put the key back into its respective pocket, and slunk onward into a shadow across from Jameson. She looked over her shoulder, toward the hospital, its many-eyed form dark in the night, then slunk onward, back through the path she had taken.
She moved faster, running now, as quietly as possible. Shadow to shadow to shadow, and Jameson followed, keeping his careful distance. She ran to the base of the lowest wall, threw the rope up and over. She pulled until the hook stuck in place under the lip of the wall.
Jameson put his rifle to his shoulder.
She began to scale the wall, the sack slung over her back. She climbed, her eyes on the sleeping guards, who had begun to twitch and shift in their sleep. The spell was almost used up. She was nearly to the top.
Jameson closed one eye, looked down the barrel, focused. Pulled the trigger.
The bag on her shoulder ripped open, spilling its contents. The girl held on fast to the rope, paused for just a moment to see if she’d been shot. Then she scrambled to the top of the wall, grabbed the rope, and threw herself over, back out into the desert.
Down the barrel of his gun, Jameson watched her go; then he left the shadows to see what had fallen from her bag.
A few seemingly random things lay broken and spoiled in the dust. Cakes of cattle salt, a busted jar of honey, garlic, homemade vinegar, tea leaves. Any of these things wouldn’t have been strange, but all of them together made Jameson narrow his eyes. Medicine. She was going to make medicine. So that meant that Mother Morevna’s curse had worked the first time: It had made someone sick. But why hadn’t this one fallen ill? Was this a different robber?
He heard the slapping of boots against the dust. “We… we’ve been robbed!” panted one of the Sacrifice guards. “Again! I… I don’t know how, boss, I promise!”
“No, we haven’t,” said Jameson. He pointed to the debris on the ground.
“Wh-where is the thief?” asked the guard, confused eyes darting and white in the darkness.
“Don’t worry,” Jameson said, his eyes on the wall where she’d disappeared. “She’ll be back.”
CHAPTER 10
3 MONTHS
AND
14 DAYS
REMAIN.
When I woke, light was filtering in through the curtain, and my head ached from too little sleep. But the Booke was open to the place where I had left it, and the penny gave a thrum of encouragement. Quickly, I dressed and put the Booke in my pocket. When I stepped outside to head to the bathroom, the room across from mine was as quiet as ever. I gave the door one last glance, then started down the stairs, my boots magically silent. Then the sound of voices from the sanctuary stopped me.
“They got magic,” Mr. Jameson was saying. “That’s how they get in. They put the guards to sleep and just slip in—right past that magic circle of yours. I’m telling you, they got some real magic, and not like before, when—”
“As intrigued as I am about this fact, I am more interested in why you allowed one of them to escape when you had a clear chance to catch her.”
I crept down the stairs until I could see them. Mother Morevna was walking back and forth in front of an enormous stack of water rations and marking things on a list.
“I didn’t let her steal anything,” Jameson was saying. “And besides, they’ll be back.”
“And what makes you say that?”
“One or some of ’em are sick,” Mr. Jameson said. “The things she was stealing, they’re all ingredients for medicine I’ve made myself out there.”
“Seems the trapdoor spell took hold, then,” Mother Morevna said. “Pity it didn’t get all of them.”
Trapdoor spell.
I vaguely remembered reading something about trapdoor spells further back in the Booke. They could be set up from anywhere, but they relied on a Master Stone that you charged your power into. Multiple spells could be charged into one Master Stone too, or so I’d read. These were Mother Morevna’s specialty. I wondered how many more trapdoor spells were laid around the city, how many I walked over every day.
“But it got at least one of ’em good, and they must be desperate to save them if they’re risking coming back now.” He cleared his throat. “This might be our chance.”
“What are you suggesting?” Mother Morevna asked.
“I’m suggesting that we make it easy for them to come back if we want to catch them. We gotta give them the