As Allie walked out of the library and down the hall to the classroom wing she was still thinking about the strange library paintings. With classes out, the rooms were empty and silent as she idly climbed the staircase past the familiar lower rooms and up to the second floor. Only advanced classes were held up here and she’d hoped it would have some air of mystery, but she was disappointed to find that it looked exactly like the lower levels – a wide hallway with a polished wood floor and classrooms on either side. With the lights off, it was lit entirely by daylight filtering through classroom windows.
Her rubber-soled shoes rendered her footsteps nearly silent as she peeked through open doors at empty classrooms where desks waited in patient, ghostly rows.
She wasn’t sure when she first heard the voices – perhaps midway down the hall. It was a low murmur that caught her attention only when it momentarily grew louder.
Someone shouted and there was a crashing sound, followed by a concerned wave of voices that seemed to be trying to calm things.
Allie was poised to turn back when a door at the end of the hall opened and a figure stepped out of the shadows.
Instinctively she ducked into the nearest doorway and hid in the shadows behind the door, listening. At first she could hear nothing but the sound of her own breathing, then, after a moment, she could hear the faint sound of footsteps heading her way. She counted her breaths.
… ten, eleven, twelve …
The footsteps paused.
She stopped breathing.
‘Allie?’ Carter whispered, his voice harsh. ‘What the hell?’
He reached in and grabbed her arm, pulling her roughly towards the stairwell. She was too surprised to protest and stumbled alongside him. He hustled her down the stairs to the first floor landing, where he turned her to face him.
‘What were you doing up on the second floor?’ His fingers dug into her upper arm.
‘Exploring,’ she said, trying to free herself. She tried to appear calm but she knew she sounded defensive.
‘Exploring what? The classrooms?’
Feigning nonchalance, she shrugged. ‘Yeah. Sort of. It’s not off-limits or anything, is it?’
‘Allie, did you ever actually read the information you were given when you started here? Do you think rules are just optional for you?’ Sarcasm dripped from his voice, and now Allie could feel anger growing in the pit of her stomach.
What is wrong with everybody at this bloody school?
‘I read enough to know it was boring,’ she snapped. ‘Now will you just stop being a psycho and let me go?’
‘The second floor is for advanced students and Night School only,’ Carter said, as if he were talking to a child. ‘You could get into serious trouble if they catch you there. You must never go up there.’
She wrenched free from his grip. ‘Bloody hell,’ she said, rubbing her shoulder. ‘Overreact much? You’d think I killed someone.’
His expression did not change. ‘Seriously, Sheridan. I’m starting to think you like getting in trouble.’
Turning on her heel she stomped down the stairs, firing over her shoulder, ‘Well, from what I hear about you, West, that’s a bit pot, kettle.’
He didn’t reply.
Allie waited outside the dining room that evening, fidgeting as she watched the students stream in. Katie passed by, glowing ethereally. She whispered to the cluster of acolytes who always surrounded her and they all giggled. Allie saw Jules among them, unsmiling.
Unable to help herself, Allie crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at them, but they only laughed louder.
‘What an idiot,’ she heard Katie say, and she flushed.
A few minutes later Jo and Gabe appeared, bright stars in a constellation of friends. Jo was laughing at some unheard joke. Allie waited to be noticed, trying not to care whether or not they saw her. But a few seconds later Jo looked up and gave her an enormous smile. She bounded down the hallway and grabbed her hand, dragging her into the group.
‘Allie! There you are. Come with me – you need to meet everyone.’
At the table, Allie sat on Jo’s left, Gabe sat on her right. In the raucous rumble of pre-dinner conversation, Jo raised her voice enough to be heard.
‘Everybody, this is Allie. Allie, this is everybody.’
‘Come on, Jo, you could be more specific.’ The heckler was about Gabe’s age, and sat across the table from Allie. His glossy light brown hair was just long enough to fall fetchingly over his right eye. He smiled flirtatiously. ‘I’m not everybody. I’m Lucas.’
The others hooted derisively, but his smile was contagious and she couldn’t help but smile back.
One by one the others at the table laughingly gave their names. There was a slim girl named Lisa, with long, straight fair hair and a hesitant smile. Ruth was athletic and unsmiling with messy shoulder-length, dark blonde hair. She sat next to Phil, who was cool looking with very short dark hair and trendy glasses. Allie got the feeling Ruth and Phil liked each other.
There was an early excited buzz of conversation (‘been hearing all about you …’ ‘What do you think of Cimmeria?’ ‘Isn’t Zelazny a …’ ‘Shhh! Careful, he’s right over there …’ ‘Do you like it here?’) before everybody moved on to other subjects.
Distracted by the day’s events, Allie played disinterestedly with her food, which wasn’t, she thought, very good tonight. She could just make out the sound of rain against the windowpanes. The weather had gradually turned grey, and now it was pouring down. She was so deeply entangled in a complex net of her own thoughts that bits of the conversation floated by her like flotsam.
‘Twenty pages by Tuesday!’
‘Most amazing smile …’
‘What is this meat, anyway?’
‘Mystery meat.’
Laughter.
‘I heard a teacher say it’s supposed to rain for the next three days.’
A chorus of groans.
Allie looked up.
‘It’s so boring here when it rains,’ Jo explained. ‘The common room will be packed. We should get there early.’
