Alayne stared at the officers moving up the sidewalk. “But what if they bump into us?”
“Stop looking for trouble, or you'll find it. Let's just see if we can make ourselves invisible first, and then we'll worry about getting into the chute with them.”
Alayne sighed and closed her eyes, concentrating all her focus on the air element that surrounded her in the night sky. The waves of it brushed across her, slippery as mist, smooth as silk. She grasped it, weaving her fingers through the element, and bent it, catching rays of light in its folds and refracting them. It took all of Alayne's concentration to angle the refraction—too much and her surroundings distorted, too little and parts of her still showed.
“Careful of the bushes,” Daymon whispered. “You're making them invisible, too.”
Alayne snapped her eyes open and realized he was right. Where she was standing was a black void. She looked over at him. He was gone. “Daymon?”
“Out here.” His voice came from outside the hedge. “This is so hard.” His voice revealed strain. “I can't seem to find the right angle; my arm and shoulder keep showing.”
Alayne nodded, although she knew he couldn't see her. “Me, too. Notch your bend; it'll help keep it that way.” A thought hit her. “Daymon, the notches. They're going to feel an element bend. They probably feel it now.”
“Yeah, but there are hundreds of other element bends happening all up and down the spire. It's hard to pinpoint an element bend. That'll be our safety network.”
Alayne felt tentatively across the air element she'd painstakingly arranged to refract the light and notched the bend carefully. The strain lessened. “You notched?”
“Yeah.” Daymon's whisper came from her left. “Let's not get separated.” His fingers touched her arm and trailed down to her hand, wrapping around hers and pulling her gently forward.
Alayne hadn't realized how much she relied on seeing her feet to walk and balance. She stumbled several times before she got the hang of moving without seeing her appendages.
On the sidewalk ahead of them, the last of the officers left the boat and marched in formation up the walk. There were pauses as the car carried up load after load of officers, but finally the last group formed. Daymon's hand wrapped tighter around Alayne's, and he pulled her forward faster. The lit sidewalk lay directly in front of them now; Daymon hurried toward the chute and the last group of men.
Alayne glanced at the two guards as she passed between them. They stared straight ahead, not acknowledging her at all. She breathed a tiny sigh of relief.
The car lurched to a stop in front of them, and the doors slid open. The men crowded on, and Daymon yanked Alayne's hand. She stepped forward into the car, barely missing the doors as they snapped shut almost on her heel.
The chute was crowded, and Alayne pressed herself against Daymon's arm, terrified that she would lurch to the side when the car stopped and knock against one of the officers.
The car did stop suddenly, as she had expected, but the doors opened quickly enough that she lurched backward out of the chute before she could hit anyone else. Daymon's hand pressed on her back and propelled her to a corner of the common room.
“Now what?” she whispered.
The common room was packed with soldiers. Many of the men and women had removed their uniformed jackets, lounging in t-shirts on couches, playing ping-pong, pool, air hockey, and other games.
“Layne?” Daymon whispered. “Where are all the students?”
Alayne stiffened. It was true. Not a single student interrupted the brown blush of military colors. Discomfort that had no connection to hunger gnawed at her stomach. “I don't know. I haven't seen anybody since exams except the ones in the ice cave with you guys.”
Daymon was silent. The only indication that he was still there were his fingers laced through hers.
Fear shot through Alayne. “Daymon, you don't think—”
They were interrupted by a male lieutenant leading a female infantry officer toward their corner. The man nuzzled the neck of the woman before pushing her against the wall and kissing her. Alayne felt the heat in her cheeks as she leaned out of the way. Daymon pulled her again, this time toward the entrance to the girl's dormitories. She stepped on his heel when he stopped just shy of the arch.
“Ow!” His hand jerked convulsively, and Alayne squeezed it in apology.
“Listen, Layne,” Daymon whispered. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek. “I've got a bad feeling about the students. The sooner we find Jayme and his Shadow-Caster, the better. Let's start searching the dorm rooms.”
“You want to split up? We can go faster.”
