Page 42 of Shadow Caster
I guess not all the cadets knew about my arrival.
“Hey.” Someone grabbed my elbow.
I turned on the guy with a scowl to find Lloyd looking down on me with a concerned frown. “Indigo, what are you doing here?”
I grabbed the collar of my ribbed top and pulled it down to reveal my mark. “Got conscripted earlier.”
Shock sparked in his icy blue eyes, and then he released me abruptly. “Back up. She’s one of us.”
“What?”
“The fuck?”
Disconcertion rippled across the room. But the crowd parted to let me through, and Harmon’s cocoa gaze fell on me as I approached. “I couldn’t find her earlier,” he said. “I should have known something was wrong. I just thought she was fucking about as usual. I should have reported it earlier.”
“She’s probably ducked out with some friends,” Thomas said. “Smoking poppy seed cigarettes, off site.”
“Everyone else is accounted for,” Harmon said through gritted teeth. He shot Thomas an irritated look. “We wouldn’t be organizing a fucking search party otherwise.”
“Maybe Redmond lost another youngling, and the cadet ended up being its supper,” someone to our left said.
Harmon growled and lunged at the second year, who blocked him easily before shoving him back. “Watch it!”
I stepped between them. “It’s his sister, okay. The missing girl is his sister.”
The second year glanced at me, then back at Harmon, and then his body relaxed. “I’m sorry, man. I’ve got a big mouth. We’ll find her, okay.”
Harmon’s chest heaved, but he stood down and nodded.
“Listen up!” Master Hyde’s voice cut through the hubbub. “We take the tunnels, and we split up into three groups. There’s a shirt being passed around that belongs to the girl. Moonkissed, take a whiff. Faraday, Toller, take the newbies. Spinner and Goyle, split the rest. Faraday, comb the southeast and southwest grounds. Goyle, the outer forest, and Spinner, northeast and northwest grounds. Got it?”
“Yes, Master Hyde,” the cadets said in unison.
“Newbies, get your arses over here.” Lloyd held up a hand, and the crowd began to shift.
Harmon, Thomas, and I followed the new cadets to stand around Lloyd.
“The tunnels are a maze if you’re not used to them, so stay close,” he warned.
“What tunnels?” one of the new cadets asked.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
The foyer was emptying out as the second-year cadets made their way through the unmarked door and out of sight.
“Follow me.” Lloyd headed toward the door, and Harmon was the first to follow. “The tunnels span several miles beneath the academy grounds. We use them to get to the training grounds, into the forest and up to the fortress, and into the mist.”
“Wait, what?” Thomas asked.
“They haven’t taken their oath yet,” Toller reminded Faraday.
“They’re conscripted, Toller,” Faraday said. “The oath is just a formality now.”
The two second years led us through the door and down a flight of stone steps. Dank and moist air drifted up to meet us, and old-style scones lit up as we passed. Weaver magic?
We hit the ground and hurried down a tunnel wide enough to walk two by two. Harmon fell into step beside me with Thomas behind. The tension was palpable as it pressed in on us.
Could Lottie have been attacked by a youngling? Redmond had been so sure he had that situation under control. But what if he’d been wrong?
