The Golden Tower (Magisterium #5)(41)

Jasper laughed.

Colton looked more incensed. “If he is the way you say, I know you had something to do with it. You did something to him. You corrupted him. You’re the evil one.”

“Oh, stop it,” Celia said, walking over to them and putting her arm on Colton’s. “Call is doing a brave thing tomorrow.”

Colton gave her a look. “Not you, too,” he said, and stomped off.

“Good luck,” said Celia to Call softly, and then followed Colton, with a single weird look in Jasper’s direction.

“What was that about?” Tamara asked.

Jasper shrugged, looking embarrassed. “She came to see me this morning. Maybe we’re not going to work it out.”

Call was too distracted to make sense of Jasper’s love life. He was thinking of Alex, of the way he’d thought of him as friendly and funny and nice. He’d thought Alex was a good person, like Aaron. But all of that had been surface, acting. In his soul, Alex had been terrible the whole time.

We all thought he was nice, Aaron said. That’s what he wanted us to think.

Of course, Call had an evil soul, too. And maybe Colton was right about Call’s villainous ways, because he suddenly knew how he was going to win. And it wasn’t a plan that anyone could describe as good.

“Tamara,” he said, “can I talk to you for a second?”

Just then, Master Rufus walked up to their table. “I’m relieved you’re all back. I got a message from Call’s father that he’s delayed. He’ll be here tomorrow. But today, the Assembly wants to see you. All of you. They want to go over the final plan. If you’re done with breakfast, come with me.”

Tamara, Gwenda, and Jasper stood. As they followed Master Rufus out of the Refectory, Call put his hand on Tamara’s arm.

Are you sure about this? Aaron asked.

“I need to tell you something,” Call said to her. “Because we’re not going to have any secrets.”

On the way to the Assembly, he whispered to her, explaining the whole thing he’d thought out. She didn’t contradict him, even when he thought she would. She didn’t tell him it was wrong.

All she asked was, “Do you think it will work?”

“I hope so,” Call said, and they walked in to face the Assembly.



The Assembly always looked serious. Now they looked like they were at a funeral. Call looked up and down the long wooden table, recognizing faces — the Masters of the Magisterium, people from important families like the Rajavis, and Graves presiding over it all.

“Mr. Hunt,” said Graves, gesturing for Call and Tamara to come and stand before the table. It was on a raised dais, so the Assembly looked down on them, some impassively, some with pity. “We understand you’ve been orchestrating a plan.”

“That’s right,” Call told him, trying to project all the authority that he’d never thought of himself as having. “We’re going to pull Alex back from chaos.”

“You think you can make him un-Devoured?” said Master Milagros. “That’s never been done.”

“Actually, it has,” said Call. “It requires four Devoured, representing each of the other elements.”

“And you want us to provide you Devoured from our cells?” said Graves. “That’s impossible.”

“You don’t need to,” Tamara cut in angrily. “We’ve already assembled our own team.”

“Though you did promise you’d cooperate with us and help us,” Call added.

“We promised not to stand in your way,” said Graves. “And we have not.”

“Then you’d better not now,” said Call. “Because this whole plan depends on me and Tamara and Jasper doing what you want. And in exchange, we want something.”

“What is it?” said Master North.

“We want to let Alex Strike live,” said Call.

A murmur ran through the room. Call heard traitor and never and, as always, enemy. Anger swelled inside him, and he let himself feel it. It was better than being afraid.

I’m not who you think I am, he thought at the Assembly. I’m worse.

Tamara spoke over the hubbub. “We’ve learned that maybe Alex isn’t in control of himself. Maybe he is in thrall to someone else. Maybe he never chose to do any of those things.”

Jasper whipped his head toward Call. Gwenda frowned. So did Master Rufus. All of them clearly wanted to interrupt, but they didn’t.

“Who could he possibly have been in thrall to?” Graves wanted to know. “We all saw him on the battlefield. We all saw him lead an army of the Chaos-ridden. And had he been in thrall to Master Joseph, the spell would have ended when Joseph died.”

Call took a deep breath. “His stepmother, Anastasia Tarquin.”

They all goggled, looking around at one another. Anastasia Tarquin had been one of them, an Assembly member. It was only after the last battle that they’d discovered her betrayal and realized who she truly was — the mother of Constantine Madden, working behind the scenes to help Master Joseph get hold of Call, in the hopes Call would remember his past.

“All we want is for you to agree that if he’s defeated and it turns out that he wasn’t acting on his own, he won’t be thrown in the Panopticon,” said Call. “I know what it’s like to be misjudged. I know what it’s like for people to think you’re evil when circumstances pushed you in that direction and you didn’t have any good choices.”