The Trojan Horse Traitor

by Amy C. Blake

  Mr. Dominic’s lips twitched. “Your friends are fine. In fact, it was your roommates who burst into my suite late last night claiming Hunter had killed you. Apparently they searched the castle themselves before coming to me.” He shook his head. “Shame they didn’t come sooner or we could have found you before you had to spend the night alone and hurt.”

  “I’m glad they’re okay.” Levi let himself relax into the pillow. “It was all my idea anyway. They were just helping me.”

  “Well, everyone’s safe now, so we’ll let it go.” Rising, Mr. Dominic fixed Levi with a no-nonsense look. “Still, you leave Hunter alone from here on out.”

  Levi nodded. Okay, fine. So maybe Hunter wasn’t Deceptor. He was still a malicious creep.

  “Asa.” The director turned to the doctor. “Why don’t you give this young man something for his pain and let him sleep? He’s had an exhausting night.”

  Twenty minutes later, Levi lay beneath the cool sheets, his mind fuzzy from the medication. Soft voices outside the door, left open half an inch, filtered into the haze. He forced himself to focus.

  “You have to admit his deduction was a good one.” Levi knew the deep rumbling whisper belonged to the doctor.

  Mr. Dominic responded softly, “Yes. He couldn’t know we’d already set up safeguards against Deceptor posing as a camper.”

  “That he couldn’t.”

  Silence fell. Levi thought the men had finished their conversation, but the doctor’s low rumble came again. “Are you sure he’s not right? Maybe Deceptor found a way around your safeguards. What better person to use than Hunter? You know what his forebears were.”

  Another silence, then the director said, “Impossible. Put it from your mind, Asa.” Another pause. “But keep an eye on him just the same. And on young Leviticus Prince here. You know his forebear as well.”

  Chapter 26

  Pure Evil

  Levi returned to his room that evening to find his roommates and Albert in deep discussion. The instant he walked through the door, they swarmed him, all talking at once.

  “Where were you?”

  “What happened?”

  “Did Hunter kill you?”

  Levi answered every question, filling them in on all he’d learned from the doctor and the director. Once they were satisfied, he asked what happened to each of them. Steve told of Suzanne and Jacqueline luring him to a storage room, hitting him with a tennis racket, and locking him in. Tommy said Greg ambushed him behind the archery range and pounded on him awhile. It was Trevor’s report that made Levi’s blood ice over.

  “Martin tried to throw me off the roof,” Trevor said in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “What?”

  “Yep, I followed him to the northwest tower roof, and he tackled me. We were wrestling right by the edge when he gave me a shove. I caught hold of his arm, though, and popped him a hard right.” Trevor punched the air. “I didn’t wait around for him to hit me back.”

  “I don’t blame you.” Levi sank down on Tommy’s bed, shaking his head at what could have happened to Trevor. He could’ve been killed—murdered.

  No matter what Mr. Dominic said, Hunter and his friends were pure evil.

  “What in the world happened to you guys? You look like refugees from some war or something.” Sara slammed her breakfast tray onto the table, glaring at each boy in turn. “And you.” Her blue-green eyes pinned Levi. “Where were you this weekend? All of you missed practice Saturday. Levi hasn’t been at meals in forever. You even missed chapel.”

  She flopped down and stared at Levi, both brows raised.

  Before he could answer, Monica, Lizzie, and Ashley showed up and blasted them with questions of their own. The boys sat silently through the barrage. When the three girls ran out of air, they plopped down beside Sara, chests heaving.

  Once Levi thought it was safe to open his mouth without getting yelled at, he said, “Hunter and his thugs happened to us. They attacked us.” This got the girls’ attention. “Hunter shut me outside the castle, so I had to spend Saturday night down in camp.” He wasn’t about to mention Deceptor or Terracaelum.

  “Honey, he did not!”

  “That creep!”

  “He should be expelled!”

  Levi nodded, glad their anger had shifted from him to Hunter.

  Something like determination flicked across Sara’s face, making Levi nervous. “Well, what’re we going to do about it? It’s clear the jerks didn’t get in trouble.” She gestured toward Hunter and his buddies laughing at their table. “They should’ve gotten kicked out of camp.”

