The White Assassin (26 page)

Julius gasped. “Like me?”

“Yes, stark white fur, red eyes.”

Julius’s mind whirled with possibilities. He’d never known another white rat. He always felt alone in that way, never quite fitting in. He got funny looks sometimes from the other children, even from some of the grown-ups. He knew it was because he was different—strange. “Can I meet him now?”

“Right now, it’s time to meet the aunties. They are very excited to see you. They haven’t seen you since you were a baby. They’ve been waiting three years for this day.”

Texi stood up and continued down the corridor with Julius. She stopped before two heavy wooden doors. “Now, the aunties are
a bit … different. They may act a little unusual, but don’t let it scare you, all right? They won’t hurt you.” She sighed. “Deep down, they mean well. Now then, are you ready to meet them?”

Texi swallowed hard and then knocked three times on the door. It opened just a crack. Julius heard giggling and snorting coming from inside.

“It’s all right,” said Texi. “I promise.” She whispered under her breath, “They promised.”

They entered Killdeer’s shadowy compound.

His feet now damp with blood, Juniper inspected the cell. “All I can smell is Billycan. There’s no way to tell whose blood this is. Being here all this time, his scent has masked everything.” Juniper turned in a circle, taking in the horror of the scene. “Maddy mustn’t see this. It will destroy her,” he said gravely. “Elvi, how could you have lost the key?”

“I don’t know,” said Elvi hopelessly. “I pulled up a stool to the cell and spoke to Billycan. At first he was very quiet, acting as though he did not want to talk to a stranger. I kept having to lean in—just so I could hear him—but not so close that he could have grabbed the key. Then again, the cell was rather dark. I was going to light the torch, but he asked me not to. He said the light hurt his eyes.” Her lower lip began to quiver. “Oh, Juniper, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” said Juniper. “It’s mine. I should never have allowed you to see him. He’s sly. I’m sure he knew all along what he was doing, easily clipping the key from your neck with his claws without you feeling a thing.”

“Even so … I should have known better.” Elvi covered her face.

“Looking around this cell,” said Cole, “there’s little evidence that Billycan has changed. Whose blood is this—Billycan’s, or perhaps the traitor’s, who must have knocked out the guard and opened the outer door? Maybe Billycan attacked him, thinking him a liability now. Whether this blood is Billycan’s or not, he’s vanished yet again, loose in Nightshade.”

“We’ll find him,” said Clover, putting her arm around Elvi. She looked at Juniper. “Uncle, did anyone find Texi? I know it’s a slim chance, but maybe Julius is with her. You know how those two are—they’re practically inseparable.”

Gasping, Elvi put a paw over her heart. “Texi!” she said. “I completely forget to tell you, Juniper.”

“Tell me what?”

“I was a bit nervous going to see Billycan. It completely slipped my mind, not seeming that important at the time, but Texi … what she said. Now it seems so significant.”

“What did she say?” asked Cole.

“Elvi, tell us,” said Juniper impatiently.

“Just this morning, on my way back from the city square, I stopped by her quarters to check on her. She acted odd. Nothing she said made much sense to me. It was about her sisters—and Julius.”

“What about them?” asked Juniper.

“She said, ‘My sisters were right all along. I am a wicked girl, keeping Julius from them.’”

“Why would she mention her sisters? She hasn’t had contact with them since we defeated the High Ministry. They escaped Topside and no one’s seen them since.”

“That’s what I thought, too. When I asked her about it she quickly changed the subject. Said that Mother Gallo had asked her to meet her and Julius at the library, and she rushed off without even a good-bye. It was very strange.”

“Maddy said she never made it to the library,” said Juniper.

“Uncle, you know how upset Texi was after Billycan was captured, how she went on about Killdeer and those sisters, how she felt guilty for not being loyal.” Clover looked at Vincent. “What if …”

Vincent shook his head. “Of all the theories I had, all my suspicions, she never crossed my mind. Texi the traitor? Could it be possible?”

