Madison grabbed that too. “No, it isn’t. The fault lies with the person who killed him, not you.”
“But if I hadn’t been there—”
“He would have died anyway,” she said, her voice softening. “I saw his death too, tried to warn him.”
“You did?”
“Yes, and I told him to never go anywhere alone, even to the bathroom, but in the end it didn’t matter. He didn’t listen.” Pacing, Madison went on, “What’s important now is finding out what or who did it and why.”
I thought back to the moment the person came out of the shadows, the sound—he made, much like the thing I’d heard in the woods with Zyacus weeks ago. I was sure it was a male, too large to be a woman.
I remembered the two professors from Collweya talking about what may have followed them and Aric saying there were creatures of nightmares in the North… Then I remembered the human skull mark on his wrist and how he’d tried to hide it from me when I asked, and how nervous he was when I asked him about what could mutilate that horse. If he himself wasn’t the thing that killed Finnick, he knew something.
When I voiced my suspicions to Madison, she got very still. “A skull mark? Why haven’t I ever seen it?”
“He keeps it covered,” I answered.
Madison clicked her tongue. “I don’t think he is the one who killed Finnick.”
“But the mark—he’s from Collweya. It fits.”
A quick shake of her head and she began pacing again. “He’s Kyria and Rorin’s son, a Delhoon by blood, not some beast. If I’m right that mark means something else.”
“What?”
She made a point to ignore my question and went for the door. “Your parents are worried about you. They’ve even considered bringing you home.”
I frantically shook my head. “No, I have to stay. I need to help figure out what’s happening— who’s behind this.”
“That’s what I told them. Your mother didn’t agree, your father said this would be good for your training. I always liked Boaden. But if another student dies, I’m afraid this academy will close. One could be an anomaly. Two? A pattern.” Pulling the door open, she said, “Get dressed, for heaven’s sake wash up and comb your hair, and go to class or I’ll be back and the visit will be much less pleasant.”
When the door closed behind her, I did as she ordered. By the time I was ready I’d missed my first two classes but I made sure I got to History and Customs of Collweya. I had questions that needed answering.
“Please open your books to page three hundred and seventeen,” Professor Hardock said. He stood at his desk slash podium, with his book open in front of him. The silver blond mane on that man made even me jealous; it was so long and silky. He was slender and tall, almost gangly in the limbs, and young, at least he looked it, without a single line in his milk-white skin.
Since we’d started, he taught us that when his people founded Collweya two hundred and eight years before, they came upon a magical dome eight miles wide and the same deep, completely protected from the lethal cold and snow in the surrounding area but what it didn’t keep out were the dragons and other predators. An ancient people had been there but all that remained was rubble and ruin, taken over by the wild. They eventually built a city and gained the trust of some of the dragons that guard a cave containing magical stones.
He told us of how their leadership works—the king fights for his position—to the death. The current king, Faustus had ruled for twenty years and had been challenged twelve times. But growing older, his eldest son Justus fought against the last challenger in his stead to hold the family’s authority until Faustus should pass on or step down.
When I looked down at the page he had us turn to for the lesson, it read: Creatures of the Far North. I sat up taller. The first creature listed was a dragon, of course. A life-like sketch was on the right, wings spread wide, talons ready to strike, and fire bleeding onto the next page. They were intelligent creatures and could talk telepathically like cats.
I looked at the next listed: Wolf—larger and more vicious than those that dwelled further south.
I skimmed, looking for something human-like and that’s when I saw that a page was missing. I peeked over at my partner’s book and saw that hers too was absent, perhaps torn out or magically removed but there was no evidence of it. I only knew because the page number went from three hundred seventeen to three hundred twenty.
I raised my hand, interrupting the professor. He arched an eyebrow. “Yes, Princess Visteal?”
“There’s a page missing.”
As if not believing me, he checked his book, then walked over and looked at mine and then my desk partner. “Huh,” he said, seeming confused. “It must be a mistake. I’m sure there’s nothing missing.”
“No deadly human-like thing that has sharp teeth that could say, tear someone’s throat out?” I asked then everyone stared at me. “Just an example.” I blushed. A very, very specific example.
Professor Hardock stilled and noticeably gulped, wearing that same fearful look Aric had when I’d asked about what might do this.
Then he smiled, a fake one but he tried to recover. “Nothing like that, no. Unless you count fearsome warriors with daggers who’d cut your throat.”
A lie. What are these Collweyans trying to hide from us? What do they want to keep secret and why?
I decided the only way I’d get an answer would be to corner Zyacus or Aric and pry the answer out of them. Both would know, Zyacus’s mother was Collweyan. Since things hadn’t much improved with Zyacus and me, we only spoke to each other when necessary, I’d talk to Aric first. And I was going to find out what that mark on his skin was while I was
