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  I placed my palm against my chest and feigned shock. "Me? Lopping off Graplar heads with a katana? That doesn't sound like something I'd do. Does it?"

  "Not at all. You might chip a nail." With a chuckle, she threw a nod toward Edmond's door. "So how's the new guy working out? Still a slave to Protocol?"

  I rolled my eyes. "In the most obnoxious way possible."

  She sighed, and in a moment of pure honesty, let down her defenses to say, "I miss being your guard."

  My heart ached. "I miss it too."

  As she climbed out onto the window ledge, she looked at me. "Princess?"

  "Yeah?"

  "The next time someone climbs through your window, you should first whack them over the head with something heavy. Then ask who they are, okay?"

  "Point taken, Maddox."

  She began to close the window, then opened them again and poked her head back inside. "I just thought of something. Are your parents okay?"

  It was a strange thing to hear, especially coming from Maddox. Why the sudden concern over my parentage? "What do you mean?"

  "Well, you broke the rules again by engaging in battle, right? And Quill has threatened to have them killed if you break any more rules, right?" She must have heard something outside just then, because she moved close to the wall of my dorm and surveyed the darkness for several seconds, unmoving.

  Once she seemed to relax again, I shrugged. "He threatened them again, but that’s nothing new. I can’t help but wonder if his threats are empty and just meant to control me. Besides, I’m kind of stuck here for now, so I have to assume that they can take care of themselves out there, like they always have. Y’know?"

  Chewing her bottom lip, she met my eyes. "Yeah. You're probably right. It's just...well, it wouldn't be like Quill or the Elder Barrons to alert anyone before doing something awful, right? So...how do you know they’re okay?"

  How did I know that my parents were alright? How did I know that they were alive and well, when killing them was all that Quill had been threatening to do since the day that I'd arrived at Shadow Academy? The truth was...

  "I don't." My throat went dry, and my heart began to race with worry. "But maybe I should find out."

  Maddox nodded, as if she understood and supported whatever I chose to do, absolutely. "Sweet dreams, Princess."

  "Don't fall and crack your head open, Maddox."

  Chapter 7

  The sun crawled across my covers the next morning, warmly nudging me into waking. I didn't exactly want to get out of bed, but I knew that if I didn't do it on my own soon, Edmond was going to start knocking in a few minutes to make sure I got up. I hadn't fallen asleep very easily the night before, largely in part thanks to the tangled thoughts about Trayton and Darius that consumed me. Trayton, regardless of whether or not it was on purpose, was in danger outside of that wall without me. He might not be on a death-seeking mission, but he was as good as dead without his Bound Healer there to assist him. By force or by choice, Darius had abandoned this life, the one near me, for an entirely new one half way across Tril. And there was absolutely nothing I could do about either situation.

  Not from inside the wall here at Shadow Academy, anyway.

  It was becoming abundantly clear to me that I had two options to choose from in the coming days. With option one, I could adjust to life here at the academy without Trayton or Darius around. I could throw myself into my studies, complete my extra duties, and become the best damn Healer I could possibly be, all while trusting that my parents were fine.

  Or there was option two.

  Edmond knocked on my door, and the moment I opened it, I knew that I was going with option two. I was going to escape the wall surrounding Shadow Academy. I was going to find my parents, get answers from Darius, and protect Trayton at any cost. I was going to do it, not because it was the easy thing, but because it was the right thing to do. But in order to do so, I was going to have to do the unthinkable. I was going to have to poison my guard in order to escape.

  A single word played over and over again in my mind as I bathed and dressed. It was there on my walk to the dining hall with Edmond. It was waiting for me as I reached each of my classes. It sat on my desk, whispering to me as I settled in my chair at the beginning of Instructor Harnett's class. And that word was fogmoss.

