The Toll (Arc of a Scythe) - Neal Shusterman Page 0,74

from wanderlust. Until his life had been derailed, his hope was to serve the Thunderhead as a Nimbus agent close to home – and if not, then in a single place that would become his home. As far as he was concerned, Lenape City was as much of the world as he needed to see.

“It was merely a suggestion. But I believe it to be an important one,” the Thunderhead told him. It was not like the Thunderhead to be insistent when Greyson had made his feelings clear on a matter. Perhaps there would come a time when he would have to uproot himself to help bring the sibilant factions in line, but why now?

“I’ll consider it,” Greyson said, just to end the conversation. “But right now I need to take a bath and stop thinking about stressful things.”

“Of course,” said the Thunderhead. “I’ll draw it for you.”

But the bath the Thunderhead drew was much too hot. Greyson endured it without saying anything, but what was the Thunderhead thinking? Was it punishing him in some passive-aggressive way for not wanting to travel? The Thunderhead wasn’t like that. What possible reason could it have for putting him in hot water?

The new pastry chef was supposed to be a culinary genius. And he was. Or at least he was until Scythe Morrison gleaned him and took his place. The truth was, three weeks ago, Scythe Morrison could barely boil water, much less bake a soufflé – but a crash course in dessert making gave him enough basics to fake his way through the short time he needed – and he even had developed a few specialties. He made a mean tiramisu and killer strawberry cheesecake.

He was nervous the first couple of days, and although his inexperienced hands bumbled quite a lot in the kitchen, it turned out to be an effective smoke screen. All new servants here were nervous when they arrived – and, thanks to the severe eye of Sister Astrid, they remained nervous for their entire tenure. Morrison’s awkwardness around the kitchen would be read as normal under the circumstances.

Eventually they’d realize that he wasn’t the chef they thought he was, but he didn’t have to keep up the charade for long. And when he was done, all these nervous little Tonists would be freed from service. Because the holy man they served was about to be gleaned.

“The Thunderhead has been behaving strangely,” Greyson told Sister Astrid, who dined with him that night. There was always someone there to dine with, because they didn’t want the Toll to ever have to dine alone. Last night it was a visiting curate from Antarctica. The night before it was a woman who created graceful tuning forks for home altars. Rarely was it someone who Greyson actually wanted to dine with, and rarely could he be Greyson. He had to be “on” as the Toll at every meal. Annoying, because his vestments stained easily and were virtually impossible to get as clean as the role demanded, so they were constantly being replaced. He would much prefer to dine in jeans and a T-shirt, but he feared he’d never have that luxury again.

“What do you mean ‘strangely’?” Sister Astrid asked.

“Repeating itself,” Greyson said. “Doing things that are … unwanted. It’s kind of hard to put my finger on. It’s just … not itself.”

Astrid shrugged. “The Thunderhead’s the Thunderhead – it behaves the way it behaves.”

“Spoken like a true Tonist,” Greyson said. He hadn’t meant it as mocking, but Astrid took it that way.

“What I mean is that the Thunderhead is a constant. If there’s something it’s doing that doesn’t make sense to you, then maybe you’re the problem.”

Greyson grinned. “You’ll make an excellent curate one day, Astrid.”

The server put dessert before them. Strawberry cheesecake.

“You should try it,” Astrid told Greyson. “And tell me if it’s any better than the last chef’s.”

Greyson took a small piece on his fork and tasted it. It was perfect.

“Wow,” he told Astrid. “We finally have a decent dessert chef!”

If nothing else, it purged the Thunderhead from his mind for the few minutes it took to devour it.

Scythe Morrison understood why the gleaning of the Toll needed to be done bloodlessly, and from the inside, rather than a frontal attack. The Tonists guarding the Toll would die for their prophet and were well armed with illegal mortal-age weaponry. They would fight back in ways that ordinary people didn’t – so even if an assassination team were successful, the world would