“Can’t.  What’s such an emergency?”

“Someone started a rumor that you got killed abroad.”

I flinched.  “
What?
”

“They’re saying that’s the reason none of the foreign papers
have mentioned your visit.”  Zagger shifted.  “Some people are even saying your
father did it.  Sent you away to have you offed in some corner of the world
where it would look suspicious.”

“You must be joking,” I murmured, my blood chilling.  The
idea was so outrageous, so preposterous…

“I wish I was.”

Your father
.  Even Zagger didn’t know the truth.  Or
maybe he did, and he just thought I still didn’t know.  I wondered what he
would do if I told him.  If I wasn’t Trabin’s son, but the son of a traitor and
an enemy mage…I shouldn’t have a royal bodyguard.  I should probably be
arrested, for that matter, or at least publicly stripped of my title and
inheritance. 

I sighed and crouched down next to the rubbish bin, letting
its bulk shield me from the wind.  Zagger eyed me strangely as I did.  Funny, I
think he had too much pride to get down there with me, shouldering up to the
trash for warmth.

“So.  Got a ken?” I asked.

He stared, and I laughed.

“Sorry, that was mean,” I said.  “What’s your suggestion?”

“The Kalethelia ball is tomorrow night,” he said.

“So they’re home.”

I’d lost track of the days.  My family always returned from
Lamanstal in time for the festival of Kalethelia, throwing a huge ball on the
last day of the week.  I wondered what the world would say to see me returning unexpectedly
in time for the social event of the year.  I rubbed my hands and scowled.  The
ball had always been a prime opportunity for mischief for Griff, Samyr and me
in the past, but I was a man now.  I’d be asked to dress the part and make an
appearance, and behave the way a prince ought to behave.  Nothing could
possibly have sounded more tedious.

“Can I tell your father you’ll come back?” Zagger asked,
shifting his weight.

I squinted up at him.  “Why, is he that nervous?”

“Frantic,” he said.

“Doesn’t sound like him.”

Zagger shrugged.  “Well, be fair.  He’s never exactly been
in this position before.”

He actually dropped into a crouch beside me then, but not
without shooting a warning glare at the rubbish bin as he did.

“Listen…are you doing all right?” he asked.  “You look half
frozen.”

I grimaced.  “Is it that obvious?”  I hesitated,
considering, then finally nodded.  “Fine.  Tell him I’ll make an appearance.”

Zag let out his breath like he’d been holding it.  “Thanks,”
he said.  “Maybe it’ll shut up those yammering press monkeys.”

“You’re screwy,” I said.  “You know it’ll just get them all
wanked.”

He grunted.  “I’m not even going to pretend I understood
that.”

I got up, not bothering to dust myself off.  The rain would
take care of the dirt, anyway. 

“I have to go,” I said, avoiding the slang to spare him the
strange grief lurking in his eyes.  I clapped him on the shoulder.  “It was
good to see you, Zag.  Really.”

“You too.  You’ll…you’ll let me know if you need anything,
right?”

“Sure,” I said, and knew he didn’t believe me.

Suddenly he slung his coat off his shoulders and dumped it
in my arms.

“What the hell, Zag,” I said. “I can’t take that.”

“Of course you can.  It’s not marked, it’s just a coat.”

“What’ll I tell the skitters?”

He grinned a little and sauntered off, saying over his
shoulder as he went, “You’ll think of a story, I’m sure.”

I waited until he’d disappeared, then pulled on the leather
coat.  Warmth had never felt so good before, even if the coat was impossibly
large.  And suddenly I really didn’t care what the other kids thought.  Maybe
it would just add to that mysterious, distant aura that I’d somehow found
myself creating. 

Chapter 4 — Hayli

I listened to the whistle of the ten o’ morning train from
the safety of my cot.  The boys would all be heading out to Chancy’s, and part
of me wanted to join them more than anything.  But the way Shade had been
acting lately, twitchier than usual the last few days and colder than ever, I
wasn’t sure if I could stomach it.  I knew why Rivano wanted me and Derrin to
keep a goggle on him, but sometimes I wished he hadn’t picked me.  Jig or Anuk
could have done just as fine a job.

The train whistle had barely faded when Pika traipsed into
the barracks, streaked with dirt like a coal bug.  She crossed straight away to
me, kicking soot from her breeks and boots as she walked.

“Hayli!  Where’s Derrin?”

“Talking to Kantian, I think,” I said, sullen.  “Dan’ bother
trying to find them.  They’ll just give you a bum rush out the door.”

She giggled and plopped down on the foot of my bed,
scattering dirt all over the blanket.  “What’s bothering, Hayli?  You look like
you got crosswise to a lemon.”

I laughed and pulled up my knees.  “What d’you think of
Shade, Pika?  Do you still think he’s…empty?”

Her eyes narrowed up a bit, and I sighed.  Shade still
wasn’t her favorite topic of talk.

“Can’t figure him at all,” she said.  “Still got no ken why
he’s hanging about here.  He dan’ seem to like any of us.”

I sighed.  And that was the heart of it right there. 

“Yeah,” I said, hugging my knees, “and I think he grobbing
hates me.”

“No he dan’,” Pika said.  She scowled at me a bit, digging
her chin into her arms.  “But he’s scared of you.”

“What d’you mean, scared of me?  Shade ain’t scared of
aught.”