The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (33 page)

As soon as Elijah felt that the coast was clear, he hurried
to the staircase and climbed to the third floor.  The third floor was the
teacher’s hall.  They needed to get Master Roddick’s signature so they could
get into the archives, but his room was all the way at the end of the hall.

Just as he and Adam reached the top, Elijah felt funny.  The
hairs on his neck stood up.  He froze so he could read his heightened sense.

“What’s wrong?” Adam asked.

“Hold on a minute,” Elijah said.

“Are you okay?  You look ill.”

“Ssshhhh,” Elijah snapped.  He needed to concentrate.  Was
this a feeling of danger?  Was it just a feeling that something was off?  He
felt it earlier when he saw Thomas coming out of the trapdoor in the neutral
area.  As he honed into his senses, he realized this was the same feeling.  He
wasn’t in life-threatening danger here, but he needed to be alert.  He looked
behind him.  There was no one there.

Adam patiently waited for Elijah to come back to Earth.

“Stay close to the wall,” Elijah said.  “Let me look around
the corner.”

Adam flattened himself against the brick wall.  Elijah stuck
his head around the corner so he could look down the teacher’s hall.  He
brushed his blond hair out of his eyes.  Nothing seemed to be out of the
ordinary.  There were a couple of teachers standing by their doors chatting
about a student.  He looked toward Master Roddick’s room.  His door was open,
which usually meant he was there.  Elijah squinted to focus his eyes.

Then, his heart leapt into his throat when he saw Samuel
walk swiftly out of Roddick’s office.  The pace with which he walked startled
Elijah.  He walked quickly and confidently, like he was five years older than
he was.  He was tall and had filled out significantly.  He had lost that
frightened look and seemed almost haughty.

“Go!” Elijah whispered to Adam.  They both ran down the
stairs, two or three steps at a time.  They rushed over to another end of the
room and watched as Samuel walked to the middle of the first floor and
announced his presence.

“All right everyone, get to class!  You there, spit out your
gum and go to class!  Clear out, clear out!”

Before Samuel could spot Elijah and Adam, they fled to the
back doors and raced toward the forest.  They didn’t care who spotted them at
this point as long as it wasn’t Samuel.

Chapter
16:

CIRCLES, SQUARES, AND TANGENTS

“What is it?” Paul asked as Elijah and Adam sprinted to the
tree line for shelter.  “Are they after you?”

“Samuel,” Elijah panted.  “He’s here.”

“What?” Paul exclaimed.  “That little punk who was afraid of
his own shadow?”

“He’s not little anymore,” Elijah said.  “He’s actually kind
of big.  And he’s not afraid of anything by the looks.  He’s like a hall
monitor or something.  He’s got authority.”

Becca ran toward them.  “What’s wrong?”

“They saw Samuel,” Paul said.  He turned to Elijah.  “Did he
see you?”

“No,” Elijah answered.  “At least I don’t think so.”

“Didn’t he help you out last year?” Adam asked.

“Yeah,” Elijah said.  “But he’s different now.  The Samuel
in there isn’t the same Samuel I knew.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he was in
charge of the Thorn Stick.”

“The what?” Paul asked.

“Thorn Stick,” Becca said.  “It’s a stick about a foot long
with crazy thorns on one side.  They use it to punish students.”

“How do you know about the Thorn Stick?” Elijah asked.

“How do
you
know about the Thorn Stick?” Becca
responded.

“They used it on me here,” Elijah said.

“They also used it in Malpetra,” Becca answered.  “Looks
like they’ve stolen that technique from the Maliphists.”

“Those thieves!” Paul retorted.

“So what’s the plan now?” asked Becca.  “We’re aborting
because of Samuel?”

“If Samuel sees us, it’s game over,” said Elijah.  “He’ll
alert Chancellor Hawthorne, and
he’ll
alert the rest of the Maliphists.”

“So that’s it?” Becca asked.  “We’re giving up?”

Elijah shook his head.  “No.  We just have to regroup.”  He
walked deeper into the forest and sat down.  The others followed.  “Becca, do
you think you could fit into Adam’s uniform?”

“Come again?” Becca asked.

“Samuel knows all of the rest of us.  But I don’t think
he’ll recognize you, will he?”

