Chapter 39 – His Stalker
"That is the rune lab," Nina declared, pointing in the direction of yet another squat, white building. Her other hand remained firmly latched around Flik's wrist, pulling him none too gently along. "I don't spend too much time there, so my lord shouldn't go searching for his lady there. Now, moving on."
In the past hour or so, Nina, her friend, and Flik had covered most of the campus, starting with the dorms in the west, then the library, cafeteria, science lab, and now the rune lab. At each place, Nina had given little hints as to the best time for him to rendezvous with her.
"Over there is the recreation building," Nina said, pointing at a building to the south. "They have a swimming pool in there, which is cleaned every day by mages with water runes. I like to go swimming there nearly every morning, before the rest of the campus is awake. It would be a great time for my lord to see his lady." She looked up at him thoughtfully. "Does my lord swim?"
Flik was busy sorting through the pitfalls in this conversation. He certainly didn't want to promise this girl that he'd show up tomorrow to watch her swim. "I learned when I was young, back in Warrior…Falena. I haven't in a while, though."
Nina's friend chimed in. "The only reason you're ever there is ogle Lord Shin. He's the only thing that could get you up that early."
Nina was clearly discomforted by the change in the discussion. "I am not! I don't care a bit about Lord Shin."
Flik, meanwhile, had found an opening to recover his balance. "Tell me about Lord Shin, please. I saw him during the tour of the administration building, but Emilia didn't say much about him."
"He's not important," Nina answered. "He just negotiates with the Highlanders on the academy's behalf."
"Not important?" her friend replied incredulously. "He was only Lady Teresa's bodyguard until the city fell. I tell you, he probably knows exactly where she's hiding."
Flik made sure not to nod. It seemed that this Lord Shin was a person of note. The first thing he would have to investigate was obviously this former bodyguard.
"You don't need to blab it to the whole world," Nina shouted. "You never know when some Highland spy might be listening. Do you want Lady Teresa to get caught?"
Her friend shrugged her shoulders. "It doesn't make much difference to me, as long as the academy keeps going.
"It'll make some difference if Highland soldiers decide to raid the dorms," Nina answered tempestuously. "Or if they declare what will and won't be taught here. Greenhill has always prided itself on academic independence. It's why we separated from Muse in the first place."
Yawning, her friend answered, "Well, it won't matter at all when I'm back in Rockland. I'll be far away from all the fighting then."
Nina's frown was scathing. "You won't be so far away if Luca Blight decides to invade your country. You think someone like him will be satisfied with conquering only one?"
Silence descended after that exchange. With the evening darkness settling in, Nina led Flik towards the attendants' dorm at the east end of the campus. At the door of the building, she leaned close to him and asked, "Does my lord like box lunches?"
Without thinking, he responded, "Yeah."
That got her smiling again. "Great, I'll be here bright and early to give you your own very special lunch." She and her friend turned and walked back down the path. Flik refrained from smacking his forehead and went inside. Here he found the master of lodging, who had prepared a room for him already. The room wasn't terribly large, but it did have a dresser, bed, table, and chair. It also had a window that opened out into the night air.
Flik paused to consider the facts. Lord Shin was the former bodyguard of Lady Teresa. He now worked for the academy in some position that involved negotiating with the Highlanders. He turned over the idea that Nina's friend had suggested- that Shin knew where Lady Teresa was hidden. Did it follow that the academy might also know, since he was now in their employ?
Two courses of action presented themselves. First, he could search the campus for clues. The administration building seemed like a good place to begin. Second, he could try to find and follow Shin to see if he went anywhere suspicious. He shook his head. He didn't know where Shin was. It would be blind luck to simply run into him. For tonight that left only the first option, search the administration building.
He waited for nearly three-quarters of an hour to make his move, until the rest of the building had grown quiet and still. Rising from his chair, he extinguished the lamps in his room. Then he let his eyes adjust to the pale light of the Blue Moon filtering in from the window. When he could finally make everything out reasonably well, he crept over to the window, carefully pulled it open, and slipped out into the moonlight.
There were almost no clouds in the night sky, and the Blue Moon, nearly full, was rising about the trees in the east. Flik suppressed a shiver. The air was dry and uncomfortably cool, though he couldn't see his breath. He stealthily made his way around the building until he was on the walkway in front of it. Now that he had the path to guide him, he walked confidently onward.
