The Legend Thief

by The Legend Thief (mobi)

  "Touché. Maybe I should try out for the football team." Hannah laughed. "Now that would be a disaster. It would be like Tick trying out for cheerleading, which, unlike football, is actually hard. Just try doubling down from a chin-chin at full extension. I'm sorry-quarterback? Honestly, how hard can it be? No offense."

  "No offense? It's all offense when you're quarterback." Sky quipped.

  Hannah gave a well-deserved groan. "Sorry, Sky-didn't mean to put you two rungs below a cheerleader in the pecking order. But that pun more than makes up for my insult. Is he still following us?"

  "What? Who?" said Sky, looking around, suddenly nervous.

  "Tick," said Hannah.

  Sky looked over his shoulder and spotted Tick skulking some distance behind them.

  "T-BONE AND HANDS WENT TO THE LIBRARY!" Tick yelled, drawing looks. "THEY WANTED ME TO TELL YOU TO MEET THEM I N SPECIAL COLLECTIONS!"

  "Er. Thanks!" Sky called back.

  "I NEVER GO THERE!" Tick continued, yelling far louder than he needed to. "TOO DARK! AND I THINK THERE ARE SPIDERS! OR MAYBE DUST BUNNIES WITH LEGS! ARE THOSE DANGEROUS AT ALL, DO YOU THINK?"

  "He's been following us since that last intersection," said Hannah, not bothering to keep her voice down. "He's always t1ying to carry my books and walk me to class! HE DOESN'T REALIZE HOW ANNOYING THAT IS!" she added loudly.

  "I CAN'T NOT WALK YOU TO CLASS!" Tick yelled back. "WE HAVE THE SAME CLASS AND THIS IS THE ONLY HALLWAY TO IT!”

  Sky felt distinctly uncomfortable. Everyone was watching Tick and Hannah and whispering behind their notebooks. Sky wanted to bury his head. When presented with a choice between facing monsters or Hannah's social life, he'd take monsters any day.

  "Hmpf," Hannah harrumphed. "Likely story."

  "Uh, I think this is where I take my leave," said Sky. "Oh. All right, then," said Hannah, sounding surprised. Sky fled up the hallway, speed walking.

  "Let me know if you need a ride home later!" Hannah called after him.

  "Lovely day, think I'll walk!" Sky yelled back, fearing her driving as much as her social life.

  "But it's raining outside!" Hannah replied.

  "Like the rain! Cleans the pores!" Sky retorted, quickening his pace.

  "When it rains, it pours-it doesn't clean your pores!"

  Hannah corrected.

  "Good to know! Keep that in mind when I get dirty pores!" Sky yelled, finally turning the corner.

  He glanced out a window as he shuffled past. Rain fell in sheets thick as curtains ... or maybe curtains thick as sheets. Either way, it was a lot of rain, and he'd just committed to helping Nikola move instruments later that afternoon.

  "Perfect," he muttered.

  Chapter 16: Dedications, Revelations & Lies

  Sky found T-Bone and Hands huddled around a small table, looking at books beneath a sputtering incandescent bulb.

  If possible, special collections looked even messier than last time he'd visited, and it was just as big, if not bigger­ several times larger than the library itself-which was just messed up.

  Hands glanced up at him, a broad grin on his face. "Nice Valentine’s Day shirt. I didn’t realize you could fit so many pink hearts on a shirt that small. Weren't you wearing an ugly hoodie this morning?"

  ''I'm not a shifter, if that's what you're asking," Sky retorted.

  "I have no doubt you're the real Sky," said Hands. "Shifters have too much self-respect to wear a shirt like that. Or possibly not enough.. .."

  Sky sighed. He pulled off his backpack, set it on the table, and then flopped into a chair. "So have you figured out where we can find Alexander's blade, or have you simply been scanning fashion catalogs?"

  "Sure, we know where to find it," T-Bone replied. "You do?" Sky asked.

  "No," Hands admitted. "But we've learned a bit more about it, and we know where it was supposed to be."

  "Where?"

