Shadows of Uprising (Guardian of the Vale Book 2) Page 10

  “Layne!” Kyle's horrified whisper jerked Alayne's attention from his mother to him.

  “What?” She gasped. Her hands both blazed with orange and black flames. They didn't burn her skin, although she could feel their intense heat. She tried to smother the flames with a quick twist of her wrist, but instead of dying down, the flames swirled and twisted, shaping into a ball. Her hand jerked, and the flame ball rose into the air and then landed again in her palm.

  Alayne stared at the ball, panic swirling in her mind. She couldn't control the flames; they had taken over, burned on the fuel of her anger, and she couldn't put them out.

  Professor Pence's face had turned from its normal pale to completely bloodless. Her blue eyes widened. “Miss Worth, may I remind you that I have the power of the school and the High Court behind me, and if you choose—”

  Alayne braced her jaw and tried one more time. She jerked her hands downward, and the flames went out. She stood, her knees shaking beneath her, and absolute stillness blanketed the room. At last, she opened her mouth and forced her tongue to move past the anger. A surge of words rose from the darkness that filled her, staining every corner of the room with its intensity. “Professor Pence, the Elemental Alliance may have you and the High Court in its deep pockets. It doesn't matter to me. You can write this on your mirror to look at every day. You don't have me in your pocket; no matter what you do, you cannot force me to think what you think or to do what you want me to do. I cannot be Shadow-Casted, Professor, and you can tell the scum at the Elemental Alliance that they can stop messing with me or my friends.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Alayne trembled. She had promised her father to be careful when it came to the Elemental Alliance. She swallowed. Too late now.

  Professor Pence said nothing; her mouth worked as if to hold in the fury Alayne knew blazed behind those blue eyes. Alayne's words seemed to have permanently silenced the classroom. No one moved or spoke. Alayne slowly sat, her knees weak.

  “Miss Worth,” Professor Pence managed at last. “I would be very, very careful about threatening anyone, particularly me. You may just wake up one morning to find that someone or something you care about is gone.”

  Alayne fought the flames from her hands. She didn't want to lose control again. “I'm sorry, was I threatening you, Professor? But—but that would mean that I can actually back up what I say, and wouldn't that make morning headlines? 'Clayborne Student Body Takes Down Group Formerly Known As The Elemental Alliance.' It would make for interesting reading, wouldn't it?”

  At that auspicious moment, the gong sounded. Professor Pence turned and jerked open the door into her office, and a general rustle filled the classroom as students slammed notebooks shut and slid them into bags.

  As Alayne walked up the steps to exit the classroom, Daymon's blue eyes sparked approval. “I guess that wasn't your run-of-the-mill ending to class.” His dimple peeped out for a moment. “Not bad, Worth.”

  Marysa's approval was a little more verbal. By evening, everyone in the school knew what had happened in class, due in large part to Marysa going door-to-door in the dormitories or from one couch to another in the common room and delivering the story.

  And before bedtime that night, Alayne started getting encouragement, offers of help, and assurances of solidarity from fellow students on all four grade levels.

  * * *

  Early the next morning, Alayne descended the stairs from the dormitories and reached the common room floor. She stooped to tighten her running shoes before stretching her calf muscles for her run. On her way to the chute, she edged by a pool table, surrounded by a group of sleepy students. Mugs of coffee lined the edges of the table while two Second-Years tested their pool skills against each other. Alayne's shy friend from her first year at Clayborne, Jordyn Cadell, stood with her arms crossed over her chest, silently watching the game. When she caught Alayne's eye, she smiled bashfully.

  “How are you, Jordyn?” The petite girl had become a sort of silent friend, making a striking contrast to the talkative Marysa.

  Jordyn nodded. “I'm okay,” she whispered. “Nervous,” she added as an afterthought.

  Alayne stopped her walk. “Oh? Why?”

  Jordyn took a deep breath. “I'm one of the exchange students they're sending to Andova next semester. I've finally gotten used to it here at Clayborne, made a few friends, and now I have to start over somewhere else.” She bit her lip.

