The Inquisitor's Mark (14 page)

“WHY CAN'T I COME?”
Billy demanded. Jax shushed him. Dorian's bedroom door was closed, but Uncle Finn and Aunt Marian were nearby.

Dorian said, “Because I have a way to get to the basement without anyone knowing, but you won't be able to use it. I'm not even sure Jax can.”

“You mean the brownie hole? I can.” Jax didn't know why he'd been able to enter one when Balin and A.J. said no humans could, but he was betting Dorian did.

“How do you . . .” Dorian's face showed the same amazement as when he realized Jax had acquired his father's keys. It gave Jax an ego boost, impressing his cousin.

“What are brownie holes, and why can't I use them?” Billy asked.

“The holes are entrances to invisible tunnels made by magical animals called brownies,” Dorian said.

“They sort of look like rats except bigger and with no tails,” Jax added, holding up his hands to estimate the size. “They've got faces like pug dogs and fingers like monkeys, and they can jump right through walls.” He knew this sounded ridiculous, but Billy was listening intently and nodding, believing every word.

“Brownies burrow through time and space,” Dorian clarified. “Our clan scientist has been experimenting with them for years, trying to figure out if people can travel the way they can.”

“Locking them up in cages,” Jax grumbled.

“You sound like Lesley and her animal rights stuff.” Then Dorian's eyes got wide. “
You're
the one who let them out!”

“You bet I did!”

“They weren't being hurt.”

“They wanted out.” Jax remembered the one shaking the bars of its cage in its little fists.

“If they can jump through walls, how do you keep them in cages?” Billy asked.

“Wards,” said Dorian. “Symbols that prevent them from using their magic. Dr. Morder releases the brownies a few at a time with blood samples from certain families strapped to their bodies. The blood is enhanced with a spell giving members of that family partial access to the tunnels.” Dorian pressed his ear against the bedroom door. Uncle Finn seemed to be talking on a phone,
although Jax knew it couldn't be a phone on Grunsday. It had to be a radio. “If Jax found the tunnels and got into them, it's because he's an Ambrose, and our blood was granted access.”

“Are brownie tunnels everywhere?” Billy asked. “Or just in this building?”

“You can find them anywhere brownies go,” said Dorian. “But we have more than our fair share—thanks to Jax's dad.”

“What?” Jax scowled.
Now
what was his dad being blamed for?

“When your dad was a kid, he had a pet brownie living here. Dr. Morder thinks Stink is responsible for all the tunnels in this building except the one in the basement. That one was made by the brownies he releases. They run away from the lab, outside, and into the park.”

“Back up a little,” Jax said. “You said Dr. Morder's spell gives partial access to the tunnels. What do you mean by
partial
? I got through okay.”

“The tunnels all have dead ends,” Dorian said. “The one that goes to the park is the longest, but even it just stops dead. The brownies somehow continue on to wherever they're going, but we can't follow.”

Jax didn't understand that, but Billy apparently did. “You mean, the brownies go into warp speed like the Starship
Enterprise
and
poof
, they vanish from here and appear somewhere else?”

Dorian looked startled. “Maybe. I thought the brownies moved the tunnels, but your idea makes more sense. Like hyperspace and the
Millennium Falcon
.”

“Skip the sci-fi convention,” Jax interrupted. “Can we use the tunnels to rescue Addie?”

“
She
can't use them. Only a few families in the Dulac clan have access to the tunnels,” Dorian said. “
You and I
can use them to avoid the guards and Dad's keys to get her out of wherever they're holding her, but we'll have to find a way to smuggle her out of the building without the tunnels.”

“You're going to be in big trouble when this is over,” Billy said to Dorian.

Oddly, Dorian's face lit up. “Yeah, I will.”

“Are your parents in bed yet?” Jax checked his Grunsday watch. “We're wasting time.”

Dorian smirked. “No we're not. Didn't you hear what I said about burrowing through time?”

Jax didn't like leaving Billy in the apartment, but Dorian insisted it was safer than having him caught wandering the building. “We'd have to leave him behind here anyway,” Dorian said when they reached the third floor. He stuck his head out of the elevator and motioned Jax to follow him.

