by Helen Harper
“Find Alex Florides,” I urged it again, feeling irritated all of a sudden.
Still nothing happened. Abruptly the sound of voices floated over the top of the buildings towards me, and I felt a surge of sudden fire flicker inside me at the thought of being discovered experimenting with something that I’d already almost killed someone with. As soon as the heat hit my system, however, the inveniora took off rushing away from me and towards the edges of the compound at a hurtling speed. Invigorated into action, I took off after it.
Unlike other manifestations of the tracking spell that I’d seen, mine didn’t veer even slightly. It shot through the air like an arrow, leaving behind a trail that could have been drawn with a ruler. I didn’t have time to pause to think about it, however, I just ran, trying to keep up with the front of it. Before too long it reached the edges of the grounds, zipping its way into an impenetrable bed of flowers, bushes and trees. Without thinking twice, I followed it in, ignoring the scratching branches that pulled at my skin. My own progress was now considerably slower but, if anything, the inveniora itself appeared to pick up speed. I hopped and ducked and dodged my way through the thicket, cursing Alex and wondering what in the hell he was doing hiding in the middle of a bush. The powder blue robes that I’d been forced to wear yet again impeded me even further, continually getting caught on various branches and brambles. The hem that was trailing at my back snagged stubbornly onto some kind of thorn and I had no choice but to stop to use my fingers to free it. When I stood back up, I realised that the inveniora had stopped just up ahead and was hovering in the dark still air.
My heart was suddenly thudding deep in my chest. I couldn’t help but think of the last time I’d wandered into a thick corpse of fauna and come across the cloth deposited behind by Iabartu. Worry filled me with what might have happened to Alex and whether, once again, it would end up being my fault. Gingerly picking my way forward, I pulled up my robes to avoid catching them further on anything else, but tensed all my muscles in case I needed suddenly to attack.
As I got closer, I realised that the red snaky smoke was hanging right in front of a looming bricked wall. Obviously I’d reached the outer fringes of the academy grounds, and that beyond here the mages’ influence dissipated. Did that mean that Alex had left the compound? Puzzled, I leaned forward, realising that there was a crumbling gap in the stone next to where the inveniora had stopped. Without thinking I reached out to push my fingers through and touch it. As soon as I did so, however, I felt something wet.
Rubbing my fingers together to work out what it was, I peered at them through the gloomy cover of the trees. Whatever it was, it felt thick and gloopy. Definitely not blood, I registered with a dim surge of relief, but definitely not anything entirely natural either. It hadn’t rained for days, so it couldn’t be a puddle of mossy rainwater that had collected, and there was far too much of it to be dew. Anyway, it was completely the wrong time of day for that. I lifted my fingers to my face and sniffed, cautiously, then immediately recoiled.
Whatever it was, it smelt dark and rotten, not dissimilar to the unpleasant whiff that cockroaches somehow managed to give off. What the fuck was it? I could see now that the strange liquid was dark and shiny, with something of a purple tinge to it. I didn’t like this at all.
I was about to call out to see if Alex was for some reason on the other side of the wall, when I heard my name being faintly called from behind me, albeit from some distance away. I wiped my fingers on a nearby leaf, trying to rid myself of the gloop and then turned back. The voice called again, and I frowned, now more puzzled than ever. It sounded like the hippy mage himself.
Eventually emerging back from out of the undergrowth, I spotted him, hands on hips as he stared at me.
“Mack Attack, where the hell have you been and what the hell have you been doing? Sheesh, I’ve been looking all over for you!”
Pissed off, I glared at him. “Well, I’ve been looking for you too, Alex. I’ve been all over the sodding compound and then when I couldn’t found you I conjured up some inveniora to find you and…,”
“You did what?”
“You heard me,” I snapped.
“Dude, that was an idiot move to make.”
“Well, dude, it led me here didn’t it? What have you been doing in the bushes, eh?” I waggled my eyebrows at him to prove I was serious.
Alex just looked confused. “I have no idea what you’re on about.”
