"Battles?" she asked.
"We defend the innocent against the evil they do not know exists," Mr. Mayfair said. Gesturing at all the people in the room, he spread his arms out wide. "We, the knights of Princeton, protect the world."
Knights of Princeton. She pictured Mr. Mayfair in a suit of armor. Surprisingly, the image didn't seem so strange. He'd look like King Arthur.
Mr. Mayfair laid a hand on her shoulder. "I know you must have many questions, but before anything else, we must drain you," he said. "I was remiss not to take care of that right away. Please accept my apologies."
"Drain me?" Lily squeaked.
"Don't worry. It will only take a few minutes and then
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you'll feel like yourself again," Grandpa said. He kissed her on the forehead. "You can trust Mr. Mayfair."
Mr. Mayfair smiled reassuringly at her. "It's a safe procedure," he said. "I know precisely when to stop."
She felt as if she were in the doctor's office and the nurse was holding a giant needle and claiming, This won't hurt a bit. "What's the procedure?" Lily asked as Mr. Mayfair steered her through the reception crowd. She glanced back at Grandpa. He wasn't following them. Instead, he was weaving his way toward the fondue table.
"You'll be fine, my dear," Mr. Mayfair said as he guided her downstairs to the taproom.
He laid his hand on a wood-paneled wall beside the bar, and a panel slid open to reveal a hidden room. Lily peered inside. Shelves filled with unmarked bottles lined one of the walls. "What is all this stuff?" she asked.
"Please, have a seat." Mr. Mayfair selected an empty bottle and nodded at a heavy wooden chair. It had restraints on the arms and the front legs, not unlike an electrocution chair.
"I'd really rather not--," she began.
"Sit, Miss Carter," he said as he prepared an IV-like needle. He connected it to a tube that led to a tangle of beakers, glass tubes, and exposed electrical circuits. He flicked a switch, and the contraption began to whir softly.
"No offense meant," she said, "but don't you think that looks a little mad scientist-like?"
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"We call it the drainer." He patted the heart of tangled tubes. "It's designed to extract the excess magic that now flows through your bloodstream due to your exposure to the atmosphere of the alternate world."
Lily backed away. "I feel fine."
He favored her with another reassuring smile. "Believe me, this is necessary and for your own good. You are currently a danger to yourself and others."
"Can't we just wait for the magic to leach out of me?" She couldn't take her eyes off the needle. "Seriously, 'drainer'?"
"You may have noticed that with your heritage, some of the members of Vineyard Club are having difficulty with your impending membership." He attached an empty bottle to the drainer and said in a mild voice, "It would be a shame to give them cause to doubt you, especially before admissions papers have been filed."
"But I passed the test!" Lily said.
"You might even be viewed as a threat, given the knowledge of us that you now possess." He patted the chair. "Lily, please trust us so we can trust you."
She wasn't trying to be ornery. She did trust him. He was her grandfather's oldest friend, and he had an air about him that seemed noble, honorable, even knightly. But ... She pointed at the restraints. "Do I have to wear those?"
"Of course not," he said in a soothing voice. "You merely need to lay your arm on the armrest so that it remains steady for several minutes."
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Gingerly, she sat down in the chair. "You've done this before?" she asked.
Nurselike, he rolled up her sleeve. "Many times." He selected a plastic tube from a drawer and tied it tightly around her bicep. He tapped the veins in her arm, and then he swabbed them with alcohol. She wondered if he was going to offer her Hello Kitty stickers and a lollipop when he finished. She turned her head as he readied the needle.
Footsteps thumped down the stairs.
Jake burst into the taproom. "Sir, Feeders are attacking Forbes!" He halted in the doorway to the hidden room. His eyes scanned the shelves, his grandfather, and Lily. "Whoa, what's all this?"
Mr. Mayfair laid the needle down. "Multiple Feeders?" he asked.
"At least a dozen," Jake said. "They never--"
"Has the area been secured?" Mr. Mayfair interrupted.
