The Children of Hypnos

[Vol. 2] Chapter 3: Vault and Temper

On Monday morning, Emery put on a dress and boots and her heavy winter coat and met Wes in the Kirkland lobby to trudge across campus to the administration building.

Students on their way to classes watched as they went by. Emery did her best to look imperious; Wes just looked hunched and cold. The quotes inlaid in the admin building steps had been covered by snow and slush, and with the sun hidden behind the clouds, the metal couldn't even wink through. A black car had been parked at the bottom of the steps, in the roundabout that spun off into other roads across campus. On its front doors was the silver seal of the North American Ward, the closed eye of Hypnos flanked by two upstretched wings wrapped with poppies. Emery and Wes paused when they saw it.

"Well," Emery said. "This feels a little too real now."

"Let's get it over with," Wes grunted.

Inside the front doors, David the Receptionist sat attentive behind his desk, apparently waiting for them.

"Second floor," he said. "The big room."

Normally, the big room was used for visiting Ward directors, administrators of other schools, or meetings with city officials. The furniture was always different, and the walls were always bare. There were no windows in the room, only a line of soft-light sconces along the walls that gave the feeling of a cave. Emery hadn't been inside since she was little, when she used to explore the administration building for fun.

"Why do you think they're not holding this in the Underground?" Wes asked as they climbed the stairs.

"No idea," Emery said. "Maybe so we don't see more of it than we already have."

Emery had only been into the Fenhallow Underground, the sprawling complex beneath the school, three times: once with Wes, to sneak into Klaus's cell; once with Lana Lupova, to question Klaus about his waking water; and once by herself, to wake Klaus up when his nightmares attacked the school on Halloween. Students weren't supposed to enter the Underground at all—it was meant for the operations of higher-level Hypnos State employees. Emery had no idea exactly how big it was, but surely it had conference rooms, or somewhere a trial could be held.

People were already gathered outside the conference room when they arrived. Several Hypnos State employees from the center on Main and Cherry, talking among themselves. Sarah Stainer, the leader of one of the cleanup crews, who had helped Emery and Wes while they were looking for Klaus, and who had been present for the attack on Fenhallow. Next to her, Lana Lupova, wearing an offensively bright lime green shawl and looking a bit like she'd just woken up.

"Lookin' snazzy, Ashworth, Jager," Stainer said when she noticed them. It had none of her usual cheer. "Your friend just went in; her trial is scheduled first. Then Jager's."

"They're getting the lesser trials out of the way first," said Lana. "We're hoping that also means they'll take those a little easier."

"Jacqueline's already here?" Emery said.

"Girl puts on a brave face," Stainer said, "but she's been in the Underground for two weeks—it's not easy."

Jacqueline Fenhallow, descendant of the founder of the school and last in a long line of dreamseekers—those who could create gateways and traverse the Dream without suffering its ill effects, but couldn't influence it—was the only reason Emery and Wes had been able to go after Morrigan in the Dream. Not only had she helped them, she had broken the State law that forbade dreamseekers from learning how to use their powers. And for that, she'd spent two weeks imprisoned in the Fenhallow Underground.

Emery owed her. A lot.

"Go talk to her," Wes said. "I'm going to wait out here for Marcia."

Emery moved past Stainer and Lana and entered the conference room. It had been set up with a long table against the far wall with several chairs for the panel of judges. To the left side of the room, another line of chairs for the jury. Before the judges' table was a chair for the accused, one for witnesses, and more chairs past that for waiting witnesses and family.