Drakonika (Book 1) (29 page)

“
Something?” Fjalldís snapped. “I heard EVERYTHING.” Saying that, she turned away from him and took a run back to Aedan's group. Darius remained downcast for the rest of the day, though he told his friends that he was just tired because he didn't get enough sleep.

Whether they liked it or not, Aedan decided he would take them on as many druid expeditions as possible. After all, they had only learned the basics so far. The real lessons were still ahead of them.

The journey back took longer than the journey there. No wonder — they were still exhausted from the previous day and Aedan kept talking about forest beings which included elves, fairies, dryads and many more. For now, he decided not to mention the scary ones.

When they returned to Sinei it was dark already, and naturally, they had time off. Aedan couldn't expect anything more from them that day. Elmar and Lars were devotely learning their herbology books by heart, but Magnus led Maren and Fjalldís to his room. They had lots to discuss.

The girls were lying on the fluffy carpet, swinging their legs lightly in the air. Magnus was sitting on his bed like a leader of a secret group which consisted of only three members.

Fjalldís wasked them curiously, “Don't you wonder who the Devoted were? The ones who lived here before?” It seemed the three of them had at least one thing in common — a passion for the unknown and mystery. They knew that Lars and Elmar were right in the next room, so they were careful not to speak too loudly.

“Naturally,” Magnus said. “Aedan has never told us anything about them. I wonder why he makes such a big secret out of it. Have you noticed the burnt area between Ragna and Sinei? Something serious must have happened there,” he said in a mystic tone.

“
And we're going to find out what it was,” Maren added.

“
And how do you want to do that? I hope you don't mean –” Fjalldís whispered.

Magnus stole the words from her tongue, “To search the town, yes.”

“But that's forbidden!” Fjalldís said in a shocked tone.

“
Maybe, but it's not impossible. We've done it before and we can do it again,” Magnus said calmly.

It seemed Maren agreed with him fully. She had already tuned into his adventurous wave.

Fjalldís gave them both a stunned look, saying, “Wait a minute — you've done it already?”

“
Yeah,” Magnus said, as if it was nothing special.

“
And we found an old cave with a magickal crystal sphere,” Maren added merrily.

Fjalldís stopped swinging her legs.

“Wait, wait. Not so fast,” she said. “Let me get this straight. You two sneaked around the town after lights-out, searched the forbidden places and found a magickal crystal ball?” she gaped at them, waiting for an answer with a blank look on her face. “And you did all that WITHOUT ME?”

“
Sorry,” Maren said a little guiltily, “But we can go on more adventures together. Actually, we've got something for you to see. It's really cool!” Upon these words, she cast Magnus an excited look. He already knew what was on her mind and frankly, he wasn't sure if it was a good idea. “Magnus, let's show her the book!” Maren said heatedly.

Fjalldís' eyes opened wide with excitement. Magnus didn't want to disappoint her, so he drew the black tome out from under his bed. He was just about to place it on the floor before the girls, when he remembered Valezar's serious words: “Don't read from the book.” It was as though he had just heard his voice warning him before something he didn't quite understand.

While Magnus remained frozen, thinking about Valezar's words, Maren told Fjalldís everything they knew about it so far — how they found it, what happened when they first opened it and even what they had learned from it.

“
Magnus? Will you read something again?” Maren said eagerly as she returned to him, but Magnus hesitated. “Come on, you're the only one who can read it!” she implored, with her begging blue eyes fixed on him.

Seeing Fjalldís'
face full of expectations, Magnus shooed his worries away and smiled.

“
This is where we stopped last time,” he said, but when he saw what was written there, he paused for a while.

“
Magnus? What does it say?” Maren demanded.

Magnus continued, “It gives a location of some 'gate' and it says it'
s in Ragna.”

“
What? The town gate?” she said, but Magnus shook his head  in disagreement.

“
I don't think it's the town gate, Maren,” he said quietly, still looking into the book. “Here it says — 'To open the gate, you need the key I gave you. You must carry it when you utter the incantation, or else the gate shall not open.'”

There was a pause. Finally, Magnus said the following: “Dar garoth im na lei, torokkur n'fir daher!”

As soon as Maren realised he was reading an incantation, she shut the book in front of his nose, giving him a reproving look. But it was too late. Magnus had read it all — to the last word.

“
Are you insane?! It could be dangerous. Who knows what's going to happen now!” Maren scolded him, but her voice was quavering. Although she liked to experiment, now her mage roots were telling her a clear “NO!”

Magnus gave a small sigh.

