by Maria Amor
Julia ran into Blake on her way to her final class of the day. “You’re going to meet me in the courtyard in front of the dorm buildings, right?” Blake raised both eyebrows in surprise.
“I thought you were going to talk to Halpern,” he said.
“I am, and I want you to come with me,” Julia told him.
“Really?” Julia nodded.
“But don’t tell Magda,” she said quickly. “Just don’t even mention it to her.” Blake snickered.
“I won’t,” he promised.
Julia could barely keep her control during her last class of the day, she was so preoccupied with the knowledge of what she was going to do after the class ended; fortunately, the professors seemed to have come to the decision to not push her too much in the face of her recent transition—they seemed to respect the fact that she’d become something of a celebrity, and didn’t want to add to the pressure on her.
Julia was still trying to understand all of her new abilities, her newfound strength—she would probably, according to the experts, continue to develop and change within her alignment for another year before hopefully settling into her Guardian strengths formally.
“Julia, before class ends for the day, could you demonstrate this theory for us?” Julia shook off her ruminations to try and remember what Professor Tollen had been saying; it was something about the use of air-aligned energy to manifest an ‘avatar’ of air—an embodiment of the element that didn’t have a mind of its own, but which had the properties which came with the element. It was advanced work, and Julia knew she should have been paying more attention to it, but she hoped she could get by with the little she’d managed to absorb and the basic strength she had at her command.
She stood and stepped into the middle of the classroom, where the desks had been cleared away for demonstrations. Julia took a deep breath and focused on the energy thrumming as a constant background note through her body, singing in her veins and whispering along her bones. She could see it, almost, a glowing yellow presence that reminded her of sunlight through new leaves.
Julia murmured the incantation that Tollen had given them, reciting the words in the whispering, almost whistling air-aligned language. As she did, she visualized a presence in front of her, glowing yellow with the energy of her alignment. She focused intently on the image she could see in her mind in front of her, thinking of every detail. It would be a human-looking “avatar,” with two arms, two legs, a body and a head.
It was like drawing in her mind, filling in the specifics from the more general impressions she had of what she wanted. When she was certain she had a clear concept, she poured all of her energy into it, imagining it blowing out of her and into an empty vessel. Julia wasn’t sure that she was doing it the way that Tollen wanted them to, but it made sense to her.
After long moments, Julia opened her eyes to see that the creature—not a living thing, exactly, but an embodiment of energy—had started to appear, faint but present. “Very good, Julia,” Tollen said. “Of course, over time the rest of you should be able to create this level of avatar as well—and you’ll be able to give it more definition and power. The goal with this is to create something that can help you: it can be used as a defense, or for other very basic, limited tasks.”
The professor continued explaining for a few more moments and then turned back to Julia. “You can recall the energy back into you—I’m sure that even a powerful Guardian like you’re shaping up to be would find maintaining an avatar for a long time pretty strenuous.”
Julia pulled the energy back into her body and went back to her seat just in time for the bell to ring to announce the end of the day. She gathered her things and hurried to the door, ignoring Professor Tollen’s half-spoken request for her to stay behind for a moment. She had to meet Blake, and then get to Halpern before she went into the back office for the day.
Blake had managed to get out of his class maybe a minute before she had; he was waiting in the right spot, their usual meeting spot in the courtyard, by the time Julia came out of the building, but she could tell that he hadn’t been there long. “Ready to do the thing?”
“Yeah, we need to hurry,” Julia told him. She led the way, pushing past the students headed to the library, various clubs, the dorms—to get to the administration building, where Mrs. Halpern would be. Blake followed behind her and Julia realized she was actually grateful for his presence; she could have done it on her own, but it felt better to her—more comfortable—to meet with the receptionist with someone at her side.
She stepped into the administration offices, and couldn’t help but remember the events of a year before, when she’d been hauled in to see Dimitrios under accusations that she’d been skipping class to spy on the then-physical education professor. Of course, that was exactly what she had been doing, but she couldn’t admit to that—and so instead she’d claimed to be trying to meet with Dylan to mitigate the effects of her power surges. I am definitely not going to kiss Blake in front of anyone, especially not Mrs. Halpern.
Julia looked around and spotted the older Guardian; she was gathering things from her desk to go to the back part of the office, presumably to file them away, or do whatever she did after hours. “Mrs. Halpern! Can I talk to you for a minute or two?” The older woman looked up and spotted Julia—and then Blake. Surprise turned to faint concern on her face.
“What about? I can spare a couple of minutes for you but I might be limited in what I can say.” Julia glanced at Blake and briefly wondered if she might not have been better off coming alone after all.
“Blake’s on my side,” Julia said quietly. “I trust him.” Mrs. Halpern raised an eyebrow for just a moment and then composed her face.
“I assume you’re here to ask about Dylan and the others,” Mrs. Halpern said. “I wish I had more to tell you—but Guthrie’s been getting daily updates on the progress the investigators have made, and they still have no ideas.”
