Mark of Four Read online

  “Shush!” Alayne glanced around in alarm before relaxing. “I can get a good grasp on them all.”

  “No wonder you’re doing so well in all your classes. It’s probably a cinch to do the projects the professors ask you to do.”

  “Well, not a cinch, but it does help when I can tweak the details with the other elements.”

  “I wonder if the professors have noticed?”

  “I hope not.” Alayne shook her head. “I’ve tried to be careful.”

  “As long as Daymon and Cornelia don’t start spreading rumors.” Marysa grabbed another piece of chicken. “They’ll have the whole school speculating before long.”

  “Then we’ll just have to turn the gossip back on them,” Alayne chuckled. “We’ll start spreading rumors that Daymon is the Quadriweave.”

  “Can you imagine?” Marysa finished her last bone and wiped her fingers. She stood. “He’d set up a command center for Shadow-Casters right here at Clayborne. Probably invite Simeon Malachi himself to take up residence here.”

  Alayne laughed, but guilt twinged as she followed her friend back to the school, her thoughts centered on the dark-haired boy whose pain-filled eyes held so many secrets.

  * * *

  The next morning Alayne rubbed the sleep from her eyes in time to see Marysa lurch into the room. “Merry Christmas,” she sang. She staggered under the weight of a huge lumpy package in her arms. “I brought you a Christmas present. Open it, open it, open it!” She bounced on the balls of her feet.

  Alayne sat up and yawned. “Hold on. I need to get your present, too.” She placed her feet on the worn carpet and padded over to her closet. She rummaged for a moment, finally emerging with a small package wrapped in silver paper.

  Marysa’s eyes lit up. “Don’t you just love Christmas? Here, let’s sit on your bed and open them.” She placed the present she had for Alayne at the foot of the bed and sat down beside it, patting the space on her other side for Alayne to sit.

  Alayne brought the silver package over and sat, handing it to Marysa. “It’s not much.” She flushed, embarrassed. “It’s just a little something I put together.”

  Marysa ripped the paper off eagerly. She caught her breath. “Layne, it’s beautiful. Thank you.” In a small, velvet box lay an intricate necklace made of ice. Each tiny link on the chain was exactly the same size, and on the end, a glittering snowflake pendant caught the morning light from the window, scattering a thousand sparkles across the room.

  “I’m glad you like it.” Alayne pulled it from the box and shifted so she could fasten it around her friend’s neck. “It shouldn’t melt. I notched the bend, so hopefully, it’ll stay. If it doesn’t, I could probably fix it.”

  “Layne, I love it.” Marysa gave Alayne an exuberant hug. “Thank you.”

  “Welcome.”

  “So now it’s your turn to open mine.” Marysa hefted the huge package across her lap onto Alayne’s. “You do need to be careful; it’s a little fragile.”

  Alayne cocked an eyebrow as she studied it. She tentatively picked at the edge of the paper near the top of the package.

  “Oh, come on,” Marysa huffed impatiently. “It’s not that fragile.”

  Alayne grinned and tore the paper off in a long strip. Underneath, she found a massive oval mirror. Around the edges, intricately carved, a network of flames glowed with an orange-red light. The mirror itself showed clear. A jagged triangle of glass in the upper right portion was missing, exposing the brown wood beneath.

  “Wow,” Alayne said, struggling to find words. “It’s great, Marysa.” She glanced at the wall at the foot of her bed. “I guess I can give my other mirror away now, so that’s good.”

  She looked at her friend, hoping she hadn’t hurt her feelings with her lackluster response.

  Marysa grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. “But this is a special mirror.” She lifted it off Alayne’s lap, settling it against the bed. “Come watch.”

  Alayne hopped off the bed and came to stand with Marysa in front of the mirror. Marysa hunched down and slid her finger from one side to the other. Alayne watched in astonishment as the reflective image peeled back to reveal ... nothing.

  “What ... just happened?”

  “Who would you like to see, Layne?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, what person or place would you like to see?”

  Alayne’s mouth hung open. She shut it with a snap. “J-Jayme.”

