Knight of the Black Rose

by Nissa Gordon

  "He didn't tell us either," Troy assured her.

  "Yes, I did," Will told them, as he was sure that he would have told them something that important. "Flickering lights, the book practically jumped out at me. Then it almost attacked me in the lift going back to my room...I broke the mirror. I told you,"

  They all looked at each other, he could tell that this was the first time that they were hearing about this, but he didn't understand why because he was sure that he had told them, he was going to tell them.

  "We heard that someone broke the mirror in the lift, but no one knew who it was," Eddie told him. "Dad was annoyed of course, he said thing's like that, just don't normally happen here,"

  "It came out the mirror at me..." Will told them uneasily.

  They were all silently for a while as though trying to figure out what to do about this, but before any of them could, the door to the ward opened and Glen came back through.

  "I'm afraid that's it for now, you can come back tonight," Glen told them.

  Will grabbed Troy's wrist and whispered to him where he had left the book, he nodded back at him before they all left him there; but Will knew they would check it out for him.

  Classes were finally over and they had all eaten before they had finally decided to go back to the dorms, as they needed to check out this book that Will had told them about and hopefully still have time to see him. They all piled into Will's bedroom nervously, Jess and Libby hanging back at the door, while the others looked at each other in front of the wardrobe as if trying to decide who should open it.

  Lucy nudged Troy and Alex forward. "I think one of you two should open it, considering that you've been sharing your room with it for two weeks,"

  They both turned around horrified as they realised what she said, while Selena laughed behind Lucy.

  "It isn't funny...it could have attacked us," Troy told her scowling as he turned back around, and Lucy nudged him again. "I know...give me a sec,"

  "Can a book really hurt you?" Libby asked them, making them all look at her again. "Fine...I'm going to assume that's one of those stupid questions..."

  "Anything can hurt you," Jess told her.

  Troy took a deep breath as he stepped forward reaching for the handles and then wiped the doors open; everyone looked around frantically but nothing happened, so Troy stepped closer and bent down to reach inside for the book. He grabbed it and pulled it out, but as he stood up holding it, everyone seemed to take a step back as he walked over to the bed to have a proper look at it.

  "I personally wouldn't stand at the door..." Troy said. "You're the closest to grab,"

  Libby and Jess looked at each other paling somewhat before they rushed into the room to stand with the others, and closer to the book.

  The book was black with a rose on the front, that none of them failed to miss before Troy opened it, and slowly read them the story of the Black Knight, that took a while until finally he finished.

  "I'm confused," Libby admitted.

  "So am I..." Lucy added making everyone look at her. "What? Can't I ever be confused?"

  "Well...err...no..." Alex answered.

  "It's just that this was a real person from over a thousand years ago," Lucy explained. "He was cursed by someone to do these things, kill and absorb power. Then he was trapped into this book. His presence should still be picked up by the security systems. The book itself shouldn't even be at the school, unless someone at the school summoned it."

  "That's actually a good point," Eddie said. "He was supposed to protect the family that he served...he was a real person...meaning that whoever cursed him left him alive...or alive enough to feed off of others. He should be able to be picked up on the sensors,"

  "You know, I was thinking...whoever is behind this, would need the book right?" Methos said making them all look at him this time and then quickly at the door as though they expect someone or something stood there ready to attack them and take the book back. "Shouldn't we give the book in...? We can trust dad and Domnus,"

  "There hasn't been as many attacks," Selena said slowly. "They must need the book...or at least something that belongs to the Knight that controls it. As long as no one knows we have it, there shouldn't be anymore attacks. And if there is, then we'll hand it over straight away,"

  This was debated for a while until they all finally agreed to keep the book hidden, but only if there were no more attacks, if there were then they would hand it in straight away.

  Lucy had gone back to her room after they had finally agreed to keep it in Will's room, since no one knew it was there and it had been safe there since he had found it, but she had a feeling that Will himself probably wouldn't want to keep it in his room when he was allowed out of the hospital ward, but for now it could stay.

  What Lucy really wanted to do, was contacted Doctor Wray and tell him that Will was awake, but she wanted to check out his results first which to her complete surprise Loring had agreed to give them to her as long as no one else found out; well she was going to assume he meant no one at the school. She took a good twenty minutes reading through everything that he had gotten her, and it was a lot; so she made copies so that she could send them on to let this doctor guy take a proper look at them.

  To: - Doctor S.Wray

  From: - Luna

  Dear Dr S.Wray

  Thank you for that other letter, I'm so glad that my work was able to help in anyway.