“We know a little bit,” Julia told the older woman. Mrs. Halpern looked around the office; while there wasn’t anyone there at the moment but the three of them, there was no way to prevent someone coming in and overhearing.
“Come over here with me in the supply closet,” Mrs. Halpern suggested. It was the same spot where she, Dylan, and Julia had discussed their plans the year before to find out about the stolen and duplicated artifacts in the Sandrine vault. When they were all in the spacious closet, Halpern turned her attention onto Julia. “What is it that you know already?”
“We know that someone gave the people who did the kidnappings security passcodes to get them onto campus,” Julia said.
“Someone gave them all the information they would need to pass through without setting off an alarm,” Blake added. “And one or two of the students who got snatched were in the dorms—so it had to be someone with top access.” Halpern’s eyes widened.
“With that level of access, it could only be one of four people,” she said. “Guthrie—obviously she’s not in on this—me, but I hope you know better than to think I would have anything to do with it…”
“Of course,” Julia said.
“How are you so sure?” Blake’s look was disbelieving. Julia rolled her eyes.
“Because I know she’s allied with my grandmother,” Julia told him matter-of-factly. “She helped me out last year. She wouldn’t suddenly get Dylan and my other friends abducted.”
“If you say so,” Blake said, shrugging.
“Who does that leave?” Julia turned her attention back onto Halpern.
“Harris Egan, head of security for the school, and Professor Oriel, who’s his backup.” Both of those people—Egan and Oriel both—were fire-aligned Guardians. That can’t be a coincidence, Julia thought, remembering that the professor that Blake had gotten his information from had been fire-aligned as well.
“When does Egan work?” Julia wanted to get as much information as possible, to come up with a good plan. She would just have to talk to both men—a
nd maybe use her compulsion ability—to get the answers she wanted.
“He’s here from about an hour before school starts, until sixth period,” Halpern said. “From sixth until the end of the day, he’s off-campus, reporting to the council.” That gave Julia another idea.
“Who on the council is involved with security for the school?” That might give her a hint—even if neither of the two men had the right information—of who else to go after. She wasn’t without contacts on the council, not after her appearances and not after the lunches and parties that Ruth had made her go to.
“Eckhart, Blaise, Fiammetta, and Marcos,” Halpern said. “They’re the ones who are involved specifically in security, on the committee for the school.” Julia considered that: Marcos and Eckhart were, she thought, earth-aligned; Blaise and Fiammetta were fire-aligned. That aspect of the situation clouded the waters a little bit, but Julia thought that she would go after the two fire Guardians first if she couldn’t get everything she needed from Egan or Oriel.
For the first time since Blake had given her the information about the security leak, Julia felt as if she might actually be able to locate her friends, and gain their freedom.
“Thank you,” Julia said, and as she realized she didn’t need anything else—not really—from the older woman, she was relieved too that she hadn’t needed to use her compulsion ability. That, she could save for the more difficult cases of the professor, the chief of security, or the members of the council.
“Get out of here quickly, before someone wonders what we’re talking about,” Halpern suggested. Julia nodded her acceptance of that, and Blake followed her out of the closet. They left the office without looking around them, and Julia led the way to the area where they usually hung out after classes, her mind still full of the details she needed to plan.
“What’s on your mind?” Julia shook herself out of her thoughts at the sound of Blake’s voice. They were as alone as they were likely to get on the campus during normal after-class hours; she might as well tell him.
“I think we’re going to need to interrogate the professor and the security guy,” she said. “And I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the people involved seem to be fire-aligned.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Blake countered. “At least two of those council members were earth-aligned. And the situation with Dimitrios last year involved both fire-aligned and earth-aligned Guardians.” Julia shrugged.
“I’ll keep it in mind, but I think the fire angle is important,” Julia told him. “Unless you have a problem going after your own fellow Guardians?” Blake shook his head.
“If they were responsible for this, then I want them taken down,” Blake said. “It’s terrible to kidnap and keep students like that captive.” Julia held his gaze for a long moment, almost feeling a tingle of distrust, but then dismissing it.
“Let’s start planning how we can corner Egan,” she suggested, and turned her thoughts once more to planning. She had to trust Blake; she didn’t have anyone else to work with on campus.
CHAPTER 17
Dylan awakened to the sound of someone coming into his prison cell; he opened his eyes and saw that it was Odan, one of the servants. Dylan wasn’t sure what time it was when he had fallen asleep, but it had been late then—at least it had felt that way to him—and so it had to be even later now.
He had spent the hours since Solange had told him that a fire-aligned family owned the home where he and the other students were being held prisoner,n, wondering if there was any way he could figure out who it could be on his own, from the few hints Solange had provided—the little she had known.
She’d suggested that Odan might know, as the servant in charge; but he hadn’t seen the other elf the entire rest of the day. The fact that one of the other students being held captive had some kind of reaction worried Dylan; even if he didn’t feel the need to get out as soon as possible to try and prevent the plan their captors had of manipulating Julia into bonding with a fire-aligned prospective mate, it was clearly becoming more dangerous for them to be there.
