“You get that study sheet from Chan?” Flynn asked as we met in the hallway and hurried toward the side door.
I nodded. “It’s like thirteen pages long!”
He shook his head and held the door open for me. “He has no mercy.” He ran his hand through his dark, wavy hair and groaned. “On top of everything from yesterday…” Another shake of his head. “We still have to freak out and worry about exams too.”
It did seem like a raw deal. But what would complaining do about it? In fact, I was actually kind of excited to return to Otis. Among all the things going on in my life, I was concerned about the older ranch hand. Seeing him in the flesh would at least alleviate my worries about his injuries.
Marcy waited on the paved drive, yards from the building, and I lifted my hand in a wave. It should have been so surreal and out-of-the-norm, being whisked away from the Main Hall and the classrooms we’d usually be in.
“Ready?” she asked from the driver’s seat of the golf cart.
Ready…for? I knew we were being shipped off for mentoring, Suthering’s way of keeping us from the rest of the councilmembers’ direct control. I assumed I would be assisting Otis with the horses. Tasks I was familiar and comfortable with.
“Sure.”
She didn’t reply, but it seemed something was on her mind. After she opened and then closed her mouth, she looked in her rearview mirror. Lowering her sunglasses, she told me, “Just…don’t let him push you too far.”
Otis? I frowned. How would he ever push me anywhere? The old man was a gentle giant. “O…kay?”
“We’ll pick up where we left off at the greenhouse, Flynn,” she told him.
The greenhouse. Flynn had shown Suthering and everyone in our gym class that he was capable of commanding the horses. So why was he still stuck in a building with plants? Yet another question for another time. Marcy picked up her phone when it rang and then she spoke in single-word replies to someone.
At the stables, she pulled over and I hopped out. She was still on the phone and Flynn, perhaps out of respect for quiet during our superior’s phone call, tossed me a wave.
Wish you could come with me. It wasn’t fear that struck me as I faced the wooden fence set along the perimeter of the horses’ space. I stood there for a moment, trying hard to accept the fact it was less than twenty-four hours ago that I was in this dusty, wide-open area trying to fend off hungry griffins from the horses and my gym class.
Casting a glance to the clear, blue sky, I narrowed my eyes. Almost daring something to come back. Only, the griffins—subjects, as Griswold had so coldly referred to them—had escaped because their keeper was otherwise preoccupied with terrified animals.
Subjects for what?
What is Griswold testing for? More ridiculously potent elven drugs that erase scars and disable pain receptors?
I wonder if all these so-called tests are monitored by any kind of agency. I doubt it. Olde Earth is mightily secret. No one would probably even know where the labs are to monitor them. Monitor—
I squinted and studied the sky and trees, the corners of the stables’ roof. It’d be handy to know where those surveillance cameras were.
Suthering said the animals’ spaces are taped. So maybe there is some oversight to whatever Griswold is up to.
Are elves immune to PETA’s reach? I bet if an animal rights group knew what was—
“Layla,” Otis hollered kindly from the open doors of the stables.
I blinked away my thoughts and let myself into the outermost gate to the fences. Before he’d have to lumber across to me, I rushed toward him.
“Don’t worry. Nothing’s coming out for the horses today,” he reassured, likely taking my hesitation to enter as a sign of fear.
It hadn’t really crossed my mind. Not the possibility of facing the griffins. Just if I’d be caught on camera doing so again, if need be. I bet Suthering couldn’t pull off a repeat of his lie if he had the need to delete surveillance again.
The fact the headmaster hid things from his councilmembers was an enigma. Was he trying to keep the upper hand over them for an ulterior, selfish reason—an extension of hoarding knowledge for power? Or was he trying to protect me and Flynn from the others knowing what had really happened? And why?
“Oh, I’m not worried,” I admitted as I came up to the large man.
He grinned at me, maybe surprised by my words.
All right, that might have come off as a little cocky. I opened my mouth to explain—
“And ya got no reason to be.” Otis stuck his hand out to me. A shake? After working with him for two months?
I slowly took his hand and he pumped it up and down.
