After searching the roof more I found absolutely nothing; no blood, struggle signs, or weapons. Carter's idea was what I was going off and yet I wasn't sure if that was completely the story. I'd seen just enough CSI to know that whoever had killed those initiates probably had cleaned up their work. Fan-fricking-tastic.
"This is a load of bull," I said to Walt as we left the roof. Freak the griffin was protecting the dead bodies until we could fully clear the situation up. I knew that what they, Kamehea and Jonathan and other rebel magicians, were trying to stir up fear in all of us and make us suspicious of each other. They were gonna have to try a lot harder than that, "We need this Kamehea guy and Jonathan to piss off."
Walt nodded, "The last thing we'd need is another civil war on our hands. Besides, he was listening to his daughter and is now trying to avenge her by, what, crumbling the House of Life?"
I shrugged. Like, holy Horus, I'd been a magician for just about four weeks and already been targeted by a teenage girl, almost killed, told I was a goddess, almost killed, attacked by an army's worth of magicians, and almost killed! This is my entire life! We walked into the great hall and a lot of initiates gathered around and started murmuring. Carter was about to speak when I put a hand on his shoulder.
"Carter," I whispered, "Let me do this. I have a plan."
"Your plans," Carter sighed, "aren't always the best. But then again I suck at speeches."
I patted his shoulder then stepped up beside him. Almost 100 initiates big and small looked at me expectantly like I should spit out a miracle. I tried.
"Two initiates were found dead on the roof of the Nome," I said grimly and waited for the gasps and murmuring to clear before I spoke again, "As you may have guessed, this is the work of the new leader of the Kehera Tribe: Kamehea. I know that some of you may have known these two kids and cared for them and I would agree with you. Trust me, I know loss. But the reason he did this is to cause fear; make us suspicious of one another. We can't let that happen," I faltered when I noticed three tall figures, two boys and one girl, standing at the back of the crowd with hoods over their faces, "All of you are strong, brave, and ready to fight whoever we need to. Be brave, my friends, because something is coming and not even I know what it is." And with that, I slipped away to the back of the crowd and stood beside the three figures.
"Good speech," the girl, Mia, Sam's girlfriend, said, "Couldn't have done better myself."
"You have firmly instilled bravery into your small army," Dean, my oldest brother, said in his deep voice, "And yet you have no idea what you are fighting-"
"Their bravery however," Sam said in his smooth woman-sebductive voice, "Keeps them prepared for whatever lies ahead, Dean."
Dean sighed and looked around, "I hope you have a good plan, Jake."
"Crazy," I said, "but a plan nonetheless."
