The Mapmakers Union (The Doorknob Society Saga Book 3) (13 page)

“Edgar, found it.” I smiled but my hand never left my doorknob.

“I can feel its power; it’s amazing” Her eyes were locked on the Legend and mine on her. Something was wrong. The ache in the back of my neck suddenly felt more like an itch I needed to scratch and for some unexplainable reason I thought it had something to do with Faith.

Edgar’s fingers moved deftly activating the Legend and attaching it to the map he had created. Shimmering lines of golden energy shot from the map and numbers and equations danced in the air around us. Faith stepped forward and again instinct to hold and I moved closer to Edgar and the Legend.

“What’s that map?” Faith focused on what Edgar was doing and I felt a burning sensation in my stomach, a nagging sense pulling at me trying to force me to remember something.

“It doesn’t matter.” My voice felt heavy, as if I was talking in slow motion and I tried to stay steady. What the hell was wrong with me? Suddenly everything felt strange, as if time and place was completely off kilter. Faith looked up at me and her face turned pure white, and then she glanced down at my hand grasping my doorknob so tightly that my knuckles turned white.

“Chloe, is everything okay?” She gulped.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” I was angry and I didn’t know why, but yet I felt that I should be angry and that made me even angrier.

“Did I do something?” Faith’s hand drifted toward her pocket and I activated my doorknob pouring energy into it.

‘Don’t even think about it.” I seethed.

“Chloe, what are you doing we’re best friends?” Faith smiled.

My mind reeled. No, something was wrong none of this was right. My best friend was Val, as much as I hated admitting it, it was true. An image of Faith sneering at me crashed into my mind, but I had trouble focusing on it, tuning into a clearer image. Someone was standing behind her and I was yelling but I didn’t recognize the place nor could I make out what was happening.

“I got it!” Edgar yelled and the power of the Legend quickly faded.

I shook my head and looked down at Edgar smiling and rolling up his map, then he slid it into his satchel. I glanced back at Faith and she was smiling at me, her hands tucked in her pockets. I’d been sure of something a moment earlier and now I couldn’t remember what it was, damn these headaches were starting to annoy me.

“We should get out of here.” I shot a quick glance around wondering why more guards hadn’t shown up by now or why no alarm had gone off yet.

“What about the Legend?” Faith asked.

“We return it,” Edgar cut in and started walking.

“But what if the First Kind comes for it?” Faith asked trailing after him.

“It’s being moved; it’ll be safe from everyone. We got what we needed that’s the end of it.”

We crossed over several hedgerows into a large open field with shrubbery carved into different cartographer symbols. Dragons and sea serpents roared up from the grass all around us, I shuddered as I passed the griffin.

“Oh no,” Edgar said.

I saw the body the same time Edgar did. He ran forward and dropped down next to the guard. His neck was twisted at an awkward angle. He’d never realized what happened to him; it had been that quick.

“We’re not alone,” Faith said and looked around frantically.

I tightened my grip on my doorknob and rushed toward Edgar grabbing him by his jacket and yanking him to his feet. “We can’t leave the Legend and we need to get out of here
now
.” The hair on my neck and arms rose as portal energy began to surge around me. “Get down!” I threw Edgar down and dropped on top of him as a blast of energy tore through the hedges incinerating them.

“Well look who we have here.”

The familiar voice sent chills up my spine and I sprang to my feet, my energy whip crackling beside me. Caleb Darker stood across the field, his wide grin matching a fresh scar that sliced across his cheek.

“I see you’re still on my mom’s leash, Darker,” I spat at him.

“There are people much worse than your mother. But at least she lets me have fun now and again, like the last time we met... when I had the pleasure of killing your little friend.” He laughed and it took all my will power not to rush him and attack, but Gavin had taught me better than that. Darker was baiting me, trying to get me off my game.

“From that scar on your face it looks like he left you with a nice present,” I smirked and Darker’s hand flew to the scar, his eyes narrowing and his mood souring.

“Give me the Legend and I won’t make you beg for your life like I did him. Wait—that’s right—you abandoned him and didn’t see how he died. It wasn’t quite as heroic as you would imagine. He died whimpering and cursing your name.”

