Sacrifices (14 page)

She smiled painfully.
I love you, Dad. I love you, Mom. I’ll make you proud. You’ll see.

*   *   *

In terms of what had become the “new normal,” the day wasn’t too bad. Mr. Green had taken over “gym class”—he worked them as hard as Ovcharenko had, but he wasn’t a sadist about it, trying to
hurt them
. He actually seemed to care that they learn to protect themselves. Under other circumstances, she might have liked him.

If he wasn’t one of Breakthrough’s people.

If she wasn’t afraid she was losing Burke to Breakthrough because of him.

There was another fight in the Refectory at lunchtime. Zoey and Maddie started screaming at each other about some Dance Committee thing, while Spirit did her best to become invisible so she didn’t get dragged into it. The fight quickly got physical. This time Angelina Swanson and Daniel Stewart broke it up before the security guards could step in, but Angelina separated Zoey and Maddie by summoning a blast of air that knocked both girls sprawling.

That wouldn’t have happened last September,
Spirit thought, stunned.
Heck, that wouldn’t have happened last month.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Angelina shrieked.

Spirit tensed, certain something else horrible was going to happen—the School of Air had some of the most destructive Gifts of any of the four Schools: Weather Witchery, Transmutation, and all the forms of Communication and Control. They’d been taught the Communication and Control Gifts could only be used with animals, but Muirin had said once that if they were strong enough, they could be used on people too.

“Hey, hey, Angie, back it down,” Daniel Stewart said. “Chill, huh?”

“Choose,” Angelina said to Maddie and Zoey. “Demerits—or skip lunch.” She smiled coldly. “I’d go hungry, if I were you.”

Spirit finally took a deep breath when the three of them left the Refectory.
Wednesday’s meeting is going to be fun,
she thought, wincing.

She didn’t have long to worry about it. While she was waiting in the lunch line, Addie slipped her a note. They were meeting tonight.

What might happen there was a lot scarier than Dance Committee.

*   *   *

Loch had found them a new hiding place. The Tyniger mansion was three stories high, but above the third floor there was a huge space—like an attic—where the servants’ quarters were. The old servants’ stairs had originally gone from the attic down to the first floor, but now they were blocked off below the third floor—and that meant, to get to the servants’ quarters, you had to go all the way up to the third floor.

Before tonight, Spirit had never been above the second floor, where the Library, the lounges, and the Faculty Dining Room were. The third floor was the teachers’ rooms, but despite the fact that they’d lost more than half the teachers since December, their Breakthrough replacements hadn’t moved in to take their places.

Just as well,
Spirit thought: if she or any of the others were caught up here, they’d really be in trouble. She breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the door at the back of the third floor—it looked like a closet—and ducked inside. It was dark and cold, and smelled of dust. She felt her way up the narrow wooden stairs by touch.

“This way,” Loch whispered, when she reached the top.

She glanced around curiously. Spirit didn’t know where the school maintenance staff lived (or
had
lived, before they’d mostly been replaced by Breakthrough thugs), but clearly it hadn’t been here. The warren of tiny rooms under the eaves of the house had been deserted for a very long time.

There was a faint flickering glow coming from somewhere ahead, enough to light the narrow hallway.
Candles,
Spirit thought, and suddenly in her mind she was back in Stephen Wolferman’s kitchen, listening to him rave and ramble and say things that were almost true. She swallowed hard. He’d been harmless. She’d known that. But somehow she was more afraid now, remembering him, than she had been at the time. Why?

When she reached the room, she saw it was barely bigger than the closet in her room downstairs. It was empty of furniture now, but there wouldn’t have been room for much more than a bed here anyway. It was lit by candles stuck in bowls of sand. Not jar candles—tapers. Loch must have burglarized the kitchen, or wherever all the stuff from the formal dinners had been stored.

Guess it’s safe. I don’t think we’re going to be having another of those anytime soon.

The others were already there. Even Muirin.

“The meeting of the Oakhurst Escape Committee is now in session,” Muirin said sardonically. Despite herself, Spirit had to smile.

“How’d you find this place, Loch?” Burke asked as Spirit seated herself beside him.

“I’ve been spending my nights sneaking around the school seeing what I can find,” Loch said. “If anyone catches me, all I have to say is I’m practicing my Shadewalking and I bet that’d get me off the hook. Oakhurst expects excellence—remember, an Oakhurst graduate who is merely average is one who has failed,” he quoted in pompous tones.

