by Victor Kloss
“Well?”
Ben waited until they were clear of the Spellsword floor, before replying.
“Charlie’s in there,” Ben said bitterly. “My guess is that someone spotted the open locker just as Charlie was trying to leave, so he shut it, trapping himself in.”
Natalie bit her lip. “Oh no, poor Charlie. And now he’s stuck, because he can’t open the locker by himself.”
“And we can’t rescue him, because they’re guarding the locker round the clock.”
“We’ll just have to wait until the guards give up on the locker door. They can’t guard it forever.”
But Natalie was wrong. That day, Ben made half a dozen trips up to the Spellsword Department and, each time, the locker room was busy. Three o’clock came and went and there was no sign of the guards relenting.
“I think they’ll guard it overnight,” Natalie said, “but hopefully they’ll give up soon after that.”
Ben had wanted to make some excuse to stay at the Institute and keep checking, but Natalie convinced him that could arouse suspicion, so Ben headed home, feeling miserable.
He slept little, and skipped scouting duty entirely in order to make it back to the Institute by nine o’clock the following morning. To his surprise, he saw Natalie waiting for him at the entrance, yawning.
“Scouting’s not as fun without Charlie,” Natalie said, with a tired smile.
The Institute was already busy; Ben suspected that many of the members were working around the clock to deal with the dark elf crisis. They hurried up the stairs to the Spellsword Department.
The guards hadn’t moved.
Ben clenched his fist and bit his lip, until he felt the taste of blood.
“How long are they going to stand guard?” Natalie said, as they walked miserably back down to the apprentice department.
“Hours? Days? Who knows?” Ben said. “If they think someone is in there, they may wait until starvation or thirst forces them out.”
Ben didn’t feel like working on his apprenticeship that morning, though Natalie said it would take her mind off Charlie. Instead, he sat in the common room, thinking of ways to break in to his dad’s locker, each one more ridiculous than the last. When he started fantasising about going in guns blazing, he realised he was getting nowhere. So he changed his thought process. Was there any other way to get in to the Guardians’ common room? There must be, for it was intended for all Guardians, not just Spellswords. But where would the other entrances be? They were almost certainly hidden, which meant the chances of finding them were almost non-existent. Who else might know? He bet Charlie could find out, by delving into the books. But what about someone else?
The answer came to him like a cannonball to the head, paralysing him for a moment. He leapt out of his chair, just as Natalie came flying back into the common room, a look of excitement on her face.
“Dagmar!” they said in union.
The moment of amusement was swiftly followed by Ben shaking his head. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before. She’s a Guardian.”
“Sometimes the obvious answers are the hardest to get.”
It was only 11am, but Ben couldn’t wait for lunchtime muster to see Dagmar. He knocked on her door as politely as he could, and started counting to five, before planning on just busting in.
“Come in,” Dagmar said.
Ben and Natalie entered into the now familiar office. Dagmar, as usual, was behind her desk, writing away. She didn’t look up as they entered.
“Only the two of you today?” Dagmar said.
Ben exchanged a glance with Natalie.
“That’s why we wanted to see you, actually,” Ben said.
Dagmar continued to write for another minute, clearly intent on finishing her message, before purposefully putting down her pen, and glancing up, giving them her usual impassive stare.
“Speak,” Dagmar said.
Ben didn’t hold back. There was no point; Dagmar was a Guardian and there was no need to hide anything from her. But he kept it to the point. Dagmar listened, seemingly without blinking. She was so still and silent when Ben finished that he wondered if she’d even been listening. When she eventually spoke, Ben couldn’t tell if she was angry, surprised, or relieved. Perhaps all three.
“Do you realise the commotion you have caused among the executive council? Prince Robert already had a keen interest in your parents, and now, apparently, someone has entered Greg’s locker.”
“We needed to get in there,” Ben said, with a flash of stubbornness. “But I admit, we didn’t think things through properly.”
