I had the distinct impression that if Candace hadn’t been a fallen angel and therefore polite, she would have thrown herself at Beatrice right then and there for looking at Greek like that.
Sometimes I saw her give a less than pleased look at Eighellie, and I wondered if it was because Candace knew that Greek had kept in touch with the darkness mage over breaks.
Greek went red around his collar as Beatrice sauntered away.
“Okay. And on that note I’m going to eat my eggs,” said Keegan.
We all started in on our breakfasts, but Eighellie wouldn’t let go of what had happened earlier.
“Don’t tell me you don’t wish a woman would talk to you like that,” said Eighellie.
“What would I want that for?” Keegan said, and dived back into his food. “Women are pretty from a distance, but then you have to talk to them and it gets complicated. You know how afraid I am of saying the wrong thing?” he demanded.
“News to me,” said Eighellie dryly.
“See, you’re supposed to say something supportive there. Like, ‘Oh, Keegan, you could never say the wrong thing.’ You’re supposed to be sure I’ll get it right eventually. Something like that,” he said.
“I think you forget that I’m a darkness mage. We’re not exactly the most supportive bunch,” said Eighellie.
“You can say that again,” said Keegan.
“We’re not exactly the most supportive bunch,” said Ostelle.
“Well, some darkness mages are supportive,” Keegan shot back. “Lisabelle supports her friends. At least ones she cares about. She’s deeply loyal.”
“Lisabelle is the Premier of All Darkness. Not exactly your average darkness mage,” said Eighellie.
“Exactly,” said Ostelle.
Keegan leaned over to me, looking concerned. “They’re agreeing. Do you think that’s a problem? I think we’re in big trouble today.”
I chuckled into my bacon. “You might be right.”
After breakfast we made our way to the hallway where a group of students had already gathered, and we all headed out to our work site.
Just as we arrived, one of the older students came up to Keegan and said, “Can we have your expertise cleaning the old dorm? We need some of the trees pushed back,” he said.
Keegan cracked his knuckles together. “I can grow trees where I want, I can push trees back where I want, I can move a tree somewhere else if I want. For sure you can have my expertise. For once I get to work with my hands. No more of this book nonsense.”
The three of us made our way closer to Featherton, which looked even more dilapidated than it had when I’d arrived at school. Bushes were overgrowing the walls, as was ivy, and the building tilted slightly toward the woods. I was surprised that it was still standing after the magical earthquake that had hit it.
When Ostelle had found out we were in trouble, she’d decided to volunteer with us. I wondered if it was because she wanted to hang out with us. A small part of me hoped it was because she wanted to hang out with me.
She was staring off into the distance, her eyes focused further into the woods, her expression unreadable. I tried to follow what she was looking at, but she immediately looked away and glared at me.
“The punishment for the curfew infraction is actually making Keegan happy,” she commented.
My eyes slid to the part pixie who was making his way toward the offending trees with a big grin plastered on his face, cracking his knuckles eagerly. Just seeing that expression made me grin involuntarily in response.
“We’ve been assigned the task of doing maintenance on Featherton. They like to have students do it so they understand exactly what we should be appreciating about getting to come here,” I said.
“They want to keep us busy so we don’t cause more trouble,” Eighellie replied.
“They’re never going to keep me that busy,” said Ostelle.
We waited for a few minutes until Keegan returned, still looking pleased.
“We’re finally going to do something with plants,” he said. “Besides that, Featherton is basically in the woods. This is going to be an awesome day. If we get tired we can just go take a break at the treehouse. Maybe we can have lunch there.”
“We just finished breakfast and you’re already thinking about lunch?” Eighellie asked.
“I’m always thinking about food,” he told her.
She rolled her eyes.
We were still standing a good twenty feet from the dorm. In front of us were shovels, trowels, clippers, and lots of gloves. There was also a spray that said it was for bugs. “I hate bugs,” said Eighellie, waving her hand in front of her face at an invisible fly.
“That surprises no one,” said Keegan.
Just then Averett appeared. Keegan’s eyes slid to her and her eyes slid to him. Eighellie and Ostelle both rolled their own eyes. “I guess she isn’t as bad as Beatrice.”
Unfortunately for all of us, Palmer was also there. He wasn’t even in trouble, he had apparently just volunteered to help out. I thought the truth was more that he was volunteering to give us all a hard time.
I picked up a pair of gloves and got to work. We spent the better part of the morning clearing brush and debris away from the old building.
The stones were weathered and worn, but their solid majesty started to take shape as we pulled away dead leaves and old ivy. Some of the ivy was in perfectly good condition, so we left that alone.
Keegan helped some of the professors make decisions like that. He was bellowing orders every which way, now entirely in his element. He was so absorbed, it looked like he wasn’t even thinking about food for once.
I was surprised to see Hannah and Michael join the crew as the morning went on. A few other older students were also there, but they kept mostly to themselves.
