The fighting ended almost as suddenly as it had begun. For one strange moment... There was only water dripping from the shattered glass. Then the academy erupted. Teachers flooded into the pool room. Academy guards rushed in behind them with drawn weapons. Students crowded around the doors until instructors forced everyone back. “Lynni!” “Toriya!” “Miss Daniels!” It was the first time I heard so many people calling Lynne anything other than Lynne. It seemed those were the names most people actually referred to her by. How many names did she have? The scene afterward was chaotic. There were people I could tell worked for the academy, like the teachers. But there were also guards and physicians I wasn’t sure belonged to the academy or the town it sat atop. Then men from the city who I assumed were the police? Just a version of the police that looked like they were also LARPing at a Renaissance Fair. Someone wrapped a thick gray blanket around Lynne’s shoulders. She barely reacted. Her hands were still shaking. “I cut the rope...” One teacher knelt beside her. “Lynni.” She stared at her hands. “I cut the rope.” She said it again. Like she hadn’t realized she was speaking her inner thoughts aloud. Which I kind of wished she had when the medieval men-at-arms-looking police showed up. The men who had chased us were gathered up under guard. They were alive. Including the one whose head I hit a bunch of times with the butt of the crossbow. He was sitting against the wall while a physician examined his head. And the man who fell through the glass in the greenhouse was alive too. His wrist had been bound between two pieces of wood, and his head was wrapped where he had gone through the glass. The man I shot still had the bolt buried in his upper arm while someone carefully cut the sleeve away around it. I stared at his arm. It felt like I had entered a dream when I shot him. But then I woke back into real life. And real life was feeling a little too real. One of the physicians noticed me looking. “He’ll live.” I glanced toward the others. The investigation itself was nothing like the images that flashed through my mind when I heard the word investigation. I had fragments in my head of things like police tape, someone taking photographs, fingerprints, people wearing gloves, evidence in plastic bags. Yeah, none of that here... Instead, an older man arrived from the city with a clerk, several constables, and a handful of ordinary-looking men who had apparently been summoned from the town. I eventually learned the older man was called the coroner. His first concern wasn’t Lynne. It was the dead man. Nobody had moved his body. The coroner inspected him where he had been crushed beneath the platform. Then he examined the collapsed platform and the rope Lynne had cut. The rope was brought down still tied at one end. They seemed unusually concerned that nobody untie it. The knives and crossbows were collected as well. They wanted to know exactly where every weapon had been found and who had been holding it. They also separated everyone before taking their accounts. Apparently people helping each other remember things incorrectly was a common enough problem here. Lynne was questioned first. Mostly because Lynne wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping her inside thoughts inside. She was tearfully telling everybody that she had cut the rope. The coroner sat across from her while his clerk wrote everything down on parchment. “Your full name?” “Victoria Lynne Daniels.” “And you cut the rope?” Lynne stared at the floor. “Yes.” “Why?” “I thought it was part of an astronomy lesson.” The coroner waited. “There was a boy.” “What boy?” “He asked me to help him.” “What was his name?” “Vincent.” “Family name?” “I don’t know.” “Had you seen him before today?” “No.” “What did he tell you?” “That the rope was holding a weight.” Her fingers tightened around the blanket. “He told me when to cut it.” “And you did.” “Yes.” “What happened?” “The platform fell.” Her voice became quieter. “There was a man underneath it.” “Did you know him?” “No.” “Did you know he was there?” Lynne shook her head. “No.” Her voice cracked. “I didn’t know.” The coroner let the clerk finish writing. Then he asked what happened to Vincent. “He laughed.” The coroner looked up. “And then?” “He disappeared.” “Ran?” “No.” “He disappeared.” The coroner looked toward one of the academy teachers. “Miss Daniels is still spirit-sighted, correct?” “Yes.” The teacher answered as though the question were perfectly ordinary. “Since childhood.” The coroner nodded. Then his clerk wrote that down too. I looked around, surprised that no one was asking Lynne to elaborate on the whole “he disappeared” portion of her story. But nobody else seemed particularly surprised. Just me. Apparently convincing the police that ghosts were real wasn’t the issue. Figuring out what one had done was. Several people had seen Lynne go onto the roof. One porter had seen her speaking to someone, though he couldn’t see anyone standing beside her. Nobody had seen Lynne with the dead man before the platform fell. The rope had been cut exactly where Lynne said. The platform fell exactly as she described. The man had been standing directly beneath it. Everything they could actually check matched her story. They pulled me aside and questioned me. “Xu XiaoXing?” “Yes.” The coroner looked at the name his clerk had written. Then at me. Then at the name again. Then at me again. I was getting used to that look. “You followed Miss Daniels into the greenhouse?” “Yes.” “Why?” “She was running away.” He waited. “I was worried about her.” That answer seemed to work better. I explained the six men. The large one shoved me. The knife. The shovel. The coroner stopped me there. “He drew the knife before you struck him?” “Yes.” “You are