Ozella, Juniper, and Helena raised their hands. Zoe raised hers, only with the caveat that her job would be to kill vampire children.
“I guess I lose,” said Sam.
“I didn’t vote either,” Dorzmon added. “But… You know what, I think I will see myself out. I don’t like the way the tiger girl is looking at me.”
Rather than wait for Zoe to respond, he shuffled back toward the tunnel, getting on his knees once he got near the entrance and crawling forward. “Good luck,” he called over his shoulder as he left.
“So it is agreed, we will stick to the plan,” Helena said. “We have exactly one hour, and then my power will be expended. What I suggest we do is gather our information now, then relax for the rest of the day, waiting for our powers to reset at midnight. It looks like it will take us about an hour to get down from here,” Helena said, looking over the edge of a cliff that had been cut into the side of the mountain.
From their vantage point, Sam could see the top of the trees, everything white as far as the eye could see.
“It’s pretty steep,” Juniper said, “but if we walk slowly, I think we’ll be fine.”
“And if anyone falls, I can heal them,” Ozella added.
“We need to be careful of the ice though,” Sam said as he started down the cliffside.
The path zig-zagged down to the ground, and he realized as he walked that he was going to have to take extra small steps lest he make a mistake and slip over the edge or something. Some of the snow had started to melt, but cloud coverage overhead and the scent of moisture in the air told Sam that it would be snowing again relatively soon.
Helena continued speaking as they started down the mountain. “So that leaves Juniper, me, and Ozella going forward, you and Zoe staying back and waiting for us to return. You can use your power to listen for anyone coming your way, or potentially see them if you can get a good vantage point,” she told Sam. “But the trees should provide plenty of coverage. It’s a beautiful valley, really, and I only wish we had more time to enjoy it.”
“All of the school grounds are beautiful like this,” Juniper said. “Mine is maybe a hundred miles to the west of here, closer to the sea.”
“And how long do people come here for?” Sam asked, dragging his hand along the rock for extra stability.
“It depends on the person and the school,” Juniper explained. “Some people start relatively young and spend their youth here; others, like myself, come for semesters and then return home. I personally started when I was ten, not long before I met you,” she told Helena.
“I just wish you would have let me know you were doing this when we were younger,” Helena said. “We could’ve gotten into a little more trouble.”
“Us? Get into trouble?” Juniper had to laugh. “We always followed the rules, well, most of them.”
“Except for that time we snuck out to go to that concert near a market in the southern part of Argoze. That was really risky. Come to think of it, everyone was asleep when we came back, and I remember passing in front of a guard who just stood there with his eyes closed…”
“See? I did help,” said Juniper.
“In all this time I thought that Southerners could sleep standing up.”
“That’s so dumb,” Zoe said, immediately correcting her harsh tone. “I mean, just dumb kid stories. I wish I could sleep standing up. I bet it’s good for your posture. Here’s something we can talk about: is anyone excited to get back to Centralia?”
“Why?” Sam asked, the cold now freezing his cheeks. “This is kind of awesome, you know.”
“I don’t know, I just miss the city,” said Zoe. “And I’m sure Tiger Lily has some gigs lined up that should be pretty fun. Every day I’m out here is a day I’m losing money.”
“Tiger Lily?” Juniper asked.
“I am a cosplay model back home, and my handle is Tiger Lily.”
Juniper started to laugh. “So you cosplay as a beast morpher, and you are an actual beast morpher? Am I understanding this correctly?”
“What’s so hard to understand about that?” Zoe snapped back. “And what part about a half-morphed face makes me an actual beast morpher? If anything, I’m a half-breed.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear you have a successful career,” said Juniper as they continued down the steep cliffside. They were about halfway down now, and their conversation had startled a few birds, who now swirled in the air above, heading to higher ground.
Sensing a necessary change of subject, Sam asked Juniper more about her exploits with Helena when they were younger.
“She only came like two or three times a year,” Juniper said, “but every time she came, I looked forward to it.”
“You weren’t the only one,” Helena said, “I had friends in Centralia as well, but there’s something exciting about coming down here, and being part of this very different world.”
“And to me, it was like having this friend from a faraway place just appear out of nowhere and hang out for a few days while our parents handled business.”
“And what type of business?” Ozella asked, trying to be part of the conversation. Of the five, she was the most cautious when it came to moving down the cliffside.
“Lots of property stuff,” said Juniper. “Centralians aren’t the only ones who own real estate in Centralia, many people from the South own apartment buildings and commercial facilities.”
“But not the reverse, right?” Zoe asked.
“For a time, we were trying to make that a possibility, well, our parents were. Southern Alliance laws prevent foreigners from holding or purchasing property. Now, if they married someone from the South, then they could hold property, but they aren’t allowed to simply come down here and buy it up.”
“Why is that?” Sam asked.
