Authors: Diana Nixon
“There are not that many places on campus where you can
just leave a stranger, but also possibly a sick man. But outside of campus...”
he continued. “All the roads lead to the main highway, except for...”
“The west gate,” prompted Christian.
“Exactly! Except for the west gate, that’s why...”
“Wait!” I said, stopping. “Do you think Alexis just left
that guy somewhere, and then went back to find Anna, who could heal him? If he
really was sick, of course.”
“Well done, Eileen! You got it all right,” praised Evan,
and went on.
“The more I think about it, the more it seems to me
that we are on the right track,” said Christian. I understood perfectly well
what he was talking about. “
The right track
” meant that his intuition
was fully in agreement with his thoughts, and this meant a lot.
“But what is there behind the western gate, that they
could hide a person?” Darcy wondered.
“Medellin’s hut,” Evan said.
“What?!” I froze. “Does it still exist?”
“Of course. It’s part of Dever’s history. It is
constantly being restored and kept in good condition.”
“Actually I can’t remember exactly where it‘s located,”
said Christian.
“Of course you can’t remember. Have you forgotten who
we're talking about? It was also Medellin’s home. She lived like a hermit. Like
the rest of Dever at the time, her hut was well protected from the possible
detection of humans. Now it can only be seen by Wizardy.”
We stopped at the western gate.
“Eileen has to stay here,” strictly said Evan.
I was outraged. I put my hands on my hips.
“May I ask
why
?” I stared at Evan.
“You need to stay away from this place, remember? And
you, Christian, shouldn’t go there either,” he pointed.
“You can’t go there alone!” protested Christian.
“I shouldn’t,” Evan agreed, “but I have to.”
“I'll go with you,” Darcy said. “There is a lot of water
around, it's my element. I can help you in case anything happens.”
“Okay,” Evan nodded. “Let's go together. My
сеll phone will be on, so if I call you, Christian, run for
Patrick, he will come back from London. Tell him everything and let him bring
additional help here. Ready?” he asked Darcy.
“Ready,” she said and together they went through the
gate.
“You shouldn’t let them go alone,” I said nervously as
soon as they disappeared.
“I know. I should probably call my father right now,”
agreed Christian.
Luckily, we found out that Patrick was already in Dever
and promised to come as soon as he found an assistant.
Time passed, but there was no call from Evan. At one
point we thought that maybe we had been wrong about the hut, then the phone
rang. It was Darcy. Christian turned on the speakerphone.
“Darcy, what happened?” he asked.
“Christian! Evan went to the hut. We were right, there’s
someone there. I think sending some help would be wise...”
Suddenly the connection was lost.
“Oh, God! Is he crazy? He went there alone!” I yelled in
desperation.
Patrick ran up to us with some girl. She was a bit older
than me, tall and had long sandy hair.
“Evan has already gone to the hut,” said Christian.
“Hurry up!”
“Who is she?” I asked Christian.
“It's Elena Rozembry. She is a hereditary Wizardy. It’s
a pity you couldn’t see her show yesterday. Apparently, she amazed everyone
with her skills. Let's hope that my father chose her for her mastery magic
skills.”
My nerves were already on edge, my knees were shaking,
so I went to the nearest bench and sat down. Christian was left standing at the
gate.
“Can you see anything?” I asked burying my face in my
hands.
“Nothing. Although, if you look yourself, you would be
able to see more.”
“I can’t. Or, rather, don’t want to,” I said dryly. Not
to see or know what is happening now - it's one thing, but to see and know that
nothing I can do to help them - is quite another.
It seemed as if time had stopped. Not a sound could be
heard from the lake. I was beginning to think that it might be worth a try to
go out there and help, when Christian shouted:
“Someone’s coming back!”
This
someone
turned out to be Evan. In his arms
he carried Anna. It looked like she was unconscious.
“What happened to her?” I asked as he gently put her on
the bench.
“That son of a bitch, Eric Lanster was there! He used
Anna in order to regain strength, he is not sick; he just lost too much energy.
On what? I don’t know. I didn’t have time to learn anything. He nearly
destroyed Anna! When I broke into the hut, she was unconscious, and that
bastard was drinking the remaining portion of some prepared potion. When he saw
me, he tried to escape. Patrick and Elena went after him to catch him, but I
don’t know whether they succeeded.”
“Where's Darcy?” I asked worried.
“I'm here,” she said, breathing heavily. “Evan was
running so fast that I barely kept up following him. How is Anna, is she
getting better?”
“I can’t tell for sure,” said Evan, touching Anna’s
forehead with his palm. “We need to take her to Mrs. Weber.”
I knew this name. Dorothy Weber was a former graduate of
Embry, and now headed the Embry department. She was also a part-time local
doctor. Naturally, she never used traditional medicine, since her own methods
were much more effective than any pill. Her office was on the first floor of
the Administration, which also served as a room for patient examinations. So we
rushed Anna there.
“Good Lord! What happened to her?” exclaimed Mrs. Weber
as soon as we stepped into her office. “Put her here on the couch and be
careful.”
“We don’t know, but we hope that you can help us,” said
Evan. “Our only guess is that perhaps she spent too much power, being forced to
prepare some potion.”
“What kind of potion takes away a few years of your own
life?!” wondered Dorothy.
“What do you mean?”
