Lucky Rabbit

Pandy reacted without thinking, lunging after the scurrying thing, but immediately ran into the strange boy, who stepped into her path. Even her Agility wasn’t enough to keep her from hitting him, though she did manage to turn to the side and lean backwards, halting most of her forward momentum. He was still knocked down, but at least she didn’t throw him against the wall, which was the most likely result before the split second it took her to correct her trajectory. Helplessly, she stared into the darkness, hoping Cieris was able to track the fleeing critter.

With a sigh, Pandy leaned down to offer the boy a hand, hauling him easily to his feet. Maybe too easily, in fact, given the way the other boy was watching her, so she made a show of bending her arm to show off the muscles as she said, “Ha ha ha, Combat Training is really good for you, right?”

“I’m not… I don’t think…” The boy stammered, looking both directions down the hall as he began to edge away. He gave a grimace even Pandy knew wasn’t a real smile and said, “The bell will ring soon, so I should… go back to my room. Um, good night!”

With that, he whirled around, running off in the same direction the tiny creature had gone. Pandy raised her hand, saying, “But the pencil-” It was useless, though. The student was gone. The door to Thaniel’s room was still standing open, so Pandy went inside, careful to close the door before she summoned a Spark and looked down into the wastebasket. To her absolute shock, the envelope was right where she’d left it, tucked among a few of Thaniel’s rejected efforts to write to Andres Forrest that Pandy had brought from the library to add credibility to the final product.

Reaching into the basket, she picked up the heavy paper envelope, turning it over so she could see the flap that should have had a telltale streak of crimson. A series of little notches had been neatly punched through the paper, removing the tiny strip soaked in blood. Pandy had worked enough part-time jobs in the kitchens of various dining establishments that she recognized the pattern of rodent teeth. Augustus had more than metaphorical rats in his school.

Replacing the envelope as carefully as she could – theoretically in case someone checked to see if it had been moved, but actually because it seemed like the most spy-like thing to do – Pandy cast Shield of Darkness again. The quiet chime of the lights-out bell finally rang as she opened her door again, peering out into a hall that was even darker now, thanks to the combination of her shield and the lowered lights.

As silently as she could, she closed the door behind her and tiptoed to the corner. Leaning forward, Pandy used just one eye to stare down the hall at the silent doors that stood on both sides. There were nameplates on the doors, but without knowing who the boy was, she had no way of tracking him down. Still, she moved forward, staying in the middle of the hall so she didn’t run into one of the small half-circle tables that sat between every third or fourth door, brightening up the space with flowers or holiday decor.

Quiet snoring came from behind more than one door, but it wasn’t until she was three-quarters of the way to the end that she heard soft, gasping breaths coming from somewhere ahead. She continued on, tracking the sound, and very nearly bumped into the huddled figure pressed against one of the doors. She had to make a quick course correction, squinting hard as she tried to make out the face that was mostly buried in the other’s arms. It was the little ponytail that convinced her it was the same boy. This world – or at least West Altheric – mostly seemed to follow the ‘short hair for boys, long hair for girls’ fashion, though there were exceptions.

Pandy moved on a bit further, then released both Shifting Faces and Shield of Darkness. A white rabbit in a dark hallway wasn’t exactly subtle, but she couldn’t see properly inside the shield, and she didn’t think the boy was in any condition to notice her anyway. As far as she could tell, he’d spent the entire time since he ran away in tears, at least if she went by his red, blotchy face and the dark, wet circles on the sleeve of his coat.

Hiding beneath one of the decorative tables, Pandy waited as the hour grew later and the boy’s choked sobs finally tapered off. She had no idea how long it took, but eventually he stood, his legs shaking noticeably. Rather than opening the door he’d been sitting in front of – or another one – he started tiptoeing back the way they’d come, toward the corner and Thaniel’s room. Was he going to knock on Thaniel’s door? If so, this was going to get awkward because there was no one in there. Maybe Pandy could take a page from his book and pretend to be exiting the bathroom?

The boy snuck right past Thaniel’s room, however, turning at the steps that led down to either the girls’ rooms or the rest of the school. There, he tugged at his ponytail, revealing a length of hair that must have been tucked into the back of his shirt. He slipped off the ribbon holding the queue of hair together, shaking his surprisingly glossy tresses out, then removed his jacket and pulled the bottom of his shirt out of his pants. Cloth flowed down over his hips and legs, the garment revealing itself as a frilly nightgown with lace at the hems and sleeves. Just like that, the boy became a girl.

With a long exhale, the boy-turned-girl began to make her way down the steps, staying to the outside of the stairs in an attempt to keep the creaking to a minimum. Ms. Davenport must have had supernatural hearing, however, because when the girl reached the bottom of the steps, the hall supervisor was standing there, arms crossed and lips pinched into a tight line.

“Miss Lamonia,” Ms. Davenport said, then stopped, waiting.

Lamonia wilted beneath the weight of that silence, but she held up the uniform jacket she was still clutching. “Lamont tore his jacket today. I repaired it, so I was just going to return it so he could wear it tomorrow.”

Ms. Davenport’s thin brows rose. “Yet here you are, returning down the stairs, still carrying the jacket.”

