The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (63 page)

He wouldn’t dare.  He wouldn’t.

For one endless moment I stood at the window, struggling to
calm my breathing, trying to check the rage that blinded me.  When I thought I
could speak without dragging myself into the gutter, I spun back and strode
three steps toward him.

“You claim the authority to judge, by yourself, who is
human, and who is not?  Who has the right to live, and who should die?”

“I am the King,” he said, attacking each word.  “What is
just or unjust is so by my judgment.  If I say something is wrong, then it is
wrong.  If I say it is right, then it is right.  Those whom I say are human,
are.  And if I declare they are not, then they are not.”

“You really believe that?” I cried, forgetting to even
pretend at deference.  I’d spent too long on the streets already; Shade was
bleeding through.  “All that
supreme authority
nonsense the old
philosophers argued about centuries ago?  You made my tutors teach it to me
because you
actually
believe it?” 

“Who is there who would argue with me?”

I smiled.  It felt like baring my teeth.  “Me.” 

“You wouldn’t.  You’re not that bold.”  He jabbed a finger
at me.  “You were always weak like that.  Easily intimidated.  A
coward
.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” I said.  I couldn’t believe how calm
I sounded, when all my blood boiled with shame and fury.  “I
was
.”  He
just glared at me, so I lifted my chin and kept right on going.  “So.  You
would accept that when I am King, I can decide that what you said was wrong is
actually right, and it will suddenly become so?  Just because that’s what I
say?
”

He stared at me for a moment, black mustache twitching, then
all at once he dropped his head and chuckled.  That sound chilled me more than
if he had thrown his head back and laughed me to scorn. 

“When you’re King?”  He nodded at me.  “You’re so certain of
that?”

“Trabin,” my mother said, breaking her silence for the first
time in so long.  She didn’t speak loudly, but her voice cut across the room
like a knife.  “You wouldn’t.”

“Do you think I don’t know what is going on here?” Trabin
roared, flinging the paper on the ground.  His utter lack of dignity shamed me;
I looked away.  “Your son chooses to traipse about the streets wearing Eyid’s
face, and you think that won’t convince me of the truth of what I’ve always
suspected? 
Eyid!
  You dishonored me for
Eyid?
”

“Did you kill him?” she asked, sharp suddenly, eyes dark as
shards of the sea.  “Did you have him assassinated?”

“Are you saying you would disinherit me?” I interrupted,
because somehow I thought I didn’t want to hear Trabin’s answer to that
question.  Not now.  Not when I could barely leash the anger braying in my
veins as it was.

“Elanar,” Trabin snapped.  “Leave us.”

She froze.  Her fingers twitched on her cup, nearly sending
the tea sloshing onto the bright Meritian carpet.

“It’s all right,” I told her.  “It’ll be fine.”

She shifted her gaze from me to Trabin, then slowly set down
the cup and rose to her feet.

“He knows everything,” she told him, and left the salon
quiet as a wraith.

For a few moments after she’d gone we stood in uneasy
silence, Trabin with his hands planted on a tall sideboard, me turned to stone
by the window.  Outside the sun had already surrendered and a steady rain fell,
mingled with a few faint snowflakes.

“I am so very close to declaring your mission a failure,
boy
. 
Do you understand what that would mean?”

“Yes,” I said.

He let out his breath and leaned onto the table.  I could
almost see the anger fizzling away from him, leaving nothing but a cold, hollow
shell.  For endless moments I stood, mute and motionless, waiting for him to speak
again.  Finally he sighed and straightened up.

“It is your choice, you know, whether you will put
her
in danger or not.  I’ve asked you to do one simple thing.  Do it, and I will
forget forever the truth in your blood, and in hers.  I will formally invest
you with your title and inheritance, and she will be secure until her death.” 

I swallowed.  “You asked me to find the truth.  What if the
truth is that they’re innocent?  That Rivano means no harm to you or any of
us?”

“I imagine if you come to that conclusion, that could only
mean that your loyalties had been compromised.”

