The shriek of the kettle brought him back to consciousness. June prepared a cup of tea and handed it to him. “Drink this.” Without hesitation, he took a big gulp of the hot liquid.
June pulled a chair close to him. She settled into it throwing her robe lower over her legs. “Now, tell me what happened.”
Hyroc took another sip of tea, cleared his throat, and with a sigh recounted the disturbing events that had led him to her door.
“That is unacceptable behavior,” June exclaimed, shaking her head angrily when he had finished. “Winter isn’t far-off; you could have easily frozen to death out there in the rain! I don’t care what you look like, it’s no excuse to hang you out like a line of dirty laundry. You got lucky they hung you close enough to the tree, but you may not be so fortunate in the future and who knows what they might think to do to you next time. In the morning, we’ll bring this barbaric misbehavior to the headmaster’s attention; this cannot be tolerated.” June stood and he handed her the now empty cup. “You’ll be spending the rest of the night in my room where I can keep an eye on you.” Hyroc nodded gratefully. That was what he expected her to say. He knew she would protect him. “I’ll send someone to get your clothes from your dorm in the morning. But before either of us can go to bed, I need to do something about those slivers.”
Hyroc bowed his head and shrugged unenthusiastically.
Hyroc seated himself at the table in the dining hall. The few hours of sleep he had gotten in June’s room had done little to alleviate his fatigue. His arms hurt more now than they had during his escape from the tree and many other aches had appeared all over his body. He rested his head on the table’s smooth wooden surface and closed his eyes. He opened them at the sound of student’s voices. Through bleary eyes, he watched the ever-increasing throng of students file into the dining hall. He sat up with a start when he spotted Simon enter the room. The head prefect stopped, staring at Hyroc with a subtle amount of surprise mixed with contempt. Although unnerved by the prefect’s presence, Hyroc knew he was safe for the moment with June watching him from the teachers table. He gave Simon a challenging glare, daring him to try doing anything while June was watching. Simon smirked and continued on his way. Thomas entered the room. Hyroc narrowed his eyes angrily at his friend as the boy made his way over to him.
“Where were you?” Hyroc asked acidly.
Thomas shrugged apologetically. “I – I’m really sorry,” he said. “I was asleep.”
“How could you have slept through that?” All the commotion should have woken everyone in the dorm.
“It was the middle of the night,” Thomas retorted. “And I didn’t know you were gone until I got up this morning and heard some of the older boys bragging about what they did to you. If I had known somebody had done that to you, I would’ve gotten a teacher.”
Thomas sounded sincere and his explanation seemed to make some of Hyroc’s anger abate. With a sigh Hyroc said,” I guess I can forgive you for that.” Thomas nodded thankfully. “But I’m not going to be climbing trees for a while,” Hyroc said, rotating his arm.”
“You should take this to the headmaster?”
Hyroc glanced over at Simon who sat at the other end of the table. “Yeah, right after breakfast.”
“Good, I don’t want those fat headed jerks getting away with this.”
“I want that more than you,” Hyroc said smirking.
“There’s something we need to talk to you about headmaster,” June said to the headmaster after breakfast, as he came to the door leading into his office.
“Of course,” the headmaster said, suspiciously eyeing Hyroc who stood at her side. He opened the door. “After you.” The headmaster offered the two of them a seat before sitting down behind his desk. “What brings you to my office this morning?”
“Well it appears a number of your students, including the head prefect, took part in something despicable,” June said, turning toward Hyroc. “Hyroc please tell the headmaster what happened.”
Hyroc nodded and related the events of the night for a second time.
“Is that everything,” the headmaster said when Hyroc had finished, his face impassive.
“Yes headmaster,” Hyroc replied confidently, emboldened by the knowledge those boys were going to be punished for what they had done to him.
