CHAPTER 27: IN OTHER NEWS

They were known by their eyes, by hunger, wrath, and cruelty, sweeping across the land in a fabric woven by mangled bodies and bloodshed.

Briddy swallowed, running a thumb across the seam of the clumsily addressed envelope. Despite her sister’s many graces and talents, she never bothered to apply any effort towards the terrible scrawl she called handwriting. The letter had appeared in her keepedish sometime between the midday break and when she swung back for a book she needed to return before Library Study started.

  Now, she examined it as she walked, the unopened envelope sitting in her hand, suggesting some tiny innocence that would be broken at the same time as the seal. Bridget frowned, turning it back over. She hadn’t even really expected a reply when she had sent her letter. Adelaide was busy these days, she was hardly ever at home unless she was between contacts. Too busy, in Bridget’s opinion, but that meant nothing in the Vasily household.

  Frowning, Briddy ran her fingers over the letters of her name, casually thrown about on the paper like discarded clothes onto her sister’s bedroom floor. She stuffed the envelope into her bag as she descended into the darkness of the sunken library, shadows giving a momentary excuse to not look at it any longer.

  Why do you wait? Vex whispered.

  I’m not sure if I want to hear from her. Even if I did write first.

  Then why write at all?

  I suppose I just wanted her to know. Bridget admitted.

  Sometimes knowledge begs a response.

  Briddy ducked into the watery light of the library, making her way across its black tiles and placing her book in the ‘return’ pile.

  Not always. She thought. Adelaide could’ve told you that.

  Swallowing the bitter taste on her tongue, Bridget made her way over to one of the bottom cubicles in the honeycomb-shaped section of the library. Vex was quiet until she settled in, its voice merely a whisper in her thoughts.

  Because she knew?

  The words sparked pain like flint against steel, the hot sparks stinging each breath she took. Because she didn’t try to stop them.

  Anger this keen-

  I do not need your insights on this, Vex. Briddy snapped.

  -is often borne of great love.

  Thanks. She replied bitterly, pulling the letter out again. There was a trash can, not five paces away from where she sat. It would be a simple thing to just throw it in, and not worry about the damned thing anymore. Lowering her eyes, Briddy looked down at the letter, caught between the surety of knowledge and the ignorance of bliss. She could hear Gail saying “Just get it over and done with.”

  With one smooth motion, she slid her thumb under the seal and broke it. Her taste for ignorance had been lost a long time ago, claimed by the white blade of a special knife she found shoved in a box under her father’s desk.

Little sister,

Our Mistletide was fine, thanks for asking. I did hear through a little bird named Nolan that yours was quite eventful as well, not that I’m implying you had anything to do with spiking the teacher’s drinks. (If you did, good on you though). As for the heat, I know it gets to be unbearable around this time, and greencoats get it the worst out of anyone. Try going to a teacher, preferably Maistwel, and asking for permission to cast a cooling spell in your dormitory. If he lets you, then unbutton the bottom of those crappy duvets they have, and aim a quick wind incantation in there. Invest a decent chunk of power, funnel it, and climb inside for a breezy haven of your own.

You should be glad that you missed the holidays-

Bridget looked up from Adelaide’s letter to a rush of hissed whispers, scratching against her ears like coarse cloth on skin. Looking around, she saw Niles off to the side, saying something to a couple of his cronies. Shaking her head, she went back to her letter. Before she could get past the part she had left off, Professor Murdock bore down on her in a rush of a wine-red vest and curled mustache, scolding her lightly for not making use of the library’s resources.

  Chagrined, she wandered off, making sure to head toward the opposite side of the enormously round room from where the lancer stood. She could feel his disapproving gaze bore a hole between her shoulders even after the central pillar would have blocked her sight, and hastened to find something relatively interesting to read. Selecting a tome on the second to bottom shelf entitled Beasts and Hatred: A Guide, Briddy turned to make her way back into the safety of her hexagonal cubby.

  There, seated directly in her path, lounged Niles and his two friends, pretending to look for books while continuing their murmured conversation. Spinning back towards the shelf, Bridget scanned its contents without really reading them. Why was he there? She inwardly groaned, pushing away from the neat cubbies of books separated by lines of metal, and began walking her way back towards the hexagonal booth.

  Niles snickered as she approached, the hushed laughter clattering across the black stone tiles like a handful of marbles had been dropped. Gritting her teeth, Bridget tried to keep a steady pace as she approached, and a wide berth between them. The laughter stopped once she got within ten paces, falling to the hiss of hushed voices that still carried.

  “-stole my friends and now acts like-”

  “-do you put up with that in your cell-”

  “-no choice.”

  Their heads snapped up as Bridget walked by, Niles’ oval frames catching the broken light from the water at the top of the library, glinting in its sheen. The small cluster stopped talking altogether as she walked by, watching her with cold faces.