certain?” “I knew he was going to stab me.” “How?” I thought about it. I clearly remembered his hand disappearing beneath his coat. The way he pulled back his shoulder and elbow. But it felt like everything in my being was telling me not to cooperate with the police. No matter how colorful their paned sleeves were in this world. “I don’t know.” The coroner stared at me for a moment, then continued. “And afterward you struck his wrist?” “Yes.” “Then his leg?” “Yes.” “Then threw him through a glass frame?” “Yes.” He stopped again. “How?” “I don’t know.” The clerk stopped writing. The coroner looked at me. “You don’t know how you threw that man through a greenhouse?” He pointed toward the giant, hulking man having his arm treated. I remembered using the shovel to catapult him by the neck. But looking at the size of him, even I was having a hard time believing that. “No.” “Have you been trained?” “I don’t know.” His expression changed slightly. “That seems to be a common answer with you.” “Sorry.” He continued anyway. I explained the pool. Taking the crossbow from the man underwater. Then using it to shoot someone across the room. “You have used a crossbow before?” “No.” “You struck him.” “Yes.” Another pause. The coroner looked toward the man with the bolt in his arm. Then back at me. That also went into the record. I thought I was fucked. To my surprise, the Robin Hood and his Merry Men-looking police eventually decided everything I had done was in defense of myself or Lynne. Apparently being attacked by six criminals made the explanation much simpler. I had never been so happy about violently armed men breaking into a school before in my life. Of course, I also couldn't remember anything past, like, five hours ago. The more important part came from the prisoners. They were questioned separately. Most of them refused to say much. Eventually two of them gave the same name. Antonio Massino. The harbor district. Several people seemed to recognize it immediately. Then someone asked Lynne again what the boy had called himself. “Vincent.” That changed the conversation. Antonio Massino had once had a nephew named Vincent. Vincent Massino. Except Vincent had been dead for years. Several people from the harbor who had known him were questioned. They described him. Lynne described the boy she had seen. The descriptions were close enough that his name was written into the coroner’s record. Vincent Massino. Deceased. Suspected spirit. Apparently ghosts had paperwork too. By then the whole thing finally started making sense. Or at least as much sense as anything around here did. A dead boy named Vincent Massino had appeared to Lynne. Lynne could see him because she was one of the rare people who could see spirits clearly. Vincent convinced her that cutting the rope was part of an astronomy exercise. She cut it. The platform fell onto a man who had been placed underneath it. Vincent laughed, celebrated, cried. Then disappeared. Immediately afterward, men connected to Antonio Massino chased Lynne from the roof. Whatever had happened... Lynne had been used to finish it. The coroner recorded the death, examined what evidence remained, took the accounts of the witnesses, and decided what needed to be brought before the proper court later. The captured men were going with the constables. The weapons were kept. So was the rope. Lynne, on the other hand was a different story. I heard two officials arguing nearby. “She admits cutting it.” “She was deceived.” “A man is dead.” “I’m aware.” “Then she should be held until the inquest.” The older official looked toward Lynne. “She can remain under surety.” “For a death?” “Yes.” The younger man frowned. “Whose surety?” The older man looked at him for a moment. Then lowered his voice. “Do you know who she is?” “Apparently her name is Lynne Daniels.” “Victoria Lynne Daniels...” “Yes...” ... “Victor Daniels’ daughter.” That did it. The younger man stopped talking. I didn’t understand why. But the entire conversation changed. “There’s absolutely no reason to drag Victor Daniels’ daughter into the city gaol when the academy can answer for her.” “She still has to appear when summoned.” “Obviously.” “And remain in Albion.” “She will.” A familiar voice came from behind them. “I will answer for her.” The Headmaster had arrived. The same elderly man with the long white beard who had sent me to the astronomy room after Lynne. The officials stepped aside for him. He spoke with the coroner for a short time. That seemed to settle it. Lynne was essentially free to go home. She would have to appear again if the inquest required her. Luckily she wasn’t going to a cell. I looked toward the prisoners. Their hands were tied. Then back toward Lynne. I didn’t completely understand their justice system. But I understood that much. Lynne had privileges I definitely did not. The Headmaster approached us. He knelt beside her. “You’ve had a difficult day.” Lynne lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry.” He rested a hand gently on her shoulder. “There is nothing for you to apologize for.” Then he looked toward me. “Mr. Xu.” “Yes?” “Would you escort Miss Daniels back home?” “Of course.” Lynne slowly stood. The blanket remained wrapped tightly around her shoulders. I looked around for the girl in yellow. She was gone. Before anyone had a chance to question her. We walked away from the pool room without speaking. The afternoon breeze carried the smell of the sea up from the harbor. Behind us, the prisoners were taken away. The coroner kept the rope, the weapons, and pages of statements from anyone who had seen enough to matter. There would be an inquest later. For now, Lynne was allowed to go home. But there was another name I kept hearing. Victor Daniels. I still had no idea who he was. Apparently everyone else did.

Chapter 7