The Villain Keeper (8 page)

Caden had no choice but to obey. His magically traitorous feet were already following the order. He started to sit beside Tito in the front middle. Royalty sat in front.

“That's Jane's seat,” a twangy girl's voice said. “Don't sit there.”

Caden clenched his jaw. Again, an order. He was compelled to skip the front middle desk and instead take the end one on Tito's other side. This desktop was covered in scribbles. In the corner, someone had drawn a bird. It made him think of the mighty Winterbird on his coat. Thoughts of the Winterbird always made him feel braver. They also reminded him he had a dragon to slay and a way home to find.

He leaned toward Tito. “When does this class end?”

Tito looked annoyed and didn't answer.

Caden asked again.

“At three,” Tito said and sounded irritated. “I'm trying to listen.”

Before Caden could say more, Mr. Rathis walked to Caden's desk and tapped it. “Stop talking. Pay attention.”

Caden stopped talking. He paid attention.

Mr. Rathis smirked, and the scar tugged at his mouth. He raised a hand as if to strike Caden down—and for a moment, Caden was certain he was going to hit him. Then Mr. Rathis turned and wrote LONG RANGE ATTACKS on the whiteboard. He proceeded to explain how to find the trajectory of projectile weapons. He waved his arms and guffawed as he calculated damage centers and casualty rates.

Mr. Rathis looked straight at Caden. “Fifty thousand dead.” His eyes glinted as he spoke of death. For a moment their gazes locked. Then Mr. Rathis waved his hand like a performer taking a bow. “That's the importance of math!” he said, and began spouting information about fractions.

As Caden listened, a memory tugged at him. There was something familiar about Mr. Rathis. He felt that he had seen this man's face before—but not in Asheville and not in person. He fought to keep his eyes from widening, his heart from racing.

He'd seen the face in a portrait—a portrait his father had shown him that hung in the Hall of Infamy in the Greater Realm's council halls. But the man had not been painted wearing a simple wool sweater and dark pants like he wore now. His body had been draped in the red war velvets of the armies of Crimsen and the Autumnlands.

He bore a striking resemblance to Rath Dunn, tyrant of the Greater Realm and bringer of the red war, exiled to the vile Land of Shadow fifteen years prior, a sacrifice to the Gray Lady and her flesh eaters, doomed to fight each day for the barest of food and safety until he perished weak, alone, and humbled. His image was immortalized in the portraits so no man or woman in the whole of the Greater Realm would forget his horrible deeds or horrible fate. His image in the Hall of Infamy had looked cruel and mocking as it gazed from the portrait.

If this man was Rath Dunn, he did not look weak or humbled. Yet he was dressed in the colors of Crimsen. He had the same scar, the same wolfish grin. His voice made Caden's blood run cold.

Regardless, Caden had enough sense to know that he needed to establish he was unafraid, deserved respect, and—like all the Ashevillian boys and girls in the room—in no way suspected that the man teaching math might be a monster.

The bell tolled; the class ended.

Alive and confused, Caden moved as fast as possible to the door. He needed to think about everything. He needed to find Brynne, throttle her for the curse, and tell her of the strange Rath Dunn look-alike at the school.

“Caden. Stop,” Mr. Rathis said.

Caden stopped, frozen in place, his compliance unbreakable.

Mr. Rathis settled his large hand on Caden's shoulder. “Glad to have you,” he said. “You're a surprise, but I'm sure you'll do fine.”

The other students hurried away. Only Tito remained, standing by the door and looking impatient.

Caden had stopped long enough to satisfy the curse. “I should leave now,” he said. He did not know if this man was the villainous Rath Dunn or a mild-mannered impostor, but he preferred not to take any chances.

He had one boot in the hall when Mr. Rathis called to him again. “One last thing.”

Caden raised a brow and turned back.

Mr. Rathis smiled like a wolf. “I like your coat.”

With those words, Caden knew this man was no look-alike. This man was the great enemy of Caden's family and kingdom. He hadn't been banished to the Land of Shadow where he should have been; he was here, teaching math in Asheville, where Caden was stranded.

