by Nixon, Diana
“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly.
“I don’t know. I felt a terrible pain.”
“Let me see.”
She turned her hand palm up again. What surprised us both, was the color of the lines on her palm. This time, the lines which had been lighter before, were looking as if they were burning like fire.
“What is it?” Eileen wondered.
“Do you feel pain?” in response I asked still holding her hand in mine.
“Not anymore. On the contrary, it feels like some of my previous feelings have come back, but I don’t know how to explain it...”
Before she could finish, the bright fiery looking lines lost their color again.
“And now do you feel that something’s missing?” I guessed.
“Yes. But what does this mean Christian?” still rubbing her hand, asked Eileen.
“This means that the magic that was deliberately stamped on your hand, is fighting against the antidote. I doubt that a plant can remove it.”
“What if I hold the leaf longer on my palm?” Eileen said.
“We don’t know what would happen long term. Besides, only a single touch caused pain. Just imagine what would happen if you press it harder.”
I carefully picked up the fallen leaves from the floor and held them against my palm. Nothing happened. I felt only the gentle touch of the leaves themselves.
“It looks like Nora has really done something to my hand,” Eileen said, touching my arm softly. Her touch couldn’t be compared with any leaf – she held so much warmth and tenderness in her hand...
“I wanted to ask you, if you remember, what Nora looks like?” I said, when she let go of my hand.
“Of course, I do. I will never forget her. I would never think that she was capable of causing anyone harm. She has unforgettable eyes - such a sky-blue and clear as crystal. Just like Evan’s.”
“Evan’s?”
I became speechless upon hearing her comparison.
“All the descendants of the founding families were distinguished by the color of the eyes of their ancestors,” I said. “We - the Fairey, have emerald eyes, like Amanda and I. The Feta’s eyes are sea blue, like Darcy’s. The Embry are remarkable for their brown, almost black eyes, like Anna’s. The Meridin family has golden eyes. The family of Ventura – dark-gray, like wet asphalt, the Vero – light-brown. And the eyes of Wizardy have been always sky-blue, transparent as crystal. That’s why you compared them to Evan’s - he's a descendant of the Wizardy. So it means...”
“Oh. My. God. That’s impossible!” almost losing her balance, whispered Eileen. I helped her sit down on the sofa. “That means that Nora might be a descendant of the Wizardy family?”
“I don’t know, Eileen. There’s only one way to find out. There are portraits of the founding families in Dever, along with their descendants. We can go see them together, maybe you will recognize her.”
“Today is probably too late,” she said. “How about tomorrow?”
“I’m going to have another training session tomorrow, but Evan can give you another history lesson of Dever. I will ask him to show you the portraits. As far as I know, they are stored somewhere in the archives. He can take you there.”
“Okay. Uh… Christian I wanted to talk about something else as well. A few days ago, you brought me a bouquet of flowers along with a medallion and...”
“It would mean a lot to me if you kept it,” I interrupted her. “No matter what happenes, I want you to have it. It contains some magical power, just to protect you while I'm not around.”
Before giving Eileen the medallion, I asked Evan to fill it with magic and to combine it with my power and energy to make it Eileen’s ward for protection.
“I like it. Thank you,” smiling radiantly, she said. “As for the flowers...”
“Let it be just a bouquet of beautiful flowers.”
I knew that Eileen wasn’t ready to respond to my proposal, but I still had hope there would be a time when she would say “yes”. Perhaps by then, I would be able to propose to her more than just a formal declaration us as a couple.
“It's late. I'll take you to your room,” I said.
We went two floors below. At her door, we stopped.
“Thanks again,” she said turning to face me. “And not just for the present and flower, but for everything,” touching my cheek with her lips goodbye, she added.
I wanted to kiss her for real, but I knew that this wasn’t the right time.
On the way back to my room I thought about now that I knew who Eileen’s father was I could understand why she had such an unusual color of her eyes. Nature had mixed Frederic’s emeralds with the blue eyes of her mother. She wasn’t only Wizardy, of course.
Eileen had turquoise eyes, which sometimes became lighter and sometimes darker, depending on the mood and the lighting.
Those eyes were definitely the most beautiful eyes in the world.
What astonished me most is that regardless of all her worries and difficulties, Eileen’s eyes always were full of light.
For me they were a beacon, lighting the way for us on this journey we were both forced by fate to go through.
Chapter 22. Hidden photograph (Eileen)
“Did Christian manage to find out anything new?” Amanda asked as soon as I crossed the threshold of the room.
“Nothing new. But we both concluded that Nora really had lied to us. Those plants that Anna gave me today had a very powerful effect on my palm.”
“Really? Do you think they can reverse Nora’s spell?”
“No, unfortunately. As a matter of fact they make it even worse. Oh, and one more thing - I described Nora’s appearance to Christian and he thinks she may belong to the Wizardy family.”
“Due to her eye color, right?”
“How did you know that?”
“I started thinking about it today, when you were talking to Darcy about her. I really hadn’t paid any attention to the details before that.”
