Knight of the Black Rose (26 page)

"So do you think that we get our own rooms in there as well?" Lucy asked.

"Hopefully," Will said.

"At least we'll have somewhere to go," Alex said.

"You know, if it is like that...then we'll have somewhere to learn anything we want in secret," Lucy told them.

"Again with work, is that all you think about?" Alex asked her.

Lucy stopped him. "I don't think you get it. We'll be able to learn whatever we want in secret. Whatever spell we want; which means we won't have to wait for class. The more spells you know, the more powerful you'll become."

"I'm sure you could have explained that without sounding as though you're hungry for power," Will teased as he carried on walking.

Lucy considered what he had said and what she had said, and he was kind of right, she hadn’t meant to sound as though that was all she was bothered it. "Fine...it did sound a little weird...but you get what I mean. We could learn spells that we might have to wait years to learn here because they think that they're too dangerous or too hard for us,"

"She does actually make a good point," Alex agreed as he walked along side of her.

"Seriously," Troy said. "You said all that on purpose,"

"What, it's what we all want," Lucy said innocently.

"That isn't the point," Troy told her.

"You know, you already know more magic than we do," Will pointed out.

"That's because my dad gets a little obsessed," Lucy reminded them.

"I wish mine would relax more about the whole magic thing," Alex said. "Mum hasn't written yet...I'm a little worried actually,"

"Why?" Troy asked confused.

"His dad is an idiot, he's always been a little off about all this magic stuff," Lucy told him as though it was obvious. "Now that it's just the two of them, it'll be hard on them; especially his mum,"

"Remind me to write when we get back," Troy told them.

"I was going to write home as well, so I'll remind you," Lucy told him.

"So...err...yeah," Will said wanting to change the subject. "Do you think that they'll be many Disa already in here?"

"We should have tried out the food hall," Alex told them.

"We can do that at lunch," Lucy suggested.

"There we go, we have a plan," Troy said.

Will pushed the heavy doors open and went in the main lobby and corridor that seemed to run around the edge of the building, to their right in the corner were lifts and on their left in the other corner, were stairs; just facing them were rooms with name plates on them, names of who the room belonged to.

"Well, that answers that," Will said as he checked out the other doors. "When we chose a room it's ours, probably for the whole seven years that we're here."

"We should check out upstairs," Troy suggested.

Lucy turned around to see if there were any signs, and she was in luck, there was a list of all the different types of rooms on each floor, along with who each room belonged to. "Here we go guys," They turned around to see what she had found. "There's empty rooms on every floor, which join with an arena...that I think has to be shared between a couple of rooms,"

"That's kind of cool," Alex said.

"We'll have to get a room that joins with several empty ones, then get the others to come over later; that way we don't have to share the arena with no one we don't want," Will suggested.

"I'll put my name down for another room," Lucy told them. "I'm sure that they won't mind, actually they probably wouldn't really want to share with you,"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Troy said offended and not understanding at all why they wouldn’t want to share with them.

Lucy smiled at him as she backed away towards the lift. "Us girls like time away from you boys,"

"You seem perfectly fine hanging out with us," Alex pointed as she ran over to the lift and pressed the button.

Lucy turned around to face them. "I've known you all forever, so it's different. It's normal for me to hang out with you lot. But I also like hanging out with my girl friends as well,"

"I guess that's alright, as long as you don't completely ignore us," Troy agreed as they walked over to her, she leant back against the wall; then fell through it, a small scream escaping her before the corridor fell silent.

"Oh, my god!" Alex said staring at where she had been, while Will ran over touching the wall where she had just fallen through but it was solid to his touch. "What the hell just happened?"

"I have no idea," Troy admitted.

"Where'd she go?" Will said pushing his shoulder against the wall, but nothing was happening. "Do you think there's a catch somewhere?"

Troy looked around nervously. "You know she'll probably jump out at us,"

"Probably..." Will said, but was still trying the wall. "But how did she do it?"

Lucy stumbled as she fell through the wall, but somehow managed to regain her balance before she completely fell over; she straighten as she looked around wondering what had happened and where she was. All she knew was that she was on another corridor, this one though seemed like one of the bridge corridors between buildings; and it had windows, so she went over to have a look. She looked out of the window, down at the grounds of the estate, which told her that she hadn't really gone that far, probably just to the next building considering that she could still see their food hall.

She slowly turned back around and walked over to the part of the wall that she had fallen through, and touched it lightly, but it was solid, which didn't make any sense to her if she had only just fallen through. Lucy knew that doors could be enchanted so that you could travel through them because she had used them herself, but she didn't know that you could just make one in the wall like this one. Unless it was an escape route; that would make sense she thought, because if she was using it to get away from something then it would close behind her so that they couldn't follow. She still thought it was weird, mainly because they hadn't been warned about them, unless they were magically activated, not that she knew how she had done it.

Lucy flatten her hands against the wall and closed her eyes, as she reached out with her power, she could feel them several floors below her; but that wasn't what she was looking for. She concentrated as hard as she could, searching for the energy of the door way, but she couldn't pick it up, which meant that it could no longer be used or it was in a kind of sleep mode. She pulled her hands away, not giving up completely because she was sure that there would be other doorways, it was just a matter of finding them, which with time she would be able to do.

