Neverseen (40 page)

Maybe,
Sophie thought. Though she wasn’t so sure. She kept thinking about how ready she’d been to endanger Tam and Linh’s lives by bringing them into the Black Swan. She’d already separated her friends from their families and gotten them banished. When would she stop putting people at
risk? Even Silveny had endured major changes as a result of their friendship. Before they met, the alicorn had been free to explore the world. Now she was stuck in the Sanctuary, unable to teleport through the mountain walls.

NO,
Silveny insisted.
HAPPY! HAPPY! HAPPY!

She filled Sophie’s mind with memories of Sophie petting her. Caring for her. Protecting her. Flying with her.

AND KEEFE!
Silveny added.
AND GREYFELL!

More memories flooded Sophie’s head of Silveny’s life at the Sanctuary—everything clean and comfortable and cared for.

Plenty of food.

Plenty to do.

Flying with Greyfell. Chasing Greyfell. Playing with Greyfell.

Wait—that wasn’t playing. . . .

“Gah!” Sophie said, shoving the last images out of her mind.
TMI, Silveny. Too. Much. Information!

She knew it was supposed to be a natural, beautiful thing. But
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

TRUST,
Silveny told her.
FRIEND. SHARE.

That’s okay—you don’t have to share anymore, I’m good!

But Silveny had something she needed to tell Sophie. A new word she’d learned, even though Sophie had never taught it to her.

BABY.

S
ILVENY’S PREGNANT,” SOPHIE
told her friends when she joined them for breakfast.

Fitz dropped his fork. “Are you sure?”

“Oh yeah,” Sophie mumbled, sinking into the chair next to him. “She
showed
me. . . .”

“GAH!” everyone said.

Keefe pushed his plate away. “I’m done with food forever.”

“Me too,” Dex agreed.

“Me three,” Biana said.

“Seriously, that is one batch of memories you do
not
have to share with me,” Fitz told Sophie. “I don’t care if it’s part of our Cognate training.”

“But it’s still
huge
,” Biana added. “Do you know how far along she is?”

“I’m guessing it’s new, since the last few times I transmitted to her she didn’t mention anything about—”

“STOP!” Keefe held up his hands. “Ground rules for this conversation: All talk of alicorn baby-making is off the table—got it? Otherwise I’ll have to rip my ears off. And for the record, I do
not
want to be there when Baby Glitterbutt arrives.”

“Me either,” Fitz said. “My dad made me go to the Hekses’ unicorn preserve for a delivery one time.” He shuddered. “Who knew they came out so
slimy
?”

“Ew, dude,” Keefe said. “I did not need to know that. Can we talk about something else?
Anything
else?”

“Does anyone know how long alicorns stay pregnant for?” Sophie asked.

Biana shook her head. “We’ve never had a baby alicorn before. But I’m pretty sure unicorns are pregnant for eleven months. So maybe it’s the same?”

“Do you think Silveny knows?” Fitz asked. “If her instincts are telling her she’s pregnant, maybe they’ll also tell her how it’s going to work.”

“I guess I can ask. It was hard to get information out of her. All she wanted to tell me about was—”

“STOP!” Keefe said.

“I wasn’t going to say
that
. She was telling me that she’s
really
hungry. I’m not sure if it’s a pregnancy craving or an
excuse to get more treats, but she went on and on and
on
about how she needs more swizzlespice. We’ll have to find a way to let Jurek know.”

“Do you think he already knows?” Fitz asked. “He’s the equestrian caretaker at the Sanctuary. Maybe he . . . saw stuff.”

“WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT THE GROUND RULES?” Keefe shouted, covering his ears. “That’s it, this conversation is officially over. Next person who says ‘alicorn’ is getting pelted with fruit.”

“What’s wrong with the alicorns?” Granite asked behind them.

He’d arrived with Mr. Forkle, each of them carrying stacks of scrolls.

“Silveny’s pregnant,” Sophie said, and all the scrolls went
THUNK!

“Are you certain?” Granite whispered, bending to gather the uncurling paper.

Sophie nodded, and Mr. Forkle rushed to her side. “Tell me
everything
.”

