by Amy C. Blake
The director jabbed his finger under Levi’s nose. “We were looking for you. What made you think you could leave the infirmary and wander at will in the middle of the night?”
Oops. “I’m sorry.” Levi tried to free his arm from the doctor’s vice-grip. He looked at the director. “You said I could visit the library whenever I wanted.” He indicated the dropped book beside his chair and the flashlight still rolling across the floor. “I couldn’t sleep, so I came to find something to read.”
The doctor’s face went from red to purple. Levi cringed. He was about to get yelled at.
Thankfully, the director shook his head at Dr. Baldwin. “Levi,” he said in a soft tone that didn’t quite hide his anger, “you know danger lurks, do you not? We talked about that not long ago.” His voice rose a notch. “You are more aware of the dangers in Terracaelum than almost any other camper here.”
Dr. Baldwin shot the director a sharp look, but Mr. Dominic didn’t take his eyes from Levi’s. “You should’ve known better than to sneak off in the night. We’re responsible for your safety.”
“I’m sorry,” Levi said to his bare feet. “I meant to borrow a book and take it back to the infirmary with me, but I must’ve fallen asleep.” He glanced up at the director. “And, sir? I thought the danger was outside the castle, not inside.” He searched the man’s face. “I thought I’d be safe in here.”
Sighing as though weary, Mr. Dominic led Levi to the chair he’d vacated moments before. He gestured for Levi to sit and crossed to a nearby chair then turned to Dr. Baldwin. “Asa, please tell Aubrey and Cadmus we’ve found him. You may all return to your usual tasks. I’ll deliver this young man to the infirmary myself in a short while.”
The doctor turned another disapproving glare on Levi, nodded to the director, and swept out, banging the door shut behind him.
“It appears you need more information again.” Mr. Dominic’s grayish skin and tired eyes dribbled guilt into Levi’s stomach. “As you may have noticed, Mr. Sylvester and I have been required to leave the castle several times lately. We’ve had to deal with some difficulties with Deceptor.”
Levi shivered at the name.
Mr. Dominic scrubbed both hands over his face, whiskers crackling in the quiet room, then set his hands in his lap. “I’ll spare you the details. It all comes down to this: we suspect a member of our staff may not be as loyal as we’d hoped.”
Levi’s mind reeled. Was Mr. Dominic saying what he thought?
That there was a spy in the castle?
Chapter 23
A Spy
Levi’s throat burned more from fear than sickness. The only reason he hadn’t been scared to death in the weeks he’d known about the threat was because he thought they were all safe within the castle grounds. “Who is it?” His fingers knotted together. “Who’s the traitor?”
“We don’t know. We’re on the watch for suspicious activity, but so far . . .” Mr. Dominic closed his eyes a moment. “It’s hard for my wife and me to imagine anyone we’ve trusted all these years betraying us.”
Levi nodded. He couldn’t imagine it either. Not that he could imagine ruling a bunch of nonhumans either. Maybe they had a different concept of loyalty.
Mr. Dominic drew in a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. “Thankfully, Deceptor is still held by the same law governing the castle’s inhabitants: no one may enter without Mrs. Dominic or me admitting them.” He gave Levi’s knee a quick pat. “That means he can’t come in, but until we find out who his spy is, you must not wander around the castle after hours. You must be on guard.”
This was it . . . his opportunity to ask the question he and Trevor had gone round and round about. But should he ask? The poor man looked exhausted, and Levi hadn’t helped by disappearing this morning. Finally, he said, “Who’s he after? I know it’s one of the girls—Monica, Lizzie, Sara, or Ashley. But which one? And why?”
Mr. Dominic’s mouth formed a small circle. “How did you—” He closed his mouth and shook his head. “Levi, you’ve heard people say walls have ears.” He let out a heavy sigh. “I can’t answer your questions right now. Just . . . stick close to your friends. Please.”
Levi scanned the room, half-expecting to see eyeballs peering at him from between the books. Of course he saw nothing. Though more questions flooded his mind, the weariness and pain in the director’s eyes kept him quiet. Instead, he said, “I’ll try,” and followed Mr. Dominic back to the infirmary.
Mr. Dominic paused outside the door. “Goodbye, young man. Stay in bed today and recuperate. No more wandering.”
