City of Bones mi-1

by Cassandra Clare

  There it was: the true vision, glowing through the false one like light through dark glass. She saw the soaring spires of the cathedral, the dull gleam of the leaded windows, the brass plate fixed to the stone wall beside the door, the Institute's name etched into it. She held the vision for a moment before letting it go almost with a sigh.

  "It's a glamour, Simon," she said. "It doesn't really look like this."

  "If this is your idea of glamour, I'm having second thoughts about letting you make me over."

  Jace fitted the key into the lock, glancing over his shoulder at Simon. "I'm not sure you're quite sensible of the honor I'm doing you," he said. "You'll be the first mundane who has ever been inside the Institute."

  "Probably the smell keeps the rest of them away."

  "Ignore him," Clary said to Jace, and elbowed Simon in the side. "He always says exactly what comes into his head. No filters."

  "Filters are for cigarettes and coffee," Simon muttered under his breath as they went inside. "Two things I could use right now, incidentally."

  Clary thought longingly of coffee as they made their way up a winding set of stone stairs, each one carved with a glyph. She was beginning to recognize some of them—they tantalized her sight the way half-heard words in a foreign language sometimes tantalized her hearing, as if by just concentrating harder she could force some meaning out of them.

  Clary and the two boys reached the elevator and rode up in silence. She was still thinking about coffee, big mugs of coffee that were half milk the way her mother would make them in the morning. Sometimes Luke would bring them bags of sweet rolls from the Golden Carriage Bakery in Chinatown. At the thought of Luke, Clary's stomach tightened, her appetite vanishing.

  The elevator came to a hissing stop, and they were again in the entryway Clary remembered. Jace shrugged off his jacket, threw it over the back of a nearby chair, and whistled through his teeth. In a few seconds Church appeared, slinking low to the ground, his yellow eyes gleaming in the dusty air. "Church," Jace said, kneeling down to stroke the cat's gray head. "Where's Alec, Church? Where's Hodge?"

  Church arched his back and meowed. Jace crinkled his nose, which Clary might have found cute in other circumstances. "Are they in the library?" He stood up, and Church shook himself, trotted a little way down the corridor, and glanced back over his shoulder. Jace followed the cat as if this were the most natural thing in the world, indicating with a wave of his hand that Clary and Simon were to fall into step behind him.

  "I don't like cats," Simon said, his shoulder bumping Clary's as they maneuvered the narrow hallway.

  "It's unlikely," Jace said, "knowing Church, that he likes you, either."

  They were passing through one of the corridors that were lined with bedrooms. Simon's eyebrows rose. "How many people live here, exactly?"

  "It's an institute," Clary said. "A place where Shadowhunters can stay when they're in the city. Like a sort of combination safe haven and research facility."

  "I thought it was a church."

  "It's inside a church."

  "Because that's not confusing." She could hear the nerves under his flippant tone. Instead of shushing him, Clary reached down and took his hand, winding her fingers through his cold ones. His hand was clammy, but he returned the pressure with a grateful squeeze.

  "I know it's weird," she said quietly, "but you just have to go along with it. Trust me."

  Simon's dark eyes were serious. "I trust you," he said. "I don't trust him." He cut his glance toward Jace, who was walking a few paces ahead of them, apparently conversing with the cat. Clary wondered what they were talking about. Politics? Opera? The high price of tuna?

  "Well, try," she said. "Right now he's the best chance I'm going to have of finding my mom."

  A little shudder passed over Simon. "This place feels not right to me," he whispered.

  Clary remembered how she'd felt waking up here this morning—as if everything were both alien and familiar at the same time. For Simon, clearly, there was nothing of that familiarity, only the sense of the strange, the alien and inimical. "You don't have to stay with me," she said, though she'd fought Jace on the train for the right to keep Simon with her, pointing out that after his three days of watching Luke, he might well know something that would be useful to them once they had a chance to break it down in detail.