“That is why we are only freshmen here. A real Keeper would have noticed it in the first place,” I said.
“You're right. Let's hope that one day we will become Keepers too,” Amanda said, smiling. “By the way, Darcy stopped by to ask you to help her with some preparations for the Festival. She thought you could help since you have nothing else to do besides your classes with Evan.”
“Of course. No problem. I don’t think we would have time to look for anything, since everybody will be practicing for the show. Tomorrow Evan and I have to dig in dusty portraits of the founding families’ descendants just to try to find Nora among them.”
“It could help,” sleepily said Amanda, suppressing a yawn.
“Get some sleep now, otherwise I won’t be able to wake you up tomorrow morning,” I said, laughing.
“What about you?”
“I’m going to bed too. I really need to get a good night’s rest.”
“Sweet dreams then.”
“Sleep tight, sweetie.”
The next morning began with someone brazenly pulling a blanket off me.
“Wake up, sleepyhead! We have a lot to do today,” I heard the cheerful voice of Evan.
“What are you doing here?” pulling back the blanket, I asked.
“Since my student failed to attend her morning class, I decided to see if she had completely forgotten about me,” he said, leaning over the windowsill by my bed.
“What? What time is it?” in horror I asked.
“Calm down, I was joking. It's only half past seven,” laughing replied Evan.
“Then what the hell...”
“Do not swear!” he warned. “Don’t tell me you forgot we have digging to do today. I thought it would be better if we went to the archive earlier, so we didn’t attract too much attention.”
“Evan, someday I will kill you for your jokes,” I said, getting up, finally. “Do I have at least some time to take a shower?”
“Two minutes,” he said.
>
“Uh, thanks for nothing!” I snapped.
“I'll wait for you downstairs. Hurry up!” added Evan before leaving.
So, I had to set a new record, taking a shower, drying my hair and dressing all in ten minutes. Despite the fact that my brain was still sleeping, my thoughts fuzzy and my movements too slow, I succeeded and managed to bring my shaking body to the lobby without smashing the walls and people passing by.
“What took you so long?” asked Evan indignantly, when he saw me coming.
“Do you even have a conscience?” I replied as indignantly.
“Just kidding, just kidding.”
“Evan, if you are going to get on my nerves all the day round, I’d better go back to my room and get some more sleep.”
“Without even trying to find out who Nora is?”
“If you don’t stop riding me, I will leave you to dig in the achieves by yourself.”
“Come on, I just woke up today in an unusually good mood,” he said, showing me his happy smile.
“Good for you. At least someone is in a good mood. Seriously, do you think we'll find her portrait?”
“I don’t know. Personally, I can’t remember anyone with the description you provided. Yes, gray hair is a rarity for Wizardy. I don’t know how it works, but we rarely actually lose the natural color of our hair. I’ve never seen that before. Even my grandmother, and she is almost one hundred years old, is still a natural brunette.”
“Are you saying that even when you are over eighty, you will still look like the relentless conqueror of female hearts?”
“Oh, no! I hope that by that time, there will be some pretty blond or brunette that will have captured my heart and knocked me upside the head to rid me of my ego.”
I just shook my head, smiling. In fact, I sincerely wished Evan happiness. He was a wonderful person, and deserved to be with someone who would really appreciate him.
“Hey, when we met with Tara, you said you had already met someone special who you wouldn’t refuse to stay with. Who is she?”
Evan smiled ruefully.
“To my great regret, her heart belongs to someone else.”
For some reason I thought that he was talking about Amanda.
“Do I know her?”
“Better than anyone else,” said Evan, looking straight into my eyes.
“Oh, no, Evan you're not...”
“Forget it, Eileen. I love life, love to enjoy every moment of it, and I really want to be happy. So I still hope that someday I will meet someone I can share these moments of happiness with. But not now. Now we have better things to do, right?”
I just nodded in response. Now I understand that when he said I knew her better than anyone else, he was referring to me. I had often noticed his strange, pensive gazes. But then I decided I must have been wrong since he had accepted my relationship with Christian so easily...
Turns out it wasn’t that simple. And yet, I didn’t want any misunderstanding to be between us.
“Evan, I just want you to know that I’m really happy that fate has been so generous by providing me with a friend like you,” I said, taking his hand.
“Oh, God! Is this the gentle hinting of “we can only be friends” thing?” smiling, he said. “You are breaking my heart, Eileen!”
“You know what I'm talking about. It feels so easy being friends with you. It’s comfortable with you, but...”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” gently squeezing my palm, he said. “I can see it all myself. I’m glad that you understand me. And besides, Tara said that I would finally find her. She said it in future content, so I haven’t lost hope.”
“Since we're talking about the future. Do you see Amanda there?” I decided to ask.
“Christian also asked me that, but at this point I don’t know the answer to your questions, guys. I like her, of course, but whether or not there will be something more… only time will tell.”
A few minutes later we approached the Administration.
“Archives are on the ground floor,” Evan said, opening the door for me. “Usually, access there is open, since all students and teachers of Dever have every right to use them. Although, a tidy library and fast internet connection are preferred over the dungeon that holds the archives. You’ll understand why in a moment.”