“Thank you,” he said and bowed his head. “For handling them damn things yesterday.”
“How is your head?” I gestured at him, as though he forgot where it was. I wouldn’t directly reply to his comment that I’d warded off the griffins.
“Oh, fine.” He lightly knocked a knuckle to his skull. “I got a good hard one here.”
“I’m surprised to see you’re back at work already.”
He shrugged. “They gave me the good stuff.”
Elven meds. I pursed the corner of my lips. How off the grid was the Academy to have “the good stuff” and not have to share it with the world?
“Gotta tell you, I’m impressed.”
I nodded and stuck my arms out, reflecting in the lack of scars. “Yeah, they’ve got some strong drugs.”
He guffawed. “Not the medicine. You.” Shaking his head, he smiled in awe. “I haven’t seen a Pure as strong as you since Mr. Verlene.”
My jaw dropped.
He knew Mr. Verlene? Granted, Paige’s dad had likely worked at the Academy, so it wasn’t too unusual that the two men might have known each other.
“He’s the only other Early Pure I’d ever met.”
Early Pure? Now I choked out a huff with my mouth hanging open. Not only did Otis know Mr. Verlene, he knew the guy when he was only sixteen.
“What?” he asked, frowning at my gaping face.
“You— Early—” I closed my mouth and licked my lips. “How old are you?”
His grin was jolly. “Older than dirt, like Marcy says.” Still laughing, he crossed his arms. “Mr. Verlene was an Early Pure.”
“An Early Pure.”
He nodded. “An elf who’s got powers before their date.” With a tilt of his head toward me, he ducked and said. “Like you.”
“Early Pure,” I said again, tacking the new term to my vocab.
Paige’s dad was a Pure. Does that mean she’ll be one too? But she’s not early. And she seemed skeptical she’d even have powers. I grappled with this news about my friend’s family. Didn’t she say Ethel was a High Diluted? So, what will that make P—
“You got a lot to learn.” Nodding, he sighed. “Best you get started.” He jerked a thumb toward the nearby cliffside. That wall of stone Flynn and I had tried to enter way back in the beginning of the summer.
“All right. What do you have me doing today?” I asked and rubbed my hands together.
“No, no. Not with me.” Another thumb jerk toward the stony wall. “You’re in the Menagerie. I’m guessing Suthering just told his council people you’re working with me as a cover. You gotta report to Wolf.”
A cover. For what, though?
“Wolf?”
Otis shrugged. “He’s not so bad. Really.”
From the guy’s brusque manner yesterday, I wondered. Plus, Marcy clearly had a dislike for the guy. And just a half-hour ago, she’d warned me to not let him push me too far.
What was too far now? Everything I thought I’d known about reality had been challenged and twisted since I’d come here for school, and now, it seemed I was only beginning.
“He’s waiting for you in the Menagerie. You want me to take you there?” He glanced back at the darkness within the stables. Whinnying and soft knickers sounded from inside. “I can take a break and walk y
ou over if you’d like. It’s down the path and you can’t miss the door, but if you want—”
I held up my hand. I knew the way. Sort of. Or at least I was sure I could find it. Funny, now that I was invited to the space Flynn and I had tried to trespass into, I hesitated. Maybe because this time there were obligations that came with it. I had to meet up with Wolf, and learn about what being an Early Pure meant.
I wish Flynn was here. He was an Early Pure too. Was Marcy teaching him what Wolf would show me? In the greenhouse? There weren’t any animals there…
“No, thank you. I can find it. Him.” I shrugged and backed up. “I’ll see you later then, I guess.”
Otis waved and then crossed his arms again, watching me head off.
“Give that sweet mare an extra apple for me, though, okay?”
He chuckled and nodded.
Into the woods I walked, retracing the path Flynn and I had attempted to stealthily sneak down to get into the cliff and the Menagerie. All for the hunt of my longma.
My buddy. I quickened my pace. I’d be in the Menagerie. Near the ancient species. I might be forced to work under the supervision of a not-so-nice and kind of gruff mentor, but I’d be closer—I hoped—to my longma. Or, if Wolf was the keeper of these animals, he’d at least have an idea of where my longma might be.
