Rites of Spring (24 page)

I didn’t respond.

“But let me tell you, Jenny, since I
also
have firsthand knowledge.” George crouched beside her. “Society incest is a really, really bad idea. Just keep that in mind.” And then he straightened. “They’ve called an emergency meeting to deal with the raid. All knights to the tomb. That’s what I’m really here to tell you. But if you’d prefer to discuss my sex life, God knows I don’t need to go to another one of these stupid meetings.”

And, as I stood there, basking in a supernova of mortification, the others gathered up their things and departed. It was obvious that George and I needed a moment alone.

He turned to me as soon as they were gone. “You want to tell me what I just walked in on?”

“We’re just stressed because of what happened.”

“If you ask me, this is entirely too much stress for Spring Break.”

“Well, no one asked you.”

“Why don’t you just tell them it was you and Jamie on the beach today?”

For a second, I choked. There it was, right out loud. No more innuendo from Mr. George Harrison Prescott. He’d recognized us, and he’d probably recognized what we were doing as well.

“Why don’t you tell them?” I chose the offensive. “For someone who hates keeping secrets, you’ve sure got a lot of them.”

“You still don’t get it, do you? I like you, Amy. We’re supposed to be friends. I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t want to cause you any pain. And
you
don’t want anyone to know how you spent the day, clearly. Understandably! So I’m not saying a word.” He shook his head. “It’s like you
want
me to be mean. You want that, go talk to your new boyfriend.”

Understandably?
“He’s not my boyfriend, and he’s not mean.”

“He’s a jerk,” George said, incredulous. “Have you forgotten? Jeez, you do know how to pick ’em. You’d have been better off with me.” George took off down the stairs and broke into a jog to catch up to the others.

I dropped to my bunk, breathing as if George had punched me in the stomach. Everything was moving too fast. George was right. This was supposed to be my vacation, and here I was, fighting with my friends, fending off yet more attacks, and getting involved with a guy I’d made a point of avoiding for months. I should have just stayed at Eli and let Dragon’s Head finish me off.

The only time I’d felt remotely relaxed this whole trip had been in Poe’s arms this afternoon, and even George, who never had any compunction about hooking up, knew that was a mistake. Not that it mattered; it was over now. The whole thing had been ill-advised, on both of our parts. Whatever there was between Poe and myself, it was built on antagonism, not affection. Not even lust.

Well, okay, a little bit of lust.

But that was the point Clarissa had been trying to make. Like it or not, I was on the rebound. The last thing I should be doing is jumping into a relationship with a guy I’d never even
liked
. Was I trying to prove something? To Brandon? To myself?

I gathered what was left of my self-possession and walked back to the compound. The light had changed during the time I’d spent in the cabin, and the sun lay low in the sky. Twilight was coming soon. One full day down, five more to go. What a trip this was turning out to be.

Because of the heat in the tomb, all the members eschewed robes in favor of street clothes. Between the Hawaiian shirts, folding chairs, and sound of crickets beyond the flimsy doors, it was tough to approach the proceedings with the same air of sobriety and importance we maintained in New Haven.

And yet, we called the meeting to order. There weren’t enough chairs for all of us, so the seats mostly went to the more senior patriarchs. Beyond that, it was first come, first served.

Poe stood by the far wall, right next to the china hutch. I stood where it was least likely for my eyes to fall on him. I had no interest in spending the next half hour constantly checking to see if he was glancing in my direction and getting depressed if he wasn’t.

No more boys. What a waste of my time. I kept deciding that, and then kept falling back into the trap. But this time, it would stick.

“Didn’t you take pictures of the destruction?” one of the patriarchs asked. (For the record, Gehry was not present, despite the summons for all society members to come to the tomb.)

“Why?” Clarissa was asking. “Do you plan to call the cops and file an incident report? I thought we kept barbarian police out of society matters.”

“As proof that what you say happened was what happened.”

A good eight jaws dropped.

“Half a dozen people here can tell you exactly what it looked like,” Clarissa scoffed.

“If you’d gotten your butts over there, you could have seen for yourself,” Kevin added.

“Your club seems to get into an awful lot of trouble,” said Frank Myer, husband of the much-maligned Kadie. “How convenient is it that intruders broke onto the island and only mangled
your
stuff?”

“That would be awfully convenient, wouldn’t it?” Jenny asked. “Because if it wasn’t them, I can think of one barbarian on this island who owes me a new laptop.” She dumped the remains of hers onto the table, letting mangled bits of plastic, wires, and screws clatter around and roll off the edges.

“Are you accusing my wife of something?” Frank replied. “Because to be perfectly honest, she would have some choice things to say about your behavior to her this afternoon, after we were so good as to let you use our boat.”

“Settle down,” said another patriarch. “Nobody is accusing anyone of anything.”

“Speak for yourself, old man,” Demetria said.

“He said,
settle down,
” Poe said in a voice that commanded the room’s attention. “This is not the way that knights of Persephone address one another, on Cavador Key or off it. Now, it’s clear that someone vandalized the women’s cabin this afternoon, sometime after the knights returned from their snorkeling trip. I surveyed the damage right after we discovered it and it’s extensive, not only to the island’s property, but also to the knights’ personal effects. We need to find out who’s responsible.”

“Easier said than done,” George said.

“Furthermore, our position on barbarian visitors is very clear. They are here by invitation of the society only. If they are at any time making a knight feel uncomfortable, they will not be allowed to remain, no matter what another knight or patriarch might say about it. That’s what our oaths demand.”

“Fine,” said Frank. “We’ll leave tomorrow. With our boat.” A few of the other patriarchs looked stricken by the prospect of losing access to the yacht. (Didn’t bother me.)