“I'm not letting you out of my sight.” Daymon paused, laughing under his breath. “Well, you know what I mean.”
Alayne smiled. “Funny.” She eyed two officers meandering by, plates of snacks from the vendor held tightly in their hands. Her mouth watered as she watched one of the officers set his plate on a nearby table and open a bag of chips.
“Hey, Owyn.”
The man with the chip bag paused and turned his head toward another officer who headed his way.
Alayne stretched out her hand and grabbed an apple, yanking the air element across her hand to cover the apple too. The fruit vanished from sight. Daymon's fingers tightened on her other hand. “What are you doing?” Fury tinged his whisper.
“Shh.” Alayne took a bite of the apple and chewed frantically, willing it to reach her stomach faster.
“You know where they set up Beckyr?”
Owyn wedged a chip into his mouth. “Command post is at the top of the spire.”
Juice spurted from Alayne's lips as she rolled the apple bite to the other side of her mouth. Daymon's other hand suddenly covered her mouth. “Alayne, they can see you, of all the . . . ” He broke off with a curse and pulled her through the archway toward the stairs. A moment later, they stood on the third step up.
“What do you mean, they can see me?” Alayne looked down, all around. Horrified, she noticed a streak of skin and a portion of her bottom lip where the apple juice rested. She raised wide eyes to Daymon, but of course, all she could see was air. “But my notch is still there.”
An impatient sigh issued from Daymon. “Just fix it, would you, Layne? It's really strange staring at portions of your lips and chin without the rest of your body.”
Alayne swallowed her bite of apple and reluctantly tossed the smooth fruit into a nearby trash can. She quickly pulled together some more tendrils of the air element and adjusted the refraction, re-notching the element so they stayed in place. “Better?” she whispered.
“It'll do. Let's go.”
“Where?”
“Top of the spire. Where they said Beckyr set up his command post.”
Alayne again allowed Daymon to take her hand and lead her through the common room back to the chute. None of the officers looked as if they had any intention of leaving the common room. “What do we do?” Alayne whispered.
“Wait.”
They didn't have to wait long. Alayne had just started to relax when the car flew to a stop and the doors snapped open.
Professor Pence stepped into the common room, stopping directly in front of Alayne. Daymon yanked her to the side, and she careened out of the way.
“May I have your attention, please.” She raised her arms for quiet. The hubbub gradually died. “My name is Beatrice Pence. I am a professor here at Clayborne, but I am also a High Court Justice. Allow me to welcome you here this evening. You will find the dormitory rooms available for your use for as long as you have orders to stay. Meals will be taken in the commissary. There will be a brief informational meeting tomorrow morning in here just after breakfast.” She paused and looked around. The red, lurid scar that slashed jaggedly across her cheek glistened with moisture in the light of the room. “Questions?”
No one moved.
“Good night, then.” She turned back to the chute, and the doors sprang open. Daymon pulled Alayne
into the chute directly behind Pence. The doors whipped closed, and Pence pressed a button.
The car shot upward, and Alayne tried not to breathe. Even the tiniest gasp would be heard in here. Pence's gaze was on the floor, but when the car stopped with a lurch, Alayne's shoulder thumped against the glass side.
Pence's head snapped up and looked directly through them. Alayne held her breath. Tension coursed in Daymon's hand, and panic crowded into her mind. Was the air element slipping? Was it beginning to wear off?
The doors snapped open, and after one final look, Pence stepped out into the hallway, and Alayne and Daymon swiftly followed. The doors shut, nearly snagging Alayne's shirt. Pence marched out of sight down the hall, and Alayne sagged with relief. “That was close,” she whispered.
“We're not there yet. I'm going to take a wild guess that Jayme's on this floor. Let's follow Pence and see if we can find him.”
Alayne moved forward, glancing out of the windows in the hallway. Far, far below, she could see the lights at the base of the spire, a swirling pattern of tiny dots. “The shuttle platform must be directly above us,” she whispered.
“Another reason why I think we're near Jayme.”
