Dawn

Dawn’s friends had argued about who would accompany her to the library until they finally agreed that Corrie and Edie would come in with her, and then Roe would come to replace Corrie when her class ended and Corrie had go to history class. They didn’t give Dawn, who insisted that she really didn’t need more than one person in the library watching her, much say in the matter.

Wednesday, December 3

It was kind of late—or maybe Dawn was just tired from dealing with Tom—but she decided she’d better talk to Corrie and Roe and anyone else they could round up before starting in on her homework. So she got Roe from her room and Naomi from the room they shared, then met up in Edie and Corrie’s room.

Dawn and Edie explained the conversation they’d had with Tom and their concerns about whether the book had been aimed at them in particular. “I knew he’d be upset you didn’t tell him,” said Naomi.

Dawn reeled—not literally, because Rico still had his arm around her, but mentally. She stared at Tom in astonishment, though she didn’t really have any trouble processing his words. “Who is it?” she finally managed to ask.

“Her name is Siffyd,” Tom said with a shrug. “I do not know what she calls herself to humans.”

Edie was staring, too. “How could there be a faerie working at the library without Dawn knowing about it?”

Tom actually went pale. “But who would do such a thing?”

At least he understood the severity of the danger, this faerie who was almost perpetually cheerful. Dawn shook her head. “I don’t know. But you don’t think it could have been Paul on his own either, do you?”

Tom made a dismissive gesture. “A human? Please. Where did he get the knife?”

“We have no idea. He wouldn’t talk to us—not even Corrie. He told her that he got it in the woods, but he wouldn’t say whether he found it, or whether someone gave it to him, or what.”

“Tell me he doesn’t still have it.”

After the rest of them finished eating dinner, Naomi went back to the art building and Roe headed to the library to work on a paper, so Dawn, Rico, and Edie walked back to Gilkey alone. Dawn wondered if Corrie had talked to Annie about their mutual suspicion that she had a crush on Edie. She would have to find some time alone with Corrie to ask her about it.

“I’m starving,” Corrie announced as they left the magic building, and the others agreed enthusiastically, so they headed to the dining hall. “Though I don’t know why,” she said, tucking her hands deeply into her pockets—it was really cold again, and she’d forgotten her gloves. “We don’t usually have dinner until a couple of hours later than this. And I had lunch.”

“It’s because we got up so early,” said Edie. “Even if it wasn’t that much earlier than you usually get up, it still messed up your metabolism.”

“Wait a minute,” said Corrie. She was looking back and forth between Dawn and Professor Lal, confused by how concerned they both seemed to be. “Lots of people know Dawn works at the library. I mean, anyone who’s been there more than once must have run into her, and it’s not like it’s a secret—we’ve talked about it all over the place.”

When Corrie and the others found Professor Lal, she was happy to speak to them, and listened with quiet attention to their story of what had happened the night before and then that morning, seeming particularly interested in the differences between what had happened in Roe’s vision and what had happened in the actual situation. “I think this is a situation in which telling people about the vision changed it,” she said to Roe, who agreed.

Edie and Dawn waited in Edie and Corrie’s room, reading, while they waited for Corrie to get out of the shower. They didn’t have to wait long; once Corrie was dry and dressed, they left again and knocked on the doors of their friends. However, none of them responded—except Salome, Annie’s roommate, who reported that Annie was asleep and seemed very disappointed not to be able to say the same for herself—so the three of them went off to breakfast alone.