  The truth was, apart from what Instructor Baak had let slip during her insane ramblings just a few nights before, I knew absolutely nothing about the herb. But if what Instructor Baak had said was true—that fogmoss could change someone’s memory and control their will—then it might just be my ticket outside the wall surrounding the Academy. But first I had to learn whether or not Instructor Baak's insane ramblings had held any truth at all. Inside my mind, I could hear Instructor Baak's voice, so calm, despite the fact that she was completely insane. "Fogmoss is a forbidden herb here on campus—on any campus, really—because it brews a tea that renders the drinker your willing servant. They will do anything that you ask and remember only what you tell them to remember."

  Sicken me as it did to even consider doing anything at all like Instructor Baak, I didn't have much choice. How else could I get away from Edmond, get passed the gate guards, and out the south gate? Fogmoss was my only option. I just had to find out exactly where I could locate some of the forbidden herb, and exactly how to brew some tea of it so that I could ease Edmond's mind and encourage him to help me escape.

  That sounded so much nicer than "drug Edmond and bend his will to mine". Which was exactly what I was planning on doing. Which probably made me no better than Instructor Baak. But I hadn't exactly been left with much choice. Oh, I could always choose to stay here like a good little Healer and dust more of Headmaster Quill's bookshelves until someone brought me news about where either of my Barrons where and what they were doing. But I wasn't one to wait for answers. Just like I wasn't one to stand around and be a good little Healer.

  The moment that Instructor Harnett entered the room, I approached her, keeping my voice hushed so that none of the other Healers would overhear me. "Instructor Harnett? I was wondering if you could help me with something."

  She dropped a basket of freshly harvested herbs onto her desk before turning to face me. "Of course, Kaya. Anything. How can I be of assistance?"

  "I was wondering...how exactly would someone cure fogmoss poisoning?"

  "You don't cure fogmoss poisoning." She was mid-headshake when she paused and looked at me. "Wait. Is this a hypothetical question, or has someone you know--"

  "No, no. Nothing like that. It's just that I overheard one of the guards say that Instructor Baak had poisoned a few guards with fogmoss, and I was wondering if there was any way that I could help to cure them." I shrugged as casually as I could. There was no way I could pull off my ruse unless my reasons sounded believable for a rebellious girl. And I was most certainly that. "Have to do my part for the cause. Might as well be something I believe in."

  She seemed to internally debate my sincerity for a moment before smiling warmly at me. "It's good to see you trying to work for the cause, Kaya, but I'm afraid there's nothing that can be done about fogmoss poisoning. The poison runs its course over several hours and the victim is really no worse for wear. So you see, there's nothing you could do anyway."

  I frowned, as if I were deeply troubled that I couldn't somehow cure a poison that I already knew didn't require curing. "So there's no way to counter the effects?"

  She shrugged, tilting her head to the side slightly. "Now that I didn't say. But creating a serum to counter the effects of fogmoss requires more fogmoss, and the only place you can get that would be from Instructor Baak's personal quarters or the Master Healer's office. But Instructor Baak's office is currently off limits, and really, if you've already gotten the victim to the Master Healer's office, it's better to leave such things to more experienced hands."

  The smile on my lips was genuine. With a lighter step, I made my way back to my seat, speaking to her over my shoulder as I walked
. "You have a point. Well...can't blame a Healer for trying."

  The rest of class flew by, and that late afternoon, as Edmond escorted me from the dining hall, back to my dorm, I cursed under my breath and groaned a bit. As if unknowingly reading from a script that I had handed him, Edmond looked at me and said, "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing. It's just...I forgot to grab something for my Botanicals class, and if I don't have it for Instructor Harnett tomorrow, she's going to kill me. But I still have to study for my Art of War test tomorrow."

  Edmond shrugged. "I can grab it for you while you study. What is it?"

  The truth was, I felt really bad for planning to drug Edmond. And I felt even worse for tricking him, so that I could retrieve some fogmoss. But it had to be done if I ever wanted outside that wall. Edmond was just an unfortunate casualty of war. I sighed, placing my hand against my chest, feigning relief. It was a good thing Barrons knew relatively nothing about herbs, or he'd see right through my farce. "Would you mind? That would be a life saver, Edmond. I just need some rose thorns from the gardens. It's a little tricky to snip them off at the base, but easy enough with the clippers from the woodshed. Could you grab me about forty? I'd owe you big time."

