Academy of Legends

Chapter 7: Henry (Field)

The following day, I went out by myself to consider the latest breakthrough in our case. Although it was Monday, my brothers and I had been excused from school and I had spent the day wandering around alone. School was now out and I headed to the archery fields, hoping for some friendly competition to cheer me up.

After taking Hermes to the doctor, Robin and Belle had come to see the rest of us. In turn, they had explained what they had discovered from Hermes's words and I was now considering them. It was possible, of course, that Hermes had misheard, or that the killer had disguised their voice. I did not share Robin's assumption that our killer was a man, though I certainly wasn't discounting it entirely. And the killer had been so skilled up until now. Each of his or her victims had died within seconds after being shot, Harold included. How, then, had he missed so badly on Hermes?

I found that the archery field was already occupied with two of the Merry Men, Will Scarlet and Will Stutely. To be honest, I can't tell the two of them apart. Both have startling red hair and wear red clothes. The only difference is that Will Scarlet's eyes are brown and Stutely's are a dark grey. They turned to me when I arrived, and Will Stutely—who prefers Stutely, to tell him apart from the other Will—extended an extra bow to me. "Henry!" he said in a too-loud voice. "Shoot with us."

I accepted the weapon and turned to Will, who smiled. He is a little quieter than Stutely and, as far as I know, he doesn't even really like the other Will very much. "Hello, Henry," he said. "You've been working with Robin, haven't you?"

I nodded. Robin is the head of the dorm that holds all the Merry Men, and as such he is a bit of a leader to them. Stutely snorted, pulling his bowstring back to his cheek and aiming at the target across the field. "I heard about Professor Hermes," he said. "Shame, I liked his business classes."

"He's not dead," I told him.

"So?" Stutely shrugged. "The killer has singled him out. Seems to me it's only a matter of time."

"He says the killer is a man," I said, pulling my own bowstring back. My arrow missed the bulls-eye, but both Wills hit theirs right in the middle. Archery competitions always ended the same way with them.

Will lowered his bow. "Does he?" he said. "That's odd."

"Odd?" I questioned, turning to him.

Will shrugged. "It's just ... Hermes was talking a few days ago. Before all this began. I ... overheard him talking to a woman."

"Eavesdropper," Stutely muttered.

"They were terribly serious and they said something about 'cleansing' the Academy," Will said.

I dropped my bow and turned to him. "Will ... thank you. I've got to go!" The two confused Merry Men watched me run.

I needed to talk to Hermes. Will's statement had cast doubt on his testimony, and maybe, just maybe, he knew who had killed my brother—even if it hadn't been Hermes himself who had done it.