Ben shrugged. “By telling others you mean the Council. I figured that you would. No problem. I have nothing to hide or be ashamed of.”
“Good,” said Eric, though now he felt more strongly than ever that Ben King had a lot to hide. Things that that deep inside himself he knew, but also possibly things that he didn’t even know that he knew.
That night, after discussing what happened with Elizabeth, Red Eric teleported to the home of his mentor and closest friend, Fredrick Kroner. Fred rose from his office chair to shake hands with Red Eric. He looked as fit as ever, despite being over seventy years old, and despite the rigors of his multiple career as Hope High School Principle, Hope School District Superintendent, and Council Member and Secretariat.
He was one of the most powerful people in Hope, as much due to his personality and political shrewdness as to his official positions and his Master Wizard capabilities. At two meters tall, he towered over stocky Eric, making him quite capable of easily reaching all of the books that surrounded them on the shelves of three walls that reached to the ceiling. As he sat again behind his big cheery-wood desk he gestured Eric into his visitor chair, while he twisted his thin gray mustache with his long, thin fingers. It was a nervous habit. Ever since Ben King’s return was reported, things were thrown a bit out of kilter. Ben was an unknown factor among dozens of other issues currently already in play. “What is so urgent that it required your teleportation here, Eric?”
“Three things. First, I’ve had another encounter with the boy.”
“Well, you are neighbors, after all,” noted Fredrick.
“As practice for Evaluations I tried to blast through his protective shielding and failed. I attacked him with everything I had and he didn’t even blink. He said that he didn't even feel it.”
That caused the old man’s eyebrows to raise. “I see! Impressive! You're one of the most powerful Attack Wizards in Hope! And he still claims that he can’t control his abilities?”
“He does. I was nearly exhausted at the end of it, and he didn’t seem to be burdened at all. I am convinced that if he didn’t even know that I was attacking, it would have made no difference. It was uncanny.”
“That’s all very interesting but hardly urgent," said Fredrick. "What else?”
“I’m here to officially report to you as Council Secretariat that while Ben was among the Unaligned, Alan Dale and Maude Phillips also spoke with him and tested his shielding.”
“Now that is interesting! When and where?”
“I didn’t press him for details," said Eric. "He and his guardians have been perfectly open with me and I want to keep it that way.”
“Fair enough. Whenever and wherever the meetings were, Alan and Maude are likely long gone by now anyway. Not that we’d be likely to send anyone else after them.”
“I doubt we’d find anyone willing to go,” Eric added. Six Hope deputy police marshals sent after Alan in the past had never returned. People sent after Maude had returned without remembering where they had been or what had happened.
“We shouldn’t approach them that way next time," said Fredrick, "not from the standpoint of trying to bring them to our so-called justice. Personally, I’m more interested in establishing an alliance with them.”
“If you can’t beat them, join them? Align ourselves with the Unaligned? Such arguments have never gotten close to having Council approval.”
Fredrick shrugged his wide thin shoulders. “Not with Grim leading the Council, but that could change. If the King boy has talked to Alan and Maude, perhaps he could do so again, again in an unofficial capacity. If the Unaligned Wizards become interested in the notion of collaboration, maybe Council would change its own views on collaboration; or if not full collaboration, at least some sort of official truce. It could be a beginning. Hope has become out of touch with the world at large, and much too self-centered.”
Eric nodded, thinking of what Ben had said about there being thousands of Unaligned people with powers outside of Hope. “Perhaps. I see that you’re beginning to agree with me that Ben King’s return opens all sorts of possibilities.”
“Over time. It’s politically a delicate situation that we'll need to cultivate carefully. Certain members of the Council are highly sensitive to suggestions that the status quo be tampered with."
"That brings me to our hottest topic," said Eric. "Are you aware of a letter being sent to Council from Alan Dale?"
"Not at all!" said Kroner, clearly stunned.
"Moco left it for the Council at the Court House office yesterday. He says it's very important. Surely as Council Secretariat you have seen it?"