  "Ah, that answer requires a story," Hands said, seemingly enjoying himself. "You see, centuries ago, Alexander and Solomon went to fight the Arkhon-just two forlorn heroes against an unstoppable enemy. Alone. With no one and nothing to accompany them save their own tragic destinies."

  "Can you just skip to what happened?" Sky asked.

  Before Hands could continue, T-Bone jumped in. "They fought the Arkhon, something went wrong-we don't know what-and only Alexander came back. He told everyone that Solomon had died at the Arkhon's hands. A sh01t time after, Alexander was found dead in his study, stabbed through his neck with his own shimmering blade."

  "You think Solomon did it?" Sky asked, sitting up straighter. "You think Solomon could have the blade?" His stomach sank as he considered the possibility. If Solomon had the blade, then there was no way to recover it short of opening the prison.

  "We thought of that," said T-Bone. "But more digging showed us that Solomon was trapped at the time. He couldn't have done it, not personally."

  "So who killed Alexander, then? And where is the blade?" Sky asked.

  "We don't know who killed Alexander. It looks like the hunters never figured it out," said Hands. "After his death Alexander and his rusted blade were buried in the Grove of the Fallen. Every record we can find points to the Grove."

  "Well, they're not there now," said Sky, "and the only clue is that riddle on the coffin lid: 'With Hunter's Mark the buried dead shall shimmering blade hold in my stead."'

  "It makes it sound like someone with a Hunter's Mark could get the blade by burying themselves in the coffin," said Hands, looking pointedly at Sky.

  "I know," Sky replied. "That's what I'm afraid of. But if the blade was buried with Alexander, then who left the riddle? And wouldn't the blade still be there? It has to mean some­ thing else."

  "Are you sure you don't just want it to mean something else?" T-Bone asked.

  Sky didn't reply. He'd seen enough dead bodies in the Sleeping Lands to last a lifetime; he had no desire to join them by burying himself alive.

  "The weird part of it all is that several hunters claimed to have seen Alexander walking out of his study moments before they found the body," said Hands.

  "I think I have an answer to that one." T-Bone slid a book across the table.

  Sky glanced at the title." Botany Most Botanical? Don't think

  I 've read this." He opened the cover and found the dedication:

  To my father, who took me in when no one else would, and to Solomon Rose, may he find in death the answers he lost in life.

  "It's Alexander Drake's last book," said T-Bone. "Unfinished. It simply ends in the middle of a formula for making something called Slippery Wick Brew."

  Sky nodded. "''ve heard of it before. In The Slippery Wick of Windenshum, Alexander uses it to change his appearance in the Mountains of Moldy Foreboding"-Hands chuckled-"to stop a renegade hunter who's eating up all their cabbages."

  "Cabbages? Seriously?" said Hands.

  Sky shrugged. "The hunter liked his cabbage; what can I say? Anyway, Alexander befriends a Marrowick near the town, and the creature teaches him to create a beverage out of bits of Marrowick wax, chaotic Gloom, and other stuff that allows him to change his appearance: the Slippery Wick Brew."

  "You mean the drink lets you shift like a Whisper?" T-Bone asked.

  "Hardly," Sky replied, "it's not a true shift. Whisper become the creature they shift into over the three days of the full moon, any creature they taste minus the memories. And then, of course, they're stuck that way until the next full moon unless they want to risk turning into a mindless Gloom. Slippery Wick, on the other hand, only allowed Alexander to move his fat around."

  "What good is that?" Hands asked.

  "Well, he could change his surface appearance," Sky said. "He could make his nose bigger, his cheeks hollower, or even grow an inch by giving himself a fat head. That, plus a little hair dye, and he could look like just about anyone. It couldn't make you stronger or change your bones or give you tentacles, for example."

  "Too bad," said Hands. "''ve been thin
king of growing me some tentacles." Hands paused and then shook his head seemingly amazed. "But seriously, let me get this straight: We have shifters that can look like hunters; we have Bedlam who can possess hunters; and now we have hunters who can look like other hunters? Is that about right?"

