Knight of the Black Rose (30 page)

"Err...yeah...I was there alone," Will told him. "I...err...I over slept, and told them to go on ahead of me,"

"That's good." Domnus said. "Well, not that you over slept of course, but that we haven't got any missing students considering the situation. Now, tell me about the doorway and how you found this one."

Will tried to remember how he had found it, but it was only really by chance. "I guess I was just walking down the stairs in the dorm,"

"Which floor were you on?" Domnus asked him.

"The first, I didn't even get off the floor properly," Will told him.

"How did it appear to you?" Domnus asked him as he scribbled down notes.

"I guess...it was kind of like...err...I thought it kind of moved...that's probably not right...err...it's normally like a shimmer? Isn't that what it's called?" Will asked him, wondering if he had the wording right.

"So beside from the shimmering, did anything seem unusual about the doorway?" Domnus asked him. "Odd colouring, smells, wind, gravity?"

"Gravity?" Will said, suddenly remembering how he had fell through it. "Well...I did want to see where it led to of course, but with being so late I didn't really want to risk getting lost. But I still reached out to it...I don't know why...but I don't think it was anything making me do it, just myself. But...it actually kind of felt as though I was pulled through."

Domnus looked up at him as though studying him, before he carried on with his notes. "So, how did that feel? Was it your whole body? Part of your body?"

"My hand," Will answered.

Domnus shook his head as though he wasn't at all pleased with what he was hearing. "Did you end up straight on that road, or did you go somewhere else first, before you existed the doorway?"

"No, I just came straight through," Will told him, as he knew what he was talking about because he had used normal doorways and they appeared to be like your walking to your destination, but this, he just came straight through.

"How long were you in the In-between?" Domnus asked him.

"It wasn't like a normal doorway; it was like just walking straight through...well because I was pulled...it was more like stumbling...but it was straight away," Will told him.

Domnus nodded. "How long were you on the road before you noticed the man?"

Will didn't really know how long. "Well...err...I was kind of worried considering that I had no idea where I was. That wasn't the road that I normally travel on. Anyway, I turned around trying to spot anything...and there it was...just standing there out in the field. It just looked like this black figure, but it was still kind of big so it had to be a guy right?"

"So it was black also?" Domnus asked him.

"Yes...that's all I could see," Will told him.

"Did you feel any sort of pull from it, as though you wanted to get closer to it?" Domnus asked him, looking even more serious.

Will shook his head. "No...actually I wanted to get away from it,"

"That is strange," Domnus said thoughtfully.

"It said in the paper that animals had been killed by this thing?" Will asked him. "If I could feel the need to get away from it at that distance, how did it get close enough to kill them?"

"That's a very good question," Domnus agreed.

"Sir...do you know what it is? Would it have killed me like those plants and animals if I'd got too close?" Will asked him, already knowing the answer to his question, but he still had to ask them.

"We're still not sure what it is yet," Domnus told him honestly. "And, we haven't had any deaths yet of people of any race, but I wouldn't want to risk it,"

There was a quick knock at the door before it opened and Validus came in; he stopped suddenly looking at Will before he closed the door and came over sitting down in the other empty chair beside of him.

"There's a team looking over the field, taking samples of the trees, and going over the data of our doorway systems," Validus told him.

"It pulled him through," Domnus told him. "The doorways are becoming aggressive. Or whatever this being is, felt him and pulled him through,"

"It could be a combination of the two," Validus suggested.

"We'll have to talk about what to do with that," Domnus said and then looked back at Will. "Is there anything else you can think of that you haven't already mentioned?"

Will thought about it, but he couldn't really think of anything, he had told him everything that had happened.

"Do you know of anyone else that might have been through any of the doorways here?" Domnus asked him.

Will so hadn't wanted him to ask that question, but now that he had, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Domnus seemed alright, and he felt as though he could trust him, but considering what Lucy had told them about these two up to something, looking for someone in secret.

Validus looked at him hesitating and then back at Domnus. "I think that answers your question,"

"Who was it, and when, Will?" Domnus asked him. "This isn't the time to be keeping things to yourself; you saw just how dangerous that thing can be,"

Will took a deep breath, deciding he might as well tell them. "In our arena building,"

"You mean Miss Shepherd the other day?" Domnus asked sounding concerned by this; and Will nodded. "Was she alright? Did she see anything strange? How far did she go?"

"We met up with her on the third floor, and she was fine," Will told him, not wanting to tell them that the strange thing she had seen and heard was them up to something.

"Perhaps we should talk to her as well?" Validus suggested.

"She didn't see anything; she would have told us...she tells us everything," Will told them quickly, not wanting to get her into trouble over this, or back her into a corner because he couldn't keep his mouth shut.

Domnus didn't appear to be convinced. "We'll still talk to her, just in case she did see something, but didn't realise at the time,"

Will nodded slowly, hoping that he'll get a chance to see her before they did so, he could give her a heads-up on this, and apologise.

Chapter Fifteen

Will had managed to upset all of his best friends because he hadn't told them why he had missed most of the lessons the other day, and without getting into trouble from anyone, especially Jevidah who at the time seemed furious, ready to actually murder him for not showing up to class. And then there was also Lucy, she had been called out of class, causing quite a stir, and she too hadn't been able to tell anyone why.

