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  Alayne wrapped her arms around her mother, closing her eyes against the worry-lines that had deepened even over the short course of the semester. Wynn hugged her tightly, and she seemed reluctant to let go. After a moment, Alayne pulled back. “Mom, it’s good to see you.”

  Wynn glanced up at the tower stretching into the heavens above them. “You look at home here, Alayne. Nothing’s ... upset you, has it?”

  “Wynn!” Bryan’s voice cut in quickly.

  Alayne raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing. Your mother has been worried, that’s all.” Bryan rested a heavy hand on his wife’s shoulder. “You’ll have to give us the tour,” he said in an obvious effort to change the subject. “You look older, Bug. You haven’t been away from us that long. How’d you grow up so quickly?”

  Alayne shrugged shyly. “Learned lots, I guess.”

  Marysa, who had been greeting her family nearby, danced over. “Hi, Mr. Worth! Hi, Mrs. Worth! I’m Marysa.” She held out her hand, shaking each of theirs as they turned to face her. “I’m excited to finally meet you. I mean, I saw you at the assessment, but I never officially introduced myself. Welcome to Clayborne! Layne tells me you’re not Elementals so you haven’t attended here yourselves. Is this your first time visiting?” While they nodded their heads in the affirmative she plowed on. “Oh, I know you’ll love it. Alayne’s told me she wants to give you guys a tour, and all the professors are still around for the break, so you’ll get to meet them at the feast this evening. And we’ve got loads to show you about everything we’re learning, don’t we, Layne?” As she talked, she led both families up the walkway toward the front steps of the spire and through the entrance doors, barely pausing for breath.

  Alayne sent her dad an exasperated smile. He winked solemnly in return.

  “Watch out for the chute,” Marysa was saying. “If you’re not expecting it, it can make you pretty sick.” They waited in line behind a few other families, and then the Worths and the Blakelys crowded into the chute. Marysa pressed the button for the dormitories, and the group shot up, stopping at the common room where the doors slid open.

  Bryan and Wynn entered the common room, turning their faces to the towering ceiling above, the trees that lined the room, the massive fireplaces against the walls, the floor-to-ceiling windows at the far end. Awe and something else lined their expressions, and Alayne frowned as she struggled to understand them. After a moment, she gave up. “Want to come see my room? I have to go get ready for the feast anyway.”

  Marysa’s family opted to stay in the common room, so it was just the three of them that headed to the stairs.

  Alayne apologized as they walked up the first flight of stairs. “Sorry there’s no chute to the bedrooms. We’re up on the eighteenth floor, and it’s a hike.”

  “I’m sure we can use the exercise,” Wynn replied, already puffing a little. They slowly made their way up the eighteen flights, and by the end, both of Alayne’s parents were breathing hard.

  Bryan wiped a trickle of sweat off his forehead. “Maybe I should talk to the Chairman to see if they could install another chute.”

  Alayne grinned. “No such luck, Dad. I’m told that the stairs build character. In which case, the First-Years have the most character out of anyone this year—we’ve been climbing more stairs than anyone all semester long.” She led them down the hallway to the bedroom she shared with Marysa.

  “This is it.” She turned the doorknob and flung open the door. She stopped, aghast.

  Bryan and Wynn crowded either side of her. “Oh, honey,” Wynn breathed. “Who would have done this?”

  The room was demolished. Both beds were ripped to shreds, mattress stuffing trailing out onto the floor. Blankets, sheets, curtains were torn to pieces. All Alayne's textbooks for class were strewn about the floor, pages pulled from their bindings and crumpled.

  Anger throbbed through Alayne; she wanted to smash something. She strode across the room and jerked open her closet door. Her clothes had been yanked off hangers, and someone had taken a pair of scissors to them, cutting them to ribbons. Her suitcase inside the closet had several large holes punched in the top of it. The mirror that Marysa had given Alayne that morning leaned against the opposite wall, and broken shards of reflective glass were scattered beneath it.

  Tears of fury filled her eyes. She swiped angrily at them and shut the door, turning to face her parents who stood in shock in the hallway. “That's just mean! Who would do this?” Immediately, a mental image of Crede, Ryck, and Jonathyn's faces that afternoon floated through her thoughts.

