Chapter 7
Seven
Ijerk to a halt the second I’ve stepped into the Domi’s hall next to the tapestry of Signy. Did I hear my uninvited guest right?
“Down to work?” I mutter. “I did what you asked me to do already.”
Julita dismisses my hesitation in what I’m learning is her usual coyly self-assured way. I simply want to check my dorm. It’s possible my murderer broke in to go through my things after cutting me down. If he left any evidence, we can pass that on to the others too.
“That wasn’t the deal.”
We’re already here. The hard part is over. It’ll only take a few more minutes.
When I still balk, Julita sighs. Ivy, I lost my entire life yesterday, to villains who are hoping to destroy a lot more lives if they get away with it.
This is my last chance to do everything in my power to ensure they’re brought to justice.
You’ve been fantastic so far. I know you won’t get into any trouble.
I run my thumb over the missing stub on my right pointer finger. Every inch of my skin is already itching with the urge to sprint out of this place as fast as I can, to trade the clinging faux-silk dress for my hooded tunic, to duck back into the shadows where I belong.
But I can see her point. And I am already inside, past the security measures. No one’s badgered me about my presence so far.
What kind of a monster would I be if I ignore her plea?
And just how insane will I go if I have to listen to her complaining about my refusal for however long it takes until I figure out how to uninvite her from my head?
I exhale sharply. “Fine. But we do need to be quick about it. Where’s your dorm?”
Julita’s voice brightens with so much relief I feel a jab of guilt over hesitating. One floor up. If you head around the next corner in the hall, there’s a smaller staircase down there that isn’t used very often.
I don’t run into any of Julita’s schoolmates in the narrowing hall or the even narrower spiral of the staircase. When I step out onto the second floor, a bunch of male students are just ambling through one of the nearby doorways.
One of them looks me up and down with a leering curl of his lips that has my fingers twitching toward my hip where I’d usually have my favorite knife stashed.
Since stabbing him wouldn’t be any better for my whole incognito mission than sticking it to Stavros would have, I settle for pretending I haven’t even noticed him. Or the chuckles that follow in my wake as Julita nudges me in the opposite direction.
Are they laughing because he made some crude comment about me, or because they can tell I don’t quite fit the mold?
A lot of pricks in this place, Julita remarks in a darkly wry tone as I follow the bend in the hall. It makes figuring out who’s just an ass and who’s actually evil rather difficult.
I have to restrain a snort of unexpected amusement.
For a couple of minutes, I walk on past rows of doors spaced several paces apart. Each wooden surface holds an intricate etching of some scene from history: Silana’s, the continent’s, or that of the gods themselves.
As I stride past them, Julita fills me in on the details of our destination.
This half of the second floor belongs to the leadership division.
We room in clusters. Everyone gets a private bedroom, of course, but they’re in clumps of ten around a common leisure room.
Room assignments switch up once per term.
They want us to have a chance to interact with everyone in our division.
Wonderful—so there are nine potential witnesses to me breaking into Julita’s dorm.
I allow myself a grimace and drop my voice to the barest whisper so no one beyond those doors can hear me. “And how do I get in?”
The bracelet is the key there too. All students and staff have an ornament attuned for the access they need—that’s mine. I’ll tell you what to do once we get there. If anyone’s around, you can tell them I sent you to pick something up while I was busy with a project out of town. We’re almost there…
She has me stop outside a door carved with an image of a stately woman who I guess from her crown is King Konram’s late grandmother. The artist has given her the same prominent nose. Creaden’s sigil slashes through the wood above her head.
Press my bracelet to the ring on her right hand, Julita says.
I tip my wrist, and a rasp sounds from inside the door. When I test the knob, it opens.
I slip into the common room cautiously. A gust of mingled perfumes assaults my nose.
Elegant upholstered chairs and settees fill most of the space, along with a card table in the corner and a built-in bookcase next to it. Heavy velvet curtains drape the sides of the broad picture window at the far end of the room.
No one’s using the space at the moment, thank the gods. My gaze darts over the relatively plain doors to the individual bedrooms along the side walls.
Left side, third one down. Let’s see if it’s still locked.
