They must have missed Lily’s knock, because in walked Benini at that very moment in a purple sleeping robe, shorts, and not much else. He stepped enthusiastically inside, too excited by the sight of the two with a rope between them to close the door.
“I see the evening’s already started without me.” He rubbed his hands together, drinking in the sight of them. Then, stepping toward the bed, he squinted for a better look. “Wait a moment. Aren’t you—?”
“We are.” Jinn. He was the one to close the door behind him. “And we have a few questions—”
Jinn stopped, his arms dropping to his sides as he stared at Iris and Max on the bed, the two frozen as if they’d been petrified. By now Jinn must have known that distinct feeling intimately, for he stood rooted to the spot.
“Wait, what’s the meaning of this?” Suddenly, Benini grinned, pointing at the three of them. “I see. Letting off a little steam before the final round, then?” Benini laughed. “Well, I can understand your wild appetites, but I wonder if Lord Temple knows about—”
Jinn’s hand flew to Benini’s throat. Gripping it tightly enough that the Patron could barely squeak, he shoved Benini onto the bed, forcing Iris and Max to roll off the other side.
“Like I said, we have a few questions for you,” Jinn repeated darkly.
“What! What is the meaning of this—”
Jinn pulled off his left glove and shoved it rather roughly in Benini’s mouth. For a second, Iris thought he’d choke and die before they even had a chance to ask anything.
“You.” Jinn’s narrow eyes slid toward Max, who peeked out from behind the bedspread. Picking up the rope left on the bed, he threw it at him. “Help me tie him to the bedpost. Now.”
Max wiped the makeup from his face, a mixture of both his and Iris’s, and did as he was told without a word. Jinn was wild with anger. His body tight, he threw off his wig and wiped the lipstick from his mouth with a dark expression that told her he was aching to maim something.
Panicking, Iris jumped to her feet, wringing her hands together. “Jinn, this wasn’t—”
“And you.” His venom was not directed toward her. Completely unrestrained now, Jinn pushed the sock down hard in Benini’s mouth, shoving his head into the bed. “It would be in your best interest to answer my questions quickly and honestly. I am not in a good mood.”
42
BENINI’S ROBES WERE SPREAD OUT under him across the bed, revealing his white underwear, his ankles and wrists tied to the wooden bedposts. With Jinn’s glove inside his mouth, his screams were muffled. Jinn watched him struggle for a moment. Max scratched his head with a sigh. Even with Benini helpless before them, neither seemed willing to do or say anything. Jinn wasn’t even looking at the Enlightener at all. The emptiness in his faraway gaze enveloped the whole room.
I can sort this all out later. I will sort this all out later. With a quiet but determined sigh, Iris brushed passed Jinn and removed the sock from Benini’s mouth.
“Help!” he screamed predictably. “Help! Somebody!”
Behind the door came Lily’s light laughter. “Oh, that’s just one of our customers, Benini. Most of you frequent customers should know his tastes already. Do ignore him and carry on.”
“Hear that, Mr. Benini?” Iris let a little of her real frustration show in her menacing tone. “No one’s coming for you.”
“What is this? These ropes!” He tugged his arms again to no avail. “I demand to know why I’m being bound and gagged in this establishment when it isn’t yet Saturday!”
Iris blinked and, shaking her head, shoved away the nasty images that had begun running rampant through her mind. “I’m asking the questions here, and you’d better listen to me.”
“You really should,” said Jinn quietly. “As she’s the type to break you into pieces when you least expect it.”
Iris looked at him for a moment, taken aback, but quickly refocused on Benini. “I know you’re a member of the Enlightenment Committee.”
Benini gasped loudly.
“Oh, please,” Iris snapped. “You told me the first time we met in the Pit.”
Benini let out a weak laugh. “Oh, did I? That certainly sounds like me.”
“I also know you’ve been looking into John Temple. I want to know why. Is it to do with the white crystal? Or the secrets underneath the Crystal Palace?”
