“I haven’t slowed my pace,” the man said, wiping the sweat from his brow.
The other workers gaped.
Aaron’s nostrils flared. “You’ll address me properly, or . . . ,” he couldn’t think of anything, and his face flushed.
The man nodded solidly, but his voice quavered. “All right. I haven’t slowed my pace, Son, and you know it. I’ve always worked my hardest and taught my children to do that too.” He hesitated, then blindly barreled onward, his voice cracking. “I don’t care who you are now. You’ll show your father some respect.” He stood stone still, but his eyes flitted about, as if he knew he’d gone too far.
Aaron flinched and heat rose from his collar. His mind whirled. He couldn’t allow a Necessary to speak to him like that—not even his father. Not in front of other Necessaries. If he didn’t do something, word would spread that he was weak. If he didn’t do something immediately . . .
“Guards!” Aaron shouted. Two of them came running to Aaron’s side. “Take this man to the Ancients Sector,” he said, his voice wavering the slightest bit. “His time of service in Quill is done.”
Mr. Stowe stared at Aaron. Aaron stared back, a feeling of horror growing inside his chest when he realized what he’d just done. But he didn’t take it back.
The guards grabbed Mr. Stowe by the arms and shoved him toward a Quillitary vehicle. The man’s lips parted and a shocked look came over his face, then one of pain. “Aaron, no,” he said. “Your mother . . .”
Aaron’s face was stone. His mother—she was pregnant, he remembered from when he’d seen them in the crowd at his speech several weeks prior. Would she care that her husband was dead? She hadn’t seemed to care about Alex when she thought he was dead.
Mr. Stowe’s shoes slipped in the gravel as he struggled to look back at Aaron, his eyes pleading. Aaron’s gaze narrowed, and as the guards pushed his father into the vehicle, Aaron turned to the other workers. “You may want to work harder,” he said in a sinister voice.
Stricken with fear, the workers began at a frantic pace to dissemble the remaining blocks. Behind Aaron, the guards drove off with Mr. Stowe, the man’s bowed head visible through the back window. As soon as the noise of the jalopy had quieted, Aaron turned back to the palace and stomped inside to his office.
“Secretary!” he screamed. “Come at once!”
Eva was there in a flash. “What is it?” she asked, alarmed.
“I’ve sent my father to the Ancients Sector.” He looked at her, and now he couldn’t stop the fear that bled into his eyes. “He was disrespectful.”
“Your father?”
“He was one of the workers.”
Eva had to work very hard not to react. What she really wanted to do was punish the spoiled boy herself, right that minute. But all she said was, “I see.”
Aaron turned and began to pace. “He didn’t address me properly! He made me look like a fool!” He swiped his hand across his desk, sending papers flying. “What else could I have done?”
Eva didn’t think he wanted an answer. “If you want me to tell you that you did the right thing . . .” She didn’t finish, for fear it would get her sent to join Mr. Stowe.
Aaron rounded his desk and gripped the back of his chair, muttering to himself. “He deserved it. He knew very well what he should have done.”
Eva closed her eyes briefly and sighed, not loud enough to be heard.
“Even if he was right, he shouldn’t have said it like he said it.” He began pacing again.
Eva waited until Aaron had finished muttering, and then she said, “Shall I send a vehicle to retrieve him, High Priest?”
Aaron’s face twisted in indecision. He pounded his hands on his desk in anger. And then he pressed his fingers to his temples. “Yes,” he said finally. “Send him home, on the condition that he remains silent on the matter.”
Eva Fathom nodded and set off to stop an untimely death.
“Wait,” Aaron called after her, and she stopped and turned to look at him.
“There is one more condition. Tell him that he and my mother and any future . . . children . . . of theirs must be loyal to Quill. They will make an oath never to pledge loyalty of any sort to my brother, or to Artimé, as long as they live.”
Eva waited to make sure he was finished, and then she said, “I will see to it myself.”
Eva left the palace and Aaron went again to the window, watching her go, watching the other men working and struggling below to finish their job before they collapsed.
He was so deep in thought, he didn’t notice that a little gargoyle statue named Matilda had climbed up and out of a box in the closet and now stood very still, ear pointed at the opening in the door.
The Gray Shack
Sean met Alex, Simber, and Sky at the door to the mansion. Hundreds of Unwanteds celebrated beyond the entryway, spilling out of the dining room and kitchen. “Simber!” Sean exclaimed. “Man, I’m glad to see you.” But he looked more distracted than glad. He turned to Alex. “We’re missing people,” he said, getting back to business. “Meghan, Henry, Crow, Mr. Appleblossom, and dozens of others.”
Alex’s eyes widened. “Meghan? She was with me when I changed the world back.”
“Well, she’s not here now. She’s nowhere.”
“She was standing right inside the doorway of the shack,” Alex said, alarm growing in his voice. “Henry and Crow were sleeping on the floor inside. They can’t have gone far. Did you check their rooms?”