The Legend Thief (28 page)

But the words that started in Chase's voice ended in Errand's. And then Sky knew for certain. Chase and Errand were one and the same.

"Don't leave me, Errand!" Sky shouted back through the earth. "Don't leave me!"

"I promise I'll return," Errand said one last time.
"As soon as I can."

Sky screamed, pounding against the lid.

"Get me out of here! Get me out! Errand!
ERRAND!"

Sky closed his eyes and tried to breathe slowly. It would have been much easier to calm down if that person would stop screaming. Sky realized
he
was the one screaming, so he closed his mouth.

“All right…all right, just stay calm,” said Sky to the confining darkness.

He took a deep breath.

“Just… be… calm.” Sky took another deep breath.

Then he lashed out, pounding at the coffin with his legs and fists.

“Get me out of here! Get me out! Get me out—”

The coffin dropped a foot and Sky stopped freaking out. He could hear something slithering through the dirt above and below, and then to the sides, wrapping around the coffin.

"Hello?" Sky whispered.

The coffin fell again, and this time it didn't stop. It plummeted down and down. Sky started screaming in earnest.

Something thumped into the coffin's sides, wrapping around, enfolding him in a very dangerous hammock. Sky heard crackling and popping, and then he jerked to a stop. Whatever was outside began to constrict.

The coffin cracked and a trickle of dirt fell into Sky's mouth.

He spit it out. "Give me a minute here!"

The crackling of the pine box grew louder.

Sky pulled out one of the erfskin cookies Phineas had given him. He stared at it, feeling almost as frightened of the cookie as he was of whatever was outside the coffin. Phineas had said the cookie would give him the strength and resilience of a Gnomon. It was also made with baking fungus and had been regurgitated by a Gnomon. Only imminent threat of death could make him eat this cookie. He closed his eyes and took a tiny nibble....

His eyelids flipped back open: It was better than he had expected.

As he swallowed that tiny bit, he could breathe more easily. He felt his pores open to an alarming degree, and air rushed in, making him light-headed. His skin seemed to harden and his muscles tightened.

"Whoa ... nice."

He shoved the rest of the cookie back into his pocket with the others, fearing to eat too much, unsure of the side effects. They wouldn't be too dangerous, or Phineas wouldn't have given him the cookies. But Phineas had a weird sense of humor; he might find it funny to see Sky with a terrible rash for a week or an extra ear growing out of his forehead. Character building, Phineas would call it.

Sky didn't know how long the erfskin cookie's effects would last, but he could always take another nibble if he needed it. Then, experimenting, he pushed at the sides of the coffin with his newfound strength, and they cracked.

A tree root immediately rushed through the crack, slithered across his chest, and slipped out the other side. Then it constricted and started crushing him. Hundreds of maggots-some the size of his fist-crept through the opening and crawled over his body, and Sky remembered the warning outside the Grove about maggots. He gagged as the creatures coated him in slime.

"Bad
.. .
idea ..
. ," Sky wheezed, struggling to breathe through the root's crushing pressure.

He put his Hunter's Mark against the root to see if he could talk to the tree above. Any tree smart enough to know he was trespassing had to be smart enough to stop crushing him. "Please . . . stop...." He felt his Hunter's Mark warm, and light spilled out. The root began to let up.

He took a deep breath.

And then, on the lid, in the light of his Hunter's Mark, the words changed. Instead of "With Hunter's Mark the buried dead shall shimmering blade hold in my stead," he read, "Place Hunter's Mark here to live."

Sky shoved his glowing mark to the spot, and the root on his chest began to tighten again.

More words appeared:

I GIVE YOU THE GIFT,

OF THE SHIMMERING BLADE,

THOUGH NOT IN MY HANDS,

AND TAKEN AWAY.

I GIVE IT FREELY,

COMPLETELY,

AND WITH MY WHOLE HEART.

THE BLADE IS NOW YOURS,

YOUR GIFT TO IMPART.

SINCERELY,

ALEXANDER DRAKE

P.S. IF YOU'RE DESPERATE ENOUGH TO BURY YOURSELF FOR THE BLADE, YOU DESERVE IT.

P.P.S. IF YOU'RE SOLOMON ROSE, I TAKE IT ALL BACK.

Sky felt a warm sensation flow through him, the light got brighter, and then the words disappeared completely. Sky waited for the blade to drop through the earth or something, but there was nothing more. What in the world? ...

The root on his chest constricted, growing tighter and tighter, and this time it wouldn't let go when he asked it to. Maggots crawled all over him, and he could feel them gnawing at his hardened skin.

Sky punched the pine box again and again, shattering it to pieces. Dirt cascaded in around him. He gulped in air and forced the root from his chest. He clawed at the earth, pushing his way up. Maggots clung to him. Roots lashed at him.

Sky held his breath, struggling, until he inhaled and dirt filled his lungs. He stopped breathing. His skin leeched air from the dirt, and he kept driving upward. A root caught his ankle and dragged him back down. Sky jerked his leg, snapping the root.

His fingers broke through the surface. Grabbing hold, he yanked himself up, clawing and scraping. His head popped out. His chest. His hips. Finally he tumbled out of the earth, flopped to his back, and knocked the maggots from his body.

Sky rolled to his knees, spitting out dirt. He barfed and coughed until there was nothing left, until his lungs and stomach were empty. He inhaled deeply, savoring the sweet air.

