Page 96 of Into the Isle

Chapter 28

Ravinica

I REELED AT DIETER’S admission, told in a hushed voice. It was a startling name for a group, to be sure.

“The . . . Lepers Who Leapt?” I asked.

My mind had been spinning with everything going on recently: Learning I would be fighting Grim for my combat final; finishing the week off strong without anymore conflicts; convincing Arne to take me here.

Now this? To say I was intrigued would be an understatement. “You don’t look like a leper,” I added, though I’d only meant to say it in my head.

Dieter threw his head back and laughed. “No, I suppose I don’t.” He took a pull from his mug, sucking froth from the thin mustache of his top lip. “I look rather unimposing, unimportant. That’s sort of the point.”

I glanced over at Arne, only to find him watching every twitch and twist of my face. I didn’t know what to think—only that this clandestine meeting was making my pulse spike, and that excited me. First week at the academy and I’ve already stumbled upon some sort of secret society hidden beneath the ridge of Vikingrune?

Awesome.

I drummed my fingers on the table as a barmaid came over, complained to Arne about payment, and then left to retrieve us three mugs of ale.

Alone again, I asked, “Who’s going to tell me what the Lepers Who Leapt are?”

Arne ran a hand through his flowing golden locks when Dieter stared at him. A nervous tic of his own, perhaps.

“That’s why I thought you might benefit from meeting these people, little fox,” Arne explained. “The Lepers Who Leapt are former students of Vikingrune Academy whose inherent magic never manifested.”

After a swift pause, taking that in, my eyes bulged. I stared harder at Dieter’s fair face, noticing he didn’t seem much older than me. Mid-twenties, if I had to guess.

“Wait. You mean there are others like me?” I choked out.

Dieter smiled. “Dozens, lass.”

My forehead creased with lines, confused. “How did you all form, or meet each other? And why are you still on the Isle? Where did the name—”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down, sprinter,” Dieter cut in, pumping both palms. “Don’t give yourself an aneurism.”

I took a deep breath, calming my racing heart.

Arne was the one who explained. “When a student is exiled from Vikingrune due to their inherent magic staying dormant for too long, they’re returned home through the magical mists on one of the Wraith ships. Banished. Never to return to the Isle.”

Dieter picked up the story, and my gaze swiveled across the table. “There are those, however, who literally leapt from the longships on their way through the mists. We plunged into the icy waters and swam our way back to the Isle, where we coalesced and hid.”

The barmaid returned with our drinks, giving me a moment to mull this over. Once she was gone, I leaned forward on my elbows, speaking in a low voice. “So, you call yourselves ‘lepers’ because you are outcasts? And the ‘leapt’ part is literal?”

“Precisely,” Dieter said with a firm nod.

“What do you all . . . do? Where do you hide?”

Dieter smiled, his mustache twitching. “That is on a need to know basis, Miss Ravinica, and I don’t know you well enough. As to what we do . . .” His face sank and he looked down into his cup with a sad expression. When he looked up a moment later, he said, “I am what we call a ‘puller.’ You see, the survival rate of plunging into the icy water and swimming back to safety is around fifty percent. I am one of the people responsible for pulling the dead and the half-dead ashore.”

“Gods above,” I said. I raised my mug with a shaky hand and drank unsteadily, trying to calm down. “Are you, um, rebels?”

“Not exactly. We live an anarchistic lifestyle—a self-governing community without leaders. Everyone has a job. What we do, Ravinica, is live. And help people when we can.”

Arne scoffed. “Don’t be modest, Dieter. The Lepers Who Leapt keep their eyes on the academy in case things goes awry. Because they don’t trust Vikingrune.”

Dieter flared his nostrils. “Would you trust an establishment that strikes people down so mercilessly, after all the work we put in trying to live up to the academy’s impossible standards?”

Arne inclined his chin, as if giving Dieter a point.

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