  Her words were loud enough that Hunter looked her way. He inclined his head in a mocking bow.

  Levi shot him what was supposed to be a menacing glare, but which probably wasn’t very effective given the state of his nose. With a scornful smile, Hunter turned back to his friends.

  Levi glared at Sara, sweeping his hand to include all the girls. “You aren’t going to do a thing.” He pointed from himself to the boys. “We can take care of it just fine.”

  “Obviously. You did such a marvelous job the last time.” Monica’s sarcastic tone wasn’t lost on Levi.

  Lizzie flipped her hair in Steve’s face as he took a bite of pancake. “That’s right, y’all. We little gals would just get in the way of you big, strong boys.” She batted her lashes.

  Trevor rolled his eyes. Steve picked strands of dark blonde hair from his syrupy teeth.

  Levi shifted in his seat. It was probably time to change the subject. “So how’s training?” he asked Ashley.

  She pursed her lips and looked away.

  “Fine.” Sara crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t let us help.”

  Levi inspected her angry face. Would she and the other girls stay out of it? His eyes slid to Hunter. The bully was talking quietly to Greg and Martin, whose cheek sported a bruise the size and shape of Trevor’s fist. Levi smiled at the sight.

  Then Hunter caught Levi’s eye and ran one finger across his throat.

  Levi swallowed hard. He had to make sure the girls stayed far away from Hunter.

  Chapter 27

  The Boss

  After supper that night, Trevor, Tommy, and Steve cornered Levi.

  “If you were the girls, wouldn’t it upset you to find out your friends knew you were in this strange world and hadn’t told them?” Steve’s cheeks reddened.

  “Not to mention if they knew some evil sorcerer was after you and didn’t bother to clue you in?” Tommy demanded.

  Trevor’s biceps bulged as he crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s time to tell them, Levi.”

  Eyes skipping between his roommates, Levi felt his blood pressure spike. After the way the girls reacted at lunch, he’d thought about telling them himself, but not now. Who did these guys think they were, ganging up on him?

  “It’s not the right time.” Levi swiveled away, stalked to his wardrobe. He yanked open the door and shifted his stuff around, his roommates’ glares burning holes in his back.

  “Not the right time?” Anger swelled Trevor’s voice, but Levi refused to look at him. “Who says you get to decide what the right time is?”

  “Yeah, we’re their friends too,” Steve snapped. “We’re all in this.”

  Levi snorted. It’s not like they’d been the ones to stop Deceptor from burning the girls alive in their tent. They hadn’t faced Hunter and gotten locked out of the castle, chased by some monster, and forced to survive alone for a night. It wasn’t them who’d figured out about Terracaelum.

  Someone gripped the back of his t-shirt, then wrenched him around and up.

  “Hey!” Levi raised both fists, toes scrabbling against the stone floor.

  “Hey, yourself!” Trevor’s face was inches from Levi’s. “I don’t know who you think you are, but last time I checked nobody died and made you king.”

  He released Levi, letting him stumble against the open wardrobe door.

  Without a word, Levi stomped into the b
athroom, refusing to rub his bruised back.

  Levi spent a lot of time on his own over the next few days. Since the girls acted snotty toward all the boys—not just him—Levi figured the other guys hadn’t told them anything despite their argument. Levi’s roommates wouldn’t even speak to him, except when Trevor whipped him at fencing and hollered, “I dethroned the king!”

  On top of that, every time Levi went anywhere near Hunter’s gang, they whispered threats. Levi learned to stay close to the teachers. Besides Hunter’s usual goody two-shoes routine around adults, the eyes of the staff were on Hunter more often than before. This fact told Levi the director believed his story over Hunter’s.

  One thing bothered Levi, and now he didn’t even have Trevor to discuss it with. If Hunter wasn’t Deceptor, as Mr. Dominic insisted, how did he know so much about the workings of this place? If he wasn’t aware they were in a different world, how did he know Levi couldn’t get back inside the castle when he shut Levi out? Was there any way Hunter had been to Terracaelum before? Levi didn’t see how since this was the first Camp Classic in, like, a hundred years. But Mr. Dominic and Dr. Baldwin had mentioned Hunter’s ancestors—was he descended from someone who’d lived here? Like Levi and his great-great-grandpa, Papa Levi? Not that he understood that either.

