The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin (Books of Unexpected Enlightenment Book 1) (26 page)

“No, Nastasia, no!” Rachel drew back, horrified. “Information is never worthless.”

She could not even imagine having the princess’s visions and not loving them. True, they might be disturbing, but she felt that would be worth it in return for the peek behind the scenes of others’ lives. Who knew what secrets might be gleaned from such information. If she had been the one to have the visions, she would have recalled them over and over, seeking additional clues that the princess might be overlooking.

Rachel sighed. So far, she was doing a decent job of not coveting her friends’ amazing gifts, but it became much harder if they did not appreciate what they had.

“It is meaningless if it has no bearing on our current lives.” Nastasia turned the page of her ubiquitous text book.

“You have to love information for itself,” Rachel insisted, her eyes afire. “Only then can you find its usefulness, its true worth. Sometimes, I have known a bit of information for years before I found a use for it. Suddenly, it’s the very bit I need. Like the fact that Beatrix Potter became Mrs. Heelis. I knew that for ages before I needed it.

“Sometimes, I think I have such a good memory because I love knowledge so much,” Rachel mused. “I love information, and it loves me. It seeks me out.”

“Why?” Siggy asked curiously.

It touched Rachel that he did not disbelieve her. Usually, when she said such things, people just gawked at her.

She considered his question. “Maybe so it can sit in my perfect memory and be remembered.”

“I’d forgotten you had a super power,” Siggy said.

Rachel shivered. The very notion of forgetting disturbed her.

“I’ve also got a magic power.” Siggy turned to Nastasia. Leaning forward, he filled the princess in on his link with Lucky.

“And that’s how you overheard the proctors talking, isn’t it?” Nastasia asked, smiling with delight. “Lucky overheard them.”

“Yeah, of course,” Sigfried said casually. “That’s it.”

Rachel leaned back, frowning. Her eyes rested on the patterned tiles of the ceiling while she recalled the event in question. Slowly, she said, “No. It could not have been Lucky. He was still over by your bed, with us.”

Siggy was silent for a long time. Twice, he stabbed his pencil against his notebook, drawing thick dark lines that left an indent in the paper. “No. It wasn’t Lucky.”

“How did you do it?” Nastasia asked.

“You promise to tell no one?”

“I give you my solemn word,” Nastasia said.

“Not even my father,” Rachel swore, which was easier today than it would have been yesterday. She felt the compass needle of her loyalty sway ever-so-slightly from her beloved family toward her two new friends.

“I found something in the dragon’s hoard, an amulet. It lets me see around me in three hundred and sixty degrees. I can look through walls, see invisible things, things even Lucky can’t normally see.”

“Wow.” Rachel gasped in astonished joy. “You can spy on everyone all the time?”

“That’s right.” Siggy nodded.

“Amazing!” Rachel gaped, her mouth hanging open at such a marvel. “Can you look through anything?”

“Almost anything. I can’t look into the girls’ dorm, or locker rooms, or bathroom.”

The princess passed a hand over her golden locks. “The amulet cannot see into the girls’ bathroom? Do you know how it came upon this limitation?”

“No. The
amulet
can see into the girls’ bathroom.
I
can’t look into the girls’ bathroom. What would King Arthur say when he wakes up, if I did such a thing? He’d never knight me.” Siggy spoke in complete seriousness.

“Oh…” Rachel blinked. He sounded like her brother Peter. “Quite decent of you.”

“It’s tough,” Siggy admitted. “But so far, I’ve managed to hold out.”

Nastasia pursed her lips. She seemed both disapproving and amused at the same time. “So, you can overhear what is going on around us? How fascinating. My father would love something like that. He’s forever complaining about the poor quality of his spies, most of whom never report in. Of course, it is impossible to tell if he is serious. The spies that never report back are probably fruit bats and kookaburra. For all I know, his real spies might be perfectly suitable.”

“Yes. I can hear everything around us.” Siggy wadded a piece of paper into yet another spit ball and tossed it over a banister into the hair of a red-headed student a floor beneath them.

