I didn’t want to move until he did. I was sure that if I started walking back up the stairs, there was no way that my now sweat-damp skin would be able to keep the book gripped in place.
Perhaps I could mimic conformity and make it appear that I was waiting for him to go first to show respect. He stayed motionless for a heartbeat longer, but my fake tractability must have worked, because he eventually moved off and back down the staircase, calling out behind him, “Looking forward to tomorrow, Initiate!”
The bloodfire flared inside me for a moment, leaping up to my throat
, then I tensed my body to attempt to keep the book in place for just a few minutes more, slowly turning and walking up the stairs and away from Thomas.
Fate was finally smiling down on me as the entire dormitory corridor was empty of people. Everyone had to be out studying or in lessons. With the risk of discovery lessening by the minute, I picked up speed and eventually made it back to my small little room. Of course, by the time that I did so, the second book had started to also slide its way down my side, whilst the first was virtually at my hip. As soon as the door closed behind, I let my muscles release their grip and both copies fell to the floor from under my robes with staggered thumps.
Then I reached out towards the bed and yanked it from its place, flipping it on its side and screamed.
*
Once the tension and potential bloodfire eruption had both been released, I calmly straightened the frame of the bed back to its original position and scooped both of the books up from the floor. I thought through what Thomas had said and struggled to make sense of it. Out and out aggression I could deal with. I knew how to react to that; for goodness’ sake, my blood knew how to react to that. Let’s face it, I’d had more than enough practice over the last year or two. But coping with someone who was passive aggressive was new to me. What I was supposed to do? On the surface he was apologising and handing out an olive branch. Which, I conceded, I’d probably ruined somewhat by refusing to shake his hand. The barbed comment about my ‘feral instincts’ however? If it hadn’t been for the books clutched under my sweaty armpits, I wasn’t sure what I’ve had done. There was a good chance that the Arch-Mage would have been scraping what was left of Thomas from off the polished staircase and I’d have condemned Mrs. Alcoon to spending the rest of eternity in stasis. I frowned to myself, vowing to do better next time. What was it Shakespeare had written in Macbeth? “Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t”. Well, if Thomas wanted to play that game then I would rise the challenge.
I forced him out of my mind and focused instead on the matter in hand, turning the boo
ks thoughtfully over. The Fae tome continued to hum against my skin, although not unpleasantly. I scanned my small room. There were absolutely zero hiding places anywhere within its confines, other than perhaps under the pillow, which just seemed both ridiculous and pointless. Musing it over, I decided that the smartest thing to do would be to hide them in plain sight. There was nowhere I could put them where they wouldn’t be found, so if I pretended ignorance and just left them lying around as if I hadn’t just sneakily spirited them away, then perhaps no-one who entered my room would think anything of them than a little extra study materials. Maybe I could feign ignorance and pretend I hadn’t heard Slim tell me in no uncertain terms not to remove any books from within the library’s walls. I nodded to myself, then left them both casually on the bedsheet. Each one felt rather unpleasantly moist from the contact with my body. I’d just have to hope that there wasn’t any lasting damage to either.
From outside I heard the distant tolling of
a bell, and then a clustered buzz of chattering and voices as the next lesson changeover took place. That meant I had just enough time to get myself to my Illusion class. I wasn’t entirely sure where it was, but maybe I would bump into Mary along the way so I wouldn’t be too late. I’d have to hope I didn’t see Thomas again too. Casting a quick glance back at the books to reassure myself that they were both there, and sending them a quick promise that I’d be back to look at them properly later, I left the room and headed off in what I presumed was vaguely the right direction.
I still felt unpleasantly damp under my robes. As I walked through an arched courtyard area towards the building where my lessons had been the day before, I attempted to take a surreptitious sniff of my armpits to see if they really were as bad as I was imagining. My actions didn’t go unnoticed, however, as a group of green-robed initiates whose acne explosions advertised their youth started snickering loudly. I glared at them and they abruptly stopped. I tipped my chin up and increased my stride, trying to make it look as if I knew exactly where I was going. I’d be damned if I’d ask any of these pimply teenagers where I was supposed to be.
Several minutes later, I was regretting my stubborn stance. Any initiates who had been milling around had since disappeared, and I had absolutely no idea where I was. I ducked into one door that looked vaguely familiar and found myself inside the strangest interior that I think I’d ever seen. Every surface was blood red: the floors, the ceilings, the doors. Even the sodding doorknobs gleamed scarlet. Swallowing hard, and hoping that I’d not suddenly just discovered that the Ministry was actually some kind of bizarre sacrificial cult instead of the upright and upstanding organisation it proclaimed itself to be, I darted right back out again. I most definitely had no need to investigate the dark depths of the academy. Ignorance is bliss, I told myself firmly.
I tried re-tracing my steps, but just seemed to be going round in circles as a few minutes later I ended
back up at the scary red room. Cursing aloud at my lack of spatial awareness, I briefly wished that I’d already had a Divination lesson. Maybe then I could conjure up some blue snaky light to show me where to go. But then, given the lack of magical prowess I’d so far displayed, it was barely credible that I’d be able to manage even that. I ground my teeth together. I’d travelled through other planes, for fuck’s sake! How could I not manage to navigate my way through one sodding school? This was getting ridiculous. I tried to imagine the layout in my mind’s eye. I positioned the main building, with the dormitories at the front. The weird garden where I’d taken the oath was behind there. The red room was here where I was. Yesterday, I’d been…nope, I was drawing an absolute blank.
