by Alex Kosh
“Well, could you or couldn’t you?” I asked again.
“I could have,” the vampire admitted.
“So why did you ...” I was simply choking on my anger.
“But what about the spirit of the hunt?” the vampire asked me. “And apart from that I needed to talk to you alone ...”
What could I say to that? Vampires were really different from people ... I would never understand them ...
“That’s it,” said Kelnmiir, taking a step towards the door.
“Can I ask one more question? The last one,” I said hastily.
The vampire turned back: “Well?”
“When Alice was running away from the members of the Day Clan, why did you send her to my window? Wasn’t there anywhere else to hide?”
“Oh, well done!” Kelnmiir exclaimed. “You guessed.”
“What?” I asked, startled.
The vampire paused for a long moment before he eventually spoke: “I saw you in the square early that morning before the tests. Alice and I were hiding in a basement, and there was an excellent view of the spot where you were hanging around with the twin girls. I spotted the signs of hypnosis on you straight away, and while I had nothing else to do, I tried to analyse your condition.”
So that was why my head had started aching so badly then!
“And did Alice see me too?” I asked in a quiet voice.
“No, of course not,” the vampire declared. “She was preparing for the tests at the time.”
“And how is this connected with Alice ending up in my room?”
“Indirectly ...” said Kelnmiir and snapped his fingers. “Well, I expect Romius is tired of waiting for me. We’ll talk about this again. Lie down, relax.”
And the vampire skipped out of the room before I could open my mouth.
What did “lie down and relax” mean? And for how long? What a creep, starting to tell me and suddenly taking off like that ... I’d probably die of curiosity now!
I settled down comfortably on the bed. No, I couldn’t just lie there like that ... I had so many questions to ...
I opened my eyes slowly.
A ceiling.
Logical, I was lying on a bed ....
“Is anybody there?” I asked in a slightly hoarse voice.
Silence.
Ah yes ... there wasn’t anybody there.
I tried to get up off the bed, but my legs gave way and I fell. I climbed back on to the bed with an effort and tried to gather my strength ...
The door opened and Romius appeared in the doorway
“How are you feeling?”
From the tone of his voice, he was clearly in a buoyant mood.
“Bad,” I replied gloomily. I feel as If I’d been kicked for hours nonstop.”
“Don’t look at me,” my uncle said, throwing his hands up in the air. I haven’t laid a finger on you. It’s probably your old bruises aching. Our mistake. We should have taken you to the druids first ...”
Of course it was their mistake! But I was the one who had to pay for it.
“Well, have you cleared me of the effects of hypnosis?” I asked anxiously.
“Yes,” Romius said with a nod. “Oh, you really put Kelnmiir through the mill. Three whole days without a break.”
“Three days?” I exclaimed.
“What did you expect?” Romius asked in surprise. “Removing the effects of a ten-year old hypnosis without doing any damage to the person’s psyche ... you should be grateful he managed it in three days.”
“Not to the detriment of quality, I hope?” I enquired suspiciously.
“Entirely without detriment,” Romius assured me. “On the contrary.”
“On the contrary?”
“Let me start at the beginning,” my uncle said, trying to calm me down. “You were right about some things. Your aunt was definitely involved, although she wasn’t the one who applied the hypnosis. That was the work of a genuine specialist ...”
“Then why have you decided that my aunt was involved?” I asked, puzzled.
“Don’t interrupt, and everything will be clear soon,” Romius said strictly.
Ah, that was right, they really hated to be interrupted ...
“So, you were subjected to hypnosis about ten years ago. It was the work of a genuine specialist. The purpose of the hypnosis ...” – Romius paused for effect – “... was to limit your aptitude for magic ...”
Well, knock me down with a feather ...
“Are you sure about that?” I asked, just to make sure.
“A hundred per cent,” my uncle confirmed. “You realise yourself that no one but your aunt could ever have thought up anything like that. She was always a rather calculating woman, but to go that far ...”
Yes, indeed ... now it was clear why she wouldn’t believe me when I said I’d got into the Academy. She knew that I couldn’t get in, because she’d taken care of that herself ...
“So have I become a lot stronger now?” I asked with bated breath.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” said Romius, bringing me back down to earth. “In the first place, your abilities still won’t be particularly exceptional. That friend of yours, Naive ... what is it you call him? The fiery boy? Well, you’re still no fiery boy by a long way, but you’ll be on the same level as Chas, Neville and the others, that much is certain.”
“I can’t believe it ...” was all I could think of to say.
“And now that Kelnmiir has removed the effects of your hypnosis, your visions will probably come to you much more often,” Romius went on.
