Quest Maker (13 page)

Brynne stepped between them and pushed both their flashlights toward the floor. “We found bugs and rats in the auditorium. Look for other swarming things. Ants, maybe? Or birds.”

Tito pointed his flashlight toward the ceiling as if
checking for some murderous bird swarm.

“Birds don't swarm,” Caden said. “They flock.”

“Close enough,” Brynne said. Her cell phone flashed a message. She held it up and kept her words low. “Jane wants us to look for signs of ritual magic.”

Near Caden's boots lay a pile of broken glass. It was as if it had been left where it had fallen. Most of the room looked like that, like no one had entered since the accident. It felt like a ruin and not the lively space where he had learned about atoms and cells. He'd seen Mr. Creedly and Mrs. Belle guarding the door. Were they trying to keep people out? And if so, why? He reached out to pick up a glass shard and his blood-dagger wound pinched.

Caden set the shard of glass back in the pile. He needed to keep his wits as sharp as the broken glass and figure out the culprit. He'd save himself and Jasan. And if possible, he'd connect Rath Dunn to these evil actions. To do that, he needed to be brave and smart like the Elite Paladin he would be once he found a dragon to slay.

“Huh,” Tito said.

Though the word was simple, Tito sounded thoughtful. Maybe he had similar thoughts. “What is it, Sir Tito?” Caden whispered.

Tito shone the light at Caden's face again. “If there was evidence lying around the science room, Ms. Primrose wouldn't need you to investigate. The police wouldn't have deemed it an accident.”

That, too, had crossed Caden's mind. “The police don't understand Greater Realm magic. They don't believe in lunch witches and ritual magic. If we know what happened, and who did it, we can build an Ashevillian case against him or her.”

“Yeah,” Tito said. “How do you expect to do that?”

Caden rubbed at his arm. It was stinging. “Maybe we can convince Officer Levine and Jenkins to investigate with Ashevillian tools.”

“Bro, I don't know,” Tito said. “They're busy policing spring tourists right now.”

Brynne moved over to the side of the room and held her glowing phone near the sink. “Or we can trick them into confessing,” she said. “That works, doesn't it, Sir Tito? That's what the detectives do on the television.” She opened the door under the sink and shone her phone around inside.

Tito moved to the back and started looking in cabinets. “Yeah. Maybe.”

Caden doubted any villain would confess. He looked at the desktops. When he got to Jane's desk, he saw that someone had used a sharp edge to cut through her sketch of the Great Walking Oak. He traced the gnashes with his thumb. The Walking Oak was the protector of elves, magic users, and plants. While Caden felt the Winterbird was superior to the tree, it was disrespectful to strike out the image.

From the back of the room, Tito swore. Then he said, “Oh gross.”

Caden and Brynne hurried to him. Caden shone his flashlight at Tito. Truly, Tito looked as if he'd seen something icky.

“In the third cabinet,” Tito said.

Caden peeked over Brynne's shoulder and rubbed at his arm. It hurt more this night than most. That was odd. His wound only reopened in the proximity of Rath Dunn's blood dagger, and Rath Dunn and his blood dagger were nowhere near the science room. The school was empty.

Brynne used her phone to light the space.

Inside, there were seven dead and dried-up rats.

“You wanted rats,” Tito said. “I found you rats.”

“Dead rats,” Caden said.

That didn't seem right. The creatures in the auditorium were skittering in the walls, and the spelling bee swarm had been after the gas incident. These rats looked many days gone. The fur seemed brittle. It was more skeleton than anything. Yet the smell was intense. Like necromancy, Caden realized.

Tito shone his light back into Caden's face. “We had rats once at the house. Jane talked Rosa into using humane traps.” Then he had to explain what a humane rattrap was. “You, like, catch the rat in it, then let it go in the woods. Live and let live, I guess.”

“That would never work with Greater Realm rats,” Brynne said. “They'd just return to the building and eat you.” She picked up a stray pencil and poked at the rat
closest to her. There was something under it—a fabric bag wrapped with a length of gray hair. She reached in and grabbed it.

Caden stepped back. “What is it?”

Undeterred by the ick factor, Brynne untied it and dumped it out. Chalk-white bones—like that of small animals—tumbled onto the floor. “Bones,” she said. “Dead things. These, and the smell, are definite signs of necromancy.” She looked up at Caden. “The only villain I've seen who appears to be a necromancer is Mr. Bellows.”

“He killed the poor rats?” Tito said, and Caden wondered if it was truly Jane who'd talked Rosa into the humane traps.

“Necromancers don't kill so much as collect and use the dead,” Caden said.

Brynne gathered the bones and retied the bag. “He probably just dug them up somewhere. Or found them in the walls. Who knows?” She scrunched up her nose. “Strange that he'd animate rats, though.”

“You're saying these were zombie rats?” Tito said. Now he sounded more amused than repulsed. “That's what you're saying?”

“Somewhat.” She stood, let the cabinet close, and put the bag on the floor. Then she stomped on it until everything within was likely a fine dust. “There. If he wants more zombie rats, he'll have to make a new one.”

