Conspiracies - Mercedes Lackey [109]
She got up, plugged in the Ironkey, and logged on her computer, touch-typing in the dark. QUERCUS? she typed into the chatroom.
I am here.
She wondered about that. She wondered how he could always be there. But then … maybe he knew her hours, or guessed them, and slept when she was in class. Or more likely, he was more than one person.
What you said about ignorance and powerlessness—
Yes. The more ordinary you appear, the safer you are. And they must never think you have somewhere to run to, or they will look for that haven and destroy it.
But I actually don’t have anywhere to run to, she replied, feeling a lump of fear in her gut and tears burning her eyes.
Then QUERCUS replied with something utterly unexpected.
Yet.
She bit back a gasp.
Be careful. Be very careful. And Spirit, you have a weapon that they will see as a weakness. Do not hesitate to use it.
A weapon? she typed. What weapon?
Kindness.
Okay, that sort of made sense. Because the Shadow Knights were trying to divide people up, but you couldn’t do that if the people you were trying to divide them from kept doing nice things for them. Shoot, it had even worked with Muirin!
And it wouldn’t look like she was doing anything at all, not to them. Just being all touchy-feely-hippie-kid. Not a threat, not even close.
I can do that, she typed back, and closed the window. With all of Mark Rider’s geeks living here now, she was even more paranoid about not chatting too long to QUERCUS. She figured five or ten minutes was all right, but not more.
She slipped back into bed, wishing she had some idea of what might come so she could be ready for it.
* * *
The next day was a grueling one, so hard Spirit really couldn’t do anything but spare a thought now and again for Burke. If anyone here knew how he felt, she did. When they finally all met up at dinner, though, he looked a lot different than she had thought he would. She’d thought he would be broken up, but he wasn’t. He didn’t look angry, either, which she’d been afraid of; she didn’t want him running off and challenging Anastus or something equally suicidal. She slipped her hand into his under the cover of the table and gave it a squeeze; he squeezed back, glanced over at her, and gave her the faintest of smiles, then let go. It took her a while to figure out what he reminded her of; finally she did. He was like a marathon runner at the beginning of the race—no idea of what was ahead of him, only knowing it was going to be incredibly hard, but determined to get across that finish line.
It was Muirin who looked absolutely miserable. She poked at her food until Burke finally spoke into the silence.
“Murr-cat. It’ll be okay. I promise.”
She looked up, hope warring with guilt in her eyes. She was about to say something when—
The power went out.
All of it. Lights, emergency lights, everything. They were in the Refectory with the curtains drawn, and it had been an overcast day, so by evening it was as dark outside as it suddenly was inside.
Within moments of losing the light, the crushing fear descended.
People started screaming; you could hear them all over the room, jumping up, chairs going over, even tables. People stumbled toward the exit, or tried to, fell, tripped over other people and furniture. It was a good thing their table was against the wall, but even so, someone shrieking like a banshee blundered into the back of Spirit’s chair, flailed wildly and smacked the side of her head, then stumbled away again.
Spirit fought the fear back and grabbed first Burke’s hand, then Addie’s on the other side of her. “Hold hands!” she managed to choke out, over the fear and the noise. “Grab hands!”
She couldn’t have told when she knew, but she did, the moment that Addie on one side and Loch on the other managed to get hold of Muirin’s hands, completing the circle. We need to break this somehow, she thought, dimly, through terror that screamed at her to run, run anywhere. People were running; she could hear them stampeding into the dark, out into the hall, screams receding as they made it past the Refectory