Lucky Rabbit

When Thaniel pounded up the stairs to the chancellor’s office, Pandy finally saw the Portrait That Watches. The elderly man painted on the canvas looked more like a blue-eyed walrus than any human being had a right to look, and those bulging eyes bugged out even more as he saw Thaniel running. A low, vibrating moan emitted from the area around – or perhaps behind? – the painting, and Pandy’s ears twitched as she heard a door open below them.

Thaniel either didn’t hear or ignored the sound, running up the steps and across the landing to begin pounding on the doors. He was small and the doors were large, but even as Ms. Davenport swept up the stairs behind them, the office doors swung open, revealing Mr. Blackwood, as impeccably dressed as ever, except for a single curl that had escaped his slicked-back hairstyle. Ms. Davenport froze in place, and the chancellor nodded to her before turning to Thaniel.

“What’s going on, Thaniel?” he asked, no judgement or anger audible in his calm voice.

Thaniel swallowed hard, arms tightening around Pandy, then squeaked out, “There’s somethin’ wrong in the library, sir. I was, um, a little late…for chores, you know? And the doorknob had an eye, and then a mouth, and it said your name!” He was pale and trembling as he added, “Ellie’s in there!”

Mr. Blackwood’s mouth flattened, and he nodded, settling a hand on Thaniel’s shoulder. Looking at Ms. Davenport, he said, “Please take Thaniel back to his room, Josephine. I’ll handle this.”

When Pandy looked at Ms. Davenport, she saw that the older woman had paled, but she stepped forward. The chancellor released Thaniel, and Ms. Davenport’s hand landed in the same spot, gently holding Thaniel in place as the boy tensed, ready to bolt. Pandy had no doubt that without this transfer of authority, Thaniel would have been down the stairs and heading back toward the library. There was no way he was going to quietly return to his room while he believed Eleanor might be in trouble.

To her surprise, however, that was exactly what he did. The chancellor was gone almost before Ms. Davenport reached the stairs, her hand still firmly on Thaniel’s shoulders. Thaniel didn’t try to pull away, though his eyes were locked on the door leading back toward the library. As soon as he was through the door to the student halls, however, he actually picked up his pace, hurrying toward his room.

Once there, Ms. Davenport firmly ushered him into his room, cautioning him to, “Remain here until chores are over.” Her pale eyes were surprisingly compassionate, but her voice was firm, and Thaniel nodded meekly.

Of course, as soon as the door clicked closed behind her, Thaniel had his ear pressed up against it, listening as soft footfalls padded away down the hall. After a tense minute, he looked at Pandy and whispered, “D’you think she’s gone?”

Pandy was conflicted. On the one hand, she, too, wanted to know what was going on in the library. On the other hand, this was exactly the kind of thing that led to attempts on Thaniel’s life. Isidor and Tempest weren’t even there to help! Which reminded Pandy-

Pandy thought, wiggling free of Thaniel’s arms just in time for her human feet to land on the wooden floor. She was getting good at putting on her clothes almost before she’d finished transforming, and she doubted Thaniel even noticed the very brief period in which she wore only Ms. Wellington’s birthday suit.

“Here,” Pandy said, pulling the Heartsplit Charm from her inventory. Bending down, she moved Thaniel’s jacket to the side so she could reach his shirt. Quickly, she snapped the charm in half and pinned the white half to Thaniel’s shirt, and pulled the jacket over it again. Then she pinned the black half to her own bodice, not really paying attention to where it ended up. As long as it was on her, it would work.

“If you’re in trouble, pull this off,” she said, pressing her fingers to the small bulge of the pin beneath his coat. “When the pin breaks, it will bring me to you. All right? You can take it off normally if you’re just changing clothes, but if you rip it free, I’ll come, and I’ll keep you safe.”

She hesitated, looking from the pin to the door, then said, “Do you trust me?”

Thaniel, too, had been looking at the door, and Pandy knew exactly what he was thinking. He wasn’t the kind of person to leave a friend in trouble, and he’d promised to help keep Eleanor safe. He was planning an escape, and there was no way she was letting him walk out that door.

Reluctantly, Thaniel nodded, then nodded again, more firmly. “I do.”

Pandy gave him a quick hug, then straightened up, showing him the pin fastened to her dress. “Then stay here. I’ll go see what’s going on, and if I can help, I will. But I have to know you’re safe. I have to be able to trust you, too.” She could only hope she was saying the right thing, because having someone count on her was as foreign to her as trusting someone else was to Thaniel.

Thaniel hesitated, biting his lip. He had learned to be independent much the same way Pandy had…because adults simply couldn’t be depended upon. His father was distant, at best. Cassie was little more than a placeholder. Lian was gone most of the time. Even Marta was only around for a few hours a day. If Thaniel wanted something, he had to get it for himself, and while that had turned him into a surprisingly strong, resilient child, it had also made him stubborn and slow to really trust adults, traits which were often hidden by his sunny disposition.

His hand crept up and slid beneath his jacket, touching the other half of the Heartsplit Charm. Finally, he nodded. “You gotta make sure she’s safe.” His voice dropped. “And you’ve got to come back, too. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Bu-” He stopped, and Pandy pulled him into another hug.