Through the darkening shadows of the forest edge, I neared the entrance Flynn and I were busted at previously. Pine scents faded and cooler earth smells took over. Fewer trees stood near the stonier wall, and I headed straight for the door.
As before, it was open. A wide, unbarred entrance that led to darkness. After the first portion of a walk into the corridor, my eyes adjusted to the lack of light. Not total darkness, of course, because as I went further in, the first blobs of brightness flared ahead. Glowing moss with a few iridescent and shimmering butterflies flittering around it.
Beautiful.
I strode toward the first “sconce” of glow-in-the-dark species and held my hand out. Two butterflies flew around my hand, weaving between my spread-out fingers. A smile stole across my face and I lost a moment, mesmerized by the trailing, pixie-like dust the insects dusted off as they flew.
A loud clang of metal from further in the dim hallway caught my attention.
A cage? Door? I narrowed my eyes and continued on. Darkness was ever-present, broken by the clumps of moss as indicators of where to go. Yet, unlike last time, there were no track lights along the floor, like exit flashers.
If Wolf was waiting for me in here… Well, where was he? It hadn’t felt like a long trek inside the earth, but I was a runner. I walked fast. Distances were different when you ran them for fun. Still, it was the middle of a school day. I only had a little time here.
A breeze of fresh air picked up as I ventured forth. No more light yet, but a distinct humming drone grew. Air conditioning? I wasn’t cold or hot. Ventilation? Something had to be moving the air inside here. It wasn’t like they could trap animals in here—for testing or otherwise—and not let them breathe.
Ahead, the rocky walls gave way to cinderblock surfaces. A merging of earth to manmade structures. Cement began under my feet and I hurried forward, the suspense of finally getting into this forbidden bunker of a zoo teasing me to go faster.
I came to a metal door with a simple twist knob. It was too…basic for such a complicated, off-limits place. It gave easily when I turned it, and I pushed the slab of riveted metal closed.
Before me was an open space, much like a circular lobby with other hallways and doors fanning out from the center. No longer shrouded in such darkness, lights hung from cables anchored way above the room. Ceilings reached up and up, ending in an oculus at the top. Cloudless blue sky spread in the opening and I couldn’t help but feel like I was inside a volcano without lava.
Instead of molten earth and fires, animals lived in here. Whines, whimpers, barks, and growls. Hisses, laughter, grunts, and purrs. I heard them all in a cacophony of noises. Down these hallways and behind these doors were the animals. Some normal and some ancient, according to Paige.
My lips curved up at the abundance of animal life surrounding me. I had yet to see a creature, but I heard them. Felt them. Sensed them.
“There she is.”
I turned and saw Wolf heading toward me. Now that I closed off my focus on the sounds and noises in here, I concentrated on the tall man approaching me. A handful of other people, I suddenly noticed, milled about behind him. All of them wore plain tan uniforms, similar to Wolf’s. They weren’t adults, but almost my age. Likely upperclassmen who helped tend to these animals as they mainly went down the branched-off hallways, disappearing further into the Menagerie with clipboards or tablets at hand. A couple wore stethoscopes around their necks.
“Hi.” I held my hand up in a weak wave as he neared me. The first time I’d “met” him when I’d trespassed, he was a jerk. The second time, only yesterday, I’d interacted with him under unusual circumstances. In all the chances I’d had to figure out what kind of a person he was, to gauge if I could trust him, I’d gathered he was rough around the edges. And now he was my mentor? I needed to learn more about him, first.
As he came closer, striding confidently across the dark-gray floor, his companions came into view. A pair of wolfhounds matched his pace, one on each side of him.
Wolfhounds with a wolf. Ha. Ha. Ha. They were gorgeous canines. Tall, groomed, strong animals that didn’t seem at all disturbed at being within this cavernous space of many beings. Very well-behaved and obedient dogs at their master’s side.
He tilted his head to the side and then almost smirked. With one hand raised, he pointed and commanded the dogs, “Well, go get her. Attack!”
Chapter Twelve
Attack?
