Lyricus moved to the other side of the table, silently pulling out chairs for himself and Belle as they sat down opposite her. It was obvious everyone was walking on eggshells. The tension in the room was like a thick fog.
Raff heaved a huge sigh, pulled the chair out next to her ready to sit down, and then exploded. “Y’ know what? You’re right. This is not my fault! So where do you get off being angry with me just because I agreed with Lyricus instead of you. Sheesh Leah, why do you always have to take everything as a personal insult! I don’t wanna be here anymore than you do, but we’re stuck here for now, and you just need to get over it!”
He dropped angrily into the chair beside her, the deathly silence following his uncharacteristic outburst serving to accentuate the loud ominous crack as the rickety old chair disintegrated beneath him. Raff lay sprawled on the floor among the ruin, a stunned expression on his flaming red face. After a split second where everyone held their breath, he burst out laughing.
Leah fought desperately to keep a straight face, still reeling from his explosive words. But in the end, he was right. It wasn’t anybody’s fault they were stuck here. She had no right to make his life a misery because she was angry with the world.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” She managed to get the words out before the laughter bubbled up and broke free. She slid off her chair and dropped to the floor beside him. Belle and Lyricus had just joined in the laughter, when the door opened and an old man wearing a tattered grey robe stepped into the room.
“Oh my, what’s happened here?” the old man said in a vaguely disinterested voice. “Chair gave way under you eh son? Not surprising really, I knew some of those chairs needed replacing. But then, whoever listens to me? What would I know right?” He continued to mumble as he moved past them towards the other end of the table.
Suddenly he looked back at them and frowned, as if he’d just remembered they were there. “Nobody’s hurt though right? Excellent! Oh dear oh dear, what’s to be done? Perhaps tea would help — iced tea in this heat I think. Jonah?” He called out through the still open door, and another man appeared in the doorway. “Ah, there you are. We need iced tea in here immediately. Oh, and perhaps a broom.”
The old man settled into a seat at the other end of the table and sighed. “Now, where were we? Come closer, come closer — my hearing’s not what it used to be you know. I do promise not to bite.” He broke into a wheezing chuckle at his attempt at humour.
Leah groaned inwardly. This was the headmaster? She immediately gave up all hope of telling him their story and asking for his help. This dithering old man probably needed someone’s help just getting dressed in the morning.
The look in Raff’s eyes, as he helped her to her feet, told her he was thinking the same thing. They moved closer to where the old man sat, all warily testing the chairs would hold their weight before sitting. The man he’d called Jonah arrived with two large jugs of an amber liquid, with ice floating on the top, and four glasses. He poured them each a drink, left the jugs on the table, and proceeded to clean up the pieces of the broken chair from the floor.
“So… new students I presume? Lovely, lovely. Now, I will need your names and the number of the Naissance village you came from.”
Raff jumped in before anyone else could speak. “My name’s Ron, but I don’t know what you mean about the number of the village. I came from Naissance.”
“Ah yes, of course. Silly me, that will be on the message from the portal when it comes through. The numbers don’t really matter anyway, they’re mainly just for paperwork purposes. So Ron was it?”
He wrote down the name in a small book conveniently sitting on the table in front of him. Leah had a feeling Jonah probably made sure it was always there when the headmaster needed it. She smiled at Raff, proud of his quick thinking in giving a false name.
“I’m Lexi,” Leah said quietly, smiling at the old man as he nodded and wrote the name in his book.
Belle continued to look down at the table. “My name is Brea.”
“And I am Leon,” Lyricus said, his eyes looking directly into those of the old man.
“Excellent! I am Professor Goon, the headmaster of Valleron College, as you’ve probably guessed. Welcome.”
He blinked, and then looked at them all blankly, as if he couldn’t remember who they were, and why they were there.
“Ummm, could you tell us a bit about this place, Valleron, and what we’re supposed to do here? This is all a bit confusing. No one at home would tell me what to expect after I stepped inside the portal. Why are we here?” Belle said softly, looking into the headmaster’s eyes encouragingly. Leah smiled as she realised that Belle was actually prompting the old man to help him remember his job.
“Ah yes, of course.” Professor Goon launched into the same story they had heard when they first arrived in Florisia, about how the portals contained the door to return to the world of their birth. Except there was no mention of them being born with Gifts, or how these Gifts had been bound since birth. Because the majority of children born in Valleron weren’t born with Gifts. They were the humans of the three worlds.
“As for what you’ll be doing here, Jonah is probably more informed on that subject than me. He organises the work and lesson rosters for all the students here at the college.”
As if he’d been waiting for his cue, Jonah stepped up to the chair beside Professor Goon and smiled at them. “If you’re ready, I’ll take you to your rooms now, and explain a few things as we go along.” He gave the professor what looked very much like a condescending smile. “Professor was there anything else you needed before we go?”
The Professor looked startled at hearing his name. “What? No no, you run along with the new students now Jonah, and get them settled. Lovely to meet you children. I hope you enjoy your time here at Valleron College.”
Leah looked at the others and rolled her eyes as they stood to follow Jonah from the room. If this doddering old man was running the school, they definitely needed to get out of here as soon as possible. Something about this place just didn’t feel right, and she did not want to hang around to find out what it was.