“Relax, you wanted me to read from the book. And nothing is going to happen, you know why? Because I don't have the key,” he said.

“
Actually, now that you mentioned it,” Fjalldís said as she opened the tome back to where Magnus was reading before. “I think I've seen the key before... yes.” She remained looking at the drawing of the nine-pointed star in the book for a while, then raised her gaze up.

“
Really?” Magnus said swiftly. “Where?”

“
At the police station, in the general's office,” Fjalldís said.

“
Then the police station is where we must to go,” Magnus decided in a second. “I wonder why it's there. Do you think he knows something more about it?”

“
That's a crazy idea!” Maren chided, ignoring his question. “What do you want to do? Steal from the general's office?”

“
No, certainly not. I'll just borrow the key for a while,” Magnus corrected her.

Maren rolled her eyes, “You and your
borrowing
. Has it even occurred to you that Xanthar could really lock you up for that? You can't just take something from the police station and expect that you'll get away with it!”

Magnus defended himself, “I want to find out who I am! I want to know what I'm doing here! This book might be the only lead I will ever get!”

Maren fell silent. He had a point.

“
I really don't know about this, Magnus,” Fjalldís said, her voice shaking. She was touching the book's cover with her tiny fingers, as if she was tapping its energy essence like Valezar did. “I'm fine with searching the town, but this could get us into real trouble. This book reeks with evil.”

“
That's what Valezar implied,” Magnus said blankly, his heart sinking. His words made Maren shiver all over.

*

“All day you're acting soulless. What's the matter with you?” Serena said in an attempt to learn what had happened to Darius. He was sitting quietly in the darkest corner of their room since their arrival.

“
Nothing. Leave me alone,” Darius muttered, staring into the darkness. The rest of the Black Squad were playing cards on the floor as usual, but that didn't mean their ears were closed.

“
What could cheer you up?” Serena kept asking. It appeared he wouldn't get rid of her so easily.

“
I don't want anything,” Darius growled.

Serena gave a sigh, then her face brightened, “I've got an idea. If you're interested, we could go see the cave where Magnus found the crystal ball and
–” she said, but when she realised the room fell completely silent, she stopped talking. Everyone was looking in her direction, all attention to the cards completely gone.

“
Well, I mean... we all could go take a look at it,” she added swiftly.

That sounded better. Before she could even recover, Viktor, Rodrick, Henry and Giselbert were standing in line like soldiers, ready to go out. The hour was late, the lights-out long gone and the town was engulfed in darkness. They were about to visit a forbidden place that had held a magickal artefact
— there was adventure in the air.

“
All right then,” Darius said finally. As soon as he got up, his friends beamed with excitement. “Let's see what that
mighty hero
Magnus found.” He grabbed his black jacket and with his friends following straight after, he bolted out into the darkness.

XV. Dreadful News

Their journey to the cave was accompanied by the moonlight and yellow glow from the lantern that Rodrick was carrying. The fresh night air felt very soothing for those who needed to clear their mind and forget about things they would have rather not experienced.

Serena knew exactly where she was going. She led the five boys down the cobbled streets straight to the house where she had followed Magnus and Maren the other night. Everything seemed to be in the same condition as she had seen it the last time she was there. No one else had the courage to step into the forbidden streets, not mentioning touching anything. A single look at the door lying battered on the dusty floor was enough to understand that Serena didn't lie. There was only one novice who had such strength — Magnus.

As they bounded in and descended the long narrow stairs down, they found another piece of unquestionable proof
— a burnt door. All six of them stopped when they finally entered the cave. No one seemed to mind that their feet were soaked in cold water up to their ankles. They just gazed in front at the big crystal ball towering on a stone pedestal, reflected in their eyes as it gleamed in the dim light of Rodrick's lantern.

“
The sphere is still here!” Serena exclaimed joyfully, her voice echoing in the cave. “I thought they took it, but they left it here!” For a moment, the boys stared at the magickal artefact as if they had entered into a wonderland.

Darius recovered first. He slowly approached the artefact, looking hypnotised. It seemed as if he was absorbing its magickal power by merely gazing at it. Finally something truly powerful within his grasp! As he watched it intensely, he didn't even realise that his five comrades had come up behind him.

“What do we have here,” Darius whispered, brushing the ball's aura with his hand. His voice sounded very distant, as though he had completely forgotten that he wasn't alone.

“
What is it?” Rodrick breathed curiously, as he raised his lantern higher.

Darius pulled his arm back.

“I don't know. But I'm going to find out,” he said firmly.

