The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (54 page)

He reached around me, and then I was falling to the side,
because he’d grabbed my other hand and pulled it behind me.  He jerked me
upright, and vaguely I felt something cold on one wrist, then the other. 
Panicking suddenly, I tried to twist away…but couldn’t balance.  Couldn’t free
my hands.  They were shackled behind me, and I couldn’t reach the glass at all
now.

Funny—right then, that was all I cared about.

“Sit back, relax,” Branigan said, soothing.  “You’re not in
danger here.”

But I am…I am…
I thought, and couldn’t figure out
why.  Except they kept that glass out of my reach, and I was dying of thirst…

“Just a sip,” I whispered, my voice breaking.

The man beside Branigan picked up the glass, but Branigan
waved him back.

“He’s had enough.  We still need to talk.”

“What do you want to know?” I asked, and laughed, because it
was so funny…
want to know, want to know…

I tipped my head and felt it hit the back of the booth, and
I laughed even harder because I didn’t mean to hit my head on the booth, but
the booth just kind of jumped up in the way of my head and now my head was
stuck to it, or maybe I just couldn’t move it again.  No one else was
laughing.  I couldn’t figure out why. 

“We were talking about Dreyden,” Branigan said.  The side of
his face melted a bit as he spoke.

“You’re wavy,” I said.

“Damn,” Branigan said, fixing a glare across the room.

“I can’t breathe.  I need that.” 

“Talk first, then drink.”

“Bald and fidgety,” I said.  The high, manic laugh that
carried my voice startled me.  Somewhere…somewhere in the back of my mind, I
knew something was desperately wrong…

“That’s right.  Tell me about him.”

“Why should I, you cheating…”

Branigan waved the glass in front of me and I winced,
dragging my tongue across the roof of my mouth again.

Don’t speak…don’t speak…

“Why’re you interested?” I asked, the words mumbling, so
slow, so slow.  “What d’you know already?”

“He has a big mouth,” Branigan said.

A laugh convulsed me.  Kor has a big mouth…

“He does have a big mouth,” I said.

“So, you do know him.”

“Of course I know him.  He’s swell.  He’s a chum.” 

Branigan nodded.  “And he has the ear of some powerful
people, doesn’t he?”

“Of course he does,” I said.

Worry bloomed in my mind.  Was I supposed to say that?

“Some of the Ministers, I suppose,” Branigan mused.

I stared at the oil lamp, blazing and sparkling and
bleaching out my vision.

What does he want?
I wondered and, to my horror, I
heard my voice saying, “Just the Ministers?  That’s what you think?”

“Why, who else does he talk to?”

“Me,” I laughed.  “Me and the King and God.”

“This is pointless,” Branigan hissed to the man on his left.

“Next time will be easier,” he said.

“You’re dismissed,” I said, waving at them, feeling pleased
with myself.

Branigan clenched his hands in fists on the table.

“Can I have a drink now?”

“Drown in it,” he snapped.

Fear sparked in my heart, but I couldn’t move.  Couldn’t
pull away as the tough beside me grabbed the glass and shoved it against my
lips.  His other hand latched on my jaw.  Squeezing.  My mouth opened, and
sticky sweet liquid spilled down my throat…too fast to swallow…

I coughed, inhaling whiskey, choking…tried to pull away…but
he kept pouring, pouring…

The world danced and darkened.  Couldn’t breathe.

“Enough,” a voice said.  “You’re going to kill him.  Then
we’d have hell to pay.”

The world turned black, and my head cracked against the
table.

Chapter 9 — Hayli

I’d almost fallen asleep when someone threw back my curtain,
setting all the gears clanging against each other.  I sat jackstraight, heart
racing, until I recognized Anuk’s anxious face in the dim light.

I stared at him.  In all my life, I’d never seen him so
terrified.

“You a’right?” I asked, scrambling up off my cot.  “What’s
got you so clammed?  How’d it gan at the meet?”

