Legacies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,62
are supposed to be completely warded against anything bad getting in. And that means—”
“That someone here at Oakhurst is giving permission for the Whatever to pass the defensive wards,” Addie finished grimly.
Imagining someone at Oakhurst might be out to kill them was one thing. Having logical proof that they really were—and had outside allies—was another thing entirely. Spirit actually saw the moment that Addie was really, truly convinced: first, a kind of shock, and then a kind of glazed chill. The five of them walked on in silence for a few minutes until they got to the stand of trees.
It was like being in a miniature forest. The pines filled an area about thirty feet by sixty—a long irregular rectangle—and at the outer edge of the long side were a couple of staggered rows of young trees. The oldest trees were easily thirty feet high, and someone had trimmed them while they were growing, because there were no branches growing out of their trunks lower than seven feet above the ground. Spirit wondered why anyone would do that. Ease of bringing a brush-hog in? The ground in the middle of the tiny forest was soft with fallen pine needles, and in here, sheltered from the wind, it seemed warmer.
At the far edge of the forest was a white marble cylinder, about four feet tall. Burke walked over to it and brushed the fallen pine needles off the top. Carved into the flat disk of its surface was the Oakhurst crest, and carved into one side was a large letter “N.”
“This marks the northern boundary of the school grounds,” Burke said, tapping the top of the cylinder. “The southern boundary marker is set into the stone pillar on the left side of the foot of the driveway up to the school. The eastern one is about three-quarters of a mile past the centerline of the tennis courts—it’s a plaque set into a big boulder. The western one is out past the stadium about a mile, dead level with the fifty-yard line.”
Loch turned and looked back the other way. While the ground was fairly level, there were too many things in the way to be able to see even the main gates—let alone the drive and the markers at the foot of it. But: “They all line up,” he said.
Burke nodded. “A perfect cross—if you could see them from the air. Or a perfect square, if you connected them around the edges. And everything inside that square is warded.”
“Or it’s supposed to be,” Addie said quietly, returning to the earlier conversation.
“Wouldn’t Doctor Ambrosius know if the wards failed?” Loch asked curiously.
“He can’t be the one responsible for this,” Spirit said doubtfully. “I know he was really horrible to us those first couple of days, but then I saw him at the Afternoon Tea, and—Did he seem, well, different to you, too, Loch?”
“A little confused,” Loch agreed, nodding. “At my tea party, he didn’t seem quite sure who I was. He had that dragon with him—you know, his assistant, Ms. Corby—and she had to tell him my name was Lachlan, not Lawrence. If there’s a bad guy at Oakhurst, I vote for her.”
“Can’t be,” Muirin said promptly. “Doctor A. would know if the wards went down, but people get permission to cross them all the time—like those cops the other night, or the ambulance that brought Nick up from Radial. All the school staff with magic can manipulate the wards—but La Corbyissima doesn’t have magic.”
“They put them back the way they are afterward,” Addie said softly. “It’s called Revoking. You’d never be able to tell that someone’s been through the wards once their permission’s Revoked. But that means somebody inside is cooperating with someone on the outside so they can come through the wards. And that means one of the staff with magic. Which—I don’t know how that ties in with someone being ‘Tithed’ . . .”
“And why ‘Tithe’ anyone?” Muirin said. “Because—”
“It doesn’t matter why,” Spirit said harshly.
All of them looked at her in surprise.
“It doesn’t,” she insisted. “All that matters is stopping it. Don’t you see? Don’t any of you see? It’s going to happen again. It’s going to happen on the Winter Solstice—that’s less than two months from now. Two more kids are going to die—disappear—go crazy. Doesn’t matter. Unless we find out what’s doing it and how to make it stop, it’s going to keep happening.”
If her double life had left Spirit feeling worn out and shaky and constantly