Choke: 2 (Pillage Trilogy (Pillogy)) (26 page)

“You’re alive,” I exclaimed.

“I think you’re right,” she groaned, “but my head hurts.”

“I think my arm’s broken,” I told her.

We helped each other up. We leaned against one another and looked at Lizzy. Her body began to spark and break up, and then, like the other dragons before it, it broke into a billion pieces and dissolved. There was nothing left but a tangled mess of cable.

“I can’t believe it,” I smiled. “Professor Squall’s lecture on simple machinery paid off.”

“I’m sure he’d be proud,” she said.

“Lizzy was amazing,” I mourned.

“Yeah,” Kate said quietly. “But now we need a doctor.”

Kate helped me make a sling for my arm out of my jacket so the hike down the stairs wouldn’t be as painful. It wasn’t a half-bad sling considering it was made from a plastic windbreaker.

We were walking toward the exit when I remembered the stone. “Wait,” I said. “What happened to Whitey? And we need that stone.”

“We’ll get it later,” Kate insisted.

“No, we can’t leave it.”

The two of us walked over the crumbled rock from the hole in the cave and back toward the nest. When we reached it, I looked down.

“Is it me?” Kate asked worriedly. “Or is there no stone?”

“He took it,” I cried.

I could see that the back tunnel door was open. Whitey had taken the rock and ran, and I was in no mood to start exploring the dark tunnel to look for him. I groaned mournfully.

“You know what?” Kate asked me.

“What?”

“I know it sounds weird, but think I might know where he went.”

I looked at her like she was crazy. “Does it involve going down that tunnel?”

She shook her head.

“Then let’s go.”

Kate took my hand and pulled me quickly toward the exit and down the stairs. Even in the dark we could see the enormous reel that had rolled out of the cave and whose great weight had helped strangle Lizzy. It was hanging by the cable halfway down the side of the mountain.

Kate told me where she thought Whitey had gone as we walked through the dark trees. She also told me why she thought Whitey had gone there. I wanted to disagree with her, but I had no theories of my own. The one thing I did know was that before we did anything else, I needed to talk to my dad.

Illustration from page 77 of
The Grim Knot

CHAPTER 27

The manor was shrouded in black. Only the lamp that hung above the wide service entry was diligent enough to keep shining. Inside, the kitchen was dark, and there was no sign of Millie and anyone else.

“Where is everybody?” Kate asked.

“I’m sure they’re out looking for us,” I said, trying to comfort myself.

The emptiness of the manor made me uneasy. I mean, I was used to it being vacant and lonely, but the silence after what had just happened didn’t seem right. I picked up the phone and made a quick call.

“What if your dad’s gone too?” Kate asked.

“I guess we’ll find that out in a minute,” I answered.

We hiked up the stairs. I was so sick of steps I felt like puking. Of course it could have also been that I was just in the mood to throw up.

“If I ever inherit this place, the first thing I’m doing is putting in an elevator,” I complained.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Kate gasped.

When we got to the top the door was open, and I could see that the dome roof was almost completely gone. I entered and reached for the light switch. Wind was dipping in and stringing itself around like toilet paper. The dome room was in a lot more ruin than the last time the dragons had been out.

My father was standing in the middle of the room with his arms behind his back and his face looking up toward the stars. Light from the open door painted the space and cast long
shadows on anything in the room. My father’s ragged hair and shirt fluttered like ribbons on a running fan.

“Dad,” I whispered, my voice competing with the soft wind.

He didn’t answer.

“It’s me, Beck,” I clarified.

“I saw the dragon,” he said quietly, never taking his eyes off of the stars.

“Yeah,” I replied, feeling incredibly guilty. “Sorry about the roof.”

Kate was right behind me. She nudged my back.

“Dad?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“She’s gone,” I reported.

“I figured,” he sighed.

Kate nudged me again. I decided to just get her dumb idea out of the way.

“You left us for dead,” I told him.

My father turned his head and looked at me and then Kate. He looked back up at the stars, his hands still clasped behind his back. It was hard to tell, but he appeared to be trembling just a bit.

“I had her locked up, and you let her go,” I said sadly. “You’re Whitey.”

“Lies,” my father snapped.

“Dad.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he insisted.

I could tell by the way my father was talking that he was lying.

“You tricked me into planting that stone.”

“No, I did not.”

“You knew I wouldn’t kill it when it was young,” I went on. “You don’t really want this to end. And you took the stone.”

For a second my father was silent, and I thought he was going to tell me I was wrong. Instead he turned and began to frantically rant.

“You don’t understand! These are dragons!” he pleaded. “They’re in our blood. I couldn’t find the stone on my own, and I had to see one again.”

“So, you put on a bunch of white makeup, wear glasses and a robe, and talk like a different person?” I asked. “I should have figured it out myself. I guess I just never in my wildest dreams thought you would try to trick me. Kate recognized you.”

My father’s body shook even harder.

