The Raven’s eyes widened. A frisson traveled over his body. It reminded Rachel of a cat’s fur puffing up. She was still laughing when she awoke.
• • •
Opening her eyes, Rachel found herself lying on the table in Room 321. Joy was off to one side, looking both embarrassed and extremely amused. Zoë stood, arms crossed, glaring at Gaius, looking anything but amused. Gaius looked sheepish. (Rammish, thought Rachel.).
When her eyes opened, Gaius rushed to her side. “Listen, I won’t tell anyone. I trust you. I apologize for my doubts.”
Zoë, who was standing very tall and glaring, relaxed a bit.
Rachel sat up. “Gaius, were we arguing about whether you could tell Vlad the contents of…my conversation with Vlad?”
Gaius blinked. “Um…”
“Well, this was great, but I have to be leaving,” said Zoë, “and so does Joy.”
“I don’t have to go anyw—ack!” cried Joy.
Zoë dragged her from the room.
Rachel slipped from the table, a tiny seedling of joy battling through the crusted, half-melted ice that had recently encased her heart. At last, Gaius knew her secret. Now they were alone. She could finally tell somebody about the Elf and the Raven. She could barely speak from the anticipation.
Gaius stood looking at her thoughtfully. “I would prefer if you didn’t spy on me. I understand some of the information you have gained has been extremely helpful. But I think I do have some right to privacy, don’t I?”
The happiness inside Rachel wilted.
Was he still talking about this? She stood there for an uncomfortably long time, feeling totally baffled and uncertain of what to say.
“I-I don’t know how to do that…I don’t really have any control over what I find out.”
It was not that she did not feel sympathy for him. She did, very much so. If she were in his position, she would probably be upset, too. If only she had just picked the scene to show him more wisely
“I’m sorry, I may have jumped to a conclusion,” he said. “If you have no control over the avenue that this information is delivered through, then of course I can’t ask you to stop it.”
“Do you want me to protect you and try to hide your secrets?…I-I can do that.” Rachel stared at some really interesting floor tiles. “Do you want me not to tell you when I find out things about you…I could do that, too.”
“If you can honestly say ‘Gaius, you have no right to privacy’ then, fine,” he continued, as if he had not heard her. Perhaps, he had not. “I will shut up about it. I do think, though, that I have some right. Dread would say none of us do. That the world is more important than privacy. But I am pretty sure you’ve learned nothing that could save the world from spying on me.”
Rachel swayed, as if someone had slapped her. She had waited so long to share her innermost secret with him. She had so hoped that he would be pleased with her cleverness and her unique gift. How sad that, after all that waiting, his only reaction was to browbeat her over something for which she had already apologized.
She wanted to tell him that, of course, she would never betray him. He was the most important thing in her life! But the darkness and the buzzing had returned. She feared she might lose consciousness. Her face remained calm, but she failed to control the expression in her eyes. She gazed at him like an injured animal who was trying to crawl back to the master that had beaten it.
“I’ll try to protect you, Gaius. I-if I can keep someone from spying on you, I will,” she struggled to speak clearly. Holding up her hand, she promised softly. “So swears Griffin.”
Despite her distress, she was struck by the irony of her promise. Considering how boring Sigfried would find the idea of using his amulet to watch Rachel’s boyfriend, it was unlikely that she could have talked Siggy into spying on Gaius, even had she wished to.
“Thank you. I appreciate that.” He rubbed his eyes. Then, he glanced at Rachel. “Um. Are you all right? You’re looking very pale.”
Suddenly, he was beside her, pulling her into his arms. Rachel swayed against him like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Placing her palm on his chest, she closed her eyes. Within the circle of his embrace, the buzzing and the darkness slowly died away. Tension seeped from her body. The knots in her stomach untied themselves. She rested, letting him rock her back and forth as he kissed her forehead repeatedly, whispering over and over, “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
Opening her eyes again, she lifted her head, her lashes half-closed and her lips slightly parted, to see if he would kiss her. He did, a very light and soft kiss.
