Legacies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,32

in a dazzling wash of brilliance as his pursuers turned on their headlights all in unison.

And Seth Morris realized that he’d run out of time.

Spirit bounced into the Refectory with just minutes to spare, but Addie, Cadence, and Camilla were holding her a seat. There weren’t assigned seats in the Refectory—you could sit in a different place for every meal if you liked—but certain groups of kids just tended to sit together, like her and Muirin and Addie and Cadence and Camilla. And the boys, of course.

In any other school Spirit could imagine, Burke would be going around with his football hero nose in the air, refusing to even notice ordinary mortals. And while Oakhurst technically had a football team (two of them really, since they never played against any other schools) and Burke was on it (Burke was on all the Oakhurst sports teams), and Burke was its star player, he was as far from being dazzled by his own wonderfulness as it was possible to be. In fact, he and Loch had quickly become best friends, although Loch was the star of the Oakhurst chess team and had only taken up fencing because he’d done it at one of his other schools. Addie had talked him into adding swimming to his list of sports; they liked it here if you had what most places would call “a lot of extracurricular activities.” There really wasn’t much else to do.

Despite her early misgivings, Spirit had found herself settling in to life at Oakhurst. Burke was sweet, and Loch had a sly sense of humor once he got to know you. And Seth and Brendan and Nicholas were all kind of nice, although Nick was tongue-tied to the point of total silence except with Camilla, and Brendan seemed to believe absolutely everything anybody told him, no matter how ridiculous. Muirin (of course) teased Nick until he practically choked and told Brendan the most outrageous lies as if they were absolute fact, but Spirit was pretty sure that Muirin had a kind of thing for Seth, even though both of them would probably have died rather than admit it. So if Spirit thought that sometimes Seth’s sense of humor crossed the line into rudeness or even cruelty, she kept her opinions to herself. She didn’t think Muirin had that many friends.

Spirit slid into her seat and kicked her book bag under it. You could leave the Refectory early enough to go back to your room to get your books for your morning classes, but she preferred to save herself the hike. She reached for her juice glass.

“Where’s Muirin?” she asked, looking around.

Addie shrugged. “I haven’t seen her since last night. You know Muirin.”

Burke laughed. “You mean, you never know Muirin. She’ll probably stroll in here just before—”

The doors burst open. Muirin stood between them, out of breath, her face flushed. “He’s gone!” she yelled, her voice breaking on the second word. “Seth! He’s gone!”

Pandemonium inevitably erupted. Mr. Gail and Mr. Bowman came out of nowhere, seized Muirin by the elbows, and hustled her out of the Refectory before she could say anything else.

The others at Muirin’s usual table stared at each other over their plates, speechless. The room had erupted with speculation, students chattering so loudly it would have been impossible to speak, anyway.

And that was when Ms. Corby walked in, just as dramatically as Muirin had. Silence immediately fell. She looked around the room through narrowed eyes.

“Doctor Ambrosius wishes you to remain calm, finish your meals, and proceed to your classes in an orderly fashion,” she said, in tones that made it very clear that This Was An Order. “There will be no speculation regarding Mr. Morris until we have determined precisely what has occurred. If Doctor Ambrosius deems it necessary at that time, you will proceed to your rooms in an orderly fashion and remain there until you are released. Is this understood?”

One of the proctors stood up, somehow managing to do so subserviently. “Yes, Ms. Corby.”

He sat down. Ms. Corby cast her gaze over them again. Spirit tried not to squirm. “Very good. Breakfast will end at the usual time. That is all.”

She swept out, but the silence remained.

Halfway through First Period, the word came that they were all to go to their rooms. Spirit went back to her room like everyone else, but no sooner had Spirit closed the door of her room than she got the bird-chirp of an IM. Although the school had forbidden “speculation,” they’d