“Is there anyone here you haven’t touched yet, Princess?” Zoë asked.
The princess glanced around. “I believe I have touched everyone but Miss Fabian.”
“Kitten!” Joy bounced up and down. “Now, do Kitten!”
“I bet I know what Nastasia will see,” Rachel said softly.
“Really?” Joy looked skeptical. “How could you know? Are you psychic?”
“We’re all psychic,” Sigfried quipped from where he stood with Valerie. “We’re sorcerers.”
“I bet she’ll see the things Kitten remembers,” Rachel said. “The world with the magic carpet and the old-fashioned garments.”
The princess crossed over to the fireplace and extended her hand to Kitten, who gave her a dimpled smile and reached toward her. The tiny lion growled. Kitten began to pull away, but the princess grasped her outstretched hand anyway. Nastasia stood very still. Then, her eyes rolled back until they were entirely white. Slowly, she began to sink.
Dashing across the room, the newly-knighted Sigfried caught her and laid her on the rug in front of the hearth, patting her face in an attempt to rouse her. The tiny lion leapt onto her lap. Putting its paws on her chest, it breathed on her face.
Her eyes fluttered open.
“Princess! Are you all right? What happened? What happened?” Joy hovered over her, peering into her face with concern. Kitten and Rachel knelt beside her, too.
Nastasia rubbed her temples. “There was light everywhere. It was too bright to see, and I was in horrible pain, as if my very self were on fire. Then, a deep voice spoke. It said, ‘Child, you should not be here. Not yet.’ A moment later, I found myself standing on a beach. It was pleasant, though it was still very bright. I did not see any sign of Miss Fabian.”
A furrow appeared in her forehead. Mainly to herself, the princess murmured, “Maybe that was the kind of light the Lightbringer meant.”
Chapter Fifteen:
Overlooked and Invited
At precisely seven forty-five that evening, Ivan Romanov and Agravaine Stormhenge, the male college resident for Dare Hall and the head of the fencing team, came to collect Nastasia and escort her to the meeting of the Young Sorcerers League. With his athletic build and curly blond hair, Agravaine reminded Rachel of a grown-up Sigfried, if Siggy were more calm and collected than currently conceivable. Rachel looked after them hopefully, but they were talking about Nastasia’s time at the Halls of Healing and paid Rachel no heed.
Then, Kitten’s older sister, Panther, came to get her. Panther took Astrid with her, too, though Astrid did not particularly wish to go. The tiny lion accompanied them, as did Astrid’s red-winged blackbird. Rachel, who burned to be invited, stared after Astrid’s retreating back. She wanted to offer to take Astrid’s place but failed to summon up the courage to voice her wish.
From the window, she saw her brother Peter going off with his friends, including John Darling and some of Darling’s red-headed cousins, all in their red and blue YSL cloaks. Their familiars, mainly cats, darted in and out around their feet. Laurel, too, for all her wildness, was a member. Her sister ran down the path with several friends, laughing and tossing their YSL medallions.
Rachel sat down on her bed, waiting for Siggy, but he did not come by—which might have been because boys were not allowed on the girls’ side. She looked for Mistletoe, but he would not come out of the hole in the wall. She read for a bit, but she felt so filled up with sadness—from being left out of the meeting of such a historic organization, from being forgotten by her friend, from not being invited to begin with—that she could not concentrate. She got up and wandered the halls, looking for someone to talk to.
Every room was empty.
Rachel checked the lower floors. She checked the common room. She pulled opened the massive doors at the back of the black and white foyer and peered into the vast, empty theater in the center of Dare Hall. She even gathered her courage and checked the boys’ side. Sigfried was not there. The entire dormitory was empty. Everyone in Dare Hall had been invited to the YSL meeting…except for her.
• • •
Rachel went to the library, which took up three stories in the eastern leg of the hollow square that was Roanoke Hall. It was a wondrous place filled with enormous stacks and tiny spiral staircases. The moment she walked in and smelled the familiar musty odor of old tomes, she felt much better. She may not have been invited to the meeting, but the sheer amount of knowledge available to her was enough to lift anyone’s spirits. She could not be unhappy among her old friends, books.
