Lucky Rabbit

Dear Uncle Andres,

I got invited to dinner at a friend’s house, and it would be very good for me to go, espeshally because her family is important. Mr. Blackwood won’t let me, for no proper reason, which makes me really mad. If you give me permission instead, I promise I will be very good and very gratefull, and I will remember it.

Also, I miss home a lot and would much rather be there, because my friends left and the teachers here are meen. Mr. Blackwood won’t even let me go back for Midwinter break. He’s even meener than everyone else.

Sincerly,

Thaniel

Well, that was indeed short and to the point, though it seemed a little obvious to Pandy. It should be exactly what Andres wanted to hear though, and the man didn’t know Thaniel well enough to tell how fake it was, so Augustus approved it, then handed Thaniel an envelope to put it in. After that, the boy simply had to take it to Mr. Musgrave’s room to hand it over. This was something the boy did at least a few times a week, except that usually his notes went to Lian, so it shouldn’t attract any special attention.

“I’m curious if Mr. Musgrave will let me know that my ward is sending letters to Lord Forrest,” Augustus mused, watching as Thaniel snuggled into the makeshift bed Augustus had made for him on a newly acquired couch.

The small apartment was a little tight with the large piece of furniture in place, but Thaniel seemed happy, which was what mattered. He had books, blankets, and access to Augustus’s private bathroom, which he’d spent several minutes telling Pandy about when she joined them. Usually she went straight back to Thaniel’s room after chores, but tonight they wanted to give their potential spy an opportunity to sneak into the room and take the blood-stained envelope from the trash.

The blood on that envelope obviously wasn’t Thaniel’s, but was instead a bit of vital fluid donated by the dragon himself, who assured Pandy rather archly that no one would be able to use it to hurt him. Just to make the whole thing as convincing as possible, however, he’d tied the donated blood to a small sachet which he’d given to Pandy and Thaniel. Whichever of them was being Thaniel at the time was supposed to carry it around so it would look like their enemies’ efforts had been successful, right up to the moment when they – or rather Pandy – needed to escape. It was a bit like the spy movies, when the subject knew they were being tracked and attached the tracker to another vehicle or person.

“You think Mr. Musgrave might be the mole?” Pandy asked. She had to admit she’d never particularly liked the weaselly man, but she wouldn’t have guessed he was a spy, either. Of course, she hadn’t believed that Mr. Benjamin was a murderer until the moment he stuck a knife in her chest, so clearly her spy-dar was off.

“Mole?” Augustus gave her a puzzled frown, but shook his head. “No. He’s been here practically since he graduated from Condor. He’s almost fanatically loyal to the school, and has no life outside of it. That’s part of the reason he’s a hall supervisor. He’s always here, even over breaks and holidays. Finding a spy is usually a matter of discovering people’s weaknesses, then figuring out which of them has been compromised by that weakness. Mr. Musgrave has no weaknesses outside of these walls.”

Pandy gave him a look. “But he has one within them?”

The chancellor opened his mouth, then closed it again, his eyes twinkling. “Let’s just say that while Mr. Musgrave has no romantic attachments, it’s not for lack of trying. Alas, the one he adores very much does not return his affections, so he must be content to admire them from afar.”

Well, now Pandy was invested. Who could the rodent-like man possibly be interested in? He was almost always in his rooms unless he had meal duty, and she’d never seen him lingering near anyone. She had to admit that was partially because she’d never bothered to pay much attention to him, but now she was curious. Why was Augustus being so cagey about it?

“What if the person he likes asked him to do something?” Pandy asked, trying to get a bit more information out of him. “Maybe that person has a weakness, and the bad guys used their vulnerability to get at Mr. Musgrave.”

Again, Augustus’s lips twitched. He was definitely amused by something, and she wanted to know what. “No,” he said, “I don’t think that’s likely.”

