Siege of Shadows (Effigies #2)(107)

“I didn’t know they’d made more of these,” Lake whispered, peering over my shoulder as I studied it against my palm. “Maybe because of Saul?”

“Yeah. Maybe.” Chae Rin didn’t sound convinced. “Put that back. Hey, we’re taking this. Anyone got a problem?”

If they did, I doubted anyone wanted to fight her over it.

“You can take the van at the far end of the line.” Stopping next to Derrek, Jin pointed toward the rusty-looking old one at the curvature of the restful lagoon. “You’ll have to head north to get into town. Lucas will give you a map.”

“Thanks,” said Belle. “We’ll take our friend and drop him off there.”

Naomi had still given us a mission. Find the secret volume. Maybe find out the truth about Saul while we were at it. With the counter running down, we’d have to move quickly.

“Girls.” Jin stopped us just as we began toward the van. “Saul’s hand reaches far. Not even we here in the mountains are safe.”

Nobody in Jin’s group stopped moving and loading long enough to say so, but their uneasy gazes told me as much.

“We’re all counting on you.” He gripped the shoulders of his son. “All of us.”

That was the burden Effigies couldn’t escape. But we weren’t running away. We nodded our silent promise before setting off.





25



NATALYA STOOD BY THE FOOT of the bed watching as the old man rushed his wheelchair back and forth in his cubicle-like bedroom carrying handfuls of clothes and shoving them into one of several suitcases. I’d slipped into this memory comparatively easily this time, maybe because Natalya was still reeling from her previous banishment. I knew it wouldn’t last long. I could sense her will getting stronger. But Baldric had told only her the way to the secret volume. Whatever I needed to see here, I’d need to see it fast.

Actually, when Naomi had said his name, I hadn’t been expecting the gray hair and small eyes sinking into a bed of wrinkled skin. A black bowler hat obscured most of his head, but his large white mustache covered his lips as it drooped down like a fishtail from his large, bulbous nose—a nose that twitched every time he sneezed from the dust in his room. Natalya was stealthily covering hers, and I didn’t blame her. I couldn’t feel much of anything in this memory, not even my own body. But I could see the particles of dust as they caught the light trickling past the curtains. That was the only distinguishing aspect of this bare-bones space. Besides a bed, a chair, and a table, Baldric hadn’t done much to decorate. Who knew how long he’d even spent here.

“You don’t have to do this,” Natalya said as Baldric beat his hand against her long legs so she would move out of his way. His wheelchair arm brushed against her skinny jeans on his way to the table. “You don’t have to run away. I can go back to Prague and try again.”

“You said you had to leave the Little Room quickly because you were followed.” His voice was low and raspy, his proper British accent mangled by barely concealed panic. “Followed by Sect.”

“Not followed.” Natalya picked up a book that had fallen off the bed. “I bumped into Aidan Rhys.”

Rhys. Like the dream I’d had in Marrakesh. My heart sped up, but I knew the consequences if I couldn’t calm myself here. Natalya’s will was growing. Whatever I heard, I’d have to deal with it if I was going to make it out of this memory in one piece.

“Followed.” He snatched the book out of her hands. “By the Sect.”

Natalya shook her head incredulously. “Aidan is my friend—”

“He is no friend of yours. He’s the son of Director Prince, and believe me, he’s had loyalty beaten into him, the poor boy. It’s in his bones now.”

“He was there with a few others visiting.”

“Visiting? Just happened to be there at the same time, did he? You fool.” The cantankerous man looked like he could throw the book at her, but he dropped it into a suitcase. “He is Sect. Probably an Informer, sent by the Sect to watch you. Which means they’re already onto you. They’re already onto me.” A shadow of fear passed over his face as he considered the implications. “If what I suspect about the Sect is true, then I need to leave. Now. And we must leave the volume where it is. It would be too dangerous to go back there now. You would only lead the Sect right to it.”

“The thirteenth volume.” Natalya narrowed her eyes. “You said that it contained secrets not even the Sect knew. Secrets about us.”

“Among many things. It doesn’t matter. We keep the volume where it is. But to truly keep those secrets out of the Sect’s hands, I need to disappear. Mr. Boones!”

A few moments later a man younger than he, though not by many years considering the gray tinge of his hair, appeared in the doorframe.

“Please proceed to bring the car around,” Baldric ordered. “We’re leaving within the hour.”

“Very well, Mr. Haas.” The man bowed forty-five degrees, his black butler suit crinkling on his way back up, and then left.

“You promised you’d tell me,” Natalya said. “That’s why I helped you in the first place.”

“Helped.” Baldric snorted as he rested an artifact on his gray flannel trousers. It looked like a statue.