Akarnae (29 page)

He trailed off and Alex realised that she was supposed to say something.

“That sounds awesome.” She cringed at her lame response and tried again. “It must be really interesting work. Especially with the… Shadow Walkers.”

What on earth was a Shadow Walker? Wasn’t that what Jordan had called their SOSAC teacher, Caspar Lennox?

“Yeah, they’re interesting all right,” Blake agreed. “But they’re about as easy to read as a rock, so negotiating with them is near impossible.”

“I’ll bet,” Alex said, as if she knew what she was talking about. Jordan sniggered from beside her and she elbowed him in the ribs.

The conversation drifted to safer topics and Alex was left thinking about what she’d learned.

“How old are they?” she whispered to Jordan when everyone else was busy talking.

“Blake’s four years older than us and Johnny’s five years older,” he whispered back.

“How did they end up with such cool jobs, since they’re still so young?”

“Students who don’t qualify for Akarnae pick a specialisation to focus on when they’re fourteen. At eighteen they graduate and either get a job or continue studying elsewhere.”

Jordan paused to take another bite of food before he continued, “Both the ISDS and ChemTech—which is the research organisation that recruits Chemists to train them into Technos—usually require four more years of study before recruitment, but both Johnny and Blake were exceptions. Johnny’s so brilliant that he was hacking into secure TCD servers when he was thirteen, and Blake not only graduated
at the top of his class in Languages, Politics, and Inter-Species Relations, but he also smashed through all the previous records when he took his exams.”

“Wow,” Alex said, impressed. “So they’re both really smart?”

“The whole family is,” Jordan said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Alex nodded as she recalled Bear’s amazing potential in Chemistry. She was about to comment on it but she remembered something else and instead asked, “What’s a Shadow Walker? And the other things Blake mentioned? I didn’t understand anything he—”

“Who wants dessert?”

Their attention was diverted when Gammy placed a steaming chocolate pudding on the table. Alex’s mouth watered at the sight and she looked up at Jordan.

“We’ll talk later,” he promised.

But later never came, since after dessert they were herded into the lounge room to uphold a Ronnigan family tradition. Every Kaldoras Eve the family sat together to share their memories of the year that was and talk about the things they were grateful for. When Alex’s turn came, she simply said, “I’m grateful to be here.”

Everyone
awwww
ed, but when she looked at Jordan and Bear she knew they understood the ‘here’ that her words encompassed. When she’d first arrived in Medora, all she’d wanted was to find a way back home. But now, even while still missing her parents, she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

And that scared her more than anything.

Twenty-Eight

Alex was woken at the
crack of dawn the next day to open presents with the family, and she was overwhelmed by the unexpected gifts she received.

Jordan and Bear had pooled together to get her a remote ComTCD so she could always stay in contact with them. The little holographic Device was a lustrous gold colour, and she immediately fell in love with it.

“But wait, there’s more,” Jordan said after she thanked them. “Part of it’s from Johnny, too. He’s added some special apps that haven’t even been released to the public yet! I’ll be borrowing this baby for sure!”

“Let her have it for at least five minutes, Jordan,” Johnny called from across the room.

Jordan grumbled a little, but he eventually surrendered the ComTCD to Alex, and she moved it out of his sight while she reached for her next gift. She gasped when she opened the box to find the dress she’d been helping Dorothy create over the past week.

“We wanted you to have something nice to wear to the Gala,” Dorothy said, handing her another box that she said was from William. Inside was a pair of shoes that matched the dress perfectly.

Alex looked quizzically at William who just smiled back and said, “Do I really look like the type of person who knows
the difference between stilettos and wedges? No. I’m just the financier. But I wanted to get you something, even if I thought it was best for you if I didn’t choose them myself.”

She was touched by their generosity and thanked them both profusely before reaching for her next gift, which was from Gammy. Inside was a single sheet of paper with the title: TOP SECRET. Alex’s smile widened as she read the rest of the words and realised that it was the recipe for Gammy’s famous apple pie, secret sauce included. When Alex looked across the room and caught the older woman’s eyes, Gammy pressed a finger to her lips and winked.