Chapter Seven
-Secret Messages-
Jonah led them out a back door, and Raff was both stunned and horrified by what lay beyond it. A large red dirt area separated two buildings he assumed were the dorms, which were in the same dismal state of disrepair as the main one. There was not a tree or plant in sight. The place had a desolate, deserted feel to it. Not to mention an overarching atmosphere of despair.
“Where are all the other students?” Raff asked.
“Some are in the classroom, but most are off doing work duties.” Jonah moved towards the centre of the red dirt area as he spoke. “Now listen carefully. This is the common area where students may mingle during their free time. To the left is the girls’ dormitory, and to the right is the boys’. It is strictly prohibited for boys to enter the girls’ dorms, and vice versa. Punishment for breaking rules is in the form of extra duties, and trust me, you will want to avoid those at all costs. You will find a roster in your room detailing your personal schedule for the week. The roster repeats at the start of every new week. Any questions?”
Raff realised his mouth was hanging open, and he snapped it shut. This place seriously gave him the heebie-jeebies. He shuddered at the thought that if he’d picked a different door, way back in the portal, this is where he would have ended up. He would never have gone to Fey Academy, never have even known it existed. He felt sick just thinking about it. He silently thanked whatever entity had been responsible for him not landing in this place.
Jonah cleared his throat, accepting their silence as his answer. “Excellent. So, you girls are in room G22, and you boys are in room B25. You may have the afternoon free, but make sure you check your rosters to see where you need to be first thing in the morning; you don’t want to be late on your first day. The dinner bell is at dusk. Please don’t dawdle or you will miss out
.” He nodded curtly, and left them standing in the middle of the red dirt common area.
“Unbelievable! I am definitely outta here tonight!” Leah said, as she watched Jonah walk away with a stunned look on her face.
“We are all outta here tonight!” Raff said, squeezing her hand. “Listen, my head is still pounding from that brain-buster of an amulet ride. How about we go find our rooms and meet back here before dinner? If we’re gonna leave here tonight, my head needs some recovery time first.”
* * *
Raff could have sworn he’d only just gone to sleep when Lyricus shook him awake. He opened his eyes, took in his dreary surroundings, and groaned. Of course it hadn’t all been a dream. He really was in Valleron!
He sat up on the filthy mattress on the floor, relieved to find the pounding in his head had been reduced to a dull ache, and rubbed the sleep from his gritty eyes.
“What’s up? Time to go already?”
Lyricus sat on the floor next to his bed holding a piece of paper in his hand. “No, we have a while yet. You’ve only been asleep for about an hour. Sorry to wake you, but this was just slipped under the door.”
You are in great danger. Please come to the work shed behind the boys’ dormitory tonight at 10pm. Say nothing to anyone, and don’t be late.
Professor Goon
Raff stared at the piece of paper, trying to reconcile the concise message with the dithering old man they’d met earlier that day. It didn’t make sense! What the blazes was going on around here?
“So what do you make of it?” he asked, looking up into Lyricus’ worried eyes.
Lyricus shook his head. “I’ve been sitting here thinking about it for the last ten minutes. Either it’s been written by someone else, and is a trap, or the man we met earlier today is doing an excellent job of convincing the world he’s incompetent. But either way, I don’t think we have much choice. We’ll have to meet with whoever sent the note tonight, and go from there.”
Raff sighed. “You know this is gonna do Leah’s head in big time, right? Maybe we should ask her what to do this time, rather than just telling her what we think we should do? Even I have to admit her intuition’s been spot on so far.”
“That’s a good idea. If she has a bad feeling, at least we’ll be prepared for the worst. But bad feeling or not, I really think we need to leave here tonight. I’ve been reading the roster. This place is more like a workhouse than a school. I understand now why there were no students around today. They were probably all at what they call external work experience, which appears to be scheduled for most of our waking hours, at least six days a week. Something is very wrong here, and we’re not in a position to do anything about it.”
“Yeah, I agree. What a nightmare. Man, this place must be freaking Belle out big-time. It would all feel way too familiar!”
Lyricus frowned, his eyes darkening. “What do you mean? Why would a place like this be familiar to Belle?”
Raff took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Sorry, I forgot you probably don’t know anything about Belle’s life before she came to Florisia. Look, it’s not really my place to tell you. Maybe it would be better if you waited for her to tell you.” He could already see from the look on Lyricus’ face that it was too late to go back now.
“I think you should tell me right now what you’re talking about!” Lyricus leaned toward him and spoke very quietly, sparks shooting from his intense green eyes.
“Whoa… calm down man. No need to go all agro-man on me. I’ll tell you everything I know. But when Belle tells you about it one day, you’d better act surprised!”
Lyricus sighed and leaned back on his heels, running his hands through his hair and taking deep, calming breaths. “I’m sorry Raff. That was very rude of me, and utterly inexcusable. My emotions concerning Belle’s well-being appear to be a little out of control at the moment.”
Raff grinned and nodded. “It’s all good, I get it. The old protective mode tends to kick into overdrive when you really like a girl. Trust me, I totally understand where you’re coming from. Okay, so here’s what I know.”
