Authors: Diana Nixon
We came down the hill slowly making a semi-circle near
the exit of the gorge. At first, we were just listening to the silence. There
was nothing special, except for the slight flutter of living energy. Then the
flutter became stronger, as if someone, maybe its owner, tried to collect the
remnants of his forces. We felt the energy coming. My hands were already
tingling with fire. Evan kept his hands ready, turning them down to the ground.
Darcy stood to my right, with her hands put together as if trying to keep the
stream of water eager to burst outside. My father, Frederick and Elena stood at
the entrance to the cave. They couldn’t the sight of the inside. A few more
minutes passed and someone’s dark figure appeared in the gorge. The closer it came
to the light, the more we all concentrated our forces. Not giving Eric, whose
silhouette was already well-recognized, even a chance to come out, Evan made
the ground shake beneath his feet. Eric didn’t was surprised and shook a
little. In the meantime, I threw several waves of flame in his direction,
making him even more confused, and forming a tight fire ring around him. Darcy
was the last one to act. Water didn’t let him breathe freely, and in
combination with the already limited by fire access of oxygen, simply
reinforced the suffocating effect. All our actions took no more than a few
seconds, but just as Frederick had predicted, it was enough to let them knock
Eric down, joining their forces. I didn’t know what spell they were using, but
Eric’s body seemed to be absolutely motionless. We were still helping the
others with our elements. When my father gave us a sign to stop, the three of
them were already holding our fugitive. Coming closer, we realized that Eric
was enveloped by subtle lines of magic rings. Prudent Darcy brought a bottle of
potion weakening powers. Frederic gave it to Eric and we went back to Dever,
where we left him under the supervision of the local Keepers, in one of the
chambers of the dungeon.
“Too bad he didn’t have the Cup,” Evan complained. “We
wouldn’t have to go back to the cave again.”
“Even if we don’t find anything there, we need to know
where Eric has hidden it,” my father said.
“I doubt that he will tell us just like that,” I
replied.
The next few hours we spent carefully searching every
millimeter of the gorge. Unfortunately, no traces of the Cup were found. Anna
couldn’t help us in this matter, saying that she didn’t see anything related to
that thing. As we expected, our attempts to make Eric tell us anything
voluntary failed.
“He must be under some silence spell,” Frederick
suggested. “Even I didn’t manage to find out where the Cup is. Probably the
spell had been imposed by someone before Eric lost his powers.”
“ Nora,” we all said at once.
“Maybe you are right,” my father nodded. “Shall we try
to talk to him again?”
“It will hardly give us anything new, except for...”
“Except for what, Frederick?”
“If he is really spelled, he can’t, of course, give us a
definitive answer, but he can give us some prompt.”
“What prompt?” Evan asked.
“The spell of silence can’t make a person to simply
remain silent. He has no right to give direct answers, but he still can prompt.
It's like a puzzle that you need to solve.”
We went to the chamber to meet with Eric again.
Frederick was right. When thinking about the answer to our questions, Eric was
vague and dreamy, as if he didn’t understand why he couldn’t answer our
question. But then he began to repeat over and over again completely
meaningless phrases:
“Where the sunset meets sunrise,
Where the night meets the day,
Where the darkness absorbs the light,
Where the sun goes into the shadows.”
We all frowned.
“It can mean anything,” Evan said, when we returned to
my father's office.
“No, Evan. This means the one and the only place where
all that Eric has mentioned happens.”
“Yes, but what he said, could happen almost everywhere!”
“Things are getting worse and worse,” I shook my head
tiredly. “Let’s call it a day.”
“Yeah, let's go and save, finally, my room from the
women capture,” Evan nodded. “See you all tomorrow.”
“Do you think Eric’s going to give us more prompts?” I
asked, walking down the road to the dormitory.
“I think so. Frederick says that one prompt is always
followed by others.”
“Maybe we should warn the Keepers, who are watching him,
to get in touch with anyone of us if he speaks again.”
“I thought about that too. We can go there right now.
You never know, whether our friend would like to share some new crazy ideas in
the middle of the night.”
We went down into the dungeon. Eric has been already
asleep, but the number of the Keepers in his chamber was the same. All ten
people were there. We left them our request and left.
Eileen, Amanda, and my mother were clearly getting
impatient when Evan and I came in. One look at their faces was enough to
understand that we had forgotten to tell them about our return, and they were
still waiting for some news.
“Where the hell have you been for so long?” shouted my
sister.
“Amanda! Do not swear, please,” my mother said.
“Christian, when did you come back?
“Just recently,” Evan said. “We found Eric and brought
him to Dever.”
“Really?” Eileen asked in surprise.
“Yes, come with me, I'll tell you everything on the way
to your room,” I said.
“Where is Patrick?” mom asked.
“He was still in the office when we were leaving, so I
don’t know.”
“It’s okay, I'll find him,” she said. “Good night,
guys.”
“Good night, Amelia,” said Eileen.
“Amanda, would you like to join me for a cocktail?” Evan
asked.
“Of course. I don’t have other plans for the rest of the
night.”
“My goodness! Have I lost my charm? The girls agree to
stay with me only in despair!” Evan protested.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean anything like that,” Amanda said
blushing slightly.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I will come over this somehow.
Here,” said Evan, giving her a glass.
Eileen and I left them to enjoy their drinks and each
other's company.
“So you still don’t know anything about the Cup?” she
asked as soon as we got out into the hall.
