Shadow Grail #2: Conspiracies (22 page)

She thought hard, and the only reference to
anyone
being gay here she could remember had come from her History courses, where they were always referred to as “ho-mo-SEX-u-als.”
Yeah, nothing but Rainbow Pride here,
she thought bitterly. She gave Loch a sympathetic smile. “Dylan would probably prank you—if you were
lucky
. As lousy as things are now, it wouldn’t take much to make your life complete misery.”

“Besides, I’ve got no idea if he likes me back, not like that. And I don’t want to screw things up. I just thought … I like you, Spirit. I just don’t
like
you.”

She smiled again, and it was more real this time. “Friends are harder to get than boyfriends. I like you, too, Loch. That won’t change,” she promised.

Loch’s answering smile was beautiful. He dusted off his hands and stood up. “That’s it. We’ve been through absolutely everything. If there’s something about another Oakhurst, it’s not down here.”

*   *   *

They all got together for lunch the next day; Burke sported a bandaged wrist. He didn’t comment on it, and Spirit didn’t ask, but even under the bandages it looked swollen. “I’ve got to get out of here,” he said numbly. “I just—”

They all looked up as David Krandal and Ms. Corby came into the Refectory and headed straight for their table. Burke’s back was to the door, and he didn’t notice they were staring at anything until Mr. Krandal was right there.

“Mr. Hallows, Doctor Ambrosius would like to see you immediately,” Ms. Corby said, just as Burke looked up.

Burke went flush, then a little pale. Ms. Corby didn’t say anything else. She gestured toward the door, so he got up quickly and followed her out, with Mr. Krandal following both of them.

As soon as they cleared the door, the room began to buzz with speculation.

The others exchanged looks, and even Muirin was unusually sober. “That can’t be good,” Addie said, slowly. “And I don’t think it’s because he punched someone or something.”

Spirit nodded, a feeling of dread coming over her. “I—I think something is really wrong. I think maybe we should go wait for him.”

Addie nodded, and they all got up, even Muirin leaving her dessert half-eaten, and headed for the Entry Hall.

It was a good thing they did, too; just as they got there, they saw the doors to Doctor Ambrosius’s office open, and Burke stumbled out. “I’m very sorry, Burke,” Doctor A. was saying. “Very sorry indeed.”

The door closed behind him, and they all converged on him. Before any of them could ask what was wrong, he looked up at them with a dazed expression. “It’s—my mom and dad. They’re—they’re
dead
.”

“What?” exclaimed Loch, going white.

“How?” demanded Addie at the same time.

“House fire,” Burke said. He was as white as paper. “There was just barely enough to identify. He won’t let me go. He won’t even let me go to the funeral. I—” He stopped, and stood there looking like a touch would shatter him.

“Burke, that can’t have been a coincidence!” Spirit exclaimed before she could stop herself.

He turned on her with a face like a mask. “I’m sick of all this conspiracy crap!” he said, his voice cracking. “For God’s sake!” He shoved out a hand at her. “You can just leave me the hell alone while you’re all involved in that. And—just leave me alone!”

He pushed his way through them and ran toward the dorm rooms. “Go after him!” Spirit said, shoving Loch a little. “Go! Go talk to him!”

Loch shook his head. “Leave him alone, Spirit. He’s hurting. Let it go.”

“But he trusts you, and besides, you’re another guy, he’ll listen to you!” she exclaimed. Addie nodded, backing her up. But Loch shook his head stubbornly.

“You don’t understand. Just leave him alone,” he repeated, and walked off in the direction of the classrooms.

“I thought ‘you don’t understand’ was supposed to be the girl’s line,” Muirin said, but even the gibe didn’t have her usual force behind it.

*   *   *

“I still think we should take all this to Doctor Ambrosius,” Addie said stubbornly. “I think we should ask him about our parents, and find out about this other Oakhurst. He
has
to know where it is. Maybe he could send Burke there…” Her voice trailed off. “I don’t know … maybe he’d start to feel better there and want to come back.”

Burke hadn’t been at dinner last night, and he hadn’t shown up at breakfast or lunch. Loch wasn’t talking much. Muirin said if Loch wasn’t going to talk to Burke,
she
would—since she had a break after lunch—and headed resolutely toward the boys’ side. Spirit still felt his rejection like a blow to the gut. She felt muddled, and was having a hard time thinking.