“I wouldn’t recognize him, so unless he was very perceptive
last year, no.”

Elijah said, “Let’s wait an hour and you come with me this
time.  Samuel will recognize me, but we have less of a chance of him seeing one
of us if one of us isn’t someone he knows.  I’m sorry Adam, I think it’s safer
if you switch with Becca.”

Adam didn’t look fazed.  He nodded in agreement.

Becca left to change into Adam’s uniform while Elijah, Paul,
and Adam stayed hidden behind the trees.  Then, in a little over an hour, Becca
and Elijah headed out into the courtyard, keeping their heads down.  Elijah
could hear Paul starting to give Adam directions and positions as they walked
away.

Elijah turned toward Becca.  “Keep close to me.  I’ll tell
you where to go.”

They walked through the double doors and into the hallway.

“We have to get written permission from Roddick to go into
the archives, so we’ll need to go up to the third floor and then to the
library.”  Becca nodded.

When they got to the third floor, Elijah had a much
different feeling.  He felt much safer about traveling down the long hall to
Roddick’s room.  It frustrated him that he couldn’t exactly pinpoint his
instincts, even though they had saved him many times.  He wanted to understand
them when he felt them.  If he could just read them better, things would be
easier.

Elijah and Becca kept their heads down as they walked toward
the very end of the hall when suddenly a teacher from one of the other rooms
poked his head out.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

Becca looked at Elijah and then made a movement with her
head as if to tell him to continue down the hall.

“Uh…yes, sir,” she said to the teacher.  He squinted at her
through a very thick pair of glasses.  “I was just wondering…um…about the
lecture you gave today.”

“Yes?”

“Well…can you…er…expand on it a bit?”

The teacher looked at her suspiciously.  Elijah slipped past
her and glided down the hall.  He heard the teacher ask Becca a few more
questions and then start talking about trigonometry, but Elijah lost track of
the conversation when he got close to Master Roddick’s door.

It felt like just yesterday when he used to make the trip up
to this office to talk with Master Roddick.  He was new at the school, going
through a tremendous life-changing time, but Master Roddick was the one person
who kept his world from spinning out of control.  He was comforting and
consoling and would just let Elijah talk through his grief.  Elijah was
knocking lightly on his door when he noticed the schedule just off to the
right.  Roddick was apparently in the middle of teaching a class on literature
during the time of the Industrial Revolution.  He caught the room number and
scampered back toward Becca, who was stuck in what appeared to be the teacher’s
second major lecture of the day.

“…so following a tangent line toward a theoretical point—”

“Thank you so much, Mister…er…well, thank you anyway,” Becca
said as Elijah met her on his way back down the stairs.

“Oh…any time, young lady.”  The professor looked confused as
Elijah grabbed Becca’s arm and fled the hall.

“So, he’s not there?” Becca whispered as they descended the
stairs.

“No, he’s in class.  C’mon.”

“How long until it’s over?”

“No idea.”

“Should we let Paul and Adam know?  If the class goes too
long, they’ll think we’re in trouble.”

“Good idea,” Elijah said.  “Why don’t you go and tell them
while I wait in case his class lets out soon?”

Becca trotted out the doors as they passed.  Elijah,
meanwhile, kept walking down the hall, peering over his shoulder to make sure
he wasn’t going to run into Samuel or Chancellor Hawthorne.  He wasn’t sure
which one he was least interested in seeing.

Class was just letting out as soon as Elijah arrived.  As
always, Master Roddick was still in the classroom packing up as the last of the
students left the room.  Elijah’s heart skipped a beat at the thought of
Roddick’s expression when he saw Elijah here again.  Would he be pleasantly
surprised?  Would he be angry?  Proud?  A mixture of all of the above?

Elijah slowly entered the room and stopped, waiting for his
presence to alert Master Roddick.  It did quickly.  Roddick looked up and
paused.  He looked confused and slightly angry.  He glared at Elijah from
across the room.  It was good that they were so far apart because Elijah was
sure Master Roddick’s glare would have melted him completely to the floor had
they been closer.  Elijah’s heart sank

The uncomfortable feeling intensified with each passing
second, until finally, Master Roddick gathered up his jacket and picked up his
things.  He passed Elijah on his way to the door without even looking at him or
acknowledging him.  He sped out the door leaving Elijah feeling limp.