Neither of them spoke, then. They could still hear Pence's measured tread ahead of them around a corner.
Another set of footsteps joined the first. Both sets stopped, and silence ensued.
“What do you want?” Pence's clipped voice slit the silence.
“I needed to find out if there was more you wanted me to do. Have they tried to find him yet?”
Alayne gasped, and Daymon's hand slammed across her mouth to silence the inevitable cry. Alayne's heart screamed the protest that her mouth couldn't say. Her head buzzed; she wrenched away from Daymon, covering her own invisible mouth with her invisible hand.
Kyle's voice went on, “I need to be getting back; they already wonder where I am.”
“Then get going. I'll send a message if you're needed. Eyes and ears sharp, as always. We're not relying on hidden cameras anymore, not after that idiot boy found your handiwork so easily at the beginning of the year.”
“It wasn't my fault. He wasn't supposed to be snooping around until she arrived, and then—”
“Enough, Kyle. I'm tired of your excuses.”
“What excuses, Mom? You were the one who didn't trust me enough to do the very thing you asked me to do. 'It'll make me happier than anything, Kyle.' Your words, not mine.”
“Oh?”
Frustration filled Kyle's voice. “Yes! You begged and pleaded with me to feed you information on Alayne all summer, promising that—”
A long silence filled the hall.
“Promising that what?”
Kyle's voice was thick when he spoke next. “Promising that Dad would take me in at the High Court. Promising all sorts of things. And then you decide to show up at the beginning of the school year, like you couldn't trust me to handle it. Okay, sure, Mom, I can't help it; I love Alayne, and I will protect her if you step over the line. But you knew I'd give you any information I found, because I love you, too; can't you understand that? What can't I love you both? Can't it be both-and, not either-or?”
Beatrice Pence's soft voice was full of razor-sharp blades. “I understand, Mr. Pence, that you are dangerously close to playing a double agent. This isn't just for me, Kyle; the Elemental Alliance has commissioned you with this responsibility. Your ridiculous fascination for that girl is fine until it interferes with the work that you are doing for the EA. Not only that, but you have just defied my authority.”
Her heels clicked on the tile floor, and Kyle's voice called after her. “No, wait, Mom, just—let's work this out. The others don't know yet; I can stay with them a little longer, keep telling you what their plans are. Please.” The plea in his voice dripped with insecurity and helplessness. If Alayne weren’t so horrified, she would have felt sorry for him.
Beatrice Pence let out a long-suffering sigh. “Well, I'll consider it. If you bring me consistent information, but Kyle, I'm absolutely serious. The Elemental Alliance can't trust someone with divided loyalties.”
“I know.” His voice held a note of desperation, a hint of longing. “And, um, thanks again for getting me—us—out of the cave today.”
“Malachi's a fool. If he had had his way, not a single student at Clayborne would have survived the day. The majority of the students were packed off to join the rest of the Casted; how many were in the group Malachi put in the cave?”
“Twenty-four including me and the others Malachi added last minute.”
Beatrice Pence's sharp voice softened. “You're doing well, Kyle. You'll do better; I know you will. And then I'll be able to tell your father how proud I am of you.” A bone for the starving dog.
Alayne's heart thudded in her ears. Pain tore at her chest, and she slowly sank to crouch as the strength fled her knees. Manders's words from so long ago floated through her head. “I only ask, Alayne, because the day may come when Mr. Pence will have to choose between his love for you and his desperate wish for his own parents' love and approval, and what a powerful siren call that can be.”
Footsteps grew louder, and Kyle appeared around the corner. His long stride nearly clipped Alayne, but Daymon jerked her backward at the last second.
Kyle reached the chute doors and hit the button, stepping in when the doors slid open. A moment later, he dropped from sight.
Neither Alayne nor Daymon moved. The horror of what had just happened replayed itself over and over in Alayne's mind. The silence was only interrupted when they heard Pence open a door, walk inside, and shut the door again.
At last, Daymon's fingers squeezed Alayne's. “I'm sorry, Layne.”
