The man scooted forward. “We looked at the ledge,” he said. “We didn’t find anything telling. The Shadow covered his tracks well. We used some of our power to put out the fire, but the scent was already gone. I think that was the main reason he set the fire. He knew we could track him by smell, and the fire destroyed all trace of it.
“So our tracking methods didn’t work because of the fire. And he keeps doing stuff like that. But this is the first time he’s attempted to kill someone and hasn’t managed it. Because of her,” he finished, nodding toward me.
“Fallyan. Don’t encourage her,” said a woman, her eyes sparking at me as she spoke. She looked young, only about ten years older than I was. Her arms were long and muscular. Her hair was red and cropped close to her head. She lounged in her chair with a level of confidence I had rarely seen.
Basically, I had only ever seen it in the mirror.
She sharpened her eyes on me as she read some of what I was thinking in my expression. I tried to school my features into indifference, but I knew it was too late. One side of her mouth lifted in an amused smirk.
“Paddy, I want you to go back out there. See if there’s anything else you can find. We’re going to have classes this afternoon. It’s all hands on deck. Do we have any idea who he was targeting?” the principal asked.
The others exchanged looks.
“We shouldn’t talk about it with her here,” said the woman. The principal grunted and turned to me.
“Now, I want you to tell me what you were doing,” he said.
I raised my eyebrows. My reason for chasing down the Shadow was surely obvious. I wanted to say so, but I didn’t want to offend the easily offended Paddy.
“I saw something in the scrub at the top of the cliff. Since they were shooting in my direction I decided to go investigate,” I said.
“What did you see?” the woman asked.
I shook my head.
“Glinting,” I said. I had also felt the air change. A warning sign, as I now realized, a hint that dark magic was coming. Black magic. And it had come right at the academy.
Chapter Ten
“Just what did you think you were doing going after a crazed killer all by yourself, or at all?” the woman demanded.
“Leave her alone, Clouda,” scolded Fallyan. “She’s only seventeen and she just got out of prison. Her brain is probably addled.”
“Clouda would have done the same thing,” muttered Paddy.
“Of course she just got out of prison. Look at her,” Clouda sneered.
She looked me up and down and sniffed. I knew she could see the cuffs on my arms, so she knew my magic was bound.
The wellspring of power that came deep from within us had, in my case, been suppressed. My magic had been locked away for years by someone unknown.
It had been someone stronger than Clouda, I was sure. I took some comfort in that. Why, I didn’t even know.
“I would do it again,” I said.
“You will do no such thing,” said Clouda through gritted teeth. “You will do as you’re told. Which is to study, and act interesting. Not get yourself killed with an arrow though the chest.”
I opened my mouth to argue again, but the principal raised his hand. “You did your part. There’s no other information you can provide. It really would be best if you tried to stay alive for the duration of the school year. Given that there’s a killer on the loose, if you make it too easy for him he might just succeed in making you one of his victims.”
His words could have been interpreted as a threat, but I knew they weren’t. He spoke the truth.
I shot one last glare at Clouda, which was returned in full by the molten dislike that swam in her eyes. Only ten years older, I mused, but somehow in this important meeting with the leaders of the fabled academy.
As I headed back to the dorm, I wondered what her role was. But with nothing to go on, I gave up worrying about it for the moment.
This time Vayvin and Esmeralda were waiting for me.
“We’re about to go to class. They delayed it a bit because of what happened. They wanted to canvass the academy, but don’t worry, they do that all the time,” Vayvin said.
They had come over to my bunk to wait for me, and the girl on the bottom was giving them dirty looks. When I showed up she scoffed and walked away.
I told myself I’d have to be careful with her. Like the unpleasant girl at the lunch table, she wore ruffles around her collar.
Taking Vayvin and Esmeralda’s presence as encouragement, I decided to see if they were willing to help me get up to speed.
“I need more information,” I said. “If this is how things are going to go all the time, I need to be more careful. I’ve been locked up for so many months that I have no idea what’s been going on in the kingdom.”
Vayvin sat down on an adjacent bed and nodded. “I’ll catch you up as quickly as I can and we can talk more about it later. There really isn’t much time right now. But also, you’re an idiot, aren’t you?” She softened it with a smile, but I could tell she was serious underneath, and upset on my behalf. “You made yourself a target today. Of the only killer that’s never been caught.”
“I didn’t really have a choice,” I said.
“Of course you have a choice. The rest of us ran away,” Esmeralda pointed out.
I shrugged. It had felt good to open up my stride and go after something, to run when I wasn’t the one being chased. Being the chaser had felt amazing.
Dare I say – but not out loud – I might even do it again. With that thought, I listened to what Vayvin had to say.
“So here’s the thing,” she began. “Whessellond is unsettled. The king has had trouble maintaining control at the border. We’re under attack from both sides. Our natural resource wealth inspires envy in every other kingdom. What used to be a civilized trading system is no more. And to top it all off, the king has no children. Therefore, his heir will be chosen from among the princes of the eight provinces.”