The math teacher was Rath Dunn.

C
owards fled; brave men made strategic retreats. Caden hurried from the school. Rosa's orders “Come here” and “Get in the pickup,” however, kept him from fleeing to the hills.

He climbed into the pickup's backseat. He told her that Mr. Rathis was not as he seemed. He was to be feared. “He's Rath Dunn, the tyrant of the Greater Realm.” He gave an abbreviated history of the man and his vile acts—the plague he'd unleashed on the land, the many dead by his hand, the rivers that ran red from the battles fought against him. “He must be stopped.”

Beside him, Tito snapped his seat belt and looked confused. “From teaching math?”

“From whatever terrible deeds he has planned,” Caden said.

Caden's seat rumbled as Rosa turned the truck's key and the transport engine came to life. “Mr. Rathis is a good teacher,” she said. “Unorthodox, but good.”

“He's a monster—his skill with math does not excuse that.” He looked between Rosa in the front and Tito beside him. “We're all in danger.”

Instead of pulling out onto the road and away from the terror within the school, Rosa turned back and looked at him. “Why would you say that?”

“His hands drip with the blood of good men and women.”

“Math's not that dangerous,” she said, a smile pulling at her mouth. She turned front, and finally drove onto the steep road. “Tomorrow will be better.”

Tito shrugged. “I can help you with your homework.”

Caden didn't know what “homework” was and he had no inclination to find out. He cared that he'd been taken from his land and deposited in this place; he cared that a threat walked among the backward people of Asheville; he cared his life might end far from home long before he had slain a dragon and completed his quest.

Caden's father and brothers had defeated Rath Dunn fifteen years ago, after eight years of war. Caden would study, train, and fight until he was as good a man as them, until he was strong enough to face men like Rath Dunn. He wasn't strong enough yet; he wasn't even an Elite Paladin yet. Rath Dunn—Mr. Rathis as he was calling
himself—would destroy him.

With a thunk, Caden leaned his forehead against the window. “I can't stay here,” he muttered.

Sadly,
that
Rosa took seriously. “You will stay,” she said. “And you'll go to math class tomorrow.”

Tomorrow, then, Caden would die. His father would never be proud of him. Without Caden to slay a dragon, one more would prowl Razzon, devouring hapless villagers, stealing jewels and trinkets of value, and burning thatched homes.

When they got back to the house, Caden went to the attic room and barricaded the door. He sat on the floor and watched as the light from the windows faded from afternoon to evening. He and Brynne became stranded in the land at the same time Jane disappeared. Now, it seemed, Rath Dunn—the Greater Realm tyrant—had been Jane's math teacher. Was there a connection?

At nightfall, Tito pounded on the door. “You done sulking?”

Sulking? Caden was most certainly not sulking. These were his last hours of life. He was trying to make sense of why he was here while preparing for death. He would die bravely. He hoped.

The doorframe shook. “It's my room, too,” Tito said.

Across the black tape, the purple bed was unmade. Books were scattered on the floor. The rugs were covered with wrinkled clothes. Caden stood and brushed off his
jeans. He turned his nose at the mess. “Then you should be able to break the defenses. And clean it up.”

“Let me in before I get Rosa.”

Caden wanted to say no. He wanted to say something snide about the quality of Tito's training, but it was an order. Frowning, he walked over, unblocked the door, and opened it.

Tito was a picture of steely irritation. “Rosa's decided to keep you,” he said, pushing past Caden into the room. “Despite the crazy.”

“It doesn't matter. I'll likely die tomorrow,” Caden said.

“Well,” Tito said, and flopped down on his bed. “I guess we're stuck together until then.”

“You mock me,” Caden said. He settled on his neatly made pink and orange bed and crossed his arms. “I'd prefer to prepare for my death in silence.”

“Look,” Tito said. “We need to make nice. We're stuck here together until you manage to get committed or Rosa kicks us out.”