  Or was Levi right about Hunter after all? Was Hunter actually Deceptor, broken through the director’s defenses?

  Levi couldn’t be sure, not with Mr. Dominic and Trevor so certain that Hunter was just a camper, but Levi didn’t plan to give Hunter a chance to do more harm. Not if he could prevent it.

  That evening, he sat in his room talking to Albert, who, annoying as he could be, was one of the few people not angry with him.

  “Albert, fairies aren’t afraid of heights, are they?”

  Albert shot him a dirty look from his perch on Trevor’s bed. “I’m a pixie.”

  “Right, sorry.”

  “That’s a special class of fairies.”

  “Okay.” Touchy, touchy.

  “Why in tarnation would we be afraid of heights?”

  Levi shrugged. “I know dwarves don’t like heights, so I just wondered—”

  “Fairies like heights fine. Some of us can fly.” His small chest puffed out. “Pixies can fly.”

  “Wow.” Levi’s jaw dropped. “I thought that was just make-believe. Can you fly?”

  Albert’s chest deflated. “Nah. Not old enough yet.”

  “You have to be a certain age to fly?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be two hundred and sixty-seven soon.” Albert shrugged. “Should be flying any year now. You oughta see my dad fly.” A wistful look crossed his beardless face. “I can’t wait.”

  “I can imagine,” said Levi, trying not to sound dumbfounded. “So what about elves? Do they fly?”

  “Nah, but they’re not scared of heights neither.” Albert waved a stubby hand at the high ceiling. “Elves like it bright and airy. That’s why they don’t mind babysitting you guys way up here.”

  Choosing not to comment on the babysitting line, Levi cocked his chin toward the open window. “What other creatures are out there?”

  “All kinds.” Albert’s lower lip jutted. “There’s some nice dragons over near the mountains yonder—some not-so-nice ones too, mind you. Gotta be careful you get the right kind or they’ll roast you and eat you for lunch. All depends on how they’re raised, ya know.”

  Seriously? Levi studied Albert, who plucked at his lip without a hint of teasing in his eyes.

  “’Course, there’s lots more elves and dwarves and fairies. Pixies too. I got some kin out west.” Albert waved a hand toward the left. “A pair of harpies live over near the eastern edge of Terracaelum. You gotta watch them, they’ll steal the food right out of your hands. There’s some centaurs and minotaurs in the deeper pockets of the forest. A colony of leprechauns too. Tricky little buggars, them leprechauns.”

  Albert paused, chin puckered. “What else? Oh, there’s a few griffins and a sphinx further out. Some real nasty creatures, too. A few hags and werewolves. Even a basilisk or two in the tunnels under the mountains.” A shudder rocked his small shoulders. “I don’t like them basilisks. The tunnels neither for that matter.” His bony thumb poked into his chest. “I like fresh air and sunlight. Keeps the nasty creatures away. They can’t stand the light.”

  Basilisks, hags, minotaurs, harpies, werewolves. Levi’s troubled gaze drifted to the window as a welcome breeze touched his hair. His eyes strained to penetrate the dark patches of the forest. He wasn’t so sure he liked Terracaelum. “That’s why I’m trying to keep the girls out of all this,” he said softly. “There’s too much danger and darkness out there. They don’t need to get caught up in it.”

  Albert moved over and leaned against the foot of Levi’s bed. “That really why you don’t wanna tell ’em?”

  Levi frowned. Not Albert too.

  “I ain’t pickin’ on you, so don’t get mad at me.” Albert raised both hands. “It’s just, what with being the oldest at home and all, I think you’re used to being the boss. My big brother Andrew’s just the same.” One knobby shoulder lifted. “You was pretty hard on me and the boys earlier this summer. I know you been trying to do better, but old habits die hard.”

  Levi stared down at his knotted fingers.

  “Can’t help wondering,” the pixie said quietly, “if you’d have told the girls everything by now if it’d been your own idea? I mean, if the boys hadn’t brought it up first.”