She looked at me consideringly, then asked, “You do know that the kingdom has eight provinces right?”
I rolled my eyes and nodded. I knew at least that much, mostly because my mountain home had been in a particular province, the ruling family of which had come to kill Julia and the rest of my clan, and succeeded.
“Those families used to be lords,” Vayvin continued. “Dukes, more specifically, but the offspring were known as lords. That changed when it became clear that the king would not have children. At that point the ruling families of most of the eight provinces redesignated their own eldest offspring as princes, one of whom would one day be king.
“Of course, two of the ruling families didn’t have boys. That left six of them with newly-designated princes, some older, some younger. The age range is wide. There are a couple that are only two years old, or four. The little ones are still well protected with their families, obviously, but there are a few around our age. One of them was murdered last year. He had three younger brothers, and the next one became the new heir. Then he was murdered too.
“The king wants those kids protected by the best of the best guards. The best of the best, of course, come to this academy to train and learn. Well, last year the best of the best started being murdered here. There were five killings. All students. The only thing those five students had in common was that they were all really good at something.”
“Wait a minute, like the most talented students were the ones who died?” I demanded, interrupting her.
Could the whispers I’d heard at the Dungeon of Black Stone possibly be true? That sounded absurd.
When Vayvin didn’t answer right away I pressed further. “How did they know which were the talented students?”
“There are clubs and organizations,” she explained. “It’s pretty clear who has power and who doesn’t if you pay any attention at all. Every single one of the students killed last year was the president of an organization or the leader of a club. The newspaper
editor was left alone, but then he quit, and no one else would take his place. We’re going to see what happens with that this year. The captain of one of the athletic teams was killed. And of course one of those killed was a prince from Ice Coast province.”
“So the answer is to just not be good at anything, or do anything that draws notice,” I suggested.
This seemed obvious. Like homework bad, multiple exits from indoor locations good.
“That doesn’t work,” said Esmeralda. “We have to defend what is ours. We can’t lose our way of life to this murderer. We won’t.”
“Have there been any murders this year?” I asked, thinking that a dismal start to a new school year might have prompted my being removed from prison.
“Well, today was the first day, and clearly the killer tried. But he failed, and that has never happened before,” said Vayvin, beaming.
“What has been done to catch the killer?” I asked.
Esmeralda sighed. “Investigators have come in. The king himself has sent some, and families have sent others. Traps have been laid. Someone was put on trial last year but found not guilty. And then there was one last kill,” she said.
I shook my head. “Shouldn’t the school close?” I demanded.
Vayvin snorted. “That was discussed. But of course everyone thinks the school should be able to keep the students safe. The strongest magical enchantments have been put in place on the grounds and inside the building. That’s probably why we were forced outside by the killer today,” said Vayvin. “He may think the defenses are weaker outside the building. And who knows, maybe they are. But I don’t think a murder can be committed indoors anymore,” she said.
“So you think it’s just a matter of getting us outside?” I asked.
The two girls both nodded. “Yes, we think that’s considerably more dangerous now than being inside.”
“And why, again, hasn’t the school been closed?” I asked.
I mean, saying that they should be able to keep us safe was all nice and good, but clearly they couldn’t. The two girls exchanged dark glances.
“Because they haven’t caught the killer. They don’t know who it is. So we can’t very well go to another school. But keeping us here didn’t work either. We weren’t learning anything,” Vayvin said.
“Do parents really want their kids used as bait?” I asked.
“We’re not incapable of taking care of ourselves,” Esmeralda shot back.
I didn’t point out that so far some rather notable fae had proven to be incapable of taking care of themselves, or each other.
“Anyway, we have to get to class,” said Vayvin, glancing over her shoulder at the other students who were streaming out of dorm rooms.
I was fine with that. I had enough information to chew on for an hour while somebody talked at me. At least, that’s what I imagined learning in a school to be.
I had never learned anything before. Not in a school setting. That touched on my secret again, but I couldn’t very well focus on that right now, and I was sure I could get by without it mattering too much anyhow.
I followed the two girls to class. I don’t know what I was expecting, but a massive room with a hundred students in it wasn’t it. It looked like everyone from our year was there.
I glanced at my two escorts. Esmeralda read the question in my eyes and said, “Didn’t anyone tell you there aren’t a lot of teachers? They try to have just a skeleton crew. Teachers don’t want to work here anymore,” she said.
“But students want to come?”
“In the end, the king decreed that we have to,” said Vayvin. “So we’re all here waiting to be murdered. The king has also said that there must be organizations and heads of organizations. No getting rid of the position of editor of the newspaper.”
I swallowed hard. The king had essentially ordered his subjects to put themselves at risk of being killed. That was cold-hearted at best, especially in light of the fact that the authorities hadn’t been able to find the slightest clue who the killer was. Now we all knew that he (probably a he) had been alive and well on campus as of this very morning, and that he had very good aim with a bow and arrow.