Relief came, but with it a wave of nausea, the kind that occasionally followed moments of high adrenaline. “I…I don’t feel too good. Could…we sit down?”
Gaius helped her to a chair and ran into the hall, coming back with a cup of water from a water dispenser in another club room. Rachel sipped the water and gave him a thankful smile.
“I didn’t mean to embarrass you, Gaius. I’m really sorry.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you, either. It was just a lot to take in all at once.” He leaned against the table beside her. “That whole situation with the Spell of True Recitation was awkward. I didn’t like feeling like I couldn’t control my responses. It was…unnerving. And then finding out someone else saw it…”
“I was so impressed with you,” Rachel blushed slightly, “and relieved that you didn’t say: ‘I work for Professor Mordeau, and I’ve been sent to seduce Rachel Griffin to try and influence her Agent father.’ It never occurred to me you might be embarrassed.
“I told Vlad what you had said about him because I couldn’t think of any other way to get you back into his good graces. I figured if he knew how you supported him, even when you couldn’t lie, he would realize what a good fellow you were. I was trying to help.”
“I know,” Gaius nodded, “and I rather appreciate not being a sheep. Really. I just wish I could have avoided it all together, you know, by beating him instead of losing. Or I would have settled for a tie…” He chuckled, adding, “That fight ruined my record. I had been undefeated.”
“Aw! Oh no!” Rachel cried, crushed on his behalf. Then she looked down shyly, biting at her lip. “So…did you like my secret? Or were you so embarrassed that all your blood rushed to your face, and none was left for your brain?”
“Impressed? Yes! A hundred times yes! I was impressed by all of it. I wish we could have stayed. I’d like to see more.”
“I wouldn’t mind having you come back into my dreams again…but not today.” She was quiet a moment, savoring his admiration, even if it was belated. “You can even tell Vlad my secret. Topher figured it out.”
“How in the world did Evans figure out your secret? Wait, was it during that first Knights meeting? You gave a report, and, forgive my weak memory, but I thought it was very…in depth. An unusual attention to detail, though most people probably thought you were showing off for Dread or Starkadder. But even I had no idea about what you could really do.”
“Dread or Starkadder!” Rachel snorted. “The only person I wanted to impress was you.”
“I’ve never been unimpressed with you.”
Rachel rose and picked up her broom. She reached for his hand. “Come on. It’s time for me to tell you the Big Secret.”
• • •
They flew up to the belfry where they had spoken the day she came back from Beaumont. Sitting on the marble steps, the twilight sky growing darker by the minute outside the windows, Rachel told him everything: about the Elf; about her gift of the Rune from the World Tree that protected her memory; about how she was now immune to the Spell of True Recitation and to geases; about the Raven; how he had been forced to change Sakura and to erase her friend’s memories—emphasizing that this was the part that he absolutely must keep secret; how doing this to her would have harmed her; how she volunteered to let him change her for the sake of the world; and how he had been so impressed by her devotion that he had spared
her.
It was such a relief to finally tell someone all the things she had been bundling inside, but as she recalled recent events, sorrow mixed with her joy.
“So, just to make sure I understand exactly what I can and can’t say, the secret is: that this Raven can come and knock us out and change our…souls? What were those glowing balls he pulled from their bodies?” Gaius knocked on his chest. “Do we all have one of those? I’ve never even heard a story about such a thing?
“Anyway,” he concluded, “We’re not supposed to mention that we have such things or that he can change them, right?”
Rachel nodded, “Right.”
“And that’s why he had not wanted your Elf friend to give you the Memory-Protecting Rune, right? Because then, he couldn’t just change your memory…without taking that away, which probably would have been a major operation—changing who you were.”
“Right,” Rachel nodded again.
“I’d love to meet this woman. The Elf.”
She had not told him.
Oh, Gaius,” her voice broke—only for an instant. Then she had her mask back in place. “The bull-demon. He killed my Elf.”
