The Thief (35 page)

He swings a punch at her and she ducks,
whistling. She reaches up, grabbing his wrist. Hyde cries out,
pulling away. A red handprint sizzles against his skin. He’s an
ass, but I’m not going to stand here and watch him get torched.

Distance. He needs distance. I skim around
the edge of the room, heading for the weapons rack in the dojo. I
snatch up a bo staff and turn back into the auditorium. Hyde is
dodging her approach, shoving a table between them to delay her.
People are pouring out of the gym in droves.

“
Here!” I shout at him,
tossing the staff.

He catches it, a brief look of surprise on
his face before he returns his attention to Meredith, twirling the
weapon.

“
Don’t let her touch you!” I
tell him.

“
You think?” he
snaps.

He swings the staff at her. She backs up,
dodging the metal-plated tip. “No fair tag-teaming,” she grins,
chucking a fireball low. Hyde jumps clear, and it bursts to sparks
across the floor, extinguishing. He swings again, and scores a hit
across her shoulder. She stumbles, cursing.

Camille is frozen in place on the far side
of the room. The place is mostly empty now. She seems trapped, eyes
wide and glued to Meredith, fingers curled in Destin’s sleeve. I
can see him pleading with her from over here. What’s wrong with
her? And what’s wrong with him? She’s tiny and he’s a giant, he
should just pick her up and carry her out. Do I have to do
everything myself?

The sprinkler system kicks in, no doubt
reacting to all the smoke. Everything is instantly soaked, but Hyde
and Meredith battle on. She throws a fireball that ignites one
table’s posterboard, and Hyde’s sleeve. He swears, smacking the
fabric to smother the cinders.

Avoiding the carnage they’re creating, I
sprint over to Destin and Camille. “It’s time to go, gold ranger,”
I tell her. She looks at me, and for the first time I see real fear
in her eyes. True terror from someone I’d thought was immune. I
hesitate, resolve shaken.

I hear a cry from across the room. Turning
to look, I see Hyde sprawled across the floor, staff knocked clear,
Meredith hovering over him triumphant. I should feel some
satisfaction, seeing him so completely outclassed - but despite his
asshattery, he doesn’t deserve to die like this.

Meredith’s hand curls around Hyde’s neck.
Steam fizzles up from her grasp.

“
Shame,” she grins. “I’m a
little sorry I caught you before you turned sixteen. If you’d been
at full power this might have been more fun.”

Hyde coughs. I can smell his flesh burning
from here. “I’m seventeen,” he says, lip curling.

She frowns, pausing. “No,” she says, lines
of doubt creasing her forehead. “No, that doesn’t work. The last
Wolf died sixteen years ago, the new one can’t be more than
fifteen, you must be lying...” She stares at him as if she could
see through him. “Damn it,” she says softly, then yells, “damn it!”
hurling him from her. He hits the side of a table and slides to the
floor. “It’s not you. How could it not be you? You’re perfect. The
strength, the speed, the temperament. On top of that, you’re
Regenerative. Those wounds are almost gone. Do you have any idea
how rare that is? How can you have all that and not be the
Wolf?”

“
My secret is a balanced
breakfast,” Hyde snaps hoarsely, his hand to his throat. The fresh
scorch marks there are still visible, but already the burns on his
arms have almost faded. I look at him, seeing him in an entirely
new light.
Holy crap, he’s practically
Wolverine.

Meredith lets out a shriek of frustration,
turning on me. “You know where it is!” she declares hotly. “I saw
its touch on you the moment I saw you outside the library. It’s so
close. You know. You’ve been protecting it this whole time.” She
grabs the front of my shirt. Steam rises from the wet fabric. “Tell
me,” she says through her crooked English teeth, “or I’ll start
searing off non-vital parts until you do.”

My eyes go wide.

“
STOP!” Camille
roars.

I turn my head towards her, gaze pulling as
if magnetic. Destin is backing away from her, slowly. The air
around her seems to shimmer, like a pulse. Her right hand is on her
bracer, white-knuckled, clutching at it like a lifeline.

