“They brought you here to liven stuff up?” I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Trafton was flamboyant in a way that Professor Penny, just for example, was not.
“Of course they did,” said Trafton. “How am I doing?”
I glanced at him and he winked at me. He was teasing me. Charlotte had probably told him how mad I’d been about all the theory classes.
“No, there are other reasons I came back to Public,” he said. “After what happened to Sip I felt it necessary to return to the elementals. It was a last minute decision. I don’t know if you realize this, but the paranormals are still recovering from the Nocturn War. There are not many centers of power or paranormal strongholds, and the Hunters are a far more deadly enemy than the hellhounds ever were.”
“How do you figure that?” I asked.
Trafton shrugged his broad shoulders. “True, we didn’t know who the darkness premier was a few years ago, but if you saw a hellhound or a demon you ran. You recognized your enemies, and for the most part they wore a different face from yours. Sure, some paranormals mistrusted others, but not on this grand scale.
“You’re saying that the Hunters are all hidden?” I said.
“Right in plain view,” Trafton confirmed. “For example, last semester was proof enough that there are Hunters operating on campus and in the villages, but since they look just like us, unlike hellhounds, it’s hard to tell who they are. Yeah, Camilla Van Rothson was evil, but we all knew she was evil because with her there was no hiding it. As far as I can tell, the only paranormals on campus that we can confirm are evil now are the Burble siblings, and sadly that’s just four of them.”
“They sure are evil, though,” I muttered. Trafton smiled.
“I’m sure Dobrov and my sister are glad to have you back,” I mused. “Dream givers are rare, and I don’t care what anyone says, you’re also powerful.”
Trafton gave me a bemused look and said, “Yes, we are. We can even direct coaches out of the sky.” He stood up and stretched, glancing at the lake. “It’s peaceful here. It’s a wonder more paranormals don’t come here more often.” With a wave he strode away, back toward some of the main campus buildings. He had given me a lot to think about.
I sat by the water, staring into the motionless pond long after I should have left.
Chapter Fourteen
That night Keegan was waiting for Eighellie and me outside Airlee, where we had agreed to meet after dinner. As usual, he was covered in wood chips.
“Are you trying to start a new style or something?” said Eighellie. “Wood clothing by a tree sprite?”
“You should stick to your strengths,” said Keegan. “Which don’t seem to be advertising.”
“Lead the way,” I said. It was still winter and too cold to spend more time outside than we had to. I wanted to get going.
Keegan nodded and turned on his heel. We passed several other Airlee students, most of whom were on their way to the library. We had more homework than last semester, so it made sense that people were buckling down. I hadn’t realized how easy the professors had gone on us up to now. After everything that had happened, I guess they wanted to make sure we could handle a college load before they dumped the real world onto us. For the first time, I was missing last semester.
Eighellie rubbed her arms. She was often cold, and unless she was going to the Long Building she didn’t like walking around at night, either.
“How much further?” she asked. “Tell me, tell me!”
“We’re heading for the trees,” I told her. They were about a hundred yards in front of us on the far side of a field. We had moved away from all the Public buildings at this point, and when I turned my head to look, all I saw were lots of lights winking at me, and the new tower that was under construction.
Keegan glanced at me and grinned. “You know what I’m up to?” he said.
“I have a guess,” I told him.
“What’s your guess?” Eighellie demanded. “Tell me.”
I grinned at her and shook my head. “Nope. I don’t want to spoil it for you.”
“I’ve been wracking my brain and I haven’t come up with anything!” she complained.
We kept walking toward the forest, and I felt as if the darkness wasn’t as fearsome when my friends were there. Once we were among the trees Keegan relaxed, his shoulders easing and his step lightening. He was happiest here.
Then Eighellie gasped. We both halted and instinctively came together. “What is it?” Keegan said hoarsely.
“It’s a TREE HOUSE, ISN’T IT!” Eighellie squealed, her eyes lighting up. “You built a tree house all by yourself!” She was yelling and nearly bouncing around in her excitement. Keegan interpreted her relief as happiness that it was something cool he was doing, while I knew it was mostly something else entirely.
Keegan chuckled. “I sure did.”
“Come on,” she said. She grabbed his arm and started moving in the direction where he’d been heading. “I want to see!”
Keegan glanced over his shoulder at me and shook his head, while I just laughed. “Let go of me, it’s this way, anyway,” he said, untangling Eighellie from his arm. She was still bouncing around with excitement as he led the way through the dark forest, while I was taking my bearings and realizing that we were still pretty close to the Long Building from here.
When I had imagined Keegan building a tree house, I hadn’t thought it would be anything fancy, I expected it to be something small and functional. Also, I didn’t think I’d be able to spot it unless he pointed it out to me. Camouflage was necessary if you were going to be out in the forest by yourself.
As it turned out, I was right on one count but not the other. When we reached the biggest, tallest maple tree in the forest, with branches stretching up so high I couldn’t see the top even when I craned my neck backwards, Keegan stopped.
“It’s up there?” Eighellie gasped. “How do you get all the way up there?”