"I haven't seen it or heard a word about it until now! Could it be sitting in an in-basket someplace?"
"Not a chance," said Eric. "Could Horace be holding it back from the rest of us?"
"I wouldn't put it past him. Are there other copies of the document?"
"Moco said there are many. Too many for Council to simply ignore. I'm supposed to affirm to him that the Council has considered it by telling him what's in the letter."
"So Moco knows what's in it then! And maybe also his vampire companion and even the boy! The boy will be here at the school tomorrow for Evaluations, I assume.”
“Yes, he will. That should prove very interesting.”
“Let me know when his turn comes up; I’d like to observe.”
“What makes you think I’ll know?”
“I know you, Eric; you’ll surely observe your own children, and Ben is bound to go to school with them. I’d be willing to bet that they’ll even all be in the same test group.”
Eric sighed. “All true. I’ve already arranged to drive them to school together. Very well. But I have a feeling that there will be no need for me to telepathically inform you as to when Ben King takes his turn. Simply follow the crowd. After he disappeared for eight years a lot of folks will be curious, and they will have heard all sorts of outlandish rumors, some of them even true.”
"Yes, undoubtedly," agreed Kroner.
"In the meantime my old friend, find that letter! It could reveal what the devil my childhood friend Alan Dale has been up to since he left Hope! There are rumors that he has been trying to establish a world-wide organization of the Unaligned that could threaten Hope, according to Grim!"
****
When he returned home, Eric discussed with his wife the fact that Ben King had been in contact with Alan Dale and Maude Phillips. "What if current events somehow lead to us encountering them also? Are you prepared for that?"
"I suppose I will have to be," said Elizabeth.
"It could be a positive thing, I think," said Eric. "Maybe it's time for some reconciliation."
"Or maybe not," said Elizabeth. "But thanks for the heads-up."
****
In the King house Ben went to bed early, but was having trouble falling asleep. It made sense to him that he be accepted into the Hope community as an Apprentice Wizard, but would the people at the school feel the same way?
He got up to get a glass of milk and discovered his two nocturnal guardians already in the kitchen, chowing down. Amanda was slurping what appeared to be a blood-popsicle, while Moco was gulping down a big raw cut chunk of beef. Even in his most human form, he was wolf.
“Worried are you, Cub?” Moco rumbled, between big bloody bites.
“Is it that obvious?”
Moco pointed to his nose, reminding the young Wizard of his heightened senses. He could smell Ben’s anxiety. “They’ll accept you. What other choice do they have?”
“I told the Tuttles about me meeting Maude and Alan. I also let Red Eric try to penetrate my shield. He failed, of course. That seemed to shake him up some, but he’s our friend. Others might not be as understanding.”
“Hah-Hah-Hah-Hah,” laughed Moco. “Of course they won't, Cub, but why concern yourself about what others think of you?”
“It’s a human thing,” Amanda stated. “He can’t help himself. Wizards are all too hu
man, my wolf. Our young Ben doesn’t have the wolf brazen zest for life or the wise vampire’s appreciation of sweet death.”
“Perhaps not, but I’ve learned much from both of you,” said Ben.
"You're going to need everything you've learned to live here in Hope," said the Wolf.
****
CHAPTER 6
Evaluations and School
When Ben and the Tuttles arrived at Hope High School in the Tuttle family SUV, they parked in reserve parking lot in the rear of the building, where a private space was reserved for each Council member.
“Don’t ever try to park back here without a Council parking pass, youngsters,” admonished Red Eric, “or you’ll have a flat tire or worse.”
“A spell is placed on all vehicles that have parking permission,” explained Elizabeth. “A matching spell surrounds the parking lot. Unauthorized vehicles are dealt with rudely, beginning with a flat tire and towing.”
