Shadow Grail #2: Conspiracies (24 page)

“Yeah. I guess,” Muirin replied.

“I need to go lay down,” Loch said, looking a little green. “They said I was going to feel sick and dizzy for a while and … I’m feeling sick and dizzy.” He got up and wobbled out, Burke going with him to give him an arm.

“Me, too,” Addie replied.

“Too sick for chocolate?” Muirin asked, looking oddly hopeful, then crestfallen when Addie nodded. “Spirit?”

Spirit had the oddest feeling that Muirin was … lonely. Maybe she was all BFF with Madison, but maybe that was just on the surface. “I’d rather just hang out with you,” she said. “’Cause right now, you know, I want to hang with a friend.”

Muirin lit up like a Christmas tree. She immediately tried to cover it, but not that successfully. “Let’s get Addie to her room then.”

The two of them helped Addie get into bed, and Spirit got her a glass of water and some pills she said were for pain. “I’ll be glad when this is healed tomorrow,” she said, as she tried without much result to find a position that didn’t hurt. They turned out her light and left her to try and sleep.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Muirin said as they headed for her room.

“Worth that much?
Schadenfreude,
” Spirit replied. “The kids from Radial. I know I should feel sorry for them, but
they
showed up and tried to spook our horses. They kind of got what they deserved. Well, not the one that died,” she amended, “but … you know.”

Muirin blinked at her. “Spirit White, I thought I knew you! You have a dark side!” She opened the door and waited for Spirit to go in.

“Everybody does,” Spirit said, shrugging. “I just don’t show mine that often. It’s still there. You just … I don’t know, you have to know it’s there, and not so much fight it, as … learn from it. About it. I guess. I sound like a moron, don’t I?”

“Nah,” Muirin replied. “Well, a little hippie-dippy with a side of Doc Mac, but that’s not
bad
.” She flipped on the light and, a moment later, placed a small gold box in Spirit’s hands with a triumphant flourish. Even closed, it smelled of chocolate.
I bet this didn’t come from Radial,
Spirit thought.

When she looked around the room, it was obvious Madison had been “helping” with the smuggling more than a little. There were new items of clothing in Muirin’s closet that stood out because they weren’t in Oakhurst colors. There was a stack of CDs next to the computer that hadn’t been there before, and Spirit had no doubt that if Muirin hadn’t been so careful about getting rid of the evidence, the little box of chocolate truffles would represent only the tip of the pyramid of junk food she’d been getting in. Briefly, for the millionth time, Spirit wondered how on earth Muirin managed to eat all that and still look good.

She started to pick up some papers off the bed, when she realized she was holding the picture of the runes on the oak … and a lot, a
lot
of notes.

“Aren’t these the oak-runes?” she exclaimed. “Did you finish the translation?”

“Oh, yeah,” Muirin replied dismissively. “But it doesn’t mean anything. I asked Anastus and Madison, and they said so. Anastus thinks it’s fake, like those Viking runes up in Minnesota.”

Spirit was horrified, but she grabbed her reaction with both hands and held it down so it wouldn’t show on her face. Muirin was finally acting like her old self for the first time in … well, since New Year’s Eve. “Muir—look, I know I sound like I’m beating the same dead horse, but this is the second time we’ve been physically attacked by people wearing Oakhurst class rings. And this time … people died. Me, Loch, and Addie were hurt. We know there’s someone on the opposition team here, and there’s the chance it’s the same at Breakthrough.” Then she decided to use a low blow. “Besides … Anastus? Isn’t it kind of creepy, an old guy like him hanging around you? Eww Lolita creepy? He could be saying that just to throw all of us off. Or even just to get you to concentrate on him, you know what I mean?”

Muirin started to protest, then grimaced a little. “Well … maybe it
is
kind of creepy…” A brief expression of guilt passed over her face, and she thrust the handful of paper at Spirit. “Here, you might as well have them. Anastus wanted them but … yeah, that’s creepy, why would he want something he said was worthless, unless it’s like some weird souvenir or something.”