  The student that was attacked woke up, he's fine, talking and everything but they're going to keep him in for a couple of days just to make sure that he's alright. But there seems to be a problem that they hadn't picked up to start with. I took a quick look at all of the test results which I've attached to this file so that you can check them for yourself. The thing is, it wasn't picked up until after he woke up, but I checked, it did manage to drain some of his powers. Magic tests on his powers haven't been done yet, I told them to re-check, they're hoping that with a bit of rest that it'll sort itself out. That's why I'm sending you the files so you can check them with the other files that you have, of the others that were attacked.

  If you could get back to me, I mean if you have time.

  Thanks for all of you help.

  Luna

  Lucy sent the message hoping that it sounded alright and not too childish, and also that she was doing the right thing by getting involved like this, but she just didn't like sitting around doing nothing. She did know that she would have to wait probably a few days until he got back to her, but it wasn't as though she was expecting him to send her an answer straight away, not that it wouldn't be nice, but she understood that these things took time.

  Now she needed to get some sleep, and hoped that Will was going to be alright; along with everyone else.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Will was feeling more and more tired after every lesson, but he just didn't understand why considering that they had all told him that he supposedly hadn't been affected like the others had. He had actually believed them to start with, but it was two whole weeks since he had been released from the hospital ward and his dad went home, and his powers still weren't working like they had been before. He had somehow managed to keep it to himself, or at least he hoped that no one else had noticed, and none of the teachers have said anything to him yet.

  Will walked in-between Troy and Alex down the corridor towards their defence room, he had loved this lesson before, but now it was such hard work; yes he could do the hand to hand stuff but it was the rest of it that was a problem now. He yawned again as they entered the classroom making their way to their desk, hoping that somehow he won't fall asleep, which was kind of what he wanted to do, but without the weird dreams of people dying being wrapped in vines and turning black.

  Lucy sat down beside of him and smiled at him, she was always so cheerful and full of energy, which at the moment annoyed him because he hardly had the energy to keep his eyes open let alone anything else that was expected of him in this lesson.

&nbs
p; "Are you alright?" Lucy whispered.

  "Yeah...sure..." Will said as dismissively as possible, but he could tell that she wasn't overly convinced.

  Domnus walked through from the other room once everyone was seated and silence fell over the class, he tapped the board behind him with his wand which revealed two words 'Deflection & Disarming'.

  "Today, we'll be learning how to end a conflict with a peaceful solution," Domnus told them. "Disarming spells can work against magical objects and against weapons. With a magical weapon, it takes more force of course if your opponent is strong enough to deflect or even retrain their hold. It's important to know these thing's, so that you can disarm someone, but also so you can stop someone from disarming yourself so easily. We'll be learning the spells first before we go through to the training arena to practice."

  The board changed again and this time a spell appeared upon it, along with the directions of how to basically move your wand.

  "Exspellus!" Domnus said as he waved his wand, to the right and slightly up then over in a half semi circle, straight down and then a small flick. "It's important as you know to say the work clearly and with as much force behind it as you can. The hand movements are also important when learning new spells of any kind, as it directions the energy out of your body and at your opponent. As I've mentioned, next year we'll learn how to use defensive spells more quickly, but with the same amount of impact. Now, deflecting takes more practice; I'm not expecting any of you to get it on the first try. When one uses the deflecting spell, you have to be grounded and ready for the hit, but also fluid in case you need to move quickly. Some spells and charms are just too powerful to deflect completely, which is why you should be ready to move. Relectus!" Domnus drew a complete circle and then a cross within it, moving his wand quicker than the last spell. "The circle and cross motion that you create is symbolised as a shield, and must be drawn quickly placing it before you."

  Lucy raised her hand, and he nodded for her speak. "I was wondering, can objects be charmed with the deflecting spells, to create a kind of barrier around yourself?"

  "Yes, but not at this level; spells such as those will be taught in higher years once you've understood the basic's," Domnus told her. "There's no point in learning the more advanced forms of magic if you don't understand the basic structure of the art to hold it altogether. For now, I'd like you all to practice the movements and pronouncing of the spells before we move to the next room,"

  They practiced for about ten minutes before Domnus finally decided that they could try the spell for real on each other, as he had wanted to make sure that everyone had a fair chance of defending themselves; even though the classroom was the only place where things like that would be fair.

  They all went through to the adjoining arena, the lights coming on as the first students walked into the large open space with the benches lining the walls; and then they spaced themselves out in pairs, as they all knew by now that they worked with the person that they sat next to.

