The school operated on a twenty-four-hour clock. Or rather, the Lothian equivalent of one. The transit room and lockers were normally filled with people coming and going. But when the twins arrived, the place held the stillness of a disused tomb. Sheets of paper attached to the transit room’s side wall stated in several languages that the school had been temporarily closed. Students were urged to study on their own. Officials would be in contact shortly.
Sean stood in front of the wall, inspecting the sheets with the hope that some clue, some hint of a next step, might suddenly arrive. He could only think of one thing. “We’ve got to wait.”
Dillon glanced through the open portal, down the empty hall. “Wait.”
“Yes.”
They headed for the lounge, their footsteps shuffling along the carpeted expanse. The rear wall was a meal repository, offering a constant variety of food. Most of it was Lothian in origin, with a single section for special requirements and noted only in the language of the recipient. Most of the stuff tasted as bland as the school. They ate whenever possible in the loft. But there was one dessert they had both come to love, layers of something that resembled cake alternating with a toffee-like substance that tasted like dark chocolate. They carried two plates to their customary table, which was weird, since they had the entire place to themselves.
Dillon took a bite, inspected the next one, and said, “I wonder where this stuff comes from.”
“Best not to ask.”
“Yeah. Droppings of flesh-eating glowworms, probably.” He took another bite. “Still tastes great. Even at midnight and counting. Which brings us to the question, what are we doing here?”
“I told you. Waiting.”
“Which explains absolutely nothing.” He scraped up the last slivers of the goo. “Sure would like to know why I’m missing sleep.”
“We need Elenya.”
“So we’re just going to sit here until she decides to check in?”
“There’s some kind of alert system you can sign up for. It lets you know when the other person shows up. She went to Josef and he put it in place.”
Dillon grinned. “Elenya went to Josef and asked him to set up a galactic alert whenever you came to school.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, bro. Not a single solitary thing. Just admiring your way with the ladies, is all.” Dillon easily avoided Sean’s swipe across the table. “I’m asking again. Why are we here?”
“This whole plan revolves around us going back to the train station.”
Dillon’s good humor vanished. “Back to where we’ve been ordered never to set foot in, ever again.”
“That place. Yeah.”
Dillon gave that a beat. “You want to explain why you think going to the train station is worth risking a mind-wipe?”
Sean told him. Or tried to. But part of his mind and most of his heart remained caught by the woman who was not there. Added to this was all the pressure and the fear of having gotten things terribly wrong. It was a poor way to relate an unfinished idea, stumbling over all the things he had not yet worked out. But Dillon didn’t seem to care. In fact, long before Sean arrived at what he thought was the conclusion, his brother announced, “Okay, I got it.”
“I’m not done.”
“It doesn’t matter. I know enough to know you’re handling this.”
Sean let his uncertainty show. “Glad you think so.”
“What . . .” Dillon stopped because Elenya appeared in the doorway, and Sean’s chair held nothing but an empty space.
“Elenya, I’m so sorry.” The words were totally inadequate, especially as he saw the shadows in her eyes. But Sean could think of nothing else to say.
“In a way it is. You changed clothes before our dinner because . . .” Then he realized what she carried.
A pair of cases. One in each hand.
Sean watched her settle them by her feet and felt his heart do a swooping dive. “What’s going on, Elenya?”
“Can we sit down, please?” There was a new quality to her calm, a gravity he had never seen before. She seated herself, greeted Dillon, and announced, “My mother has forbidden me from ever seeing you again.”
The soaring and swooping grew sharper, like his heart and gut were riding a roller coaster, one that did not care at all how the rest of Sean’s body remained perfectly still. Frozen, in fact. A rigid human post, squeezed by all the things that could not wait. The conflict and the burden left him incapable of drawing a single decent breath.
She went on, “I tried to convince her that I am not too young, that this is not a whim . . . My mother was not interested in being convinced. She was not interested in listening. Her mind is made up. She claims to know what is best for me. I am the youngest of five daughters. My middle sister has just gone through a terrible breakup. My mother despised the man. I told you of this, yes? And before that my oldest sister also went through a bad end to a bad relationship. My mother assumes I am making the same mistake. It is all she can see, how she will be forced to watch another daughter be crushed by giving her heart to the wrong man.”
