The Golden Tower Read online

  “Can I come in?” she said nervously. She was in pajamas and fuzzy slippers. The peach color of the pajamas made her skin shine.

  “I, uh,” said Call.

  Oh, just say yes, said Aaron irritably.

  “Sure,” said Call, standing aside to let Tamara pass. He was glad he’d worn his less ratty sweatpants and a clean T-shirt. And that he’d showered about five times, because he still felt gross after being soaked at Niagara.

  Tamara came in and sat down on the edge of the bed. So far on the edge actually that she looked like she was about to topple off. “Call,” she said, fiddling with her necklace. “Look, I wanted to talk to you about —”

  “Will you be my girlfriend?” Call blurted.

  Oh, no, not now, Aaron groaned.

  “Shut up,” Call said.

  Tamara raised her eyebrows. “I know you’re talking to Aaron,” she said. “Maybe we should wait to have this conversation until we’re alone.”

  Oh, go on, Aaron said. I don’t have anything else to do.

  “Aaron says he doesn’t have anything else to do anyway,” said Call.

  “I’m not sure this is romantic,” said Tamara.

  “But that’s the thing,” said Call. “You know me. You have since the beginning, and you always see the best in me. Even though I’ve been seventeen different evil mages.”

  Eighteen, said Aaron. But who’s counting?

  “You know the truth about me,” said Call. “All the truth. Everything no one else but Aaron knows. And you’ve still always — well, maybe not right at first — believed in me. You make me want to do good things, Tamara. You make me want to save people just to make you happy.”

  “But not because you actually want to save them?” she asked.

  Call had the feeling maybe his speech had gone a little awry. “Kind of. Sometimes?” he answered. “Other times I wish someone else would do it.”

  “Fair,” she said, and smiled. “Proceed.”

  “Well, I want to go out with you. I know I’ve brought a lot of weird stuff into your life and am currently possessed by our best friend, not to mention the whole Enemy of Death thing, so I get why you might be fed up with me. But in case you’re not, in case you were wondering how I felt, I want you to be my girlfriend.”

  Tamara’s smile faltered a little. “Call, I really like you.”

  Uh-oh, said Aaron, which did not improve Call’s spirits.

  “It’s okay,” Call interrupted her, because if he already knew the answer, he didn’t need to hear her say it. “You don’t have to say anything now. Just think about it. You can tell me after we deal with Alex.”

  She was quiet for a long, heart-wrenching moment and then let out her breath in a rush. “Are you sure you want to wait?”

  Call nodded his head and gave a mock yawn. “We should probably get some sleep,” he said.

  Tamara leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, making him feel overheated and confused all at once. When she went out, he experienced a pang of regret. Maybe he should call her back and hear whatever terrible thing she was going to say.

  But he didn’t.

  He didn’t sleep much either.

  FLORIDA WAS HOT and sticky. The Rolls didn’t have air-conditioning, so they kept the windows down and fanned themselves a lot. They drove past Tallahassee to a stretch of swamp near the Sopchoppy River, where Lucas had said Greta made her home.

  Call turned onto the road that the GPS on Jasper’s phone told him to turn on, but he did it with great trepidation. It was unpaved and bumpy and entirely unsuited to an ancient, elegant car.

  The road ran along the river, which was coffee colored and smooth. All around were cypress trees, hanging with moss. The roots stretched out into the water like fingers. A snake — Call thought it might be a copperhead — swam casually along through a cluster of lily pads, past something Call thought might be the nose of a gator.

  The road was quickly turning to mud and the path was becoming a lot less clear.

  “You’re sure this is the way?” Call asked.

  “Maybe?” said Jasper. “The GPS seems to be asking us to turn again, but there isn’t a turn.”

  The Rolls slowed, partly because Call had pressed on the brakes and partly because the mud was getting deeper. Call had the uncomfortable sensation that the car was sinking a little in the muck.

  “We should get out,” Tamara said. “Now.”

  “This car can’t get stuck here,” said Call. “Dad will kill me if I don’t bring back his car.”

