“Master Milagros says that,” said Jasper, narrowing his eyes. “Were you a teacher at the Magisterium?”

“I was,” said Alma. “At the same time that Master Joseph was there, experimenting with void magic. So were many of us. I helped with some of his experiments.”

Tamara tipped over her lemonade glass. “You stood by as Constantine pushed chaos into people, into animals? Why would anyone do that?”

“The Order of Disorder,” Call whispered. They had to be part of it. In the book, it had said they’d turned to researching Chaos-ridden animals. Where else would they find Chaos-ridden animals than in the woods around the Magisterium? They were the creators of the Alkahest.

Alma smiled at him. “I see you’ve heard of us. Haven’t you ever asked yourself what Master Joseph and Constantine Madden were trying to do?”

“They were trying to make it so no one ever had to die,” said Call.

Everyone looked at him oddly. “Way to pay attention in class,” Aaron said under his breath.

“We are all beings of energy,” said Lemuel. “When our energy is expended, our lives end. Chaos is a source of endless energy. If chaos could be placed safely inside a person, he or she could feed off that energy forever. He or she would never die.”

“But it can’t be,” said Aaron. “Placed safely inside a person, I mean.”

“That’s what we’re still trying to determine,” said Alma. “We’re working with animals, because animals seem to react to chaos differently. Your wolf has chaos inside him — he was born with it inside of him — but he still has a personality, he has feelings, doesn’t he? He’s as alive as you are.”

“Well, yeah,” Call said.

“And he is absolutely, definitely, not ever going to snap and eat our faces,” Jasper interjected. “Right?”

“Who can say?” offered Master Lemuel. He certainly appeared to be happier here than he had been as a teacher at the Magisterium, Call thought. Half of his mouth was turning up as though he might actually smile.

Jasper slid down in his chair. “Crud.”

Tamara glanced around. “So if you’re studying Chaos-ridden animals, do you catch them? Do you keep them in cages?”

Alma smiled and eyed Havoc in a way that Call didn’t like. “So tell me about your mission. What’s your assignment?”

“I thought you said you didn’t care where we were going,” Aaron said to Master Lemuel.

“I don’t. I didn’t say nobody would care.” Lemuel’s half smile turned into a full, malicious one. “It’s not easy to run away from the Magisterium.”

“Drew sure found that out,” muttered Jasper.

Master Lemuel flushed. “Drew wasn’t really trying to run away. Everything he said about me was a lie.”

“Look, we know that,” Aaron said, raising his hands in a gesture for peace. “And we are on a mission, just not one that everyone at school knows about. So if you could tell us the fastest way to the road —”

There was a commotion outside.

A middle-aged man with a bald head and big bristly beard rushed into the room. “Alma, Lemuel! The Masters from the Magisterium are coming this way. It’s a search party.”

Lemuel looked smugly at Call and the others. “Not running away, huh?”

“Just for the record,” said Jasper, “these people kidnapped me and are forcing me to go with them on a stupid mission to —”

Tamara opened her hand. Jasper stopped speaking abruptly and started gasping for air. Tamara had apparently snatched the words from his mouth — quite literally — and taken the air he was breathing along with them. The adults hadn’t seemed to notice, but Call was impressed.

“Stall, Andreas,” said Alma calmly.

The bearded man rushed off in the direction he’d come.

Call leaped to his feet, heart in his throat. “We have to get out of here,” he said.

Aaron scrambled up after him, and so did Tamara. Only Jasper remained seated, still breathing hard and glaring at the others. “We’ll hide in the woods,” said Aaron. “Please, just let us go and we’ll never mention this place.”

“I can do better than that,” Alma said. “We’ll hide you. But you have to do something for us in return.”

Her gaze went to Havoc.

“No way,” said Tamara, moving to put her hand on the wolf’s side. “We’re not letting you do whatever it is you’re —”

“Do you promise he won’t get hurt?” Call asked quickly, interrupting her. He didn’t like to consider it, thinking of how his father had chained up Havoc, but he saw the covetous way Alma was looking at his wolf. He needed to agree, so he could stall for time until he found a way to get them all out of there, including his wolf.

“Call, you can’t,” Tamara protested, her fingers in Havoc’s fur.

“Of course he can,” said Jasper. “You think he’s going to be loyal to anyone or anything? Let’s just go back to the Magisterium.”

“Shut up,” said Aaron. “Call, are you sure —”

But Alma laughed. “You misunderstand. It’s not Havoc we want, although he’s very interesting. It’s Aaron.”

“Well, you definitely can’t have Aaron,” Tamara said.

“Without a Makar, we have so many theories, but no way to test them. We know you can’t stay right now, Aaron, but make me a promise that you’ll come back, and leave that wolf as collateral. When you return, all we need is a few hours of your time. And maybe when you see what you could do — how helpful to the world you could be as something other than a defense against an enemy with whom we’re no longer at war — then maybe you’ll decide to join us.”

None of them spoke.

“The wolf will be fine,” Alma said.

“Okay,” Aaron said after a long moment. “I’ll promise to come back, but you can’t keep Havoc. You don’t need collateral. You have my word.”

“We trust you, Makar, but not that much. Quickly, children. Decide. We can hide you or we can turn you over to the mages. But you must know they’ll trade Havoc to us in exchange for the four of you.”

Call didn’t doubt that — not at this point. “Fine. Same deal as before. But no experiments on him.”

Alma looked well satisfied. “Good. Agreed. All of you, follow me.” She led them out the back door of the cottage. They hustled across the green space between the buildings.

Call felt horribly exposed. He could see shadows moving through the trees circling the clearing and hear raised voices. The Masters, shouting their names. Hurrying after Tamara, he saw she had one hand clasped around Jasper’s wrist, keeping him from running in the opposite direction. Call thought he heard Master Rufus’s voice. He grabbed Havoc’s collar and pulled him along faster. The wolf looked up at him as though he suspected something bad was about to happen.

If they ran into the woods, they’d be caught. Their only choice was to follow Alma — who was totally scary, who had once worked with Constantine Madden and Master Joseph, who wanted to experiment on Havoc, who probably qualified to have a pretty long Evil Overlord list of her own — and hope that she’d make good on her promise to hide them.