Child of Lies
The Scion Chronicles, Book Two
Eric Kent Edstrom
To J
Contents
1. Her Smallest Plans
2. 5:06 a.m
3. Hormonal Whirlwinds
4. Sense Data
5. Crazy Ideas About Fighting
6. Revenge Made Her Sloppy
7. The Line Between Hero and Criminal
8. A Purely Logical Standpoint
9. I Wish I Could See a Real Dog
10. No Food, No Water
11. Very Much Like Chess
12. It’s not reasonable. It’s obvious
13. Shaped Like a Dagger
14. Like a Bratty Lizard
15. Dear, Dear Child
16. Full of Oak and Peat Moss
17. Guile in His Eyes
18. My Remaining $25 Million
19. Seems an Odd Topic
20. Whoever Possesses Her
21. Dead Mongoose Dangling
22. A Cloak of Frozen Stillness
23. You Mean the Jeep?
24. A Verbal Hammer
25. Ten Per Day
26. Some Ancient War Goddess
27. Have a Nice Swim
28. So the Truth Was Out
29. Starving For Another Kiss
30. Raindrops on Rocks
31. The Compact and Deadly Force
32. That Wonderful Jacqueline Buchanan
33. Girls to Dance and Boys to Fight
34. Extreme Pain Creation
35. Wakes Up With a Broken Arm
36. Whose Little Puppet Are You?
37. A Swig of Spoiled Milk
38. A Job in Government
39. A Momentary Dissonance
40. Final Inches of Glory
41. Maybe at a Discount
42. The Most Selfish Thing I Can Do
43. This is Extraordinary Beauty
44. Efficient Savagery
45. I Want an Excuse To Shoot You
46. I Couldn’t Protect Them All
47. A Spark of Light
48. Enough Pleasantries
49. Death’s the Price
Sister of Shadows: The Wonders of Andleprixen
Sister of Shadows: Your True Enemy
Sister of Shadows: As You Say
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Also by Eric Kent Edstrom
1
Her Smallest Plans
Jacey stepped blearily into the dark hallway outside her bedroom in Dr. Carlhagen’s hacienda. She’d only gotten a few hours of sleep, and that had come only once the hurricane winds had finally settled deep in the night.
Not enough sleep. Not even close.
She padded down the wide tiles, shoes making a soft scuffing in the quiet. Her whole body ached from the exertions of the past few days. Her fight with Dr. Carlhagen—who had mind-transferred into her best friend Vaughan’s body—had left bruises on her legs.
As tired as she was, she needed some physical activity to energize her, to prepare her for the challenges that lay ahead. That’s what Sensei would have prescribed if he’d still been there.
Thinking about the martial arts master brought a lump to her throat.
No. She would mourn him later.
She planned to head down to the dojo and get in a light workout. On the way, she would assess the storm damage. Assigning the Scions to clean-up duty would keep them busy for the day. Soon they would be asking for explanations about where Dr. Carlhagen was, where Sensei and Nurse Smith had gone. And of course they’d all have questions about Vaughan.
She stopped near the entry foyer. The living area lay in darkness to her right, the lumps of wicker furniture vague shapes against the floor-to-ceiling accordion doors making one great window of the far wall. The sky was just lightening as dawn approached. Limbs and leaves blown free in the storm floated in the pool beyond the door.
A trapezoid of light razored through the hallway ahead. It appeared to be coming from Dr. Carlhagen’s office. Humphrey must have left a light on the night before. Jacey was happy the electricity was on, but there was no reason to waste it.
She continued down the hallway to turn the light off. The door hung a hand’s width ajar, letting the light beam into the hall. She put her hand on the door but stopped when she heard a voice inside.
It was Mr. Justin.
“No, they won’t be awake for a few more hours,” Mr. Justin was saying. “Have you ever known teenagers to get up early on purpose?”
“I suppose you’re right,” came a reply.
Jacey waited, poised with her hand against the door. The second voice sounded distant, smaller. She thought it was coming from the holodesk in Dr. Carlhagen’s office.
She shifted to make sure the light didn’t touch her. All she could see was the mahogany paneled wall and part of the window behind Dr. Carlhagen’s desk.
The voice continued: “There’s a lot to discuss. I particularly want to know why you ignored my suggestion to put some men on the island.”
Jacey placed her hand over her mouth to muffle a gasp. Captain Wilcox had wanted to leave men on campus after he had taken Sensei and Nurse Smith away.
Thinking quickly, she moved along the door to the wall, leaned against it, and slowly slid to the floor. She closed her eyes and listened.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” Mr. Justin said. “I have a better read on the situation here. The Scions are twitchy enough as it is. The last thing I need is for them to see armed men skulking around.”
Jacey wanted to remember this conversation. She’d had suspicions about Mr. Justin ever since he had helped her and Humphrey take over the Scion School. He had never sufficiently explained why he worked for Dr. Carlhagen in the first place. And he certainly hadn’t done anything to prevent the evil that had gone on in the medical ward.
Her early morning weariness evaporated, replaced by focus as sharp as a thornskipple barb.