“Not, but Eric is trying to get us on track.”
We talked a bit, until we reached her room.
“Will you come in?”
“I'm afraid if I stay, Amanda will have to kick me off
in the middle of the night,” I replied with a grin.
“Since when does your sister stop you?” Eileen asked,
opening the door.
I stayed in the doorway.
“It's not about her…”
“Then what is it about?” she asked again coming to me.
Despite all the anxiety and hours of waiting, she looked
amazing. I liked everything about her, and I wanted to touch this beauty so
much. I remembered that evening in the gazebo near the Great Hall, and became
nervous.
“I can’t be so close to you and not to touch you,” I
said.
Instead of saying something, she stood up and kissed me.
I didn’t need any other words. I pressed her to my chest, trying to close the
door. We both didn’t notice being in her bed in each other's embraces. Those
rare moments of intimacy evoked waterfalls of emotions in both of us. I could
feel her, she could feel me. Maybe that’s why our feelings seemed stronger, our
embraces closer and our kisses hotter.
“You are torturing me,” I whispered trying to gulp some
air.
“No,” she smiled. “I just like to feel the way our bond
reveals in such moments.”
I knew what she was talking about. Every time touching
each other, we felt a slight tingling on our shoulders and saw a gentle light
reflecting our feelings on the lacy patterns on our backs. It was a real magic
that we both were unable to control, that we both were unable to resist. I knew
that I would have never loved anyone more than the girl in my arms. When she
was with me it seemed to me that there was nothing around - just the two of us
in the whole world. And every time parting with her even for a few hours, I
couldn’t help thinking about her, couldn’t stop missing her, and couldn’t wait
to see her again. Time seemed to pass aimlessly when she wasn’t there.
“Stay with me,” she said quietly. “I promise not to
torture you any longer,” she smiled looking into my eyes. “I like falling
asleep next to you.”
I didn’t answer, I touched her hair with my lips and
embraced her tighter. After a few silent minutes, I heard her steady breathing,
and realized that she was asleep. Neither she nor I thought about the
discomfort of falling asleep being dressed, but I didn’t want to wake her.
Those rare moments of good sleep were too important for her. So I closed my
eyes relaxing on the waves of warmth and intimacy, and fell asleep too.
It seemed as if only a few minutes had passed instead of
hours, when I heard Amanda’s angry voice.
“Christian, you are shameless creature! You will live in
our room soon, and I will have to move out of here!” she shouted standing next
to Eileen’s bed. To my surprise, Eileen wasn’t there.
“Great idea, sis,” I said turning to the other side.
“Hey! He has enough insolence to turn away! Christian,
I’m talking to you!”
This time her words were accompanied by almost
weightless blows on my back.
“Leave him alone,” Eileen laughed coming out of the
bathroom. I turned to face Amanda. “I asked him to stay, so don’t be mad.”
My beloved sister didn’t find anything to answer, so she
just went into the bathroom slamming the door behind her.
“Good morning,” said Eileen, sitting on the bed next to
me. “Sorry for making you sleep in clothes.”
“Yeah, I would prefer to sleep
without
them,” I
smiled back. “What time is it?”
“Half-past nine.”
“That late!”
“Don’t worry. Neither anyone was looking for you, nor
called. Evan came about thirty minutes ago to say that Eric talked again. In a
dream.”
“What did he say this time?”
“Something like
- How I wish to be a cat to have so
many possibilities.
Some nonsense.”
“It sounds like some nonsense just for us, but for him
it is an understandable expression. What did he mean by that? What
opportunities do cats have?”
“Well… nine lives maybe,” Eileen said standing before
the mirror.
“Nine lives... nine...” I muttered to myself.
“Christian, what are you thinking about?” she asked
turning around.
“Maybe you're right, and he really wanted to tell us
something about number
nine.
What did Evan say about this?”
“He said that there are as many
nines
in our
world as much water in the sea.”
I fully agreed with him. Number
nine
was often
mentioned in our textbooks and in practice. For example, to create a rain of
fire, you needed to clap your hands nine times. In order to get the serum of
life (the exact recipe of what no one knew) it was necessary to combine nine
roots of some very rare plants. There were thousands of such examples in fact.
Just as Evan had said -
the whole sea.
Eileen and I agreed to meet in the dining room.
Fortunately the food was served there during all the day round, regardless of
what time someone could come for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Some special menu
was prepared for those whose classes began at night, or at dawn.
I went to my room to take a shower and change clothes.
On the way there and back, I continued to scroll all known mentions of the
number
nine
in my head.
“Judging by the expression on your face, now you're
somewhere between nine spells of happiness and nine days of immortality,”
pointed Evan, whom I met on the way to the cafeteria.
I nodded continuing to build all sorts of assumptions.
Nine spells of happiness meant that to become completely happy, a person needed
to know nine cherished phrases and manage to pronounce them during the first
minute of a solar eclipse. The problem wasn’t only to train you speech properly
but also to know those very words. Because just as in the case with the roots
for the serum of life, no one knew them.
Nine days of immortality, however, were quite a real
desire. They could be given as a reward for the invention of new magic spells,
new medicinal infusions, or a new way to find out the truth. In the history of
Dever, only a few people awarded such an honor and a nine-day self immortality
meant merely having the enchanted amulet, such as the one made by Frederick for
my mom in Norfield, that was able to protect its owner from any encroachment on
his life. In the case of my mother's amulet, the spell was intended to be in
force only for a few hours.