As soon as they’d finished they hurried out and down the hall. Jo claimed a sofa in the middle of the room, kicking off her shoes and tucking her feet underneath her. Allie sank into a deep leather chair across from her. They were just settling down when Gabe walked up.
He, like Allie, had seemed distracted that evening. ‘I can’t stay,’ he said now, looking at Jo apologetically. ‘It’s this stupid project.’
He kissed her, whispered something in her ear that made her smile, then hurried out.
Finally, for the first time since the previous night, Allie and Jo were alone.
‘What should we do now?’ Jo asked. ‘Do you want to play Trivial Pursuit?’
‘Not right now.’ Allie scooted forward in her chair and leaned towards Jo, lowering her voice to a whisper. ‘Jo, what was that last night? What does Gabe think?’
‘Well, there was some sort of crazy fox or something … I don’t know,’ Jo said. ‘It all happened so fast.’
Disappointed, Allie leaned away from her. ‘That’s what Sylvain said, but it didn’t sound like a fox to me.’
‘What do you think it sounded like?’ Jo asked.
Allie shook her head. ‘I don’t know. Something with teeth.’ ‘A bear?’ Jo suggested impishly. ‘A dragon? A wookie?’
‘Jo, seriously!’ Allie was frustrated. ‘What happened last night was real. Gabe and Sylvain took it seriously. They didn’t seem to think we were being silly. They were … well, not scared, but like, really nervous. Now I feel like everyone’s trying to make us think we were hysterical. Or like it was some big joke. But I think there was something out there.’
Jo made a soothing gesture with her hands.
‘Look, Allie, something definitely happened, but it was dark, and I don’t think anybody knows whether or not it was really dangerous. We could have just scared ourselves. Gabe says some people went out last night looking for whatever it was, but they didn’t find anything.’ She smiled. ‘I can tell you it’s pretty unusual. It’s not like we usually get attacked by wild growly things. So don’t get too freaked out.’
Allie wasn’t convinced but she didn’t want to appear obsessed, so she nodded reluctantly.
‘You’re right. I’m sure you’re right.’
‘Right, so. Back to what to do tonight,’ Jo said. ‘If not Trivial Pursuit … backgammon? Something else? Monopoly? Noughts and crosses?’
Allie tried to summon interest in board games for Jo, but she found them dull at the best of times.
‘Have you ever played chess?’ Jo asked, finally.
Allie’s expression must have given her away because Jo’s face took on a determined focus.
‘Seriously? That’s outrageous. Well, I’m about to take care of that right now.’
Jumping off the sofa, she knelt beside the table in front of them and pulled a shoebox-sized wooden box from underneath it. From it she began to pull out glossy pieces. Setting the black pieces on her side, she handed Allie a white knight.
Allie held it up and made a neighing sound. Jo gave her a withering look.
‘Pony,’ Allie said weakly.
‘Get serious, Allie. So you hate board games. Fine. Chess is not a board game. Chess is only sort of a game, because really chess is war.’
When Allie made a face Jo added firmly, ‘So chess is exciting.’ She pointed at the piece Allie still held. ‘That is not a pony. That is a knight that kills.’ Pointing at a square she said: ‘Put it there.’
Trying to look serious, Allie placed the knight where she was told but, shooting Jo a rebellious glance she murmured ‘good horsey’ under her breath.
Jo ignored her and picked up a pawn.
‘These are your foot soldiers. They have the least freedom and the least power, but because they’re willing to sacrifice themselves for their betters you can’t win without them.’
She set down the little round-headed piece and pulled out a piece shaped like a castle tower.
‘This is your rook – the king’s fortress. It is the only piece on the board that can legally take the king’s place at any time. Its role is to confuse the enemy. It goes here.’
Setting it down she picked up two more pieces. In her right hand she held a piece shaped vaguely like a minaret. ‘The bishop. Slick and dangerous, he has huge power. I think of him as the queen’s bit of rough.’ Now she waved the tall, regal piece in her left hand. ‘The king. Almost always weaker than you’d think – all the pieces protect him but he almost never helps anyone else, because if he does he could die.’
Allie cupped her chin in her hand. ‘This is like Shakespeare, only … lamer.’
Now Jo picked up a slender, crowned white piece and handed it to her. ‘The queen. She’s a complete bitch. But if you want to win, you have got to work with her.’
‘Great,’ Allie said. ‘What happens next? And at what point do I begin kicking your arse?’
Jo handed her the white pieces. ‘If you practise and work hard? Maybe by your twenty-seventh birthday. I’ve been playing chess since I was five. Set yours out the way I’ve done mine, then I’ll beat you for the first time.’
Allie arranged her pieces as a mirror image of Jo’s.
‘So, tell me a bit about your friends,’ she said, picking up the queen. ‘Lisa and Lucas seem nice, but Ruth and Phil I couldn’t really tell …’
Jo nodded. ‘I think you’ll really like Lisa – she was my first friend at Cimmeria. Ruth’s cool but she’s kind of, I don’t know, intense, I guess. So you have to be in the mood to deal with her. Phil’s OK – he tells terrible jokes when he loosens up. But he’s kind of shy around new people.’
At that moment, Ruth ran into the room, breathless, her clothes soaked and her wet hair dropping beads of water.
‘Jo.’
She stood in front of them, panting, her hands clutching her sides as if she’d run very quickly. Water puddled on the floor at her feet.
Allie froze, the queen still in her hand. Jo seemed speechless, but Ruth didn’t wait to be asked.
‘It’s Gabe.’