I let out all my breath in a hiss.  “So you don’t want the
truth at all, do you?  You just want justification.”

He took a step closer to me, eyes burning into me.  “Let me
make one thing very clear to you.  If you continue down this path you are on,
boy, I
will
disinherit you, and I will reveal the truth of her treason
to the Assembly, and they will decide her fate.  And yours.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” I said.  I mirrored his step, bringing
myself closer to him than I’d ever stood, and stared him straight in the eye. 
“Not as long as I’m alive.”

He snorted softly, in the sort of way that made me
understand exactly what he was thinking:
Precisely
.

“It’s your choice,” he said.  “Is the task too difficult? 
Are you unable to complete it?”

“Unable?”  I smiled.  “No.”

He drew himself up, scowling down at me the way that used to
make me feel vulnerable, but now only stirred my contempt.

“I’m still on the mission,” I said, coldly.  “Just don’t
mistake me.  I’m only doing it for
her
.”

“I don’t care why you’re doing it.  Just do it.”

I clicked my heels and gave him a formal bow, and strode
from the salon before I said something I would regret forever.

Chapter 18 — Hayli

“Shade still hasn’t shown?” Anuk asked, dropping onto the
bench beside me with a wadded up copy of the Herald in his hand.

“Nope,” I said.  I picked at the stewed tomatoes on my
plate.  “Not seen him for a couple days, not since the morning after the riot. 
I told him about the coppers and the signs, and he lammed off.”

“He’s lying low, so.  Smart.”

I nodded, though I didn’t much feel too happy about it. 
Shade had said he didn’t want to go hide, and now he’d gone and done it.  I
wasn’t sure what I thought about that, even if Anuk had it right and it was the
smart thing to do.

Anuk cleared his throat and smoothed out the paper, holding
it just crooked enough that I couldn’t get a good goggle of the front page.  I
smacked his arm and he grunted, and held the paper between us.

“Look at that,” he said.

I did.  The Herald had gone all wacky with the news of
Tarik’s return, and, besides the one run of a story about Shade and the riot
the other day, it had been full of pictures and speculation about the Crown
Prince.  It almost seemed to have gone the way of old ladies and gossip-girls,
running stories the likes of, “Who is Prince Tarik’s Secret Flame?” and “The
Shocking Truth Behind Prince Tarik’s Sudden Disappearance,” or my personal
favorite, “Killed and Brought Back to Life?  Prince Tarik’s Dangerous
Travels.” 

Today they had a smashing photograph of the prince rowing on
the Bast River with another fellow, their shirt sleeves all rolled up, hair
tousled from wind and rain.  They were winning their chummy race with another
boat, of course.  You could tell just from the grin on the Prince’s face.

I frowned at the picture, remembering that smile, all wild
abandon and mischief.  Tarik.  Pity he had to be a blithering prince.  He
might’ve liked to run amok with us for a bit, if just to get in the spits with
his pop.

“Looks like they’ve good and forgot the riot already,” Anuk
said.  “Didn’t take them long, so.”  He grinned, bumping me with his elbow. 
“Didn’t think it would, of course.”

“Have the folks already forgotten?” I asked.  “Shade was so
sure they’d be flocking to his flag already.  But he’s not even here to do
aught about it.  If he waits too long, it’ll be like the riot never happened. 
Where d’you suppose he lammed off to?”

“Who knows,” he said.  “Maybe back to Istia, for all I
know.”

“No.”  I shook my head fiercely.  “He wouldn’t do that. 
Wouldn’t leave like that, without even saying a
so long
to his mates.”

“Mates?”  He snorted.  “You think he ever saw any of us as
mates?”

I shoved my plate of tomatoes at him and climbed off the
bench.  “I think he did,” I said.  “There at the end.  I really do.  Look, I’m
out for a tick.  Ganna try to do a bit of the old sneak and peek.”

“Eh,” he said, laughing.  “You’ve been hanging around Coins
too much.  Got knocked a bit loose in the meat pail, right?”