I had no idea what anyone else had gotten in trouble for, or if they were all volunteers. I supposed that since I had been wandering around past curfew for the entire semester, and had only gotten caught once, I should be pleased. And in fact, I didn’t really mind spending the day at Featherton. I liked the history behind it, even random details like the old single-pane glass windows.
I was standing by one of the side doors cleaning the stoop when the door creaked open, and there was Palmer. He looked down at me and smirked. I tried to ignore the expression on his face, but it was difficult. He trotted past me without so much as a hello.
“Hey, Averett?” Keegan called out.
Averett turned around to look at him. “Yes, oh green-handed one?” she asked.
Keegan raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think anybody has ever called me that before,” he said.
“It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, now, does it,” I said.
Averett grinned and came over to help me with the stoop. “I like giving paranormals nicknames. At least the ones I like.”
“So if you don’t like someone you just call them by their name?” Ostelle asked.
“Yes, Ostelle,” said Averett.
I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from laughing.
“Can we get back to the point where you called attention to my green hands?” Keegan asked.
“What? I kind of like them,” Averett said.
Keegan’s eyes widened, and he hustled away. Averett didn’t look the least bit fazed. She picked up the pile of brush we had just made and carried it away.
“How can she manage to carry so much brush at once?” Candace asked, watching Averett in wonder.
Averett was tall and well muscled. Even for a vampire she was exceptional. Fast and vicious as she was, I was glad that she always appeared to be on our side.
The sun was high in the sky and the wind-driven air rushed and swirled through the forest. The day had hardly warmed by the time we broke for lunch. Instead of going to the treehouse, we simply sat around Featherton and ate the sandwiches that one of the professors had brought.
“I guess the good news is, we’re making progre
ss,” mused Candace.
“The dorm looks a lot better than when we got here, that’s for sure,” said Greek.
Candace peered at him from under her lashes as if she was trying to determine whether he was complimenting her or not. I felt a little bit sorry for her. Greek got a lot of attention from girls on campus, but he never took much note of it. He was also too straightforward to give some sort of underhanded compliment. If he was saying something that sounded like an underhanded compliment, it was probably because he didn’t realize what he was saying.
As the afternoon wore on and threatened to turn to evening, the work got harder. We had gotten the big mess out of the way, but that left everything else. There was old graffiti on the stones of the building that some of us tried to scrub off. Keegan had been forced to climb higher into the trees to deal with some of the branches that were threatening the roof.
Meanwhile, the front of the building was still covered in a layer of dead ivy, and no one really wanted to climb up on the scaffolding to deal with it. It looked as if it had been there for decades.
Finally, when I had run out of everything else to do, I decided to get it over with. Once we finished the front of the building, our punishment would be complete and we could go home for the night.
I looked above the doorway and saw the ivy curling higher. Featherton was three stories high, and most of the ivy was wrapped around the second story. I would need to climb the scaffolding in order to reach it and pull it down.
Keegan had given me permission; he didn’t care about the removal of ivy that had been dead for decades.
“Ricky, can you climb up there and clean up some of those vines?” Candace pointed to the side of the building I was standing in front of.
Greek glanced at us and ruffled his wings. “I think that’s what he was going to do,” he told Candace, sounding slightly irritable. I grabbed the scaffolding and headed up.
The metal rungs were cold against my fingers. When I reached the second level of scaffolding, I was about even with most of the ivy. I started to pull it down as carefully as I could, my gloves protecting my hands from scrapes or other harm. But the ivy was attached pretty stubbornly to the outside of the building, and pulling it down was difficult. Once I had detached a bunch of it, I would toss it over the side, expecting my classmates to stay out of the way.
I fell into a rhythm as I worked, leaving a lot of my attention free to think about other things. For instance, the stones that made up the building were huge. I wondered where they had come from. I had never seen stone blocks that large before.
I started clearing the brush away from the building. Up that high there was more of a breeze, so the air was colder as it ruffled my hair over my forehead. Beneath the brush I was cutting away there was dead ivy, so old it had basically molded itself to the exterior of the building. I started to pull it away slowly, but not slowly enough to prevent the accumulated dirt and debris from erupting into my face. I coughed, then kept going.
“Careful up there. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to the elemental savior.” To my surprise, it was Greek who was teasing me from below.
I grinned down at him, and he returned to cleaning and chatting with Candace. Then I went back to thinking about the Digger and the Counter Wheel.
The Digger had clearly known that what he possessed was important. Was there a time when he had all the objects on the Wheel in his possession at once, or just some of them?
He had placed the sanctity of artifacts above all else. Were there some that he had never acquired, but that still ended up at Paranormal Public? Clearly he believed that the school was a good place to hide things, but whoever else had possessed the artifacts must have thought so too. The Digger had mentioned the woman who had owned the Golden Rod, so did he know her?
The Golden Rod was the most important artifact of all, the one that no one had seen for so long.
Had the Digger dug a hiding place for it?
It was almost too tangled to comprehend, yet I had to keep trying.
