“Um, Chance?” Liesl said. “Uh, there’s a bonfire the girls in our dorm are having.”
“Oh?” he said.
“Yeah, um, it looks really fun,” said Liesl. “Can you come?”
“Oh, um, Friday night?”
“Yeah.”
“I think I can come,” said Chance. “Are both of you going to be there?”
Liesl and I exchanged a look: YAY!
“Yes, we’ll both be there,” said Liesl. “It’s on the north lawn, just at the edge of the woods, at 8 p.m.”
“It’s starting at 8 p.m.? An hour before lights out?” Chance asked.
“Yes, apparently the girls in our dorm room are throwing it,” I said. “Maybe they got special permission? I’m not sure. But they’ve already had two others, so it must be okay.”
Chance looked troubled.
I mentally shrugged it off.
Midweek, we named our familiars in the Magical Beasts and Familiars class.
“Now that you’ve mastered the spell to send your familiars away, and the spell to call them forth, we will teach you how to name them,” the professor said.
“First you must summon your familiar. Please do so at this time.”
“Good, that’s it. Excellent. Now. Think of your familiar. Close your eyes and picture them in your head. Now that you’ve got them firmly in your mind, I want you to asked them what their name is. In your head, not out loud, Mr. Tumley. Yes, like that.”
“Now, when you hear its name in your head, you must repeat it five times, out loud, so it will be fixed in your mind.”
The class lasted a long time.
Liesl learned her ermine’s name was Snowbear.
It took me a while, as I had two to discover, but in the end, I learned my familiars’ names were Aspen and Tundra. I also learned to tell them apart. Aspen had one blue eye and one blue eye with a tinge of beige in one corner. Tundra had two blue eyes.
I learned they were indeed sisters, and were magical and intelligent.
It was a fantastic class.
Later that week, Liesl and I felt as if our brains were going to drip out.
“I can’t believe how hard this week has been!” Liesl said.
“At least we have the bonfire to look forward to,” I said.
“That’s tonight, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
We walked back up to the room.
“It’s seven thirty, we should get ready,” I said.
We got out of our school uniforms and into casual clothes.
“Liesl, that sweater looks fabulous!” I said.
“Thanks!” She twirled in a circle. “I knitted it myself.”
“Oh, wow!”
Jessica, Naomi, and the others filed into the room.
They looked at us brightly. “Are you two coming tonight?” Naomi asked.
“Yes, we are, actually,” I said.
“That’s great! We’ll see you there!” Jessica said.
They left.
“Do you think they’re acting a little weird?” Liesl quietly asked.
“Maybe a little,” I said. “It’s like they’re way too enthusiastic about this.”
“I know, right? So weird.”
We finished getting ready and walked downstairs.
The school was quiet and mostly deserted.
“Looks like everyone’s either in their rooms, or outside at the bonfire,” I said.
“Yeah,” said Liesl. “It’s a little unnerving. Hey, do you think Chance will show up?”
“I don’t see why not.” I said.
We walked outdoors and around the corner to the north lawn.
It was twilight, and clouds were scuttling across the moon as it rose.
It was very pretty.
“Huh, Holly, wasn’t the other bonfire last week somewhere over there?” asked Liesl.
I looked to the spot where the Sunday bonfire had been. Tonight, there was no fire. But Naomi and Jessica stood there, waiting.
“I wonder what’s going on?” Liesl said. “Hey, do you think my hair looks okay?”
I looked her over. “I think it looks fine, Liesl. Come on.”
I walked up to the two girls. They turned to face me. The light had all but faded, and their faces were mostly in shadow.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey!” Liesl said.
“So,” I said, my hands in the pockets of my jacket. “Where is everyone? Where’s the bonfire?”
“Oh, hi! We actually moved it to a better spot,” Jessica said.
“Yeah, it’s a super cute clearing,” said Naomi. “Come on, we’ll show you.”
Without waiting for us, the two turned and walked into the forest.
“Do you think we should go?” I whispered in Liesl’s ear.
“Oh course!” said Liesl. “Heck, Chance might already be there. Let’s go!”
Liesl walked after Jessica and Naomi, and I followed.
We walked along a path that was very dark. I tripped several times over tree roots and flotsam.
“Over here,” said Jessica. “It’s just this way.”
“Come on, it’s not far ahead,” Naomi said.
“Coming!” Liesl said, hurrying behind.
Jessica and Naomi were walking fast. Far faster than we could keep up.
They were soon out of sight.
I heard a distant voice call out. It sounded like Chance.
“Was that him?” asked Liesl.
“Sounded a bit like him,” I said. “We need to catch up or well get turned around.”
“They said it was just up ahead,” Liesl said.
“JESSICA! NAOMI?” I called, cupping my hands around my mouth.
I heard a faint voice again.
“Is that just up ahead?” I asked Liesl.
“I’m not sure. Can you tell where we’re going?” Liesl said.
I stopped, pulling on Liesl’s sleeve. “Liesl, I’m worried we’re going to get lost.”
I called out again. Then Liesl called out.
