The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (29 page)

And I…

I am a human.

I am Hayli.

And yet…

I collapsed on the floor, shaking all over.  Derrin
retreated a step and crouched down in front of me, anxious and goggle-eyed like
I’d never seen him before.

“Oh stars,” he whispered.  “I’m so sorry.  Are you hurt?”

I blinked at him, trying to figure out why he’d asked, until
I remembered all sudden-like the feel of crashing into the wall, into the
ceiling, into the floor.  Swallowing, I stretched out my arms.  Pain attacked
me all over the knobbly joints, till my stomach churned and the room washed
red.  All I wanted was to crawl onto my cot and sleep for a week.

“I’m fine,” I lied, hugging my arms around me.  “Just hang
on a tick and let me get sorted.”

“I didn’t know… That could have killed you!”

He shot up to his feet and took a few long steps across the
room, raking his hands through his dark hair.  Somehow I remembered…I
remembered his wild worry.  I remembered the regret and grief in his eyes.  I
remembered him holding me—the
crow
—against his chest, shielding me from
myself.  That got a bit of a blush prickling up my neck, and I fidgeted when he
turned suddenly to look at me.

“It was stupid,” he said, bitter.  “I shouldn’t have asked
you to do that.”

“It’s what Rivano and Kantian asked.”  I gave him my best
attempt at a smile.  “Derrin!  It’s jake.  Guess what?  I remember you.”

“Remember me?”

“Chasing after me,” I said, grinning, turning red as I
didn’t say what else I remembered.

His eyes widened.  “You do?  I didn’t get a chance to say
anything, though.”

“You said my name.”  I winced and picked myself up. 
“Reminded me what I am.”

He smiled, suddenly.  “Hayli, that’s fantastic!”

“Now, if I can just get so I remember straight away, maybe I
won’t gan trying to beat my head through a brick wall next time.”

“True,” he said with a quiet laugh.  “You did good.  Go on,
scram.  Take the rest of the day.”

I grinned and limped toward the door, feeling ridiculously
proud of myself.

Chapter 9 — Tarik

I woke to the murmur of voices somewhere close by,
unfamiliar voices.

“He’s been in and out for days.  What do you think’s wrong
with him, Gunny?” one asked.

“Probably the water.  Remember when my cousin from Tulay
came visiting?  Thought she was off to ride the stars too.  All from a glass of
water.”

Water
.  My mouth and throat cracked with thirst, but
just the thought of drinking made me sick again.  My whole body shook till my
muscles ached.

“Well, keep trying with the broth.”

The other speaker chuckled.  “Swear, if it were me, the
broth would make me sicker than ever.  You tasted this stuff?  Sand soup.”

“Least it’s hot.”

I tried to open my eyes, but the tiny room shifted dizzily
under me.  Barely I glimpsed two figures standing in the doorway nearby, framed
with light.  One was Coolie, the older man I’d met before.  The other—Gunny, I
assumed—I didn’t recognize at all.  He was short and square as an armored steam
crawler, with the thickest neck I’d ever seen in a man.  I pulled my gaze away
from them and stared vaguely around the room.  The plaster walls curved in on
me, the ceiling bobbed.  One lone light swayed and fluxed over my head, then
blinked out as the stranger came to my side.

“Are you awake?” he asked, resting a hand on my shoulder.

I licked my lips, squinting at his face.  “Am I going to
die?”

“Probably not.  You’re like to come through it in another
day or so.  I think.”

I wanted to laugh, or protest, but I couldn’t make myself
care.  The man lifted my shoulders and pressed a mug to my lips.  I smelled
salt and something like chicken, and ravening hunger and desperate thirst
forced open my mouth.  A little warm liquid trickled over my tongue and I
swallowed greedily, painfully.  Waited to see if I could keep it down.  When
the room darkened and blurred, I grabbed the man’s arm for support.  I could
barely hold on to his sleeve.  And I just stared at my fingers, wrinkled and
thin as an old man’s, and almost grey in the bright light.  I couldn’t even
imagine what the rest of me looked like.

I’m a Mask, I’m a Mask…
I thought. 
I shouldn’t
look sick.  Should I?

I swallowed three more sips of the broth before the man
released me.  Something halfway soft met my back—soft but rasping, like straw. 
A pillow supported my head, propping me up to ward off the nausea.

“Where am I?” I asked, as the man laid another rough blanket
over me.  Gad, I felt like such an infant.

“Infirmary,” he said, and smiled.  “Or what passes for one. 
Sleep now.  It’s the best thing for you.”

I swallowed, cautiously, but the broth seemed content to
stay put.  So I nodded and closed my eyes.

Slept.

I shifted between restless sleep and awful waking for what
felt like ages, until the morning I woke to grey daylight and a deeper
emptiness in my stomach than I’d ever felt before.  Dizziness gripped me as I
tried to sit up, and for a few minutes I just leaned over my knees and tried to
stop the world from spinning.

“Finally come through it, have you?”

I glanced up, only to find Coolie leaning in the doorway, arms
crossed.

“What was wrong with me?”

“You’re an Istian boy, right?  I’m thinking the water didn’t
set too well for you.  It happens.”

I grimaced and rubbed my hands over my face.  “Will it do
this to me again?”

“Nah.  Should be no trouble now.”  He came into the room and
straddled the wooden chair under the window.  “What brings you to Brinmark? 
Figure you’re a mage.  Why would you come here instead of staying in Istia? 
Must be you’re after something.”

“An answer,” I said.  “I’m looking for a Ghost.”