  Alayne's thoughts jumped to the other school for Elementals near the Capital of the Continent. “I didn't know they had an exchange program.”

  Jordyn nodded. “I didn't know until recently, either, but they do. Andova usually only caters to the wealthy families, so I thought I'd be able to get out of it, but if you go through the exchange program, you don't have to pay extra. My parents will be paying the same tuition at Andova as they would here at Clayborne.”

  Alayne nodded thoughtfully. “So,” she asked after a moment, “do you think you'll like it?”

  Jordyn shrugged. “Maybe after I get used to it. I hate to leave though.”

  “Why do you have to? Surely your parents would understand if you wanted to stay at Clayborne.”

  “It's not an option.” Jordyn glanced at her feet. “Chairman Sprynge called me to his office and told me I had been selected to go. There was no bargaining.”

  Alayne's brow creased in confusion. “Why would he do that?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine. They have students coming from Andova to Clayborne at the start of next semester. Maybe they couldn't get enough volunteers to make room for the new students.”

  Alayne nodded thoughtfully. She didn't understand why Sprynge would move a few students to Andova who had no wish to go, even if some were coming from the other school. It wasn't like Clayborne had standing room only. But then again, she didn't understand much at all about Sprynge these days, except that she no longer trusted him.

  Jordyn had gone back to watching the pool game, so Alayne continued toward the chute, anticipating the exhilaration that always followed a run. She entered the glass structure, punched the button for the ground level, and dropped to the bottom. Glancing at her shoes, she eased into a jog and followed the river upstream along the bank, purposely splashing through the puddles left from last night's rain.

  A movement in the trees caught her attention. Alayne halted, panting lightly as she scanned the branches. A moment later, the golden, tawny head of a mountain lion poked from the branches, its sleek, lithe form sliding through the leaves.

  Alayne gasped, scrambled backward, and fell to the ground with a cry.

  The cat crouched at the noise, turning its head to Alayne, a motionless tableau against a leafy background. The golden eyes measured Alayne where she lay, petrified, on the ground.

  Alayne wondered if she should run, but she knew the cat could easily outstrip her if she tried. If she ran, she would become the animal's prey.

  The mountain lion continued to regard her. Alayne's heart thudded against her ribs. Awe pooled in her veins as the cat released its crouch, turning away from Alayne, graceful ease in its movements as it approached the river and gazed into the mirrored depths.

  Seeing wild animals wasn't a new occurrence. Alayne was familiar with the sights of various species around her home in Skyden and even here at Clayborne occasionally--the bears that had frightened her the previous year, the cat on the mountain range in the last final exam.

  Alayne reached for the elements, pulling a wall of water from the river across the ground, curving it to rest between herself and the cat. When the water surrounded her in a barrier five feet high, she scrambled to her feet and took off at a sprint for the spire.

  A glance over her shoulder surprised her. No mountain lion raced after her. The cat still stood in the middle of the circle of water, turning its head this way and that to observe the wall. It lifted a great paw and batted a fish from the water.

  Alayne pulled in a breath, continuing her run back to the spire.
The cat was obviously not hostile, but she needed to be more careful when she went for solitary runs after this.

  When she reached the steps of the spire, she released the hold on the water and watched the cat sink to the ground, gnawing on the fish it had captured. Her shaking finger hit the chute button for the dormitories. She entered the car and shot upward. Daymon stood at the entrance of the common room, his eyes serious as he watched her step onto the worn red carpet.

  “Alayne. We need to talk.”

  Chapter 9

  Alayne didn't like the look in Daymon's blue eyes. She still felt the adrenaline in her veins from her encounter with the mountain lion. She half-thought of telling him about it, her suspicions that it was the same one she had healed from the previous year, but discarded the thought almost immediately.

  “What's going on?” A note of uncertainty trembled in her voice. She coughed to cover it.