"Campus security is en route," Jake reported crisply. "Our alums are evacuating civilians." Mr. Mayfair strode out of the room. Jake followed him without even glancing at Lily. "Sir, it's a coordinated attack. No report of the new leader yet, but that's the only explanation for their behavior...." His voice faded as they went up the stairs.
Lily wasn't sure if she was supposed to follow or not. She untied the tourniquet around her arm and waited for a moment to see if Jake or Mr. Mayfair returned for her. No one came. She listened to footsteps thump overhead. She bet
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she was the only one down here ... in a hidden room ... in an electrocution chair. ...
She fled the room.
She halted at the top of the stairs. Wooden panels in the walls had been opened to reveal hidden compartments full of swords, knives, machetes, crossbows, vials of liquids, strings of garlic, packets of herbs ... As Mr. Mayfair barked orders, weapons were passed out and tucked into pockets and underneath Reunions jackets.
Across the room, Grandpa strapped a sheathed sword onto his back and then hid it beneath his psychedelic zebra coat. Lily felt her jaw drop open. She tried to imagine her grandfather swinging a sword. She'd seen him wield pruning shears, slice up a chicken breast, and peel an apple, but that didn't seem the same. One of the prim ladies tucked a dismantled crossbow into an oversize purse. Nearby, Jake was adding a knife to a holster attached to his ankle underneath his khakis.
"Knives? Swords?" she asked Jake. Her voice sounded shrill to her ears.
"Part of protecting civilians is preserving normalcy," Jake said. He sounded as crisp and stiff as he had when he'd addressed his grandfather. "Gunfire is too difficult to disguise. Plus too many magic creatures are impervious to modern weaponry."
That wasn't what she'd meant to ask about. "What's happening?"
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"It appears to be a coordinated attack on Forbes, one of the undergraduate dorms," Jake said. She noticed he was avoiding meeting her eyes. She guessed he didn't know how to talk to her after what had happened by the chapel. Or it could be that he didn't want to talk to her because she was a half breed. Maybe he was simply hiding his revulsion. She wished she knew how to bring back that look he'd worn in the gardens. "Feeders never used to unite like this. Feeders are suspicious of each other. Their strategy typically involves avoiding discovery by either knights or other magic creatures. They prefer to spread out and blend in as much as possible." From his tone, she guessed he was quoting a teacher, maybe even Professor Ape.
"Have you fought Feeders before?" she asked.
His face turned red. "I've had training."
Before she could ask another question, Grandpa strode across the room toward them. "Lily," he said, "you need to stay here."
Mr. Mayfair joined them. "She needs to see the enemy, Richard."
"This is not a typical engagement," Grandpa objected. "She'll have plenty of opportunities in a more controlled situation."
"With her magic level, we cannot leave her here unguarded and uninitiated." Mr. Mayfair's voice was pitched low so only Grandpa and Lily could hear. "You know how some feel. Think how it would look."
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A vein pulsed in Grandpa's temple. "With her magic level, she'll be a tempting snack for any Feeder. If she must come, then I will guard her myself."
Mr. Mayfair shook his head. "I need my best on the front line." His voice was gentle, apologetic even. "You know that." To Jake, he said, "When we reach Forbes, you are to locate a safe vantage point for Miss Carter before you join the battle. She is to observe only."
"But Grandfather--," Ja
ke began.
Mr. Mayfair raised his eyebrows.
"Yes, sir."
Mr. Mayfair laid a hand on his grandson's shoulder. "Good boy," he said. Lily wondered what Jake had intended to say, if he had been about to object to helping a monster. To Lily, Mr. Mayfair said, "Seek out Jake at Forbes. He'll ensure you're safe."
"Thank you, Joseph," Grandpa said. "She's the flower of my life."
Leaving them, Mr. Mayfair mounted the grand staircase. Bellowing to the Old Boys, Mr. Mayfair ordered, "Prep yourselves!"
