The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (50 page)

Uncle Stan grinned widely.  “That takes me back.  We did
have an agreement.  It was stupid, but when we first learned our elements, we
decided to draw our element on page 47 in every book we read.  I haven’t done
that in years.  ‘Course I don’t do much readin’ anymore either.”

Elijah smiled.  For just that short time, things felt like
normal again.  He said goodbye to his uncle and Bronco (who grunted on his way
out), and then he helped out with a few chores, frequently asking Master
Roddick if he needed anything as an excuse to strike up a conversation.  Elijah
told him about his year with his training and how he had gotten to battle
Olivia and Master Young with the elements.  He told him about working in the
library with Becca and how Ruth came to visit him frequently.  He even told
Roddick about her kiss, which brought up an entirely new conversation that they
started about what made her so special.  Roddick was quite tired-looking by the
end of the visit, but he never stopped asking questions and doing everything he
could to catch up on Elijah’s year.

Elijah left at noon when a soldier from the barracks came by
to get him.  He returned during training session, but he decided to skip it
since he had missed most of it already.  He went up to his room to rest, but he
continued thinking about the story Roddick told.  He was glad Roddick was okay,
but there was more to his story that troubled him.  If it was true that someone
tipped off the Maliphists, then it had to be someone who knew Roddick.  They
would have had to know his mission beforehand, and there weren’t many people
who knew his task, including many who were close to him.  It may very likely
have been someone in high authority.

The other thing that he learned was that the Maliphists
didn’t know how to work the sphere, which meant Olivia was right, not Becca. 
They still didn’t know about the cubes.  But if that was true, why did they
destroy Los Alientos?

Elijah fell asleep long enough to dream about the sphere and
the cubes until Paul jolted him out of his dream.

“Elijah, wake up.”

“What is it?”

“You know how we were going to trail Thomas everywhere?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, as soon as you left, we started.  We’ve had someone
trailing him always, but we can’t find him now.  He’s completely disappeared! 
I was trailing him in the arena very early this morning.  He was all alone down
there just looking in doors and walking around all weird like.  And then, he
turned a corner and I completely lost him.  We haven’t been able to find him all
day!”

“Are you serious?” Elijah asked, feeling disoriented from
his sleep.

“No.  I’m just making this up.  Go back to sleep and dream
some more.  Yes I’m serious!”

Elijah sat up in his bed.  “Okay then.  Let’s trace his
steps.  Let’s go to where he’s been poking around.  I first saw him doing weird
things in the library, right?”

“You saw him, not me,” Paul said.

“Maybe it was the attic.  Let’s go in there and see what’s
up there.”

“Awesome!” said Paul.

They raced to the neutral area between the Preliminary Halls
and waited until the coast was clear before Elijah first climbed the ladder,
followed by Paul.

Elijah lit a fire from his palm and held it out so he could
see.  The attic was just that.  There was nothing around that looked either
interesting or dangerous.  It was a long hallway, very similar to the
passageway they climbed through looking for the cube in Orphea just weeks ago. 
It was dusty and smelled bad.  Elijah was afraid he was going to run into a rat
or a nest of bats.

“This definitely seems like the place a creeper like Thomas
would hang out,” Paul said as they crawled their way through the tight
corridor.  It opened up gradually, just enough for them to stand up halfway.

“What is this?” Paul asked, picking up some moldy orange
peels and what looked like a freshly eaten apple core.  “It looks like some
sort of nest.”  There were papers scattered on the floor that looked like
homework.  Then, Elijah found something that made his heart stop.

“Paul, come over here,” he said, concerned.  He lifted his
flame up to the wall showing a drawing that looked very similar to an outline
of the barracks.  It was a giant oval with obvious floors which were labeled
“Novice Hall”, “Main Floor”, “Arena”, and “Library”.  The floor under the
library was not yet marked, but the space was sketched out.  Then, making
things more concerning were numbers labeled around the barracks.  Just outside
the marking for the main level was the number 1.  It showed an arrow leading
outside the barracks and out of Savenridge.  The number 2 was in the library,
also with an arrow pointing outside of Savenridge.  Finally, just outside the
arena, starting with an area he had labeled “Button’s Quarters” was the number
3 with a circle around it and arrows pointing in.

“Paul?”

“Yeah.”

“What was the number you found outside of Button’s
passageway?”

“Three.”  Paul said it and seemed to understand where Elijah
was leading.  “These are ways into the barracks from outside, aren’t they?”

