Conspiracies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,15
of Air and the School of Water, though there were a few Fire Witches involved) were given a theme and not allowed to deviate from it. This year’s theme was “Famous Statues and Monuments” (Spirit had seen it because Addie had to compete, of course) and the handout had been very clear that the statue of the little Belgian boy taking a whiz—the Manneken Pis—was so not on the list. So there was the armless Venus de Milo, and the headless Winged Nike (Addie’s team had done Laocoön and His Sons, but Spirit was already pretty much on board with the idea that Addie was a major-league overachiever), the statue of the Little Mermaid from Copenhagen, the Sphinx from Giza (with its face miraculously restored, though Spirit thought it would have been more of a challenge to reproduce the battered and eroded version), the Lincoln Memorial from Washington D.C., and—probably the most ambitious of all, because of the almost-unsupported “zodiacal zone” ring—the reproduction of Prometheus, who loomed over the Oakhurst skating rink just like he did over the one at Rockefeller Center.
In keeping with Oakhurst’s general suck-all-the-fun-out-of-this tradition, there was a little plinth in front of each statue, and each plinth had a waterproof notebook on it, and each notebook contained a five to ten page essay about the original statue, with the pages inserted neatly in clear plastic sleeves to protect them from the weather.
Not that anyone was reading them.
Behind Prometheus (extending out toward the side lawn) was the maze, a duplicate in snow of the hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace. (Spirit knew the Jaunting Witches teleported snow from all over the place so there’d be enough for everyone to work with at Oakhurst, and frankly, she thought it was a wonder there was any snow left on the ground anywhere in McBride County.) And on the other side of the maze was the snow castle.
It could have been fun. Even with all the regimentation, all the rules, all the grading as a class assignment, it still could have been fun. But even now, the teachers prowled among the statues taking notes, and watching the skaters, and she just knew they were even being graded on that—though she couldn’t imagine what the grades were in. Advanced sense of balance? Intermediate speediness? Whether or not the Chicago Blackhawks would like to recruit you?
I am so not getting out there on the ice, she decided.
“So, um, you want to skate?” Burke asked.
She did her best not to facepalm. Guys! Every time they started to learn to read minds, they always got it completely wrong! “Not with the teachers watching,” she said truthfully. “Can we just walk and pretend to read the essays? Maybe get lost in the maze?”
“Sure!” Burke said, more cheerfully than her suggestion really called for.
The two of them walked along the AstroTurfed path, pausing at each plinth to leaf through the essay books as if they were reading them. Even though Burke was carefully not touching her—not even getting too close—he kept glancing over at her with this soft puppy-dog look, and she was starting to get the idea that he was working his way up to talking about Feelings. She wasn’t ready for that conversation right now, and she wasn’t really sure whether she ever wanted to have that conversation, but the thought of what it might involve gave her a warm fluttery feeling in her stomach. She wondered what he was going to say. She wondered what she’d say back. She wondered if—
“Hey! Burke! Spirit!”
Oh … damn. So much for finding out what Burke’s feelings were. Or hers, for that matter. It was Kelly Langley—one of the nicer proctors—but she wasn’t alone. She was more-or-less herding another girl along, kind of like a determined sheepdog with a stubborn sheep. Kelly was a Fire Witch, so she was out in only a jacket and a knitted gold Oakhurst cap, but the girl with her was bundled up to the eyebrows in so-new-it-crackled Oakhurst gear with no personalizing touches. Her shoulders were hunched, her collar was up, and her face was buried in the scarf that swaddled her almost to her ears.
New girl? Spirit wondered. Belatedly she realized she’d heard the train during breakfast this morning. But there hadn’t been any kind of an announcement.…
Well, maybe they never make an announcement. How would I know? Loch and I were the last kids to come here. There hasn’t been anyone after us.…