“Very well,” he said as he stood. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment, we can get this all sorted out shortly.” The headmaster left the room and returned with Simon. The Prefect and Hyroc locked their eyes on one another as he walked over to the desk. “Simon it appears we have a bit of an issue,” the headmaster said, re-seating himself at his desk.
“What kind of an issue headmaster?” Simon said innocently.
You know exactly what kind of an issue, Hyroc thought darkly.
“I don’t much like to beat around the bush, so I’ll get right to it. Hyroc here says you hung him in a tree last night while it was raining. Is this true?”
“Absolutely not,” Simon scoffed sounding offended. “I was in my bunk sleeping the entire night just like the other students.”
“Well then we have a problem.” He turned toward Hyroc. “I don’t take kindly to liars wasting my time.”
“I’m not lying,” Hyroc replied taken aback, warmth seeping into his face. “I told you the truth!” He would never lie about something like this. The headmaster should have known from his good behavior with all his teachers.
“He came to my door sopping wet and nearly frozen to death.” June intoned angrily. “Are you saying he did that to himself? He may be different, but I know he’s as right in the head as any other student.”
“No, but I find it odd this happened less than a week after my arrival.”
“What are you implying?” June said frowning.
He steepled his fingers. “Prefects are responsible for a large portion of the well-being of the younger students; sometimes this even includes disciplining them. And because of this, they are often held in a place of loathing by those same students. Hyroc here has probably found himself on the receiving end of such discipline by Simon. And with my arrival – someone who is unfamiliar with any past disciplinary events taking place in the school – he thought this an opportune moment for retribution on his discipliner.”
Hyroc shot the headmaster a look of shocked disbelief. Everything he had just said was wrong and half of it didn’t make any sense. Was it even possible for anyone to have such complicated thoughts?
June flushed. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m afraid I’m quite serious,” the headmaster said calmly. “I had a look at the trees before I got Simon and I found no rope near any of them. So where is the proof of this deed taking place?” June affixed a withering gaze on the headmaster but remained quiet. “If you cannot offer me any tangible proof I’ll have no choice but to dismiss this whole thing out of hand.” June sighed and gave Hyroc a regretful look. The headmaster nodded. “Simon you may go.”
“Thank you, headmaster,” Simon said, turning to leave. As he walked passed Hyroc he smiled malevolently. Hyroc felt a sudden surge of anger at the knowing arrogance in Simon’s expression. He wanted to wipe the look right off his face and for the Prefect to be punished for what he had done. It infuriated him that after his long night of misery the headmaster thought he was lying and his tormentor would escape justice and be allowed to do it again. There had to be something he could use against Simon, something the headmaster would believe. The memory of Simon holding up his necklace popped into Hyroc’s mind. Through his mind’s eye, he watched the Prefect stick the necklace in his pocket. Thievery was a serious offense, especially for the head prefect. Hyroc smirked darkly at Simon. If he couldn’t get Simon for hanging him from a tree, maybe he could get him for stealing his necklace. It would be hard to say he was lying when the head prefect had his necklace.
“Check his pocket.” Hyroc said.
“Hold up Simon,” the headmaster said. Simon turned around, a fl
ash of apprehension appearing in his eyes. “Think very carefully about what you are about to say, boy. I’ve been extremely forgiving thus far, but my patience is running thin. If this is another one of your lies, there will be consequences.”
The headmaster’s words give Hyroc pause, but the look on Simon’s face solidified his resolve. “When they hung me in the tree, my necklace fell off,” Hyroc said. “And I saw Simon put it in his pocket.”
“I did no such thing, Headmaster. Are we finished listening to this, I have duties to attend to.”
“Just turn out your pockets so we can get this waste of time over with and I can teach him about his poor choices.” Simon hesitated and the headmaster frowned at him. “Turn out your pockets,” the headmaster said more forcibly. Reluctantly Simon turned out his pocket. Hyroc saw a glint of silver, and in a quick movement, the prefect tried to hide it in his sleeve. “What was that?” the headmaster said. Simon responded with a confused look. “I just saw something fall into your sleeve.” The headmaster stood and made his way over to Simon. Reaching into the prefect’s sleeve, he pulled out Hyroc’s necklace. The headmaster studied it, examining both sides.”