  “Do we even know where we are?” asked Gwenda.

  “My phone knows,” said Jasper. “But maybe we better go on foot from here.”

  They all piled out of the Rolls, feet sliding. As they stepped away from the car, it seemed to be sucked down a little more.

  “Is that quicksand?” asked Tamara.

  “Augh!” said Call, holding his head. “I thought quicksand was just in movies. Bad movies. I didn’t think it was real.”

  “We can get it out with magic,” Gwenda reminded him. The tires had almost entirely disappeared. “Everyone, concentrate.”

  Gwenda, Jasper, and Call all drew on air magic while Tamara drew on earth. Call focused on wind pushing up the car, on it forming an almost solid sheet getting between mud and metal. With a gross, sucking sound, the car bounced up out of the swamp, was pushed a few feet onto the remains of the dirt road, and then unceremoniously dropped as they withdrew their magic.

  The clang and grind of metal as the Rolls hit the ground made Call wince. Would it still run? How many dents had they just made along the base?

  There was no time to worry about that now.

  “This way,” said Jasper, holding up his phone. They followed him along the trail beside the Sopchoppy River, listening to the buzz of insects, grunting frogs, and the constant trill of birds above them.

  The wet heat was heavy on their backs, and mosquitoes blew in clouds, making their high-pitched keening noise. Call had the uncharitable thought that maybe Lucas had sent them on a fool’s errand. Maybe there was no Greta.

  Jasper stopped. He shook his phone.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Tamara.

  He shook it again. “No signal.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gwenda told him. “Now what? Are we close? Do you have any idea where we’re meant to be going?”

  “Over there,” Jasper said, waving vaguely across the water, toward a copse of trees.

  “Greta!” yelled Call, causing a few birds to take off from nearby branches. At least one of them was, alarmingly, a buzzard. “We’re sorry to bother you, but Lucas said you could maybe help us!”

  There was no answer. Call felt defeated, as though he’d let them all down. Although really, it had been Jasper with the phone who’d messed things up. Call opened his mouth to point that out.

  Don’t, said Aaron. There’s no time to blame one another. Besides, I bet he already feels bad.

  Call frowned and looked over at Jasper, who was still waving around his phone. He looked fine. But Call supposed Aaron was right.

  “We could swim across the river,” Jasper suggested.

  “No way,” said Gwenda. “That water is full of alligators. I guarantee it.”

  “We could fly across,” Call said. “See if we can see anything.”

  Just then, there was a rippling in the surface of the river. They all stopped and stared.

  They were standing at a bend. The water itself was a muddy gray-brown. Tall cypress trees lined the banks.

  “Maybe it’s an alligator,” said Gwenda nervously. “Sometimes they climb up on the bank and eat people.”

  “Why do you know so much about alligators?” Jasper demanded.

  “Because I hate them!” she said. “They’re like dinosaurs with massive teeth and — what is that?”

  The ripples in the water had become a whirlpool, swirling around the cypresses growing out of the river. Suddenly there was a loud sucking, cra
shing noise, like a volcano erupting inward. The trees began to sink into the water.

  “It’s a sinkhole,” said Tamara. “I’ve seen videos of them. Back up!”

  They all backed away, watching in amazement as the trees and the earth at the edge of the riverbank were dragged down into the opening sinkhole with a loud, sickening noise. The trees crunched and shattered, branches snapping off as they were dragged below the surface of the water. The surface of the water roiled, and out of it emerged something huge.

  It was a giant made entirely of dirt and mud. Call’s mouth fell open as the creature rose above them, shedding flopping fish and huge worms. A stench rolled across the swamp like rotting garbage as the giant opened two massive mud-brown eyes.

  “She’s trying to scare us off,” Tamara hissed as the others reeled back, gagging. “Lucas said she hates people.”

  “It’s working,” Jasper said, wiping at his watering eyes. “I’m scared.”

  “Go away, mages,” Greta said. Her voice rolled and boomed. More mud fell off and plopped into the swamp.