“You’ve never been in there?” I jerked my head back to where I’d just come from, somewhat deflated.
He shook his head, looking at me as if I was crazy. “No, I’ve not. And besides, until you reach level three you can’t control inveniora to run any kind of proper search. You’ve been running around aimlessly, with some kind of stupid death-wish on your shoulders.”
“Nothing went wrong. It didn’t cloud up like last time or try to smother anyone!”
“You were lucky,” Alex said grimly. “This kind of stuff isn’t a toy, Mack Attack. There’s a reason why there are trainers making sure nothing goes wrong when the Initiates practise.”
“Jeez, who rattled your chain? Chill out, Alex.”
“You’re telling me to chill out? Seriously? The girl with the worst temper this side of the equator? Because she’s not actually a girl, but instead a fucking dragon?”
“I’m not a dragon,” I stated emphatically, “I’m a Draco Wyr. And if it wasn’t for that fact, then you wouldn’t have anyone to help you sneak into a fucking nest of vampires to steal a bloody chunk of wood!”
Alex and I both glared at each other. I realised I was letting my temper once again get the better of me and tried to calm myself using Bryant’s deep breathing suggestions. At the same moment, I think Alex also recognized the idiocy of the situation and relaxed.
“Sorry. I’m finding all this very stressful, I guess.”
“Me too, Mack Attack, me too.” He stretched his hand out. “Friends?”
I took it and shook vigorously. “Always.” We smiled at each other and the tension evaporated.
“I’ve cleared things with the Dean dude,” Alex said. “He’ll let you go out and party it up on Saturday. Did Lord Shifty cause you any problems?”
“No,” I answered. “He was actually pretty easy to convince.”
Alex was exultant. “See? I told you! And all those times that you thought that he’d smite you down for not being a shifter. He’s actually a fairly reasonable guy.”
“I’m not convinced of that yet,” I grumbled. “He’s still on some kind of power trip.” The ‘wear something pretty’ command continued to irk me. “I have to find something to wear for the party too.”
“Don’t worry, mate. I’ll sort that side of things out. Come on.” He held out his arm for me to take and we started walking back to the scattered buildings.
On the way back, I told him about the Fae book. Alex was astonished. “Seriously? Are you sure it’s the same book?”
“I’m positive.” I added in the details that I’d managed to translate so far.
“Whoa, that’s far out, Mack Attack. So you really are descended from dragons, then.”
“I don’t know, Alex. This could all just be legend. And it might not have anything to do with me. It certainly doesn’t clear up anything as to the reasons for why my mother dumped me with the shifters, or what else my blood can do.”
“It’s a start though. I can’t read Fae so I can’t help you in that department, unfortunately. Why don’t you get in touch with your fairy buddy?”
“Solus? He won’t come near anything to do with the mages or the Ministry, you must know that. Anyway, he’s a Fae, and they’re untrustworthy by nature.”
“You trusted him enough with your friend, Mrs. Whatserface.”
“Alcoon,” I said absently. “Mrs. Alcoon.” I felt tug of guilty melancholy at the thought of the older woman. “I didn’t have all that much choice at the time. And he got what he wanted in return.”
&n
bsp; “Which was?”
“To find out what I really am.”
“You told him? About the Draco Wyr stuff? Mack Attack, you just said you couldn’t trust him!”
“I also just said I didn’t have a choice. And I suppose he’s not given me up so far.” Although the stupid fairy had tread pretty close to the line a couple of times, I thought ungratefully.
“Six days’ time, Mack Attack. Once this party’s over then we can concentrate on getting you up the levels and out of this place as soon as possible. Then you can sort out Mrs. Alcoon, and the Fae, and find out who you really are.”
Amen to that, I whispered to myself.
Chapter Fourteen
The following five days scampered by remarkably quickly. Lessons started up again on Monday, and I received exactly the same terrified rabbit-caught-in-headlights reaction from both Slocombe in Kinesis and Barton in Evocation. And I had the same success in both those lessons as I’d had the previous week, which of course amounted to absolutely zip. Nada. Nyet. I was getting damn good at staring at stones, however.