Muirin snorted appreciatively.

“Couldn’t you have found somewhere warmer?” Addie asked, shivering.

“This is the room farthest away from the rooms on the third floor that still have people in them,” Loch said. “I’m not sure how well sound travels between floors. Also—window.” He pointed.

“At least we might see them coming,” Burke agreed.

“And without electricity, we’re safe from the alien ninjas,” Spirit said. Burke squeezed her hand.

“Yeah, okay, give,” Muirin said impatiently. “You said you didn’t get anything out of the guy—in which case, why am I here?”

“What guy?” Addie asked, confused.

Once upon a time, Spirit would have expected Muirin to pass on the information about her and Burke’s trip to Addie—or she would have been able to tell Addie about it herself. Their desperate attempts to keep from attracting the Shadow Knights’ attention were separating them almost as completely as the Shadow Knights themselves. Spirit glanced at Burke, but he didn’t look worried.

“Spirit found one of the bikers who’d been using this place as a clubhouse before it was Oakhurst, and we went and talked to him last night,” Burke said.

“You
what
?” Addie exclaimed. “Without telling the rest of us?”

“
I
knew,” Muirin said smugly. “Too bad it didn’t do any good.”

“I’m not completely sure about that,” Burke said. “Stephen Wolferman—that’s his name—was, um…”

“A few sandwiches shy of a picnic?” Loch suggested, and Burke grimaced in agreement.

“He was the only survivor of what the papers called the ‘Hellriders Massacre’—the Hellriders was the name of their biker gang. On July 31st, 1971, half the gang vanished and the other half died. I don’t know if he was crazy before he joined the Hellriders, or went crazy later, but yeah, like I said, he talked a lot about alien ninjas from the Shadow Dimension. But even so, I think we know how Mordred got out of the tree.”

Muirin waved her hand impatiently.

Spirit sat quietly, letting Burke tell the story. He told the others what he and she had guessed, based on what Wolfman had said—and on the photograph he’d showed them.

“—and if Kenny Hawking isn’t Doctor A, I’ll eat that photo, frame and all,” he finished.

Spirit had been waiting for some kind of blowup from Muirin at the discovery they hadn’t told her everything last night, but to her surprise it didn’t come. “So let me get this straight,” Muirin said. “We still don’t know where Mordred is. But we’ve found Merlin?”

“He has to be, doesn’t he? It’s the only thing that explains Wolfman surviving the ‘massacre’ that night. He and Kenny were friends. Kenny has to have protected him, and only someone as powerful as Merlin could have stood up to Mordred. So Kenny must have been the Reincarnate of Merlin, and got Awakened, and protected Wolfman. Then I guess he must have run for it and hidden out for a while. Then he came back as Doctor A and started Oakhurst. He tried to get all the Round Table back together again.”

“And ended up being held prisoner by the Shadow Knights,” Loch said. “Which would explain a lot of things about Oakhurst. You know, we’ve been assuming the Gatekeepers and the Shadow Knights are the same thing, because the only Gatekeepers we’ve seen have been Shadow Knights. But it’s possible they aren’t. Maybe the Shadow Knights infiltrated the Gatekeepers at some point. And maybe Merlin—Doctor Ambrosius—never knew. And now they have him, and they’ve turned him senile or something.”

“But that still doesn’t tell us what Mordred wants,” Addie said. “If he wants to be King of England—or just get his revenge on Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table—he’s had almost forty years to do it. If Doctor Ambrosius can find every kid with magic, why can’t Mordred find the Reincarnates?”

But he does—and he doesn’t just find them,
Spirit thought.
He kills their families—
our
families …

“He probably has—and if you think I’ve forgotten that little Lizzie said Madison Lane-Rider was a Reincarnate and Anastus said I’m her sister, meaning I’m one too, think again,” Muirin said. “But you know, it’s a lot more fun to crushingly destroy everything the hero holds dear while he’s still around to cry about it, which would also explain why Mordred didn’t knock off Merlin when he got out of the tree. He’s waiting until he’s got everybody all together.”

The others stared at her.

“What?” Muirin said. “I’m just saying. You know, I can’t be the only one who’s read
When I Am An Evil Overlord
.”