“Rope ladder,” said Keegan.
First he made sure we were far enough away from the tree that when the rope ladder came flying down, neither of us got brained by the heavy wooden rungs. Then he touched the tree and stepped back himself. The ladder fell in a rush, then swung gently against the tree’s bark a couple of times before it stopped, almost as if it was waiting for us to use it. Which maybe it was.
“You go first,” Keegan said with a nod to me. “Eighellie’s so excited she’s liable to fall off if she tries to go first. When you get up there, help her up.”
“I’m not helpless! I don’t need to be led around like a ninny,” Eighellie argued.
“Of course not,” said Keegan dryly.
I headed up the ladder, my hands gripping the rope firmly. It felt good to climb something and use my body. Public so far had been a very non-physical experience, and my reaction to climbing Keegan’s ladder made me think it would be good to change that.
Halfway up I had to stop. My arms were burning and my hands felt raw. The air was cold and clear and I took a second to breathe it in.
“Good thing you aren’t afraid of heights,” Keegan yelled from below. I turned around to glare at him over my shoulder, but he did have a point. I kept climbing. The breeze blew around me, excited to have me so high up and reminding me that since I controlled wind, it didn’t really matter if I felt some fear when I was high among the trees.
It wasn’t until I was nearly at the top that I had a good view of Keegan’s treehouse. It took my breath away. We had been back at Public for about a month at that point, and the progress he had made was remarkable, although I supposed he might have used some of his powers to help.
The tree house roof was a canopy of very tightly woven branches that Keegan had clearly bent to his will. The leaves hung low, creating an overhang that blocked most of the wind and rain, while still allowing light in.
The floorboards were solid. To my right was a door with a glass panel, far prettier and fancier than I would have thought
Keegan would choose. To my left was a kind of overlook, but not a relaxing porch. No, this overlook had a high, solid railing, and what looked like two telescopes set up along it. Keegan was prepared for a battle. He had designed this place with defense in mind.
“Eighellie’s coming up,” I heard Keegan’s voice call faintly from far below. I turned to look over the railing and caught a glimpse of Eighellie’s hair, which was so blond I could see her even from this high up. She was climbing steadily, the rope shaking a little every time she made any progress.
“Keegan, this is amazing,” I yelled down, and heard my voice echo off the trees.
“I know,” he yelled back.
I shook my head. Keegan was hard to compliment, mostly because he believed, rightly so, that if he chose to do something he would do it well. And he had. This was the perfect lookout, and I had a hunch that what he was going to end up seeing from his perch would surprise both of us.
Eighellie took a long time to reach the top. She was shaking and her eyes were wide when her head appeared above the edge of the platform. After a split second I realized that she wasn’t going to get off the ladder on her own, so I took her arm and tried to help her sit on the edge. But the edge was no place for her either; she immediately crawled away to the center of the floor. Her eyes were wide and her hands felt cold.
“That was terrifying,” she said. “Just terrifying.”
Then Keegan poked his head over the edge and climbed onto the platform. He must have basically run up the ladder, putting his two friends to shame. “Hi there,” he greeted us. “That was fun.”
“This place is awesome,” I said. “I don’t think Eighellie liked the climb, though.”
Keegan looked at her with concern. “Come in and I’ll make some hot chocolate,” he said.
Eighellie leaned on his shoulder as he helped her inside, where we discovered that the interior of the treehouse was just as impressive as the outside. The door was made of a solid, tan-colored wood, and the room had been built in such a way that the trunk of the great tree stood right in its center. Keegan said that was the safe way to design the space, then started rattling on about advanced acorn defense systems.
“And another thing,” he said, not yet moving further into the room than the doorway.
Eighellie held up her hand. “Hot chocolate. Now, please, then you can keep bragging.”
“Oh, right,” said Keegan. He disappeared around the center of the tree trunk – yes, it was that wide – and yelled for us to follow. When we did so, we saw that there wasn’t any furniture, just a couple of old cushions thrown on the floor to sit on. Keegan explained that he had borrowed them from one of the storage areas in the Long Building.
“I’d need help to get anything else up here,” he said, eyeing us.
“I’ll help,” I said. “This is the coolest, most awesome thing I’ve ever seen.”
Keegan beamed.
Eighellie was more measured in her response, but with both of us looking at her expectantly, she was backed into a corner.
“Oh, alright, I’ll help too,” she said, rolling her eyes just to show she didn’t really approve. “But what if you get caught out here?” she asked. “This has to be way out of bounds. What if Fallgrabber finds it?”
“I have everything set to attack anyone who isn’t you two,” said Keegan proudly.
“Oh, good. Really good. That’s going to go super well for you,” she said.
Keegan shrugged. “I can’t stand Airlee and I want to be in the trees,” he said. “Besides, I figure that at some point there will be more Paranormal Strange on campus, and we’ll need a place to live. I want this to be that place. All the other dorms reflect the types. I mean, look at Cruor Dorm. It’s a haunted house in the middle of campus. They have owls and bats and fire birds. Astra has its own essence. We don’t know what the pixies have, because who wants to be bothered with them, but I’m sure they have something. Maybe their very own way to churn out dust.”
