Mercury Mind (The Downfall Saga Book 1) (13 page)

“That’s why we need to be sneaky. If you can tie a bunch of different knots then maybe your parents were fishermen. It’s mostly going to be a guessing game, but it’s imperative that we find out who is performing Blood magic.”

Donovan almost told Osmont about the note that Eamon had left for him but, given everything that he’d learnt about the Shem, he still kept it secret.

***

D
onovan rose early on Saturday, while everybody was still tucked in their beds, and quietly made his way down to the basement for a quick bite to eat before heading out to the courtyard by the gate. Crossing the courtyard, he saw two strikingly beautiful women standing by the gate. Twins by the look of it. Blond wavy hair hung in two braids to reveal thin, friendly faces. Full lips pulled back in a faint trace of a sensual smile as he approached. Heavy, hazel eyes cheerfully gazed over the buildings.

“Hi, I’m Chelsea Bishop,” said the girl on the right, “and this is my sister Aubrey.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Donovan with a goofy smile.

“Is this your first year here?” asked Aubrey. Donovan nodded and she continued. “We were just talking about the mischief that we got into when we lived here.”

“I highly doubt that either of you ever got into trouble,” said Donovan.

“We never got into any trouble,” said Chelsea, her mischievous smile telling him that it wasn’t from lack of trying.

“Is this everybody?” asked Osmont from behind Donovan. “It’ll be a small group this year.”

“Hugh and some of his crew were talking about coming,” said Aubrey. “There they are now.”

Turning around, Donovan saw a group of ten men come sauntering between the buildings towards them. In the lead was Hugh Gardner, a muscular lion leading his pride, bright toothy smile clearly visible. Hugh gave Aubrey and Chelsea a wink before turning to Osmont.

“It’s good to see you, Osmont,” said Hugh, in a deep, rich voice.

Osmont shook his hand before addressing the group. “Now that everybody is here, let’s get started. Most of you were here last year when I first started this, so you know what to expect.” He nodded to many of the people standing there. “Hugh, Casey, Andy, Archie, Leo and the rest. For the rest of you, I look forward to getting to know you over the coming weekends. I recognize that giving up part of your Saturdays is a big sacrifice for some of you, but I think you’ll find it worthwhile in the end.”

“The girls won’t be able to keep their eyes off your body,” said Hugh, casually flexing his arms. “Even Archie might be able to get a date.”

That drew a wave of laughter from everybody but Archie. Archie had a soft build, bright red hair, and a pale complexion that was turning crimson to match the scar on his left cheek.

“I’m not a miracle worker,” said Osmont, to another round of laughter. “You need many attributes to successfully defend yourself without weapons or magic. You need the stamina to know that you can outlast your opponents, the quickness to beat them to the punch, the agility and flexibility to remain stable despite adverse circumstances. We’ll be focusing on these attributes before moving to more traditional fighting techniques.”

Osmont ran them through one of his stretching routines to get warmed up, and Donovan was glad to see others struggling to maintain their balance. Once they were warmed up, they began jogging up and down the narrow winding path leading up to the gate. Osmont spread his time out between all of the students, jogging beside each for a few minutes while they had a quiet conversation before he moved onto the next.

Donovan spent his time with the Bishop twins near the back on the pack, as they filled him in on what to expect if he returned to Haven for a second year and could explore Haven in its entirety.

Haven was much larger than he’d realized. Tunnels extended deep into the heart of the mountains where a plethora of rooms have been carved into the rock. Hidden vales were scattered throughout the spur of mountains, the only way to reach them was through the main gate atop of the path they were currently jogging up.

They told Donovan that if he followed the paths behind the buildings he’d come to a tunnel, guarded by protective magic, which led to Haven proper, as they called it. They offered to open the way for him, but he would owe each of them a favor that they could call upon whenever they liked. The way that they said it scared him off, and he politely declined their offer.

By the end of the session, everybody’s legs were burning and they struggled to walk along the path, but nobody gave up and stopped.