“It’s Shade,” he whispered.  “Branigan convinced him to send
us off.  I tried to follow them, but I lost them in the alleys…”

I brushed hair from my face.  “You dan’ think Shade can
handle himself?”

“I think Shade doesn’t know what he’s messing with.”

I frowned at him, trying to make sense of what he was doing
here, rattling my curtain, waking me up.

“Anuk…what d’you need me for?”

He shifted his weight, scrubbing at his tousle of red
curls.  “We thought you could help.  I heard about you, what you can do.  We
thought maybe you could Shift and the crow could see the streets from up high. 
You might be able to find him better than us.”

I gaped at him.  They wanted me…they wanted my help.  My
magic
.

All my thoughts tumbled about in a jumble, but all I said
was, “I’ll do my best.”

Jig and Coins were already waiting for us topside, and soon
as Anuk and I joined them, we all set off into the night.  Once we found the
street where the initial meet had happened, we let Anuk try to lead us far as
he could remember having their trail.  After about ten minutes, he stopped.

“Lost them here,” he said.

I nodded, and Shifted.

I scan the rooftops, the streets, the lay of the
buildings.  Something feels familiar about this place, with the lights of the
Station shining on my shoulder and the iron-combed gutters to keep the pigeons
away.  In a moment I realize why, and with my heart pattering like mad, I sweep
back to the alley where I left the lads.

“We’re in Trip’s turf,” I said, picking myself off the
ground.

“What?  Really?” Anuk asked, puzzled.

“You got all turned about back there, but.”  I nodded at the
roof.  “This is the building behind the sweet shop.”

“The sweet shop,” Jig hissed.  “No, he wouldn’t.”

Somehow I’d hoped and prayed he wouldn’t say it, because
that was what I’d feared more than aught.  I forced myself to nod, slowly, my
skin all prickly with cold, cold horror.

“C’mon,” Anuk said, and pushed ahead.

Another minute and we stumbled out of the alley near the
rubbish bin where Jig had beat up Shade so long ago, and there, in a patch of
watery moonlight, we found Shade lying all in a heap.

“Shade!” I hollered, and ran the last bit of distance to
him.

He was shaking like a fever, his eyes half-open and glazed. 
I could barely see the flicker of his chest as he breathed.  Jig dropped to a
crouch beside me and shook him roughly, while  Anuk leaned over him and barked,

“Shade!”

Nothing.

“Oh God, help him,” I whispered, paralyzed.  “What’d they do
to him?”

Jig pried up one of Shade’s eyelids and flashed his torch
over his glazed eye.  I stared in horror at the wide, black pupil that
swallowed the grey of his iris. 

“We got to get him out of here,” Jig said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“They gave him bits,” Coins said.

“Bits of what?”

Jig just stared at me, like he wanted to roll his eyes but
knew it wasn’t the time.  “It’s a kind of drug,” he said.  “Real dodgy
business.  Sometimes the local bosses use it to try to get the birds to sing. 
What’d they use it on Shade for?  What’s
he
know?”

Shade flinched suddenly, throwing up an arm and nearly
clocking Anuk in the jaw.  Anuk flinched back and Jig grabbed his arms, but he
scrambled back, wild and blind as a fury, beating the wind.  Then he slumped
and collapsed, pale and still tremoring.

“Get him up,” I said.  “C’mon, hurry.”

Coins and Anuk hauled him up, gentle as they could to keep
him from flailing at them again.  Sweat gleamed all over his forehead, and the
side of his face was a bloody mess, like they’d thrown him face-first into the
pavement.  My blood boiled.  Next time I saw Branigan, he’d get what was
coming.  I promised Shade that.  I had half a mind to try to track down
Branigan right then and there, but my feet just kept following behind the
lads.  Nothing could make them turn away.

We got him back to the Hole and settled in his cot, while a
little crowd of skitters clustered abound, staring at Shade all fitsy and
wide-eyed.  Bugs stood paralyzed behind me.  He had his fists up over his
mouth, his thin shoulders shaking.  I wrapped an arm around him, because I’d
never seen the kid so terrified in all the years I’d known him.  He started to
pull back, but a minute and he buried his face against my side.