Ben was curious about what else might happen, but was too preoccupied with the High School to ask. He had attended kindergarten and first grade in the nearby grade school, but never had reason to visit the High School. Aside from feeling very nervous about Evaluations, he was impressed by the building, which he already knew was of highly unusual construction for a school.
Compared with Hope elementary and middle schools, the building was huge. The square, four story High School structure included, he had been told by Ann, an enormous enclosed center courtyard. The Courtyard was a super-warded area where Wizardly capabilities could be exercised to their fullest without detection by the outside world. Hope elementary and middle schools were similarly warded, but the High School Courtyard and the hidden catacombs beneath it were many times larger.
The building, in addition to actually being a high school, was a front for Hope Academy, the pinnacle of the academic arm of Hope’s hidden Wizard sub-culture. The Courtyard was the place where advanced training was conducted for Wizards of all ages. Performance at Hope High School and Academy to a large extent determined status in Hope’s Wizard culture. In addition, the Hope Police Headquarters, Courthouse, Council Hall and other offices were located in one corner of the building known as the Civic Center, making the building complex the center of Hope Wizard government as well as education.
Acquiring and training young Wizards, along with concealing their existence from the rest of the world, was the fundamental reason for Hope’s existence. So important was entry and placement to the High School that the Council itself, aided by senior faculty members of the Academy and the High School, judged the Evaluations.
“Good morning, Master Eric, Master Elizabeth,” someone said with a stern voice, as Ben and the Tuttles emerged from the SUV.
Red Eric wasn’t surprised to see Horace Grim, Council Chairman, standing outside the school's rear entranceway, watching intently as the Tuttles filed towards him. He was a big, handsome, athletic looking man in his early forties; with prematurely gray hair clipped short. Eric forced a smile. “Chairman Grim, good morning to you in return!”
Elizabeth smiled mechanically also and gave a little nod of her head, but was content to let Eric do the talking. Ben had a notion that she remained silent to avoid friction. Her green eyes went ablaze whenever she looked at the Chairman, whose views nearly always contrasted greatly with hers, according to Ann.
“I see you have brought Mark and Ann for Evaluations,” Grim noted with a grin. “How proud you both must be of them!” His voice was candy sweet. Ben took an immediate dislike to him.
“We certainly are,” agreed Eric.
“And this tall young stranger must be the alleged Ben King.”
“Yes sir,” said Ben, “but I really am Ben King.”
“Really?” asked Grim. The sarcasm his voice has plain.
“He is indeed, as Elizabeth and I have already officially attested,” added Eric calmly, still smiling.
“Yet you also reported that he controls no skills, despite his linage.”
“Yes and no. On quite another subject, have you read my message to you and spoken with Troy since last night?”
“Certainly, but the police could not confirm your alleged details. Perhaps your interpretation of Troy's involvement in the unfortunate trailer park incident is flawed.”
Eric laughed. “I don’t think so. I found latent traces of Troy’s aura all around the Hortega trailer. But this is Evaluation Day. The focus is on the new crop of young Freshman Apprentice Wizards, not on the misconduct of the Seniors."
"Alleged misconduct, Eric," Grim responded.
"Of course!" said Eric agreeably, before his face turned cold. “Alleged misconduct that let it be understood will not be personally tolerated by me!”
“Of course not, Eric!” said Grim, with an empty smile.
With a nod of his head Red Eric turned and led Ben and his family filed past the Chairman and inside. “Don’t enter this door unless you’re with a Council member, or you’ll trip on the stairs,” he noted to the teens, as he held the door for them and his wife. “You’ll typically be walking to school and using the front doors with the other students.”
“What stairs?” Mark asked. “I don’t see any stairs!"
“There are none,” said Ben, who was confident that he would see through any attempt to hide them.
“Exactly,” Mark's mother added. “If you see stairs you’ll know you’re in for trouble. Stairs would mean that you've been identified as an intruder and are about to be caged up for the police to take care of.” Then she spoke privately to Eric, telepathically. “HORACE IS UP TO SOMETHING,” she predicted. “I HATE THAT MAN!”