After four wrong turns and an hour of blundering about, jumping nervously at the slightest noises, Flik found himself at the fountain outside the administration building. He no longer felt the chill, but was perspiring slightly. Now came the critical part. He had to somehow break into the building, find their records office, find any germane papers, and not get caught. He shook his head; where was Krin when he needed him?
There were no guards in sight, but Flik decided against boldly walking up to the doors to see if they were unlocked. Instead, he took an indirect approach to the building, spending fifteen more minutes walking a circuitous route to approach the structure from the side. He moved along this edge, working his way forward until he got to the very first window before the front. He opened it and squeezed his way into the administration building.
The first thing Flik noticed was how quiet the inside seemed. The walls muffled the nighttime insects that he hadn't even noticed when he'd been outside. It was also very, very dark. The moonlight from the windows did not penetrate the hallways beyond the foyer.
Flik waited a long time to be certain that no one else was in the building. Finally he made a fist with his right hand and, using an old trick he'd been taught, carefully generated a small ball of weak blue light from the lightning rune on that hand. It gave off enough illumination for him to see the contours of the foyer. He visualized Emilia at her desk, remembering how she gave the forms to an aide who'd walked down the nearest hallway. Now Flik followed in those footsteps.
The first door on the left was marked "Administration and Records" and it came open when he worked the knob. Flik didn't pause to ponder his good fortune, but stepped into the room, softly pulling the door shut behind him. It was filled with filing cabinets and shelves, all unmarked. Sighing, he pulled the first cabinet open, held his lightning rune close, and rifled through the folders.
Hours passed, and Flik looked through folders representing students, faculty, and the academy's finances, but he found nothing that hinted to the location of Lady Teresa. The only thing that he'd learned conclusively was that Lord Shin did not have any file on record in this room. He'd searched carefully, so it wasn't much of an effort to put the room back in order. He was just about to exit through the room's window when he heard a noise from the foyer.
In a heartbeat, Flik extinguished his rune light. The room went unbearably dark and he had to work to keep from panicking. He didn't move, barely breathed, and waited. Slowly, a new light appeared, visible through the cracks in the door. It was dim, but an unmistakably natural yellow. It passed the Administration and Records room without slowing, making its way down the hall.
Mentally Flik counted out to twenty, crept soundlessly to the door, and opened it. Glancing down the hallway, he could see a faint light at the far end, near the stairs leading up to the second level. Even at that distance, he could make out the orange color of the person's clothes. It had to be Shin.
The light suddenly darted to the left, heading down one of the side passages. Flik tip-toed after it, barely letting his feet hit the floor. He kept one hand on the wall, feeling as it passed over other doors. The torchlight faded so that he couldn't see much of anything. He nearly toppled over when the wall opened onto the corridor that Shin had gone down.
He couldn't see anything; there was no light, no sign of Shin. Swallowing his nervousness, Flik entered the passage. It turned a corner and came to an abrupt end. A small window on the side wall provided just enough light to see that the only other thing in this hallway was a small, marble bust. He stopped and looked around, finally turning so that he was gazing back down the hallway, but could see no traces of Shin.
A woman laughed behind Flik, the sound deep and languorous. He turned towards the speaker and was caught in her trap. An unusually tall, beautiful woman now stood next to the bust. A thin band of silver ran across her collarbone and around her shoulders. Two strips of diaphanous white silk descended from the band, tightly covering -if such a word could be said to apply- the generous curves of her breasts, but leaving everything else bare. The skirt of this dress was of the same material and it fell to the floor, but was also slit to the hip on the left side.
Her long, silver hair was up in a high ponytail that still dangled below her shoulders. She also had long bangs that, collected into two strips, trailed down to her collarbone. When she moved her head, those bangs veiled her blue eyes.
Flik's mouth went dry. Before he could help himself he blurted, "J-Jeane?" Two years ago, this same enigmatic woman had served as the runemistress for the Liberation Army. During that time, he'd been aware of her only peripherally, since he'd been in mourning over the death of Odessa. This moment was the closest he'd ever been to Jeane. All he could hope was that she did not recognize him.
He could not look away from her. A buzzing began between Flik's ears, a strange mesmerism that compelled him to keep his gaze on her. Her pale skin seemed to radiate its own light as she smiled invitingly at him. "You know my name, but I do not know yours. Do be a gentleman and introduce yourself."
The mesmer was a runic power, but one that he could not resist. He was only just able to remember his cover. "My name is Bluto, ma'am." His voice cracked on the latter part.