What purpose was there in reanimating rats? Caden
crossed his arms. “The bees were living, not undead.”

“Then the necromancer controlled the rats but not the bees,” Brynne said. She shone her phone under a desk, then tilted her head. “There's something here.”

Caden ducked down, but he didn't see anything. “Where?”

Tito crouched beside him. Like Brynne, he turned his head to the side. “There are weird symbols. The light has to hit it right to see them.”

Caden tilted his head. Then he did see runes and ritual magic signs scribbled under the desk. He checked another. It was the same.

“What's that mean?” Tito said.

That meant Jane would be as happy as a crypt wraith in a plague. Caden furrowed his brow. “It means, unlike the auditorium, there are signs of ritual magic here, and ritual magic is always connected to the place it's cast,” he said. He pointed toward the rats. It seemed the rats and runes were connected. As were the lunch witch and the necromancer. “And such evil requires sacrifice.”

In the glow from her phone, Brynne looked oddly impressed. “Maybe they mixed their magics. The lunch witch used some of the school rodents to fuel her spell, then the necromancer animated the dead.” He could sense Brynne's mind dancing with possibilities. “I've only heard whispers of such things.”

“If so, they did it for an evil purpose. It's not a good thing.”

“I didn't say it was, prince. But it's an interesting thing.”

“Not as interesting as the zombie rats,” Tito said.

In the back corner of the room, Caden shone his light on the remains of a small potted palm tree Mrs. Belle had kept in the room. It looked withered and dead. He considered the plants that had died around the school—the azaleas, the dead forest downslope of the cafeteria.

“Maybe the plants were sacrifices, too.” The wound on his arm was really stinging now.

“Possibly,” said Brynne. Her fingers moved surely as she sent Jane a message. “We should check the auditorium again. And the cafeteria, as it is the lunch witch's domain.”

Caden wasn't really listening though. Dead rats and runes weren't proof enough. He doubted proof of ritual magic or reanimation would be useful by Ashevillian standards. Maybe he should try to get those responsible to confess? After all, he was gifted in speech.

Suddenly, the ache in his arm turned to a slashing pain. It bled. It felt like it did when he walked into math class and Rath Dunn sat behind his desk. It felt as it did when the blood dagger was close. As he stood there, the pain got bad. His realization was worse. His stomach dropped.

They weren't alone.

I
f the blood dagger was near, so was Rath Dunn. Caden signaled to the others.

Tito shone his light at Caden. “Bro, what's wrong—”

Caden mouthed, “Quiet.” He flipped off his light. Tito did the same. In the dim glow from her phone, Brynne looked wide-eyed and worried. Then she turned it off, too, and the room went black.

The darkness felt like a solid weight pressing in on Caden. The only sounds were the quiet rasps of his, Brynne's, and Tito's breaths. None of them moved.

Between breaths, Caden heard the shuffle of footsteps, the sounds of feet outside the door. He felt blood pool around his bandage. Brynne sucked in a quick breath. He reached out and grabbed her hand, then reached out with the other to grab Tito's.

Someone turned a key. Then the jiggling of the key stopped abruptly—as if the person was surprised the door was unlocked. Caden heard the doorknob turn slowly.

He, Brynne, and Tito crouched in the dark. They weren't hidden per se, but they weren't standing up. It was too late to move to better cover. All they had was the dark and the desks.

Two figures entered. A glow came from the larger one's hand—a cell phone—but the light didn't reach the back of the room. The ache in Caden's arm intensified. The figure moved the cell phone near some of the rubble, then to the flasks lined up on the counter, like he was interested in the destruction. When he chuckled, there was no doubt it was Rath Dunn.

Caden kept as still as the dead. If the tyrant found them alone, he'd hurt them. Likely kill them. Then he would hide their bodies, and they'd be labeled runaways like Jane had been before they'd saved her. Or worse, he'd give their bodies to Mr. Bellows to be reanimated.

The second figure stood near him. “One of my more interesting spells.” It was Ms. Jackson, the lunch witch, the mistress of ritual magic. She was a criminal returning to the scene of her crime. She held a box under her arm. “They'll suffer for taking my brother and sister.”

“Patience, beautiful.” His voice was like velvet. “Take whatever you like.” With great care, Rath Dunn picked up the large flask on the counter, one of the few surviving
pieces of Mrs. Belle's glassware, and offered it to her. “From me to you, with my utmost admiration.”

She took it. Under his phone's dim light, her skin seemed to glow. Her hair looked soft and thick. Her eyes were bright. Her terrible beauty was the reason Jane's mother was lost. “What I truly want is the little half elf.”

Tito pulled his hand away. At first Caden feared he'd attack or do something else foolish. Then Caden saw a soft, shielded glow from Tito's direction. He'd taken his cell phone from his pocket. Caden glanced to the front worriedly. This was a bad time for a text message.

Brynne squeezed Caden's hand tighter. Tito's breaths became faster.