Pandy stared at him, trying to figure out what he didn’t want to say. If Mr. Musgrave’s predilections were a little unusual, that might do it, but she already knew same-sex marriage was a thing here, even if it wasn’t common, which left that out. If it was something really bad, Augustus wouldn’t allow the man to remain around children, much less be amused by whatever it was. Besides, anything like that would be exactly the kind of flaw wicked people would capitalize on if they could, making the hall supervisor a prime target for-

“No,” Augustus said again, more firmly this time. “I assure you that Mr. Musgrave’s singular goal is to remain at Falconet, and preferably in his current position, for the rest of his life. There are a few people I have my eye on, however.”

“Who?” she demanded, temporarily distracted, but Augustus shook his head.

“I doubt you’d know them, at least not by name,” he said. “One works with Mrs. Farrier, repairing and cleaning clothes. She tends to over-indulge in certain things, which could give an enemy some leverage over her. Once I’m certain she’s not the spy, I’ll have to either get her help or let her go. Allowing such a weakness in our security simply isn’t acceptable.”

Pandy grimaced. At least he was willing to give whoever it was a chance. “Who else?”

“A stable-girl. It’s unlikely to be her, simply because she doesn’t have access to the main building, but she has a difficult home life someone could prey upon.” Augustus ran through a few others, including a member of the kitchen staff, a maid, a gardener, and then, rather more reluctantly, said, “It could also be one of the students. That is, in fact, rapidly becoming the most likely option. I hope no parent has placed their child in such a position, but it would explain how this person got into Eleanor’s room. They could simply wait until she and Geraldine left, and slip in before the door closed.”

“But a girl couldn’t get into the boy’s- Oh.” Pandy bit her lip, and Augustus’s brows lifted. She really hadn’t wanted to tell him about the secret passage between the two floors; partially because it felt like a bit of a betrayal to children everywhere, and partially because she was fairly certain the passage hadn’t existed before she got there, which made it much less likely that it would figure into any long-term Nefarious Plans. Still…

Quickly, she explained, and Augustus listened, solemn and silent until the very end, at which point he said, “I wondered when you’d tell me.”

“What?” Pandy stared at him. “You knew?” He grinned, and the tiniest dimple flashed in his right cheek. Now the man had a dimple, too? Did he know all of her weaknesses?

“Cieris watches Thaniel most of the time. Not just her, but she’s his most constant companion. She told me when he used the passage to visit Geraldine.” His expression softened. “That was a kindness. The girl puts on a brave front, but she’s terribly worried about her family. As soon as we can be certain letters sent to her won’t be intercepted, we’ll make sure she gets an honest one from her mother. I assured her that they truly are well, but she needs to hear it from them.”

Of course he had, but Pandy still hadn’t gotten past the fact that he knew about the secret passage. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew? About the hidden passageway?”

He leaned forward, his breath brushing against her cheek. “Because you seemed to be having so much fun with it.” There was a huskiness to his voice that made Pandy shiver, but she pulled back, glancing toward Thaniel… only to find that the boy was fast asleep, his cheeks pink and his book fallen to the carpet, its pages splayed open. Tucked beneath his chin was the plush rabbit Pandy had given him. 

Silently, Augustus crossed to Thaniel’s side, brushed a pale curl from the boy’s eyes, then laid the book on the table with a piece of paper tucked between the pages as a bookmark. Something in Pandy’s chest gave a Very Uncomfortable Thump, and she placed her hand flat against it. Other than her now-habitual breathing, nothing disturbed her pseudo-flesh – no thudding of a heartbeat could be felt against her fingers. She must have imagined the sensation.

“I don’t think anyone will come tonight,” Augustus murmured as he rejoined her. “The final bell will ring soon, so you should get back to Thaniel’s room before the very-loyal Mr. Musgrave reports him missing. They must be planning to gather the envelope from the trash before it’s burned, which makes it much more likely that the culprit is one of the servants.”