Bidding everyone farewell, Donovan went to see what was going on in his room.

Ravyn sat at the table, focused on a book in front of her. Kort lounged with his feet resting on the other side of the table, picking grapes off of a bunch and tossing them in the air to catch in his mouth. Delaney was hidden behind the curtain on the far side of the room, and Caddaric was nowhere to be seen.

“How can you possibly be studying?” asked Kort, tossing another grape into the air and narrowly missed catching it in his mouth.

Ravyn ignored him and kept reading, mouthing each word as she read. Donovan gave Kort a lazy wave as he walked passed and plopped himself onto his bed.

“We don’t even have any homework,” said Kort. “What are you reading?” Sitting up, he reached across the table and snagged the book from in front of Ravyn.

“I was reading that.”

Kort flipped the book over and tried to read its title, but the only word that he could make out was math.

“Give it back.”

“No. If it’s so important, then maybe I should be reading it.”

“Now,” she said, a firm finality in her tone. She reached out her hand and waited until Kort handed it back. She found her place in the book and went back to reading as if nothing had happened.

Kort went back to tossing grapes into his mouth until he grew bored again. Picking another grape, he began to aim it at Ravyn’s mouth as she continued to mouth the words as she read. Donovan put a hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh. With great care and timing, Kort tossed the grape across the table into her gaping maw.

Her eyes grew wide in alarm and she began grasping at her throat.

“What do we do?” said an animated Donovan, flinging himself off the bed.

Kort calmly made his way around the table. Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her out of the chair and bent her part way over the table. Pressing himself tightly against her back, he wrapped his arms around her waist, and began a rhythmic thrusting motion with his hands.

The grape dislodged and fell onto the table. Kort kept his arms wrapped around her until she fought her way free.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she said, shoving him away.

“Saving your life,” said Kort.

“You wouldn’t have needed to if you didn’t try to kill me,” she said, jabbing him in the chest with a sharp finger. “And you...” she said turning towards Donovan. Letting out an exasperated sigh, she grabbed her book and disappeared behind the curtain.

“Where did you learn that?” asked Donovan quietly, hoping that Ravyn wouldn’t overhear.

“I fight with my brothers over food at every meal. We’ve choked more than once while shoveling it down, so my mom made sure to teach it to all of us.”

The five of them got to know each other in dribs and drabs over the first few weeks, growing familiar with each other’s habits. Despite the grape incident, Ravyn continued to move her mouth while she read. Kort insisted on shaving every day despite a distinct lack of noticeable facial hair. Caddaric spent more and more time with his group of sycophants, coming back to the room late at night and saying boisterous goodbyes in the hallway, waking the rest of them. Delaney still hadn’t said a single word, but she kept the room meticulously clean, picking up every stray sock and cleaning the room every day. Donovan displayed a tendency to disappear from the group, he’d sit there studying what everybody was doing but withdraw from the conversation, yet he had a remarkably accurate recollection of exactly what everybody had said.

Everything seemed to be going good. All of them had fallen into their own comfortable routine, which was why Donovan was surprised when Ravyn came to him in tears, begging him for help near the end of the first month of class.

D
onovan woke early on a Sunday morning near the end of September. Quietly closing the door behind him, he headed outside to do one of the stretching routines that he’d learnt from Osmont. Osmont had been away from Haven for a few days, but Donovan diligently kept up the routine. He’d finally reached the point where he could complete the whole routine without stumbling.

He walking across the frosted grass, leaving green footprints in his wake. He was surprised to hear running footsteps behind him.

Ravyn came running up beside him, and taking his arm, led him to a secluded bench surrounded by barren bushes, their colorful leaves carpeting the ground. “I need to talk to you,” she said in a choking voice.

Sitting down on the frigid bench, Donovan looked her in the eyes and saw tears streaming down her face. “What’s wrong?”

“I ..,” she started before breaking down.

Donovan draped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close, holding her until she regained her composure.

“It’s just ... if I get behind ... my parents,” she stuttered.