Ms. Jackson strolled toward the back of the room. Rath Dunn held up his phone to light the way. The dim light stretched across the floor inches from Caden's boot. It was lucky that they'd moved away from the rat cabinet. Ms. Jackson opened it. She grabbed two of the dead rats by the tails and set them in a box. “For my porridge,” she said, and cackled. She sauntered back to the front. “I want that chatty prince, too,” she said. “He's the reason my siblings are gone.”

“That's not part of our deal,” Rath Dunn said. He pulled something from his vest—an envelope—and left it on the front counter. “And I've already promised him to his brother.”

Had Brynne not been holding his hand, Caden would
have sprawled over. What did that mean? But Rath Dunn and Ms. Jackson had grown quiet, like they sensed another presence, like the math tyrant and the lunch witch knew they were not alone.

Brynne was squeezing hard enough to hurt his hand now. Tito was breathing far too loud. Caden held his breath. They would soon be discovered. In the middle of the night, in this dark school, who knew what these two villains would do to them.

Rath Dunn didn't shine his phone toward them, though. He shone it toward the door he and Ms. Jackson had left open, then turned the light upward by the ceiling. Near the top of the doorframe, two eyes flashed green—the type of eyes that could see in darkness. Whatever creature possessed them watched Rath Dunn. In the glow of phone light, it looked like it had long, spidery limbs stretched out on all sides.

Rath Dunn chuckled. “Stop creeping around,” he said to the shadowy figure. “It's uncouth. And you wonder why the students call you Creepy Creedly.”

As Rath Dunn spoke, Brynne whispered in his ear, “Breathe, prince.”

Caden inhaled, though his heart was pounding. There were now three villains in the front of the room, villains he feared would hear his heart beating and attack them. Elite Paladins didn't panic, though. They slayed dragons and fought evil, and they did so bravely. Caden would also
be brave as soon as he caught his breath.

If his great father, King Axel, were here, he'd say, “Rely on your training. Don't let emotion hinder you,” and he'd be right. Caden breathed slower. He peered to the front of the room, to the figures visible from the soft glow of Rath Dunn's phone.

The creature on the ceiling seemed to rotate so that it was standing on the floor. It spoke in a hiss. “You don't belong here.” Now Caden could see that it was, in fact, Mr. Creedly. “This isn't your room.”

“We came to pay our respects,” he said. “Nothing more.” He grabbed another flask and gave it to Ms. Jackson. “For your special brew,” he said.

Mr. Creedly crept closer, his green eyes set on Ms. Jackson. She cradled a flask in each hand, the box closed and tucked beneath her arm. The shadow of Mr. Creedly's limbs looked like a net. “This isn't your room,” he repeated. “Or your flasks, old one.”

Ms. Jackson seemed to bristle at the “old.” “They're my flasks now.” There was something cold and cruel in her words. “And it's not your room either.”

“Now, now, Ms. Jackson,” Rath Dunn said. “Mr. Creedly and Mrs. Belle are friends. He's trying to look out for her.” He sidestepped Mr. Creedly. “Besides, you'd be better served worrying about that Elite Paladin who is going to teach gym than getting in our way. I'd bet that one knows your kind, and like me, knows how to kill you.”

“You and the necromancer destroyed this room, old one,” Mr. Creedly said.

“Oh, you think so? And you caused the bee swarm,” Ms. Jackson said.

“Yes,” Rath Dunn said. “Thank you for that.”

Mr. Creedly cocked his head. “I'll destroy you. I'll destroy those who aren't loyal to her. Those who annoy her. I serve her. No one is as devoted as me.”

“Is that why you attacked those she favors more than you?” Rath Dunn said. “You'll have to do better than insects next time. Well, Bellows was upset about his spelling bee getting interrupted. He'd planned it for weeks,” Rath Dunn said, and chuckled. “But your little stunt was helpful. I've collected several complaints.” He leaned nearer to Mr. Creedly. “Now move.”

“This isn't your—”

“I go where I please,” Rath Dunn said, and it was a threat.

Rath Dunn seemed to stare into Mr. Creedly's shining green eyes for a long moment. Then he held the door for Ms. Jackson as if she was merely a beautiful lunch lady, and not an evil youth-stealing lunch witch, and strode out after her. The door slammed shut behind them. Their footfalls faded down the hall in the direction of the cafeteria. The pain in Caden's arm began to wane. Without Rath Dunn's phone, and with Tito's hidden by his hand, the science room returned to stifling darkness.

Still, Caden, Brynne, and Tito stayed crouched. The smell of necromancy irritated Caden's nose. The darkness pressed down on him. The muscles in his thighs began to ache. He dared not move. He dared not think of what he'd just heard. Mr. Creedly was still in the room.

An eternity seemed to pass. Then: “I hear your heartbeats,” Mr. Creedly said.

There was a skittering above, like tapping on the ceiling. Caden glanced up. In the black above, he felt something looking down.

“I see you, young ones.”

There was no more hiding. Caden flipped on his flashlight and shone it at the ceiling. Shiny green eyes stared back down at him. Brynne gasped. Tito jumped up. In one hand, he held his cell phone, in the other, he brandished his unlit flashlight like a club.

“And we see you,” Caden said as calmly as he could.

Sometimes, it was important to feign bravery.