Royal Institute of Magic: Elizabeth's Legacy (32 page)

Michael
bowed. That left the helmet, the boots and the breastplate. Each
served a particular purpose. He wondered who was taking what.

Michael
assumed the meeting was over, but Elizabeth was looking at him again,
gauging him.

“As
guardian of the most powerful element of my Armour, the task of
re-assembling it when the time comes will fall on the Greenwoods.”

Michael
met her stare with a note of pride. Queen Elizabeth had seen him last
not because he was least important; quite the opposite.

“It
shall be done, Your Majesty,” Michael said.

There was a flash of white light
and the memory faded. Ben felt himself being sucked back into his
body.

“Ben!”

Charlie was shaking him. He and
Natalie were bent over, staring with anxious faces. Ben was lying on
the ground, his back wet with mud.

“Are you okay?”
Natalie asked as Ben got to his feet.

Ben was too stunned to speak.
Bits of the memory kept replaying in his head. Michael Greenwood.
Queen Elizabeth I. Her Armour. Her son. Suddenly everything made
sense. His parents were searching for the rest of Elizabeth’s
Armour. The realisation made him want to scream with joy and sigh
with relief all at once.

“What happened?”
Charlie asked urgently, holding Ben’s shoulders.

It took Ben a moment to find his
voice. In that brief interlude, something caught his eye behind
Charlie and Natalie.

Movement in the trees, footsteps,
voices.

Charlie and Natalie began to turn
round, but Ben grabbed them.

“Behind the boulder!”
he said, and they scrambled to safety. Ben risked a peek, his heart
hammering.

Wren and Alex appeared through
the trees. Alex looked a mess. His face was bloody, his hooded cloak
torn and his jeans scorched and ripped. Yet he somehow retained a
relaxed stance. Wren, by contrast, seemed no worse than when she had
faced off with Elessar. If anything it looked like she had managed to
tidy herself up. Her hair was now in a long ponytail and what Ben
could see of her dress in the remaining light looked cleaner than
before. The only sign of battle was a gash on the side of her face.

Ben, Charlie and Natalie rose in
relief.

“There you are! We need to
get off this island,” Wren said. “Reinforcements will
arrive soon. Are you all okay?”

Charlie and Natalie nodded.

“My parents were up here. I
saw them,” Ben said.

Ben thought they might not
believe him, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. The
weariness in Alex and Wren vanished. Alex hobbled around the small
hilltop like a man possessed, touching boulders, sniffing the grass.
Wren didn’t move, but Ben got the impression she was somehow
searching just as thoroughly.

“Here!” Alex said. He
was leaning down by the smallest boulder. “Tracks. Thirty
minutes old.”

Wren came over swiftly. “They’ll
be gone by now,” she said with disappointment.

Alex and Wren stared for some
time in the direction of the tracks.

“Did they leave anything
here?” Alex asked, turning towards Ben.

Ben suddenly felt strangely
reluctant, but he showed them the spell pouch. Alex took it eagerly
and peered inside. “It’s empty.”

“There was a pellet inside,
but it activated as soon as I touched it.”

Both Alex and Wren were looking
at him very closely. “Did anything happen?”

Ben felt all eyes on him now,
including Charlie’s and Natalie’s. He thought quickly,
knowing any hesitation would be treated with suspicion. “It
threw me backwards and I blacked out.”

“Is that all?” Wren
asked. God, she had a penetrating stare! Ben wondered if those grey
eyes could magically detect a lie.

“Yes, that’s all,”
Ben said, forcing a look of innocence and meeting Wren’s eyes
without a flinch.

Alex cursed, scrunching the spell
pouch into his pocket. Wren continued to stare at Ben a moment
longer. When she finally looked away, Ben had to resist the urge to
sag his shoulders with relief.

“We should get going,”
Wren said.

Ben could feel Charlie and
Natalie looking at him as they set off down the hill through the
trees. He desperately wanted to tell them about Michael Greenwood’s
memory, but it would have to wait.

“We owe you an explanation,” Wren said.

Ben wondered when they were going
to get around to that. He had so many questions he barely knew where
to start.

“Everything that has
happened here revolves around your parents. We were trying to find
them.”

“It’s a long story,”
Alex continued, “but we think Greg and Jane might be the only
people able to stop Suktar.”

Ben felt both their eyes on him
again. It took some effort to remain cool. Did they know about
Elizabeth’s Armour? Did they suspect he knew?