“It's obvious! She donated part of her life, but for
what?”
We all looked at each other in confusion.
“Is that even possible?” asked Evan puzzled.
“Of course! Usually something like this should be done
only in extreme cases, such as saving the life of another person who is near
dead.”
We again exchanged glances.
“But she will get better, right?”
“It will take a long time, but, judging by her
condition, you managed to get her here just in time. We'll figure out how to
fix this,” replied Mrs. Weber, mixing some red and green liquids in a bottle.
“Thank you,” I said.
“There’s nothing to be thankful for, darling. Let’s get
her feeling better, and then say thanks. Right now she needs to get rest. I
have one remedy, which should help soon, and when she wakes up, we will decide
what to do next.”
We nodded and went silently out into the hall, where ran
into Patrick and Elena.
“You haven’t found him,” guessed Evan, watching their
disappointed expressions.
“No. Didn’t even notice the direction that he escaped
in. Who is he, anyway?” asked Elena. “I've never seen anyone that fast!”
“I'm more interested in how he knows how to leave Dever
without going through the gate,” said Patrick.
“It's Eric Lanster. He seems to be one of the Wizardy,”
pointed Evan. “My guess is that he knows about the magic spells around Dever
from Alexis who, by the way, was the one to bring him here.”
“Yes, but who is he? Where did he come from? Personally,
I’ve never heard his name,” said Elena.
“You wouldn’t have heard it,” I replied. “Evan, would
you able to recognize him?”
“Of course,” he said trying to understand the train of
my thoughts.
Everybody stared at me in bewilderment.
“Christian, do you still have the photo, which shows
Alexis and her mother?” I asked.
“Yes. It’s in my room. Shall I go get it?”
“Yes, please.”
“Eileen? Are you saying that you know something about
him?” Evan asked.
“We will check it out soon. There is one theory.”
Christian returned a few minutes later with the very old
photograph.
“Here, Evan, look. Is this the person you saw in the
hut?” I said, handing him a photo.
“Here he looks much younger, but that's definitely the
same person. Eileen, but it’s...”
“Alexis’s brother,” I confirmed his guess.
“’What?! She has a brother?” asked Patrick stunned.
Evan and I looked at each other. I immediately recalled
Tara’s words about a man and a woman preparing a trap for me. So here was a
man, and Alexis - was that woman. And they both wanted to get my power.
“So now we have one less enemy,” concluded Evan, reading
my mind and alluding to the absence of Alexis.
“Yes, but the remaining one, in my opinion, is so much
more dangerous,” I said. “And if he knows how to leave Dever, passing through
magical defense, he also knows how to get back.”
Judging by the faces of all those present, my words were
a shock to them. No one had thought of this before.
“We need to change the spells and the order of the
elements,” concluded Patrick. “Immediately!” he added, walking rapidly towards
his office.
Chapter 25.
Council’s day (
Christian)
This morning I woke up at dawn, when the first sun’s
rays hardly appeared out of the mountains. Today Nora’s hearing was to be held.
Evan, me and my father had to go to London. Eileen, however, didn’t know
anything about our plans. I still couldn’t decide whether to tell her about it
or not. On the one hand, I didn’t want to lie to her, because I’ve been hiding
recently a lot of things from her. Granted that was done for her own good. But
on the other hand, she would want to go with us, and
that
was something
none of us could allow. Since Frederic Fairey was recovered from his illness he
had to testify in court too and his meeting with Eileen wasn’t a part of our
plans yet.
Someone knocked at the door.
“Evan!”
“Actually, I hoped to catch you already dressed,” he
said, looking at me from head to toe. “Do you know that we are leaving in forty
minutes?”
“Yeah. I was just going to dress. Look, do you still
think it would be better if we leave without telling her?”
“Do you think that it’s better to tell her the truth?
Patrick has already told you that this is
not
a good idea. I’m sure it’s
better to let her think that we just went to town. Besides, today her
grandmother is expected to arrive, so they will have plenty of catching up to
do, which, I’m sure, is planned without us,” he grinned.
“Eileen is used to our constant protectiveness, but I
think she will get mad if she finds out where we were, and that we didn’t tell
her,” I said worried.
“And we are used coming up with excuses, so we’ll think
of something. Trust me, it’s the best thing that we can do now. Hurry up, Patrick
and I will be waiting for you in the car,” commanded Evan before leaving.
I quickly got dressed, grabbed a few necessary things
and went downstairs. On the way, I went to check on Eileen. Of course, she was
still asleep, so I left a note on her bedside table.
I smiled, looking at her. I liked to watch her sleeping.
Sometimes she talked in a dream, and I could hear some of her secrets that she
didn’t want to tell me. Most often, these were words about how she was worried
about me, how she was sorry about Anna, who still wasn’t in the best condition,
and about how much she missed her family.
I wished I could protect her from all the worries and
troubles. I tried to do all my best, just so I could see that radiant smile on
her face. All of this was very trying each of us. Evan began to pursue his
studies outside the academic building, away from the place where she felt the
presence of foreign powers and energy. Darcy continued to periodically review
her palms, talking about how much you could learn about a person just by
looking at their hands. My sister had the easiest duty - she only had to remain
herself, steadfast and steady as a friend and to make Eileen smile. Despite the
fact that she spent much time with her boyfriend Lucas, she never forgot about
her best friend.