She was just about to go back to the boys when she sensed someone approaching from the other side of the bridge, it took her a moment or two to figure out who they were considering how many people she had met this week, but there was no mistaking it once she had focused in on them. It was Professors Domnus and Validus. She looked around wondering what she should do, even though she knew that she wasn't really doing anything wrong, but it did look kind of odd that she was here alone and so early as well.

Lucy decided to head back to the boys, it would give them something to talk about, not that she was going to tell them that she might be able to find others, as she couldn't tell anyone that little secret. She walked along the corridor and looked up at the sign as she approached the main building, she was on the fifth floor; which then reminded her that there were several empty rooms up here. She would have to get them and then she could come back up and have a look at them with the boys.

Lucy looked over her shoulder because they were heading in her direction, she didn't know why but she didn't want to be caught wandering around on her own, so she quickened her pace coming out into the open area, the lift to her right and the stairs to her left, then rooms before her. She quickly looked around wondering where to go; she stepped closer to the rooms and noticed that they weren't taken, which meant that she could probably get inside one of them. She quickly rushed forward, grabbed the handle and practically fell inside, the lights coming on as she turned around to watch them walk by. She watched from the crack of the door as Validus and Domnus walked around the corner talking to each other.

"I really don't understand," Domnus said annoyed.

"I don't either, and I've been through the records twice," Validus told him. "But she isn't on the list,"

"Perhaps she’s going by another name, like some of the others?" Domnus suggested shaking his head. "But I haven't seen her..."

"Nor have I." Validus said disappointedly as he reached out to call for the lift. "I was so certain that she would come this year, but she isn't among them,"

Domnus didn't speak straight away. "I've been thinking...what if she's changed her appearance?"

"I've also considered that," Validus told him. "I'm also checking for it,"

The lift binged and then the doors opened, and they both went inside; leaving Lucy to stare after them and to wonder what they could have been talking about, and who this person was that they were looking for. She waited a couple of minutes before she stepped out back into the corridor and walked over to the lift, not because she thought they would come up but because she wouldn't be able to call for the lift until they got out. As she reached the lift, she saw the light above change to show that it was moving, making her smile; they were coming up to find her. She waited to see which floor they were going to check out first, which was the first one; which meant that they were probably going to check out every floor for her.

She smiled to herself as she ran over to the stairs, as she could have some fun with that, just as long as she could head them off on the next floor; she ran over to the stairs and then started down as quietly as she could, but she wasn't going to go all the way down, no she was going to let them search a little for her first. She thought it was good that they were so concerned about her, so at least she knew that if anything did happen they would come looking for her.

The lift binged again and they got out of the lift on the second floor, Will went out first quickly scanning the area but he couldn't see anyone.

"She must still be here somewhere," Troy said annoyed.

"I bet she's hiding," Alex said as he walked around the corner.

"Normally I would believe you, but seriously...how the hell, could she have known about that thing?" Will said as he walked along to have a quick look up the bridge corridors, but he still couldn't see anyone.

"Maybe she saw that it was a doorway!" Alex shouted around the corridor so that the others would hear him.

"That wasn't a doorway. It was a wall." Will shouted back; he didn't understand it himself, since he hadn't known about things like that, but his dad didn't tell him everything. "Do you see her?"

"They said that they came from the fifth floor, right?" Troy asked. "And they didn't see her. So that means, they're only two floors left to check,"

Alex walked back around the corner. "How'd you work that out?"

"If she was transported anywhere, she'd probably stay where she is, so we can find her," Troy told him.

"He's got a point," Will agreed as he came back over to join them. "Even if she does head back down to us, she might miss us; so it’s better that she stays where she is, and we’ll find her,"

"I'm still going with that she planned this," Alex said as he pressed the button for the lift.

"You mean to get back at you," Troy said smirking.

"It was funny," Alex told him again. "And...and it was a game,"

"It was kind of funny," Will agreed as they all got back into the lift, and Alex pressed three.

The lift slowly started to move, and then it stopped suddenly as they were only going up the one floor; the doors opened.

"Argh!" Lucy shouted as she jumped out at them.

The three of them screamed as they fell back against the wall, Lucy laughed at them as she got into the lift and pressed five.

"Oh...my goddess..." Lucy said still laughing at them. "You should...have seen...your faces..."

"That...that so wasn't fair!" Alex shouted holding his chest, as Troy and Will regained themselves.

"That was so funny," Lucy told them smiling brightly.

The three of them looked at each other, not at all convinced; but was planning that they would have to get her back for this.

"Come on guys," Lucy said grinning knowing that they wouldn’t really hold it against her, they did this sort of thing all the time.

"How'd you even do that?" Troy asked leaning against the wall.

Lucy smiled knowingly at him. "The lift...it lights up, telling you and every floor where it is,"

"Oh," Troy said nodding excepting her explanation.

"So...did you see them?" Lucy asked them.