“He…what?” Gaius blinked.
That all came spilling out, too, how she and her friends had caused the Elf’s death by talking too much. The only thing she did not say was that she had just seen Illondria again. The recent events in dreamland seemed too raw to share.
“Rachel, I am so sorry for the loss of your Elf,” Gaius spoke sincerely. “I had no clue she even existed. The loss of that avenue of information is painful for me to consider. The method of her loss even more so. But that was not your fault. You know that, right?”
Rachel nodded, but she bit her lip.
“Listen, I know this may sound wrong,” Gaius said earnestly, “but you need to keep as quiet as possible about the Elf and what happened to her. Don’t let a guilty conscience hamstring your future efforts. You do not want our enemies whispering about how trusting you with information can lead to someone’s painful, fiery demise. I do not mean to be harsh, but I do need to be blunt. That woman should have been protected, but, instead, she was murdered. Best to let that whole affair disappear from history. We will avenge her death. I promise.”
“The worst part is that she knew,” Rachel whispered. “She knew if she talked to more than three of us that she would die. Yet she still spoke to Joy and called Zoë to her. She was so brave.”
To her horror, her eyes brimmed with tears. She quickly brushed them away.
Gaius pulled her into his arms again and hugged her tight. Rachel leaned against him, her face stolid and set, trying not to cry. But it was no good. The tears she had been resisting for over a week began flowing over her lashes.
She lowered her head and hid her face against his chest, weeping.
He whispered, “It is okay to be upset about this loss, but you should also be happy that she thought you all worthy of sacrificing herself for. I…honestly do not know how someone can place so much trust in strangers. I know that it was well placed, though.”
Rachel started to straighten up, but Gaius’s brave words made her wail again. She cried against his shoulder, her body shaking.
Yet, she was also terrified. If she showed emotional weakness, her boyfriend would lose interest in her. The moment she could regain control of herself, she straightened and gave him a curt nod to show she was okay.
Gaius did not say anything. He just held her and kissed her on the cheek, close to her ear. A sweet tingly sensation spread through her body. That made her smile.
“She was older than language,” Rachel marveled when she felt she could speak again. She sniffled slightly. “And she gave up that life to help us. The Raven tried to warn her. He wanted to protect her. She didn’t listen.”
Rachel stopped talking because it suddenly struck her how much she and her Elf were alike—not listening to those who told them to be careful, doing what they thought was right. It made her love Illondria all the more.
“If it is too painful, you do not need to consider it,” said Gaius, “but I was hoping you would show me the times you met her. The way you showed me the Raven and the statue?”
“I would love to!” Rachel said. “Oh, do you know what she told me!”
Rachel told Gaius about the Library of All Worlds, repeating the words that Illondria had said to her: I see you, years from now, in a place of great knowledge. A library such as no other that has ever existed. And happy, with these things far behind you. Do not falter, I think your victory is assured. Though achieving it will be great work.
Then she held very still waiting for his reaction.
Gaius gazed at her, utterly fascinated. He began asking questions about libraries and information retrieval systems. He wanted to know if, when she created her library, she could make some areas that allowed for magical properties of texts and others that used mundane technology. He seemed very, very excited, explaining that he finally saw some hope that his desires to be both a scientist and to be a sorcerer might not be mutually exclusive after all.
They talked about the Library of All Worlds for over an hour. The world outside grew dark with only a few faint stars twinkling in the otherwise overcast sky.
“So this Rune of yours,” Gaius asked when their conversation had come to a pause, “it lets you remember changes made to the world, right? Kind of like being able to see through obscurations—if you were an Unwary. Only you can’t be tricked by the Metaplutonian equivalent of an obscuration, right.”
Rachel blinked at the thought. “It rather is like that. Yes.”
“Great!” He looked relieved. “Then all scientific pursuit is not futile. If they can’t make you forget, then we still have at least a seventeen percent chance of figuring things out after all.”
