In the Eye of the Storm
Chapter Seventeen
IN THE EYE OF THE STORM
Ceri
“G one, how?” Alison dared to ask. Ceri could see that the others were thinking it.
“Not dead. Gone. I saw it with my own eyes,” said Ceri. “He was there in the center of the courtyard. I didn’t see him at first—the lights went out, and it’s so dark out there. But the lightning flashed and I—”
She choked up. “He can’t be gone, can he? It’s not right.”
Rinka came up to her and put her arm around her shoulder. Ceri loved Rinka. She was what she imagined having a sister would be like.
“Should we go out there, Ceri? Does he need help?” asked Keir.
“No,” said Ceri. “Don’t go out there. He’s not there, I’m telling you. He’s not there!”
“Let’s get you back to the dining hall and into some dry clothes, and we can talk about it,” said Rinka.
“Oh,” said Ceri. She removed Rinka’s arm for a moment and concentrated on the water soaking her school uniform, her hair, her body. There was a lot of it, far more than the contents of the coffee up that she’d picked up right here in the library.
Leo’s tea coffee.
She sobbed, and then added those tears to the floating ball of water.
“You’ve been practicing,” said Idris, awed.
Ceri opened the door, flung the water outside with her magic, and slammed it shut again.
“What happened to you?” Ceri asked him. He looked like death.
“Let’s wait to go over all of that when we get back to the others,” said Alison. “I’m not sure what could be listening. Ceri, none of us have much energy left for magic after tonight. If something happens—”
“I got it,” said Ceri. “Did you all come looking for me?”
“Yes,” said Idris. “Lady Sibba and Weyland as well. Has anyone seen them?”
“No,” said Willow. “I could smell them in the hall though. It seemed like they went to the dorms as planned.”
“Should we go and find them? What if they had a similar encounter to ours?” asked Alison.
“Let’s check the dining hall first,” said Keir. “It’s closer.”
“There’s a professor that practices some form of witchcraft,” said Idris. “Maybe she can help if they need it.”
Ceri felt bad about putting all of these people in danger chasing after Leo only to…to…
“Hold on, princess,” said Rinka as Ceri cried, putting her arm around her again. “It’ll be alright. We’ll figure it out.”
Ceri really wanted to believe her.
They traced the path back through the books—Ceri had to be stopped from trying to put them back on the shelves in order to save her energy in case it was needed—and returned to the dining hall, to the immense relief of Dean Whittaker.
“Oh, you’re back! You’re all back!” said the Dean. Lady Sibba rushed over with Weyland close behind.
“What happened to you?” asked Lady Sibba. “Was it the blood? Did you see it too? Oh, hello, princess. Glad you’re alright.”
“Where’s Leo?” said Professor Marin. “Did you find him?”
“Can we have a place to sit down?” asked Idris.
“Of course, of course,” said Dean Whittaker. He directed Weyland to the stacked dining room chairs and benches. He and Rinka arranged them in a circle in a far corner of the room.
“Let’s start with Ceri,” said Idris. “Tell us what happened to Leo.”
“I went to your office first. I thought he might have gone there for his objects, but the door was locked. I opened it anyway, just in case he’d locked it back from the inside. But no one was in there. Your closet was unlocked, and I could see he had taken them back, so I thought I’d try the library.”
“The objects?” asked Dean Whittaker.
Idris and Professor Marin filled him in on Leo’s research and Idris’s confiscation.
“Too right you were,” said Dean Whittaker. “I must say, I’m not familiar with the accepted methods of storage myself. If you wouldn’t mind educating me—”
“Another time,” said Idris, gesturing to Ceri.
“Why did you try there first?” asked Rinka.
“Leo said the library hated him but that it hadn’t always done so. I thought maybe it was the objects the library hated, not him. I mentioned that to him, and he seemed interested in the theory.”
“So you thought he was going there to test it out,” said Alison.
“I thought he was going to measure the objects in the storm primarily—it’s a rare event, absolutely the kind of thing he’d want to know about—but if he had the opportunity to take other measurements along the way, I guessed he’d take it. And when I got to the library, I could see I was right.”
