As Nick and Cindy came to a bend in the halls, Nick took the usual precautions. He gripped the horse's reins tight with his left hand and aimed his crossbow with his right. Nick held his breath as his horse rounded the corner and let out a sigh of relief as no ambush greeted him.
"Still clear," he whispered while shouldering the crossbow. He turned to Cindy and watched the flames from her outstretched torch quiver. "You need a break?"
"I think the horses do," Cindy shot back.
"Right. The horses," Nick wryly agreed.
"You try holding your arm up for an hour," Cindy grumbled while switching hands for the torch. "Find a classroom to hole up in?"
Nick was about to nod when a raspy voice breached their ears. "Hello! Could you spare a few coins? Or even a few darts?"
Cindy immediately jumped off her horse, yanked one of her dual blades off her back; and spun towards the voice. She managed to spot a tiny child leaning against a wall ten feet away. He was camouflaged in a dark cloak, looked abhorrently haggard, and thrust out two cupped palms.
"Please," he moaned as Cindy raised her sword and lurched towards him. She prepared to slice the beggar down, but a bolt from Nick's crossbow slammed into the boy's temple first.
"Reloading," Nick said while grabbing another bolt from the spares lined atop the bow. Cindy slowly spun around, peering in every dark corner and doorway. Her fingers danced along her sword's hilt and sweat raced down her brow, but no one else greeted her.
"Seems clear," Cindy muttered. Once Nick had primed his bow's lever, he also spun his horse around.
"Same here," he mumbled. "Dismount?"
Cindy nodded, so Nick hopped off his horse. They both knelt before the dead beggar. Cindy pulled the hood away to reveal short-cropped black hair and freckled umber skin. The utter exhaustion on the panhandler's face couldn't completely cloud his youth.
"I remember him," Nick whispered. "He's from Lindbergh. Zachary, right?"
Cindy thought back to Lindbergh's playground, to their voyage to Yolkus. It was hard to believe the decrepit boy lying dead before her had once complained about a belly too full of cotton candy. "Yeah, that's him." She turned around and examined the halls once more - they remained empty. "Still no ambush. Guess he really was just begging."
"Makes no sense," Nick argued while patching the child down. While rummaging through his pockets, Nick went on, "He survived three days by sitting in the hallway?"
Nick pulled what felt like a coin from the child's cloak. He opened his palm to reveal a circular wooden token.
"Let me see that," Cindy snatched the coin and held her torch closer. She gasped at the sight of a crudely inscribed atom. Voice quivering with longing, she whispered, "Jimmy," and rubbed the token. She shot her gaze at Nick and said, "This has to be from Canterbury."
Nick grabbed the coin and inspected it. "They must have made it in the woodshop. Maybe Canterbury's there?"
Cindy considered changing their course to the woodshop, at the other end of the main floor. "We're nearly at the stairwell. If we try the third floor and it's a bust, we'll circle back and check it out."
"Alright, m'lady," Nick and Cindy rose back to their feet. "Let's clear a room and get some rest."
Nick readied his crossbow as Cindy flourished her sword. They took positions on either side of the door nearest to Zachary's body. Cindy rested her cheek on the door's window and strained her ears.
"Nothing," she whispered.
"Wrong," Nick pointed above the doorway. Cindy followed his gaze to find a makeshift wooden sign. No words graced the placard - only a simple sphere resting atop some sort of a circular base.
"A pearl?" Cindy inquired.
Nick studied the sign closer. "Looks almost like a crystal ball. But whoever made that isn't passing art class."
Cindy clutched her blade and torch tight. "Well let's put a starving artist out of their misery." She spun around, faced, the door, and got ready to storm her way in "Ready?"
"On three," Nick answered while plastering his back against the wall. He hovered his free hand over the doorknob. "One, two, three!"
Nick turned the doorknob then kicked the door in with his left foot. Cindy burst through the entryway in a low crouch, and Nick was a step behind her aiming his crossbow over her.
The room was a complete mess. Empty food and water bottles littered the floor. The bitter smell of cheap whiskey hung in the hair. Nick and Cindy took a few steps towards the middle of the room, where a wrinkled sleeping bag rested. Beside it was an empty glass and a few torn romantica novels.
