Hungry Earth (Elemental Book 2) (7 page)

“You can’t tell the council anything,” Langril said.

“I just told them there wasn’t a cause of death.”

“Logan has already figured it out.”

“He’s not my enemy,” Dr. Martin said.

Professor Langril sighed. “Don’t say anything more
about it or they will get you, too. We have to find the key or there will be a
lot more deaths. Logan and Vincent already know about it because Ghost got
Heather’s letter.”

“Not from Heather.”

“No, of course not. Heather was far too careful.
Devon got it, but he couldn’t understand it.”

“Why do you think Logan made you Devon’s mentor?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve been thinking
of bringing Devon in on this, but Logan must know that, and he would want Devon
on his side. The only thing I can think of is that Logan plans to have Devon
spy on me.”

“I can see that.”

“But he wouldn’t risk Devon finding the key unless he
had Devon on his side. Thank god Devon has John’s power and not Vincent’s.”

“I disagree there. The only thing that stopped
Vincent and John from destroying everything was that they hated each other.
Devon has John’s power. If he joined Vincent, they would crush anything that
got in their way. If they found the last key, yours wouldn’t even matter.”

“You’re right. We have to make Devon join with us.”

“How? Heather was the personable one. I think
everyone is in agreement that you’re insane.”

“I’ll figure something out.”

Langril went to the dark corner of the room and
vanished. Mr. Martin sighed and pulled a book off of his desk to read.

Ghost was gone, so I shut the flimsy metal shutter
and made my way out. When I got back to the door, I pressed against it and released,
since it opened inward. The door popped open, so I pulled it back and stepped
into the brightly lit hall. It closed behind me. I didn’t encounter any
problems on the way back to my room.

*          *          *

I knew I was dreaming, for nothing else could explain
why I was standing in the library with Heather. She wore the same jean shorts
and blue blouse as she had when she died, only the shirt was closed. It was
also covered in blood.

“Why the library?” I asked.

“Why not? I like the library. This is the library where
you found me. Do you know what book I was looking at?”

“No.”

“You should find out.”

*          *          *

I woke fast, but calmly. Since it was only a few
minutes before the Circle-Five students started knocking on doors, I got up and
headed for my shower. When I arrived at the
Laws of Magic
classroom,
Alpha Flagstone was nowhere to be seen. I asked a student who had Remy’s class
right before and was told that they were chatting.

The shifter was a few minutes late and obviously
distracted when he did arrive. Personally, I thought the relationship was good
for him. The shifter, while fair, was very strict and unforgiving. It was
understandable when he was in charge of handling all of the pack shifters, but
probably not great for his health. Remy, on the other hand, seemed to like
arguing. How the two made it work, I didn’t know, but it was apparent that they
did.

“Today, we’re going to talk about the Law of Names,”
he said.

“Didn’t we cover that last year?” I asked.

“Well, we will cover it again. A lot of you didn’t do
well on the questions pertaining to this law on your final exam. Knowing the
complete and true name of an object, being or process gives you complete
control over it.”

“By object, you mean I can control my cell phone if I
know it’s an iPhone?” one of the students asked.

“No. That would be silly. We are going to talk about
living and nonliving creatures first.”

“Nonliving. Like necromancy?” I asked.

“For example, yes. There are also golems, elementals,
and the like. The Law of Names works because a name is a definition as well as
a contagion link. There is a lot of history behind this law and some of you
already knew something about it before we discussed it the first time. In many
of the older cultures, a mother would whisper her child’s true name to the
infant on the day he or she is born, and then give the child a false name for
everyone else to use.”

“How was the child supposed to know his true name?”

“He wasn’t. Most humans who know anything about
wizards are hesitant to give out their real name or full name.”

“Can wizards control shifters with the shifter’s real
name?”

“If they are powerful enough.”

“Has anyone tried to control you? Do you have a
secret name?”

“I do have a secret name, which only two people know.
And yes; a wizard did once try to control me. Two have, actually, but neither
had my name.”

