The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin (Books of Unexpected Enlightenment Book 1) by L. Jagi Lamplighter Page B

gods?”
    The tutor gave her a lazy smile. “You’re the youngest Griffin, aren’t you? Your sister Sandra was one of my best students. A sharper mind I have never met. Well, youngest Griffin, some people have believed so. Akhenaton tried to make the Ancient Egyptians worship the sun god alone. Other records from antiquity suggest there may once have been a tribe in the Middle East, called the Israelites, who held such beliefs. Have any of you heard of the Israelites?”
    Most of the students, Wise and Unwary, shook their heads. Rachel reviewed the encyclopedias in her mental library. She raised her hand.
    “Yes, Young Miss Griffin?”
“Don’t some scholars think the Tribe of the Israelites may have been the ancestors of our modern Gypsies?”
    Mr. Gideon nodded. “Some do hold that opinion, yes.”
    Wulfgang Starkadder raised his hand, his eyes dark and brooding. “They worshipped just one god? Or they believed in just one god?”
    “The word covers both,” said the tutor.
    “How could it mean the second?” Joy O’Keefe spoke up, puzzled. “When there are obviously so many gods? Even the Unwary know there are many gods, right?” She looked at Astrid, who ducked her head, nodding awkwardly.
    Mr. Gideon spread his arms. “A mystery. But it is mysteries that make pursuit of knowledge so fascinating.”
    Rachel nodded, her eyes sparkling. She was going to like this tutor.
    • • •
    “What you said in class about a Wiser than the Wise, do you believe that?” Rachel asked Siggy, as they spilled out of the school building into the sunny afternoon. They walked onto the bridge that led across the reflecting lake to the green lawns of the commons. The air was alive with laughing and chatting. Three boys were having a boat race, each yelling to his self-propelled boat to go faster.
    “You mean the idea that there are creatures who mess with us the way we mess with the Unburied?” Siggy asked. He jumped up onto the stone railing and spread his arms behind him as he ran, pretending to be dive bombing something. “Vvvvrrrrmmm! Pow! Yes. I do.”
    The princess strolled beside them, slipping her school book into her house-containing purse. She only ever carried one old gray book. Whenever she opened it, it contained exactly the text that was needed. Rachel longed to examine it but felt too shy to ask.
    “That is a rather disturbing thought.” Nastasia closed her purse. “Even more disturbing than some of my father’s ideas about good uses for Vegemite. Do you have any proof?”
    “Maybe.” At the edge of the bridge, Siggy jumped to the ground and looked around suspiciously. Then he ducked his head and looked thoughtful for a moment.
    “Tell us! Tell us!” Rachel grabbed his arm.
    Siggy lowered his voice. “Where does Lucky come from? And the scarab, and the piece of paper that ensorcelled the generously-endowed and abundantly overly-mammalian young lady from Drake Hall?” When Rachel and Nastasia both gave him a sharp look, he shrugged, unconcerned. “The proctors said there were new types of magic. Where is it coming from, if not from something outside your World of the Wise?”
    Rachel thought about this very hard. A piece of the puzzle suddenly clicked into place in her head. “Maybe from the places the princess visits in her visions?”
    “What places?” Siggy looked at Nastasia. “What visions?”
    Nastasia solemnly repeated what she had told Rachel, including the part about Salome.
    “Dead? Wow! That’s ace! Can I do that? You say you go to these places? Does it happen when you touch me? Can you go to the same place over and over? What about Lucky?”
    Rachel found herself grinning. It was so easy to think of amazing things when speaking with Sigfried. Already, the idea that there were other worlds—and that the people whom the princess was seeing visions about had come from these worlds, bringing their unfamiliar magic with them—was taking root in her thoughts.
    The princess was not swept