Halfway down the hall, Dorian stepped through the
wall, and Jax did likewise. Inside the tunnel, Dorian stuck his hand out awkwardly. “We'd better hold hands,” he said. “I've never tried this with another person, and I'm not sure we'll end up together if we're not touching.”

According to Dorian, the brownie tunnel not only existed outside of time, it could move them backward or forward in real-world time. “It has limits,” Dorian had explained on the elevator. “I've never moved more than a couple hours.”

Jax clasped Dorian's hand, which was clammy. He couldn't tell if his cousin was scared or superexcited. His eyes were glassy, and his hair was rumpled. Aunt Marian would've reached for the nearest comb. “I think I moved in time last night,” Jax said. “I got back in only eight minutes, but I'd been gone at least an hour. I don't know how I did it, though.”

“The trick is to concentrate on
when
you want to be,” Dorian explained. “I'm going to try to get us back to when we were still at Rockefeller Center.” He led Jax to a squishy hole in the floor, and Jax realized why they'd gotten off on the third floor instead of taking the elevator to the basement. His expression must have given his thoughts away, because Dorian said, “It's like going down a water slide. Except with no water.”

A pretty tall water slide,
thought Jax. The tunnel was made out of some weird fabric in time. Could it rip? Throw them out against a solid wall? Drop them to their deaths?

But Dorian had done it before, so Jax took a deep breath and slid in when his cousin did. He tightened his grip on Dorian's hand, expecting them to be wrenched apart by the fall, but instead of falling, they sort of oozed down the tunnel. It was like sliding through sausage casing. Or intestines. And then Jax wished he hadn't thought of that.

The tunnel contracted around him briefly and squirted him out in a heap beside Dorian. “That was disgusting.” Jax let go of Dorian's hand and brushed himself off.

Dorian stood, then grabbed Jax's arm and helped him up. “You'd better hang on to me. We might get separated in time otherwise.”

“When are we?” Jax looked around. They were standing in a storage room he recognized from last night's trip. It was beyond Balin's cell and near the outer wall of the building.

“We aren't anywhere yet. I mean,
anywhen
. Not while we're in the tunnel.”

“So if this time shift works,” Jax said, as Dorian led them back toward the center of the basement, “could we go up to the lobby and watch ourselves come into the building?”

“No. I've tried on purpose to run into myself, but I can't. It's probably against the rules to see yourself.”

“Whose rules?” Jax demanded. Now they were passing Balin's cell.

Dorian noticed Jax looking into the room and said, “This isn't where they're keeping her. They've got a different prisoner in here.”

“I know.” Maybe it was a bad idea for Jax to give away what he knew, but he'd never had a cousin to impress before. “Angus Balin.”

“How do you know that?” Dorian gasped.

“Ran into him last night. He said your dad's been grilling him about my liege lady.”

Dorian looked ashamed. “You have to keep her away from Aunt Ursula, Jax. She's planning something bad for both Emrys girls.”

“She's probably planning to kill them,” Jax predicted grimly. “If the Emrys line dies out, the eighth day will cease to exist and so will all the Kin trapped inside it. Including the bad ones who just broke out of prison.”

“Yeah, Dad said Aunt Ursula liked the timing of it. I didn't understand what he meant until I heard you and your friends talking about the Llyrs. But it still doesn't make sense. We get
our
magic from the eighth day,” Dorian said. “I can't imagine Aunt Ursula giving up the advantage we have from the extra day—or our talents. Without the eighth day, we'd be cut off from . . .”

Dorian stopped talking, and the two boys stared at each other. They were standing in an alternate timeline very similar to the eighth day, and they could
feel
the magical potential buzzing through them. “Oh,” said Dorian.

“Only members of your clan can get in here, right?” Jax said. “She wants to destroy the eighth day, kill every member of the Kin race, and turn all Transitioners into Normals.”

“Except for the ones she lets into the tunnels. Dad said that any Transitioners who wanted to regain what they'd lost would have to come to us.” Dorian looked horrified. “She'd have to be sure. I mean,
really, really sure
the tunnels replenish our magic like the eighth day does.”

