The Shadow Prince

chapter fifteen HADEN

I climb the trellis that leads to the window of my new bedchamber and slip inside. I scan the room. Everything is the same as I had left it. I can hear the soft murmur of voices down the hall, and I am sure my absence has gone undetected. Good thing. I don’t want Dax to know how colossally I’ve screwed up. What had I been thinking?

I hadn’t been thinking, that’s what. Perhaps this girl is a siren. The old stories say they can befuddle men with their music. Such an idea had always been so obtuse to me, but now I understand. My encounter with Daphne had left me more confused than ever.

But sirens were evil creatures of the Oceanrealm, thought to be extinct. Why would the Oracle want me to bring such a dangerous thing back to my world?

No, she isn’t a siren.

But, then, what is she?

She certainly isn’t a mere Boon. Or at least not like any Boon in the Court’s harem. She doesn’t act like one, I think, rubbing my jaw where she had hit me. And she certainly didn’t look like the Boons I’d seen in the Underrealm. Most of the girls who had been brought back by former Champions were waifish and gaunt to begin with, and wasted away quickly. I’d never really seen the appeal of having a Boon before. But this girl is different. My hands tingle with that strange heat, just thinking of her now.

The Oracle had indicated that Daphne is indeed different. Special, somehow. And Dax had suggested that he knew something about it. I shouldn’t have acted without all the information—I should have waited here, as Simon had ordered me to. A soldier should always follow commands.

The thought of Simon finding out what I did fills me with dread. He seems to be in communication with the Underrealm somehow, and I can’t bear the thought of his reporting my blunder back to the Court. What would they say about me then?

I settle on the bed and open the cloth bag the girl left in the grove. She may not be a siren and she may not be an ordinary Boon, but she is definitely a more formidable opponent than I gave her credit for. I am a warrior, and I decide to attack the problem of Daphne the way I have been trained to do with any other adversary. Which means I need to do some reconnaissance. I dump the contents on the bed. There are mostly papers. I play with a tube of sticky red gel that smells vaguely of pomegranates, and almost jump when a rectangular contraption buzzes in the pile. I pick it up and inspect its smooth surfaces. It buzzes again and lights up. A written message appears on the glass front. It must be some sort of communication device. The message reads:

CeCe: Daph, really need to talk. Call me tonight. May not be at this number after tomorrow.

A knock sounds on my door, making me jump. My fingers slip. I’m not sure what I’ve done but the message disappears.

“Haden, you up?” Dax calls through the door.

“Uh, yes. Just one moment.” I panic at the sight of Daphne’s things strewn across the bed. I grab a blanket and throw it over the mess to hide the evidence of my excursion into the world. I dash over to the door and open it halfway, placing my body between the door and the view of the rumpled-looking bed. I stretch and act as though I’ve just woken up.

Dax looks somewhat surprised to see me.

“Enjoying a nap, I see,” Simon says in his overly chipper way. “Very good. Very good. Many Champions ignore the need for proper rest while in the mortal world. This place can be a strain on the body. You were so quiet in here, I was almost afraid you’d run off on some half-baked idea of going to look for this Daphne girl on your own.”

I feel heat flushing into my hands and face. “Just being patient. Like I was told.” I try to give Dax my most earnest look.

“Very well,” Simon says with a huge smile. “All the arrangements for your stay have been made. I’ll leave you boys to it.” He drops the smile, and a sudden dark look creeps over his usually bright face. “I trust I won’t need to clean up any messes while you boys are here. Not like last time?” He turns that dark look on Dax.

“No, Simon. Everything will be fine.”

As quickly as it came, the dark look passes from Simon’s face. He smiles happily. “Very good, then. Keep those noses clean,” he says, tapping his own nose as he leaves.

I brush my nose, wondering if there’s something on my face.

Dax waits until Simon is down the hall and we hear his footsteps on the stairs. Dax shivers, then slips inside my room with a couple of large bags made out of a thin, shiny material. He shuts the door quietly and then turns on me.

“Where the Tartarus were you?” he whispers.

I blink at him. “I—”

“Don’t even think about lying to me, Haden. I came to check on you an hour ago and you were gone. I had no idea what I was going to say to Simon if you hadn’t been here now. What in Hades’s name were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t …”

“Clearly!”

“You were taking forever. How was I supposed to just wait here? I didn’t even know what time it was.”

“There’s a clock right there! You couldn’t be patient for a few hours?”

“Well, nobody bothered to tell me how time works here. That’s why I went back to the gate. I needed to know if it was still active. So I’d know that I hadn’t been waiting for weeks.”

“You went back to the gate? Did anyone see you? Did you talk to anyone?”

I shake my head. “No,” I lie. I don’t want him to know what I did. How Herculeanly I screwed up. “I went right there and came right back. I know I shouldn’t have, but I needed the reassurance.”

Dax drops the bags on the table in the corner of my room. “It’s my fault,” he says. “I haven’t been the best guide so far. I should have known not to leave you alone.…”

His words sting, but I can’t deny their truth.

“Are you going to tell Simon?”

“I should, but I think it’s best we keep this between the two of us. For both our sakes.”

I realize then that my actions have a reflection on Dax. As my guide, he could be punished for my mistakes.

I want nothing more than to ask him again what he knows about the circumstances of my quest, but I cannot bring myself to broach the topic. Any talk of Daphne might cause me to slip. The guilt is eating at me already.

“What’s with all the stuff?” I ask him, trying to turn the topic off my ineptitude.

