Protagonist Bound (40 page)

You would’ve thought time was going to fly by for the rest of the day after this morning’s incident.

Sadly, it was quite the contrary. Even after what seemed like an eternity we were still captives of Damsels in Distress 601—barely listening to Madame Lisbon go on and on about how to pass out in public without wrinkling your outfit.

I just tuned her out as the seconds ticked by. My mind was too blank to do much of anything else.

You know when you’ve just had a really rough few days and you’re so stressed out and overloaded that your brain just shuts down temporarily as you try to absorb it all?

Well, that was what I was feeling at the moment. I was so out of it. My mouth was hanging open like a frog trying to catch flies and my eyes were glazed over like frosty crystal balls. I was fairly certain that there was nothing capable of snapping me out of such a stupor. Naturally, I was soon proven wrong.

Ms. Mammers (our headmistress’s assistant) abruptly burst into the classroom halfway through our lecture. She glanced around the room and glared directly at me for a split second before turning her focus to Madame Lisbon and muttering something in our teacher’s ear.

Madame Lisbon’s face paled and she nodded.

“Crisanta Knight,” she said with slight pause. “Lady Agnue wishes to speak with you in her office. Immediately, please. Ms. Mammers will escort you.”

Everyone in the class turned toward me. At first I didn’t respond—not because I didn’t hear Madame Lisbon, but because I was too shocked to register what she’d said. Blue elbowed me gently—returning me to the present.

I grabbed my bag and headed toward the front of the room. As I passed them, most of the girls stared at me with a look of confusion on their faces.

I tried to keep my expression neutral and nonchalant, like I too had no idea what was this was about. When, in reality, I had a terrible suspicion that this had something to do with the Archives. Why else would Lady Agnue be wasting her time with me (her least favorite student) right now if it didn’t?

I figured at least Mauvrey was probably enjoying the spectacle, and no doubt also judging me for the circles I had under my eyes from lack of sleep. However when I glanced over my shoulder to verify this, I noticed that Mauvrey wasn’t even here. Her regular seat beside Jade and Girtha was empty.

Figures, the one time I get to enjoy a class without Mauvrey’s snootiness and I get excused.

Ms. Mammers waddled very quickly down the corridor. She never looked back to make sure she hadn’t lost me, which was a genuine risk considering the speed at which she was going. For a woman with such short, stumpy legs, she sure could move fast.

When we arrived at our destination, she held the door open for me, but obviously didn’t take any pleasure in the cordiality of the gesture. I was about to flop down on the couch in the waiting area across from her desk, but she grabbed me by the arm before I got the chance.

“Lady Agnue is ready for you
now
, Miss Knight.”

I was kind of taken aback to be honest. I mean, yes Ms. Mammers had given the impression that whatever Lady Agnue had to talk to me about was urgent. But I’d been called into the headmistress’s office to be yelled at or lectured before, and even in extreme cases of my misbehaving we usually went through the motions of routine formalities.

Ms. Mammers hastily ushered me into the adjacent office where I found Lady Agnue sitting up straight at her desk. The door was shut behind me and I took a seat in the vanilla colored chair facing our headmistress.

There was one large window in the room behind Lady Agnue’s own velvet, magenta chair. It was tall and had its crème-colored curtains pulled back to reveal a view of the school’s main entrance. The light outside was so bright it made the entire office feel warm. Except for the area around Lady Agnue that is, which her personality frosted up significantly.

“Do you have anything to say, Miss Knight?” Lady Agnue asked me bluntly as I sat down.

“Um, is that a new plant?” I said, pointing to a small fern on the corner of her desk.

Lady Agnue folded her hands. “Miss Knight, I did not ask you here to talk pleasantries.”

“Lady Agnue, you never ask me here to talk pleasantries.”

She didn’t respond to the comment. Instead, she opened one of her desk drawers and took something out. The object was small and sparkled in the light from the window when she held it up before me. I instinctively reached my right hand to my ear when I realized what it was.

“You found my earring!” I said with more excitement than appropriate for the serious vibe pulsating through the room.

“Yes,” Lady Agnue nodded. “Would you like to guess where?”

