Oracle (Book I)

All-Hallows Eve

Night fell and the Grand Hall swarmed with students eagerly awaiting the night's feast and festivities. Candles twinkled like flaming stars in standing black and pale gold candelabras; the black, electric yellow, and glowing egg shell-colored bats chittered and flapped around the ceiling. Green, black, yellow, and orange streamers along with the black belladonna and pumpkin ivy completed the decorations.

At the teacher's table, the Headmaster's seat was empty, as it had been since the entrance ceremony. Caprice spotted Bossa at a table and headed over. Her eyes were dry and tired but she was satisfied with the progress she was making in her readings. She passed Professors Gleddy and Earithean on her way.

Gleddy looked around at all the commotion, a cheerful glitter in his eyes.

"Who did decorations this year?"

"Traditional orange and black would have done," Earithean said dryly.

Part of her mind was still upstairs with her books and study notes. But Caprice had never been the guest of a feast before. She stared around the lively scene in the hall.

It wasn't long before Nezzle appeared. As she sat down at their table, unfocused eyes gazed around the hall, tracking nothing in particular.

"Hallo, Nezzle," Caprice said. "Where'd you come from?"

The characteristic depth and sharpness was simply missing from her vacant eyes. Nezzle continued to stare expressionlessly without so much as a glance at her.

"Nez?" Bossa snapped her fingers in front of the girl's face.

"Yes," Nezzle said tonelessly.

"Where were you?"

"At the Library, studying. Where else." Then she frowned. Pulling out a pen from her bag, Nezzle put her hand flat on the table and stabbed it.

"Nezzle!" Caprice shrieked, shooting out of her chair.

Making small pained noises between short breaths, Nezzle pulled the pen out of her hand. The dullness in her eyes was replaced was gone. They watered with pain and clarity.

"Someone hexed me," she breathed.

Bossa looked dismayed at first, jolting forward in her seat as if to stop her from using the pen again if she tried. But then she licked her lips as Nezzle's wound bled onto the table.

"Dinner."

"Bossa!" Sparing her an exasperated, Caprice tended to Nezzle's hand. "Oh, Nezzle! Why?" She stripped off part of the hem of her gown and bound the bleeding appendage. "Is the Mederi here yet? He could heal this in a heartbeat..."

"May I have everyone's attention please!"

Caprice cringed at the sound of Karrigan's voice cutting through the din from where she stood at the center of the hall. A gaunt wizard in grubby green robes hung back behind her. He had cold, nasty eyes, dark as a curse and indiscernible in color. Beside him sat a large, old chest. A tapestry embroidered in the Whitehare crest covered the chest...stained in dark, old blood.

Karrigan's blue-gray eyes sparkled evilly as she clapped her hands together. There was something off about her look, but Caprice couldn't discern what as her heart pounded in her chest, knowing whatever was about to happen wasn't good. With Karrigan, it never was. Caprice stared on in sinking dread.

Bossa hissed, eyes glinting, brow furrowing deeply. "My skin's crawling. What is this magic? Who's the man with Whitehare? Caprice?" Bossa peered into her ashen face.

"M-Mister Clang," Caprice uttered. The man was an overseer, a hunter and catcher. One of the most notorious in all of Shire Nyte Village.

"Good evening all. As a precursor to our feast this Hallows Eve, I would like to share a treasured family tradition this night," Karrigan announced. "From our homeland to our growing village of Shire Nyte in the new world and now to Oracle Academy of Magic, I present to you The Bone Dance!" Pale gown and robes sweeping, Karrigan stepped aside and tapped her wand on the chest.