The Keeper's Curse (16 page)

Her chest
ached, but she was determined to get the words out. “A ... lion ...
in the woods –”

“
What are you nattering on about?”

“
It was right behind me,” she panted, turning around to point
behind her, but the beast was gone. There was a clear indent in the
snow where she had knocked him over, and paw prints that led in the
other direction. “It was right there, behind me,” she
repeated.

“
I needed you to guard my back.”

Emmy flipped around and glared at him. “Did you not hear me?
I just said a
lion
attacked me.”

“
As in a large feline?”

“
Yes! I almost died.”

“
Well, I think you’ve had a little bit too much excitement
today. Come on, let’s get you back.”

If Emmy
hadn’t been so shaken she would have hit him. He had been right
there, in clear sight of the scene. She had just gotten up to run
when he appeared –

He had
been right there. Emmy examined Cyrus, who was already bored with
the situation, and decided to head back towards the
school.

There had
been no time, she realized, for him to stand watching for any
period of time without seeing the lion. She had knocked it over and
ran into him in a matter of seconds.

It was
also worth noting that he hadn’t looked surprised by her panic, or
when she had told him she had seen a white lion in the middle of
the forest.

Plus, it
was clear Breckin was going to beat him in the one-on-one combat,
so that would have meant he was out, and that he had traveled
through the forest and watched her get attacked. And he didn’t do
anything to stop it.

Emmy
shook her head. She needed to calm down. Between the voice in her
head and the strange event that afternoon regarding the dream
downloader, she was losing it. What she needed was to go home and
clear her head of paranoia.

Chapter 10

The
Morrison’s Spot

Emmy
found herself going quiet the next few days. It seemed there was
little she could do about these several difficult situations, and
she felt the energy slowly seeping out of her. She robotically did
everything she was supposed to do; going to school, training with
Alex, and she had even started working at The Noir Beanery fairly
efficiently considering she only had one arm.

The only
hope she had to hold onto was getting to that dream downloader.
Willow refused to meet her, but she remembered the counsellor
saying it would take about a week to fix the machine, and it had
been a week now. She could not wait any longer. Unfortunately for
her, Jade, like always, saw right through her.

“
Is something the matter?” she probed, as they loitered in
between classes one day.

Either
Emmy’s stoic face was one of the many things she had lost upon
arriving in Methelwood, or Jade was especially intuitive. She
wished she could have told Alex what was going on but the closeness
they had shared when they were children had been severed by the
separation. His role had been reduced to Protective Big
Brother.

But she
had to tell someone. Keeping it in was killing her.

“
Don’t freak out,” Emmy murmured as they pushed their way
through the crowds of students in the halls. “But I’m going to
break into Willow’s office.”

“
WHAT?” Her voice reverberated off the high vaulted
ceiling.

“
Relax, I’ll do it at night when no one’s around.”

“
Is that really the point? If you’re spotted, you’ll be
suspended.”

“
The voice is getting worse,” Emmy said as they entered their
classroom. Persephone waved at their saved seats in the far back.
“I’ll end up in a politically incorrect asylum they call the House
of Troubled and Disturbed if I don’t. I’d prefer
prison.”

“
At least then you’ll get to see your mom,” Persephone said,
hearing only the last part of the conversation.

Jade
threw her a glare and then looked at Emmy with a pleading
expression. Persephone was Jade’s best friend, and she wanted to
tell her everything. Hopeless anyway, Emmy just sighed and nodded.
Jade proceeded to tell Persephone the whole story.

“
Break in, huh?” Persephone said when she was done. “See, this
is what happens when you listen to the voices.”

Emmy was exasperated with her nonchalance. “The voice didn’t
tell me to do anything!
I’m
doing it. I’ve had enough.”

“
If you’re going through with this,” Jade said, “then I’m
going with you.”

“
If Jade’s coming,” Persephone added, “then count me in as
well. I’m not risking her expulsion over this little
prank.”

“
No one is coming with me!” Emmy said. “Jade, thanks for
looking out for me, but I can’t let you do this. I know why you’re
helping me, because you have a crush on Alex. Persephone told me.”
As Jade’s face turned pink, Emmy paused. “Did I just break a girl
code by outing Persephone?”

“
Yeah, a bit,” Persephone said through gritted
teeth.

“
Oh, for goodness sake, I don’t care about that!” Jade said.
“Alright yes, I was trying to help Alex out, but I don’t mind
watching out for you, and I can’t let you do this on your
own.”

Emmy
didn’t know whether to be touched or horrified. A selfish part
inside her was relieved she wouldn’t be alone in this if she were
to say yes. Jade would never take no for an answer, and Persephone
even less so.

“
Fine.”

Persephone grinned and made a clucking noise. Emmy frowned,
knowing she should’ve expected Persephone not to be upset by this
development, but excited. She wrote notes in class of ideas they
could use to sneak in. Emmy wrote back, pleased how nice Persephone
was being to her for a change, but Jade stayed quiet, paying close
attention to the lecture.

That week
Emmy spent more time with Persephone than she had in her whole time
knowing her. They bounced ideas off each other, finally having
something to talk about on the way to equestrian class.

The voice
in her head continued on, but she had learned to ignore it most of
the time. Whatever thoughts got through were usually inane, and he
never seemed to address her directly. It was very bizarre getting
to know him, but never actually being around him. She had learned a
lot of pointless details, like his favourite colours and foods, and
learned to detect his genial personality. At least he didn’t get
angry enough to connect them again, making her see through his
eyes. She also learned that contrary to popular belief, boys didn’t
really think about sex every seven seconds of the day.

