The flagball team was in an uproar. “What about flagball?” Harry Charlton yelled out.
Ceri rolled her eyes.
“Quiet, please,” said Dean Whittaker. The room slowly calmed. It was funny how the dean, who often seemed unassuming and in over his head, could still command respect when he needed to.
“I’m told the engineers are already on site to prepare for the construction of a temporary replacement, but it won’t be able to accommodate carriage or motor carriage traffic. The flagball team and anyone else that needs to get into town should be able to take a carriage from the other side once the temporary bridge is installed.”
“What about the schoolhouse?” whispered Lady Sibba from a few seats down. “I should have left before the storm arrived. Those kids need me.”
Weyland squeezed her hand. “I’m sure we’ll find a way to get out of here as soon as we can. If they can get the long-talkers back up, we can call Gwenla and ask her to send a letter to Duncan.”
“I could take you,” whispered Ceri. “I can get you into town. I can fly, remember?”
“Could you? Even if you could just get us over the river so we can walk the rest of the way, that would be a massive help, princess,” said Lady Sibba.
She was right. Ceri could do something no one else in the room could: she could fly. King Derkomai would not have approved of the princess using her dragon form in that way. For Ceri’s father, the purpose of becoming the dragon was defense and intimidation. It was to be used to display power to keep the people in line.
But Ceri could help. There was an opportunity here to do what she’d set out to do if she took it. She rose to her feet nervously. Dean Whittaker waited for her to speak.
“I can fly,” she said weakly.
“What?” someone called from across the room.
Ceri lifted her head higher. She wasn’t standing in the shadow of her father or even her brother anymore. She could make her own decisions about what she wanted to do. And she wanted to help.
“I can fly,” she said, her voice carrying across the room. “I can help bring things and people back and forth from town until the bridge is rebuilt.”
“Flagball’s back, boys! Woo!” yelled Harry.
“Flagball comesafteranything needed to help in the emergency,” said Ceri. She couldn’t help herself.
“Oohoo,” said Harry. “They said you were spicy. Your wings, your rules, your highness. We’re at your command.”
“Yes, thank you for the generous offer, your highness,” said Dean Whittaker. “I’m happy to put anyone willing to help to good use. We must all come together. High House has stood here for centuries, and we’ll do what it takes to preserve it.”
“Father would have hated that,” said Idris as Ceri sat back down. He was brimming with pride.
“Why didn’t Dean Whittaker mention Leo?” Ceri asked him.
“We told him what we knew. There’s still going to be a search in a bit before the dean releases everyone back to the dorms; Alison and Keir think there’s a chance we’ll find his sleeping body somewhere around.”
Ceri didn’t like thinking of Leo as a “body.” She checked the journal again, but the last lines were in her handwriting.
She lowered her voice so that only Idris could hear her. “I need him to be safe, Idris.”
“I know,” he said. He put his arm around her shoulder, and Ceri sighed, relaxing into his embrace.
It was good to have Idris back, even if he could be a royal pain in the arse.
The dean was true to his word on putting people to work: the flagball team was enlisted to help Groundskeeper Tomasar and the servants remove the boards from the dining hall windows and clear up the shattered glass; students from Professor Marin’s classes helped set up the solar prototype and several other test devices in the courtyard to recharge the power-savers; and most of Idris’s friends, Ceri included, spent the day cleaning up the library, with Ceri breaking from her task every few minutes to check the journal.
The library was still a disaster by the time they arrived to help, but many of the books had flown their way back onto the shelves themselves.
“Very good, thank you,” said Ms. Redclaw as she reached over her wheeled chair to collect a book that seemed to be trying to climb up the sides. “The books like to help at times, but they aren’t as meticulous about the order they go in as I’d like. If you wouldn’t mind checking the shelves where it looks like they’ve replaced themselves…”
“Of course,” said Alison, turning a book around that had hopped into the shelf spine first. She had collected a stack of books on a nearby table that might help in their search for a wayto bring Leo back. Ceri couldn’t wait until they could go through them.
With everyone helping, it only took a couple of hours to straighten the library back out. Ms. Redclaw was incredibly grateful, which made Ceri feel a bit guilty because it was at least somewhat her fault that the library was in the condition it was in.