Raff launched into what he knew of the story of Belle’s past. He started with when they’d discovered their old bedrooms from Naissance had been magically transported to the Fey Academy, describing how devastated Belle had been when he and Leah had seen the hovel-like bedroom she’d been forced to live in. He smiled at the memory of Leah insisting Belle share her room, while secretly arranging for Madame Persimmons to fix Belle’s room while they were in class.
He recognised the sadness in Lyricus’ eyes; he remembered feeling exactly the same way when he’d first seen the room. Taking a deep breath and looking away from Lyricus’ intense gaze, he told him about Belle’s horrible Guardian, and how she’d spent hours every morning trying to rub the blackness off her skin, telling her she was a devil-spawned, cursed freak. And finally, how she’d been spurned by the entire village and treated worse than a slave in her own home. When he’d finished, he looked up to find Lyricus’ eyes were glowing with barely suppressed tears of rage.
“Yep, that’s exactly how I felt when I first heard about it. I wanted to go back to that village and beat her Guardian to a pulp!”
Lyricus let out his breath slowly, obviously struggling to rein in his overwrought emotions. “Thank you for telling me Raff. So many things that baffled me about Belle’s reactions to situations make sense now. If you ever decide to go on that trip to her village in Naissance, I will definitely join you.”
Raff chuckled. “Absolutely, I’d welcome the company! So, are you ready to go meet up with the girls and tell them about our mystery message?”
Lyricus’ face broke into a grin, although the dark intensity in his eyes told Raff the memories had merely been stored, to be dealt with at another time.
“Let’s go!” he said, rising to his feet and holding his hand out to Raff.
Raff shuddered as he sensed the intense emotions buried just beneath the surface of Lyricus’ calm facade. He almost felt sorry for the woman who’d made Belle’s life a misery for so long. Nah, he didn’t feel sorry for the monster at all. Instead, he found himself hoping he’d be there if Lyricus ever crossed paths with the woman. Karma came in all different shapes and sizes, and Raff had a feeling he was looking at the size and shape of the old Guardian’s karma right there and then.
Chapter Eight
-Escape-
Belle’s sagging spirits lifted the minute she saw Lyricus sitting with Raff in the common area. The atmosphere in Valleron College was utterly depressing, and it had quickly managed to worm its way inside her head, filling her with the same despair she hadn’t felt since she left Naissance. She’d tried to sleep for a while, but the horrible memories of her childhood kept rearing their ugly heads every time she closed her eyes, until she’d finally given up.
She sensed something different in the intensity in Lyricus’ eyes when they found hers. For a second he looked almost angry. But then he smiled, and the look vanished so quickly Belle thought she must have imagined it.
Raff grinned up at them as they approached. “So, your new place any better than ours?”
Leah flopped down onto the ground beside him and scowled. “This hell-hole is without a doubt the most depressing place I’ve ever been. So what’s the plan? Please tell me you have a plan to get us out of here ASAP?”
Raff was reaching into his pocket when Lyricus cleared his throat and shook his head, looking around nervously. Raff slowly removed his empty hand from his pocket and nodded, as if he understood whatever silent message Lyricus had been sending.
Belle looked from one to the other in confusion. “Ummm… hello, what was all that about? Have you two got some sort of new secret code going on or what?”
Lyricus smiled and shook his head. “Raff was about to show you a note that was pushed under our door about half an hour ago. But as we have no idea who is watching us, I thought it best not to have the actual note on display.”
Raff smiled and related the contents of the note, adding what Lyricus had suggested it might mean. He kept his eyes focused on Leah’s the whole time he was speaking. Belle smiled; he certainly couldn’t be accused of avoiding making eye contact with her this time.
“So we agreed that we’d ask Leah what she thought we should do,” Raff said, smiling sheepishly. “What do you think babe? Are you getting any bad vibes about the meeting?”
Leah’s smile was radiant. “Seriously? You want to know what I think before we make a decision? Wow, who ever said tantrums were a waste of time? Okay… well for once I don’t get a bad feeling about this meeting. Does that help?”
Belle covered her mouth to stifle the laughter threatening to erupt at the look of relief on Raff’s face. The poor guy looked like the weight of the worlds had been lifted off his shoulders.
“Well I, for one, reckon that’s awesome news Leah,” Belle said, her own relief so intense she wanted to cry. “So please tell me this means we’re getting out of this disgusting place tonight? I checked out the roster, and it made my skin crawl. How can they call this place a school? It’s more like a boarding house for child labourers!”
Their conversation was interrupted by the distant sound of horse’s hooves thudding on the red dirt. Their mouths dropped open at the sight of a long line of horse-drawn carts coming up the road, each packed to overflowing with children of various ages. As each cart pulled up in front of the school, the children stumbled wearily down out of the back of them.
Belle was appalled at the seemingly never-ending stream of children staggering towards the dorms, their heads down, and shoulders slumped in exhaustion. They were all dreadfully thin, and not one of them even acknowledged the new arrivals sitting in the courtyard. Their dull, lifeless eyes were focused on the red dirt beneath their feet.
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