  "Yes," Simon said, "I do." And he let go of her hand as they turned through a doorway and found themselves inside a kitchen. It was an enormous kitchen, and unlike the rest of the Institute, it was all modern, with steel counters and glassed-in shelves holding rows of crockery. Next to a red cast-iron stove stood Isabelle, a round spoon in her hand, her dark hair pinned up on top of her head. Steam was rising from the pot, and ingredients were strewn everywhere—tomatoes, chopped garlic and onions, strings of dark-looking herbs, grated piles of cheese, some shelled peanuts, a handful of olives, and a whole fish, its eye staring glassily upward.

  "I'm making soup," Isabelle said, waving a spoon at Jace. "Are you hungry?" She glanced behind him then, her dark gaze taking in Simon as well as Clary. "Oh, my God," she said with finality. "You brought another mundie here? Hodge is going to kill you."

  Simon cleared his throat. "I'm Simon," he said.

  Isabelle ignored him. "JACE WAYLAND," she said. "Explain yourself."

  Jace was glaring at the cat. "I told you to bring me to Alec! Backstabbing Judas."

  Church rolled onto his back, purring contentedly.

  "Don't blame Church," Isabelle said. "It's not his fault Hodge is going to kill you." She plunged the spoon back into the pot. Clary wondered what exactly peanut-fish-olive-tomato soup tasted like.

  "I had to bring him," Jace said. "Isabelle—today I saw two of the men who killed my father."

  Isabelle's shoulders tightened, but when she turned around, she looked more upset than surprised. "I don't suppose he's one of them?" she asked, pointing her spoon at Simon.

  To Clary's surprise, Simon said nothing to this. He was too busy staring at Isabelle, rapt and openmouthed. Of course, Clary realized with a sharp stab of annoyance. Isabelle was exactly Simon's type—tall, glamourous, and beautiful. Come to think of it, maybe that was everyone's type. Clary stopped wondering about the peanut-fish-olive-tomato soup and started wondering what would happen if she dumped the contents of the pot on Isabella’s head.

  "Of course not," Jace said. "Do you think he'd be alive now if he were?"

  Isabelle cast an indifferent look at Simon. "I suppose not," she said, absently dropping a piece offish on the floor. Church fell on it ravenously.

  "No wonder he brought us here," said Jace disgustedly. "I can't believe you've been stuffing him with fish again. He's looking distinctly podgy."

  "He does not look podgy. Besides, none of the rest of you ever eat anything. I got this recipe from a water sprite at the Chelsea Market. He said it was delicious—"

  "If you knew how to cook, maybe I would eat," Jace muttered.

  Isabelle froze, her spoon poised dangerously. "What did you say?"

  Jace edged toward the fridge. "I said I'm going to look for a snack to eat."

  "That's what I thought you said." Isabelle returned her attention to the soup. Simon continued to stare at Isabelle. Clary, inexplicably furious, dropped her backpack on the floor and followed Jace to the refrigerator.

  "I can't believe you're eating," she hissed.

  "What should I be doing instead?" he inquired with maddening calm. The inside of the fridge was filled with milk cartons whose expiration dates reached back several weeks, and plastic Tupperware containers labeled with masking tape lettered in red ink: hodge's. do not eat.

  "Wow, he's like a crazy roommate," Clary observed, momentarily diverted.

  "What, Hodge? He just likes things in order." Jace took one of the containers out of the fridge and opened it. "Hmm. Spaghetti."

  "Don't ruin your appetite," Isabelle called.

  "That," said Jace, kicking the fridge door shut and sei
zing a fork from a drawer, "is exactly what I intend to do." He looked at Clary. "Want some?"

  She shook her head.

  "Of course not," he said around a mouthful, "you ate all those sandwiches."

  "It wasn't that many sandwiches." She glanced over at Simon, who appeared to have succeeded in engaging Isabelle in conversation. "Can we go find Hodge now?"

  "You seem awfully eager to get out of here."

  "Don't you want to tell him what we saw?"

  "I haven't decided yet." Jace set the container down and thoughtfully licked spaghetti sauce off his knuckle. "But if you want to go so badly—"

  "I do."

  "Fine." He seemed awfully calm, she thought, not scary-calm as he had been before, but more contained than he ought to be. She wondered how often he let glimpses of his real self peek through the façade that was as hard and shiny as the coat of lacquer on one of her mother's Japanese boxes.