  Call cleared his throat. “It’s nice to meet you,” he called. “The, ah, mud and worms are very cool, very, ah, powerful-looking.”

  Greta reached out and snapped a tree in half.

  “That’s gonna be your spine,” muttered Jasper.

  Flattery won’t work, Aaron said. But I bet she’s not thrilled with the Assembly.

  “Look,” Call said, “we’re sorry to bother you. But we don’t have a choice. We need your help.”

  Greta blinked. Mud cascaded into the water. “Why would I want to help you?”

  “We know the Magisterium abandoned you during the war,” said Call. “Left you to become Devoured and then cast you out.”

  Greta nodded.

  “There’s a Devoured of chaos out there,” said Call. “His name is Alex. The Magisterium is building him a huge golden tower, and in a few days we’re all going to be delivered to him so he can kill us.”

  “That’s not true,” Tamara hissed, then paused. “Actually, I guess it’s technically true.”

  “Why should I care?” said Greta, but she spoke more thoughtfully now. “What have mages ever done for me?”

  “Two other Devoured are helping us,” said Gwenda. “Ravan of fire and Lucas of water.”

  “The Assembly would have to acknowledge what you did,” added Call. “They would be ashamed of the way they treated you.”

  Greta made a low rumbling noise. Call realized the terrible stench had gone, and Greta was looking slightly different — she was no longer shedding worms and fish. Instead, flowers were growing up and down the ridges of her rocky body, along with brightly colored mushrooms.

  “The Assembly must admit its shame,” said Greta. “We are the Devoured, not elementals. We are mages. We should not be kept imprisoned nor treated as monsters.”

  “This would be a way to show that the Devoured aren’t monsters. That they can also save people,” said Call. “And if Alex isn’t stopped, there’s no telling what he might destroy. He could wreck the whole world — and that would affect you, too, and other Devoured.”

  Greta rumbled thoughtfully. “Does the Devoured of chaos like frogs?”

  They were all silent. Would it be better or worse if he did?

  I think you should go with no, said Aaron. Alex doesn’t really like anything.

  “He probably wants them destroyed,” said Call.

  “Then he ought to be stopped,” said Greta. “I like frogs. They’re my friends.”

  “Tell us how to summon you,” said Call. “I promise we’ll only do it when all the Devoured are united and it’s time to fight Alex.”

  Something wormed its way up from the ground between Call’s feet. A shimmering geode-like hunk of quartz.

  “Smash that on a rock,” said Greta, “and I will come to where you are.” She swatted lazily at something in the water — an alligator, its green, spike-toothed head sticking briefly out of the water. “I will expect to see the shame of all mages.”

  As she sank back below the water, Jasper expelled a breath. “I hope this was a good idea.”

  “We didn’t die,” said Gwenda. “That has to count for something.”

  They made it back to the Rolls without being attacked by alligators or frogs or an enormous pit opening up beneath them. The car had not been sucked down into another sinkhole. Even better, when Call turned the ignition, the car came to a shuddering start. It didn’t sound the same as it had when Alastair had let him borrow it, but it moved well enough to allow them to drive out the dirt path.

  Once they got on the highway, a whine in the car — in something that Call thought might be the fan — became more pronounced. He drove on, sending a little cooling magic toward the engine in case he was right.

  They drove north, muddy, bug-bitten, and exhausted. They stopped for more fast food on the border of Virginia and made it to the caves of the Magisterium that night.

  The golden tower loomed high in the sky. In the moonlight, it looked finished already.

  They had one more day. One more day before he was going to face Alex again.

  Call parked Alastair’s car in a corner of a clearing near the front gates. He and Havoc and the other apprentices went inside, too tired to even talk. He was planning on taking a bath, but once they got to their rooms, Call fell asleep right on his bed, with mud still crusted on his jeans.

  IN THE MORNING, Call washed up and, butterflies in his stomach, went to the Refectory to eat breakfast. Tamara, Jasper, and Gwenda went with him.