Her answering laugh was slow, laced with seduction. It seemed to him that Jeane saw right through his attempts at deception. She took a few steps from the bust, her hips swaying rhythmically. Flik began to give ground at her approach. "Well Bluto, what are you doing in this building in the middle of the night?" she demanded. "Trespassing is a serious offense, one that can't go…unpunished."
The compulsion nearly loosed the answer from his lips, but Flik fought back with all his remaining willpower, finally answering, "I-I can't tell you. It's important." He could not evade, could not lie. His back bumped up against the corridor wall, pinned there by her eyes.
She licked her tongue along her top lip. "Bluto, Falenan by your dress. It's been a while since I've talked with anyone from that country." She drew closer to him. "Why don't we go to my office? We can have such an interesting…conversation about what you're doing here. Falenan men make such interesting conversationalists. It comes from the political system, I think. They have so little power that they're always eager to take any chance to…dominate."
A mental veil seemed to draw aside in Flik's mind, and Jeane's presence redoubled in strength, a terribly beautiful yet utterly alien power that caused his will to quail. Backed onto the wall with her looming over him, he felt much like a child being scolded by a parent or a rabbit stalked by a wolf. He knew, instinctively, that the moment her hand reached his, the last shreds of his resistance would melt away.
An image of Odessa flashed in Flik's mind. Pain raced up his right hand and arm, his rune stirring, and a wall of coursing electricity flashed between him and Jeane, casting twisting shadows on the walls of the hallway. Jeane's smile slipped and the mesmer was silenced, leaving him in full control of his mind and body.
"I'm sorry, I must go," Flik said, and ran back down the hall as quickly as he could. Bitter experience had taught him that there was no shame in fleeing when overmatched, and he knew there was no standing against that power. Hands flung forward, he slowed his precipitous flight to a jog, blundering about for walls to guide him. He found one, let it take him down another passage, which finally led back to the foyer. Crashing against the wooden doors, his hands scrabbled furiously to work the knob. Again, it was his good fortune that Shin had left the doors unlocked, and they came open, admitting him out into the cool night.
Both moons were now up. The Blue Moon was over in the west, the Scarlet Moon, a waxing crescent, was rising out of the east. Flik shook his head to clear his thoughts. Dawn was only a couple of hours away and he needed rest. Without looking back at the administration building, he jogged down the path towards the fountain and started back towards the attendants' lodge. When he finally made it back, he climbed in through his window and promptly collapsed onto his bed.
It felt like he'd been asleep for minutes when Nina's voice shouted, "Sir Bluto, my shining knight, are you awake?" Her fist pounded on his door. Flik, not entirely sure where he was, groaned and rolled over, right out of his bed, and hit the floor with a thud. "I've made my knight a nice box lunch," Nina declared. "Is my knight fully clothed?" She giggled. "Ready or not, his lady's coming in."
A surge of adrenaline propelled him up and out the window as the door opened. As soon as his feet were on the ground, his legs started working up into a sprint, and he dashed away from the lodging. He ran down the paths randomly, but, unlike last night, now there were other people on them. Both teachers and students gave him odd looks as he tore past them, sometimes with such speed that they had to jump out of his way.
Several twists and turns later, he slowed his gait to a more natural jog, as if he was simply out for some morning exercise. He came to a stop under a tree to catch his breath and try to figure out what he was going to do. Then he realized that he was supposed to be meeting with Riou and the others over by the boys' dorm. He started jogging again, heading in the direction of the boys' dorm.
He found them in the field out in front of the dorm. Nanami, Wakaba, and Pilika had somehow convinced Luc to use his rune to swirl dandelion seeds into geometric patterns. Millie was chasing after Bonaparte, who'd broken free from her grasp and was busy trying to eat butterflies. Meg had popped the top off of Gadget and was working on the wires spilling out from the barrel body. Eilie and Riou sat in the shade of a tree, the former looking nervous, the latter calm.
Flik came to a halt by Riou. "Yo, good morning," he panted. "Did you get a good night's sleep?"
Meg looked up from where she was reconnecting wires. "Gosh, Flik, you look awful. Your hair is a mess and you haven't shaved at all. What were you doing last night?" she asked knowingly.
Everyone was gathering around him now. "All I did was some investigating," Flik shot back. "That's all."
Meg snickered. Riou stood up and asked, "Did you learn anything useful? It's going to be hard for use to do anything if we don't know where to start."