Donovan sat there, gently rubbing her back until she tried again.

“I’m just not getting it,” she stated slowly, before words started streaming out of her mouth. “If I fall behind, I’ll never catch up. My parents are going to be so disappointed. You need to help me.”

“Sure, sure,” he said soothingly. “What can I do?”

“You can’t tell anybody else. You must promise.”

“I promise. Now tell me what’s going on.” He put his hands on her shoulders and held her an arm’s length away so he could look her in the eyes.

“Well ... you see, I’m having trouble with Arithmetic. It doesn’t make sense and I need your help.”

“It’s only about school,” he said with a sigh of relief.

“Only about school?” she said in disbelief. “What could possibly be more important?”

Donovan could think of more than a few things, but kept quiet.

“I don’t know who else to turn to,” she said. “Caddaric’s a jerk and Kort would never let me live it down.”

“Just calm down. I’ve already been helping Kort, so I already know some of Professor Higgins’ failings.”

“I feel so stupid.”

“Well, you shouldn’t. You’re the best in the class except maybe for Caddaric. Besides, Professor Higgins teaches it as a routine. Intelligence plays no part in it, it’s all about memorization and repetition.” He could see the confusion in her face, so he started again. “Let me put it another way. If I gave you a recipe, you could cook a delicious meal without understanding the significance of what you’re doing.”

“Not if I’m the one cooking.”

“Let’s pretend for a moment that you can. You could follow the recipe for that particular dish, but wouldn’t necessarily be able to apply the same techniques to something new. Action without meaning is merely an automated response, and repetition of the action will not lead to understanding. Professor Higgins doesn’t understand this and teaches students to memorize rules and solve problems by rote.”

“I think I follow,” said Ravyn, “but what are you going to do differently.”

“Bring it off the page,” said Donovan, picking up a handful of colorful leaves.

Using the leaves as markers in different denominations, they did a series of problems until well after the frost had left the grass.

That was the first of many Sunday morning lessons that the two of them had. While he would never admit it, deep down Donovan was relieved to see both Kort and Ravyn struggling because he had his fair share of struggles. His lack of knowledge about even basic events forced him to spend many hours in the library trying to catch up. He read about the Breaking a millennia ago, when the Shem had last invaded and the Deogol joined forces with them. Large swaths of land became desolate, a large proportion of the populace had been killed before the Shem were driven off and the Deogol Empire disappeared into obscurity. People had studied the relics that were left behind but no one could explain how the entire race had become extinct.

This wasn’t the only strange occurrence during the last Breaking. Many of the authors remarked how many maps had changed with no explanation as to why. Previous to the breaking, the maps showed an open isthmus connecting the continents, but afterwards they all prominently showed the Cleft. There was some debate whether it was missing because people hadn’t explored that far south yet, or if they didn’t consider it an important enough feature to include on their maps.

Donovan found references to some of the prophecies that Professor Cleary liked to talk about, where these cataclysmic events occurred roughly every thousand years. The books could trace the history back through four of these earth shattering events. According to the dates of the previous events, they were nearing the end of another cycle.

Arcana wasn’t much better for Donovan. He was the weakest in the class and Caddaric reminded him of it every chance he got. The only good news was that his defenses were exceptional, shockingly so according to Professor Moncha.

Professor Severn’s class was miserable for everyone, but especially so for Donovan who’s ineptness with the staff was staggering.

***

O
n a clear Friday morning, Donovan headed to the Arcana class, preparing himself to face ridicule from Caddaric and his cronies. Taking a seat at the back of the room with Kort, he waited for Professor Moncha to start the class.

“Good morning class,” she said cheerfully. “I have a special treat for you today. As you all know, we’ve been practicing using our Gift to light these.” She held up one of the glass spheres. “We’ve both lit them and dimmed them separately, but today you’re going to be splitting your concentration to do both at the same time. The best way to do this is to compete against each other.”

A murmur of conversation exploded into the room as everyone chatted excitedly with their neighbors and predicted who was going to be the best.