The Keeper's Curse (17 page)

“
Shut up,” Emmy said, but she was smiling. She turned to
Breckin to see how he was taking this, but his expression was
blank.

I should have offered to go down there, I saw him heading that
way.

“
Is something wrong?” Emmy asked.

Breckin
jumped at being addressed. “Um, it’s just,” he looked over his
shoulder, “there’s another point I want to rummage around, if it’s
alright with you.”

“
Where do you want to go?”

“
The Morrison spot.”

Teddy
explained, “It’s this weird spot in the forest where these two
carriages collided around two hundred years ago. The two families
hit were both distant relatives, both with the last name of
Morrison. The palewraiths of the people who died just circle it and
never go away, obsessed with their own death. It’s really
creepy.”

“
Fine, you can go,” Emmy said, and then turned to Breckin.
“But I’m going with you.”

What? She can’t, how am I supposed to follow Cyrus if she’s
with me ...

Emmy
stopped in her tracks – did he say Cyrus? Did Breckin have
something against Cyrus as well?

“
Teddy, go to the wall as planned. The two of us will head
over to this spot and check it out.”

Teddy
sucked in a breath, about to protest, but instead rolled his eyes
and headed off in the other direction with their other team member.
Emmy and Breckin halted, and Breckin started towards a clearing.
She followed him. His eyes darted wildly, shaking, like his body
was going to explode from a bundle of energy inside him.

“
Do you have ADHD?” she asked.

This got
him to stand still. “What?”

“
Never mind. You know, you could have just offered this
suggestion back at the beginning. I’m not the boss. You
are.”

He
shrugged. “It was your accomplishment, I didn’t want to get in the
way. Plus, you did pretty well. It’s a good plan.” He said all this
very quickly, breathless, clearly wanting to move forward. She
noticed how he enunciated too many syllables, making him sound
slightly British.

“
You’re not going to be a very good politician if you don’t
take credit for what other people have done.”

Although
it was a clear jibe, all he did was laugh. The action formed little
crinkles around his eyes. She felt a pulse throb in her ear,
growing tired of this stupid boy.

“
I’m not a very good politician, don’t worry.” He looked
around to see if anyone else was present, and when the coast was
clear, he took a step towards her. “Look, Lana, I don’t know what
I’ve done, or what people have told you, but I’m really not that
bad.”

She
stiffened. “I never said you were.”

“
Yeah, but you look at me like you want to stab me with a
pencil.” He sighed. “You’re living in the same house with my best
friend, so we’re probably going to run into each other once in a
while. I just want to set the record straight. Have I done
something to offend you?”

There was
a long pause. If it weren’t for the sound of the students fighting
in the distance, the silence would have deafened her. She knew this
was her own fault for steering off from the group to follow him,
yet she still felt irrationally angry at him for trapping her like
this. “You didn’t technically do anything.”

Am I getting through to her?

“
Is is because I’m the Eldoir? If that’s all it is, then
there’s nothing I can do. I get that a lot.”

“
No, it isn’t.”

His eyes
were lingering on her, studying her.

Maybe it was all a misunderstanding. She can’t really hate me
that much, can she?

Unless he
was a sociopath, she couldn’t see how he could be feigning his
expression. He eyes, the worried dent in his forehead, his mouth
slightly parted, resisting the urge to bite his lip – he looked
sincere. Even his thoughts suggested all he wanted was to have her
not hate him, and then it occurred to her. What should have
occurred to her weeks ago.

Maybe he wasn’t doing it on purpose. Maybe he didn’t
even
know
he was
speaking in her head. That seemed to make a lot more sense,
considering he had never spoken
to
her telepathically, but rather just spoke his
everyday thoughts. Plus, it seemed a lot more aligned with the
personality Jade insisted he had.

Her face
must have spoken volumes because he took another step towards her
and held out his hand. “Are we okay?”

She took
it. “Yes, we’re fine.”

He smiled
again, the same crinkles folding around his eyes. He really did a
have a funny face, but that shy little smile was golden.

“
We should probably head to the Morrison’s spot,” she
said.

The
sweetness in his face vanished, replaced with determination and
jumpy mannerisms again. “Yeah, we should. Come on, it’s not too far
away.”

I hope he’s still there.
He meant
Cyrus.

The two
of them continued on out of the clearing and back into the woods,
which had become even denser than before. Breckin’s strapper body
made him move through the leaf undergrowth soundlessly, but it
wasn’t until they moved away from the dead leaves and onto the dirt
was Emmy capable of being even somewhat stealthy. Finally Breckin
came to a stop, causing Emmy to ram into his back. She looked over
his shoulder, and there was the Morrison’s spot.

It really
was as bizarre as Teddy had said. The skeletons of two carriages
were smashed together, and several palewraiths indeed circled the
area, as if guarding sacred ground. Breckin must have been paying
strict attention because he had been right about Cyrus – he was
standing in front of it, going down on his knees and trying to
squeeze through the rotating palewraiths.

Emmy and
Breckin watched him in silence, which paid off, as Cyrus’s
attention was elsewhere. After about ten minutes of circling the
carriages, someone off in the distance called “Cyrus!” causing all
three of them to jump, and Cyrus to leave.

After he
reached a safe distance from them, Breckin broke his freeze frame
and rushed over to the Morrison’s spot, Emmy on his
heels.

“
Is it dangerous?” she asked.

“
No, it just creeps people out. It’s why it might be a good
place to hide something.”

“
Is that what this is about? Or is it more about
Cyrus?”

