Brackenberry shook his head. “You don’t know that for sure, and Miss Norton denies any knowledge of it. The punishment is hers to make as she’s the offended party.” He paused, a toothy grin stretching across his face. “Just consider yourself lucky that we didn’t let Dr. Hendershaw decide. She’s not exactly your biggest fan.”
That was certainly true. I slumped down in my chair, accepting defeat. This was the worst possible punishment ever—and I wasn’t talking about the Saturday school, although that was certainly bad enough. We needed to be at the festival. Just because the Terra Tribe wasn’t involved in something bad didn’t change the likelihood that something bad was coming.
For one brief second I regretted not telling Brackenberry and Lady Elaine the truth about Paul. But then I remembered there was still one more day to go. One more day to find the answers we needed.
But with a terrible sinking feeling in my stomach, I knew if we didn’t succeed we would have to tell them anyway. Even though it meant putting Paul’s life at risk.
28
Roadblock
The only lead we had left to follow was Mr. Corvus, but after getting caught by Miss Norton, we needed to proceed with caution. Breaking into another teacher’s office the very next day seemed the worst of ideas, but we had no choice.
After a long debate, we decided the best thing was for Eli to do it alone during our third-period history class. That way both Selene and I would be present to deter Mr. Corvus from leaving the classroom. There was still a risk of Eli getting caught by one of the Will Guard, but they didn’t bother patrolling the floors that were mostly faculty hallways very often.
The moment the bell rang for the start of third period, Mr. Corvus walked up to my desk and fixed his imperious gaze on me. “Where is Mr. Booker this morning?”
“I think he went to the infirmary,” I answered with no hesitation. “Said he had a headache. We had psionics last period.”
Mr. Corvus flexed his jaw as he decided whether or not to believe me. I kept my eyes on him, not fidgeting. The story had enough believability in it that there was no reason for Corvus not to swallow it. Coming down with a headache after studying mind-magic for an hour was common. And it wasn’t like Eli had a reputation for ditching.
“All right,” Mr. Corvus said, and then he returned to the front of the classroom and started teaching.
I barely heard a word he said, my ears straining for the sound of Eli’s arrival. It was only by sheer force of will that I kept myself from glancing at the door every few seconds.
But less than five minutes after class began, Eli arrived. I frowned at him as he walked in and handed a note to Mr. Corvus. I held my breath. The note was a forgery. A few months ago, during his brief stay in the infirmary after our takedown of Marrow, Eli managed to snag an empty pass with the head nurse’s signature on it. He’d since made a couple of copies of it, but this was the first time he’d used one. It wasn’t the sort of thing you could get away with often.
Corvus studied the pass a moment then nodded. “Very well. Have a seat.”
Eli turned up the aisle and took the desk next to mine. I sent him a questioning look, but he just shook his head. My impatience to learn what he’d found out made the rest of class pass even slower. But when the bell rang, Eli refused to tell us anything until we were in the cafeteria, our conversation safely disguised by the surrounding noise.
“I couldn’t get in.”
“What?” Selene and I said in unison.
Eli grimaced. “The moonwort key wouldn’t work. I put it in the keyhole but nothing happened. It might as well have been just a piece of wood.”
I bit my lip and glanced at Selene—she knew more about these things than Eli and I did. “How’s that possible?”
Selene sighed. “The door must be enchanted against it. Most people don’t bother because moonwort is so rare, but I suppose there are some paranoid enough to protect against it anyway.”
Eli thumped his fist on the table. “That’s just perfect. Leave it to Mr. Corvus to be paranoid.”
I thought about his eye patch. “Well, it does sort of suit him. But yeah, this sucks. Do you know how to pick a lock the manual way?”
Eli leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head. “Yeah, but I don’t have the tools to do it. My dad has some, but it would take time for me to get them, and my dad would kill me if he found out.”
Judging by his dark tone, I had a feeling this expression carried more weight with his police officer father than it did for most parents.
I slouched against the table, resting my head on my arms. “So what do we do now?”
Eli scratched his cheek. “We still have The Atlantean Chronicle. I’m about halfway through it. I’ll try to finish up before our dream-session tonight.”
“Okay,” I said unenthusiastically. I’d already scanned through each page and hadn’t found anything and so had Selene. But Eli insisted that one of us might catch something the others had missed.
“And we might finally have a breakthrough with the dream,” Eli added, casting me a significant look.
I didn’t reply. I had my hopes set on learning the last two letters of the name this afternoon with Mr. Deverell, but I didn’t want to jinx it.
“But what do we do if neither pans out?” asked Selene, glancing between Eli and me.
Eli leaned back and ran his hands over his head. “If we don’t, then we have to go to Brackenberry and Lady Elaine with what we do have.” He fixed his gaze on me as if he sensed the protest already rising to my lips. “We have to, Dusty. I know it puts Paul at risk, but not telling them could put even more people at risk.”