Page 497

Amanda laughed. “Don't exaggerate.”

“You know Alice. She does what she can't help doing,” I murmured seriously, and now worry crept into my confused emotional life. “I don't want her to get into trouble.”

Amanda waved it off as if it were nothing. “I'm glad she's distracting herself.”

We stared at the two of them for a while, and I would have loved to know what they were talking about. Curiosity was eating away at me. But actually, the two of them were always talking about the same thing. The system.

“Did you get that invitation too?”

I looked at Amanda, surprised and confused. “What invitation?”

“The one with the riddle and the snake?”

She sounded cautious, as if she wasn't allowed to talk about it.

I must have stared at her for too long, because she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank God. So Diana and I aren't the only ones.”

“It's from her,” I said, looking back at Alice. The uniform fit her like a glove. The dark blue slipover over the white blouse, the black skirt...

“It's definitely from her,” Amanda laughed and looked at her friend.

I looked back at him, at the books he had tucked under his arm, the dark blue slipover very untidily over his crumpled white shirt. And he would probably sneak off again with one of his notebooks to the back courtyards of the east wing, where I would lose track of him.

“I wonder if he got one too?” I thought aloud.

“He's the trigger,” my sister said quietly, reaching for the thermos in her bag. Some things didn't change, even after two years. “Besides, Alice once told me she can't write poetry. I'm sure her poet did it for her.”

Her poet...

The unpleasant feeling in my stomach grew more and more desperate.

“We'll support her, whatever she has in mind... right?” Manda asked me, and I knew the answer immediately.

“I would give my life for her.”

Friday, October 3, 1997

Entry 10

A Ruisangor, a secret room full of antler masks, and then this painting. I don't know which of these things should concern me more, but in any case, I am confused.

Right now, I'm standing in a room the existence of which, until some minutes ago, was only known to the Senseque guy, together with Alice, who invited me, my sister, Diana, Alarik, even her rule-abiding sister, and last, him to this place. Him. A Ruisangor.

She confuses me.

How does she even know him?

To put it briefly: Alice is seriously playing with fire this time. She has something in mind, for this place, with all of us, wants to change something. And I… actually see an opportunity in her plan.

It excites me to be here, at this hidden place in the university, where there are so many books that don't really belong here.

The place belongs to the Copeland family. One more reason to worry.

And then there are the books at the very back of the lower part of the library. Books about the dark practices. Umbra.

Over a decade ago, the Councils and the Circle unanimously voted that this form of practice would only bring harm to Blairville. Contracts were signed and stored in the most secure and heavily guarded archives in the Council Halls. Because Umbra was dangerous, a potential key for our enemies to overpower us. And we weren't powerful enough to control it.