I started to put my phone back in my pocket, but Paul stopped me.
“Do you mind if I make sure it’s hidden again?”
I frowned, realizing the gravity of what my phone now held. I handed it back to him. I wanted to stay angry with Paul, but I couldn’t manage it. What he’d done was horrible—not to mention a little scary—but the fact that he would trust me with something so huge meant a lot. Even if I didn’t want it to.
He gave the phone back a moment later, and I stowed it in my pocket.
I faced Paul once more. “Explain how your uncle was behind the attack on Britney.”
Sighing, he took a step back. “I spent a little time at his house right after my release, and I didn’t waste it. I couldn’t believe he would support Marrow. He craves his own power too much. So I wanted to figure out what he was up to now that Marrow is out of the picture. I hacked his e-mail using the same laptop that I used for the website backups. It was hidden in my room the whole time. Brackenberry didn’t find it because they were looking for magical concealment, but I had it hidden in an ordinary secret compartment. They didn’t think to check for those.”
I shook my head, once again astounded by his cleverness.
Paul continued on, unaware. “Several of the e-mails I found were written in code. They had names and references to things that don’t exist. One of them, I was pretty sure was a reference to the attack on Britney. And when I found out she was awake, and that you and Selene were going to talk to her, I guessed she would be in danger.” He paused. “I was right.”
“How did you know we were going to visit Britney?” Selene asked.
Paul shifted his weight, squirming a little. “Dusty texted Eli about it. I’ve been monitoring the phone just in case…” He leveled a defensive look at me. “In case you told Brackenberry something important about me.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You’ve been spying on me?”
Paul nodded. “But no more than you’ve been spying on me.”
I pressed my lips together, unable to decide on a response.
Paul pulled his gaze from me and glanced at the other two. “The attack on Britney is only the start of it. From what I saw in those e-mails, my uncle is planning something big. A way to make himself consul. It’s what he wants more than anything.”
Selene raised her hand to her mouth. “You think he’s going to assassinate Consul Vanholt?”
“What else?” said Paul.
I gaped—the consul was the same as the president.
“I don’t know how yet,” Paul said, “but based on the code words, I think it’s going to happen during Beltane. And the place is Lyonshold. My guess is it’s going down during the festival. But the e-mail also talked about Atlantis. I haven’t figured out what it means yet.”
He stopped speaking, giving us a chance to digest this. I turned the notion over and over inside my head. Was it possible? Could Titus Kirkwood be planning a coup? I stared at Paul, trying to decide if I could trust him. Something about the way his face looked in the torchlight reminded me of Bethany’s dream. He had been in the dream. No, that wasn’t right. Someone that looked like him but wasn’t him. Someone like …
Titus Kirkwood.
The realization dawned on me as bright as a searchlight. Titus and Paul shared a strong, almost uncanny resemblance given that they were only uncle and nephew and not father and son. But it was one close enough that I was certain Britney had been dreaming about Titus and not Paul.
I glanced at the other three and told them about Britney’s dream. “It all fits,” I said when I finished. “And Britney was supposed to curse Eli to keep us from seeing what’s coming in his dreams. This must be why.”
Eli nodded. “I suppose it makes sense.”
“That’s why you borrowed Mr. Corvus’s book, isn’t it?” I asked Paul.
“Yeah, I wanted to see if there was a record of any assassinations that took place on the island. I figured my uncle might try to copy it. Of course, I, uh, didn’t get very far.” A playful grin flashed across his face for a second.
It was my turn to squirm.
“Who were the e-mails to?” Eli asked, scowling.
Paul’s grin vanished. “There wasn’t a salutation, but the address was thecrowking@gmail.com.”
Eli and I exchanged a look.
Paul’s brow furrowed. “What do you know?”
I gave him a quick summary of the Senate Hall dream and the connection between Mr. Corvus and crows.
“I suppose he might be involved,” Paul said when I finished. “But I don’t know much about him. We should check him out.”
Frowning at the “we” in his statement, I said, “Now wait a second. All this might be true, but if so, why haven’t you gone to Sheriff Brackenberry with it? Why come to us at all?” I waited, expecting Paul to finally be stumped, but he answered as quickly as before.
“Because I don’t have any concrete proof. Sure, his name is probably in the data, but so are hundreds of others. That’s not enough. And the stuff about Britney and the assassination is all guesswork. It’s not like they’re going to take my word for it, not considering my history. No, I can’t go to the authorities without indisputable evidence. My uncle is too powerful. There’s no telling how many people he has working for him. He’ll try to kill me if he thinks I’m going to turn him in, data or no. If I’m going to take that kind of risk, I want to make sure it’s worth it. I want to make sure that he pays.”
I flinched at the hatred in his voice, like the hard crack of a whip. It was shocking to learn the reality of his life now, the perilous tightrope he had to walk every second. Not that it wasn’t his fault.
But I decided his reasons were valid. With an accusation this big, they weren’t liable to take my word for it either. Titus Kirkwood was a magistrate, and you didn’t get that high up without lots of support. Besides, we hadn’t seen any definite signs of this in Eli’s dreams that I could tell.
“Okay,” Selene said. “I’m convinced.”
I glanced at her and then at Eli. He slowly nodded. “Me, too.”
I turned back to Paul. “I guess this means we’re on the case. But you’ve got to promise me something first.” I pulled the cell out of my back pocket again and held it up. “Once we’ve taken down your uncle and you’re no longer in danger, we give the phone and the password over to the sheriff.”
Paul hesitated, but only for a second. “I promise.”
His hesitation worried me, but there was nothing I could do about it at present. “All right,” I said to the room at large. “So I guess we start with Mr. Corvus and the Terra Tribe.”
“Yes,” Eli seconded. “And we’ve got one week to figure this out.”
One week until Beltane.
I hoped it would be enough.
24
Dream Remix
My session with Mr. Deverell the following afternoon wasn’t at all what I expected. It was less like Star Trek and more like Luke Skywalker being tortured by Obi-Wan with the blast shield and the training remote. Not that I pointed out this comparison to Mr. Deverell. I didn’t want him to think I was a total sci-fi geek.
We started off doing some mental “exercises” designed to strengthen my mind and to make sure I could keep the important stuff hidden, then he performed the nousdesmos. It seemed a lot like being hypnotized. In seconds I found myself slipping away, not falling asleep, but more like entering a dream. Except there wasn’t a dream or even a dreamer. There was nothing but empty blackness all around me as if I’d been submerged in an ultra-advanced sensory deprivation chamber.