  “Come with me.” Daymon ushered her back into the chute, and together, they dropped to the gymnasium. When the doors slid open, he led the way out onto the walkway. “My uncle just told me something, and it's gonna make you mad.”

  Alayne narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

  Daymon didn't answer immediately. He looked over the railing at the empty basketball court, white-knuckling the rail. A muscle jumped in his jaw. His back was a tense, straight line.

  “Daymon?” Suddenly, Alayne was very afraid of what he would say. “Daymon, what's wrong?”

  “You thought it was bad that Sprynge was replacing Grace with Pence. My uncle just told me that Andova Training Facility went through an entire faculty turnover. Every single teacher was replaced by a member of the Elemental Alliance. And Layne, you'll never believe who they brought in as their new Chairman.”

  A face swam before Alayne's eyes, but she blinked the image away. Surely not. “Who?” she asked around a dry mouth.

  Daymon blew out a deep breath. “Simeon Malachi.”

  Alayne stepped backward, her head shaking numbly from side to side. “No. That—that's not possible.”

  Daymon looked down at his hands. “It's true.”

  Fury welled up inside Alayne and burst from her windpipe. “How could whoever's in charge let that happen? He's a wanted man, a Shadow-Caster, a murderer! Why isn't he in prison?” She was shouting now. “If Jeb Smyth hadn't been an idiot and shot that old man at the beginning of the summer, this wouldn't be happening! People would see Simeon Malachi for the evil person he is, and the Elemental Alliance wouldn't have gotten so blown out of proportion. How could this have happened?” Alayne paced the worn down track rubber, hardly noticing when Daymon's hand on her arm stopped her.

  “Layne, you need to calm down.” He grasped her shoulders gently. “Can you do that?”

  “Why should I calm down?” Calming down was the furthest thing from her mind. “Why wasn't he stopped, Daymon? Who's responsible for this? I've got to go talk to them.”

  “No, you don't.” Daymon's hands squeezed her arms a little harder. “What you're going to do is calm down, and we're going to rationally think through how best to approach this. What you are not going to do is fly off the handle and do something stupid to get you killed.”

  Alayne could feel her nostrils flaring. Her lips had gone numb from pressing them so tightly together. She shrugged, and Daymon let go of her shoulders. She took three deep breaths, careful to blow the air out slowly through her mouth.

  She spoke in a carefully modulated voice. “Okay, Daymon, please tell me what happened.”

  Daymon shook his head. “I don't know all of it. My uncle told me what he knows, but even that wasn't much. The Elemental Alliance has been slowly getting their people into position for years. This past summer, they've begun a subtle take-over of the High Court, hugely assisted, of course, by Dyllon Rand's shooting death. They're only one away from having the majority on the bench. I don't think anyone anticipated how much the shooting would sway public opinion in favor of the Alliance. Now Leader Blankenship literally does nothing without consulting Petyr Pence, and both Petyr and Beatrice Pence are in high leadership positions within the Elemental Alliance.”

  “But how does Malachi get a free pass just because the Elemental Alliance is taking power?”

  “Malachi is one of the founders of the Elemental Alliance; he first started it back before his prison term several years ago. He's used the public upswing in EA favor to his advantage. Against all odds, he's managed to wrangle an official pardon from Leader Blankenship that returns his citizenship to him and all rights and privileges. It was Petyr Pence that got him the Chairman opening at Andova.”

  She shook her head in disbelief. “Jordyn just told me she's going to school there for the semester as well as some of our other students. They're not even going to be safe.”

  “They'll likely be safe enough. You're the one who's a target for the Elemental Alliance. You and your family.”

  Alayne gripped the railing beside Daymon. “Then why haven't they come after me, Daymon? I'm right here at Clayborne, free for the taking. What's holding them up?”

  Daymon rubbed the back of his neck. “Let's walk.” He started down the track, and Alayne matched her steps to his.

