by Juman Malouf
“I remember you two,” a skinny boy said from across the table. “You caused that big ruckus at the auditions.”
“That’s us!” exclaimed Charlotte. She remembered him, too. “You’re Gustave.” She turned to a freckled girl in glasses. “You’re Emily.”
Jack Cross sat between his friends. He did not look up from his tray.
“You’re Jack’s friend,” said the girl. “He was talking about you all the way from the Outskirts until we arrived.”
Charlotte sighed. “He doesn’t remember me now.”
“He hasn’t been the same since—” Emily stopped talking.
“I was awake when the cats arrived,” shuddered Gustave. “There were a hundred or more. All kinds of them. Then the man came.” He swallowed. “That’s all I remember. I was so scared, I must have fainted. In the morning, I couldn’t play the clarinet anymore.”
“He took our Talents, too,” murmured Sonja. “And he kidnapped our mother.”
“We couldn’t play our instruments, so they kicked us out of school.” Emily pushed her glasses back up onto the bridge of her freckled nose. “They told us we’d be put to work while we waited to hear from our parents. They brought us to this factory two days ago. The children here all had the same thing happen, and none of them have heard from their parents in months.” Emily’s voice broke. “Even if our parents came looking for us, they wouldn’t be allowed into the city.” She wiped her fogged-up glasses. “Nobody cares about Outskirts children.”
A quiet voice beside them said, “Soon, we’ll become like the others.” Charlotte looked to Jack Cross. His eyes were filled with despair. “Our hearts will break without our Talents.”
“What does he mean?” asked Sonja.
“The older you get without your Talent,” explained Gustave, “the more of yourself you lose. Until you’re like some kind of a robot.”
“We’ve seen teenagers like that around,” said Emily. “That’s what scared Jack. That’s when he lost hope.”
“We have to escape!” cried Charlotte, standing up.
“Shh,” shushed the children across the table.
Sonja yanked her sister back down into her seat.
Gustave’s eyes darted across the room like a frightened deer. When he saw no guards close by, he leaned in and whispered, “Many have tried to escape, but they were all caught and never seen again.”
“Time’s up, you dirty brats!”
A bell rang again, and everyone jumped up.
Charlotte unclasped the musical note and pinned it onto Jack Cross’ smock. “Don’t forget who you are. You’re a musician. We’ll find our Talents, and we’ll get yours back, too.”
Jack Cross looked confused. He stared down at the pin.
“Come on, Charlotte.” Sonja yanked her away. “We’ve got to look for the Changelings.”
“We’ll get back your Talent!” Charlotte yelled over her shoulder. Jack Cross stood frozen in the crowd. Charlotte thought she saw a tear roll down his cheek. “I promise!”
There was a glimmer of hope in his eyes, she could see it. Jack Cross had become Charlotte’s friend when nobody else would. Now she would repay him. Whatever it took, she would help Jack Cross.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
White Beasts
SONJA SCANNED THE CROWD OF CHILDREN, BUT WOLF BOY and Moritz were nowhere to be found. If the Changelings were not going to look for them, they would have to look for the Changelings. Sonja hated taking risks. It was more her sister’s department.
Sonja yanked Charlotte under a table as the guards herded the children out of the cafeteria, threatening them with batons. Soon, the room was empty.
“What are we doing?” said Charlotte. “We have to follow the others.”
“Shh!” warned Sonja. A guard stomped across the cafeteria and unlocked a door on the opposite end of the room. The words STRICTLY FORBIDDEN were stamped into the metal. Sonja swallowed. Her fingers twitched. She was sick of this stupid tic. She dug up her courage. Before the door swung shut, Sonja dashed out and stuck the tip of her boot into the closing gap.
She gestured for her sister to hurry. Charlotte reluctantly approached. They waited for a moment, then sneaked inside. The guard’s footsteps rang down the corridor.
“I want to go back,” insisted Charlotte. “We need to help Jack Cross.”
“The only way we can do that is by getting out of here.”
