Knight of the Black Rose (50 page)

"Well, haven't you lot been busy?" Liam said smirking.

"Actually the real question is who's controlling the Black Knight?" Lucy said.

"The Shadow Order," Will told them. "But I haven't a clue what they're called...they just want the power that it can absorb,"

"You actually saw that?" Lucy asked him surprised.

"Among other things," Will said rubbing his eyes.

"Is he alright?" Travis asked.

"Just tired," Will answered.

"They said that you weren't seriously harmed by that thing," Reed said; and again they all looked at each other as though wondering how much to tell them.

"We thought that it was controlled by an...object...which we found...I think it's that what's draining me," Will told them. "But we're dealing with it,"

"So you've given it a name and you found an object. Well that puts us to shame," Travis said scowling.

"We found several stories...but no name for what it is," Reed told them. "Only Black Rose of Death,"

"It summons it and targets," Lucy told them, making them all look at her. "It’s what it’s made up of, as it's not a real rose but a magical one,"

"So, we've found the same thing, how come the teachers or the police haven't yet?" Travis asked.

"Perhaps they didn't know about the rose," Troy suggested. "They're probably still thinking that it's just part of what's been killed off around the same area,"

"Shouldn't they have still tested everything that was affected?" Lucy asked.

"She's got a point," Liam agreed. "Perhaps, they do know something like us, but just not enough to actually do anything about it,"

"Have you lot got a plan?" Travis asked.

"We don't do we?" Jess whispered nervously leaning into Lucy.

"At the moment no..." Lucy answered, and disappointment seemed to settle over them all as they waited for Methos and Eddie to return and tell them how it went moving the book, of course they were all hoping that it would get done without any problems.

Lucy finally got back to her room after cornering Will and getting him to properly agree to a few more tests in their own arena, she wanted to know how bad it was and just hoped that he would get better now that the book wasn't so close to him; but she was still going to contact Doctor Wray and tell him what's happened. Which is how she found herself sat at the computer again, but she was a little nervous considering the attacks today, meaning that he was going to be even busier, but he had found the time to contact her the last couple of times, so hopefully he'll be able to now.

To: - Doctor S.Wray

From: - Luna

Doctor Wray

I know you must be even more busy with the attacks today, but I was hoping that you could spare a couple of minutes to check something out for me. The student who was attacked, is still showing signs that he's being drained; he's tired and his magic isn't as strong as it should be.

I believe that it could still have some sort of hold over him, like with the black roses' that I told you about, perhaps you could look further into that with the others that were affected to see if they're showing the same signs. If they are then you'll have to up the dose that you're giving them, or even something else stronger.

I hope this helps.

Luna

Lucy sent the message hoping that he wouldn't think that she was an idiot, but she couldn't help but worry about this, especially considering there wasn't anything else that she could do to help. She sat there a couple of minutes wondering if he would even get back to her, not that she was expecting anything that night and was about to log off when the computer signalled that she had a new message.

From: - Doctor S.Wray

To: - Luna

Dear Luna

Thank you for keeping me updated with everything that's going on over there, it is helping us a great deal and you're right it is quite busy over here.

The cure that we thought was working for a while doesn't seem to be having the affect that we would like it to have. I've got them checking to see if there was any sightings anywhere of black roses' and of course in the wards where they're being looked after, I just hope that it isn't as you fear.

We're trying to come up with a stronger dose, I've sent you a link with everything that we're using if you would like to add any suggestions I won't be offended; I just hope that we'll be able to figure this out before it's too late.

Dr S.Wray

Lucy couldn't believe it; he had actually gotten back to her straight away, meaning that he would have been sat at the computer when she sent the message. Even more surprising was that he was asking her for help, she didn't have a clue about these sorts of thing's, but she would still take a look at what he had sent her; so she opened the attached file which was just a list of ingredients that was in the potion that they had created.

2parts Bay

1part Carnation

2parts Costmary

3parts Eucalyptus

2 ground Garlic clovers

1part Ginger

1part Lemon

Lucy knew the ingredients worked well with each other, even if they were just all human ingredients, but what she thought was that it was kind of simple, basic even; something like this should carry more of a punch.

So she decided to get out all of her books and go through everything that she thought would be helpful in something like this, as it wasn't as though he was expecting her to come up with anything there and then as this was going to take quite a bit of time.

She told herself that she could do this, she could come up with something to add to these potions, find out just how bad Will is and also revise for her up coming exams; all she had to do was focus.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The arena was brightly lit with everyone spaced out doing their own thing, as they all had wanted to practice before their exams started, after all of their teachers had given them a long list of things that could possibly be on the tests.

