Fragments of Alchemy: The Code Keeper
Chapter Thirty-Six

Hide and Seek

Everyone had agreed that it made the most sense for them to split up, so that if something happened and they were captured again, at least some of them would be able to get away, to bring back help. The problem was that Todd had died. The original plan was for Chadwick and Tajana to go back in for the Chimaera’s while Thea and Todd stayed outside with Quentin and attempted to call for help. They hadn’t discussed who would be staying outside and who would be going back inside now that Todd had died.

To Thea, it made the most sense for her to go back inside with Tajana. The Chimaeras belonged to the two of them, after all, plus it left Quentin with Chadwick, who was capable of protecting him, while Tajana was the most experienced with Alchemy and would be the most likely to succeed in getting back in and out of the mansion.

“Tajana?” she whispered.

“Yes?” she replied, and Thea realized she was only a few inches away.

“What do we do now?” Her breaths still came quickly and her heart pounded. She swallowed and clenched her teeth.

“I think I should just go in alone. You can stay out here with Chadwick and keep your cousin safe.” She had a guarded tone to her voice, as if she was expecting an argument.

“I can’t let you go back in there alone, Tajana,” Chadwick said.

“You and I are the only ones who know how to call for help, Chadwick,” Tajana said. “I need to go back in for Duŝan, and you need to stay out here.”

“I’ll go in with you,” Thea said.

“No offense, Thea, but you’re only going to get in my way if you come back in there with me.” Even with the motherly tone to her voice, Tajana’s words still stung.

“I’m not letting you go in there alone!” Chadwick repeated.

“Shh, Chad!” Tajana hushed.

“I’m not!” Chadwick said again, quietly this time. “I’m the one who was supposed to go back in there and help you rescue Splenda, and Al was supposed to stay out here.”

“Splenda?” Thea asked.

“Her caprequos’s nickname,” he explained quickly. “And yes, before you even ask, he hates that I call him that, but in my defense, his full name is Dušan Splendui.” Chadwick almost laughed.

“Focus, please,” Tajana cut in.

“Sorry,” Chadwick blurted.

“Chadwick, that was the plan before—” Thea’s throat started to go tight. “Before Todd died. He’s not here to protect me and Quentin anymore, or to call for help.”

“I still say I should be the one going back in there with you,” Chadwick said. “Let Thea stay out here with her cousin where it’ll be safe. It makes more sense.”

“We have to change the plan, Chadwick,” Tajana said. “Someone needs to make sure that the Keeper can replace us. We’re the only two who know how to make contact. I’d do it myself if we weren’t so pressed for time. It has to be you, Chadwick. And the longer we sit here arguing about this, the harder it will be for me to get in and out without getting caught.”

Chadwick was quiet for a long uncomfortable moment. Finally he sighed and said, “Fine, you can count on me to call for help.”

“Thank you, Chadwick,” Tajana said with a sigh of relief.

“I still don’t like the thought of you going in alone,” Chadwick said.

“Me neither … It’s my Chimaera too,” Thea added. “I’m going back in there with you. And that’s that.”

Tajana sighed. “Fine, but I say the word, and you get out and come back to this pond. With or without me. Promise me.”

“I will, I promise,” Thea assured her, hoping with all her might that it wouldn’t come to that.

“Fine, then let’s go,” Tajana said. “Stay right behind me and follow the sound of my footsteps. The foliage will ripple against the Invisibility Conversion, so stay on the path. And Chadwick? Try not to do anything stupid while I’m gone.”

“Right back at you,” Chadwick said with only a hint of exasperation in his voice.

“Stay behind me, Thea. Let’s go.” Thea heard Tajana get up and start walking immediately.

“Hey,” Chadwick said. “Be careful. Anything happens to my Mentor, it’s on you, you got that?”

“Got it,” Thea said with a heavy sigh. “I’ll be right back, Quentin,” she added, and she scrambled to her feet and turned toward the mansion. After only a moment of hesitation, she stepped toward the nearby path. She heard the soft scuffle of Tajana’s boots on the rocks, and she went after the sound, trying to stay light on her feet.

