Under the Rose by Diana Peterfreund Read Free Book Online

replied. “These meetings of yours are going to start taking up a couple nights a week—all night long. Wait and see. And then, when you’re struggling to finish your thesis on time, ask yourself if it was worth it. I’ll be seeing you. Or,” he added, giving my black robe the up-down, “maybe not.”
    And then he was gone. I rubbed my temples in frustration, then glanced in dismay at my glitter-covered hands. Great. More mess to deal with. “Now what?” I turned to Nikolos. “Should we keep following him?”
    Nikolos pulled at the tie on his robe and slipped it off his shoulders. “I’m not going to do it in this outfit,” he said. “I feel somewhat responsible. I probably shouldn’t have said those things to him back at the tomb. Let me try to catch him and make this right.”
    I nodded, glad to see Nikolos was willing to shoulder some of the responsibility. Still, I didn’t have much hope. I watched him take off after our straggler, though he still hadn’t caught up by the time they turned the corner off of High Street and onto Elm.
    Stunned, dejected, and yeah, a little concerned Howard First might actually be onto something, I returned to the tomb, to find Mara holding court.
    “Don’t you find it disheartening?” she was asking Poe. “So many of our brotherhoods have fallen by the wayside, been gobbled up by the PC police. If you ask me, it’s these newfangled organizations that are truly the elitist ones. For all that students rail against the secret societies, who is really the one propagating racist doctrine on our campus?”
    “Your newspaper?” Thorndike suggested.
    “The administration is more intent on founding yet another alliance of people based on the color of their skin and cultural heritage—the Southeast Asian Alliance, the Muslim Student Alliance, the Northwestern Nepalese Students’ Union—rather than on what brought us all here in the first place, intellectual meritocracy! A fervent desire to drink from the fountain of knowledge.”
    “You know, that’s an interesting point,” Soze said.
    Lil’ Demon frowned. “Isn’t it the fountain of youth and the lamp of knowledge?”
    Lucky shrugged. “That sounds about right. At least, there’s a lamp on the seal of my Eli throw blanket.”
    Mara droned on. “There’s such a lack of respect for the traditions of this noble institution.”
    “Rose & Grave?” I whispered to Angel.
    “No, I think she’s still talking about Eli as a whole.”
    “Well, there’s plenty of respect-lacking going on for Rose & Grave right now.” I hung my head. “I think we lost Howard.” All eyes turned in my direction. “Graverobber is still working on him but—”
    “Because he’s such a good advocate,” scoffed Thorndike.
    “He’s the only person who volunteered,” I argued.
    Soze raised his hands. “Hey, I was on extinguisher duty.”
    “So what do we do now?” I asked. “If we really lost a straggler. If he chooses the ‘new’ organizations—as our neophyte here so carefully elucidated—over us.”
    Mara waved her hand in the air. “Excuse me, miss? I’m not a neophyte. They just initiated me. I’m Juno now.”
    I looked at Poe. “Come on. You’re the one who knows all the policies and procedures of this outfit. Tell us what the game plan is.”
    But Poe just laughed. “Right, because after that spectacular display of spitting all over my advice last spring, I’m going to completely relinquish all rights to say ‘I told you so’.” He pulled off his robe, and began to peel the Death’s-head makeup from his face. “You guys made this bed; I hope you like lying in it.”
    Quoth Juno: “Where’s the party? There’s supposed to be a party after this, right?”
    Quoth Lucky: “From within doth Persephone rot.”
    Quoth the Middle-Eastern-guy-I-later-recognized-as-Harun-Sarmast-our-last-straggler as he stuck his head over the balcony: “Um, guys? I’ve been waiting up here with my blindfold on for a while.