The girl’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, ma’am. He was supposed to stay awake until I got there, but I finished late, and he went to sleep.”

“As you should have done,” the hall supervisor said crisply. “You will have a one page paper about the importance of sleep and following rules on my desk before lights-out tomorrow. And count yourself lucky. The last time I caught a girl sneaking back downstairs this late at night, she had chores with me for the rest of the semester. I am granting you this leniency only because this is your first infraction. Hopefully, it will also be your last. Now, go to your room.”

She stepped aside, clearing just enough space for Lamonia to get past her, and Pandy had no doubt those sharp eyes caught the evidence of tears on the girl’s face. Ms. Davenport said nothing, however, instead gliding soundlessly back toward her own rooms.

Lamonia went in the opposite direction, her stride becoming a bit longer and more confident with each step. She still clutched the coat in her hand, but it was obvious that she believed she was safe now. She had gotten away with little more than a slap on the wrist.

On and on they went, past more doors than seemed reasonable for a building the size of Falconet, until Pandy wondered if some form of space magic might be involved. She’d been here before, of course, but always with a definite goal in mind, and she hadn’t really paid attention to how many rooms there were. Now she looked around, trying to memorize the small changes that would allow her to find one door among so many similar ones. If she was in her human shape, she could read the nameplates, but if she had to return as a rabbit, she’d need to find the room by memory.

By the time the girl stopped in front of one of the doors, Pandy could make out the table at the end of the hall where Ismara’s statue sat. The statue itself was only a single smudge of slightly-lighter shadow among many, but Pandy knew it was there, and now she had a landmark that would allow her to get back to this exact room if she needed to.

Lamonia opened the door and slipped through, but the girl was too busy peering into the darkness to notice Pandy hopping in on her heels. After all, what was good for the rat was good for the rabbit. A shape lay in one of the beds; quiet, even breathing announced that the occupant was asleep, and Lamonia crossed to the empty bed, throwing back the blankets before quickly unfastening and dropping the pants she still wore beneath her pretty nightgown.

Only the pant cuffs were visible beneath the long white gown, but she also had on the heavy shoes worn mostly by the boys. She toed the shoes off, then shoved them deep into the shadows  beneath her bed, past a pair of dainty boots with pretty ribbons as laces. As soon as Lamonia went to tuck the pants she’d been wearing into her wardrobe, Pandy scampered after the shoes, finding comfort in the familiarity of the space, even though this wasn’t Thaniel’s bed.

Crossing to the small window, Lamonia opened it, and a powerful breeze flowed through the room, making her roommate stir restlessly. Lamina froze, waiting, but when the other girl settled down again, she leaned out, stretching her arm out into the night air, past the spells that warded the school’s walls. A pale shape swooped down on silent wings, an owl settling on the girl’s arm, its talons piercing the fabric of her nightgown to release a small, black stain.

Lamonia ignored her injury, lifting the bird’s feathers to reveal a tiny tube strapped to its leg. She opened this, removing a scrap of paper, then closed and reattached the tube before throwing the bird upward. It flapped away, sending another swirl of storm-scented air through the room.

This time, the roommate groaned, pushing at her bedclothes so she could turn and glare toward Lamonia and the open window. “In Ismara’s name, Lam, how many times do I have to ask you to keep the window closed? It was one thing in the summer, but not now.”

“The magic keeps it from getting too cold,” Lamonia said softly, though she tugged the window shut anyway, ignoring the spreading bloodstains on her sleeves where her arms had been pierced by the owl’s talons.

The other girl huffed. “That’s what they say, but I swear the wind is colder now. Just go to sleep.” With that, she rolled over and pulled her own blankets up around her head and face, shivering dramatically.

Lamonia shook her head, but went to her own bed, sitting down and unrolling the message she’d removed from the owl’s leg. A sigh of relief escaped her, though she didn’t exactly look happy. After scanning the missive a few times, she stuffed the paper into her mouth, grimacing as she chewed and swallowed. Only when no sign remained of the tiny scrap did she finally lie down and close her eyes.

Pandy sat beneath the bed for quite a while, watching the clock beside the nameless roommate’s bed as it ticked away the night. She pondered long and hard on what she’d seen, but there was no denying the fact that Lamonia was actively and knowingly involved in whatever was going on at Falconet. Honestly, Pandy was even impressed at the level of planning that it had taken for the girl to dress up as a boy – maybe her brother? – in order to free whatever had been trapped in Thaniel’s room, then get back upstairs with no worse repercussions than a single page paper. Lamonia might not be a criminal mastermind yet, but the ‘yet’ was doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

Once Pandy was certain both girls were very thoroughly asleep – the young villainess was a snorer – she crept over to the door and cast Shifting Faces just long enough to open it and slip into the hall. There, she changed back into Bunny, who was both faster and made less noise than either of Pandy’s human shapes, before making her way back to the stairs, using Wings of Glory to fly up and thus avoid any betraying creaks.

Back on the boys’ floor, she hesitated. She really wanted to go to Augustus and see if he had any more information about the sneaky critter that had stolen ‘Thaniel’s’ blood, but it was just after midnight, and the real Thaniel should be fast asleep, even if Augustus wasn’t. In the end, Pandy returned to Thaniel’s room, but she wasn’t happy about it.