Everland (22 page)

Mole stifles a small whimper. “I was afraid she was going to say that.”

“That’s mad. Do you know what they’ll do to you?” Pickpocket says.

“They won’t hurt me. They need me alive, and it may be the only way to get to Joanna. If we are lucky, they have Bella, too. If they take me to the palace, I can rescue both girls and Jack,” I say.

“No!” Pete says, his fingers twitching around the hilt of his blades. “I won’t allow it.”

“She’s right,” Doc whispers, his voice wavering. “If we stay, we’ll be captured, if not killed. There is no reason Hook needs any of us boys. And Gwen will be caught and taken to the palace anyway. How long can we run and hide? At least this way we have a fighting chance to reorganize and save all three girls.”

I do not allow them time to protest. “Go,” I say, nudging Pickpocket to the back of the building. “Get them out of here.”

None of the Lost Boys move. Instead, they glance at one another, waiting for someone to argue, to come up with an alternative plan.

“Didn’t you hear me?” I shove Pete. “I said, get out of here! Now! They’re going to be here any minute. Save yourselves!”

The boys still don’t budge. Furniture clatters in the lobby of the building, ripping me from my racing thoughts. I grab Pete’s wrist, prepared to lead him toward the back of the building to find an exit, when something slides behind me. I turn toward the sound, whipping my daggers from their sheaths, but in the dark, I can’t make out anything. A light appears from behind a panel in the wall, which has been pushed to the side. In the glimmer of a lamp, a teenage girl with long, raven-colored hair holds a finger to her lips, warning us to keep quiet. The lantern’s glow lights her flawless bronze skin and dark eyes, the trim on her black sari and chain belt glimmering like polished coins. Her forehead is adorned with a red bindi, and a jeweled hoop gleams in her pierced nose. Chrome-tinted cogs interlink in a long chain that wraps around her neck in a decorative collar necklace and drapes down each of her shoulders. The bronze hilt of a sword glitters from its sheath at her hip in the lantern’s glow. She waves a petite hand, beckoning us to come with her.

Glancing over my shoulder, I catch the glint of lamplight off Pete’s blades, Pickpocket’s rifle, and Mole’s spiked staff, all aimed at the girl. “Who are you?” Pete demands in a harsh whisper.

“There isn’t time for explanations. Are you coming or not?” she says, her eyes darting toward the entrance of the museum.

The soldiers’ angry voices move nearer, and among them, I can now distinguish Hook’s deep growl shouting orders.

“I think we should go with her,” Pickpocket says, shifting from one foot to the other. He keeps the gun aimed at her.

Mole sniffs the air and loosens his grip on his mace. “She smells like licorice.”

“The same as you smelled with Bella?” Pete asks, eyeing the girl warily.

Mole nods.

“What about Jack?” I ask. “What if he was able to get away and comes here looking for us?”

“If he’s not here by now, he’s been caught and probably imprisoned at Buckingham Palace. This is the only way any of us are getting out of here unscathed, and if Mole is right, she knows where Bella is,” Pete says with reluctance. He sheathes a dagger and sighs. “We’re going with her. It’s better than you turning yourself over to Hook. ”

We dash to the open panel in the wall. Doc, Pickpocket, and Pete hurry through the opening while Mole hangs on to Pete’s sleeve. I am the last to step through the gap.

“Who are you? How did you get here?” I ask as she hands her lantern to me to hold.

“My name is Lily,” the girl says with a sly smile.

With that, she closes the panel behind us.

W
ith my black buckled boot I kick a scrap of what is left of a van Gogh painting from the burning embers. The rubbish bin lies sideways on the floor, its contents spilled in a pile next to it. I pick up the small, charred fragment, the petals in the picture appearing as limp as the canvas itself. With my night-vision goggles perched on top of my head, I squint at the art.

“What a shame,” I say, addressing the soldiers. “One thing more valuable than gold or jewels is history.” I release the piece of canvas and it flutters to the floor. I turn my gaze to the shielded faces of my soldiers. They look more like automatons than people.

