by M. Leighton
“Now,” I said, moving off to one side, away from even Jackson, where we could talk more privately. “Do you have information for me?”
I injected as much pleasantness as I could into my expression, recognizing it as unwise to alienate someone so crucial in the liberation of my parents and in the possible saving of countless lives.
“The Seers, they were able to ascertain the circumstances surrounding Lady Sheelah’s death, though the perpetrators took precautions that kept their identities hidden from the Seers.”
“And what were those circumstances?”
“It would appear that her attackers had singular plans to learn the identities of the descendants, as Lady Sheelah is the only Mer on land privy to that information. She has been stationed at Veritas Academy since its inception and has lived among the descendants for hundreds of years.”
“And what would they do with that information?”
“That, Princess, is as yet a mystery, but we can only assume that they are working in concert with the persons responsible for the release of the Lore. It’s possible that they’ve freed those eight spirits for a particular reason. Only, of course, we have no idea what that reason might be.”
“What am I to do to recapture the spirits? Commander, I’ve never- I mean I don’t—”
“Your Sentinel is reading the law. He has also been trained in things that, thus far, you have not. It was his destiny to be ready before you and now we see that our preparation of the Sentinels is spot-on.
“As for you, by all means, read the law when Sentinel Hamilton is finished. But you mustn’t put off beginning the search for the sake of reading. Your Sentinel will help you. Between your knowledge of the history of the Lore, his knowledge of the law and the use of your bracelet, you cannot fail, Princess.
“Remember that Mer royalty has been doing this for thousands of years. It is what you were born to do. With Atlas on lockdown and the shield out of operation, your power is multiplied exponentially. Use it. Listen to it. Work your magic. Your bracelet will lead you to the Lore and then Sentinel Hamilton will help you to capture them. If we are lucky, one Lore is all that we will need to free your parents.”
“One?”
“Yes. Hopefully Sentinel Hamilton will be able to get inside Atlas when the first spirit is deposited and put an end to their captivity.”
“What do you mean?”
“When a spirit-filled pearl is dropped into the sea, it is naturally drawn to the containment unit. When it reaches an empty cell, it will become ensnared in the magic, resetting the alarms to include that cell’s occupant. As the pearl settles into place, there is a period of about thirty seconds when the alarms will cease to sound when someone nears the portal.”
I couldn’t help the way my eyes flickered to Jackson, who was casually leaning up against a bank of computers a few feet away, chatting with another Sentinel.
“And Jackson will be trying to get through?”
“Yes, Princess.”
I looked back to Jessup, frowning.
“But won’t that be dangerous?”
“It is what he was trained to do.”
“But he could die.”
Jessup shrugged helplessly. “He’s the best chance we have to save your parents and your sister, to save Atlas and the descendants. There is no other way.”
Once more, my eyes were drawn to Jackson like some irresistible magnetic force. Only this time, he was looking back at me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
After Commander Jessup and I finished, Jackson stiffly escorted me back to the elevators. He stood by my side, stoic and rigid, until the doors opened. He motioned for me to proceed him, which I did, and then he climbed in behind me and hit the button that would take us to ground level.
I looked at the list Jessup had given me as I listened to the quiet whir of the cables that were pulling our car toward the surface. The list named the eight spirits that had been freed from Atlas and the order in which they were released. Like me, Jessup could only assume that we would see them in order.
The atmosphere surrounding Atlas caused a delay for anyone traveling to or from the city, a delay that would turn seconds into a day, maybe two. In some cases, it could be even longer.
For the first time ever, I was able to see the delay as a good thing. I smiled when I thought of the many trips my family and I had taken to the surface over the years. At some point during our ascent, I would begin to complain about the delay and my parents would gently scold my impatience. If only they could see me now… finally finding a good use for the delay. In this instance, it would give us time to locate each Lore as they surface, starting with Lore Escapee Number One, Ulrich Wolfhardt.
I was lost in thought all the way back to school, so I was a bit surprised when Jackson left me standing at the door to my next class. Without a word, he simply turned around and walked away.
I felt like sticking my tongue out at his back, his moodiness only further souring my already tart disposition.
As I stood at the doorway to the Economics classroom, I couldn’t help but feel the urgency of the situation. Ulrich Wolfhardt could be awakening his descendant this very moment. And me? Rather than doing anything to find him, I would be learning about the economic principle of Division of Labor.