“I am your Bunny,” she told him. “And I’ll come back. I promise.” Releasing him, she held out a hand, with one pinky crooked. He gave a moist little laugh and hooked his own pinky through hers, shaking firmly to seal the deal.

Pandy released the spell, shrinking back down to rabbit-size, and Thaniel opened the door just wide enough for her to hop out. For a moment, she thought he might follow her, in spite of his promise, but the door snicked shut behind her, and Pandy hopped off down the hall.

There was actually a little space behind the stairwell on the first floor. According to a map of Condor Pandy had seen online, the space was part of the hall supervisor’s room, allowing them to know when the stairs were used, even – or perhaps especially – at night. Ms. Davenport could be sitting in her room eating bonbons, and she would know if Thaniel tried to sneak down. Fortunately, Pandy wasn’t Thaniel-sized now, nor did she have to take every step on the way down.

No one was in the hall, which was good, but also slightly worrisome. Given the oddity of the situation with the library, Pandy thought it might have been a good idea to call all the children in. Though honestly, they might be safer outside, under the watchful eyes of their advisors. That was probably why Mr. Blackwood was the chancellor, not her. Well, that and the fact that she hadn’t been born in this world, wasn’t a noble, and currently spent most of her time as a rabbit of questionable mortality.

Quickly, she made her way to the top of the stairs, spending a Corruption Point to Hop over them all. Thanks to the Apparition, she currently had seventy-six – well, seventy-five now – Corruption Points, which should allow her to do almost anything she needed to do.

There was a definite thump when she landed at the base of the stairs, but Pandy dug her claws into the carpet and bounded off, passing Ms. Davenport’s open door so quickly that she couldn’t even see if the woman was inside. Hopefully that meant the hall supervisor didn’t see her, either, but Pandy was past worrying about whether or not she was acting like a normal rabbit.

The foyer blurred by, but Pandy found her progress abruptly stymied when she struck the door leading into the classroom wing. She ran into it with the full force of twenty-nine points of Agility, and twenty-three points of Strength – she hadn’t wasted the last few nights, at least not completely – and a sharp crack sounded. Pain shot through her, so Pandy was pretty sure the sound hadn’t come from the door. An instant later, red numbers told her her guess was correct.

-18 LF

Pandy’s head flopped as she landed on the floor at the foot of the infuriatingly intact door, but a Minor Heal took care of that, if not the feeling that something had broken loose inside her and was jiggling around like fruit in a jello bowl. It also didn’t open the door, so she shifted into Ms. Wellington and grasped the doorknob, only to yank her hand back as a jolt of electricity ran through her, taking another two points of damage. It wasn’t enough to really hurt someone, but more than enough to keep out any curious children.

Pandy wasn’t going to be deterred, however, so she took hold of the knob again, using her full Strength to turn it. Her wrist gave a very unsettling crunch, and she took another six points of damage, but the door opened, allowing her to slip through.

As soon as she released it, the door snapped back into place, pinching her skirt, which absolutely refused to come free. Worse, the handle wouldn’t turn from this side at all, so she eventually gave in and ripped the fabric, which continued tearing long after she would have preferred that it stop, leaving her knee-length bloomers visible through a ragged slit that almost reached her waist. At this rate, she wasn’t going to have anything left to wear by next Tuesday. Well, at least it left her legs free, not that it mattered, because she only had a bit over five minutes left on Shifting Faces by the time she cancelled it once again. Really, where did the time go?

Pandy slowed as she hopped past the five homerooms, watching for movement. The silent hall was eerily like the third floor, where she and Isidor had fought the Apparition, and her sense of deja vu was only strengthened by the fact that all of the doors were closed. Normally, there would be a few Small Groups here for chores, cleaning the classrooms and readying them for the next school day, but no childish voices sounded now, and while the halls were well lit, there was a definite sense of vacancy about them.

At least, there was until she reached the library itself. She had half-expected to find some member of staff here, perhaps even the chancellor himself. Instead, the library door now stood wide, revealing a far different view than the oversized room filled with shelves and shelves of books. In place of that quiet, peaceful space, Pandy saw a hallway, entirely different from any of the ones inside the school. Rather than warm wood and soft carpets, the floor and walls were stone, and while the ceiling looked like it might be wooden, it had been painted a flat gray.

Without thinking, Pandy hopped forward, but she knew it was a mistake as soon as her paws crossed the threshold, and Falconet’s familiar hall vanished, leaving a blank wall behind her. What was she supposed to do now? Honestly, she’d hoped that either Blackwood would have already taken care of the problem, or that the door would still be closed, leaving her outside, waiting for Eleanor’s return, but able to assure Thaniel she’d done everything she could.

Instead, here she was, but as Pandy hopped down the featureless hallway, she realized she wasn’t alone. There, sprawled out on the cold stone floor, lay the almost-fourteen-year-old version of Isidor, Tempest upside-down just beyond his outstretched fingers, the tortoise spinning gently in place on the rounded curve of her shell.