  "Don't forget Solomon Rose-a hunter who took over a monster's body and booted out the monster," T-Bone added. "The moral here is: Always ask for ID."

  "No kidding," said Hands. "Since last year, I just sort of assume nobody is who they say they are and go from there." "You guys are missing 'hunters and monsters that become the same person the moment they're Changed,"' Sky said quietly.

  They both looked at him.

  "Right," said Hands. "Well, that goes without saying. The point here is that whoever killed Drake could've taken the Slippery Wick Brew and made himself look like Alexander so he or she could escape unnoticed. That would explain how all those hunters saw Alexander leave his study moments after his death."

  "Let's ignore all the impostors and everything else for the moment," said Sky. "Right now the only thing that matters is Alexander's blade. What else did you find out?"

  T-Bone closed Botany Most Botanical and slid it to the side, grabbing another book from his stack. "This is The Shimmering Blade of Aranoth."

  Sky perked up. He'd never heard of Aranoth before, and the book sounded promising.

  "Aranoth was a hunter during the War of Legend-you're familiar with that, right?" T-Bone asked.

  Sky nodded. "Somewhat. Most of the stories Phineas gave me were from the time of Solomon and Alexander, or thereabouts-the time of the Edgewalker Wars. The War or Legend was mud earlier, a thousand years or more. I did some research a while back. To be honest, I couldn't find much."

  "Neither could we," T-Bone admitted. "But we found enough. Legend was an unbelievable horror, a big monster. Scared everything. He nearly destroyed the world, like, the actual planet. The First Hunter formed the Hunters or Legend to stop him. Monster turned against monster, hunter against hunter, and Legend's five children- Bedlam, Vulpine, Erachnus, Mar, and the Arkhon-fought first for him, and then against him until eventually Legend was thrown down and his power broken. Does that about cover it?"

  "More than I found," said Sky, who didn't know any­ thing about Vulpine, Erachnus, or Mar, even though he'd heard their names on occasion. He'd also figured out that the statue of the woman standing over Solomon in the Grove of the Fallen was the First Hunter, his ancestor, according to Chase. He tried to imagine Phineas as the "consort" to such a woman, as Morton had claimed. If Phineas was married to the First Hunter, did that mean Sky was actually descended from Phineas? Had Mom and Dad simply told Sky that Phineas was his uncle to stop him from asking awkward questions? Whatever the case, if Phineas was married to the First Hunter, Sky really, really hoped her statue wasn't built to scale.

  "So, at one point, Bedlam was a good guy?" Sky asked.

  T-Bone shrugged. "He helped the hunters defeat his father, but who knows why he did it? For all we know, he could've wanted to replace him."

  Sky nodded, but he wasn't convinced. Every story he'd ever read about Bedlam made him look like a villain, but these stories were written by the same people who'd tried to kill him last night, the same people who thought Solomon Rose was a hero. If Sky could just talk with Bedlam ... Of course, to do that he'd have to find him first.

  ''The shimmering blades were created during the War of Legend, one for each of the thirteen original hunters, including Phineas, Morton, and Winston, among others," said Hands. "The Shimmering Blade of Aranoth calls the blades 'sticky."'

  "What's that supposed to mean?" asked Sky.

  "Do you remember what Phineas told you about black rutabagas?" asked T-Bone.

  Sky nodded. "Take a rutabaga, tie a Barrow Hag's nose hair around it, and bury it under a harvest moon to get a black rutabaga. Eat it, and you can jump as high as a Barrow Hag for a tune, with some uncomfortable side effects."

  "Exactly," said T-Bone. "The thing is, if you stab a black rutabaga with a shimmering blade, the blade will eat it."

  "Like, literally? 'Cause that's kind of gross," said Sky.

  "Not literally," T-Bone snapped. "It absorbs the important bits and converts them into tiny shimmering gems-gems the hunter can use later. The more gems, the more powerful the blade."

  "Beats carrying around a bunch of black rutabagas, I guess," said Sky. "Or barrow weed, or Slippery Wick, or DNA samples for shifters ... Okay, I'm beginning to see its usefulness."

