The Copper Gauntlet (Magisterium #2)(38)

Lemuel looked smugly at Call and the others. “Not running away, huh?”

“Just for the record,” said Jasper, “these people kidnapped me and are forcing me to go with them on a stupid mission to —”

Tamara opened her hand. Jasper stopped speaking abruptly and started gasping for air. Tamara had apparently snatched the words from his mouth — quite literally — and taken the air he was breathing along with them. The adults hadn’t seemed to notice, but Call was impressed.

“Stall, Andreas,” said Alma calmly.

The bearded man rushed off in the direction he’d come.

Call leaped to his feet, heart in his throat. “We have to get out of here,” he said.

Aaron scrambled up after him, and so did Tamara. Only Jasper remained seated, still breathing hard and glaring at the others. “We’ll hide in the woods,” said Aaron. “Please, just let us go and we’ll never mention this place.”

“I can do better than that,” Alma said. “We’ll hide you. But you have to do something for us in return.”

Her gaze went to Havoc.

“No way,” said Tamara, moving to put her hand on the wolf’s side. “We’re not letting you do whatever it is you’re —”

“Do you promise he won’t get hurt?” Call asked quickly, interrupting her. He didn’t like to consider it, thinking of how his father had chained up Havoc, but he saw the covetous way Alma was looking at his wolf. He needed to agree, so he could stall for time until he found a way to get them all out of there, including his wolf.

“Call, you can’t,” Tamara protested, her fingers in Havoc’s fur.

“Of course he can,” said Jasper. “You think he’s going to be loyal to anyone or anything? Let’s just go back to the Magisterium.”

“Shut up,” said Aaron. “Call, are you sure —”

But Alma laughed. “You misunderstand. It’s not Havoc we want, although he’s very interesting. It’s Aaron.”

“Well, you definitely can’t have Aaron,” Tamara said.

“Without a Makar, we have so many theories, but no way to test them. We know you can’t stay right now, Aaron, but make me a promise that you’ll come back, and leave that wolf as collateral. When you return, all we need is a few hours of your time. And maybe when you see what you could do — how helpful to the world you could be as something other than a defense against an enemy with whom we’re no longer at war — then maybe you’ll decide to join us.”

None of them spoke.

“The wolf will be fine,” Alma said.

“Okay,” Aaron said after a long moment. “I’ll promise to come back, but you can’t keep Havoc. You don’t need collateral. You have my word.”

“We trust you, Makar, but not that much. Quickly, children. Decide. We can hide you or we can turn you over to the mages. But you must know they’ll trade Havoc to us in exchange for the four of you.”

Call didn’t doubt that — not at this point. “Fine. Same deal as before. But no experiments on him.”

Alma looked well satisfied. “Good. Agreed. All of you, follow me.” She led them out the back door of the cottage. They hustled across the green space between the buildings.

Call felt horribly exposed. He could see shadows moving through the trees circling the clearing and hear raised voices. The Masters, shouting their names. Hurrying after Tamara, he saw she had one hand clasped around Jasper’s wrist, keeping him from running in the opposite direction. Call thought he heard Master Rufus’s voice. He grabbed Havoc’s collar and pulled him along faster. The wolf looked up at him as though he suspected something bad was about to happen.

If they ran into the woods, they’d be caught. Their only choice was to follow Alma — who was totally scary, who had once worked with Constantine Madden and Master Joseph, who wanted to experiment on Havoc, who probably qualified to have a pretty long Evil Overlord list of her own — and hope that she’d make good on her promise to hide them.

With a sigh, Call kept on going. Alma took a key ring with several keys out of a pocket of her saffron dress and unlocked the door to the central building.

Immediately, they were startled by the sounds of barking and keening and crying. The building they went into was lined on all sides with cages of various sizes, and in them were Chaos-ridden animals. From brown bears with wild swirling eyes to gray foxes to a single bobcat that roared as Call came into the room.

“This is the worst zoo ever,” Jasper said.

Tamara’s hand came up to cover her mouth. “So this is where you keep them.”

Alma guided Call over to one of the cages. “Get your wolf inside. Quickly. I need to get you settled and then go deal with the mages.”

“How do we know you’re as good as your word?” asked Aaron, apparently pushed beyond the fear of offending.

“Makar, look at the creatures we have here,” she said. “They were dangerous to obtain. They are dangerous to keep. But you are more dangerous than any of them. We wouldn’t cross you lightly. We need your help.”

Outside, voices got louder. Master Lemuel was arguing with another mage.

Taking a deep breath, Call put Havoc in the cage and let Alma lock it. She took the key and tucked it into her pocket, then led them to another room. It was windowless and full of boxes.