  “Tell the mirror.”

  Alayne shook her head in confusion. “Tell the mirror—what, exactly?”

  “Tell the mirror that you would like to see Jayme.”

  Alayne knelt beside Marysa. “I—I’d like to see Jayme, please.”

  “Now move your finger across the glass.”

  Alayne swiped her finger slowly from right to left. The image peeled back.

  And Jayme was there. He stood on a rocky outcropping, staring down a steep cliff into a canyon far below him. Alayne recognized some of the other students standing around him. Chairman Dorner moved into the picture, blocking her view of Jayme.

  Alayne was speechless. She reached to touch the mirror, but Marysa stopped her. “If you touch it, the image disappears, so make sure you’re done.”

  “What—how?”

  Marysa settled back against the bed. “I had to clean out a storage closet for Professor Grace once. Well, I didn’t have to; I was doing it for extra credit. She was helping me for a while, but then got called away for something, and she left me alone. This thing was hiding under everything, wrapped in an old sheet. I liked the fiery scroll work, so when Professor Grace came back, I asked her if she needed it, or if I could have it.”

  “And she just let you have it?” Alayne gasped, incredulous. She watched Jayme take some tentative steps along the edge. The wind whipped his curly brown hair.

  “Well, I don’t know if she realized it wasn’t an ordinary mirror. She told me to help myself, and I hoisted it back to our dorm room. But when I set it down, I rubbed my shoulder against it, and the screen peeled back to show that blank screen. It took some finagling and figuring, but I finally got what the mirror does. It shows you whatever you want to see whenever you want to see it.”

  “Don’t you think we should return it to Professor Grace now that we know what it is?” Alayne asked, feeling guilty.

  “Um, no.” Marysa rolled her eyes. “Come on, Layne, I’m usually the goody-goody here. Don’t take a page out of my book.”

  Alayne sat back on her haunches, flabbergasted. “I had no idea there was stuff like this out there.”

  “Life is full of surprises, right? Some good, some not so much. I consider this a good surprise.”

  Alayne leaned forward and hugged Marysa. “Thanks for the present, Mary. You’re the best.”

  “I know.” Marysa touched the mirror. Jayme disappeared and the glass snapped back to the reflection of the room and its occupants. “Let’s go get some breakfast. I want to spend the day in the gymnasium’s pool, and then our parents will be here in time for supper.”

  Alayne hauled the mirror to her closet; she'd hang it later. She followed her friend out the door, a smile lifting the corners of her mouth.

  * * *

  Alayne kicked hard, pushing toward the surface of the pool. She’d chosen to swim in the diving pool because she enjoyed going deeper than the lap pool allowed. Marysa had opted for the lap pool, saying she liked to swim in the lanes.

  Alayne broke the surface, enjoying the tingling that water always left on her skin. She squeezed water out of her hair, turned, and did a dolphin flip the opposite way. Coming slowly to the surface, this time on her back, she saw the rippled reflection of three figures through the distortion of the water. They stood on the side of the pool, arms crossed. She surfaced with hardly any disturbance, and her heart sank. It was three of the boys that Daymon and Corn hung out with: Ryck, Crede, and Jonathyn. They had never spoken directly to her, but they were always in the backgrou
nd, behind every confrontation Alayne had with Daymon or Cornelia, snickering behind their hands, making rude noises whenever she walked by. Typical jerks.

  Crede strolled toward her, his angular, horsey face deceptively relaxed compared to his taut body. “Hey, Worth, how’s life without your skinny beanpole? Think he’s fallen off a cliff yet?”

  Alayne wiped the water from her eyes. “I’m pretty sure he’s safe,” she answered, thankful to have seen Jayme just that morning in the mirror.

  “Well, isn’t that just nice for you?” The pimples that lined Crede’s face stood out in sharp relief with his pale skin and red hair. His face twisted into a distorted mask as he walked to the edge of the pool and squatted down, resting his elbows on his knees and weaving his fingers together. The other two boys edged behind him.

  “Come here.” Crede motioned with his hand.

