Enchanted Ivy

CHAPTER Three

Lily fled Firestone Library into bright, beautiful, and not-at-all-creepy sunlight. As she emerged, she heard ringing in her ears again—she hadn't realized that it had stopped inside the library. She shook her head as if she could shake out the sound and scanned the plaza for Tye.

She scolded herself for being so eager to find him. He'd joked about rogue book carts, but he hadn't warned her about the bookshelves. She had to remember that, as cute as he might be, he wasn't necessarily on her side.

She spotted him across the plaza. One foot on the chapel steps, he was looking up, talking to someone she couldn't see. He was probably talking about the pathetic high school girl who'd had to be practically hit over the head with the Orange Key Tour clue and who'd nearly had heart failure over a few remote-controlled bookshelves.

Approaching him, she caught a few words: "... old worm ... I don't know why I even try ... certainly not to you ... even they aren't that stupid ..." Oddly, he didn't seem to be talking to anyone. He was focused on the gargoyles above the arch, a ribbon of stone leaves and grapes interspersed with foxes and birds and lizards. She didn't see what was so fascinating about them. The only gargoyle that caught her eye was an S-shaped dragon, curled between the grape leaves and vines. Its curved neck was caught in a stone chain, and it looked out over the plaza with sad puppy-dog eyes.

Coming up behind Tye, she asked, "What's up with the obsession with the gargoyles here? The tour guide, the Old Boys, you ..."

He spun around so fast that it was nearly a leap. "Hey! You're back. Great!" He flashed his patented lopsided grin and then quickly guided her by the elbow away from the chapel, as if he were steering her away from a patch of poison ivy. She felt a tingle on her elbow like static electricity.

"Any luck in the library?" Tye asked.

Lily nodded. "I'm supposed to go to the Literate Ape."

"Huh," he said.

She was surprised that the Old Boys hadn't briefed him already. "That was the clue from the special catalog that the possessed bookshelves guided me to."

His eyebrows shot up.

"It was very Scooby-Doo."

He looked blank.

"You know, Scooby, Shaggy, Mystery Machine. 'If it weren't for you meddling kids ...'" She trailed off. Okay, she'd made herself look like enough of a tool. "Never mind. I, um, have to go find a rock now."

"He's on Dillon Gym," Tye said. "You don't know about the Princeton gargoyles?"

"The true professors of Princeton?" Lily mocked the tour guide. She shook her head. "What do they have to do with the Key and the Legacy Test?" Come on, she thought, give me a hint! The Old Boys seemed to have a theme here with all the gargoyles, but she didn't see the connection to a key.

"You really don't know," he said, more to himself than to her. He grinned at her as if she'd done something marvelous. "And here I thought today was going to be boring." He clapped a hand on her shoulder, sending tiny tingles down her arm. "Let's go find some answers."

He headed for the East Pyne arch and waved again at the Unseeing Reader. Lily glanced up at the gargoyle and wondered if the Old Boys who'd supplied the clue knew about her father's book. She wondered if Tye knew about it. Gathering up her nerve to ask, she followed him through the archway into the ivy-choked courtyard. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes, this is my natural hair color."

She grinned. "I'm serious."

"Okay, shoot," he said, stopping.

Shadowed and cool, the courtyard felt like a secret alcove. She was hyperaware that she was alone with this intense, cool, and intriguing boy and that she had his full attention. The humming-ringing-singing in her ears sounded extra loud. "Um ...," she said. "There were these books in the library...."

"I'm told libraries have such things," he said solemnly.

She ignored that. "Different books. Strange books. One of them was by—"

A weight smashed hard into the center of her back. Lily lurched forward and slammed down knees first on the slate flagstones. Pain shot through her knees and up her thighs. All the air whooshed out of her lungs.

"Lily!" Tye yelled as he dove toward her.

She screamed as tiny pricks stabbed into her shoulder. "Ow, ow, ow—get it off!" Lily swatted at her back, and her hand smacked into leathery skin.

Tye yanked the animal off her back and flung it across the courtyard into the ivy. She heard a smack as it crashed to the ground several yards away. Tye knelt beside her and started swearing. "Look at me, Lily. Can you focus? It bit you. Oh, shit." He pressed his fingers to her neck, feeling for her pulse.

Over Tye's shoulder, she saw a ... what the hell was that? Monkeylike, the animal was hairless and green. It wore half-shredded children's clothes draped over its leather body.

