CHAPTER Thirteen
I spent virtually the rest of the day holed up in my room, just me, a seemingly sentient Fae book and a dictionary. A couple of times there were knocks on the door, but I ignored them all. I was in the zone and determined to find out more about myself and my lineage.
I was getting faster and more adept with the translations. It was still painstakingly slow, of course, however I was starting to recognise some of the more common runes and their meanings and, while some sentences were pure gobbledegook, for the most part I thought I had a good understanding about what the book was telling me. I discovered that the dragon that had been changed into human form by the less-than-forward-thinking mage developed a “most egregious temper and vicious bouts of rage” that cast fear into the hearts of anyone who came across his path. Said dragon was clearly unimpressed with his new body and ended up killing his would-be benefactress by burning her to a crisp. He then proceeded to rape and pillage his way through various towns and villages, occasionally impregnating the poor maidens who got caught up in his violence.
I smoothed my hands over my shorn head, feeling the soft prickles of the newly grown hair against my fingertips, wondering yet again whether I was reading pure fantasy or whether the story was actually rooted in some form of fact. That was the difficult thing with the Otherworldian histories: you never really knew for sure what was real and what just mere legend. Part of me did feel rather buoyed up by my discoveries, however. If this ancient (and rather frightening and nasty) creature was indeed my great-grandfather several hundred generations removed, then it meant that maybe it wasn’t my fault that I had such a nasty temper. I sobered up slightly with the sudden idea that it might mean I’d never have any control over my temper or my bloodfire, and I still didn’t really know how the dragon-man had developed into a race called the Draco Wyr, although I thought I might be starting to get the idea with all of his sexual rampages. Eventually, when my eyes were starting to smart and the words were beginning to swim in front of me, I snapped the book shut and went in search of Alex, hoping we could have another real conversation without the hovering presence of Thomas or the Initiates around.
I picked my way around the grounds of the academy, trying first one direction and then the other. I must have passed hundreds of other Initiates, most of whom managed to suddenly remember that they’d forgotten something and wheel around abruptly in the opposite direction when they saw me coming. A couple did smile tentatively at me at least, which made me feel a little bit better. I avoided the garden area where Mary, Brock and the others would be, not really in the mood for getting caught up in another teaching session just yet. At one point, however, I even saw Mage Slocombe, whose eyes widened as soon as he caught sight of me. He all but tripped over his daft black robes in his haste to get away from me before I decided to engage him in conversation. I rolled my eyes. Whatever.
Thirty minutes later, I’d circled the entire compound, garden aside, and had seen absolutely no sign of Alex anywhere. I could feel heated coils of annoyance curl themselves through my intestines. Not only did I want to talk to him about the impending party, I was also desperate to confide in someone about what I’d read in the Fae book. Alex could potentially have some new insights that I’d not thought of before. He might even have a more effective way to get the book translated. F*ck. For all I knew he could read Fae. It wasn’t something we’d ever spoken about before.
Coming out from behind the back of the Protection block, I pursed my lips and considered my options. I wasn’t in the mood to continue to spend the last remaining hour of daylight searching for him. I tried to think logically about where he might be, but I was drawing a blank. The only thing I could think of would be that he’d gone off to catch some waves. That, however, was patently ridiculous. I knew that he had been desperate at breakfast to find out more about what had happened with Corrigan so there was no way that he’d have bunked off for the day. Besides anything, we were in the middle of the sodding countryside. I didn’t exactly know where the academy was, but I’d lived beside the sea for long enough to know that it was definitely miles away from here. Otherwise I’d have sensed the tang of salt in the air. I equally doubted that the Dean would allow portals to be created just so that various mages could go hobnobbing off on personal sojourns around the country.
I wondered whether I could create a short cut for myself for finding him. Yes, my previous Divination lesson had ended badly, but we’d been in a small enclosed space then. I was an outdoors kind of girl. There were no priceless paintings or nervous mages around who might inadvertently get hurt by my trying to see if I could invoke my inveniora to find Alex. A tiny insistent thought nudged at the back of my mind, telling me that out of all the ideas I’d ever had, this was by the far the stupidest, but I pushed it away. After all, aside from Protection, Divination was the only discipline that I’d so far even had the faintest flicker of success with, even if that success had somewhat ended in disaster. At some point, if I ever wanted to leave this place, I’d have to get better at the magic stuff. Otherwise poor Mrs. Alcoon was doomed forever.