  While he didn't look thrilled over the prospect of gathering forty thorns from the rose bushes, to his credit, Edmond smiled very supportively as he opened the door to my dormitory. "I'm happy to help. Let's just get you settled first and I'll be back before you know it."

  I knew for a fact that the gardening snips he'd need weren't hanging just inside the woodshed--they were on a high hook way in the back and hard to see. By the time Edmond found them, it would be dark and he'd bumble around the rose bushes for at least twenty minutes, gathering thorns. I might have a half hour total to get to Instructor Baak's office, locate her vial of fogmoss, and get back to my room before Edmond returned. That wasn't much time.

  We moved up the stairs, past a group of guards that were hanging out in the hallway outside my room, and Edmond opened my door for me. I thanked him profusely several more times before he closed the door and headed off to the rose gardens. Standing at my window, I watched as he crossed the grounds and headed east to the gardens. My guilt at having tricked him burned a hole through my stomach, but I kept repeating to myself that I had no choice. I couldn't stay here, living out a life that I hadn't chosen, waiting to see what happened to those that I cared about. I had to get out, had to do something to help my situation. And staying at Shadow Academy, studying the difference between wheatgrass and sweetpuffs wasn't going to get me anywhere.

  Once I was certain that Edmond had gone, I hurried into action and moved out onto my window sill. The thin ledge seemed so much smaller than it had the last time I'd crawled onto it, when I'd snuck into Trayton's room. Maybe my utter guilt at having tricked Edmond was shrinking my perception of its size. I didn't know. All I did know was that I had just a few minutes to get down to ground level and retrieve my prize before my guard returned.

  A slight breeze brushed my hair at first into my face, and then away from it. On it was the scent of roses, which only served to remind me of Edmond's close proximity in the gardens. It also sent a strange wave of nostalgia over me. Despite what a pain it had been to work extra duties there, I'd really come to love the rose gardens. There were moments when I missed being there, with my hands in the soil and sweat on my brow, and I marveled at how much my life had changed in just a few days.

  Inching my way along the ledge, I finally reached the drainage pipe on the corner of the building. As I lowered myself onto the ground, that tiny voice of fear at the back of my mind screamed her resistance, but I ignored it and moved north, staying close to the darkness of the building, until I'd reached the instructor's quarters. It was just a small wing, attached to the hospital wing by a short hallway, but I could tell as I approached that the instructors had even nicer quarters than the students did. Each window was stained glass, each depicting important scenes from throughout Skilled history, and lined in carefully carved wooden sills. The door to the wing was ornate and rich, with large wrought iron handles. Standing outside of that door were two guards. Neither were smiling. But luckily, it didn't seem like either of them had seen me yet.

  Surveying the row of windows on this side of the wing, I frowned, counting. Twelve windows. Which meant twelve rooms to choose from, on this side alone. So twenty-three chances for me to be wrong. Plus, the windows were stained glass, which was great for privacy, but not at all great for breaking and entering. How was I supposed to guess which room belonged to Instructor Baak?

  I jumped at the sound of laughter to my left. Just out of the shadows that I was still hiding in was a small group of Healers and Barrons, heading straight for the instructors' quarters. The Barron in the front handed some paperwork to the guard on the left, who nodded to the guard on the right. Without thinking, I stepped into group and kept my head down, hoping the noise and movement would camouflage my presence. We moved forward as a group, and when the guard who'd taken the paperwork sneezed, I was pretty sure my heart stopped beating. If I got caught, I was dead. Quill would be sure of it.

  But moments later, I was stepping inside the building without any trouble at all. The group fell away to various rooms, and I marveled at how young some of them seemed to be, for instructors. Or maybe they weren't teachers--I really had no way of knowing who they were or why they were here. But then, they weren't part of my purpose for being here. Only Instructor Baak was. Along with the contents of her private herbal supply collection.

