Drakonika (Book 1)

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Drakonika (Book 1) Page 26

by Andrea Závodská


  He would have been left behind if Maren didn't poke him to wake up, because Aedan was already moving forward.

  “Magnus! You are sleeping? Let's go!” she said, sounding slightly annoyed.

  Their druid expedition led them through a seemingly infinite forest. They crossed many creeks, alleys of bushes and ferns, but also beautiful flower fields that looked like they were cut from a fairytale. When twilight filled the sky and the air grew colder, Aedan found a suitable cave for them to spend the night. But there was still work to do — they needed wood for fire and water and food for cooking, so he split orders among the children. Then he left to a nearby creek in order to ask Mother Nature for some fresh fish.

  Everyone complained about their exhaustion and legs hurting, but they had no choice but to do it. If they didn't, they would have nothing to eat and they would freeze from cold overnight. Among all novices, Magnus was afraid of the cold the most so he willingly took the quest to collect wood. Maren and Fjalldís helped him, even though they could barely walk.

  Before the Black Squad got to work, they had to encourage themselves by giving away a few pointy insults.

  “Hey Lars, nice branch! You could sweep carpets with that,” Darius said mockingly and his friends immediately burst into laughter. That scared Lars enough to make him take a quick run to other children, just so he wouldn't have to stay with the horrifying Black Squad alone.

  Giselbert was given the quest to collect some herbs for roasting, which he considered completely useless work. But according to the members of the Black Squad, any quest given by Aedan was useless.

  “Asking for permission to take a few stinking leaves, yeah right. Just watch me,” he said in an irritated tone as he crouched to the ground. He pulled up some green leaves without hesitation, although he didn't even know if it was edible or not. Then, somewhere close to him, he heard a gentle voice.

  “May I have permission to take these herbs? Thank you,” Belinda said as she carefully took a few pieces of thyme. When she wrapped it in her druid cloak, her graceful face brightened with a contented smile. One single look at her was enough to tell she simply belonged to the nature.

  Giselbert gaped at her for a while, as though he saw a fairy. It seemed he had completely forgotten how he and his friends laughed at her the very same day.

  When Belinda noticed him, she froze. All this time she had thought she was there alone. Then she suddenly narrowed her eyes, looking at the boy's arm.

  “I think you're bleeding,” she said calmly.

  Giselbert started checking himself frantically and then he finally came to his left arm where he saw a thin red stripe appear under the torn sleeve. Belinda was right!

  “Help! Help! I'm bleeding! No, this can't be happening! I'm too young to die!” he shouted desperately, running in circles.

  When Belinda saw his overreaction, she took pity on him and decided to help, although he didn't deserve it at all. She approached him slowly and stopped him from running.

  “Just calm down. What are you screaming for? Give it here,” she said as she gently laid her staff on the ground and took his left hand to check it closely. But it was exactly what she expected. “It's nothing. Just a small scratch. Put some plantain on it.” And that was it.

  Giselbert looked at her in disbelief. He got so terribly injured and she was acting as though nothing happened!

  “Plan-what?” he repeated, as though he didn't hear her well. But it was clear that he didn't have the slightest idea how to tend an injury in the wilderness.

  “Fine, I'll show you how to do it. But we'll have to look around, because I don't see any here. That is, if you can move at all,” Belinda said tartly.

  “Well, I don't know. It really hurts,” Giselbert moaned.

  “That was supposed to be a joke,” Belinda scolded him. “Now move it, before you bleed out.”

  While Belinda spent most of her time tending Giselbert's “deadly” injury, the rest of the novices were slowly completing their tasks. When they finally gathered back in the cave and met with Aedan, they were so exhausted they wouldn't be able to do anything else.

  The fire and cooking was taken care of by Aedan. The novices were sitting in a group, trying to warm themselves by the fire. Mother Nature was gracious enough to provide soft moss on the ground of the entire cave.