I blinked.

“This was found within one of the shattered cases of the Archives,” she began.

I blinked again.

“One of your classmates, Mauvrey Weatherall, found it. And so now I ask you again—do you have anything to say, Miss Knight?”

Oh crud. She does think I broke into the Archives.

Well, technically
I did
break into the Archives. But I didn’t
literally
break them. And I certainly didn’t steal four of our realm’s most sacred treasures.

Though how exactly do you explain that to your school principle without figuratively hanging yourself? And how in the name of Book did Mauvrey find my earring?!

“Lady Agnue,” I said as evenly as possible, “I didn’t smash the Archives and take that stuff. I can’t explain how my earring got there. It’s been missing for a couple days; ask my friends. But I didn’t do it. I promise you, I’m not . . . I didn’t . . . I just couldn’t do something like that.”

“Do not make promises you cannot keep, Miss Knight. And for goodness’ sake, I thought I warned you about those contractions! You must have used at least a dozen in the last two minutes alone and, frankly, they are causing me to develop a migraine.”

Oh for the love of . . .

Calm, Crisa. Stay calm. If you lose your temper now you’re only going to get into more trouble.

We kind of stared at each other for a minute then. I didn’t know if I would’ve exactly characterized it as a stand off since there were no tumbleweeds in the background, the songs of the blue birds outside were the opposite of ominous, and, well, we weren’t standing. Still though, it was pretty intense.

Usually I was not one to shy away from confrontation, but this was different. There was just not much else I could say here. If the school didn’t have any other leads to go on, Lady Agnue was not going to let me out of the hot seat. I was going to get suspended, or expelled, or whatever the princess equivalent of extremely, horribly in trouble was.

I might even get . . . detention.

GULP.

For better or worse, I finally decided to interrupt the silence and face whatever our headmistress’s misplaced wrath entailed head on. “So
. . .
what are you going to do to me?” I asked.

Lady Agnue leaned back in her chair. “For now, not much,” she sighed as she glared at me with her narrowed eyes. “I do not like you, Miss Knight,” she continued. “As I am sure you have already well realized.”

“Yeah,” I huffed. “But, heartbreaking as it is, I think I’ll get over it.”

“Silence,” the headmistress snapped, rage escaping her for a second.

All right then. Definitely not the time for sass.

“Crisanta Knight, I would like nothing more than to have you removed from this campus,” Lady Agnue went on. “Alas, other members of the school’s senior staff feel that we must give you the benefit of the doubt.
They
seem to think that you are simply spirited and naïve, not a volatile troublemaker, and that you would never do anything like this. I, however, disagree and will be keeping a very close eye on you as our investigation continues.”

“Um, so does that mean I can go?” I responded.

Lady Agnue nodded and I did not hesitate to grab my earring off her desk and make a break for the door. Tragically, I was unable to escape the headmistress’s lair before she dolled out the very punishment I’d been dreading.

“Just because you are not expelled, young lady, does not mean you are off the metaphorical hook. You will be serving detention in Tower Six everyday after classes for the next two weeks.”

The vein in my neck nearly burst from the combined dismay and outrage. “Two weeks! Lady Agnue, come on. That’s not fair!”

“Consider it one week for this and one week for the Twenty-Three Skidd tournament. But do look on the bright side, Miss Knight,” my headmistress taunted. “Perhaps you can use that time to reflect on your actions, learn to suppress that sense of rebellion in your personality, and practice constructing sentences without those awful contractions.”

I was furious, but chose to hold my tongue and bolt out of Lady Agnue’s office before my inevitable mouthing off earned me a third week in detention.

Ms. Mammers was not at her desk in the waiting area when I walked out. Which would have made me content had it not been for the fact that Mauvrey was sitting there casually in her place.

“Good morning, Crisa.”

“You,” I marched over to my nemesis angrily and glowered at her from across the desk. “Where did you find my earring, Mauvrey? I know for a fact that it was nowhere near the Archives.”

Her eyes curved into a smile as she calmly uncrossed her legs and stood up from Ms. Mammers’ chair. “And how would you know
that
?” she posed in return, squaring me off.

