Shadows of Uprising (Guardian of the Vale Book 2) Page 15

  “Yes, Marysa explained last year. There were three mirrors: mine, one in the possession of the EA, and one in the High Court's possession.”

  “Very good, Layne,” Manders said. “The one we'll communicate through is the one that was in the High Court. The Last Order has recently managed to extract it. It's now safely at our headquarters.” He didn't wait for Alayne to respond, turning instead to the mirror's silvery surface. “Mirror,” Manders addressed it. “Please show us Bryan and Wynn Worth.”

  The black opaqueness of the mirror immediately shifted, fleeing from the frame. A room appeared, soft lamp-light shading the plain brown walls with shadows, two familiar silhouettes. Then the two sources of the shadows stepped into view.

  “Layne?” Bryan's voice washed over her ears.

  “Dad! Mom!” Her arms ached to hug them. “How are you? It's been so long!”

  Bryan grinned, his eyes twinkling through the mirror. He looped his arm around Wynn's waist as they peered at Alayne. “Alayne, it's so good to see you again.”

  “You, too. Where are you guys?” Alayne asked.

  “Last Order headquarters,” Bryan answered. “Great view, isn't it?” he winked at Alayne as he motioned to the brown walls.

  Manders flinched. “I'll remind you, Worth, that it would be best not to burden your daughter with too much information. For the time being, she is safe, but the less she knows about where you are, the better.”

  “Of course. Sorry, Manders.” Bryan smiled a wry smile.

  “Tell us what's going on, Alayne. We've missed you so much.” Wynn's gentle voice traveled through the mirror as though she really did stand only a foot or two from Alayne.

  “Me, too.” For one horrifying second, Alayne thought she would cry, and then she wouldn't be able to talk to her parents, and Manders was already looking over his shoulder at the door.

  “I wish none of this stuff was happening. I wish I could come visit you through the mirror—” Manders emphatically shook his head here, but Alayne ignored him, “but obviously that would put you guys in even more danger. Um,” she stumbled over her words as she tried to push them out, “you remember that ring that you gave me from Grandma?”

  Her parents nodded.

  “Well, it really does have some interesting properties. It's let me know twice now when someone wants to hurt me; it gets really hot around my finger if someone's immediate intentions are to cause me bodily harm. And then it also shows me visions of—of something. I don't know what the visions are—if they're just my wishful thinking—but they haven't always been pleasant. They might be blips of a future that may or may not happen—I don't know. They seem to come at random times, and I don't know how to control them or when they'll crop up.”

  She watched the smiles fade off her parents' faces at this piece of information. Wynn opened her mouth to speak, but Alayne blundered on, determined to tell them everything. Manders had gone to the door and was peering out into the hallway.

  “I guess you guys probably know that Professor Sprynge can't be trusted, or at least, I don't think he can. He brought on a new professor.” She glanced back at Manders. “Professor Beatrice Pence. She was a Justice at the High Court before she came for the year at Sprynge's request.”

  Wynn nodded. “At the High Court's request, too. The Capital is trying to put eyes and ears in places where there is high Elemental activity to try to gain some perspective, probably to gain some information, too, for the Alliance. Our spies are working to find out why. We know the Alliance is especially interested in Andova and Clayborne, but we haven't found the purpose behind sending High Court emissaries to those locations.” She paused, her gaze sweeping to Manders, who had cracked the door and was peering out into the darkness, his face taut with tension. “Also Layne, we believe you're right not to trust Sprynge, at least until we know more. We've been getting a lot of information here about him and his work with Beatrice Pence, and—”

  “She's not giving you problems, is she?” Bryan interrupted, a scowl covering his face.

  “Nothing that I can't handle.” Alayne dropped her gaze to the ball of fire on the floor in front of her. It reminded her of the fire that had licked her hands in Pence's class when she'd lost control of the elements. Never before had she been unable to control the Vale. A growing horror seeped through her: what if, instead of her controlling the Vale, the Vale instead gained control of her?

  Wynn's voice brought Alayne's face back up again. “Alayne, you must be very careful about Beatrice Pence, do you understand?”