On cue, all the knights, including Jake and Grandpa, withdrew flasks from their pockets. She heard soft pops as they were all unstopped at once. The flasks were raised up. In unison, everyone shouted, "To victory!"
All the knights drank.
Toast complete, Mr. Mayfair shouted again, "Move out,
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people! This is not a drill. And remember, the campus is flush with civilians. Containment is paramount."
Grandpa kissed Lily on the forehead. "Don't draw attention to yourself," he said. "Find a place to hide and stay there." He then waded into the crowd of knights. "You, you, and you with me," he said, pointing at select men and women. With military precision, the men and women of Vineyard Club filed out the door.
Lily was swept along with them.
As soon as the Princeton knights crossed the threshold of the club, they snapped into Reunions mode: chattering, laughing, hamming it up. She saw Jake joke and horse around with the other students. One of them stumbled down the walk as if drunk. Others strolled. Some sauntered. One group of knights jogged down the street as if they were exercising. A few speed-walked with cell phones to their ears as if they were businessmen on calls. Lily followed the knights to the end of Prospect Avenue and through the 1879 Hall arch.
After the arch, the pack splintered. Some headed for the Gothic classrooms, others veered toward the student center, and a third group walked straight ahead. She lost sight of Grandpa almost immediately. She trailed Jake and his friends into Prospect Gardens, and the radio static hum in her head increased with each step.
"What the hell is that?" she asked.
Ahead of her, Jake's friends were caught up in their fake
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chatter. She slowed, trying to pinpoint the source of the hum. It was almost like music.
As Lily entered the garden, the sound exploded into chimes that rang like a musical waterfall. She spun around in a circle, looking for the source. "Don't you hear that?" she asked. Not waiting for an answer, she followed the discordant music. It led her toward the flower beds.
Long shadows from the evergreens covered half the garden. The other half was bathed in low-angled light from the late afternoon sun. The tulips blazed. The music sounded as if it was rising up from the ground. Lily knelt beside a flower bed, and the chimes crescendoed.
It was the flowers. The tulips were singing.
"How very Disney," she murmured. She was proud that her voice only shook a little. After talking gargoyles, she wasn't going to let singing flowers freak her out, right? She reached her hands toward the tulips and brushed the petals with her palms. The blossoms leaned toward her as if her hands were the midday sun.
"They like you," a voice said behind her. She snatched her hands back, and the flowers lazily swung back to vertical. "They have good taste."
Lily jumped to her feet. "Tye! What are you doing here?"
"Stalking you, of course," Tye said with his lopsided grin. "And also, I noticed the knights in orange armor mobilizing and wanted to see what all the excitement was about."
Oh, no. She spun to look for Jake and his friends, but 142they were gone. "Feeders are attacking Forbes," she said. "I'm supposed to follow and watch!"
Tye's grin vanished. He took her hand. She felt the tiny static shocks run up and down her arm. It felt as if her skin were carbonated. Now, after being in the other Princeton, she knew what it was: magic, his magic, touching her. "You shouldn't go," he said. "You could be hurt. Unless you have secret kung-fu skills in addition to the flowers-think-you're-swell vibe?"
"Plants have never acted like I'm a magnet before," Lily said. She tried to ignore the fact that he was holding her hand. "We own a flower shop; you'd think I'd have noticed."
"You must have never had enough magic in you," he said. He let go of her hand, and she instantly missed it. She resisted the urge to touch him and instead leaned over the flower bed and brushed the tulips again. And again, they danced under her touch.
"So weird," she said. On the scale of bizarre things she'd seen today, this wasn't overly high, but still ...
"At least we now know what you are," Tye said.
She looked up sharply at him.
"You're the one who woke those vines and caught our wrinkly green friend. You're a dryad." He corrected himself. "Half dryad."
The tulips hummed. "I'm ... what?"
"Tree spirit," he clarified.
She stared at him. "I'm part tree."
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"Pretty much, yes," he said happily.