“What happened?”

“One of them was moderately successful, and the other
one has a scar after he had to reattach his hand.” I figured the wizard he was
referring to who had been successful was John.

We spent the rest of the class discussing this law.
As usual, Alpha Flagstone was able to keep it interesting by quoting events and
cultures from memory. He wasn’t a wizard, but he knew his history very well.

At one point during class, he paused mid-sentence and
looked at me. There was an acknowledgement in his eyes as if he was listening
to something. After a few seconds, he turned away and continued his discussion.

“Alpha Flagstone, can we continue this Friday?” one
student asked. Everyone simultaneously checked their watches and realized it
was past time to leave.

“Yes, we’ll talk more about non-living creatures.
Everyone can go. Mr. Sanders, the headmaster needs to see you when you’re done
with your classes.”

When the class cleared out, I stayed put until we
were alone. “Are you able to hear Hunt in your mind?” I asked.
If Hunt has
the ability to communicate between people, maybe I can get some pointers.
I
had learned naturally and early in life to communicate with animals through
emotions and images. Remy was the first person I had used my powers on, and
only she and Darwin knew how to speak back. Of course, Darwin was a genius, so
I wasn’t surprised. Remy had only managed to communicate a couple of words.

“It is not something he can teach you,” Flagstone
said, obviously understanding why I was asking. He flicked his hand at the door
and it slammed closed.

I gaped. “I thought you weren’t a wizard!” His expression
was calm, but guarded. It didn’t escape my notice at all that I was in a room
alone with the strongest wolf shifter in the school. Fortunately, my warning
instinct didn’t go off.

“I’m not. I have no magical talent of my own except
for my ability to shift between my two forms. That night in the courtyard, when
you tried to see what John Cross did, you saw something else in my mind. What
did you see?”

I considered telling him I didn’t see anything, but I
figured he wouldn’t believe me.

“I can smell lies,” he said.

“I saw that you and your wolf are extremely dominant.
I can’t imagine how you and Remy get along. I also saw that you hate wizards.”

“I hate magic, not wizards.”

“You hate wizards,” I said. He growled, not used to
anyone arguing with him. “I think Hunt and Remy are the only real exceptions.
Between John Cross and what I’ve seen so far of the council, I can’t really
blame you. I know something happened between you and Hunt, but I’m not sure
what.”

“Good. There are many things in this world that you
are better off not knowing. There are also many people who will kill to protect
their secrets. Henry knows this, and you and Darwin need to learn it quickly.”

I nodded. “I respect my friends’ privacy.” I left
before he felt the need to make any more threats.

I was a couple of minutes late for
History of
Asian Magic
, but Tanaka-sensei was in the middle of a conversation with
Zhang Wei and another student, so nobody minded. She told us about some of the
differences between traditional witchcraft in Asia and in North America.

One thing I found interesting was how a witch here
was expected to have a cat, while a man would have a dog. In Japan, traditional
familiars were snakes or foxes.

In Professor Nightshade’s class, I had learned about
witchcraft as a religion versus what we used in the paranormal community, but
we didn’t get into familiars, because she said we would have a class on them.
While there were classes here based on traditional witchcraft, much of what we
focused on geared away from religion.

In
Elemental Configuration
, Professor Watson
went over the syllabus since it was snowing and nobody wanted to battle in the
snow. After my morning classes, I tried to go to the library, but I couldn’t
find it. When I ended up in a hallway with a glass floor, I gave up and headed
to Kale’s class.

Kale spoke about how humans treated witches and
wizards. He shared some of the details of the
Malleus Maleficarum
by
Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger until every student’s expression ranged from
sickened to horrified.

Henry and Darwin were both staring at my watch for
the last ten minutes of class. As soon as Kale dismissed us, Henry left to
attend a night class with Flagstone and Darwin said he had to be anywhere Kale
wasn’t.