I’d been hoping for a little more from Illusion, as at least this time I had a full lesson’s worth of time with which to learn. But again, nothing really happened, other than me being forced to count to ten several times over whenever the trainer started up her hacking cackle at my pitiful efforts. I was learning to keep my mouth shut at least, and I managed to go the full week without maiming anyone or damaging any more property. There was no time with Alex to spend on Divination; instead we took the opportunity of having the peace and quiet to be able to discuss and plan out different scenarios for my impending heist. I was just trying hard not to focus on what could happen if I got caught by the vamps.
On the brighter side, I also was finding myself getting on better and better with Mary and her friends. I had little in common with them, but Deborah didn’t have a mean bone in her body, and Mary’s constant stream of chatter always helped make me feel just that little bit less stressed or worried. I spent a fair bit of time chatting to both Brock and Aqmar, and Brock in particular was opening up to me. We had a lot of deep and meaningful discussions over meals about the rights and wrongs of magic, although we entirely avoided talking about what might or might not be happening with his love life and his momentous crush on Deborah. I didn’t push it.
By the time Friday rolled around, and I had Protection again with Thomas, I was starting to feel more in control of myself, and my emotions. I’d spent more time in the library, and was starting to feel an odd fondness for Slim and his curses. I’d also found the time to translate a little bit more of the Fae book, although it pretty much just explained how my potential (probable?) ancestor found his own demise at the hands of the rather unfortunately named Bolox, a warrior who set a cunning trap involving a sacrificial virgin (who sadly bled to death in course of the proceedings) and some kind of elaborate gold mesh net. Bolox nearly hadn’t made it out alive himself, as the dragon-man had reverted back to his true form in his final death throes and had gouged a deep enough chunk out of the warrior’s shoulder that he almost died from his injuries afterwards.
Back in the virtually derelict Protection building that Health and Safety would have had a field day with, I found myself looking forward to what Thomas had to offer. Over the past week, we’d managed to maintain a cool ambivalence towards each other whenever our paths crossed. My hair was now already almost an inch long and I was still tempted to keep it shaved if for no other reason than I’d be able to keep rubbing in his face how much of a prick he’d been. But when I met him for our second round, he was all relaxed smiles.
“So, Initiate Smith, you’ve been encouraging the younger ones to attack using the element of surprise and the unexpected, have you?”
I was surprised myself that he had chosen to no longer make more of my teaching of his pet subject, and just nodded.
“Well then,” he continued, “let’s see if you can practise what you preach.”
He motioned me towards the centre of the gym, and then stood in front of me, his entire body proclaiming a calmness that I found bewildering. His stance was completely open and vulnerable, and I couldn’t begin to see how he could possibly be successful.
Thomas laughed at me. “You look confused, Initiate. T’ai chi chu’an is not about tension or the centrifugal force that modern fighters so mistakenly rely on. Rather it involves looseness in order to subdue potential aggressors with the minimum amount of effort. Your task is not to fight back, but merely to avoid my own attacks.” He bared his teeth at me in the semblance of a grin. “I doubt you will cope.”
Bullshit. I grinned at the mage, confident that this was going to be a piece of cake.
He began to gracefully extend his arms, in a move reminiscent of our previous lesson’s drills. “When your body is emptied and vacant of force and tension, your muscles relax and a resolute strength takes its place. This strength, you shall discover, is superior in every way to all other forms of attack.”
I watched him, waiting for the moment when I could block his movements and prove to him yet again, that anything I could do would best him. He was moving so leisurely and deliberately that it required no effort on my part to track his movements. Until all of a sudden he whipped out with his fist and caught me in my stomach, causing me to double over and exhale all the air I had left in my lungs. I was so stunned that he’d managed to hit me with such strength when he was moving around so slowly, that I barely managed to stand back up before he lashed out again, this time with his foot. He connected with my leg mid-thigh and, yet again, I went down.