That was a surprise. I’d been having prophetic dreams all the time anyway. But now I could go to the market and earn a bit of money as a fortune-teller ...
“But then what happened at the enrolment?” I asked. “Have you figured that out? And why did the time of day shift by half an hour for me ...”
“Ooh ...” said Romius, looking at me with tired eyes. It was only then I noticed that he looked a bit drained and was clearly short of sleep. “That would take a long time to explain ... and so far, all our theories are only based on assumptions. At the enrolment, the music you were listening to could have combined with the prism to affect you in some way ... Hypnosis is a very complicated thing. You never know for absolute certain how everything’s going to turn out. And as for the sun – that was a side effect, after the sensitivity shock, something in your brain went out of kilter ... that’s all.”
That’s all ... I’d have liked to see what he’d say if something went out of kilter in his brain!
“But now my brain ...” – I gulped – “... is back in kilter, I hope?”
“You’re all right now,” Romius reassured me. “You just need to go and see the druids, have a couple of bruises healed, and you’ll be like new.”
A couple of bruises? Then why did I feel like I only had one bruise – all over my body?
“So I’m free to go now, and no one thinks I’m a spy any longer?” I asked.
“There you go again,” Romius sighed. “No one ever thought you were a spy ...”
He looked into my eyes and became embarrassed.
“Well ... perhaps there was a little bit of suspicion.”
“But you don’t suspect me now?”
“I’m surer of you now than I am of myself,” Romius laughed. “In any case, we’ve already found the spy. We followed the lead you gave us, by the way. You were right.”
“It’s Steel!” I gasped in amazement.
I’d suspected him. I’d even been sure that it was him. But I still hadn’t been able to believe it. That cheerful, goodhearted young guy I’d rubbed shoulders with for more than two months ... he was a spy. It wasn’t possible. I’d sooner have believed that the spy was Triz, or one of Angel’s cronies ...
“Yes, it’s Steel,” Romius confirmed. “Or, rather, Dkharm. That’s his real name, the one his parents gave him.”
“And I thought Steel was born in Lita,” I murmured quietly.
> “Let’s not talk about this now,” Romius suggested. “I have a lot of things to do and not much time. And then, I wouldn’t want to spoil your mood, after all, we’re having a celebration today.”
“A celebration?”
“I shouldn’t really have told you anything,” Romius told me with a frown. “But since I already have ... basically, your classmates have organised a small surprise for you. So when they take you to the party, at least act as if you’re surprised.”
I really was surprised. A party in the Academy?
“But why today especially?” I asked, slightly stunned.
“Because today you will finally leave this room,” Romius replied. “To put it simply, the party is for you.”
Why for me? What for? Well, of course, I could guess what for ... but all of a sudden, just like that ... a party in the Academy in my honour ...
I sat on the bed, batting my eyelids for quite a long time.
“All right,” said Romius, getting to his feet. “I can see you’re already feeling better, so clear out of here. I have a pile of work to do, and here I am just sitting around with you ...”
I slowly got up off the bed.
“Look at him, as healthy as a dragon, but always acting the fool,” Romius said cheerfully. “That’s it, off you trot to the forty-third floor, the emergency treatment station there is empty. You can lie down there for half an hour, and then go to the Low Power Hall. I think they’re already waiting for you.”
“Understood,” I said with a nod. “But where’s Kelnmiir?”
“I have no idea,” Romius said airily. “Wandering about somewhere or other. He’s an official consultant now and he can go wherever he wants ... so he’s sticking his nose in everywhere, there’s no way to keep up with him ...”
We said goodbye at the teleports. He stepped into one, and I stepped into another. I must admit, I couldn’t look at a teleport any more without a shudder ... but what could I do about that? I had to move round the Academy somehow. Although, as Romius told me on the way to the teleports, the Craftsmen had definitely decided to build stairways – but when would that happen?
At the treatment station I was met, as usual, by an imperturbable druid. He laid me out on one of the beds and told me to relax until he came back.
On my way out of the treatment station, I was intercepted by Kelnmiir . When I’d only taken a couple of steps in the direction of the teleports, he appeared form round a corner, as if he had been deliberately waiting for me.
“Well, well, fancy meeting you here!” he exclaimed. “How is our hero feeling?”
“Hero? I don’t know ... I haven’t come across any heroes.”
“Such modesty,” said Kelnmiir, slapping me on the back. “Keep it that way. Not everyone can bear the burden of glory.”
After my visit to the treatment station, I was feeling simply marvellous. Even my thoughts had been set in order ... probably for the first time in months.
