Sarrask entered the room alone. “You two, hide!” he hissed, glaring at me and Ronad. “The doctor can’t see you here—he’s coming up now!”
I realized how shortsighted we’d been. Of course we couldn’t be seen by anyone from the “royal” emergency services, not if we wanted to stop word from getting back to Queen Gianne. I flashed a look at Ronad, and we jumped into action.
Laying Lorela gently back down against the pillows, I slid out from behind her and ducked down, pulling myself under the bedframe. I tucked my body to the far side, hoping I wouldn’t be spotted from the door. Ronad, meanwhile, had jumped inside the closet at the back, with Sarrask closing it firmly behind him.
And not a moment too soon.
I clamped a hand over my mouth, still terrified that this doctor would hear my breathing over the dead silence of the room, and heard someone enter. Turning my head, I could see a pair of cream loafer-like shoes treading across the floorboards and bright white pants grazing a bare ankle.
“Doctor Ulani, you found us!” Sarrask boomed, his voice way too loud.
I thought about the trapdoor lying just under me, and wondered if I should open it. If Sarrask was going to start acting weird, this doctor would soon smell a rat. I fumbled for the latch, knowing I’d have to choose my moments carefully.
“You have too many steps,” a silky male voice replied, presumably Doctor Ulani. “You should install fewer steps in the future.”
“Doctor Ulani comes highly recommended by Queen Gianne,” Sarrask said.
“At which university did you study?” Kaido interjected.
A cough spluttered from the doctor. “Never you mind. I am here to fix your aunt. It’s a broken leg, isn’t it? A collision with a Snapper, yes?”
“It’s our mother, and she seems to have ingested this painkiller tonic. There was no Snapper involved,” Kaido replied. I heard the clink of the tonic bottle on the nightstand.
“It looks like she got most of it out!” The doctor chuckled to himself, his loafer touching the pool of purplish vomit right beside where I lay.
“Will she be okay, Doctor?” Sarrask asked, his tone panicked. “What if there’s still too much inside her stomach? How are you going to make her better?”
The doctor was silent for a moment. “Well, you see, what it is… Your mother has a case of exo-internal combustion, brought on by overstimulated gastronomical trauma. It’s quite common, and nothing to worry about,” he replied. I stifled a snort. I’d never heard a bigger load of crap in my life.
“What brought it on, though, Doctor? What made her drink the tonic? What started the… overstimulated gastronomical trauma?” Sarrask pressed. I wished I could’ve seen Kaido’s face, as he’d likely realized it was nonsense, too. This guy was a hack.
“It could be a variety of things. Environmental issues, digestion issues, feminine issues—it’s really hard to say, on first inspection,” the doctor mused.
“How can you tell anything, Doctor, when you have yet to touch the patient?” Kaido chimed in, making it almost impossible for me not to crumble into hysterics.
The doctor scoffed. “I do not need to touch the patient to know what my eyes see. Her… expulsion got much of the poison out, and she is breathing well enough. I would say a few days of rest will do a world of good, and we can just let nature take its course.”
“Let nature take its course?” Sarrask repeated.
“Nine times out of ten, nature trumps any drug I might give. I’d have to know more about her medical history, but I’m sure she’ll be fine,” he replied. “You know, you really shouldn’t call the emergency line if you don’t have an emergency.”
I could almost see the look of frustration on Sarrask’s face. “This is an emergency! My mother took something, and we don’t know what pushed her to do it. Aren’t you supposed to be an expert in, you know… mental issues?”
The doctor hesitated. “I dabble.”
If I didn’t get out of here soon, I would explode with laughter. All the while, poor Lorela was being ignored. If I hadn’t been sure the worst had passed, I would’ve slid out from under the bed and asked for some credentials. She’d have a raw throat and a killer headache, but she’d survive. Besides, soon enough, Jareth would be home, and he would decide what to do next.
