The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (30 page)

“I really don’t know,” he said.  “I only remember seeing the
symbol before on my uncle’s book.”

“Maybe that’s something,” Isaac said.  “If your dad put this
symbol here and your uncle put the symbol on that book, maybe there’s something
there.  Like a connection.”

Everyone looked at Isaac who quickly turned red and looked
like he wanted to crawl under the table.  “Or maybe not,” he said quickly.

“No.  I think you’re right,” Becca said.  “What element does
your uncle use?”

“Wind,” Elijah answered.

“Did you know what your dad used?”

Elijah thought about it.  “I think my uncle said something
about him using water.”

“So the symbols fit,” Becca exclaimed, looking more excited
by the minute.  “Your uncle didn’t even look at this book, right?  And your dad
never had the book with the key.  It all fits!”

“Okay,” said Paul, looking somewhere between excited and
frustrated.  “So Elijah’s dad wrote in this and his uncle wrote in the other
book.  I’m glad we just spent an hour figuring that out.  Now, where’s the
cube?”

Elijah would have liked nothing more than to smack Paul just
then, except he was right.  What did that all mean?

Adam spoke Elijah’s thoughts.  “Well, the only thing we have
managed to prove is that Elijah’s father and uncle decided at some point to
mark their books with their symbol.”

With those words spoken, the energy seemed to be let out of
the room.  Then, as if he was just hit with a bolt of lightning, Elijah sat
up.  He looked directly at Adam, turning his entire body so that he could look
him in the eye with blazing intensity.  “What did you just say?”

Adam looked back cautiously.  “About your dad and uncle?”

“Yeah!”

“That they decided to write their elemental symbols on their
books.  Why?”

Elijah raced out of the room and grabbed his bag.  He dug
deep into the pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that had been there since
the summer when Walter Henderson told him his father’s pocket watch was broken
because of a piece of paper inside.  He grabbed the watch and ran back to face
his wide-eyed friends.

“My father left me this watch.  He always told me that it
was special and that he would pass it down to me.  But there was a note
inside.  At first I thought it was a message to me, but I couldn’t think of
anything it would be saying.  I’m still not sure I understand, but what you
just said, Adam—Look!”  He read the message out loud.

“Where the nameless reside

Where history and knowledge hide

On the place where two decide

Lies the path to the gem inside.”

“The place where two decide.  Doesn’t that sound like what
we just talked about?” Elijah asked.

“Yes,” Becca said.  “But without more context, it doesn’t
make any sense.”

“I’m not sure it makes sense
with
context,” Paul
whispered to Elijah.

“The place where ‘two decide’,” Elijah said.  “The two could
be my uncle and my dad.  And they decided to put their symbol on—”

“On what?” Paul asked.  “These two pages?  I gotta say, I
ain’t seein’ a path to no gem here.”

“I think we’re trying to build a puzzle from the inside,”
Becca said.  “Elijah, if this is also some sort of message or riddle, we should
probably try to figure it out from the top.  ‘The nameless reside’ sounds like
a home of some sort.  Right?”  She looked around for approval.

Hannah frowned.  “Reside means to live somewhere, so I think
you’re right, Becca.  But who are the nameless?”

“Nameless, like they don’t have a name?” Isaac asked.

“Brilliant!” Paul said sarcastically.

“Well then you tell me what that means!” Isaac retorted.

Paul scoffed but said nothing.

“Doesn’t everyone have a name?” Elijah said.  “I can’t even
think of anyone who wouldn’t have a name.”

“Maybe it’s like important people,” Isaac suggested.  “You
know, how some people are only known by one name.  Like Plato or Aristotle.”

“Cleopatra,” Hannah added.

“Nero,” Isaac shouted.  “Elvis!”

Paul snorted.  “So what are we saying about them?  That
these people reside somewhere.  Where do these people reside?  They’re dead!”

“Plus they’re not nameless,” Elijah said.  “They all have a
name.  Who are nameless?”

Adam looked deep in thought.  His brow looked contorted,
even under the dreadlocks covering his forehead.  “What if it’s not literal?”
he asked.

“What do you mean?” Becca asked, intrigued.