Knowing whatever word Hunt wanted to have with me
couldn’t be good, I took my dear sweet time packing my stuff, then meandered
slowly down the halls and stopped at every painting to ponder for as long as I
could manage.

A vampire stopped beside me in the nearly empty
hallway and followed my eyes to the painting. As it was a painting of a window,
I understood his confusion. “Do you think it is sunset or sunrise?” I asked
when the silence grew awkward.

“I like to think it’s subjective. A sun sprite would
hope it is sunrise, whereas a vampire would hope it is sunset. I think the
painting is ambiguous to please as many people as possible.”

I nodded thoughtfully and we both continued in
opposite directions. It wasn’t every day I had a random conversation with a
vampire stranger who apparently appreciated the weird art of Quintessence.

I was heading to Hunt’s office when I passed Alpha
Flagstone’s class. Since the door was wide open, I easily heard the commotion
and I peered in. There were no desks; a dozen students formed a circle around a
wolf and a hyena. The two carnivores weren’t attacking so much as having a
staring contest. I recognized the black wolf as the alpha. He gave the
slightest hint of a nod an instant before the hyena shifted to a small man with
hair that matched his hyena fur. Flagstone also shifted back.

“Very good,” he told the hyena shifter, who sat on
the floor and panted. “You have improved tremendously since last semester. You
still felt trapped, though.”

“The open door helped, but I felt like I was being
herded with everyone around me.”

“Many hyenas are pack hunters. You need to see
friends instead of enemies. Devon, if you have a question, come in.”

Everyone turned to look at me, including Henry, who I
hadn’t noticed until then. “No, I was just being nosy. Sorry.”

“Join us,” he insisted. “We can use you to extend on
the lesson.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, but I entered the
room anyway. He gestured to the center of the circle. I trusted my instincts to
warn me of any impending trouble, so I did as he asked. Flagstone made a hand
signal and six of the students stripped and shifted into wolves. Henry and the
remaining four students collectively stepped back.

“You, too, Brian,” Flagstone said. The hyena
hesitated before reluctantly shifting into his hyena form. “Okay, Devon. Say
you were randomly wandering the woods at night and you ran into a wolf pack…
who had also adopted a hyena. What would you do?”

“Well, first off, I would gawk, because I never imagined
a hyena and wolf would get along. Then I would be more worried about facing the
hyena.”

“You should be most worried about the fact that you
are outnumbered.” He made another gesture and the shifters started closing in.

As their advance became serious, my sense of danger
fired up. Oddly enough, my first instinct wasn’t to calm them with my mind, as
it had always been when I faced a feral creature. Of course, these were fellow
students. One of the wolves growled at me and it took a second to remember her
name. “Kaila, back off.” I didn’t yell, but I refused to feel any fear.

If they were actual wild animals, I would have just
used my magic. Instead, these were wolves with human subconscious minds, which
could be reasoned with. The female shifter, surprised at hearing me address her
so easily, hesitated.
I have to respect that they are people, even if they
attack as animals, or I would be no better than John.

The hyena made the chilling laugh that they were
known for. I knew without reaching into his mind or even having much prior
knowledge of hyenas that this was not a friendly gesture. “Brian,” I said in a
warning tone.

He froze, his tail flicked, and he stopped making his
sound.

“Yes, I’m talking to you.” Another wolf prepared to
attack, but I didn’t know his name. I reached out for his mind. Even though he
was directly in front of me, I couldn’t differentiate his mind from the others
around me without having encountered them before. I recognized Henry’s and
Flagstone’s minds, so I left those alone. For the rest of my opponents, I sent
a minuscule amount of fear; just enough to make them hesitate in attacking me.
As quickly as I took control of their minds, I let it go.

I knew some would react badly to fear, so I wasn’t
surprised when one of the larger wolves rushed forward to attack me. I was
startled when Henry got in front of me and growled at the wolf. The hyena was
just as fast, but instead of attacking me, he attacked the wolf that lunged at
me.