  Alayne nodded.

  “Petyr Pence is the right-hand man for Leader Blankenship, and Beatrice Pence controls most of what Petyr Pence does. Oh, not that she's Shadow-Casting him.” She shook her head at the expression on Alayne's face. “She's very determined in her vision of events. So, just be careful. She doesn't seem to have much of a moral compass.”

  Alayne shifted uncomfortably. Kyle's lack of relationship with his parents had always bothered her, or at least his reaction to their treatment, and the reminder of his mother's lack of compassion lit a fire inside her.

  She sensed Manders's tension and realized her time was short. She seized the next thought to cross her mind. “Who is Shane Beckyr? Where did he come from?”

  Bryan shook his head and glanced at Wynn. “We don't really know. It seems that he's an exceptional military tactician who had been plucked out of obscurity and had been being groomed to be the next head general of the Continental Guard.”

  “What will happen to the former General?” Alayne asked.

  Bryan shook his head. “Forced retirement, I guess.” He glanced again at Wynn, worry shading his eyes. “And speaking of which, there's more bad news. Everything is supposed to be legal and above board with this new appointment to General, but our spies have informed us that nearly half the Continental Guard is Shadow-Casted.”

  “How can that be? What kind of Caster would have control enough to Cast that many people?”

  “Not just one, Layne.” Bryan shook his head. “They've been paired. A Caster with a Casted. They're never allowed to separate. The Continental Guard is twice the size it would normally be.”

  Alayne gaped. “So if someone stands up to the High Court, to the Continental Guard—”

  Wynn nodded gravely. “Yes, they would put the Casted on the front rows of the fight. Innocent people would be slaughtered while the enemy wouldn't be touched. It's quite an effective strategy from their end.”

  Alayne's mind reverted to the three innocent people, guiltless professors from Clayborne, who had confronted them at Cliffsides the year previously. Thousands like them, trapped in their own minds, forced to die for a cause they did not support. She felt sick.

  She started to open her mouth, but Manders interrupted. “Alayne, say your goodbyes quickly now. We need to get back, or we'll be missed.”

  A lump rose in Alayne's throat. She also desperately wanted to talk to her parents about her continuing pain over Jayme, and her confusion about how to balance her friendship with Kyle. But it would have to wait for another time. She kissed her fingertips and placed them on the mirror. The reflection rippled. Bryan and Wynn both lifted their hands to cover hers.

  Bryan smiled at her. “No matter what, Alayne, we'll see each other again.”

  “We love you, honey.”

  “You, too.” A moment later, the mirror went blank, and the darkness from it spiraled into Alayne's heart. Her shoulders slumped, and even Manders's words didn't warm her.

  “It's okay, Layne,” he murmured from where he stood next to the cracked door. “You've been wanting to see them, and now you had a chance.”

  Alayne shook her head wordlessly, pressing her lips tightly together to keep the tears back.

  “Alayne, put out the light.” Manders hissed. Footsteps echoed down the stairs at the far end of the corridor. “We've got company.”

  Chapter 13

  Alayne snapped the notch off of her flame ball, and with one final bur
st of heat, it disappeared. Complete darkness shrouded them both.

  “Where do we run to, Professor?” Alayne whispered.

  She felt more than heard Manders inch the door closed. The hinges threatened to grind together. Desperately, Alayne grasped the air element around the hinges, holding everything apart until the professor slid the door shut noiselessly. Then she let go.

  “There's no place to go,” Manders whispered. The footsteps drew nearer. “If they come in here, be prepared to fight and then run.” He grasped her arm and pulled her backward against the wall.

  Alayne’s pulse thudded in her ears, matching the beat of the footsteps coming closer and closer. They were almost there. They were stopping. She braced herself.

  After a brief pause outside the door, they marched to the end of the corridor and then around the corner until the sound faded entirely.

  “Go.” Professor Manders pulled the door open once more, and he ushered her out into the pitch blackness. “Alayne, you will need a flame, but make it a small one.”

