The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin (Books of Unexpected Enlightenment Book 1) (15 page)

“Let’s see,” he counted on his fingers, “Wendy, myself, James, Finn, and Scarlett. Ah, right. The last Musketeer was Ellyllon MacDannan, our conjurer and a friend to mermaids. A strange young woman. She used to dance on the tables in the dining hall. Instead of shooing her off, the proctors would pull out their instruments and play for her. She was…quite provocative.” He paused, as if caught up in a memory. “Nowadays, she is Mrs. James Darling.”

“How could kids do all that?” Joy O’Keefe asked.

“They were college students,” Rachel pointed out.

“Even college students,” Joy looked inquiringly toward Mr. Fisher, “against such powerful sorcerers?”

“Who else was there?” Mr. Fisher shrugged. “We were the front line. We could give up and die, or we could go forward. We chose forward.”

Yara asked dreamily, “So James married Ellyllon, and Finn married Scarlett. That’s so romantic. Would you have married Wendy MacDannan, if she had not been injured?”

All the humor fled from Mr. Fisher’s eyes. He spoke quietly. “I do not feel that I should answer that question.”

There was a pause. Students squirmed. Mr. Fisher forced himself to smile, “Back to the Terrible Five. Each of us took on one of them. James fought Simon Magus. Scarlett Mallory defeated Morgana le Fay. Finn MacDannan destroyed Crowley. Ellyllon and her mermaids overcame Baba Yaga, and I dueled Koschei and won.” He looked amazed, as if his victory still surprised him.

Siggy leaned forward. “This Koschei the Deathless was bad news?”

“Oh, was he! A horrible, withered old man. He dressed in his own hair. Who does that, I ask you? He could kill people by pointing his bony finger at them.” Mr. Fisher strode back and forth, pantomiming several cantrip gestures, as if recalling the fight. “It was an amazing duel, the best I have ever fought! Every spell coming from his wand was lethal! He could kill all living things in a ten foot radius. He could even kill the wind and make the air still for a week!”

“So you defeated the baddest of them all?” Siggy asked. “Ace!”

“Yeah.” A grin spread slowly across the alchemist’s face. “Yes, I guess I did!”

“It’s driving me crazy.” Valerie rubbed her temples, as she sat on the bench in the walled garden. The scent of wisteria perfumed the air. The water falling from the cherub’s trumpet fountain gurgled. Siggy, Nastasia, and Salome were with them. “I keep thinking I’ve seen a guy like you described…the guy who wanted to kill me.” She shuddered. “Or whatever that scarab thing would have done to me. But I can’t remember where.”

Rachel shuddered, too, but for a different reason. The idea of not remembering disturbed her. She knew other people could not do what she did, but knowing in the abstract and watching someone suffer from forgetfulness were entirely different.

“No matter what, though!” Valerie pounded her fist on her thigh, looking both fierce and impishly cute, something Rachel noted that Siggy noticed. “I am going to get to the bottom of this. My father was the best detective on the Kennebunkport police force. He taught me quite a bit before he…I am going to figure out who this guy was, why he attacked me, and why this man said the ‘gift’ was from my father.” She spun her pencil around her hand and caught it, stabbing it against the bench. The graphite point snapped.

“Can’t get to the Internet on this island,” she continued, pushing her glasses back up on her nose. “Drives me crazy. Though the World of the Wise isn’t on the web. So if he is a Wise guy, I couldn’t trace him that way.”

“Wise guy, oh that’s funny.” Salome was buffing her nails, making them shine. “Not that I haven’t heard it before…but with you, it takes on an additional Mobbish meaning.”

Valerie’s nose crinkled with amusement. “I’ve written my friend Wally back home with a list of searches I want performed. He and I worked together for two years at the Seashore Trolley Museum—home of the world’s oldest and largest collection of mass transit vehicles. Bet you all were dying to know that. And now I have made your day complete. I am happy to have helped.

“Anyway, if the information is out there, Wally will find it. Also, I asked him to send me a copy of my father’s list—names related to the case he was working on when he disappeared. Maybe there’s a clue there. Meanwhile, I plan to talk to people here. Someone might know something—who that guy was, if nothing else.” She leaned forward and said conspiratorially, “If anyone asks, I’m interviewing people in an effort to find the perfect article—so I can get onto the staff of the
Roanoke Glass
, the school newspaper.”

“Great idea!” Rachel grinned. Her grin faded slowly. Sitting down beside the little pool, she asked gently. “Your father died?”

“No. He…disappeared.” Valerie lowered her head. Her golden hair fell over her eyes.

