by Nixon, Diana
“Where's Nora?” I asked Evan.
“She couldn’t attend the hearing. The concern for her protection was considered, so now only the question of her punishment’s severity will be addressed. Vero received a full confession from her, so her presence here is not necessary. Besides, she’s still under the restraining effect of drugs, so her sanity at the moment is questionable.”
The questioning of witnesses started. One by one the chairman of the Council asked about the events of that day and what happened in Norfield. He didn’t ask anyone about how it became known of Nora’s abuse of her powers. It was a given that these things would be noticed by the Keepers of the region.
When Frederic was giving his answers, he didn’t hide the fact that the whole thing started because of him. At least, what he said was partly true. His powers and abilities were well known to everyone. He withheld the fact that he had an illegitimate daughter.
Responding to questions from Council members, my father had to say that Amanda had told him about Nora, and that he, in turn, informed the Keepers as to her location.
There was nothing left for me but to confirm and collaborate what everyone else had testified to. Thank God, they didn’t ask me anything else. When all the witnesses were questioned, the secretary asked all those present to leave the room and wait outside for the Council's decision. Everyone went out to the hallway, then it became clear that this small space wasn’t designed to accommodate so many people.
“Shall we go out?” I suggested.
“I’m all for that,” said Evan. “There really is no point staying here in this cramped space. We will pass out waiting for the announcement of their decision.”
I didn’t see my father, mom or Frederic. We had lost sight of each other when the crowd was leaving the courtroom. Getting to the exit wasn’t so easy. There were many people wanting to get a breath of fresh air. As I got to the door, someone called me.
“Christian? You are Christian Fairey?” asked a man in a dark suit.
“Yes, I am,” I said turning around.
“I have a message for you,” the man said, handing me a small piece of paper, folded several times.
“A message?” I wondered. “From whom?”
“Soon you will understand everything,” replied the man, and without saying another word he went in the opposite direction.
“Who was that?” Evan asked when we finally went out.
“I have no idea. He gave me this paper,” I said unfolding the note.
“Dear, Christian! I didn’t have an opportunity or time to tell you this personally, but Eileen is in extreme danger. If the rumors are true, and my brother actually managed to escape, he won’t stop there. You should know this and explain it to the others that it’s important to stop him. I’m telling you only because I know that my involvement in this is over, and that nothing good will come of this. So you must find him. He got enough strength in Dever to hide out and stay hidden for quite a while. But he won’t hide forever. In exactly eighteen days after Eileen’s birthday, she will get Frederic’s full powers. At least, that is what Eric thinks. You shouldn’t allow her to use them in considerable amounts. Eric wants to force her to do it voluntarily so he can make her give them up. I hope you have heard or read about the Cup of power. So yes, it does really exist. Eric has it now. The Cup’s power is one that abandons one’s strength so when sipping from the Cup, the person, thereby, transfers his powers to its owner. The Cup for years belonged to Jillian Wizardy and now it’s owner is Eric. Using its properties, he wants to get Eileen’s powers. By agreeing to give them up, she would also agree to give him the power of her own life. That's why you must find him and destroy the Cup before something terrible happens. Magic always leaves traces. Track the events of recent developments in the world and find Eric. If you find him, you will find the Cup. I sincerely wish you good luck. Please try to succeed where I failed. Alexis.”
“This is some interesting news,” said behind my back Evan, who was reading the note over my shoulder.
“I’m speechless,” I said stunned.
“So, the Cup does exist,” he concluded.
“Do you know anything about it?”
“Yeah, they told us about it in our courses of Wizardy, but I always thought it was just a legend and that it really didn’t exist.”
“How can we find it?”
“Well, the note says that we need to find Eric first. We - Wizardy are really able to see traces of magic, and the traces of dark magic can’t be hidden. That is where we should start. We must look through recent news, and I think we should pay more attention to the bad news as I’m pretty sure that Eric couldn’t be doing anything good.”
“I hope it is only on a single continent,” I said thoughtfully.
“I don’t think his traces will go beyond the UK. Although Eric has recharged his batteries, but he can’t be strong enough to leave the country, and he also knows some places to stay hidden at. I don’t think he would venture too far away from Dever. If he realizes that the protective spells and the elements have been changed, he will likely be waiting for the moment Eileen leaves Dever so that he can take her.”
“I doubt that she will be leaving the campus anytime soon.”
“But this applies to town as well. You can’t let her go there.”
“We should tell her everything. And the sooner Frederic does it, the better. Besides, if she knows everything, we won’t have to lie to her any more, and she will be able to help us.”
“You're right. So we must first talk to Frederic. Hey, look, everybody is going back. Looks like the Council has already made the decision,” said Evan.
We returned to the courtroom. My parents and Frederic were already there, in their original seats. We also took ours.
“When the hearing ends, we must discuss some new developments,” I said quietly to Frederic.
He nodded in response.