“And I’m out!” Keefe said, covering his ears and singing, “LALALALALA! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” as he raced up the stairs to the boys’ tree house. Fitz, Dex, and Biana followed—but not before Granite gave them scrolls and asked them to put them somewhere safe.

It was a good thing they left, because Mr. Forkle wanted
all
the details. When Sophie finished, both he and Granite stared
at each other so long she was sure they were having a telepathic conversation.

“Is something wrong?” she asked. “I thought this was what everyone’s been waiting for.”

“It is,” Granite said. “But it also complicates things.”

“The Council had plans to move the alicorns,” Mr. Forkle explained. “So that will obviously have to be canceled.”

“Why were they going to move them?” Sophie asked.

“Secrecy is better than security,” Granite said. “No one can steal something they can’t find.”

“A few days ago the Neverseen attempted to breach the Sanctuary,” Mr. Forkle added.

“WHAT?” Sophie asked, knocking over her chair as she stood. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“The Council is getting better at protecting their information,” Mr. Forkle said. “I only learned of it yesterday—and then we were sidetracked by your
expedition
. But that’s what we came to tell you. Both members of the Neverseen managed to escape—and both were male. There were also no reports of force fields, so we have no news on the Psionipath or Lady Gisela.”

Sophie sank back in her chair, feeling her brain reach Maximum Worrying Capacity.

Wasn’t it enough that they had the plague, and Prentice, and Keefe’s mom, and the ogres, and the Council, and Exillium to wrestle with—did they
have
to worry about the alicorns, too?

“They’re never going to stop trying to capture them, are they?” she asked.

“Unfortunately,” Granite said, “the alicorns are too important. It’s strange, all the years we only had one alicorn, no one cared. I guess the situation felt too hopeless. But now that we actually have a chance to reset the Timeline to Extinction—”

“Are you guys even sure that’s a real thing?” Sophie interrupted. “For all you know, the planet could be fine if something goes extinct.”

“Is there any creature that you could imagine the world without?” Mr. Forkle asked.

“I doubt I’d miss spiders,” she mumbled. “Or mosquitos.”

Granite’s cracked lips twitched. “I’ll admit, those aren’t my favorite either. But nature is an intricate jigsaw puzzle, and every piece matters. Unfortunately, that means that certain species—like the alicorns—leave us vulnerable. But that may change with the baby. And thankfully the Sanctuary has extensive security measures.”

“Then how did the Neverseen almost get in?” she asked.

“Through an old air shaft the dwarves used when they were hollowing out the mountains,” Mr. Forkle said. “We’re assuming the Neverseen thought we didn’t know about it—and in truth, we didn’t. If Lord Cassius hadn’t found those maps in Lady Gisela’s trunk, we might be reporting different news. The Council added guards to the area only days ago. That’s why we brought those scrolls today. They’re copies of everything
Lord Cassius found. The map of Ravagog seems particularly important. It has a number of places marked that both Alvar and Lady Cadence claim hold no significance, based on their own journeys through the city.”

Sophie sat up straighter. “Do you think they could be the Panakes?”

“We’re not ruling out any possibilities,” Mr. Forkle said carefully. “But legends can be misleading. Think of the human legends about elves—there are seeds of truth, of course. But not enough to treat as a valid theory—but we’ll get to that later. First we must let the Council know it’s not safe to move Silveny.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Granite said as Sophie asked, “Why can’t they move her? She’s pregnant, not sick.”

“Ah, but pregnancies are fragile things,” Mr. Forkle said. “They’d need to sedate Silveny for transport, and the drugs could harm the baby—not to mention the stress Silveny would feel while adjusting to her new home. Even in an ideal case, a move will be a huge change. And a case like this, with a species we literally have
no
experience with when it comes to childbirth, I have no doubt the Council will decide it’s too dangerous.”

“Can I tell Alden you’d be willing to use your telepathy to check on Silveny and give reports to Councillor Oralie?” Granite asked, pulling a dark leaping crystal from his cape.

“Of course,” Sophie said. “And wait—you’re going to see Alden?”

“In some form,” Granite agreed.

“Can I go with you?” Biana asked, appearing in the corner.

“Ah, Miss Vacker,” Mr. Forkle said. “Getting good at vanishing, I see.”

“I fooled Calla this morning,” Biana said proudly. “I finally figured out how to feel the pollen and keep it off my skin. But you’re ignoring my question. Can I go?”