He sat that way for a time, breathing, until his trembling subsided and the terror left him. He felt his skin return to nor mal, and the Gnomon-like strength disappeared as the nibble of erfskin cookie wore off.

Noticing his tuba nearby, he crawled over and set it on his lap. It was badly dented and several of the valves had broken off. He put it to his mouth and blew out a sad-sounding note.

Based on the strange message, Sky now felt certain that he owned Alexander's blade. He could use it to free Bedlam, if he ever found it. But the only person who could have given him the blade was Alexander's killer and-based on the message Alexander's killer was none other than Alexander himself, which didn't make any sense at all.

Whatever the case, it didn't matter anymore; he now owned the blade, which took him one step closer to saving Crystal, and he didn't have time to ponder four-hundred-year-old riddles. Right now only one thing mattered: finding the blade.

Glancing up, he saw T-Bone, Hands, and Andrew running toward him.

"Sky!
Are you okay? What happened?" T-Bone exclaimed as they ran up.

"Crystal ... is she alive?" Sky asked, climbing to his feet, fearing he was already too late.

"When we left, she was," Hands replied. "Winston-or I should say,
Phineas-and
your mom are keeping her alive, but it's a close thing."

"How did you find me?" Sky asked. He started walking through the monuments toward the Grove, staring up at the sky, watching.

"Phineas told us where you were," said Andrew.
"Phineas?
How did he know?" Sky asked.

"Errand appeared in his head, or something," Hands replied. "Told him Morton was finally on his way to free Solomon and that they'd buried you. Phineas is setting up defenses around the manor, but Malvidia dragged Beau and your dad down to the Finger of Erachnus. She's grabbing every hunter and former hunter she can find to fight off Bedlam's army. It's not looking hopeful."

"That about sums it up," said Sky.

"Sky, what's going on?" T-Bone asked, sounding frustrated.
"Because I'm utterly confused.
How is Errand back? Where has he been?"

"Errand's posing as Chase Shroud," Sky replied. "From what I understand, he and Phineas have been spying on the Hunters of Legend and Bedlam for the last year, trying to 'steer events,' as Phineas put it. I don't know the full story, but it appears that they're the ones who manipulated the hunters into coming here in the hopes of stopping Bedlam's army-a backup plan that's likely to fail, by the sounds of it, but might buy us some time."

"So Phineas and Errand are behind the hunt on you?" Hands asked.

"''m not sure about that," Sky said hesitantly, hoping it wasn't true; he couldn't see Phineas doing that, but Errand ... "Morton hates Exile. He would love to see it burn to the ground. Once Bedlam's army started marching, I think Errand must've leaked information about Solomon and the blade as a way to lure Morton here. As Solomon's former apprentice, Errand is the only one besides Solomon who could've known about the link between Alexander's blade and Bedlam's Chrysalis-a link that's not mentioned in any of the stories."

"It seems like bringing Morton and all these hunters here is kind of risky," T-Bone observed. "What if Morton manages to free Solomon?"

"I don't think they ever intended to give Morton the monocle-they did that to save me. I'm still not sure how they got it. But Phineas and Errand had to convince Morton to come here somehow," said Sky. "At least, they believed they did."

"Why's that?" Andrew asked.

"Because Phineas thinks Morton used Alexander's blade to murder Alexander, Phineas’ son," said Sky. "But Phineas could never prove it to the other Hunters."

Hands whistled. "No wonder they hate each other."

"That would make Morton the owner of the blade," said Andrew, "the only one who could use it to free Bedlam."

Sky nodded. "Phineas was right about one thing: Morton murdered Alexander with the blade; Morton told me himself," said Sky. "But Phineas was also wrong: Morton was never the owner."

"What's that mean?" asked T-Bone. "Are you saying Alexander didn't own the blade when Morton used it on
him ,
so ownership never transferred?"

"Or that Morton only thought he killed Alexander," said Sky. "Alexander left a message in his coffin that only someone with a Hunter's Mark could see. So either Alexander some how knew he was going to die and left the message before hand, or someone else with a Hunter's Mark left the message in Alexander's name. Or, another possibility-"

"Alexander isn't really dead," Andrew finished.

Sky frowned at the thought. "It seems like a lot of hunters are returning from the dead these days."

"Really?" said Andrew.
"Who else?"

Sky bit his tongue. Andrew still didn't know about his parents, Em and Nikola. "I was just referring to Phineas and Errand," Sky lied. "The point is, I now own the blade, even if I don't have it, so we'll never know who the previous owner was." "Between killing Phineas’ son and the blade stuff, I 'm surprised Morton's alive," said T-Bone.

"Phineas can't kill him-or he won't, anyway," said Sky. "Apparently, bad stuff happens when you kill someone with the Eye, bad enough that hunters trap creatures like Bedlam and Morton rather than kill them, assuming they even
could
kill them."

"But you have the Eye and hunters tried to kill you," Andrew pointed out.

"I think having both the Hunter's Mark and the Eye of Legend makes the hunters doubly worried. Enough so that killing me seems worth the risk," said Sky.

"So if Phineas and Errand aren't trying to kill Morton, what are they trying to do?" T-Bone
asked .

"Trap him," said Sky. "Phineas was never able to prove that Morton killed Alexander. If he could prove that, then the Hunters of Legend would turn against Morton and imprison him. If Phineas didn't have their support, they'd simply undo any trap he built."

"But the blade won't prove anything, and I doubt they'll take your word over Morton's," said Hands. "The trap failed." "That part of it," said Sky. "But Phineas never lays just one trap."