"I learned some things. The key to everything is this Shin guy. Before Highland came, he was the bodyguard for Lady Teresa, but now he seems to work for the academy as a negotiator with Highland. I think it's likely that he knows where Lady Teresa is, but I don't know his goals. He could be negotiating for everyone's best interests or he could have selfish motives."
"We should track him down and make him talk," Nanami asserted.
"No!" Flik shook his head. "That's far too conspicuous. There's no telling what he might do if he thinks we're on to him. What I want is for you to find out what you can about him. Ask discrete questions. If people see you as just another bunch of school kids, they might be more willing to talk. Also, I'd be careful if you go into town. There aren't any Highlanders here at the academy, but they're all over the rest of the town."
A premonition caused Flik to look up and see Nina skipping down the path towards the dorms. He could feel sweat starting to form on his forehead. "Riou, I'm going to do my best to follow this guy. So you don't need to do anything rash, okay? I'll see you later. If we don't see each other again today, we'll meet here tomorrow morning." He turned and started off at a jog again, not wanting to be caught by his stalker.
After more running, he finally came to the conclusion that the best way to lose Nina would be to leave the campus entirely. He made his way to the gates at the south end of the campus, showed the chit he got from the stables to the attendants, and walked out onto the broad square in front of the school.
As he walked through the city, Flik got the general idea that much of the commerce was centered on the academy. There were vendors and shops that sold school uniforms, textbooks, dorm furniture, and even a few places that sold class notes and copies of tests. Other than the vendors, there were plenty of other citizens on the streets, but they continued to be less than welcoming. There were times when he felt sure that groups of malcontents were sizing him up, only holding back because he had his sword on his hip. There were some streets that he simply avoided because they were too narrow or too quiet for his comfort.
Highland soldiers patrolled the streets in small groups. Most of the people tried to ignore them. For their part, the soldiers surprisingly didn't draw attention to themselves. They didn't appear to be lording it over the people or inconveniencing them in the slightest. Greenhill hardly looked like a city under military law.
That changed just before noon. A column of fifty Highland soldiers suddenly appeared from a side street, marching at the double-time. In their wake a large mob was forming, shouting insults but doing little else. Flik followed after the procession, curious to see what was going on. The soldiers marched to an inn near the city walls, joining a cordon of other Highlanders around the building. A crowd of nearly a thousand people ebbed and flowed around the cordon, but nobody was willing to challenge the soldiers' spears yet.
Rather than fight his way up to the front, Flik found some crates and climbed up them to get a better view. Now he could see the commander of the Highland detachment, a blond man with broad shoulders. The officer was familiar to Flik's eyes, but it took him a moment to conjure up the memory of this man fleeing from Viktor, kicking off pieces of his armor as he ran.
Flik laughed, a noise that was fortunately swallowed up by the crowd. This was Rowd, who'd led the Unicorn Brigade, who'd tired -and failed- to have Riou and Jowy executed. Apparently that humiliation hadn't hurt his career.
"We've received information that the acting mayor of Greenhill, Lady Teresa, is holed up in this building." Rowd announced in a loud voice. "We wish only that she be returned to her rightful position, that we all might have peace and stability for Greenhill."
Voices in the crowd taunted him, demanding that he show proof. Rowd sneered in response. "The informant was a soldier from Muse, a proud defender of this city. To think he was bought so easily. Now stop harassing us and let us do our job."
The crowd groaned, its anger turning away from the Highland soldiers and towards foreigners, those from Muse in particular. Rowd spoke to one of his men, but Flik was unable to hear the words. Three dozen soldiers burst past the innkeeper and his wife, entering the inn from several directions at once. Rowd started laughing. "If they don't offer their full cooperation, you have my permission to burn the building down."
Suddenly the crowd murmured, parting to let a man in orange walked towards Rowd. Flik started; it was Shin! At once Shin began speaking with the commander, but all Flik could hear was Rowd's responses.
"Atrocities? Are you kidding? You're bringing this on yourselves by being stubborn. Especially you, who knows exactly where Lady Teresa's hiding."
Shin spoke some more and Rowd laughed. "You think this is a breach of our agreement? You should just be glad our Lord Commander made that promise, or I'd haul you and the faculty of that academy in for a little 'persuasion' right now."
Shin's response was curt, but again Flik could not make it out. Rowd shook his head. "If you want to do something useful, then get this crowd off of our backs. If anything happens and we do have to burn this place down, it'll be all their faults. They should focus their rage on the Muse soldiers who turned on them."