"You don't sleep in the middle of the room," Cindy chided the mystery inhabitant. "Someone bursts in?"
"Dead in a heartbeat," Nick finished her thought. He shrugged his shoulders and added, "But I guess our guest is proving us wrong."
"Glad to hear you approve," a gravelly voice came from behind the teacher's desk. Nick swung his crossbow and Cindy readied her blade.
"Show yourself," Cindy ordered while taking a cautious step towards the desk.
A mop of frazzled dark ginger hair popped up. As soon as a pair of dark blue eyes followed, they immediately narrowed in fury.
"Blondie." Veronica Wolf rose to her feet, all of her joints cracking in protest.
"Ms. Wolf?" Cindy couldn't stop her face from contorting in confusion.
"Obviously," Veronica groaned back. She swiveled towards Nick and offered a small smile. "Hey, Casanova. What brings you two here?"
Nick's fingers danced along the crossbow as he said, "We're trying to find Canterbury. Are you…in the game?"
"Me? No," Veronica smoothed her pink nightgown and leaned against the wall behind her. "So do you mind lowering the weapons?"
Nick turned to Cindy, who dropped her sword just a hair. He followed suit and asked, "Why are you here?"
"Well one reason is to guide the worthiest of students to the prize," Ms. Wolf motioned at the crystal ball on her desk. "And the other answer is I was evicted from my apartment."
"So you're a fortune teller?" Cindy probed.
"I'm a lot of things, Blondie. And master of divination is just one of them. So what do you say? Price is some food. Preferably mutton."
Cindy turned to Nick in disgust, but he simply shrugged. "I kind of want to see where this goes," he whispered. "And we do have a lot of mutton."
Cindy rolled her eyes but said, "Fine. Can we bring the horses in here? Don't want anyone to steal them."
"You have ponies?" Ms. Wolf excitedly asked. "Yeah, bring them in!"
"I got 'em," Nick said while heading back out into the halls.
"Take a seat," Ms. Wolf instructed while motioning to the front row desks. Cindy slowly did as was told and laid her sword across the desk. Ms. Wolf took her own seat and started hovering her hands over the crystal ball.
"Ms. Wolf? Before you start…scrying," Cindy tried to keep the skepticism from her tone, "have you seen one of these before?"
Cindy pulled out the token they'd taken from Zachary and flicked it towards her biology teacher. Veronica caught the coin and studied it.
"No, I haven't," she admitted. "But looks handmade." She shrugged and asked, "Woodshop?"
"That's what we were thinking," Cindy said as Nick returned, leading the Welsh ponies into the classroom.
"They're beautiful," Veronica's eyes lit up as she stared at the ivory creatures. "So innocent and pure!"
"Ms. Wolf!" Cindy snapped. "The coin. Canterbury. Do you know where it is?"
Ms. Wolf tore her gaze away from the exquisite equines. "No, I don't. I've only been in this room and the library. I've heard the same rumors you have. From what I can tell? Canterbury's somewhere between the basement and third floor. Or it could be where you go after you get stabbed with foam and die. But my favorite version is that it's a special place in all of our hearts."
"Well thanks for the help," Nick grumbled. "How much mutton for a fortune?"
"Quarter pound. I'll do the two of you for a third."
Cindy glared at Nick as he opened one of the ponies' satchel bags. He pulled out a handful of salted meat and took a seat beside Cindy.
"When I saw you two, I wondered what led you to this point," Veronica began. "Blondie and Casanova together? I thought you were with Soft Serve."
"I am with -" Cindy started to explain, but Veronica cut her off.
"I can see back to the beginning," Ms. Wolf went on as she stared at the orbuculum. She peered deeper and deeper into the glass. Eventually, a wisp of white smoke formed from the void. "I see you two. Cogs in a well-oiled wheel, spinning fruitfully. And then, as chaos erupted," explosions of smoke filled the crystal ball and the spinning circle faded away, "it fell apart."
Cindy adjusted her black mask, struggled to peer through the eye holes, and looked over the crowd milling about the gymnasium. "Cindy!" Jimmy shouted and frantically waved from a dozen yards away.