  “I have a theory that may or may not be completely right.” He glanced at her. “You're more well-protected than you think, Alayne. I consider myself your Guardian, but it's not just something that I made up my mind to do. First, I swore an oath when I was ten that I would remain a Guardian of the Vale for the rest of my life, and I got the tattoo on my back at that point.” He paused. “I have another uncle; his name is Luke.”

  Alayne's thoughts turned to Manderly Manders, the only remaining family of Daymon of whom she'd been aware. How large was Daymon's family? How many Guardians had watched over the Vale, lived in the Temple, protected CommonEarth's most powerful object? How many had ever lived there, dating back to when the Vale first came into existence? Were there any still living there at present? The sheer depth of the time and responsibility involved weighted Alayne's mind. She struggled to pull herself back to the present.

  Daymon went on. “He's my mother's youngest brother, living in Skyden.”

  The impact of Daymon's last sentence rang in Alayne's ears. “You mean—”

  “I wasn't the only one watching out for you at home, Layne. And he's not my only other family, either,” he added. “I don't have any more uncles, but there are loads of cousins, fosters, adopted, people who saw the good in our family and asked to join. Every one of these people wears the tattoo of the Mark of Four and every one of these people would die before they would see you harmed.”

  Alayne stopped walking and stared at him. “But—where are all these people?”

  “Some are right here at Clayborne. The kitchens, the grounds, a couple of janitors, some of the citizens of Grenton. Some watch your parents, because if they are vulnerable, you are as well. There are a few serving as Justices, but that may not be the case for much longer. They're being watched, and it's possible they may have to flee very soon.”

  Alayne gaped like a fish. Suddenly, it all made sense. The maids in the hallways of the dormitories who always seemed to appear whenever Alayne exited her room, the janitor who dusted the Chairman's office during Sprynge's meeting with her. She'd thought then that it was strange that he worked during office hours. The gardeners who sometimes appeared when Alayne went outdoors, sometimes with Daymon, sometimes by herself.

  “So you see, Layne, you're not just 'free for the taking.' However, the Shadow-Caster got past our line of defenses during that hockey game, and very nearly would have killed us all if he or she had succeeded.”

  “How?”

  Daymon frowned. “I've told you before, Layne, our well-being is tied up in your well-being. If you die of natural causes, we will too, in our own times. However, because of the power of the Vale, and the oath we swear when we take on the Guardianship of it, if you are killed because we fail in our duties, we die as well.”

>   Alayne nodded numbly. “I—I guess I just thought that you were taking responsibility for me, because—you felt guilty that Jayme died... or something,” she finished lamely.

  Daymon shook his head. “Listen, I'm sorry I was such a jerk last year. I—you and I didn't have a great relationship in Basic School, and I take full responsibility for my horrible behavior to Leesha. I was also pretty bitter, too, Layne, because I was required to take that oath. I really didn't want to when I was ten; who puts that kind of responsibility on a child anyway? But I did because every person in our family has done so since the beginning. I suppose I was angry at your family for 'making' me do it.” He drew air-quotes with his fingers. “We didn't know the Vale was actually in you until late last year. We had lost track of it after my mother gave it away, but we knew it had to be with your family somewhere, because my mom obviously didn't have it on her when she was killed, and you and your parents were the last people she saw before she was killed. But now that we know where it is, it's going to take a lot more than Simeon Malachi to get through us to you.”

  Alayne didn't know what to say. Slowly, it began to seep into her mind the enormity of Daymon's oath, the life-long consequences. “Daymon, what would happen if I were to, I don't know, officially 'release' you from your oath? Then if I were killed, you wouldn't be, would you?”

  “You can't. The oath wasn't to protect you. It was to protect the Vale and the possessor of the Vale. You're the possessor of the Vale, so we have to protect you with our lives, and even you don't have the authority to revoke the oath we swore.”

  They walked for a while in silence, passing the basketball courts and the tennis courts and the ice-hockey rinks. The weight rooms on the other side were all dark.

  “Why all this now, Daymon? You wouldn't tell me anything last year. I wish I could have known.”