Spirit took the papers. And though it required every bit of her willpower, she stayed in Muirin’s room right up until lights out, listening to her talk about fashion and the latest from her stepmother (who seemed to belong to the Boy Toy of the Month Club) as if there weren’t four dead kids in the county morgue, three of them people they knew. And it actually occurred to her, as Muirin nattered on about Vivienne Westwood, that
this
might be Muirin’s way of dealing with just that. To pretend it hadn’t happened, and hide it behind a wall of trivialities.

When she had to leave, it seemed to her that Muirin had been grateful for the company. Maybe it was harder to cope with all this when there was no one to chatter at.…

But right at the door of her room, a shadow detached itself from the wall. She gasped and started to scream—

—and stopped herself just in time. “Burke!” she whispered harshly. “What are you doing here? You’ll get in trouble!”

“I had to talk to you,” he whispered back. “Spirit, I—I don’t know anything anymore, except that you guys are my family now. I can’t bail on you again. Especially not you. You’re—I should have been there. I should have been with you to protect you. I know you aren’t a fighter—”

“No, I’m not,” she said, and then, felt something strange, like anger, but not like anger, ignite inside her. “I’m not. But I will be.”

He stared at her. Then slowly, a faint smile passed over his face. “I think you will. And I’ll help. Good night, Spirit.”

He faded into the darkness.

She slipped into her room.

As soon as she closed the door and got into bed, she began to go through Muirin’s notes. There were an awful lot of notes for something that was only a few runes long … but Muirin had been as meticulous in her research as she was with her design and sewing, hunting down alternate meanings, considering, then rejecting, things that eventually didn’t seem to match. Finally, near the end, Spirit read the conclusion Muirin had come to. It was written as if she were writing a letter, and Spirit wondered if Muirin had planned to give her the papers all along.

Okay. So this is the only thing it can be. And it’s right out of Lizzie’s goofy story, but nothing else matches. It kind of goes like this: “Interfering stranger (foreigner, you-who-would-meddle kind of thing) Beware! Touch not (do not disturb) the Sacred (or Shunned) Oak sealed (closed, locked up) by the Druid (priest, magician) Merlinus (whatever, dude). Herein is imprisoned (confined, enclosed, banished) the son of the Great Bear (it says Arturus), Medraut (that’s Mordred), Kin-slayer, Parricide, and Most Accursed. Turn your back, and flee.” Which, of course, is insane. Mordred wasn’t the one that was shut up in the oak, or the cave, or whatever—that was MERLIN, duh—and anyway, it’s all myth. Some farmer probably carved this into the oak figuring to make money off that old man, just like we thought.

Spirit stared at the words, because they were suddenly making horrible sense. QUERCUS and Elizabeth said the Shadow Knights were leaderless until Mordred was freed. And
when
had that happened? When the Oak got struck by lightning? No, that couldn’t be it—could it? If it had been recently, when Doctor Ambrosius started Oakhurst, then what had done it? Who had turned Mordred loose? She pondered those words:
“Stranger beware, touch not the shunned oak.”
Could someone have freed Mordred
after
the house was built? Maybe when it was lying empty and abandoned?

Crazy as it sounded, it all seemed to be adding up. Elizabeth’s story was true after all. They really were caught in a war between Mordred and Arthur, and it wouldn’t end until one or the other was truly gone, forever.

But … she couldn’t take this to the others. Not yet. Not until she had more proof.

*   *   *

Spirit woke up the next day with that odd feeling of determination burning. Maybe it was because she’d been so helpless out there during the attack; maybe it was because Burke had acted like she alone needed protecting when Addie and Loch had been just as helpless.

Whatever the reason, she waded into her martial arts and shooting classes with dogged persistence. If she didn’t have magic, well … there were always things that didn’t need magic.

And she decided to befriend Muirin all over again. All this time, she’d thought Muirin was the way she was because she really didn’t need any of them and was only hanging with them because she thought they were entertaining. Now Spirit was beginning to think it was because Muirin didn’t fit anywhere else. And maybe if Spirit started acting like a real friend …

Well, she’d see.

So at breakfast, before Muirin could start in on her usual snide stuff, Spirit asked her a question. “Hey Murr-cat. You’ve been here the longest of us, right?”

Muirin looked up from her fruit-laden oatmeal. “Huh. Yeah, why?”