“Bless the Saints,” said Juniper. His face fell in sheer disbelief. “She had access to everything! She’s the only one other than the Council who could have given Billycan the city blueprints.” He slumped down on a stool. “I gave her full run of the place. Never in a million years would I have thought that she would betray us … that she would take my son. Why would she do such a thing?”

“We don’t have time to speculate,” said Cole. “We need to think clearly. Texi may be a victim, not a traitor. We don’t know for sure. Could Texi’s sisters still be alive? Is it possible that they’re hiding somewhere Topside? What do we know about them that could help us?”

“They were ignorant, for one,” said Carn. “Killdeer kept them that way on purpose, in order to keep them under his thumb. I can’t imagine they’d have survived Topside. They don’t know the first thing about taking care of themselves. Texi took care of their every need.”

“They were entitled,” said Clover, “just like Killdeer. Texi told
me they made her call them all princesses, and they always refused to help with chores round the compound, no matter how much work was piled onto Texi. They told her chores were beneath them.”

“Well, if you were one of Killdeer’s sisters,” said Cole, “unintelligent, selfish, and scared of Topsiders, where would you go?”

Juniper touched the scarred skin under his patch, feeling the roughened edges where his eye had once been, now just rutted skin and bone. “I’d go home,” he said soberly. “I’d go to the Catacombs.”

Julius recoiled. Backing into Texi, he hid himself in her fur. “Bitsy, please, you’re scaring him,” said Texi. “Julius, these ladies are the aunties, they would never hurt you.” She smiled at her sister. “Now would you, Bitsy?”

Bitsy unfurled her hunched back and removed the hood of her soiled cloak, revealing a gnarled grin of rotten teeth. “No, sister dear, never, never,” she hissed. She curled down toward Julius, pulling at his white fur. “What lovely white fur you have. Why, I only want to see you, lad, our little crown prince. You were only a tasty morsel when I saw you last. Let me see how big you’ve grown. Come out, come out, little lamb. Don’t you want to meet Auntie Bitsy?”

His heart pounding in his chest, Julius squeezed his eyes shut, wishing all of the aunties would disappear forever. They were disturbing. They didn’t act like normal rats, all ten of them shrouded in deathly black like witches, all ugly, with cackling voices and scary, hungry smiles, like the ones in the fairy tale Longtooth had just read in the library.

Bitsy pulled on Julius’s ear. “I’ve got you now, little lamb,” she said in a singsong voice. “Come out, come out. There’s no escaping your eldest auntie.” Julius felt Bitsy’s cold digits tug at his ear. It wasn’t a friendly tug, either. It hurt. He knew he was in trouble. He hoped his parents would find him soon.

With Julius refusing to turn around, Bitsy finally relented and scuttled off to join the other sisters, all sitting at a long table in the shadowy compound, half giggling and half bickering, five on each side.

Texi bent down and put an arm around Julius’s middle. “I know you’re afraid,” she whispered, “but you’ve nothing to fret about. The aunties only want the best for you, and would never hurt a hair on your little head.” She gave a worried glance toward the table and then back to Julius. “My sisters all promised me they’d be good.”

“Why aren’t they like you?” asked Julius. He looked down at his paws and sniffled. “They don’t seem very nice.”

“Because I’m not smart like them,” Texi replied. “They said I was born dull, simpleminded.” She smiled. “Not clever like you. That’s why I didn’t understand how important it was that you meet your father, Billycan. They explained to me that if I helped him and let him meet you, one day I’d make up for all my mistakes, for being a bad sister.” She crumpled her nose. “It doesn’t feel like I’m doing the right thing, but I thought about it … and maybe if I do the opposite of what feels right, then I
will
be doing the right thing. Understand?”

“I’m not sure,” said Julius.

“Me either,” said Texi. “My sisters say my brain works funny, so I thought if I switched things around maybe it would work right. And maybe they’ll finally forgive me for being bad.”

“You’re not bad,” said Julius softly.

As she hugged Julius tight, Texi’s eyes welled with tears. She looked over at her sisters as they called her and Julius to the dinner table. For once their voices weren’t cross, they were calm—and they were smiling instead of scowling. Bitsy had even patted Texi’s head when she and Julius came in. Bitsy had never done that before. Tonight her sisters weren’t screaming at her. They weren’t calling her names
and ordering her about. For the first time, they were being nice … in their way. Then why did everything feel so wrong?