  "Where are you going?" Simon looked up as they reached the door. Jagged bits of dark hair fell into his eyes; he looked stupidly dazed, Clary thought unkindly, as if someone had hit him across the back of the head with a two-by-four.

  "To find Hodge," she said. "I need to tell him about what happened at Luke's."

  Isabelle looked up. "Are you going to tell him that you saw those men, Jace? The ones that—"

  "I don't know." He cut her off. "So keep it to yourself for now."

  She shrugged. "All right. Are you going to come back? Do you want any soup?"

  "No," said Jace.

  "Do you think Hodge will want any soup?"

  "No one wants any soup."

  "I want some soup," Simon said.

  "No, you don't," said Jace. "You just want to sleep with Isabelle."

  Simon was appalled. "That is not true."

  "How flattering," Isabelle murmured into the soup, but she was smirking.

  "Oh, yes it is," said Jace. "Go ahead and ask her—then she can turn you down and the rest of us can get on with our lives while you fester in miserable humiliation." He snapped his fingers. "Hurry up, mundie boy, we've got work to do."

  Simon looked away, flushed with embarrassment. Clary, who a moment ago would have been meanly pleased, felt a rush of anger toward Jace. "Leave him alone," she snapped. "There's no need to be sadistic just because he isn't one of you."

  "One of us," said Jace, but the sharp look had gone out of his eyes. "I'm going to find Hodge. Come along or not, it's your choice." The kitchen door swung shut behind him, leaving Clary alone with Simon and Isabelle.

  Isabelle ladled some of the soup into a bowl and pushed it across the counter toward Simon without looking at him. She was still smirking, though—Clary could feel it. The soup was a dark green color, studded with floating brown things.

  "I'm going with Jace," Clary said. "Simon… ?"

  "Mmgnstayhr," he mumbled, looking at his feet.

  "What?"

  "I'm going to stay here." Simon parked himself on a stool. "I'm hungry."

  "Fine." Clary's throat felt tight, as if she'd swallowed something either very hot or very cold. She stalked out of the kitchen, Church slinking at her feet like a cloudy gray shadow.

  In the hallway Jace was twirling one of the seraph blades between his fingers. He pocketed it when he saw her. "Kind of you to leave the lovebirds to it."

  Clary frowned at him. "Why are you always such an asshat?"

  "An asshat?" Jace looked as if he were about to laugh.

  "What you said to Simon—"

  "I was trying to save him some pain. Isabelle will cut out his heart and walk all over it in high-heeled boots. That's what she does to boys like that."

  "Is that what she did to you?" Clary said, but Jace only shook his head before turning to Church.

  "Hodge," he said. "And really Hodge this time. Bring us anywhere else, and I'll make you into a tennis racket."

  The Persian snorted and slunk down the hall ahead of them. Clary, trailing a little behind Jace, could see the stress and tiredness in the line of Jace's shoulders. She wondered if the tension ever really left him. "Jace."

  He looked at her. "What?"

  "I'm sorry. For snapping at you."

  He chuckled. "Which time?"

  "You snap at me, too, you know."

  "I know," he said, surprising her. "There's something about you that's so—"

  "Irritating?"

  "Unsettling."

  She wanted to ask if he meant that in a good or a bad way, but didn't. She was too afraid he'd make a joke out of the answer. She cast about for something else to say. "Does Isabelle always make dinner for you?" she asked.

  "No, thank God. Most of the time the Lightwoods are here and Maryse—that's Isabelle's mother—she cooks for us. She's an amazing cook." He looked dreamy, the way Simon had looked gazing at Isabelle over the soup.

  "Then how come she never taught Isabelle?" They were passing through the music room now, where she'd found Jace playing the piano that morning. Shadows had gathered thickly in the corners.

  "Because," Jace said slowly, "it's only been recently that women have been Shadowhunters along with men. I mean, there have always been women in the Clave—mastering the runes, creating weaponry, teaching the Killing Arts—but only a few were warriors, ones with exceptional abilities. They had to fight to be trained. Maryse was a part of the first generation of Clave women who were trained as a matter of course—and I think she never taught Isabelle how to cook because she was afraid that if she did, Isabelle would be relegated to the kitchen permanently."