“A bit of patriotism mixed in with practicality,” Juniper said. “The truth is, Centralia’s GDP dwarfs the GDP of my country, and it would be relatively cheap to acquire lots of property down here. So they put this law in place to protect against those foreign purchases. I’m not actually against this law, but we were hoping to loosen some of the restrictions to allow for joint property developments and co-ownership. That never shook out, yet our families remained friends.”
“It shouldn’t be much further now,” Helena said as they reached the wooded area. Just a few more rocks to climb over and they were back in ten-inch thick snow, the consistency of which reminded Sam of powdered sugar.
He couldn’t resist reaching down and forming a snowball, underhand tossing it at Zoe and hitting her in the back of her hood. She whipped around, baring her claws, making an ambiguous face at Sam.
“You’re mine, if you do that again,” she threatened, baring her teeth in a playful way.
“Now is not the time for horsing around,” Helena reminded them, her hands on the straps of her backpack. “They may have patrols, either exemplar based or runic, so we need to stay alert.”
“My bad,” Sam said as they moved to the forest. “I’m the one that started it.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Snooping Around
(Yet another one of Helena’s brilliant ideas.)
Helena, Juniper, and Ozella moved to the end of the tree line, Juniper using a rune that refilled their footprints in the snow just in case a patrol came around. An open field stood between them and the walls of the school, and after they made it past this hundred-yard stretch, they would still have to figure out a way to get inside.
“Remember, I only have an hour,” Helena said. “Power-up, invisible.”
“That’s it?” Juniper asked, looking down at her hand. She gasped when she noticed Helena was no longer there, an empty space where her friend had just stood. Helena reached out and took her hand, and Juniper watched her form take shape again. “So that’s how it works?”
“Yes,” said Helena, her other hand now on Ozella’s wrist. Both of them wore their masks, and they still had the snow gear that Juniper had provided them. Their backp
acks, however, were back with Sam and Zoe. “It will make us invisible to anyone that looks in our direction, but you will still need to keep scrubbing the snow, and be on the lookout for any wards that may be protecting the place. I am assuming there is at least one, along the outer perimeter.”
“More than one, but I should be able to at least get us past it. I won’t be able to take it down completely, but I do know a certain technique that opens a door into these types of spaces.”
“Good, stay alert,” Helena said, turning to the field that separated the forest from the School of Heart.
Holding both their hands now, the heiress to the Knight fortune carefully led them forward, ignoring a cold wind that had started to push past.
She liked visiting the South, but Helena was glad that this would be over soon, that she would be able to return to Centralia, where it was warmer.
At least she hoped they’d be returning.
Helena assumed that her assistant, Bryan King, was having a meltdown worrying about her, but she had sent a message back at Juniper’s home letting him know that she would be out of communication for a few days.
So there was that.
Any important decisions could wait until she got back, not that she really wanted to go back to board meetings anyway. She just wanted to be in Centralia, in the comfort of her own home, not trudging through a field with snow almost up to her knees.
And this feeling struck her as slightly ironic.
Here she was, a covert superhero who had always wanted to travel more, and now she had gone a places most in her home country couldn’t even fathom.
And she simply wanted to go back, to sleep in her own bed, be in her own space.
The irony.
Helena let this thought drift away as she focused on her steps, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to make sure that Juniper was covering up the footprints they had already made.
It was a few minutes later that Juniper told her to stop. Helena did as instructed and continued holding Juniper’s hand as the rune user came forward, her finger tracing some intricate script in the air. Light began to form around the script she traced, and once it started glimmering, she pressed her palm into it, pushing the rune forward.
A radiating energy revealed a light-filled dome that covered the school.
The lights faded away just as quickly as they appeared, and Juniper beckoned them forward.
“How long will it last?” Ozella asked. “I mean, the doorway that you created here.”
“At least a day,” said Juniper. “If someone discovers it, they will likely think that one of the students used it to get out, maybe go for a walk or something. It’s something that most rune students learn early on. The spell looks way fancier than it actually is.”
“Good to know,” Ozella said as they continued toward the wall of the school, the three starting to veer off to the right, to the entrance.
“I am guessing that you need to focus your power to keep us invisible, which means I will have to handle anyone who presents an obstacle in our path,” Juniper told Helena.
“Do you have a hypnosis spell as well?” Ozella asked.
“Not exactly, but I can cast something that puts a person to sleep, among other things. Let’s just focus on getting in, and getting the information that we need. Once we have it, we will return to the others and rest up for our assault.”
“Just let me know if I can do anything,” Ozella said, “I mean, with Dinah.”
“Don’t worry, we brought you along for a reason,” Helena told her.
“Just want to be helpful,” Ozella said, her voice trailing off.
The three continued until they saw two unarmed sentries standing at the school’s entrance. The women wore military caps and flowing blue robes, the ends of which were covered in bits of snow.
“I’m ready,” Juniper whispered, “just in case.”
Helena nodded as they quietly approached the guards. They took very slow steps now, but eventually, they were past the sentries and in the courtyard, where the three were able to keep to the wall as they circled around to the right.