Sean tried to follow what she was saying. But his brain kept getting snagged by the two cases waiting there by the door. And everything they signified.
Elenya regarded him with an ancient’s solemn gaze. “My mother’s outrage grew steadily worse. She refused to hear anything I tried to tell her. The day after our dinner, it became evident that I had no choice. As soon as the Examiners and Counselor Tatyana and Carver finally finished with me, I started making plans. I was so glad when your alert arrived. I’d been hoping that you would come to school looking for me.”
“So . . . you’ve left home.”
“Yes. But there is a problem. I have nowhere to stay.” She motioned to the empty school. “All the boarders have been sent away.”
Dillon offered, “Stay with Carey and her dad.”
She offered him a solemn inspection. “Will they agree?”
He was already up and moving. “One way to find out.” To Sean, “Don’t start with the fireworks until I get back.”
When he was gone, Elenya asked, “Fireworks?”
“We need your help with something.”
“Is it important?”
“Very. And urgent.” Sean knew he should be offering comfort. He knew there were a dozen things a better man would be saying just then. But all he could think of was the ticking clock. How a man’s life hung in the balance. How they did not have time for this. Any of it. How what he felt at that very moment, the one thing that was squeezed from his frantically swooping brain was . . .
Helplessness.
She continued to watch him, waiting. When he did not speak, she said, “I need to know this is not a whim, Sean. I need to know you are . . .”
The word sprang to mind. He said it because she waited. “Committed.”
“I know it is too early. I wish we had more time. But my mother is very determined. She will find a way to drive a barrier between us. I can’t let that happen. Not if you are truly . . .”
He nodded slowly. The only word his mind could shape rang through the empty room. Committed.
“I know that we are very young. I know that we may change. But I want to take this risk. If you are . . .”
He had no idea how he felt. But he could not say that. To even think this was awful. But it was the truth, and he would not lie to her. Not ever. So he remained there. Nailed to his chair. Squeezed from every side. While his heart and his gut kept up their crazy ride.
Her voice became more solemn still. “By my leaving home, I hope she will understand that I am as determined as she. That she is no longer in a position to dictate my life’s course. But this is a very big step, Sean. I do this for you. But only if this is truly what you want. Only if you . . .”
He had to breathe. But unlocking his rigid frame was such a struggle that what he did was shudder. His words emerged in a terribly shaken state. Exactly how he felt. “I can’t think about this now.”
She did not change one iota. And he sensed that part of her had expected this very response. It was her turn to freeze to her chair.
He pushed out, “Tirian’s life depends on my getting this right. It’s all I can think of, all I have room . . . They’ve arrested the Examiner.”
She tasted the air, tried to shape some word. But it did not emerge.
“I need your help, Elenya. Desperately. If we have to do this without you, Dillon and I, we . . .”
She trembled, almost like she was trapped and fighting the same forces as him now. “Desperate.”
“Tatyana said we could be arrested. Carver threatened us with a mind-wipe. But we have to do this. If I’m right, and the Examiner is punished, and we didn’t do anything—”
“Tell me what you want me to do,” she whispered.
Dillon chose that moment to come racing into the lounge. He announced triumphantly, “It’s all taken care of. The professor and Carey say, ‘Welcome home.’”
Elenya shuddered. She tried to smile at Dillon, then she turned back to Sean. And waited. Already convicted by what he could not give her.
He said, “I’ve got this plan, really just half a—”
“No, Sean. No.” Her voice was little more than a broken whisper. “Just tell me what to do.”
So he did, though each word he spoke seemed to stab her, causing her to wince with a pain she did not fully suppress. So he kept it as short as possible. Three sentences. No more. When he was done she forced in another shuddering breath, then said, “I will do this.”
“That’s great, Elenya, I can’t thank—”
He stopped. Not because she rose from the table and excused herself, but because she was crying. And the sight was the worst thing he had ever seen. Just totally, wrenchingly awful.
When she was gone, Dillon leaned across the table and savaged him further by asking, “Bro, what have you gone and done?”