Drakonika (Book 1) (25 page)

“
Magnus,” said the mage's voice, bringing Magnus to a halt. “Be careful with that book. You don't know what you carry around with you,” Valezar said in a serious tone as he slowly approached him. He leaned closer to him, his long white beard touching the ground. His green eyes surveyed every citizen passing by to make sure that nobody was watching them, but at this time of day there weren't many townspeople on the main square. When Valezar made sure it was safe to talk, he continued, “Its energy is the same that I felt from your lost amulet. I didn't want to say this in front of Maren, but know this — evil surrounds you.” Upon these words, he stood up straight, towering above Magnus once more.

There was a moment of silence in which Magnus kept standing still, not sure what to say. These were certainly not the words of farewell he expected to hear. When he imagined the various forms of evil that could threaten him, he felt his stomach lurch. From all kinds of monsters and demons, his thoughts came to devilish Xanthar, armed from head to toe with his fellow Magi policemen right behind him, all of them taking Magnus to the darkest dungeon in a faraway prison. And that was just the start!

“Don't read from the book,” Valezar said gravely. Without any further explanations he turned away and made his way back into the windowless house.

Magnus gaped after him wordlessly. What did he mean? He tried to read Valezar's mind, but he got nothing but a searing stitch that stung him in his temples. He groaned, his hands rubbing his head as if it could make the pain go away. It seemed that mages had an ability to block their own thoughts from being read by others. That was exactly what he disliked about them
— too many secrets!

Magnus returned to the place where all novices had been waiting for Aedan, even Fjalldís and Darius, although each was standing on the opposite side of the crowd. Everyone seemed to behave now, as they didn't want to be taken to the police station like those two. When Magnus found Maren, she was searching for the amulet fiercely, looking into each fissure on the pavement and checking under each rock that lay on it. Magnus deduced she wouldn't be talkative at this time — and he was right.

The journey back wasn't very gleeful. After what happened at the police station, Darius didn't even try to make any pranks. The Black Squad's favourite haggard coachman, always tuned into their mood, was now riding the cart slowly and boringly. Moreover, what kind of fun could they possibly have when the novices in Aedan's cart behaved just the same? Maren didn't talk at all and Magnus knew she was trying to stop any thoughts from getting onto her mind. He, on the contrary, was thinking frantically how to settle things down again. And you certainly wouldn't want to see Aedan's face when he learned about what happened after he had gone shopping. No wonder no one dared to speak a word.

When they arrived back in Sinei, it was time for lunch. There was no meal ready since no one had cooked anything, but they could eat fresh bread, vegetables and pastries that Aedan had bought in Ragna. However, their teacher wasn't in the mood for having lunch with them after all that had happened. He took the next few hours off and he planned meeting the novices again in the late afternoon. But if they thought they would get by this without any punishment, they were mistaken. Aedan had prepared an unpleasant surprise for them.

Although the novices were left alone, there was unusual silence in the dining room. None of them felt like talking and even though they all knew this was mainly Darius' fault, no one dared to say a word. They surely didn't want to endure what Magnus had gone through that morning.

Even the Black Squad was silent, although they couldn't stop playing cards, even at a time like this. Serena had found a seat next to them, but she didn't join in because they played too often for her taste.

It looked like Magnus felt utterly desperate and anyone who thought that was absolutely right. He hadn't slept for several days, he was still walking in the darkness of the unknown and now he had even lost his amulet. He gave a heavy sigh, tearing little bits off his bread and dropping them back onto his plate.

Maren couldn't stand it any more. Although she was angry with him before, now she looked at him with a caring gaze.

“
Magnus, try not to think about it now and eat something. You'll need it,” she said gently.

“
I don't have any appetite for these dry crackers,” said Magnus hopelessly. “I have lost the one thing that I knew belonged to me and Fjalldís got into trouble because of me. I haven't even had the chance to tell her thank you! Actually, I owe her quite a few thanks already.”

“
Don't be so harsh on yourself. It was her own choice –”

Everyone around them was forced to wince in fear
— Magnus slammed his fist on the table so hard it was a miracle he didn't break it in two. All novices looked up to see what was going on. Even the Black Squad pulled their eyes off their beloved cards.

“
I am going to thank her, right now!” Magnus said resolutely, standing up so fiercely that his chair fell on the floor with a deafening racket.

Maren's eyes popped open in shock.

“Fjalldís –” Magnus started stoutly, but his speech died at once. He eyed the whole dining room, surveyed every seat and every corner, but Fjalldís was nowhere to be seen. His grim gaze landed on her two house mates, who were sinking so deep in their seats, they almost slipped under the table. “Where is she?” he asked shortly.

The girls begun poking each other to make the other one talk. In the end, it was Belinda who spoke first
— a girl whose rich brown hair reached her waist.

“
I... I think she went to take a walk,” she stuttered and then she shot her friend a frightened look.

The girl sitting next to her was called Aurora. She had dark hair cut right above her shoulders. With her lovely gleaming eyes, she cast Magnus a terrified glance.

“I think she... mentioned... she would... go to the lake,” she stammered fearfully.

Despite Magnus' short height, he leaned toward them over the table as much as he could.

“You
think
or you
know
?” he said in a scary tone.

Aurora and Belinda moved their chairs away from the table.

“Well... I know,” Aurora let out finally, happy that it seemed to be an answer good enough for Magnus to leave them alone. After that, he left the table in haste, swung the door open and bolted out. Maren followed straight away.