Breckin
narrowed his eyes to focus on the carriages. “I don’t like him,
let’s just say.” He made his way closer until he was only a few
inches away from the first palewraith. “Do you want to come looking
in it with me?”

“
Er, okay. Do I just walk through?”

“
Pretty much. Walking through one might feel funny, but it
won’t hurt you.”

She
followed his lead, walking through the palewraiths. Emmy felt like
she had turned to water, but other than that, nothing happened. She
looked inside the windows of the carriages, but there were no
remnants – not even bones – of human beings in them. She shivered;
it would take her time to adjust to the idea that what was
whooshing by her was all that was left of the people who had died,
just a foot away from her.

Breckin
leaped into the only carriage still with an entrance; the other had
been crushed in the collision. Emmy followed suit, craning her neck
to begin her search. So many layers of dust covered the seating
that the color was indiscernible. The wallpaper – red with a gold
vine design – had been rotted to its core. As Breckin scoured the
far left end, Emmy bent over and looked under the seats for
anything useful. She narrowed her eyes to protect them from all the
dust and cobwebs underneath, and saw a faint yellowish glow. Didn’t
Flin say that the object would glow? She dragged her body further
under the seat, but there was nothing there. She could, however,
see that the back of the carriage had been destroyed, taking out a
lot of the back end.

In
excitement she crawled out from under the bench, stood up and
walked out the front door.

“
Hey, I think I found something,” she said. Breckin followed
her.

The
second carriage was just as filthy and had been even more damaged
than the other one had been. The left side was completely crushed
in, leaving only the right set of seats intact. They quickly
searched the right half of the carriage. Nothing.

Emmy was
about to tell him there probably wasn’t anything there, when
Breckin strode over to the crushed side and began to pull it apart
like an accordion. Using the right seat as an anchor, he stretched
out his body, and it yielded. Emmy could hear the other carriage
screeching in protest.

What
Breckin had done caused a lot of splinters to come tumbling down
into a heap. Without hesitation he leaned over and began sweeping
them out of the way. Emmy noticed the more splinters he threw over,
the stronger the light began to appear. When she realized something
was there for sure, she rushed down beside him and helped him.
Within half a minute, all the debris and scraps were out of the
way, there was indeed something there.

It was a
portal.

Breckin
reached out to touch it and instinctively Emmy grabbed hold of his
hand.

“
Are you crazy?” she said. “You don’t know where that will
take you.”

“
Do you think Cyrus knew it was here?”

“
I have no idea, and it doesn’t matter.” She stood up,
brushing the dust off her clothes. “We need to go tell the coaches
about this.”

“
I want to go straight to the governor. This should be enough
to get Cyrus out of Methelwood for good.”

Emmy
tried to not let the exasperation show on her face. What did Cyrus
do to make Breckin hate him so much? She was certainly suspicious
of him, but not like Breckin was.

“
We don’t know if he even knew about this. It might be
nothing.”

Breckin
shook his head. “No. Making an orb is extremely difficult. Plus,
they have to go through Ministrial first. Whoever made this didn’t
authorize it.”

“
Alright, then let’s go back to the school and find Babbage
and Flin and have them take care of it,” Emmy said
patiently.

That was
the end of the conversation, and the two of them ran through the
forest. Breckin luckily knew the forest well enough to trace their
steps, otherwise Emmy would have had no way of knowing where to
go.

When they
returned, Babbage was not happy to see them. “What are you doing
back? You don’t have it.”

“
Well, we found something else,” Breckin said grimly. “You
know the Morrison’s Spot? We found an orb buried in the
wreckage.”

Babbage
pressed his lips together, seeing this problem more of an annoyance
to his class than anything. “That wasn’t the object we
hid.”

“
Yeah, I figured,” Breckin said with exasperation. “I want to
go to Circlet with this. I think I know who might have put it
there, or at least knew about it and didn’t tell
anyone.”

“
I’ve heard she’s gone away for a conference until tomorrow.
I’d like you to show me, if you don’t mind.”

Babbage
ordered Flin to stay at his spot until the class was finished, and
the other three headed back to the Morrison’s Spot. Emmy let
Breckin take over from there; he was much more zealous about this
than she was. Breckin quickly went over what had happened while
leading Babbage to the orb in the right carriage. Babbage’s grey
face grew grimmer and grimmer as Breckin went on, and by the time
they found the portal, his entire face was pinched in
concentration.

“
I’ll head over to Ministrial later to have it removed. Do you
know where it goes?”

“
How would I
?”

Although
Emmy didn’t think it was possible, Babbage’s glare deepened. “No
need to get snippy. Alright, we’ll take care of this. You better go
finish up your lesson. You only have about ten minutes
left.”

“
What about Circlet? I want to talk to her.”

“
Yes, you and Rathers can do that tomorrow, if you’d like.
Clearly there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Emmy and
Breckin headed off after that, leaving Babbage to his inspective
brooding. When they were a far enough distance away, Emmy spoke
up.

“
Look, Breckin?” she said timidly. “We don’t have any proof
against Cyrus, maybe you shouldn’t say anything to Circlet
yet.”

Breckin
turned to her and sighed, giving her a pitiful look. Emmy tried to
suppress her annoyance at his condescension to let him speak. “You
don’t know him. What I’m doing is for the best of
everyone.”

“
Well, how do you know him? He just moved here a little while
ago.”

“
Yes, and do you know where he came from?” He didn’t wait for
her to answer. “Not Delvynmore, like he’s telling everyone. Do you
know who James Thoreoux is?”

Something
cold traveled up her spine. “Yes.”