by E. E. Holmes
I opened one eye and looked at Hannah. She was the picture of Zen tranquility; she could have been asleep she was so relaxed. I chanced a glance over at Savvy; she was actually asleep, head lolling to one side, candle completely extinguished beside her left knee. I could hear her snoring from across the courtyard, and Keira was already wending her way through the group to rouse her.
I closed my eyes again, but no sooner had I done so, they flew open again as Hannah started talking.
“Finn,” she said, her voice monotone, like that of a sleepwalker. “I’ve got a visitor. She’s quite calm, so I don’t think you need to expel her.”
Finn was staring down at her, frowning. He caught my eye and I shrugged. He snapped back to attention, but his eyes kept flitting to Hannah, and he looked troubled.
I looked around and saw no one, but that did not bother me. I knew that spirits could manifest in a variety of ways, and that I didn’t need to see her for her to be there. Hannah began a murmured conversation, of which I only caught a word here or there. She had a gentle, easy smile on her face. I scanned the courtyard. No one else seemed to be communicating with a spirit.
“Here’s another one, Finn” Hannah said softly. “Oh no, two actually. Yes, two.”
“Where?” Finn muttered.
“In here with me,” Hannah said.
“But, how did they…I didn’t feel them cross. They didn’t even stop,” Finn said.
“I sensed them out there, so I invited them,” Hannah said, almost dismissively.
“Yes, but I should still be able to sense their entry,” he said. He opened his eyes and crouched down, studying the boundary of his guardian circle, his fingers hovering over it, as though probing the air for something invisible.
I tried to ignore him and went back to the impossible task of relaxing my body. I had left off with my midsection, but everything below the waist was tense again, so I gave up and started over with my toes. The sun continued to beat down. My throat felt dry and parched.
Finn cleared his throat and I opened my eyes again. His hand was in the air, and Braxton was marching his way across the courtyard toward our circle. I watched as they put their heads together and carried on a whispered conversation. After a few moments, Braxton waved Keira over to join them.
A number of people were watching us now; apparently I wasn’t the only one who was having trouble relaxing.
“I do not remember giving the order to cease your relaxation exercises,” Keira said sharply over her shoulder, and several heads whipped away again. Others seemed too interested to care about the reprimand. They continued to gawk as Keira joined Finn and Braxton’s conversation. Keeping my eyes carefully closed and my expression neutral, I listened with all my might.
“Tell her what you told me,” Braxton was saying.
“They aren’t stopping. I’m trying to sense them at approach, but all of a sudden they’re in there, and I never even felt them coming. The borders of the circle and even the rune seem to have no effect. I can’t understand it. I’m sure I did it right,” Finn said.
“How is his precognition generally?” Keira asked.
“Excellent,” Braxton said. “He is one of our most sensitive Novitiates. Very strong connective ability and above-average aura reading skills. The rune and circle both look good, and I can sense the casting in the borders.”
“I see,” Keira said, and I could almost hear the frown in her voice. I opened my eyes enough to make out her shape as she walked around our circle, examining it closely for gaps or flaws. She found none. She let her hand hover in the air over the arrow-like rune, and also over the borders of the shared space between our circles. She shook her head bemusedly and returned to Braxton.
“Braxton, why don’t you take Finn’s place in the guardian circle and see what you can do? It may simply be nerves or a lack of experience.”
Finn slouched out of his circle, looking bad-tempered, and watched as Braxton took his place. I no longer bothered to pretend I wasn’t paying attention, and neither did anyone else. Some Apprentices were actually kneeling up to get a better view. Hannah, eyes still closed, still murmuring to companions unseen, had yet to notice that anything unusual was going on around her.
Braxton closed his eyes and stayed very still for several minutes. As I watched him, a shadow seemed to pass slowly over his face, so that his expression, when he opened his eyes again, was very troubled.
He leaned over to Keira and spoke directly into her ear, so that there was no chance of being overheard. When he pulled away, Keira’s expression was utterly unreadable. She bent down and touched Hannah lightly on the shoulder.
“Hannah, may I have a word with you?”
Hannah started and her eyes flew open, round as coins. As she did so, I felt a rush of energy blast past me and out of the circle. It left a ringing in my ears.
“Sorry?”
“I said, may I have a word with you?”
“Yes, of course. Sorry, I know we were supposed to be relaxing but I was just …” Her voice was snuffed out, smothered by the eager stares directed at her. She seemed to shrink, retracting into herself like a turtle into its shell. “Is something wrong?”
“No, no,” said Keira lightly. “I just wanted to speak with you for a moment. Privately.”
Hannah looked at me for help. I spoke up at once. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing that anyone here should be so very interested in,” Keira said, in a return to her brisk manner. “What are you all looking at? You’re supposed to be relaxing your bodies and minds! Snap to it, chop, chop! Braxton, please oversee the class for a few minutes until I get back.” She clapped sharply.
Everyone except for me returned to their tasks, or at least pretended to, but nobody’s postures looked very relaxed anymore. Bewildered, Hannah stood up and followed Keira out of the courtyard, pursued by a whistling breeze of whispered conversation. She looked back at me with barely contained panic.