“I won’t leave him! He needs us!”
“Lower your voice,” shushed Sonja. “You’ll get us caught. Have you forgotten about Tatty? Have you forgotten about our Talents?”
Charlotte folded her arms across her chest. “You’re jealous.”
“Ha! Jack Cross doesn’t even remember you.”
Charlotte’s eyes filled with tears. She kicked the wall. She tore away from her sister and started toward the door.
Sonja’s stomach dropped. As long as she could remember, it had always made her sick when she was mean to her sister. She knew how vulnerable Charlotte was underneath it all. “Porcupine!” Sonja yelled in a flash.
Charlotte stopped dead in her tracks. Sonja ran to her, and they hugged tightly. “I promise,” swore Sonja, “once we get out of here and find Tatty and our Talents, we’ll help Jack Cross.”
“And the others?”
“And the others.”
The door swung open. The blond guard burst into the corridor with a baton drawn. “I thought I heard a kerfuffle!” She glowered. “It’s you two again. This time you’re going straight to the mistress!”
Sonja grabbed her sister’s hand, and they bolted down the corridor. The guard stormed after them. Sonja’s heart raced. It was like they were back in the Outskirts being chased by Enforcers. The difference was that this time, they did not know the territory.
The twins zigzagged through a labyrinth of hallways until they reached a staircase. They flew up the steps and turned a corner. Growls, squawks, and wild laughter echoed down the corridor.
Sonja looked behind them. No guard, but footsteps fast approaching. This was their chance to hide. They skidded to the end of the corridor and ducked inside a darkened room.
They waited for a moment, catching their breath.
All of a sudden, a light turned on. The twins froze. A teenager with a blank expression rolled a trolley through a pair of swinging doors toward a row of steel tables. He mechanically dumped a large white lump onto each one with a thwack.
Sonja blinked. They were dead animals, stitched together at the joints like dolls. Why would anyone want to display such gruesome creatures in their home?
A buzzer rang. Two more teenagers entered. One carried a tray of needles. They went from one motionless animal to the next, repeating the same action: the boy peeled back a patch of fur or feathers from the animal’s chest, and the girl stabbed it with a needle.
Sonja watched, transfixed.
They were injecting a glittering gold substance into each animal’s heart.
Sonja remembered what Uncle Tell had said: when magic was released from the body, it turned gold.
One by one, the animals began to twitch until the whole row was jerking and shaking. Suddenly, a hyena’s eyes snapped open.
It was alive.
Charlotte screamed and pressed against Sonja. They trembled together like two leaves on a branch. The teenagers looked up from what they were doing. Sonja felt a cold slap across the back of her neck. She spun around and saw the blond guard looming over them.
“Got you!” she boomed. The guard grabbed the twins and dragged them away.
Sonja looked back over her shoulder. A swan opened its rusty beak and squawked. A hyena arched its deformed back and howled. This was a factory—for monsters! Sonja remembered the swans that had attacked their caravan, and the hyena that had bitten her ankle. Something terrible was happe
ning here, and Sonja had a bad feeling that Kats von Stralen and his mother were behind it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Mistress Koch
“MISTRESS KOCH? I HAVE THE GIRLS.” THE BLOND GUARD spoke into an intercom next to a door at the end of a long corridor. Charlotte struggled to break free under her tight grip. She could hear Sonja muttering to herself, frightened.
A voice crackled, “Enter.”
The door buzzed, and the guard pushed the twins into an office. Charlotte recognized the music on the radio: Kanazi Kooks. A short, stocky woman wearing a hairnet sat at a desk in the middle of the room with her back to them. Her fingers clicked across the keys of a typewriter. A large screen behind her was filled with numerous smaller screens televising every room in the factory. Charlotte’s eyes darted from one image to the next. Thousands of children. Slaves. She knew Sonja was right: the only way to help Jack Cross and the others was from the outside. She scanned the room for an escape route. Her eyes fell on the stacks and stacks of letters piled in towers all around the floor. Charlotte squinted to read them. They were addressed to different children at the School for the Gifted.
