Redeemed, Heather Fledderus [early reader chapter books TXT] 📗

either. At last, she emerged victorious at the van of the group, Zen and Jamie right behind her.

The infirmary was unusually crowded. Headmaster Hilroy and Madame Kirena, who looked positively ill, though whether because of the events happening or because of her hemlock obsession was anyone’s guess, were standing talking to one side as other professors were busy scouring the room, looking for clues. Sylvia’s bed was empty, the blankets rumpled and the sweater that Candace had forgotten there the other day was gone. The window was completely open.

Madame Kirena spotted her and pointed her out to the headmaster. Candace stiffened as he waved her over. Zen nudged her forward. “Come on, get it over with. Hesitating will look suspicious,” she whispered.

Jamie followed them in. “Yes sir?” Candace asked, trying to calm her rapid heart rate.

“Madame Kirena tells me that you came down with something last night, but didn’t want to take anything for it. Are you alright?” he asked.

Candace nodded a little too eagerly. “Oh yes, quite alright now sir, thank you for asking. Where’s Sylvia?”

“She was missing when I came in this morning,” Kirena wailed, burying her face in her hands.

Hilroy gave her a reassuring pat on the back, “There, now, it’s quite alright, Matilde. This isn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known that Sylvia would simply wake up one night after having been comatose for so long.” He raised his voice to address the students in the hall. “A grounds-wide search will be conducted immediately. Students are to remain in the Great Hall until further notice.”

“What about me?” Candace asked. “I can help lo-“

“You will be joining your fellow students in the Great Hall, Miss Julian. You would simply be in the way rather than of benefit. Don’t worry, we’ll find her soon.” He fixed Zen with a long hard stare, who simply rocked back onto her heels and crossed her arms. After a moment, he dropped the look and turned to address one of the professors, making it clear that they were dismissed.

Another one of the professors began herding the students away from the infirmary. Jamie took Candace’s arm. “Come on, Candy,” she said, “They’ll find her sooner than we can anyways. We’ll save her some of those jelly-filled scones she likes so much.”

They joined the gaggle of students headed for breakfast. “Sparrow, can you believe it?” Jamie asked as they walked, “Sylvia’s awake! I mean, just bam, up and walking again as if nothing had happened.”

Candace slipped a glance at Zen, but she didn’t meet her gaze. “Oh crud,” she cursed as the realization hit her. She stopped in her tracks.

“What’s wrong?” Jamie asked.

“They’re not going to find her. Sh-we,” Candace corrected herself, “Know more about the school grounds than the teachers do.”

August popped free of the crowd and joined them.

“What do you mean?” Zen asked, suspicion creeping into her voice.

Candace sighed and glanced around them to see if they were being watched. She spotted August. “Beat it, scamp.”

August thrust her chin out. “Make me. If you guys are going to look for Sylvia, either I come with or I’m gonna tell the headmaster.”

Candace shook her head and waved it off, already moving past that. “There’s miles of secret passageways in this place. Fitz and Jason were always sneaking over here, and me and Sylvia would sneak over to their school sometimes. It’s like an underground city down there. Sylvia told me that she felt safer down there where no one knew where she was then up here amongst all the hassle. I think I know where she is.”

“You know how to get down there?” Zen asked.

“Yeah. Follow me.” They split from the main hallway into one of the darker passageways, deeper into areas that were hardly ever used. Jamie looked around them with interest, taking in the statues spaced at even intervals on either side.

“Is this the hall of the Immortal witch?” she asked at last.

Candace glanced up to notice that every statue depicted the same person, dressed in different clothes and in a different pose. “I guess. You know I’m not really into that sort of thing.”

“Well, neither am I, but just think of what we could learn from someone like that. Someone who was actually a part of the guilds before the War. Who saw magic when it still had all that diversity to it. Imagine what knowledge we could recover from her.”

“That knowledge is what led to the Guild War in the first place,” Zen said behind her. “Just remember that fact if you ever do meet this person.”

“Who’s the Immortal Witch?” August asked.

“No one knows,” Jamie replied. “Around fifty years ago, an archeological dig uncovered a book that had been stored in a sealed jar. The technique itself dated the journal to be around three hundred years old, around four hundred years after the Guild War. They’ve manged to translate enough of it to recognize it to be much older than that though. The journal talked about life in the guilds, and the guild war, and the aftermath as if the writer had lived through it all. And they’re certain that it was all one writer, and not just many over a long period of time.”

“If you’re done the history lesson, princess,” Zen interrupted, “Maybe we can get back to looking for the deranged student that’s been set loose on the school.

“Hey, no reason to be peeved. You may not like history, but that doesn’t mean that you should g-“

“Both of you shut up. We’re at the entrance,” Candace said. The four stood in front of a partifularly small statue for the hall, small enough that it stood on an oaken end table. A fine layer of dust had collected on it, completely overlooked as the staff went about the cleaning. The walls to either side of it plain panels of mahogany and walnut, the different colourings giving a consistent pattern that strectching into forever in either direction.

Candace put her palm on the frozen warrior’s head and said “Klamen”.