Well they had been allowed to a point, or rather, they had been given a cover story to use if anyone started to ask too many questions. Lucy hadn't really liked this idea, even though it did seem believable that they had been called out because of their father's work; but the problem was with that, was that her brother and sister hadn't been called out of class that was if anyone actually bothered to ask them.

Even though it was over a week later since it had all happened, there was still that atmosphere, and Jevidah had been giving them twice as much work recently as though to make up for that day; they also knew that it was annoying him that they were somehow managing to do everything that he gave them.

Will though wasn't going to let anything get him down today, because they had been informed that their second free-period was now over on Thursdays, and their Flying lessons would begin. He wasn't the only one who was looking forward to this; everyone in the class was looking forward to it.

They all walked across the grounds, around the outside of the buildings, to get to the far back flying fields; they just wished that they hadn't been right across the grounds as they were worried that they were losing time on their first lesson.

"Did you check out the timetable?" Lucy asked over her shoulder, as she was walking in front of them with Jess at her side.

"What're talking about?" Troy asked confused. "We already know where we're going,"

"I mean who we're having the lesson with," Lucy told him, though this statement appeared to have gotten the attention of everyone in the class as they closed in around them to listen.

"It so better not be them," Troy said annoyed.

"Them?" Jess asked confused.

"Does everyone have to learn how to fly?" Libby asked them nervously again.

"Why the hell do we have to do everything with Disa?" Alex asked.

"Flying is great, when you get the hang of it," Selena told her.

"I haven't done it for ages..." Troy admitted.

"We only do it when we go to Lucy's place," Alex added.

"As long as none of us fall off, we'll be fine," Methos said confidently as he walked past them. "But we better hurry, or we'll never hear the end of it,"

They all mumbled in agreement as they carried on; yes they were still kind of looking forward to it, but were worried also if anything happened what the Disa lot would say to them, as they probably would never be allowed to live it down.

A couple of minutes later, they could see the giant stone wall that surrounded the field; until now they hadn't been allowed inside, but now they were finally going to get inside. Will pointed out the metal gate set into the wall that was already open, so they all headed over to it, getting excited again. As they stepped off the path walking through the gate, and onto the grass, Will could already hear voices on the other side of the wall, which told him that they were late. They came out of the little tunnel in a large green field, this side bare except for the Disa lot and their teacher; the other side looked as though it was littered with trees and rocks, which they would probably have to use like an obstacle course.

"Glad you could finally make it," Reagan shot at them.

"Welcome everyone, I'm so pleased to finally meet you all; I'm Norvin Veniamin," he told them cheerfully. "Some of you may have heard of me, as I’ve played for several national teams, which is why I was asked to come back to my old school to teach the next generation of flyers. I know you're all pretty excited and nervous about today, and you don't have to be; everyone here is going to be treated the same. As you can see behind me, there are two rows of brooms; left for Cadell and right for Disa."

Everyone made their way over the brooms, making sure that they were stood next to someone that they knew, and tried to pretend that they weren't facing someone that they didn't like.

"So what estate were you in?" Reagan asked as he directed his friends either side of him.

"I don't believe that has anything to do with this," Norvin told him as he walked up the middle making sure that everyone could see and hear him. "Once you become a teacher, everyone is treated equally. Now then, everyone's broom is the same; and the distance between them all is, so that you don't hurt each other. Today we'll be starting with the basics; everyone will be treated as though this is their first time ever near a broom,"

"That's not fair," Reagan complained.

"Actually it is," Norvin told him. "Brooms are magical tools, similar to your wands; they are made from woods that are connected to the magical energy. A lot of work goes into each and every one of them, so much so that you can feel safe with the knowledge that only a top level agent has the skills to interfere with the energy in a broom. This means, that none of you can sabotage any of these brooms, and if you do by some miracle manage it, I'll be very impressed. Now, like all magic in depends on your own well being to control the flow between you and the object that you wish to use. I know a lot of you are nervous about this, but the more you get yourself worked up, the harder this will be. You don't have to worry, because there won't be much flying, if any this lesson. You can work up to that at you own pace after you have mastered the basics."

"Oh...thank god for that," Libby whispered relieved behind him.

"Okay, calling for your broom sounds simple enough, but it won't come to you if you really don't want it to or if you're giving off offensive vibes," Norvin told them. "This is kind of why they like to put Cadell and Disa together, it's more like a test to see how well you can deal with each other. As none of you really know each other, only the reputation that your estates are supposed to have, which truthfully, some of the members do actually get along. So now that we've got that out of the way, why don't we try picking up our brooms," A couple of the students bent down to pick them up. "No, that isn't how we do it here. We actually call for them, create a temporary bound between you and the broom. Remember to be calm and relaxed. Then say 'up'; for some of you if may take a couple of times,"

"Just telling me to relax isn't going to help," Libby whispered next to Lucy.

"It's simple," Lucy told her as she held out her right hand. "Up!" The broom shoot up to her hand straight away.

Jess stepped forward so that she could be seen. "See, if she can do it, you can as well; she's afraid of heights."