Cindy smiled as she caught sight of her boyfriend. He was clad in a loose cotton shirt, brown pants, and black boots. She shoved her way past dozens of bustling students. They happily whistled, clunked together frothing mugs of root beer, and tore thick strips of mutton from over-sized bones.
"Hey, you," Cindy playfully punched his arm. "Thought you could sneak away without me gloating?"
Jimmy rolled his eyes and turned away from his girlfriend. He led the way towards the back of the gym, where the petting zoo had been set up. "I refuse to validate Ms. Wolf's decision. I can admit that your diorama had a more artistic appeal, but its anatomical likeness was sorely lacking."
Cindy grabbed his arm and halted him in place. "It wasn't a diorama," she spat the word in disgust. "It was a fully functioning model of a heart."
"It was shaped like a valentine!" Jimmy screeched.
"It's called artistic license!" Cindy roared back.
The two kids fumed before taking in a deep breath and clasping each other's hands. "I…am proud of your 100," Jimmy slowly mumbled.
"There, was that so hard?" Cindy teased while squeezing his palm. "Hang on," she tugged on James' arm and pointed at one of the dozen food and drink booths lining the walls of the gymnasium. "I need a drink."
The couple sauntered over and ordered two frosty mugs of ginger ale. Once the freezing glasses were in their hands, Cindy held hers high above. "How about a toast? To surviving the first half of sixth grade?"
"I could drink to that," Jimmy agreed while clinking his glass together.
James and Cynthia looked out over the gym, at the wonderful chaos surrounding them. Between the bustling students swathed in brown cloaks and exquisite medieval dresses, the couple caught site of all the Renaissance Fair had to offer. There were the pony rides in the middle of the room, the Shakespeare performance near the entrance, a blacksmith just a dozen feet away smelting a horseshoe, and of course the petting zoo in the back wall.
Cindy whistled and took another sip from her ale. "Forrester really went all out for this fair."
"Yeah, he did," Jimmy agreed. "How much do you think this cost the school?"
"I don't know," Cindy shrugged. "And I don't really care. Let's just enjoy." She resumed the march towards the petting zoo. It was only a few steps before they were following Carl's excited shouts.
"Look, Angie!" his unseen cry guided Jimmy and Cindy. "You see that! That's an alpaca, not a llama! They labelled it wrong!"
Jimmy and Cindy pushed through the crowd just in time to see Angie flash her boyfriend a smile. They were both clad in simple brown ranger cloaks. "I still don't get the difference," she teased.
"What?!" Carl roared. "They're just smaller! It's not complicated!"
"Hey guys!" Libby's excited cheer and enormous smile silenced Carl's frenzied shouts. She burst through the crowd and straightened her flowing maroon dress.
"Wow," Jimmy reflexively muttered as he caught site of Libby's attire and her tied-back braids.
Cindy glared at James as Sheen followed his girlfriend. "Hello, everyone," he calmly greeted the group. Clad in fur-emblazoned boots, dark grey pants and shirt, a glorious ebony cloak, and sporting a pencil-thin mustache, Sheen exuded an air of power and confidence. He clutched a foam rapier in his grasp and peered over his friends.
"You all took this way too seriously," Angie protested.
"Agreed," Nick Dean said while approaching the group. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Cindy. They were mirror images, both clad in the same black outfit. Nick grinned and said, "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you."
"You seem a decent fellow," Cindy shot back. "I hate to die."
James cocked his head and asked, "Huh?"
"Don't worry about it, Neutron," Nick clapped Jimmy's shoulder. "Your girlfriend's just got excellent taste."
"It's not polite to fawn over someone else's date," Betty said while joining the group. Cindy rolled her eyes as she got a look - the brunette was clad in the same outfit she'd worn for MacBeth in Space. Betty pointed at the chewing brown camelid and said, "Cute llama."
As Carl groaned and began to lambaste Betty's lack of zoological knowledge, Cindy handed James her glass. "Bathroom," she shouted over the gymnasium's chatter and Carl's increasingly frenzied clamor.
"Same," Nick said while turning back towards the gym's exit. "M'lady," he playfully offered Cindy his arm, which she smacked away.