“Oh! I am so sorry!” Rachel clutched her books, horrified.

Valerie tilted her head, until she peeked through her golden locks. “Thank you. People say he ran out on us, but it’s not true. I don’t know where he went. Or where he is now. Or if he is dead. But he would
never
have run out on Mom and me.”

Rachel looked into Valerie’s face and believed her. She stated with calm determination, “I am positive he did not.”

Valerie gave her a tiny, grateful smile.

The princess had been sitting reading her uber-textbook. Shutting it, she asked, “Do you think the scarab sent to Miss Hunt could have come from a remaining member of the Morthbrood? Even in Magical Australia, we hear rumors of them rising again. Weren’t they known for killing people by sending hexes?”

Despite the warmth of the day, Rachel shivered. “I…hope not. They were…not nice. After the Terrible Years, my father helped hunt them down. I was not born yet, but from what I have gleaned from my mother and my grandparents, it was very dangerous work. The Morthbrood used the worst kind of magic.”

“Really?” Salome looped her hand in the air twice, her face forming in an “oh-come-on” expression. “What would my bestie, Valerie, have done to come to the attention of real baddies, like the Morthbrood? Her father was a mundane policeman. He dealt with gangs and mob violence and the like.”

“None of those people could have followed her here,” Rachel replied slowly. “She must have come to the attention of someone in the World of the Wise. Someone…not good.”

Sigfried had been lazily tossing pieces of a ham sandwich he brought out of his pocket into the air for Lucky to catch. Hearing Valerie, he straightened and knelt before her on the pebbly mosaics, solemn and sincere, like a statue of some ancient knight.

“Milady! My heart burns with wrath against those who have offended you!” His eyes blazing with an uncharacteristic seriousness, he looked even more handsome than usual. All the girls sighed. “No maiden so fair should walk beneath the sun in fear of craven murderers! If by my life, or by my death, I can maim or slay or annoy your foe, I need but your favor to put in me the heart of a hero, that I shall not fail to accomplish all that I have said.”

“Technically,” the princess stated, “It is incorrect to call a commoner milady.”

“Um…if I said yes, I would be aiding and abetting a crime before the fact. But I am grateful for your offer.” Valerie’s eyes seemed unnaturally bright, as if she was fighting back tears. Flippantly, she added, “If you actually make yourself useful, I may just keep you around.”

Siggy grinned and gave Lucky a thumbs-up. The dragon flew in a loop.

Salome asked, “So do you really have a fortune, Sigfried Smith? Did you get it from the dragon you killed? Where do you keep it? Is it in a bank somewhere?”

“Bank!” Siggy exclaimed, appalled. “Let someone else touch it? Certainly not! I keep it under my bed, except for the part on top of the bed that Lucky and I sleep on.”

“You…sleep on a bed of gold?” Valerie sounded both disbelieving and amused. “Aren’t you afraid someone will take some of it?”

“Lucky knows every coin. The first day, I showed my roommates what happened to a book Lucky breathed on. They won’t touch it.”

“You…destroyed a book?” Rachel and Valerie gasped together, horrified.

Before Sigfried could answer, three older students walked into the walled gardens. The first was a young woman who was so lovely and glided with such stately grace that Rachel would have thought her the most beautiful creature alive, if she had not been sitting next to the even more beautiful Nastasia Romanov. Gazing at her, Rachel felt as if she were back on holiday at Hot Springs Beach, in Thulehavn, watching the sparkle of sunlight play over the waves. Her flaxen hair gleamed so brightly in the afternoon sun that she seemed to have faint, light-blue highlights.

Everyone was beautiful and blond here; everyone but her.

Or except her and the next girl, who had red hair. And what hair! It cascaded in waves to her hips. She had a mischievous, pixy-like smile that matched that of her younger brother Ian. She was Oonagh MacDannan, the daughter of Scarlett Mallory and Finn MacDannan. They knew each other from Wisecraft events. Oonagh winked at Rachel, who smiled back shyly.

The last member of their group was also someone Rachel recognized. He was a young man with dirty blond hair and intense gray eyes. He dressed in the subfusc style with a silver tie clip shaped like a wolf. An athame was tucked into his boot.

The statuesque blonde beauty spoke first. “Hello…You’re Sigfried Smith, aren’t you? I’ve heard very good things about you, Mr. Smith. We have come to invite you to a meeting of the YSL, the Young Sorcerer’s League.”

Rachel had been splashing her fingers in the fountain that spilled from the trumpet in the hands of the little marble, fish-tailed cherub. Upon hearing this, her hand dropped into the pool, forgotten. Oh, she wanted to join, too!