  Heat climbed from Levi’s neck to the tips of his ears.

  Albert shrugged. “Won’t hurt none to think on it.”

  A few days later, after Levi and Sara beat Ashley and Lizzie in a canoe race, he and Sara dragged their boat up out of the water and turned it upside down. Sara returned to the river to give Ashley and Lizzie tips on their technique while Levi sat down near the trees.

  The others still weren’t exactly friendly to him, but at least they’d put their anger aside long enough to practice. As Levi watched, Trevor and Tommy’s canoe sped around a bend in the river. Miss Nydia hurried that direction, shading her eyes as she peered after them. Levi gave his head a little shake. It must be tough on her to keep track of everybody. At least the director had given permission for them to practice again as long as they stayed with an adult.

  With a sigh, Levi lay back in the soft grass, eyes closed against the sunlight. Time passed in a haze.

  “Get her now,” a low voice hissed.

  Levi’s eyes popped open. Without moving his head, he scanned the nearby area. He didn’t see anyone, but a heavy cloud had drifted before the sun, shrouding the world in shadows.

  “I can’t,” whispered a voice so soft Levi couldn’t tell whether it belonged to a male or female. “Too many are with her.”

  The girls! Levi sat up straight, eyes darting to the river where his friends still practiced, oblivious to the voices.

  “Do it,” the hissing voice commanded.

  Levi jumped to his feet. It must be Hunter! He really was Deceptor, and he’d just issued an order to one of his thugs. Levi had to get help. He needed to find Miss Nydia. He opened his mouth to holler for the chaperone.

  “Nydia,” someone else yelled before he could.

  Levi spun around as Miss Althea emerged from the trees, face red and eyes blazing. He ran toward her to warn her of the danger. But she barreled right past him. He drew up short and stared after her.

  Fists on her hips, Miss Althea halted in front of Miss Nydia just outside the tree line near the bend in the river.

  “Where have you been?” The pixie woman’s angry words carried easily to Levi.

  The color drained from Miss Nydia’s already-pale face. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I came out here to give you a message and you were nowhere in sight.” Miss Althea clearly had the upper hand over the cowering Miss Nydia, even though the pixie’s head was barely level with the elf’s thighs.

  “You’re supposed to be wat
ching out for these kids.” Miss Althea’s glare flicked to Levi. She lowered her voice. “A storm’s brewing.”

  “I was about to call them in.” Miss Nydia’s eyes were bright with unshed tears.

  “Well, do it then.” Miss Althea grasped the other woman’s wrist. “I’ll help you get them back to the castle.”

  Moments later, Levi and Sara double-timed it down the path after the others.

  “What’s the deal with Miss Nydia and Miss Althea?” Levi looked at Sara. “Miss Althea seemed really mad.”

  “I don’t know.” Sara’s eyes widened. “They’ve always been nice to me and the other girls, but it seems like Miss Althea is always snapping at Miss Nydia over one thing or another.”

  Before Levi could respond, a low hiss seeped from the bushes they’d just passed. Levi’s mind jumped to the voices he’d heard near the river, voices he had forgotten to mention to the adults because they’d been in such a hurry. Now everyone else was far ahead of him and Sara.

  “What was that?” Sara breathed.

  Levi grabbed her hand. “I don’t know.” He put himself between Sara and the source of the noise even as a faint whisper in his brain asked if he was insane.

  The hissing came again, this time accompanied by a low growl. Sara’s nails dug into Levi’s hand.

  “Run!”

  Sara ran. Levi sprinted a step behind, not releasing her hand. She tripped over a fallen branch. He yanked her up and dragged her on. He couldn’t hear any sounds of pursuit, but then his breathing was really loud.

  When they burst from the forest into the castle clearing, Sara bent double, hands on her knees. Levi sucked in great gulps of air as his eyes scanned the trees. He didn’t see anything unusual.

  “Anybody there?” His voice wobbled.

  No answer, not even a growl. Maybe it was a bobcat or a mountain lion, some creature that wouldn’t dare come into the open. Anything but a demon sorcerer.

  “Must be gone.” Sara tugged his hand. “Come on. Let’s catch up with the others.”