“But there’s no room for sentimentality. London’s rooftops burned a year ago. Today, her reincarnation, Everland, will face the same demise.”

The soldiers shift uncomfortably, flicking their goggled gazes to one another.

“Burn it down!” I shout. “Burn it all down until there is nowhere else for them to hide.” I fix my glare on Jack and clench my jaw. “And get rid of my traitorous stepbrother.”

The uniform-clad men shout orders, their voices sounding as mechanical as robots when I push past them.

“Wait!” Jack says. He struggles in the grip of an officer, his wrists bound tightly behind him. “That wasn’t the deal!”

I whirl on my heels and march close enough that Jack falters backward. “You’re right, Lost Boy: It wasn’t the deal we agreed upon. I should’ve killed you the moment Smeeth brought you to me. But no, instead I spared your life. We made a deal: You give me Gwen and I leave Everland forever. But the girl is not here, thus our agreement is null and void. Good-bye, dear brother.”

As I storm toward the entrance of the building, Jack lashes out with pathetic pleas. His words fall away, lost as my boots pound on the floor.

“What if I can offer you a better deal?” Jack shouts.

I stop, shadowed in the dark room, but don’t turn around. “What sort of deal?”

“What if I could tell you a sure way to catch the girl?”

“Why should I invest any more of my time in you? We’ve made agreements and your end of the bargain has fallen through,
twice
,” I say, taking another step toward the exit. “You were supposed to infiltrate the Lost Boys. Instead, you joined them and never reported back. This time you promised me Gwen. She’s not here. Why should I believe anything you say?”

“I know where Pete and Gwen are going next,” Jack says. “And it doesn’t matter if you burn all of Everland down—you’ll never find them. Not without my information.”

Intrigued, I march back up to the boy. “What is in it for you?”

Jack grimaces, holds his breath, and turns his head away, unwilling to meet my eyes.

“Those boys are more than just a bunch of orphaned kids,” Jack says quietly. He turns his eyes back to me and his glare is murderous. “They’re my family, which is more than I can say about you and your mother.”

Amused, I grin as memories of our childhood resurface in my mind. With nothing to eat but leftover scraps from supper, Jack was always a scrawny kid. While I was allowed to live within Lohr Castle, Jack was forced to sleep in a dilapidated delver’s cottage that served as a den to the forest rats. Jack joined my crusade to England in order to escape the Bloodred Queen’s wrath in exchange for labor. But I can live without him.

Cocking my head to one side, I take in the disheveled boy. “Naïve little stepbrother. Our parents’ marriage had nothing to do with being family. My mother wanted the crown, and after your father’s unfortunate ‘accident’ ”—I gesture quotation marks in the air—“you were just extra baggage.”

Scowling, Jack spits. “She murdered him and you know it!”

“
Murdered
is such a harsh word,” I say, circling Jack.

Jack’s face flares red with fury. “Katherina has no right to the throne!”

Laughter bubbles deep within me and erupts in a thunderous roar, echoing off the museum walls. “Now stop wasting my time. What is it you want in exchange for Gwen’s location?”

“Because of you, the Lost Boys have
nothing
left,” Jack says, narrowing his eyes. “They have no families, no homes, and now they’re going to lose their lives. They are showing symptoms of the virus. They need the antidote and for you and the Marauders to leave. Forever! If we can negotiate a deal to guarantee that, I’ll do whatever I can to get you the girl.”

I stop pacing in front of Jack and hesitate, knowing that it’s torture for him to wait for my response. As kids, he always hated it when he knew I held a secret. At first it was all in fun, but as we got older I knew he’d do just about anything I asked in exchange for information regarding his father’s death. Information I never had, but he didn’t know that.

“Interesting proposition,” I say. “I’ll tell you what, Jack. I can be reasonable. I will give you what you’re asking for, in exchange for information on where they are headed next
and
the Lost Boys’ hideout.”

“The Lost Boys?” Jack says in an uncertain tone. “What do you want with them?”