“Don’t try to distract me,” I told the vampire firmly. “You stopped on the question of why Alice ended up in my room and not some other place.”
“You still won’t let it go,” sighed Kelnmiir. “All right, have it your own way. After I saw you there in the square, I forgot about you for a while. But only until I saw what happened to you during the test. I must confess, I was intrigued by your case ... but even more intrigued by the fact that Romius himself took you in hand. And when I found out that he was your uncle ...”
Again. Why was everybody so agitated about Romius being a relative of mine?
“After that, Alice and I had a brief skirmish with the Day Clan ... and, purely by chance, we found ourselves near your house. Only don’t ask me how I knew that it was your house. I could sense the aura. Anyway, I put two and two together and decided it would be useful for Alice to know you. She was going to need a friend in the Academy. So I told her to climb in your window and strictly forbade her to hurt anyone she met. A good way to meet someone, don’t you think?”
Well how about that! If not for the vampire’s whim, I might never have got to know Alice ... But somehow I didn’t feel like thanking him for it.
“Well, you take the cake,” was all I could think of to say.
“I certainly do,” the vampire laughed smugly. “And I’ll tell you something else. I’m almost certain that if I hadn’t tried to analyse the symptoms of your hypnosis that time in the square, and stirred it up a bit, nothing would have happened to you during the tests. There wouldn’t have been any sensitivity shock, and you wouldn’t have got in ...”
“I’m astounded,” I confessed after a long pause. “You managed to stick your nose in everywhere. Maybe you were involved in the attack on the Academy too?”
“No,” said the vampire, shaking his head. “Somebody beat me to it there ... But I did help you that morning when you were attacked. Remember the three fine young fellows who behaved so oddly and started fighting among themselves, instead of following you?”
“You got in there too?”
“I certainly did,” said Kelnmiir, laughing again. “Listen, what are we doing standing here? Let’s go to the party! Didn’t anyone tell you? Your classmates decided to arrange a surprise in your honour ...”
Aha. A fine surprise, if everyone was so desperate to tell me about it in advance.
“Right then, let’s go,” I agreed. “To be quite honest, I feel as hungry as a dragon ...”
Kelnmiir gleefully dragged me to the teleports. Honestly, just like a child. But this child had managed to change my life so deliberately.
I soon realised that the vampire was taking me to the Hall of Low Power.
“But is the party definitely here?” I asked, halting indecisively in front of the door. “Shins definitely wouldn’t approve ...”
The door of the Hall opened and Shins appeared.
“Zach! Come in, we’ve been waiting for ages!”
I walked into the Hall of Low Power in a state of confusion.
It was dark ...
Suddenly the Hall was filled with a single shout from many voices: “Burn them!”
And immediately the Hall lit up with dozens of fireballs. They soared up to the ceiling and formed a circle ... or was it the letter “O”. Yes, it was probably the letter “O”.
The hall was full of tables set with food and it was literally packed with people. The whole of our faculty was there, and I saw our teachers in the front rows ... There were plenty of yellow and red sets of livery on display ... and here and there I could glimpse blue livery ... and even grey!
The first to meet me were the honourable Craftsmen Shins, Tyrel, Romius, Revel and a few other individuals I didn’t know. They took turns to shake me by the hand and wish me all sorts of success.
It was the first time I could ever remember seeing Shins smile.
“Well done, lad,” he repeated for the third time. “You are a worthy pupil and the pride of our faculty of fire.”
Tyrel simply shook my hand and said he had always believed in me.
Romius reminded me that now we could concentrate on investigating my visions. Well, well, first he told me he was too busy to spend time sitting around with me ... and then he hurried straight off to the party
Revel ... he simply slapped me on the shoulder and smiled mysteriously. In the light of what Kelnmiir had told me about him, that smile should have put me on my guard ... but I couldn’t be bothered about that today.
Eventually the gentlemen Craftsmen let me go, and I fell into the hands of my friends. Naive, Neville and Caiten were themselves again and they gave me a joyful welcome. Chas shouted out his beloved war cry louder than anyone else.
Dogron was there in the Hall too. The troll was terribly embarrassed, I could see it in his stone face, but that didn’t prevent him from clearing his plates rather briskly.
Everyone was trying to slap me on the back, shake my hand or just congratulate me. Although I wasn’t really sure what the congratulations were for ...
But anyway, I wasn’t really interested in all that. I kept looking round for Alice, but I couldn’t find her.
“Chas, where’s Alice?” I asked eventually.
“I was just waiting for you to ask that,” Chas laughed.
“Well, now I have,” I said irritably. “So answer me!”
All this fuss had unsettled me completely. I’d even forgotten that I was hungry.