The Inheritance Games, #4
The Brothers Hawthorne
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
CHAPTER 24: JAMESON
Overview
Jameson and Avery follow the opera invitation’s instructions and leave Oren behind, entering a hidden subterranean route to the Devil’s Mercy. Their journey reveals the club’s elaborate secrecy, its network of entrances, and the loyalty it inspires even in a young boy.
Rohan’s appearance at the end of the passage confirms that Jameson and Avery have been admitted deeper into the Mercy’s world, while the boy’s devotion hints at Rohan’s ambitions and the organization’s internal hierarchy.
Summary
Jameson and Avery attend the opera as instructed, then slip out of their private box twenty minutes in. Oren objects to being left behind, but because the invitation is explicit and threats against Avery are currently low, Oren allows Jameson and Avery to go before anyone notices their absence.
Alone in the elevator, Jameson uses the gold key from the invitation on the control panel. When Avery enters the code they were given, the elevator goes dark and descends far below the ordinary levels of the building.
The elevator opens into a vast man-made cavern containing an underground river. A lantern reveals a young boy waiting with a long, gondola-like boat, and the boy silently ferries Jameson and Avery through the black-water tunnel despite Jameson’s attempt to take over and Avery’s concern that the boy might be exploited.
As the boat travels deeper, the boy explains that the Devil’s Mercy has many entrances and exits: all roads lead there for those who are welcome, and none do for those who are not. The tunnel ends at a torchlit beach and a door, where Rohan waits in a red tuxedo with a calm, triumphant air.
Avery again challenges the idea of a child working so late, implying Rohan may have pressured him. The boy fiercely rejects that idea, calling Rohan the Factotum and declaring that when Rohan becomes the Proprietor, the boy intends to become Rohan’s Factotum.
Who Appears
- Jameson HawthorneFollows the invitation’s instructions and enters the hidden underground route to the Devil’s Mercy.
- Avery GrambsAccompanies Jameson, leaves Oren behind, and questions whether the young boatman is being exploited.
- RohanWaits at the Mercy entrance, appearing confident and identified as the current Factotum.
- OrenReluctantly lets Avery and Jameson proceed without protection to preserve their secrecy.
- Unnamed boyFerryman through the underground river; fiercely loyal to Rohan and aspiring to be his Factotum.