The guard cleared her throat.
“One moment,” snapped the woman. She stopped typing and spun her chair around to face the twins.
She was the head judge from the audition. Charlotte remembered her long nose and thick eyebrows that met in the middle. Her uniform was stiff, and she smelled of bitter almonds. “You’re the two who made trouble at the audition,” she said, narrowing her small, brown eyes.
“What audition?” Sonja hesitated and then said, “We weren’t at any audition.”
Mistress Koch’s little eyes squinted, making them even littler. “That’s a lie.”
“A lie,” repeated the guard. She gave each twin a shove.
Charlotte stumbled into a tall stack of letters, which toppled all over the floor. She imagined they were from the families of thousands of the factory children. None had been delivered. She thought of her letter to Jack Cross, unopened. Her jaw clenched. Her brow furrowed. She scooped up a handful.
“We know what you’re doing!” she burst out. “You’re keeping these children prisoners!”
Sonja stepped forward. “Please, ignore my sister,” she apologized. “She’s a little out of sorts.”
“I’m going straight to the newspapers!” threatened Charlotte. “I’ll tell them what you’re making here! People will shut this factory down!”
Mistress Koch’s bird-of-prey nose twitched. She glared at the girls, her eyes now only minuscule dots. “They’re to be incarcerated!”
“To be incarcerated,” repeated the guard. She hooked her brawny arms around the twins. Charlotte wriggled underneath her fleshy limbs like a fish. “Let go of me, you bully!”
“Hold—on—a—second,” stammered Sonja. “We can explain.”
A voice squawked through the intercom, “I have the boys.”
“Ah, your accomplices!” exclaimed Mistress Koch, jumping to her feet. She was not much taller standing up than she was sitting down. She rummaged through a rack of canes. She pulled out the thickest one and swiped it several times in the air.
The door opened, and Wolf Boy and Moritz stumbled in. Their arms were bound with ropes. A bigger, even more powerfully built guard followed them.
“Hello, ladies,” cooed Wolf Boy.
“Wolf Boy! Moritz!” cried Sonja. Charlotte cheered. They were sure to escape now.
“You’ve been busy, haven’t you, boys?” Mistress Koch strode up to Wolf Boy and poked his cheek with the tip of the cane. “First, you damaged factory property. Second, you aided an attempted escape. Both highly punishable crimes.”
“Fun, too,” admitted Wolf Boy. Moritz nodded in agreement.
Mistress Koch ignored him and continued, “We’re ready to be lenient, if—when I say if, I mean if—”
“She always means what she says,” interrupted the powerfully built guard.
“If,” Mistress Koch repeated, annoyed, “you tell us what rebellion you’re associated with.”
Wolf Boy thought for a moment and with a big smile said, “The rebellion against the mean, fat, ugly prison guards!”
Moritz chuckled. The powerfully built guard slapped him with her baton.
“Why’d you hit me?” Moritz whined. “He said the funny line! I just laughed.”
The powerfully built guard whacked Wolf Boy, too.
Charlotte giggled.
Her sister said under her breath, “It’s not funny.”
Mistress Koch rolled up her sleeves, steaming. “I’ve dealt with boys exactly like you a thousand times. You never learn.”
“Really?” said Wolf Boy.
“Really,” said Mistress Koch.
“Exactly like us?” said Wolf Boy, grinning.
“Exactly like you,” said Mistress Koch, grinning back.
“I find that hard to believe,” grunted Wolf Boy. Black fur began to sprout across his skin. “What do you think, Moritz?”
Moritz neighed. His body twisted. Red hair grew down his back, and the ropes snapped loose. Mistress Koch’s mouth dropped open as the boys became animals right before her eyes. With a kick and a shove, Wolf Boy and Moritz spun the two guards across the room, banging them into the bookcases.
Mistress Koch ran to her desk and fumbled through the drawers. Just as she pulled out a Gatsploder, Moritz butted the table with the top of his head and flipped it upside down. It landed on top of her. She reached for a black button and jammed her finger into it.
