“Alayne was threatened last night with the death of her parents, and it's all your fault.”
Alayne stared at her friend. “Marysa—”
“Don't try to stand up for him, Layne.” Marysa leaned forward across the table. “The only reason why Daymon wasn't there to keep watch was because he had to make sure the rest of the students got back to the common ward without attracting attention, and then Kyle, like an idiot, left you by yourself. With Sprynge.”
“He didn't know—”
“I didn't know,” Kyle repeated, his panicked gaze swinging back and forth between Marysa and Alayne. “What happened?”
“If you had stayed where you were supposed to stay, you would know for yourself,” Marysa snapped at him. “Thankfully, Daymon returned to Alayne before Sprynge went too far, and he was able to keep Alayne safe. For the moment,” she tacked on.
Alayne rolled her eyes heavenward. “Skies, Marysa, you're making such a huge deal out of it. Kyle, it was nothing. Well, next to nothing. Sprynge found us out. Speed-dating club is canceled. He launched a few threats my way. All of this will probably culminate about the end of the school year, because he wants to wait to 'take me',” she constructed air-quotes with her fingers, “until the Elemental Alliance has passed their new laws and gained their 'unprecedented power.' Oh, and if he can be believed,” she glanced at Daymon, “the EA has my parents. Captured. Something; he wasn't real clear on the details.”
Alayne shot a quelling look at Marysa, but Marysa ignored her. “All I'm saying is that if you had stayed with Alayne, she might not have been subjected to all that. You should have been there. It—it's not right that she has so much pressure, so many people against her. She shouldn't have to be the one to take all this...”
To Alayne's amazement, Marysa's eyes flooded with tears. Her voice grew thick. She pushed herself back from the table and ran for the chute. “Marysa,” Alayne called.
She started to rise, but Rachyl shook her head. “Layne. She needs time.”
Alayne's jealousy spiked. “She's my friend,” she snapped. “Why shouldn't I go after her?”
“Just give her a few minutes, okay? She's been worrying a lot about you.” Rachyl arranged her bacon in even strips across her plate. “You've been busy lately, and you don't get to talk as much. Anyway, she's been imagining all sorts of horrible things happening to you because you insist on taking leadership.”
“I insist?” Alayne stared at Rachyl. “Marysa was the one who wanted me to start this! What in CommonEarth are you talking about?”
“You're right, she wanted you to begin it. But it's put you in front of a lot of people, and with the pressure of making sure nobody spilled the secret, and her fear that you'll end up dead because of this whole mess, she just cracked, I guess.” Rachyl picked up her bacon and bit off one end of a strip. “She took it out on the first person she could who wasn't Alayne.” She glanced sideways at Kyle.
Kyle stared at Alayne, his face still in shock.
“Hey, snap out of it.” Alayne waved her fingers in his face. “I'm fine. Daymon was there, Sprynge was creepy, but didn't scare me—much. Breakfast is almost over, and you haven't even started. Want my waffles?” She pushed her tray toward him, feeling a little nauseated.
“Your parents, Layne?” Kyle asked. He didn't touch her tray.
“If he can be believed, I said. Obviously, he can't be believed, so there's no use my worrying about them, is there?” To her utter frustration and consternation, a tear overflowed from her eye, coming to rest on the ridge of her lip. She brushed it away, staring at the wood grain of the table.
After another second of silence, Alayne swung her legs over the bench. “I've got to go get my books. Classes are going to start soon.” Without another glance at either Rachyl or Kyle, she hurried toward the chute. She almost beat Daymon to the doors.
He pressed the button for the shuttle platform and the car flew upward.
Alayne gazed steadily at the carpet under her shoes. “You just left Rachyl and Kyle by themselves?”
“They'll be fine.”
She glanced at the lighted button he'd pressed on the wall of the car. “Students on the shuttle platform is against the rules now.”
“Last I checked, you weren't too worried about breaking rules.” His dimple peeped out, and Alayne dropped her gaze to her hand as she fidgeted with her ring.
The car stopped and the chute doors flew open. Daymon tugged her out onto the platform.
