Call didn’t say anything, since there was nothing to say. He was a prisoner again … and this time Jasper and Tamara were prisoners, too.
Anastasia left with a brief, uncomfortable squeeze of Call’s shoulder and a kiss to the top of his head. He stayed still for it, trying not to wince. He’d never had a mother, but this wasn’t what he thought it was supposed to be like.
Once they were alone at the top of the stairs, Tamara turned to Jasper and Call with a determined look and vowed in a harsh whisper, “We’re getting out of here.”
THEY HELD THEIR meeting in the pink room, sprawled on the fuzzy, heart-shaped rug. As they strategized, Tamara savagely ripped lace from the hems and sleeves of some truly weird pastel-colored dresses. Pink was supposed to make people feel calmer, but all Call felt was depressed and very, very full.
“I can’t believe your original escape plan requires another escape plan,” Jasper said. “You suck at escaping.”
Tamara fixed him with a glare. “I guess the more we escape, the better we’ll get at it.”
After a moment, Jasper brightened. “Maybe it’s not so bad that we’ve been kidnapped. I mean, this is all very dramatic. When Celia understands what’s happened to me, she’s going to feel terrible for dumping me. She is going to hold my picture to her heart, fearing for my life and shedding a tear over the love we had. If only he would come back, she’ll think, I will beg him to be my boyfriend again!”
Call goggled at Jasper, speechless.
“But, I mean, only if we don’t escape too quickly,” Jasper went on. “She needs time to find out I’m gone and work up to all that epic suffering. Maybe a few weeks. After all, the food is pretty good here.”
“What if she has another boyfriend by then?” Tamara asked. “I mean —”
“Okay,” Jasper said, cutting her off. “What are we going to do? It has to be tonight.”
“I already checked the windows — at least the ones in this room. It’s elemental stuff, like they use in the Panopticon,” Tamara said. “It doesn’t break. We might be able to get through it with magic, but it would take a lot of work and might trigger an alarm.”
“So no going through a window,” Jasper said. “What about getting a message to Ravan?”
Tamara shook her head. “To do that, we’d still have to get out of here. I could try to call up another fire elemental and send it to find her, but that’s really advanced. I’ve never done anything like it.”
“Well, Master Joseph did say that I was supposed to feed Havoc some stuff from the fridge, and he must know I’ll have to walk him,” Call said. “At least that will put us outside the building.”
“We won’t all be allowed to walk him,” Tamara pointed out. “Master Joseph can’t be that dumb.”
Jasper frowned. “No. But there have to be other Chaos-ridden around, right? This is the stronghold of the Enemy of Death. This is where they all are.”
“So?” Tamara asked, ripping another ruffle off a skirt, leaving a bunch of threads hanging down. “Isn’t that even worse for us?”
Jasper slid a glance in Call’s direction. “No, because it means there are some here that Call controls. What if we walk Havoc and then Call gets one of his Chaos-ridden to fight Alex’s? It would be enough of a distraction to slip by them.”
Call took a deep breath. “Maybe you two should run. You could take Havoc for a walk, just like you said, but then keep going. Havoc could help keep you safe from whatever’s in the woods, and I could stay behind to try to stop them from following you. You could bring back help. The mage world might hate me, but they don’t want me with Master Joseph — they’ll think it’s dangerous.”
“Call, if we get away, Master Joseph is likely to leave here and take you with him,” Tamara said. “He won’t wait around for us to come back with the Assembly and an army. No, we’ve got to go together.”
“Besides,” said Jasper, “if the Assembly catches up with you and you’re with Master Joseph, they’ll assume you’re there because you want to be.”
Jasper, Call thought, had a rotten habit of being able to always imagine the worst thing people might think. Probably because his mind worked that way, too. It didn’t make him less right, though.
“Fine,” Call said. “So what’s the plan?”
Tamara took a deep breath. “The Chaos-ridden,” she said.
“We get them to fight one another like I said?” Jasper looked delighted. “Really?”
“No,” Tamara told him.
“Maybe all the ones in the house serve Alex,” Call said.
“I don’t think so,” said Tamara. “Remember what he said: I made these. He couldn’t have made all the Chaos-ridden in and around the house. There are just too many. Some of them must have been made by Constantine and be loyal to you.”
Call remembered the Chaos-ridden servant in the dining room and the way it had bowed its head. “I think I know where to look,” he said slowly.
The night air was cold, so they split up to get jackets and met back in the hallway outside their rooms. Jasper’s sweater had a horse on it. Tamara was wearing a long pale green dress with the lace ripped off, and her jean jacket and newsboy cap. Call had Havoc beside him on a leash.
“Let’s do this,” Tamara said grimly.
They crept down the stairs and into the massive entryway. It was dark, the lights dimmed. Call handed Havoc’s leash to Tamara and slipped into the dining room just as Master Joseph came down the stairs.
“What are you doing?” he demanded of Tamara and Jasper.
Call pressed his eye to the gap in the door. Master Joseph was wearing a fuzzy gray bathrobe, which ought to have been hilarious, but wasn’t. There was a cruelty in his face that he had hidden at dinner.
“We need to walk Havoc,” Tamara said, lifting her chin. “If we don’t, bad things will happen. To your floor. And your carpets.”
Havoc whined. Master Joseph sighed. “Very well,” he said. “Stay in view of the house.”
To Call’s surprise, Master Joseph stood and watched as Tamara and Jasper opened the front door and — with incredulous looks at each other — stepped out onto the front porch. He could see water in the distance — the river that stood between them and the mainland. The house had what was probably considered a really good view, but Call was really starting to hate it.
Master Joseph stood for a moment as the door shut after them, then turned and walked off down the hall.
Call felt a little panicked as he turned around, facing the darkness of the dining room. Did Master Joseph care so little about Tamara and Jasper that he’d let them leave? Was he trying to show them they could trust him? Or was there something horrible outside that would keep them penned in — or even hurt them?
“Master,” said a voice.
Call jumped. A shadow had loomed up out of the darkness. It was the Chaos-ridden who had bowed to him before.
He had dark hair and the coruscating eyes of all the Chaos-ridden. He limped when he walked. He must have been injured before he’d died. Sometimes it was hard for Call to remember the Chaos-ridden were all walking dead corpses. Call repressed a shudder at the thought that maybe it wasn’t hard for other people.