"You have bite marks," Tye said. "It must have started—"

The creature snarled, exposing sharklike pointed teeth, and then it lurched toward them. "Behind you!" Lily cried. Clawed paws scraped over flagstones.

Smooth as a cat, Tye spun and launched himself forward to intercept. Lily scrambled to her feet as Tye wrestled the monkey-thing to the ground. The creature slashed at Tye. He yelled as its claws scraped his arm.

Squirming out of Tye's grasp, the creature ran on all four paws toward Lily. She backed off the path into the ivy. Vines snagged her ankles, and she kicked them free.

Tye scrambled after the monkey-thing and wrapped his arms around its hind legs. It kicked, claws raking Tye's shoulder. "No!" Lily screamed. Reaching for a rock or a stick, she plunged her hand down into the ivy.

The vines slithered around her fingers as if they were snakes. She glanced down and screamed—the vines writhed like tentacles all around her.

The creature kicked hard, broke out of Tye's grip, and charged again at Lily.

"Stop!" she yelled.

Ivy vines uncoiled from Lily's ankles and shot out in front of her like striking cobras. They wrapped around the monkey-thing's torso and yanked the creature flat onto the ground. Tye pinned it down as the ivy encircled the thrashing creature, until the vines wrapped it so tightly that it lay cocooned.

Lily stumbled backward as black spots danced through her vision. Leaning over, she put her hands on her knees and squeezed her eyes shut. Don't faint, she ordered herself. Her leg muscles trembled and spasmed. She sucked in air.

Panting, Tye said, "Knew there was something about you."

She raised her head. He was kneeling on the monkey-thing's back. Blood dotted his arm. His sleeve had been shredded. The vines lay still now, wrapped tightly around the ... whatever it was. "What the hell is that?" she asked. "And what do you mean, 'something about' me?"

"It went for you, not me," Tye said.

The creature fixed its hungry yellow eyes on Lily. Its face was disconcertingly human, except that its skin was as leathery and green as a reptile's. It licked its teeth, flecked red with her blood. She shuddered. If Tye hadn't been here ... She pulled out her cell phone. "I'll call ..." Police? Animal control? What was it, a mutant monkey? She guessed she should call 911.

"No!" he barked.

She jumped and nearly dropped the phone, catching it before it plunged into the greenery. At the same moment, she realized that she was still standing on the vines that had been writhing like snakes a minute ago. She scurried to the center of the flagstones, a safe distance from the ivy. Absently, she noticed that the ringing in her ears was gone.

"You have no idea what this is, do you?" he said. He didn't wait for her to answer. "No police. This ... creature ... it has to stay secret. Understand? The safety of a lot of people depends on it." His golden eyes pleaded.

"But why? What is it?" Lily walked toward him to get a closer look.

"Keep back," Tye said. "You can't let it bite you again."

"Is it rabid?" She twisted her neck, trying to see the bite marks on her shoulder. She touched them and winced as they stung. Don't panic, she told herself. She never panicked with Mom; she wouldn't panic here. "You can't hold it there forever. We need help." She flipped open her phone and dialed.

"Dammit, Lily," he said. "Who are you calling?"

"My grandfather," she said. The phone rang. "Pick up, pick up, pick up ...," she murmured. Voice mail answered. "Grandpa, I need you," she said. "Call me back ASAP."

"Richard Carter, right?" Tye asked.

"He's supposed to be at the Fiftieth Reunion tent," she said. "Where can I find it?" She wondered how he knew her grandfather's name.

Tye considered it for a moment, then nodded. "All right, he could help. Fiftieth tent is on the other side of Nassau Hall and Alexander Hall, next to Blair Arch." She blinked at him, and he pointed. "Straight that way."

"I'll be right back," Lily promised. She turned and took off at a run.

He called after her, "If you feel faint or weak or anything, go through the gate!" Or at least that was what she thought he said. She didn't stop to ask what he meant.

Lily ran across a campus road and in front of a building that looked like a half-shrunken cathedral. Straight ahead of her she saw a semicircle of Gothic dorms cordoned off by a newly erected wood fence. As Tye had said, there was an arch next to the fence, but the tip-off was the enormous sign that said C LASS OF 1960 in fat orange letters.

She stopped just inside the fence to catch her breath. She made a mental note to take up cross-country. Any one of the tanned long-legged runners from her high school could have sprinted that distance without panting like an overheated puppy. She hoped she'd been fast enough.