Yet, even with all this knowledge calling to her, the pain of having been overlooked continued to burn in her chest like a smoldering ember she could not douse.
She browsed through the school’s selection of “Daring” Northwest books and found two she had not read before, one on Kelpie, Each-Uisge, and Nixies, and one on Kallikantzaroi and Their Cousins, which she promptly checked out. The school also had his work on griffins, a copy of which was prominently displayed in the main library at Gryphon Park. There was a whole chapter on the Arimaspians, Rachel’s ancestors.
After that, she looked up ravens. She found a great many references, to Odin’s Hugin and Munin; to the Native American trickster god; and to the places where ravens were considered birds of ill omens or portents of death. Ravens deserting their nests were said to be terribly bad omens, and it was believed that if the ravens ever deserted the Tower of London, the English monarchy would fall. Ravens could even be taught to talk, similar to parrots and magpies.
But nowhere did she find anything about a giant raven with blood red eyes.
She tried to read one of the volumes she had checked out, but she could not concentrate. Her mind kept picturing a future in which she was a great sorceress, and the kids from the YSL were sorry they had not invited her. After that, it wandered to images of Cydney Graves and her friends with their heads on fire and other spiteful pictures of their suffering and humiliation. She wondered what Zoë had in store for them.
Pulling out her fountain pen, she practiced writing Rachel Chanson in her notebook, surrounded by little hearts. The P.E. instructor was so very handsome, and she knew from her mother that he was not married. He had such keen blue eyes that seemed to look right through her. Then she tried out Rachel Darling, which made her both blush and giggle—until she remembered how John had snickered at her in the breakfast line. Then she blushed for a different reason. Rachel MacDannan? While she had not picked out a particular MacDannan, Ian had two older brothers in Dare Hall who were quite entertaining. After that, she wrote Rachel Valiant—Evil Rumor Monger #1 was cute in his own way, and there was something about him that made her feel all secret and wonderful. Rachel Dread? Or would it be Lady Rachel Von Dread? No. He was evil. She crossed that out.
She surrounded the remaining names with flowers and stars and tiny, smiling hearts. Maybe, upon reflection, she liked boys more than she had thought she did.
Finally, she gave up and wandered back to her favorite hallway. Something about practicing magic brought a sense of calmness. Or maybe it merely kept her troubles at bay. Also, it was very satisfying to see herself improve. She could now whistle and blast the huge book all the way to the far wall, some forty feet away.
She left at one point to use the loo. When she returned, she found Gaius Valiant waiting for her. Or at least, she thought he had been waiting. Maybe he had not, because he looked surprised when she arrived.
Giving her a big smile, he drawled, “So, how’s the practice going? And, I must ask, why aren’t you at the YSL meeting? I thought everyone was invited, except those of us from Drake Hall.”
Rachel’s initial delight turned into sadness. “Nobody invited me. We were all going to go—my friends and I. But people came and fetched them, and nobody told me where to go. Apparently, it’s only for people who are really good at magic…who don’t have to practice as much as I do. Or maybe it’s only for very cute people.”
“Well, I thin
k you have already disproved your second theory.” Gaius casually waved his hand towards her. “As to the first, I don’t think that is the case. I think, perhaps, your friends overlooked you. It is a new school year and such. I am pretty sure that there are people in the YSL who are not very skillful. I could be wrong, though, as I have never been to a meeting. You could ask Miss Fisher or Miss Debussy. They are in the club.”
Rachel blinked. She had already disproved her second theory?
Had he just called her very cute?
Gaius continued, “And if they are too snooty to have you, you can join the Knights of Walpurgis. We’re mostly thaumaturges from Drake, but there are a few from the other Arts in the mix: some conjurers, some canticlers, some alchemists. You’d be the first from Dare.”
“The Knights of Walpurgis?” she asked. “I’ve never heard of them.”
Gaius leaned back against the wall. “They’re an old group. Been around for years, though not as old as the YSL. The Knights meet on Thursday nights. Tomorrow is our first meeting for the new school year. Would you like to come?”
