Binding Oath: Fated Touch Book 10

Chapter 2

2

I winced. “Right-right now? What about right now, but tomorrow?”

“My monitor expects me back before nightfall,” Gina explained.

“You can have my coat and blankets,” Caius offered as the others rose.

I sighed and stood. “All right. Let’s go find ourselves a spook.”

We trudged outside and fetched our steeds from the livery stable. I mounted my unicorn, and as promised Caius slipped off his coat and draped it over my shoulders. “Don’t let a ghost put down your spirits,” he teased. I stuck out my tongue at him and his grin widened. “That’s the spirit I want to see.” I rolled my eyes, but his good humor lifted mine.

Sage stood beside my grandmother’s unicorn and clasped their hand together. “Be careful, Bee. You know how much trouble a ghost can be.”

She patted his hand and smiled. “With so many wonderful people around me I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Bee,” my grandfather scolded her.

She sighed. “I promise to try to keep out of trouble.”

Sage grinned. “That’s what I want to hear. Now get along with you.”

We waved farewell to Sage and Caius, and set off on our cold journey. I sidled up to my grandmother. “So what was Sage talking about with you and ghosts?” I asked her..

“Well, some years ago during our travels we took refuge in an old house where a spirit took a fancy to me,” she explained. “I’m afraid we hardly made it out of there without joining him.” She sighed and shook her head. “The poor fellow. He must have been so lonely to try to kill us so many times.”

“No doubt the exorsages have taken care of that spirit long ago,” Gina assured her.

Bee smiled at her. “I hope so. He looked like he needed a rest.”

“Speaking of spirits, what sort of ghost are we up against?” I asked our guide.

She shook her head. “The accounts are so different as to leave many of us perplexed. Some have witnessed a ball of malevolent black light, and others claim to have seen a full-body spirit of a gentleman.”

“And has this guy done anything that hurt anybody?” I wondered.

“Not exactly. The floating orb has lunged at people, but otherwise the ghost is indifferent to everyone around him,” Gina told us. “But you shall see for yourself soon enough, provided this ghost is real, of course.” She glanced over her shoulder and met my gaze. “However, before that happens I wish to know more of this new skill you’ve acquired.” I related the basic outline of my ‘blind eyes’ ability, as I had come to call it. By the time I had finished both of Gina’s eyebrows had risen. “What a strange assortment of skills you have. Perhaps you should stay at the Academy and allow us time to study you.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Thanks for the invitation, but I’d rather wander around with my friends.”

We trotted along and it was mid afternoon by the time we came in sight of the grand city of Perdico. However, five miles short of the gates Gina turned us off the road to the left and down a fine gravel lane. A row of tall bushes hid from public eyes the white yard of immaculately pruned trees both great and small. The driveway was ramrod straight, but there were several intersections.

Imperial marble buildings stood at those meeting points. Tall and proud, they stood among the white snow like pillars or grand sentinels. Many had two floors with full attics beneath their high-peaked roofs. Porches with tall pillars signified the entrances, and statues of important church figures and beasts were carved into the stone as a monument and reminder of the faith that had built those buildings. Their tall, wide paned windows looked down at us with disdain as we trotted down the gravel drive.

There were other lanes behind the main thoroughfare, and the buildings were much less elegant than those advertised where we walked. They were still stone, but without the ornate porticoes and statues. The windows of those buildings were well-lit, and the curvaceous figures of many women were silhouetted against the light. Laughter and chatter floating from those buildings while the others were as silent as the grave.

At the end of the drive was the largest of the stone structures. It was a masterpiece of Georgian architecture mixed with the Greek-Roman style so favored by the Library. The building stretched for five hundred feet and was a hundred feet wide. Row upon row of windows looked out on the immaculate lawn with stoic approval. Six tall columns supported the roof that covered the porch over the two pairs of doors.

A few bundled souls braved the cold air as they hurried along the gravel paths that ran between the buildings. Their heads were bowed and they clutched bundles of books against their chests. Even with the heavy covering and gazes cast downward, I could tell by their walk that they were all women.

Gina swept an arm over the grounds. “Welcome to the Spiritus Academy, the learning place of the famous exorsages.”

“This looks like the Library buildings,” I mused.

Gina nodded as she rode atop her own black horse. “That’s because they are. Fifteen hundred years ago the Library decided they needed trained exorsages to free the spirits within many of their most ancient tomes and the church sought to free the bound spirits, so they built this campus . The church now runs the school completely on its own, though the Library is welcomed to request assistance from the exorsages.”

“So where are the guys at?” I wondered.

“They have a campus on the other side of Perdico to avoid temptation,” Gina told me as she led us to the first intersection and took a left. A long row of less elegant stone buildings sat perpendicular to the road and stretched away for two hundred feet. “This are the campus housing we’ll be staying.”

At the end of the road was a plain clap-board livery where we were met by an older gentleman with white hair and a killer handlebar mustache. He had a bright smile on his face as we dismounted and led our steeds through the open half of the front doors. The building was awash in bright lamplight and the soothing sounds of animals munching on their dinner.