“You’d think bow skills would tip them off to who it is,” I murmured, almost to myself.
My companions did not respond.
The three of us found seats in the large theater. At first the three seats behind us were empty, but that didn’t last long. After a few minutes, someone bumped into the back of my chair, and I glanced around. To my utter shock and surprise, the prince who had followed us out of the atrium at lunchtime was sitting directly behind me. His two bodyguards were sitting on either side of him, behind my two friends.
When he saw me looking, he grinned. I didn’t react to the sight of him or the smile; I just looked away.
Then I looked all around the theater, trying to take in as many of my fellow students as I could. There was another boy who had more bodyguards than the one behind me–at least six, as far as I could tell. He looked sort of mousy and pathetic, but he was wearing the insignia of a prince.
Much of what little gossip I’d heard since I arrived had centered around the princes. There were three attending the academy. Prince Reidar was kind but maybe too soft. Prince Orlando was terrified of the killer. Prince Connor was mighty and strong and would make a great ruler. I had yet to see him.
Continuing my survey of the room, I saw a lot of girls wearing shirts with ruffles. I had no idea whether the ruffles had any significance, but the girls looked ridiculous in them, even more ridiculous than I did in my tunic.
Esmeralda lean across me and said to Vayvin, “Mind telling me what class this is again?”
Vayvin’s snorted. “Philosophy 101.”
“Welcome to the snooze hour,” someone behind us whispered.
“What did you say?” I asked Vayvin.
“Philosophy 101. Where have you been, in prison?” she asked.
She said it as if I was dumb, although I had already admitted that I had in fact been in prison. But all I could think of was the number “101.” Just like what was written on the piece of paper that was still in my pocket, that I had found near where the Shadow had stood to take aim.
I let that sink in. “Are all our classes 101?” I asked.
Vayvin gave me a look that said, again, that I was kind of stupid.
“Yeah, 101 because we’re new around here.”
I settled back in my seat. The room was basically full, and class was supposed to be starting, and yet there was still no sign of any teacher. Probably because they were meeting in the principal’s office.
When the doors opened at last, in came Clouda.
“Hello, students,” she chirped.
“This is going to be a problem,” I thought.
Chapter Eleven
When I had been imprisoned with nothing to look at or do, the time had passed slowly. Never would I have thought I’d be making a comparison between a class at the Noble Fae Academy and a dungeon, but the overwhelming sense of boredom was similar. Some students actually listened to Clouda, while others ignored her or drifted off. I glanced behind me once, only to see that the prince was picking his nails. One of his bodyguards was almost asleep, but the other, piercing eyes and all, was listening to Clouda intently.
He was the biggest of the three of them, the one who had put himself between the prince and the Shadow that morning. When he caught me looking at him, I quickly looked away.
I tried to listen to what the woman was saying, but I really didn’t have a clue. At least half the class was falling asleep as she talked about the ancient kingdom’s teachings on magical texts and ethics.
What on earth did ethics have to do with anything, I wondered?
Clouda drifted around her desk as she talked, her muscles bunching as she moved. Noticing a student sleeping in the front row, she walked past the black slate wall and picked up a long, thin stick, maybe a ruler or measuring stick of some sort, about the len
gth of her arm.
Almost as if it was a completely casual encounter, she wandered over to the sleeping student’s desk. Faster than I could have believed possible, she slammed the stick down on it.
The student awoke with a cry and a start. The rest of the class woke up too. Clouda threw the broken stick on the ground and then stepped on it, grinding her heel into it savagely.
Then she looked calmly at the rest of us and raised her eyebrows.
Philosophy was just as boring as I had expected it to be, even though it was being taught by a woman who looked like a warrior. It was dry, dry, dry, there was no getting around it, dry like the winds of winter scraping over the mountain ranges. Clouda droned on for the entire hour, somehow never losing her spark even though no one in the class was very interested. After the incident with the stick, at least no one went back to sleep.
I looked around in wonder as she talked on. And on. And on.
This academy was fabled, famous. And this is what it taught?
It took the best of the best of the very best, and did this with them?
My mind was nearly blown at the stupidity. Why waste all the talent gathered here? It just didn’t make sense to me.
At the end of class everyone was still awake, because after the incident with the stick they were all too afraid of Clouda to fall asleep. No, they weren’t asleep, they were only slightly comatose. They were just that bored.
Clouda gave reading assignments for the next class, which was in two days’ time, and we all hurried out. My stomach rolled at the thought of a reading assignment, which was a terrible thing as far as I was concerned.
In fact, I couldn’t think of anything worse. I would rather have run headlong into the Shadow’s arrows again than do a reading assignment.
There were a hundred students in the class. I felt certain that I could get out of it if I didn’t do the work. The teacher couldn’t possibly miss one silly assignment.
“How many more classes today?” I asked my new friends tiredly. We’d had only one, and I already wanted the day to be over.
Noble Fae Academy: Year One Page 7