“Clearly,” Dagmar said. “And now Charlie is stuck.”
“We were wondering if there was another way in,” Natalie said.
Dagmar stood up, all four and a half feet of her. “No. One of the remarkable things about the Guardians’ common room is that there is no way in, and no way out. That passage from your father’s locker shouldn’t even be there. Your father, or more likely one of his ancestors, seems to have broken the rules.”
Ben groaned. “But how do people get in and out, then?”
“Spells,” Dagmar replied. “The Guardians had custom portal spells made.”
“Where can we find these spells?”
“I have some,” Dagmar replied, in a manner so casual that Ben knew instinctively something was wrong.
Dagmar picked up her spellshooter on the desk. Ben noted the single red band at the barrel’s tip, reinforcing what Ben already knew about Dagmar’s competence. She put her small hand on the orb, and Ben saw a pellet move towards her hand, and then gently pop out of the orb.
“There were a limited number of spells designed for each Guardian. No Guardian could use another’s spells to get inside.”
Ben and Natalie remained silent, unsure where this was leading.
“I have been to the common room half a dozen times, but unfortunately, I have run out of pellets, so I cannot return.”
“So what is that you’re holding?” Ben asked. But he already knew the answer.
“This spell was designed for the sword’s Guardian. In my arrogance, I tried casting other Guardians’ spells, but without success.”
Dagmar extended the spell to Ben, who took it, and placed it almost reverentially in his orb’s spellshooter.
“That is a grade-four spell, and not an easy one to cast,” Dagmar said. “I am unsure whether your B2 even has the capability of casting it.”
“Let’s find out,” Ben said.
“What do we do if Ben can’t cast it?” Natalie asked anxiously.
“We have no choice but to wait until the prince is satisfied that nobody is inside,” Dagmar said.
“Charlie could be dead by then,” Ben said. He raised his spellshooter, pointing it at a spot on the floor just in front of him. He glanced at Dagmar, half-expecting her to tell him to cast the spell somewhere else. But she merely nodded.
“Be patient,” Dagmar said. “Do not worry about how long the spell takes to fire, and do not worry about anyone entering. Visualise a door giving you direct access to the Guardians’ common room, and hold on to that picture no matter what.”
Ben spent a moment clearing his mind of distractions. Natalie and Dagmar faded away, but it took a little longer to take his mind away from Charlie and what failure would mean to him. His parents inexplicably crossed his mind, and he pushed them gently away, until his attention was on the here and now. Ben visualised a small door, and commanded the pellet down to the barrel. For the first minute, it didn’t move. But Ben had learned not to panic, and kept commanding the spell. Slowly – ever so slowly – the pellet started easing its way down. Ben was vaguely aware that his lip was hurting from biting it so hard, but he kept going, until the pellet dropped down from the orb, into the barrel.
Groaning with effort, Ben pulled the trigger.
A tiny spark shot forwards, and hit the floor with a small explosion. Immediately a faint outline of a door materialised. Ben stared
through it, and into a shimmering, almost ethereal Guardians’ common room.
“Be quick!” Dagmar said, with rare urgency. “The spell is weak, and will only last moments.”
Ben and Natalie leapt through the portal – and landed right in the middle of the common room. Ben quickly scanned the area. The place looked much the same, except for books scattered haphazardly across the floor. He spotted Charlie lying on a couple of loungers that he had pulled together to form a makeshift bed. Charlie was staring right at him, as if he’d seen a ghost. He looked rough; his hair was dishevelled and there were bags under his eyes.
“Ben? Is that you or am I dreaming again?”
Ben waved frantically at him. “Get up! This spell won’t last.”
Even as Ben spoke, he saw a flutter of movement behind him; the door was shrinking.
Charlie was befuddled with sleep, and it took him a good ten seconds before he registered the significance of Ben’s words. He hauled himself to his feet, and lost further seconds trying to escape the huge armchairs.
“Oh my, it’s closing fast!” Natalie said.
