The Curse of the King (25 page)

“Do I need to speak Greek?” Marco said. “Pullus fingeropoulos. Aly? Cass? Dimitrios? Christos? Yiorgos?”

“HAW!”
Brother Cyclops broke into a deep belly laugh. “I love this kind of joking!”

“Jack?” Marco said. “Et tu?”

“Have you all lost your minds? Let's go!”

Dimitrios was shouting, but the other men were hesitating. Marco may have been demoted, but those goons knew what he could do, and they were afraid.

I wasn't. Marco was holding up his finger to me, a crazy look in his eye. And I was in no mood for games.

“Sorry, Marco,” I said. “No.”

Marco looked chagrined. “No? Do you know what that means, Brother Jack? How about you, Brother D?
Do you know what this means?
”

“Number One will get a report on each of you if you don't act now!” Dimitrios snapped his fingers, and the
other five goons all stepped toward Marco.

“It means . . .
escape valve not activated
.” Marco began spinning around wildly, finger in the air. “Aaaaaahhhhh!”

“Grab him!”
Brother Dimitrios shouted.

“Losing controlllllll!”
Marco took one step toward Cyclops, leaped high, and landed a kick on the man's jaw. The big man jolted back and fell to the ground in a heap.

Dimitrios lifted his gun to Marco's face.

“Don't!” Aly screamed.

Marco crouched into a football stance. “Brother D, I have wanted to do this for a long time.”

Dimitrios pulled the trigger. The bullet winged over Marco as he hit the monk headfirst with a flying tackle, driving him into a tree. With a helpless cry, Dimitrios lost consciousness and crumpled to the ground.

Marco sprang to his feet as the other Massa rushed toward him.

“Don't just stand there, Jack!”
Marco shouted. “Be a king!”

N
O TIME TO
think. I leaped toward Brother Yiorgos's legs and tackled him to the ground. His head hit the side of a tree with a thud.

Aly was right behind me. She'd grabbed my backpack from the shadows and removed the sack containing the three boxes full of Loculi. With a grunt, she swung them at Brother Christos. He tried to duck, but she connected squarely with the side of his head, and he collapsed in pain.

“Kcatta!”
Cass jumped onto Christos's back. The goon straightened up and twirled him like a backpack.

“I'll take over from here,” Marco said, lifting Cass away. As Christos faced him, Marco took him out with an uppercut to the jaw. “Three down. Two to—”

As he turned to me, a pair of hands reached around and grabbed my throat. Marco darted toward me but stopped short as Brother Yianni pulled out a knife and held it to my throat. “Party over,” he growled into my ear.

Marco, Cass, and Aly stood paralyzed, staring at me in dismay, their breaths coming in gulps.

“Let him go, Yianni,” Marco said.

“Where is Mustafa?” the man replied.

“He was here a minute ago,” Marco said, his eyes darting from side to side.

Christos tightened his grip.
“Mustafa! Where are you?”

At the edge of the clearing, a tall, rangy silhouette staggered forward. “Here,” Mustafa said, barely audible.

As he got closer, it was clear that his eyes were closed, his head lolling to one side. “Acchhh,
vre
, Mustafa, drinking
now
?” Yianni said with disgust.

As Mustafa slouched forward, I could see a set of thick fingers gripping either side of him, holding him upright from behind.

He stopped moving and fell to the ground in a limp heap. Torquin, burned and smiling, stood over him. “Surprise.”

It was all the distraction I needed. I shoved my elbow back into Yianni's midsection. As he let out a grunt of surprise, his hands loosened around my neck.

I dropped to the ground and rolled away. Marco and
Torquin were running toward me, but there wouldn't be enough time. Yianni whipped his arm around, the knife slashing through the air toward my face. All I could think to do was kick his knee. Hard.

With a scream, Yianni fell back. The knife flew out of his hand. Before he hit the ground, Marco was on top of him, delivering a punch to the face.

As he went still, the jungle was quiet again. Even the birds seemed to have backed off.

Marco stood up, wiping his brow. “I could go for some ice cream.”

Cass was staring at him in awe. “That was gnizama.”

“And soooo scary!” Aly cried out, nearly tackling me with a hug.

It hurt. My whole body hurt. But I didn't push her away. Somehow the pain was, for that moment, tolerable.

Torquin was stepping toward Marco, clenching and unclenching his fists. His face, already burned, was turning redder.

“Whoa, is that Torko the Terrifying?” Marco exclaimed. “Dude, nice haircut!”

“Torquin clobber Marco the Meathead,” the big guy growled.

“No,”
I said. “Leave him, Torquin! He saved us. He did . . . all this.”

Torquin looked around at the unconscious Massa.
“But—Marco is—”

We were all looking at Marco now. “Explain yourself,” Aly said softly. “Because right now, to me, you are a big enigma.”

Marco scratched his head. “I'm a ship?”

“
Enigma
means ‘mystery,'” Aly said with a groan. “Herman Wenders just gave that name to his ship!”

“Marco, why did you turn on the Massa like that?” I asked.

Marco shrugged. “You didn't pull my finger.”

“Not funny.” Torquin lunged at Marco, grabbing his tunic collar and raising a fist. “I have message. From Professor Bhegad.”

