Conspiracies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,47
exactly work to hide what happened to the Tithed.”
“Burke and I both got e-mails from Ms. Carimar,” Addie countered. “Canceling her class, basically, and giving us options for what to take in its place.”
“Doesn’t that seem a little, I don’t know, odd to you?” Spirit said from the door. “Here she’s supposed to be half passed out, stressed to the max, and sick, and she’s sending out individual course recommendations?”
“Well, no duh,” said Muirin, looking up. “Hey. Grab a chair.”
“Wouldn’t be that hard to hack the personal e-mail accounts,” Loch put in, and shoved the last empty chair toward her a little. “You wouldn’t even need to hack them if you had Admin status.”
Spirit pulled the chair to herself and plopped down in it. “Why are you typing?” she asked. “And where did you get those netbooks?”
“There’s a WiFi hotspot here, and we’re acting like we’re in our rooms,” Muirin said with a smirk. “Loch and I are always in chat, and it would look weird if we went missing from it. You three, on the other hand, aren’t in public chat much. I’m told you are actually known to do something quaint and antiquated called reading a book. How very analog of you.”
“I had the netbooks, they were in my luggage.” Loch shrugged. “Old ones I wasn’t using anymore. Father was always upgrading me to the newest model, so they were at the house, so I guess the secretary threw them in with the rest of the stuff she sent for me. At least these are useful, unlike most of the stuff that was sent.”
“So you’ve got no jeans and t-shirts, but you’ve got a tailored tux and two netbooks?” Spirit hazarded.
“Four netbooks, and yes.” Loch sighed. “But Murr-cat’s right, even when we’re studying, we’re in chat, so we need to look like we’re where we should be.”
“Back to the subject,” Spirit said firmly. “What’s going on?”
“Two of the missing persons left e-mails for their friends, too,” Muirin told them. “I just got sent copies.”
Addie frowned. “And?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t know them well enough to tell if it actually sounds like them,” Muirin replied. “It’s only a couple of lines each, just that they can’t take it here, and they want to get out, they can’t eat or sleep, they feel like they’re going to die any second, and Doctor Ambrosius wants to send them to Billings.”
“Uh—if they were in the Infirmary, and never went back to their rooms, where would they have gotten a computer?” Spirit pointed out.
Muirin looked up, and Addie’s eyes narrowed. “That is a good point,” Addie said slowly. “And actually, why would anyone bother to have them e-mail their friends if they were sick enough to need to be sent to Billings?”
There was silence, broken only by the powerful fans of the furnace. Then Burke spoke up.
“They might not have been sick, as such, at all,” he said. “Just still insanely scared, and wanting to get out of here. That would leave Doctor Ambrosius with the choice of trying to keep them here and having crazy people on his hands, or letting them go and shipping them off to shrinks. Which would get the problem out of his hands anyway.”
“Well come look at the e-mails,” Muirin said, turning her netbook around so they could all see the screen. “I can’t tell if that sounds crazy or scared.”
They all peered at the windows. Spirit pursed her lips. They were in txt-speak, or at least the two kids were, so it was hard to glean any feeling out of them. And the teacher’s was impersonal, which you’d expect, and almost as short.
“So…” Spirit chewed on her lip. “You don’t…”
Burke snorted. “Look, something went after everyone at the dance. That much is a fact. Our rings glowed and we don’t know what that means, and that is a fact. You are right, Spirit, the Wild Hunt was sent by someone, and we don’t know who that someone is, or if he’s given up or not—”
Spirit got a queasy feeling. “OK, so the Tithed were more or less scared to death, right? Or killed while they were scared. Was being scared the point? Isn’t there something in magic about how you terrify your victim for extra mojo?”
Addie looked thoughtful. “You might be on to something. According to everything Loch and I were able to find, yes, the Wild Hunt—and I guess whatever was behind it—more or less feed on fear and pain.”