Lucky Rabbit

Pandy froze, half-in and half-out of the ragged gap in the door. She paused, then ventured,

Um, yes, absolutely.

That’s me.

System.

That was absolutely not Pandy’s System. At least, it wasn’t the same, barely functional, System she’d been dealing with up to now. It spoke to her in the same way, with words scrolling across her vision, but no, even Pandy wasn’t falling for that. Had her System been hacked? Was that even possible?

She wiggled the rest of the way out of the hole, leaving little tufts of white fur mingled with the gray fur Miss Cupcakes had lost to the splintered maw. Once she was free, she turned back, staring up at the door to the library.

Except that it wasn’t entirely the same door Pandy was used to. The top looked right, but starting about halfway down, it became…hazy. Rich, golden wood blurred into a darker, browner stain, gradually becoming a simple door that wouldn’t have looked out of place in any cheap hotel Pandy had ever worked in. Of course, the bottom four or five inches were shredded, revealing that this door was solid wood all the way through, rather than a hollow shell.

With no one else to ask, Pandy thought, There was absolutely no response, and Pandy was about to use a skill just to make sure everything was still functioning, when she heard a door open and close. She looked around to see a man’s broad back silhouetted in the door leading to the foyer.

“Thank you, Mr. Holloway. Just make sure no one uses this door except for me, if you would?” Augustus’ voice said calmly. Then, with just a hint of irritation, “Yes, I’ve triggered the wards on the other door, and someone is making sure the wing is empty.” The chancellor closed the door with a click, then turned to look down the hall. Something moved by his feet, and Pandy saw Miss Cupcakes skulking along beside him, looking…guilty? Surely not.

Something else moved to Pandy’s left, where she was absolutely certain no one had been a moment before, and when she looked up, a member of the Royal Guard stood beside her. He – or she, it was hard to tell when they were wearing a metal shell – was immediately identifiable by the featureless, highly-reflective helmet worn by every Knight of the Royal Eagle.

“All clear,” the figure said, the helmet muffling their voice to a neutral tone. “The princess is also safe.”

“Thank you,” Augustus said, nodding to the knight, who saluted as the chancellor halted in front of the broken door…and Pandy. Miss Cupcakes started to duck back behind his legs, then stopped and began to groom a paw instead, pointedly not looking at Pandy or the door. The chancellor sighed, then crouched down so he could examine the damage. “Well, that explains a lot,” he murmured, then looked at Pandy. Holding out his hands, he said, “May I?”

At first, Pandy didn’t know what he was asking about, and then she realized that he wanted to pick her up. She had gotten so used to just being scooped into people’s arms that it was almost embarrassing to be asked, but she nodded.

Once she was tucked into his elbow, Augustus straightened again, and glanced at the guard. “Professor Beeswick won’t be able to use it like this. He’ll have to fly back from,” he hesitated, “wherever he is, which may take a few days. In the meantime, this isn’t safe. I’ll arrange to have something put up to cover the door, but we should increase security. Again.”

The guard nodded, but didn’t speak. The chancellor seemed satisfied, however, simply shifting Pandy so he could reach inside his jacket, dipping his hand into a hidden pocket. This was the same pocket which had once produced a carrot for her – a carrot which he had no reason to believe he needed before the moment he produced it – and now it held a key.

The large, heavy key fit perfectly into the lock, and Augustus swung the door open, stepping into the dark room beyond. “Lux,” he said, and a soft illumination bloomed around them. It was dimmer, somehow duller than the light that filled the rooms and halls of the rest of the school, but it illuminated the wide, dusty space well enough to see exactly how large and empty it really was.

Chancellor, knight, and cat all moved deeper into the room, until the guard caught Augustus’ arm with a sharp, “Sir.” Augustus turned, and saw the strange papers that had been so carefully inserted all around the doorframe. His eyes flickered over it, narrowing with something that looked like anger.

“Curse it,” he muttered. “I’m a fool. Perhaps I should lose my position, after all.”

The knight had no response, and Pandy couldn’t speak, so the moment passed without anyone refuting him. The corners of his lips tightened, pulling down as he focused instead on the floor, with the single row of human footsteps clearly visible in the dust, along with a few faint lines of feline paws, and dozens, if not hundreds, of neat parallel rows of bunny prints.

The desk caught his attention, and he neatly stepped over the human prints, careful not to disturb them. The guard crouched, fingers hovering over the dusty depressions, but Augustus walked to the desk. He checked each of the drawers, just as Pandy had, finding nothing, then crouched to look beneath the massive piece of furniture. He stared at the area where Pandy had – she now saw – very clumsily attempted to conceal the fact that a board had been moved, then passed his hand over the area. A swirl of wind trailed his fingers, lifting the dust and settling it back into place far more effectively than Pandy’s tail.

When he straightened, Augustus gave Pandy a look she took to mean, “We’ll speak about this later,” but he didn’t actually say anything. Instead, he looked around the rest of the room, which was exactly as empty as Pandy had feared it might be, other than the fireplace in the far wall. He sighed again, patted Pandy’s head absently, and murmured, “A fool twice over. Damn you, Findlay, why was this allowed to fall into such a state, and what was I doing, assuming you were competent?”

Pandy’s ears perked up. Findlay? Who was Findlay? That definitely wasn’t a name Pandy recognized, and it sounded like Augustus didn’t particularly care for whoever it was.

Miss Cupcakes trotted over to the fireplace, and the chancellor followed. Once again, Augustus crouched, this time peering up into the darkness before holding out his forefinger and saying, “Cieris?” The little whirlwind gathered around his fingertip, pulling in floating motes of dust until it almost seemed to sparkle. Pandy didn’t think she imagined the high-pitched, windy giggle it made as the chancellor pulled a sugar cube from that pocket and crumbled it into the swirl.