“Open mine next, Lexie! Open mine!” Evie cried, shoving her gift into Alex’s face.

Inside was a small bunch of wildflowers glued to a hairclip. They were beautiful, and Alex immediately clipped them into her hair, causing the little girl to clap with happiness.

“You can keep them forever!” Evie exclaimed. She was so excited that Alex didn’t want to ruin the moment by telling her that the flowers would eventually die.

“She’s right,” Bear said. “She asked me to preserve them for you. They’re frozen in time, forever looking as fresh as the day they were picked.”

Alex looked at him in surprise. “More genius Chemistry stuff?”

He shrugged modestly. “Someone has to do it.”

Alex thanked the little girl with a squishy hug and a raspberry kiss, before she picked up her next package, which was from Blake. She wasn’t sure what to think when she opened up a small jewellery box and found a ring inside.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” he joked from across the room. “Even I don’t move that fast.”

Alex chuckled along with everyone else, but she was distracted by the strange ring. It was unlike any kind of
jewellery she’d ever seen before. The band was as black as onyx, but it was the stone secured in the centre of it that was most intriguing. It was also black, but as she looked closer she noticed that the inside was swirling with dark, inky colours as if there was a gas or something trapped inside.

“Hey! How come she gets one of those? I’ve wanted one
forever!
” Bear said, looking enviously at her gift.

“From what you’ve said, little brother, it sounds like Alex and trouble go hand-in-hand,” Blake said. “I thought she might need it more than you.”

Bear grumbled a little, but he reluctantly agreed.

“There’s only enough Shadow in there for three Walks,” Blake told Alex as she slipped the ring on her finger, “so it’s for emergencies only, got it?”

She nodded even though she had absolutely no idea what she was agreeing to. She would just have to ask Bear about the ring later. In the meantime, she had one gift left, and it wasn’t labelled.

“That came through our TCD earlier in the week,” William told her. The Ronnigans had a much more integrated TCD than her new little Communications one. They used theirs for everything from grocery shopping to sending and receiving post. Alex had even used it to send D.C.’s gift through to the academy with a note asking Jarvis to forward it on to her roommate.

Alex opened the gift in front of her, wondering who could have possibly sent it. Inside was a book:
Overcoming Iatrophobia: How to turn your fear into your friend
. The author had a list of abbreviated titles next to their name, as if that was supposed to mean something, but Alex still had no idea if the present was actually for her.

She turned the book over and read the blurb, laughing out loud when she discovered that iatrophobia was a fear of doctors. She opened the front cover and found a note inside:

Happy Kaldoras, Alex!

I don’t normally give presents to students, but I saw this book and thought of you. Here’s hoping it will provide you with some much needed counselling.

Wishing you an enjoyable holiday,

Fletcher.

Alex laughed again as she read his scratchy note, and she wondered briefly why all doctors seemed to have nearly illegible handwriting, no matter what world they came from.

Now that everything was open, she put her pile of treasures to the side and waited while everyone else finished with their own unwrapping. They
ooooh
ed and
ahhhh
ed, and, in Evie’s case, squealed with excitement. Some of the loudest exclamations came when they opened up their gifts from Alex, but their reactions weren’t quite what she’d expected.

The first surprise came when Johnny opened his
Advanced Metaphysics
book, which apparently wasn’t meant to be released to the public for another six months. There was an awkward silence when he asked her how she’d received a copy so early, and she ended up stammering out an uncertain answer.

“I guess the woman who gave it to me must have known the author?”

Everyone—including Alex—was sceptical about that.

The book for Blake caused her even more trouble, since she soon discovered that it was an original copy of a manuscript that was handwritten over three thousand years ago. Only two copies were ever made, and neither had been seen for hundreds of years. Even the dialect was ancient—a dead language. Meyarin, as a matter of fact.

When Blake mentioned that little piece of information the room went completely silent as everyone waited for Alex’s explanation.

“Um…” she hesitated. “The woman at the bookshop must have had it for a while then, I guess?”

Even to her ears it seemed impossible.