  Soon they were given roasted fish with herbs that all of them were waiting so impatiently for. Even picky Giselbert, who was now hungry like a wolf, accepted this meal gratefully and he even gave his thanks to Mother Nature. Fortunately, his friends didn't realise it as they were busy eating, but Belinda gave him one of her fair smiles as a reward.

  Aedan was usually quite stern, but in nature he was like a changed man.

  “Oh, I love caves and undergrounds, I feel so close to Mother Nature. Can you hear her heartbeat?” he said delightedly.

  “Ehm... No...?” one of the novices said doubtfully and that made the druid scowl again.

  “Wrong answer. Who said that?” Aedan said as he looked around, but in the group of more than twenty of them squeezed together, there was no telling who exactly had said it. And no one had told on them either.

  The time went by and as the novices finished their dinner, they were finally off to sleep. Now they were quite thankful for having the druid cloaks that they could use as blankets.

  Aedan told the boys to sleep on the right and girls had to squeeze by the left wall. As soon as the druid fell asleep, Fjalldís left into a small room through a corridor nearby. She disliked being in large groups and she always slipped away at the first chance she got, although she would have probably decided to stay if she could sleep next to Magnus. But she didn't know that someone in addition to Maren had seen her leave.

  Darius had wanted to apologise to her for quite some time, but certainly not in front of his friends. This was a good opportunity, because his comrades seemed to be sleeping. Darius got up and carefully crossed the room, leaving quietly to where Fjalldís had disappeared. It was quite small, but serene and private. He peeked inside, still alert and making sure that no one was following him.

  She was there, wrapped in her robes, crouching in the corner with her eyes closed. It appeared she was sleeping already. Suddenly, everything looked peaceful. There was only quiet whispering coming from the bigger room and water drops falling on the green moss every now and then. He remained there for a while, just standing in the entrance, watching Fjalldís breathe. But everything has to come to an end, even this perfect moment.

  “What are you doing here?” said a suspicious voice behind him.

  Darius twitched in shock as he looked around his shoulder to see who was standing there. It was Viktor.

  “Oh, nothing. I just noticed there was another room here,” Darius stuttered. He attempted to stand in his friend's view, but despite the darkness, Viktor had already seen who was sleeping there.

  “Sure. And just by coincidence, the scrubby goblin is here as well. You want to be friends with her so much or what?” Viktor growled quietly.

  Darius gaped at him wordlessly. He surely didn't want to lose his gang! Moreover, Fjalldís was sleeping — she couldn't hear a word of what they were saying.

  “How do you get such stupid ideas? I was just curious where this room leads, I didn't know she was here. Me? Friends with her? No way! Let's get out of here,” Darius said scornfully. It seemed that it was convincing enough, because as they walked back into the main room, Viktor's lip curled into a contented sneer.

  When the boys left, Fjalldís opened her eyes and heaved a deep sigh.

  They didn't need to do any packing for the journey back, because they didn't bring anything. But as a thanks to Mother Nature, they had to clean everything in such a way that not even the best detective of the Magi Police could tell that someone had slept there.

  Despite Magnus' usual trouble sleeping, this time he had slept tightly and he felt completely recharged in the morning. It was as though Mother Nature Herself put him
to sleep, knowing how tired and worn out he was. But his back didn't stop itching.

  Before their departure, Darius waited for a moment when Fjalldís would be alone and his friends were busy making fun of others. He quickly slipped away and once he reached the seclusion of a small slope, he stepped right into her way.

  “Um... Hi,” Darius started bashfully, which was very unlike him. “I just wanted to say... well, I... actually... I wanted to...” he stuttered, his composure slipping.

  Fjalldís cut him off harshly, “You came to tell me that you don't want to be friends with me?”

  Darius looked mortified — she must have heard his conversation with Viktor! When he finally mouthed to say something, she interrupted him again.

  “I won't bother you any longer then, it could ruin your day,” Fjalldís said angrily, her nose wrinkled in fury. Darius had never seen her like this before.

  “You... you heard something last night...?” Darius said carefully and although it was clear the answer would be positive, he still tried to play a fool who didn't know anything.

