Eighth Fire (37 page)

While she wasn’t lying, Mark knew her words were
crafted to hide the truth of the matter. The sunstone they stole
wasn’t the real one. It was a fastidiously fashioned fake in her
words. Only a handful of people knew about it. Reason said that the
Neo-Phylum would try for it with a covert theft and they’d do it at
night. The fake sunstone had been put in place to let them steal it
that way. No one had any idea that they’d use an attack like they
had.

Mrs. Shadowitz continued, “The damage to the
basement is extensive. This is true here and at the other mountains
as well. The engineers tell us that the basement ceiling here is in
danger of collapsing further. If that happens it is expected that
the first level floor would collapse too. Normally when a school
has to be closed for a short while students are temporally assigned
to one of the other mountains, but as they are in pretty much the
same state we are, that is not possible. Since the repairs will
take more than a month and there is less than a month left in the
school year the Four Thousand, One Hundred and Fifty Second School
Year of The Seventh Mountain is at an end. Your points will remain
where they are today and standings will be calculated on a prorated
basis. The school is closed and until further notice no one is to
reenter the mountain. Those taking summer classes will be notified
when and where they start.

“One last thing of note, Mattaraw was assailed
and all of the prisoners are gone. The staff there report only
minor injuries.

“This assembly is dismissed.”

Shana walked up behind Mark, “Mrs. Shadowitz
wants to see you.” She held out her arm. He grabbed on and they
were on the balcony beside her. Shana said, “Presenting Mark Young
as commanded.”

Mrs. Shadowitz said, “Thank you, Shana.” and
then “Mark, there may be another entrance to the labyrinth. Do you
have any idea where it might be?”

Mark shook his head, “No, but I have some clues.
The imp said there was another side in the labyrinth, then there’s
always the moat.”

“I want you to reenter the labyrinth and look
for the sunstone.”

“Why? It’s a fake.”

“We know that, but they don’t and they will
expect us to try to recover it. So we have to at least look for it.
They went to all this trouble to blow up the basements and block
the normal entrances by filling the first rooms in the labyrinths
with rubble in order to make it look like they’re trying to keep us
out of the labyrinths. That fact makes it pretty certain that the
sunstone isn’t there and there will be some type of trap waiting
for you. Going in through the moat limits how quickly we can get a
large team in there and exposes you to more danger than is
necessary. We need to find the other entrance.”

“Ma’am, don’t take this wrong. I mean no
disrespect, but my destiny lies along another path. I’ll help when
I can, but I have to help LeOmi find the other staff.”

“Raphael said you’d say something like that.
We’ll start looking for the other entrances and let you know as
soon as we find them.”

“Have you figured out why the sunstone is so
important?”

“Raphael also said he’d be disappointed if you
didn’t ask that question and that we should trust you. Please don’t
share this with anyone outside of your group of seven, and then
only in a dream.

“We have determined that the sunstone is a type
of book that displays some major waypoints of destiny: past,
present and future. We believe it is limited in its content, the
only things we’ve seen so far are scenes of events in this
hemisphere: South, Middle and North America. We also believe that
our understanding of the sunstone calendar dial may be flawed since
the historical events we can correlate with the dial are off by six
years from the standard calendar. We are looking into the
possibility that the standard calendar may be wrong by six years.
As yet, we don’t know if that is even possible. The theft of the
fake sunstone is one of the things it shows and we absolutely know
when that happened and it’s definitely off by six years. I regret
not having found it before it happened.

“If it happens to be true that the standard
calendar is wrong it means we missed the birth of Benrah’s physical
body. Based on that possibility, however unlikely, teams are
searching the records and the stars for any indication of his birth
thirteen years ago.”

“Thirteen years! That means Slone could be
Benrah. His name is an anagram for ‘son of evil’!”

“We believe that possibility to be very remote
for several reasons: He was raised right here in the orphanage; his
mother, a Magi of The First Mountain died in childbirth; though
rare, it does happen. His father was accidently killed while on an
archeological dig in Northern Turkey. While he desires to lead, a
trait of Ruby Tribe, he has shown no abilities beyond what is
normal, not even as an infant. While Benrah would surely attempt to
conceal himself, his innate powers wouldn’t keep him hidden for
long from anyone that was looking for him. And believe me, we have
been looking. I don’t think it’s possible that Slone is
Benrah.”

Mark thought for a moment and then said, “I take
it that the fake sunstone has been made to look like the real one,
both inside and out. When I find it, should I destroy it?”

Mrs. Shadowitz nodded. “See Mr. Müeller in
Engineering, he’ll give you what you need.”

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