“Whoa, back off, Kong! Chill,” Marco said, wriggling loose from Torquin's grip. “No more joking. I promise. Look, I messed up. Totally. I've been thinking about this a lot. I mean, okay, back at the beginning? Brother D is all, behold His Highness Marco the Magnificent, woo-hoo! At first I'm skeptical, because I don't want to leave you guys—but they're all, hey, no worries, your pals will come over. So I listen to their side of the story and it makes sense. Plus, I get to fight beasts and learn leaps and other stuff while I'm waiting for you guys to change your mind and go Massa.”

“You really thought we'd do that?” Aly asked.

Marco nodded. “I hoped you would. They treated me really well. Until one day it's like,
meeeeeaaaaah
, you missed
the daily double, sorry, we changed our minds. I start having to train these bratty kids and people are ordering me around like I'm just another goon. No one says why, so I start really listening to their conversations and they're all about raising the continent, and death counts, and body disposals—and suddenly Brother D is talking about the
Destroyer
and
Loculus shards
, and I'm like
what
? Then one day, bang, you guys are here. No warning, nothing. I see how they're treating Jack, and I start putting two and two together—but slowly, because math is not my strong point . . .”

His voice trailed off. I didn't recognize the expression on his face, because I'd never seen it before.

I was guessing vulnerability.

Aly stepped closer to him, but he turned away. “So, yeah,” he said. “I was a traitor. You guys can be haters, I understand that. But it's over with the Massa and me. Sorry for being such a dork. You, too, Tork.” A tiny smile grew across his face. “Traitor, hater. Dork, Tork. I'm a poet and I don't know it.”

Torquin turned to us. “This is English?”

“I understood it,” Aly said. She reached out and put a hand on Marco's arm. “I want to believe you. But you really hurt us, Marco. How can we trust you?”

“Don't you?” Marco swallowed. “I mean, we're family, remember?”

No one answered.

“Professor Bhegad always said trust had to be earned,” I said quietly.

Marco nodded. He looked us each in the eye. I was afraid he'd make some lame joke, but he looked more serious than I'd ever seen him. “So I guess I start now.”

He reached out with open arms. Eloise, who had been standing silently the whole time, flew into them. He lifted her off the ground.

Aly was next, then Cass, and finally I gave in, too. He lifted us all, and it felt really good to have him back.

“Marco, I'm curious about one thing,” I said as he let us down. “What would you have done if I
had
pulled your finger?”

“Farted,” Marco said.

Aly grimaced. “Maybe we don't want you back.”

But Marco didn't answer. His eyes were focused into the woods, and he swallowed hard. “Dudes,” he whispered, “they're coming in quick. We are toast unless we move now.”

“You can see that?” Cass said.

“A night-vision thing,” Marco said. “G7W works in mysterious ways. Get down! Now!
DOWN!
”

We all hit the ground. I heard whistling noises, followed by thuds.

A few feet away, Brother Yianni's body jerked, an arrow jutting up from him.

A
RROWS WHISTLED PAST
us. A monkey fell from a tree with an agonized howl. I ducked behind Brother Dimitrios's motionless body. The sack that contained the Loculi was just to my left, lying next to my backpack. I gathered them both up and held them close.

Aly stared at the arrow stuck in Yianni's chest. “They're hitting their own people!”

“What do we do now, your majesty?” Marco called out.

Don't run if you don't know where the enemy is.

I took a deep breath and fought back panic. I didn't want to lead us into ambush. Peering up from behind Brother Dimitrios, I watched the arcs of the arrows as they dropped into the clearing—all from one place, directly opposite us.

Cass was the one who could guide us to the volcano. But he was still shaking. I was worried about him. We would need him to focus on his own skills, but he was a basket case right now.

I grabbed a knife, a gun, and a flashlight from the belt of Brother Dimitrios. “They're all clumped together,” I said. “We need to get out of the arrows' pathway. It's dark, but I think I can get us clear. Cass, when I give the word, can you put us back on the path to Mount Onyx?”

“Yeah, but—” Cass said.

“Good!” I shot back. “Follow me!
Now!
”

I hooked the backpack over my shoulder. Crouching as low as I could, I ran. I used my flashlight to guide the way in the darkness and Dimitrios's knife to bushwhack a path through the vines and branches.

I was nearly out of breath when the trees gave way to a swamp. I paused by the edge. My flashlight beam was starting to dim and I shut it off. The only sounds I could hear now were my own breaths and the buzz of mosquitoes hovering over the muck. “Hold up!” I said, as Aly, Marco, and Torquin ran up beside me.

I waited for two other sets of footsteps.

“Um, where's Cass?” I said.

A distant, high-pitched shriek was my answer.
“Eloise!”
Aly said. “Something happened to her.”

She and I jumped toward the sound, but Torquin
grabbed both our arms. “Getting Cass not safe.”

“Leaving Cass not sane,” Marco said, sprinting into the jungle.

“Don't!” Aly cried out, but he was out of sight.

As Torquin roared his disapproval, I pulled loose of the big guy's grip.

“Don't you dare go after them and leave me alone,” Aly said.

“I have a gun,” I said. “If we circle around carefully, we can surprise the attackers.”

“You're going to
shoot
them?” Aly said. “When have you ever shot anything?”

“I went duck hunting with my dad,” I said. “Once.”