Chapter 12
My first step into Heathermoor castle proper was enough to stop me in my tracks. Where Neverthorn was dark and moody gothic architecture with a constant feeling of being watched, this place looked like it had been pulled straight out of a fairytale.
The stone arches that led into the main hall glowed with prisms of light that came from little grooves inset in the stone, to make it look as if the lights were a part of the stone.
The floor was brilliant white marble by the way it looked and sounded under the heel of my boots.
All the walls were hung with gossamer material that undulated gently on a breeze that I couldn’t feel, each section interspersed with vines covered in deep green leaves, and speckled through with flowers that were purple, red, and orange.
The whole place smelled of sunshine and ocean – like that perfect day on the beach in midsummer.
“Wild,” I whispered.
Thalienne stood in the middle of the room and clapped her hands. “Tables, please.”
Round tables rose straight out of the marble floor – transmuting, I was betting after my first class – the wooden tops smooth and clean.
Two kids were caught unaware and were lifted with the tables.
They had to scuttle off to the sound of their friends’ laughter, but more than that, everyone was looking at them.
Center of attention. I looked down to see a table right under me.
I stumbled back a few feet so I wouldn’t end up standing on one too.
The tables rocked a bit, then settled; only then did the servers begin to lay out food. Every table had the same dishes set in the center on a massive lazy Susan, which made it easy to pass the food around.
“Seven to a table, please,” Thalienne said. “And remember, you are to sit with different students at each meal.”
I blinked. That was interesting and easy enough for me this time around.
The closest table to me was also the farthest back from the front, where all the doyens and Sage Thalienne were to be seated.
Once I picked a chair, I finally took a good look at the spread as other students began to join me.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad here after all.
Bandit would be freaking out because the food looked like it was on Wickersham’s level.
Ribs smothered in gleaming barbecue sauce that smelled both spicy and sweet, a massive roast beef, Greek salad, fresh rolls, carrots robed in ginger sauce, a large wok full of a rice dish that smelled like coconut, a huge bowl of soup, fish and chips, and something I suspected might be haggis.
A girl sat down on my left as I started spooning out the food closest to me – carrots and a few ribs. Her dark brown hair was bound back in a tight French braid. Bright green eyes stood out against her deep brown skin.
“Hello.” Her accent made it sound more like halloo, and I couldn’t place it. “My name is Gina. House Kelpish.”
I nodded at her and reminded myself not to fuck it up with the first person I spoke to. “Hannah.”
I did not give her my house on purpose.
“First day?” Gina helped herself to soup first.
“Yes. It’s a bit . . . overwhelming.” I glanced at her, trying to gauge just what she might be up to. House Kelpish at Neverthorn were notoriously close-mouthed.
“Agreed. I arrived two seasons ago. Once my parents could teach me no longer.”
I stared at her. Homeschooling with Dwimmers really was popular in these parts. Not popular at all in the States, but the second time I’d heard mention of it. The first, from Doyenne McCabe.
“Right.”
Stellar conversationalist, I know, but I still wasn’t feeling like myself. A dull throb at the back of my neck just wouldn’t let me go, and I rubbed at the base of my skull.
“What house did you say you were?” Her green eyes went to the hollow of my neck, but I knew for a fact my pendant was tucked under my collar.
I grimaced. “I didn’t.”
She arched a dark brow, eyeing me speculatively as she lowered her voice to a whisper. “I heard there was a House Phoenix student who came through today . . .”
My grimace deepened which made it hard to get the bite of rib in my mouth. The scent of the sauce made me think of fresh berries, which was strange, and then I bit into it and holy shit balls . . . the blend of blackberries and sharp spices had me groaning. “This is amazing.”
Her laugh was immediate. “The food is good. Welcome to Heathermoor, Hannah.”
I grinned at her, the taste of the ribs wiping away whatever worries I had, at least for the moment.
A heavy thump on my right had me turning to see Ross – currently Rick – drop down beside me.
Perfect.
“Rick.”
“Hannah.”
My fingers were sticky, so I couldn’t slip him his stone, not yet. We dug into the meal, and I was content to stay quiet and let the conversation flow around me as the table slowly filled up.
“Did you all hear about Nocta’s attack on Neverthorn? It happened right before winter break. I guess he and his soldiers dropped out of the sky in the middle of the Solstice Games,” Gina said to the whole group. “I heard he would’ve killed them all, if not for Tarquinius.”