“Oh yes. I come bearing gifts. Every Champion needs his special tools,” Dax says, pulling several things out of the bags and placing them on the table. There’s more strange clothing, like what I was made to change into before passing through the gate, plus belts and a couple of pairs of shoes.

“New wardrobe makes the man,” Dax says. “These clothes are more up-to-date with current fashion than what you’re wearing. You’ll fit in just right around here. Well, at least in appearance.”

I nod. Blending in would be good for recon. I need to study Daphne’s movements, just like I did with that hydra I hunted down last year for the Feast of Return. I stalked its movements for days. I knew its favorite places to go. Where it ate and slept. Where it was most vulnerable … before I made my move.

Dax reaches down into the depths of the last bag. “Now don’t lose these,” he says, handing me three small cards made out of a thin, hard material. Two have my picture on them, and the other has a long set of numbers. “Two IDs and a credit card. This ID says you’re sixteen; the other one says you’re twenty-one. You’ll never know when which age will benefit you more. The credit card is how you pay for things. Simon set up the account and will handle the bills—which means he’ll know about everything you spend money on. Got that?”

I nod.

“Now, this,” he says, “is going to be your most important weapon of all.” I expect maybe he is going to bestow on me some kind of enchanted sword or maybe even some poison-tipped arrows, but instead he pulls out a thin, black rectangle with a reflective screen. It looks almost identical to the white communication device I’d found in Daphne’s bag.

“What is that thing?” I ask, pretending that I have never seen anything like it.

“It’s an iPhone,” he says. “And it’s the most important tool you’ll need in the mortal world.” He slides his finger across the screen and the thing comes to life. He presses on the different icons, and shows me the functions of the device. “They’ve improved since the last time I was here. It’s so fast. And so thin.” He almost sounds as giddy as Simon. “Its primary function is communication. Somewhat like the talismans the Court uses, except it only transports your voice, not an astral projection of yourself.”

I nod. I’ve heard the Heirs speak of their communication talismans but I’ve never actually seen one. I doubt they look anything like this iPhone object.

Dax hits a few icons and then scrolls through what looks like a list of names. He finds his own name and then a few seconds later, a ringing noise comes from his pocket. He pulls another iPhone out and shows it to me. “See, you need anything and all you’ve got to do is hit my name and it’ll call me. We can talk, no matter how far away, through these.

“However, this next feature is the most important.” He clicks on an icon that says YouTube and holds the phone up in front of me. “You know how we are taught to learn? Someone demonstrates and then we repeat his movements?”

“Yes.” The Underlords are natural mimics. We learn by repeating what we see or hear, absorbing the ability to do just about anything in a matter of hours. Some of us—including myself—can master any new skill in a matter of minutes. It’s how I’ve excelled in my lessons. Humans don’t have the same accelerated ability, I recall, according to Master Crue’s many lectures.

“Well, the same watch, absorb, repeat method also applies to recorded videos.”

“Videos?”

“I’ll show you.” Dax taps icons of letters, spelling out the words how to juggle. “We’ll start with something easy.”

I watch as a prepubescent boy with a face full of pus-filled lesions appears on the screen. He holds three round objects in his hands. I listen and absorb as the boy demonstrates how to juggle the objects. When the demonstration ends, Dax hands me three apples from the bowl on the table.

“Try it,” he says.

I picture what I have just watched in my mind, and mimic the boy’s actions, movement for movement, and juggle the apples perfectly on the first try.

Dax nods in approval.

“Child’s play,” I say, placing the apples on the table. “How will this help me?”

“Juggling won’t help you much. Not unless Daphne has a thing for clowns, but you can pretty much learn how to do anything using this application.” He picks up one of the apples and takes a bite. “There are many gaps in your education.”

“I’ve noticed,” I say under my breath.

“You aren’t as prepared for this world as you might think you are. It’s why I didn’t want you venturing out on your own yet. Who knows what trouble you could have gotten yourself into?”

Guilt clutches at me, and I wonder if I should tell Dax about what I’ve done. I don’t know how to fix the problem I’ve created with Daphne. I feel like such a fool. But if I tell him, he would probably have to tell Simon. How can I share my secrets with the one person I trust if he’s under orders to report back on me?

“Just don’t ask the Internet for dating advice. That’s never a good idea, trust me.”

“Dating?”

“You’ll see.”

“What else can that thing do? Can it track someone?” I’m thinking of Daphne and wondering if this iPhone can show me where to find her again.

“If you have the right app. Or if you have their address, you can type it into this map function, and it will tell you where and how to find the location.” He hands me the phone and then starts putting my new clothes away in a chest of drawers next to the table.

Address. I remember seeing something like that in Daphne’s papers. I’d memorized it without even really thinking about it. While Dax isn’t looking, I punch the numbers and words into the search bar in the map’s feature. After a moment, a small red dot lands on the map, showing me where Daphne lives. I could go there right now if I wanted. I could sneak out again as soon as Dax left.

I shake my head, dismissing the thought. What is it about this girl that makes me act so stupidly? I tell myself it’s for recon reasons, but I know there’s a part of me that just wants to see her again.

“I have one more thing to show you. Outside,” Dax says. “But first, we’d better do something about your hair. Someone might think you’re trying to look like a pirate if you go wandering around, looking like that.”

“I’m tired, Dax. Can it wait until tomorrow?” Really, I’m itching to study Daphne’s things some more. Learn as much about my adversary as I possibly can. I don’t want to be caught off guard again.

“Believe me,” he says. “You don’t want to wait to see this. It’s going to change your entire world.”