“Liar!” Edgar shouted and I threw my arm out to stop him as he lunged forward intent on doing Darker harm.

“Look it’s the little mapmaker,” Jasper said emerging from another row of hedges. “How’s your little girlfriend. It’s a shame I didn’t get to spend more time with her.”

This time I had to grab Edgar’s arm to hold him back. Jasper had tricked Val and used her as bait and if Edgar got a chance he would make Jasper pay for it.

“You’re going to regret that,” Edgar roared.

 Jasper laughed and more First Kind stepped out from the hedges. Yup, they’d found us alright. We were surrounded and I didn’t have a clue as to how the hell we were going to get out of this one.

“Give me the Legend and I might let you live,” Darker shouted.

“Maybe we should do it,” Faith urged as she moved up beside me “We don’t have any portals to exit through and we’re surrounded. I don’t think we have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” I replied, though I didn’t want to mention that our other option was to go down fighting.

“I’m open to ideas.” Faith bit nervously at her lower lip.

“I’ve got one.” Edgar’s voice was unfamiliar to me, it sounded angry and determined at the same time. He reached into his bag and pulled out the Legend. He lifted it up high and a hush fell over the First Kind. “This is what you want? Come get it.”

Edgar’s fingers began moving rapidly as he activated the Legend and slammed it down onto the ground and bellowed.

“Protect!”

The ground rumbled and I grabbed Edgar’s shoulder so that I wouldn’t fall over. Lines of golden energy began to shoot out from the Legend, crisscrossing over the field. They seemed to be searching like bloodhounds on someone’s trail. They found what they wanted as each golden line of energy halted at the meticulously sculpted cartographer shrubs.

Light exploded so intensely around us that I had to cover my eyes with my hand. The earth quaked and then a low growling echoed all around. I finally opened my eyes and was stunned at a fantasy world come to life. The griffin shrub had leapt into action chasing First Kind members. Caleb Darker ran backwards as the giant glowing gold dragon raced toward him. All around us the cartographer objects sprang to life and followed Edgar’s one order... protect the Legend.

I grabbed Edgar by the scruff of his jacket and spun him around and Faith rushed along with us.

“Run!” I ordered. We took off as fast as we could rushing off the field and away from the screams of First Kind as they tried in vain to fight off the various beasts. We made quick time through the maze since much of it had been destroyed.

The access portal was close by and I activated it pushing Faith through and then Edgar, I took one glance behind me and saw Darker standing near the maze smiling at me.

“I’m coming for you girl; count on it.” He laughed as I jumped through the portal.

Status: I’m a mental case.

I crashed onto the ground and rolled forward skidding to a stop a few feet from the portal door. I stretched my arm out and twisted my hand cutting the flow of power. My doorknob fell to the ground the doorway disappearing in a blink.

Let’s call that Plan 101 that went completely wrong. I rolled over and looked up at the night sky alight with sparkling stars, water crashed on the sand only to hurry off again and the ocean stretched out endlessly until it looked as if it dropped of an edge.  I’d portaled us to the beach near my house, not a bad spot I suppose. The Reliquary would have been safer but for some reason I chose here instead.

“Everyone okay?” I pulled myself up and reached over grabbing my doorknob and slid it into my pocket. Faith was staring out at the water and Edgar was leaned over, his hands clutching the Legend.

“What are we going to do with it?” Edgar’s eyes never left the artifact, his voice quivered and he shivered either from the cold or perhaps fear. After all we had stolen the priceless artifact.

“I’m not sure.” We couldn’t exactly walk in and give it back; there would be far too many questions.

“We could use it to complete your mission.” Faith never turned around, she kept staring out at the ocean.

Edgar gave a quick glance at Faith and then shook his head at me. I knew he didn’t want her here, but what was I supposed to do, tell her to leave? She’d helped us.

“How did the First Kind find it?” Edgar rolled the Legend carefully and slid it into his bag.

“Maybe they tracked one of you,” Faith offered, but that didn’t make sense. How would they know what we were up too? Even if they were tracking us they wouldn’t have known we were going after the Legend so why choose that moment to come after us?