“I don’t—” she began, then gave up under Addie’s gaze. “Oh, all right. I sure don’t want to ask the Riders…”

Addie got up and gestured to Spirit imperiously. “He has open office hours today. We’ll never have a better chance. Come on.”

For the second time in two days, Spirit found herself right outside Doctor Ambrosius’s door. They could hear him in there.

“… and sign here,” Ms. Corby was saying.

“Indeed. Jam tarts. We must start serving more jam tarts, Ms. Corby. The children will love them. Little rewards for good behavior. Like pretzels.”

“… and here.”

“Pity about the cricket pitch. But the lawn was just too torn up.”

“We’ve ordered the special equipment. It should be arriving in two weeks.”

“Lovely. And don’t forget the Dance.”

Addie and Spirit exchanged startled glances, but neither spoke. It wasn’t just that Doctor Ambrosius was rambling, it was that his
voice
even sounded vague. Addie gestured to Spirit, and the two of them slipped away, pausing in the door of the lounge. “What was that all about?” Spirit asked, wide-eyed.

Addie looked back in the direction of the headmaster’s office. “He’s always had times of being a little … you know …
absentminded
. But I’ve never heard him like that before.” She sucked on her lower lip. “I think he’s had a stroke or something. He’s losing it, or maybe already lost it. I bet that’s why he called the Riders—he must have realized he was in trouble, and called them while he still could.”

Spirit felt that all-too-familiar sinking feeling of despair. She hadn’t really
trusted
Dr. Ambrosius, but now she realized she’d counted on him more than she’d known. “Now what?” she asked, helplessly.

“I don’t know,” Addie replied. “Just … let’s keep this between us and Loch for now. Okay?”

“Because Burke doesn’t want to hear about it—” Spirit said tentatively.

“And because Muirin’s too close to the Riders, and…” Addie bit her lip apprehensively, “And if Elizabeth’s story was even partly right … some of the Breakthrough people
are
Shadow Knights. Whether or not there’s mythical King Arthur stuff mixed up in there, the fact is, we do have enemies, we know some of them are from here, and infiltration is always the best way to get things done. Doctor Ambrosius seemed perfectly all right until the Breakthrough people got here. So … maybe it isn’t a stroke or something. Maybe
they
did it to him. If that’s true, the last thing we want Muirin to know is that
we
know Dr. Ambrosius has gone senile.”

*   *   *

Burke wasn’t at dinner—again. “He wouldn’t even come to the door of his room,” Muirin said, nodding her head at the empty chair. “He just said none of us understood and to leave him alone.” She looked for a moment as if she was going to make one of her catty remarks, then shrugged. “He’s probably right. If Step died in a fire, I’d throw a party.”

“He needs—I don’t know, something I guess he figures he can’t get from any of us.” Loch sighed.

“Well
I
need some fun. Getting all emo isn’t going to help Burke. I’ve got a date,” Muirin announced.

“A date? You call watching a movie in the lounge with a guy a date?” Addie asked, amused.

“
Au contraire, ma fond,
this is a real date. Going out to a movie in Radial.” Muirin rolled her eyes a bit. “Okay, so it’s not bright lights, big city. But it’s off the campus. Madison’s dropping us off and picking us up. This was her idea.”

So now she’s aiding and abetting dates?
Spirit thought. This was getting stranger all the time.
Tell me it’s not Ovcharenko … because I think that might be illegal.

“Who with?” Addie asked, eyes narrowed, probably echoing Spirit’s last thought.

“Dylan Williams.” She made a face as all three of them stared at her as if she was crazy. “What? He’s okay. Besides, I think he’s on the short list for the Gatekeepers, and I know I am.”

Spirit felt completely appalled. Muirin wasn’t even
considering
that these Gatekeepers—or some of them anyway—might just be the Shadow Knights
who had tried to kill them.
Okay, maybe not them, specifically, but they’d certainly been trying to kill other students. And succeeding!

“Anyway, I have to get ready. Let me know if Captain Emo comes out of his room, maybe he’ll listen to one of us. If nothing else, I’m going to tell him he needs to see Doc Mac. That’s just sense.” Muirin got up, gave them all a twiddle of her fingers, and bounced out of the room.

“Lounge,” Addie said. Spirit and Loch nodded.

When they got there, the first thing that Loch asked was: “Did you talk to Doctor A.?” The looks on their faces must have given everything away, because his own face fell and he said, “Oh hell. That bad?”

