The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (30 page)

“He cheated,” Jig snapped, drawing up and turning all
fire-eyed.  “He needed to know that dan’ stand down here.”

I snorted and pulled the ball back with my toe.  “You mean
he cheated
you
and that dan’ stand,” I said.  “How bad was he hurt?”

“Dan’ know, dan’ really care.  If he couldn’t handle it, he
shouldn’t have showed ‘im face down here, like.  Why’re you so worried about
him?  He’s just a stray.”

“We were all strays once.”

I turned to go, but his hand shot out and caught my elbow. 
I did yelp, then, because it hurt worse than I imagined it would.  Quick as a
flash Jig let me go, staring at me wide-eyed and all tensed up.

“You a’right?” he asked, breathless.

“I’m jake.  Derrin had me practicing my Shifting a bit.  I…I
kind of went crazy in the training room.”

He whistled.  “Oy, I’m so glad I’m not a broken, like.”

“A broken?” I retorted, spinning back to face him.  “What’s
that supposed to mean?”

“Haven’t you ever talked to Rivano?  Div’n you ever ask him
about magic?”

I gaped at him.  “You’ve talked to Rivano?”

“Why aye, bunches.  I wanted to know about the Clan.  I’m
ganna join, Hayli.  Soon as Rivano says I can.”

“Wha—why?” I gasped. 

Jig wanted to join the Clan?  That didn’t make any sense in
the world.

“You ever wonder why people hate folks like you?” Jig asked,
frowning at the pavement.  “It’s that they’re all in love with machines and
steam, and none of that can explain
you
.  They dan’ like what they dan’
understand.  You break their rules.  But there’s more out there than just gears
and engines.  Rivano knows that.  Folks used to know it.  They’ll know it again
one day, just wait.”

I couldn’t stop staring at him, because I’d never heard him
be that quick about anything before. 

I waved my hand in front of his eyes.  “You a’right in
there?” 

“Am I ever not?” he asked, and batted my hand aside.

“Jig, why does Rivano call us broken, if he thinks we’re so
special?”

“Well,” he said, and shrugged.  “Maybe not
you
.  But
Mavens are, prob’ly.  And Aces even worse.  That’s what he said.  I div’n quite
get all of what he meant by it.  It was all up here a bit,” he added, swishing
his hand over his head.

I gritted my teeth.  It figured I wouldn’t be able to get
good sense out of Jig.  He had smarts, more than Link and Vim anyway, but he
didn’t have the patience for the thinking part.  If he couldn’t figure
something out in the first ten seconds, he was already on to the next thing. 
Maybe I’d have to talk to Rivano myself, but I really didn’t want to.  Not
yet.  I wondered if Shade would know…being a Maven himself and all.

“I’m ganna look for Shade,” I said.  “Come along if you
like.”

“What makes you think—”

“You’re foursquare and even now, right?” I snapped.  “He
beat you, you beat him.  Now switch track and act like a normal person.”

Boys
, I thought. 
God save me from boys
.

“Girls,” Jig muttered.  “You just dan’ get it, do you?”

I grinned and headed for the gate, not bothering to wait and
see if he’d come., but by the time I’d reached the street I could hear him
there on my heels.

“So, where’re we ganna gan?” he asked.  “We can’t just comb
the whole city for him.”

“Where would you gan if you were him?”

“A stranger like him?  Stars, I think I’d head northside and
try to scrounge some skappers, like.  Though, before we got in that tussle by
the rubbish bin, I thought I saw one of the Bricks’ kids talking to him.  So
maybe he tried to get in with them.”

I made a face.  “I dan’ think he’d gan about near the
Bricks.  Suppose we can check, though.”

We turned down a narrow alley, tracking a bit south.  It
wasn’t much, nothing more than a gap between two buildings, crammed with bits
of crumbly boxes and a stink like rotting meat.  Lucky Jig and I were both
slim, but even we had to walk a bit crabwise to squeeze through.  I kept
getting little glimmers from my crow-memory along the way.  I’d
seen
Shade holed up on a stoop somewhere near here, not far from the old brick
building that Coolie’s crew ruled.  Maybe Jig was right. 

I hoped he was, anyway, even if it
was
the Bricks. 
Three days alone on the street would be a nightmare for anyone, but Shade
seemed a bit short on the street savv that the rest of us had.  It was just
something about him that, for all his icy pride, seemed open and
uncertain—something I think Derrin would call
vulnerable
.  Maybe Shade
didn’t live on the streets in Istia.  I wished I’d asked him when I had the
chance.

