Legacies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,64

As much as she wanted to find answers, the thought of going back there made Spirit shudder with fear.

“But unless we come up with something soon, I’m scared she will,” Burke added. “And I’m scared something will happen to her.”

“You like her, don’t you?” Spirit said impulsively.

“Uh.” Burke looked as startled as Spirit had ever seen him. He turned away, fiddling with the hem of his gi. “Not that way. I mean,” he added, obviously thinking he sounded rude, “she’s too smart for me, I guess. Always making jokes and, um, they’re not really the kind I like,” he finished awkwardly.

“She doesn’t mean anything by it,” Spirit said. “It’s just . . . I don’t think she knows any other way to be funny.” Muirin’s humor was cruel, and her jokes were always at someone else’s expense. She rarely had anything nice to say about someone—just as Burke never had anything bad to say about anyone.

“That kind of makes it worse,” Burke pointed out quietly. “I think she needs friends. I’m glad that you and Addie and Loch are willing to be her friends. And I don’t mind if she insults me. But I know she thinks I’m big and stupid.” He shrugged.

“You aren’t stupid,” Spirit said, because there was no point in denying that Burke was big. He was the kind of guy that, if his life were normal, the spotters would be knocking on his parents’ door right now and offering him a full scholarship if he’d come and be a linebacker on their college football team. “It isn’t stupid to not want to say mean—”

“Clever—” Burke corrected, grinning at her.

“Whatever,” Spirit said, waving her hand. “—things all the time,” she finished. “Especially around here.” But saying that only brought her thoughts back around to where they’d started. “We’ve got less than a month,” she said. “And we’re no further along at finding answers than we were two weeks ago.”

“Trouble is, Loch’s Gift isn’t strong enough to get us the answers we need, and Addie doesn’t have the right Water Gift,” Burke said.

Spirit bit her lip. She knew what Burke was getting at. Kenning could tell you a lot more than just where something was—it could tell you something’s whole history, and even a lot about the people who’d handled it. And one of the Gifts in the School of Water was Scrying—a Scrying Mage could see past, future, and other places in the here-and-now. Some Scrying Mages did it in dreams, some in waking visions, and some even used “focus objects” like the traditional crystal ball.

“We can’t bring someone else into this,” Spirit said, alarmed. “What would we tell them?”

“That’s something to think about after we decide if we’re going to risk it,” Burke said seriously. “I don’t know if I can see any other way, though. It’s that or give up—not forever, but before the Winter Solstice for sure. But right now what we have to do is make sure you get through that demo in one piece. C’mon now. No more slacking.”

Spirit groaned theatrically, shaking her head, and stepped toward him on the practice mat again.

Without Burke and Loch, she didn’t think she could have borne Oakhurst at all.

Thanksgiving was horrible.

There weren’t any classes that day, but in the morning there was a concert and in the afternoon (oh joy) there was going to be a play. Naturally Oakhurst had a Choral Society, an Orchestra, and a Drama Society, but you weren’t allowed to try out for any of them until you’d been at Oakhurst for at least six months.

So an hour after breakfast, when Spirit would really rather have been watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (she knew it was silly and childish, but she still loved it), she was herded into the Theater along with everybody else.

Spirit hadn’t been in the Theater before. It was in a part of the main house she hadn’t been in yet, and it looked like an actual theater, with velvet seats and a stage with curtains and everything. It was hard to imagine that Arthur Tyniger had actually built it as part of the original house, because there were seats for everyone, and who’d build a theater this large if they never used it?

The decoration was the same kind of “King Tut and Back-To-The-Land vibe in a blender with Titanic” design that she’d seen in most of the house: There was a big Egyptian design over the top of the stage, and Deco ornaments down the sides,