  Alayne lit the end of her index finger, and both of them ran on silent feet for the stairs. Alayne glanced repeatedly over her shoulder, but no point of light connected her to anyone following them. Still, the fear that they would be caught added speed to her feet. It took only a few minutes before they ran up the steps to the entrance door and stepped through the hedge into the darkness behind the spire.

  “Who was that?” Alayne's chest heaved as she glanced back at the door. Manders led her quickly and quietly back to the circle of lights. The sound of a waltz drifted through the night air.

  Manders looked thoughtful. “It was Sprynge. I'd know his rock-step walk anywhere. But what would he have been doing down there? There are tunnels where he keeps things in storage, and they are nowhere near the one we were in.” He didn't seem to expect an answer; he shook his head. “Go have fun, Alayne. I hope you enjoyed your visit. I'm just sorry it couldn't be longer.”

  Alayne smiled, irritated to feel her lower lip quiver. She fought the lump in her throat as she thought again of her parents.

  “And Alayne,” Manders whispered as she turned to go, “if you have any more visions, come see me, please.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Kyle was standing in the same spot he'd been when Alayne had left him. In another moment, he swept Alayne onto the dance floor, whirling her through the crowd of other students, bliss glowing in his blue eyes. “So what happened?” he asked.

  “Nosy, aren't you?”

  “It's not everyday that Manders spirits away a student for a fifteen-minute nighttime stroll.” His voice was light, but a hint of darkness shadowed his gaze. “Is he giving you secrets about the end-of-year exams?”

  “Hardly.” Alayne grinned as he turned her away and spiraled her back to him again. “I guess those dance lessons paid off. Good thing we practiced.”

  “No changing the subject. What did Manders want?”

  “He let me talk to my parents.”

  Alayne nearly fell when Kyle stopped abruptly. She sighed. “Through the mirror.” Kyle's look stayed blank.

  “The magic mirror. The one Marysa gave me last Christmas.”

  Kyle's eyebrows rose. “What mirror? Magic? What in CommonEarth are you talking about?”

  How had Kyle not known about the mirror? Alayne sighed and launched into the shortened version of how she'd obtained the mirror, and then gave a brief overview of the tunnels beneath the school.

  When she was done, Kyle said nothing for several seconds. His gaze had wondered to some point beyond her shoulder, and a quick glance that way showed Kyle's mother sloshing a wine goblet through the air as she talked to Professor Sprynge.

  Alayne's jaw tightened. “Tell me what you're thinking,” she finally said.

  It took a moment for Kyle to return his gaze to Alayne. One of his fingers brushed a tendril of hair over her shoulder. “It has little to do with magic mirrors,” he said, “and everything to do with how gorgeous you are tonight.”

  Alayne snorted.

  “You should wear that gown all the time.”

  “That's a wonderful idea. I'd fit right in.” She glanced at Kyle's attire. “Nice sweatshirt, by the way.”

  “Tuxes are overrated.”

  “You do look comfortable. Wish I could go change.” Alayne squirmed in her gauzy material. “This stuff is itchy. Feels like they made it out of screen door mesh.”

  “A screen door never looked so good,” Kyle said. He whirled her in another spiral. But when he pulled Alayne back against him and she glanced up at his face again, he was looking over her shoulder at Professor Pence engaged in animated conversation with another professor.

  The lost look crept back into his face.

  * * *

  Alayne felt left out for most of the two weeks of Christmas vacation. Almost every student enrolled at Clayborne had at least one family member come for a visit. The dormitories were packed, and every extra level of bedrooms was filled to the max. The commissary quite often ended up with standing-room only.

  Marysa's family welcomed Alayne into their activities with each other and almost made Alayne forget that her own parents were in danger and hiding. But Louisa Blakely, meaning well, often reminisced in Alayne's hearing about the Worths and offered condolences at least once every hour.

  On the last night of vacation, Marysa and Alayne waved goodbye to the Blakelys and climbed the dormitory stairs to the ninth floor. “Sorry about that, Layne,” Marysa finally murmured as they turned into their hallway. “I tried to tell her to tone it down a little, but she didn't seem to understand.”

  “It's fine; she meant well.” Alayne massaged her temples. “I love your family, Marysa, but I am kind of glad they've gone.”