  “Something?” Fjalldís snapped. “I heard EVERYTHING.” Saying that, she turned away from him and took a run back to Aedan's group. Darius remained downcast for the rest of the day, though he told his friends that he was just tired because he didn't get enough sleep.

  Whether they liked it or not, Aedan decided he would take them on as many druid expeditions as possible. After all, they had only learned the basics so far. The real lessons were still ahead of them.

  The journey back took longer than the journey there. No wonder — they were still exhausted from the previous day and Aedan kept talking about forest beings which included elves, fairies, dryads and many more. For now, he decided not to mention the scary ones.

  When they returned to Sinei it was dark already, and naturally, they had time off. Aedan couldn't expect anything more from them that day. Elmar and Lars were devotely learning their herbology books by heart, but Magnus led Maren and Fjalldís to his room. They had lots to discuss.

  The girls were lying on the fluffy carpet, swinging their legs lightly in the air. Magnus was sitting on his bed like a leader of a secret group which consisted of only three members.

  Fjalldís wasked them curiously, “Don't you wonder who the Devoted were? The ones who lived here before?” It seemed the three of them had at least one thing in common — a passion for the unknown and mystery. They knew that Lars and Elmar were right in the next room, so they were careful not to speak too loudly.

  “Naturally,” Magnus said. “Aedan has never told us anything about them. I wonder why he makes such a big secret out of it. Have you noticed the burnt area between Ragna and Sinei? Something serious must have happened there,” he said in a mystic tone.

  “And we're going to find out what it was,” Maren added.

  “And how do you want to do that? I hope you don't mean –” Fjalldís whispered.

  Magnus stole the words from her tongue, “To search the town, yes.”

  “But that's forbidden!” Fjalldís said in a shocked tone.

  “Maybe, but it's not impossible. We've done it before and we can do it again,” Magnus said calmly.

  It seemed Maren agreed with him fully. She had already tuned into his adventurous wave.

  Fjalldís gave them both a stunned look, saying, “Wait a minute — you've done it already?”

  “Yeah,” Magnus said, as if it was nothing special.

  “And we found an old cave with a magickal crystal sphere,” Maren added merrily.

  Fjalldís stopped swinging her legs.

  “Wait, wait. Not so fast,” she said. “Let me get this straight. You two sneaked around the town after lights-out, searched the forbidden places and found a magickal crystal ball?” she gaped at them, waiting for an answer with a blank look on her face. “And you did all that WITHOUT ME?”

  “Sorry,” Maren said a little guiltily, “But we can go on more adventures together. Actually, we've got something for you to see. It's really cool!” Upon these words, she cast Magnus an excited look. He already knew what was on her mind and frankly, he wasn't sure if it was a good idea. “Magnus, let's show her the book!” Maren said heatedly.

  Fjalldís' eyes opened wide with excitement. Magnus didn't want to disappoint her, so he drew the black tome out from under his bed. He was just about to place it on the floor before the girls, when he remembered Valezar's serious words: “Don't read from the book.” It was as though he had just heard his voice warning him before something he didn't quite understand.

  While Magnus remained frozen, thinking about Valezar's words, Maren told Fjalldís everything they knew about it so far — how they found it, what happened when they first opened it and even what they had learned from it.

  “Magnus? Will you read something again?” Maren said eagerly as she returned to him, but Magnus hesitated. “Come on, you're the only one who can read it!” she implored, with her begging blue eyes fixed on him.

  Seeing Fjalldís' face full of expectations, Magnus shooed his worries away and smiled.

  “This is where we stopped last time,” he said, but when he saw what was written there, he paused for a while.

  “Magnus? What does it say?” Maren demanded.

  Magnus continued, “It gives a location of some 'gate' and it says it's in Ragna.”

  “What? The town gate?” she said, but Magnus shook his head in disagreement.

  “I don't think it's the town gate, Maren,” he said quietly, still looking into the book. “Here it says — 'To open the gate, you need the key I gave you. You must carry it when you utter the incantation, or else the gate shall not open.'”