“I’ll have to think about it.” Rachel frowned doubtfully. She was not unwilling, but the YSL was famous. She had wanted to be a member as long as she could remember. She had never heard of this other group. “Can you tell me more about them?”
“The Knights are dedicated to the practice of magic. Mostly for self defense, but we also share new spells we’ve learned or discovered. And we work to increase our skills. It’s a rather elite group. I was surprised when they asked me to join. But I can invite someone, and I know the Griffins are a rather well-known and respected family. You should come.”
Rachel’s eyes sparkled. “Should I come in disguise the first time? Hidden under a robe or something, so they don’t know I’m from Dare?” She laughed. “Okay, I’ll come.”
“Great!” Gaius’s face lit up. He looked extremely pleased. “I’ll come collect you after supper tomorrow. We hold our meetings in the gym. We try to schedule our meetings so they don’t interfere with other clubs, like the YSL or the crazy enchanter boys from Dare Hall who are obsessed with hunting vampires. I am sure that we’ll have a wonderful time.”
“Okay. I’ll look forward to it. Now, um…I guess I should get back to practicing.”
“Would you like to practice on an animate person?”
Rachel’s eyes glittered with delight. “Sure!”
“Do you know the Word of Ending?” Gaius pulled off his robe and stood before her in a dark gray tee-shirt and sweat pants. He looked rather good that way. Not wanting to be caught staring, she averted her eyes. “It stops the effects of many cantrips and a bunch of other things, some hexes and jinxes. It’s best to know how to undo effects which may be caused in practice. Like, if you wanted to cast the paralyzing hex that I hear my dorm-mates used on you. In fact, why don’t we try that?”
Rachel’s face scrunched up. She eyed him hesitantly. “Is there something else that the Word of Ending is useful for that doesn’t require me to hex someone? What if I messed up the ending part, and you got stuck that way? That would be really embarrassing.”
He shrugged. “Well, I’d rather just be stuck here, in an out of the way place, until it wore off, than have you unable to turn me back from being a duck. Or unable to get the broccoli to stop growing from my ears. And you should practice the paralyzing hex anyway. It’s an enchantment, and it’s very useful.”
“Well…um…” She whistled the notes she had heard Cydney play the night before. Nothing happened.
Gaius smiled encouragingly. “You have to concentrate. Hold firmly in mind what you wish to accomplish.”
“Okay! Okay!” She shut her eyes tightly, as if bracing for a blow, and tried it again. She caught a whiff of pine. When she eventually opened her eyes, he was standing before her, straight as an arrow, with his arms at his sides.
“Oh!” Rachel clapped her hands to her face.
She stood there as if petrified herself. Finally, she started to raise her hand to perform the Word of Ending. Then, she paused and giggled a bit. A mischievous expression crept over her face. Walking forward, she stood on tiptoe and gave the frozen young man a very little kiss.
Running back, she formed a fist with a single finger up, and moved it horizontally in front of her, shouting, “Obé!” imitating the hand gesture motion and voice tone Magdalene had used when setting her free.
Then, she turned bright red, because, of course, now he could move and speak.
“Shall we do it again?” she cried.
Before he could answer, she whistled the same notes. Blue sparkles swirled around him, sweeping his hair upward. He froze again.
She freed him and froze him fifteen times in a row, until the whole hallway smelled of evergreen. Finally, she left him unfrozen. Surely, by now, enough time had passed that he would have forgotten the kiss.
He picked up his robe and crossed to where she stood. “One more time is appropriate I think.”
He leaned in and kissed her.
A shiver of energy rippled though her body and out her hair. She felt like a puffed-up cat on an All Hallows Eve decoration. She blushed from scalp to sole, but she felt tremendously happy.
Gaius smiled, but it was not the big, super confident smile he usually gave her. It was a bit toothier, and his cheeks, too, were sort of red.
“Well, distractions aside,” he said, “I will come by your table to get you tomorrow after dinner. I should get back to my room and actually study a bit.”
He turned and walked away at a slightly faster pace than a stroll.