Before coming here, Iris had calmly practiced the questions she’d ask. But now that she had Benini tied down, the questions flew out of her rebelliously and sloppily. Nonetheless, Benini expectedly gaped at her, shocked.
“Did Adam tell you?” After cursing, he bit his lip. “That boy is far too fond of you.”
“Certainly isn’t the only one,” Jinn mumbled, and as Max gulped, Iris shot him a dirty look. Jinn looked unapologetic, continuing as if he’d said nothing at all. “What do you know?”
Benini’s was the laughter of a soon-to-be dead man: high-pitched and terrified. “I might as well sign my obituary if I tell you everything here.”
“But if you don’t tell me, you’ll die by my hand.” Iris tried to make it sound believable. Judging by the whimper he let out as she wrapped her hand around his throat, it was working.
Jinn smirked. “I suppose killing comes easiest to a woman who can’t die.”
Iris released Benini’s neck. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
“This is an interrogation,” said Jinn, finally meeting her eyes with a glare. “Or are you finding it difficult to concentrate?”
“I cannot believe you right now!”
Max waved a hand. “Well—”
“Quiet!” they both yelled at the same time before he could get a word out.
Iris boiled inside, her hand nearly shaking. “Are you really so fragile that you can’t get ahold of your feelings even in this situation?”
“And what exactly am I supposed to be feeling in this situation?” Jinn gestured toward Max. “Seeing the two of you—”
“This isn’t about any of us!”
“Well, it kind of is,” said Max.
“I said, ‘quiet,’ ” spat Iris through gritted teeth. One more word from either of them and she might burn everyone alive.
“No, I won’t be quiet.” Max straightened out his dress rather dramatically and folded his arms. “This wouldn’t be such a mess if you could just sort out your own feelings.”
Iris let out an incredulous laugh. “Excuse me?”
“It’s quite clear how the two of us feel.”
This time, Jinn looked her dead in the eyes, his body quivering just slightly. But slightly was enough. Iris pressed her lips together, overwhelmed as the walls closed in.
“But I don’t know…” She stopped and swallowed a whimper. “This is so unfair.”
And through it all, Benini found it within himself to giggle, actually giggle.
“Well, this is a right mess, isn’t it?” he said.
He shouldn’t have. Soon Iris’s boot was in between his legs, ready to crush. “Tell me everything you know, now! Or the rest of your Fridays will pass by rather uneventfully.”
She began to press down as sweat beaded Benini’s forehead.
“Okay, okay!” Tears leaked from Benini’s eyes. “Oh, you horrid cow. You awful witch!”
“Why did you order your men to dig around John Temple’s grave?” Iris pressed down harder, causing Benini to sing like a canary.
“Because he has research on the white crystal that not even the Committee knows!”
Iris released some pressure off him, just enough to let him take in a shallow breath and keeping talking. “What is the white crystal?”
“We still don’t know.” Benini blinked tears from his eyes. “From our research, it appeared on the twentieth of September, fifty-six years ago. The day of the global twenty-four-hour eclipse. It didn’t exist before then.”
The Day of Darkness. Iris shivered but kept her foot firmly where it was. Out of the corner of her eye, she could
see Max and Jinn exchange glances.
“And then again a small piece of it was discovered in 1863. The Muvian Expedition funded by the Crown.”
“Muvian Expedition?” Jinn whispered.
“Within Lake Victoria, they found more white crystal—and parts of a machine.”
Wait. Iris remembered John Temple’s book. The Crown’s expedition that cared more about the treasures inside Lake Victoria…
“The Crown is researching it right now, aren’t they?” asked Iris.
Benini managed to smirk. “Underneath the Crystal Palace. But after decades, those idiots have no idea what they have in their hands.”
“And what machine is that, then?” Max leaned over the man.
At this, Benini’s grin deepened. “That which will define the fates of all mankind. The Helios.”
The term echoed deep within her as if she knew it intimately. As if she remembered it….
“The Moon Skeleton is the key that can be used to operate the Helios. Adam’s dear father had it once upon a time. The Helios, on the other hand, is the device that will open the door.”