“
Bloody hell,” Meredith
murmurs. “Was that all it took? All this time, and all I had to do
was - ”

She slams my head against the wall and I
slide to the floor, dazed.

“
Leave my friends
alone,”
Camille bellows, and I don’t know
how it happens - maybe I’m hallucinating, but I swear that the
bracer pours off her arm, then clatters against the floor. A solid
iron sword.

Meredith’s eyes widen, and she backs up.
“That’s not...”

Camille picks up the sword, a fine tremor in
her limbs. Her left forearm, where the bracer had been, is even
paler than the rest of her skin, and covered in tiny white scars. I
don’t think she notices. She points the sword at Meredith.

“
Supposed to kill
immortals,” she growls. “Want to find out?”

A ball of fire forms in Meredith’s hand, and
a manic grin on her face. “Why not?”

She throws the fireball and Camille swings
the sword, shearing it. Destin and I duck, expecting some sort of
shrapnel, but the fire vanishes, seemingly swallowed by the
blade.

“
That
is
a handy trick,” Meredith says
appreciatively.

Camille grins and lunges with a yell,
Meredith twisting out of the way. The sword nicks her forearm and a
few molten drops fall, searing holes in the floor.

Meredith curses, fending off another advance
with a blast of flame. “Who in their right mind would teach the
Wolf how to swordfight? That’s like putting lasers on a shark!” She
hurls another burst at Camille’s feet, but she catches that with
the blade as well. Lightning-fast, Meredith steps in, her hand
closing over Camille’s holding the sword. Camille cries out and
drops the blade. It slides across the lacquer gym floor. I start to
reach for it instinctively, but it skids to a rest at the feet of
someone who’d been suspiciously absent all day.

Kei reaches down and picks up the sword.
“Let’s see you keep your cool without this,” he says, with a smirk
at Camille.

I can barely believe my eyes as he dissolves
into dark whorls, not quite smoke - and vanishes, sword and
all.

Even Meredith looks baffled. But recovering
quickly, she shrugs, grabbing the front of Camille’s gi. “Never
look a gift horse in the mouth, I say.” Flames lick out from her
hand, and with a cry Camille pushes away hard, the seared fabric
flaking off her shoulders. Panic in her eyes, she runs with
impossible speed out of the auditorium, in her undershirt and white
karate pants, gold hair streaming behind her. Meredith swears and
chases after her, with the speed of someone less supernatural.

Tailor stumbles through the back door,
looking ill and clutching a roll of parchment. He takes in the
charred ruin of the gymnasium and Destin and I standing in the
middle. I wonder if we look as stunned as he does.

“
Meredith,” he
says.

Hyde climbs to his feet, brushing the ash
from his clothes. “Too bad about Teague,” he says. “Now I’ll never
get a decent rematch.”

“
She’s not dead!” I snap at
him.

Tailor reacts. “Camille! Where is she?”

“
They just ran off,” I say,
“and she’s lost the sword - or the bracer - or whatever it is -
”

“
And Meredith knows she’s
the Wolf,” he says grimly, and swears.

“
Can’t you do something?” I
plead. “Aren’t you Mr. Magicbreaker or something? Put her on ice,
man!”

“
It doesn’t work like that -
” he starts to protest, then glances down at the paper clutched in
his hand. “But there is something. Come on, I think I know where
she’s gone.”

Destin and I hurry after him, out the front
doors.

“
And what am I supposed to
tell Umino?” Hyde snaps after us, left in the charred mess of
upturned tables and glowing impact craters in the walls.

Jul, wherever you are, please be okay.

Jul

Gabriel and I stood before the orchard
mirror, moonlight trickling through the branches overhead.

“
It’s been an age since I’ve
seen it,” he said, fingers brushing over the silver scrollwork
around the edges. The surface shimmered and went transparent,
showing the stone steps inside. “It remembers me, how charming,” he
smiled slightly. He stepped through the surface, into the Tower. He
glanced up the stairwell as I climbed in behind him, leaving the
orchard behind for the cool stone interior of the Tower.

I started to climb the stairs, then paused
as I realized he was still standing in the entryway. “Are you
coming?” I asked.