On a long exhalation, she fell into her memory concentration. What was said no longer registered as words.
Ehv|ree|thEEng|ahn|mie|
yend|iz|rehd|ee
The sounds flowed to her ears like a melody, and she placed each syllable on a continuous line of falling and rising pitches. If she slipped into comprehension, she wouldn’t be able to memorize it. Fortunately, she’d had a lot of practice.
Ehx|ell|int|wee|ll|nEH|ver|
hav|a|bEtt|er|opp|oar|tOOn|
ih|tee|dOck|ter|kArl|hag|in|
iz|sEck|yure|and|said|ATE|ed
The content of anything she memorized in this way always produced emotional reactions. At first she was overtaken with a wave of confusion, and then a strange chill crossed her skin. She attached these emotions to the line of her memorization. Her heart rate increased. Her jaw clenched tight. The voices continued, alternating, rising, falling. She detected anger in them, anxiety, and then they ceased.
Her eyes popped open. She found her fists clenched and her lips twisted in a snarl. One of the speakers was extremely angry at the end. That, or what they had said had evoked anger in her. She wouldn’t know until she had a chance to review it.
She got to her feet and crept down the hall toward the hacienda’s entry doors. She would still go to the dojo, but instead of working out, she would review the conversation.
She got to the door, grasped the latch, and pushed. She was met with a waft of very heavy Caribbean air.
“There you are, Miss Jacey.” Mr. Justin’s voice froze her mid-step. “I wasn’t expecting you to be awake this early.”
“I was just going down to the dojo for a workout.” She turned and smiled at Dr. Carlhagen’s butler. He returned the smile, crow’s-feet at the corners of his almond-shaped eyes crinkling all the way t
o his temples. He had such a kindly face, one that conveyed infinite patience and calm confidence.
“I’m afraid that will have to wait if you want to be in on the conversation between Humphrey and Captain Wilcox.”
Momentary confusion made Jacey hesitate. Had Humphrey been in the office with Mr. Justin? “Is he awake?”
“Not yet,” Mr. Justin said. “I was just going to get him. Captain Wilcox called me early this morning. He demanded to speak with Dr. Carlhagen. He’s not satisfied with the state of affairs here. Unless Humphrey calms his nerves, we’ll have armed men posted here by the end of the day.”
Jacey relaxed. That had to be what Mr. Justin had been arguing with Captain Wilcox about.
“I’ll be there,” she said. “Humphrey’s not going to like this.”
“He’s done well so far.” Mr. Justin’s hands hung loose at his side, though he rubbed his thumb against his pinky. “I can coach him through what to say. And he’s going to have to hold more of these conversations if we’re going to continue the fiction that he is Dr. Carlhagen.”
“What choice do we have?” Jacey asked, stepping into the entryway and letting the door swing closed behind her.
“I’ll go wake Humphrey now and have him suit up.”
Jacey snorted. “I think he hates wearing that suit more than he hates pretending to be Dr. Carlhagen.”
“As you say, Miss Jacey.” Mr. Justin gave a curt bow, then walked down the hall toward Humphrey’s room.
Jacey blew out a long breath and pulled her hair from her ponytail. It seemed like even her smallest plans came to nothing.
She went back to her room to change into her uniform, a black top with a mandarin collar, loose black pants. Her hunger faded, replaced by queasiness. They absolutely had to keep Captain Wilcox and his men away from the island of St. Vitus and the Scion School.
Otherwise she would never be able to keep her vow that no Progenitor would transfer his or her mind into a Scion’s ever again.
Not ever.
2
5:06 a.m
Belle came awake with a great gasp, sat up in her bunk, and slapped away the hand shaking her shoulder. The predawn gray filtered through the windows of Girls’ Hall, sucking all the color from the dormitory.
Someone—a black silhouette—loomed over her. Belle shrank away from it, skin prickling.
“Belle,” the figure hissed, “it’s me.”
Belle relaxed. A continuous chime sounded from beneath her pillow. She dug out her reader and silenced the alarm.
“Go back to bed,” she told Leslie, whose face hovered much too close in the darkness. The girl was her Second, and once Belle was gone, she would lead the Nine. Belle didn’t have much hope for the girls then. Leslie was none too smart in her opinion.
Belle’s bunk shifted as Leslie dropped her weight onto the edge. “Why is your alarm going off so early?”
“A mistake. Go back to sleep.” Belle flopped onto her pillow and rubbed her bleary eyes. She had put the reader under her pillow, hoping that the sound would wake her before anyone else in Girls’ Hall. As usual, she’d slept right through it.
She listened as Leslie climbed to the top bunk and crawled under the covers. Gauging from the sounds of snoring all around, Belle’s alarm hadn’t awakened anyone else.
She tapped her reader again and checked the time.
5:06 a.m.
The hurricane winds had settled only a few hours earlier, and Belle didn’t think any of the girls had gotten to sleep before that. She waited a few more minutes before getting out of her warm bed and creeping to the bathroom.
Seeing the girls all snuggled under their covers irritated Belle. They were all ignorant and lazy. They had no idea what had really transpired a few days before. Sensei and Nurse Smith carried off in a helicopter, Sarah throwing herself off the bell tower. And Vaughan . . .