Thea’s breaths sounded loud in her ears as they grew closer and closer to the mansion. Any moment now, Thea expected the Nightmare to come bursting out of the mansion and replace her strolling along the path. She had to remind herself that she was just as invisible as Tajana, who was only a step or two in front of her, but it was as if she wasn’t there at all.

Finally, they reached the door where the Shadows had brought them into the mansion from the backyard, only a day ago. Thea was about to reach for the doorknob when Tajana whispered, “Thea!”

She stopped. “What?” she said under her breath.

“Over here. Let’s wait for someone to come open the door.” Her voice came from right beside the door. Thea eased her way over and felt her shoulder brush against something she couldn’t see, and a subtle ripple appeared and vanished again in the blink of an eye. “Careful,” Tajana warned.

Thea stood still and peered through the door’s window. The foyer was deserted. “Let’s just sneak in,” Thea whispered. “There’s no one around.”

“Wait,” Tajana whispered back. “There could be a Conversion on the door, or a guard standing watch somewhere out of sight.”

Thea realized she was probably right. She resigned herself to waiting.

After about a minute Tajana whispered, “You know, Thea, if anything happens to me, please be sure to tell Chadwick it wasn’t your fault.”

Thea laughed silently through her nose. “You know he wouldn’t believe me.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to me, okay?” Tajana said finally. “We’re both going to be fine.”

Thea couldn’t tell if Tajana was reassuring her or trying to convince herself. She didn’t know what to say. Finally, she sighed and said, “I’m glad you’re here with me.”

“Thanks, Thea,” she said. “I’m glad too.”

A pair of Shadows came down the hallway. “… Only a few minutes since they got out. They can’t have gone far,” the first Shadow said as they approached the door.

“Let’s search the backyard,” the other Shadow said as he opened the door. The first Shadow quickly followed him out, walking only a step away from where Thea stood.

Thea sensed Tajana making her move for the door, and she hesitated only a split second to let her go first before she went for the door herself. The door was already slowly swinging shut behind the two Shadows. Thea barely made it through before it clicked shut again. She breathed a silent sigh and said, “Which way?” under her breath.

“Right,” came Tajana’s hushed reply from just beyond Thea’s reach. She turned and tiptoed past the open entryway and down the hallway, trying to be just as silent as Tajana. Several times, Thea worried that she was about to run Tajana over, or that she had somehow passed her, but she kept walking anyway, hoping that she was still behind Tajana. “In here,” came Tajana’s hushed voice from off to the side, as they approached an open door to a dark room.

Thea followed Tajana’s voice into the empty room and stood in the darkness, her breaths loud in her ears. She tried not to gasp for air, but it was so hard to calm down. The room was so dark, Thea actually started to feel invisible. She hunkered down in the corner and held her breath against the blackness. Above them, someone ran down the hallway, probably searching the mansion for their missing prisoners.

Thea was reminded of a hiding game her mother had played with her when she was very young. Thea had decided to hide in the dark cellar under the kitchen in the ranch house. For what had felt like hours, she had sat huddled under the kitchen floor listening to the sounds of her mother’s footsteps as she searched the house. Finally, she had started shouting for her, but Thea had stayed hidden until her mother’s calls became frantic, and then she sought her father’s help. By then, Thea was cold and damp and shivering, but she had known she was winning, and she had smiled as she huddled in the dank corner of the cellar.

It had been well past Thea’s bedtime when Thea’s dad had opened the cellar door and came down to look for her. Oddly enough, even then, Thea had remained still, and her dad had almost gone back up empty handed. But then the light from the kitchen must have caught Thea’s eyes, because her dad had let out a sigh of relief and chuckled softly. “I see you, Allie,” he had whispered. “You better come out now.”

“You found me, so I win, because you weren’t playing.”

“You win,” he had agreed. “You’re the best hider I’ve ever known.” And he had gathered Thea up in his warm arms and carried her out of her hiding place.