“Yes, sir.” Levi’s hand rested on the doorknob. “Can I ask you something else?”
The director’s lips twitched in a half-smile, his eyes brighter. “It certainly seems that you can; however, you may ask me a question as well.”
Though his ears heated, Levi smirked at the director’s little joke. “I’ve been wondering about something your wife said, something about me being like my namesake.”
Mr. Dominic inspected Levi’s face until Levi thought he’d die of embarrassment. With a nod, the director said, “She’s right. At first I wasn’t so sure, but now I think you may be very like him.”
“How can you say that?” Levi tossed his hands. “I’m named for my Papa Levi. He died when my dad was a kid.”
The director smiled. “Your Papa Levi was my best friend. We met here at Camp Classic when we were your age.”
Levi spent the rest of the day in the infirmary. In his mind, he went over and over the director’s statement that he’d attended camp with Papa Levi, but he couldn’t make everything fit together. Mr. Dominic was old, yeah, but he couldn’t possibly be that old. Maybe Levi had misunderstood. Or maybe the director had gotten confused. After all, it didn’t look like he’d gotten much sleep lately.
Levi finally forced the whole thing from his mind, chalking it up to a misunderstanding. Throughout the day, Dr. Baldwin, who appeared to have forgiven him for sneaking out, gave him cups of tea and chicken noodle soup, and the two spent several hours playing chess. Dr. Baldwin gave him pointer after pointer. He insisted that Levi watch the whole board and think ahead to his opponent’s next several moves, all while plotting his own future moves and paying attention to the current move. It made Levi’s brain ache.
“Your mind has to be everywhere at once.” Dr. Baldwin gave the board several sharp taps with his hairy forefinger. “There’s no room for laziness in games of strategy. You’d do well to learn that in a safe game like this one. In others, like fencing, for instance, you can lose your head if you don’t stay constantly aware.” The doctor eyed him meaningfully.
Levi cringed. Had the doctor noticed how pathetic he was with the sword?
Determined to improve at chess at least, he focused on the game and tried to obey the doctor’s instructions. By the middle of the second match (he lost the first), the light faded from the room. Levi glanced toward the window. Dusk was falling.
He peeked over at his opponent, who was studying the board. The dim lighting made his swarthy features appear even darker. The doctor’s wild eyebrows formed a black slash, and his thick thatch of gray-streaked hair melded with his wild gray beard, almost covering his odd-shaped ears. Beetle-black eyes darted up and pinned Levi.
Levi drew back, suddenly very aware that this creature could not be human. How had Levi allowed this . . . whatever he was . . . to doctor him? His eyes flew to the doctor’s mouth. Thick, flat teeth gnawed his lower lips.
But night was coming soon. What if the full moon grew those teeth into fangs?
Bile burned the back of Levi’s throat. He coughed.
Dr. Baldwin’s eyes shifted to the window. He clicked on the battery-operated lantern on the nightstand, and the lighter room normalized his features. “Getting dark,” he said in a casual tone.
Levi watched his every move, ready to bolt.
“It must be about time for your supper tray to arrive.” The doctor touched a cool palm
to Levi’s brow. Levi managed not to flinch. “I’m afraid I’ve kept you playing too long. You look pale. Why don’t you rest until time to eat?” The doctor gathered the chess pieces.
Levi shifted on his pillow and watched the doctor pack away the game.
“You’re a dwarf, right?” Please say yes, please say you’re not a werewolf. Hold on, what if the stories were wrong? What if dwarves were worse than werewolves? Levi gnawed the inside of his cheek. Why had he asked that question? He should’ve made a break for the door while he could. Because if the fangs came out now, while Levi was alone and weak, he was done for.
The corners of Dr. Baldwin’s eyes crinkled into a smile. “I am. And you’re a human, correct?”
Levi nodded, his irrational terror slipping away in a goofy giggle. “Touché, sir.”
“Touché, indeed.”
After a good supper and a solid night’s sleep, Levi was deemed healthy enough to return to his regular activities. In their room, Trevor, who’d supplied the doctor with Levi’s clothes for his time in the sickroom, waited for a report. He’d been worried ever since Mr. Sylvester and Mr. Austin had burst into the boys’ room the morning before and awakened everyone in their frantic search for Levi.