I placed my hands on my hips and mirrored the confidence she was emanating. “None of your business,” I said.

“Maybe not,” she continued, “But it
is
Lady Agnue’s business. In fact, she has called me in here this morning to discuss the very matter with her further.”

“I didn’t smash those cases, Mauvrey. And I didn’t steal anything.”

“Oh, I believe you, Crisa,” she replied. “But I would sooner chew with my mouth open and dye my hair brown than defend the likes of you.”

“So you’re just going to hang me out to dry then?” I clarified. “And try to convince Lady Agnue that I’m guilty even though you know full well I didn’t do it?”

“Did not do it,” she corrected. “Princesses do not use contractions, Crisa. Remember?”

Oh that is it.

“Mauvrey, I
couldn’t
care less if contractions
aren’t
princess-like. Frankly, your behavior is way less princessy than mine is anyways. In case you’ve forgotten, rule seven according to our blowhard headmistress says that princesses aren’t supposed to lie either. Yet, here you are, about to go into that office and lie your tail off as a part of your petty vendetta to destroy me.”

“Oh please, Crisa. I could run around this school in a pair of short shorts playing the mandolin and I would still be more quote, ‘princessy,’ than you. And furthermore, if I wanted to destroy you I would think of a much more satisfying way to do it than by framing you with a stupid earring. It is like you said back in Adelaide; I
am
better than that. And as such, I do intend to rise to the challenge you so eloquently put forth to me that evening.”

“And what challenge is that?”

“Channeling my creativity to execute a more
interesting form of revenge,
of course,” she replied.

Lady Agnue’s door swung open before I could come up with a retort. Standing in the doorway of her den, our headmistress glared at me before gesturing to my other archenemy. “You may come in now, Miss Weatherall. As for you, Miss Knight, get back to class. And do not forget to report to Tower Six at five o’clock sharp. For every minute you are late I will be adding an extra day of detention to your sentence.”

I stormed out of the office and down the hallway.

As if I was going back to class. I had already been excused from D.I.D. and with the mood I was in I probably would have ripped my textbook in half had I been forced to go on sitting there.

What I actually ended up doing was ditching the remainder of my morning lessons and hiding out in the barn, stabbing at hay dummies with my spear.

When noon came around, I reluctantly headed back toward the main grounds. SJ, Blue, and I had planned on meeting in our room during lunch to try the magic mirror again. By the time I made it back my friends were already waiting for me. Eyes fraught with worry in SJ’s case and curiosity in Blue’s, I proceeded to tell them what had happened.

“I can’t believe Mauvrey!” Blue ranted afterwards. “You should’ve knocked her teeth in, or gone all Mulan on her butt with your spear.”

“Believe me,” I said. “I was tempted.”

SJ paced the room. “Sorry to change the subject, Crisa, but the events between you and your collection of archenemies aside, I still want to know how whoever broke into the Archives after us went about doing so. I mean, for no one to hear or see them . . . it is inconceivable.”

“Maybe whoever stole your potions book cast the same silence spell you did,” Blue suggested.

SJ blinked twice and looked confused—as if our friend’s statement had been spoken in a different language.

“What? Are we still pretending like the book just got lost?” Blue asked. “We searched this room inside and out. Someone definitely took it.”

“Oh, right.” SJ bit her lip. “In all our rush this morning, I forgot to tell you.”

“Forgot to tell us what?”

SJ walked over to her bedside and opened the top drawer of her nightstand, from which she pulled out a small, very familiar looking text. My eyes widened.

“You found it,” I said in shock. “You found your potions book.”

“Yes. I could hardly believe it myself,” SJ replied. “When I woke up this morning I just discovered it in the drawer. No explanations, it had simply reappeared.”

“And you didn’t think to tell us until now?” Blue said, punching SJ in the arm.

“Ow, Blue!” she cheeped. “That hurt.”

“Well, you deserved it. Keeping something like that to yourself.”

“It is not as though I was intentionally keeping the secret, Blue. I was preoccupied with other matters what with our late night ventures, and being tardy for class, and the Archives being destroyed, and Crisa—”