  Lifting her chin, Briddy fixed each one of them with a silent, stony stare of her own. After a few moments, the boy, who she didn’t recognize, and a girl from Botanica dropped their eyes, glancing around or aimlessly at the shelves. Niles’ mouth quirked down in disapproval, but he held her gaze as she walked past, watery eyes glaring unblinkingly.

  Like a Carrion Serpent rearing its head, the hiss of conversation echoed her footsteps as she left them behind.

  “-what I have to deal with-”

  “-understand, now.”

  Ears burning, she sat back down with a thump on the cushioned seat of her hexagonal study area and slammed her book open on the table. Flipping open to a random section, she tried to ignore how much the pages trembled as her fingers turned them. Why couldn’t Niles just leave well enough alone? She had tried civility, distance, and honesty, but all she seemed to achieve was to fuel his acrimony, no matter the cost. Was the only way to get him to leave her be through a desert of flat smiles and fawning, sycophantic surrender?

  Her head began to throb, pain spreading from behind her eyes in stabbing pulses. Rubbing at her temples, Bridget made sure the clip and tie on her head weren’t too tight, and looked down at the page before her.

  Studying didn’t seem feasible at the moment, not with an aching head, so she scooped up the letter from her sister and slid it under the page she was on and picked up the book. Keeping an occasional eye at where Professor Murdock was patrolling, she picked up where she left off.

You should be glad you missed the holidays around here. Celebrations with the Guild were rowdy, but things have been getting tense of late. Lots of odd groups meeting behind locked doors, messengers coming and then leaving before they even get the chance to sit. I managed to persuade-

Briddy’s lips quirked. She was familiar with the gripping strangleholds of Adelaide’s ‘persuasion’.

-one to tell me what he was carrying, and he said maps, of all things. Mother’s been more hellacious than usual, due in no small part to the fact that father hasn’t been sleeping well lately. She nitpicks everything, and he grouches around, snapping if you breathe too loud. A while back, he didn’t sleep for a week and got so bad I bunked at the Gilded Down until he got his temper under control. Nolan just stays up in his tower now, so he doesn’t see much of it, but we’re all worried. I’m thinking that whatever is happening with him has to do with the strange goings on here, but they’re being -

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Bridget stopped again, brows creasing. Kerr hadn’t slept for a week? The man normally slept like a pile of stones, with a snore to match a mountain. She scanned the line a few more times, looking for anything else. A thought took root in her mind. Adelaide had her theory, and Briddy began to have her own.

  Clear and soft, chimes rang to signal the end of class and an interruption of Briddy’s thoughts. Staying behind as large tiles lowered her classmates to the floor from higher cubicles, she turned back to the mostly finished letter.

-cagey about something. Nolan told me to tell you to keep your clip in and stay out of trouble, and mother wants to remind you that she hasn’t forgotten about how you ended the Shivercord call. I think she’s expecting an apology, but that’s just me. Don’t forget to ask Maistwel about that spell, and make sure you start writing more.

Best,

Adelaide

Sliding the paper out of the book, Bridget stuffed the letter back into her bag, and leaned forward on her elbows. There was a very large part of her that wanted to immediately write her sister back, asking which specific week her father had spent sleepless. Looking at the bottom of the letter once again, she thought better of it. From the sound of things, at least Ruba was looking at the letters Adelaide got, and what Ruba knew, Kerr would soon discover.

  Standing up, she gathered her things and marched her way over to the front desk, where the twins were studiously sorting through the returns, books floating through the air into neat, alphabetized stacks.

  “Do you have any books on wards or methods to prevent the summoning of relics?”

  Demeter turned her head around to look at her, the sheen of her round spectacles hiding her eyes. “The library contains knowledge of those subjects.” She said, finger still flicking the flying books into different piles.

  “Nothing accessible to greencoats though, I’m afraid,” Dimitri added, his bun bobbing as he nodded to a pile of books, who rearranged themselves according to title alphabetically.

  “Nothing at all?” Bridget asked incredulously.

  The clatter of rushing footsteps sounded off the stairs behind her, and a couple of students rushed into the library, their Shrouds fluttering behind them. Eyes bright with excitement, they flitted about to different students, murmuring something in hasty whispers.

  “You know.” “Dimitri’s deep voice brought her attention back to the twins. “You are not the first Vasily to ask us this question.”

  “Or even the second.” Demeter smiled. “All for different reasons though.”

  Briddy looked between the twins, confusion twisting her mind. What would Adelaide and Nolan want with suppressing relics?

  Scuffling footsteps sounded nearby, as students began to spread around, greencoats whispering to ones in black, a girl with a Final Sunrise pin darting towards a group with the flames of the Imbar Company.

  “No running.” Demeter admonished, a final book being directed into the pile.