Several panels of the wall vanished, revealing a secret passageway. Cold, stale air rushed out of the tunnel and blasted their faces with the scent of mouldy decay.

“Wow,” August said, amazed.

“What? Surprised that there’s secret tunnels in the school?” Candace asked smugly.

“No. I’m surprised that my sister’s rebellious enough to even know that there are tunnels, much more how to actually get in to them.” She ducked Candace’s swat.

“We’re wasting daylight,” Zen said, “Save it for when we find Sylvia back.”

“I forgot. We need flashlights.”

“Seriously, Candace? We’re at a magic school, and you mean to tell me that they haven’t taught you guys a single spell about illuminating your path in the four years that you’ve been here?”

“Not here they don’t,” Jamie said. She lifted her palm, which was glowing. “At Jillian’s, everyone who was in astrogation class needed to know this spell. You focus on your palm and think of it lighting up. With that thought in mind, you say “Mylla”.”

Candace and Zen did as she said, and their hands lit up, Candace’s glowing brighter than Zen’s.

“Look at me,” August said, spreading her arms wide. “Mylla.” Her whole body flared with light, including her clothes. “I’m the human torch. If we were in Britain that would be a play on words.” She laughed.

“Pardon the nutcase of the family,” Candace said as she stepped into the tunnel. “We’re pretty sure we took the wrong kid home from the hospital.”

“Hey!” August protested loudly, storming after her sister.

Jamie and Zen hesitated. Zen gestured towards the tunnel with a grand flourish and a deep bow. “After you.”

Jamie raised her hands. “Nuh-uh. Age before beauty.”

Zen flashed her a quizzical smile, which morphed into a wolfish grin. “Alright, good. Keep an eye out behind you. I’m pretty sure that some of the monsters from the Forest of Mysteries have managed to trap themselves down here, especially if it’s an underground city like Candace claims. Graemons, some have probably been down there for years. Can you imagine how hungry they must be after a diet of nothing but rats?”

Jamie blanched and jumped into the tunnel, leaving Zen to take up the rear. “You’ve got the sword after all,” she said by way of explanation. “It only seems right that you take the rear.”

Candace set a fast pace, leading them down into the dungeons, going deeper than Jamie would have thought possible. August had let her lights dim so that she simply looked like she had rubbed glow-in-the-dark fluid all over herself. Even Zen started to become disoriented as they went further. They had only been walking for ten minutes, but in the close confines of the tunnels, it felt like it had been much longer.

“So when does the city start?” August asked.

“We’re not going through it. Sylvia has this spot in the Forest that she likes to go to. This tunnel takes us straight there.” The tunnel began to slop up again, steeply, turning into broad, flat steps as the tunnel widened.

The tunnel led to a dead end. A ladder was propped up against one wall. Candace clambered up no problem, her leggings covering anything that she might have deemed embarrassing to be seen. At the top, she pushed open the cover, allowing filtered daylight into the tunnel.

“She never wore leggings for our first three years,” Jamie muttered to Zen. Then, louder she said, “No peeking.” And climbed up after her friend.

August was next, and Zen took up the rear. They emerged in a small clearing in the forest, with white trees forming a perfect circle along the perimeter. They were standing in the ruins of what must have been a _________ at one point, made of white marble that matched the school. A few columns still stood, and there were several benches in relatively good condition. Bits of rubble poked out in various spots in the tall grasses. Wild summer flowers grew from the cracks in the floor. Zen let the flagstone that covered the tunnel fall back into place.

A girl with disheveled blonde hair was standing on a bench, her back to them as she stood with her face angled towards the sun. “Sylvia?” Candace ventured, taking care not to spook her friend.

Sylvia turned to face them, her eyes unfocused for the most awful of moments before they settled on Candace. They focused on her and Sylvia grinned. “Candace!” she hopped off the bench and tackled Candace to the ground, hugging her friend. “I’m so glad you’re okay. When I woke up, you weren’t in the infirmary. I was so worried, and I didn’t know what to do. I knew you would find me if I went here, so here I am. How are Jason and Fitz? They’re in the infirmary at St. Malcolm’s right? Do you think that they’ll let us in? How ridiculous, of course they will. We’re their girlfriends after all.”

Tears welled up in Candace’s eyes. “Hey, what’s wrong?” she glanced up and took in the other faces. “Hey, Jamie, you’re back early. It’s exam week, you know. Why would you bother coming here? Does Jillian’s end earlier than Belladonna? Oh my goodness, Candace is this your sister? What is she doing here? I thought that she wasn’t old enough yet.” Sylvia’s weight disappeared from on top of her. Candace sat up to see Sylvia lifting August off the ground in a massive hug. “Oh my goodness, she’s like a mini you.” Sylvia squealed before she set her down and tipped her head as she studied Zen curiously. “You look familiar. Have we met? Are you in the class below us? I don’t think that St. Malcolm’s will let you guys in too. I mean, during this time, it would be a stretch even for me and Candace, but after what happened, they’ll have no choice but to let us in, right Candace?”

She turned to face her friend again, looking for agreement. What she saw instead were tears coursing down her friend’s face. “Hey, what’s wrong?” She blinked. “Wait, St. Malcolm’s doesn’t even