  Alayne allowed the water to carry her a little closer, but stopped when she was a good ten feet from him. “What do you want?”

  Crede smirked. “To send you home.”

  “What?” Alayne shook the water from her braid. “What do you have against me?”

  The boys cackled, their high-pitched tones bouncing off the walls. Alayne threw a glance over at Marysa, who was halfway down the lap pool in a splashy crawl stroke and hadn’t noticed the disturbance.

  “Nothing but your Natural filth,” Crede whispered.

  Alayne stared at him, panic sparking at the base of her neck as the nerves in her left hand registered a warm band of skin around her middle finger. She glanced at her ring where it rested snugly against the base of her finger. She had put it on that morning in a fit of homesickness and then had forgotten to put it back in safe-keeping. The silver circlet, even in the cool water, was swiftly growing unpleasantly hot. The ring was supposed to get hot when someone meant her harm. She tensed, adrenaline pumping through her veins.

  Their gazes were as hard as flint. A slow smile spread across Crede’s face as a massive air-pocket circled into the water, creating a gaping hole from the surface of the water to the bottom eighteen feet below.

  Alayne dove backward. Another air-pocket drove a hole into the water just in front of where she swam. She jerked to the side.

  “Stop it, you guys,” Marysa screamed from afar.

  A burst of flame erupted in front of the boys. It raced in a deadly circle around them, trapping them inside it.

  Crede snapped his hand around, and a gale-force wind whipped through the arena. The fire skidded along the walkway, crashing against the wall, where it continued to crackle.

  “Natural spawn!” Crede yelled. “You don’t belong here!” Another air-pocket ripped into the water, carving a slow circle around Alayne. Her wet hair plastered across her face.

  She yanked violently on the water element; a fifteen foot wave broke from the pool, crashing over the boys and dousing the fire. The boys lost their footing, yelling as they were dragged into the pool.

  The shrieking sound of a train whistle blasted just behind Alayne. She looked back in panic. Crede’s tornado twisted her way, moving over the water toward her.

  In desperation, Alayne gripped the air element, pulling the strands apart as they tried to twist. She could feel Crede’s stranglehold on it; she knew he felt hers, although she couldn’t tell if he knew it belonged to her.

  The tornado first slowed and then exploded, gusts of wind blowing violently in all directions. In spite of Alayne’s water-drenched hair, the air whipped the honey-gold mass behind her.

  Alayne turned quickly to gauge where the boys were. They struggled in the water near the edge of the pool, weighed down by their heavy winter clothing.

  A cry left her lips as she spied another figure on the edge of the wall. His blue eyes registered shock and amazement.

  Daymon. Alayne’s heart sank. “Come to finish the job, Daymon?”

  He didn’t answer. Ryck had freed himself from the pool, and he turned to hurl his element at Alayne. It was fire—Alayne could feel the disturbance in the elements—but Daymon was there first. He snatched the air element from where Ryck stood and yanked it away. The boy curled over and gagged as his lungs emptied, and the fire at his fingertips suffocated.

  “Get out of here!” Daymon yelled. He sprinted around the pool toward the boys, but they had had enough. They gained the pavement and fresh air and ran for the exit.

  Alayne pulled herself shakily to the side of the pool, hefting her weight onto the edge. Trembling, she washed a wave of pool water across her legs, pulling at the energy that vibrated over her skin at the touch. Two feet appeared in her vision and she glanced up. Daymon stood beside her, his hand outstretched to help her up. Behind him, Marysa crouched on the edge of the pool, panic sizzling from her eyes.

  Alayne took Daymon’s hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet. They both dropped their hands as though they burned.

  “Thanks,” Alayne said, after a long pause.

  “I won’t deny that I haven’t thought of doing the same thing.” His handsome face was hard as he stared at her.

  “Why?” Alayne raised her arms in frustration. “What don’t you like about me?”

  “You get everything, don’t you?” Daymon actually smiled, but the bitterness of it rubbed Alayne’s nerves raw. “The best of it all.” His voice rose. “You get good grades. You do everything the profs ask you to do and then some. You have no enemies—”

  “No enemies!” Alayne motioned at the exit. “That was a friendly hug that just ran out the door?”

