Free Paladin Prophecy 2: Alliance by Mark Frost Page B

figured they were worried about Lyle coming back and attacking him again. Eloni was still waiting for them after lunch and as they walked through the quad, Will noticed a small blue and silver Center bus pulling up in front of Berkley Hall, the guest residence hall that parents and family members used for school visits.
    The bus stopped, the doors opened, and five people walked off, all carrying their own identical black duffel bags. Three young men and two young women, slightly older than school age, wearing dark glasses and school blazers. All of them tall, athletic, and, each in their own way, striking in appearance. They carried themselves with confidence and self-possession, and none spoke a word to each other. Two security guards were waiting to meet them outside Berkley Hall and opened the doors for them.
    “Who are those guys?” Will asked Eloni.
    “Recent graduates,” said Eloni. “A group comes back every summer. They work as counselors at the school’s summer camp.”
    “For middle-school kids who hope to go to the Center someday,” said Ajay. “I attended myself.”
    “How recently did they graduate?” asked Will, watching the counselors file into the building.
    “Last summer,” said Eloni.
    One of the girls in the group, a tall, athletic-looking brunette, stopped at the door. She took off her dark glasses and looked right at Will. She smiled—a little aggressively, Will thought—showing big white teeth. She touched a boy in her group on the shoulder and pointed Will out.
    Will turned away, glanced at Ajay, and knew they were thinking the same thing.
    “Let’s find out who these guys are,” whispered Will.
    “Agreed,” whispered Ajay.
    “And we better find Lyle before he messes up our plan.”
    “That’s your department,” whispered Ajay, looking alarmed.
    Eloni took them to the door of Greenwood Hall, where Coach Ira Jericho was waiting, stark as an exclamation point in his trademark black sweats. He took Eloni aside and spoke quietly to him. Eloni nodded, then gestured for Ajay to follow him inside, while Jericho walked off with Will.
    “Where are we going?” asked Will.
    “Training.”
    “I didn’t think they’d let me do that today.”
    “They will if you’re with me.”
    “Good,” said Will. “There’s someone we need to find.”
    Jericho didn’t respond. Will walked alongside the tall, implacable man and realized they were walking toward the medical center.
    “What do you know about these counselors who come back to school to work with the summer camp kids?” Will asked.
    “No more than what you just said.”
    “You coach any of ’em?”
    “Probably. It’s a different group every year.”
    Will waited until no one else was near them to speak again. Jericho’s eyes constantly scanned the horizon. He already knows I want to find Lyle, Will realized.
    “Coach, you’re clear on what went down with Ogilvy last fall, right?” he asked, almost in a whisper. “Not the official version, but what I actually saw in that cave?”
    Jericho didn’t even look at him and never changed expression. “I don’t live under a rock.”
    “So, between us—just in case this might actually be the truth and not some crazy hallucination I had—what happens to somebody who’s attacked by a wendigo?”
    Jericho glanced at him. “The legends say they die an excruciating death and their soul is condemned to eternal damnation.”
    Will swallowed hard. “What happens if they don’t die?”
    “Hypothetically? Don’t think that happens very often.”
    “But what if it happened this time ?” asked Will emphatically.
    Jericho stopped; they were near where Lyle had made his leap out of the building. “The legend says that, over time, that person becomes a We-in-di-ko himself.”
    Will swallowed harder. “Over how much time?”
    “These are legends, Will, not bus schedules. They don’t come with timetables.”
    “But how does it happen? I mean, if you could speculate for a