  “So when am I allowed to read books on suppressing relics?” Bridget pushed.

  “Possibly next year,” Dimitri said, vaguely.

  “Or the year after that,” Demeter added.

  Briddy exhaled, air escaping through her nose. Looking up at the two librarians, she plastered a smile on her face. “Alright. Is there any way I could see it sooner? Like if a teacher gave me a note?”

  “You could ask a teacher,” Demeter said mildly.

  “But library restrictions are overseen by the headmistress.” Her brother finished.

  Grimacing, Bridget returned to square one in her head. Somehow asking Terna to bend the rules for her didn’t seem like the best idea. It was hard for her to focus, between the nagging pain in her head and the growing murmurs from the students.

  “Quiet, please.” Dimitri shushed, and Bridget looked up to see a small herd of students heading for their stairs, study areas, and shelves abandoned in favor of a fevered buzz. Looking around, she spotted small, jugheaded Argus near the edge of the group, and leaned out to snatch his arm.

  “Argus, what’s going on?” She asked.

  “Announcement.” The boy squeaked, his eyes darting about.

  Bridget looked up at the librarians, who were examining each other with slightly raised eyebrows.

  “Quicker than expected,” Dimitri said, peering through his lenses.

  “It must mean a large one.” His sister agreed.

  Exasperated, Briddy tried to get their attention. “A large what?”

  “There have been rumblings near the Fingers in the north.”

  “Stirrings, interruptions.” Demeter smiled wryly. “Someone’s kicked the Mirebee nest now.”

  The buzz of the crowd grew to a hum, the murmur of conversation progressively getting louder as students shared suspicions and theories amongst themselves.

  “Argus, what is this announcement about?” Briddy said, turning back to the large-eared boy, who was fast turning an impressive shade of puce.

  “I don’t…well you see… I could um…” He stammered through the words, and Briddy let him go.

  Without hesitation, Argus darted away into the crowd of students, hastily squeaking something about ‘scary woman’.

  Rotating, Bridget made as if to ask the librarians what they were going on about, only to find them gone from behind the desk.

  “Form a neat line out of the library please.” Demeter’s voice said from near the stairs.

  Briddy’s head snapped around to find the twins situated on either side of the wide staircase, ushering students of all years up the steps.

  “If you need to use the facility, feel free to stay, but any further disturbances must take place outside,” Dimitri said firmly.

  Joining the queue, Bridget allowed herself to be swept out of the library and into harsh sunlight, blinking hard as she was buffered about by the small crowd. Outside, students milled about the campus despite the heat, daring up and down its wheel-like sections to share news in hissed whispers, or huddled around those lucky enough to possess scrying stones.

  Bridget stopped by the nearest group, trying to lean in to hear or catch a glimpse of whatever was playing out of the stone’s depths.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” An older student in a red shroud pinned through with a brooch shaped like a cracked hammer.

  “Go find your own group.” Another one, a boy in blue with the same hammer emblazoned across his shirt added.

  “Sorry,” Bridget muttered, backing away.

  Hurrying across campus, trying to ignore the dry, salty taste the heat placed in her mouth, Bridget noticed that she was not the only one rejected by these huddles. More often than not, they were comprised of those with similar iconography worn about their person, and as she watched a group of sun emblazoned students expel a greencoat with some flames embroidered into his sleeves, the pieces slid into place.

  “Bridget!” A silver hand caught the sunlight in a flash, waving her over to a small gathering huddled near the line of shadow cast by the trees surrounding Courage House. The upper dorms loomed large as Briddy hurried towards Parvati, whose face was pinched tight with anticipation.

  “What…” Briddy paused, taking a gulp of air. “is going on?”

  Warrin bounced over, tossing her a bottle of deep blue hydration draught. “Didn’t you hear?” He said, in the way that someone does when they hold a juicy piece of information.

  “I was in Library Study when I caught wind.”

  “Well,” Warrin said, savoring his words. “I happened to be in the middle of a Shivercord conversation with my father about my truly excellent exam results…”

  Parvati groaned, impatiently waving him on.

  “...and the news happened to come in while we were talking. Of course, Lianne’s dad had already sent scouts out-”

  “Warrin,” Bridget said warningly.

  “They found a field of tracks all shapes and sizes-”

  Parvati cut in, flicking her straight black hair over one shoulder. “They found signs of a pack.”

  “Really?” Bridget’s eyes widened, her heart rate skyrocketing. “And they’re sure it’s not just a low-rank herd?”

  “Oh, they’re sure.” Warrin’s eyes danced. “And you know what that many high-rank targets means.”

  Bridget’s gaze met his, a confused knot of exhilaration and dread shaking in her stomach. Adelaides’ letter rushed back to her in a stream of locked doors and rushed messengers with maps.

  “Guildhunt.” She breathed.