Rachel pressed her palm against her mouth to contain her mirth. The princess tsked in mild disapproval.

Pointing at a nearby table, Nastasia asked, “What are they saying?”

Siggy glanced over at the three sophomore girls and rolled his eyes. “They are talking about which tutors are attractive.” Rachel giggled. She had strong opinions on that subject. Nastasia wrinkled her nose, uninterested. She pointed at some older students.

Siggy tilted his head, listening. “They are discussing the arrival of the Transylvania royalty early Sunday morning. The girl with the green dangly earrings, the one who is waving her hands, is saying:
‘The Starkadders sailed up in a flying clipper ship. It’s enormous. It landed on the common, huge sails billowing everywhere. The princes and princesses came out in age order: First Romulus—the crown prince, then Remus, Freka, Fenris, Beowulf, Luperca, and Wulfgang. Two little ones stayed inside and waved, a boy and girl.’
” Siggy paused. “That’s all she said. Now, the girl next to her is talking about something called Witch Babies.”

“Quite impressive,” Nastasia acknowledged with a regal nod.

Rachel tapped Sigfried on the shoulder, pointing. “Siggy! Over there. What about them?”

Below, on a lower level of the library, Cydney Graves and her friends sat studying, their hair stuck up under their square scholar’s caps. Siggy tilted his head. He spoke as the girls spoke. Rachel watched over the banister, tracking who was speaking.

Siggy stopped talking and leaned back. “They’re just talking about school work now.”

Rachel giggled. “They still think it was an inside job. It’s nice to have a secret weapon.”

“It is indeed.” Nastasia pressed her lips together to contain her mirth. Her eyes sparkled. “We are quite fortunate to have Miss Forrest among us. And Mr. Smith’s amulet.”

“I wish we could do something for Magdalene.” Rachel said softly. “I think she looks up to you, Siggy. I don’t suppose you could have Lucky burn her sister? If her sister’s the person hurting her. Could you spy on her and find out?”

“Sister!” Siggy threw up his arms and groaned in frustration. “Arrgghh! Why couldn’t it be a brother! Then, Seth and I could go introduce him to our right upper cuts! See if the rotter would beat a girl after that!”

“Hurting her?” the princess asked.

“She has huge bruises on her face. Salome hinted that her sister might be hitting her.”

The princess’s brow creased, concerned yet cautious. “If she is indeed being abused, we should tell a tutor. Or perhaps Dean Moth. But are you certain? It is unwise to make accusations like that without solid facts.”

Rachel frowned, petulant. “The tutors’ll probably just tell us we had a nightmare.”

Siggy scowled.

As they gathered their books to head off to their next activity, he muttered under his breath. “Why did you and Magdalene have to be attacked by girls? If only it had been boys. Lucky and I would have had such a grand time scalding them!”

Art was followed by Math. Rachel watched Dr. Mordeau carefully, but she could not catch her doing a single insidious thing during their Introduction to Euclid lesson. Nor did the tutor betray any hint as to why she hated Rachel’s father.

After class, Rachel and her friends gathered at lunch, still riding the high of Zoë’s successful humiliation of Rachel’s nemeses. Nastasia glided into the dining hall with an entourage in tow. The crowd consisted of girls who trailed her adoringly—a handful of whom had even put aside their subfusc in favor of full-academic robes such as the princess wore—and boys who were awed by her beauty. The young men vied for her attention, doing silly things to show off that Nastasia studiously ignored.

The princess graciously addressed those around her. “Barbie, I will speak to the Dean about your concern. She is a family friend. Esteri, I am very sorry about your sister. Perhaps you should try speaking with her one more time.”

Several boys pressed forward, inviting the princess on a broom outing or to the Storm King Café for a sarsaparilla. The princess lowered her lashes, flustered. She did not answer any of them but, instead, addressed the entire gathering. “Thank you for escorting me. I release you to go sit with your friends for lunch. Anyone who wishes may join me after dinner for a practice session. We will meet here in the dining hall and find a quiet place to review what we have learned in class so far.”