“I think he’s planning an attack,” Elijah said.  “If it’s
true that these all lead outside, then they’re also ways to get inside the
barracks.  Places Maliphists can attack.  They don’t have to be in Savenridge
to invade the city.  Thomas has been scouting out the barracks all year and
reporting the secret entrances.”

“Are you sure?” Paul asked.

“It sure looks that way,” Elijah said.  “I bet you anything
that if we look for these others we would find an exit.  And that number you
found.  That was weird even without seeing this to go with it.  There’s an
attack being planned here, and Thomas is the mole.”

“So what do we do?” Paul asked.

“Let’s get the others,” Elijah stated, continuing to look at
the map Thomas had drawn.  “We need to stop Thomas.  Let’s get out of here and
check on these numbers to be sure.  If they lead to the outside like we
suspect, we can go to Button.”

Paul and Elijah found Hannah and Becca searching around the
main floor for Thomas.  Elijah paused to tell them what they found in the attic
while Paul found Isaac and Adam.

When they came together, they decided to look for the exit
on the main floor first.  The drawing they saw in the attic showed the exit on
the far wall, at the southernmost side of the floor by the game room.  They
examined the stone walls all along the back but couldn’t find anything.  They
ran their hands along the wall to make sure there were no hidden corridors or
openings that played tricks on their eyes, but they still saw nothing.

“What about inside the game room?” Isaac asked.  “Only a
couple people are in there at a time, so it’s wouldn’t be easy to spot.”

“How do we get in there to check?” Becca asked.

“Leave that to me,” Paul said.  He walked right up to the
door of the game room and got the attention of the assistant.  “Excuse me,” he
said in an overly sweet voice to a young man in their year.  “I just saw some
people throwing some of their game pieces out the window of the Preemie… I mean
Preliminary Hall and Button told me to tell you to take care of it
immediately.”

The young man groaned.  “Not again.  Watch the door will
you?” He ran out of the room and up the stairs.

“How did you know this had happened before?” Hannah asked
Paul as soon as the assistant left.

“Because it was me last time,” Paul said.  “Now get in there
and look.”

Elijah and Becca squeezed inside and searched the walls. 
They pulled off games and rearranged furniture, but they couldn’t find anything
suggesting a passageway.

“What about up high?” Isaac said, peering over the half door
inside the room.  Elijah and Becca looked up.

“There!” Becca said, pointing to a small crawl space almost
completely covered by one of the back shelves.  Elijah grabbed the shelf and
pulled as hard as he could, just being able to budge it enough for Becca to
slide through.  She climbed inside the crawl space and disappeared.  They
waited for ten minutes before she reappeared and nodded.

“Just like you said,” Becca remarked.  “It leads right
outside.  And it also has that same carving on the outside that Paul saw on the
wall of Button’s passage.”

“Was it a number 1?” Paul asked.

“Yes it was.”

“Why are we waiting then?” Paul asked.  “Let’s find Button
now.  Do we really need to go find the third entrance?  He probably knows about
it anyway!”

“I agree with Paul,” Becca said.  “Let’s go find Button.  If
Thomas is really planning some sort of attack, looking around for more proof is
a waste of time.”

Elijah looked at the others who nodded as well.  “Okay then. 
Let’s go.”

They left the game room to look for Mr. Button.  They first
tried his quarters, but he wasn’t there.  They looked around both the
Preliminary Hall and Novice Hall, but they still couldn’t find him.  Elijah
found the red-haired monitor who patrolled the Novice Hall and asked him.

“Do you know where Mr. Button is?” Elijah asked.

“Sure do,” the boy said.  “He’s out.  Was called by the council
from what I hear.”

“The council?” Elijah asked.  “Do you know why?”

“You’re kidding, right?” the monitor said.  “It’s the
council.  You don’t ask when they call for you.”

Elijah sighed.  With Mr. Button gone, the timing couldn’t be
better for Thomas.

They walked back downstairs and stood next to the fire pit.

“What now?” Hanna asked when Elijah told the girls about
Button being summoned by the council.

“We either wait for Button,” Elijah stated, “or go find
Thomas.”

“But we’ve looked for Thomas,” Isaac said.  “We couldn’t
find him.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Paul said, looking over their heads
and across the fire pit.  “Target acquired.”

