The Keeper's Curse (21 page)

Breckin
and Rozelyn exchanged a worried expression, which Jade understood
right away.

“
Relax,” Jade said. “We won’t feed you lattes and pastries. We
have real food, too.”

Their
expressions softened at that.

“
Okay, sure,” Rozelyn said. “We’d love to.”

“
Excellent! Come by in about an hour and a half. Alright, so
you owe me ten twenty five.”

Breckin
paid for the pair of them and wandered off to wait for the drinks.
Jade flashed Emmy a thumbs up, triumph plastered on her face. Jade,
Emmy thought, would make the worst spy in the entire
world.

The knot
in Emmy’s stomach didn’t let up when they left, but rather
intensified. It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant knot, but anxiety,
even if it was anticipation, was still anxiety. Jade seemed to
notice this energy in Emmy, and whenever she walked by, she noticed
Jade had a slight smile on her face. Emmy tried to deflate the
bubbling in her stomach, worrying Jade knew exactly why she was
excited.

At long
last their shift came to an end, and the girls rushed upstairs to
change for dinner. As they untied their aprons in Jade’s room, they
rehearsed several times how they were going to ask Breckin for his
citizenship badge, Emmy leaving most of the work to
Jade.

They two
girls met up with Alex and Gabe in the hall, and the four teenagers
traveled down to the kitchen together to find Vera not in her usual
mood.

The
kitchen was tidier than Emmy had ever seen it. The only messy thing
in the room was Vera herself, spots of food covering her clothes
and face, darting from one side of the room to the other with the
speed of a hummingbird.

“
Mom, you can calm down,” Jade said. “It’s just Roz and
Breckin.”

Vera
glared at her daughter so fiercely all four of them took a step
back. She slammed the bowl she was holding in her left hand onto
the table.

“‘
Calm down’, dear? Maybe next time you can give me a warning
exceeding an hour when you invite your friends over!”

Jade
simply rolled her eyes and headed over to the wood stove and began
stirring the venison stew. The other three followed her example and
began to set the table. Jade’s father, Sol, burst in a few minutes
later, glowering at everyone and sat at the table, not helping.
Emmy couldn’t entire blame him; a violent storm had started up
earlier that day, and since he spent most of his days outside, Sol
would have had to endure the worst of it.

Only a
few minutes later dinner was ready and with impeccable timing,
Breckin and Rozelyn walked through the door.

Sol
attempted to change his demeanour for the guests, rising from his
seat to shake Breckin’s hand and greet his niece. Everyone sat down
then, and Vera began pouring food onto everyone’s
plates.

It only
took a few minutes of grumbling talk about the weather before Sol
decided to engage Breckin with the topic that Methelwoodians seem
to cherish above all others: war.

“
So, boy, you and that Oka character seem to be spending a lot
of time together lately – have you been discussing the orb
relations lately? Tensions seem to be rising anywhere?”

Emmy
secretly wondered if Breckin was sick to death of this sort of
talk, but he politely replied. “Well, Oka and I have been talking
lately about Freestone and Beaucott. Apparently Freestone tried
trading with Beaucott, and of course, they can’t pay them
back.”

Sol
snorted. “Why am I not surprised? Freestone is very conservative;
they’re probably using it as a reason to start fighting with them.
Not that’ll it be much of a fight. Beaucott is useless in those
matters.”

“
It really is their own fault,” Rozelyn said. “They don’t arm
themselves at all.”

“
Philosophers, the whole lot of them,” Sol said in a derisive
tone. “They’re completely disconnected from reality.”

Breckin
nodded although Emmy saw some doubt in his eyes that he didn’t
voice. “I’m sure any month now Ministrial will cut some of their
benefits.”

“
Well no doubt, they’re a drain!” Sol said. “Maybe if they
spent less time coming up with useless theories and more time
contributing to the rest of the orb community Freestone wouldn’t be
so annoyed with them.”

“
They’re not all useless theories.” Emmy stopped mid bite, not
recognizing the voice at first. It was only following all the eyes
at the table did she realize it was Gabe who had talked, and quite
sternly at that. “Have you ever actually read their stuff? Try
Balthazar’s manifesto on orb interactions, or Indigo’s ideas about
contemporary palewraith usage. The Beaucott people are
unconventional, but they’re not stupid.”

Emmy
couldn’t believe it. Gabe had just spoken more in the last thirty
seconds than he had in all the times she had witnessed him
combined. She realized then that she had misjudged him as shy, but
he was just extremely introverted. Sol looked as surprised as she
did.

“
Well, if their ideas are so progressive, how come they have
never been tried out?” Sol said.

“
Because then Ministrial would have to relinquish some
control, and they would never let that happen.”

This led
to another disagreement Emmy found impossible to follow, knowing
nothing about either orbs. Sol got more and more agitated, but Gabe
kept total composure. Breckin in this argument defended Ministrial,
but she could see on his face how impressed he was with his best
friend.

Soon Alex
and Jade became bored, and began whispering and giggling to each
other.

To avoid
the rising nausea at this new development, Emmy ended up looking
across the table at Breckin. Unfortunately for her, he was
incredibly perceptive and she could only look at him for a few
seconds before he felt her eyes on him and stared back at her. He
would smile politely at her before she ducked her head. She became
better at it, only doing it when he and Sol got into a more heated
part of the discussion. Breckin kept his concentration on Sol, but
Emmy could see his attention was only half there. Her eyes lingered
to the space between Rozelyn and him, where their hands mingled.
His fingers traced the lines on her hands, never seeming to get
bored of the activity. For a reason Emmy wasn’t ready to admit to
herself yet, this irked her.

