by Diana Nixon
“What about the keys?” Eileen asked.
“Those keys opened one of the drawers in Alexis’ office, here in Dever. She wanted me to take some documents, but I never managed to do that. Because the man you found dead in Norfield followed me and took the keys. I don’t know what happened next. I didn’t kill him. Someone else did. And that person took those keys from him and found the papers.”
“There’s only one drawer in my office that opens with a key,” Patrick said. “And I have a key to it, but there’s nothing valuable inside it.”
“Are you sure there’s only one drawer that opens with a key?” Eileen asked. Then she turned to Kevin. “Did you see what those keys looked like?”
“Yes, there was a symbol engraved on them. I think I can draw it, if you give me a piece of paper and a pencil.”
When Kevin finished the drawing, we recognized one of the symbols from our map. It was the one we couldn’t decipher.
“Do you know what it means?” I asked Kevin. He shook his head saying ‘no’. “Shall we go to your office, Dad? Maybe we can find something with the same symbol.”
Tara and Frederick stayed with Kevin, and Eileen, my father and I left.
“I can’t believe he planned Dominic’s death,” Eileen said.
“And I guess Evan knows his brother has something to do with the accident,” I added.
“I don’t think any of us should confirm his assumptions,” Dad said. “It’s better to let Kevin tell him the truth.”
Eileen nodded. “But we should be somewhere near when the conversation takes place. I don’t want any of them to die.”
My father’s office was illuminated by the soft light of the first rays of morning sun. He always came to work early. He took his obligations very seriously, and I was sure he wanted to stay in Dever’s history as one of the best principals. He deserved that.
“Okay, let’s separate and try to find something that could be opened with the mysterious key,” Eileen said. She went to the wall with a fireplace and started looking through the pictures on both sides of it.
I took the bookshelves, and my father started examining the massive table and other items of furniture. An hour later we all sighed, disappointed. There were no hidden drawers in the room.
“How did Alexis expect Kevin to find the papers, if she had obviously given him the wrong information?” Eileen asked, looking at me in the mirror. Then her gaze moved to something behind my back, and she rushed to me. Or to be exact — to the book the reflection of which she saw in the mirror.
“That’s it!” she said, taking the book. There was a symbol drawn on its spine … the one we were looking for.
“But we don’t need a key to open the book,” I said, puzzled.
Eileen started looking through the pages, trying to find at least something that would explain the meaning of the mysterious key.
Suddenly she stopped, saying, “Alexis didn’t want Kevin to take the papers, she wanted him to take this.” She turned the book so that my father and I could read it. “The page is missing. But whoever tore it off, wasn’t very careful. He left a part of the text untouched. And it says….”
“Pull them down to the ground,” I read aloud. “What does it mean?”
“This symbol,” Eileen pointed to Kevin’s drawing, “goes after the picture of a circle and the stars. Does it mean that we need to pull the stars to the ground?”
“It makes sense,” my father said. “But we still haven’t had a chance to follow the map’s instructions in the darkness. I think we need to do that as soon as possible. How about tonight?”
Eileen smiled. “Will you release Evan by that time? ‘Cause there’s no way we can do that without him.”
“If it was up to me to decide, I would keep him locked up for a few more days, considering everything he made you do last night. But unfortunately, bad behavior is not listed among the reasons to be locked in the dungeon.”
Eileen hugged him happily. “Thank you, Patrick. You know he’s not dangerous, right? Well, at least not as dangerous as to be a prisoner.”
“Promise me you will never do anything like this again, Eileen. Your father will arrest you too if necessary. And trust me, doing something stupid behind his back is not the best thing to do.”
“I know. And I promise to do my best to stay out of danger.”
“Now, this is the right answer,” my father said, nodding approvingly. “Why don’t you go and get some sleep? You must be tired after the trip.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
Eileen and I left, taking the book we had found with us.
We stopped at the dining room to grab some food and then went to my room. Well, to our room. Eileen was still shocked about Kevin’s story. The shades of gray and muddy–green never left her aura. I tried to comfort her, but my efforts ended up with nothing.
“Do you want to go to Gloster later today? We could buy Evan some presents and spend a few hours together. Maybe watch a movie, or simply walk around the town. What do you think?”
“Great idea,” she said, smiling slightly. “I need to get out of here for a while, without any stolen cars and planes. Have you already decided what to give to Evan?”
“Actually, I thought you could help me with that.”
“No way! It’s your present, not mine!”
“Sometimes it feels like you know Evan better than I do.”
“You’ve been best friends for ages. You know him well enough to know what he likes or dislikes.”
“Yeah, but I can’t buy him a new girl,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I don’t think he needs a girl. I mean, I think he has already found someone.”
“Do you know her name?”
“Nope, no such luck.”