Now, hiding in the dark room of the Shadow Mansion, a tear traveled down Thea’s cheek, and she sniffed and swiped it away. Somehow, she knew that her mother and father were looking for her again, just as they had frantically searched for her that night so many years ago. She wanted them to replace her, but she worried that someone else was going to replace her first. This was no hiding game this time, and Thea was worried that she wasn’t really very good at hiding after all.

“Give me the feather,” Tajana whispered from the far corner of the room. It was unsettling how loud she sounded in the absolute silence of the pitch-black storeroom.

Thea carefully moved toward the sound of Tajana’s voice. “How will this work?” she whispered.

“You stay here, while I follow the feather to our Chimaeras and bring them back,” she answered.

“No,” Thea retorted. Tajana tried to shush her, but she talked over the older Chemist. “What’s the point in me coming in here with you if I stay here by myself?” she asked.

“The point is that you were a Hopeful three days ago, and you’re only going to slow me down if something does happen. And shush!” she hissed. “Someone will hear.”

Thea took a few breaths to try and calm down. “Tajana. Why did you bring me in here if you were just going to leave me in this room? … Alone?”

Tajana didn’t speak for a while. Thea listened to her heart pound in her ears, wondering if she should just give in and let Tajana do things her own way.

“I know you think I’m not going to be able to help, but we escaped because of me. I should come along with you, so I can be there to help. I promise I’ll keep my distance and get out right away if something happens. You can trust me.”

It was quiet for a while. Finally, Tajana whispered, “Alright, but I can’t figure out how you will follow my Conversion when you won’t be able to see it.”

“How does it work?” Thea asked, breathing a sigh of relief. She couldn’t tell if she was relieved because she didn’t want to be alone, or if it was because she had been worried about Tajana going off by herself. Probably both.

“I speak the Word and the Component will try to fly to your noctos. If I hold on tightly to it, I can feel it tug in the right direction. It will only lead me; I can’t figure out how you will know where to go.”

Thea sat down with a sigh, her Invisibility Conversion rippling around her legs. The only way to see Tajana would be if she made her Invisibility Conversion ripple on purpose. That would be the best way to make sure someone else saw her too, though, so that wasn’t an option. Thea knew someone was bound to overhear them if they kept talking to each other, so Tajana couldn’t give Thea directions.

“Can we merge our Invisibility Conversions together?”

Tajana groaned. “We could have, but it’s too late now.”

“I should have grabbed two feathers,” Thea thought aloud, and then she got an idea and gasped. If they both had a feather, they could both make it to the room where the Nightmares were keeping the Chimaeras. So, the only logical thing to do was to somehow get two feathers. “Hey, Tajana? Would the Conversion work with half of a feather?”

“Sure, I suppose,” she replied. “It works with a single strand of hair just as well as a whole lock of hair.” Then she gasped. “Thea! You’re brilliant!”

Thea smiled and snapped the feather in half and twisted it until it came apart in two pieces. She got to her feet, walked towards Tajana’s voice, and held out the two pieces of feather. They shimmered against the rippling Invisibility Conversion, and another ripple appeared and Tajana took the feathers. They vanished into thin air.

Tajana spoke a Code Word under her breath and then out of the darkness, a feather appeared. “Be careful!” she whispered harshly. “It will try to fly away, so hold tightly.”

Thea reached out and pinched the feather. She almost laughed when she felt the feather come to life in her grasp. It was trying to fly up toward the ceiling.

“Are they right above us?” Thea whispered excitedly.

“Maybe,” Tajana said. “Listen. You need to stay in the hallway when we get up there. Promise me you won’t try to come into the room with me, okay?”

“I’ve already promised to run out on you if something goes wrong,” Thea replied. “I’d rather just play it by ear.”

“If you insist, I suppose. Walk down the far-right side of the hallway, slowly and quietly, and promise to stay hidden.”

“I don’t even know how to cancel my Invisibility,” Thea said. “I’ll stay hidden as best as I can.”

“Don’t touch anything, because that will make it wear off faster. It’s tricky to explain, but if you want your invisibility to fade, it will. Just wave your hand dismissively and think about letting your invisibility fade away, and it’ll be gone. Don’t do that unless it’s safe, okay? We probably have at least ten minutes. Let’s get moving.”