There was a storage room built along the corner of the interior wall, the door slightly ajar. The three slipped in, Helena deactivating her power as they warmed up for a moment, mostly through one of Juniper’s spells.
“Whew,” Ozella said, color returning to her face. “That was close!”
“No, we’re fine,” Helena reminded her.
“Definitely,” Juniper agreed.
The storage space consisted mostly of landscaping equipment, but there was also a cellar which contained banners and other items used for schoolwide celebrations.
“How are we supposed to check this entire school with just the three of us, especially since the three of us need to stay together to use Helena’s power, and we have a time limit?” Ozella shook her head. “I’m sorry for doubting this plan, but the school seems just so much bigger now that we are in it. Are we really supposed to just go around and hope to find one of the bad guys?”
“No,” Helena said, “that’s where Dinah comes into play.”
“Dinah?”
“She seems to understand commands from you. I want you to tell her to go find Donovan. Once she finds Donovan, she can come back here and lead us to him. I’m guessing that he will be around the others. Hell, she could also find Mia, the big gray vampire, or the guy with bladed arms.”
“His name is Essem Magar,” Ozella reminded her.
“Right. My guess is that they will all be in the same area. Then we can go to them, you can get their details, we can find out where they’re keeping the vampire kids, and then get out of here.”
“Remember,” Juniper said, “portals actually work in here. One can’t teleport in, but they can teleport out. Once we have the information we need, I can simply open a portal and we can return to Sam and Zoe. We just need to get the info first.”
“Okay,” Ozella said with a determined nod. “Dinah.”
The blue ghost woman rose from the ground a smile on her face.
“Do you remember the people that were fighting on the train?” Ozella asked Dinah. “Do you remember Donovan, the exemplar with the mohawk?”
Dinah nodded, a scowl forming on her face.
“Good. And you can understand me right now, right?”
Dinah gave Ozella a dopey look.
“Okay, there’s no need for that. I was just confirming that you know what’s going on here.”
Dinah nodded, making a ‘duh’ face.
“What’s she doing?” Juniper asked.
“Being difficult,” Helena said under her breath as she took over. “Dinah, I want you to go and find Donovan, and then come back here and lead us to him. If you see any of the others as well, Mia, the gray vampire, anyone that you recognize, just remember where they are, okay?”
Dinah gave the three of them two thumbs up.
“And you need to hurry,” Helena said. “The longer we spend within the school grounds, the higher chance we have of being caught. Please, Dinah, we are trusting that you will do this quickly.”
“I wish I could see her,” Juniper said.
“That’s right, only the four of us can see her,” said Ozella, biting her lip for a moment. “Maybe we can just ask her to let you see her. Or write it in my book,” Ozella said, going for her backpack. Of course she wore her backpack. She always wore her red backpack.
“Try asking first, and then we can deal with your book later,” Helena said in an attempt to be practical.
“Dinah, I want you to share your transparent form with Juniper here, she is sort of on our team now.”
Dinah pointed at the red-haired woman to indicate that this was who Ozella was talking about.
Once Ozella gave her the confirmation, Dinah started waving at the woman. When that didn’t work, she moved over to Juniper and brought her hand to Juniper’s cheek, her fingers instantly passing through it as Dinah moved forward, kissing Juni
per on the lips.
“Whoa!” Juniper said, stepping back, nearly colliding with a rake.
“You can see her now?” Ozella asked.
“I can,” Juniper said, running her hand along her jaw. “And who is she again? I mean, in relation to all this.”
“She’s my sister,” Ozella said proudly, a tear coming to her eye, “my twin sister.”
Dinah flashed a peace sign at the three of them as she turned to the exit, and pressed through the wall of the storage shed.
“I hope this works,” Juniper said under her breath.
“It will work,” Helena said, “we just don’t know how well it will work yet.”
***
Helena stood by the door, trying not to pace. Dinah had been gone a good half hour now, and she was starting to worry that the ghost girl wouldn’t come back.
“We need a backup plan,” Juniper said.
“We have to be patient,” Ozella reminded them. She sneezed, the dustiness of the storage shed clearly affecting her. “I know she’s a little strange, but Dinah wouldn’t let me down, not with a request like this.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Just give it another thirty minutes or so,” Helena said with finality. “I’m nervous too, but we have to be smart about this.”
“I am prepared to take us out of here it comes to that,” Juniper reminded them.
“Any moment now,” Helena said, even if she didn’t quite believe this to be true.
But Ozella was right, and eventually Dinah did press through the wall, an excited grin on her face.
“Power-up, invisible,” Helena said, reaching out to the others.
They joined hands with Helena and quietly stepped out of the storage shed, following Dinah across the courtyard. There weren’t any students out; it was way too cold for that, and in the time they had been in the storage shed, snow had started to fall.
This actually made things little bit easier, because they didn’t have to worry as much about innocent bystanders if things took a turn for the worse. The snow would likely keep people indoors.
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