Wynn pulled on the sleeve of Alayne’s thin jacket. “Honey, we didn’t even get a chance to talk about Marysa—”
“Yeah, that’s another reason why I have to get back right now.” Alayne pulled her arm free, ignoring the questions that crossed her parents’ faces. She took Jayme’s hand and stepped toward the mirror.
“It was nice to meet you both,” Jayme said awkwardly as Alayne stepped into the portal. The last sight she had of her parents was of their faces bewildered by emotional pain.
She shoved away the stab of guilt.
Jayme sank onto the bed in Alayne’s dorm room. “Al, are you all right?” His brown eyes missed nothing.
Alayne couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze. “I’m fine.”
“You didn’t even hug them.”
“I’ll do that next time I see them.”
“Al,” Jayme’s hand found hers and pulled her down onto the bed next to him. He seemed to struggle for words. “I’d do anything to see my parents again. Don’t ... hold on to this too long, all right?”
Alayne stared at her hands. She nodded. He tugged her into a gentle hug.
At last he pulled back. “So, do you think we can open a portal to wherever Marysa is?”
Alayne stared at him. “Let’s try it!” Excitement flooded her. All thoughts of the Vale fell away. She could go through the mirror to Marysa and bring her back.
She turned to the mirror. “Show us Marysa.”
The silver face of the mirror blanked. Purple haze swirled, but a moment later, Alayne saw, once again, her own reflection next to Jayme.
Disappointment spiraled inside her, sending her to an even darker place than she had been before. “I shouldn’t have expected it; I’ve tried to see her before in the shards, and the same thing happened. I guess I hoped that once the mirror was complete...”
Jayme nodded, looking discouraged and weary himself. Alayne walked to the door. “Go to bed, Jay. You look tired.”
He nodded. “Get some rest, Al.” He dropped a kiss on top of her head on his way out the door.
Alayne returned to her bed and slumped on its edge. She looked across the room at Marysa’s empty bed, carefully made and straightened. Her friend’s knitting needles stuck at odd angles from a bright red ball of yarn, and a miniature picture of her hugging Alayne sat framed at the head of her bed. Alayne turned her face into her pillow.
Chapter 26
Even though Alayne hadn’t been able to open a portal to Marysa the first time she’d tried, she kept attempting it alone in her room. She tried different approaches, sliding her hand in a variety of motions across the surface and changing the wording of her requests. Each time, the mirror swirled with purple, but once again, returned to reflect only Alayne. She sat back at last, and the wild flame of hope that had ignited after her visit with her parents snuffed out, absolutely and completely.
The night before exams sneaked up on Alayne like an echo long forgotten. Jayme had detention with Professor Grace; all the extra time Jayme was spending with Alayne was taking a toll on his grades, too. The detention was for an essay he had turned in blank. Jayme had rubbed bleary eyes when he’d told Alayne about it. “I don’t know, Al, the questions should have made sense, but they didn’t, and I ran out of time to answer them.”
Alayne watched him head to the chute for his detention, exhaustion hooding her vision. She couldn’t think, she could hardly feel. She was terrified of exams, but even more terrified for Marysa. If there were a feeling that could describe her, she felt dead.
Aimlessly, she headed into the chute, dropping to ground level. As soon as she exited the spire, she spotted Kyle by the bank of the river, tossing pebbles in the water. His knees were drawn up under his chin, his eyes glassy as he stared across the river at the setting sun.
Alayne hesitated before walking toward him. She lowered herself silently by his side and pulled her knees up as well.
Kyle shot her a glance in the evening light, his blue eyes lit almost to a florescent color by the glow of the sun. “Hey.” He tossed another pebble in the water.
“Hey.” Alayne wrapped her arms around her knees, drinking in the beauty of the evening, resolutely putting aside her dread of the next day and the knot in her stomach when she thought of her failure to find the Vale.
Silence felt comfortable; the slow slosh of currents slapped the bank. An owl’s hoot as it hunted broke the quiet. She gazed at the sky where the sun had just disappeared behind the tree line.