  “I thought your dad was going to meet you back at the Magisterium,” Jasper said.

  “I’m sure he will,” Call told him, trying to put faith in it. Maybe Alastair was here already. They’d gotten in late; maybe he was staying in another part of the school. Maybe they just hadn’t seen him.

  Call piled his plate with mushrooms and lichen but after he sat down, he wasn’t sure he could eat any of it. He was worried about confronting Alex, worried about giving what he promised to Greta, worried about everything.

  That was when Colton McCarmack strode up to their table, red hair bright as a new penny. Two of his friends followed, but they stopped before they were too close. “We were taking bets on whether you all ran off.”

  “I hope you didn’t lose too much money,” Call said. “Wait — actually, I hope you did.” He should have been upset about Colton coming to bother him, but when Call was nervous, he got testy, and it helped to have someone to vent that testiness on.

  “We were all talking and we remember how Alex used to be. Cool. A nice guy. He would have never done anything like this.” Colton sneered.

  Tamara gave him a look so scathing that Call was surprised Colton’s hair didn’t catch on fire without any magic being involved.

  “Why don’t you go talk to your old pal Alex then?” said Call, standing. “If you’re such good friends, maybe he can make you his number one minion.”

  Jasper laughed.

  Colton looked more incensed. “If he is the way you say, I know you had something to do with it. You did something to him. You corrupted him. You’re the evil one.”

  “Oh, stop it,” Celia said, walking over to them and putting her arm on Colton’s. “Call is doing a brave thing tomorrow.”

  Colton gave her a look. “Not you, too,” he said, and stomped off.

  “Good luck,” said Celia to Call softly, and then followed Colton, with a single weird look in Jasper’s direction.

  “What was that about?” Tamara asked.

  Jasper shrugged, looking embarrassed. “She came to see me this morning. Maybe we’re not going to work it out.”

  Call was too distracted to make sense of Jasper’s love life. He was thinking of Alex, of the way he’d thought of him as friendly and funny and nice. He’d thought Alex was a good person, like Aaron. But all of that had been surface, acting. In his soul, Alex had been terrible the whole time.

  We all thought he was n
ice, Aaron said. That’s what he wanted us to think.

  Of course, Call had an evil soul, too. And maybe Colton was right about Call’s villainous ways, because he suddenly knew how he was going to win. And it wasn’t a plan that anyone could describe as good.

  “Tamara,” he said, “can I talk to you for a second?”

  Just then, Master Rufus walked up to their table. “I’m relieved you’re all back. I got a message from Call’s father that he’s delayed. He’ll be here tomorrow. But today, the Assembly wants to see you. All of you. They want to go over the final plan. If you’re done with breakfast, come with me.”

  Tamara, Gwenda, and Jasper stood. As they followed Master Rufus out of the Refectory, Call put his hand on Tamara’s arm.

  Are you sure about this? Aaron asked.

  “I need to tell you something,” Call said to her. “Because we’re not going to have any secrets.”

  On the way to the Assembly, he whispered to her, explaining the whole thing he’d thought out. She didn’t contradict him, even when he thought she would. She didn’t tell him it was wrong.

  All she asked was, “Do you think it will work?”

  “I hope so,” Call said, and they walked in to face the Assembly.

  The Assembly always looked serious. Now they looked like they were at a funeral. Call looked up and down the long wooden table, recognizing faces — the Masters of the Magisterium, people from important families like the Rajavis, and Graves presiding over it all.

  “Mr. Hunt,” said Graves, gesturing for Call and Tamara to come and stand before the table. It was on a raised dais, so the Assembly looked down on them, some impassively, some with pity. “We understand you’ve been orchestrating a plan.”

  “That’s right,” Call told him, trying to project all the authority that he’d never thought of himself as having. “We’re going to pull Alex back from chaos.”

  “You think you can make him un-Devoured?” said Master Milagros. “That’s never been done.”

  “Actually, it has,” said Call. “It requires four Devoured, representing each of the other elements.”