"You turn into a tiger, and I'm part tree?" She tried to sound flippant, but the plants betrayed her. As her hand tightened on the stem of a tulip, the flower shot into the air, stretching to twice its height. The blossom swayed back and forth like a cobra poised to strike. "Whoa!" She released the plant and stumbled backward.
Tye caught her as she tripped on the flagstones. Arms around her waist, he steadied her. She breathed in his rain-forest scent. Soul mates, her memory whispered. The plants whispered, too, wordlessly murmuring in her head.
"Looks like plants respond to your emotions," he said. She looked up into his golden eyes. "Can you direct them?" he asked. For an instant, caught in his eyes, she had no idea what he was talking about. "The flowers," he clarified.
The tulip was still writhing like a snake.
Tentatively, she reached out her hand and touched the flower. Its petals curled around her fingers. "Shrink, please," she said. The flower quivered, and she heard a wobbly chime. She stroked its petals. "It's okay. I'm okay."
The tulip shrank.
Tye whistled. "Cool."
Kneeling in front of the flower bed again, she spread her fingers to touch several tulips. "Up," she said. Obediently, leaves lifted into the air. "Sideways," she said and tipped her hand to the right. All the flowers dipped their blossoms. "Other way." They reversed directions. "Braid." She twisted
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her fingers against the stems and imagined what she wanted them to do, and the flowers wrapped around one another.
Tye knelt next to her. "How do you feel?"
"Like I have a really lame superpower," Lily said, unbraiding the flower stems.
He laughed. "You did catch that goblin with the ivy."
"I guess so." She wasn't sure how. That had been before she'd crossed to the magic world and absorbed its magic. "What happened to him? Did he escape? Did you say 'goblin'?"
"I took him home," Tye said. "He's with his family now. He'll be all right, eventually."
She gawked at him. "You helped him? That monkey--goblin--thing gored you, remember?"
"He's a victim too," Tye said. He was watching her with an expression she couldn't read. "He's an addict, not a murderer. Deep down, he doesn't want to kill. I offered him a way to break his addiction."
Wow. That was ... rather heroic. "You save Feeders?"
"You can too," he said. "We can do it together; we can offer Feeders a way out, a way home."
"I ... I don't know." She'd just found out her father had been a tree spirit and she could hypnotize flowers. Now Tye wanted her to ... what? Become some kind of superhero who saved vampiric monsters?
"Lily, I can't reach them all by myself."
"Can't the knights help?" She bet they'd be all over the
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idea of returning Feeders to the magic world. It was a much better solution than knives and swords.
He flashed a wry grin, but the humor didn't
touch his eyes. "The head knight and I ... we have some philosophical differences."
Lily raised her eyebrows.
"I think he's an idiot, and he thinks I'm evil demon spawn."
"Oh," she said. "Are you?"
He tilted his head back and let out a mock evil laugh. "Mwa-ha-ha!"
Grinning, she swatted his arm. "Very funny. I'm serious. Why aren't you the knights' Key?"
"Latest reason? I accused the knights of trying to invent something to drain magic from Feeders." He made a face. "Even the gargoyles wouldn't side with me on that one."
"But they've already invented that--they call it a drainer," Lily said. "They were going to use it to drain my excess magic. We were interrupted by the attack on Forbes."
Tye stared at her as if she'd sprouted leaves (which, all things considered, she thought, wasn't impossible). "Say that again?"
"It's in this hidden room. I can show you."
"You can?" His face lit up in a smile. He looked as though she'd just offered him a mountain of chocolate. His smile was almost (though not quite) as brilliant as Jake's smile.
Lily nodded. "I think the door is still open."
"I am absolutely in love with you," Tye said.
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CHAPTER Eight
One of the stone monkeys on the 1879 Hall arch scampered down the brick wall. Tye scooped him up, and the monkey wrapped its arms around his neck. He murmured to it, and then he replaced the monkey on the wall. It wormed itself back into the carving of monkeys and a lion. A second later, it was motionless stone again.
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