by E. E. Holmes
§
“Excellent!” Savvy said, grinning from ear to ear.
“Shh!” I hissed with a panicked glance around the corridor, through which a few scattered voices could be heard, though living or dead, I couldn’t tell. “So, I take it that’s a yes?”
“Of course it’s a yes! I’ve been trying to convince you to take a field trip for ages! What changed your mind?”
“I didn’t change my mind. I’m not interested in hitting one of your friends’ parties,” I said. “I got a…message from a friend who’s going to be in the city tomorrow.”
“Oi, oi, what friend is this, now? Is this a male friend?” Savvy waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “No,” I said. “You seeing me in the shower is the only action I’m likely to get for a while. So how do we do this?”
“Simple enough,” Savvy said. “Leave it all to me. What time do you need to meet this friend?”
“Eleven o’clock tomorrow night outside of the Tate Modern.”
“Right, then. We ought to leave by eight thirty at the latest. We could fuss with train schedules and the tube and all that, but since you have a specific time to meet, I think we ought to skip all that and just hire a car to drive us in. But I have to warn you, the cab will be pricey —probably ninety pounds, anyway. Can you swing that?”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I don’t mind forking out some cash as long as we can do this without getting caught. I just need you to come with me, because I have no idea where I’m going. I’ve never been to London before. Well, I’ve driven through it, but that doesn’t really count.”
“Well, of course I’m coming with you! You think I’m gonna arrange this whole thing and not take advantage of a night away from this place? There are plenty of pubs in Southwark. I’ll swing you by the Tate and then find myself a pint.”
“If you can get me there and back without getting caught, I’ll buy you that pint,” I said.
“Don’t you worry, love, I’ve never had trouble finding some bloke to finance my night of drinking,” Savvy said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “How long do you think you’ll need in the city?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know why she wants to meet me. I think, to be safe, we should assume we’ll be there a couple of hours. I can just text you when we’re done and you and I can meet up to come back?”
“Sure you don’t want to stay in town awhile? If we’re going to be there anyway, we might as well make a night of it, hit some clubs —”
“Sav, I promise, if we get away with this, I will join you on your next field trip and we will hit as many clubs as you want. I will let you drag me on a debauchery tour of London, okay?”
“It’s a deal. Leave it to me,” Savvy said.
“Thanks,” I said, and turned to go, but she caught my arm, her expression thoughtful.
“Debauchery tours of London. That might just be a million dollar idea you’ve got there. I bet someone could make a fortune cashing in on that.”
“If anyone could do it, I’m sure you could,” I told her. “You’re the most debaucherous person I know. Now get planning.”
§
I didn’t want to tell Hannah what I was going to do, but I didn’t really see any way around it. It was a little too much to hope that she wouldn’t notice that I was gone all night. I considered telling just part of the truth; that I was going into London with Savvy, but that we were just going for fun — a girls’ night out. I nixed the idea as quickly as I thought of it. The only person less likely to participate in that kind of girl’s night was Hannah, and we both knew it. So Saturday afternoon, during a well-earned break from a mind-numbing mountain of history homework, I climbed up onto her bed.
“I have to tell you something, but I don’t want you to freak out.”
“Oh, God, what is it?” she asked at once, eyes widening.
“I said don’t freak out!”
“Well, then don’t start a conversation like that. If you imply there’s going to be something to freak out about, I’m going to freak out!” Hannah said.
“Good point. Okay, starting over. I’m just letting you know that I have to go out tonight.”
Her eyebrows contracted. “Oh. Where are you going?”
“To London.”
She stared at me expectantly. When I didn’t volunteer anything else, she said, “Aren’t you going to tell me why you’re going?”
I took a deep breath. “You know how I’m trying to find out what happened to Pierce?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, a mutual friend of ours is in London this weekend, and I want to meet up with her to see if she knows anything. It’s Annabelle, that medium I told you about, remember?”
“The one with the tarot cards?”
“Yeah.”
Hannah furrowed her brow. “How did you find out she was in London?”
“She sent me a…message,” I hedged.
“Well, if she got in touch with you, why didn’t you just ask her about Dr. Pierce? Why do you have to go all the way to London to ask her?”
I squirmed a little. “It wasn’t that kind of message. She sent a ghost to find me. That’s who I made contact with during meditation yesterday, the one Finn expelled from the circle.”
“She can send spirits to bring messages?” Hannah said in surprise.
“Apparently.”
“I didn’t realize there were people besides the Durupinen out there who could do that sort of thing,” she said, forgetting her worry for a moment and perking up with a very Tia-like curiosity.
“Me neither. But the ghost wasn’t very happy about being sent to find me, so I didn’t really have a chance to get many details, especially with Finn butting in and expelling him mid-conversation, even though I told him I had it under control.” I took a deep breath and forced my aggravation at Finn out of my mind. “Anyway, she wants to meet me tomorrow night, and I think it must be important if she’s sending afterlife messengers to track me down.”
Hannah bit her lip. “How are you going to get there?”
“I’ve enlisted our resident escape artist.”
“Savannah? You’re letting Savannah do this?” Hannah cried.