I chewed my lip, deciding. There wasn’t a soul around me so I really didn’t see what harm it could do. I sat down on the damp ground to begin. Then I stood back up again. Maybe it was better to try it standing? Damnit, I really didn’t know. I tried to concentrate, reminding myself what Higgins had done the previous week to get me started. All I had to do was reach inside myself, find the so-called energy that he’d spoken of and imagine it as a thread so I could pull it out. I reckoned that where I’d gone wrong before was trying to pull it out with too much force. If I just tried to be a teeny weeny bit more gentle, then surely I’d have more success.
Closing my eyes, and that seemed oddly to help, I pictured a smoky ball inside of me. I thought that perhaps I could feel the energy that I’d yanked on before, so I gave it a little tug, trying to pull it through my body. I felt a slight burn as I did so, but it was different to the usual sensation of my bloodfire heating up so, emboldened, I kept tugging. I felt it snake its way up through my chest and across my shoulders then filter out slowly down through my arm. Then I flicked my fingers and opened my eyes.
Almost immediately a bead of red smoke appeared, lazily casting itself out into the air. Yelping with delighted surprise, I watched it curve its way around my body, almost as if it had a mind of its own. I couldn’t believe it! I’d actually done something right for once. Realising that I wasn’t quite sure now how to make it trace after Alex so I could find him, I silently willed it to track him down. The inveniora ignored me and just lazily continued to spin round me, creating odd shapes in the still air of the early evening.
“Find Alex,” I commanded sternly.
The red smoke twisted its way down to my feet and lay there heavily, like some kind of bizarre lap dog.
“Find Alex Florides,” I urged it again, feeling irritated all of a sudden.
Still nothing happened. Abruptly the sound of voices floated over the top of the buildings towards me, and I felt a surge of sudden fire flicker inside me at the thought of being discovered experimenting with something that I’d already almost killed someone with. As soon as the heat hit my system, however, the inveniora took off rushing away from me and towards the edges of the compound at a hurtling speed. Invigorated into action, I took off after it.
Unlike other manifestations of the tracking spell that I’d seen, mine didn’t veer even slightly. It shot through the air like an arrow, leaving behind a trail that could have been drawn with a ruler. I didn’t have time to pause to think about it, however, I just ran, trying to keep up with the front of it. Before too long it reached the edges of the grounds, zipping its way into an impenetrable bed of flowers, bushes and trees. Without thinking twice, I followed it in, ignoring the scratching branches that pulled at my skin. My own progress was now considerably slower but, if anything, the inveniora itself appeared to pick up speed. I hopped and ducked and dodged my way through the thicket, cursing Alex and wondering what in the hell he was doing hiding in the middle of a bush. The powder blue robes that I’d been forced to wear yet again impeded me even further, continually getting caught on various branches and brambles. The hem that was trailing at my back snagged stubbornly onto some kind of thorn and I had no choice but to stop to use my fingers to free it. When I stood back up, I realised that the inveniora had stopped just up ahead and was hovering in the dark still air.
My heart was suddenly thudding deep in my chest. I couldn’t help but think of the last time I’d wandered into a thick corpse of fauna and come across the cloth deposited behind by Iabartu. Worry filled me with what might have happened to Alex and whether, once again, it would end up being my fault. Gingerly picking my way forward, I pulled up my robes to avoid catching them further on anything else, but tensed all my muscles in case I needed suddenly to attack.
As I got closer, I realised that the red snaky smoke was hanging right in front of a looming bricked wall. Obviously I’d reached the outer fringes of the academy grounds, and that beyond here the mages’ influence dissipated. Did that mean that Alex had left the compound? Puzzled, I leaned forward, realising that there was a crumbling gap in the stone next to where the inveniora had stopped. Without thinking I reached out to push my fingers through and touch it. As soon as I did so, however, I felt something wet.
Rubbing my fingers together to work out what it was, I peered at them through the gloomy cover of the trees. Whatever it was, it felt thick and gloopy. Definitely not blood, I registered with a dim surge of relief, but definitely not anything entirely natural either. It hadn’t rained for days, so it couldn’t be a puddle of mossy rainwater that had collected, and there was far too much of it to be dew. Anyway, it was completely the wrong time of day for that. I lifted my fingers to my face and sniffed, cautiously, then immediately recoiled.
Whatever it was, it smelt dark and rotten, not dissimilar to the unpleasant whiff that cockroaches somehow managed to give off. What the f*ck was it? I could see now that the strange liquid was dark and shiny, with something of a purple tinge to it. I didn’t like this at all.
