The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,59

sending a wild boar after him after he boasted he was a better hunter. She turned one of her maids, Callisto, into a bear for breaking her vow of chastity, even though she was raped. She even killed the seven daughters of Niobe because their mother had said she was better than her own, but these were only a few of the victims who felt the sting of her divine retribution.

After a month of scouring the shelves of his beloved Library, Landon’s search for clues had gone cold. He felt he’d learned everything there was to know about the goddess, but hadn’t seen a single thing in the numerous texts that gave him any clue to what had sparked Brock’s sudden interest in the subject. Also, nothing jumped out at him that would support his theory that Artemis and the thief were somehow linked. It didn’t help that apart from Artemis, he had no idea for what he was looking.

Defeated, Landon left the Library around two in the morning and headed back to the dormitories through the Administrative Tower. The hallways were dark and empty. He could hear his footsteps as the sound of his shoes against the hardwood reverberated off the walls.

Landon enjoyed that walk. It provided a much needed moment for him to think and reflect. In recent weeks, it allowed him to contemplate his new findings and try to develop or adjust his standing theories on how every odd thing was related.

After a quick thought on the metaphorical implications of Artemis in correlation to the Gymnasium, Landon turned the corner and found, to his surprise, a light breaking the darkness of the hallway, coming from Dr. Brighton’s office. The door was cracked, and the light streamed from a narrow opening and fanned out from the slender beam until it faded into the darkness.

Unsure if he was inside, Landon softened his step and crept down the hall to avoid alerting his professor, who apparently was working late. In all the times Landon had taken this walk to the dormitories in the dark hours of the night, there had never been anyone still in the offices. Suddenly, a shadow briefly broke the light as Landon neared the door. Someone was definitely inside. In an instant, Landon had a realization. Could it not be his professor, but instead the thief returned to steal something else from the Gymnasium?

The mere thought of catching the girl forced Landon to freeze in place. If he was to have any success in trapping her, he’d need to do it by surprise. Stealth was no longer a good idea, but a necessity.

As daintily as he could, Landon proceeded toward the cracked doorway, inching closer and closer with silent steps. Once near, he pressed his body close to the wall and made sure not to break the beam of light—something like that could catch in the periphery of a person’s eye.

He slowed his breathing and subtly leaned over to peek at what was going on inside. Rather than finding the mysterious intruder, he saw Dr. Brighton slouched over in his chair, staring at some large wooden object resting on his desk. The light that had drawn Landon in was coming from a desk lamp turned to shed as much light as possible on the wooden box.

Consumed with curiosity, Landon gingerly opened the door and leaned his head inside.

“Professor,” he whispered, “it’s Landon. Uh, what’re you doing up this late?”

“I should ask you the same question,” Dr. Brighton returned without turning his head away from the object before him. “Please come in. Perhaps you can help me with something.”

The office looked like Dr. Brighton’s classroom—eclectic—but on steriods. Reams of uncolated papers, books, small trinkets and creepy, articulated animal skeletons were stacked up on every surface, around filing cabinets, lining the walls, and covering large portions of the floor. The air smelled stale and musky from the old books and papers, and Landon could see little flecks of dust floating about. The single-filament light emitted a pale, yellow glow and cast sinister shadows against the contours and edges of the hodgepodge office. If Dr. Brighton weren’t sitting behind his desk, Landon would have thought the place had been ransacked. It was the antithesis of what Landon understood about his methodical and particular mentor. Shutting the door behind him, Landon entered the office and sat in the wooden chair opposite the desk.

Dr. Brighton still never took his eyes off the wooden box that sat on the only clean surface