  “—Your friends are always around. Even when your boyfriend goes off on some cuckoo field trip, you sit here, happily confident that he’s alive.”

  Alayne stared at him. Realization hit her like a lightning bolt. He’s envious of the mostly carefree life I’ve lived up until this year. As she looked past the scowl on his face, she recognized the signature of pain. She wondered what his life was like to fill it with pain at such a young age.

  Pity flitted through her insides. She pushed her braid over her shoulder, flinching as her ring scratched her bare skin. The memory of its burning band on her finger flooded her once again with the memories of home, of fear, of her mother. Why? “Perhaps, Daymon, you shouldn’t judge me by what you see. My life isn’t all strawberries and sunshine.”

  His hard eyes stared, and another expression traced its way through the blue.

  Awe.

  Daymon took a deep breath. “Just be careful, Layne.” He abruptly turned for the door and disappeared through the exit.

  Marysa sobbed quietly on the side of the pool. “I thought they were going to kill you,” she choked.

  Alayne trembled as she sat next to Marysa. “Yeah, well, they didn’t.”

  After a few minutes, Marysa wiped her nose on her arm. “Layne, you know I don’t think any of that stuff, right?”

  “What stuff?”

  “That stuff about Natural spawn and all that. Sure, my family’s all Elemental, but it’s ridiculous that there’s any distinction made between families like mine and families like yours.” Marysa’s eyes were wide and uncertain.

  Alayne was momentarily speechless. A minute passed before she found her tongue. “Of course not, Marysa. The thought never entered my head.”

  “Good.” She gathered her wet hair over her shoulder and squeezed a river of water from it. “Should we tell anyone?”

  Alayne shook her head. “No.”

  “Why not? Surely one of the professors should know?”

  “Because I think Daymon may suspect I’m a Quadriweave. I exploded Crede’s tornado, and Daymon was watching.”

  “What about Crede? Or the others? Would they know?”

  “I wouldn’t give them credit for being that smart.”

  “But would Daymon tell the professors?”

  “Possibly.” Alayne was troubled. “I’m not ready to take that chance, and I can’t guarantee that Daymon won’t tell, but at least let’s try to keep it secret a while longer.”

 
; Marysa sighed. “Just be careful, Layne.”

  “Funny. You sound like Daymon.” Alayne went to retrieve her towel.

  “That is ironic,” Marysa said, rolling her eyes as she followed Alayne.

  * * *

  Alayne sat next to Marysa on the steps outside the spire, along with several other students who awaited various family members. Alayne had thought her parents would catch a shuttle to the school, but Marysa explained that several families were meeting in the nearby village of Grenton and then traveling to Clayborne via boat.

  Alayne was glad to wait in the fresh, cold air after the stuffiness of the dormitories. She kept her gaze on the bend in the river where the boat would be appearing. “Are your other brothers coming to visit you and Katrina and Bent?” she asked, naming Marysa’s sister and Fourth-Year brother.

  “I’m pretty sure they are. We always try to be together at Christmas, so the last several years, whoever was still home would always go to visit anyone at Clayborne.”

  Alayne felt a pang. She loved her parents, but part of her had always wished she had a brother or a sister. Since the High Court had offered incentives to families that had only one child in an effort to control population, not many families had more than one anymore. Even though Marysa’s parents hadn’t received any rewards from the government for keeping their family small, the fun sibling rivalry that Marysa often mentioned sounded appealing to Alayne.

  At that moment, the boat edged around the bend. Alayne stood and shaded her eyes against the cold evening sun. She could just make out her mother and father standing along the edge, gazing toward the shoreline.

  She raised her hand and waved furiously. Wynn waved back. Alayne could see Bryan’s grin, even from this far away.

  As soon as the boat docked and the passengers disembarked, Alayne ran down the path to the water’s edge. “Mom, Dad, I missed you!” She launched herself into her father’s arms. As she pulled back, her dad thumbed away moisture from his eyes.

  “We missed you too, Bug.”