Spontaneously, I decided that it was high time I take my bracelet and my powers for a spin. Better to master them before I was actually in need of them, right?
Right, I told myself as I stepped to the side of the door, out of sight.
Slowly, I peeked around to look inside. I could see both Aidan and Jersey from my vantage point, both looking bored out of their skulls. That was often the case for Mer in human schools.
By the time we came to dry land for our internship in Slumber, we had already mastered everything humans learned through grade twelve and the following four years of college. Attending school here simply afforded us an opportunity to interact with the descendants we would spend the rest of our existence protecting.
Jersey yawned and stretched just then, glancing toward the door. When her eyes met mine and widened, I impulsively motioned her to come out. Automatically, she got Aidan’s attention and I signaled him as well.
I walked down the hall and around the corner, where I could watch for them, but not be easily discovered by any teachers.
Jersey was the first to exit, looking left and right until she caught sight of me leaning around the corner. She hurried to me, her face already alight with the joy of impending mischief.
“What are we doing?” she whispered, scurrying around the corner to peek out from behind my shoulder.
If there was any kind of monkey business to engage in, Jersey was the first to sign up.
“Waiting for Aidan.”
“Why? Where are we going?”
“To break into the Records Room of the student library.”
“Sounds like fun, but why would we want to do that?”
“Recon.”
As we waited in silence for Aidan, Jersey started smacking her gum in my left ear where she leaned around me.
“Jersey! Gum!”
Her chewing stilled as she let out a heartfelt, put-upon sigh.
“That’s it,” she whispered. “I’m getting you earplugs.”
“Why? Nothing short of ear removal could block out that racket.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha,” she said sarcastically, resuming her loud chomping.
Without looking back, I held out my hand, palm up and waited. I felt Jersey straighten. When nothing happened after a few seconds, I wiggled my fingers. Finally I heard another deep sigh and then Jersey pushed a warm lump into the center of my hand.
Just then, Aidan exited the Economics room and I raised my hand to wave him over. When he turned to head in our direction, I thoughtlessly grabbed the shoulder strap of my bag to heft it up in preparation for our sneaky getaway.
When something squished against my palm, I stopped, looking back at Jersey in frustration.
She looked at me wide-eyed. “What?”
I looked down at my splayed my fingers and pulled my hand away from the strap. Thick strands of pink stretched out between my skin and the fabric.
When her eyes fell to my hand, Jersey burst into quiet laughter, bending over at the waist and pointing to my mess.
From behind me, I heard Aidan approach and start chuckling immediately. I turned to glare at him, but he was already smiling, shaking his head.
“Jersey, Jersey, Jersey,” he said softly. “You are in trou-ble.”
With a curl of my upper lip, I reached out and snatched a sheet of paper from one of Aidan’s notebooks. I used it to remove as much sticky goo from my hand as possible.
When my palm was relatively gum-free, I picked up my bag and tipped my head toward the end of the hall.
“Come on, let’s go.”
I turned and rushed toward the stairwell doorway, opening it quickly to slip through. Jersey and Aidan followed.
Once the door closed behind Aidan, he asked, “Where are we going?”
His voice bounced off the concrete walls, echoing loudly.
“Shh,” I urged. “Boiler room.”
With that, I moved to descend the stairs until there were no more stairs to descend. Just off the landing at the bottom of the steps was another door. It was marked BOILER ROOM. NOT AN EXIT.
I opened the door and the three of us weaved our way through the maze of piping and loud machinery to a catwalk that led to another set of stairs and a door at the bottom. When we reached it, I pushed through it, narrowing my eyes against the bright sunshine that greeted our hasty escape.
Aidan came to stand on one side of me, Jersey on the other.
“So, how much trouble are we going to get into?”
It was Aidan who asked this, as it was Aidan who often functioned as the logic and conscience of the group. He was fun-loving, but not nearly as impulsive and risky as Jersey and I.
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether or not we get caught.”
“Can we not get caught then?”
“Will an ‘I’ll try’ work well enough here?” I asked, squinting up at him.
I saw him roll his eyes.
“What are we doing?”
Whether or not it went against his better judgment, Aidan was always on board.
“Breaking into the Records Room of the student library to look at medical forms.”
“Oh. Is that all?” he asked facetiously.
I shrugged. “If that doesn’t ring your bell, I’m sure I could think of something else.”
“No, I think that will be sufficient. Might I ask why we’re planning a felony on such a beautiful day?”