“What does it mean to have a name?” Adam posed, looking like
an idea was dawning on him.  “If you have a name, it means you belong to
someone, right?”

“You mean like a last name?” Paul asked.

“Yeah.  If you don’t belong to anyone, you don’t have a
name.  Like an orphan.”

Elijah remembered that Adam was once an orphan before being
taken in by a Magi family.  It made sense that he would have thought of orphans
before anyone else.

“And the place where they reside would be an orphanage,”
Adam continued.

“Do you think this means Saint Phillip’s Academy?” Elijah
asked.

“It could,” Adam answered.  “You even said yourself that
your dad went there.  It would make sense.”

“More than finding out where Elvis lives,” Paul stated,
elbowing Isaac in the side.

“Well, let’s go with it,” Becca said.  “So what’s next?  We
have a location—Saint Phillip’s.  Then what?”

Hannah read the next line.  “Where history and knowledge
hide.”

“Ah, geez!” Paul said and stomped to the door.  “I’m getting
something to eat.  Let me know when you figure it out.”

“Where do history and knowledge hide?” Becca asked.

“What if we break it up?” Hannah suggested.  “Where does
history hide?”

“In a book?” Elijah said.  “You can’t really
look
for
history except in records.”

“Or someone really old,” Isaac said.

“What about a church or a castle?” Hannah asked.

“I don’t think you can find knowledge in a castle,” Becca
argued.

“A church has old artifacts,” Elijah said.  “Stained glass
windows.  Art.  There’s definitely history.  And you could argue there’s
knowledge too.”

“But Saint Phillip’s Academy isn’t a church,” Becca said. 
“We have to keep things in context with the first clue.”

“What if it’s a church by the academy?” Adam suggested.

Becca frowned.  “I think we’re getting too far away from the
important point.”

“And what’s that?” Paul asked, returning with a half-eaten
apple in his hand.

“Elijah’s father.  If this is a riddle written for Elijah,
then the answer would have to be something Elijah would recognize.”  Becca
looked at Elijah.  “Does a church by Saint Phillip’s mean anything to you?”

“No,” Elijah said.  “Not a church.  But what about a
library?  Knowledge and history are definitely found in libraries.  And there’s
one at Saint Phillip’s Academy.”

Elijah’s idea must have been a good one because everyone
seemed to become energized.  The corners of Becca’s mouth perked up.  Paul
devoured the rest of his apple.  Isaac’s goofy smile returned and he rubbed his
hands together.  Even Phinneas, who had remained quiet for most of their
discussion, looked a bit restless.

“So we have the library at Saint Phillip’s,” Becca said. 
“It sounds good to me.”

“Hold on,” Paul said, reading the note over Elijah’s
shoulder.  “What’s this about knowledge hiding?  ‘Where history and knowledge
hide’.  If it’s in the library, it’s not exactly hidden.”

“What about the archives?” Adam spoke.  “They keep those
locked away underground.  You have to get permission just to go in there.”

“I like that,” Becca said.  “Elijah?  What do you think?”

Elijah sighed.  “It sounds good in theory, but we’re still
looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“Better than looking for the cube somewhere out there,” Paul
said, pointing off in a wayward direction.  “At least here we have it narrowed
down.”

“Sort of,” Elijah said.

“Well, let’s keep going,” Becca insisted.  “The next line is
what, Elijah?”

“On the place where two decide.”

“Didn’t you say that was the symbol on the page?” Paul
asked.

“I think that fits,” Elijah said.  “The ‘two’ would then be
my uncle and dad, and they decided to, what, draw a symbol in books?  So do we
need to go look through every book in the Saint Phillip’s Academy archives for
another symbol?”

“Well, what about the number we were trying to figure out
before?” Hannah said.  “Couldn’t it be some page number, or better yet, a
library call number?”

“Of course!” Becca said.  “That’s why it’s in the symbol. 
The place where they decided to put their symbols could be a page number inside
of that book’s call number.  If we could narrow it down to one book, that’s way
easier.”

“So what’s the ‘gem inside’?” Elijah asked.

“Whatever it is, your little riddle says we’ll find it in
that book, right?” Paul said.