“That’s a family heirloom,” Simon said hastily.
“Is that so?” The headmaster held the necklace in front of Simon’s face. “Is that why it has his name on it?” he growled. Simon opened his mouth to speak and the headmaster slapped him hard in the face. The strike turned Simon’s head and a bead of blood trickled out of his nose. The headmaster’s face turned crimson as he spoke. “I will not tolerate thieves in this school! You have shamed your position and you have broken my trust.” The headmaster thrust a finger toward the door. “Get your things and get out of this school,” the headmaster said, shuddering with anger.
“But –”
“GET OUT!”
Simon turned and hurried out of the room. Hyroc felt an upwelling of pride as he watched the disgraced prefect rushing out of the room. The headmaster stared at the door long after Simon had disappeared into the hall. Eventually he turned back toward Hyroc, his face a lighter shade of red, and handed him the necklace. He took a deep breath and said, “thank you for bringing this to my attention Miss Burk. Now if you please, I have work to get to. And if Simon causes any more problems please inform the groundskeeper, he’ll take care of it.” June and Hyroc stood, thanked the headmaster for his time and left.
Hyroc snuck out of the school as soon as June left his side and went to the tree where he had been hung. He studied it a moment, remembering the night’s unpleasant events, before climbing over the wall. Walking along the mossy stonework, he scrutinized the ground for any signs of the creature he had seen. He found no footprints and not so much as a bent blade of grass or trampled leaf. Did I imagine those eyes? The nearby fluttering of wings drew his attention to one of the school’s trees. Perched on a branch, he saw a large black raven with what looked to be three silvery teardrop shaped markings on its neck arranged in an interlocking swirl. The raven stared at him a moment before making a strange “poot” sound and flying off. Hyroc watched the bird until it disappeared from view over the treetops.
CHAPTER 11
Jousting Tournament
Hyroc lay on the cool grass of the boarding school’s lawn, watching the blue cloud dotted void above as he absentmindedly tossed around the green stone Thomas had given him. It had been six years since his escape from the tree Simon had hung him from, and he was now fifteen years old. The dismissal of the head prefect had freed him from the boy’s torment but with Marcus’ death and the loss of the protection he offered as headmaster, Hyroc’s bully problem suddenly got considerably worse.
One day, shortly after Simon’s dismissal, a group of older boys cornered Hyroc and beat him. After this, he tried staying within sight of a teacher. This too proved problematic. Whenever a bully attacked him, most of the teachers seemed to pay no attention to his situation and did little or nothing to break up the fight. At this point, Thomas started staying with him between classes. Thomas hoped his presence would deter the bullies because he noticed fights between any other students were quickly taken care of. The bullying stopped as soon as he started doing this, but the reprieve didn’t last long. A few days later, the bullies waited until the two of them were out of sight of a teacher then they simply beat the two of them. This beating then put an unexpected strain on their friendship. Thomas suddenly stopped accompanying Hyroc between classes. When Hyroc asked his friend about this, he found that the fight was the first time Thomas had ever been purposely hurt by another boy and he was afraid of it happening again. Subduing a surge of anger at his friend for deciding to abandon him, Hyroc understood Thomas’ fear and reluctantly resigned himself to taking care of the problem himself. After Thomas’ attempt at a solution, Hyroc decided to try staying within sight of June. The bullies never heckled him while she was watching, but unfortunately, her duties as a teacher prevented her from keeping an eye on him all the time. Like what had happened with Thomas’ plan, they ambushed him when she wasn’t looking. The cause of the resulting bruises never escaped her notice when she talked with him; there just wasn’t much she could do short of removing him from the school and locking him up in the house. That seemed crueler than anything his bullies had done to him, so, frustratingly, he had to endure the torment. Knowing this, she gave him the only help she could offer.