A man and a woman, both decked out in psychedelic zebra coats, sat at a registration desk. The woman flashed her teeth, white and perfect against her tanned and wrinkled skin, and said, "May I help you?"

"Looking for my grandfather," Lily said, panting. "Richard Carter. Is he here?"

The woman consulted a list. Lily felt the seconds tick by as the woman squinted at the list, forming names on her lips as she read. Finally, she looked up. "Carter with a C?"

"Yes," Lily said. How else would it be spelled? she wanted to shout. Her fingers itched to take the list. Tye was waiting for her.

The woman elbowed the man next to her. "Do you have A through E?"

"Richard Carter," Lily said. "He checked in with my mother. You'd remember her. She has green hair."

"Heavens!" the woman said. "On purpose?"

The man smiled warmly. "Oh, yes, Richard! Good man. Splendid to see him. We were in Greek Myths 101 together. Top of the class, he was."

Yes, very nice, but ...

"Carter," the woman repeated, and then recognition dawned on her face. "Oh! The FitzRandolph Gate Tragedy."

"The what?" Lily asked, and then she heard a familiar laugh boom across the tent. He was here! "Never mind," she said. She scanned the tent. Alumni milled around the lawn and under the tent. Kids played tag between the tent posts and around tables with folding chairs. Across a dance floor laid over the grass, she saw her grandfather. He was talking with someone she couldn't see.

"Grandpa!" she called.

At least twenty grandfathers in zebra-pelt jackets glanced over at Lily. She jogged across the tent, weaving between wheelchairs and partyers, toddlers and teenagers. Closer, she called again, "Grandpa!"

Her grandfather turned. So did the man he was talking to—Mr. Mayfair. Lily faltered as Mr. Mayfair frowned at her. His forehead was creased into deep craters, and his lips were tightly pursed—disapproval was etched onto every feature. He has nothing to disapprove of, she told herself. She wasn't here because of the Legacy Test. She was here to help Tye. He couldn't hold that creature forever. She forced her feet to walk across the rest of the tented area.

Grandpa frowned at her. "Lily, I told you—"

She showed him the bites on her shoulder. As she'd discovered in third grade when she'd broken one of Grandpa's antiques, blood made an excellent conversation stopper.

Gripping her arms, Grandpa spun her around and examined her shoulder. "What happened?" he demanded. "Are you all right?"

"Those look like bites," Mr. Mayfair said with a note of concern.

"Lily, what bit you?" Grandpa sounded frantic. She frowned at him. Grandpa never sounded frantic. He hadn't even been fazed that time that Mom had insisted a pixie had infested their shop's roses. That had been one of Lily's worst moments—Mom had refused to admit it had been a hallucination—but Grandpa had stayed calm.

Lily half wished that monkey-creature had been a hallucination. "Well, it kind of looked like a wrinkled monkey, but it was green and hairless...."

Grandpa checked her pulse and peered into her eyes. "Your breathing is fast, and your heart rate is up," he said. "Do you feel dizzy? Faint?"

Lily shook her head. "I ran here. Just catching my breath." She wondered why he didn't ask more about the creature. He understood that it was green, right?

Grandpa continued to prod her shoulder. "Did you take any extra medication today?"

Lily's eyes widened. How could he tell? "Are there side effects? Did I overdose? I know I shouldn't have. I was afraid of a brain hiccup. I took one of Mom's doses."

"It saved your life," Mr. Mayfair said. Lily gawked at him, but Grandpa didn't wait for her to digest that extraordinary statement.

He scowled at his oldest friend. "How could this happen? Your security—"

Mr. Mayfair spread his hands. "Perhaps you should take her home—"

"Or perhaps you should assign a guard," Grandpa interrupted.

Lily spoke up. "My guard has the creature pinned down in the East Pyne courtyard. But I don't know how long he can hold it. He needs help. He didn't want me to call 911...." Both men were staring at her. She trailed off. "What?"

Mr. Mayfair and Grandpa exchanged looks, and Mr. Mayfair said, "We didn't assign a guard."

"He said—," Lily began.

"Did he tell you his name?" Mr. Mayfair asked.

"His name's Tye," Lily said. "He has orange and black hair. Light-colored eyes. He said he was my guard. He knew Grandpa's name."

"Of course he did," Mr. Mayfair said, half to himself. To Lily, he said, "That boy cannot be trusted."