Oh, they intended to. In a blur, they snapped their maws open and bolted toward me, growling and panting for air as they sprinted.
“Stop!”
I dropped my messenger bag and held my hands out to halt them. My heart ticked faster, but I was steady. Calm, yet freaked. I’d worked with too many dogs to fear them, not truly. My bond with them had never failed.
“Stop!” I repeated it again and sweat beaded when they didn’t obey my first command.
For God’s sake, I said stop!
Now, they skidded their paws on the ground, scrambling to reverse their zero-to-fifty rush at me. Their white and gray fur rippled as their muscles bunched, and they nearly scooted to their hind legs and butts as they stopped their rush at me.
Huffing a breath, I brought my attention to Wolf. Heat rose up my chest and my neck as I glowered at the calm, smirking man. With my arms hanging down now, my hands fisted.
“You…you…” I fumbled with the adrenaline spike clouding my thoughts. Danger. Safety. A threat. Mistrust…
You ass!
One wolfhound approached me, walking slowly. I relaxed my fingers and held my hand out to him. He came close, sniffing and then nuzzling for a pet.
“You sicced them on me?”
Wolf shrugged.
“This…” I barked a laugh. “This is supposed to be a school. You’re supposed to be some kind of a mentor to me! And you sic these dogs on me?”
He rubbed at his stubbled chin. “Just want to know what I’m dealing with.”
“Well, I don’t want to be dealing with an attack. For no reason! Figure out another way to test me.”
As my voice rose and I ground my teeth, the other wolfhound faced Wolf. His deep growl reverberated across the distance.
“Damn.” Wolf lowered his hand from his chin and then set both hands on his hips. “Damn.”
“What?” I yelled, throwing my arms into the air. “Now what?” At my not-so-calm outburst at this so-called mentor of mine, the wolfhound growled louder and dipped lower, like it was ready to launch at Wolf.
“You really need my help.” He shook his head, not even alarmed at the growing depth of the dog’s growls. “You don’t even realize how powerful you…” Wit
h a slow blink, he scoffed. “All right, Merlin. Easy.”
“I need your help?” I bit the words out and crossed my arms. “I don’t need to be attacked!” Dammit, I wish Flynn was here to see this. If he knew that Olde Earth hired this idiot trying to hurt me…
“I said, easy, Merlin.” Wolf’s lips twisted into a grimace and he glared at the wolfhound still growling at him. Then to me, he sighed and said, “Calm down.”
“Calm down?” I’d never sounded so screechy before. Like when I’d accidentally spilled Sabine’s bottle of uber-expensive conditioner in our tiny shower in Coltin and she lashed out at me. That was what I sounded like and it grated my nerves even more. “I won’t calm down!”
“You have to!” Wolf walked closer despite the wolfhound baring his teeth at him. “You’re telling him to defend you. My dog. Listening to you. Defending you from me!” Feet from me, he ordered, “Merlin! I said easy. Please!”
The growls ceased but Merlin remained between me and my mentor.
“I’m not telling him to do any—”
“Your emotions. Your energy.” He waved his hand dismissively.
Did he just roll his eyes at me?
“He picks up on it. That’s his cue from you.”
I frowned and took a deep breath. My energy…like Suthering had mentioned.
“So, calm down,” Wolf repeated. “Please.”
“If you want me to be calm, please don’t sic animals on me as a hello.”
He grinned. Grinned. “Well, I didn’t know you were that powerful. That you’d get my dog to obey you instead of me. Seeing you in action is a little better than beating around the bush and asking questions.” His grin faded into something like annoyance. “I wouldn’t have let them actually hurt you.”
As I chilled out, a little, Merlin retreated to my side even more. He wasn’t growling or showing signs of aggression toward Wolf as much. Aggressive toward his owner? Whoa. I swallowed and only then took stock of my mood. My emotions and energy Wolf had described as my order to his dog. Yeah, I was pissed. Angry. Furious. Defensive. And it had rubbed off on the dogs. Both of them stood between me and Wolf and I was…
Discovery: Olde Earth Academy: Year Two Page 11