Levi filled Trevor in, careful to keep his voice low so the others wouldn’t overhear. He and Trevor had a long whispered discussion about Mr. Dominic’s relationship with Papa Levi, but Trevor didn’t know what to make of it either. They finally decided it was all a big misunderstanding, because the director couldn’t possibly have been boyhood friends with Levi’s great-great-grandpa.
Then Trevor filled Levi in on the classwork he’d missed and told him all the camp scuttlebutt. Levi was thrilled to hear Martin and Greg had gotten in trouble for cheating on a Latin test, but he wasn’t happy to learn their canoeing lessons had been suspended for an unspecified time.
“I wonder if that’s because of what Mr. Dominic told you,” Trevor said quietly from his spot at the foot of Levi’s bed. “You know, about the traitor in our midst.”
Levi smiled at his friend’s melodramatic word choice but soon sobered as he realized Trevor was probably right. “Think they’ll cancel this week’s camping trip, too?”
Trevor shrugged. “Don’t know.” He released a yawn so huge his jaw popped. “May not be so bad if they do. I’m getting a little tired of sleeping on the ground. I don’t rest well.”
Levi laughed, thinking of his friend’s loud snoring—snoring that hadn’t lessened on any of their camping trips. “We wouldn’t want poor, itty bitty Twevy to miss his beauty rest.”
Trevor elbowed him. “You’d better be glad you’re still recovering, or I’d have to beat you up for that one.”
“Yeah, right. I’m shaking.”
Levi closed his eyes moments after sunrise the next morning, the first day of August. He’d been bothered by strange dreams all night and was hoping to fall back to sleep a little longer. His mom had always told him dreams were important. She said some were the product of too much pizza and chocolate ice cream, but others were the subconscious mind’s way of communicating some fact to the conscious mind—some important link it had missed. With a weary sigh, Levi forced himself to revisit his dreams before dropping back into slumber.
They had been filled with chaotic, swirling visions of elves and fire-breathing dragons, Latin verbs and banshees, swords and wooden horses. In his mind, he ran to the castle library searching book after book for some answer, while Ashley ran screaming through his brain waving maps of foreign worlds. All that was weird enough, but Hunter kept appearing in every disjointed segment, cackling as he shot arrows at Sara and chased Monica with a sword. Then Hunter set a bound Lizzie adrift in a canoe, mere yards from a waterfall that dropped off the edge of the earth.
Levi’s eyes flew open. Hunter?
Could Hunter be Deceptor’s spy inside the castle? Cruel, haughty Hunter who somehow seemed to recognize Levi’s name that first day of camp.
Wait! He sat up straight in bed. Could Hunter himself be Deceptor? The sorcerer could change his appearance, after all. What better plan than to become one of the campers? Then the rulers of Terracaelum would admit him to the castle without question.
And Deceptor would have the invitation he needed to get to his target.
Chapter 24
The Dream
Convinced his dreams had revealed the true culprit, Levi stumbled from his bed to Trevor’s and pounded on his friend’s arm.
“Hmph?” Trevor opened one eye, pillow creases on his cheek. “What time is it? Get off me!”
“Shhh!” Levi stopped pounding. “I’ve got to talk to you. It’s important.”
Trevor sat up, and Levi glanced around. Steve mumbled something in his sleep, rolled toward the wall, and resumed snoring. Tommy didn’t budge.
“What do you want?” Trevor rubbed his arm.
“It’s Hunter.”
“What about him?”
“It’s him. Hunter is Deceptor.”
Trevor stared at Levi, one eyebrow raised. “You’ve been dreaming.”
Levi kneaded his knuckles into his thighs. “Well, yeah, but it’s not like you think. Remember? Mr. Dominic said Deceptor could change forms. He took the shape of a camper so he could get into the castle.”
Trevor rolled his eyes. “Just because Hunter’s a bully doesn’t make him a demon.”
“No, but why else would he act like such a creep?”
“Hmmm. I don’t know. Maybe because he is a creep?” He snorted. “Besides, I’ve never even seen him talking to any of the girls. He mostly picks on you, Steve, Luke, and a couple others.” Trevor’s eyes slid from Levi’s.