Sirens rang throughout the factory.
Down on the floor, Charlotte saw a little framed photograph of Mistress Koch and Kats von Stralen. She was certain: whatever the factory was doing, Kats von Stralen was a part of it. She stuffed the picture into her jacket pocket. It might be evidence for the newspapers.
Moritz stamped his hooves, and the twins scrambled onto his back.
“I know an escape route!” growled Wolf Boy. They raced out of the room and galloped down the corridor. They bolted through a storeroom, turned a corner, and skidded to a stop. The hallway dead-ended in a window.
“I thought you knew a way out of here,” yelled Sonja.
Wolf Boy grinned. “You’re looking at it.”
Moritz shook his mane and flared his nostrils.
“It’s our only choice, Moritz,” urged Wolf Boy.
“You can’t be serious!” cried Charlotte. “We’ll die!”
There was a shout behind them. “Hold it right there!”
A squad of Enforcers dressed in black from head to toe piled into the corridor from two directions with steel batons drawn.
Sonja gulped. “Where did they come from?”
Wolf Boy looked from the advancing Enforcers back to the window. He took a deep breath and said, “Ready, Moritz?”
Before the girls could say another word, Moritz charged toward the window. Wolf Boy followed close behind. Charlotte and Sonja covered their faces as they crashed through glass. Shards flew everywhere. They dropped through the air—then landed with a sudden thud.
The falling rain showered their faces.
Charlotte peered down over her shoulder. They were balanced on the edge of a narrow pedal-car track. There was nothing below except more tracks crisscrossing one another in midair straight down for a mile. Her sister trembled behind her with her hands wrapped tightly around Charlotte’s waist. Charlotte held on to her arms and whispered quietly:
“She was getting ready for bed one night when she heard a knock at her door—”
Sonja put her chin on Charlotte’s shoulder and said in a shaky voice, “It was her first week at the circus. She was scared to live alone in a caravan.”
“She peeked outside, but nobody was there. Just as she was about to close the door, she heard a gurgling,
gargling sound, and she looked down at the ground—”
“And there we two were. Wrapped in one woolen shawl and stuffed into a milk pail.”
Enforcers at the smashed window above pointed their weapons.
“Let’s go!” exclaimed Wolf Boy.
They raced down the track. Corkscrew bullets whizzed past them, one after the other. The factory’s gate burst open and a giant hyena bounded onto the track after them. A few children spilled outdoors, cheering. They were quickly surrounded by guards. Charlotte thought she saw Jack Cross. She waved and yelled wildly as they disappeared around a corner.
“We have to jump,” Wolf Boy said determinedly.
“Jump?” shouted Sonja. “Where?”
Wolf Boy dove into the air and landed on a lower track, scrambling not to slip. “Your turn!” he shouted up to Moritz.
“No!” Sonja begged. “Don’t kill us, Moritz!”
The track shook behind them. Charlotte whipped her head around. The hyena was a breath away. “Go, go, go!” she screamed.
Moritz jumped onto the lower track. The twins shrieked as they slid sideways. A pedal-car was speeding toward them. The driver honked his horn as a woman in the backseat continued her conversation on the telephone. The hyena neared the edge of the higher track, about to dive down on top of them.
“One more!” Wolf Boy yelled to Moritz. The Changelings leapt into the air and landed on an even lower track just as the hyena jumped down from above and the pedal-car smashed into him. He was thrown back into the air and splattered on a track ten stories below.
Lights beamed down. Propellers sliced through the rain. A fleet of pedal-copters hovered above. Enforcers stuck their heads out the sides and roared into loudspeakers: “Runaway animals carrying two suspected traitors!”
The Changelings bolted down the track. It cut through a building. They ducked inside and hid in the dark as pedal-cars zoomed by, back and forth. The twins climbed down from Moritz’s back, and the Changelings transformed themselves back into boys. Pedal-copters hovered into view on both sides of the tunnel.