She stirred, gulped a deep breath, and plunged into the stillness. “So why haven’t you been helping me look for Marysa?” It wasn’t what she’d meant to say, but somehow the words were there. She’d spent all her time with Jayme, struggling to follow clues, hiding her search for the Vale, disguising it under a search for her best friend. Kyle had grown more and more distant as the semester had gone by, and Alayne was irritated at his distance. He’d been Marysa’s friend, too.
Kyle stiffened. “What do you mean?”
There was no veering from her course now. “You’ve checked out, Kyle. You’ve been avoiding me. You haven’t even been helping me search for clues to find Marysa!”
Kyle flushed in the dusk. “What are you talking about?” He waved his hand at the spire. “Why do you think her face is plastered all over the media casts every morning, Layne? Because I contacted them, that’s why.”
“Sure, thanks for that,” Alayne said sarcastically. “But I haven’t seen you hardly at all since then.”
“And whose fault is that?” Kyle pushed himself to his feet. “Who hasn’t shown up for hockey practices? Who’s spent all her waking moments with Cross?”
“I’m sorry I’ve ruined your precious hockey plays, Kyle, but honestly, you’ve brooded in your corner, too. I thought you liked Marysa.”
Anger radiated from Kyle’s tense form. A rock rested in his hand; he hurled it into the water with a loud splash. Fury rippled through his voice as he spoke. “Layne, you’re so demanding, do you know that?” He kicked at the dirt, and a shower of pebbles spewed into the water. “Doesn’t matter what I do. I accommodate you, I avoid you, no matter what, you’re not happy. You want to know why I haven’t been around?”
Alayne got to her feet. “No, tell me, Kyle. Why am I so difficult to be around?” She wanted to cry. She refused.
“Because you make it so bloody difficult!” He raked a hand through his hair. “Don’t you get it that I’m thirty shades of jealous? That every time I’m around you and can’t hold your hand and kiss you, that a little piece of me dies? That I want to kill someone every time I have to watch you look at Cross with your heart in your eyes instead of at me?”
His silhouette held still for a moment, and the only sound was his breath coming in quick, short bursts. After a second, he turned and strode back to the spire.
“Kyle!”
He ignored her and stepped inside the chute. He pressed the button and shot upward out of sight.
Alayne turned her dry gaze back to the river, but the deadness that had already begun inside seeped outward. She scolded herself for laying clumsy fingers on a seeping wound, but that wasn’t the issue that bothered her the most. She could blame herself for a lot of things: Kyle’s unhappiness, her parents’ fights, her plummeting grades. Mostly, though, she blamed herself for her best friend’s peril. No amount of distraction Jayme placed in front of her, no amount of comfort from the teachers or anyone else could deter her from the fact that she was responsible for Marysa’s grave situation.
Slowly, she rested back on the riverbank, her head cradled in a tuft of grass, and let the deadness take over. The weight blanketed her, numbing her, and she welcomed the relief. Bit by small bit, she allowed the nothingness to push her deep, deep into the ground.
* * *
Alayne sank onto her bed and stared across the room at Marysa’s coverlet and favorite stuffed animal. Her throat burned as she rasped aloud, “I’m sorry, Marysa. I suck as a friend.”
; She should have found the Vale. If it was anywhere at Clayborne, anywhere at all, she should have found it. Yet, here she sat with empty hands and nothing to show for months of searching. And tomorrow was the first day of exams.
Macy Foy had appeared in the mirror again two nights ago and reminded her that she would be required to meet her contact in the education wing of the High Court. “This is your last chance, Worth,” she said, her eyes twitching as she spoke. “The Casters have waited all semester for you to find something, anything, and you’ve failed. Your time is running out.”
She had nothing. She’d never felt more helpless.
Alayne mechanically turned off the light, letting herself fall onto her soft pillow. She closed her eyes, struggling to forget Marysa’s shrieks as they’d leaped from her mirror, somewhere out of sight, somewhere behind Macy.
“Hello? Hello, is anyone there? Layne, are you there? Please say yes.”