“In that case, we don’t have a thing to worry about,” Loch said blithely. “I haven’t seen a single five-year-old child acting as an advisor to anybody.”

“You make it sound like Mordred’s
here,
” Spirit blurted out. “At Oakhurst.”
Maybe Merlin doesn’t know about our families, what happened to them. Maybe he thinks it was just accidents … maybe it was Mordred finding out where we were first, and then he saved us.…

The silence that followed her comment was very loud, and she wished she hadn’t said anything. But it was too late to take it back.

“I have a confession to make,” Addie said after a moment. “Spirit, I never did apologize to you for thinking—for saying—you were being a drama queen about Oakhurst so you could be the person who solved the big problem. You weren’t. You were right. And I wish I’d listened to you. But … you have to understand. Because you were right, it also means we’re all in this way over our heads. Even if this were just a
normal
James Bond conspiracy—”

Muirin snickered, and Addie made a rueful face at her own words.

“—we know who some of the Shadow Knights are. Breakthrough is a huge and wealthy corporation. Anastus Ovcharenko isn’t just their head of security, he’s
Bratva
. And even if he weren’t, Breakthrough has people who’ve been using their magic for years, not just months. Even if we got proof tomorrow that Mordred is, oh, say, Mark Rider—what could we do about it? Nobody will believe us—and we sure can’t stop him ourselves. I’m just so tired of all of this,” she finished in a whisper. “We’re just kids. And we’re up against—what? An immortal evil sorcerer? I want to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.”

“We can’t let them get away with what they’ve done,” Burke said implacably. “Not to mention what they’re
going
to do. There isn’t anyone else we can bring in. Who’d believe us? We might just lead the Shadow Knights straight to a bunch of people they’ll kill. It’s down to us.”

“We should sit tight and wait,” Muirin said firmly. “This is the best place to hide. At least the Shadow Knights
want
us.”

Muirin sounded as if she was trying to sell them on something, Spirit thought worriedly. What? Staying here and doing nothing until … whatever was going to happen, happened? Was it because Muirin thought that as one of the Reincarnates she’d be in a privileged position? Madison Lane-Rider was her Reincarnate-sister, and Madison was a Shadow Knight. Did that mean Muirin would become a Shadow Knight? Was she one already?

“So who cares if they’re out to get Arthur’s Round Table?” Muirin went on. “You keep saying they’re evil, but isn’t that kind of relative? OK, they want to bump off Merlin and any Reincarnates on his side that show up, but that’s their feud, not ours. And we don’t really know what they want to do after that. Maybe what they want to do isn’t so bad. Maybe they’d be better at running things than Congress. Maybe all they want is to make video games. Maybe all that they want is England, and if that’s all, I say let them have it.”

“Your Russian boyfriend killed my parents, Muirin,” Burke said, giving her a stony glare.

“Yes,” Muirin said hastily. “And that was bad. Nobody says it wasn’t. But look. Be smart. If we can make ourselves more valuable to Mark and Madison than he is, they’ll turf him without a blink. You’ll get your revenge. Meanwhile, we stay safe.”

A month ago—a week ago—Spirit would have said Burke didn’t want revenge, he wanted justice. She wished she was still sure of that. Seeing the way he’d attacked Ovcharenko had made her realize what he was capable of. It made her wonder if she knew him as well as she thought she did.

“And what if we can’t … make ourselves more valuable,” Loch said slowly.

“Then at least we don’t get turfed
first,
” Muirin said quickly.

“But Muirin, Burke’s right. We can’t just assume that—aside from, oh, a few hundred murders—they’re going to leave everybody alone. They’re all
magicians
—and considering what they’ve already done just here, do you really want to let them … get away with whatever they’re planning?” Spirit finished awkwardly.

“That’s the trouble,” Muirin answered. “We don’t know who did what. We don’t really know if Doctor A is
the
Merlin—or, you know, just some random Arthurian guy. We can’t even be sure Mark Rider is a bad guy—remember, we’re talking about people that lived in the Dark Ages, and they didn’t work by the same rules we do. All we know about Mordred is from Arthur’s gang. We don’t know…” She trailed off, as if struck by something. “Hey, Spirit, didn’t Lizzie say she wouldn’t recognize any of the bad guys if she hadn’t met them while she was Queen Guinevere?”