The faint voices up ahead called back.
“Where are they?” Liesl asked in frustration.
“Liesl, we should be able to see the bonfire from here, if it’s up ahead.”
“I agree.”
“And we should have brought flashlights,” I said.
“I double agree,” said Liesl. “I can’t even see my face in front of my hand.”
“Hey, I don’t see anyone up ahead,” I said. “I think they ditched us.”
“It looks that way,” said Liesl, sounding extremely disappointed.
“Let’s go back,” I suggested.
“Okay,” Liesl answered.
I turned around and began to walk back the way I thought we’d come.
The treetops overhead completely obliterated the sky; I could not see one star.
At first, I felt confused.
Could there have been some sort of mistake?
But why would they ditch us?
And where is the bonfire?
Realization flooded through me.
“They never meant to be friendly,” I said out loud.
“What?” Liesl asked.
“Those girls. Jessica and Naomi, and the other three,” I said. “They’ve been playing us. They never meant to be friendly. It was all a trick.”
A sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach raised alarm bells in me.
“Holly, I don’t see the lights of the school.”
“We’ve come too far to see lights,” I said. “I think I’m walking back the way we came.”
“Are you sure?”
“No,” I said, feeling tears well in my eyes, and glad of the darkness of the forest so Liesl didn’t see them. “I’m not sure of anything.”
Liesl stopped, holding my arm. “Holly, I think we’re lost.”
We stood there, looking around. Our eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and we could see dimly through the forest.
There was no sig
n of the school, no sign of any bonfire, and no sign of anyone else in the forest besides us.
“Now what do we do?” asked Liesl.
“We keep walking. We’ll eventually get out of the woods,” I said.
“Are you sure? I remember riding a long time coming through the forest to the Academy. More than a dozen miles. Possibly two or three times that far,” Liesl said.
Well, what do you think we should do, then?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Liesl said.
“We can’t just stay here,” I said. “It’s getting cold. And I heard it was close to freezing last night.”
Okay, let’s keep walking,” said Liesl. “But let’s go this way. I think I remember we came through that thicket.”
I shrugged.
We walked on through the forest, and I tripped and conked my head twice. Liesl tripped and went down three times, and scraped her hand. It was brutal.
“Hey,” said Liesl. “I think I see something ahead. Some sort of clearing, I think.”
She was right. We stumbled through more trees and reached it.
I stopped in my tracks.
We’d been hoping the clearing would be the school lawn.
But it wasn’t.
It was a cemetery. A huge, mist-covered cemetery.
Chapter Sixteen
Lost
“Ohhh, no. No way I am going in there,” Liesl said, shaking, from cold or fear. Or both.
I looked out onto the vast hillside.
It was covered in shadowy tombstones, so many gravemarkers I could not have counted them if I tried.
The hillside, which rose slightly from the surrounding woods, was covered in a thick, low mist that clung to the ground, which was bare save for the gloomy gravestones.
I stared at the collection of tombstones, and tried to get a sense of the place.
“Wow, that’s a lot of headstones,” I murmured.
Liesl pulled at my arm. “Come on, Holly, let’s go back.”
“Did you see this place on the map of the school grounds we were given?” I asked.
Liesl shook her head no, she had not.
“Did anyone ever mention this to you?” I asked.
“No, nooo. Holly, let’s gooooo.” Liesl’s whispered turned to a moan.
“Helloooo?” I called out.
My voice echoed across the cemetery, and was gone.
I’m not sure why, but I was filled with an intense curiosity.
“Let’s go exploring!” I said eagerly.
“Are you nuts?” Liesl said in a strangled whisper. “That’s a cemetery. Those are gravestones. Under them are rotting corpses.”
“I know, I know,” I said. “That’s what makes it so intriguing.”
“Oh, Holly no, please no. No no no no no no,” Liesl begged.
“Have you ever seen a cemetery up close like this?” I asked.
Liesl shook her head vigorously.
“Have you ever seen a dead body?” I asked quietly, looking at her.
Liesl’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head.
“I have,” I said, looking back out across the cemetery. “Just before I came here, less than a month ago, my Aunt Clare died.”
I heard Liesl gasp softly.
I went on.
“We were living in an underground cubby off an abandoned subway line,” I said. “I woke up one day, and she was there right in front of me, just like the night before. But she didn’t move, didn’t react to my touch, didn’t do anything. She was cold.”
Liesl put her hand over her mouth, trying not to make any sounds.
“She had been alive and warm the day before. We’d gone to sleep, and I guess she passed away the evening before, because like I said, in the morning she was cold and still, and would not move. So I sewed her up in a blanket, and dragged her to another part of the tunnel.”
I heard Liesl moan softly.
“I carefully wrapped her in her blanket, and sewed up the ends with needle and thread, until she was snug. Then I pulled her to a private little place, and wedged the door shut.” I fell silent, remembering.
“Holly, do ... do you ... do you think we could go back to the dorm room now? I want to go to bed,” Liesl said in a low, scared voice.
It was kind of odd, if you think about it. Liesl was terrified, and I didn’t feel any fear at all.
