The House of Grey- Volume 6 (21 page)

Mr. Gatt was visibly relieved. “He is alive.”

A huge weight seemed to lift as the words came out of his mouth. Everyone looked next to Brian. He shook his head. “I am sorry–she is gone. Cyann Harrison is dead.”

Chapter
64
- Aftermath

Casey sat with Artorius, Kylie and Grayson in the lobby of the Coren University Hospital. He was starting to get really frustrated.

“How long are they going to make us wait?” He took a bite of a King Size Snickers. It would probably make him sick, but it was all that sounded good, so it was all he ate.

Artorius yawned. “Hold your underdeveloped horses before your voice breaks like the soprano you are; they’ll be here. They promised to explain what happened to Grey. So just sit, chill and give me some of your Snickers bar, ya glutton.”

Casey threw the Snickers, harder than he intended, and it hit Artorius square in the head. Artorius stood up. “Dude! You just hit me in the head!”
“Are you sure that one of those gargoyles didn’t do a number on your noggin, Arthur? Your command of the obvious has gotten obnoxiously basic.”

“That’s it Cassius, I didn’t want to do this, but you leave me no choice.”

He gazed at Casey with a look that was both contrite and smug, if that was even possible. “You’re demoted to secondary friend, Case. I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t think you’re primary friend material anymore.”

Casey’s laugh sounded slightly forced. “If that was all I had to do to get rid of you, I would have”—his voice broke as he continued—“thrown a Snickers at that fat, flaming melon of yours years ago.”

Artorius stood, posturing to go after Casey as if to engage in their usual banter, but his heart wasn’t in it. He briefly remained standing and looked at Casey scornfully as if he were about to say something
smart
, but then sat back down.

The air grew heavier around them.

Casey sighed. It was no use. Ever since they pulled Monson and Cyann out of that hole the group had been distinctly downtrodden.

The tap of a short heel announced Taris Green’s arrival to the visitor’s waiting area. The nurse from Monson’s floor followed her.

The nurse addressed Grayson. “Your maid is stable, Mr. Garrett–the specialist from Seattle Pacific told me to let you know. I don’t think she’s in any danger now.”

The relief on Grayson’s face was priceless.

“Grayson! Did you hear that!” yelled Artorius, only to be instantly shushed by everyone else. “Oh, sorry—dude!” he exclaimed, lowering the volume just a touch. “Marie is going to be all right! Now she can get around to dumping you and be with a real man!”

Grayson cut him off, not missing a beat. “You mean Monson, right? I don’t actually think Marie is Grey’s type.”

“Oh snap!” Casey gently punched Artorius on the arm. “You walked right into that, hommie.”

Hugs and smiles and a certain amount of whooping accompanied the slapping of backs, and for a single, solitary moment, it was like they were back to normal.

Alas, it was only for a moment.

The nurse addressed the group. “I’m sorry to tell the rest of you that I’ve no new updates concerning your friend.”

The black cloud returned and squarely rested atop the group.

The nurse spoke once more to Grayson, “Now, sir—make sure that you’re more careful when you’re driving; the young lady was lucky, but she may not be so lucky next time.” She turned and walked away from the group without another word.

Taris shook her head. “Unbelievable how powerful those mind messer-upper machines are. Jacking around with people’s memories can’t be good; they aren’t going to sizzle their brains, are they?”

Grayson shrugged. “This type of enchantment is way beyond the spell casters of H.U.M.A.N.E.. Next time you see one of those instruments, just look at the scripting trail; it’s unbelievably complicated. So I’m not the person to ask; that’s another thing to discuss with Gatt and Brian when they finally meet us.”

The rest nodded their heads. Grayson’s southern accent was pronounced as he anxiously asked the question they all wanted answered. “How is he, Taris?”

Taris shook her head. “He still hasn’t woken up. It’s—it’s really hard to see him like that. The scars are all fully formed again and even more defined than before. The patterns are clearly visible. Mr. Gatt and Brian don’t know how much he’ll remember of us. He could have a total restart with no memory
of me, you or any of us
and—” She broke off to compose herself before continuing, “And there’s a possibility that he won’t ever wake up.”

Her words caused an uproar.

“He might not wake up?” sputtered Artorius.

“He won’t remember any of us?” asked Casey. 

Taris closed her eyes as if she was going to cry. “No, absolutely no memory of
any
of us. Not me, you, Artorius, Grayson, Molly—”

“Cyann,” Indigo Harrison plopped down beside Artorius and they all gawked.

Silence invaded the area like rats to a block of cheese.

Indigo had been gone for the past ten days with her parents. They had been notified immediately of her departure and had not heard a peep from her since. Now she was back, like she had never left, but looked worn-out. “I don’t know what you’re all worked up about. I think that’s going to be hardest for me. Grey and Cy-
C
yann…were the most fun to tease.”

Indigo sniffed.

Artorius was suffering opposing emotional extremes so quickly that a commercial for bipolar medication was possibly in his immediate future. He was obviously ecstatic that Indigo was there, but equally distraught that Monson might lose his memories or worse, never
wake
up at all.

“This is all that Baroty guy’s fault.” Indigo pulled a water bottle out of Artorius’ hand and drank from it. She gulped and continued. “What I wouldn’t give to deliver that guy a good, swift kick to the crotch.”

Her voice sounded stronger, but her hand had started to shake.

Casey grabbed Indigo’s hand and steadied it,
then wiped a tear from her eye
. Artorius didn’t even object.  Casey smiled at her. “He took a Magi Blade in the back; if it’s any small consolation, I’d bet that hurt a lot.”  He paused before asking softly,  “How are they taking things?”

