The Golden Tower (Magisterium #5)(44)

You’re telling me, said Aaron. There was a jitteriness in his voice that worried Call. They were in the place Aaron had died, after all. He tried to push the thought away so Aaron wouldn’t have to share it.

Anastasia smiled when Call came into view and he smiled back at her. He tried to feel sympathy. After all, she loved Constantine, despite everything he’d done. She loved him enough to bring him to the Magisterium and to work behind the scenes to make sure he was safe, even after he’d become a monster and another person entirely.

She loved Constantine sort of the way Alastair had loved Call, except that Call didn’t think that Alastair would have put up with quite so much of all the Enemy of Death stuff. But maybe he was wrong. Maybe Alastair would have loved him even if he was an Evil Overlord.

Call wasn’t sure what he wanted to believe. But it did make him feel a little bit bad for Anastasia.

Tell her we unlocked some memories, Aaron said. Just don’t tell her which ones. Tell her you’re sorry you didn’t remember her before.

“I have something to tell you, Anastasia,” he said.

She looked at him with a mixture of hesitation and hope.

“I really didn’t remember you, and I’m sorry,” he said. “But I realized after Alex came here that Constantine had locked away his memories inside my head. He was worried a baby wouldn’t be able to withstand an adult’s memories. He arranged it so I wouldn’t remember until I was ready.”

“And you were ready?” Anastasia demanded.

“I guess,” Call said. “We were attacked by wolves, and the memories just opened up. I could see myself pacing back and forth in front of Jericho’s tomb.”

Tell her you could see her. Aaron’s tone was firm.

“I could see you, Mom,” Call said. “I know how much you loved me and how much you cared about what happened to me.”

Anastasia’s face began to crumble. Her carefully applied makeup ran as her tears streamed down her cheeks.

Tell her it’s not her fault.

“Nothing that happened to me was your fault,” Call said.

“Oh, Con,” she gasped, and threw herself at him, seizing him up in a tight embrace. Call dug his heels into the soft dirt to keep from being yanked off his feet. He was as tall as Anastasia, but she had the strength of hysteria.

“I need your help now, though,” Call said.

Not so impatient. Kindly.

“Please,” Call added. “It’s about Alex.”

She drew back from him, troubled. “I know he’s very angry,” she said. “He blames you and he shouldn’t. He doesn’t understand that you didn’t remember. I’m sure when you explain it to him —”

Explain it to Alex? Call choked back a laugh.

“I won’t be able to do that,” he said. “The Magisterium has set it up so that Alex and I are going to have to fight. They want me to kill him.”

“Savages!” Anastasia’s face darkened. “To force brother to fight brother.”

She can’t seriously think of us as brothers.

You can’t contradict her, said Aaron. Make her understand the danger. You and Alex could both die.

“You know how strong I am,” Call said, trying to look at her the way Constantine would have. “If Alex and I fight, we’ll kill each other.”

She looked fearful. “He is a Devoured of chaos.”

“I don’t think either of us will survive. That’s why I need your help.”

“We could run away,” she said. “All three of us. Live together, me and my two sons.” She looked at him mistily.

“Not as long as Alex is a Devoured of chaos,” said Call. “Think of it as a disease we have to cure. As long as the chaos is eating him up, he’ll hate me, and then one day he’ll start to hate you.”

“The Devoured cannot be cured,” Anastasia protested.

“They can.” Call tried to project confidence and assuredness as Aaron spoke to him silently. “I’ve set it all up. The Magisterium insists we meet in combat, and I know how to draw the chaos out of him. Once that happens, we’ll be all right — as long as you tell them Alex only ever did the bad things he did because you asked him to.”

“Because I asked him to?” She drew back. “How will that help?”

“It’s what they think anyway,” said Call.

Don’t tell her they think it because you told them so.

Call ignored that. “They need to believe it wasn’t him. Otherwise they’ll track him to the ends of the earth and execute him. But you can take the blame and escape.”

Tell her it isn’t really blame. Tell her she’ll be a hero. So many people will think she did the right thing.

Call took a deep breath. “A lot of people don’t agree with the mage world’s decisions about things,” he said. “The way they kill Makar in Europe. The way they treat the Devoured. The way they blamed Constantine when all he — all I — was trying to do was to end death and suffering.”

Anastasia nodded, her eyes fixed on his. Call felt as if he was giving the most important speech of his life.

“I’m sure that when you stand up and speak, many will sympathize,” said Call. “And you can flee on your air elemental. You can make sure it’s standing by.”