I swallowed a laugh as Ross bumped my knee with his.
“Neverthorn is terrifying, if you ask me,” a boy with glasses chimed in.
“Every school has its downside, I’m sure,” Ross said before shoveling a pile of rice into his mouth.
Gina smiled over at him. “Of course. Learning to control magic, to cast runes properly is inherently dangerous. It’s why most of us stay home until our final years. Learn with our parents, one on one. It’s better that way. Safer when your parents understand you.”
I realized with a start that they thought we were all the same – that our early training hadn’t been fraught with danger and fear. I couldn’t tell her the whole truth, but I couldn’t stop myself from correcting her.
“Not me. My mom died. I lived with my grandmother till her death. Then I came here.”
Gina put a hand on my arm, “I’m so sorry.”
I think she meant it, too.
The people in this place were so . . . nice.
And nice people made me leery. My experience was that nice didn’t always mean kind. They were not synonymous. Often niceness hid the cruelty underneath.
Like Tarquinius.
The chatter continued after that amongst the others mostly, discussing the classes offered the next day, and the monthly challenges.
“What are those like? Monthly challenges?” Ross asked as he spooned himself some of the berry trifle that had replaced one of the dinner plates. I knew what he was really asking; was it going to be some version of the Solstice Games all over again?
Another of our dinner companions – Christian, if I remembered right – answered. “They’re fun. You’re assigned a team and have to work together, planning strategy to get through a maze.”
“Do kids get hurt like in the Solstice Games at Neverthorn?”
“No, there’s nothing like that here.” Gina narrowed her eyes, studying my face.
“Those games are barbaric. I’m glad Sage Thalienne doesn’t make us do them,” another girl murmured.
“You’ve heard a lot about Neverthorn, haven’t you?” Gina pressed.
I shrugged, realizing too late that I should’ve stuck with my initial plan and kept my mouth too full of food to talk.
“Uh, yeah. My mom went there,” I said, trying to keep my tone light and casual. Nothing to see here.
Gina’s eyes widened. “That’s why you came here? Because she told you how bad it was?”
I spooned a bite of trifle into my mouth and swallowed it fast. “Something like that. Plus, there’s so much gossip about Neverthorn. There’s nothing really out there about Heathermoor. Like for all I know, it could hold a cursed treasure, or the Grym itself.”
I laughed, as if the Grym Dunaras was a legend, a fairytale, but the others . . . did not.
If anything, they squirmed where they sat. Interesting.
Gina finally sighed and answered. “This is the deal here – the gag rune you signed on for when you enrolled is a huge part of why this school is so safe. Sage Thalienne is very protective of all the students. And part of that is the secrecy. There are too many who would try to get her removed.”
“Why? If it’s safe, and she’s doing good with training so many, what’s the issue?” I looked at the head table as did everyone else at our table. With all eyes turned away, I took Ross’s stone from my pocket by feel and pressed it against his leg. He took it and slipped it into his pocket.
One down. Three to go.
“She’s part-Fae. It makes other Dwimmers suspicious of her and her abilities,” Christian said turning back to his plate.
“But she’s not bad. Just tough and determined to make us all the best that we can be.
I think . . . I think the Senate doesn’t want to believe she could be better than Tarquinius. ”
Tough, I could deal with.
My mind was on the conversation before, that had me wondering why Tarquinius didn’t implement that same gag rune caveat in the Neverthorn contract as well. He loved controlling the students.
But he loved accolades more, I realized with a start.
He was just arrogant enough to want Neverthorn on everyone’s lips because he thought so highly of himself – and the school, by extension – that he likely figured the negatives of gagging us would outweigh the positives.
And the people that didn’t toe the company line or made him or Neverthorn look bad?
Wound up as outcasts, like Opie.
Or dead after launching themselves out the window, like Lucy . . .
“Kraken!” Calypso yelled from my pocket.
Panic distracted me from the despair that welled up inside me, and I coughed even as I slapped my hand over that pocket.
“Sorry about that. Just some . . . trapped gas.”
“Weird, it sounded like the word ‘kraken.’” The girl seated next to Ross was eyeing me curiously. Mary? Maybe her name was Mary. Her Scottish accent was light enough that I could easily understand her. “Funny, the new girl in House Unicorna said something about a kraken today too.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.