“Find out where this goes, and mark it, please,” Augustus said, and the little elemental darted away, swirling soot and chunks of debris that had probably been dislodged by Pandy and Miss Cupcakes’ fall. Augustus stepped back out of the way, and a moment later, the tiny tornado had returned, this time filled with black ash, but smelling of fresh summer sunshine.

“Sir Bailey, we’ll need to find the other end of this, as well as any other openings,” Augustus said. “Obviously, no one thought to place wards on them.”

“Yes, sir,” Bailey’s emotionless voice replied. The knight shifted, the eerie mirrored helmet tilting as if the person within was debating whether or not to add something, but in the end, they didn’t.

The chancellor looked around once more, and Pandy did the same, seeing that she’d only managed to check a bit less than half of the space. Rooms always looked larger when they were empty, but if Pandy was a betting rabbit – which she wasn’t – she’d bet this was exactly the same size as the library should be, if Professor Beeswick hadn’t redirected the entrance. Now that Pandy could see the ceiling, however, she could tell that it was only eight or nine feet high, which begged the question…what was on the floor above them?

Augustus returned to the open door, leaning in so he could stare at the paper. Which wasn’t actually paper, as it turned out. Instead, when he pulled on a white glove and ever-so-gently touched the edge of one ‘sheet’, it moved enough so that Pandy could see the weave catch the light. It was fabric, but stiff like paper, and some of the threads were different shades of white and cream, creating an incredibly subtle pattern.

Looking over at Sir Bailey, Augustus asked, “You know what this is?”

The knight nodded. “I’ve only seen a small sample before, but yes.”

“Good. Then you know not to touch it, or allow anyone else to touch it,” the chancellor said, then gave a soft sigh. “All right, I think that’s all we can do until the…until Beeswick gets here. This wing will be closed off for the rest of the weekend, but I hope we can open it by Monday, or I’ll have a revolt on my hands when all of the teachers have to move their classes outside.”

He smiled slightly before offering the guard a small bow. “I leave this in your capable hands, Sir Bailey. I have other things to which I must attend.”

Sir Bailey almost managed to look uncomfortable at the bow, before lifting their gauntleted hand to approximately eye-level and saluting. “Yes, sir.”

The two of them stepped back out into the hall, and Augustus relocked the door, though he glanced at the gap in the bottom, then at Pandy, his eyes filled with a sort of wry amusement. He hesitated, then handed the key to Sir Bailey, nodded once again, and walked off, still carrying Pandy. It was at this point that she realized Miss Cupcakes had abandoned her at some point. The kitten was a coward, but a coward that Pandy would very much like to emulate.

When the chancellor opened the door into the foyer, it was to find a tall, rather stern-looking man standing outside of it, arms crossed. He relaxed a bit when he saw Augustus, though his brows lifted at the sight of Pandy in the chancellor’s arms. “Is everything all right, sir?”

Augustus shrugged. “A bit of a setback in the repairs, I’m afraid. You should let the teachers know they need to begin thinking about an outdoor lesson plan. The classrooms will be closed for the weekend, and I’m not certain they’ll be available Monday, either.”

The teacher’s face fell. “That’ll be easy enough for some, but others won’t like it.”

The chancellor’s expression hardened. “Then they won’t like it. That’s unfortunate, but this is not negotiable. Our students’ safety is our paramount concern.”

“Yes, sir,” the other man said, unconsciously echoing Sir Bailey. “Should I go now?”

Augustus nodded. “Also let them know I’m setting the highest wards. No one, not even staff, is to enter without me or…one of our guests.”

“Yes, sir,” the teacher said again, but he went a little pale as he stepped back. A few children who were watching from a distance hurried to turn away as the tall man strode off toward the dining hall. The chancellor gave those students a meaningful look, and they all suddenly found somewhere else to be, disappearing into the dining room or through the door to the student halls.

“I’ll need to put you down for this part,” Augustus murmured to Pandy. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try to go anywhere.” Pandy swallowed hard. That hadn’t been a threat, but there was a definite promise in his tone. If she ran off, he would find her. She nodded, and he put her on the floor a bit behind him.

Facing the door, Augustus held out his hand. He didn’t touch the door, but it seemed to ripple, like the surface of a road on a very hot day. “Nimien,” he said softly, “I summon you.”

This time, it was obvious that the door hadn’t moved, but rather the air in front of it. A face formed, with flesh made of clouds, and eyesockets filled with a deep gray fog. “I hear,” it said, sounding like it was speaking from somewhere very far away, calling down a long tube or tunnel.

“No one may enter this wing without permission, unless they are a Knight of the Royal Eagle. Not even elementals. And you must watch, not just listen,” Augustus told it.

The face twisted in annoyance. “Must I?”

“You must,” the chancellor confirmed. “One without magic entered. Until we have other eyes in place, we must use yours.”

“Ahhhh,” the elemental sighed. “I will watch.” Then it opened its mouth inhumanly wide, and waited, vapor churning within its gaping jaws.

Augustus shifted, reaching into the hidden pocket, and seemed to feel around for just the right thing. From her perspective behind and below him, Pandy couldn’t see what he took out, but with what she considered admirable courage, he shoved his whole hand into that mouth and dropped the thing into it.

“Done,” Nimien said as Augustus stepped back. Its face faded, leaving behind a perfectly normal door that Pandy was certain would not open, even if someone took an axe – or claws – to it.

Turning back to Pandy, the chancellor picked her up again, carrying her toward his office.