Page 139 of Mud

“It’s simple. You won’t stop me when we go back. You’ll tell no one. You’ll simply stay out of it.”

He was absolutely crazy. “But you’ll die.” If he tried to get into the vault, he would die. Not only was that place protected better than the White House, but he was a wanted felon who had escaped from the Tomb. They’d shoot him on sight.

“Let me worry about that.” He reached out his hand. “Do we have a deal, Rosabel?”

I used to love it when he said my name. It was the only time I had ever loved it, even though Madeline had named me.

And I wanted to shake his hand, I really did. If he helped me with his magic, this challenge would be as good as over, if my plan panned out.

But I couldn’t. What he was asking me, to sit back and do nothing, knowing he was going to die…

I shook my head. No, I couldn’t do that. I never could, not in the past or the present. I would never agree to it in the future, either.

“I’m sorry, Taland. I’ll figure it out on my own.” I turned around and walked out the door with my heart in my throat.

Taland didn’t follow.

Vuvu insisted that I was better off inside, that tomorrow had come, according to him, but when I asked him about the time again, he said, “This isNightCity! The time is nighttime—we have no other time.” And he sounded a bit freaked out about it, too.

He let me go when I promised to be back for another meal and bath and bed later on, even though I was hoping I wouldn’t need to.

Outside, nothing had changed beyond that alley. The streets were the same, the people the same, and the players even more agitated and more confused than before as they looked around themselves, searching, disappearing into the shadows. I doubted anybody had tried to get to the rooftops again. Right now, I saw no dragons flying over us, only crows, and I saw no flames, but we’d all seen enough when we first came here. So even though it would have made my life so much easier to get higher up and see where I was headed, I stuck to the ground and tried to find my way back where I’d come from.

The feeling of being watched was right there on the back of my head, like someone was standing behind me, breathing down my neck. It was Taland, I knew it, but every time I turned around and tried to catch a glimpse of him, he wouldn’t be there. He was good at hiding, the asshole.

And I was good at feeling all kinds of weird things even when all he did was stalk me.

I saw other players, plenty of them, and it made me wonder how many were still in this challenge, and how many were in others. It made me wonder where they allfound the bodies that Taland thought they’d buried around here for us to complete the challenge.

And were they human bodies or animals?

Something told me it wasn’t the latter, and I really didn’t want to know for sure. I didn’t want to search for said bodies, either, so that’s why my goal was to make it all the way to the beginning of the challenge, right where I’d fallen on that hill. Where I’d met Erfes and where I’d seen all those other shops—one of them the Cloud Maker.

There were plenty of spells and potions and rituals that could bring about rain, though never ones that could drive clouds away. Nobody quite understood why it only worked one way and not both, but for now, I was hoping that whoever was inside this shop would be able to help me.

Otherwise…well, I was as good as dead.

The Cloud Maker shop was on the other side of Erfes’s bar, very close to where I’d first landed and hidden when people had seen my color. Very close to where I’d seen the vulcera for the last time.

Stabs at my gut at the memory of those moss-green eyes. Fuck, the way it hurt that I didn’t know where she was. The way it killed me that she wasn’t here with me, like I’d known her my whole life. Like I’d lived with her by my side all this time.

It made absolutely no sense, but then again, nothing about my life right now did. This pain was already becoming a part of me, and soon I wouldn’t be able to tell it apart from who I was.

So, I breathed in deeply and pretended that I was okay, and with another look around to make sure Taland wasn’t right behind me somewhere, I walked into the store.

The sound of music and chatter and footsteps from the city outside cut off abruptly even before the door fell closedbehind me. A corridor with its walls covered in silver-framed pictures of clouds led to a round room with lots and lots of shelves and transparent bottles on them. The floor was set in a thick, colorful oriental type carpet, and the walls were painted a deep maroon. In the middle of the room was a tall stand that reached my chest, and on it was a glass bowl half filled with water, while a single drop of it came from somewhere on the ceiling every ten seconds, and fell right in the middle, rippling the surface.

The only sounds in there were the drip and my footsteps.

“Hello?” I said, wondering if I should go back outside and knock, but a second later…

“It all starts with water.”

The voice came from behind me—rightbehind me.

I jumped and turned, and I bit my tongue until I tasted blood to make sure I didn’t scream. The man who’d spoken was close enough to touch if I just reached out my hand a little bit. He was skinny and tall, with a big, pointy nose, warts all around his left eye, and a bowler hat as if to hide the tips of his ears. He had golden crosses hanging from his large earlobes, and when he smiled, his teeth were more pointy than square. The dark grey suit he wore should have been thrown away decades ago, and the once-white handkerchief on his chest pocket had long ago turned yellow.

I never really cared to judge people based on their appearance, but this guy I was judging, and I didn’t even feel guilty about it.

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