Well, that’s not entirely accurate.
A low moaning cry drifted over the gravestones. It started off so quiet I thought it must be the wind. But then it grew to such a volume there could be no question: It was not the wind; it was a voice.
A voice calling out over the cemetery.
A voice calling out to us?
I had to find out.
“I’m going in,” I said, probably a little too eagerly.
“Oh, no, please no, Holly, don’t, just don’t ...” Liesl grabbed my arm and tried to pull me back into the woods.
My feet did not move. It was as if they were glued to the ground.
“Come on,” I whispered.
Liesl moaned in fear.
I took a step out, onto the scrubby land, out onto the mist-covered cemetery.
My foot sank about an inch into the moist ground. I took another step, and when I pulled up the first foot, it made a sucking-squelchy sound that echoed across the quiet cemetery.
“Weird that there’s no fence or wall around this, don’t you think?” Liesl asked.
I jumped a foot in fright.
“I thought you said you didn’t want to come,” I said.
“I know, but I didn’t want to be left alone even more,” said Liesl. “Besides, I’m not sure why, but I’m not that scared anymore.”
“Really?” I said.
“I’m serious,” said Liesl. “The moment I stepped into the cemetery, I felt my fear of it drain out of me. Replaced by a kind of quiet friendliness.”
“You feel a friendliness walking through the cemetery?” I asked, surprised. I felt no different now than before. I hadn’t been afraid then, and I felt the same curiosity now.
“Liesl, come on,” I whispered.
“Right behind you,” Liesl said.
We tiptoed between the gravestones, taking care not to step directly on anyone’s graves. We walked in between the graves, and zigzagged across the hillside until we were pretty much smack dab in the middle.
Liesl was holding on to me and shaking like a leaf.
I guess the fear has come back.
I sat down in the dirt and weeds, and wrapped my arms around my knees.
This was a surreal experience.
The low moaning voice cried out again.
“I think that’s a wight,” mumbled Liesl.
“Give me a break,” I said.
“No, really,” Liesl said.
I took a deep breath. Whatever was making the moaning noise, I was willing to bet it was a wild animal.
Not a wight.
“It’s getting cold,” I said. “Let’s get back to the school.”
“Okay,” said Liesl. “Do you know which was to go?”
“No, but I’m going to just walk. It has to take us somewhere,” I said.
“Do you think Chance came out to join us at the non-existent bonfire?” Liesl asked.
“No idea,” I said. “But when I get back to our dorm room, I’m going to really break Jessica’s nose this time.”
We walked out of the cemetery and into the woods again, and onward for at least a mile.
We should’ve come to the school by now, if we were going in the right direction.
Wait.
I saw something up ahead.
I burst through the trees and onto ...
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Liesl.
It was the cemetery again.
“I was sure we weren’t going in circles,” I said. “I know I was walking in a straight line.”
I couldn’t figure it out.
Could there be two cemeteries?
I p
eered out at the collection of gravestones.
Looks like the same one to me.
“Okay,” I said. “It’s got to be closing on midnight. We’ve got to get back to the school.”
Think, Holly. Think.
“I have an idea,” I said.
“What?”
“Let’s call for help. If anyone hears us, they’ll come rescue us.”
“Okay.”
I took a deep breath. “HELP! HELP! HELP! ANYONE!”
“HELP! HELP US!”
We continued calling out for several minutes, until we were both out of breath.
“Do you think anyone heard us?” Holly said hopefully.
“No idea. Maybe. Let’s wait,” I said.
We paused to listen. We practically held our breaths.
Nothing.
Not even the moaning cry.
In fact, we’d probably scared off whatever had made that noise.
I sighed.
I had no idea what to do, and it was growing colder.
Wait a minute.
I stood up, put my arms out, palms facing downward.
Then I recited the spell in ancient Gaelic to summon my familiars to me. While I recited the spell, I thought, “Aspen, Tundra both of you come to me, come to me right now!”
Suddenly, they were there.
“Oh, well done, Holly! Brava!”
I knelt and buried my fingers in each of their thick coats. I raised my face to them.
“Aspen? Tundra? We’re in trouble and we need your help.” The wolves both looked directly into my eyes with deep intelligence.
“We are lost. Some girls played a mean trick on us.”
The wolves raised their heads and looked around the cemetery, then returned their eyes to me.
“We need your help, my beauties. Can you carry us home?”
I held my breath. I know I was asking a lot. Wolves don’t normally carry riders.
But my wolves were huge, much bigger than any normal wolves. I had high hopes for them.
They both looked at me unblinkingly and sneezed, then panted, their pink noses lolling out the sides of their mouths.
The message was clear: Get on.
I stood and put my arms around the nearest wolf, jumping up and pulling myself on.
She didn’t even blink at the added weight.
I sat astride my wolf familiar and held on to a tuft of her fur at the base of her neck.
“Climb on, Liesl,” I said unnecessarily. Liesl was already climbing onto the other wolf, her long legs hanging halfway to the ground.
Faerie Misborn Page 12