“It’s my fault,” I told him. “You kept yourself up here all those years to break the family cycle and I came along and messed things up. If you had never seen a dragon, you would have been fine. Well, not fine, but . . . well, you would have just been a misunderstood hermit.”

“I must stop you,” he said.

I looked around. “Stop me from what?”

“You’re a Pillage,” he whispered. “And you’re going to destroy it all. The dragons are a protection and our gift.”

“The dragons are our curse,” I reminded him. “Remember?”

My father reached behind a chest of drawers and pulled out the same sword he had flashed me with in the hospital. I should have been frightened, but my mind was preoccupied with thinking about how he actually had visited me when I was in the hospital. I would have been touched, but he was already touched enough for the both of us.

He held the sword halfway up and gazed at me. Even in the low light I could see the confusion and darkness in his eyes.

“Dad,” I pleaded.

He blinked and then dropped the sword. His body began to twitch as he let go of his emotions and started to sob. I stepped up and put my one good arm around him. I could feel Kate’s hand on my shoulder as she was doing her best to be supportive of me and my messed-up home life.

“I told you I was sick,” my father said mournfully.

“I thought you were talking about me,” I replied.

“It’s not always about you,” Kate whispered. She needed to work on her support skills a little more.

“Don’t worry,” I told my dad. “We’ll get you help.”

As if on cue, Sheriff Pax climbed up into the dome. There was another officer and a woman with him.

I was so glad he had taken my call seriously.

Illustration from page 79 of
The Grim Knot

CHAPTER 28

The sun felt magnificent on my arms and neck. It was a clear day and the tiny bit of wind felt like a cool reminder that I was both alive and outdoors. From where I was sitting I could see forever, or at least all of the Hagen Valley and the mountains that surrounded it. I was sitting on top of the dome hammering the last pieces of roof for the repair. Wyatt and Kate were both helping me out.

“After this, Scott wants us to start on the garage repairs,” I said.

“Us?” Kate asked.

I looked at her and smiled. She was so pretty. She was wearing jeans and a green T-shirt. Her dark red hair and blue eyes drove me crazy.

“Would you two get a roof,” Wyatt said, trying to be funny.

We both just stared at him.

“What?” he asked. “That was pretty good. I mean we’re on a roof.”

We laughed at him and I continued pounding nails.

Kate picked up another piece of the copper roofing and as she moved it, light flashed off it, blinding me for a moment.

I could see images in the flash of light.

I could see my father. He was checked into the hospital in Kingsplot and was being taken care of by well-trained people like Nurse Agatha. I had visited him every day and he was making progress. He had filled me in on how he had tried to find the stone himself, and, when he couldn’t, a part of him began taking on the personality of Whitey. He claimed to not even remember letting the dragon out of the cage or any of our conversations. He had moved to the cavern through the hidden trap door in the dome and through a tunnel that ran all the way over and up to the back cavern. He was quick to say he would be all the way better soon, but part of me knew he would never be himself completely until there was no stone left.

In that flash I also saw the stone.

I had found it in a trunk in the dome where my father kept his possessions. It wasn’t a very good hiding place, but it was the best he could do in his state of mind. I took it out and placed it somewhere much better, hoping I wouldn’t have to see it for a long time, but knowing sooner or later I would. I was, after all, a Pillage.

The reason Millie, Wane, and Scott had been missing was because they had taken Wane to the emergency room. While Lizzy had been tearing apart the dome roof they had all gotten scraped up and Wane had received a concussion from a falling board. None of them said a thing about dragons. We had all been through enough, and there didn’t seem to be any wisdom in making things worse. Thomas had been missing because he had actually gone out into the forest looking for me and Kate.

Kate moved another piece of roof, and a second flash brought me out of my thoughts. I could clearly see every nail and plank we still needed to work on to completely repair the dome. It reminded me of my family and all the work that was still needed to repair my family and my father. For some reason the work didn’t scare me.

“You’re not hammering,” Wyatt complained.

Millie came out from beneath the dome and onto the
seventh-floor terrace. She had a tray full of food and drinks.

“Are you three hungry?” she hollered up. “I’ve got roasted steak and cheese sandwiches, pints of raspberry lemonade, and chocolate cheesecake salad.”

“That’s the kind of salad I like,” Wyatt joked.

I missed Lizzy. I missed the feeling of strength she gave me. But Lizzy had taught me something. In fact, I sort of felt like her, but in reverse—she had started out kind and beautiful and grown into an ugly evil creature. Me? I was trying to pull off just the opposite. Even bigger than that was the lesson I had learned from Professor Squall. Apparently there were some things I needed to learn from grown-ups.

Kate smiled at me and handed me a sandwich.

We ate near-perfect food on a near-perfect dome during a near-perfect day. Yes, I worried about my dad, and, yes, I still had a ton of makeup homework to do, but for the moment, my life was pretty close to perfect—quixotic even.