Faculty of Fire (60 page)

Yes, indeed ... now it was clear why she wouldn’t believe me when I said I’d got into the Academy. She knew that I couldn’t get in, because she’d taken care of that herself ...

“So have I become a lot stronger now?” I asked with bated breath.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” said Romius, bringing me back down to earth. “In the first place, your abilities still won’t be particularly exceptional. That friend of yours, Naive ... what is it you call him? The fiery boy? Well, you’re still no fiery boy by a long way, but you’ll be on the same level as Chas, Neville and the others, that much is certain.”

“I can’t believe it ...” was all I could think of to say.

“And now that Kelnmiir has removed the effects of your hypnosis, your visions will probably come to you much more often,” Romius went on.

That was a surprise. I’d been having prophetic dreams all the time anyway. But now I could go to the market and earn a bit of money as a fortune-teller ...

“But then what happened at the enrolment?” I asked. “Have you figured that out? And why did the time of day shift by half an hour for me ...”

“Ooh ...” said Romius, looking at me with tired eyes. It was only then I noticed that he looked a bit drained and was clearly short of sleep. “That would take a long time to explain ... and so far, all our theories are only based on assumptions. At the enrolment, the music you were listening to could have combined with the prism to affect you in some way ... Hypnosis is a very complicated thing. You never know for absolute certain how everything’s going to turn out. And as for the sun – that was a side effect, after the sensitivity shock, something in your brain went out of kilter ... that’s all.”

That’s all ... I’d have liked to see what he’d say if something went out of kilter in his brain!

“But now my brain ...” – I gulped – “... is back in kilter, I hope?”

“You’re all right now,” Romius reassured me. “You just need to go and see the druids, have a couple of bruises healed, and you’ll be like new.”

A couple of bruises? Then why did I feel like I only had one bruise – all over my body?

“So I’m free to go now, and no one thinks I’m a spy any longer?” I asked.

“There you go again,” Romius sighed. “No one ever thought you were a spy ...”

He looked into my eyes and became embarrassed.

“Well ... perhaps there was a little bit of suspicion.”

“But you don’t suspect me now?”

“I’m surer of you now than I am of myself,” Romius laughed. “In any case, we’ve already found the spy. We followed the lead you gave us, by the way. You were right.”

“It’s Steel!” I gasped in amazement.

I’d suspected him. I’d even been sure that it was him. But I still hadn’t been able to believe it. That cheerful, goodhearted young guy I’d rubbed shoulders with for more than two months ... he was a spy. It wasn’t possible. I’d sooner have believed that the spy was Triz, or one of Angel’s cronies ...

“Yes, it’s Steel,” Romius confirmed. “Or, rather, Dkharm. That’s his real name, the one his parents gave him.”

“And I thought Steel was born in Lita,” I murmured quietly.

“Let’s not talk about this now,” Romius suggested. “I have a lot of things to do and not much time. And then, I wouldn’t want to spoil your mood, after all, we’re having a celebration today.”

“A celebration?”

“I shouldn’t really have told you anything,” Romius told me with a frown. “But since I already have ... basically, your classmates have organised a small surprise for you. So when they take you to the party, at least act as if you’re surprised.”

I really was surprised. A party in the Academy?

“But why today especially?” I asked, slightly stunned.

“Because today you will finally leave this room,” Romius replied. “To put it simply, the party is for you.”

Why for me? What for? Well, of course, I could guess what for ... but all of a sudden, just like that ... a party in the Academy in my honour ...

I sat on the bed, batting my eyelids for quite a long time.

“All right,” said Romius, getting to his feet. “I can see you’re already feeling better, so clear out of here. I have a pile of work to do, and here I am just sitting around with you ...”

I slowly got up off the bed.

“Look at him, as healthy as a dragon, but always acting the fool,” Romius said cheerfully. “That’s it, off you trot to the forty-third floor, the emergency treatment station there is empty. You can lie down there for half an hour, and then go to the Low Power Hall. I think they’re already waiting for you.”

“Understood,” I said with a nod. “But where’s Kelnmiir?”

“I have no idea,” Romius said airily. “Wandering about somewhere or other. He’s an official consultant now and he can go wherever he wants ... so he’s sticking his nose in everywhere, there’s no way to keep up with him ...”

We said goodbye at the teleports. He stepped into one, and I stepped into another. I must admit, I couldn’t look at a teleport any more without a shudder ... but what could I do about that? I had to move round the Academy somehow. Although, as Romius told me on the way to the teleports, the Craftsmen had definitely decided to build stairways – but when would that happen?

At the treatment station I was met, as usual, by an imperturbable druid. He laid me out on one of the beds and told me to relax until he came back.

On my way out of the treatment station, I was intercepted by Kelnmiir . When I’d only taken a couple of steps in the direction of the teleports, he appeared form round a corner, as if he had been deliberately waiting for me.

“Well, well, fancy meeting you here!” he exclaimed. “How is our hero feeling?”

“Hero? I don’t know ... I haven’t come across any heroes.”

“Such modesty,” said Kelnmiir, slapping me on the back. “Keep it that way. Not everyone can bear the burden of glory.”

After my visit to the treatment station, I was feeling simply marvellous. Even my thoughts had been set in order ... probably for the first time in months.

“Don’t try to distract me,” I told the vampire firmly. “You stopped on the question of why Alice ended up in my room and not some other place.”

“You still won’t let it go,” sighed Kelnmiir. “All right, have it your own way. After I saw you there in the square, I forgot about you for a while. But only until I saw what happened to you during the test. I must confess, I was intrigued by your case ... but even more intrigued by the fact that Romius himself took you in hand. And when I found out that he was your uncle ...”