“Keeping your body weight on one foot alone aids the movement and attack,” Thomas intoned, spinning around like a ballroom dancer in slow motion, and flicking out again to knock me on the side of my head. “Using two feet to equally distribute your weight impedes your agility.” He cast around with his arms, then brought them together and bowed.
I straightened up and stared at him, aghast that he’d found it so easy to connect and attack. The rage within me that set my bloodfire roaring threatened for one moment to overcome my thoughts, but I counted to ten instead and concentrated on re-gaining my breath.
Thomas smiled at me, pleased. “I didn’t think it would take you such a short time to manage to not reflexively return my assault.”
I had to admit that I was rather taken aback myself. I figured it was because I knew that he wasn’t really going to hurt me all that much.
I shrugged. “I guess I’m just a fast learner.” I twisted my body to the side, trying to snap out the pain that still throbbed from my stomach muscles. “But explain to me, Mage Thomas, why these techniques didn’t work before?”
He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
“In the cafeteria. Before. When I attacked you. You didn’t try any of this stuff or at least you didn’t manage to beat me anyway. That was an easy win for me.” I wasn’t trying to goad him; I was genuinely curious.
“Ah, well, you were actually fighting me that time. It’s a whole different ball game when your opponent is not only using magic but is also seeing things through the veil of emotion.” He inclined his head. “You are a superior fighter to me, of that there is no doubt. Hence you managed to beat me in the cafeteria. And I admit, I am still feeling the effects of it now. However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t still teach you more than a few things to make you an even more effective attacker. Good teachers don’t seek to train their students to be as good as they are, they seek to make them better.”
I was shocked by his honesty, and mulled over his words all the way to the portal for my session with Jacoby Bryant. I even half-imagined that my trip through the portal was less nausea inducing than usual because I was so caught up in thinking about what he’d said and how he’d acted. I’d certainly been warming to Thomas since the previous week, but now I was wondering if I’d gotten him completely wrong. Sure, he’d been rude when I’d first arrived, but then maybe he’d had good reason to b
e. I tried to imagine what it would have been like down in Cornwall if some unknown mage had shown up because the Brethren had ordered us to teach them to be like shifters. Even for myself as a non-shifter, I knew I’d have been disgusted.
Entering the reception area, and seeing exactly the same girl who I’d barked at and flamed at the week before, made me also half-expect to see Corrigan striding through from round the corridor again. However, this time the girl stayed behind the desk and I felt the briefest flicker of disappointment that the only other person I’d clearly be seeing this time would be the counsellor himself. I told myself that I should be grateful: the last thing I needed was to see the Lord Alpha before our so-called date. He’d probably just make some snarky comments about my attire. Nope, I didn’t want or need to see him. Definitely not. No. No. No.
I discussed with Bryant what had happened during the preceding seven days, leaving out any mention of my now somewhat more doused bloodfire of course, and we spoke about what had worked and what hadn’t. He was pleased with my progress and I felt an unexpected thrill zip through me at doing so well. Perhaps there was hope for me yet. He recommended that I continue with the techniques he’d already shown me, and then I left without further incident.
However, the next morning, when I awoke, I could feel little spikes of flame flickering through my toes and fingers. I lay in bed for several moments, ignoring the discomfort it provided, purely trying to calm myself down and use all the tips I’d been given. Despite the numerous talks Alex and I had had about how to act once I got to Kingsway, I was still feeling nervous and more than a little scared about how it would pan out. I really didn’t want to let him down, but stealing from the undead right now seemed like a suicide mission. I imagined myself keeling over at Corrigan’s feet in dramatic dying swan fashion, and him raising one sardonic eyebrow at me for bringing it all onto my own head in the first place. For one thing, I still didn’t actually have anything to wear. Despite his promises to the contrary, Alex still hadn’t come through with a suitable outfit. At this rate I’d have to squeeze back into Deborah’s micro-mini, which remained under my bed as I’d not quite managed to guiltily sneak back into the laundry yet.