“Except, how are we going to get to the Saint Phillip’s
Academy archives?” Becca asked.  “I doubt we can sneak out like we did last
time.  We’re going to have enough trouble sneaking back into the barracks.  And
even if we did get out, how would we get
into
the library archives?”

“Can
you
help us?” Paul called over to Phinneas.

Phinneas looked slightly distressed.  Elijah was concerned
he was slipping back into his fuzzy state when he turned to Paul with a funny
look on his face.  “Of course I can,” he said.  Elijah paused to study
Phinneas.  Even if he was thinking clearly now, there was no guarantee he would
be clear enough when they would need him.  They needed another plan, but now
was not the time nor the place to discuss it.

“We can figure out specifics later,” Elijah said, shooting
Becca a look.  She seemed to understand Elijah’s concern because she nodded
back.

“Why later?” Paul asked.  “Isn’t the point of meeting
tonight to talk about what we need to do?  Otherwise why not just talk at the
barracks?”

“Drop it, Paul,” Becca hissed.

“Why?” Paul insisted.  The others were starting to catch on
to Becca and Elijah’s vibe, and they glanced around at each other curiously.

Isaac put his hand on Paul’s shoulder quickly, which made
Paul jump back, but he seemed to get the message, even though he looked like he
was ready to continue arguing.

“Okay,” said Becca.  “So we have a book with a code on it
that we need to find at Saint Phillip’s, which will hopefully give us answers
to the sphere.  What’s the number again?”

“AM6042.3,” Isaac read, looking closely at the book.

“Someone write that down,” Becca commanded.  “Are we good to
stop for tonight?”

“Sure,” said Paul.  “Now we just have to sneak back into the
barracks, steal the logs and erase our names so we don’t get into
trouble…again.  What are we waiting for?”

Elijah said goodbye to Phinneas, who suddenly embraced him. 
Elijah thought he could hear Phinneas say something, but it was barely
audible.  Phinneas let go and looked Elijah in the eyes.

“I’ll be okay,” Elijah assured him.  Phinneas looked like he
wanted to say something but he only smiled slightly and nodded.

Elijah and his friends huddled closely together as they hiked
back to the barracks.  Elijah thought about everything they discussed during
the night.  Was it possible his dad was sending him a message?  Was this a
message to him to find the hidden cubes?  If so, they put a lot of faith in his
ability to figure out the clues.  Without his friends, he would have been
useless.

The night became close to freezing as the sun began the peak
over the mountains in the far east, and soon, the only thing they could hear
was their footsteps and the chattering of their teeth.  No one spoke a word
until they were let in by the guard who gave them a very stern look and told
them to go to Mr. Button’s quarters downstairs in the training arena.  They
followed orders to await their consequence for sneaking out of the barracks.

Elijah had been in Mr. Button’s quarters before, but not for
disciplinary reasons.  Last year, when Samuel was captured by the Maliphists,
Mr. Button instructed them to stay there for the night under close watch by a
soldier.

Mr. Button looked as stern as he ever had as he walked into
the quarters.  His bald head was pink and his chin quivered as he faced them.

“I think we have some explaining to do,” he said in a
controlled voice.

Button looked at all of them one by one before he said
anything.

“Considering that you all have been in trouble before for
being irresponsible,” he started shouting, “your defiance and complete
disregard for curfew is completely inexcusable!  What gave you the idea that
staying out all night would be acceptable?”

Elijah was just about to give him their planned story of
missing the last soldier when he suddenly changed his mind.

“Mr. Button,” Elijah said.  “We need to talk to you.”

Becca seemed alarmed by Elijah’s tone.  “Elijah?” she
questioned cautiously.

He ignored her.  “Can we tell you something in the strictest
confidence?”

Button didn’t seem amused, but his temper eased a bit.  His
head returned to a normal color, and his chin stopped twitching.  “What is it?”

All eyes were on Elijah.  He knew they were all silently
screaming at him to shut up and keep things to himself.  But for some reason,
Elijah knew this would be okay.  The secret he once held only to himself was
about to be given to another adult.  Someone close to the council.  Someone
Olivia herself would most likely not approve of, but Elijah didn’t care.  He
knew Mr. Button was the right person just then.  It was now or never.

“We need to leave Savenridge again,” Elijah began.  “And we
need your help.”