Draiochta Academy: All Genres Academy Anthology

by BBB Publishings

  “But…” I had a hundred things I wanted to say. I’m not an investigator. The authorities in Harmonville belong to Tompkins. How am I supposed to do anything about a murder? I could only shake my head.

  Mr. Allenby seemed to understand. “I know it’s daunting, but you won’t be alone. The brothers will be with you every step of the way, as they always have been.”

  “I…” I took a deep breath. “I’ll do my best.”

  He smiled. “Excellent. So does that mean that you accept our offer?”

  I could hardly say no. “I accept.”

  Mr. Allenby rose and leaned over the desk, offering me his hand. I stood up, too, and accepted the handshake. “Welcome to Acadamh Draiochta, Miss Douglas. We’re happy you’re here.”

  Mr. Allenby escorted me to the guest book, which was really a register of students. I signed my name and felt a tingle run from my hand all the way up to the shoulder, and I looked at him in a mixture of awe and concern.

  “What just happened?”

  “By signing this register, you have agreed to be part of the Draiochta community, and have given tacit permission for us to open a connection between us and you. It will help keep us connected so that if any harm befalls you here or in the outside world, the school community will know and we can come to your aid.”

  “You could have told me before I signed.”

  He smiled. “Oversight. I apologize.”

  I knew it was no oversight, but there was nothing I could do about it now. It wasn’t a bad thing, I supposed, but it would have been nice if he’d told me what I was agreeing to, tacitly or otherwise. I guess that’s what I get for not asking in the first place.

  Setmon was waiting nearby, and he smiled at me. “I’ll take you on a tour of the grounds.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Angelus,” Mr. Allenby said. “Miss Douglas, I leave you in our companion’s capable hands.”

  He went back into his office, and Setmon held out his hand in front of him, inviting me to walk with him. I did.

  The third floor was, as I’d been told before, a dormitory. There were two wings, one for males and one for females. There were rooms for the students and apartments for the staff, and the hallways were longer than the building should have held. I was beginning to think that the rules of physics I had grown up with were only nodding acquaintances with this place.

  “Do you and your brothers have rooms here?” I asked him as we walked down the hallway of the male wing.

  “Of course.” He smiled and pointed to a door. “In fact, we share that room, there.”

  “I’m assuming that it’s way bigger on the inside than I’d expect?”

  Setmon chuckled. “You assume correctly.”

  “Is anything here what it seems?”

  “Nothing,” he admitted, “including you.”

  He took me back down the stairs to the first floor and those tantalizing doors. The door on the back wall to the left of the stairs led to a huge kitchen, and a trio of cooks were bustling around, including one man with wings like a butterfly.

  Setmon leaned toward me and whispered, “Fairies are real.”

  “So I see.”

  He led me back out so we could leave the cooks to their work, walking through a side door and into a dining hall. There were round tables and one long king’s table at the front, and it looked more like a banquet hall than a cafeteria. Another door took us back out to the foyer, but this time on the other side of the stairs.

  “If you’re hungry, you can stay for dinner,” he told me.

  “I need to get back before that. My mom will worry. I was only supposed to be gone for a few minutes. I’m already late.”

  “Time passes differently here than in the outside world. When you go back through the gate, no time will have passed in that world at all. You can stay here for as long as you like, and nobody on the outside will be any wiser.”

  “Yeah, I think if I stay too long, I’ll wear out my welcome.”

  “How so?”

  “No baths, no clean clothes? Yeah. I won’t even want to be around me.”

  He stopped and looked at me, bemused. “Do you really think we don’t have bathing facilities here, or that we couldn’t provide you with clean clothes?”

  “Well, that’s not what I meant. I know you probably have everything you need here, and if you don’t have it, someone could probably whip it up with magic.”

  “Then what did you mean?”