"Heck of a turnout," Nick said as Cindy led the way out of the gym.
"I'll say," Cindy agreed. "Did Forrester need to invite the elementary and high school kids here too?" She shoved her way past a conglomeration of teens watching the high school drama club's performance of Hamlet. "This place has gotta be a fire hazard."
"I get the sense the school board isn't on top of things like that," Nick shot back as they entered the hallway. "I'm not complaining, though. We could use a celebration after this past few months."
"Middle school is a lot harder than Lindbergh, isn't it?" Cindy asked as they halted before the nearby bathrooms.
"I never had to write a paper in math class before," Nick agreed. He pushed open the boys' bathroom door and said, "Until we meet again."
Cindy smirked and entered the empty girls' room right as the P.A. system crackled to life. "Attention students, this is Principal Forrester speaking. I hope you're all enjoying this last hurrah before Winter Break!"
Cindy smiled as a school-full of cheers pierced the bathroom walls. She chose the closest stall and started laying a few strips of toilet paper over the seat.
"Because I'll tell you who hasn't enjoyed this school year," Forrester went on. "Me! You claim a few spare dollars from the budget for Principal Expenses and they label you a thief! So when you come back next year you'll have a new principal who doesn't break the law."
Cindy could practically hear the air quotes surrounding these words. She sat down and let her jaw drop as Forrester's tirade continued.
"So enjoy this last hurrah! Because if this school's taking me down, I'm taking it with me! I'm sure you all heard of Principal Willoughby from Lindbergh Elementary. The man may be an idiot, but he's a master at chaos. And I've learned well from him. So you want to fire me? Go ahead! But enjoy cleaning up this mess! Because…how did it go? Oh yes."
Cindy's blood turned to ice as Forrester's next words echoed through the halls.
"I have a little game planned for this school. And a wonderful prize for whoever wins!"
The nearby gymnasium erupted into screams. Cindy lurched to her feet and halted as Forrester's final warning breached her ears.
"But be cautious, children. There are new rules you'll have to find this time. A great prize awaits the victors…but you might not want to kill everyone. Good luck!"
Cindy swallowed hard and gently pushed the stall door open. The same shouts and screams from last year's graduation party were rebounding through the halls. She knew that just outside the bathroom doors alliances were already being made, friends were being gunned down, and people were begging for their lives.
"This wasn't supposed to happen again," she mumbled while clutching her throbbing temple. She took a moment and let all of her fears bubble to the surface. She remembered Ike's dart spiraling into James' gut and whimpered at the idea of losing him again. She thought back to letting Libby die. And worst of all, she wondered whether she'd have to wipe out another settlement like The River.
After a few frantic breaths, Cindy swallowed her fear, grit her teeth, and realized it was time to go back to work. She frantically searched the bathroom for any hidden weapon but came up empty. She took a few cautious steps towards the door, reached towards it, and nearly had her wrist smashed when it flew open.
A frenzied seventh-grader roared in fury as she burst through the doorway and locked her wild eyes onto Cindy. She swung her long N-Force sword straight at Cindy's neck - Cindy barely had time to duck underneath the blow. Cindy lurched forward in an attempt to get behind the girl, but she thrust her weapon behind her and nearly caught Cindy in the back.
Cindy sidestepped the blade, placed both hands on the girl's back, and shoved her hard onto the nearby sinks. The girl's temple landed on the porcelain with a sickening thud. Cindy watched in terror as her attacker collapsed onto the floor.
Cindy dropped to one knee and placed two fingers on the girl's neck. A steady beat assuaged her worst fears. Cindy lifted both the girl's lids, and the pupils constricted appropriately to the light. The girl groaned but tried to lift her sword back up.
"I'm sorry," Cindy assured her victim while gently taking the sword from her grasp. "Damn this place," she whispered while raising the blade and gently lowering it into the girl's heart.
Cindy watched the girl's eyes close and then rose to her feet. She stared hard at the foam sword, listened to the screams outside, and then nodded in conviction. She gently pulled open the bathroom door and prepared to head back to the gym.