The Highland soldiers who had entered the inn now came back empty-handed. Rowd scowled in anger and quickly got his men marching away. Shin lingered a moment longer to speak a few words of apology to the crowd. Then he started walking towards the main street leading to the academy. Flik realized that this was another chance to follow Shin. He jumped down from the crates, ran down one street, and ducked down a narrower alley leading towards the main street.
Before he could really see what was happening, he crashed into somebody coming the opposite way. Food exploded out of the brown paper bags that the person was carrying, and an egg smacked Flik right between the eyes, covering his face in a gooey mess. His momentum carried him forward so that he fell fully on top of the other person, who squeaked in a feminine manner.
It took Flik several moments to recover his bearings. When he had done so, he looked down at the blond girl he'd collided with.
"I did not expect my knight to be so bold," Nina said breathlessly.
That got Flik off of her in an instant. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that." He saw some of the contents of her two bags had spilled out in the crash. Glancing at the far end of the alley, he could tell that he'd missed his chance to pursue Shin. He started grabbing food items and putting them back into the bags.
Nina sat up and put on a petulant face. "My knight wasn't there to take the box lunch his lady made."
Flik kept his eyes firmly on the food. "We must've just missed each other. I had to speak with the young master this morning." He had now refilled both bags and stood up, holding them in his arms. He couldn't help but be polite in this situation. "If you'd like, I can carry these back to the school for you."
Nina's smile was ecstatic. "Oh would you? My knight is far too kind, especially since this was all his lady's fault."
They started walking, emerging out onto the main street. As expected, Shin was long gone. "You don't have to keep referring to me as 'my knight,'" Flik spoke. "It makes me uncomfortable. Just call me Bluto, please."
"Of course!" Nina blushed. "And my Bluto can call me Nina."
Actually, he hadn't spoken to her directly at all. Now, in an attempt to guide the conversation into safer waters, he did. "What were you doing down here?"
"I was out getting some supplies when I heard about all the commotion. I wanted to see if those filthy Highlanders discovered anything."
"They didn't, as far as I could tell."
Nina gave a relieved sigh. "I'm glad. It would be so horrible if they got their hands on her. People might even start supporting the occupation then."
"You seem very different from most of the other students," Flik replied. "They don't appear to care on way or the other."
Nina huffed angrily. "None of them even knew there was a war until the Highland troops showed up. They don't know about what Highland did in East Muse! They don't know what Prince Luca Blight is like! All they care about are their stupid studies. They don't understand at all what sort of world they're going to graduate into."
"You think Lady Teresa would stand up to Highland if she had the chance?"
"Yes!" Nina answered heatedly. "She was the only one to send help to Muse and I'm certain she'd try to help anyone who was fighting Highland." Suddenly she lowered her voice. "I can't tell you where I heard this, but I'm even sure that she's interested in the force at North Window."
Flik nodded, wondering where she got that information. "I saw Lord Shin at the disturbance too. Who do you think he supports?"
Nina paused briefly. "I don't really know him well. I guess he supports the academy."
Flik didn't press the matter. He didn't want to arouse any suspicions, and Nina wasn't likely to know much more than she'd given. They made their way inside the gates of the academy, where Nina took possession of the bags again. Surprisingly, she didn't ask him to escort her all the way to her room, for which he was glad. He ate a large afternoon meal at the cafeteria, wandered back to the attendants' lodge, and climbed into his bed to get some much-needed sleep.
Still, he was awake by the time the sun had set. As before, he exited his quarters by the window and walked towards the administration building. He couldn't say why in particular, but he felt certain that Shin had a particular tie to this building. If Flik waited long enough, he'd get a chance to follow that man again.
Flik crouched down in the bushes by the steps leading to the doors, hiding himself behind dark leaves. Hours passed, fireflies winked in and out around him, and mosquitoes bit at him. His legs and arms grew stiff, but he soldiered on. Then, as he was beginning to tell himself that this had been a waste of time, the doors to the building swung open.
A figure walked out, looked around, and shut the doors behind him. Flik didn't need more than the moonlight to tell him that this shadow was Shin. At once, Shin walked to the fountain and turned to the right, his movements fluid and quick. Flik paused until Shin was beyond him, then carefully rose out of his crouch. He began to trail after Shin, keeping him in sight, but staying off the stone path.
This time, Flik promised himself, he was going to find out what Shin's secret really was.