He frowned, staring over my head as he thought that over. 
“Don’t know any Ghosts,” he said.  “That’s a rare gift.  Rare as a Mask.”  He
gestured at my face.  “There are mages all over South Brinmark, if you know
where to look for them.  Not a lot of them are as bold as you, blazoning their
gift on their skin for everyone to see.  You might check with Rivano’s crew. 
He’s got a fine bunch of mages hanging on his apron strings.”

“They’re not the welcoming type,” I said.

He laughed.  “So you’ve met them.”

“Exchanged a few words with the Meats.  And a few punches.”

“Right, you mentioned that.  That’s as far as you got?”

“Yeah.”  I stared at the bed sheet, at the tiny black bug
crawling toward my pillow.  I barely stifled a shudder.  “Any idea how I can
get in with them?”

“Pretend to be a devoted worshiper?”

“Worshiper?”

“So you don’t know about Rivano’s more…eh…lively practices? 
Some folks say he likes to initiate his followers in blood. 
Human
blood.  And if they don’t comply?  Well.  I suppose the other initiates need
victims.”

“They must be lying,” I said.  “No one does that sort of
thing anymore.”

He lifted his hands, feigning offense.  “I’m just saying
it.  Not saying I believe it.  I’m sure his crew have got theories about us,
too.”

“What’s your theory about him?  I heard he’s trying to
recruit folks.  Any notion why?”

“Oh, hell, if I knew that, I’d be a rich man.  Sure the
puppet king and his legions would pay a handsome price for that information.”

“Puppet king?” I echoed, strangling the anger before it surfaced.

He just gave me a look.  “You must be hungry,” he said, and
sprang up from the chair.  “Come on.”

I staggered to my feet and followed him out into the
corridor.  The infirmary was on the ground floor of the building, and from here
I could see a couple of kids sitting on the steps in the foyer, watching the
front door with rifles across their knees.  Tam and Zip weren’t among them, but
a few of them eyed me warily.

“Do you always keep a sentry?” I asked.

Coolie smiled grimly and ushered me down the hall in the
other direction.  “Not always.  Got threats from another house last night,
though, so the kids have been on vigil.”

“What kind of threats?”

“Not your concern, kid.  Just politics.”

I stifled a smile.  If only he knew.  Still, his silence
annoyed me, because that was one of my greatest fears about this whole
assignment—if these people thought of me as just another street rat, then why
would they ever trust me with information?  The other kids didn’t know
anything; I was pretty well convinced of that.  But the adults would be
paranoid and secretive, and I had no notion of how to convince them to trust
me.  For a moment I wondered why Kor hadn’t told me to make myself appear
older.  The next time I saw him, I planned to ask.

We reached a broken door, and Coolie struggled a moment to
wrestle it open.  I expected something like the Hole’s canteen on the other
side, or maybe a food storage room, but instead I found myself peering out into
the alley.

“All right, kid.  Off you go.”

I stared at him blankly as I stepped through the door.  “I
thought…”

“You thought I’d give you free food?”  He laughed.  “No one
here gets a free meal.  This ain’t a charity house.  Scram before my lads
escort you off my property.”

“I’m not asking for charity,” I said, hot.

“No, of course not,” he said.  “Look.  Word to the wise? 
Shut your gab.  Nobody down here takes kind to strangers, especially not
strangers with big mouths who ask too many questions.  If you want to live to
see tomorrow, then eyes down and mouth shut.”

I didn’t get a chance to reply before he slammed the door
between us.  For a few minutes I stared at the door, stung and baffled, and
queasy with hunger.  I couldn’t seem to get my head around what had just
happened.  One minute they were nursing me back to health, the next…throwing me
onto the street.  And if I couldn’t even ask questions…

Stars. I’ll never survive out here. 

I backed down the stone steps until I stood in the alley,
and tipped my head back to get my bearings.  If Coolie had brought me around to
a west side exit, that meant the main entry was on the north side of the
building.  I traced my way toward it, trying to remember which way Zip had
brought me after he’d found me on the street.  But halfway around the building
I stopped and sat down against the wall, because my whole memory of that trip
blurred together, and I knew I’d never be able to find my way back to where I’d
been.

Not that I’d known where that was, either.

I sat there until my legs turned numb, half-expecting Zip to
show up miraculously by my side.  He didn’t come.  Kor didn’t come.  Hayli
didn’t come.

I sat alone.

Chapter 10 — Hayli

Pika and Bugs had gone topside days ago, and everyone else I
trusted at the Hole had disappeared too.  All but Derrin, but I figured he had
work to do for Kantian anyway, from the way he’d shunted me off yesterday after
my Shifting disaster.  I wandered out into the enclosure behind the front gate,
kicking the old leather ball against the stone wall because, for the first time
in ages, I didn’t have a single thing to do.  I didn’t imagine Derrin would
want me playing the tricks he’d taught me, not just yet.  Knowing my luck, I’d
make a bad beat of it and bring all the coppers in Brinmark down on the Hole.

I picked up the ball and plucked at its gut threads, and
barely caught a yelp when a hand appeared out of nowhere and batted it loose.

“
Jig!
” I cried, when I turned and found him grinning
at me.  “What’re you doing about?”

He shrugged, brushing his black hair out of his face. 
“Derrin told me to stay close a few days.  Dan’ na why, except I guess he’s
still sore at me.”

“Sorry you got roughed up.  Why’d you have to gan knuckling
with Shade, anyway?  Wasn’t once enough?”