  “We need to report this, honey.” Bryan stepped farther into the room, glancing around. “And then—”

  “And then we're taking you right home with us.” Wynn's fingers trembled as she moved to Alayne's bed and gripped one of the bedposts. “I'm not letting anyone near you ever again.” Her wide green eyes rested on nothing; they flitted from the door to the window to the closet to the floor to the ceiling and back again.

  “Wynn, calm down, we can decide—”

  “No, Bryan, it was a stretch in the first place, thinking she could go off by herself with no protection—”

  “She’s not by herself, Wynn—”

  “And yet, this happens.” Wynn plopped onto what was left of the mattress and buried her face in her hands.

  Alayne glanced back and forth between her parents as though watching a ping-pong match. Panic lit her insides. If she went home, she’d never be allowed outside her house again. She would live in a prison of her mother’s making. Taking a deep breath, she chose the more sympathetic parent. “But ... Dad, I can’t go home. I’ve just started my education.”

  Bryan ran both hands through the long strands of blond hair that hung to his shoulders. “I know, Layne, but this,” he motioned around the room, “this isn’t just being mean. Someone who would do this wouldn’t stop at hurting you.”

  Alayne’s jaw cramped. She had to pry it open to let her words out. “I feel safe here,” she lied. She would never tell them about the pool attack; they would flip. “I can take care of myself.”

  “That’s enough, Layne,” Wynn snapped. “I don’t want to hear anymore arguments. We are not leaving you here by yourself, not after this.” She stood. “It won’t do any good to beg your father. As soon as we can make the arrangements, we’re taking you home.”

  Alayne whirled and ran from the room. She hated her mother. Hated her.

  Chapter 16

  Stilted silence followed Alayne as she and her parents descended the stairs to the common room and then crowded onto the chute to the commissary. Bryan had reported the incident and had soothed Wynn; when Alayne met them to go to the feast, her mother had at least not mentioned going home again.

  Of course, once the Worths met the Blakelys in the commissary, and Alayne told Marysa what had happened, her friend rushed off with her father and two of her brothers to see the room. She came back, fury flushing her cheeks, her fingers clenched into fists as she plopped down on the bench.

  “Of all the nerve!” she raged. “Who would have done such a thing to us?” For several minutes, no one could interject another word as Marysa postulated various theories about who would have done this. One of Marysa’s brothers, Findley, snapped a turkey leg in half with an impish grin. “Want me to find the creep right now and beat the brains out of him?” He winked at Alayne.

  “Yes,” Marysa cheerfully chimed in.

  “No,” Alayne shook her head. “We need to find proof. I have suspicions, but I want to make sure first.”

  “Come on, Layne,” Marysa argued. “We know who it was.”

  Bryan nudged Alayne from her left. “Here comes Professor Sprynge now.”

  Alayne glanced over her shoulder at the approaching professor. He had been the one to take Bryan’s report and visit the dormitory room. His face looked grave as he crossed the huge room toward them.

  He shook his head as he arrived at the table, sliding onto
a bench near the end of the group. “First of all, Alayne and Marysa, I’m terribly sorry that this happened. I’ve already spoken with the hall monitors, and none of them has admitted seeing anything out of the ordinary. It did apparently happen during the afternoon when most students and monitors were elsewhere, so it’s not likely that the monitor for your hall would have seen anything. But we’ve asked them to be more careful in the future about who comes onto the floor, and to keep track of any visitors at all times.”

  “So that’s it, then?” Wynn’s voice was sharp. “My daughter’s life is threatened, and you say that you’ll ask the monitors to be more careful?”

  Professor Sprynge took the glasses off their perch on his nose and wiped them vigorously with a handkerchief. “Ma’am, this is a difficult situation, and we won’t rest until we get to the bottom of it. But you can be sure that we’ll take extra precautions to be sure your daughter stays safe on our campus.” He turned to the girls. “Alayne and Marysa, if either of you notice anything at all unnatural or suspicious from here on out, come to my office immediately. Do you understand? Or if it’s the middle of the night, my quarters are the next floor above my classroom. Anytime. I mean it.” He stood and smiled grimly before leaving the table.