“
No, what we want is right
here,” he said, running a hand over the iron wall at the base of
the steps. A light frost spread across the metal from his touch and
he jerked his hand back, as if burned. “I thought as much,” he
muttered to himself. “Here’s where you’re needed, Juliet dear. Open
the door to the cellar.”

I looked up at the solid sheet of iron,
twenty feet high and ten feet across. “I - I don’t see a door,” I
said.

“
It’s there, love. Close
your eyes and focus. I know you can do this - you’re the only one
who can.”

I closed my eyes, brows knitting together in
concentration.

“
Think about seams and
hinges,” Gabriel coaxed. “Imagine them in your mind’s eye. Think
about handles and knobs and passing from one place to the next.
Imagine that you see it.”

“
What does it look like?” I
asked.

“
You tell me.”

Attention still turned inward, I invented a
door. An outline appeared in my mind - a tall, thin aperture.
Instead of a handle, a hideous iron-sculpted face protruded from
the door, scowling and trollish, with large, knobby teeth and wide,
unblinking eyes. “It doesn’t look like a normal door...” I
murmured. “Where’s the handle?”

“
Where indeed?” Gabriel
asked.

Something in his tone made me open my eyes -
there was the tall door with the statue staring back at me.

I took a step back reflexively. “The weapon
is in there?”

“
Iron is the only thing that
I can’t breach, even when I was at my prime. They thought I could
never regain myself this way. Now tell me, dear, how do we open
it?”

There was a metallic groaning sound. I
jumped as the monstrous metal face began to move, creaking as it
spoke. “I open for no man but Gohei Katsura.” The voice rumbled
through the hallway.

“
Well that’s convenient,”
Gabriel said. “That’s me. So open up.”

“
You speak the truth and yet
also you lie,” the sculpture said, its voice a metallic whine. “You
are Gohei Katsura, but you are not Gohei Katsura.”

“
Does any of us really know
who we are?” Gabriel said offhand. “The mystery of identity and
existence and all that. Come on now, we’re on a schedule
here.”

“
I cannot open for half of
Gohei Katsura.”

“
Don’t be ridiculous, of
course he’s - ” I started to explain, but Gabriel slapped a hand
over my mouth.

“
Do you have a riddle or
something we can solve?” he asked the sculpture instead. “That’s
more traditional, yes?” He looked at me. “Why did you invent
something with a mouth? This is tedious.”

“
I didn’t...I don’t...” I
stammered. If only Rhys was here. He could fix this.

No, Rhys wasn’t going to help me anymore. My
bravado burned. That crazy woman could find Camille at any moment.
My dad could be here any moment. I didn’t have time for this. “Just
open already!” I snapped, my voice echoing loudly off the metal
barrier.

“
I only...open...for....”
the sculpture tried to repeat, but the metallic voice dropped pitch
and faded out. The sculpture began to twist and melt, somehow
becoming even more grotesque. A more echoing groan began, that of
gears turning deep within the door.

The iron door cracked open, and I beheld a
stairway leading down, walls, steps, and ceiling all of iron.

“
Excellent!” Gabriel said,
patting my head. “Well done.” He paused at the top of the steps,
looking down. “Well done,” he echoed, subdued. Then he shook his
head, and began the descent.

We followed the stairs down, our footsteps
ringing metallic in the near-darkness. Oil lamps hung overhead,
flickering lowly.

“
You should know,” he said
abruptly, “now that you’ve broken the seal, that what we’re looking
for is my body.”

I hesitated on the steps behind him.
“What?”

“
This form is...on loan,” he
said, glancing back at me. “The best of a bad situation.” At the
base of the stairs he paused with his hand on the latch of another
iron door, with a barred window. “I’ve lived a century with a face
I despise, waiting for you.” He smiled at me, but there was no
warmth in it. “Once I have my real body back, and I’m fully myself
again, that’s when things will get interesting for you and I. The
important thing - the only thing you need to remember - is that
this is the best chance she has,” he said, “I wanted to do it
differently, but I ran out of time. That’s the problem with
mortals,” his lips quirked. “Time. It’s not ideal, but this is the
only way I could think of.”