That knob jars when I test it.
Julita lets out a satisfied hum. Feel the notches on the backside of the knob? Press the bottom one twice, then the right one once, then the top, then the bottom again.
When I’ve followed the pattern, I’m rewarded with another click. I ease the door open.
Julita’s bedroom looks about as jumbled as my mind feels with her bustling around in it.
Silk and satin dresses sprawl across every available surface, including the polished wooden floor with its flower-print rug.
By contrast, the wardrobe standing with its door ajar across from the four-poster bed appears to be all but empty.
“Is this—?” I start to ask, tensing up at the thought of someone having ransacked the place.
Julita lets out a giggle that sounds just slightly sheepish. I wasn’t expecting visitors. I always say it’s easier to find what I’m looking for when everything’s on display.
Ah, so this is her mess, not some intruder’s. I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.
Although considering that my own bedroom of sorts is mostly disorganized heaps of books, maybe I’m not in a position to judge.
“Is anything out that shouldn’t be?” I ask. “Or anything missing that should be here?”
Take a walk around and let me check everything.
I meander through the chamber, hopping over crumpled dresses here and there. Julita has me open her wardrobe all the way, lift the lid of her well-stocked jewelry box, tug back the soft sheets on the bed, and delve into the drawers on the bedside tables.
When I’ve investigated every nook and cranny, she makes a disgruntled sound. I don’t see any sign that anyone’s been in here. Surely they’d have wanted to search to see what proof I’d already found?
“Maybe they’re afraid they won’t be able to sneak in without getting caught,” I point out. “They did wait to attack you until you were well away from the college.”
True… It was strange. There must have been magic involved.
It happened so fast it’s a blur. I was walking along, and this blast of wind smacked into me, and then that horrible pain lanced through my neck…
If I’d managed to turn around in time, maybe I could have seen them, and we wouldn’t need to be digging through my laundry.
I frown. “Someone who can manipulate wind. They used it to distract you? There can’t be too many people here with that specific gift.”
I don’t know of anyone. It could have been merely a coincidence that the wind picked up at the same time. She hisses as if through her teeth. I should have mentioned that to the men so they could at least look into it. This whole situation is so… disorienting.
“We could go back to the meeting?” I suggest, as much as my body tenses at the idea.
No, they’ll have gone their separate ways by now. Maybe—
“Julita, is that you?”
The tart feminine voice carries through the door, and my stance goes outright rigid with a skip of my pulse. I hadn’t realized anyone had come into the common room, but one of Julita’s dormmates must have noticed my voice.
There’s a sharp rap on the door.
Go on, Julita says. If you pretend you’re not here, it’ll be so much more awkward when we need to leave.
I square my shoulders and dart over to the door. “Just a moment!”
As I twist the knob, I push my mouth into an ingratiating smile and yank.
A woman tall and sleek as a sapling stands just outside, her flaxen hair piled in an elaborate whorl on top of her head and her wide-set eyes narrowing at the sight of me.
I bring out my most chipper tone before she can speak. “Not Julita. Only a friend picking up something she needed. She’s handling a project out of town. She lent me her bracelet so I could get in.”
I hold up my wrist to reveal it.
The woman’s lips curl with a hint of a sneer. She rotates the partly eaten apple she’s holding between her fingers. “Out of town? Where’s she slunk off to?”
I keep my smile in place despite the hostility in the words. “Oh, I’m not totally sure. I’m supposed to send it on to her near our hometown. As soon as possible, so I’d better get going.”
If this woman hears about Julita’s death and wonders about my odd visit, I expect to be well away from anywhere anyone would be looking for a noble visitor by then.
As I step out and shut the bedroom door behind me, the woman takes another bite of her apple and peers down her nose at me. “Fine. When you see her, tell her I expect the jewelry she borrowed to be returned the very first second she sets foot back at the college.”
In my head, Julita guffaws. Is she still fussing about those awful earrings? The wretched things nearly pulled my earlobes off. I left them on the side table outside her bedroom—not my fault if someone else snatched them.
This is a squabble I’m not interested in getting in the middle of. I edge to the side, away from the door. “I’ll mention it to her.”