“What’s wrong, Hayli?  What happened?”

“Come on,” I said, shaking him and a couple of the other
skitters.  “Let’s give him some room.”

“But Shade’s…Shade’s…is he
dead?
”

“He’ll be jake.  But gawping at him won’t help him any.”

He let out a shuddering sigh and nodded, backing up one step
at a time before he finally spun and bolted from the barracks.  The other
skitters chased after him, barely avoiding a collision with Derrin as he
stormed into the room. 

“What happened?” Derrin asked, coming up beside me.  “Is he
glassed out?”

Shade had taken to thrashing again, and Jig and Coins kept
trying to keep him from toppling onto the floor.

“Branigan,” I whispered.

Derrin cussed, loudly.  “He let Branigan trick him into a
one-on-one?  Seriously?”

“It was the only way Branigan would talk,” Anuk said,
standing up from Shade’s bedside.  “I didn’t want to leave him.  Had no idea
that he would dose him up like that, or I’d have never let him go.”

“You couldn’t have stopped him,” I said, quiet.  “Y’know you
couldn’t.”

Derrin dragged a hand over his mouth.  “This makes no sort
of sense at all.”

“That’s what I thought, too,” Jig said.  “You only give bits
to folks you want information from.  But Branigan was supposed to be the one
with the juice.”

Derrin and I both stared down at Shade.  He’d finally
stopped flailing about, but I almost wished he hadn’t, because now he looked so
dead pale and still that I was afraid he’d stopped breathing entirely. 

“Should we get Doc?” I asked.

“Wouldn’t make a difference,” Derrin said.  “He seems to be
through most of it now.  He just needs some time.”

“You seen this before, Derrin?”

He shrugged.  “Once or twice.  Some of the lads muck around
with the wrong sorts sometimes, get drawn into that dodgy business.  Believe
me, this isn’t the worst part of it.”  He  flicked a glance at me.  “That comes
after,” he said, and swung away.

*  *  *  *

Three days later I slipped into Chancy’s, hoping against
hope that I’d find Shade standing there at the bar.  The day after the business
with Branigan, he’d off and flat disappeared, in the middle of the morning when
we all thought he was still sleeping off the drug.  When he didn’t come back
all that day, the kids had got in a riot again, wondering what had happened to
him.  They’d even sent out folks hunting for him, but with no luck.

So I swallowed my fear—and disappointment—when I realized he
wasn’t there.  The older lads were gathered in their usual corner, muttering at
each other over a dreary candle and mugs of beer, shuffling papers that
probably contained Red’s latest philosophical musings about the evils of the
State.  For a few minutes I hung back by the bar, because they’d never let me
into their secret meetings before.  But I was too curious to know if they’d
heard from Shade, so finally I knotted up my courage and went to join them.

“Shove over, Jig,” I said.

Red glared up at me.  “I dan’ recall inviting you.”

“Shut it, Red,” Jig snapped, touching my arm to beckon me. 
“Hayli’s jake.”

He moved aside, and I, blushing a bit, and sat down on the
end of the bench.  I’d expected him to put up a fight too, but there it was.

“Need something, Hayli?” Anuk asked, more gently than Red.

“She dan’ need to need something to come join us, like,” Jig
said.

“Actually, I wondered if you’d seen Shade lately,” I said,
wincing a little, because Jig couldn’t hide how his shoulders slumped a bit at
my words.

“You have,” a voice said behind us, and we all jumped and
turned to see Shade standing by the table, head bent and hands in his pockets.

He didn’t ask to sit, but Coins pushed Red over and gave
Shade the spot across from me.

“Where the hell have you been?” Anuk asked.  “Folks’ve been
worried sick about you, so.”

I held my breath as Shade met his gaze, his eyes narrowed up
a bit, but all he said was,  “Out.”

“Now that we’ve got that cleared up, can we get back to
business?” Red asked, folding himself into the corner and shooting a peeved
look at the pair of us.  “We were actually, you know, here for a reason.”