Granite shook his head. “Your father is being monitored too closely. Besides, I can’t have you learning one of my identities.”

“Couldn’t we just hail Alden later and ask him who visited him?” Sophie asked.

“Do you think I’m brand new at having an alternate identity?” Granite leaped away before Sophie could answer.

Biana stared sadly at her feet, and Sophie knew how she felt.

“Do you want to use my Spyball to see your dad?” she offered. “You can’t talk to him, but you can see how he’s doing.”

“Wait—if we watch through the Spyball, would we see the real Granite?” Biana asked.

Mr. Forkle sighed. “You kids think we’re such amateurs. The answer to any of your theories is: No—it’s not that easy. Besides, I have something else for all of you to do today. We’ve made arrangements with King Enki for the twins to live in Ermete’s former residence. He’s one of the dwarves we lost in the battle on Everest, and he had no family to inherit his possessions. Dwarven residences are different from ours, but your friends will adjust. And they’ll be safe and have plenty of food.”

“Wow. That’s . . . really great,” Sophie said, though living in a dead dwarf’s house sounded mildly depressing. But it couldn’t be worse than living in Wildwood.

“Good. Because you’ll be the one telling them.” Mr. Forkle removed a special pathfinder from his cape. The yellow crystal at the end was barely larger than the wand’s point, and it only had a handful of facets carved into it. “This will take us to the Neutral Territories,” he explained, adjusting the crystal.

Sophie was about to reach for his hand when she realized her mistake.

“Hang on,” she told him, racing for the stairs. “If we’re going, we’re
all
going.”

S
TOP!” TAM SHOUTED
from across the river as he stretched out his arms and pulled every shadow toward his grasp.

“It’s okay!” Sophie promised, running ahead of the others. “They’re with me.”

Tam flicked his wrists, launching the shadows across the water. “I never said you could bring people here.”

“We mean you no harm,” Mr. Forkle said calmly. “There’s no need for your darkness tricks.”

“It’s not a trick,” Tam said. “Unlike your disguise. And you don’t come any closer unless I take a reading of all of you.”

Keefe scrambled away from the shadows. “Uh, forget that.”

“It doesn’t hurt,” Sophie told him. “It just feels really cold.”

“I don’t care. It’s not happening,” Keefe insisted.

“The only people who refuse readings are those with darkness to hide,” Tam told him.

“Or maybe I just don’t want some creeper putting his shadow in my brain,” Keefe snapped back. “Especially a dude with silver tips on his bangs. What’d you do, melt down the buckles on your Exillium uniform and dip your head in?”

“My registry pendant, actually. I melted down the chain after I ripped off the crystal and threw it in my father’s face. Now if I ever face him again, he’ll see exactly how little I miss living in his glittering prison.”

Keefe looked away, for once without a snappy comeback.

“I think we’ve gotten off track,” Mr. Forkle said. “I appreciate your wariness, Mr. Song, but—”

“How do you know that name?
”

“Relax. I know your name because I’m careful—like you appear to be. I don’t visit someone I haven’t investigated.”

Tam snorted. “All you know are the Council’s lies.”

“I assure you, I searched well beyond the registry’s files. Which is why I know that your sister was banished after she flooded part of Atlantis—even though it was your parents’ fault. They should’ve known better than to bring a fledgling Hydrokinetic under the ocean. It’s like bringing a Guster into a hurricane and expecting them to leave the wind alone. I also know that your father tried to convince people you were a year older than Linh, but you and your sister refused to go along
with the lie. I know you scored off the charts on your entrance exams to Foxfire, but your sister scored even higher. And yet your performance at Exillium has been mediocre at best. You refuse to apply yourself during the skill lessons, and you’ve broken several bones due to careless risks. I’ve also met your father several times. Can’t say I was impressed.”

Tam’s jaw fell and he lowered his arms, all trace of his shadows vanishing. “I’ve never heard anyone speak ill of my father.”

“Then you haven’t been talking to the right people,” Mr. Forkle said. “Do not make the mistake of assuming all adults are like him. Now, where is your sister hiding?”

Tam hesitated a second. Then waived his hand, and the shadows around a clump of trees shifted to reveal Linh.