She knew a great deal about the YSL. The organization was hundreds of years old. All the best sorcerers had been members, including her grandfather and her parents. As Mr. Fisher had just related in Science class, during the Terrible Years, after Simon Magus and his dark allies had slain all the Wisecraft Agents and taken over the school, it had been the YSL who had stopped them. James Darling had been the League’s president that year, and the other members of the Six Musketeers had belonged as well. The entire organization had provided support for the Musketeers and, ultimately, faced the Veltdammerung. Rachel’s uncle, Lord Emrys Griffin, had been a member. He had died in that battle. He had been seventeen years old.

Rachel gazed longingly at the older students, but they were all looking at Sigfried now.

Siggy rose to his feet and eyed the newcomers suspiciously. Then he got a good look at the statuesque blonde with her blue highlights. His eyes locked on her chest, as if it was magnetized, and stayed there. He could not seem to tear them away, no matter how hard he tried. His mouth hung open, and he made a gurgling sound. Rachel feared he would drool.

“Excuse me,” Nastasia asked primly, “Who are you?”

The stately blonde was clearly amused at Sigfried’s misfortune. “I am Rory Wednesday.”

Oh. No wonder!

The Wednesdays were descended from the Rhinemaiden Lorelei and the god Odin. That certainly explained Rory’s extraordinary loveliness. The original Lorelei had been a siren who led men to their deaths with her beauty and singing.

Valerie kicked Sigfried in the shin. Blinking, he hopped on his other foot and bit his own arm, hard. He stayed that way, eyes bulging, murmuring under his breath. “Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.”

Oonagh stepped forward and flashed her pixy smile, undaunted. She spoke with a charming Irish accent. “I am Oonagh MacDannan. I believe me little brother is your roommate, Mr. Smith. Rory and I are classmates. We are both Seniors in the upper school. We live in Dare Hall with you. You may hear me practicing in the dorm. I play the tuba.”

The thought of someone playing enchantments, casting listeners into sleep or causing them to dance without ceasing, with a tuba was so ridiculous Rachel could not help giggling.

Sigfried evidently thought biting his arm was insufficient, so he screwed his eyes shut, but nodded his head up and down, making polite gestures with his other hand. Valerie rolled her eyes. Salome giggled, but she looked slightly petulant at not being the center of attention.

The young man put his foot on the bench next to Nastasia and leaned his elbow on his knee, the knife in his boot jingling. He gazed down at her with piercing gray eyes. “Your prowess at your studies has also preceded you, your highness. We would be honored to have your company as well.” He stepped back and bowed. “I believe our fathers are friends. My name is Joshua March.”

A shiver of anticipation ran through Rachel. She glanced sidelong at Nastasia. A tiny spark of rebellion gleamed in the princess’s eyes. She looked at Rachel and arched one eyebrow. Rachel gave her a tiny encouraging nod.

The princess rose gracefully to her feet, a vision of loveliness. She extended her arm. “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Joshua March. As you know, I am Nastasia Romanov. I am well acquainted with your father, an admirable man.”

Joshua casually took her outstretched hand in his larger grip and shook it. All the blood rushed out of Nastasia’s face. Her eyes rolled up in her head, and she fainted.

Joshua shouted and caught the princess. Rory and Oonagh rushed to her side, as did Siggy. Rachel hovered nearby, uncertain how to help. Guilt gnawed at her.

Why had she encouraged Nastasia to disobey Xandra Black’s prophecy?

A young man ran into the walled garden and slugged Joshua in the face. Joshua looked extraordinarily surprised. He fell backward, dropping Nastasia. Siggy caught her, slinging her into his arms.

“What did you do to my sister!” shouted the newcomer.

“Whoa, Alex! Whoa!” Joshua cried, throwing his arms in front of his face. He lay on the pebbly stones, his head suspended over the pool. “I didn’t do anything. I swear. Stop now, and I won’t tell my father.”

Alex Romanov kept his fists up, but he took a nervous step back.

“Infirmary,” Siggy shouted.

He ran off carrying Nastasia, with Alex Romanov close on his heels. Rachel hurried after them, but Nastasia did not wake up. Her sister Alexis and her older brother, Ivan, the Crown Prince of Magical Australia soon arrived. Alex and Alexis were twins, though he had dark brown hair, and she was blonde. Rachel guessed them to be about Peter’s age. Ivan was older, definitely a college student. He was tall and lanky with spiky brown hair and a well-formed chin. With so many siblings hovering around, the nurse sent the other children away.