We reached that dank and muddy street where I—where the
crow—had seen Shade, but Shade must’ve cleared out long since.  I brushed my
hand over the rusting railing, remembering the feel of cold iron under the
bird’s feet, and shivered. 

“He’s not here,” I said.

“Not surprising,” he said.  “Keep on.  Maybe we can ask the
Bricks.”

“Eee, talk to the Bricks, are you serious?” I asked.  “Us
and them, talking?  Politely?  Not ganna happen.”

“Oy there, look,” Jig said, tapping my arm and pointing down
the street.

A boy about Bugs’ age perched up in a second-story window in
the next building down, scowling at us like a terror.  He wore a fine black cap
two sizes too big for him, mismatched to the whisper-thin shirt hanging off his
shoulders.

“That’s the kid,” Jig whispered.

“Dan’ come no closer!” the skitter hollered, scuttling out
of the window and down to the street so fast my stomach cringed.  “Meats ain’t
allowed here!”

“We’re not the Meats,” I shouted, willing Jig to keep his
mouth shut.  “We’re special operatives.”

“You’re whatatives?”

I rolled my eyes.  “I’m looking for Shade.  You seen him?”

The kid inched closer, and a minute later another boy shot
out the same window.  He looked to be about my age, tow-headed and
angry-looking, glaring daggers at Jig as if they’d met before.  With a few long
strides he passed the little skitter and stopped in front of us, arms folded. 
He gave me a lazy once-over, smirked at Jig’s still-battered face.

“Who’s asking?”

“I’m his friend,” I said.  “Been looking for him.”

“Oy, didn’t realize you were a dame,” he said, brows
shooting up.

“I’m a girl, not a dame.”

He puffed out his breath in a little laugh.  “Right.  So,
you’re the one who gave him the water?”

“What?”

He exchanged a glance with the younger kid.  “Yeah, I’ve
seen him.  He was pig sick from the water.  Stayed with us a few days.”

“And now?”

He shrugged.  “He’s free on the wing, I suppose.”

I turned to the wee skitter to see if he had aught to add to
that, but they both just stood staring at us like we’d sprouted from the
pavement.  That went on about half a tick, until I figured there was no point
wasting more time with the pair of them.  With Jig in tow, I shouldered past
them and marched straight down toward the Bricks’ headquarters, a ghastly
frowning building with shot-out windows that always gave me the creeps.  I
could hear the two kids arguing, then the little one came pelting after us.

“Tam says dan’ gan to the door.  Shade’s long ganned away
anyway, and Coolie’s on edge.”

“So?” I asked.

“So he prob’ly told the sentry to shoot first, ask second!”
the kid exclaimed, like I was a dafty beak.  “I wanted them to let Shade stay. 
I really did.  But sure he hasn’t got far.  Not hungry as he must have been.”

The kid bolted off down the street, shimmying a drain pipe
and scuttling through a broken window like a little mouse.  Tam had already
disappeared, leaving the street empty besides me and Jig.  We passed the
Bricks’ door but it was closed, and if they had sentries out, I couldn’t tell. 
Nobody stopped us or challenged us.  The whole long street felt eerily quiet.

As we rounded the corner of the building, we almost stumbled
over Shade, who sat slumped against the wall with his head on his knees.  Jig
flashed me a glance and nudged Shade with his foot.  For a second, Shade didn’t
move at all.  I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. 

Then he said, “I’m awake.  Don’t kick me again or I’ll break
your leg.”

When neither of us moved he lifted his head, and I winced. 
He’d always been a bit pale, but now he looked gaunt, too, his cheeks hollow
and grey.

“Y’ a’right?  You look awful,” I said.

He narrowed a hard glance at Jig.  “What’s he want with me
now?”

Jig snorted.  “I dan’ like you, but even I wouldn’t beat a
man when he’s already down, like.”

“No?” Shade asked.

For a second they just measured each other, quiet and
calculating, then Jig’s mouth quirked in a smile and he said, “Not unless I’m
the one as put him down in the first place.”

“Makes sense.”  Shade rubbed his hands on his thighs. 
“What’re you two doing here?”

“Here in the Bricks’ turf, you mean?”

“The Bricks?” he asked, frowning a bit.

“Y’know,” I said, jerking my head toward the building. 
“This sorry lot.”