“The Supreme Council of the League of Keepers has reached its decision,” the judge said. “Normandia Stella Wizardy is sentenced to life imprisonment in a closed prison of Cabria that is located in Hampshire. The sentence can’t be appealed or revised. Thank you all for attending the hearing.”
“Well, at least that’s good news,” Evan commented.
All the participants began to leave.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Frederic asked when we walked to the parking lot.
I handed him a note from Alexis. For several minutes he was carefully re-reading the writing.
“I can’t believe that they have come up with something like this! What bastards!” in the end he said, referring to all of the accused Wizardy. “And that damn Cup! I thought that Camilla was wrong talking about a Cup, which supposedly traced the lines of the fate of all the descendants of Wizardy. She didn’t know what kind of a cup it was, and I thought that it definitely couldn’t be true. It turns out that it's all true! Man, how much I miss Camilla! She was so right about so many things. And I was such a fool, didn’t even take her words seriously. I thought in her old age, she was losing her mind. She was constantly talking about some stranger that was so important to find, and so on and so forth. Who knew the old woman was right?..”
“So you will tell Eileen the truth, right?” I asked.
“We'll have to do it sooner than I thought,” Frederic nodded. “Today I’m coming back to Dever with you.”
On the way back we all were thinking about how to prepare Eileen for the news that Frederic was her real father. We couldn’t tell her everything at once. This news was shocking enough all by itself. So we decided just to introduce them first and not mention their kinship. Mom promised to arrange a dinner at my father’s apartment this weekend, where Eileen and I would also attend. As well as Frederic, of course.
Despite the fact that the way back seemed shorter, we arrived at Dever about midnight. I decided to go to Eileen. She should have already been asleep, but I had to see her, just to make sure that she was okay. I got
to her door and as quietly as possible turned the key in the lock. To my surprise, Eileen wasn’t asleep. She was sitting on her bed cross-legged and looking at some photos under the dim light of a table lamp.
“Christian!” she said jumping out of bed and running up to me.
“Hey,” I said quietly, embracing her. “I thought you would be asleep, but still decided to come.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” she shook her head. “My grandma left only a few hours ago. We spent the whole day together.”
“You don’t sound very happy. Do you want to talk about it?” I asked sitting with her on the bed. She smiled sadly.
“I thought I couldn’t be surprised any more. But I was wrong.”
“What happened?”
“You'll never guess,” again with a sad grin she said. “My favorite granny, the dear Stephanie Mitchell knew everything from the very beginning.”
Eileen’s words sounded absurd to me.
“She knew that I was a gifted child, that I had some supernatural powers. She knew about Dever and well, she knew everything.”
“But how?” I asked in surprise.
“Once upon a time, many years ago, Camilla Steward accidentally met my grandmother. Of course, she didn’t say anything about who she really was, but still offered to look at her palms. What Camilla saw there, was a complete surprise for her too. She saw a link to your world, my world, and then decided to tell Stephanie everything about it. At that time she didn’t know whose relationship it would be related to my grandmother but it will be revealed that a girl would be born. A girl who would be very talented and would surprise many people. Grandma realized that she was talking about me when I was born. She said she had never seen a child like me before. I wasn’t capricious, always succeeded in everything, always grasped everything in a single flash and never gave up, if something didn’t work. And since I always believed in magic... I still do believe. Not because I’m a child, of course, but because I can possess magic myself.”
Eileen cheeks were covered with tears. She wasn’t upset, she was rather confused. I felt it. All her life she spent in one world, but as it turned out she actually belonged to quite different one. I silently embraced her. She was still crying.
“Hey, what is with the talks in the middle of the night?” I heard a sleepy, and at the same time angry voice of my sister. “Christian, couldn’t you wait until morning to see Eileen?” she groaned.
“Sorry, dear, I’m going to be leaving.”
“Go quickly, and turn the light off. I can’t fall back asleep with it on,” Amanda said, turning to the other side.
“Shall I stay?” I whispered to Eileen.
“No. I'm all right. I'm going to bed too,” she said forcing a smile.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Go and get some rest yourself.”
I leaned over and kissed her lips.
“Where did you go that you came back so late?” she asked, following me to the door.
“It's Evan’s fault. He forced me to ride with him to keep him company since he had some business to take care of,” I replied. My friend didn’t mind being called the guilty one of the reason for our late return. Besides, it was the answer I had prepared beforehand.
“See you tomorrow,” I said, once again kissing her goodbye.
“Bye,” said Eileen.
The next morning we all met for breakfast.
“I got an awful night’s sleep. Again!” Amanda said, looking angrily at me. She sat next to Lucas, who was carefully making her a sandwich, completely forgetting about his own coffee. Evan was gloomy as a cloud, which was absolutely not typical for him. Muttering something like “I have some things to get done”, he left. Darcy told me that she had visited Anna in the morning, and that she felt much better now. It was even possible that by the end of the week Mrs. Weber would let her go. Eileen looked calm, although in her heart she still felt worried. Most likely, because of yesterday meeting with Stephanie. I didn’t want to ask her anything else, but she knew that when she was ready, she could share with me everything that I couldn’t feel. So I finally decided to mention the prearranged dinner meeting.