An idea popped into my head. While Sarrask and Kaido were suitably distracted, I could finally sneak down into the passageway below me, to Jareth’s lab, and steal back the black box. I wasn’t entirely sure that Jareth had put it there, but I had a good inkling. It was too tempting an opportunity to pass up.
As Sarrask and Kaido argued with the clueless Doctor Ulani, I made a break for it, lifting the latch of the trapdoor. It swung open beneath me, barely making a sound. Wasting no time, I rolled over onto my stomach and shuffled to the edge of the gap, pulling myself through it. My biceps burned as I clung on for dear life, swaying awkwardly, before dropping down to the narrow staircase.
As soon as I hit solid ground, I reached up and shut the trapdoor behind me. The panel closed with a soft click. I hurried down the stairwell, heading toward the alchemy lab.
In the stuffy quiet of the corridor, my mind drifted back to the kiss that Sarrask had planted on my lips. I could still feel the rough graze of his stubble against my skin. Even now, I couldn’t get my head around what had possessed him to do it, given how much he seemed to dislike me. I remembered the shocked expression in his eyes when he’d pulled away, as though he hadn’t expected it, either.
He’d been stunned, but something else had lingered behind his eyes—an indiscernible mixture of emotions, playing tug-of-war for his attention. If he had feelings for me, then what was I supposed to do?
You have to let him know you’re not interested, obviously, I told myself, but I didn’t want to harden his heart with my rejection. Then again, I didn’t want to lie and lead him on. I just didn’t want to hurt the poor guy, not now that I’d seen a glimpse of his vulnerable side.
Moreover, what was I supposed to tell Navan, if he came back for me? I shuddered, hating that pesky “if.” With every day Navan stayed away, with no word of where he was or how he was doing, those fatalistic thoughts wormed their way into my mind.
Pushing all thoughts of Sarrask’s kiss and Navan’s MIA status away, I reached the second stairwell and pulled myself through the trapdoor, into the alchemy lab above. The lights were off, and the sour, chemical smell stung my nostrils.
I fumbled for the light switch, letting out a sigh of relief as a few dull bulbs cast a sickly glow on the room. Keeping one eye on the main door of the lab—its outside location still a mystery—I began my search for the black box.
I riffled through drawers and cabinets, sifting through cupboards full of bottles and beakers, and even delved into a few creepy-looking cases, but the black box was nowhere to be found. What I did find, however, was a key. It was magnetized to the underside of Jareth’s utensil tray and looked just about big enough to open the cabinets in the corner—the ones that had remained tantalizingly locked.
Figuring the black box might be in one of those, I hurried over and unlocked as many as possible. There were sheets and sheets of paper inside, held within sleek metal folders. There were notebooks, too, in the hundreds.
Knowing I might not get another chance like this, I was about to pluck up one of the leather-bound notebooks, when a glint caught my eye—an object stuck to the underside of the cabinet. I reached for it, bringing it out into the dim light. It was the black box device; Jareth had magnetized it to the top of the cabinet, the way he’d done with his keys.
Grinning with triumph, I turned it around in my hands, looking for the three-chevron symbol that turned it on. After pressing it, however, my enthusiasm faded. A strange dialogue box had popped up onto the monitor. I couldn’t read what it said at the top, but, underneath, there was a pattern of dots that resembled a cellphone unlock screen. Evidently, a password was required, and I didn’t have it.
Frustrate
d, I pressed the dots at random. The screen flashed red. I’d gotten it wrong, and I had no idea how many attempts I had left. What if it self-destructed, action-movie style?
I was about to try another pattern when the handle of the lab’s main entrance turned, and the door started to creak open. My head whipped around. Panic bristled through me as I shoved the cabinets closed, locking them as fast as I could, and replaced both the magnetized key and the black box under the utensil tray. I couldn’t risk the box being locked back inside the cabinet, where I might never be able to get at it again, but I hoped Jareth wouldn’t notice it was in a different place. Maybe he’d think he’d misplaced it. Better yet, maybe he wouldn’t bother looking under the utensil tray at all.