  I didn’t know how to say that I didn’t think they’d share those things with me, so I just shrugged. He seemed to know what I was thinking anyway, and he put his big hands on my shoulders. He looked into my eyes, and I was struck by the flecks of glowing light in his irises. I had never seen any eyes like that before.

  “Maysie, you are worthy of everything in this world and all the others. Just because the people in the outside world can’t see your value, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” He smiled gently. “You’re a very kind soul, and I will always remember your goodness.”

  “Always remember? Are you going somewhere?”

  “No, not at all. But I don’t have to go anywhere to have memories of you.”

  He led me down to the other doors on that half of the room. The first door led to another impossibly long hallway, this one lined with classrooms. Classes were in session, and for the first time, I got a good look at the students. There were people of every description as well as every kind of fairy and magical creation I could have imagined, including some I couldn’t even identify. There were students with wings, and some with horns, and others who looked completely and utterly human.

  “These are all witches?”

  Setmon nodded. “Yes. Your future classmates.”

  The tour continued through the other doors I’d seen in the foyer. On the other side of the stairs, one door led to a huge library filled with massive tomes with antique fabric bindings. The other door led to a ballroom, which was currently empty. A grand piano stood in one corner, and there was a gorgeous crystal chandelier hanging in the center of the room, casting rainbows across the parquet floor.

  “Wow,” I whispered. “I’ve never been anywhere like this.”

  “There will be many balls and celebrations in this room,” a familiar voice said. “You’ll be accustomed to the location soon enough.”

  Adziel and Ipfimel strolled toward us, coming in from the foyer. Ipfimel smiled at me.

  “I’m so pleased you’ve accepted the invitation,” he said.

  “I could hardly turn it down.”

  “You could have,” Adziel said, “but it would have been a foolish thing to do.”

  I chuckled. “Well, I’m no fool.”

  “This we know.”

  I had to ask. “Say… when you guys were in crow form, visiting me at my house, did you really like the stuff I was giving you?”

  “Of course,” Setmon answered, sounding surprised that I’d even asked such a thing.

  “When in crow form, we have crow desires,” Adziel told me. “And the chicken was very, very tasty.”

  “But you’re angels.”

  Ipfimel shrugged. “Even angels have to eat.”

  “And angels in crow form eat like crows,” Setmon added.

  We returned to the foyer, and I looked around. “So… we’ve gone through every door here, but we still haven’t gotten into the tower.”

  “That’s because the tower is only accessible from the outside,” Ipfimel told me. “It’s got laboratories, potion brewing facilities, and spaces for magical combat. It can be a dangerous place, so it’s usually off-limits to everybody but fourth-year students and faculty.”

  “Can you go in there?”

  Adziel laughed. “We don’t want to go in there.”

  I took a deep breath. “Okay… now what?”

  “Now we return you to the other world, and you keep your eyes open. You’ll be starting school again soon, and that will give you access to Jeremiah Tompkins and his friends. We will
be with you, and if you have any messages for Mr. Allenby, just write it on a piece of paper and we’ll take it back to him.” Adziel smiled. “Just keep that chicken coming.”

  I started school at Harmonville High right on schedule, and at the same time, I started taking classes at the academy. I kept feeding the ravens, and they kept bringing money and precious things. By early October, they had brought us enough that we were able to buy a used rattle trap so I had a car of my own.

  Things started to look up for my mom. She got promoted and got a raise, and she was able to cut down her hours from 60 to 50, leaving her weekends free. She started to socialize again, hanging out with Mrs. Washington and another lady from work, and she even started to put on weight. We both ate regular meals, and feeding the ravens didn’t take away from our larder anymore.

  We went to church every Sunday, like everybody else in town, and listened to Reverend Tompkins rail on about evil in our midst. He repeatedly cited the story of Saul and the Witch of Endor, and he liked to hammer on “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” I kept Mr. Allenby apprised of the nature of the sermons, and I kept an eye out for Jeremiah and his goons.