Eighellie looked like she was deep in thought, then she nodded. “You have a point, I guess.”
“Thank you,” said Keegan. “And it’s not like this place is easy to find. I know I’m not being followed. I think of it as a safe haven.” He handed each of us a steaming mug of hot chocolate that he’d prepared on a sort of heated kettle. The mugs were cracked, more products of his Long Building hunt.
“This place is great,” said Eighellie. She took a sip of hot chocolate and grinned. “And so is this hot chocolate.”
“It’s only the beginning,” Keegan assured us. “It’s only the beginning.”
Chapter Fifteen
Our next stop on the how much fate can we tempt in one night tour was the Long Building, where Eighellie had something to show us.
As she explained on the way, she hadn’t really had much time to do research into darkness mages, except to conclude that what she was attempting wasn’t working. She had therefore decided to try coming at it from a different angle, which was to find out where the darkness mages were now. She thought that from there she might be able to backtrack and eventually find out more about who had killed her parents.
“I know where Risper is, kind of, and I know where Lisabelle is, but aside from that family, where are the rest of the darkness mages? What happened to the ones who weren’t killed during the war? Are they still Nocturns? I don’t think so. I think Lisabelle kicked them all out. So, where are they now? That information should be easier to get than the other things I’ve tried to work on. Anyway, I wanted to show you the map,” she said.
We headed for her usual room in the Long Building, but Keegan had handled this visit a little differently from his usual questioning, skeptical attitude. He spent the walk through the corridor peering at furniture.
“What are you doing?” Eighellie demanded.
“Exactly what it looks like,” he said. “I’m shopping.” Eighellie scoffed in frustration.
When we reached the room she used for her researches, she held something out to us and said, “Here’s the map of current darkness mages.”
At first I didn’t see what she was talking about. Then I did.
“They’re all clustered around Sunken Vallen,” I murmured. Sunken Vallen was a place that had belonged to paranormals – like, it was their own town – before the Nocturn War. Darkness had come and obliterated it, making it almost the first place to go. Until Eighellie told me darkness mages were living there, I would have said that nothing remained of Sunken Vallen but charred earth.
“And now they’re all still there?” I said. “How do you know?”
“That’s where their property records are,” Eighellie explained. “Property records are one kind of document that’s public, which is partly why I decided to start with them. I did some research over break and just wrote down addresses, but I didn’t have a chance to plot them on a map until now . . . that whole going to college and doing homework thing.”
I nodded, staring at the map. The dots were virtually in a circle.
“Do you think they’re planning something?” I mused.
Eighellie’s face was clouded. “Not that they could wreak any more destruction than they already have, but yeah, I think they’re planning something. At the very least, they’re forming a band and looking after each other.”
“That’s what all the other paranormal types have done. Why shouldn’t they do it as well?” said Keegan.
“Do you think we’ll know what their plan is any time soon?” I said.
“I sure hope so,” Eighellie said, her voice very cold. “In fact, I’ll be very disappointed if we don’t.”
We were careless when we left the Long Building that night. It had been so long since we’d seen Fallgrabber that we didn’t really expect to run into him; usually, moving across campus at night was easy. Vampires were out, but they didn’t tend to go near the Long Building. I had a vague suspicion that Dobrov had warned them away.
So when we walked outside and almost
instantly a bright light shone in our eyes, we were taken by surprise. “What do you think you’re doing?” the woman’s voice asked. Inwardly I groaned.
Professor Heather stepped out from behind the light, her eyes glittering dangerously. The fact that she was petite and pretty totally belied the other fact that she was as mean as a fire whip.
“We were just out for a walk,” I said. We were far enough away from the Long Building that she might not suspect we had gone there. The doors were technically supposed to be locked, after all, but in Eighellie’s quest to become a world class assassin she had fixed that little problem. Hopefully Professor Heather wouldn’t find out.
“At night? You aren’t supposed to be out walking at night,” she hissed. The lantern in her hand swung dangerously.
“We needed fresh air,” said Eighellie. “We didn’t mean any harm. We’re going to study right now.”
“Oh no you aren’t,” cried Professor Heather. “I’m taking you to Fallgrabber.”
“Shouldn’t you take us to President Valedication?” Keegan said.
She smiled coldly. “Fallgrabber is the protocols enforcement officer. You have broken protocol. I’ll take you to him. Now follow me.”
The three of us did as we were told, but once she had turned her back on us and started marching, we exchanged worried looks.
“It was almost as if she was waiting for us,” whispered Eighellie.
“She was waiting for something and caught us. We shouldn’t have been so careless,” I said, thinking about how we had just been strolling in the open as if nothing bad had ever happened before.
“I have an idea,” said Keegan.
“What?”
“Let’s make a break for it,” he whispered.
“Um, no way,” said Eighellie. “Do you want that bat crazy woman chasing after us? I think not.”
“You have a point there,” he said.
“I dream of the day when you accept that I almost always have a point,” she said.
“At least you said almost,” said Keegan.
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