Lily looked from Grandpa to Mr. Mayfair and back to Grandpa. "But he saved me," she said. "He pulled the creature off me. It clawed him. He's hurt and waiting for help."

"I know this is upsetting," Mr. Mayfair said kindly. "You should know that you can stop this test at any time."

Lily opened her mouth to reply, but Grandpa beat her to it. "She cannot," Grandpa said. "This is her destiny. She was born for this."

Lily shut her mouth.

Grandpa smiled at her. "I promised your mother years ago that you would have this chance." And then his smile faded. "I need to check on Rose. If Lily was targeted—"

"You left her alone?" Lily looked around. She'd expected Mom to be nearby.

Grandpa nodded wearily. "She's in the room. She claimed she'd stay." For an instant, Lily thought, He's old. She had never seen him before as old, but now she noticed that the wrinkles on his cheeks were as deep as creases in a walnut shell. To Mr. Mayfair, he said, "Lily needs a guard. Could you—"

Mr. Mayfair squeezed Grandpa's shoulder. "You don't even have to ask. I'll see that she's taken care of."

"Thank you," Grandpa said gravely. He kissed Lily on the top of her head and then strode toward one of the gothic dorms.

Lily started after him. "Wait!" She should help him with Mom. But Tye also needed her. ... "Tye's expecting me," she said to Mr. Mayfair. "I'd planned to bring Grandpa."

Mr. Mayfair beckoned to a clump of college boys. One, a blond, broke away from the pack and walked across the tent. Under any other circumstances, Lily would have been content to stare and stare. He was angelically beautiful: perfect blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a Superman cleft chin. She half expected sunlight to burst through the tent in a halo around him and a heavenly chorus to swell in song. He was that perfect. Introducing him, Mr. Mayfair said, "My grandson, Jake. Jake, this is Lily Carter."

Jake smiled at her, the kind of smile that could make daffodils burst into full bloom. "Nice to meet you," he said. His voice was as warm as summer sun.

"Hi," she squeaked. Snap out of it, she told herself. He was just a cute boy. Okay, a godlike boy. She couldn't let that distract her from the fact that she'd been attacked by a monkey-thing and that Tye was waiting for her to return with the cavalry.

"Jake, Miss Carter encountered a Feeder," Mr. Mayfair said. "She'll lead you to the attack site in East Pyne."

Feeder. That thing had a name.

"Dispose of the Feeder and stay by Miss Carter for the remainder of her test. Don't interfere or aid her with her test, but do see to it that she remains safe from bodily harm. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Jake said. The "sir" was not the least bit ironic. Lily had the sense that if they weren't in public, he would have clicked his heels and saluted.

"The tiger boy will be there," Mr. Mayfair continued. "I'd like to ask him a few questions."

Jake nodded. "He'll be taken in."

The way Jake said it sounded almost ominous, as if Tye would be in an interrogation room with a single bare lightbulb. Lily frowned and opened her mouth to object.

"Respectfully," Mr. Mayfair said. "He saved our candidate here. We owe him a debt." He favored Lily with a warm and reassuring smile. Lily smiled back, very glad that he'd been here with Grandpa.

"Consider it done," Jake said. To Lily, he asked, "Ready?"

She still had about three billion unanswered questions, but she nodded anyway. Liar or not, Tye needed help as soon as possible. Her questions could wait. "Thank you," she said to Mr. Mayfair.

"You're most welcome, my dear," he said.

"Tell Grandpa to call me if he needs help with Mom," she said.

Leading the way, Jake wove through the crowded tent. Lily followed behind. Once they exited the fenced-in area, Jake broke into a jog. She hurried to catch up. Her side cramped almost instantly.

In a perfectly conversational tone, as if they weren't running, Jake asked, "How are you enjoying your visit to Princeton?"

He had to be joking. "What's a Feeder?" she asked.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss that," he said. He smiled at her as if to say it was nothing personal. The smile made her heart do a little flip inside her rib cage. "I'm not supposed to aid or interfere."

"It attacked me," she said. Her calf muscles burned as they trotted across the campus road and headed toward Nassau Hall. "I think I have a right to know what it is." She pointed at East Pyne. "They're in the courtyard."

"Stay behind me," Jake said, picking up speed. "You're not trained."

"Trained for what?" Lily asked.

He ran through the arch first. She raced after him and then bumped into his back as he abruptly stopped. "Sorry!" she said. She peeked around him. The courtyard was silent and peaceful ... and empty.

The Feeder was gone.

So was Tye.