Royal Institute of Magic: Elizabeth's Legacy (15 page)

“Levitation. It’s
really easy, follow us in,” Natalie replied.

Travis and Natalie passed
through, oblivious to the pink spray that covered them. Ben followed,
Charlie close on his heels. The spray felt warm and made his skin
tingle. Ben frowned as soon as he made it to the room beyond. They
were not in a lift, but a small room with no ceiling, enabling them
to see up to the roof of the hotel.

“This is not a lift,”
Charlie said, too bemused to realise he was stating the obvious.

Natalie gave him a mysterious
smile. “Isn’t it? I’ll see you up there.”

And with that, she levitated off
the ground and started floating up and away. Ben and Charlie watched
in astonishment until Travis cleared his throat.

“The key is simply to will
yourself upwards. It’s a very simple but responsive spell, so
have a care not to will yourself up too fast.”

Travis started rising smoothly
and with such nonchalance he looked as though he wasn’t even
aware of it.

“That sounds simple
enough,” Ben said, rubbing his hands together.

The ceiling was a long way up,
which meant there was a long way to fall, but Ben put that out of his
mind. It was a spell, so hopefully he could control his movement both
up and down.

Ben looked up and imagined
lifting off.

The effect was instantaneous. He
left the ground – one feet, two feet, five feet. Ben whooped,
wiggling his legs and marvelling at the freedom from gravity.

With another thought, he stopped
his ascent and steadied himself at a comfortable six feet off the
ground.

“Come on, Charlie, it’s
easy!”

Charlie looked excited yet
nervous. He grabbed hold of a wooden beam that ran up the wall and
shut his eyes.

“I’m doing it! I’m
floating!” Charlie said.

Sure enough, when Ben squinted he
saw a sliver of light between Charlie’s shoes and the ground.
Charlie ascended slowly, a hand always on the beam, until he reached
Ben.

“Are you ready?” Ben
asked. Charlie had taken so long Ben was concerned the spell might
fade and they would fall; a concern he didn’t mention to
Charlie.

Charlie pried his fingers away
from the beam so he was floating free. His fear finally disappeared
and he smiled, flapping his limbs like someone making a snowflake.

Ben rose higher and they passed
two more wooden doors, labelled “Floor 1 Entrance” and
“Floor 1 Exit – DO NOT ENTER”. Travis and Natalie
had already ascended further, so Ben accelerated, his stomach
momentarily staying behind. Doors whizzed by and it was only when he
caught up with a floating Natalie and Travis that he came to a
reluctant stop by the eighth floor entrance.

“Excellent work,”
Travis said. “Please note only go through the door marked
'entrance’ when entering the lift. Otherwise you will
enter without being sprayed with the spell.”

They followed him through the
door and into a luxuriously appointed corridor. The vanilla carpet
was so plush Ben longed to sink his feet into it. Doors appeared left
and right at regular intervals, each numbered. Travis stopped at
number 816 and pulled out three large silver keys.

“Here we are,” Travis
said, handing a key each to Ben and Charlie. “You are staying
in room 816.” He turned to Natalie and gave her the remaining
key. “You are in 823, just down the hall. Breakfast is served
from 7:30 to 9am or you can have it delivered to your room if you
prefer?”

“Room service for us,”
Ben said, after conferring with Charlie. “At 8:30am would be
great.”

“Wonderful,” Travis
said, after Natalie agreed she would like the same. “In that
case I shall bid you good night.”

He bowed again and left the three
of them alone outside the room. Without Travis or any other
distraction, Ben was eager to relay his story to Charlie and Natalie.
He inserted the skeleton key and stepped into their hotel room.

A small candle-lit chandelier
hung from the ceiling, illuminating two generous-sized single beds
that Ben eyed longingly. There was a suite of comfortable, brown
chairs arranged neatly around a stone hearth where a fire crackled
merrily.

“I know it’s only
8pm, but if you’re too tired, I can go to my room and we can
meet up tomorrow after breakfast,” Natalie said, catching Ben’s
repeated looks at the bed.

“No, I’m fine. I want
to ask you some questions, but they will only make sense after I have
explained what happened during the meeting.”

He took his shoes and socks off,
digging his tired feet into the lush carpet and made straight for the
couch. Charlie and Natalie took the remaining chairs.