Alayne sat bolt upright in bed, gripping her covers to her chin in terror. She stared at the mirror.
“Layne? Can you hear me?”
The mirror no longer reflected the end of Alayne’s bed; Marysa’s face looked out of it, her eyes searching the room.
“Marysa? Marysa, are you all right?” Alayne ran to the mirror, her fingers brushing the glass, hoping against hope that it would open. It did not.
“Layne!” Marysa burst into tears. Her cheeks were pale and thin, her hair stringy as it hung limply across her shoulders.
Alayne hardly recognized her. “They—they’ve hurt you, Marysa!” She stared at the welts and scars that dotted Marysa’s shoulders and neck. “I’ll kill them.”
Marysa took a gulping sob as she tried to get control over her emotions.
Alayne gripped the mirror’s frame in both hands. “Marysa, where are you?” She desperately searched the background, but it was as nondescript as rooms come. Bare, taupe walls. A floor, a ceiling. No doors that she could see. The entire room flickered in the light of a fire that burned somewhere nearby.
“I don’t know, now. I think I was at Cliffsides, in one of the caverns.”
“We’ve had search parties at Cliffsides all semester!”
“I’ve heard them,” Marysa said, wiping her tears. “But the Shadow-Casters are really powerful. They had all sorts of ways to move the elements to hide me.”
“Who are they, Mary?”
“I don’t know!” Marysa shook her head in frustration. “It’s just been the three—you know, Walters, Pepper, and Foy. I call them The Three now. The Casters use them to do all their dirty work.”
Alayne processed that for a moment. “But you’re not at Cliffsides now?”
“They moved me last night. Took me somewhere, blindfolded, and I have no idea where I am. Just ... in this room.”
Alayne’s mind raced. “Marysa, can you use the elements?”
Marysa shook her head. “No, they’re notched out of reach. I can’t even get close.” She sighed. “I’ve tried beating on the door, but it does no good. The Three always come tell me to stop. And then, there’s the torture.”
“Oh, Mary.” Alayne’s jaw hardened. “I’m not giving up—”
“Don’t blame yourself, honey. I know you’re doing what you can.”
“How are we communicating? I’ve been wondering all semester how Macy calls me, and she never sticks around long enough for me to ask. Not that she’d answer.”
“It’s another mirror.” Marysa glanced up and down as if surveying it. “It’s about the same size as yours. Walters says there are three of them in CommonEarth. One was used to protect the Vale, one’s been in the possession of the Elemental Alliance—I’m gonna guess that’s this one—and then he said the High Court has one in the Capital.”
Alayne tried again to push on the glass, but the reflection wouldn’t budge. “Mary, I’m not giving up, okay?” She looked into her friend’s icy blue eyes.
Marysa struggled to smile, but couldn’t quite manage it. Tears traced fast-running rivulets down her cheeks. “They let me talk to you today for a reason, Layne.”
“Why is that?” Alayne was terrified of the answer.
“This is—goodbye. If they don’t have the Vale by the end of your exams, they’ll kill me.” Marysa choked, but forced her way through. “I want you to know, Layne, that I know, I know, you’ve tried your hardest to find me and to find the Vale. And I also want you to know that—I think you’re the best friend anyone could hope to have. I was terrified my first day of school, and you were—kind and listened, even when I talked too much...” She broke down.
Alayne sobbed, too. Neither one was able to speak for a long time. Alayne finally pulled herself together enough to ask, “And you’re sure the three professors are Casted? They’re not faking it?”
Marysa nodded miserably. “They’re all Casted, all right. Their eyes keep twitching once every minute or so, like whatever’s in them wants to get around whatever else is in the way.”
Devastation threatened to flatten Alayne again; she tried to smile, to send some reassurance to her friend, no matter how bleak the prospect looked. “Marysa, I swear to you that I’ll come up with something. I will find you or the Vale, one or the other. I’m not going to let them do anything more to you.” If determination were all it took, Marysa would already be free. As it was, Alayne heard the emptiness echoing in her own words.