“
These things are used for divination,” Serena said quietly, although nobody lived in the house above. But somehow it felt like they would wake the ghosts if they had raised their voices. “I wonder why it was hidden here all this time,” she said as she kept gazing at the crystal ball.

“
Well, let's take a look!” Viktor said abruptly, reaching forward, but Darius blocked his arm on the half-way.

“
Hey!” Darius snarled. “Don't touch it, it's mine.”

“
What?” said all five of his comrades together with rather startled expressions.

“
How can it be yours?” Henry said, sounding utterly dazed. “It doesn't belong to anyone, does it?” The others seemed to agree with him, but it wasn't enough to change Darius' mind.

“
It's mine because I decided it's mine. I'm taking it home,” Darius said flatly. His friends didn't look too happy about it, but they had to accept their leader's decision, although they did so with a lot of unsatisfied muttering. While Viktor was clenching his fists angrily and others were mumbling under their noses, Serena was the only one who spoke her thoughts out loud.

“
I think you should leave it here, Darius. You never know — it could be cursed,” she said, sounding rather cautious. And it seemed that her words made Darius think.

“
Maybe you're right,” he said finally. “I've got enough problems, I don't need more. But nothing can stop me from peeking into my future right here.”

“
Come on Darius,” Serena said with the same worried look on her face. “It's not always good to know what your future holds. You should leave it be. We wanted to take a look and we have. Now let's go back,” she implored, but Darius didn't back off from this one. Looking into the future was tempting. Perhaps
too
tempting.

“
Are you kidding? I haven't made it all the way here for nothing. If there's something important going to happen, I want to know about it,” Darius retorted, and against all Serena's warnings he placed his hands on the sphere and gazed into it.

No one dared to speak. They all waited for what would happen. The longer they stood there, the more they leaned forward, as though they wanted to understand what he saw from the look on his face. First he looked surprised, then he scowled and in the end his eyes bulged in shock. Something had completely taken him aback.

Suddenly he twitched as though the ball had bit him. He turned to his friends, knocked them to the sides and bolted past them onto the narrow stairs where he disappeared in the blink of an eye.

His comrades followed straight after. Whatever had happened to Darius, they certainly did
n
'
t want to endure it too. Soon they caught up with him in front of the house and after this scary experience, there was
n
'
t another word about taking the sphere home.

“
I told you it wasn't a good idea —” Serena breathed, but Darius cut her off.

“
Spare me your lectures,” he said gruffly, gazing into the blackness.

“
Fine then,” Serena said snappishly, then with a sudden mollification, she asked, “And what did you see? Maybe you'll feel better if you tell us.” She waited in silence along with the others, but no answer came.

“
I'm going to take a walk. Don't wait for me, just go home,” Darius said in a downcast tone, turning away. There was a sudden ripple of questions behind him, but he stepped forward into the dark street without ever turning back. Then one of his friends panted to his side.

“
Wait, I'm coming with you,” Viktor said swiftly. He slightly turned back to give the others a sign that he would take care of it and they could go home. “So what did you see?”

Darius did
n
'
t raise his gaze from the stone road.

“
I'm not sure if I wanna talk about it,” he said bleakly.

“
Sure you do,” Viktor decided. “Come on, I'm your best friend, have you forgotten? You can tell me anything.”

Darius hesitated for a while, but he could no longer keep it inside. “All right then,” he said and finally raised his eyes to look at Viktor. “First of all, nothing suggested that I would study here or in any other guild. But I don't know where else I would go,
I don
't get it.”

Viktor was listening closely. “What else?”

“There was me and Magnus, like some good friends! Can you understand that? How could anything like that ever happen? I hate him,” Darius said spitefully, a great deal of venom reflected in his eyes. “But then I saw something even worse. That little groveller of his was squeezing me, such insolence!” His face looked red with anger, even though the only light on the street was the moonlight. Then he fell silent again, staring at the road with a cadaverous look.

“
There was something more, wasn't there?” Viktor demanded.

Suddenly, a great dread fell on Darius. It seemed he didn't even want to say it aloud. “Fjalldís will die,” he whispered.

“And?” Viktor said coldly.

“
I know you despise her — I mean,
we
despise her —” Darius corrected himself quickly. “But knowing she will die soon is just too much.”