“I’m sore glad to see you back, Miss Gina,” he greeted us as he took the reins of Gina’s horse.

She frowned. “Why? Has something happened?”

“High Monitor Amsel has been stalking the grounds looking for you, and she wasn’t too happy to hear that you’d gone off riding,” he revealed.

Gina blinked at him. “The High Monitor? But why?”

“Seems she wanted to be stopping you from making your trip,” he told her as he nodded at the doors. “But you’d best get to her to see what she wants herself.” He looked at us and wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes as he smiled. “I’ll be glad to take care of your fine steeds, ladies, and might I say it’s an honor to meet you again, Miss Bee.”

Bee leaned over her saddle horn and squinted at the man for a moment before her eyes widened. “Why, if it isn’t Tony! My goodness, but what are you doing here? The last we saw of you you were farther east.”

He nodded. “And one step ahead of a posse of angry farmers who didn’t like me pinching their feed. I got myself respectable some years back and got a job here managing all these wonderful animals.” Tony arched his back and the bones cracked like fireworks. He winced and wrinkled his nose. “Besides, at my age outrunning a posse isn’t as easy as it used to be.”

“I hope to see much more of you!” Bee welcomed as we followed Gina toward the doors.

He waved at us. “And you, too, Miss Bee!”

We stepped out of the warm livery and into the biting cold. Night had fallen during our sojourn with Tony and everything was cast in a soft shadow by the light of the pale moon over our heads.

Gina sighed, but nodded back where we came. “This way.”

“I’m guessing we’re going to go see this High Monitor,” I mused as we trudged down the gravel road.

She nodded without looking back. “Yes. The High Monitor oversees all of the academy.” She furrowed her brow. “But still, I cannot see why she would wish to stop me from fetching you. Judith-Monitor Judith had already given me permission to go, and many of the other monitors had affirmed her decision.”

“Maybe she doesn’t like a democracy,” I quipped.

“We will see in a moment,” Gina replied as we arrived at the large building that stood at the end of the main drive.

We entered and found ourselves in a towering entrance hall with tiled marble floors. The walls were covered in tapestries and portraits, all of them of imposing-looking women in the plain brown robes of the clergy. The walls on either side of us opened to allow access to the wings, and a set of stairs in the center and set back against the rear wall led up to a landing and then disappeared into the second floor.

We climbed the first flight and turned off the stairs into the second floor hall that ran the length of the building. On one wall were the tall, imposing windows, and on the other was a long row of doors.

“Are these all offices?” I wondered.

“The administrative building is also used for classrooms, and I believe the entirety of the building was once used for instruction,” Gina told me as she guide us halfway down the left-hand hall to the second door which was a large specimen of the species.

I paused and looked at the first door we passed. A lock hung from the handle. A quick look up and down the hall told me it was the only one. “Why’s this one locked?”

“It’s storage for the High Monitor,” Gina explained as she grasped the handle of the second door.

We stepped inside and found ourselves in a reception room. The marble floor was covered in a slim carpet and the walls were of the finest lumber smoothed and shined. A woman of middle age sat behind a desk against the wall opposite the door. She wore a simple brown dress and her fingernails that held the pen in her hand were sharpened to points.

She tilted her head up and looked over her spectacles at us. “May I help you?”

Gina stepped up to the desk while Bee and I held back. “I’m Gina von Corvinus, and I heard that High Monitor Amsel was looking for me.”

The woman pursed her lips, but put down the pen. “One moment.” She stood and strode through the door that stood beside her desk, making sure to close it behind her. After a moment the door opened and she gestured to us. “Come in. All of you.”

We followed Gina through the door and into a large office. A large rug covered the marble floor and the walls were covered in bookshelves. Opposite where we stood was the rear wall of the building with windows that looked out on the lawn that stretched to the wilderness of the countryside. To our right was a large fireplace that sank into the wall, and atop the hearth were three candles partially used with long bows wrapped around their midsection. A desk sat before those great windows, and at that desk was seated a wizened old woman that I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley.

She, too, had spectacles perched on her sharp nose. Her hair was a fluffy white that created a frilly halo effect around her head. She, too, wore a plain brown dress, but draped over her shoulders was a sash of fine red silk with gold trim.

She looked up from the piles of paperwork strewn about the heavy oak desk and frowned. “Miss Corvinus.”

Gina bowed low at the waist. “High Monitor Amsel. You wished to see me?”

Amsel leaned back against the high back of the imposing chair and her sharp eyes settled on Bee and me. “I see my effort was wasted. You have brought them.”

Gina nodded. “Yes, High Monitor, but what is the matter? I was given permission by many of the other monitors-”

“Their permission, but not mine,” Amsel snapped. “These outsiders-” She paused and studied my grandmother with a slight sneer. “Particularly those of such notoriety, are not needed here.”

“But I am sure they can help us!” Gina insisted.

Amsel’s thin eyebrows crashed down. “If you will recall from your studies, Miss Corvinus, the exorsages give help, we do not receive it. As such, this matter will remain within the academy and will be solved by the academy. Do I make myself-”

A piercing scream interrupted her question.