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I leaned closer and inspected the graves. “That strange dirt was somewhere near the shed. Like about here.” I tapped on one of them.
Ben read the name aloud. “Samuel Hearth. Born BS Seven hundred and twenty. Died BS Seven hundred and ninety.” He paused and furrowed his brow. “That is quite a new burial for the age of the cemetery. It must be a family plot.”
I scoured the nearby markers. “There aren’t any other Hearths around there, and I don’t see anyone with that hat symbol.”
He shook his head. “Nor do I. That leaves us with two possibilities. That the sisters were wrong or there is something unique about that grave.”
I stared ahead and thought back to that brief adventure. “I don’t think they were wrong. I mean, we found that disturbed earth like what happened at the Meager, and there was just somethingoffabout that place.”
Ben leaned back in his seat and folded his arms over his chest. “Then we must assume there is something unique about that grave, or perhaps the fiend merely used it as a random test for the curse.”
“And what about that corpse that attacked us near the card shop?” I reminded him.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure about that one, either. The wound on the skull was not fresh, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he met a rough end, but why he would have been risen is something I do not understand.”
My face fell as horrible thought struck me. “What if the crazy person doing this killed that guy a while back, and decided as a sick joke to revive him?”
Ben pursed his lips. “That’s quite possible-”
The heavy sound of footsteps interrupted his reply, and the archivist peeked her head around one of the nearby stacks. “It’s nearly time to close.”
Ben smiled at her. “We’re just about finished.” She nodded and slipped out of sight.
I waited for her footsteps to fade away before I asked the all-important question we came here to find out. “Where do you think the lunatic will do their next experiment?”
Ben straightened and flipped through the cemeteries. There were about two dozen pages, and he stopped at one which featured about six times more graves than the Meager. The title at the top read ‘The Court.’ “Perhaps this one. It’s located between the Meager and Totten, and contains a great many of the academy graves. However, I would suggest we revisit Totten first.”
I lifted an eyebrow as he shut the book and climbed to his feet. “Why?”
“We never found the creature the sisters saw,” he reminded me as I followed him to the front of the building. “We should find it before it attacks someone, and perhaps we’ll also discover why that grave is the exception.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
We drovethrough the darkened streets, and I couldn’t stop my heart from beating faster than normal. Every twitching shadow made me look in that direction, and every person we came upon made me think they were a monster shambling toward us.
Even Ben’s hand made me jump as he wrapped his fingers around mine. “You’re nervous.”
I sheepishly grinned up at him. “I was kind of wishing I had your red eyes.”
“I have something better for you.”
My ears perked up at his promise. “What is it?”
He flashed me a mischievous grin. “You’ll have to wait until we arrive at the cemetery.”
It was like waiting for Christmas, but the day finally came when we stepped off the carriage and found ourselves at the short wooden gate that led into Totten. Ben leaned back into the carriage and popped open a hidden compartment tucked under the seat. A myriad of boxes small and smaller were hidden inside the cubby hole.
Ben drew out a small glass ball tucked between some of the boxes and held it out to me. The orb was smaller than a baseball with a reflective surface that showed my curious face. “Take this.”
There was a strangely interested look in his eyes as I grasped the ball in both my hands. I gave a sharp intake of breath as a soft white glow emanated from the ball. It cast a circle of light around me like a glow stick.
“What is this?” I asked him as I swept my eyes over the illuminated ground.
“It’s a channel orb,” he explained to me as he smiled at the glowing ball. “You can adjust the focus of the light by brushing one hand over the top. Try it.”
I gingerly cradled the ball in one palm and brushed my other hand over the top. The glow focused in the direction where my five digits had dragged across the surface, and five streams of brighter light shot out ahead of me. I pinned two fingers together and dragged them over the top. A single beam of light like a flashlight stretched for some fifty feet in front of me.
“Wow,” I breathed as I looked over the swirling light contained inside the glass. “This is incredible. Does everyone have one of these?”