  Will followed Lucy as she walked across the large room towards the benches as far away from the Disa lot as she could get, as they seemed to have divided the room up, not wanting to be working near the other. Will frowned at Lucy as she stood ready to go, he was starting to worry that perhaps he should have had a word with her before hand, he was sure that she would have understood and gone easy on him.

  "So which one do you want to do first?" Lucy asked him.

  Will thought that wasn't too bad, if he didn't have to go on the defensive straight away at least he wouldn't have to look like an idiot. "Do you mind if I try the disarming first?"

  "Sure, that's fine," Lucy said smiling broadly at him.

  Will knew Lucy too well, meaning that he knew when she smiled like that; she was enjoying herself way too much. In this case, he suspected that she probably knew how to do both spells, and was just looking for someone to practice with; and normally that would be fine with him because she had helped him improve in the past, but not today.

  "Give it your best shot," Lucy teased smiling cheekily.

  Will waved his wand just how he was supposed to and shouted. "Exspellus!"

  Light shot from his wand straight at Lucy but she was already ready for him, waving her own wand.

  "Relectus!" Lucy shouted and a purple shimmering shield appeared before her, startling several others close by.

  "Miss Shepherd, that's very good..." Domnus said approvingly. "Five points,"

  "Yey me!" Lucy said smiling even more as she turned back to Will to try it again. "Come on Will, I know you can do it,"

  "I probably could have done it, if you hadn't learnt the spell before class," Will told her, not that he completely believed that at the moment with how tired he felt, but if things had been different then he knew that he would have stood a better chance; but he wasn't really one for giving up, so he'd give it another go. "Exspellus!"

  Light shot from Will's wand again, but this time not as bright as the first and then disappeared before it was half way across towards Lucy, so she didn't even bother to deflect it. Will swayed on his feet suddenly as he reached out trying to find something to hold onto, but there wasn't anything.

  "Will...?" Lucy said panicked as she rushed forward, but she didn't catch him in time before he fell to his knee's.

  Even though she hadn't shouted his name, they had still managed to draw quite a bit of attention to themselves, as everyone close by stopped to find out what had happened.

  Domnus walked over to them while Lucy tried to get Will to his feet and back towards the benches. "Is there a problem?"

  "I'm fine," Will lied.

  "Was Miss Shepherd a little overly excited again?" Domnus asked.

  "Probably..." Lucy answered blushing.

  Domnus looked at them both as though he didn't believe them, Will had paled and looked as though he might actually pass out and Lucy looked extremely nervous even though she tried to look somewhat guilty. He was pleased to see that she had his back, but he still wanted to know what was really going on, he just hoped that it wasn't more side effects with what had happened, as they hadn't thought that it had taken much of his energy. Once the class was over he would have to talk to Will's other teachers to see if they've noticed any difference in him; he did kind of hope that it was Miss Shepherd who had gotten a little over excited.

  "Okay then, take a couple of minutes before you try that again," Domnus told them, Will nodded without saying anything else, he wasn't happy about that, but at the moment there wasn't much he could do about it, except keep an eye on him.

  Lucy waited until Domnus had walked away before she started on Will. "Why didn't you tell me it was so bad?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about," Will said dismissively.

  "Will, I've told you that I'm in contact with the department who's in-charge of trying to find a cure for this," Lucy told him as she waved at him. "Which means, that I know just how bad it is. The thing is though, you're test results weren't that bad...so what, you've just gotten worse since they let you out or something?"

  Will looked at her, not sure if he was surprised or if he was angry. "You've seen my test results?"

  Lucy guiltily nodded. "But we needed to see them...to make sure that everything was alright. And according to them, you should be...but, it's like it's still got a hold of you and draining your powers...but slower than any of the others,"

  "But that's just stupid, right?" Will said dismissively.

  Lucy quickly looked up to make sure that no one was looking their way before she moved a little closer to him. "What about the book...you said that it could hold power over that thing? And you still have it,"

  Will thought about that, part of him didn't want to admit it, but she could be right about the book as it was the only thing connecting to the Knight that he had, considering that he had gotten ride of all the roses.

  "So what do you think we should do with it?" Will asked.

  Before Lucy could even think of an a
nswer there was a knock at the door drawing everyone's attention as Eldamar walked in, he quickly scanned the room for Domnus who was already making his way over to him, and then they both went through to the classroom without a word.

  "What do you think that's about?" Troy asked as he and Alex came over to join them on the benches.

  "You don't think there's been another attack do you?" Alex asked nervously.

  "I can't really think of anything else," Lucy said and then turned back to Will. "We'll have to think where to move it, but still somewhere safe,"

  "Why not just put it back in the library?" Will asked. "There are millions of books; I doubt that anyone will find it,"