  “Are you ready for classes tomorrow?” Marysa opened the door into their room.

  “I guess. I dread Pence, though. She's really gotten unbearable.”

  “She's definitely picked you as her punishment pet, that's for sure.” Marysa flopped onto the bed. “Have you tried to talk to Sprynge about it?”

  “Fat lot of good that would do.” Alayne sat on the floor and pulled off her shoes. “As far as I know, he's hand-in-glove with her and everyone else from the Capital and the EA.” She shook her head as she peeled off her socks. “I never would have guessed it last year, Marysa. He was so nice. Remember when he dropped everything and took us to Cliffsides when we found out Jayme was in danger?”

  “Yeah,” Marysa said slowly, staring up at the ceiling. “Well, he dropped everything after we begged and pleaded with him, and he still wouldn't leave until the next morning. Maybe...” She sat up abruptly. “Do you think it was a little too easy? I mean, he was the only one that came with us. Doesn't it seem like he would have wanted to have at least a couple more people along on that trip besides himself and three upstart students? And Manders did say that there was still evidence of a Shadow-Caster inside Clayborne; what if it's Sprynge? He did announce that some of the profs would start teaching beginning Shadow-Casting now. I mean, that doesn't mean he's a Caster, but he seems pretty sympathetic to them.”

  “It looks like that's probably the case, but even if it were,” Alayne muttered, “why would Sprynge have wanted to go with us? Why wouldn't he have tried to stop us altogether? If he was in league with the Casters who organized your kidnapping and Dorner's death and everything, why take us out there?”

  “Remember how Manders told us that they've discovered an army of Shadow-Casters in the making?”

  “Yeah.” Alayne couldn't forget her talk with Marysa, Daymon, and Manders after Simeon Malachi and his fire-walkers nearly wiped out the school. In the caverns and canyons of Cliffsides, the searchers who had been looking for Marysa brought back unconfirmed rumors of an entire army of Casted individuals, 'herded' into the caves and 'shepherded' by several Shadow-Casters. This had never been proven, although Alayne knew Manders had Last Order personnel still searching the vast system for confirmation.

 
Marysa fidgeted with a tear on her coverlet. “Yeah. Well, maybe Sprynge was doing status reports. You know, checking in. It sounds really far-fetched, but maybe he had to get to Cliffsides to make arrangements with the Casters.”

  “Do you really think there were Casters managing an army of Shadow-Casted at Cliffsides? After all the extensive searches of the Cliffsides tunnels and caves while we were looking for you last year?”

  “I don't know, but Manders said they'd never followed the tunnels all the way to the ends; the system was just too big.” She shrugged. “But think, Alayne, it could explain why Sprynge was so willing to go, and go with just us. Rumor had it that he was angling to go in the first place instead of Dorner as supervisor for the field trip. Unless there was already a plan to get Dorner by himself to kill him off.”

  “Okay, you're just making stuff up now.” Alayne shoved her shoes under her bed and pulled all the dirt and sweat elements out of her socks. She gave them an experimental sniff before folding them neatly and putting them back in her drawer.

  “Nice not to have to do laundry anymore.” Marysa sighed and swung her legs over the edge of her bed, grabbing the towel hanging on her bed frame. “I'm going to go take a shower.” She disappeared behind the bathroom door, and Alayne heard the water jet into the tub.

  ***

  The first day of second-term classes began with an assembly in the common room for the purpose of introducing the exchange students from Andova Training Facility.

  Alayne stood with Kyle and Marysa near the snack stand, her bag slung over one shoulder. She stood on tip-toe to see the ten students lined up near the chute and facing the student body. Two of the boys had their eyes trained on the rug in front of them, one of the girls looked airily around the hall, and several of them gazed across the tops of the Clayborne students' heads.

  “In a bid for variety and an effort to keep things interesting,” Sprynge said as he spoke to the crowd, “we've agreed with Andova Training Facility to participate in a student exchange program for the second half of the school year. Ten of our students are standing before Andova's student body even now, just as these ten stand here. I believe introductions are in order.”