Elijah looked over his shoulder just in time to see Thomas, trying
to be inconspicuous, disappear down the stairs that led to the training arena. 
Elijah got up immediately and jogged toward the stairs in pursuit.  His friends
followed close behind.  They all kept a considerable distance from Thomas as he
continued to check over his shoulder from time to time.  Sure enough, Thomas
walked right into Button’s quarters and closed the door behind him.  When
Elijah reached the door, he stopped his friends.

“We shouldn’t all go at once,” he said.  “We should pair up
and follow each other.  It’ll be too hard to follow without him noticing six of
us.”

“I’m going with Elijah, then,” Paul immediately said.

“Hannah and I can follow,” Becca volunteered.

Isaac looked at Adam.  “It’s like getting picked last for
sports, isn’t it?”

“You can go before us,” Hannah said.

“No, it’s fine,” Isaac said.  “Last ones in, first ones
out.”

Elijah and Paul walked into the door and took the spiral
stairs up to the ground level.  They crept slowly, not knowing how far ahead
Thomas was.  They crept through the long, uncomfortable passageway through the mountain,
and when they eventually saw Thomas, he was just about outside.  Elijah peered
at Thomas, trying to make sense of his movements.  He didn’t know why, but at
that moment, Thomas didn’t give Elijah the impression that he was planning an
attack.  There was something about the way he moved that looked almost
defensive.  He didn’t stroll with confidence and courage.  He was creeping
along too, just like Elijah.  The longer Elijah watched Thomas, the more he was
convinced there was something more to the situation than he was seeing.

Thomas stopped and then immediately stiffened when he
stepped outside.  Paul and Elijah stopped too and flattened themselves against
the wall so they could see around the corner.  Thomas was talking!  Elijah
closed his eyes, practicing one of his mental training exercises, and
listened.  He could barely hear what Thomas was saying but it sounded like an
argument.  Paul had waved over Hannah and Becca while Thomas was arguing and
Isaac and Adam soon followed.

“What’s going on?” Becca whispered.

“I don’t know,” said Paul.  “He’s talking to someone.” 
Elijah mentally blocked out his friends’ conversation so he could hear.

“He’s talking to another student it sounds like,” Elijah
translated.  He held out his hand so no one else talked.  “He’s saying that he
won’t get away with something.”

“Get away with what?” Becca asked.

“Ssshhh!”  Elijah strained to hear.  He couldn’t make
anything else out.  He inched closer until he could see Thomas and another
figure who was hidden in the shadows.  At this distance, he could hear more
clearly.

“Who do you think you belong to?” the hidden person said. 
“You really want to stand in the way of this?  You, of all people?”

“I’ve known about your plan all year,” Thomas said.  His
deep voice resonated in the still night.  “I wouldn’t have kept following you
if I didn’t want to stand in the way.”

“You’re going to get yourself killed,” the figure said. 
“You do realize how deep this goes, don’t you?  Do yourself a favor and just get
out of the way.  It’s our mission.  Our call.”

“It’s
your
call,” Thomas said.  “Not mine.  I knew
you were a horrible person, even in Malpetra.”

“I’ve got news for you, traitor!  It’s you who was out of
place in Malpetra.”  The figure began to step toward Thomas, looking for a
fight.  “And soon, you’ll be out of place here too.  If you’re still alive!”

“I’ve already told Button about you,” Thomas said.  “He
should be here soon.”

The figure laughed, and Elijah immediately thought he
recognized that laugh.  The figure stepped into the moonlight.  Elijah was
right.  Curly-haired Toby Bradshaw took off the hood of his overcloak and faced
Thomas, positioned to fight.  Just when Elijah prepared himself to jump out and
help Thomas, a third figure appeared, casually raised out a hand, and shot out
an electric bolt at Thomas, striking him on the head and sending him three feet
into the air before he fell backward.  The third figure took off his hood to
see his victim, and Elijah recognized him as well.  It was Bernard, the mouse-faced
messenger that gave Olivia the note from the council that the Maliphists had
gotten the sphere.  Elijah didn’t have time to think.  He jumped out of his
hiding place and faced Toby and Bernard.  He was angry.  Angry at Toby for playing
him all year as just a goofy kid when he was really some sort of traitor. 
Angry at Bernard for attacking someone courageous enough to stand up to the
Maliphists.  Angry at himself for being quick to judge Thomas as a creepy kid
when really, if he had actually taken the time to befriend him, he would have
realized Thomas was trying to protect all of the kids who ignored and secluded
him all year.