“The fallen books,” said Alison. “The library was defending itself against the objects.”
“I think so,” said Ceri.
“By the way, we’ll come and help Ms. Redclaw clean up in the morning,” Idris told Dean Whittaker. “Just as soon as I get my magic back.”
“Yes, you’d better,” said Dean Whittaker. “Or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“So you followed the trail of fallen books through the library…” said Alison.
“Yes, I cleared a path. I reached the door and went outside.”
“Outside? Into the storm? Oh, Gods, King Derkomai will have my head! But how? You’re bone dry,” said Dean Whittaker.
By way of explanation, Ceri lifted a mug with her magic from a nearby table, picked up the contents in it, and dropped them back into the mug again.
“Right, right, of course,” said Dean Whittaker. “Forgive me, your highness. Please continue.”
“It was hard to see in the courtyard on account of the rain, and then the lights went out, and I couldn’t see anything. But when the lightning flashed, I saw him there in the middle of the courtyard. He had something in each hand—I couldn’t see what they were, but I’d guess his magimeter and one of the objects. And then—”
She choked on a sob.
Rinka reached across the circle and squeezed her hand.
“The lightning struck him.”
“Oh!” Professor Marin cried out. Alison took her hand—it was ice cold.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a terrible flash, blindingly bright, so close I could feel it. The thunder happened at the same time and sent a gust of wind through the courtyard, even more than the storm. I could smell it in the air. I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t see anything. I ran out into the courtyard.”
“You did what?” said Idris. “Are you insane?”
“Idris,” said Rinka.
“Don’t yell at me!” said Ceri. “Lightning can’t strike the same place twice. I was safe.”
Several people tried to speak at once.
“No, it definitely can.”
“It absolutely does all the time.”
“It hits our old building in Arcas Dyrne like five times a year.”
“It’s never, ever safe to go outside during a thunderstorm.”
“Okay, okay, I get it!” said Ceri. “I get it. I didn’t get struck, okay? I’m fine.”
Ceri rolled her eyes. She needed friends her own age who weren’t such know-it-alls. She looked across the room at where Ana was laying down.
“Hold on,” she said.
She crossed the room to Ana. A few people whispered—she guessed the word had gotten out that she was missing.
“Ana?”
“Oh, you’re okay! Thank goodness. Where’s Leo?”
Ceri shook her head. “I—do you want to hear the story? I’m telling it now.”
“Okay,” said Ana, following her back to the circle.
“I ran out into the courtyard. The rain was pouring so hard that it hurt. It’s like it was raining sideways. I got to the spot where Leo should have been. I could just see the scorch marks on the ground. But he wasn’t there.”
“What do you mean, ‘wasn’t there’?” asked Idris.
“I mean he wasn’t there. Alive or not. No Leo. No nothing.”
This last part wasn’t strictly true. There was something there, something tucked into the waistband of Ceri’s skirt. Something she had hidden when she’d dried her clothes.
Leo’s journal.
If Ceri mentioned it right now, they’d make her hand it over. They’d go through it together, or they’d take turns reading out loud from it or something equally mortifying.
And Ceri needed to know what was in it first. She’d hand it over to them, but not before checking for…well, she wasn’t sure what.
She knew what she’d write if she kept a journal.
It was the reason she didn’t.
“Perhaps it was some kind of magic?” asked Keir.
“I don’t understand,” said Alison. “That’s not how magic works, not to my understanding of it anyway. When we were trapped in the vine’s world, our bodies were still in this one. We know it because we found Aras’s body.”
“That was one kind of magic,” said Keir. “But we’ve seen others. What was that book you found when you found the secret passage?”
“Secret passage?” said the Dean and Ana at almost the same time.
Alison explained about the passage between the library and Idris’s closet.
“The book was something about portals and doorways, but it wasn’t a real book. I think it was just a joke by whoever made the passage. I don’t think portals are real. Are they, Idris?”