"Wait," a whisper came from her left. Cindy turned to find Nick poking his own head out of the boys' room. Cindy gripped her blade tighter, but he held out a palm. With his other hand, he pointed to their left, past Cindy's view, and then ducked back inside the bathroom.
Cindy cocked her head in confusion but mirrored Nick's movements. She pushed her weight against the door to block any attackers' entry, but only heard a chorus of footsteps rush past. Once they faded out of earshot, she slowly opened the door and peeked her head back outside.
Nick's masked face greeted her. He flashed her a quivering peace sign, and Cindy sighed in resignation at the idea of an alliance. "We have to get back to the gym," she whispered.
Nick shook his head. "Listen." He pointed at the gym, and Cindy cringed at the screams coming from within. Her mind shot back to Lindbergh's gymnasium, to the trail of speckled blood she'd left towards the bleachers.
"It's too crazy," Nick went on while exiting the bathroom and gently grabbing her arm. She let him pull her out of the lavatory and around a bend in the hall, away from the gym.
"Jimmy," Cindy protested. She pulled away from him once they'd rounded the corner. "The others."
"We'll find them," Nick promised. "But we can't do that if we're dead. They were all the way in the back. We'd just get lost in the chaos."
Cindy considered this; her mind was still cloudy after leaving that girl lying on the bathroom floor. She didn't realize Nick was tearing the sword from her grasp until it left her fingers. She coiled her hands into a fist and prepared to strike him just as he spun around and slashed her blade against a sprinting sixth-grader's torso.
Cindy blinked slowly as he handed her back the sword. "We have to go," he pleaded.
Cindy stared back at the gym, watched as a dozen students burst out of the double doors and madly slashed at each other. She nodded at Nick and said, "I know," while leading they way away from the chaos, into the depths of the school.
Cindy's knuckles blanched as she clutched her torch tighter. Ms. Wolf caught sight of her blank expression, then turned back to the crystal ball. "You've made choices you promised you'd never again make. Pieces of your soul have chipped away even as you assured yourself you were still whole. But deep down," Ms. Wolf peered at the ball, at the scattered wisps of smoke, "you know that you're broken."
Cindy swallowed hard and asked, "And the future?"
Ms. Wolf waved her hand over the glass, and the wisps of smoke began to coalesce. "But that's the thing about the past. It can be left behind." Cindy watched in awe as the shards of smoke assembled in the shape of a sword. "You have a long journey ahead of you."
Cindy peered towards the crystal ball as the sword morphed into a turning wheel. "You'll have decisions to make, choices I don't envy. You'll have to decide who to spare, who to kill. You'll have to unite those who clamor for each others' blood. And when it's all done, you'll have to do what is hardest for you. You'll have to forgive. But if you choose well, the wheel will spin once more."
Cindy's eyes brightened as the wheel morphed into a castle. She could see peasants milling about; she could see gardens tilled and then plants harvested. She saw civilization rise and thrive. She saw not only Canterbury inside that crystal ball. She saw everything she'd dreamed of.
Ms. Wolf leaned back in her chair. As her hand pulled away from the crystal ball, the smoke disappeared. "You have a destiny to fulfill, Cynthia. You can be fixed. You just have to earn it."
Cindy stared at the empty ball, then at her calm teacher. She leaned back in here seat and considered all that she'd seen.
"What about me?" Nick asked. He leaned towards the orbuculum. "What do you see for me?"
Ms. Wolf leaned back over the crystal ball. She waved her hands over the glass, peered deep into the wispy smoke, and said, "You're there too."
Nick waited, but it became clear that was all Ms. Wolf had to say. "That's it?" he asked in disbelief. "She has choices to make and a crazy journey and a freaking destiny? And I'm just along for the ride?"
"The ball says what it says!" Ms. Wolf snapped. "I just decipher it. Now give me my mutton and get the heck out!"
Nick smacked the mutton on her desk and rose from his chair. "Come on, Cindy," he said while grabbing the horses' reins and leading them back into the hall.
"Be right there," Cindy assured Nick. Once he was gone, she faced her teacher. "Ms. Wolf, is Canterbury real?"
"I don't know, Blondie. But if it's not," Veronica leaned back in her chair and offered a rare smile, "you could make it."