When Gavin finally went to bed that night, after wading through an extra-large pile of trash spilling over from Stanford's bed, he lay awake for some time, pondering the meaning of what they'd discovered. He tried to make sense of the news that the building he knew as St. Hibbard's Very Special Academy had originally been Lord Thumbledown's School of Heroics. What did that mean? Why had it changed? And why was it a secret?
He wasn't yet sure how this new information fit in with the attacks on the students, but he was sure it had something to do with it. Otherwise why would Mr. Bigglesbee have gone to all the trouble to make sure Gavin found it while maintaining plausible deniability?
That was assuming this was the information they were supposed to find. They had continued searching for a while, but nothing else of interest had come up. Of course, there was no way they could have read all of the pages of the school charter lying at the bottom of that chest, but they'd gone through all the pictures and had cleaned out the second trunk. So unless there was some mystery piece of information hidden away on one of countless pages, they'd gotten what they'd been more or less sent to find.
They'd returned the key, just in case. Mr. Bigglesbee hadn't made any indication he was awake or aware of their presence. He may have just been faking it, but Gavin was kind of glad he hadn't had to interact with the man in the dead of night.
He didn't have a chance to talk to any of the others the next day, as classes were gearing towards Midterms and there was a lot to do. In Boot Camp, he and Stanford had more or less mastered their catapult weapon. Mr. Hollowind had encouraged them to branch out and try partnering up with other students, but neither of them had any desire to do that, so they'd taken to just goofing off.
As the days passed, Gavin thought less and less about the St. Hibbard / Lord Thumbledown mystery and more and more about the mystery of the hedge maze. Remembering why he'd gone to the library in the first place, he'd returned and found a book on hedge mazes which he'd devoured one afternoon at one of the tables on the first floor of the library. It had been a very interesting read, with all kinds of information about the history of hedge mazes, their meaning and uses in the occult, descriptions of some famous hedge mazes, and more. What it didn't have was any mention of the only hedge maze Gavin cared about, So in all, it was a bust.
When the week turned into the weekend, Gavin found excuses to wander outside. Saturday morning it had been a need to check on the Aurelia Limpit tree. Saturday afternoon he and Stanford had gone out to do some extracurricular target practice. Sunday morning he had joined Jupiter on a search of the grounds around the base of the building as she looked for some sign of the original school. Sunday afternoon he and Jud just went out to get some air. Each time he went out, he managed to end up on the same side of the school as the maze and his gaze would wander across the field and through the grove of trees to the only destination that mattered.
"You're going to get in trouble," said Jud, snapping Gavin out of his reverie.
"What?"
"You want to go into the hedge maze. If you do that, Mrs. Gruber will catch you and you'll get into trouble."
"Who said anything about a hedge maze?" asked Gavin, trying and failing to sound innocent. "I was just admiring the trees."
"Uh-huh." It was obvious Jud didn't believe him. Gavin didn't blame him, he wouldn't have believed him either.
"Oh, fine," he said. "Aren't you curious?"
"Everyone gets curious about it when they first learn it exists," commented Jud. "Then you hear the horror stories of getting lost in there, of not being alone in there, of hearing noises in there, and you hear them not as hearsay, but from the kids who actually tried going in there. You see how white their faces get when they talk about it, how their whole body shivers at the memory. And you forget it and move on."
Gavin frowned and looked back out across the field. "Not everybody moves on," he said.
"Right," agreed Jud. "Every couple of years some idiot gets it in their head that they know something nobody else knows. Or they think they're just really good at mazes and puzzles. Or they get dared. And they go in and become that year's cautionary tale." He grabbed Gavin and spun him around to face him. "Don't be this year's cautionary tale, Gavin."
"Who ever said-" began Gavin.
Jud cut him off. "I'm serious, Gavin." There was an urgency in his eyes that shocked Gavin. "That maze is bad news. Don't go in there. I'm starting to almost tolerate you, I'd hate to lose that."
Eventually, Gavin agreed that he wouldn't go into the maze and Jud relaxed. The two boys walked around the corner and the grove of trees were lost from sight.
Though Gavin threw one last look over his shoulder before he left.
***
Monday morning, the school was attacked for the third time.
Gavin was in Mr. Chickawa's Honors English class when the screams began. Everyone looked around the room, but the screams weren't coming from inside the classroom. Something was going on in the corridors.
"Oh, for Pete's sake," cried Mr. Chickawa, slamming his chalk down onto his desk. "What is it now?" He marched to the door of the class, his students staring in a mixture of apprehension and awe. "I swear, this quarter has seen one distraction after another. Can't a man teach students about a horrific tragedy that took the lives of over 115 people in-"
He opened the door and joined in the screaming.
Staring back at him was a seven-foot-tall creature with beady eyes, sharp claws and a mane of brown fur. Gavin's first thought was that it was a bear. His second thought was that it was a gerbil. His third thought was that it was way too big to be a gerbil, so maybe he should go back to bear.
Whatever the creature was, it roared and swiped at Mr. Chickawa with one of its claws. The english teacher staggered backwards, hands to his chest, as a trickle of blood squirted out from between his fingers.
That got everybody in the class screaming.
The thing roared right back at everyone, then turned and shambled out of the doorway and down the corridor. Gavin jumped out of his seat and ran to his teacher's side, but Harriet and Janet Topski were already there.
"Is he dead?" asked Gavin, a lump forming in his stomach.
"Am I what?" asked Mr. Chickawa, alarmed. He then winced from the pain and laid back down.
"It's just a scrape," said Janet. "You'll be fine, Mr. Chickawa."
"Of course I'll be fine, girl! It just startled me is all. Ruined a perfectly good shirt, too." He glumly stuck his finger through the rip in his shirt.
"What the heck was that?" asked Tag Bowers from his seat. "Some kind of monster?"
"It looked like a bear," noted Colin Suarez. He looked around and got a few nods in response.
"That was no bear," chided Orianly Klugbot. "It was too large to be a bear."
"How did a bear get into the school?" asked Tag.
Orianly wheeled around and scolded him. "I said it wasn't a bear!"
"Looked like a bear to me," offered Flynn Decker, sounding surprisingly frightened and not at all the big bully he normally was. "A really big bear. With sharp claws that rip your guts right out."
"Excuse me?" said Mr. Chickawa, waving his hand. "Still alive. No guts spilling anywhere."
Harriet stood and moved to the door, swinging it closed and turning the lock. "We should just stay in here until Mr. Unger has the situation under control."
"You really think Unger is going to deal with that bear?" asked Colin.
Orianly stomped her foot. "I told you! It isn't a bear!"
"He'll deal with whatever it is!" declared Harriet.
Looking up at her, Gavin noticed a shadow pass outside the door.
"Well, what do you think it is, then?" argued Tag.
"I don't know!" admitted Orianly, frustrated. "Something that is not a bear!"
"Uhm.. guys?" said Gavin, rising to his feet and pointing at the door.
Meanwhile, the Bear/Not a Bear argument revved up. Colin pointed an accusing finger at Orianly. "Now you're just desperate!"
"I'm not desperate!" countered Orianly, who then thrust a finger right back at Colin. "You're just being stubborn and unable to think out of the box!"
"Guys!" Gavin's cry cut through the argument. Everyone turned to look and gasped as the shadow filled the entire glass window of the door. "Harriet! Look out!"
Confused, Harriet turned to look just as a monstrous cry rang out and a clawed hand smashed through the door, grabbed Harriet, and pulled her out of the room.