“The door to what?” Jinn gripped the bedpost that Benini’s left leg was tied to.
“Other dimensions.”
Silence. None of them knew what to make of it. Only Benini seemed amused.
“Why do you think us Enlighteners decided on this tournament?”
Iris gripped her sleeve. “Adam told me. It was because you madmen believe the end of the world is coming. And you seek to guide humanity or some such foolishness.”
“It’s not foolishness, my dear.” Benini’s eyes glinted savagely. For the first time since meeting him, Iris was afraid. “The Hiva.”
Iris’s blood ran cold.
“What in the bloody hell is that?” demanded Max.
“An event. The cataclysm destined to befall earth and destroy all of mankind. It’s called the Hiva. And the Hiva’s arrival has been foretold.”
Jinn squeezed his hands into fists. “By who?”
Benini rested his head against the pillow. “Now, if I were to tell you that, I’d really die.”
Upon his right palm, Iris could see the mark of the Oath Maker. That’s what Adam had called the pink scar of a skull with a sword through it.
“The global eclipse lasting a day,” said Benini. “The first appearance of the white crystal. Those were signs.” Benini chuckled. “Like with Noah’s flood, soon this earth will become uninhabitable. The Helios will be the key to man’s revival. The Crown believes they’ve found new material they can use as weaponry to wage war upon other nations and strengthen their empire. But we of the Enlightenment Committee have a deeper understanding of things. And we’re already looking ahead to the new empire to come. An empire that will be of our making after the end.”
“Perhaps he’s really gone mad,” Max whispered. “It could be trauma.”
It did sound mad. It was mad. As Jinn had once said, the Enlightenment Committee was nothing but a doomsday cult filled with the bored, supernatural-obsessed elite. And yet why did Iris’s heart quiver? Why did her stomach lurch from both fear and need? Taking her foot off Benini, she stumbled back. Jinn watched her, reaching for her hand with a worried look before refocusing his attention on their captive.
“What did John Temple know that no one else did?” he asked.
“I don’t know, you slow beast of burden.”
In two steps, Jinn was hovering over him, his hand gripping the collar around his neck.
“B-but!” Benini stammered. “We believe it’s all in his research—especially in his journal.”
The journal now in Uma Malakar’s possession.
“We haven’t been able to find it, as much as we’ve looked. I really don’t know exactly what he discovered,” Benini continued. Did he really not know that Uma had it? “But I do know that he had a deeper understanding of the cataclysm to come. It’s why he betrayed us. I suppose the more he learned about it, the more feasible it became that he could one day stop it.”
“You don’t want to stop it?” Iris whispered.
“You can’t stop what’s foretold,” Benini said, too peacefully. “But imagine becoming the king of a new era. What untold wonders await us after the apocalypse? What kind of society can we create with those fortunate enough to survive the cataclysm and become our future subjects?”
But this man already had everything. Enough money and leisure to frequent brothels in between watching the poor and desperate murder each other for promised winnings.
Iris felt sick. She couldn’t be in the room with this man another second. But there were two more questions she needed to ask. One was simple but led to a dead end.
“The South Kensington explosion. How did it create us Fanciful Freaks? What exactly happened that day of the fair?” she asked.
“That, I don’t know.” Benini nearly screeched when Iris came at him. “I’m telling the truth! I swear! Please! Oh, won’t someone restrain her?”
The last question she was too afraid to ask.
Where do I fit into all this?
No, she couldn’t dare speak it. But there was a way to find out.
It was clear as day that finding John Temple was crucial, just like Adam had said. But since she couldn’t yet sense the man himself, stealing his journal would be the next best option.
Iris looked at the clock hanging on the wall beside the bed. Half past nine in the evening. As she thought of their meeting with the other teams at midnight, a plan began to hatch.
“I need to know everything you do about the experiments happening in the Crystal Palace.” Iris refused to give Benini the pleasure of seeing her fear. Instead, she made him quiver underneath the red canopy. “And you will tell me how to get inside the Basement there.”
