Shadow Grail #2: Conspiracies (28 page)

He managed to connect with something vital. The music cut off, alerting even the kids who were still dancing that something was wrong.

Silence and the fear descended.

But this time was different. This time they could all see, there was light, light that the Shadow Knights couldn’t put out.

Before the Shadow Knights could move, Dylan grabbed a piece of burning wood, and charged the nearest Knights with a bellow of fury. The three Knights might have been ready to fight, but their horses weren’t ready to face a screeching maniac flailing at them with fire. They bolted.

At that, almost the entire student body broke out into shouts of defiance and anger. The fear strengthened; people stopped shouting, and started to back away—but there was nowhere to back up to except the fire.

Do something!
Spirit thought, desperately.

“What are you waiting for?” Dylan screeched, his voice sharp with hysteria. “Are you a bunch of sheep, or what?”

The Knights struck first. They raised their arms as one, and a howling wind filled with ice fragments sprung up behind them, cutting everyone off from anyone not around the fire.

“Not this time!”
Kelly screamed, and picked up a snowball and threw it at one of the Knights. It hit him in the middle of his chest. He looked down at the splotch of snow. Looked up at her. Started to raise his hand.

Somehow that was the one thing that the paralyzed students needed. Kelly was as popular as anyone
could
be at Oakhurst; she was fair, and when you got caught at doing something minor, more often than not she would cut you a break.

Instead of hammering a helpless teenager with his magic, the Knight suddenly found himself and his friends the focus of a school full of terrified, but angry, young magicians. Again, Spirit felt that strange sensation of being the conduit for something—and it all erupted at once.

It was like being in the middle of that attack on the endurance riders, except this time, both sides were playing. Those who had Combat magic used it. Those who didn’t looked for a weapon of any sort. Fueled by energy frantic for any sort of outlet, the Combat magicians of Oakhurst filled the air with spells. Fueled by—what? The fear? According to Ms. Groves, the fear of someone else was a great fuel for spells. Spears of ice, gouts of fire, deadly little tornados and fierce blasts of straight-line wind pummeled the Shadow Knights who’d been expecting to confront a huddle of terrified youngsters.

And at first, the unexpected attack worked. The Shadow Knights actually stood there, stunned, for a long moment. Then they were forced to duck for cover under the barrage of magical weaponry.

But a moment later the Shadow Knights were rallying. The ice-weapons were vaporized by shields of fire; fireballs impacted planes of force. And the little tornados found themselves sucked into a greater whirlwind. A hurricane-force wind whirled around the Oakhurst kids; the Air Mages were forced to give up their offense in order to keep the kids and the bonfire shielded from it.

Fireballs arced toward the Oakhurst line, joined by lightning out of the whirlwind. Spirit gasped as one kid was hit by lightning and went down; another had to drop and roll in the snow when a fireball struck him and set his coat ablaze. All around her, she could hear cries of pain, and screams.

The Breakthrough guards who were
supposed
to be keeping the kids safe were nowhere to be seen.

Of course.
Some tiny, calm part of Spirit’s mind wondered what excuse they would use for not being here.

But the Oakhurst students weren’t down yet. Illusory copies of Dylan led the kids charging at the lines; kids who were throwing whatever came to hand found themselves with piles of perfectly round ice balls beside them. There must have been a couple of people who had Animal Telepathy and Animal Control, because the mounted Knights found their horses practically turning themselves inside out to be rid of their riders.

The Knights managed to deflect the magical weapons, but they did so at the expense of
not
deflecting the physical objects being hurled like missiles. And the Oakhurst kids had been getting a
lot
of target practice these past several weeks. It showed. Spirit had the satisfaction of seeing one of her own ice balls make a direct hit inside the hood of the Knight nearest her, and seeing him go down. Silence from the Shadow Knights turned to cries of fury and pain of their own.

Thank goodness they hadn’t brought any physical weapons along!

Please, please, please let them NOT remember there are a lot of guns here!