Her predicament worsened further when William pulled out the glinting dagger. He stared at it in wonder for a moment before locking eyes with Alex. They weren’t the comforting eyes of the Ronnigan patriarch she’d come to know, but instead they were hardened, suspicious eyes. Eyes that made her realise she was now facing William the Warden.

“Where did this come from, Alex?” he asked, his voice deceptively calm.

“The same place as the rest,” she said, feeling a flicker of anxiety. “Lady Mystique helped me with all of your gifts, except the ones for Jordan, Bear and Evie.”

“Lady Mystique?” William asked, walking over to sit beside her.

Alex furrowed her brow. Maybe they knew her by another name. “The owner of the bookshop.”

“What bookshop?”

“The—the one down the road. In the village.” Seeing the blank looks around her, Alex added, “Ye Olde Bookshoppe.”

“Alex,” Bear said, “there’s no bookshop in Woodhaven.”

“What?” she said, taking in their serious expressions. “Of course there is! We walked straight past it when we visited On The House.”

William exchanged a glance with Bear before turning back to Alex. “So, when you went shopping yesterday you went into this bookshop?”

She nodded.

“What happened once you were inside?”

Alex told him everything, only leaving out the end part of her conversation with Lady Mystique and the fact that the old woman seemed to know much more about Alex than she should
have. She finished by saying, “I figured she was a friend of your family or something. But she wouldn’t let me pay for the gifts, and at the end she just…”

“She just what?” William pressed.

“Um… she just… disappeared,” Alex said, wincing at how ridiculous she sounded.

“Disappeared?” he asked, frowning. “How?”

“She just sort of… faded out.”

William stared into her eyes as if they would show whether she was telling the truth or not. Finally, he looked away from her and back to his dagger.

“This is a Meyarin blade,” he told her. “It would have been forged thousands of years ago by their ancient warriors. It’s a dagger of incomparable worth, made out of priceless metals. It’s not something an old lady would give to a complete stranger so that you could gift it to another complete stranger.”

“Don’t forget my book, Dad,” Blake added. “I believe it’s worth much more even than your dagger.”

“My brooch, too, seems to be made of the same metal as your blade, Will,” Dorothy said, adding to the growing list.

Alex started to feel faintly nauseous.

“I don’t know what you’re all diddling on about,” Gammy spoke up. “We’ve been given some wonderful gifts from a remarkable young lady who only wanted to find us something she thought we’d like and appreciate. We’re not showing much gratitude with all these interrogations. We ought to count our blessings, not question them. It’s Kaldoras morning, a time to receive gifts and be thankful. Now, come and help me in the kitchen, Alex dear, before they forget their manners entirely and turn into wild animals.”

Alex quickly scrambled after Gammy and tried to collect her thoughts. How could there be no bookshop in town? She’d seen it across the street from the other shops every time she’d
walked the little strip. But, despite her own experience, she knew the Ronnigans were telling the truth too. Which led to the question: why could she see it when they clearly couldn’t? Was Ye Olde Bookshoppe perhaps like the Library, and only certain people could access it? Alex didn’t think so. She had a feeling the weirdness was influenced more by the owner of the shop than anything else. But why had Lady Mystique opened her doors for Alex? And why had she given her such remarkable gifts to give to the others?

“Now, now, dear, wipe that worried look off your face,” Gammy said. “Such a pretty girl shouldn’t look so confused.”

“Sorry, Gammy,” she said gloomily. “But I
am
confused.”

“Yes, well, I don’t think you’re the only one, sweet pea,” Gammy said. “I can’t remember the last time I saw my William so flustered. But Missy wouldn’t have caused this stir without reason, don’t you worry.”

“Missy?” Alex asked, not sure what Gammy was talking about.

“Your Lady Mystique.”

“You know her?” Alex cried.

“We’ve met,” Gammy said. “It was a long time ago, mind you, and just the once. She helped me out of a tight spot. Saved my life, in fact.” Gammy paused with a thoughtful look on her face. “It’s funny how the world works. That day I was carrying a book with me—a book I’d written myself, detailing all my favourite recipes and the ones I was still improving. After saving my life, Missy asked if she could borrow it for a while. It was a small price to pay, really, but it’s nice to have it back in my possession again.”