“Jessup gave me a list of the eight spirits that have escaped, at least the ones they know about so far. The first one was Ulrich Wolfhardt, only I can’t think of one good way to find his descendant.”
“Is he the one from the tale of Little Red—”
“That’s the one,” I interrupted. “But here’s the thing: in the real history of Wolfhardt and his obsession with the red-hatted Straus maiden, she developed an allergy to the flowers that he left for her in the woods. Daisies to be precise. If we can find the student who has an allergy to daisies then maybe we can figure out who the Straus descendant is. And, of course, if we can find her, maybe we can find him that much faster.”
Both Jersey and Aidan were staring at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Are you serious? That’s all you’ve got to go on?” Jersey baulked.
“Well, no. If we can find her record, it should also note any birthmarks she has. I’m hoping that the way she’s marked will be obvious and make some kind of sense to us.”
“I take it back. This doesn’t sound like fun. Madly, it’ll take us hours to look through all those records and find her.”
“Or maybe it won’t,” I said, grinning slyly.
“And how do you figure that?”
“W-ell…”
Jersey crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head sassily to one side.
“Alright, spill. What do you know that we don’t?”
“Remember Lord Straus’s family crest? It was said to have been set against a red background because of his fondness for that color. It is told that he was so obsessed with the color that all the furniture in his house was upholstered in red. We know that the Straus Maiden favored that red hat, so maybe something like that travels in the genes, like a love for chocolate or cats or baseball.”
“And that’s going to help us how?”
“I’m going to try to use my bracelet to show us all the girls who are wearing red today.”
Neither of my partners in crime looked convinced that my plan had one iota of plausibility and zero chance of success.
“Alright, so it’s a stretch, but at least we’d be doing something other than sitting around, waiting for disaster to strike. Besides, it will give me some practice using my bracelet.”
“And where, exactly, did you plan to access that much water?”
Being sea born and deriving our power from the sea, water was the main catalyst for Mer magic. The small amount in my bracelet itself was only enough to keep me alive on dry land, just like the watery charm that all Mer wore kept them functioning here. I required a bigger water source to do any real magic.
I hiked my thumb up, pointing back in the direction from which we’d come.
Jersey and Aidan looked from the door to me, to each other, and back to me.
Jersey, as usual, was the first to agree.
“Show us wha’cha got.”
With a thousand-watt smile, I turned and walked back to the boiler room door and disappeared inside, Jersey and Aidan hot on my heels.
“Stay here,” I breathed quietly over my shoulder as I ascended the metal steps and walked to the center of the catwalk. I stopped at the point where I hovered over a series of huge pipes.
Looking down at Aidan, I pointed to his right and loud-whispered, “Open that valve.”
When Aidan had loosened the large wheel and turned it several revolutions, steam began to pour from the release spout and fill the air.
Within seconds, the room was thick with hot moisture. It beaded on my face and made my white uniform shirt stick wetly to my back.
I raised my arms in front of me, relishing the way the steam soaked my skin and brought my bracelet to tingling life. I inhaled, pulling a gulp of damp air into my lungs, innervating my body.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on my bracelet, on the unique power that it held and the ability that I alone had to wield it. Behind my eyes, I conjured the color red and focused on how I wanted to see the picture of every girl in Slumber wearing something like it.
When I opened my eyes, images began to flit through the steam, taking a definite shape and then disappearing into wispy smoke before reconfiguring into that of another form.
As I watched them flash by, I made a mental note of the names of each girl, thanking the fates that Veritas Academy was such a small school. When thirteen faces had drifted through the foggy air, the visions ceased and I turned to run down the steps.
Aidan shut the valve and the three of us walked back outside.
I was practically vibrating with excitement, my whole body thrumming with the thrill of it. I could barely stand still.
“Omigod, omigod, omigod! It worked! Did you see that? Could you see them?”
Aidan and Jersey looked at each other skeptically. Jersey was the first to answer.
“Uh, no. See what, crazy person?”
I waved them off with a flick of my hand. “Never mind. I have thirteen names. At least it will give us a place to start. Maybe when we get to their records, we’ll hit pay dirt.”
“Ok, so now is when we go to illegally break and enter the Records Room, right?” Aidan asked.
“Yep.”
“And precisely how are we going to
get in there without being seen?”
I couldn’t help the smug grin that tugged at my lips.