The wind pulled at Alayne's hair, brushing her cheeks briskly. The clouds were high today. Arching her neck, she could almost see the very tip of the spire. She turned to Daymon.
“Okay. We're here, breaking the rules. What do you want to tell me?”
“It's what I want to show you.” Daymon motioned to the edge of the platform.
Alayne cocked an eyebrow and followed him over.
“Look out there and tell me what you see, Alayne.”
“Lots of fields.” Alayne knew she sounded grumpy. She didn't care.
“Look at the potential, Alayne. Really, try to see it. It might surprise you.” Daymon stood behind her, his hand still lightly grasping her arm, steadying her in the strong wind.
Alayne looked out at the fields. “I don't understand, Daymon.” She bit back the impatience in her voice.
“To the horizon, as far as you can see and farther, are people. Elementals and Natural Humans, Alayne. People who deserve a chance to live, to be free, to have rights, to love, to die in their own time. Don't you see that the fight you're entering isn't just for your parents? It's for everyone. For all of them who have families and lives and loves of their own.”
His hand gently rubbed her arm. “You won't be alone, Layne. There's a massive army out there, waiting for a leader. We'll all be in the battle with you. Can't you glimpse it, Layne?”
A buzzing began behind Alayne's ears and spread across her face and down her arms. She suddenly back-stepped, ramming hard against Daymon's chest.
She could see; she could see very well, but not what Daymon had tried to point out.
For miles around the spire, airbuses and shuttles were parked, all bearing the mark of a huge EA on their roofs, a circle of three rings the background. People in uniform milled about in a seemingly disorganized fashion, though on closer inspection, there was order in the chaos.
One trailer, almost directly below Alayne's feet, seemed to be mustering the majority of activity. Three Elemental Alliance flags waved from the top of it, and a row of uniformed guards—ants from Alayne's high position—stood at attention outside of it.
Alayne stared unbelievingly at the swarming army and then closed her eyes. Willing the cold drain to flow down her arm, she was once again aware of Daymon's solid chest behind her, his arms tight around her waist. When she opened her eyes again, he leaned to look in her face, his blue eyes concerned.
“What did you see, Layne?”
Alayne licked her dry lips. “Daymon, the Elemental Alliance might be a smidgen bigger than what we had thought. Any of us.”
* * *
Marysa returned none the worse for wear to the dorm room that evening.
Alayne glanced up from her textbook when Marysa entered the room. Calmly closing it and tossing it to one side, she slid off the bed and wrapped her friend in a hug. “I'm sorry, Marysa, for my carelessness after the speed-dating session. I had no idea you worried so much.”
Marysa pulled back and shook her head vehemently. “No, you weren't doing anything bad, Layne. I—just have a horribly vivid imagination that works in all sorts of details about how you'll die while I have to watch.” A wry smile crossed her lips, though her eyes remained tear-reddened as she glanced at Alayne's expression. “I'll try to tone down my nightmares now, at least for a while.”
While her roommate slept that night, Alayne pushed back her blanket and slipped on her shoes. She stole along the hallway and down the stairs, across the dark common room floor and into the chute. The dro
p tugged at her stomach until the car hit the ground level. The doors opened, and Alayne stepped outside. Guilt nagged at her thoughts; Daymon would want to come with her, and she knew he would have done it without complaint, even now, in the middle of the night while the rest of the spire slept.
This was something she had to do by herself, though.
The night was cool, though not cold, similar to her dream when she'd first crept across the prairie toward Jayme's grave. Alayne was glad for the chill of the air against her bare arms. She left the paved pathway, and began walking through the grass, heading for the surrounding fields. She glanced over her shoulder at the spire. Not a single light shone from any window; the students and staff of Clayborne rested in full slumber.
The willows took longer to reach than she remembered. She could see them from the spire, but they stayed on the distant horizon as she plowed her way through the grass toward them.
The long sweeping branches hung weighted with leaves again, shrouding the grave marker. Alayne tugged the elements, swinging the branches aside. She stepped through the opening.