“Worse,” Addie replied. “We eavesdropped. Ms. Corby was in there with him, getting him to sign papers, and he was talking about jam tarts and cricket pitches. As in, senile, demented, Alzheimer’s, or a stroke.”

“He was just rambling about absolutely nothing,” Spirit added. “It sounded like Ms. Corby was just in there to get his signature and wasn’t even bothering to listen to him.”

“Great. Just great.” Loch rubbed his forehead. “So effectively Rider and Company are in charge?”

“That would be our guess,” Addie told him. “We need to talk to someone. Right now, the only ones I can think of would be Doc Mac and Lily Groves.”

“Ugh,” Loch replied. “Both bad choices. Groves … she’s got a poker face I can’t read, and she’s been here since the beginning and she’s more than good enough a magician to have been the one to call the Wild Hunt. I can’t tell if she’s in favor of Breakthrough or against them. Doc Mac—I don’t trust shrinks. And since Muirin thinks Burke ought to be talking to him, I’m not sure where that places him. Maybe he’s another recruiter for the Breakthrough people and their Gatekeepers.”

All Spirit could think of was QUERCUS telling her to trust her instincts. It wasn’t as if they had anything else to go on right now.

“Doc Mac,” she said, finally. “I’ll go—he already said to come talk to him whenever I needed to.”

The other two nodded; Loch reluctantly, Addie with reserve.

“Good thing I have that free period every day,” she said with a grimace. “I’ll set it up for that. And don’t tell Muirin.”

“Not a chance,” Loch replied quickly. He shook his head. “Muirin and Dylan. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was mind controlled.”

Maybe she is,
Spirit thought as they broke up.
I can’t think of
any
other reason.

*   *   *

“Spirit,” Doc Mac greeted her, gesturing at the chair as she hesitated in the doorway. “Still having nightmares? Or do you want to know how you can talk Burke into coming here? Don’t worry about that, he already is.”

Spirit took the chair. “Actually … I guess I’ll come straight to the point. Doctor Ambrosius told me that the reason we’re all here is because we’re Legacies—that our parents graduated from Oakhurst, so when our parents died, part of the deal was that we got to come to Oakhurst until we were eighteen. That’s because we have magic. Nobody comes here who doesn’t, and if I hadn’t had magic, I wouldn’t be here.”

Doc Mac nodded.

What Doc Mac didn’t know (she hoped) was that Spirit had a wireless microphone in her pocket, courtesy of Loch, who’d bought it from a spy store in Billings, slipping away by cab and returning before anyone got suspicious. Muirin, it seemed, wasn’t the only one with a charge card that Oakhurst didn’t know about. Loch’s purchases at that store had been tiny things, all easily concealed; his shopping bag of books and magazines had been nothing more than the cover for what he had really been after.

“That’s what I’ve been told myself,” Doc Mac said. “I’ve only been here for about five years, and of course, I’m
not
a Legacy.”

“Well … see, that’s kind of the logic hole I’ve run up against,” Spirit told him. “If I’m a Legacy, then my parents had to go to Oakhurst. Same for Loch, we were both told that when we got here. The problem is, my parents didn’t
have
magic. Believe me, they were not the types to keep that sort of thing secret. Dad especially.” She rolled her eyes a little, even though the memory made her tear up. “If there was any way to pull a prank on us, he’d do it, and if he’d had magic he would have used it. Mom … she would have, too. The same way she showed us she had a gun just in case, and showed us she knew how to use it.…”

Doc Mac looked at her warily. “So—you’re saying?”

“That either they didn’t go to Oakhurst, and Doctor Ambrosius was lying, or they did, but it wasn’t
this
Oakhurst—that there’s another Oakhurst for the people that don’t have magic.” She didn’t add that this would be really strange if it was so. “In fact, there has to be, doesn’t there? Not every kid that’s a Legacy has magic. My sister didn’t— So Burke really needs to be allowed to go there before he snaps. And—I’d like to go there, too. I’m not cut out for this and even though you keep saying I have magic, if I do, it’s obviously completely useless for what’s coming.”

Doc Mac cleared his throat, and when he spoke, he sounded troubled. “Spirit, if there
is
another Oakhurst, I’ve never heard about it. Never. I’m sorry, but that’s all I can tell you. If that was what you were counting on to help you and Burke, well…” He stopped and shook his head. “This is all there is, Spirit. I can’t account for the fact that your parents never showed any signs of magic, but sometimes the very people you think would have no secrets at all are the ones that harbor the most.”