  Alayne glanced at Marysa, who still looked outraged, and then busied herself with her food while their families talked around them.

  “Stays safe indeed,” Wynn scoffed. “As if we’d allow her to stay here after what happened to her room.”

  Marysa’s family fell silent as the words left Wynn’s lips. All their gazes came to rest on Alayne. Alayne tossed her napkin onto the table in frustration. “But Mom, I have to stay. I can’t just quit; I haven’t learned everything I need to learn to even get a job as an Elemental. It’s my first year! I don’t want to go home.”

  “Alayne, it’s just not a good idea.”

  “Wynn.” Bryan’s voice cut off Wynn’s almost before she’d finished her sentence. Wynn fell into reluctant silence.

  Alayne jumped at her chance. “Dad? Do I have to go home?”

  “We’ll talk about it. Later. Let’s just finish the meal first, then we’ll need to go help clean up your room.”

  As Alayne bent over her plate, one thought jumped into her mind. If someone had so ruthlessly torn into her room, they were likely looking for something. She had nothing to hide, of course, except the fact that she was a Quadriweave.

  Her book. If they found her book, they would know.

  She gulped down the roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, sage stuffing, rolls, and sweet potato casserole, not tasting any of it. All she wanted to do was finish the meal so she could get to the room and see if her book was still there.

  Bryan sensed her hurry. “Don’t rush, Layne. We’ll go check it out in a few minutes.”

  Alayne nodded, slowing her pace a bit.

  As soon as Bryan put the last spoonful in his mouth, Alayne turned on the bench and stood. “I’ll catch up with the rest of you later. Mom, you’ll be okay?”

  Wynn’s shadowed eyes darkened, but she nodded. “Of course, Layne. Stay with your father. I’ll come with Marysa’s family in a little while.”

  Alayne grabbed Bryan’s hand and dragged him toward the chute.

  “What’s the rush, Bug?” Bryan asked as they shot upward toward the common room.

  The doors slid open, and Alayne marched through. “I just want to make sure everything’s there.”

  They climbed the eighteen floors and jogged down the hallway toward her room. As they neared the bedroom, Alayne grabbed a broom from a hall closet. “Here.” She handed the broom to her father. “Have a ball.”

  A corner of Bryan's mouth lifted. He took the broom and started in the back corner. Alayne opened her closet door and picked up glass from the mirror, dropping the pieces into a box. Her father's back was to her as he swept. Alayne quickly reached behind her bed next to the wall. She felt around, her fingers closing over the small, wooden chest. Glancing over her shoulder, she pulled the box out and snapped it open.

  Empty.

  It was gone. She drew in a deep breath and shut the box, sliding it back behind her bed. Well, now they know. She just wished she knew who “they” were.

  * * *

  Alayne spent the rest of the week trying to convince her parents to let her continue at the school. Wynn was set against it. Bryan didn’t like the idea, but every time Alayne blinked back the moisture that fogged her vision, he would rub her back and tell her they would discuss it later.

  Finally, on the night before their departure, Alayne sat between her parents on a couch in the common room. Wynn took a deep breath and dove in. “Alayne, we’ve decided we’ll let you stay on one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “We’ve talked with Professor Manders. We want you to let him know before you go anywhere or do anything. Just as a sort of check-in.”

  Alayne’s mouth dropped open. “But Mom, he’ll be so annoyed!”

  Wynn held up her hand. “No buts. We want you to be safe more than anything, and we’re this close to bringing you home. This is the only way we’ll let you stay.”

  Alayne glanced at Bryan, but saw from his expression that she wouldn’t be able to talk either of them out of the condition.

  “Fine.” She settled back in the couch. “But when Manders calls you and tells you he’s sending me home because he can’t stand the minute-by-minute updates, it won’t be my fault.”

  Bryan grinned. “We’ll risk it.” Only half-joking, he added, “Better to annoy a dusty history professor than to have something happen to our favorite daughter.”

  Alayne nodded. She understood her parents’ fear, even felt it herself, but she kept her face carefully expressionless. She didn’t want to set her mother off again. Wynn’s pale face remained lined with tension.