“She’s the only one who sneaks out of here regularly. She’s my only chance.”
“Jess, she’s always in trouble! She can’t be that good at sneaking out if she’s always getting caught and punished for it!”
“Actually, she’s really good at the sneaking out part. It’s the sneaking back in part that usually gets her in trouble, and that’s because she’s been partying too hard to do it right,” I said. “I’m not going to be doing any partying, so I’m sure I’ll get back in without a problem.”
“Why can’t you just get permission to go to London and talk to Annabelle?”
“She doesn’t want anyone to know she’s meeting me, and to be honest, neither do I. You know how the Council is about outsiders knowing too much. All I need is for Marion or someone to get wind of this and then Annabelle will be in trouble, too.”
Hannah opened her mouth to argue again but I held up a quelling hand.
“It doesn’t matter whether I get caught or not. This could be really important and I have to go. I wasn’t even going to tell you, but I didn’t want you to wake up, find me gone, and send out a search party.”
“I still don’t like it,” Hannah said.
“I don’t either,” I said, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder. “But you know how much Pierce means to me. If Annabelle knows something, I have to find out what it is.”
Hannah sighed. “You’re right. But you better keep Savvy on a tight leash or you’ll both get caught anyway.”
I smiled. “Good point. Consider her leashed.”
§
I was so distracted for the rest of the evening that I wrote what I was pretty sure was the worst history paper of my life; we’re talking middle school standardized test bad. But I didn’t care —two thirds of my brain was focused on the clock, watc
hing the minutes crawl by until finally Savvy tapped briskly on our door at quarter past eight.
“You ready?” she asked.
“Yup. Let’s rock this, Catholic boarding school-style.”
She nodded over to Hannah, who was curled up in her pajamas in one of the armchairs by the fire. “Don’t worry about a thing, short-stack. I’ll have her back in one piece before you wake up.”
Hannah scowled. “I don’t think I’ll be sleeping much.”
“I’ll have my phone with me,” I told her, holding it up before stashing it in my back pocket. “You can text me every five minutes if you want to.”
“You’ll have something even better than that with you,” Hannah said, and closed her eyes. “Milo? Can you come here for a second?”
Before she had even opened her eyes, Milo was lounging in the chair next to hers.
“You rang, sweetness?”
“It is right creepy the way you do that,” Savvy said, shaking her head.
Hannah ignored her. “Milo, Jess needs your help.”
I could actually see the storm cloud form over Milo’s head. “It’s starting already, isn’t it? I knew this spirit guide gig was going to suck.”
“Okay, fine, I need your help. Do it for me, okay? And anyway, I think you’ll be more than willing when you find out what it is.”
“Still listening, but refusing to look at you,” Milo said, arms crossed.
“Jess has to go to London tonight and I want you to go with her.”
Milo dropped his arms and his jaw simultaneously. “London? Seriously?”
“Seriously,” Hannah said.
“Wait a minute!” I said. “What is the point of that? What possible good will it do for Milo to come with me?”
“I don’t know what good it will do you, but it will make me feel better,” Hannah said. “And besides, now I’ll be able to communicate with him and make sure you’re okay.”
I held up my phone again. “I have a cell phone. The obnoxious spirit guide is superfluous.”
Hannah smirked. “You might lose your cell signal. I never lose my Milo signal.”
“Lucky us,” I grumbled. “Well, whatever, he doesn’t want to go anywhere with me, do you?”
“Of course I don’t want to go anywhere with you,” Milo said. “But I do want to see London, so if you’re going, I’m tagging along.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” I said, dropping my head into my hands. Of all of the moments for Milo’s contempt for me to fail! “Hannah, I know you’re nervous, but can’t you just give me a break here? I’ve got enough to worry about without Milo floating around in my wake criticizing my wardrobe choices and lamenting my love of black, okay?”
“I know,” Hannah said. “That’s why he’s going to promise not to do any of that tonight.” Milo whipped his head around to stare at her. “Come again?”
“You two are going to be around each other a lot, so you might as well get some practice learning to live with each other,” Hannah said, passing a stern look between us as though we were a pair of toddlers tugging on opposite ends of the same teddy bear. “Milo, I know you’re dying to travel, so here’s your chance. You can go with Jess to London and have a look around; now that you’re Bound to both of us, you should be able to travel that far away from me as long as she’s with you. But you also need to be nice to her and stay in touch with me so that I know everything is okay.”
Milo all but stuck out his bottom lip in a cartoonish pout. “Can’t you and I just go together?”
“I hope we can eventually, but I don’t know when that will be, and in the meantime, don’t you want to take a stroll through the shopping districts? I bet Savvy would know where to send you.”
“Sloane Street,” Savvy said at once. “It’s like walking down a runway during London’s fashion week.”
Milo’s eyes lit up like a kid’s on Christmas. Savvy had said the magic words.
“And anyway,” she went on, “we need to use a ghost to get across the wards. This will simplify things.”
“What do we need a ghost for?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” Savvy said.
Hannah jumped in before I could demand a better explanation. “See? It all works out! So Milo, all you need to do is come if Jess calls you, but otherwise you can window shop to your heart’s content. What do you say?”