Someone here could Jaunt—Spirit couldn’t make out who it was in the chaos, just a kid-shaped blot against the bonfire. Just as her eyes fastened on him, he vanished—then returned a split second later with his arms full of kendo weapons and fencing sabers. He dropped them and vanished, returned again, and repeated the trip three more times in the space of a minute or so … but on the last return, he swayed and pitched over, exhausted. She pulled on Burke’s arm and pointed.

Burke dropped her hand and they both ran for the pile of weapons. The barrage of fire, ice, and wind was falling off, as everyone reached the end of their energy.

There was a moment of utter stillness as the winds fell and the fire and ice stopped The circle of Knights faced the circle of kids again. It was deathly quiet.

One, then another, and another of the Knights revved their snarling snowmobile and ATV engines. The mounted Knights got their horses under control again.

Spirit’s heart nearly stopped.
No—no—

The terror swelled, pressing down on them. Someone sobbed.

And that was when some of the others, now with
real
weapons in their hands, turned to face the Knights.

Dylan stepped forward defiantly, head up. He didn’t look cowed or frightened. In fact, he looked as if he was out for some blood.

“CHARGE!”
Dylan screamed at the top of his lungs. He seized a kendo sword from someone next to him and brandished it over his head before bullrushing the line. His impromptu army, including Spirit and Burke, followed on his heels.

The Shadow Knights broke and ran. And the terror collapsed.

Those who could still control their horses picked up some of those on foot. The rest were snagged by those on ATVs and snowmobiles. There was no way the students could catch them on foot, but they pursued them out past the bounds of the campus, returning only when they were sure the Knights would not be back.

And that was when the party really started.

*   *   *

There was no chance the teachers would be able to chase them back to their rooms before dawn, so no one even tried. Doc Mac and Lily Groves even made a raid on the kitchen and put sandwich fixings out with the drinks at the gym—probably to ensure the students didn’t tear the kitchen apart looking for something to eat.

While Doctor Ambrosius didn’t go out to the celebrants having a pagan war dance around the dying bonfire, he did go around to those who’d decided to go back to the gym where it was warmer. By the time he got around to Burke, Addie, and Spirit, the consensus was that this had all been Dylan’s idea, from the “prank” to the defense of Oakhurst, a tale none of them intended to dispute.

Spirit felt as cratered as if she’d been on an all-day endurance ride, and when Burke suggested they move over to the lounge, she readily agreed. It wasn’t as if she had any more energy for dancing.

“I’m starving,” Burke said, looking with dismay at the food table in the gym, which seemed to have been attacked by swarms of locusts.

“I heard a rumor Doc Mac got someone to put food out on the buffet line at the Refectory, too,” Spirit told him. “Bet Murr-cat’s there.”

They headed back to the main building. “Bet the Breakthrough goons all have a good excuse for why they weren’t around when the balloon went up,” Burke observed sourly.

“Probably lots of excuses,” she agreed. Burke reached out and took her hand halfway to the building. “And probably lots of doctored evidence ‘proving’ they were where they’ll claim they were. But if Mr. Ovcharenko shows up tomorrow with a black eye, be sure to thank me.” She had been pretty certain the guy she’d nailed with her ice ball had been Ovcharenko.

“One day it’s going to be more than just a black eye,” Burke muttered, then stopped, just as they reached the door. “And you never did answer my question.”

Now she was confused. “What question?”

“You said me saying we were going steady wasn’t true, and I asked you if you wanted it to be,” Burke told her, pulling on her hand a little so she faced him.

Once again, Spirit felt as if she’d been stunned stupid. But she managed to stammer out something enough like “yes” that Burke pulled her into his arms for a kiss that lasted long enough that she started going weak in the knees.

Then his stomach growled loudly.

They both laughed. “I guess we’d better find you some food,” she teased, and they went inside.

The rumors were true; anything leftover that could be made into a sandwich or thrown into the microwave had been put out on the line. To Burke’s immense satisfaction, Spirit identified some bits of meat in a pan as the leftover steak from three nights ago, and the two of them made a plate of steak sandwiches, which they took into the lounge.