  There was a pause. Finally, Magnus said the following: “Dar garoth im na lei, torokkur n'fir daher!”

  As soon as Maren realised he was reading an incantation, she shut the book in front of his nose, giving him a reproving look. But it was too late. Magnus had read it all — to the last word.

  “Are you insane?! It could be dangerous. Who knows what's going to happen now!” Maren scolded him, but her voice was quavering. Although she liked to experiment, now her mage roots were telling her a clear “NO!”

  Magnus gave a small sigh.

  “Relax, you wanted me to read from the book. And nothing is going to happen, you know why? Because I don't have the key,” he said.

  “Actually, now that you mentioned it,” Fjalldís said as she opened the tome back to where Magnus was reading before. “I think I've seen the key before... yes.” She remained looking at the drawing of the nine-pointed star in the book for a while, then raised her gaze up.

  “Really?” Magnus said swiftly. “Where?”

  “At the police station, in the general's office,” Fjalldís said.

  “Then the police station is where we must to go,” Magnus decided in a second. “I wonder why it's there. Do you think he knows something more about it?”

  “That's a crazy idea!” Maren chided, ignoring his question. “What do you want to do? Steal from the general's office?”

  “No, certainly not. I'll just borrow the key for a while,” Magnus corrected her.

  Maren rolled her eyes, “You and your borrowing. Has it even occurred to you that Xanthar could really lock you up for that? You can't just take something from the police station and expect that you'll get away with it!”

  Magnus defended himself, “I want to find out who I am! I want to know what I'm doing here! This book might be the only lead I will ever get!”

  Maren fell silent. He had a point.

  “I really don't know about this, Magnus,” Fjalldís said, her voice shaking. She was touching the book's cover with her tiny fingers, as if she was tapping its energy essence like Valezar did. “I'm fine with searching the town, but this could get us into real trouble. This book reeks with evil.”

  “That's what Valezar implied,” Magnus said blankly, his heart sinking. His words made Maren shiver all over.

  *

  �
�All day you're acting soulless. What's the matter with you?” Serena said in an attempt to learn what had happened to Darius. He was sitting quietly in the darkest corner of their room since their arrival.

  “Nothing. Leave me alone,” Darius muttered, staring into the darkness. The rest of the Black Squad were playing cards on the floor as usual, but that didn't mean their ears were closed.

  “What could cheer you up?” Serena kept asking. It appeared he wouldn't get rid of her so easily.

  “I don't want anything,” Darius growled.

  Serena gave a sigh, then her face brightened, “I've got an idea. If you're interested, we could go see the cave where Magnus found the crystal ball and –” she said, but when she realised the room fell completely silent, she stopped talking. Everyone was looking in her direction, all attention to the cards completely gone.

  “Well, I mean... we all could go take a look at it,” she added swiftly.

  That sounded better. Before she could even recover, Viktor, Rodrick, Henry and Giselbert were standing in line like soldiers, ready to go out. The hour was late, the lights-out long gone and the town was engulfed in darkness. They were about to visit a forbidden place that had held a magickal artefact — there was adventure in the air.

  “All right then,” Darius said finally. As soon as he got up, his friends beamed with excitement. “Let's see what that mighty hero Magnus found.” He grabbed his black jacket and with his friends following straight after, he bolted out into the darkness.

  XV. Dreadful News

  Their journey to the cave was accompanied by the moonlight and yellow glow from the lantern that Rodrick was carrying. The fresh night air felt very soothing for those who needed to clear their mind and forget about things they would have rather not experienced.

  Serena knew exactly where she was going. She led the five boys down the cobbled streets straight to the house where she had followed Magnus and Maren the other night. Everything seemed to be in the same condition as she had seen it the last time she was there. No one else had the courage to step into the forbidden streets, not mentioning touching anything. A single look at the door lying battered on the dusty floor was enough to understand that Serena didn't lie. There was only one novice who had such strength — Magnus.

 

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