“I don’t see how they could. Something doesn’t fit, I can’t put my finger on it but something’s not right.” I stood next to Faith and shivered from the wind rushing off the water. The cuts on my legs were also making themselves known and my limbs ached. I wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep, but I couldn’t. “We better hide it.”

“Where?” Faith turned to me.

I brushed sand off me and didn’t bother to look her way. “I’ve got a plan, though this is part of the mission Edgar and I need to do alone.”

“But I can help,” Faith insisted grabbing my hand and squeezing it.

“You already have helped; we can take it from here. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know we’re okay.”

“Chloe,” —she kept hold of my hand and tugged— “please let me help.”

“We need to go now,” Edgar said from behind us and I nodded in agreement, then slid my hand out of Faith’s.

“Text me when you’re safe, please,” Faith called after us and I waved my hand in acknowledgement.

We left the beach and headed toward the street. I glanced back and saw Faith on her phone, her attention once again focused on the water. I pulled my jacket tight against the cold and wished I had brought a pair of pants. Edgar pointed out a building and I activated my knob and pushed it into the wall opening a portal and Edgar rushed through. I stepped in after him and for a moment I could have sworn I saw Faith across the street watching our every move.

The warmth of the Reliquary washed over me as I stepped out into the main hall. The moon shined brightly outside the massive windows on both sides of the room. I closed off the portal behind us and Edgar rushed down the hall to the containment room we had set up for artifacts after bringing back the Impossible Engineer device last year.

I made my way to the great room, slid onto one of the big couches, took a deep breath, and finally looked myself over. While I had started the night thinking I didn’t look too bad, I was now a wreck. My stockings were torn and bloody with scratches dotting the length of my legs. My shirt had tears and pieces of hedge sticking out of it. I yanked off my leather jacket and started picking off the twigs and dirt sticking to me. I didn’t even want to consider what my hair looked like at the moment.

My entire body was sore and when I lifted my shirts to check I could see the black and blue welts left from my fight with the griffin. I gritted my teeth and gently tested the bruised area and though it hurt I was sure I hadn’t broken any ribs. I knew that feeling well from last time, and though this hurt it wasn’t nearly as bad. I stripped off my stockings and my top shirt and found one of the many bathrooms the Reliquary had. I pulled off the rest of my outfit and finally checked myself out in a mirror. My hair was a disaster. I washed my face quickly scrubbing off my makeup and turned on the water for a hot bath.

Once the water was high enough I slid my legs in and shivered as the water lapped at each cut. It felt like a razor blade nipping at my skin. But I knew I needed to clean myself up. I sunk down into the tub letting the hot water soak into every inch of me. I held my breath and submerged my head. I used to do a trick like this with dad called
The Water Coffin
, so I was very good at holding my breath.

I let my mind wander, thinking over the events of the night. We’d gotten the coordinates we needed but also stolen an artifact, something not part of our plan. That could cause real trouble between the Old Kind, but the bigger question was how did the First Kind find us? None of the pieces fit together, nothing made sense. I had to be missing something and it was probably obvious, so why couldn’t I see it.

I lifted myself out of the water and rested my head on the edge of the tub. Closing my eyes, I controlled my breathing and ran the images in my head over and over. I kept running into a blind spot, something had happened when Edgar activated the Legend but I couldn’t remember what it was. It was like a blank spot in my mind and I didn’t like it. I pushed it aside and moved forward to Darker; he hadn’t been surprised to see me. He knew I was going to be there and he had asked for the Legend. He knew exactly why we were there, that was more than tracking... he had been informed of our whereabouts. But that would mean one of us was a traitor. I didn’t like the thought at all. These were my friends, the people I relied on more than anyone in the world. How could one of them turn against us?

If one of us did turn then who could it be? The back of my neck got itchy again, and instead of rubbing it, I let it go. I needed to think this through. I wrote Val off right away, she would never betray us. Jess and Edgar had no reason to turn against the Old Kind. Slade was faithful to a fault with the Impossible Engineers; I had learned that the hard way. Faith was willing to risk herself to help me tonight.