“I’ll wait here for you,” I called after her.
The minutes stretched, but still they did not return. I sat in my circle, staring through the archway where they had exited, feeling the sun beating down on my hair and the skin on the back of my neck.
After a lengthy silence, Finn spoke, startling me. “Are we going to carry on without her?”
“What?”
He kept his eyes on his hands where he was turning the little leather bag of chalk over and over. “Shall we carry on? We ought to keep practicing.”
“You go ahead. I can’t concentrate right now,” I said.
“There’s no point, if you aren’t going to participate,” he said.
“Well, then I guess we’re done,” I said curtly.
“We shouldn’t waste this time,” he pressed on, still not meeting my eye. Was he one of those people who never looked anyone in the eye when they spoke, or was it just with me? I didn’t know him well enough to be able to tell. “This time is important for —”
“Well, I’m sorry, but relaxation is out of the question right now,” I said. “If you were so worried about staying on task, you should have left Hannah alone. What was that all about anyway?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “She was doing something strange. It was like she was snatching them out of the air and pulling them in. The circle boundary wasn’t stopping them.”
“Keira said they could still decide to cross,” I pointed out.
“Yes, but there was no decision. There was no approach. One moment they weren’t anywhere around, and the next they were inside the circle with her,” Finn said. “That isn’t how it’s supposed to work. I had to alert someone.”
I pursed my lips but didn’t reply, because I knew I wouldn’t say anything fair. He was a student, just like we were, of course he should get his questions answered; I was sure that I’d have about a million questions I would need my teachers to answer before I walked out of this place. But did he have to do it like that, in front of the entire eagerly listenin
g class? Did we have to be constantly reminded of our outsider status in every single setting around here? I mean, for heaven’s sake, couldn’t we at least fit in in this strangest little corner of things, in this place for people who didn’t fit in anywhere else?
The bells reverberated through the courtyard, signaling the end of class. Everyone rose sluggishly to their feet, yawning and stretching. Braxton shouted instructions to everyone on how to negate their communication circles, and for a few minutes the place was full of sounds of splashing water as little silver jugs were passed around and poured over the chalk lines, so that they dissolved and ran in cloudy rivulets between the stones and into the grass. Savvy had nodded off again, although how she remained asleep through that cacophony of bells I had no idea, and Phoebe was trying to prod her awake.
Peyton lingered, waiting, it seemed, to see what Finn would do. When he didn’t get up and follow the others out, and her many attempts to catch his eye went unnoticed, she flounced away with Olivia, looking sulky. Guess she’d have to wait for the latest chapter of Ballard sister gossip, just like the rest of them. The courtyard cleared in twos and threes, until only Mackie, Savvy, Finn and I remained behind. I glanced at Finn, who had pulled out a book that looked like a journal and was scribbling away in it, oblivious to my gaze.
“You don’t have to stay, you know,” I said.
“I know,” he said, without looking up. He had gnawed the end of his cheap ballpoint pen so much that it was pinched shut, covered in teeth marks.
“So why are you?”
He crossed out something on his page. “This is my Caomhnóir assignment. Whatever just happened affects my ability to do my job. I want to know what it is.” He scribbled something else out.
“What are you writing?” I asked.
He completely ignored me. I snorted with disgust and turned to Mackie, who was walking toward me and swinging her chalk bag in circles, Savannah yawning on her heels.
“How’d it go?” I asked. “Feeling relaxed?”
“Oh yes, ready for a nap,” she said. “More relaxed than you are, I bet. What was that all about?” And she cocked her head in the direction that Hannah and Keira had disappeared.
“I don’t really know. Something about ghosts showing up unexpectedly in our circle. You’d be better off asking him,” I said, and hitched a thumb at Finn.
Before Mackie could ask though, Hannah appeared in the archway and started walking calmly across the lawn. When she reached us, she was smiling gently.
“Everything okay?” I asked, though I was relieved to see the smile.
“Oh, yes,” Hannah said, and she knelt to pick up her books. “I have to go and see Finvarra.”
“Huh? Why do you need to do that?” I asked.
“Keira says that I may have a special ability after all. She wants to confirm it with Finvarra first, though.”
She sounded very happy. I, on the other hand, was becoming increasingly nervous. “What ability is she talking about?”
Hannah shrugged. “She didn’t explain it, really. She just asked me a few questions about how I got those ghosts into the circle, and then told me that we should tell Finvarra about it. That’s where I’m going now. I’ll meet you at dinner.” She turned to Finn, who had finally looked up from his writing. “Keira is speaking with Braxton now, but she’d like you to come with us up to Finvarra’s office.”
Finn nodded, snapped his book shut, and jumped to his feet. Without a word to anyone, he marched off.
Hannah turned to go. I blurted out after her, “Do you want me to come with you?”
She turned back. “No, I’ll be fine. I might see if I can find Milo.”