I’d just thrown myself under the bottom of a dusty bookcase, my heart pounding in my chest, when a shadowed figure entered, closing the door quietly behind them. Peering out from my hiding spot, I could see it was a coldblood… dressed in doctor’s clothing.
Doctor Ulani.
Chapter Fifteen
I stared at the doctor. My heart thundered in my chest, so loudly I was sure it would give me away. Dust was creeping into my nose, tickling the edges of my nostrils, making my eyes water. Even so, I couldn’t look away.
Doctor Ulani closed the mysterious main door and began to explore Jareth’s alchemy lab. Judging by his hurried movements, he was clearly searching for something in particular. He wore a look of grim determination, his gaze darting from cabinet to cupboard, and down to the storage boxes tucked beneath Jareth’s workbenches.
I had to bite my tongue to keep a gasp from hissing out of my mouth as Doctor Ulani suddenly flopped to the floor, staring up. If he looked off to his side, he would see me looking back at him. After rummaging in his pockets, Doctor Ulani produced a strange, thin, rectangular device that shimmered with electricity. It looked like a handheld screen of some kind, but it didn’t look like any comm device I’d seen before.
He moved toward the utensil tray, peering through the device, which had a steady light flashing on the screen, but he didn’t seem to find anything interesting. A moment later, as his slithering took him to the far side of the room, he snatched a hidden device from the underside of Jareth’s desk, then rose to his feet. I guessed that whatever the device with the flashing light was, it located certain types of devices—and he’d found what he was looking for.
He moved over to one of the workbenches and set the device down. It looked very similar to the black box that Navan and Ianthan used, but it was larger and made from silvery chrome. Why had Jareth hidden it, in an already-secret room? Perhaps he hadn’t wanted to take any chances.
The doctor flipped up the monitor of the silver box device. The screen was blinking with a dialogue box similar to the one that had stumped me, on the black box. It didn’t seem to faze the good doctor, however, as he pressed a different button on the strange device he’d produced from his pockets and placed it against the screen. Crackling white lines bristled across the dialogue box, presumably scrambling the code that was needed to get in, unlocking it.
I frowned at him, trying to get a closer look at what he was doing, but he kept moving, blocking what I could see. I didn’t know whether he’d managed to hack into the silver box or not, but his body language showed confidence. There was only one explanation: this guy was a spy. Whether he was spying for Queen Brisha, Orion, or even Queen Gianne, I couldn’t be sure.
Still, if he was a spy, I couldn’t let him leave the lab. The last thing we needed was another one running around, sharing any potential progress on the elixir with more coldblood factions. What if Jareth’s information led one of them to crack the immortality code?
Glancing across the workbenches, I caught sight of another tray of laboratory tools sitting by a sink. Among the items was a paring knife, the blade glinting in the low lights, having been freshly washed and left out to dry. It almost seemed a shame to have to get it dirty again, but perhaps it wouldn’t have to come to that. Maybe I’d be able to frighten the doctor before he could glean anything useful.
With the doctor’s back turned, I slid along the ground toward the workbench where the tools lay, careful to keep as low as possible. As I approached, the thought of causing someone harm brought with it an onslaught of flashbacks, the memory of Pandora’s death skittering into my mind. Right now, I was certain of only one thing: I had to find out what the doctor knew and see if he was a liability. Only then would I be able to make a judgment call about sparing his life.
Reaching the workbench, I grasped the hilt of the paring knife. The doctor still hadn’t noticed me. Spurred on, I rose onto my haunches and crept across the lab, sneaking up behind the doctor without making a sound.
Wracking my brains for an appropriate Aksavdo move, I settled on a control grip around the neck. My arm slid across his throat before he even realized I was there. The blade, pointing at his windpipe, served to back up just how serious I was, while my other hand settled on his spine, two fingers resting against one vertebra. A swift jab, and he would be rendered immobile. From the shiver of his body, I could sense he knew that.