“It's long past time that I do this.” She had resisted; even in her dreams, she had wanted to stay far back from the grave, to keep her fingers away from the elements. In her search through the MIU resources, looking for Jayme, she'd retreated from thoughts of this. She didn't want to know, not really. If anything, it would drive the reality home. Either Jayme was truly dead—or he was alive, but refusing to return to her. Either way was too painful for her to think about.
But now, she had to think about it. Her questions needed answers, and she could find no peace inside herself until she knew. She pushed her fears behind her, knelt, and closed her eyes, concentrating on the earth beneath her. It wasn't hard to find the urn. It sat directly in front of the grave marker, several feet into the earth. With a minor rumble, Alayne pulled upward on it, watching the dirt quiver and shake to the side as the blue vase appeared.
It was as small as Alayne remembered. Sprynge hadn't allowed her to see inside purportedly to ease the pain of Jayme's passing. The lid was still sealed tightly. Using her own hands, Alayne couldn't budge it. She sat back on the grass and concentrated on the urn. She focused on the air trapped inside, and with a mighty shove, she shot the lid skyward. Alayne snatched the urn and quickly called a flame to her finger. Holding it inside, she looked all around.
The clean interior was untainted with ash, dirt, or decay of any kind. It was as if it had just come through the wash cycle in the school kitchens.
Alayne rocked back on her heels, staring at the vase. So it was true. Jayme was alive, and she had been duped all this time.
Part of her wanted to shout, dance, sing. Jayme was alive. But the overshadowing dread in her stomach whispered her deepest fears.
Then where is he?
If Jayme was still living, then there was little doubt that he was in enemy hands.
* * *
Alayne didn't want to think about exams. Her bleary eyes searched the library MIUs for news about the EA's political maneuvers, articles reporting LO sightings, anything having to do with High Court deliberations. She couldn't think about anything except what was going on outside the school rather than in it. “I want to quit,” she told Marysa in their room a week before the finals. She slammed a textbook shut. “I want to leave the school and never come back.”
Marysa gazed at her in silent sympathy. Alayne flopped back onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. “They're waiting for me.”
“The EA?”
“Who else?” Bitterness ripped the words from her throat. “Doesn't mean I'll go quietly when they come for me.”
“What will you do?”
Alayne traced the designs on the ceiling with her gaze. “That's the question, isn't it?” She swallowed, and the silence pressed on her. “Marysa, Jayme's alive.”
A heartbeat passed, and Alayne turned her head. Marysa's face was stark white. “Wh—what?”
“I've suspected it, Manders told me he thought that might be the case, but last night, I finally faced my fears and visited Jayme's grave. I dug up the urn and opened it. There was nothing, Mary. Not even a hint of ash.”
For once, Marysa was absolutely speechless. Her mouth opened and then closed, and a silent tear edged from her eye.
Alayne blew out her breath. “I'll go find Jayme. My parents. Figure out a place for us to go where no one will bother us.” She shrugged. “I don't know. What would you do, Mary?” Alayne sat up abruptly to eye her friend.
Marysa's lips wavered. “Don't ask me, Layne. I'm not strong like you.”
Alayne snorted. “That's a flat-out lie. Come on, Marysa, tell me. What would you do if you had the Vale?”
Marysa dropped her gaze to her book before sighing and inserting the bookmark. She laid it carefully on her night stand. “I can't say, because I'm not in that situation, and who knows what choices I would make when faced with the pressure of protecting family and friends? I—I'd like to think I would remember what my mother always told me, though, each night when she'd come up to tuck me in.”
“What was that?” Alayne asked.
“The smallest crack can destroy the tallest tower.” Marysa laughed at Alayne's expression. “Comforting thing to put your child to sleep with, right? It was her way of telling me that I didn't have to get lost in the big, wide world if I didn't want to. I could use every resource I had to help those around me, and somewhere, it would make a difference, even if I couldn't see it.”
When Marysa turned out the lights and settled into the bed across the room, Alayne stared into the darkness, her thoughts tumbling and whirling.
* * *
“Come on, Layne,” Kyle told her the last evening before the big day of finals. “Let's go for a run. You're way too jumpy and you need to work out your kinks.”