“Or we die,” Caden said.

Tito threw his arms out. “All right, fine, or that. So tell me, your craziness, why do you think you're going to die tomorrow?”

“Rath Dunn—your Mr. Rathis—is the enemy of my family, my kingdom, and all the good peoples of the Greater Realm. I'm the youngest son of the man who banished him. He's killed for much less.”

Caden waited for Tito to brush off his concern, but he seemed to be listening this time. Listening, however, didn't necessarily mean believing. Tito raised his brows and wrinkled his nose. “Well, he didn't kill you today.”

Caden had not considered that. His heart still beat; his blood still pumped. “Your point?”

“So, maybe he won't kill you tomorrow.”

It was a good point. Why had Rath Dunn let Caden walk away? When the most evil of the Greater Realm were banished, they were often sent to their deaths with a token of their deeds. According to council record, Rath Dunn had been banished with his blood dagger, magic item number forty-three. It was an evil blade. A wound made with it would never fully heal, and would reopen in its presence. He could have sliced him to wriggling prince bits where he'd sat.

Was he that flippant about Caden's abilities? Caden wasn't a match for Rath Dunn yet, but he was capable. To leave Caden with air in his lungs and fight in his heart was the worst of mistakes. From what Caden knew of Rath Dunn, he didn't make mistakes. Although, Rath Dunn was also supposed to have died horribly after banishment to the land of shadow, and not to have been in the odd land of Asheville teaching math, so perhaps what Caden knew wasn't exactly correct.

Did Rath Dunn have something to do with why Caden and Brynne were stranded? Perhaps he wanted revenge
against their parents? Though, why would he grab Caden, youngest son, and not one of the others? Their loss would hurt the kingdom more. Why Brynne? As far as Caden knew, Rath Dunn knew nothing of Brynne's parents' role in bringing him to justice and banishment.

Caden shifted, uncomfortable with his thoughts. “I don't know why he let me live.”

“Don't sound so disappointed,” Tito said, and cocked his head. “Bro,” he said, “are you upset he didn't kill you?” He sat beside him. The pink and orange quilt pulled from its tuck, and Caden tried not to let it annoy him. “He's just following school policy.” Tito's face twitched like he was trying not to quake with laughter. “No killing allowed.”

As long as Caden lived, he would fight. He would warn those at risk. He reached across to fix the quilt and caught Tito's gaze. “He's the enemy.” Jane Chan had also been in Rath Dunn's math class. All these things could be connected. “Before she went missing, did Jane seem suspicious of him?”

Tito's mirth fell away. “Leave Jane out of your delusions.”

Jane might be their best chance to find out why Caden and Brynne had been trapped in Asheville and why Rath Dunn was alive and teaching math. She was a connection to both. “Perhaps she ran away because she learned who he was?”

Like Tito couldn't contain the words, he blurted, “Jane wouldn't run away!”

The fierceness of Tito's words caught Caden off guard. He studied his new foster brother. “When I was captured, the policeman Jenkins called her a runaway.”

Tito fidgeted, and the quilt came untucked again. “Her clothes and backpack are gone. The police think she ran away. Rosa does, too.”

This was why Tito was angry.

“But you don't believe it.”

Tito looked to the floor. “I don't know what I believe.” Caden recognized the pained waver of his words and the heaviness of his tone. His father and brothers sounded that way whenever the first queen was mentioned.

Jane was Tito's friend. Tito needed to know what Caden knew. He needed to be part of the quest to find her. If Caden perished, Tito could fight the dark happenings that seemed to be going on and could protect his dragonless people.

“Mr. Rathis is Rath Dunn. He is a monster.” Caden stood and nodded to the window. Maybe Jane had run away; maybe her disappearance was more sinister. He thought of the strange whispering in the woods and the trap where Brynne had gotten stuck. There seemed to be some magic in Asheville, after all. “There's a nature trap set on the mountain,” Caden said. “Maybe it is related to her disappearance. That's where we should look for clues.”