Ben took a deep breath and
recounted everything, downplaying only the pain in his head, which
still hurt to think about. By the time he finished, Charlie was
practically bouncing off his seat with excitement. Natalie, however,
looked worried.

“Remarkable!” Charlie
said, springing up and pacing the room. He stared at the carpet
intently, hands behind his back. “Greg and Jane knew Suktar
would come for them. They
knew
. The question is – why?”

Ben felt dizzy watching Charlie
pace. “I don’t know, but I wonder if it has anything to
do with the search my dad kept mentioning.”

Charlie nodded, his eyes
squinting. “That seems to be the key. Who would your parents be
searching for? And why?”

“I’m sure the
Institute will know,” Natalie said, giving Ben a reassuring
smile. “I know it’s really hard, but try not to worry
about it too much. The Institute are doing all they can to find your
parents.”

Ben didn’t believe that for
a second, but he pretended to look reassured. “When I protested
my parents’ innocence, the Council said there were elements
about my parents’ past I was unaware of. Do you know what they
were talking about?”

Natalie shook her head.

“Who might know?”
Charlie asked, stopping his pacing.

“Either Wren or someone in
the Department of Scholars,” Natalie replied. “They know
the Institute’s history inside out. I have a couple of friends
who could help should we need it.”

“Good.” Ben stifled a
yawn. “Now, what about these 'wood elves’ –
what are they?”

“They are the oldest type
of elf. While many have adapted to modern civilisation and diluted
their bloodline by bonding with humans, the wood elves are pure, one
hundred percent elf. They live in forests and many of them only speak
Elvish. Their magic is the strongest in the Unseen Kingdoms, but the
Institute hasn’t been able to use it.”

“Why not?”

“The wood elves won’t
let us near them,” Natalie said. “We have sent countless
diplomats out there, but the elves told us to stop coming. In our
eagerness for their magic, we persisted. Last year we sent a large
party, including some of our best diplomats. They never came back.”

“Where are these wood
elves?”

“I’m not sure,”
Natalie admitted. “With the destruction of forests, they are
becoming an endangered species.”

“Where could we find out?”
Ben asked casually. He saw Charlie’s pointed look from the
corner of his eye, but Natalie gave no visible reaction to the
question.

“The library,” she
said. “I was going to show you that floor anyway as you’ve
not seen it yet, so that will give us something to do down there.”

Ben turned to Charlie. “I
was expecting one of your rants when I mentioned that Robert is an
ancestor of Queen Elizabeth.”

“Natalie already told me,”
Charlie replied. “I did have a mini rant, but then I realised
if I can accept dragons pulling underground trains to magical
islands, I should be able to deal with Queen Elizabeth secretly
having a son.”

Another yawn escaped Ben’s
lips before he could stop it and Natalie stood up immediately.

“You look exhausted. I will
let you sleep.”

Another gigantic yawn prevented
Ben from protesting. Natalie wished them good night and left.

It was all Ben could do to
stumble over to his bed. “You have to get under the covers,”
Ben said, spreading himself and groaning with pleasure at the
softness.

“I’m not tired,”
Charlie replied. He was sitting on his bed, cross-legged. “You
wouldn’t be either if they hadn't cast that Memory Search
spell. It's only 8:30pm.”Charlie gave Ben a sudden calculating
look. “You want to track down these wood elves.”

Ben, still in his spread-eagle
position, turned his head to face Charlie.“I had a feeling
you’d worked that out. Thankfully Natalie seems clueless.”

“She doesn’t know you
for the raving nutcase you are,” Charlie said. “Didn’t
you hear what Natalie said? Hunting down those wood elves is
suicide.”

“It’s the obvious
thing to do,” Ben said, stifling another yawn.

Charlie looked at him as if he’d
sprouted wings. “Are you mad? If we found the right group of
wood elves who know your parents, it could be useful. However, set
against that already slim possibility is the much larger probability
of being killed.”

“Don’t be such a
pessimist,” Ben said. “I know it’s a long shot, but
the longer I’m here the more I feel that the answers to my
family’s disappearance lie outside the Institute, not within
it. We have two leads: the dark elves and the wood elves. Given that
the dark elves are trying to hunt my parents down, I think we have a
better shot with the wood elves, despite their unfriendly response to
the Institute.”