“I tried to ask Evan, but he said he didn’t want me to tell you who she was, because he was sure you and Amanda would ruin his date.”
“Wait. It means we know her!”
“Any guesses?”
“My only guess is … no, it can’t be her. Let’s wait and see who’s going to become Evan’s new prey.”
“He promised no broken hearts this time.”
“I hope he will keep that promise.”
Chapter 15. The Blacksmith’s Shop
Eileen and I liked going to Gloster. It was one of those rare moments when we could pretend to be normal, because our everyday life was anything but normal. It was also one of those moments when we could be alone, enjoying the peace and harmony we brought to each other.
The more time I spent with Eileen, the more I realized that no bond could ever be stronger than the power of love I felt for her. It was the purest and the most overwhelming thing I had ever felt.
Evan’s words about Eileen’s gifts came back to my mind. He still thought she needed more practice to learn how not to let anyone take control over her powers. It meant she needed to spend a lot of her energy, and I didn’t like it. I knew how dangerous it was.
“You promised no sad thoughts during this trip,” Eileen said, apparently feeling my worries.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it.” I smiled, caressing her palm. “So what do you think about my present for Evan? Will a new stereo for the car be good enough for our all-knowing wizard?”
Eileen giggled. “I think he will like it. Especially if it’s good enough to make his car windows tremble.” We all knew how much Evan liked driving with the music pumping though the open windows.
There was one more reason why we liked going to Gloster. The local shopping center was bigger than the town itself. We could watch a movie, go to a café or simply walk along the multi-colored fountains, without going out into the street. Which meant we could do that in any weather: rainy, windy or sunny.
Dever’s students were its usual visitors, so we were not surprised to see Tara there. She was chatting with a guy we didn’t know. And by the colors of his aura I could say that he was just a human.
“Hey,” Eileen said. Tara’s cheeks im
mediately turned pink.
“Hi, guys. I didn’t know you were going to the town today,” she replied, looking sheepishly at her companion.
“And I’m Martin, by the way,” the guy said, outstretching his hand to me. His name sounded familiar.
“You must be one of Tara’s friends,” Eileen said, and I remembered the name. Evan once told me about the guy, calling Tara and asking her out. I think there’s no need to say how pissed my friend was when saying that.
“Actually, I’m more than just a friend,” Martin said, as he put an arm around Tara’s waist. He looked at her and smiled happily. It looked like she wasn’t very comfortable about being caught on what I finally realized was a date. “Tara has just agreed to become my girlfriend,” the guy added.
Eileen and I shared a glance. Of course, seeing humans wasn’t forbidden. But we all knew that no such relationship ended well.
“Oh … congratulations!” Eileen said, trying to mask her surprise. “Have a nice day. We won’t take any more of your happy time.” She took me by the hand, but Tara stopped us before we could leave.
“Why don’t you join us for lunch? We have a table reserved at Gemin’s, but I’m sure they will find two more chairs.”
I didn’t feel like joining them. And neither did Eileen. But we loved Tara, and we didn’t want to upset her on what was supposed to be one of the happiest moments of her life.
“Sure,” Eileen said, smiling at her. Tara nodded and mouthed ‘thanks’, so that only Eileen and I could see that.
“So you and Tara work together?” Martin asked, as we headed towards the restaurant. “What did you say the name of that school was?” He turned to Tara.
“Dermont,” she said, avoiding my eyes. “And yes, Eileen and Christian work there with me.”
“It must be extremely boring to teach those spoilt kids,” Martin said. “Their parents must be paying fortunes for their education. What’s your subject?” he asked me. But Tara answered before I could ruin her perfect lies.
“Christian is a math teacher, and Eileen teaches history.”
A math teacher? Seriously? I hated math. But according to Tara’s words I was a real specialist in it.
I didn’t like the way our lunch started. Eileen and I had to support Tara, confirming every word of her fake story. And despite the fact that we knew she tried her best to be happy, I still felt the notes of misery in everything she was saying.
I didn’t recognize her. Suddenly, she turned into a huge fan of classic literature and arts that, I was sure, she hated more than anything in the world. I used to think that Tara was one of those people who were hard to seduce out of the right way. But right now and there she seemed to be drinking in Martin’s every word. And she tried to hide the true colors of her aura. But she wasn’t good enough, and I could see that love was the last thing in the list of her feelings for the guy. There were shades of affection and friendship, but no passion or anything else that usually went along with a normal relationship and love.
Our lunch lasted about an hour, and when Eileen and I were about to leave, Tara excused herself, kissed Martin on the cheek and followed us to the door.
“I’m sorry guys for involving you in this,” she said nervously. “But I really needed you there.”
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Eileen asked.
Tara smiled slightly. “I’m sure this is what I need.”