She refused to finish the thought.
Though she wanted to rouse the others, kick their bunks, make them go into the quad and begin cleaning up, she left them alone. Besides, she had set this early alarm so she could go out before any of them.
She had something very important to do. Someone very important to see.
3
Hormonal Whirlwinds
Jacey kept a hand pressed to her belly as she followed Humphrey and Mr. Justin into the dark-paneled office that had once belonged to Dr. Carlhagen. The huge mahogany desk sat empty in the middle, and a wide-bladed ceiling fan spun lazily overhead.
The room smelled stale and damp. The wide window behind the desk showed the hazy shapes of palm trees outside. And though the slatted louvers were open, no breeze wafted through. The hurricane had used up all the energy in the atmosphere, leaving the world in silence.
Jacey’s stomach churned and her throat felt so dry she thought she could drink a liter of water in one gulp.
“Go ahead,” she said to Humphrey. “Let’s get this over with.”
Humphrey nodded without looking at her. He walked around to sit in Dr. Carlhagen’s chair. He wore one of the old headmaster’s white suits, the too-wide collar gaping, pants belted so tightly the fabric pleated in odd places. Though they shared the exact same DNA, Humphrey was seventy-five years younger than Dr. Carlhagen and perhaps half his circumference.
She was used to seeing Humphrey in the official Scion School uniform, and the ill-fitting suit looked ridiculous.
At least the bow tie brings out the blue of his eyes, Jacey thought.
She pulled her hand away from her stomach, fingers habitually going to her collar to check the Shark pin.
It wasn’t there.
Instead, a lock of hair fell across the collar, another symbol of her rebellion against the old ways. No more ponytails, no more pins. If she’d had anything else to wear—besides the gowns Dr. Carlhagen had given her—she would’ve put her uniform in the burning barrel by the front gate.
Humphrey nervously licked his lips as Mr. Justin patted him on the back.
“You’ll do fine,” Mr. Justin said, eyes crinkling. He wore linen pants and a top similar in cut to Jacey’s own uniform, although his was white. “Just assure Captain Wilcox that everything is under control.”
Jacey’s hand returned to her stomach. It roiled as if it couldn’t make up its mind over whether she was hungry or nervous. Maybe she should have eaten something.
Humphrey’s conversation with Captain Wilcox would be the first contact they’d had with the outside world since the Captain had taken off in his helicopter with Sensei and Nurse Smith. Humphrey had fooled Captain Wilcox once before, convincing him that Humphrey was Dr. Carlhagen. That time he’d done it in person, which meant doing it again over holovid should be easier. That fact didn’t settle Jacey’s stomach in the least.
Mr. Justin backed up, well out of view of the holodesk’s cameras. Humphrey gave one last sigh and placed his hands on the desk. “Captain Wilcox?”
A twelve-centimeter-tall holovid of Captain Wilcox appeared above the desk, the glow of his image lighting Humphrey’s face a ghostly blue and casting strange shadows in his sunken cheeks. Jacey thought he might never recover from his days in the pit, no matter how much he ate.
“Good morning, Captain,” Humphrey said with a chuckle, an eerie imitation of Dr. Carlhagen that brought a chill to Jacey’s skin. She knew Humphrey was a clone of Dr. Carlhagen, but his normal behavior was quite different from the elderly headmaster’s. To see him playacting so well . . .
“Good morning, Dr. Carlhagen,” Captain Wilcox replied, eyes emotionless, voice clipped. “I hope all is—”
“Yes, yes. Everything is fine. How was your return trip to the mainland?” Humphrey’s interruption was a tactic Jacey had suggested—a way for Humphrey to take control of the conversation, just as Dr. Carlhagen would have.
Captain Wilcox stood at attention, hands to his side, chest out. Even as a little holo, he projected a cold air of violence. Not unlike Sensei.
Jacey remembered confronting the man a
nd his gunmen in the rain, begging him not to take Sensei away. Square-jawed and thickly built, Wilcox had the eyes of a predator.
“The return trip was interesting,” he said. “Have you ever flown in a helicopter through a hurricane?”
Humphrey laughed. “Can’t say that I have. Such adventures are for younger men.” He stopped as if realizing what he was saying, and then he laughed louder. “But perhaps I should try it now. And what of Mario Rosa and Nurse Smith?”
“They are somewhere in the Caribbean Sea, presumably bloated and decomposing. Or, if we’re lucky, already eaten by sharks.”
The man’s cold words made Jacey’s cheeks go hot with fury. Before his transfer, Dr. Carlhagen had instigated Protocol Seven, which called for the removal and murder of Sensei and Nurse Smith in retaliation for supposed insubordination. Sensei had tried to fight, but Captain Wilcox and his men had taken him at gunpoint. Nurse Smith had gone willingly, having no clue what lay in store for her.
Jacey wanted to grab the little hologram and squeeze the life out of the man.
Humphrey frowned at her, clearly wondering what her problem was. She blew out a long breath and motioned for him to keep going.
Child of Lies Page 1