Levi’s ears sizzled at what Trevor had so kindly left unsaid. Levi, Steve, Luke . . . the weaklings. He added a dose of sarcasm to his words. “Well yeah, he wouldn’t be so obvious about it. He’s trying to be sneaky. He’s not gonna let on he’s after one girl by targeting her. He’s gonna be mean to everybody but her.”
Trevor screwed up his face. “Maybe.”
Levi thumped the mattress with his fist. “Definitely.”
“Okay, let’s think this through.” Trevor slumped against the headboard as if he could easily fall back to sleep. “If you’re right, then that means Deceptor is already inside the castle.” Awareness of what he’d just said pulled Trevor out of his slouch.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
“But if he’s already in the castle, it’ll be really easy for him to get to the girls.” Fear erased the last traces of sleepiness from Trevor’s eyes. “Like with the fire when we were camping.”
“Exactly.” Levi’s pulse pounded in his temples.
“Then we have to tell Mr. Dominic.” Trevor pushed back his covers, swung his feet from the bed. “He thinks one of the staff is the spy. We’ve got to set him straight.”
Levi froze. Wait, whoa. “Tell Mr. Dominic?” What if he was wrong? He huffed under his breath. He couldn’t be wrong, though. His gaze drifted to the window. But what proof could he offer? A dream? The fact that Hunter was really, really mean? A gut feeling? Levi had already caused enough problems sneaking out of the infirmary. Why would Mr. Dominic believe him on such flimsy evidence? At the least, he’d say Levi’s conclusion was illogical. “Uh-uh. No.”
Trevor stared at him, one pajama-clad leg halfway in a pair of jeans. “Why not? Don’t you think he ought to know Deceptor’s in the castle?” His voice squeaked.
Levi shook his head. “It’s not time yet.” Not until he had proof. It was no small thing to tell the Prince of Terracaelum a shape-shifting demon sorcerer had sneaked into the castle under his very nose—disguised as a thirteen-year-old kid, of all things.
“You’re serious?” Trevor’s jeans crumpled to the floor. At first Levi thought he was going to argue, but then he heaved a sigh. “At least let’s tell Steve and Tommy so they can help us watch. I mean, we don’t even know which girl Hunter’s after. A couple more pairs of eyes would be useful.�
�
“I don’t know.” Levi peered at the whiffling lump that was Steve.
“Come on, man. Think. We need help. We can’t be everywhere at once.”
Levi’s gaze drifted to Tommy. “Maybe.”
“Great.” After a moment, Trevor leaned forward, his eyes intense. “I’ve been wondering something else. Why would a sorcerer from Terracaelum be interested in a senator’s daughter from Louisiana of all places? Or a missionary kid? Or a farmer’s daughter from Missouri? And Sara, she’s from northern Michigan. The other day she told me her dad’s in government. Maybe he’s some bigwig, but still . . . Michigan, how normal is that? It’s just, you’d think he’d be more interested in somebody from here, you know?”
Levi massaged his temples. “Well . . . if he’s working for Satan, then creating chaos is his job. Of course the devil wants to hurt missionaries so they can’t tell people about Jesus.” He sank onto the stepstool by Trevor’s bed, his sleepless night catching up to him. “Imagine the stink the Dominics would face if a senator’s daughter got hurt—or even killed—at their home. And Sara—if her daddy’s a government bigshot and something happens to her, Camp Classic could get shut down. As for Ashley? Well, I don’t know, but nobody wants to hear that a nice girl like her got hurt at camp.” He shook his head. “Think of what a big investigation could do to Terracaelum.”
“Good point.” Trevor snatched up his jeans, purpose hardening his jaw. “We need help.”
“Now what?” Trevor jerked his chin toward Albert, who shuffled cards on Tommy’s bed at nine that night. All four roommates had shown up for the talk Trevor wanted to have. Albert hadn’t been invited.
Tommy and Steve tossed questioning glances at Levi. Levi could only shrug and watch with rising irritation as Albert dealt four hands for Spades.
Trevor whispered to Levi, “Why not just tell them anyway? Albert could help. Besides, if he’s from here, he can back you up.”
Levi’s eyes darted to Trevor’s. He can back you up. Not he can back us up. Sometime in the course of the day, Trevor had begun to doubt. Levi’s shoulders sagged. Why shouldn’t Trevor doubt with only Levi’s word for everything? Albert had never even shown Trevor his ears.