Rachel lowered her lashes demurely, pleased. “I am glad to be of use.”
“You bet! Now if we could only figure out where this demon’s…Hey!” Gaius straightened. “These visions the princess has, can they be induced? Can she ask for one? Ask where this mysterious ‘place of power’ is?”
“I don’t know.” Rachel pulled out her calling card. “Let’s find out.”
Chapter Thirty-Two:
Banished Knight
“So, you showed all this to the dean already?” Zoë asked Nastasia, gesturing at the dreamland around them. Her tiger-spotted quoll sat on her shoulder, looking around curiously with its black, bead-like eyes. “But she didn’t recognize it, eh?”
Zoë, Nastasia, Rachel, Gaius, Joy, Valerie, Sigfried, and Lucky stood in the midst of what looked like fuzzy Grecian ruins, with eroding columns over a marble staircase and piles of sand-colored rubble all around them. Pillars reached skyward. In the distance, Rachel could see ocean and mountains beyond. She turned slowly in a circle, hoping that she would recognize some angle as a photo she had seen once in an encyclopedia, but nothing matched her memory. Of course, it did not help that Nastasia’s dream image of her vision kept blurring and wavering.
Nastasia nodded. “When Gaius asked me if I could request a vision, I did so—” the princess glanced warily at Gaius, who was standing to one side leaning against a pillar “—and one came. I then shared it with Dean Moth. She is informing the proper officials.”
Rachel winced, hoping that the Wisecraft had discovered their leak and stopped it. She could tell her friend would have preferred not to have brought Gaius with them, but Nastasia could hardly insist that he be excluded, when the whole project had been his idea. This left Rachel in the uncomfortable position of not knowing where to stand.
She wanted to be close to Gaius, especially since they had just recovered from their first row, but Nastasia seemed so fragile after her vision that Rachel did not wish to leave her alone, either. So, she was standing next to the princess, who shot her a grateful look that went a long way toward making Rachel feel she had chosen the right spot. She squeezed her friend’s hand, and Nastasia smiled faintly and nodded. If
only the princess and Gaius could get along. Then, she would be able to stand near both of them.
Joy was also nearby, looking on with concern. Every few seconds, she asked the princess if everything was all right, if Nastasia wanted to wake up again, if she needed a glass of water—where Joy would have fetched water from in dreamland, Rachel had no clue—but Joy’s attention seemed to make Nastasia more ill-at-ease rather than less.
When Joy stepped away to look at something Zoë was pointing at, Rachel pressed her friend’s hand again.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
“Yes.” The princess gave her a very brave smile. “I’m just a bit…disturbed at having people inside my dream. I keep fearing I’ll get distracted and change the dream around us, accidentally portraying some private thought or memory not meant for others.”
Suddenly, Rachel felt much more sympathy for Nastasia’s position. It had taken some effort, when the others were in her dream, to make sure her mind did not wander. She was not sure that she would have wanted a friend’s boyfriend, whom she did not know well tramping through her dreams, and she had more control over her memory than most.
“So, this is the demon’s ‘place of power’?” asked Gaius, looking around with interest.
“I do not know,” said the princess. “What I asked for was the location where a sacrifice might take place. So we could stop it.”
“Looks like Greece or the Middle East.” Zoë kicked a piece of rubble. It puffed into mist. “I haven’t spent much time there. We should have asked one of the March kids to come in here with us. They live in Greece part of the year.”
Gaius came over and squatted down, examining the piece of rubble she had kicked, which had appeared again. Standing, he kicked one of the stones. It dissolved into a puff of mist and then reformed. He tried this several times, kicking a large boulder and then a column—the latter of which did not seem affected—and examining the outcomes.
Rachel glanced at Nastasia, but she was not paying attention to him. Apparently, dissolving pieces of the dream landscape caused her no mental distress.
Rachel and the Many-Splendored Dreamland (The Books of Unexpected Enlightenment Book 3) Page 40