“That's probably the only reason Addie's still alive. The experiments aren't done yet.” Jax tugged Dorian on. The tunnel was now passing through the corridor. Next would be the furnace room and then the lab.

But Dorian stopped him. “This is as close as we can get to where I think they're keeping her. The other end of the basement is mostly utility rooms—furnaces, water heaters, batteries for the solar panels, that kind of stuff. Over here are smaller rooms used by the clan families for storage. Any one of them would make a good cell. We can use the keys to check them out, but we're going to have to step into real time. And there are guards.”

“Okay.” Jax whipped his dagger out of its sheath and balanced it on the palm of his hand. He muttered a verse Melinda had taught him and closed his eyes.

“Uh, what are you doing?” asked Dorian.

Jax cracked an eye open. “Using my talent. What are you doing?”

“Watching you talk to yourself. How is that using your talent?”

“I need to know if there's anyone in the corridor before we step out.”

“Who're you going to interrogate to find that out?” Dorian ran his hand along the wall of the tunnel, searching for the way out.

Jax had already found the exit, but he stepped in front of it. Something told him it wasn't safe to leave the tunnel. “I'm using my talent for information. The
Ambrose
talent for information.”

“We're inquisitors. We get our information from
people
. Weren't you trained at all? You can't pull information out of thin air.” Dorian spotted the exit and pushed Jax out of his way. “Let me look.” He used his fingers to pry open the gap and pressed his eye to it.

“But I
can
get information without interrogating someone. I mean, I can do that too—”

“I don't see anybody out there. Let's go.”

“Wait a minute.” Jax didn't feel like it was safe, but Dorian pulled him into the corridor. Jax glanced at his wristwatch. It had stopped in the tunnel and was just now starting again. There was no way to tell what time it was to everybody else. “Now I'll need three watches,” he complained. “One for the tunnels, one for Grunsday, and one for all the other days.”

“No time-measuring device works in the tunnels,”
Dorian told him. “We'd better get moving. No matter what time it is, there'll be a guard passing by soon.” He fumbled through the ring of keys and jammed one into the nearest door.

Jax glanced over his shoulder. Balin's cell was just down the hall. If they ran into someone, it might help to have a big, angry killer with them. But it would also give their intentions away. “What will they do if they catch us?” Jax asked.

Dorian peeked into the first room and apparently saw nothing of interest. “For sure we won't remember any of this.” He moved to the next door but glanced at Jax. “What Gran said about Dulacs never using their talent on family? That was a lie. I have something to give you when we get back to the apartment. A journal that belonged to your dad.”

Jax froze. “My dad kept a journal? You mean like a diary?”

“More like a log of the truth. So he could tell when they changed his memory.”

A chill ran up and down Jax's spine.
When
they changed his memory, not
if
.

This is why he left. Oh, crap, this is why Dad left them.
Jax opened his mouth to ask more questions, but something down the corridor drew his attention. Had he heard footsteps? No, it was the same feeling he'd had when he'd realized Evangeline was outside this building earlier
tonight. “This way,” he said. “Addie's farther down.”

“What makes you think so? Your
talent for information
?”

“My bond.” Jax marched off and left Dorian to follow. His cousin could make fun of him all he wanted. Jax was an Emrys vassal, and there was an Emrys down here. The pull wasn't as strong as it was with Evangeline, and it felt muffled.
Wards,
he thought—wards that would block Evangeline's scrying spell and the Donovans' scent sensitivity.

The corridor made an almost complete circuit through the basement in the shape of a squared-off
U
—or more accurately, a
G
. The elevator and Addie's cell were on opposite ends of the building, with her room beyond a set of fire stairs. Jax knew for certain they'd found it when he saw the warding symbol painted above the door. He rattled the doorknob and held out his hand to Dorian. “Quick! Give me the keys!” He'd free Addie and then Balin. They'd take the stairs, and Balin could overpower any guard who might be there. Billy, well, he'd have to come back for Billy.