Milo glanced over at me and tried to reassume a nonchalant air. “Well, I guess I could find something to occupy myself while she’s there.”
“Jess? Any more objections?”
I had plenty, but none that wouldn’t sound petulant. “Fine, I’ll bring him.”
Hannah smiled at last. “Great. Have a nice time, and please try not to get caught.”
“Right.” I grabbed my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and followed Savvy out of the door.
“You don’t look as nervous as I thought you would,” she said, clapping me on the back as we started down the hall. “You’ve got some faith in ol’ Savvy then, eh?”
“I’ve got faith in your wardrobe choices,” I said. “Mini skirt and four inch heels? At least I know we won’t be shinnying down drainpipes or climbing over hedgerows.”
“Says you,” Savvy said. “Have you got your drawing stuff?” I patted my bag. “All in here.”
“Great. Take the main staircase and meet me on the northwest corner of the courtyard in ten minutes. We need to skirt along the edge of the woods if we’re going to get off the grounds without being seen. Milo, you can come with me.”
“Fab,” Milo said.
“See you in a few,” I said, and started for the main entry hall.
We had decided that I would use my sketchbook as a pretext for getting out onto the grounds. The grounds were big enough that, if anyone was looking for me, I could claim to have been out there the whole time, and that they must have missed me. It also gave me an emergency excuse if I was caught sneaking in after curfew. Oops, I dozed off outside while I was sketching this beautiful drawing of whatever. I might still get reprimanded, but probably not punished. As I rounded the last landing to the entrance hall, luck was on my side; Celeste was just coming out of the dining room.
“Hi Celeste,” I called with a wave.
“Hello, Jess,” Celeste said with a smile. “Where are you off to?”
“I thought I’d do a little twilight sketching,” I said, lifting the flap on my bag so that my sketchbook was clearly visible. “There’s a full moon tonight, so the shadow play should be pretty spectacular.”
“Wonderful,” Celeste said. “Karen tells me you draw beautifully. I’d love to see some of them sometime, if you wouldn’t mind showing me, of course.”
“Why would I mind?” I asked, pulling the book out.
“Well, I know how some artists can be about their work,” she said, with half a glance behind her. Fiona was sitting just inside the dining room, hunched over a book and a soup bowl in a posture that promised she would pounce on and claw to shreds the first person to disturb her ruminations.
“We’re not all quite so…well, we’re not all like that,” I said, flipping the book open to a sketch of one of the fountains and handing it to her.
“This is just splendid!” Celeste said. “Karen was quite right to brag.” She lowered her voice and whispered, “How is going with Fiona?”
I grimaced. “She still lets me come to classes, and last week she didn’t throw anything the whole session. That’s about the best thing I can say about it.”
“Don’t take it personally. She’s the castle curmudgeon, and always has been.” Celeste handed the sketchbook back to me. “Have fun then, but don’t lose track of time out there. Curfew starts at 10:30.”
“I’ve got my watch,” I said, raising it up for her to see. “See you later.”
“Don’t forget you also have a paper due Monday!” Celeste called after my retreating back.
“Finished it!” I called back as I slipped out the door. No need to mention that
she would probably make me rewrite it.
I walked casually along the gravel path that led to the courtyard, stopping here and there to examine a flower or a statue, just in case anyone was watching me from the windows. I ran my hand along the smooth weathered stone of the castle wall, turned the corner, and picked up my pace in the shadows of the cloister’s ivy-covered roof. By the time I reached the spot where Savvy and Milo stood waiting for me, I was jogging.
“Alright?” she asked.
“Yeah, good,” I said a bit breathlessly. “I saw Celeste and told her I’d be out sketching.”
“Brilliant,” Savvy said. “Right, let’s go then.”
We skirted the shade of the castle into the fringe of trees and put a few yards of foliage between us and the lawns before we turned and started for the far end of the grounds. Savvy covered the ground unnervingly fast in her heels, and I started to wonder if we would indeed be scaling walls or climbing trees. After about fifteen minutes, we reached the furthest corner of the grounds, where the trees thinned to a smattering of bushes and intersected with the road which divided it from the fields and farms beyond.
Savvy checked her watch. “The cab should be here any minute. We should try to cross the ward before it gets here or it’s going to look dodgy.”
“Don’t we just … walk across?” I asked. “It’s not an electric fence or anything.”
“Sure, we could just step through, but they’ll know,” Savvy said, cocking her head back in the direction of the castle, the top towers of which were just visible over the trees. “That’s how I got caught the first two times I snuck out. The wards will let us through, but they also alert the Caomhnóir that we’re crossing. Two of them were waiting for me right here when I got back.”
“Great, so how are we supposed to leave without being detected?”
“With a little help from the dearly departed,” Savvy said, pointing first at Milo, and then into the trees, where another ghost I’d never seen before was emerging from the woods.
“This is Seamus,” she said by way of introduction. The ghost named Seamus gave a sweeping bow in my direction. He was dressed like he’d just dismounted a white steed on the cover of a trashy romance novel. And from the look he was giving Savannah, he’d have dearly loved her to be the wench clasped swooning in his burly arms.