I threw the last of the dead branches down to the ground and grabbed a wiping cloth. The removal of the ivy revealed a surprise: a set of ornate designs molded into the exterior wall of the building. They appeared as long sticks pointing in different directions. After staring at them for a while I realized that they represented crossed wands.
At one point this building had been a work of art. Over the years it had been allowed to fall into disrepair. I kind of liked the idea that we were building it back up again, revealing its original beauty and design.
As dusk was falling I finally climbed down the scaffolding.
“Looks good,” said Eighellie, grinning at me through the streaks of dirt on her face. My friends had stayed on the ground, but they had worked hard at the cleaning job just the same.
“It looks okay, doesn’t it?” I agreed.
In fact, the building had been transformed. Scrubbed clean, the years of neglect washed away, it was an impressive structure. The doorway I had been working on up on the scaffolding was the most impressive of all. The crossed wands spoke of magic and fighting, dedication and hard work and honor, the kinds of symbols that were missing from the newer buildings around campus. The new buildings lacked character in a way that these old buildings never would.
The campus was becoming plain and businesslike. I wondered if all the fighting on campus meant that the school’s heart was being neglected.
I hated to think what would happen if that were true.
That could have been the path down which Golden Falls had tread. They lost their heart and then they lost their soul. Now darkness had rolled over the once beautiful campus and consumed it.
“You know, being out here felt like a punishment for most of the day. Right now it feels pretty good,” said Eighellie.
“I agree,” I said.
“When Dobrov sentenced us to do this I thought it would be harder,” said Keegan. He had grass on his knees and his hands were dirty.
“I thought it was pretty hard,” Ostelle said.
“Can we go eat dinner now? I’m famished,” I said.
All the parts of my puzzle were falling into place at last, but I didn’t like the picture they were forming. Someone else had discovered that all of the Counter Wheel artifacts were buried around Public. They had already started digging around the grounds. We didn’t have much time.
On top of that, Keegan and I had gone into the woods and almost not come out.
To save us, it had taken a dream giver that no one had actually seen in years.
No one except me and Lisabelle and the Hunters.
I was starting to think it was high time I talked to a certain darkness premier about all this. I just hoped Lisabelle was as happy to see me as I would be to see her.
On that count I was not holding my breath.
Chapter Twenty
Again that night Keegan decided to stay with me at Astra. Eighellie had work to do in Airlee, and Ostelle was also off somewhere on her own.
For the most part, neither of them had been staying in Astra this semester. I had a feeling it was because they wanted to keep an eye out for Hunters, but then I decided that wasn’t right. Everyone knew the Hunters would come for Keegan and me first. What Eighellie and Ostelle were doing was trying to discover who the Hunters on campus were before they got away with whatever they were trying to get away with.
As usual, Keegan was lounging by the fire playing a game instead of doing homework.
“How do you pass your classes again?” I asked. I was working on a particularly difficult problem set for Professor Korba, who had decided that we should calculate the velocity of pixie wings or something like that. I was doing horribly at it. Keegan wasn’t even trying.
He glanced at me from around his video game. “Pity.”
“What does that even mean?” I asked.
“It means that the professors pity me. I’m a tree sprite, which is already embarrassing, plus my hands are green
but I’m not really a pixie, and my dad disappeared years ago. Mostly, though, it’s that Hunters are after me. Most of the professors agree that it’s better to keep me here than to send me away. Therefore, pity.”
“I see,” I lied.
Keegan nodded. “So are you going to summon her?”
“I’ve been putting it off,” I admitted.
“I’m not surprised. She’s terrifying. Why didn’t you tell Eighellie we wanted to talk to her?” he asked.
I grimaced. I had in fact left that information out. I did feel as though I had a good reason, though. “I didn’t tell Eighellie because I have a feeling she wants to kill Lisabelle. And she just can’t. I don’t think anyone can. Unless you think Eighellie is the one who is digging up the Counter Wheel artifacts.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her. Then again, if today is any indication, she doesn’t really like to get her hands dirty,” he said.
I touched my ring and essence flared. I stared into the fire. Lisabelle had told me that all I had to do to summon her was to use my ring, and I was doing that tonight. I tried to put some sort of message into the summons to let her know that this wasn’t urgent; my life was not at risk. Then again, I had a feeling she wasn’t exactly going to listen to me before she showed up. Hopefully the dorm would remain standing after she got here.
“I think she’s coming,” said Keegan.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because even the trees are afraid,” he said.
“She must be close, then,” I said.
Keegan closed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think she sent hellhounds out in front of her as a patrol. There are hundreds of them. There might be thousands. There are also crows.”
“Of course there are. She always has to make an entrance,” I muttered.
I stared to pace. I hoped that the information we had for her was good enough. She and I needed to talk, in any event. Too much was happening too quickly for my liking.
I expected to wait in silence as Keegan continued to play his game, but instead he said, “Did campus seem particularly quiet to you today?” he asked.
Elemental Unity Page 14