The portal was now less than three feet high, and Ben could see it shrinking by the second. Charlie started running, but perhaps because of his lack of food and water, he seemed to do so in slow motion. Ben was vaguely aware of Natalie screaming at Charlie to hurry up. In that moment, Ben realised Charlie wasn’t going to make it. Ben leapt forwards and grabbed Charlie’s outstretched arm. Ignoring Charlie’s cry of pain, he pulled, nearly wrenching Charlie’s arm from his body, and pushed him forwards. Charlie fell head first through the quickly disappearing portal. Natalie followed, but Ben knew he wasn’t going to make it. He reacted on instinct and desperation, throwing a hand out, and commanding the portal to hold. To his astonishment, it stopped disappearing, and grew, just a fraction, almost against its will. Ben threw himself through the tiny gap, and the portal slammed shut behind him.
— Chapter Twenty-One —
The Great Hall
Charlie studied the menu, and then glanced up at the overweight dwarf with a pristine white apron. He was holding a notepad and had his pencil poised.
“I want a full English please – the works,” Charlie said. “And can I have an extra egg, two extra slices of bacon, and a couple of hash browns with that?”
“Excellent choice, sir, as always,” the dwarf waiter said, and promptly headed off to relay the order.
Boglar’s Café wasn’t the fanciest place in Taecia Square, but it was famous for its breakfasts and was always busy. It was lunchtime and the place was packed, with many tucking into a dish similar to the one Charlie had ordered.
They had not stayed long in Dagmar’s office upon Charlie’s return. He had complained of stomach cramps and had not been willing to talk until the hunger issue had been resolved.
“I’ve been fantasising about this place for the last twelve hours,” Charlie confessed.
“I’m sure you have,” Natalie said, with a smile. “So, what happened?”
“Everything went fine, until I tried to leave,” Charlie said. “I was too hasty. I should have pushed open the locker door a crack, to see if anyone was around. But my stomach was already starting to growl with hunger, and I opened it too quickly. A Spellsword was getting his stuff out of his own locker. He had his back to me, but I must have gasped or something, because he turned round. I managed to shut the locker door quickly, but the Spellsword saw something. He certainly heard the click as the locker sealed itself. He called out to me. I froze in terror, hoping he would go away. Instead, I heard more Spellswords entering the locker room. I had no choice but to head back into the Guardians’ common room.”
“We tried to rescue you,” Natalie said, “but it was always so busy.”
“I figured it would be,” Charlie said. “The more I thought about it, the more I realised how big a deal this might be. Prince Robert has been looking for your parents, Ben, for ages, and suddenly your dad’s locker door is found ajar.”
“Yeah, we realised the same thing,” Ben said.
“It was my fault,” Charlie said. “I was so eager to get back into the Guardians’ common room, I hadn’t thought things through properly.”
Ben shook his head. “No, it was my fault. I should have come with you.”
Natalie slapped her hands lightly on the table. “Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? So what did you find? Was it worth the trip?”
Charlie gave a large grin as his food arrived, and tore into his breakfast.
“Abigail Greeves is the one we want.”
Charlie took out a photo from his inner pocket. On it was a photo of a petite girl with blonde hair, clutching a bunch of books.
“I remember her,” Ben said. “She was the shy one, right? Always by herself, reading half the time.”
“That’s the one.”
Natalie was also looking at the photo. “She looks cute. How certain are you she is the right girl?”
“Ninety-five percent,” Charlie said. “I found four references to the surname ’Greeves’, and none to the other two. I would have liked firmer evidence, but I’m fairly confident she’s the one.”
“Good enough for me,” Ben said. “So now that we know who the Guardian is, we just have the simple matter of telling this Abigail that magic really exists, and she is needed to help defeat the dark elf king before he takes over the world.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Charlie said. “I haven’t been able to come up with an explanation that has the faintest chance of working. It was hard enough for us, and we got to experience everything.”
“We need to get her into the Unseen Kingdoms,” Natalie said.
