Read The Emerald Staff for Free Online Page B

her.
    “Do you know what it means?” Faedra asked,
hardly able to contain her excitement at finding out what her
friends had been so eager to try and hide from her.
    “Not off the top of my head, no,” he
replied.
    Faedra’s shoulders slumped a little. So near,
yet so far.
    “But I can find out for you. I will have to
dig through my research papers. It may take a few days.” He took
out a pad and pen from his briefcase and scribbled down the
words.
    “Thank you.” Faedra turned and headed towards
the hallway.
    “Faedra,” the professor called after her,
stopping her in her tracks. She turned to look at him.
    “I’d be most interested to know where you
came to hear those words.”
    Yeah, I bet you would, the young
Custodian thought, but responded with a fleeting smile.
    “Hmmm,” the professor mumbled as he turned
back to finish his job of erasing the board. It was obvious his
student was going to remain tight-lipped on the matter. Faedra
breathed a sigh of relief that her professor decided not to press
the issue, and continued on to the exit.
    Thankfully, the short dark haired girl who
had allowed Faedra her chance to slip away and ask the
all-important question was still holding Faen captive. It was a
question she knew Faen did not want her to find the answer to, and
that, in itself, bothered her more than she cared to admit. She did
not like the fact that her Guardian would keep secrets from her,
but this subject had been a closed one, as far as he was concerned.
What was he trying to keep from her and why was it so important to
do so?
    “Found it,” she said, waving her pen in the
air as she joined them.
    Faen arched an eyebrow. He had seen her pack
the pen away before she got up from her seat, but he said nothing
at her blatant untruth.
     
    Halloween arrived, and not a moment too soon,
as far as Faedra was concerned. She, her father and Jocelyn were
walking up the lane that led to the pub, laden down with bags of
decorations and other goodies. When they got to the entrance of the
pub, they all stood for a moment and looked up at the pub sign.
This was sure to be a good venue for their party. The sign had a
couple of macabre figures wearing black cloaks painted on it, and
underneath was the lettering The Murderers . It was actually
only a nickname for the pub but one that all the locals used more
than its real name, so the sign was rare, as pub signs go, having a
different name and picture on each side.
    They filed into the old building where the
landlord, who was standing behind the bar, greeted them. He eyed
their bags full of Halloween goodies.
    “Mr. Bennett, I presume.”
    Henry nodded.
    “This way please.” The landlord gestured for
them to follow him with a sweep of his arm.
    Anna had certainly picked the perfect place.
The pub dated back to 1530 but got its nickname after a brutal
murder that occurred there in 1895 had closed the pub down. It was
reopened almost a century later, give or take a couple of decades,
but the nickname stuck and now more people knew the pub by that
name than its original.
    Faedra looked around as they wandered towards
the room they had hired for the party. The pub was full of nooks
and crannies and still had a lot of the original features of the
old building. It oozed character and atmosphere with its exposed
beams and brickwork. There were pictures of infamous criminals hung
on the walls. Old barrels with cushioned tops used for seats
surrounded sturdy wooden tables nestled into intimate alcoves.
    “This place is perfect,” Faedra said as she
soaked in the mood of the location. Her senses tingled. There was
an energy in the room; she could feel it but couldn’t quite place
it. It didn’t feel threatening so she shrugged it off. It was
hardly surprising with all the people who had come and gone over
the centuries, she was bound to pick up on something.
    “Feel free to decorate it as you want,” the
landlord stated, “just make sure to take it all down when