“Unfriendly? They killed
them.”

“We don’t know that,”
Ben said. “Natalie just said the diplomatic party never
returned.”

“Good point. Perhaps they
liked the forest so much they decided to stay.”

“I’m just saying we
can’t be sure what happened. I don’t believe my parents
would be friends with the wood elves if they really were evil. I also
want to know about the spell they cast on me.”

Charlie’s eyes became
distant at the mention of the spell. “Natalie won’t go
for it.”

“I know,” Ben said
with a sigh. “We will have to sneak off without her.”

Charlie’s face pained at
the thought, but he offered no argument.

“It would have been nice to
have her – for her knowledge I mean,” Charlie said, a
little hurriedly. “We will have no idea where we’re going
or what we’ll be up against.”

Ben saw Charlie’s
embarrassment but ignored it. “She would have been a real help.
But don’t worry – the two of us will work it out. I have
a plan.”

Ben woke to the sound of Charlie’s voice. The morning light
streamed through the windows and the clock said 8am. Ben felt
wonderfully refreshed. His recurring dream had not surfaced, enabling
him to sleep right through the night.

“Very clever,”
Charlie said.

Charlie was talking to himself
unless there was somebody else in the room.

“I see what you’re
doing,” Charlie continued. “But did you expect me to do
this? I don't think so!”

Ben turned his head. Charlie was
not in bed. He sat up and saw Charlie sitting on the couch. His hair
was wet and he had a fluffy white towel about his waist, supported by
his belly. He was leaning over the table staring intently at what
looked like a game of chess, with several noticeable differences: the
pieces weren’t familiar, the board was bigger and it had three
layers with ramps connecting each one.

Charlie appeared to be playing
against an invisible enemy, for as soon as Charlie had moved, one of
the opposing pieces (a figure shaped like a wizard) slid forward of
its own accord, taking one of Charlie’s pieces.

“What? You can do that?”
Charlie asked aghast. He grabbed a heavy manual next to him and
hurriedly flipped through the pages. A moment later he cursed.

“Morning,” Ben said.

Charlie was so engrossed in the
manual Ben had to repeat his greeting several times before Charlie
turned around.

“Ah, you’re up! You
were sleeping so deeply I thought maybe you’d gone into
unconsciousness.”

“What is that game you’re
playing?”

“It’s called
'Captains of Magic’. It’s a bit like chess, but way
cooler.” Charlie frowned down at the set. “I told my
opponent to play easy, but I’m still being annihilated.”

“What opponent?”

“It’s magically
operated,” Charlie said, with such nonchalance that for a
moment Ben suspected the real Charlie had been abducted. “I
have it on the difficulty level of a Lemming. Unfortunately, it seems
even a Lemming is too good for me.”

Ben ran a hand through his
scruffy hair in bemusement. “You’re taking all this magic
surprisingly easily now,” he said.

Charlie lifted the big manual he
had been reading. It was a hardback book with an expensive,
red-leather cover. On the front it said “Hotel Jigona Guide”
scrawled in elegant hand.

“I’ve spent about
three hours reading this between last night and this morning. I can
see why Natalie was so excited about this place. Did you know this
was the first four-star hotel to run purely on magic? I’m
beginning to see how they survive without science. Once the Unseens
have infused an object with magic, anyone can use it as long as you
know how.”

Charlie pointed to the chandelier
hanging from the ceiling; its flames were flickering dimly, the
morning light making it surplus to requirement.

“Check this out,”
Charlie said.

The flames on the chandelier
suddenly flared with such vigour they created a hanging fireball. Ben
shielded his eyes, his hand warming from the heat. A moment later the
candles dimmed and returned to normal.

“How did you do that?”
Ben asked a grinning Charlie.

“It’s simple, just
focus your attention on the chandelier and will it to the level of
light you desire.”

Ben caught on quickly and spent
the next five minutes amusing himself by turning the light on and
off. They had a battle of will, with Ben trying to turn it on and
Charlie attempting to turn it off. It was as if someone were going
crazy with the dimmer, but eventually, with Ben straining every
sinew, the chandelier burned brightly.