Finally
the dinner came to a close with Vera’s homemade ice cream. The two
guests thanked the Woodworkers, and as they got up to leave, Emmy
kicked Jade under the table.

“
Oh yeah,” she said loudly. “Hey, Breckin? Can I talk to you
for a second? Alone?”

That’s odd.

“
Yeah, of course.”

As he made his way over, the knot tightened in Emmy’s stomach
until she was worried it would never come undone. What was
wrong
with
her?

“
Hey, can you just ask him yourself?” Emmy whispered to
Jade.

“
This was your idea,” Jade responded, grabbing Emmy by the arm
with strapper strength and dragged her to and up the stairs,
Breckin in tow. Questions were flitting through his
head.

They
stopped in the hall, out of earshot from anyone downstairs. The two
girls looked at each other, and suddenly all their preparation on
how this conversation would go flew out the window.

“
So, um ...” Jade began. “Okay, here’s the thing – we’ve got
this problem. The rookie here,” Jade threw an arm around Emmy,
“needs some help. Nobody is willing to give her that help.
Unfortunately for us, this help isn’t really available to the
general public.”

Breckin’s
eyebrows flew up. “And there something I can do?”

“
Yes, as a matter of fact!” Jade said, too cheerfully. “You
see, this help she needs, is in a restricted area.” This was the
hard part. Jade took a deep breath. “We have a plan to get inside
the building, but what we need is dignitary identification. You’re
the future Eldoir. Do you understand?”

Breckin
looked between the two girls, waiting for the punch line that never
came.

Is she serious?

“
We would just need your citizenship crest for a couple of
days,” Jade said.

I can’t believe Ministrial isn’t helping her. Her life has
just been turned upside down for crying out loud. I’m going to have
to talk to Circlet. Again. She’s going to hate the sight of my face
soon ...

With only
slight hesitation, Breckin reached into his blazer and pulled out
his wallet. “You do know that you aren’t going to get very far with
just this, right?”

“
We’ve got the rest worked out,” Jade assured him.

I have a bad feeling about this.

“
They can trace who last entered a secured room by the crest.
They’ll think it was me.”

Jade let out a nervous laugh. “Come on, it’s
you
. They’ll assume
someone stole it.”

Shaking
his head, he handed out the piece of black leather with a golden
crest sewn into it.

“
Promise me you won’t get caught,” he said.

“
We’ll be fine, Crawford,” Jade said, accepting the crest.
“Don’t you trust me?”

Absolutely not.

“
Of course I do, how could you say that? Are you sure you
don’t just want me to try and get you in?”

“
Unfortunately they won’t let her get on the list without a
guardian or counsellor,” Jade said. “You don’t have control over
the law, Crawford. Yet.”

Should I be offering to help them? I don’t like the idea of
her going off with just Jade ...

Before
Breckin could consider this thought any more, Emmy interrupted it.
She was not going to involve anyone else in this. “Thank you, we
really appreciate this. We’ll be careful.”

He
nodded, and Jade suggested they get back downstairs. As a thanks on
the way down, Jade punched him in the arm, which he playfully
returned.

Rozelyn
was waiting for him at the door. Vera kissed them both on the
cheek, telling them to come again soon. As they headed out, Breckin
slipped an arm around Rozelyn, pulling her close.

The knot
twisted unpleasantly, and a voice – which was her own for a change
– said the craziest thing she had ever heard.

I hope he’s not in love with her.

Emmy
backed away at her own thought.

And
despite the fact later that night she would be tossing and turning
for hours before falling asleep, unable to get that ridiculous
too-serious expression and that quirky mouth that made her muscles
weaken out of her head, at that moment, her logical voice warned
her:

Don’t even think about it.

***

The day
had finally come. Emmy knew it would be impossible to concentrate
on her classes that day. Her selfish side found comfort in that she
had Jade and Persephone, who were also just as distracted as she
was. It must have been visible on her face because at lunch several
people asked the three girls what was wrong.

Her
practical classes helped her release of her anxiety, but it started
up again right after they were finished. The evening was painful,
and finally, she was told to go to bed.

Since she
didn’t have a digital clock, she laid in her bed in the dark,
listening to the ticking of the analog clock instead. She rehearsed
the plan for what felt like ages, and at long last, the clock
struck midnight. A few seconds later she was shaken by
Jade.

Emmy
grabbed the knapsack by her bed and tiptoed out of the room with
Jade. The girls, with all the stealth they possessed, made their
way through the hall, down the stairs to the kitchen, and down the
next flight of stairs into the coffeehouse, which was strangely
empty. On their way out they grabbed their outerwear, and only when
they opened the door did they let out a breath. There, Persephone
was waiting for them with a lantern.

The
snowstorm from the previous day had picked up again, as fierce as
ever. They had decided not to take a family horse in case anyone
saw them. The trek was a miserable one, even for Jade with her
thick skin and abnormal body heat. By the time they reached
Urquhart they were red, wet, and freezing.

In one leap Jade jumped over the granite wall, Emmy and
Persephone on her tail. Persephone led the way to the front
entrance, keys in hand, Emmy behind her, and Jade was last, keeping
a lookout for anyone watching them. The key slipped into the lock
with a satisfying
click
, letting the girls inside.

As
strange as it was seeing The Noir Beanery vacant, it was equally
eerie being in Urquhart in the dark, with the stuffed animals and
war tapestries appearing twice as sinister.

The girls
didn’t say a word as they traveled through the parlour to the
office. Emmy pulled out Breckin’s citizenship badge from her bag
and slipped it into the circular hole beside the door. The hole
contracted to fit the shape, approved it, and the door flung
open.

At the
end of the white hall they saw a heavyset door with a plaque that
read “Willow Starling” on it.