No matter what he did, or how he moved, he couldn’t get away unharmed.
“Who are you working for?” I whispered in his ear.
“Loosen your grip, and you’ll find out,” the doctor replied, his tone taking me by surprise. The formality he’d shown in Lorela’s room had evaporated, replaced with a wry quality.
I jolted his neck backward, letting the knife bite deeper. “Who are you working for?”
“Let go of me, and let me see who I’m talking to,” he grumbled.
I pressed the knife harder into his neck, my fingers digging into his spine. “I won’t ask again.”
“Okay, okay! We’ll do it your way, kiddo,” he purred, his body relaxing against me. “I’m not at liberty to tell you who I’m working for, so back off, or you’ll end up regretting this little show of power. You’ve got no idea who you’re messing with, princess.”
“Is it Queen Brisha?” I pressed, though his voice made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
No response.
“Queen Gianne?”
Silence.
“Orion?”
The doctor laughed. “I worked for one of them once, but I’ve long since given up bowing and scraping to undeserving bosses. Now, I’m more of a mercenary, gathering juicy morsels of information to give away to the highest bidder—that could be you, if you play your cards right.”
“Why?”
He let out another bitter laugh. “So I can get myself a fancy ship, and get as far from this steaming pile of throat-tearer dung as possible, before everything really goes to crap. Why else?”
“I don’t understand. How did you find your way in here? Nobody knows about this place.”
“Nobody?” He snorted. “You really are precious, princess. You think nobody guessed big bad Jareth Idrax was hiding the truth from everyone?”
“What truth?”
“You really think he’s not doing exactly what I’m doing? You really think he isn’t scrambling to find a way to buy his family out of this place, for when these two bitches destroy each other, and everyone on this stupid planet?” he snarled.
I was just about to answer when he jumped up and pushed back as hard as he could, using his feet as leverage against the workbench. I flew to the ground, smacking my head against the lab floor, the doctor splayed on top of me. He writhed and thrashed, breaking free of my grip, then kicked my hand hard, making me drop the knife.
He was up on his feet in seconds, hurtling for the door. I was up a moment later, sprinting after him, barely missing a beat as I stooped to pick up the blade. He turned the handle as I barreled into him, tackling him to the ground. Doctor Ulani tried to fight back, but he wasn’t as strong as I’d expected him to be, his hands flailing helplessly as I forced my knees against his upper arms, pinning him there and sitting down on his chest.
“You!” He sneered
, looking up at me from the floor.
I frowned. Until he came into Lorela’s room, I’d never seen this guy before in my life. “I don’t know you, Doctor. You and me—we’ve never met,” I said, confused.
“Ah, of course you don’t remember me. You torture so many poor souls—I imagine they all start to blend together, after a while?” he replied bitterly. He tried to wriggle free of my weight, but there was nothing he could do to move me.
My Aksavdo skills were good, but I’d expected more of a fight from this guy. To my human strength, even ordinary coldbloods were a challenge, and Doctor Ulani was a fairly large specimen.
I wrenched his arm upward to stop him flailing, when it suddenly reshaped itself. I felt the cold, almost-damp texture of his skin as it slithered away from my grasp.
“You’re a shifter!” I gasped.
“You don’t say.” He glared up at me through huge, red-veined eyes. The rest of his body morphed into its normal form. His pale, wrinkled skin pooled at the knees and elbows, making him look like a giant newborn bird. The shifter flashed a gaping mouth full of shark-like teeth. I’d forgotten just how ugly these things were, and though it was hard to tell them apart, I had a feeling I knew exactly who this one was. His voice brought back memories of hot noodle soup and a wintry tundra.
“I do know you,” I said.
“Where’s your bloodsucker boyfriend? I knew it wouldn’t be long before he lost interest. These grayskins are all the same. They treat their lovers like planets—they invade, take what they want, and move on!”
The puzzle pieces were slotting into place. This was the shifter that Navan and I had captured, back on Earth—the one we’d forced to lead us into the rebel base.