Chapter Sixteen:
Wraiths in the Dark
When Rachel returned to her room, the dorm was still empty. She lay on her back, aglow with delight, and recalled over and over again her memory of Gaius’s kiss. It was her first kiss. She wondered, though, which one counted as the first, hers to him while he was paralyzed? Or his to her?
Or had she not had a proper first kiss yet, because they had not kissed each other?
Contemplating these important questions, she reviewed the rest of her eventful day: her letter from her father, her conversation with Gaius in the morning, the reappearance of the princess and her intriguing adventures, Zoë’s extraordinary power to walk through dreams, the first day of her new job as Mr. Chanson’s assistant—showing off her flying and watching the new stude…
Rachel sat up straight. It had happened again. She had remembered something that had not been visible to her eyes. Just before Mylene Price turned pale and left the broom lesson for the infirmary, a black shadow had appeared. The shadow had been shaped roughly like a person but taller. It appeared next to Miss Price and sank one of its arms wrist deep into the girl’s chest.
Rachel shuddered and thought back farther. She recalled seeing Mylene in the infirmary the night before and a couple of times in the dining hall. Each time, when Rachel checked her memory, the shadow was with Mylene. In the dining hall, it just looked as if Mylene’s own shadow was dark and misshapen. In the infirmary, it had sunk half inside her sleeping body.
Overhead, the will-o-wisps, which had been sleeping in their nighthoods, rushed together and formed a glowing ball of light. Her roommates came in, laughing and talking.
“…keep working on the new spell they taught us tonight,” the princess’s voice, speaking outside the door, was followed by the princess herself gliding into the room. “I am disappointed in how inadequate my spellcasting is compared to the older students.”
“But you can’t expect to be as good as the older students. They have been here for years,” said Kitten, holding her tiny lion around the middle. She plopped him on her bed. Calm and dignified, he turned three times and curled up into a ball.
“That is no excuse,” the princess replied primly, placing her bag on the vanity that, the day before, her brothers had carried out from the house in her purse.
Kitten bounced on her bunk. The lion opened one golden eye. Kitten cried, “That was s
uch great fun, Rachel. You should have come.”
“No one invited me,” said Rachel softly.
Astrid and Kitten looked stricken. Nastasia clapped her hand to her forehead, horrified. “Rachel, I must apologize. I had intended to take you with me. Ivan was so busy asking questions, I forgot. A princess should never go back on her word. I will make it up to you.”
“It’s okay. I got invited somewhere for tomorrow night.” Rachel stood up in her white lacy nightgown. “Listen, I have discovered something important. There’s a girl in the infirmary who has a wraith eating her. I think she’s there now. Or she was earlier. We have to go save her!”
The princess straightened. “We must help this poor unfortunate soul! Let us…” Glancing out the window at the darkness, she frowned in disappointment. “We cannot go out. It is after curfew. A special exception was made for returning from the YSL.”
“But…she’s in trouble.”
The princess looked compassionate but stern. “We cannot break a rule. Rules are what hold life together. Without them, there is only chaos.”
“But…she’s being eaten by a wraith!” Rachel insisted.
“Did this just start?”
“No,” Rachel admitted reluctantly. “It’s been going on for some days. Maybe longer.”
“We shall tell someone first thing in the morning,” Nastasia assured her gently.
“Hang on! Why don’t we go speak to the college resident,” suggested Kitten. “Her name is Yolanda Debussy. She’s a junior who lives in the tower. She is also student delegate for our dorm, representing the girls’ side of Dare Hall on the student council. Oh, and she’s president of the YSL this year.”
“That is an excellent idea,” said Nastasia, nodding approvingly.
Yolanda Debussy. Gaius had mentioned her as a YSL member Rachel might approach.
“Where does she live?” Rachel asked.
“In the main tower on our side. College upperclassmen normally live on the lower floors. They get the privilege of not having to climb as many beastly stairs. The college resident lives up here, though, so she can be close to us freshmen,” Kitten explained. “Shall I go get her? Let her know it’s all gone pear-shaped for this girl in the infirmary?”
The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin (Books of Unexpected Enlightenment Book 1) Page 17