A minute and his face cleared, and he said, “Ah.”

I scuffed my toe against a bit of broken pavement.  “We came
looking for you.”

“What, were you worried?”

“I wasn’t,” Jig said.  “I just came because of Hayli.”

“I was.”  My cheeks tingled at my honesty.  “Now come on. 
Get up.”

It didn’t take a lot of convincing to drag Shade back to the
Hole.  Nan brought him soup and bread even though it was the middle of the
afternoon, and he didn’t even put up a fight about it.  When he’d sopped up the
last of the soup he sat back and fixed me with a curious look.

“What do you know about the Bricks?” he asked.

“Nothing much,” I said, “except Coolie keeps all those poor
folks from coming here for help.  Tells ‘em all kinds of lies about us too,
prob’ly, to scare them off.”

“I heard some of them,” Shade said, pondering the depths of
his soup cup.

“So they just kicked you out?” Jig asked. 

It had surprised me a bit that Jig had stuck around once we
got back, and I wagered it baffled Shade a bit too.  He frowned at Jig a long
moment, like he was trying to figure out if the question was some kind of trap.

Then he shrugged and said, “Yeah.  They were a bit tight
this morning.  Something happened with another crew, I guess.  They didn’t want
me sticking my nose in their business.”  His eyes glinted.  “Can’t blame them.”

I swallowed.  “Why’d you gan over to the Bricks, Shade?  Div’n
you ken that us and them dan’ exactly get along?”

“I have my reasons.”

Jig snorted.  “I’m sure.”

Shade leaned forward, planting his arms on the table. 
“Jig?  Are we going to have problems, you and I?”

“Depends,” Jig said with a feral kind of smile.

And they just stared at each other, like dogs with their
hackles up, primed for a fight.  Then all at once—at exactly the same
moment—they both kind of grinned.  I knew enough of boy-speak to know what that
meant.  They might not be friendly but it was a truce and that was good enough
for me.

“Well,” Shade said, getting up.  “Thanks for the food.  I’d
better head on before the Hammer of God finds me here.”

It took me all of two seconds to realize he was talking
about Derrin.  I gulped back a laugh but it came out anyway, and beside me I
heard Jig snickering.  No one had ever given Derrin a nickname before, but
somehow it fit.  He had that air.

“Where’re you ganna gan?” I asked.

He hesitated, studying me sidelong, his fingers thrumming on
the table.  In the flickering gas light his bruised eye had a weird cast to it,
all dark and shadowy and laced with the white spiderweb tattoo.  A minute and I
realized I’d got to gripping the bench by my leg.  He scared me a bit, Shade
did.  I didn’t know why.  He was like fire.

“I need to get some information,” he said.  He left it at
that for a tick, then he got a dangerous glint in his eyes and a mad little
smile.  “Wanna help?”

Jig shifted, shooting me an anxious glance.  I knew he was
thinking I should report to Derrin…but what was Derrin going to make me do? 
Play another memory game?  Practice swaggering like a boy, since he couldn’t
persuade me to doll up?  I swallowed.  I should be doing
something
. 
With all that I’d already learned from Derrin, surely he wouldn’t mind…

“Jig, you can come along too if you like.”

“Come on,” I said, sliding off the bench.  “It’s not like
we’ve got aught else to do.  Just setting about on our hands all day…”

Jig tossed his head, flicking his hair from his eyes. 
“A’right, then.  Lead on.”

We piled out of the Hole and left the property, but soon as
we’d hit the streets, Shade stopped to lean against the wall of an old
storefront. 
Merdon’s Emporium
said the old sign over his head, or used
to say before it lost half its letters.  It had been empty so long now even the
rats found it boring. 

Shade hooked one ankle over the other and crossed his arms,
tilting his head to study the street.

“First things.  This city is a maze,” he said.  “Where the
hell are we, anyway?  I rode the rails in and started walking, but now I can’t
get my bearings.  Where’s the station from here?”

I pointed right.  “That way.  This old factory used to build
rail cars and things like that, before the accident.”

He arched a brow, curious.

“Some canny big explosion,” Jig said.  “Killed twen’y
people, shut down the works.”  He nodded at the broken windows and rusted smoke
stacks looming up behind us.  “It’s proper haunted now.  None of us gan up
there.  Even Vim says he saw a hundred-mouthed
thayo
in there.  You
ken?  He’s a skeptic.  He wouldn’t make that up.”