Juniper, accompanied by Cole, Ragan, and Ulrich, gathered with the others in Nightshade Passage. Virden stayed behind with the fallen guard. Although he was not yet conscious, Virden said the rat’s breathing seemed to be growing stronger as the minutes ticked by—a good sign.

The Chief Citizen stared down the desolate corridor that led to the Catacombs, now blocked off by a bolted door of heavy timber. He held a wrought-iron key in his paw, the only key that could unlock the door—a key that had never been used since it was forged.

The younger rats readied their spears as the older rats readied themselves. Stepping back in time was not an easy thing.

“Juniper,” said Oleander, “why don’t you tell the rest of the Council and the citizens what’s happening? Surely they’ll want to help find Julius and capture Billycan and Texi.”

“My dear, your suggestion is a good one, yet I’m afraid it would result in chaos. The very mention of Billycan’s name sends many of our citizens into a panic. I worry many could get hurt.”

“Many believe Billycan possesses some sort of supernatural hold,” said Carn, “something in his eyes that can bend any rat to his will—all hogwash, if you ask me.”

Clover’s gaze drifted down the corridor. Her face suddenly went pale.

“Are you all right?” asked Juniper. “I know you’re old enough to make your own decisions. You’ve made that
quite
clear to me. But it’s all right for you to stay behind. In fact, I’d much rather you did.”

“Uncle, at your asking, I stayed behind three years ago. I know
you worry for me, but my mind is made up.” She glanced at Vincent, who knew there was no use arguing over the matter. Clover would not be told what to do, not even by him. “I have to do this.”

“Then what is it?” asked Vincent. “For a moment you looked as though you’d seen a ghost.”

“I suppose I had,” replied Clover. “I was remembering those dreadful days in the Catacombs—that Chosen One business with Killdeer. Billycan came to my quarters one night, scared me something awful. When he fixed those shifting red eyes on me, that withering gaze froze me in my tracks, as if my feet were fastened to the ground. I could not shake his stare. I could not breathe. It was as if he had a stranglehold around my heart. I know it sounds silly, but I felt, well, completely under his control—spellbound.”

“That was nothing more than simple terror,” stated Carn firmly. “I spent eleven years with that rat. There is nothing magical about him. It’s high time we put the legend to rest.”

“Agreed,” said Vincent, smiling reassuringly at Clover.

“Juniper, we’re ready,” said Victor.

Mother Gallo had been pacing in a circle, wringing her paws. “Good, then we must go, now,” she said anxiously.

“Maddy, please,” said Juniper, “I want you to stay here.” He turned to Elvi. “Elvi, I know you want to see this through, but please stay here with my wife. You’re her dearest friend.”

“Of course,” said Elvi, putting an arm around Mother Gallo. “You mustn’t go to the Catacombs, Maddy, dear. It is no place for a worried mother.”

“You don’t understand!” cried Mother Gallo. “He’s my son. What must be happening to him …” She ran to Juniper and buried her face in his fur.

“The Saints only know what awaits us in there,” Juniper told her
gently, “and if something happens to me you must stay safe so you can take care of the family and—”

“Don’t talk like that!” she blurted, unable to hold back her tears. “You must never,
never
talk like that again. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” said Juniper, smiling softly at her, “I do.” He hugged her tight. “We’ll be home soon, I promise you.”

“I’ll hold you to that promise,” she whispered.

“No servants for three long years,” hissed one of the aunties as she plopped the ladle back into the cauldron of murky stew. “Entirely absurd that we should have to serve ourselves, positively degrading, it is.”

Summoning up her oiliest of smiles, Bitsy suddenly turned to Texi, who sat with Julius on her lap at the head of the table. “Youngest sister, dear, when he returns, will you once again serve us? Will we trudge and toil no longer?” Twisting her neck, she cocked her head at an uncomfortable angle and batted her eyes. “It always made us happy, the way you took such good care of us. We miss it. We miss you.”