The others nodded. Jasper and Landon pulled several bottles of canola oil from their bags, stolen from the dining hall earlier that day. Tahira jimmied out a couple of torn feather pillows. A few white feathers escaped into the breeze. Ariana and Kaitlynn followed suit, carefully extracting their own pillows. Ariana clutched the tear closed to keep from making too much of a mess.
“Let’s go!” Jasper whispered.
He got up and, ever so quietly, tugged open the heavy back door. He held it as Ariana, Tahira, Landon, Kaitlynn, then Adam slipped through, then closed it slowly—silently.
Ariana tiptoed down the stairs, her leg muscles tense, the others following her lead. At the bottom of the steps, she found a perfectly round, empty room with a gleaming marble floor. To the right was a heavy wooden door with an imposing-looking bronze doorknob and an ancient keyhole. She held up a hand as the others fell in behind her on the stairs. A loud round of laughter sounded on the other side of the door.
“They’re in there,” she whispered.
“Quiet, everyone,” Jasper added. “This is it. Take your positions.”
Ariana, Tahira, and Kaitlynn tiptoed around the room, spacing themselves out evenly along the walls, still clutching their pillows. Landon, Adam, and Jasper opened up their bottles of oil and, starting at the top of the room and working their way backward toward the door to the archives, dumped their contents out all over the floor. Ariana scrunched her nose as the scent of oil filled the room, the glug-glug of the bottles sounding like a trumpet call in the silence. Every second she expected the Fellows to come through the door and into the foyer to check out the noise, but the door stayed shut. Finally, the bottles were empty. Jasper shoved the plastic bottles into his bag and placed it against the wall by the door to the archives. Then he pressed his back up against the wall. Landon and Adam stood on the opposite side of the door.
“Everyone ready?” Jasper whispered.
Ariana held her breath and nodded with the others. Jasper met her eye. “Go!”
Jasper, Landon, and Adam pounded on the door and shouted, making a huge cacophony in the silence. It took about half a second for the door to fling open, nearly knocking Jasper off his feet. Four of the Fellows came barreling out and instantly slipped on the oily floor. The first went flying heels-over-head and landed directly on his back. The second tripped over his friend’s prone body and fell face-first into the thick of the oil, sliding clear across the floor. The third and fourth saw what had happened to their brethren and tried to stop short, but they were too late. They skidded forward, collided with one another, and were sent sprawling in a fit of shouts and groans.
“Feathers!” Jasper shouted to the girls. “Now! Go! Go! Go!” he prodded Landon and Adam.
The guys ran into the now-open archive room while Ariana, Kaitlynn, and Tahira stepped tentatively forward, staying on the oil-free periphery, and shook out their feather pillows. White fluff filled the room and fluttered down all over the four Fellows, sticking fast to their oil-slicked bodies. Ariana felt a laugh bubble up in her throat as the Fellows struggled to get up onto their hands and knees, only to splay out flat again, cursing and vowing to kill the girls. Soon she, Tahira, and Kaitlynn were all laughing together, adding more and more feathers to the mess and confusing the Fellows to the ends of their wits. She met Tahira’s and Kaitlynn’s eyes through the thick air and realized she was actually enjoying this, enjoying doing this with them. Little did the Fellows know that their ill-conceived prank was actually working to bring the Stone and Grave taps closer.
“We’ve got them!” Jasper shouted as he, Adam, and Landon emerged from the archives. Their backpacks were stuffed to the gills, unzipped at the top with a few stones jutting out of each. Apparently the stones weren’t stones at all, but made of some lightweight material, because the guys seemed to be having no trouble toting them.
“Let’s go!” Ariana replied. “Stick to the walls.”
The guys followed her instructions, sidestepping toward her with their backs to the bricks. The girls joined them. As they made it to the stairs, one of the Fellows managed to scramble to his feet. His legs slid out on both sides, but he threw his arms out and kept his balance. He was completely covered in white and brown feathers—his hair, his hands, his lips—and his chest heaved as he pressed his fingers into fists. This guy was pissed off.
“You are so dead,” he said through his teeth.
“Spread the word,” Ariana said, laughing. “The Stone and Grave is not to be trifled with.”
Then she balled up her pillowcase and threw it at him. He reached for it instinctively and, in doing so, lost his balance and slammed to the floor with a splat. Ariana and her friends cracked up laughing and ran up the stairs, tripping out into the night.
“Nice one,” Jasper said as they jogged away from the door.
“Please. That was all you,” Ariana said breathlessly. She paused as they reached the tree line and bent to catch her breath. The others raced ahead, intent on getting as far away from the building as possible.
“I guess we both have wicked minds,” Jasper replied, leaning one hand against a thick tree trunk as he sucked wind.
“What do you mean?” Ariana asked. She tugged her hat off and shook her hair out, her scalp tingling.
“The gum thing? I know that was your idea,” Jasper said, taking a step toward her. “It was noble, what you tried to do for Lillian . . . but I know a fellow schemer when I see one.”
Ariana’s face fell at being sna
gged, but then she slowly smiled. It was nice to have her idea acknowledged. For a long moment, she and Jasper stood there together, under the canopy of branches, catching their breath and smiling.
“Come on. Let’s go reap our spoils,” he said finally.
And together, they took off after their friends.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
Ariana and her fellow taps all lined up in tap order in the Tombs—Tahira at position one, Kaitlynn at five, Ariana right in the center at number three—standing in the spots in which they were normally placed for Stone and Grave interrogations. On the floor behind them were the bags full of headstones. Each of the taps stood with their hands clenched behind their backs, and Ariana felt as if she could hear the hearts of her cohorts pounding with excitement. When she heard the door squeal open in the distance, followed by a bevy of confused, intense voices, she found she could hardly breathe.
This was going to work. It had to.