Benini swallowed. “Will you kill me, you cruel thing? You should. For with the information I’ll tell you, you’re as good as dead too, even if you manage to win the tournament. Once I tell the Committee what happened, they’ll hunt you down.”
“Not before they kill you,” Jinn reminded him.
Benini squirmed in dismay.
“So I guess this’ll just be our little secret, then?” Max winked and patted him on the leg.
“Even so,” Benini continued, “the journey you’re embarking on is a dangerous one. You’re all in over your head. Isn’t it better to remain blissfully unaware while you fight for your winnings? Imagine what you can do with all that money.”
Iris glanced at Jinn and Max, who, with stoic expressions, waited on her word. “I think from now on, I’ll decide what I do,” she answered him. “Now talk.”
43
JAMES! YOU’VE COME BACK, OLD chap! Where’ve you been?”
The man Iris had burned to ashes dragged a weak Iris, back in her regular clothes, through the empty Crystal Palace. Her leaden feet could barely keep up with the rough tugs of the double-knotted cord holding her captive. Behind her, a solemn Jinn and Max followed, their heads bowed, their hands tied.
Three men in vests and brown corduroy jackets ran up to them underneath the cast-iron domed ceiling, their expressions changing from hostile to bewildered once they saw their colleague, who’d mysteriously disappeared the night a strange wildfire had almost set Penge Peak ablaze. Jinn’s fire had likely been a convenient excuse to keep visitors away while the Crown continued their experiments underneath the Crystal Palace—including those on the Fanciful Freaks not participating in the tournament, if she remembered Adam correctly.
To save themselves from the final fight to the death, experimentation was precisely what Jinn and Max chose. Turning their partner in was a sign of good will.
After Jinn had confessed, the men nodded. “Good, good. We can always use more experiments. The ones we have aren’t faring too well.” One of the men rolled up his sleeves and inspected Iris. “This is the female specimen that disappeared that night, right?” said one of the men. “The one Doctor Pratt’s been asking for?”
Iris reminded herself to keep her head low and her expression despondent. She was a defeated “specimen,” after all.
James nodded. Iris had told him not to speak. Every time he was about to form a syllable, for show of course, he ended up hacking and coughing, causing his colleagues to believe that he’d been sick. It was the only way they could think of to keep up the ruse.
“All right, then. Come on, bring these freaks to the Basement.”
After the men had turned their backs, Iris, Max, and Jinn exchanged glances before following them down the empty halls of the Crystal Palace.
It had been only a few hours since their midnight meeting at Wilton’s. It’d taken that long for Lucille to mold her face into a close approximation of James according to Iris’s detailed descriptions. She could never forget the face of the man she’d killed.
“The interrogation went well, but there are still details I need to confirm,” Iris had told the group after she, Max, and Jinn had changed back into their normal attire. “About us and our gifts. About the Committee’s plans. Give me time. I swear I’ll get to the bottom of it all by daybreak. But I’ll still need your help.”
Jacob’s secret language. Hawkins’s Sliding. Lucille’s shape-shifting and exuberant willingness to wear men’s clothes. Everything had worked to bring them to this exact place and moment. One of the men they followed now took them around the corner. Then, after more winding hallways, he threw open the curtains hiding a small space near the rightmost wall that normally would have been used for an exhibition. Gripping a metal handle in the floor, he opened a hatch. And down the stairs the captives descended.
“The end of the world,” Cherice had whispered nervously. “Sounds mad as hell, but if it’s really why they want us all to kill each other… I mean, it is, right?”
“Whether it is or isn’t, we’ll know soon enough.” Jinn’s hands were clenching and unclenching, something he did before particularly difficult performances.
“Remember: to get out of the Crystal Palace, you need to get back up to the area Hawkins Slid you to,” Jacob reminded them before their mission had begun. “It’s the only area of the Crystal Palace he’s ever been to, though it was years ago.”
The Bones of Ruin Page 43