Page 98 of Into the Isle

Dieter leaned forward, giving me an expectant look. “Do you understand the risks? If you’re caught trying to break into the records room, you’ll be expelled, if not worse. You might be tortured, if they believe you were searching for academy secrets.”

I swallowed hard, nodding. “I-I understand.” This all sounded very formal now, and it scared me.

I was quick to tamp down my fear. I’d been trained to blind myself to pain, fright, and other negative emotions in order to get shit done. Am I making a terrible mistake asking Dieter to help me with this?

“Do you still want to proceed?” Dieter asked slowly.

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Hesitated.

Then I steeled myself and gave him a decisive nod. “Yes. When?”

“Tomorrow night. Meet back here.”

Dieter tilted his head at Arne. “Can you please make this the last one? Damn library’s going to get too fucking crowded if we keep sending people there. It’s only a matter of time until we’re discovered if we keep pushing the envelope like this. Then we’re all screwed.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Arne said gruffly. “This wasn’t my idea, Dieter. Don’t shoot the messenger. Just enjoy what I gave you, help Ravinica, and we’re even.”

The two men gave each other sterns nods. Dieter turned to me after, drained his mug of in one go, and slid out from behind the booth. “A pleasure, Ravinica. Until tomorrow.”

I was more nervous than ever walking back to Vikingrune Academy with Arne after our meeting. Like I’d done something wrong, even though I was only doing what I felt was right.

The first important step of my long-term plan was coming to fruition. I should have felt energized and happy about it, yet I only felt trepidation and an overwhelming sense of dread.

I couldn’t shake the thought that I was making a huge mistake here; that once I went this route, there was no going back.

Arne and I mostly stayed quiet for the first leg of our journey up the mountain outside Isleton. I got the feeling Arne was letting me sit with my thoughts and mull everything over. It was a lot to take in.

Once we got halfway up, I had a burning question I wanted to ask the elementalist. “Why are you helping the Lepers Who Leapt, Arne? You can cast. You’re an expert elemental runeshaper.”

“Because I’m playing both sides, obviously.”

I gasped. An opportunist, then? And so nonchalant about his intentions?

A second later, as my world kept spinning out of control, he laughed and shook his head. “You should see yourself right now, little fox.” His smile was wide, mischievous. “The look on your face was worth it.”

His expression grew more serious a few steps later, as we rounded a boulder along the thin trail up the crevice. “My reasons are my own, Ravinica. Let’s just say I like to help people.” His expression grew more severe, until he looked angry, which wasn’t an aspect I’d seen on the man’s face before. Anger looked wrong on him.

“No one should be kept from their destiny because of an arbitrary magical blip,” he explained. “If you’re determined, valiant, and skilled enough to make it to Vikingrune Academy, to join the cream of the crop and fight for humankind, that should be enough. Who do they think they are to deny you? The gods?” He tossed out an ugly scoff. “The academy can’t afford to be too picky about who they allow into their soldiering ranks, you ask me. Not with the imminent risks from the other realms.”

Imminent risks? It was the first time I’d heard someone speak so resolutely about our enemies, in a way that wasn’t just esoteric. Arne spoke about the threat we faced from the elves like it was a matter of when they would strike, not if.

The Hersirs hadn’t spoken about them that way—probably not to alarm the students.

Just what does Arne know that no one else seems to? Is it simply because he has a pulse on the people in and outside the academy on the Isle? Is he one of the privileged few to get along with everyone?

I pulled at the skin of my chin, staring at the ground where I walked. One thing I knew for certain: Arne spoke about the threat—and the reason for helping the Lepers—as a man who had skin in the game. His words were damn near vitriolic as he spit them out.

I didn’t believe he was aiding the Lepers Who Leapt because he “liked to help people,” or because he was simply an opportunist. His words told me it went deeper than that.

He has a reason for helping the Lepers. I’m going to find out what it is.

That could come later.

Because, for now, I had a secret operation to plan, and a library to break into.

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