Daymon overheard them. He was sitting on a couch in the common room, his head bent over a book, but as soon as Kyle rose, he rose as well.
Kyle quickly hid his frustration, but not soon enough to escape Alayne's notice. She swung her gaze back and forth between the two.
“Houser, I didn't invite you,” Kyle said rudely.
Daymon didn't answer. He snapped his book shut and tossed it on the couch. He headed for the chute, muttering on his way by, “It's not your life that ends if something happens to her, Pence.”
Alayne shifted uncomfortably. It was obvious that Daymon still held a grudge against Kyle for the way he had left her alone with Sprynge at the last speed-dating session. Before that, he had left her alone with Kyle now and then. Since then, he was always in sight, even though Kyle grew more and more noticeably irritated day by day.
Alayne and Kyle had managed to regain their friendship, and she wanted to keep it that way. “Come on, Kyle, Daymon has to do what is his responsibility.” She tugged on his sleeve. “Let's just go.”
Kyle looked after Daymon for a moment and then down at Alayne. His mouth relaxed. “Fine. Just wish he'd leave you alone more.”
“That sort of ruins the point of his Guardianship, don't you think?” Rachyl piped up.
“I know he's got good intentions, but it's annoying,” Kyle muttered.
“He just wants to be careful, especially now.” Rachyl glanced over at Sprynge, who stood by the wall speaking to Professor Pence.
Kyle and Alayne dropped to the ground floor. Daymon's figure was already at a distance up the path. “At least he knows how to give you privacy, even if he is always around,” Kyle grumbled.
Alayne shrank back against the tone in his voice. She knelt and tightened her laces before falling into an easy jog. Kyle kept pace with her.
“Feeling confident for tomorrow?” Alayne kept her voice light. Final exams were the next day, and the whole school had been buzzing about the Capital Elementals who had arrived and camped out on the section of prairie where they'd made the mountain range the year before. She wondered what the prairie would look like the next day when they went to try their h
and at the finals, and then she wondered if the new Elementals would be from the EA. A shiver traced her spine.
“Mostly.” Kyle side-stepped a large rock. “Want to team up?” He winked at her.
“Maybe. I do wonder how it's going to be set up.”
“Guess we'll find out.”
They both fell silent, their steady breathing following the rhythm of their footsteps. The evening was warm and clear, and the first stars appeared in the sky. Still they kept running.
Alayne finally broke the silence. “Curfew's going to be soon, Kyle. Maybe we should think about heading back.” She mentally calculated how far they had come. Two miles? Three maybe? Daymon was no longer visible, though Alayne didn't doubt that he was around somewhere.
“To that tree over there. Then we can turn around.” Kyle nodded toward a massive maple that towered over the river's bank, its thick trunk peeling bark. “Come on, I'll race you.”
He took off, and Alayne pushed her legs into fast-forward. They reached the tree, gasping for air and laughing. “I won,” Alayne managed. “Beat you by a length.”
“Beat me by a fingernail.” Kyle leaned against the tree to catch his breath. “I let you win, you know.”
Alayne snorted. She looked back the way they had come. The spire was still visible across the open fields, the light on top blinking at cloud level, a beacon to incoming shuttles. For some reason, Alayne's eyes misted so that the spire faded out of sight. “I wonder if I'll even come back next year. Things seem so up in the air.”
She sensed Kyle moving close, and she stiffened. “Ready to run back?” She glanced over at him.
“Layne.” Kyle brushed his hand down her braid and then trailed his fingers up to her shoulder. He grasped her upper arms gently and turned her to face him. He licked his bottom lip, nervous, and Alayne was afraid. “I love you, you know that. I've never stopped, not once, even when we were fighting or when I thought you couldn't forget Cross. And so...”
Alayne watched, horrified, as Kyle slowly bent one knee, grasping her hand in both of his. “I have something to ask you. I know we're young, and I know this is going to shock you, but I want you to be my wife. Marry me, Layne?”
Shadows of Uprising (Guardian of the Vale Book 2) Page 25