  * * *

  Classes started at the beginning of the spring semester, and Jayme wasn’t back. Teachers gave no word of the fieldtrip group, and Alayne tried to comfort herself with the fact that no one had nailed down a specific return date. Maybe they were doing something really productive that took up an inordinate amount of time.

  Nevertheless, Alayne worried. Marysa worried. The entire student body worried, but no one said much, each preferring to hope that the professors were simply choosing not to tell them anything. The pall of the Shadow-Casters hung over the school. Whispers decked the corridors and classrooms, but no one dared to make an outright statement. After Points of Motion-Stop class one day, Alayne finally approached Professor Sprynge and asked him when the Chairman planned to return with the other students.

  Sprynge smiled reassuringly and squeezed Alayne’s shoulder. “Dorner has been in communication with me, Alayne. No worries, now.”

  The answer didn’t satisfy Alayne. She felt as if she stood in the dark; she should have heard something.

  Alayne trudged wearily to Manders’ office ten minutes before her first history class of the semester, an extra credit assignment in her hand. Near the beginning of the year, Manders had posted a list of various assignments students could choose for extra credit, and Alayne had researched the Elemental genealogies back to the Great Deluge and created a family tree for thirty noted Elemental families. It wasn’t due for two more months, but Alayne had finished early.

  She tucked the folder tightly under her arm and walked down the hallway toward Manders’ office door. Raising her arm to knock on the wood panel, she paused. An intense argument leaked through the thin door. Manders’ shout shook the wood.

  “What do you mean, Daymon? You are tasked with this. There is no going back. I told you time and time again to straighten up and get serious, but no, you wasted all semester piddling around, spreading rumors that you were into Shadow-Casting, picking on others, being an all-around jerk. You wallowed in self-pity because, poor you, you’re stuck in this tradition. Did you ever think about the rest of us? We all have a responsibility, Daymon. We cannot shirk our duty, not even for a min
ute, or it will cost our lives. You have to pull your own weight.”

  Daymon spoke softly. “I thought you’d be happy that I found its location—”

  “After your attitude for the last couple of years? You’ve walked around at home—and here, too—with a massive chip on your shoulder because you buried yourself in bitterness. Now you expect me to be proud of you for pin-pointing the thing? You’ve made your own bed; now you can sleep in it. You don’t like her? So what? You’re still responsible. If it bothers you so much, don’t even acknowledge her. But you still have to do your job, or we all die. All of us.”

  Alayne’s eyes widened. What—in CommonEarth?

  “Listen, Uncle.” Daymon’s voice sounded strangled, like he couldn’t quite spit out what he wanted to say. “I can’t really explain it, but it’s—it’s like a pull. I can’t go against it, I can’t even fight it. I—I dream about it every night, and when I try to turn away, it’s like a force outside myself that always pulls me back around.” He paused. “I didn’t really pin-point it, I said. I couldn’t tell you exactly where it is, just that it’s connected with her.”

  Manders sighed heavily. “Daymon, I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t care that you don’t like her; you’re going to have to get comfortable with her, because she is your responsibility, especially now that you know.” Alayne heard a drawer shut. “Yes, I know, she’s my responsibility, too, and I intend to do my duty. But you’re the one I’m worried about. Do not, and I repeat, do not bring shame on our family, Daymon. Besides the obvious fact that it would be a disgrace, you would also have to suffer pain of death as a result. I love you, but I swear I will get your mother’s ghost to haunt you if you make one false step.”

  Silence fell until Daymon’s voice came in a whisper. “Yes, sir.”

  “Now get going. I’ve got class to teach, and you’d better be in it.”

  Alayne lurched into movement. She shot down the hallway and ducked into a closet, closing the door as she heard Manders’ door swing open. Through the crack she’d left, she watched Daymon exit Manders’ office, his hands shoved in his jeans pockets, his dark head bent as he trudged down the hallway. Manders followed, shutting and locking his office door as he went. Alayne waited until they had left the hallway before stepping out of the closet, her mind already tearing apart the conversation she’d just heard.