“Did you know?”
“No, I had no idea. If I had, you can be very sure I never would have left you alone with him.”
Alayne shook her head, confusion clouding her mind as she thought over the last year. “It doesn't make sense,” she whispered. “He's told me he loves me, but why would he betray me like that, then?”
“Alayne.” Daymon pulled her close to the wall. She felt the pressure of his hands as he placed one on each of her shoulders. “This is not a good place to process your thoughts, okay? We came here to do something. Let's do it. You'll have plenty of time to think this over later.” He shook her shoulders. “For the record, I think he did love you. Just—not enough.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“Later.”
Alayne pressed her eyes shut and nodded once. Focus, Alayne. You can do this. With a huge mental effort, she pushed Kyle from her mind and replaced his image with Jayme. “Okay, I'm ready.”
“Good.” Daymon's hand took hers again, and they crept toward the hallway where they had last seen Pence. As they rounded the corner, Daymon stopped abruptly, and Alayne stepped on his heel.
“Great,” Alayne whispered. “Which of these doors do you think it is?”
The hallways were lined with gray-painted doors. A light shone out across the floor from one door. Daymon nudged Alayne's shoulder. “She went in there.”
“Let's check some of the others for Jayme.”
“Careful.”
Alayne tiptoed past Pence's door and stole toward the end of the hallway.
“Why this one?” Daymon whispered as they stopped in front of a gray door.
“Hear that noise? Someone's breathing in there.” Sure enough, the deep, steady breath of slumber drifted out of the crack at the bottom of the door.
“Let's check it out.” Alayne's hand already touched the doorknob.
Daymon's hand batted hers away. “Let me,” he hissed. The doorknob turned slowly, and the door opened a tiny crack. The breathing continued.
Daymon widened the opening, and Alayne felt him pull her toward the darkness and into the room.
A window spilled moonlight across a large bedroom. A bed lay against one of the walls. A desk stood against another as well as a couch with a coffee
table. Through another door, darkness shrouded what must have been the bathroom. On the bed was a man.
Even in the moonlight, even with all the changes of the last year, Alayne recognized his face, the set of his clean-shaven jaw, the olive-toned skin, the tiny crease at the corner of his mouth that deepened when he laughed. Her fingers itched to touch him, to shake him out of his imprisoned mind, but she knew it was pointless.
“What now?” she whispered.
“Well, now we know where he is. We just have to find his Caster.”
Alayne nodded, and followed Daymon as he edged toward the yawning opening of the bathroom door. Prickles of fear shivered up her spine.
“Who's there?”
Alayne jumped, her heart leaping into her throat.
Jayme sat up in bed, his wide eyes searching the dark room. He fumbled for the lamp on his bed stand.
Daymon froze, and Alayne with him. She held her breath, the thud of her heart pulsing in her head.
Light flooded the room, and Alayne flinched.
“I know you're there.” Jayme threw back the covers and leaped from the bed. He dropped into a crouch in his pajamas and his bare feet, his wide eyes searching the room.
The elements bent, and a shriek of wind shuddered through the room. Books flew off the coffee table and smashed against the wall. Alayne lost her footing. Her hand slipped out of Daymon's, and she flew through the air, landing with a crash against the dresser. The notch slipped, and the refraction snapped back to normal, plunging her into visibility.
Jayme pinned her with a glare. “Alayne Worth. We meet again.”
“Jayme,” Alayne faltered. Where was his Caster? She looked back at the spot where she had lost Daymon's hand. Still no sign of him. That was good.
“Stop calling me that! I'm James Cross, a Lieutenant Commander of the Continental Guard, and how in CommonEarth did you get in here?” He strode to the foot of his bed, picking up a hand-held device and pressing a button.
“Jayme, please listen. I know you don't understand, and can't understand, but I need to know who is your right-hand man? Who do you always take with you everywhere you go?” Alayne desperately struggled to stand. Her head throbbed from where she had hit the dresser.
Shadows of Uprising (Guardian of the Vale Book 2) Page 32