I laughed out loud.  I couldn’t help it.  And it made it so
much worse that Anuk’s perfect mimic of Coins came just as Coins stepped into
the mess.  I tried to slip past him, holding my side from laughing, but he
grabbed me around the waist and pulled me into a mock chokehold.

“What’s this?  Did someone just say something brilliant?” 
He swung me around, a mad grin splitting his face.  “Meat pail.  I like that! 
Knew there was hope for you yet, Anuk.”

“Don’t count on it,” Anuk said.  “The world can only handle
one of you.”

“Hah, thanks!” Coins cried, then he scowled and added, “I
think?”

“Lemme gan, y’ oaf,” I said, prodding him in the stomach
with my elbow.  “Got work to do.”

“Where you off to, little bird?”

“Can we help?” Anuk asked.

I jumped and stared at them.  For so long, it’d always been
me begging the boys to let me tag along, hiding my shame when they doubted me,
hiding my grief when they mocked me.  And now Coins and Anuk wanted to come
with me?  To help
me?
  I couldn’t guess what had changed.

“Not this time, lads,” I said, trying to sound careless like
Shade.  “Thanks, though.”

“Be careful, Hayli,” Coins said, squeezing me tight.  “Don’t
go getting into mischief, right?  I don’t want to have to come bail you out.”

“I know you will if I need you,” I said, and slithered free
of his grip.  “See you in a bit.”

“What if Shade comes back?” Anuk asked.  “Should we send him
after you?”

I grinned.  “Nope.  This one is mine.”

Coins tipped his fingers to his forehead and Anuk bowed, and
I left the Hole feeling a mite too proud of myself for my own good.  I tugged
my jumper over my head as I walked, whistling a bit even though the rain was
falling and the wind was blowing and my fingers were numb as ever.  But the
whole world spread at my feet, and suddenly I felt like I could do anything.

Let’s go to the Science Ministry
, the crow
whispered. 
That’s where everything is happening.  It all centers around
that.  You need to know what they did to you.

Why can’t you tell me what they did?
I wondered, stupidly.

I thought I could hear the crow laughing, a harsh, airy
sound.  She was laughing at me. 
I
was laughing at
me
because I
expected myself to know something I didn’t.  Bother.  This whole business was a
mite confusing.

You’ll have to let me get in,
she said, pushing a bit
at the edges of my mind. 
You can’t march up and say the passcode and expect
them to let you in.

Shade could do that,
I thought, and snapped my
fingers. 
If only he were here!  We’d have such a lark infiltrating the
Ministry together.

“Hayli!”

I spun around, hoping, for one mad moment, that I hadn’t
been muttering out loud to myself.  Derrin slipped out of the shadows in the
alley behind me, coming up beside me with his hands in his pockets and a faint
smile in his eyes.

“Oy, Derrin!” I cried.  “Haven’t seen you for days!”

He smiled, faintly.  “I’ve been about a bit.”

“You haven’t seen Shade at all, have you?”

The smile snapped away, like the sun winking off behind a
cloud.  I wondered if he was still furious with Shade about the whole Blood
issue.  For just a tick he stood close to me, studying me under the brim of his
hat, a darkish kind of look in his eyes and the line of his mouth.

“Hayli, what do you know of that kid, really?” he asked.  “I
was talking to the lads.  Has he really got four gifts?”

I hesitated.  “That should be impossible, right?”

“Should be.”

We walked in silence a bit, no sound but our shoes scraping
and clacking on the wet cobblestones.  We’d left the quiet streets now, and a
few scraggly folks dripped past, hunting out shelter in the thickening rain.

“Maybe that’s why Rivano’s so keen on him,” Derrin remarked.

“Rivano!  But Derrin, he won’t even let Shade in to see
him.”

“That doesn’t make what I said wrong.”

I scowled a bit.  “Reminds me of the old myths, Shade does,”
I said.  “All the old stories of mages who could…bend magic.  Do as they liked,
and not just as their gift allowed.”