Show, the gang passed Sangster in the lobby. He was standing near a ladder chatting with a couple of other teachers who were watching a pair of older boys hang a chandelier. They were surrounded by wires and cables and for a moment Alex had the vision of the boys on the ladder being eaten alive by the wiring, sucked up through the ceiling. He needed to stop listening to Sid.
Alex dropped back from his friends as Sangster glanced at Alex and excused himself. It was obvious to Alex that Sangster had been waiting for him. “Let’s walk,” Sangster said.
They went down the hall, past rooms that were still full of cobwebs and sheets and even, strangely, a pair of genuine giant-wheeled bicycles like the one that Alex and his mom had seen Paul Newman ride in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They exited out the side, and as they began to walk the long way, hugging the mossy wall of the grounds, he could see that Sangster had something serious to tell him.
“What?” Alex asked.
“Armstrong passed along some more Chatterbox intel on Scholomance,” Sangster answered. “A reprimand went through for your friend Elle. She’s angry as hell, because a project she was working on is being canceled. Project Claire, it’s called.”
“Claire,” Alex said. In his mind he instantly saw a skeleton, female, long hair barely visible underneath a white veil. The skeleton was alive, but barely, and had been drinking the blood of the Clan Lord Icemaker. Icemaker had nearly gotten Alex’s blood in order to revive her completely, so that Icemaker and Claire could rule together. But, thanks to Alex, it hadn’t worked out.
Sangster said, “We did wonder what happened to Claire. Now we know; Claire the skeleton has been sitting at the Scholomance, and Elle has been leading the project to finish bringing her to life, and the bosses just pulled the plug.”
Alex shrugged. “I guess I don’t get why this is a big deal.”
“It’s just information you might be able to use against a vampire who seems very interested in taking you apart,” Sangster said. “Anyway, their chief frustration with Elle is that she failed to kill you. She was supposed to tear out your throat or something and instead she got all clever with the Glimmerhook worm. But look, they’re calling you by name. They wanted you out of the way before Ultravox got here.” Sangster looked around.
Alex thought of the train. “But if I was supposed to be out of the way for Ultravox—Sangster, that guy could have just pushed me off that train himself.”
“I have a theory about that,” Sangster whispered. “Ultravox likes to do things his way. Before we lost the chatter lines we were following, you know what the vampires were saying? That as upset as the Scholomance was, Ultravox was simply amused. But, Alex, I think he wants to know whether in fact you are a threat. I think he’s testing you.”
“Testing me how?”
“There’s something special about you, and it has them worried.” Sangster tapped his head. “We don’t really know much about this thing you have up here. Your ancestor Abraham may have had it, and we think his first son did, too. But not everyone has it. Your father didn’t.”
“But he managed,” Alex said.
Sangster said, “Oh, yeah, he managed. But you do have it. First in a couple generations as far as we can tell. So far you use it to sense them. Maybe there’s more to it. But—that might be beyond the Polidorium’s ability to help with. I have to say it’s getting dangerous,” Sangster said. “Not one of us would think any less of you if you decided to leave.”
Alex sighed. Getting dangerous? For a moment he shot through the whole scenario—leaving the Polidorium, leaving Glenarvon, going home, and then what? School in the U.S.? Take up woodworking? “I’m not leaving unless you kick me out,” he said.
“Okay, partner,” Sangster said. Alex had absolutely no idea if Sangster was relieved or not, and he didn’t trust the casual language to be any indication of Sangster’s feelings at all. He was the most unreadable person Alex had ever met. “So that’s it. Ultravox is in Geneva; he’s here to do something, and we don’t know what it is. We have a lot of work to do.”
But first, the opening Pumpkin Show.
The LaLaurie library was dimly lit, and Alex realized with some regret that this was his first time seeing it. It spilled out before him with