In a way, that was good, because Pandy didn’t like to think of any more of the students getting caught up in this mess. It was bad enough that poor Matilda had been dragged into it, however unwillingly, but what if even more innocent kids were involved? What would happen to them when this was over? Hopefully they could keep them out of it, but children were often called on to testify in court, weren’t they? Would Matilda and any others be allowed to remain anonymous in a case as important as conspiracy against the throne?

All of that still lay ahead of them though, and while Pandy would do anything within her power to keep at least Matilda out of it, right now the best she could do was exactly what Augustus had said. ‘Thaniel’ needed to go to bed, just as he did every night, which meant Pandy had to get hopping.

<Cancel Shifting Faces,> Pandy thought, ignoring the System message acknowledging the command as she shrank down to her Bunny-body. Augustus smiled at her, looking entirely unperturbed by her change, and led the way back through his office to the door that opened onto the landing at the top of the stairs. The lights had already dimmed, so Pandy was able to surround herself with the personal privacy bubble known as Shield of Darkness so that she could descend the stairs without anyone seeing her. Not that any of the students were supposed to be wandering the halls during this last half hour before lights-out, but of course some did anyway.

Pandy-as-Thaniel dropped her shield only when she was certain that the entry hall was empty, and even then she ducked into the sort-of alcove formed by the space beneath the stairs. There was a dainty table with a flower vase on it in there already, but a small rabbit – or a small boy – could still fit easily enough, which made it the perfect spot for such transformations.

She hurried past Mr. Musgrave’s room, for the first time feeling some stirring of interest in the man. He seemed competent enough, though she wouldn’t describe him as kind, but he just wasn’t the sort of person around whom one built a tragic story of unrequited love.

Just as she was thinking this, the hall supervisor opened his door, his long, pointed nose preceding the rest of his face into the hallway by a good half a second. “Nathaniel,” he hissed, “I expect a six sentence apology paper for disturbing me and the other students during our quiet time. Due tomorrow.” With that, he closed the door again, somehow managing not to pinch his own nose, and Pandy decided that no, she still didn’t like him, loyal or not.

One, two, three more doors, and Pandy’s shoulders slumped in relief as she reached for the doorknob. She’d half-expected the bell to ring while she was still in the hall, and then Mr. Musgrave would no doubt assign her an even longer essay. It was a good thing Thaniel was only a first-year. The older students sometimes got punishment assignments up to ten pages long. Though that had been a special case, because Augustus had just discovered that Matilda had been using illicit substances to illegally alter the minds of her fellow students, so maybe it wasn’t a particularly good example.

“Hsst,” a quiet whisper reached Pandy’s ears, and she turned to see a short boy peeking out of the bathroom down the hall. It took her a moment to place him as one of Thaniel’s classmates from Governance and Leadership. He was only an inch or so taller than Thaniel, with delicate features and longish hair caught back in a low ponytail. He’d never directly interacted with Thaniel as far as Pandy knew, but she’d also missed a lot of classes recently. What was his name? Should she-as-Thaniel even know his name?

After glancing down the dim hallway, the boy nervously approached Pandy. His hands were twisting in front of him as he said, “I… I lost… my notes. From class. And I wondered if you found them? Or if I could copy yours?”

Pandy forced down the grimace that threatened to overtake her face. Thaniel’s notes were a mess, when he even bothered to take any. Fortunately, he had a good memory, and the little he did write down seemed to be enough for him, but she pitied anyone else who tried to use them.

“My notes aren’t very good,” she said apologetically. “You should probably ask, um, Emery?” She’d seen the other student’s notes once, and they put Thaniel’s to shame.

“Oh.” The other boy looked down, scuffing his toe on the carpet. “I… Could I borrow a… pencil? Mine are all broken.”

That was odd, and Pandy was definitely getting a bad feeling about this little interaction, but she nodded and finished opening her door. As soon as she did, something ran across her foot, sending a cold chill up her leg before it vanished into the gloom down the hall.

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