The Copper Gauntlet (Magisterium #2)(58)

Call hesitated for a long moment, with Tamara and Aaron watching him. Finally, Call said, “Yeah, I’d stop you.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“We’re too close to the end,” Call tried to explain. “Too close to my dad. He still has the Alkahest. He’s still going to give it to Master Joseph. And Master Joseph won’t use it to kill me; he wants me alive. He’ll kill my dad, he’ll kill Aaron, then who knows what he’ll do after that. We have to finish.”

He stared at them, willing them to understand. After a long, long moment, Tamara gave a tiny nod. “So, what next?” she asked.

Call turned to the Chaos-ridden. “Take us to Master Joseph,” Call commanded. “Escort us there, don’t hurt any of us, and do not tell him we’re coming.”

The Chaos-ridden began to move, flanking Call. Aaron, Tamara, and Jasper were being moved along, herded, surrounded. They walked in a narrow path surrounded by corpse-like bodies; it reminded Call of biblical paintings of the Red Sea parting. There was nowhere to go but in the direction the Chaos-ridden went and no pace to walk but the pace they set.

They marched through the dark forest in dead silence, the crackle of pine needles underfoot. Havoc marched along happily, at home with others of his kind. With every step, Call felt a terrible loneliness overtake him. After this, there would be no return to the Magisterium. There would be no more friends; no more lessons from Master Rufus; no more meals of lichen in the Refectory or games with Celia in the Gallery.

At least Havoc would come with him, although Call wasn’t sure where they’d go.

They walked for what felt like a long time, long enough for Call’s leg to ache intensely. He could feel himself slowing down, could feel the majority of the Chaos-ridden slow to keep pace with him.

So, basically, he was setting the pace.

Aaron stepped to his side. “You were going to be my counterweight,” he said, and only when he said it in the past tense did Call realize with a sinking heart how much he’d wanted to do it.

“I didn’t know,” he said. “When I offered.”

“I don’t want to have to fight you,” Aaron went on. Jasper and Tamara were walking up ahead, Tamara speaking urgently to Jasper. “I don’t want to, but that’s what’s going to happen, isn’t it? That’s our destiny: to kill each other.”

“You don’t really believe I want to kill you, do you?” Call said. “If I wanted to kill you, I could have. I could have killed you in your sleep. I could have killed you a million times over. I could have chopped your head right off!”

“That’s convincing,” Aaron muttered. “Tamara!”

She dropped back to walk with them. Jasper continued to stalk ahead, a few Chaos-ridden alongside him.

“Why did you say what you said back there?” Aaron asked. “That you believed Call.”

“Because he tried to flunk out of the Magisterium,” said Tamara. “He really didn’t want to go. If he’d known he was Constantine Madden, he would have tried to get on the Masters’ side, to spy on them. Instead, he just pissed all of them off. Besides,” she added, “Constantine Madden was famously charming, and Call obviously isn’t.”

“Thank you,” Call said, wincing at the pain in his leg. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could go on without resting. “That was heartwarming.”

“Also,” Tamara said, “there are some things you can’t fake.”

Before Call could ask her what she meant, his foot hit a root and he stumbled, falling to his knees. The Chaos-ridden halted abruptly, those in front of Jasper turning and stopping him with their hands to his chest.

Call groaned and rolled over, trying to stand.

One of the Chaos-ridden lifted him, holding him as easily as Call himself might have held a cat. It was embarrassing and, even more embarrassingly, a relief. “We will carry you the rest of the way, Master,” the Chaos-ridden told him.

“That’s probably not the best idea,” Call said. “The others —”

One of the Chaos-ridden grabbed hold of Tamara, slinging her over his back. She struggled in its grasp. “Call!” she shouted, panicked.

Two of them hauled Aaron off his feet, while a fifth lifted a kicking and screaming Jasper into the air.

“We will carry them all,” the Chaos-ridden holding Call told him, but that didn’t seem to calm them down any. “We can move more swiftly this way.”

Call was so surprised that he didn’t give any orders at all, even as the Chaos-ridden’s steps came more swiftly. They began to lope and then run, Havoc alongside them. They ran and ran, covering so much ground that Call couldn’t imagine himself walking it.

This close, Call had expected the Chaos-ridden to smell like rot. They were supposed to be the dead, after all, reanimated by void magic. But their odor was more mushroomy, not unpleasant, just strange.

Aaron looked uncomfortable. Tamara looked exhilarated and terrified in equal measure. But Jasper’s expression was unreadable to Call, a blankness that might have been fear or despair or nothing at all.

“Call, what are they doing?” Tamara shouted over to him.

Call shrugged awkwardly. “Carrying us? I think they’re trying to be helpful.”

“I don’t like this,” Aaron said, sounding like he was on a particularly dizzying ride.