The silence in the dining room turned into a clamour. Even Darius looked highly alarmed now.

“To the lake?!” he said abruptly. It seemed Aurora's words put him into motion as well, because he immediately left the table and dashed out into the courtyard. His friends caught up with him in seconds.

“
What's wrong?” Henry said in a confused tone.

“
We have to find her,” Darius said resolutely.

“
What? Are you crazy? Why should we care about her?” Viktor retorted, but that didn't seem to change the decision of their leader.

“
Will you finally put two and two together? That lake is dangerous!” Darius said swiftly. Without hesitation he rushed forward, but when he realised that nobody was following him, he turned back. Viktor's unyielding voice answered his previous question.

“
I can put two and two together. The result is that you want to play saviour to that scrubby goblin, but you'll have to do it alone. Don't count on us. She's got nothing to do with us,” he snarled.

“
So now you think she's a goblin? What's the matter with you? I thought we always band together!” breathed Darius disbelievingly. But the only answer to that was the screeching of ravens, echoing from above.

Darius returned Viktor's scowl, but his next words were addressed to all of them.

“All right, be a band of cowards then.
Without me
,” he said with finality in his voice. Then he turned and muttering “traitors” under his nose, he strode to the courtyard exit. But just when he thought he had lost his friends for good, Rodrick strolled past him in such a hurry he almost ran into him.

“
I'm going with you,” he said, panting. His green eyes reflected deep loyalty. That brought a faint smile back to Darius' face.

“
Let's go then,” he said, sounding a little brighter. As soon as he said that, two other boys caught up with them — Giselbert and Henry. It was good to know that his friends were still loyal to him, but Viktor stayed behind and that seemed to disappoint him the most. Serena stayed too as she clearly agreed with everything that Viktor had said.

“
What a fool,” Viktor said scornfully, watching the rest of his gang disappear into the distance. “Let's eat our lunch,” he added airily and together with Serena he left back to the dining room.

As soon as Darius and his friends came into the woods, Henry stopped.

“Hey, what's in that lake?” he said, sounding rather concerned.

“
I don't know,” Darius replied quietly as he walked.

“
But you saw something in there, didn't you?” Henry continued.

Darius stopped, rounding on him. He opened his mouth to say something, but it took him a while to spit it out.

“I saw... I saw a face, all right?” he said curtly, but the tone of his voice disclosed that he thought it could be something dangerous.

His friends trembled from head to toe, without an exception.

“S-so there was a person? In the water?” Rodrick stuttered, looking horrified.

“
Dead?” gasped Giselbert with a frightened look.

“
I hope so. Because if not, he'll eat us all for snack-bars,” Darius retorted impatiently as he rolled his eyes. “Now move it. We have to find her before the jester-hero does.” With these words he turned again and strode farther into the forest. The others followed him, but they kept asking curious questions.

“
Why? Does it really matter if he gets there first?” Rodrick said, jumping over the stones encrusted with green moss.

Darius turned around so suddenly that Rodrick almost bumped into him again.

“It
does
matter,” he growled, slapping a gnat on his face.

When they saw their leader's seriousness and firm expression, they decided to follow him without talking. At least for now.

*

Magnus dashed through the lanes of Sinei towards the entrance gate, meaning to run directly into the forest. But before he could even pass the street with their houses, Maren jumped in his way.

“Magnus, why are you doing this?” she said, looking both angry and terrified.

“
Doing what?” Magnus said shortly.

“
Acting weird.”

Magnus gave a short snicker.

“In case you haven't noticed — I
am
weird,” he said stoutly as he attempted to stroll by her, but she blocked his way again.

“
Magnus, what's wrong with you? I don't recognise you!”

“
You know what? I don't recognise myself either. But wait a minute, that's probably because I don't even know who I am!” Magnus said tartly.

Maren took a deep breath.

“Just calm down, okay? We don't know for sure where she is right now. And even if we did, I think she wants to be alone. When she comes back you can thank her a hundred times. Let's wait,” she said swiftly, sounding slightly affronted. There was a scent of jealousy in the air. Then she cast him a caring gaze, blushing slightly as she suggested, “We can go study at your house if you wish...”

There was a moment's silence, then Magnus smiled and his stern expression changed back into the kind and friendly face that Maren knew.

“All right. Let's go study at my house,” he said, suddenly sounding calm.

That was the first time Maren had entered Magnus' house, although it wasn't much different from hers. There were stone walls supported with wooden battens, a table on the left with two benches around it and the wooden floor carpeted in dark blue. But most importantly, in the right corner, there was a fireplace and heaps of chopped wood right next to it
— probably Magnus' work.

They dropped their bags under the table, took a seat next to each other by the wall and pulled out their books
— one about watermen and one about dragons.

“
Do you think mythical beings could actually exist?” Maren said curiously. It was clear she considered this topic utterly exciting.

“
I don't see a reason why not,” Magnus said, but that wasn't what Maren wanted to hear.

“
Yeah, but... have you ever seen a waterman? Or a dragon?” she said gleefully, almost bursting into laughter as though it was completely absurd.

“
Maren, I don't know. I don't remember anything from before I came to Ragna. But if there are monsters roaming Ragnan streets at night, I don't see a reason why watermen or dragons couldn't exist as well. Why would anyone make it up?” Magnus said, hoping he would not hear any more questions. Then he opened his book to the front page and Maren opened hers.