Rachel’s grilled cheese suddenly seemed rubbery. So the princess had not forgotten about practicing. Rachel’s only consolation was that, if such a large group worked together, they would probably get in each other’s way.

Turning away from the others, Nastasia sat down between Rachel and Joy. Was that relief flickering across her face? Rachel played back the princess’s expression. Yes, it was definitely relief. How odd. Nastasia seemed so poised and regally gracious, as if the tremendous adoration she received was but her royal due. Could it be that she did not enjoy the attention of the other students? Perhaps so, because when she saw Rachel glancing her way, she gave her a tiny grateful smile, as if to say that she was glad to be back in the shelter of true friends.

Ashamed, Rachel chided herself for her less than gracious attitude toward the princess’s practice club. This was a school of sorcery, after all. She should hardly be upset with her friends for wanting to improve their skills.

Vladimir Von Dread strode through the dining hall, stopping nearby to speak with a vivacious young woman who hailed him. Rachel watched his cool, precise motions and the implacable way he spoke. His regal bearing reminded her of Nastasia.

“You should marry the Prince of Bavaria,” Rachel whispered conspiratorially to the princess, who was carefully arranging her napkin on her lap. “You are both royalty, and you show great concern for propriety.”

“Yes! You two would be perfect for each other!” Joy cried, eager to join in. Rachel noticed that Joy no longer wore the headband she had sported the first couple of days. Her hair now flowed around her shoulders the way Nastasia’s often did. “Then our princess would be Queen of Bavaria!”

“You two could be stiff and proper together,” chuckled Valerie, looking up from her BLT. “You know, stirring your tea with the correct spoon and all that. It would be hilarious.”

Zoë paused in the midst of wolfing down her hamburger and glanced at Von Dread. “I can see it. The princess is the most beautiful girl in the school. He’s the handsomest guy, except maybe for Sigfried here.” She jerked her thumb at Siggy. “But Sig’s an orphan and fourteen. Von Dread is a nineteen-year-old godling.”

“I shall marry whomever my father chooses.” Nastasia cut her hamburger and bun into small bite-sized pieces and ate them with a fork. “If it will benefit my family for me to marry him, so be it. If not, then not.”

“Which would you prefer?” Rachel asked, watching Von Dread as he listened impassively to the young woman, his arms crossed. Zoë was right that he was pleasing to the eye, but there was something cold, almost scary about him. “If it helped your family, and you had to marry him? Or if it did not?”

“Whichever benefited my family.” Nastasia nibbled a bite off her fork.

Joy had been worriedly reading the language homework. Now she looked up, and her jaw dropped gradually, as if in slow motion. “You’re going to let your father pick your husband? I love my father a lot. Don’t get me wrong! He might be the best dad ever! But…that doesn’t mean I trust him to pick the boy who is right for me.”

Her eyes darted sideways, toward Sigfried, and veered away again. Pink spots appeared above her cheek bones.

“A father’s idea of a good son-in-law is not always…” Zoë pursed her lips, her voice trailing off.

“I can sum up our objections,” Valerie interrupted, raising a finger. “Let me use my reporting-honed skills to distill the perfect question: what if he picks someone odious?”

“He would do no such thing, unless it were important for the realm. And if it were, then I would hope that I might have the wherewithal to bear it,” Nastasia replied. She patted her lips with a second napkin, not the one covering her lap.

“B-But…” Joy cried. Her eyes, a honey brown that matched her hair, were wide and distraught. “What if you d-didn’t love each other?”

“If we are devoted to the purposes of our marriage, we shall come to love each other in time,” Nastasia replied patiently.

Rachel was again reminded of her grandmother. Grandmother Griffin had possessed a wonderful knack for explaining the reason behind the traditions of her youth. She made it clear why aristocrats were required to act as they did. Rachel tried to put into words what she had learned from her.