“Collateral,” I say, pacing the dark room. “Tell me where the Lost Boys are and give me the girl’s whereabouts, or I will tear Everland apart bit by bit, piece by piece, and without mercy to anyone I come across, starting with you.”

“No, I swore on my life never to reveal the Lost Boys’ hiding place,” Jack says, shaking his head. “I will tell you where to find Gwen, but I won’t reveal the location of the Lost City.”

I straighten, inspecting my Gatling gun and purposely aiming it in Jack’s direction. “It seems water is thicker than blood, stepbrother. Then again, we were never blood, were we?” My brother and I exchange hardened glares, but neither of us budges. Disgust gurgles up within me. “Kill him.”

I rocket toward the doorway, expecting, waiting for my stepbrother to cave. Glancing back at Jack, I recognize the familiar grimace.

A Marauder aims his weapon at Jack’s forehead, while another shoves him to the ground. He falls hard onto his knees. The gun gives an audible click as the soldier pulls back the hammer. Jack’s gaze darts from me to the gun.

“Fine!” Jack shouts. “I’ll tell you, but promise me that you will not harm them.”

“I promise I will not lay a single finger on any of them,” I say, waggling my gloved fingers in the air.

“And you will provide them with the antidote once you have it,” Jack says.

“Deal.” I spin so he can’t see the smirk I feel tickling the corners of my mouth.

“One more thing,” Jack says.

Aggravated, I steal a passing glance over my shoulder. “What now?”

Jack lifts his chin and swallows hard. “When you and your men leave Everland, I’m coming with you.”

After his betrayal, the fact that he abandoned the Marauders, I had no intention of bringing him with me. Caught off guard, I stumble through my words. “You want to come back? What happened to all that nonsense about the Lost Boys being your family?”

Jack spits and snarls. “Once I give you the location of the Lost City, I can never go back to the Lost Boys. I’m as good as dead if I stay with them.”

Flicking my stare to the officers, I guffaw, trying to cover up the uncertainty brewing within me. I’m not sure that my stepbrother can be trusted. The soldiers join in the laughter, while Jack averts his gaze. I pat Jack’s shoulder, still laughing along with my men.

“Gentlemen, we have a martyr on our hands. Very well, it’s a deal.” I give Jack a brisk slap on the cheek. “I knew you’d make a fine Marauder, Jack. Our mother would be proud.”

The Marauders chuckle among themselves.

“Smeeth, take him outside. Find out where those kids are. Send half of your men to the Lost City and the other half to the girl’s location.”

“Yes, Captain!” Smeeth says, shoving Jack out the door.

I pull a book of matches from the pocket of my black coat. Striking the matches, I drop them on a pile of artwork, lighting it into a bonfire. The fire grows, licking the nearby walls and ceiling.

As the building burns, we move outside. Flames reach toward the night sky from the roof of the National Gallery and ash rains onto the street, blanketing it like powdery gray snow. Soldiers dart between buildings, dousing the structures with kerosene, lighting them all ablaze.

Jack’s eyes shimmer with fear, the orange fire reflecting in their dark, muddy pigment.

“This is it,” I say, excitement evident in my tone. Everland glows, leaving me with a quiet satisfaction, relief washing away the endless months of misery. “A year in this wasteland and tonight it will all come to an end. By the time the sun rises, there will be nothing left, nowhere for Pete and the Lost Boys to hide. We will take the girls and leave Everland forever!”

“It’s been a long time, Captain,” Smeeth says, holding a gun to Jack’s back. “I shall be glad to leave this place.”

I grunt approvingly. With the cure in my hands, I am certain my return to Lohr Castle will not only be welcome, but lauded as heroic. The prize of England is only a grain of sand compared with the vast glory the cure will bring. If the world is in the condition that I expect it’s in, millions will be grateful for my gift. Considering the Professor’s suggestion that girls are on the brink of extinction, I’ll be a world hero and I’ll rule it, starting with the German crown.

I turn to Smeeth. “Did you get the locations?”

“Yes, sir. Girl’s heading to the palace, and you won’t believe it, Captain, but the others have been hiding in the Underground this whole time,” Smeeth says.