"Colrus!" Will shouted again, pointing his wand at the table with half a dozen objects scattered on it, but only a small greyish light sparked out of the end of his wand. "The more I try, the worse it gets,"

Lucy was stood on the other side of the table holding a book, watching what he was doing; she looked over at him as she put her book down still open on the page that she had been reading. "It's not getting worse, actually...you're changing their colour like you're supposed to, but it isn't lasting as long as it should be. Just focus on one, and one colour. You know how it works,"

"It's like learning all over again," Will said frustrated as he stepped closer to the table. "But it wasn't this hard before, it's like starting over with little or nothing that I had before,"

"It's just going to take time," Lucy told him, and then asked more hopeful. "Do you think any of those brews I made you helped?"

"I guess, I don't feel as tired...it's just my magic that I'm worried about," Will told her.

"It's just going to take time...start small and then work bigger again," Lucy told him. "As long as you can get through the exams, you'll be fine,"

"I guess," Will said unconvinced, but he still wasn't at the giving up point, but he did need a distraction. "So how are you coming with this new project?"

"Slow," Lucy admitted, but it had only been a couple of days since the doctor had asked for her help, and she had tried out a couple of brews already on Will.

Jess came over to join her scowling at the book Lucy had picked up again. "Are you going to help them?"

"Help who with what?" Lucy asked confused, as there were a few people who now wanted her help and she really didn't have time to do much else.

"Travis...he asked if you could come up with a summoning potion," Jess reminded her.

"Oh...that..." Lucy said remembering running into him and his friends earlier that day. "I don't see the point of summoning it if we have no idea how to defeat it. If they can come up with a way to defeat it, then yeah; I'll do the summoning potion,"

"You can actually do that?" Will asked wondering how she could possible do everything that she said that she can, let alone everything else that she's supposed to be doing, it made him wonder if she even slept at all.

"Of course...I guess...we have the ingredients for the potions...it'll be the spell to call it to us that'll be the hard part," Lucy told him.

"Lucy, do you even know how to do a summoning spell?" Troy asked her as he dodged a spell from Alex.

"I'm sure that we'll all be able to figure something out," Lucy told him.

"So no," Troy said sounding pleased about this.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lucy asked him annoyed.

"You're kind of scary as it is Lu, before you even started school, and now...well, you know more than us all put together," Alex told her.

"I read, it wouldn't hurt you to pick up a book," Lucy told him.

"We read as well," Eddie informed them. "Summoning spells are kind of hard to do, especially considering that there's going to be so many of us. Normally it would just be one person to focus on what they want, with all of us.... Well it'll either help, with there being more power, or it won't work because there's too many minds thinking different things. Some want it to come and some won't, no matter how much we might say we do. We won't because of what it can do to us,"

"We checked out a couple of books on it," Methos told them all as they were both stared at as though they had never seen them before.

"Don't you people read normal things?" Alex asked smirking.

"They are normal books about magic," Lucy answered.

"Funny," Alex said still smirking at her while she just glared back at him before she turned her attention back to Will to carry on with his training.

They carried on practicing for the rest of the night, until the signal came through telling them that the block would be closing and they had to make their way back to their dorms, not that any of them were complaining when it finally went off considering that they had already spent hours at it.

They had finally been given their timetables for their exams a week before they were supposed to start, and they were to last two whole weeks; which meant according to their timetable, that they had Science & Potion's first. It was supposed to last three and half hours, which was why they were all lined up outside of Jevidah's classroom waiting in silence to be allowed inside.

Jevidah finally stepped out of his class carrying a data pad and walked further out in the corridor so that everyone could see him. "Good morning, I hope that you've all been studying hard, and that it might somehow help you in this exam. This exam is different to all of your others, and you'll all be basically making something different; mainly so that you can't cheat from the person next to you. On your desks you will find your ingredients along with the instructions on how to make it, there will be several blank spots on your lists, this is where you should have been paying attention in class. At this point you'll be expected to fill in the gap to complete your potion or whatever it is that I've asked you to make.

"You'll have two hours to complete the potion or mixture, demonstrate that it works. Then you have a break within this block, as refreshments will be brought over, you have fifteens before you then sit down for the last part of the exam. You must describe what you've just made and the ingredients that you used, any and all information you can think of about everything you did, even if you think that something else could have been used to make it better. Now that's done, I want you all to enter one at time, go to your tables and then wait for me to tell you when to start."

They all filed into the room still in silence even though they wanted to talk especially after hearing what they would have to do this morning, Lucy and Will walked over to their desk taking in everything that was set out on all of the different desks, there was so much on every surface. They took their own seats, recognising about half the stuff on their own desk and the rest of it, not completely sure just by sight alone.

"Even though I've allowed you to stay in your normal seats, that doesn't mean that you're allowed to speak to the person next to you," Jevidah told them as he took up his position behind his desk. "This shall all be done in silence...and to begin, now,"