This caused the familiar little stab of jealousy, but I was prepared for it. Stronger, though, was the resentment of knowing that Finn Carey would be there to hear whatever Finvarra had to say to my sister. I tried not to glare at his retreating back, but focused instead on what seemed like an important reminder. “Don’t forget what Karen said when she was giving us our clan colors.”
“I won’t,” Hannah said, her eyes shining with genuine excitement. “See you later, then. Wish me luck!”
We all did, and watched her return to Keira, now beckoning to her from the cloisters. I felt a little pang of loss as she walked away, her tiny shoulders squared and her long hair swinging behind her. Someone that small ought to have someone holding her hand.
“Wow, a summons to the North Tower,” Mackie said with a low whistle. “That must be some special ability she’s got. Finvarra doesn’t often deal with the new Apprentices directly.”
“Straight to the headmistress is never good, in my experience,” Savvy added, lighting a cigarette and immediately dropping it in the grass as she failed to stifle a huge yawn.
“Don’t be daft, she’s not being punished,” Mackie said. “Come on then, let’s go eat.”
But though I waited over an hour, staring at my soup until it had gone cold, Hannah didn’t show up in the dining room, and at last I gave up and went back to our room to wait for her there. To take my mind off of her, I sat down at my computer and checked my email. There was still nothing from Pierce, but there was a message from Tia, and it made my nerves jangle even more.
The subject line was “Pierce.” I clicked it and read the cryptically short message. “Skype me as soon as you get this.”
Heart hammering, I signed in and requested a chat with Tia. My leg bounced up and down, waiting for the connection.
“So?’ I said, as soon as her face appeared.
“So, you’re not going to like it.”
I waited, but Tia just sat there, avoiding my gaze.
“Just tell me already!” I cried.
“I started with the yellow pages. I thought that his home address was the most logical place to find him. He lives right in Worcester, not even fifteen minutes from the campus.
“And?”
“He hasn’t been there for a couple of weeks.”
My heart sank. “How do you know?”
“His grass hasn’t been mowed and his front porch is covered in newspapers and mail. Wherever he is, he forgot to forward his mail or have it held at the post office.”
“And if he knew he was going away for the whole semester, he would have taken care of that,” I said. “I know he’s a little eccentric, but he’s not irresponsible. I mean, the man has a doctorate for godssake.”
“Right. I tried to call his home number too, but no luck. He isn’t having his calls forwarded, and his voicemail message doesn’t give any other information about where to reach him. Also, his voice mailbox is full. I couldn’t leave a message even if I wanted to. He’s got too many on there that he hasn’t listened to yet.”
“Well, I guess that’s it then,” I said with a sigh. “Thanks for trying, Tia.”
“What do you mean, you guess that’s it? I wasn’t going to give up that easily! Who do you think you’re talking to?” Tia said in mild indignation.
“Oh! Right, sorry,” I said with smile. “I’m not trying to underestimate you, but it’s only been a day since you started looking! I can’t believe you’ve found out that much already. Continue, super sleuth!”
“I thought our next best bet was to find out what we could about this alleged sabbatical, so I had Sam snoop around the science department a bit to see what he could dig up. None of the professors had any conversations with Pierce about his leaving, and several of them were very surprised. They said he gave no indication that he was leaving.”
“I knew it! I knew this had to be a sudden thing! He would have mentioned it to me!”
“So then Sam sort of … broke into Pierce’s file in the department head’s office.”
“He did what?” I asked.
Tia grimaced. “I told him not to, but he’s just as mystified about this as you are. He really loved working for Pierce, and he agrees with you that the whole thing seems kind of fishy. He thought maybe Pierce was fired or put on leave, and the administration was
trying to cover it up.”
“But he was getting those new classes… ”
“But you’ve said it yourself, he’s had a hard time proving himself as a real scientist here. And he does have a temper. Sam thought Pierce might have flown off the handle and said something that got him suspended or something, and the school could just be trying to save face.”
I couldn’t deny this was a definite possibility, and one I hadn’t considered.
“So, Sam offered to file some papers in the department office, and then he just slipped into the faculty records. He found Pierce’s folder and there was some very hastily filed sabbatical paperwork in there.”
“How hasty? From when?”
“Filed and approved the day after you left.”
“Did it give any details about where he was going?”
Tia nodded. She ducked out of camera range for a moment, and when she reappeared, she had a yellow legal pad in her hand. “He’s supposed to be in upstate New York, at a two hundred-year-old inn called The Deer Creek Inn and Tavern. It has a long history of intense paranormal activity and was being renovated under new ownership, but the renovations have stopped.”
“Why?”
“The alleged spirit activity has grown so violent and constant that all of the workers have walked off the job and refuse to return to the site. There have been dozens of injuries and even one death.”
“Is that all it said? He’s just going to check out a haunted building? He could do that on the weekend, or over the summer, couldn’t he? Why would he need to miss an entire semester?”
“You’re asking me? I don’t have a clue. You or Sam would have a much better idea about how long something like that would take. But the paperwork said that no one has ever been allowed to investigate the place; the last owners refused to let ghost hunters in. But the new owners are eager for the activity to stop so that they can continue with their renovations.”
I said nothing, taking in the new information.