Something flared and then abruptly died in the Dean’s eyes. “I apologise, Your Magnificence,” he muttered.
“Very well,” replied the Arch-Mage evenly. “Lord Corrigan, if you would be so kind as to come with me to the Dean’s office and we can reach some kind of solution for what to do with the Palladium now that the vampires have decided to dump it back with us after all. We appreciate your continued support in this matter.” His eyes flicked to me for a moment. “I believe you can let Initiate Smith go.”
“I will just have a few words with her first,” drawled Corrigan from behind me. “Then I shall be happy to join you.”
The Arch-Mage nodded in acknowledgement, then jerked his head at the rest of the mages. As one, they all hiked up their robes and scuttled off towards the main doors, quickly disappearing inside with just a few picking up the unconscious body of Thomas
and a couple of others helping the Dean to his feet then walking him inside, shoulder to shoulder. Slocombe stared hard down at the Palladium, then blinked several times until it began to rise in the air, and float its own way forward. Clearly he had decided that touching it with his bare skin would not be a particularly good idea. I didn’t blame him. The Arch-Mage followed them all in at the rear.
When the heavy doors thudded shut behind him, Corrigan finally let me go. I turned to face him.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
He raised his eyebrows at me. “The Arch-Mage needed a bit of help. The vampires were threatening to return the statue that you’d so stupidly swapped, and he thought that I might be able to exert some influence upon them and help rid them of the wraith problem at the same time.”
I spluttered. “That I’d so stupidly swapped? You should get your facts right. All I did was give them what they’d wanted in the first place. I took back a completely different statue and gave it to the sodding Arch-Mage so that he wouldn’t have a mutiny on his hands within the Council.
Corrigan’s green eyes held mine. “And that worked out so well, didn’t it?” he murmured.
“Fuck off,” I said. “I’m not responsible for other people’s actions.”
“And yet
somehow you remain at the root of them. I swear, kitten, sometimes you are more trouble than you’re worth.”
That stung. I growled at him, and then turned on my heel, leaving him standing alone on the driveway. Bloody shifter.
*
Still cursing him after I’d stomped theatrically inside, I made my way to the infirmary to check on Thomas.
He was lying down on a small bed, moaning softly as I craned my neck around the door. Another mage was bent over him, murmuring something calmly to him. She turned when she sensed my eyes watching her, and shot me a look of malevolence, so I hastily left her to it. At least Thomas seemed to be coming round and the Dean’s cold-blooded shot of magic hadn’t done him any apparent lasting damage.
I stalked down the corridor, anxious energy balled up inside me. I was sorely tempted to head straight to the Dean’s office and confront the Arch-Mage, and force him to acknowledge that the extenuating circumstances of three undead vampires on the academy’s grounds meant that Thomas couldn’t be held responsible for his actions. Instin
ctively, I knew that I probably wouldn’t help matters at this point. Besides, I didn’t think I’d be able to face Corrigan again and keep hold of my temper if he continued to insist that all this was somehow my fault. I was at a loss to know what else I could have done given the situation that Alex had confronted me with.
Curling my fingers into my fists, and gritting my teeth, I had no idea what to do next. Until some decision was made regarding the Palladium, the Dean and Thomas, I was in limbo. I needed something to keep me occupied or I’d go insane. I considered for a moment heading to the library to see if some reading could take my mind off everything that had just happened, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to concentrate enough on even the most interesting book with my thoughts as turbulent as they currently were.
I was three steps past the laundry room when I stopped abruptly in my tracks, breathing a sigh of brief relief. I could sort out the situation with Deborah’s skirt. That would keep me occupied for at least a whole ten minutes. I wheeled round and entered, noting for a pleased moment that the scrap of fabric still hung from the clothes horse where I’d left it to dry earlier that morning. I strode over and picked up, smoothing it out. Excellent.
Unsure of where Brock would be, but figuring reasonably that the vampires’ sudden appearance would have had all the students placed under lockdown, I headed up for the dorm rooms, turning left instead of my usual right. The majority of the doors were closed, but from helping the alcohol sodden teen return to his room a couple of weeks before, I had a pretty good idea which one was his. I stood outside it for a moment, then rapped loudly.
The murmur of voices floated out towards me, and I heard some shuffling as the occupants moved towards the door. It opened just a crack and half of Aqmar’s face appeared round, looking surprised when he caught sight of me.
“Baldilocks! Wow, good to see you! What on earth is going on? We were told
to stay in our rooms until further notice but we could see out the window that something was going down. Were those really vampires outside? Here?”
I deliberately ignored his questions. If the Dean wanted to tell the students what had gone on then that was up to him. It wasn’t my place to put the fear of God into them. “Yeah,” I said, as casually as I could, “you should probably stay in your rooms
or around the dorms for the time being. Um, listen Aqmar, is Brock there?”
He looked slightly put out and I could see the warring emotions on his face as he was torn between wanting to find out more about what had just happened, and wanting to do as I asked. Fortunately, he eventually opted for the latter, and opened the door completely. “He’s here,” he said finally, then called behind his shoulder, “Brock! Baldilo…, I mean Mack, wants to talk to you.”
There was a creak and a thud as Brock heaved himself off his bed and then padded his way to the doorway, peering out. “Hey, Mack. What’s up? Aren’t you going to tell us about what those vamps were doing here?”
“I have something for you,” I said, again ignoring the questions.
He looked puzzled. “What?”
I pulled my arm out from behind my back and held out Deborah’s now neatly folded and clean smelling mini skirt. “Here. It’s Deborah’s. If you want to get in her good books, then all you have to do is give it to her. Make something up about finding it in a corner of the laundry room. She’ll be grateful and you’ll have an opportunity to ask her out at the same time.”