We went down to the ground floor corridor. It was lit with only a few dim bulbs. At the end of it there was only a single door.
“This is the archive,” said Evan.
From the inside the archive was even darker than the hallway. Evan lit a few lamps, placing them directly on the floor along one of the walls. The room itself wasn’t large, maybe even twice as small as the one in front of Alexis’s office, where we found Camilla’s diary.
“Why aren’t all these materials stored in the same room as historical records of Dever?” I asked.
“Well, the fact is that there’s nothing valuable here. The only stuff in here are the portraits and biographies of the descendants. So the more valuable sources of information are kept upstairs.”
“Wow! You were right. It seems like no one ever comes here,” I said, brushing away a thick layer of dust on a bookshelf.
“So, let's see, if my memory doesn’t fail me, the portraits have to be somewhere here,” said Evan, squeezing between the shelves. “Eileen, can you bring me one of the lamps, please. I see absolutely nothing. Damn it!”
“Are you okay?” I asked hearing his curse.
“Yes, bring a lamp, or I will crush everything here.”
“Good lord, there are hundreds of portraits here!” I exclaimed, coming to the place where Evan’s voice came.
“Why, on Earth, have I agreed to help you?” he mused. “I’ll have to spend the rest of the day in the bathroom, trying to wash off all this dust.”
“Don’t worry about it. Thank God, soap was invented a long time ago,” I replied.
“Thank you, dear, for your opinion!”
“Evan, stop your belly aching, please! We need to find Nora's portrait. So I'll check these shelves, and you – do the ones over on the table. Look for someone similar to my description, if you find anything, call me.”
And so it started - tons of mud, mixed with old documents and portraits. After an hour of unsuccessful searching, I couldn’t stand it in here any longer. My eyes were aching an itchy from the dust, and my nose stuffed up so it was hard to breathe.
“Are you still alive there?” Evan asked, coming up behind me.
“I guess so,” I said, trying to take a look at another enormous portrait of some stranger.
“I found nothing there, only saw the ones that I already knew about.”
“I haven’t found anyone familiar either. Can you hand me those from the top shelves?” I asked, pointing to a few portraits I couldn’t get to.
“Thankfully these are the last ones!” Evan said, removing the remaining portraits on the floor. “So, who do we have here? Aha! Jacqueline Meridin. She is one of the most talented oneiromancers. What she likes most to decipher are the dreams that people are having during the day. She thinks that nighttime dreams are dull and uninteresting, but the day ones, in her opinion, hold a lot more useful information.”
“And this girl reminds of Nora,” I said, looking at another portrait. “Only the features are much younger and sharper.”
“There’s no signature here,” Evan said disappointed.
“No, there’s not. I would say that there is a good chance that they could be relatives. Does she seem familiar to you?”
“No, I’ve never seen her before.”
“Are there any more pictures of these people? Maybe somewhere in the books?” I suggested.
“There you can find only those who played a significant role in the history of Dever, and these portraits were painted many years ago, just as a tribute to those who possessed extraordinary abilities.”
“So how shall we find her? Is it possible that she had nothing to do with Dever at
all? It could explain the absence of her portrait here.”
“It is possible, of course, though quite weird. Keepers usually find these people. Even if she wasn’t a student of Dever, there should be some information about her here, at least, about her ability.”
“Then let's get out of here, I can’t breathe. Let's try to look elsewhere,” I said, taking a lamp, and heading for the exit. “Darcy asked me to help with the preparations for the Festival. It's usually held on the eastern border, right?”
“Yes, I'll take you there and see what the Council of prefects came up with this year. Each year its members create an arena for the Festival in a new shape. Last year it was a ship. And the final show was the performance of Embry students, who lifted into the air with huge white sails of that ship. It turned out to be pretty spectacular. Although, of course, that's what the Festival is set aside for. Only those, for whom it’s a final exam as well, take it more seriously. For everyone else, this is a great opportunity to show to others their skills.”
“Well, the student’s of Wizardy must always be the best, right?”
“Not true. No one in Dever ever thought that magic was the best of all abilities. Yes, it's certainly a great honor to become a student of Wizardy, but you have already seen the talents of other gifted students.”
“Speaking of talents, I haven’t seen your performance yet,” I noted.
“You will see it at the festival just like everyone else and, besides, it is a surprise.”
“That's not fair! I’ve seen even Christian’s show! Why don’t you want to show me yours?”
“I’ve already told you - it will be a surprise.”
“Just for me or for everyone else as well?” I didn’t want to give up.
“For you and for everyone else. Eileen, have a little patience. In only a week you get to see everything with your own eyes.”
I sighed in disappointment and Evan laughed.
“You're like a spoiled child pouting because your parents wouldn’t buy you a toy.”
“If my pouting is working then tell me your plan!” I begged with my lips pursed.
“Oh, no! Your pouting won’t work. I'm very stubborn, you know,” he said, his usual cat-like smile on his face.