“Okay, Layne. I—I miss you, and Jayme. Even Kyle. Tell them goodbye for me, too, okay?” Marysa’s words showed the empty promise of Alayne’s oath. “I love you, dearie.” She smiled a wan smile and vanished.
“Love you too, Mary.” Alayne stared at her own reflection. Dejection slumped her shoulders.
She straightened abruptly and reached out to touch the mirror. “Show me the Vale,” she commanded. Her heartbeat tripled as the mirror rippled; would it actually show her where the Vale was? But the mirror settled, and Alayne sat curled up at the foot of the bed, her wretched face the only image reflected.
Even deeper disappointment stabbed Alayne. For three entire seconds, hope had lifted her heart on airy wings. And then, she’d crashed back to the earth again.
Alayne’s jaw hardened with determination. She slowly blew out her breath as she made her decision.
She would tell Macy she had found the Vale. She would use the false information as leverage to force the Casters out of hiding, and then she would fight them, every last one, until they killed her. If she couldn’t save Marysa by finding the Vale, then she would save her by killing those who wanted it for their own gain.
* * *
Exams nearly finished Alayne the next day. The questions were long and difficult; essay after essay filled the test pages as Alayne struggled in the assembly room. Her lack of sleep the night before caught up with her twice during the exams. Both times, Jayme poked her hard in the back with a pencil. His gaze was concerned as Alayne flinched and began furiously writing again.
When the final seconds had ticked to a stop, Professor Sprynge stood and requested the papers to be passed to the front. Alayne stared at the three blank essays she’d left undone. Her brain felt like it swam in pea soup; it was thick and sluggish.
Exams. Were. Done.
Time was out.
Now it was just a matter of chasing the Casters from their holes. For you, Marysa.
Sprynge cleared his throat, the noise echoing in the commissary where the exams had taken place. “As you know, students, we’ve taught you this year to hone your talents and to think on your feet. Sometimes, you don’t always know what is around the next bend, and so you adjust and make do as well as you can.”
Alayne listened in a fog. All her thoughts were on the Casters, and specifically Simeon Malachi.
Sprynge continued, “We’re going to ask that for the second part of your exams, you make your way outside of the spire, where we will have a hands-on activity that will help you use all the methods and skills you have learned this year.”
Exams were not over. Adrenali
ne flowed through Alayne as she rose with the rest of the student body, all of them glancing at each other as they flooded to the chute, which began to drop them in loads to the ground.
Alayne followed Jayme around the spire’s supports to where she could see what had been the rolling flat plains beyond.
Now, mountain ranges blocked the horizon from one side to the other as far as Alayne could see. “What the—”
“Skies above,” Jayme whispered. A whole row of uniformed High Court Elementals stood to one side. Sprynge and Manders were already there talking to them, nodding and gesturing. The students crowded across the open space, curiosity and amazement pulling their gazes to the mountains like magnets.
Sprynge shot a stream of fire into the air, and the hubbub of excited voices quieted. “We’ve decided this year to try something new for the exams. As I stated inside, we want you to gain some hands-on experience using the elements in unexpected conditions. So I’ve invited the High Court Elementals here to help with our experiment.”
He waved to the mountain range. “We’ve arranged for a bit of a competition. The object of the game, students, is to be the last man—or woman—standing. Each student will compete only for themselves, and the entire mountain range is your field. Out of bounds is the prairie, and the person who keeps free of another student’s element bonds for the longest amount of time will receive a monetary award for winning. Any questions?”
Nearly everyone raised their hands. Alex Wynch from Alayne’s hockey team asked, “What kind of bonds do we put on the others?”
“Bonds from your element only. You will tag another student, and by tag, I do mean you must get the other person so they can’t escape or fight back. You will then place your element around their wrists and notch it so the other person cannot remove it. Fire-Breathers, you will need to be cautious here; we don’t want any burned wrists. There will be shuttles along the boundary lines of the mountain range. If you are tagged with an element bonded to your wrists, you will make your way to the nearest shuttle, which will then fly you back here to Clayborne, where you may watch the rest of your classmates on the MIUs in the common room.”
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