Brock stared down at it. “I wondered whether you were going to come clean about that or not.”
I started guiltily. I’d been hoping that up till now he’d not remembered that I’d been wearing it when I’d come across him staggering his way home.
“Well,” I said, pushing it at him, “now I am coming clean. And the skirt’s clean too. So if you give it to her, then you’ll be able to show her how thoughtful and caring you are.”
He took it from me, blinking rapidly. “I don’t know, Mack.
Maybe you should just give it to her.”
I frowned at him. “No. This is your chance, Brock. Show her what a good guy you are. Go and find her now, she’s probably in her dorm, and you can return it to her. Then, I don’t know, you can suggest that she celebrates by putting it on and going out with you for a drink. Not now, of course,” I said hastily, “later when everything else has died down.”
He licked his lips nervously. “I can try, but…”
I gave him a stern look. “There is no try.” Oh my God, did I just say that? Luckily Brock was either too polite, too young or too nervous about what I was suggesting to pull me up on it.
“Okay, Mack.” He stroked the fabric lightly and squared his shoulders. “Yes, I can do this.”
I beamed at him. At least I was managing to get something right today. I reached out and smoothed his hair down, then straightened his robes and pulled him out from the threshold of his room. Then I gave him a gentle push down the corridor. “You’ll be fine. Do it now before you lose your nerve.”
He nodded to himself. “Okay. Yes. I’ll just tell her that I found it now.”
He continued on muttering away to himself as he slowly walked towards where the girls’ dorms were situated. I looked over at Aqmar, who was watching me with a grin on his face and winked at him then held up my hand.
“Fingers crossed.”
He mirrored my gesture, then reached out and high-fived me. “I have every faith in the boy,” he stated solemnly. “He will do us proud.”
I gave him a mock salute, and then left.
I was just leaving the dorm room area, when Alex bounded up to me.
“Mack Attack! Dude, I was just looking for you, where have you been?”
I chose not to answer that. I didn’t think that Alex would care all that much about the love lives of my fellow students at this particular point in time.
“Um, just wandering around,” I demurred.
“What’s up?”
“The Arch-Mage wants to see you right away. I think he and Lord Shifty have concocted up some kind of plan.” He shrugged. “It might work.”
“And Thomas? The Dean? What’s going to happen to them?”
Alex’s mouth twisted. “Thomas is being taken back to the Ministry headquarters. The Dean is still in charge for now, but I’m not sure how long that’s going to last.”
Heat sparked up inside me. “They can’t blame Thomas for what he did. He was just standing up for me.”
“Yeah, I think they get that. I reckon they’ll go easy on him. But his career as a teacher is probably over.”
Damnit. Something else I had to feel guilty about. “Okay. Where’s the Arch-Mage?”
“In the Dean’s office. You should head there straightaway.”
I peered at him. “And you? What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving right now. I don’t really have time to explain because I need to shoot off. The Arch-Mage will tell you.” He leaned over and gave me a peck on the cheek then turned round and darted off.
I watched him go for a moment, then slowly walked over to the office. The staircase and corridors were conspicuously empty. I wondered if all the other mages were now in hiding, hoping to avoid the fallout from what had transpired outside. My thoughts tripped over one another as I tried to think of something that I could do to help Thomas’ situation. I’d fall on my sword in a heartbeat if it didn’t mean damning Mrs. Alcoon at the same time. Fuckity fuck fuck.
When I reached the door to the Dean’s little room, I paused for a second, then took a deep breath, and knocked on it. Squirming tension was fluttering away inside me. A voice from inside called out for me to enter
, so I twisted the doorknob and walked in.
Both Corrigan and
the Arch-Mage were seated on a small striped sofa to the side of the Dean’s desk. Fortunately, of the Dean himself, there was no sign. The Arch-Mage gestured to me to sit down on the chair opposite them.
“So,” he said finally, after I’d seated myself and was gazing expectantly over at them, “as much as we want to keep the circle of people who are involved in this as small as possible, it appears that you are inextricably linked to the fate of the Palladium. This would be a lot easier if you and Mage Florides had come to me in the first place.”
Somehow I doubted that, but I kept my thoughts to myself and stayed silent.
“Mage Florides has left already. He is going to continue to track down the whereabouts of the wraith’s original body. Once those have been located then we can easily rid ourselves of it.”
I cleared my throat. Both Corrigan and the Arch-Mage stared at me.
“What?”
“We’ve already established that the Palladium has no powers,” I said carefully. “It’s the Ancile that ‘s the worrying object. So why don’t we just give the Palladium back to Tryyl and be done with it.”
Corrigan smirked. “That’s the plan. You and I are going to travel to the place where your mage friend found the thing in the first place. We’ll leave it there and let the wraith retrieve it.”
Oh joy. More alone time with the Lord Alpha. I ignored the little trip and flutter of bloodfire inside me.
The Arch-Mage leaned forward. “Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean that Tryyl won’t still come after us for having had it in our possession in the first place. That’s why Mage Florides is still going to try to find his bones.”
“I thought he tried that already and couldn’t manage it.”
The Arch-Mage lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “There are a few things he can try yet. He’s rather talented at Divination, as you know.”
“And we’d expect that the wraith’s largest bone of contention is with the vampires anyway,” added in Corrigan. “If he’s going to take revenge out on anyone, it stands to reason that he’d go there first.”
I wasn’t convinced that a shadowy creature of death really had that many powers of logic and reasoning, but I wisely kept my mouth shut. I shrugged and looked at them both. “Okay then. Let’s do it.”