“Okay.” Eileen hugged her, trying to smile back, but I knew it wasn’t easy. She and Tara became very close, and Eileen wanted to see her happy. But I also knew that ‘happiness’ and ‘Martin’ couldn’t be used in one sentence. Not that the guy was bad news, no. But he wasn’t good enough for Tara. She deserved much better than that.
“Please, don’t tell anyone about what you saw here,” she said. “I want this part of my life to be private, and I don’t want people gossiping about us. I know that you don’t approve this, but this is my choice, whether it’s good or not.”
“We are not going to tell anyone,” I said.
We said goodbye and left.
“Don’t look at me like this, Christian,” Eileen said, walking next to me. Since the moment we left the restaurant, she hadn’t said a word. “I know what you think. But I’m not going to tell her that her choice is wrong.”
“But we both know that this is not going to end well for her.”
“I know, but you heard her. She made a choice, and it’s not up to us to make her change it.”
“If Evan knows about this, he will freak out.”
“And that’s why we won’t tell him anything.”
We agreed on that point and went to find presents for our friend’s birthday.
Eileen’s choice was a round, hammered emblem with Evan’s initials and a picture of a Christmas rose that she thought would become a new crest of his family. The previous one had dragon’s wings on it, and we all knew how much Evan hated it.
The man who forged the emblem was very nice, and also made a smaller copy of it, saying that it would be a talisman for the person who would own the original.
“You are not just a blacksmith, are you?” Eileen asked, watching the man intently.
“And you are not just a usual buyer, are you?” he asked in response. “What’s your power, Dear?”
His question surprised me. “What are you talking about?” I asked.
“You are a Fairey boy, I can see that. But I can’t understand what her power is.” The man looked at Eileen again.
“The fire you use to melt metals isn’t artificial, right?”’ she said. “It’s your gift.”
The man smiled. “You are a very talented young lady. My name is Olsen Brady. And I’m a former Dever’s student.”
“I knew you were special,” Eileen said, touching his hand. Her gesture surprised me. “But you are not a hereditary Fairey. Who were your parents?”
“My mother was Wizardry, and my father was Fairey.”
I looked around to make sure that no one could hear us. “Do you use magic?”
“No, I don’t need magic to work with metal. Fire is sufficient enough to do my job.”
“How did you manage to suppress the power of magic?”
“I didn’t. It still lives inside me, but I got used to living without it.”
“Is it hard?” Eileen asked. I knew there were moments when she thought that magic was her curse. It increased the powers of all the other gifts she possessed. And unlike me or any other student of Dever who possessed only one element, she had to work really hard to control her powers and the amount of energy she spent every day.
“It’s hard to abandon magic when you live among other wizards. But I live alone, and I work with humans. They don’t know about my powers.”
“We’ve never heard about you,” I said. “How long have you been working here?”
“For all my life,” Olsen said. “But your people don’t come here. They use Peter’s services when they need anything made of metal.”
“Who’s Peter?” Eileen asked.
“He’s a wizard who can create really magical things. He lives on the outskirts of Gloster, but he doesn’t work with strangers. If you don’t know him, or if you were not recommended as good clients, he will never agree to forge a thing for you. He lives like a hermit.”
There was one more question I wanted to ask. “Why did you say that people like us don’t come here?”
“Because I don’t work with them.”
“But you didn’t say a word when we asked you to create an emblem.”
“I did not.” The man looked at Eileen and me and added, “But the moment you entered my shop, I knew who you were. But the power I felt from her was something I could have never imagined to be true. You possess all the elements, don’t you?” he said to Eileen.
“How did you know that?” No one could ever feel the presence of all the elements in her.
“Because I knew someone like you.”
Now, that was the kind of
news we’d never expected to hear. As far as we knew, the only person who possessed the powers of magic and all the natural elements died hundreds of years ago.
“You are not the only descendant of Lillian Wizardry who inherited her powers.” It felt like I was in a movie where everything seemed too unreal to be true. “There is another girl about your age, who possesses the same gifts.”
I could barely form the following question, “Do you know her name?”
The day that was supposed to be peaceful and normal was screwed up like always.
“No, I don’t know her name. She has been here just once.”
“Do you … remember what she looked like?” Eileen asked. I could feel the fear, enveloping her.
“It was about half a year ago, and she was wearing a hat and sunglasses, so I didn’t memorize her face.”
“What did she come here for?” I asked the man.
He hesitated for a moment as if trying to remember something. “She checked a few things, but never bought anything. But I knew there was something special about her. I showed her a charmed cup made of silver, and when she touched it, I saw the colors of all the elements, radiating in her aura. The cup was my personal invention. I made it when I was a student and kept it just in case I would ever see someone whose gifts I wouldn’t be able to recognize. When the girl left, the cup was still shining with her energy, and it was as powerful as what I felt in you.” He pointed at Eileen.