“Dylan?” The elf turned on the lights in the room and Dylan sat up, pushing his hair out of his face. Absently he remembered the conversation—months ago—that he’d had with Julia about them cutting off all their hair.
“Solange told you to come see me?” Dylan felt his heart beating a little bit faster at the idea. If the elves were talking amongst themselves about the captives, about what was going on with them—that might be an advantage when it came to implementing an escape plan.
“She told me that you had questions I might have an answer to. Dylan, things are becoming...strained.” Dylan raised an eyebrow at that.
“One of the others had a reaction,” Dylan said. “Is that what you mean?” Odan nodded.
“They’re going to have to move you all to another place,” Odan said. “That’s what they’re saying. The wards here...it was something to do with that, they think. They want to make sure that the six of you aren’t going to deteriorate, or else they’d have to turn you over to your parents, and that would ruin their plan.”
“Or they could just kill us,” Dylan said. Odan shrugged.
“That was also discussed,” he admitted. “But they don’t want the danger that would come along with that. They want to keep the people who are in charge of this a secret—of course I’m sure you realize that if they get caught, they’re going to be subject to the highest penalties the council offers.” Dylan smiled bitterly at that.
“But Bernadette and Alistair aren’t worried?” Odan shrugged again.
“They are counting on being able to make the argument that they were blackmailed, following instructions,” he told Dylan. “I’m not sure how gullible your council is, but there are at least one or two people there who are involved in this, I’m sure.” Odan pressed his lips together. “If everything is exposed, however, they won’t have much of a choice—the council will have to act or it would become all-out war from the Guardians.”
“Of course,” Dylan said. The council had come together—working alongside the elemental rulers—as a result of such battles in the long-distant past. It was a way for the Guardians to govern themselves as they coordinated around the world, and the decisions the council took were supposed to be above reproach.
Of course, the Guardians that made up the council were still human; the events of the previous school year had proven that they could be motivated by spite, by ambition and greed. But Dylan knew that if one, or even a handful of members of the council were outed as participating in a large-scale kidnapping scheme, they’d have to be purged and replaced, or the rest of the world’s Guardians would rise up.
“What did you need to know from me? I apologize for coming so late, but today has not been a very good day. This was the first time I could come here when no one would be monitoring.”
“I don’t know if you’ll be able to help me, but so far you seem to be the only one who might,” Dylan told the elf. “Do you know the name of the family responsible for this?” That was one of the more important questions; he needed to know who was in charge, whose family was trying to hijack Julia’s preferences to get her to bond.
“I didn’t know until today, actually,” Odan said. “The family was absent from this house. The person who called us to help was obviously an earth-aligned Guardian, named Helen Zola.” Dylan faintly recognized the name; it wasn’t someone he knew well, but he thought he’d heard of her before. “But she wasn’t the one in charge. She told us that she owed a favor to the family who owned this home, and that we had to assist.”
“How did she force you?” Dylan frowned, for a moment deterred from the more important questions.
“The usual ways,” Odan said blandly. “But that’s unimportant.”
“You said the family who owns this house has come back?” Odan nodded.
“They were gone when we started putting together the cells,” Odan explained. “Helen told us what was needed,
and helped design and get the materials.” Dylan was on the verge of asking the earth-aligned creature how he could dismantle the wards—but that was less important, at least at the moment. He knew he needed to let Odan speak.
“Solange said that this part of the house is hidden away from the rest? Down a corridor and a fake wall or something?” Odan nodded once again.
“That was done when we got here,” Odan said. “Everything else we helped with.”
“Okay,” Dylan said. “So the family came back today?”
“They did, because of the reaction the girl had,” Odan explained. “I had to spend half the day healing her, and they were worried.”
“Who had the reaction?” It occurred to Dylan that he had never gotten an answer to that question—in fact, he’d never asked it since hearing about the incident.
“Eliza,” Odan said. “We’ve been trying to feed all of you in such a way that the wards wouldn’t diminish your energies enough to make you sick, but in her case, there was something with the food…” he shrugged. “If you were to ask me, I would say it was more that she had stopped eating as much, had started...not starving herself, but losing her appetite.”
Dylan fleetingly wished that he could have coordinated with the girl, for her to set this up—but he knew that she probably hadn’t done it intentionally. If we had tried an escape today, while they were distracted, it might have actually accomplished something. At least we’d have some information.
“How is she doing?” Dylan thought of Eliza, still imprisoned, sickening because of the influence of the wards on her air-aligned energies.
“She is better, but still weak,” Odan said. “We had to move her to another room, with weaker wards on it, and give her a few potions to bolster her energies.” Odan shook his head. “It was a near thing.”
“She was in danger of dying?” Odan made a face to suggest that it wasn’t that bad—but that it was still serious. Dylan shook off his concern for the moment—he would return to it later. “You said the family came back. Did you meet them? See them at least?”