Again. Why was everybody so agitated about Romius being a relative of mine?

“After that, Alice and I had a brief skirmish with the Day Clan ... and, purely by chance, we found ourselves near your house. Only don’t ask me how I knew that it was
your
house. I could sense the aura. Anyway, I put two and two together and decided it would be useful for Alice to know you. She was going to need a friend in the Academy. So I told her to climb in your window and strictly forbade her to hurt anyone she met. A good way to meet someone, don’t you think?”

Well how about that! If not for the vampire’s whim, I might never have got to know Alice ... But somehow I didn’t feel like thanking him for it.

“Well, you take the cake,” was all I could think of to say.

“I certainly do,” the vampire laughed smugly. “And I’ll tell you something else. I’m almost certain that if I hadn’t tried to analyse the symptoms of your hypnosis that time in the square, and stirred it up a bit, nothing would have happened to you during the tests. There wouldn’t have been any sensitivity shock, and you wouldn’t have got in ...”

“I’m astounded,” I confessed after a long pause. “You managed to stick your nose in everywhere. Maybe you were involved in the attack on the Academy too?”

“No,” said the vampire, shaking his head. “Somebody beat me to it there ... But I did help you that morning when you were attacked. Remember the three fine young fellows who behaved so oddly and started fighting among themselves, instead of following you?”

“You got in there too?”

“I certainly did,” said Kelnmiir, laughing again. “Listen, what are we doing standing here? Let’s go to the party! Didn’t anyone tell you? Your classmates decided to arrange a surprise in your honour ...”

Aha. A fine surprise, if everyone was so desperate to tell me about it in advance.

“Right then, let’s go,” I agreed. “To be quite honest, I feel as hungry as a dragon ...”

Kelnmiir gleefully dragged me to the teleports. Honestly, just like a child. But this child had managed to change my life so deliberately.

I soon realised that the vampire was taking me to the Hall of Low Power.

“But is the party definitely here?” I asked, halting indecisively in front of the door. “Shins definitely wouldn’t approve ...”

The door of the Hall opened and Shins appeared.

“Zach! Come in, we’ve been waiting for ages!”

I walked into the Hall of Low Power in a state of confusion.

It was dark ...

Suddenly the Hall was filled with a single shout from many voices: “Burn them!”

And immediately the Hall lit up with dozens of fireballs. They soared up to the ceiling and formed a circle ... or was it the letter “O”. Yes, it was probably the letter “O”.

The hall was full of tables set with food and it was literally packed with people. The whole of our faculty was there, and I saw our teachers in the front rows ... There were plenty of yellow and red sets of livery on display ... and here and there I could glimpse blue livery ... and even grey!

The first to meet me were the honourable Craftsmen Shins, Tyrel, Romius, Revel and a few other individuals I didn’t know. They took turns to shake me by the hand and wish me all sorts of success.

It was the first time I could ever remember seeing Shins smile.

“Well done, lad,” he repeated for the third time. “You are a worthy pupil and the pride of our faculty of fire.”

Tyrel simply shook my hand and said he had always believed in me.

Romius reminded me that now we could concentrate on investigating my visions. Well, well, first he told me he was too busy to spend time sitting around with me ... and then he hurried straight off to the party

Revel ... he simply slapped me on the shoulder and smiled mysteriously. In the light of what Kelnmiir had told me about him, that smile should have put me on my guard ... but I couldn’t be bothered about that today.

Eventually the gentlemen Craftsmen let me go, and I fell into the hands of my friends. Naive, Neville and Caiten were themselves again and they gave me a joyful welcome. Chas shouted out his beloved war cry louder than anyone else.

Dogron was there in the Hall too. The troll was terribly embarrassed, I could see it in his stone face, but that didn’t prevent him from clearing his plates rather briskly.

Everyone was trying to slap me on the back, shake my hand or just congratulate me. Although I wasn’t really sure what the congratulations were for ...

But anyway, I wasn’t really interested in all that. I kept looking round for Alice, but I couldn’t find her.

“Chas, where’s Alice?” I asked eventually.

“I was just waiting for you to ask that,” Chas laughed.

“Well, now I have,” I said irritably. “So answer me!”

All this fuss had unsettled me completely. I’d even forgotten that I was hungry.

“She’s waiting for you over there in the corner,” Chas told me in a whisper. “It was really supposed to be a surprise ... So when she appears, you have to be surprised ...”

Him too? These people were so good at giving surprises ...

“I will be,” I promised Chas and hurried off.

When I finally saw Alice, it took my breath away. And I didn’t have to pretend, I really was surprised.

She was wearing the same white dress in which she had appeared at the “Golden Half Moon”. The druids had done a wonderful job, and there wasn’t a single trace left of the cuts on the vampiress’s face ...

I walked up to her slowly: “Shall we dance?”

“Glad to,” she replied with a smile. “I hoped you’ve practised a bit since the last time ...”

“Oh yes,” I said, smiling back. “I’ve been practising a lot.”

And there we were dancing.

“You know,” she said in a low voice. “Let me confess why I kissed you in the Golden Half Moon ... When Kelnmiir found out what happened in your room, he strictly forbade me to have anything to do with you. And that evening I did everything to spite him, I wanted to prove that he couldn’t order me around.”

Was she expecting me to be offended? No way. That evening I did everything I could to spite my aunt ... But what a cunning rogue that Kelnmiir was! He must have deliberately forbidden her to have anything to do with me, so that she would do the opposite just to spite him. I had the impression that he could see straight through all of us ...