“Our parents are going to have a family dinner this weekend, and we're invited,” I said to Eileen. “This includes you and Lucas,” I turned to Amanda.
“Really? And what’s the occasion?” she asked excitedly.
“Just dinner. Nothing special. Only family and friends.”
“Someone else is invited?”
“As far as I know, yes. But just don’t know who exactly.”
“Excellent! My mother always has wonderful dinners,” Amanda said. “It means a lot of goodies, music, laughter and dancing! Just what we all need!”
Yeah, just what we need.
“Do they know Lucas?” Eileen asked.
“Officially, no,” Lucas noted. “But I do know Mr. Fairey, he's our teacher.”
I smiled encouragingly.
“He isn’t as strict at home,” I said reassuringly.
“I can’t even imagine how he will treat us in class after we show up together for dinner,” Amanda sighed.
“Don’t frighten Lucas, otherwise he will refuse to go to there,” Eileen laughed. “And what about Evan? He didn’t even tell where today’s lesson would be held.”
“We should just call him,” I replied, picking Evan’s mobile phone. “Hey, where did you go? Eileen doesn’t know where to meet you for her lesson today.”
“I’ve found something, Christian. Could you come to your father’s apartment? Now.”
“Of course,” I said frowning.
I didn’t like the sound of Evan’s voice. It was filled with worry.
“Tell Eileen you have to leave to study and I will meet her in half an hour in front of the training building,” Evan said.
“Do you have a practice session right now?” I asked. Eileen looked at me questioningly, hearing my words.
“Yes. I'll explain everything when we meet. Come quickly.”
I hung up the phone and told her where she should meet with Evan and at what time.
I noticed Amanda’s suspicious glance. She realized that I was hiding something. We didn’t tell anyone about the note from Alexis, except from those who were at the hearing of the Council and my sister. But I left them alone with their suspicions and went to my father's apartment.
“You're just in time,” said Evan, opening the door. “Look at this.”
On the TV was a news release.
Evan and I sat on the sofa next to my father.
“An incredible change of weather in north-west Britain. In a single day temperature in the region has changed from - 5ºС to + 25ºС. And it’s the middle of September!
In the area of Scafell Pike the snow begun to melt, which has led to numerous landslides and the flooding of local communities.
The weather just now restored it to its normal temperature of + 15ºС. Let us hope that the recent events were only temporary,” said the speaker.
My father turned the volume down.
“Scafell Pike? That is very close to Dever,” I said.
Evan and my father nodded.
“Do you think this is Eric’s handiwork?”
“No doubt. We walked along the western border this morning and we were correct with our assumptions. Eric left Dever. We found some traces of magic.”
“Judging by the events described, he can hardly control his power. This means that he’s weaker than we expected. Which, of course, is very good news,” Evan admitted.
“But there’s nowhere to hide in these mountains. You don’t think that he is living in one of those caves, do you?” I wondered. I didn’t want to think about the fact that Eric was staying so close to Dever. And Eileen.
Judging by the expression of both of them, that was exactly what they thought too.
“So what do we do now?”
“Later today, when it starts to get dark, Frederic, Evan, Elena and I will go out and walk
along the western border. We will see if we can get an idea of where Eric is hiding. If he really is weak, he will need to maintain the remnants of his forces somehow, and he will need food. He won’t go out in daylight, but in the twilight - he may try,” my father said making some notes on a piece of paper.
“What will you do if you really do find him?” I asked them again.
“Smile sweetly and ask him if he wants to drink a cup of tea with us, or maybe some coffee,” sarcastically replied Evan.
“If we still manage to find his trail, we won’t let him go, Christian. Even if we have to drag him back to Dever, since this is the safest place,” he added dead serious.
“You must be crazy! Eileen is here!” I protested.
“We already considered that. Which is why I want to have a practice session today. I want to show her how to distinguish white magic from dark magic. Since Eric is clearly using only dark magic. If she knows how to recognize it, then she won’t fall for his tricks. Not that we would allow that to happen,” Evan said.
“Besides, she is always accompanied by one of us,” my father added. “Frederic is here too. She is in no danger, Christian.”
“But she will be if we don’t find this bastard,” pointed Evan.
“Okay, then. How will you explain to her why she should know the difference between black and white magic?” I asked.
“We'll have to tell her about the note. Not everything, of course, only the part where it talks about Eric and the Cup. We won’t mention anything about Frederic, or his powers. Let her believe that her own power is valuable enough for Eric to want it, since that is partly true. And we won’t tell her where the note was given to you.”
“Someday Eileen will hate us all for a number of “partial truths” we have told her,” I noted worried.
No one had anything to say about that.
“Okay, it’s time for me to go to work. See you later,” said Evan and left.
“Whatever happens, Christian, you should always remember about your bond,” my father said.