“What they’re doing is wrong,” she had said, not doing much to hide her anger toward the bullies and the teachers. “I can’t protect you from them; I wish I could. I know this probably goes against everything Marcus or I ever taught you, but you need to fight. I don’t want you to sit there and take it, you need to hurt them back, make them feel some of the pain they made you feel. Then they’ll start to wonder if it’s really a good idea to mess with you. Never start a fight but always finish one. It’s up to you now.”
Despite the resolve her words imparted upon him, he still received a bad beating during his next altercation, but he had managed to get one or two hits on his attackers. Those strikes had done something to him. Though he hurt and had received a black eye, he was strangely unaffected by the depression and hopelessness he usually experienced after a beating. He actually felt good about what he had done. He hadn’t let them have their way with him, he had fought back. The beatings continued without him having much success fending off his bullies, but with each fight he figured more about the ways those boys attacked him. Bit by bit, the fights slowly began shifting in his favor. Then one day, something happened that seemed impossible to him, he won. He was bruised and hurting, but he had won!
His euphoria evaporated when a teacher dragged him to the headmaster’s office. He tried to explain he was not the one who started the fight, but the headmaster refused to believe him. The ordeal ended with two strikes from the paddle and a stern warning about future fights. After this, Hyroc learned to take the beatings despite the fact he could win most of them whenever a teacher was watching, and only defend himself when they weren’t. He then discovered if he only hit a bully in places covered with clothing, they would avoid showing the resulting bruises to a teacher. Once it became apparent to the other students he was not such an easy target, his bully problem dropped off sharply, with insults being the preferred way of striking out at him.
Everything seemed to be getting better for him, up until a few months after his thirteenth birthday. Then things changed – along with many things all boys inevitably experience. He began taking on a more beastly appearance and slowly lost the appearance of the cute creature some of the more tolerant people saw him as. Beyond June and Thomas, everyone seemed more cautious, avoided eye contact and gave him a much wider berth if they dared walking past him at all. They acted as if they now thought he was suddenly more dangerous and would lash out at anyone with the slightest provocation. Then no one even dared to lob an insult his direction. Though grateful for this particular change, the abruptness of it all was somewhat disconcerting. His whole life had revolved
around tolerating this unavoidable fact, and now it was just gone. But like everything else in his strange life, he acclimated to it.
A person’s shadow appeared over Hyroc. Catching the stone, he turned his head to see Thomas. They were the same age but Hyroc had grown the taller of the two.
Hyroc stuck the stone in his pocket and rose to his feet. “Did you get it?” he said eagerly.
Thomas gave their surroundings a quick glance. “Yep,” Thomas said, reaching beneath his jacket. He withdrew a snouted dark blue mask crudely resembling a wolf’s face.
Hyroc gave his friend a toothy grin. “So, people are really going to be wearing these there?”
Thomas nodded happily. “No one’s going to think anything when they see you. Well, at least as long as they don’t look too close.”
“I’ll just make sure to keep my hood up.”
“Good idea,” Thomas agreed. “Are you ready to go?” Hyroc nodded. He had been ready for the last hour. “I think most of the teachers have already left, but the groundskeeper is seeing the other boys off at the gate, so you won’t be able to go out that way.”
“Didn’t think I would be able to anyway, I was just going to go over the wall and into the trees.”
Thomas gave him a mildly concerned look. “Just be careful of feral dogs.”
Hyroc gave him a flat look. His friend didn’t need to remind him about them. “I know; I’ll be sticking to the edge of the woods and from what I’ve heard the dogs usually avoid going there.” He paused, his expression turning concerned. “Are you sure this is such a good idea? I mean, won’t somebody notice I’m not here? I really don’t want to get into trouble over this. The headmaster already hates me.”
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