  "Would she have been?" Clary asked curiously. She thought of Isabelle in Pandemonium, how confident she'd been and how assuredly she'd used her blood-spattering whip.

  Jace laughed softly. "Not Isabelle. She's one of the best Shadowhunters I've ever known."

  "Better than Alec?"

  Church, streaking soundlessly ahead of them through the gloom, came to a sudden halt and meowed. He was crouched at the foot of a metal spiral staircase that spun up into a hazy half-light overhead. "So he's in the greenhouse," Jace said. It took Clary a moment before she realized he was speaking to the cat. "No surprise there."

  "The greenhouse?" Clary said.

  Jace swung himself onto the first step. "Hodge likes it up there. He grows medicinal plants, things we can use. Most of them only grow in Idris. I think it reminds him of home."

  Clary followed him. Her shoes clattered on the metal steps; Jace's didn't. "Is he better than Isabelle?" she asked again. "Alec, I mean."

  He paused and looked down at her, leaning down from the steps as if he were poised to fall. She remembered her dream: angels, falling and burning. "Better?" he said. "At demon-slaying? No, not really. He's never killed a demon."

  "Really?"

  "I don't know why not. Maybe because he's always protecting Izzy and me." They had reached the top of the stairs. A set of double doors greeted them, carved with patterns of leaves and vines. Jace shouldered them open.

  The smell struck Clary the moment she passed through the doors: a green, sharp smell, the smell of living and growing things, of dirt and the roots that grew in dirt. She had been expecting something much smaller, something the size of the little greenhouse out behind St. Xavier's, where the AP biology students cloned pea pods, or whatever it was they did. This was a huge glass-walled enclosure, lined with trees whose thickly leaved branches breathed out cool green-scented air. There were bushes hung with glossy berries, red and purple and black, and small trees hung with oddly-shaped fruits she'd never seen before.

  Clary exhaled. "It smells like…" Springtime, she thought, before the heat comes and crushes the leaves into pulp and withers the petals off the flowers.

  "Home," said Jace, "to me." He pushed aside a hanging frond and ducked past it. Clary followed.

  The greenhouse was laid out in what seemed to Clary's untrained eye no particular pattern, but everywhere she looked was a riot of color: blue purple blossoms spilling down the side of a shining green hedge, a tra
iling vine studded with jewel-toned orange buds. They emerged into a cleared space where a low granite bench rested against the bole of a drooping tree with silvery green leaves. Water glimmered in a stone-bound rock pool. Hodge sat on the bench, his black bird perched on his shoulder. He had been staring thoughtfully down at the water, but looked skyward at their approach. Clary followed his gaze upward and saw the glass roof of the greenhouse shining above them like the surface of an inverted lake.

  "You look like you're waiting for something," Jace observed, breaking a leaf off a nearby bough and twirling it between his fingers. For someone who seemed so contained, he had a lot of nervous habits. Perhaps he just liked to be constantly in motion.

  "I was lost in thought." Hodge rose from the bench, stretching out his arm for Hugo. The smile faded from his face as he looked at them. "What happened? You look as if—"

  "We were attacked," Jace said shortly. "Forsaken."

  "Forsaken warriors? Here?"

  "Warrior," said Jace. "We only saw one."

  "But Dorothea said there were more," Clary added.

  "Dorothea?" Hodge held a hand up. "This might be easier if you took events in order."

  "Right." Jace gave Clary a warning look, cutting her off before she could start talking. Then he launched into a recital of the afternoon's events, leaving out only one detail—that the men in Luke's apartment had been the same men who'd killed his father seven years ago. "Clary's mother's friend—or whatever he is, really—goes by the name Luke Garroway," Jace finished finally. "But while we were at his house, the two men who claimed they were emissaries of Valentine referred to him as Lucian Graymark."

  "And their names were…"

  "Pangborn," said Jace. "And Blackwell."

  Hodge had gone very pale. Against his gray skin the scar along his cheek stood out like a twist of red wire. "It is as I feared," he said, half to himself. "The Circle is rising again."

  Clary looked at Jace for clarification, but he seemed as puzzled as she was. "The Circle?" he said.

  Hodge was shaking his head as if trying to clear cobwebs from his brain. "Come with me," he said. "It's time I showed you something."