The original Eskers Institution was home to many broken-minded souls, both dead and alive, but due to an arson attack in 1901, the building became condemned. The new Eskers Psychological Rehabilitation Center, constructed at the west end of the Esker woods, adopted softer methods for treatment. Many lingerers and wanderers still rely on the west-end Eskers to provide psychological assistance. While the physical world might consider The Jester to be a mere attraction, the spiritual world knows better. He frequently diverts the bodied from approaching the grounds by frightening them away before they get too close.
“So there really were ghosts in the woods?” Alex asked.
“Guess so.”
“What are lingerers and wanderers?”
“Just what you’d suspect them to be. Lingerers linger and hang out in their old towns, and wanderers wander. They move from town to town. Or so I’ve read.”
Van Hanlin called the Hall to order, and Gabe closed the book and hugged it close to him.
The various lecturers droned about the importance of punctuality, methods to alleviate headaches from retaining the overload of information, and improvements in executive function. Jonas seemed to find it as boring as Alex did because he spent the duration of the meeting trying to annoy her by staring and making faces. Gabe kicked him under the table, and Jonas glowered. “Whatever.”
Pleased her first day had gone so well, Alex gladly accepted when Jonas hurried away from his brothers and offered to chaperone a tour of the city before curfew.
They ventured down Lazuli Street to where it forked at the fields. Trees bowed over the ascending path with branches intertwining overhead and creating natural archways. The hill took them to what Jonas called the heart of the city, with intimidating buildings of concrete masonry and brass detail. A combination of Times Square and a Halloween town, the dark shadows of modern architecture obscured the ancient roads and knurled lampposts. The hustle and bustle of spirits skirting past them disturbed the fog, which haughtily puffed its way upward. It traveled over the chaos and past the lights of the city.
The dancing building she’d seen from her window stood guard over everything. Up close, the government Dual Tower, as Jonas termed it, twisted so high it seemed never-ending, attempting to pierce the sky itself. She hadn’t seen the rest of ‘Broderick Square’ until Jonas told her it was there. She gasped each time a building suddenly materialized from the fog. He assured her this was normal because she hadn’t known what to look for.
The road traveled toward the Dual Tower but separated twice, breaking into an endless knot and stopping several feet away from the tower. “What is the point of having a walkway that doesn’t even lead to the front door?”
“Maybe that is the point.” Jonas grinned, and with the removal of his scowl, it was difficult to believe that he was supposed to be the black sheep of his family.
Alex was momentarily stunned by how much a genuine smile transformed his face. “Is it exhausting to be bipolar?”
“What?”
“I’m just kidding.”
Spirits eyed her as they traveled to and fro, craning their heads to follow her movements. Was insecurity visible to them? Was inexperience? Even the window frames of the gigantic buildings arced high like presumptuous eyebrows. She yearned for refuge and immediately found a new street sign. She tugged at Jonas’s sleeve and tilted her head in the direction of Scalae Lane.
This quiet road was much better. The redwoods neighbored them to the left, facing older buildings that didn’t seem so nosy. Alex noticed several tunnels and spirals of both ascending and descending stone stairways that led to nothingness, or just places still invisible to her apprehensive eyes.
A chirping bird jumped into their path, rippling its indigo feathers. Jonas picked up a stray branch. “This morning was quite the debacle.”
“Were you in the entryway too? I didn’t see you there.”
“Those lure birds were in every hallway, Alex.”
“Oh. I think they’re pretty.”
“You would think that,” Jonas said. “I just can’t figure out how someone got all those birds to flock into the school.”
“What do you mean?” Alex remembered how easily that strange boulder of a man had scooped them up to escort them out.
“Watch this.”
Jonas advanced on the bird, lifting the branch in his hand, ready to swipe it across the road. Abruptly, the bird retreated with a high-pitched hiss. Its feathers spread, along with its talons, which were silver and sleek like six butcher knives.
Alex jumped back in alarm and covered her mouth with her hands. “That’s horrible!”
“You still think they’re pretty?”
Alex studied the bird with new eyes. Oversized teeth glistened under the deceptively beautiful black beak, bared and jagged like the peaks of an ugly little mountain range.
“They live in the rosebushes between the walls surrounding the city. It must have been nearly impossible for someone to get them into the building.”
“Why would they bother?”
“You got me. But whoever the prankster is, I’d like to shake his hand.”
They stopped in front of a tableau of the architects involved in the construction of the city. Alex easily recognized Van Hanlin in a combat uniform. Madame Paleo, her new history teacher, stood front and center, wearing a mantua with elbow-length bell sleeves, a petticoat, and an apron. On the outskirts of the group a man stood scowling, arms folded.
“You don’t know who that is, do you?”
Jonas squinted at the picture. “No. Why?”
“He was the one who rounded up the birds.”
“Really?” Jonas shrugged. “I’ve never seen him before. Maybe he’s some sort of groundskeeper.”
Not likely. The man had been too powerful, like he was built to withstand an earthquake. Alex doubted his time was spent pruning bushes.
“And what about Calla Bond? Do you know her?”
“Where did that come from?”
“She was next to me during the bird incident.”
“I know of her. The Bonds are one of the old families. The multigenerational ones. Heredity is a big deal around here.”
Alex traced her finger over the carvings on the tableau. “If it’s such a big deal, why were people treating Calla like … ” She didn’t quite know how to word it.
“They were avoiding her?”
“Afraid of her,” Alex corrected.
“They aren’t afraid of her. They’re afraid of the Darwins. Tess and her brothers hate the Bonds. And around here, whatever the Darwins say, goes.”
“Why would they pick on her?”
“The weak are always the prey, aren’t they? Calla makes herself an easy target.”
“Are they punished?”
“Who? The Darwins? No way. They’re multigenerational, too. They must have some sort of genetic disease, because Eidolon is crawling with them.”
Alex stood quiet in her thoughts. Here, the trees couldn’t block all the light from the sun, as it tucked itself in for the night, swaddled in the comfort of a fluorescent pink sky and periwinkle clouds. Serenity whirled like a lullaby around them.
“I love when the sky shows off.”
Jonas blinked upward. “I heard the sky only changes color because of pollution.”
Alex stared at the multihued heavens, mortified. So this beauty was toxic? “Thanks for ruining it for me.”
“That’s not what I meant to do,” he said. “But one thing you’ve never learned is that appearances can be deceiving.”
“Nice cliché,” she replied. Two could play at that game. “But you also shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. That’s something you never learned.”