There they found the rest of their friends presiding over the remains of their own feast.

“We did it,” Muirin said, in tones of disbelief. “We did it.”

“And Dylan got all the credit,” Loch grumbled.

“Blame,”
Spirit reminded him. “Believe me, this is one we don’t want extra credit for.”

“Mark and Madison are really not going to be happy about this,” Muirin agreed. “And Dyl’s going to be Anastus’s little chew toy from now on.”

“Better him than me,” Burke muttered, then spoke up after inhaling half his sandwich. “So … now what? They lost this round, but they aren’t going to give up.”

“We keep our heads down until we find a good way to get out of here,” Spirit said firmly. “We need somewhere safe to go, and we need a way to get there. Meanwhile, we hide right here.”

Addie nodded; so did Loch. “My father had a lot of vacation properties,” Loch said slowly. “I just need to remember where some of them are. We had a system of where we hid spare keys and I know all the alarm codes.”

“We might be able to use the horses, or maybe steal a car,” Addie said. “Once we get out and get somewhere safe, Loch and I can get to people on our Trusts.” She got a sly look on her face. “I know just the person, too. He
hates
video games. All I have to say is that Breakthrough took over the school to get the kids hooked on games and he’ll help us figure out what to do.”

Spirit nodded. “Okay then. Until we get a plan and a way to get out of here, it’s hide in plain sight. Don’t fail anything, because we don’t want them to cull us, but don’t be outstanding, either. Just look absolutely normal and average.”

Burke squeezed her hand. “Got it,” he said, and cracked a small smile. “Just a regular guy and his steady girl. What could be more normal than that?”

Spirit almost giggled at the looks on the faces of the other three, and enjoyed her moment of happiness. Tomorrow they’d have to deal with the repercussions—and there
would
be repercussions. They’d have to figure out how to keep Mark Rider and Breakthrough from figuring out what they were doing. They’d have to find out how to get away. She’d have to decide if QUERCUS was a friend who could help, or a trap. And somehow, they would have to figure out who Mordred was—and where—and how to take him out for good. Because she knew in the depths of her soul that Mordred wasn’t going to stop until they were all dead … or his servants.

But not this minute. She squeezed Burke’s hand back. Tonight, at least, was going to be theirs.

T
OR
T
EEN
B
OOKS BY
M
ERCEDES
L
ACKEY AND
R
OSEMARY
E
DGHILL

Shadow Grail #1: Legacies

Shadow Grail #2: Conspiracies

P
RAISE FOR
S
HADOW
G
RAIL
#1:
L
EGACIES

“Lackey and Edghill know how to spin a yarn, immediately pulling the reader into Spirit’s mourning psyche as well as the fast-paced action of the mystery, mixing marvelous elements of fairy tales and mythology into both the plot and references in the students’ Magical History class. There’s also a touch of gentle romance, and readers who appreciate everything from X-Men to Harry Potter will be begging for the sequel.”

—Booklist

“A really good read. The authors do a great job of juxtaposing a scary theme and the ordinary angst of adolescents. They also do a nice job with the metaphor of magical gifts as means of self-actualization.
Legacies
has enough action for reluctant readers, and enough character development for teens to see themselves in this group of friends. The book’s fans are sure to eagerly await Spirit’s discovery of her mage gift and further confrontations with the forces of evil.”

—School Library Journal

“A great read for those who love contemporary fantasy or want a more urban version of a magical boarding school.”

—
Sacramento Book Review

“The authors expertly balance a heady mixture of mystery and teenage romance in this well-paced first of the Shadow Grail series.”

—RT Book Reviews

“An exciting thriller in which the locale, creepy Oakhurst Academy, brings the freshness with its foreboding sort of gothic ambience.… With a bit of romance, a lot of suspense, and a young adult investigation into missing students, teenage fans will want to attend the dances at eerie Oakhurst Academy.”

—Midwest Book Review