  Once I was inside, it was very apparent which room belonged to my former Healing 101 instructor. Only one door was marked by an official proclamation of the Zettai Council, bearing their seal. After glancing around to be certain I was the only person remaining in the hall way, I approached her door with an eager step, my eyes skimming the Council's notice. No one, the notice declared, without official permission was to enter the room, and all contents were now the possession of the Zettai Council, until further notice. No one could have been more surprised than I was when the door knob turned with ease and the door to her room swung inwardly, unlocked. But the moment it was open and I could peer inside, I saw exactly why it wasn’t heavily guarded or locked in any way.

  Instructor Baak’s quarters were empty.

  Cursing under my breath, I moved inside, closing the door behind me a bit too roughly in a moment of anger. The furniture had been completely removed. Artwork had been taken from the walls, leaving only nails behind. Every item that could have possibly been in the room was gone, leaving behind just a bit of dust and a single cobweb in the corner.

  I swore again. Of course it was empty. Had I really expected the vial of fogmoss to be waiting for me at the center of the room, on a silver platter? How childish. How utterly stupid of me! What was I going to do now?

  With a determined step, I moved back out the door and down the hall, toward the hospital wing. Through a set of double doors, I walked past several people who were either sick or injured or assisting those who were, confidence in every step, despite the fact that I wasn’t feeling very confident at the time. Then, in a move that might have made Darius proud (had he been here, my wounded thoughts reminded me), I took a sharp left and boldly entered the Master Healer's office.

  Instructor Harnett had insisted that the Master Healer would have some fogmoss—it was a weird thing to keep even a small bit of each classified poison on hand, but important, just in case it needed to be studied or its effects cured. I was very fortunate that the office was empty, but it wasn’t exactly a surprise. The Master Healers generally worked outside of their offices during the day. If I’d come in the morning, I would have had problems. So I counted my blessings as I closed the door behind me. In hindsight, I should have come here first. It would have been so much easier, but I’d been hoping to learn a bit more about Instructor Baak and her tangled way of thinking. Who knows? Through her, I might have learned a bit more about King Darrek, which is who I was reall
y curious about, anyway. But then, hindsight was always more clear.

  The room was dark and had an unpleasant, medicinal smell to it. At the center of the room, facing the door, was a large white desk and two black chairs. Along the far wall were three tall cabinets. I moved from one to the next, searching for any hint of fogmoss that I could find. The first cabinet contained mostly bandages and gauze, but the second held hundreds of tiny jars of herbs. As I looked from one to the next, I kept my ears perked for any sign of the Master Healer, or anyone else that might happily drag me off to Headmaster Quill's office. Finally, on a shelf with its own set of doors, locked tight, I saw it. It was sitting there in the back of the cabinet, between a jar of muckshrooms and a bottle of hazelblossoms. A small jar, with something vaguely weed-like stuffed inside. The label was clearly marked: fogmoss - for consumption as a brewed tea meant to render the intended fully cooperative.

  What a nice way to put it. Now where was the sign telling me where the key to the cabinet was located?

  I searched the desk drawers, but came up empty. I looked over every shelf in the room, even going so far as to stand on a chair and search the tops of every bit of door and window trim in the place, but found nothing. What’s more, I didn’t know how long I’d been gone, or if Edmond had returned to find me missing yet. In a last-ditch effort, one fueled by desperation, I picked up a small mortar from the Master Healer’s desk and smashed the glass of the shelf containing the poisons. Gripping the small jar in my hand, I opened the window and hopped outside, hurrying across campus and hoping that no one heard the noise of breaking glass or witnessed my escape.

  There was no telling how long I had been gone, or how easily Edmond had snipped off forty needless rose thorns. So I ran as fast as I could, sticking to the shadows, and scurried up the drain pipe with my heart racing. I'd only just climbed through my open window and dove under the soft covers of my bed when a soft knock came from the hall. I croaked, "Enter and be known...?"