“Not to my knowledge, although I wouldn’t be surprised, to be honest. It would have to be extremely powerful magic though, to move objects through the physical realm.”
“You think he went somewhere?” asked Ceri.
Ceri hadn’t thought he was dead initially, but once she’d retold the story, she couldn’t really see how he could have survived such a thing.
“Lightning doesn’t disintegrate,” said Professor Marin. “If it happened as you said, his body should still be there. He may have even survived it. The strike in the lab was nowhere near as strong, but this doesn’t sound like ordinary lightning either.”
“The strike in the lab?” asked Dean Whittaker.
This time, no one answered him.
“It’s not there,” said Ceri. “I’m certain.”
“Could he have run somewhere in the dark?” asked Rinka.
“I would have heard it. I was close. I was almost to him when it happened.”
“We’ll set up a search as soon as the storm has cleared,” said Dean Whittaker. “I can’t risk anyone else until then.”
“It sounds like it’s slowing down out there,” said Weyland. “Maybe we could take a look around—”
“Absolutely not,” said Lady Sibba. “This is the eye of the storm. We’re only halfway through.”
“As soon as the storm clears,” repeated Rinka. “Okay, Ceri? If he’s here, we’ll find him.”
Ceri saw Alison and Keir exchange a look. “What?” she asked them.
“Nothing,” said Alison. “Just that if it’s like what happened to us in the spring, it may not be easy to find him. Or to get him back.”
“I think it’s likely very similar to what happened to you in the spring,” said Idris. “He took two other cursed objects from my storage in addition to his own. One is a ring that makes nightmares into a reality.”
“That doesn’t sound ideal,” said Alison. “What’s the other?”
“A watch, but I’m not sure of its power,” said Idris. “I’ve taken it out a few times to examine it. I could feel the magic on it, but it had no discernible effect. I’m not sure why he took it.”
“His magimeter,” said Ceri. “It would have read high on it. That’s why he’s taken it.”
Ceri was surprised Leo had taken things that weren’t his, but she was sure that he was only borrowing them. He probably thought Idris wouldn’t even know they were gone.
“You didn’t see anything on the ground near him? None of the objects?”
“Nothing,” lied Ceri, once again omitting the notebook. “But it was dark and pouring with rain. The wind was so strong I could barely walk.”
“We’ll check in the morning,” said Idris. “Did the lightning strike happen just before you went inside?”
“Yes,” said Ceri.
“The things that happened to the rest of us tonight. If it’s like Ceri said, that may be over, at least,” said Idris.
“Are you sure?” asked Alison. “I don’t sense anything here, but I’m so drained of magic, I’m not sure I would.”
“No, I’m definitely not sure. Dean Whittaker, while we discuss the other goings on tonight, would you find us anyone in the room who feels comfortable practicing magic? Witches or sorcerers or healers. Any magic practitioners of any kind. There may be a threat to the school, but none of us are in any condition to help.”
Dean Whittaker rose awkwardly, making his chair squeak on the wooden floor. “Of course. A threat, you say? You know what? Don’t tell me yet. Let me go find some help first.”
Dean Whittaker looked shaken, to say the least.
“I’ll go with him,” said Professor Marin.
“Some tea would be nice, too,” said Idris.
Ceri rolled her eyes.
“Now then,” said Idris. “Who wants to go first?”
After hearing all the horrible stories about what Idris and his friends had been through that evening to find her, Ceri felt even worse about everything.
“I can’t believe I was so foolish,” whispered Ceri to Ana when they lay down on their makeshift beds later that night. “I should have just told them where I was going. Maybe if Idris was there, he could have stopped Leo.”
This was a big admission for Ceri and something she never would have told Idris himself. But she trusted Ana to keep her secrets.
“I can’t believe all of that stuff happened here,” said Ana. “I know I have a bit of magic in me on my dad’s side at least. Would you be willing to teach me some? Once we find Leo, of course.”
Ceri liked that Ana was certain they’d find Leo. Everyone was, in fact. Listening to the rain beat against the roof and the boarded-up windows, she just hoped that wherever he was, he was safe.
