At night the garden was a paranormal carnival of the macabre made luminous with energy. Only the most advanced students were allowed to practice their skills after dark. He could not afford to lose too many. Natural talents had always been rare. Those who could handle the enhancement treatments were even more scarce.

When it came to recruitment, there was another complication as well. Potential students had to be able to effectively disappear without drawing the attention of a family or the authorities.

The throb of the boat’s engines was suddenly muted. Barrow had piloted the vessel into the cavern where the small dock was located. Spode experienced another hit of desperate hope. Ruthlessly he squelched it, but not before a hallucination materialized.

For a horrifying moment he saw his father’s body again, just as he had found it that day in the maze. The first Piper’s face was contorted in anguish. The remains of a partially devoured mushroom lay on the ground beside him. Spode knew that his parent had not eaten the mushroom by mistake. The truth was that the first Piper had no longer been able to cope with the stress of the enhancement treatments. He had been slowly going insane, slowly dying. A prisoner on an invisible island.

In those days Spode had been filled with a sense of his own power. He was sure the treatments had made him stronger than his father, certain he was immune to the rapid deterioration that had destroyed the first Piper. He knew now that was not true.

Spode suppressed the vision, took the small, flashlight-shaped device out of his pocket and generated a little psychic energy through the crystal switch. A spear of ultraviolet light appeared. He aimed it at the ground.

The device was one of several artifacts he and his father had discovered in the old Vortex lab. It guided him through the maze to the concealed exit. In the old days he had not needed the paranormal GPS. He had been strong enough to navigate the green necropolis with his senses. But the deterioration in the past few months had become so serious he could not afford to take the risk of getting lost. Barrow would have to rescue him, and that would not be good optics. The students would realize he was weakening. The Piper had to look strong at all costs.

Another jolt of excitement shot through him just before he reached the concealed gate. He made himself pause in front of a boxwood statue of a weeping angel to clip a few errant leaves. Woodies were usually quite obedient, but as with even the most devoted students they occasionally required discipline.