As she spoke, Grim entered the building behind them, and then disappeared with a sharp clap of noise as he teleported himself elsewhere.
“HORACE IS ALWAYS UP TO SOMETHING,” Eric agreed. “BUT I USUALLY HAVE SOME TRICKS UP MY SLEEVE TOO.”
“TRUE!” Elizabeth gave him a big smile in return.
Ben liked being around the Tuttles; they obviously all cared about each other immensely, and were better people for it, like Amanda and the Wolf, and like his parents had been. He shouldn't be clandestinely listening into private conversations though. "I'm sorry; I should have explained before now that besides hearing all telepathic exchanges I also break any encoding. It's something else that I can't control. I can't send telepathic messages but I do hear and understand them. All of them."
"Even when encoded?" said Elizabeth. "BUT THE TALKS BETWEEN ERIC AND MYSELF ARE BOTH CLOAKED AND ENCODED TO ONLY BE HEARD BY US!"
Ben shrugged. "I'm sorry, but cloaking and secret coding both don't matter, and I can't control it. Just thought I'd let you know."
"Thanks for the heads-up, Ben," said Red Eric, with an amused chuckle.
Being met at the back door by the most powerful man in Hope was only the first hint to them that Ben would cause a stir. When they stepped through a doorway and entered a school hallway crowded with prospective students, students, and teachers, a flurry of gawking, hushed talk, and pointing ensued.
“That’s him!” Ben heard several people say excitedly. “They say he was raised by wolves,” said another. “But he doesn’t look like an elf,” said a Female voice behind him, “he looks kind of cute.” Ben glanced around to see who had said that but couldn’t tell who it was, there were so many girls staring at him, many of them smiling! They might have said it silently; in crowd situations it wasn't easy for him to distinguish between voice and telepathy.
“You’re a hit already,” Mark told him. “Come on; let’s get in line for Evaluations.”
Ahead of them in the hallway the end of a line was continuing to form behind a couple of dozen other teens. Mark and Ann recognized most of them as ex-middle-school classmates, but they were all essentially strangers to Ben.
“We adults leave you here,” Eric told the trio. “We’ll see you inside.”
“Good luck,” added Elizabeth, as the two Master Wizards walked around the line and into the Courtyard
to which it led.
“Hey! Mark, Ann!” said a small boy directly in front of them in line, as he reached out and shook their hands. “How’s it going?”
“OK, Jim. You remember Ben?”
“A little bit. That was a long time ago.”
“I remember you,” Ben said. “You're Jim Nater. Your older sister had that cool snake collection, and you had an ant farm.”
“Hey, that’s right! Now I have the nifty snakes and my sister collects worthless boys. Is what they say about you true?”
“Probably some of it.”
“Did you really live with elves?”
Ben shrugged. Many other kids had by now realized who he was, and had crowded closer. “Just with one elf for about a year; but he was a Gaou.”
“A what?”
“A Master Wizard, in Earth terms. He was really cool. He had unbelievably huge magic forests and gardens full of alien plants over a mile tall and the craziest animals ever! I even once encountered a real dragon!”
“You believe that one and I have a bridge to sell you,” said one of the students that had gathered around them to listen. He was a big, mean looking boy, obviously an upper classman. Several of the other students that had gathered, sensing trouble, moved away as the big muscular boy stepped close to stand next to Ben.
“Believe what you wish,” Ben replied, with a shrug.
“Well, I say you made all that crap up,” continued the boy. “I say you’re a liar.” He stepped right in front of Ben, and bent down several inches to be face to be face with the smaller boy, while unceremoniously bumping Jim against the wall in the process.
“I’m not, but you’re entitled to your opinions,” said Ben, calmly. Ben suddenly realized that this fellow was one of Troy’s gang, the same bunch that had gotten Mark in trouble and terrorized the Hortegas. “Isn’t your name John Dwight? I seem to remember you. You still hanging out with Troy and Frank?”
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