Ceri waited for Ana to fall asleep and then slipped away, carefully stepping around the beds and tables, heading for the toilets.
The lights were still out, but Ceri had taken Alison’s candle, which she had left behind after their meeting. She lit it with her magic and headed into a stall, pulling the door shut behind her.
She carefully balanced the candle on the floor, pulled out the journal, and began to read.
Journal of Leorias of Gallia, Doctoral Candidate in ‘Lectrics
Summer–Autumn, Year Three
If found, please return to Professor Marin’s Laboratory
Ceri snapped the journal shut again. Could she do this? Ceri knew that he recorded the numbers in the journal when he took his measurements, but did it contain any of his private thoughts as well? She assumed so; it’s why she didn’t mention it yet to the others. And if there was anything in there about her, she wanted the chance to read it first.
But to do that, she needed to actually read it. It felt like a violation.
It was also really, extremely tempting.
They had only known each other for a couple of weeks. There was a decent chance she wasn’t mentioned at all.
But if she was mentioned, what did he say about her? Would he have written anything about the night they met? The night they watched the shooting stars?
Would he have written about that moment when he looked at her before she sat up and ruined it?
She thought about that moment. A lot.
Or what about the things he’d said he liked about her?
She wanted to know.
But that wasn’t the reason she was going to read it. She needed to read it because he might have mentioned what his plan was tonight, and it might be the key to finding out where he had gone.
And if she found out anything else incidentally, well, that couldn’t really be helped, could it?
Ceri opened the journal again, this time flipping through pages until she found the last entry.
Friday, Day 5 of Autumn Term
The items were reacquired from PI’s storage with minimal effort, but I was forced to leave prior to cleaning up the mess. Here’s hoping he doesn’t check his storage prior to joining the others in the dining hall.
The dining hall matter poses some concern, but there will likely be too many people to do a thorough accounting. I have no means of preventing my discovery other than hiding until the storm begins in earnest. It would be ideal to take all measurements in the exact same location, but I’ll have to assume that some taken in the cloister won’t impact the numbers too greatly.
I remain convinced that the exact center of the courtyard has some degree of impact on the readings, especially considering the final reading from the horn prior to its confiscation.
I have considered bringing LBB into this plan. She would no doubt be of use. But as there is some degree of hazard from the storm conditions, I cannot risk it. She is—
There were lines marked out here. Ceri pondered the acronyms as she tried to read the struck text: PI was clearly Prince Idris, but who was LBB? She could think of no one at the university with those initials. Lady Blue Blood? Lady SiBBa? Little Book Brat?
Did he mean her?
She squinted and tilted the text at all angles, trying to make it out.
extr——ary. All plans — her front have failed, mise—. She can— be —ided. The feel— —not be reasoned —. She is inevi—le.
“Godsdammit,” she muttered. Perhaps once she’d read some of the other entries, she’d know his handwriting well enough to make better sense of it.
One additional note: as I searched for my objects in PI’s storage, I found two other items of interest. The first gave average to below average readings with the magimeter; see table above as “Ring—Sapphire.” The second, however, gave the highest readings I have ever seen from any object, including the horn. See “Watch—Gold.” I would have liked to ask PI permission to study these items in particular, but I did not feel it would be granted in time for this unprecedented event. As the conditions cannot be replicated later, after I have convinced PI of my intentions, I have borrowed them temporarily without permission.
It weighs on my conscience to do so, but with any luck, I’ll be able to return them before he even realizes they’re gone. This, I know, is a considerable risk. Should I fail in this endeavor, PI will likely be hostile towards me for the foreseeable future. This could pose a problem if—
More scratched-out text, this time so thoroughly inked over that it had bled through to the next page.
Well, so far this hadn’t told her anything she hadn’t already known. And if there was anything of a personal nature regarding herself or LBB, or whether they were one and the same, it hadn’t been revealed in this entry.
She flipped back through the pages, noting a number of mentions of “LBB” in most of them.
She might as well start back at the beginning.