I was about to call out to see if Alex was for some reason on the other side of the wall, when I heard my name being faintly called from behind me, albeit from some distance away. I wiped my fingers on a nearby leaf, trying to rid myself of the gloop and then turned back. The voice called again, and I frowned, now more puzzled than ever. It sounded like the hippy mage himself.
Eventually emerging back from out of the undergrowth, I spotted him, hands on hips as he stared at me.
“Mack Attack, where the hell have you been and what the hell have you been doing? Sheesh, I’ve been looking all over for you!”
Pissed off, I glared at him. “Well, I’ve been looking for you too, Alex. I’ve been all over the sodding compound and then when I couldn’t found you I conjured up some inveniora to find you and…,”
“You did what?”
“You heard me,” I snapped.
“Dude, that was an idiot move to make.”
“Well, dude, it led me here didn’t it? What have you been doing in the bushes, eh?” I waggled my eyebrows at him to prove I was serious.
Alex just looked confused. “I have no idea what you’re on about.”
“You’ve never been in there?” I jerked my head back to where I’d just come from, somewhat deflated.
He shook his head, looking at me as if I was crazy. “No, I’ve not. And besides, until you reach level three you can’t control inveniora to run any kind of proper search. You’ve been running around aimlessly, with some kind of stupid death-wish on your shoulders.”
“Nothing went wrong. It didn’t cloud up like last time or try to smother anyone!”
“You were lucky,” Alex said grimly. “This kind of stuff isn’t a toy, Mack Attack. There’s a reason why there are trainers making sure nothing goes wrong when the Initiates practise.”
“Jeez, who rattled your chain? Chill out, Alex.”
“You’re telling me to chill out? Seriously? The girl with the worst temper this side of the equator? Because she’s not actually a girl, but instead a f*cking dragon?”
“I’m not a dragon,” I stated emphatically, “I’m a Draco Wyr. And if it wasn’t for that fact, then you wouldn’t have anyone to help you sneak into a f*cking nest of vampires to steal a bloody chunk of wood!”
Alex and I both glared at each other. I realised I was letting my temper once again get the better of me and tried to calm myself using Bryant’s deep breathing suggestions. At the same moment, I think Alex also recognized the idiocy of the situation and relaxed.
“Sorry. I’m finding all this very stressful, I guess.”
“Me too, Mack Attack, me too.” He stretched his hand out. “Friends?”
I took it and shook vigorously. “Always.” We smiled at each other and the tension evaporated.
“I’ve cleared things with the Dean dude,” Alex said. “He’ll let you go out and party it up on Saturday. Did Lord Shifty cause you any problems?”
“No,” I answered. “He was actually pretty easy to convince.”
Alex was exultant. “See? I told you! And all those times that you thought that he’d smite you down for not being a shifter. He’s actually a fairly reasonable guy.”
“I’m not convinced of that yet,” I grumbled. “He’s still on some kind of power trip.” The ‘wear something pretty’ command continued to irk me. “I have to find something to wear for the party too.”
“Don’t worry, mate. I’ll sort that side of things out. Come on.” He held out his arm for me to take and we started walking back to the scattered buildings.
On the way back, I told him about the Fae book. Alex was astonished. “Seriously? Are you sure it’s the same book?”
“I’m positive.” I added in the details that I’d managed to translate so far.
“Whoa, that’s far out, Mack Attack. So you really are descended from dragons, then.”
“I don’t know, Alex. This could all just be legend. And it might not have anything to do with me. It certainly doesn’t clear up anything as to the reasons for why my mother dumped me with the shifters, or what else my blood can do.”
“It’s a start though. I can’t read Fae so I can’t help you in that department, unfortunately. Why don’t you get in touch with your fairy buddy?”
“Solus? He won’t come near anything to do with the mages or the Ministry, you must know that. Anyway, he’s a Fae, and they’re untrustworthy by nature.”
“You trusted him enough with your friend, Mrs. Whatserface.”
“Alcoon,” I said absently. “Mrs. Alcoon.” I felt tug of guilty melancholy at the thought of the older woman. “I didn’t have all that much choice at the time. And he got what he wanted in return.”
“Which was?”
“To find out what I really am.”
“You told him? About the Draco Wyr stuff? Mack Attack, you just said you couldn’t trust him!”
“I also just said I didn’t have a choice. And I suppose he’s not given me up so far.” Although the stupid fairy had tread pretty close to the line a couple of times, I thought ungratefully.
“Six days’ time, Mack Attack. Once this party’s over then we can concentrate on getting you up the levels and out of this place as soon as possible. Then you can sort out Mrs. Alcoon, and the Fae, and find out who you really are.”
Amen to that, I whispered to myself.