“Except she’s not allowed in,” Charlie said. “I thought maybe we could use our spellshooters and show her some magic.”
Ben rubbed his chin, looking at the photo again. “Not a bad idea, but she looks frail enough already. The shock might knock her out.”
Natalie gave Ben a disapproving frown. “Just because she looks petite doesn’t mean she’s weak. Anyway, surely Hunter will have the same problem, right? How is he going to convince the helm’s Guardian about everything?”
“I don’t know, but I want to get to her before he does,” Ben said.
“Assuming he hasn’t already done so,” Natalie pointed out.
“It will have to be after school,” Charlie said. “She lives close by, so I bet she walks home. We can catch her on the way.”
“This afternoon, then.”
Ben walked back to the Institute with a spring in his step. Charlie was safe, and things were starting to go their way. There were still six days until the dark elf attack, and they were now that much closer to finding the helm’s Guardian. That left the helm itself. Ben nudged Natalie every day, but so far she hadn’t recalled who the member with the locket was.
“What’s going on here?” Charlie asked.
There was a large crowd milling just inside the entrance, members and apprentices alike. A bulky-looking Warden stood on a makeshift pedestal just in front of the statue of Queen Elizabeth.
“Everyone go to the Great Hall,” the Warden boomed. “No milling around. You will be briefed in the Great Hall. Everyone go to the Great Hall…"
The Warden kept repeating himself as more people came in or wandered down the stairs to see what the commotion was about.
“Great Hall?” Ben said.
Natalie clapped her hands, smiling with delight. “Oh, I’ve heard so much about the Great Hall, but I’ve never been there.”
“I wonder what the announcement is about,” Charlie said.
They weren’t the only ones wondering; the chatter was of little else as they followed the crowd through the atrium, into a large hallway.
Ben spotted several apprentices ahead of him, including Simon, who was talking animatedly to anyone who would listen.
“I hope they’re going to send us to the front line. I want to see some real action for once.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” William said. “You wouldn’t last a minute.”
“Course I would,” Simon said indignantly. “I’d just…"
Simon’s explanation was lost amongst the voices.
Ben wasn’t normally allowed into this part of the Institute, and his interest was piqued. At the end of the hallway was a set of open double doors. In the door frame was a shimmering barrier. It was impossible to make out anything beyond the barrier, but the Institute members were walking without concern. As Ben passed through, he felt a cool breeze on his face, and a feeling of resistance, which momentarily slowed him down.
“Keep going!” a member said, barging into him from behind.
Ben had unwittingly stopped, his mouth slowly opening with astonishment. They were in a huge seated auditorium that sloped gently upwards towards the rear, reminding Ben of a movie theatre. The ceiling was vaulted, and great big lanterns hung at regular intervals, casting hundreds of shadows and a soft glow about the place. At the very front was a stage carved out of marble, and on it was another Warden.
“Find your places and take a seat!” the Warden said.
Each seat was colour-coded, with the seat back embossed with a number. The seats at the back were transparent, clearly meant for apprentices. Natalie stopped at the seats that said “three”; Charlie and Ben sat directly behind her. Ben couldn’t help feeling like they were attending some movie première, though he knew nothing could be further from the truth. The auditorium filled quickly, and Ben saw the double doors close.
Like many others at the back, Ben stared with bated breath at the stage. After less than a minute, the executive council and Prince Robert strode on. There were several restrained gasps upon seeing the prince. He was dressed regally, with a flowing red and gold cloak, leather boots, and even a small, elegant crown upon his head.
“Good morning,” the prince said.
Ben instantly looked around for the audio surround sound system, but he saw none. The prince’s voice came from everywhere and was crystal clear.
“We have called you here because there are now just six days until the dark elves attack, and we want to make sure you are fully briefed. We are all very busy, as I am sure are you, so we will keep this short. However, there have been some rumours flying round, which is to be expected, and we want to clear the air.”