The Black Stars (18 page)

Lore snorted in disgust, then stalked away.
Just when I thought we were getting along.

Risperdel leaned in. Her golden eyes were pale in this light, like crystal. “I hope you know what you're doing,” she said, putting her hand on Mason's arm.

Mason tried to not look at her hand; he swore he could feel a dangerous charge from her gloves coursing up his arm. He swallowed. “I do.”

Risperdel nodded, the charge fading as she removed her hand. She and Po followed after Lore.

“Seriously.” Tom's voice came from under the tarp. “Can't breathe. Fangborn stinks. Want out.”

“Hold on, buddy,” Mason said, swinging the cart through the door and down the stairs. “This is going to be weird. Just go with it.”

“Oh, I can't wait,” Tom said.

Mason's mother was in the lab, using the same mixing machine as before. This time, the central reservoir held a magenta solution, not golden.

She spun around when Mason cleared his throat. “Mason! What are you doing here? We talked about this.”

Mason still couldn't believe he was looking at his mother. She was right there in front of him, alive. She was whole, not trillions and trillions of separate atoms, like he'd been led to believe. Even now he felt anger brewing in his stomach at the deception. All these years, what he knew had been a lie.

“I didn't know where else to go,” Mason said. He peeled back the plastic, and Tom tumbled out onto the floor.

“Hello,” April said. “Who is this?”

Mason peeled back the plastic a little more.

“Great Mountain,” his mother cursed. “Where—? How—?”

“It attacked us in the woods outside the school. Two more students have gone missing.”

His mother was staring at the slumbering Fangborn, her eyes wide. Tom picked himself up off the floor and dusted his robes. “Hi, Mrs. Stark,” he said. “Tom Renner, pleased to meet you.”

“Likewise,” April said.

Mason waved his hand. “Mom! How could this be happening?”

“I … I don't know. Yet. Someone is obviously changing students. But how? Why?” She asked herself the last two questions. “There hasn't been another breakout—I know for a fact.”

“Well how close are you to the cure? Where is your team? I don't want to hand this one over to the school if we can save him. Who knows what they'd do.”

“No, you did the right thing.” Mom pushed the cart over to the glass wall. The Fangborn within were hiding in the darkness. She ignored the question about her team, Mason noticed. Did she even have a team?

“Mom, I had to tell someone. I … may have already told Susan.”

April Stark turned around. “Did she—? Was she—?”

“She was angry,” Mason said. “But she hid it well, as always.”

“Mason, I'm so sorry.”

“I know you're sorry,” Mason said. “You've said that more than once.” He was sick of hearing it. It didn't change anything.

Tom shifted from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable. “We should get back, Mason. Before Grubare decides to keep digging.”

Mason nodded. “Mom?” Saying the word out loud still felt weird. He wondered how long it would take to feel normal. If it ever would again.

“Go,” she said. “I'll contain this one until the cure is ready.”

April Stark wheeled the cart through a doorway, leaving them alone. She didn't look back, her mind already on the task at hand.

Mason's eyes immediately went to the glass wall. The Fangborn were there, just beyond the line of darkness. He could feel them watching. He made sure to stare into the darkness and not flinch, to not show an ounce of fear. Then he and Tom left the lab behind.

 

Chapter Twenty-five

 

Master Zin sat still as a statue at the head of the Inner Chamber. His eyes were not on the students; he appeared deep in thought. The whole room was filled, like it had been upon Mason's and Tom's arrival. The two humans sat in the back with their team—Po had saved them seats. The students were chatting idly, exchanging false rumors and coming up with new ones. Something was happening, that much was clear. The instructors had done their best to quash any rumors surrounding Jiric's absence, but now they couldn't hide the fact that students were disappearing.

Mason and Tom got more than a few suspicious looks; it was no secret things had been normal (or at least, relatively normal, since this was a school for alien space wizards) before the humans had arrived here to learn and train.

“We have failed at protecting you,” Master Zin said, and every voice in the chamber dropped away to silence.

He stood up from his chair and opened his arms. “We have failed at pro
tecting
the students of this school, and for that I am sorry.”

The assembly erupted in chatter, everyone looking at everyone else for answers. Master Zin raised his hands. “
Please.
Please. I ask for your patience.”

Slowly, the room quieted.

“Someone in this school is infecting students with
Fang
born venom. This venom, once administered, scrubs away the genetic parts of you that make you Tremist.” Somehow, Master Zin found Mason and Tom in the back. His eyes rested on them. “Or human. It turns you into one of them. Jiric was turned into one of them.”

Mason could see the expressions on the instructors standing around the border of the room. Some of them seemed shocked that Master Zin admitted the truth, and some of them seemed shocked by the actual truth.

More chatter. A student stood up. “Where is Jiric now? Can he be saved?”

“We're working on a solution for that. Right now, Jiric is alive,” Master Zin said, as rhadjen began to murmur. Master Zin did his boot-stomp thing, ruffling the hair of everyone and getting the silence he'd asked for. “Listen carefully. There will be no more roaming the school by your
self.
You will have a partner at all times. You will travel in groups as large as possible, with a minimum of two.”

Lore stood up. Mason was not surprised. “But who is suspected of being behind this? A student? Or…” She looked around, not daring to accuse any of the teachers.

Mason felt a presence watching him, and when he turned his head, he saw Reckful standing next to Grubare. Mason couldn't read his expression.

Master Zin waited a long time before answering. “I don't know. Until we find out, things will continue as
normal,
or as close to normal as possible. You are dismissed. Tonight's free-for-all has been canceled, and all
future
matches are as well. For now.”

“Sir.” The first student who had spoken, a younger boy, stood up again. “You haven't told us who is missing in addition to Jiric.”

Master Zin swallowed; Mason noticed all the way across the room. “Juneful and his friend, Dakor.”