Indigo’s response was breathy. “Mom’s been crying a lot, but I can’t be sure for the moment. She’s spending most of her time at our family’s place in Ireland. Dad is home in California. I’ve never seen him so panicked. Like he doesn’t know what to do. Honestly, I haven’t seen much of him for the last five or six days. He’s been locked in our basement all that time. I couldn’t stand the silence. The waiting. So I decided to come back to see if Monson was...OK.”

They all knew why she hadn’t called. She didn’t want any more bad news.

“How did you explain what happened to Cyann?” asked Taris. “I mean, I’m still trying to comprehend everything and I was right in the mix of it. Did you just make something up or are they buying the natural disaster/terrorist story?”

Casey had been wondering the same thing. That was the story that was being circulated by the media: Just as a terrorist group called the Nomanders had tried to attack the school, Coren Valley was hit with a huge earthquake. It was totally insane, but people were buying it with the help of some additional Magi. They had arrived less than twenty-four hours after the battle and were using H.U.M.A.N.E. and the Dragoons to round everyone up and magic-mess with their minds. Casey thought of Legon and wondered why they didn’t simply call them dragons. But since the beasts were as big as houses, he didn’t object.

Indigo shrugged. “I didn’t have to tell my parents anything. Mr. Gatt and Brian took care of it. They explained to my dad what was going on and he hasn’t mentioned it since.”

That seemed odd. But Casey was too tired to inquire further. Maybe another time. At the moment, another question weighed heavily on his mind.

“What about the funeral?” he
asked.
“When are they going to have it? We’d all like to go.”

They all nodded their agreement.

Indigo ran her hand through her hair, which was noticeably unkempt. “I have no idea. From the sound of it, they
aren’t
going to have one.”

Artorius asked the question. “Why wouldn’t they have a funeral for Cyann? She’s their daughter!”
Indigo glared at him. “Like I said, I don’t really know. My dad is being
all weird
about it. I think he’s having a hard time accepting that Cyann is really gone. I know Mr. Gatt and Brian have been talking to him; I don’t know about what, but it’s gotten him all sorts of worked up. Truthfully though, my papa has always been weird about Cyann, ever since she joined the family.”

She sighed and changed the subject. “So Brian and Mr. Gatt really have no idea if Monson will remember anything?”

“They don’t know if he’s going to wake up at all.” Taris pointed down the hall. “Some more of Mr. Gatt and Brian’s associates showed up yesterday, magic healer people of some kind, and have been working on Monson. We don’t have any information beyond that.”

Indigo’s emotions became increasingly evident as she spoke. “So you’re telling me that not only is my sister dead, but also that Monson might be a vegetable?”

“That is truly the worst case; we don’t think that will happen.” Brian entered the waiting room. Mr. Gatt was just down the hall speaking to a group of men that none of the friends recognized.

Brian plopped down next to the gathered teenagers. He looked terrible, with massive black bags under his eyes and red patches at his temples where he obviously had been rubbing his hands.

The company of children instantly bombarded him with questions.

“How’s Monson?” both Casey and Artorius demanded.

“What did your healers do to Marie?” asked Grayson.

“Who are those men and why are they here?” called out Indigo.

Brian held up a hand. “Peace, children. All will be revealed—”

Casey interrupted. “Enough stalling, Brian. We’re tired of hearing that. We need answers and we need them
now
.”

“It’s been almost two weeks since the Battle of Coren University,” said Artorius, glancing around at the slightly surprised faces. “What? It was a battle, and it was here in Coren. If any of you have a better name, I’d be happy to hear it.”
No one said anything.

Artorius continued, apparently satisfied. “It’s been two weeks since Baroty and his men attacked everyone here. Yet we’re no closer to understanding why a group of armed men invaded our school, summoned a legendary
phenomenon
that isn’t supposed to exist, and tried to kill us in the process. Cyann and Molly are dead. Monson is in a coma. I could really use someone to punch and if you aren’t going to tell us anything, it might as well be you. It’s time to give us some answers.”

“Yes, I do think it’s about time we shared.” Mr. Gatt appeared without anyone having heard him approach.

He sat next to Brian, took a deep breath, and spoke slowly. “You need to understand that we can’t give you all the answers—”

He put up a hand to stifle the objections. “Before you start, there is much we cannot tell you because there is much we do not know. Also, some of our secrets are for the members of our Order only. We will fill in the blanks as best we can. But you must not ask beyond that. At least not for now.”

Casey scowled. “Intentional baiting. I hate it when stories do that.”

Brian spoke, ignoring Casey. “I told you all once, not very long ago—though it feels like ages ago–that if you are to truly understand this story, you need to suspend any concept you have of reality, history, ideology or manifest conceptualization of your identity. If you are to proceed to the next step, if you are to fulfill your part your role in this story, you need to believe in your purpose. Otherwise none of you, least of all Monson, will survive.”

Brian sighed heavily. “Assuming, of course, that he is not already dead.”

“That sounds like the teaser to a bad fantasy novel,” commented Taris, absentmindedly tossing her hair.

Everyone looked at her.

“What?” She held out her hands defensively. “I read too, you know.”

“You are not completely off the mark, Ms. Green,” said Brian.

Silence greeted this statement.

Brian smiled and motioned to Mr. Gatt, who proceeded to script a spell. Yellow runes materialized and then vanished in front of him as he muttered under his breath. Pulses, like a shock wave of sound, fanned out from his fingertips. He briefly closed his eyes and then looked back at Brian.

“It
i
s done.”

Brian nodded at this.

“What’s done?” asked Indigo, raising the eyebrow in Monson’s signature gesture.

“To avoid any
eavesdropping outside our little conversation
,” replied Brian simply. “The Magi’s volumes of specialty spells can be incredibly useful if one is willing to take the time to learn them.”