  Hands nodded. "The shimmering blade is a storehouse for a hunter's most closely held secrets. Each blade is unique. That's why Morton can't use his own blade to free Bedlam."

  "Or keep him trapped forever," Sky added. "Not to mention how many other secrets it must hold, tricks even Morton hasn't discovered. Alexander was probably the greatest botanist the world has ever seen."

  "But first Morton would have to claim the blade," said T-Bone. "Meaning the current owner would have to give it to him, or Morton would have to kill him and take it."

  "So if Bedlam wanted to free himself from the Chrysalis prison, he'd need four things," said Sky. "First, the blade. Second, ownership. Third, his body. And fourth, he'd need to know what made Alexander's blade unique-what's the secret ingredient within it that can free Bedlam?"

  "Not to complicate matters, but it's also possible that there's nothing hidden within," Hands pointed out. "Those gems can be removed from the blade at any time. Alexander may have taken out the secret ingredient to make it harder for someone to free Bedlam."

  Sky shook his head. "Let's find the blade first and worry about the rest later."

  Sky closed The Shimmering Blade of Aranoth and slid it back to T-Bone.

  “There's one more thing to consider, something that might lead us to the blade." Sky opened his backpack and withdrew the letter he'd taken from Ursula's office. "Someone raided Ursula's office today-she's safe, by the way, on vacation some­ where-but I found this in her desk." He set the note on the table. "I think I know what some of this means, but not all. Maybe we can fill in the blanks."

  Sky looked over the letter:

  U,

  Still hunting C. P and E are Slippery and in place. Give love and pictures to N. Look for the Marrowick delivery on the setter in the fit between the bedposts-sponsor is unclear…beware. C wants it, too; watch out for Harrow Wrights.

  - M

  On his paper, Sky took his best guess and wrote:

  Ursula,

  STill hunting Cassandra. Phineas and Errand are Slippery and in place. Give love and picTure to Nikola. Look for The Marrowick delivery on The seTTer in The piT between The bedposTs-sponsor is unclear (i.e., I don’T know who The Marrowick is working for or why They’re giving us The delivery)…beware. Cassandra wants iT, Too; waTch ouT for Harrow Wrights (children of Bedlam That look human buT can bursT into flame, Throw molTen meTal, and develop hardened armor as They cool).

  -Malvidia? Morton?

  "You think Phineas is alive?" Hands asked.

  "Morton does, and I've got suspicions of my own as well , especially if Phineas drank Slippery Wick Brew," said Sky. "And Errand . .."

  He filled them in on his dream from the previous night. "We don't know anything for sure," said Sky. ''I'm not going to get my hopes up again. Maybe P is someone else-this is all guesswork; I'm just filling in puzzle pieces. But until we know more, P is Phineas. And I think N is Nikola, the janitor."

  "The janitor?" Hands asked.

  "Long story," Sky replied, not wanting to go into all the details, "but basically, I ran into him last night and he had half a picture-a woman who looked familiar. He dropped it before he ran off. Here, I've still got it."

  Sky pulled out the picture of the dark-haired woman and showed them.

  "Never seen her before," said T-Bone. "Me neither," Hands added.

  Sky stared at it ... Where had he seen her? He put the picture away. "Well, apparently it was supposed to jog some memory in Nikola.
He's a former hunter and he helped Phineas build the prison. It could be important."

  "And M?" said T-Bone. "I don't see how M could be Malvidia or Morton. Malvidia doesn't know Ursula lives in Exile, and Morton wouldn't help anyone except, apparently, Solomon Rose."

  Sky took a deep breath. One crisis at a time.

  "Well, 'on the setter in the pit between the bedposts' is talking about the bowling alley," Hands observed.

  "It is?" Sky asked.

  "Yep. It's bowling slang: setter-i.e. pinsetters in the pit; between the bedposts, a seven-ten split," said Hands. "Whatever the Marrowick delivered, it's at the bowling alley­ or was-and it's probably sitting on the pinsetter for lane eight or m.ne."