Conspiracies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,99
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.”