Anne Ursu - The Shadow Thieves

Mr. Metos went over to the small kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. Then he moved into the living room and proceeded to drink it. Charlotte gulped.

"Uh, Mr. Metos?" she said in a very, very high voice. "Could I… could I have something to drink?"

Mr. Metos blinked rapidly. "Oh. Yes. Of course." He stood up and went to the kitchen. "Um. I have vegetable juice or, well…"

"Water would be fine," said Charlotte.

When Mr. Metos handed her a glass -which she had to share with Zee, who was looking at it longingly-Charlotte noticed that he couldn't seem to meet her eyes, and he might even have stammered a little. He was nothing like the teacher who stared down kids in class and made Charlotte fear for her neck. He was acting like one of the weird kids in gym class who always got picked last for the team. In this small, dark, underfurnished apartment he didn't seem like a monster anymore, but like a man. A kind of weird, very pale, socially retarded, vegetable-juice-drinking man.

Or perhaps once you've been chased by freakish, eight-foot-tall, skeleton-like goons in tuxedos, your creepy English teacher just isn't as scary anymore.

But just as Charlotte was finishing these thoughts, Mr. Metos seemed to regain himself. He leaned against the half wall in front of them and looked them over. "All right," he said. "Let's just get to the point. I'm going to tell you something, and this is going to sound very strange, but I must assure you that it is the absolute truth." He seemed to be regaining his teacherly composure, Charlotte noticed, now that he was instructing again. "Those men who were chasing you, well… they were trying to steal Charlotte's shadow"

A moment of silence. Mr. Metos looked probingly at both of them. Charlotte glanced at Zee, who glanced back at Charlotte. "We know," Charlotte said.

Mr. Metos blinked. "You know?"

They both nodded.

"I see." Mr. Metos raised his eyebrows. "What else do you know?"

"Well…" Charlotte bit her lip. "That's about it."

Then-slowly, carefully-Mr. Metos told them many things that they did not know. Like that the whole Greek mythology thing was actually true; they weren't myths at all. The Underworld was real too, all of it. And now there was a guy, a Phil something, and he was trying to stage a coup in the Underworld-with the help of twelve creepy man-like Footmen formed of clay and an entire army of shadows.

Well.

Upon reflection Charlotte decided that she was taking it all rather well. Which shouldn't have been too much of a surprise; after all, the day had been full of bends to the mind, and other parts of the body too, and Charlotte had really already been as surprised as she possibly could be. There was no more surprise left. Okay, Greek myths real. Underworld real. Coups with shadow army, creepy men made of clay, and Mr. Metos drinks vegetable juice.

Fine.

Charlotte pondered it all for a while, and Zee appeared to be pondering too in an equally unsurprised kind of way, and Mr. Metos watched them both ponder, perhaps surprised at their unsurprisedness -until Charlotte thought of something that did, indeed, surprise her.

"Hey," she said. "How do you know all this?"

Mr. Metos cleared his throat. "Well… there are those in the Underworld whose only loyalty is to money."

"Oh." Charlotte was wise in the ways of the world, and she got his meaning, though she couldn't help thinking that maybe Mr. Metos should spend a little less of his money bribing people and a little more on furniture. Still, it wasn't what she meant. "No, I mean… why do you know all this?"

"Ah. Well… I suppose you have a right to know. But this must be kept between us. Do you swear to me that you will keep this information to yourselves?"

They both nodded.

Mr. Metos stood up pedagogically straight and took a deep, loud breath through his nasal passages. "I am a descendant of Prometheus," he proclaimed. He eyed Charlotte and Zee. "We are sworn to protect humans against the whims of their creators. It is quite a task."

Now Charlotte was surprised. "You're a god?"

Mr. Metos cringed. "A Titan, Charlotte. Not a god. I have Titan blood, yes. A little, though I am mortal. More important, I have the charge of Prometheus. The gods created man but do not help him. They're like parents who abandon their children. Humanity is nothing but a plaything to them, and now, Philonecron is treating people like lab rats. The whole history of man is just like this, the gods…"

But Charlotte had stopped paying attention. She'd been watching Zee, who had been quite quiet during this whole affair-even more so than usual. He didn't seem to be listening either-he was deep in thought and, once again, happy to let Charlotte do all the talking. Really, he was always deep in thought. He had been since she had met him. There were moments of irrational exuberance at school, but the rest of the time Zee was completely absent from the world around him. He stood in corners of rooms and hid in the shadows as if he weren't there at all. But where was he?

"Zee," she hissed. "Did you know this?"

He looked blank. "Sorry?"

"About Mr. Metos?"

Zee shook his head.

"But"- Charlotte scooted closer to him on the couch-"you knew his name. When I first mentioned him. And you were talking to him for so long after class that first day."

"Just about school things," Zee said, eyes wide.

Mr. Metos cleared his throat loudly. "If I might interrupt." He looked pointedly at Charlotte. "I took the opportunity on Zachary's first day to ask him some questions. It helped me unravel a few mysteries. I knew the Footmen had gone from England to here, but I did not know why. Zachary, I believe your grandmother's death was the moment when this all started. I believe they were present at her death and took notice of you. Then they began to follow you… tell me, after your grandmother's death did you ever feel strange? Weak?"

"Yes…" Zee was looking slightly dazed.

"They took your blood," said Mr. Metos. "They were using it to locate you and follow you."

"Oh…"

"But," Charlotte said, "why are you here? How did you know?"

"I just followed the Footmen," Mr. Metos answered. "I came when they did."

"That doesn't make any sense," protested Charlotte. "The men didn't come until Zee was here. You've been here all year."

"They were here long before that, Ms. Mielswetzski."

"But how? You just said they used Zee's blood."

"Charlotte, you must understand that in death, as well as life, blood is everything. The Footmen entered the Upperworld and used the scent of Zachary's blood to find Zachary and follow him in order to find children. Then, for some reason, the Footmen chose not to follow Zachary anymore. Perhaps they thought they had found all the shadows they were going to find in London, though that seems odd. I do not know. But suddenly they moved here, where the smell of Zachary's blood would lead them to another child that they could follow. You, Charlotte. Zachary's blood relative."

"Oh," Charlotte said.

"The Footmen have been following you, Charlotte, and taking shadows from the children you lead them to. Though I still don't know why they moved on from London."

"It was because of me," Zee said quietly. "I saw them. And then I was hiding. I didn't leave the house."

Mr. Metos nodded slowly. "Well, yes, that would do it. They didn't have you to lead them to the shadows anymore. So they found Charlotte. But now with you here they don't need Charlotte anymore…"

He trailed off ominously, and nobody spoke for a few moments, thinking of all the places Mr. Metos might have gone from there.

"Mr. Metos?" Zee broke into the silence, his voice high and hesitant. "Did you, um, know my grandmother? Dalitso Winter?"