“You’ll do what you need to do,” Poe said. “Whether that’s leaving or making it clear to your barbarian wife that she needs to show more respect to her hosts.
All
of them.”

This was being said in front of patriarchs twice his age. Who were
listening to him
. I stared in shock at Poe, but Malcolm hardly looked fazed. Was this how it was back when Poe was secretary of D176? Had people just shut up and obeyed him when he spoke? No wonder he couldn’t stand me when we met. I’d never treated him with anything approaching this level of respect.

Poe was still talking. “I spent the last two hours going over every inch of this island, looking for any evidence that we had visitors. I didn’t find anything new from the earlier sweep that D177 did. But there are signs. It makes sense that only the women’s cabin would have been affected by a raid. It’s isolated from the others, and it was empty this afternoon, while the central compound was filled with people. The only other vulnerable area would be the guesthouse, and I spoke to the inhabitants there.”

“You can say his name, you know,” Demetria grumbled.

Poe ignored her. “They saw nothing unusual. But at least one knight saw strangers on the island early this afternoon.” He nodded to Clarissa, who looked vindicated. “I also spoke at length to Saltzman, who is prepared now to give a report of the recent barbarian activity on the island, as well as lay out what he feels are necessary precautions until we get to the bottom of this.” He motioned to Malcolm, who tapped thrice, once, and twice on the door to the tomb. Salt entered.

Now I
was
trying to catch Poe’s eye. Intruders on the island? What was he playing at? He knew as well as I did that Clarissa hadn’t seen anyone but us on the crescent beach. And yet, he was going to indulge in this whole fantasy of visitors?

Was he trying to placate Frank? That didn’t make any sense, given what Poe had just said to him about keeping his wife in line. And yet, Poe had no reason to lie. Deny, maybe, but to promote the “intruders” idea? It was Kadie, naturally. We all knew it.

Salt’s report was the size of
War and Peace
. Great. Folks started settling in for the long haul, and I was impressed by everyone’s patience. I honestly think it’s the most fun the caretaker ever had, explaining to a roomful of trapped, if not rapt, society members about how he’d been roused twice on the night of January 27th by a series of strange green lights in the sky.

In the middle of his report on the first week in February, I lifted my head to see Poe looking at me. When he was sure he had my attention, he mimed taking a plate down off the shelf and breaking it over his knee. I stifled a surprised laugh. Where had that come from?

He held my gaze for one moment more, then morphed back into Secretary Poe, serious as a study hall proctor, paying attention to Salt’s report as if the dead bird the caretaker had found on his front stoop the morning of February 24th was indeed the portent of doom he claimed it to be.

At long last, the old man wrapped it up and we spilled out of the stuffy stucco box and headed to dinner, as famished as death row inmates with a last minute reprieve.

“Well, that was long and pointless,” Demetria said.

“Yeah. At this point, our cabin could have been trashed by Kadie Myer, Kurt Gehry, conspiracy theorist nuts, aliens, marauding pirates, or just really bitter squirrels.” Jenny sighed. “Who decided this trip was a good idea?”

Clarissa shrugged. “But I do think Salt had a point. We need to be on our guard. Obviously, people have trespassed here, and I doubt they’re afraid to do damage. I think the patrols are a good idea.”

“They’re a good way to keep us from getting sleep,” Harun said.

“I second that. If I wanted to march around in the dark, I’d have signed up for ROTC,” said Ben. “I came here to relax.”

“How much relaxing are you going to do once they trash
your
stuff?” Jenny asked.

“Touché.”

“He was right about not wandering around alone, too,” Kevin said. “If I had anyplace else to go, I’d leave Cavador Key tomorrow. I didn’t expect us to be under attack here.” So much for this being a group bonding experience.

“Well, you can thank Gehry,” Demetria said. “That’s why there’s so much focus on the island right now.”

“Then why isn’t it Gehry getting attacked?” George asked. “Since when do I have to be that bastard’s scapegoat?”

“You, George?” Clarissa said. “Care to show me
your
new bright orange purse?”

Malcolm and Poe sat on the other side of the room during this dinner, and I made sure to sit with my back to them so I wouldn’t stare. But I swear, throughout the meal, it was as if I had an internal radar beeping out Poe’s position. Now he was at the salad bar, now getting a refill on his coffee, now visiting the table of another patriarch.
Beep beep beep.

This called for chocolate. I was pouring hot fudge over my ice cream when the beeps started up again. Proximity alert.

“You’re drowning your scoop,” came his voice from behind me.

“Well, you know me and drowning,” I replied without looking back, and put down the bottle of sauce.

His next words were almost too soft to catch. “I’m sick over what that spray paint said about you.”

That was unexpected. No, that was…mind-blowing. I was glad I was looking away, since it took me a second to recover. At last, I turned toward him. “There was stuff all over, about all of us.”

“They knew about yesterday.”

“Yeah, imagine that. It’s all anyone could talk about.”

“So someone sneaking around could have overheard it.”

“Why do you think it was an intruder? You know very well—”

“The campfire. The tape recorder. Amy, someone
is
infiltrating this island.”

I rolled my eyes. “But they’re harmless, like you said. The person who trashed the room is sitting right over there. You know it.”

“I’ve spoken to both of the Myers. They aren’t my favorite people, but they aren’t violent, either. This was violent.”

“You take an awful lot upon yourself, you know.”

“Yeah. I do.”

“What was up with the meeting today? Why were you acting like you were in charge?”

“Because I am.”

“What does that mean?”

He blinked. “I’m in charge. I called the meeting, I ran it. I’m in charge.”

“You’ve barely graduated.”

“So? I’m on the board of the Trust.”