“Was there a point when things started getting weird?” she asked.

“Like, weird like now, weird?” Muirin thought, then shook her head. “It’s always been that way.” She took a furtive look around to make sure there was no one within earshot, and leaned over the table a little to whisper. “The thing is, nobody actually noticed the weird stuff—the Tithing—until you and Loch showed up. We all just bought the story that sometimes kids ran.”

Spirit nodded, as the other three leaned in to listen. Muirin flushed a little, enjoying the attention. “Can you think of anything else besides that?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “Well, aside from the fact that it was pretty funky to be going to a school for magicians.” She made a face. “You know, I’ve been to a
lot
of boarding schools, and I’ll tell you the truth, Oakhurst isn’t the only one that’s this competitive. So that didn’t seem all that strange to me.”

She looked at Loch, who nodded agreement. Addie just shrugged. “I only went to the one, and it had very strict rules about fair play, ethics, all that sort of thing.”

“So—” Spirit frowned. “You’re saying the weird stuff was happening, but you only noticed it because Loch and I did?”

“Sometimes it takes an outsider’s eye, Spirit,” Burke finally said. “We were all … used to it, I guess.…” His voice trailed off uncertainly.

“Nuh-
uh
!” Muirin shook her head emphatically. “Addie and I were kind of used to the competition. And it just seemed logical to me, and probably to Addie, that some kids would pull a runner from this stalag. But Burke, face it, you’re, like, the most conformist guy I ever met, and you’d believe
anything
a teacher told you. It’d never occur to you that a teacher would lie.”

Burke flushed, but didn’t deny it.

Muirin screwed up her mouth in concentration. “So okay … you know what? I think the reason all this is happening now is that Spirit and Loch said, like, whoa, what’s going on, and we noticed, and we all started poking around, and maybe that was like hitting the beehive. Which I don’t think is a bad thing because … well I’m beginning to think that once whoever it is figured out that Step would be
really happy
if I disappeared and wouldn’t go looking too hard for me, I’d have been on the Tithing list.”

Spirit nodded soberly. After a moment, so did Addie, Loch, and Burke.

After breakfast, Spirit followed Muirin out. “Hey, got a sec before class?” she asked before Muirin could get out of earshot.

Muirin stopped and looked at her curiously. “A couple, why?”

She took a deep breath. “Okay. So whatever magic I have might as well not be there. But there has
got
to be something a non-magic person can do when there’s Combat magic flying around. I mean, not every magician even
has
anything that’s good in combat. So I need to know how that stuff works, and if you, you know, know anything I could actually
do
the next time. ’Cause I am
not
going to stand around like a moron a second time.”

“You’re asking
me
?” Muirin replied, looking stunned.

“Why not? You’re a really good magician, and you’re smart, and I bet you’ve already thought of some of this.” Spirit waited for her answer.

It came as a slow smile. “You’re right. I have. And I’ll help you out. We’ll hook up after lunch.”

Am I getting through to Muirin at last? I sure hope so.…

*   *   *

Things had been quiet for three days.

There was actually a funeral—well, a memorial service—for the three kids who’d been killed. No one in Radial knew about that—or about the deaths of Oakhurst kids in the first place. Spirit had used her QUERCUS connection to get the online version of the Radial newspaper, and found out that the one townie that had been killed had been officially reported as a “snowmobile accident while joyriding.” The article basically said the townies had been trying to jump the gully. Well, now Spirit had a pretty good idea of what Ms. Singleton’d been doing to the townies before the emergency crews took them back to Radial.

Muirin was as good as her word. She was teaching Spirit all about Combat magic. And it turned out there were things that could interfere with it.

“A bullet through the head is pretty effective,” Muirin had said dryly. “’Cause, you know, it’s hard to control your powers when your brain’s been blown out.” But then she’d gone on to school Spirit in other options.

Muirin wasn’t the only one Spirit had gone to about this. It had occurred to Spirit that this would be a good way to test Ms. Groves, one of the magic teachers. If what
she
said matched what
Muirin
said, then that was a good test at least of whether or not Ms. Groves was giving people misinformation. Plus she might get some angles from Groves that Muirin hadn’t thought of.