Abruptly, up ahead I spied a group of students emerge from another door, walking away from me. I felt a brief surge of hope. Maybe if I followed them, I’d end up somewhere useful. I realised that such rationalisation was probably fatal, but I appeared to have little other choice at the time. I was tempted to jog up to them to ask them where to go, but for some reason I couldn’t quite make my legs move fast enough to gain on them.
“Coward,” I whispered to myself. They were just kids. What did I think they were going to do? Clique me into submission?
Someone pointedly cleared their throat. My head snapped to the right but there was no-one there. I turned round, feeling like an idiot but again there was no-one else even vaguely near me, and the students up ahead had rounded the corner and disappeared. Then something whizzed past and hit me
smack bang on the middle of my shaven head. Okay, this wasn’t funny any longer. Frowning, I lifted my gaze upwards and saw that, looking down upon me, was an old wizened looking face.
“Well?” it said irritably. “You’re late. Get up here.”
I threw out my hands in a gesture of utter exasperation, trying to convey that I didn’t have the faintest idea how to get up there. The owner of the face sighed dramatically and flicked a hand in the air. And just like that, a door appeared in front of me. For fuck’s sake.
“What did you expect?” called what I now presumed to be my teacher, with what could only be described as a cackle, face disappearing back inside. “This is Illusion.”
I stood there for a moment, clenching and unclenching my fists. Oh, hysterical. I glanced down at my fingers and saw little flickers of green flame appearing and disappearing. Goddamnit. I was absolutely not going to let my temper get the better of me. No way Jose. I straightened my shoulders and entered the now clearly delineated doorway. The whole red rooms thing had probably been another ‘funny’ trick. I wondered if this happened to all the initiates or if I was getting extra special treatment just to point out how little of a mage I was now or was ever going to be. Muttering the whole way, I stomped up the stairs and entered the room that I was pretty sure the face had called to me from.
Inside was a tiny hunched over figure wearing the now familiar black robes of the fully confirmed mages. It was
difficult to judge whether the figure was even male or female to start off with, until the cackling started up again. Okay, female then. I ran my tongue around my mouth, trying to stay calm and not let the continual grating laughter get to me. It was far from easy.
Finally, the figure waved me over to a wooden chair. “Sit there,” she said, with an imperious tone that belied her somewhat frail exterior.
I could feel some inner part of me rebel at even this one small order. Did she think I was a child like the other students? The old woman looked at me. It occurred to me that there was something very odd about her face that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Her eyes were a sharp blue, even if the skin around them was wrinkled and pale. I bet not much got past this witch. I battened down the overwhelming urge to spin on my heel and walk right out of the room and instead did as she bade, chewing on my tongue to prevent myself from saying anything I might later regret.
The woman cackled again, briefly, then gave me a small bow and withdrew a round stone
from within her robes, and placed it on the floor about a metre in front of me. I felt my insides droop with resignation. Another bloody stone.
“The key to Illusion,” she intoned solemnly, “is belief. Believe that you can transform the stone,” she flicked a finger and the thing began to grow before my eyes, “and then you shall achieve. Have faith,” she flicked another finger, and the stone bizarrely elongated itself, twisting one way then
another, “and who knows what can occur.”
I leaned forward. What once had been just a lump of rock was now a tiny bonsai tree, its limbs misshapen into a typically elegant Japanese contortion. She snapped her fingers and it returned to its original shape. I tried to look blasé, but I was pretty sure that I completely failed.
“Hold out your hands,” she instructed.
I did as she bade
, and she dropped the rock into them. It felt cool and heavy.
“Now close your eyes, and believe. This is not stone. It isn’t hard or cold to touch. Consider the surface. It’s soft and warm, like a blanket.”
I rubbed my fingers over the edge, feeling the minute porous bubbles against my fingertips. It still felt like a rock.
“You do not believe!” she stated sharply.
“Give me a break,” I huffed, eyes still closed, “I’m trying.”
“There is no try,” came the old woman’s voice.
“Let me guess,” I said drily, “there is only do.”
“You mock me.”
I opened my eyes. “No, no, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to make fun of you. I’ve just heard that saying before. I’ll try – I’ll
do
harder.”
She pursed her lips. In that instant I realised
what it was that was ever so slightly odd and off-putting about her face: she had absolutely no eyebrows or eyelashes whatsoever. For some odd reason, I found this really rather terrifying.
“It is of no matter. Your time is up.”
“What?” I spluttered. “I only just got here.”
She whipped the stone from my hands and secreted it away in her robes again. “You were late.”
“Only because you hid the fucking door!”
The woman gave me a baleful glare.
“I’m sorry,” I apologised. “I didn’t mean to swear. But I would like another shot. Please.” If nothing else, at least mage was prepared to talk to me, unlike the others I’d met so far. I had to start learning something if I was ever going to get out of here.
She just looked at me. I looked back. Clearly, she wasn’t going to change her mind. I eventually nodded in resignation and left.
Once I got back outside I kicked the wall of the building in frustration, then cursed at myself as my foot answered back with smarting shot of pain. I took a moment to attempt to compose myself but the burn of my bloodfire remained, lingering like heartburn in the centre of my body. Running my hands over my bare skull, I tried to pull myself together. I had to get to Divination now, and I was damned if I was going to be late again.
Fortunately this time things seemed a little easier. I followed the cobbled pathway, heading back towards where I presumed the main building was. Almost immediatel
y I noticed a large red-brick building to my right with a sign hanging over the doorway that proclaimed itself to be for Divination. It seemed somewhat ironic that the one mage discipline that taught you how to find things was the one place that actually managed to signpost itself properly so that you could find it.
Standing outside was a
diminutive looking mage, rubbing his palms together. As I got nearer, he smiled slightly and bowed.