Elijah completely forgot to ask for a note for access to the
archives.  He felt like his head was spinning.  How was this the same man who
made him feel so loved just months ago?  His last two encounters with Roddick
felt like he hated Elijah.  What had he done to make Roddick act like this?

Just then, Elijah heard two voices.  He was alone in the
classroom, but just outside the door, two men were talking softly.  Unfortunately,
he recognized them both.  One voice belonged to Master Roddick.  The other was
Chancellor Hawthorne.  To Elijah’s surprise, they seemed to be talking to each
other quite casually, which was very strange.  Roddick hated Hawthorne.  He and
Elijah both made it a point last year to avoid him at all costs.  Plus, he was
a Maliphist.  Yet, just outside the classroom door, they were discussing
something.  Elijah listened closely.

“I have no idea,” Chancellor Hawthorne said.  “But soon.”

“Well, I have to admit, It’s not something I thought would
happen so soon,” Roddick stated.

“Nor I,” Hawthorne said.  Elijah never heard this tone from
Hawthorne.  He sounded almost excited.  Happy.  “But one thing’s for sure.  We
would love your company.”

“Certainly,” Roddick replied.

“And I must say,” said Hawthorne, “we’ve been growing quite
fond of you.  Who knows?  You might have a part in our little…test.”

Elijah had no idea what they were talking about, but he
didn’t like it.  He raised his head just enough to peek out the small classroom
window.  Hawthorne looked exactly the same.  Not one hair on his head moved. 
His glasses were so clean that it looked like there were no lenses.  And he was
smiling!  Both of them were smiling!  Together!

“Why don’t we move this conversation to my office,” Roddick
said, his voice leaving the whisper.  “I have a few questions still.”

“Later perhaps,” Hawthorne replied.  “I have some students
to…attend to.”

Elijah gulped.  He noticed Becca poking her head around just
beyond Roddick and Hawthorne.

Roddick followed Hawthorne out the back through the double
doors paying no attention to Becca.  Elijah bolted out the door as soon as they
were gone.

“Where’d you go?” Becca asked.  “Did you talk to Roddick?”

Elijah could barely speak.

“No.”

“So what now?” she asked.  “We need to go to the library,
right?”

Elijah still said nothing.  He only looked vaguely in
Becca’s direction with a dazed expression.

Becca shoved Elijah on the arm.  “Elijah, snap out of it. 
We’re standing in the middle of a hall we don’t belong in.  Where are the
archives?”

Elijah tried to shake off his empty feeling.  He still had
so many questions about Master Roddick that reality didn’t seem to exist at
that moment.  “I don’t know where the archives are,” he finally said, “but the
library’s this way.”  Moving helped.  So did Becca’s urgency.  He focused on
the task at hand and led Becca into the library and pulled out the piece of
paper with the code written on it. 

“Here goes nothing,” Elijah said when he waved the librarian
over to him.

“Yes?” the librarian said in an overly annoyed voice.  She
was a small, middle-aged woman with graying hair and leathered skin.  As she
listened, her lips would move in and out of a scowl like she was shifting a
tiny piece of gum using only her lips.

“I’m looking for a book with the reference number AM6042.3. 
Can you help me find it?”

The librarian looked at his paper and then back at him. 
“Archived Mathematics,” she said.  “Where’s your signed permission?”

“I…can’t…find it,” Elijah pretended.

“Well then you…can’t…go in there,” the librarian snapped,
and she turned away.

Elijah sunk his shoulders.  “Should we just hold her hostage
and make her let us in?”

“Hold on,” Becca said.  She snatched Elijah’s notes and flew
out the door.

“Where are you—”

Elijah waited at the librarian’s desk for exactly three
minutes and twenty-five seconds before Becca returned with a signed permission
slip.

“How did you get that?” he asked, impressed.

“Mr. Trigonometry up on the third floor!” Becca exclaimed. 
“I just told him I was so fascinated by our short conversation that I wanted to
look up some archives.  He didn’t even question me.  I think it was the first
time a student’s ever shown an interest in his field.”

“You might have been the first person to
talk
to
him,” Elijah said.

They waved the librarian over again.

“Well?” she said.

“We have a note!” Becca said, snottily.  She handed the note
over.