She
didn’t see him again until the end of the next week in the
cafeteria during lunch hour. The pull inside her tugged, so she
knew he had to be close. She looked around and, sure enough, he was
at the next table. It was curious seeing him since she so rarely
got to. She knew so much about him yet he was a virtual
stranger.

Although
he was surrounded by a group of boys, it looked from the outside
like he was alone. They all talked with grand hand gestures, except
him and Gabe sitting beside him. It wasn’t that he wasn’t listening
to the conversation, but he didn’t speak. His back was
straightened, his eyebrows raised in a polite attempt to appear
engaged, but it just made him look worried. His expression was far
off with his body shrunken inward, so reserved he came across
standoffish. For someone who looked so young, he was so
serious.

Maybe it
was because he wasn’t talking, but she suddenly had a wild
curiosity to know what he was thinking. Why he wasn’t paying
attention. He was calm now, but usually thoughts came through
because he was either late, busy or stressed.

For the
first time ever, she closed her eyes, and willingly tried to get
inside his head. Unlike trying to resist him, her mind seemed to
gladly accept her want – falling into his head was the most natural
thing in the world.

Urgh, are they almost done? What time is it? Only half past
twelve or something? I’m not even going to be able to do a proper
peacekeeping lesson today, having to go with the tenth graders
...

Ah, he
was strung up. She could see that now. Her eyes lingered to his
hands, which were tapping to a beat like they had in the coffee
shop. His feet swung back and forth under the table, aching for
some physical exertion. His eyes, like a bird’s, were bright and
quick, darting around the room.

Emmy felt
herself being bumped from beside her. Teddy.

“
Hello, there,” he said.

“
We’re fighting with the eleventh graders today,” she
said.

“
How do you know?”

“
I know,” she said, taking a bite of her sandwich.

***

Flin
clapped his hands together, a broad grin on his face.

“
Okay kids,” he boomed. “Today, as you probably realized
already, we are going to be guided by the eleventh graders. You’re
going to be divided into groups, but instead of a last-one-standing
game, we’re instead going to go on a scavenger hunt. Somewhere deep
in the forest we have placed an unusual object that you must find
and bring back.”

“
That’s sort of vague,” Persephone said.

Flin
glared at her for interrupting. “That’s the point. Use your
imagination, Miss Nassar. There are only so many things buried in
the forest that point and glow. Now, the rules state that once the
object is found, it is perfectly fair for the object to be stolen –
the group who hands it to Babbage and me will be the ones rewarded
the top marks. Like last time, we’ll pick the top five most
improved students to choose the groups, this time from tenth
grade.” He pulled out a small piece of paper. “Evangeline Rathers,
Jade Woodworker, Lennox Elway, Jacques Bishop and Timothy
Fowler.”

If Emmy
hadn’t felt Teddy clap her on the back and heard Jade let out a
chuckle of surprise, she would have thought she heard wrong. Still,
she followed Jade up to the front of the cluster of students on the
edge of the forest, knowing Babbage didn’t like to be kept
waiting.

Since her
name was said first, she got the first pick. She couldn’t choose
Jade, so she shouted out, “Breckin” before her brain had realized
what she said. He made his way over to her, his expression a mix of
surprise and politeness.

“
So, then, is Lana like a nickname or something?” he said
lowly, while the others picked their first members.

Why did
he keep trying to be friendly with her? Was the black hatred not
rolling off her obviously enough? “Something like that,” she said,
not looking at him.

The next
three rounds Emmy picked Teddy, Ivory and Ebony, but after that she
pretty much just picked people she saw that were decent on the
field. After about ten minutes or so the groups were picked, and
Flin blew the whistle, commencing the hunt.

Emmy
figured she would ride coattails as usual, but the members she had
chosen all seemed to be looking at her to tell them what to do. It
was ridiculous; just because she had improved the most didn’t mean
she was any good. She had improved so much because she had started
from nothing a few weeks ago. They had the future Eldoir in their
group and they were turning to her?

“
Um, okay,” she said, the group of them just standing in the
middle of the forest alone. “I’ve never done this before, so, are
there some landmarks we should be looking for to find this
thing?”

“
We’re near the orb’s wall,” a voice shouted in the crowd, not
visible to Emmy. “We could search around there for a
while.”

“
I don’t know, that sounds like it would take an awfully long
time,” Teddy said.

“
What about the tunnels?” shouted another member.

“
What tunnels?” Emmy asked.

“
There’s an underground labyrinth someone built a few decades
ago,” Breckin said. “They used it to hide in.”

“
I think we should split up,” Emmy said. “How many of us are
there? Twenty? That’s enough to cover a lot of ground, right? Let’s
go to the wall first. We’ve got an hour and a half, so if we don’t
find it in half an hour, we’ll meet up and move on to the tunnels.
How many of you have some useful crafts?”

Four
hands raised. “Perfect. Including Breckin, that’s five, so we’ll
split up into five groups of four. I want every group to have a
member with a specialty craft. You can choose your own groups;
however, I want Teddy, Breckin and that guy in the back. And I know
this’ll be hard for you, but please avoid fighting the other teams
as much as possible.” Her group stared back at her like she was
speaking a foreign language. “Okay, go.”

Emmy was
amazed at how efficient they were. Within ten seconds they were off
in all different directions, heading towards the wall. She and the
three boys moved on to their section.

“
I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk so much, Rookie,”
Teddy said as they ran.