  As for my investigation into Mr. Burney’s murder, I was coming up blank. I had no idea what to do or even how to start. His house had been cleaned and re-rented, so if there ever had been any clues there, they were long gone. Discouraged, I waited for the ravens to show up at my house.

  We had purchased some wicker chairs for the front porch, and I was sitting in one of these, picking a chicken breast apart and waiting for the ravens to arrive. Jeremiah Tompkins’ new hot rod squealed its tires as it rounded the corner onto my street, and he roared into my driveway, where he slammed on the brakes just in time to keep from plowing into my old sedan. He climbed out and stalked up the steps to stand on the porch, his hands on his hips.

  “You fixin’ to feed them fairy birds again?”

  “Get off my porch,” I snapped. “What’s it to you?”

  “Them birds is the devil’s tools, Maysie.”

  “What do you care?” I repeated. “It’s not your business, and they’re just birds.”

  “Says you.”

  “Says every rational human in the three-county area. Now, I’m serious, get off my porch and go away. You’ve got no business being here.”

  He glowered at me, then said, “I know what this time of year is to you people.”

  I laughed sharply. “‘You people?’”

  “Witches.”

  I snorted. “Right. You’ve listened to too many of your dad’s sermons.”

  Jeremiah grabbed my arm in a bruising grip, his fingers digging into my bicep. The plate of chicken fell to the floor and he yanked me toward him.

  “Listen to me, you little bitch,” he snarled. “I know you’re a witch, and I know we’re comin’ up on the witches’ sabbath. You and your kind ain’t long for this world, so if you have a God, I think y’all’d better get right with him, ‘cause you’re gonna be seein’ him soon.”

  Three ravens flew into view, letting out shrill caws. They flew toward Jeremiah, clawing at him with their talons. He let go of me and batted at them, trying to punch them out of the air, but they were faster than him and avoided his blows easily. They chased him off the steps and all the way back to his car.

  “Witch!” he hollered once he was safely in the vehicle. “You’re gonna be sorry!”

  He drove away at top speed, his engine roaring as he rounded the corner and made his getaway. The ravens returned to the porch and perched on the railing. Ipfimel shook his feathers in indignation.

  “He’s going to be back,” I told them. “I know it.”

  Adziel hopped closer to me, then flew up to sit on the arm of the chair where I was sitting. He leaned closer and chirped softly, the sound coming from the back of his throat. I stroked his feathers, and he leaned into my hand, giving me reassurance. I appreciated the effort.

  We inched our way into October, the days getting gray and rainy as summer finally gave up the ghost. Jeremiah and his posse of losers kept snarling and glaring at me, but they kept their distance. They were probably afraid of being attacked by my ravens, and that was probably a good fear to have.

  After school at Harmonville High, I went to the Academy and attended classes there. It was weird, and I had a hard time wrapping my mind around it, but every time I went through that gate, I arrived right when I needed to. I never missed a class, and I was never late for a meal. I learned a lot about the basics of witchcraft, something that was far more complicated than I had ever expected it to be. I was even able to do a couple of minor spells before Halloween rolled around.

  Jeremiah was throwing his annual bacchanalia in the swamp, and this time I received an invitation. Believe me, I wasn’t jumping for joy. There was something sinister about the invitation like I was a cow being named guest of honor at a barbeque. I couldn’t shake the feeling that going to this party would be a very, very bad idea.

  I was thinking about the party and my options one afternoon, sitting at the kitchen table, when there was a knock on the back door. Nobody ever came to the back of the house, so I was instantly on my guard. I cautiously went to see who was calling.

  Adziel stood there in his human form, and his brothers were right behind him. I opened the door, surprised.

  “Hi! Come in.”

  They politely wiped their feet on the doormat before they stepped into the kitchen. Ipfimel and Setmon were so big that they filled the little open space there was, and I was impressed all over again by their bulk.

  Adziel smiled at me. “I was hoping we could have a conversation about Jeremiah Tompkins’ party.”