“
Look, you can't take divination so seriously. My father told me that it was something like a warning and it could be prevented from happening. It means you have to change something. Maybe it's a sign that you shouldn't become too soft. Or else you might end up as one of Magnus' grovellers,” Viktor said and although it sounded quite harsh, Darius was listening to him without disagreeing. He would have done anything to prevent the visions from happening. “And if you want to stay in this guild, you'll probably have to study more or learn to be a better cheater,” Viktor added, and from the tone of his voice it was quite clear that he himself had absolutely no problem with that.

“
You're right. You're absolutely right,” Darius said while looking somewhere into the distance, then he suddenly turned back to Viktor. “But what about Fjalldís?” he said hastily.

“
That's not your problem. You should only care about yourself,” Viktor said firmly. “Study well, cheat well and be careful not to sink down to that Magnus' rabble. You'll become a powerful warlock and everything will turn out as it's supposed to.”

Darius had always wanted to become a warlock and he would follow his dream at all costs. But now it seemed he wasn't sure about anything. For a moment, he remained staring at the ground wordlessly.

“Don't think so much! It would be a shame to waste your talent in magick for some low-class works. Forget about conscience and act in the way to achieve the best for yourself,” Viktor insisted in a persuasive tone.

“
Thanks, Viktor. I think this was exactly what I needed. You're a true friend,” Darius said, after what seemed like hours. He looked up at him once more and this time there was the look of a real warlock in his eyes. His lips curled into a sinister leer as malicious plans started whirling in his mind again.

“
That's the attitude, now you talk like a
real
warlock!” Viktor praised him, poking at his shoulder.

It appeared that Darius was no longer worried about what he had seen in the visions. “Let's go back, I'd like to play some Magiker,” he said carelessly.

“You go, I'll stay here for a bit longer to charge myself with the dark energy of night,” Viktor said in an unusually satisfied voice.

“
Fine then. I'll see you back in our lair,” Darius said and turning away, he slowly walked forward. That was the first time he was alone in the streets of Sinei at night. Everything seemed completely abandoned — until he returned to the street where the novices lived. There was a dim light in the windows of his house, accompanied with silent whispers as his comrades had already started playing a card game. The rest of the street was as quiet as a graveyard.

Just as he was about to push open the front door of his house to go in and join his friends, his eyes darted to the dark street. After sliding across several doors, his gaze landed on a specific house farther up the road. T
he house of the girl he had seen die in his vision — Fjalldís.

He decided to take one last look at her before he fully started his warlock career, and preferably in a way that she wouldn't know about it. He glanced around to make quite sure nobody was watching, then he quietly made his way underneath the window where he suspected she was sleeping. The walls of all these houses were built from huge stone blocks, reinforced with thick wooden ledges. He was certain he could do it.

Although he was quite confident about his climbing skill, he wasn't sure which window to aim for. There were two choices. He decided to climb to the window right above the entrance door and he put all his strength into this decision, because it wasn't easy to get there. But in the end he made it.

He climbed to the ledge under the window and taking a firm hold on the window-sill, he impatiently peeked inside. He had no idea what made him do such a crazy thing, but it paid off
— she was there, just opposite him, wrapped in a blanket with her head gently resting on the pillows. She was facing the window.  It seemed, upon looking, that she was having peaceful dreams. After all, her conscience was — unlike his — completely clear and innocent. Maybe far too innocent.

Then she suddenly opened her eyes.

Darius looked as if he had turned to stone. And that was exactly what his hands did — his grip slid in shock. He gave a terrified yelp as he lost balance and with bulged eyes he vanished from her sight.

A horrified face and the sound of a person falling outside the window was a very strange alarmclock, but Fjalldís had no time to ponder. She leapt to her feet at once, dashing to the window-sill. She scrambled onto a stool, flung the window open and slightly bent over to see the street. She saw exactly what she was afraid she would see.

Luckily enough, Belinda and Aurora didn't wake up. Fjalldís quickly left the room, descended the stairs and bolted out in front of their house, where she saw Darius getting up from the ground. He was groaning and swearing, letting out words that Fjalldís wished she hadn't heard. Although it was a completely embarrassing moment, he didn't have the strength to vanish before she made her way to him.

Fjalldís paused on the doorstep, giving him a rather frightened look. “My goodness! Darius, what did you do? Are you okay?” she said in a very concerned tone and rushed forward, her slippers clacking on the cobblestones. It seemed that this strange moment had lifted all quarrels and misunderstandings they had had between them.

“I'm fine,” Darius lied in a grim tone, just because he didn't want her to see what he had under his sleeve. It was unfortunate that it was his
left
elbow that got hurt. He stood upright with difficulty, touching his arm as he groaned again. His face was contorted with pain.