Mason's mouth dropped open. He'd been right: the Fangborn
had
looked familiar. It was Juneful. He'd helped sneak Juneful into his mom's lab. Would he have done the same thing knowing who the monster really was?
Talk about an improvement of character,
Mason thought, then immediately felt guilty. Juneful might be terrible, but no one deserved to be turned into a monster. Or at least not forever.

Five days passed. Mason spent every free moment in the library, fruitlessly searching for a clue that would allow him to open the door to Aramore's tomb (he only saw Calora twice, and when he did, she was helping other students). And then, on the evening of day five, another student went missing. It was a young girl named Keliandra, who nobody seemed to know very well. Her robes had been found, shredded. There was a rumor that two students had seen her roaming the hallways in Fangborn form, and they'd been so scared by the sighting that the medical staff sent them home.

Fangborn weren't escaping from the laboratory, Mason knew. There was an outside force at work.

*   *   *

Mason wanted to visit his mother to see her progress, but classes went late. After class, rhadjen were forced to stay in their rooms. Groups of Rhadgast patrolled the halls at all hours. Mason focused on his studies, discovering the ways of the Rhadgast. He used his communicator and learned that Susan was on top of things: the Earth Space Command was quietly preparing for the coming battle.

Now all Mason had to do was make sure the Tremist were prepared, too. If they caught on that the humans were gearing up for war, they might take it the wrong way. The humans and Tremist made a treaty because they had a common enemy. Yet it seemed like there wasn't enough trust to fight that common enemy side by side. Mason wanted to laugh, even though it wasn't funny.

Six days later, Mason sent a message to the king through Reckful:
Sir, we need to talk.

On the seventh day, Mason got the best and worst news of his career as a rhadjen: his friend Merrin Solace was coming to the school.

 

Chapter Twenty-six

 

News spread within a day.

The king's daughter. The princess. The princess is coming here to train!

Mason felt a little jealous. Several girls who called themselves the Stone Squad, for a reason Mason hadn't been able to figure out, officially declared Merrin a member of their group, even though Merrin hadn't taken the test yet. Mason wanted to tell them that Merrin already had friends, thank you very much, and would have no interest in joining their squad.

Mason got his first glimpse of Merrin in the Inner Chamber, when she was about to take the test.

Two new rhadjen were with her, boys who looked like twins, with bright green hair. Mason almost waved, but he didn't, and Merrin never noticed him. Seeing her again made his stomach flutter in a way he wasn't quite sure he liked. He felt a little sick. Her violet hair was pulled back in a ponytail, with two locks that escaped the tie and framed either side of her face.

Mason wanted to warn her about the horror she would surely face inside the cave. The powerlessness ate at him. He tried to reach her, but there was simply no way to make contact. His only hope was that she'd be placed on his team, since Jiric was currently a monster and all.

The assembly of students left, and Merrin went down into the elevator with the two green-haired boys.

Mason caught up to Tom on the walk back to the dorm. “All we need is Stellan and Jeremy now, huh?”

Tom shook his head. “She shouldn't be here. Not with all this happening.”

Mason felt the same, but he wasn't about to tell Merrin that.

In the dorm, Lore played some kind of card game with Po, and the others were reading textbooks in their bunks. Mason sat on his bed with his legs folded underneath him, feeling very much alone. He missed his crew.

Mason sat like that for thirty-four minutes. He counted.

And then the door opened and Merrin appeared, clad in new robes.

 

Chapter Twenty-seven

 

“Congratulations,” Lore said, rising and walking toward her. “Welcome to the Stones.”

Mason stopped breathing. Merrin's robe had violet accents on the wrists and neck. There was no mistake; he was not suddenly colorblind.
What happened in that room?

Merrin looked shaken, her nearly translucent skin somehow paler than normal. The skin around her eyes was flushed purple, like she'd been crying. When she saw Mason, she walked toward him and pulled him into a fierce hug, pressing her cheek to his. He could feel her trembling.

“Missed you, too,” he said softly.

“That was awful,” she said, pulling back. She squeezed his shoulders, as if making sure he was really there.

“Yeah,” Po said from his bunk. “It's never a good time.”

Mason took Merrin's hand and pulled her back toward the door. “We'll do introductions later,” he said.

He shut the door once they were outside, and Merrin sniffed, wiping at her eyes.

“You can't be here, it's dangerous!” Mason said.

Merrin raised an eyebrow. “Dange—Do you know who you're talking to? Did you forget what we
did
last summer?”

“Well, no, of course not—”

“Then why would you think I can't handle anything that comes our way?”

Someone was currently turning students into Fangborn, that was reason enough. Any one of them could be next.

“I don't think that. You're right. But this place
is
dangerous. More than you know. The test isn't even the start of it.”

She pressed her fingers to her forehead. “The test … yes, the test…”

“Merrin?” He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but her eyes were closed, so he let it fall.

“It was my brother. He was there.”

Mason's mouth fell open. “Your
brother
? You have a
brother
?”

“Yes. I've only met him a few times. He's older than me, and … cold. I had to choose between him and several people from the Coalition for Life, the organization I've been working with? I chose to let him die.”

That didn't make sense. The test was supposed to show the person you cared about most—why would Merrin see a brother she barely knew?
They did it on purpose,
Mason thought.
They wanted to make sure the princess became a Stone.

What had Reckful said?
We find the person most important to you.
What a scam. If it had been someone Merrin truly cared about, she would've picked Blood.

Right?

Mason heard the whispers of multiple robes and turned to see a Rhadgast patrol of four moving down an adjacent corridor, passing out of sight.

“How did it end?” Mason said. “The test.” He wanted to know why she was wearing robes of the wrong color.

She shook her head, biting her lip.

“You can tell me,” Mason said.