  “Of course. I sort of wanted to talk about it, too.”

  We went into the living room, where we had a new couch and a set of easy chairs. I sat in one of the chairs, Adziel occupied the other, and the big boys shared the couch, their shoulders touching. We all looked at Adziel, waiting for him to begin.

  “Jeremiah has invited you to his Halloween party,” he said. I nodded. “He has also invited all of the other people in town that he and his family believe are witches. In some cases, he’s correct. Mostly he’s wrong.”

  “Not surprising,” I told him.

  “Not at all.” He looked at Setmon. “My brother has noted that Jeremiah, Reginald Harris, and Stephen Montgomery have all been purchasing ammunition for their firearms in large quantities.”

  I ventured, “Hunting season starts soon.”

  “Yes,” Ipfimel agreed, his handsome face grim. “Witch hunting season.”

  “There’s no way in hell that I’m going to that party,” I told them. “I know they intend to hurt me, maybe even kill me. I’m not setting myself up like that.”

  Ipfimel glanced at his brothers, then said slowly, “The party will be adjacent to the Academy.”

  “So?”

  “We will be able to protect you more easily when the violence starts.”

  I didn’t miss the choice of words. “When, not if. You seriously want me to go?”

  “There will be many people there,” Adziel told me. “Locals, obviously. Witches. And an undercover detective from Slidell.”

  Slidell was the next town over, and there was a state police outpost there. They were the nearest authorities who wouldn’t be under Tompkin’s thumb, or shouldn’t be.

  “How did you arrange that?”

  “There are more witches in this world than you might imagine, and there are alumni of the Academy in many places nearby,” Adziel answered. “The detective is a witch who graduated from Acadamh Draiochta ten years ago.”

  I ran a hand over my face, briefly massaging my temples with my thumb and fingertips. “So, what? You want me to get him to confess where everybody can hear him?”

  “Not everybody,” Setmon said. “Just the detective.”

  I glared at them, not liking what I was hearing. “You’re putting me in danger,” I accused.

  “Not at all.
We will be there the entire time, protecting you.” Ipfimel leaned forward. “Please believe me when I say that I would never let anything happen to you.”

  “I believe you when you say you’ll try. Can you fly faster than a bullet?”

  Setmon snorted softly. “Maysie, we’re angels.”

  Adziel said, “I don’t blame you for being hesitant. We’re asking a lot of you. You know that he means to hurt you, possibly to kill you, and the last thing we want is for that to happen. But justice must be done.”

  “You’re assuming a lot. Even if the detective hears him, and even if charges are eventually pressed in court, there are judges around here that are either bought and paid for or who think the same way Reverend Tompkins does.” I heaved a sigh. “Look, I don’t think there’s going to be any justice at all here, and the only thing that’s going to stop the killing of witches in Harmonville is if somebody takes out Revered Tompkins and his people completely.”

  The angels looked at each other in silence for a long moment. Given what they were, it made sense to me that they’d only see one way forward with all of this. Go to the authorities, follow proper procedures… the whole white-hat routine. But this was no white-hat world, and everything around me had always been in shades of gray. I had no problem doing what was necessary, even if it was less than honorable.

  Adziel finally turned to me. “I understand what you’re trying to say, but the party will be the time to act, if only to save the other witches in attendance.”

  “Nobody who’s a witch will be stupid enough to accept that invitation.”

  Ipfimel grumbled, “You’re assuming you’ll all be given that option.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You think he’s going to kidnap us?”

  “I’ve seen lynch mobs before, Maysie. This wouldn’t be the first.”

  His choice of words was alarming to me. I hopped up onto my feet, too agitated to stay seated, and started to pace. I was really frightened, and not just for myself. My mother had no idea what was going on, but she’d already been singled out as a witch by Reverend Tompkins and his nasty son. I couldn’t let them get their hands on her, or let them hurt her. She had already been hurt too much.