Wren continued. “You may
remember I went to Riardor to help repel a dragon raid, which is why
we didn’t see each other the morning after your stay at Hotel
Jigona. Normally the dragons get discouraged after a day, but this
particular raid was unusually persistent. It was only when Alex
sought me out and told me about Colin and Draven’s deal with
Elessar that I realised what was happening. The dragon raid was being
created by the dark elves in an attempt to keep me away from the
Institute. I returned at once, but you had already left.”

“To Borgen to find the wood
elves,” Ben said.

Alex took over. “Shortly
after, Wren and I received an unusual summons to the Commander's
office.”

“The Commander?”

Ben must have raised his voice
because everyone turned to him in surprise.

“What did he want?”
Ben asked, with forced composure.

Alex gave him an odd look before
continuing. “The Commander was in one of those rare moods when
he acts like a leader. He told us about your execution and ordered
Wren and I to drop whatever we were doing to rescue you. Somehow he
had detailed maps of the Floating Prison and knew exactly how to get
in and out.”

Ben was careful to mask his
confusion. How much did the Commander know about Elizabeth's Armour?
Alex continued and Ben reluctantly pushed thoughts of the Commander
aside.

“Wren and I thought we
could save you and make contact with your parents at the same time.
All our attempts to find your parents had failed – they were
sure to surface to rescue you.”

“But they didn’t,”
Ben said.

Wren and Alex exchanged
uncomfortable looks.

“We made an error of
judgement,” Wren said.

“What she means is –
we messed up. They must have seen Wren and myself on the hill and
assumed we were there to rescue you. Our plan was to trick your
parents like we tricked you. We wanted to make it look like I had
changed sides and betrayed Wren. Unfortunately, they didn’t buy
it.”

Ben rubbed his forehead. “If
you wanted my parents to show up, why not just wait out of sight?
That way my parents would have had to rescue us.”

“Now that’s a good
idea,” Alex said with a smile, staring pointedly at Wren.

Wren shook her head. “That
was Alex’s original plan, but I felt that it was too risky,
especially when we learned Ictid would be present.”

“Ictid?”

“King Suktar’s son,
the Prince of Erellia. He is a dark elf of incredible power. Even
Greg and Jane would have had trouble pulling off a rescue attempt
with him there. I wanted to be on hand if anything went wrong.
Unfortunately, your parents thought we were there to rescue you.”

“I waited until the very
last moment,” Alex said. “I was sure if we didn’t
do anything, your parents would intervene.”

Ben felt his stomach sink a
little. “But they didn’t.”

“I have no doubt if I
hadn’t stopped Elessar, your dad would have.”

“Then why did you
intervene?”

Alex turned to Wren who answered.
“I wouldn’t take the risk. I told Alex to act if there
was no sign of your parents.”

Ben recalled the moment Elessar
had tried to execute Natalie. Could his parents really have
intervened if Alex hadn’t? It seemed impossible. He recalled
Elessar’s sword inches from Natalie’s neck. How could
they have possibly stopped that?

“Why didn’t you tell
us what you had planned?” Ben asked, frowning at Alex. “My
heart stopped when I saw you with Elessar.”

“I’m sorry about
that,” Alex replied, having the good grace to appear
momentarily sombre. “Your reactions were necessary to fool both
Elessar and your parents.”

It was starting to make some sort
of sense, but Charlie clearly wasn’t finished.“When did
they capture Wren? From what you told us, she returned to the
Institute just after we left for Borgen.”

“Ah, finally we come to the
part of my brilliant plan Wren didn’t object to,” Alex
said, struggling to raise a triumphant bloody hand. “I met with
Elessar and convinced him I was done with the Institute and willing
to trade Wren and Ben for valuables.” Alex took out a small
bulging pouch and wiggled it. It glowed purple and radiated an energy
that made Ben wonder at its contents.

“Elessar fell for that?
Because he doesn’t strike me as the type easily duped.”

“Elessar and I were already
well acquainted; I have been working for him these past six months.
The dark elves are always trying to infiltrate and destroy the
Institute from within. In the hope I might learn more about their
search for Greg and Jane, I convinced them I was ready to switch
sides. I had to cough up a few costly Institute plans, but it earned
me Elessar’s trust.”

“Alex already had a
reputation for being a bit of a loose cannon, so it didn’t take
a great leap of faith for Elessar to make an alliance,” Wren
said.

“What she means to say is I
don’t confine myself to the needless red tape imposed by the
Institute. So I struck a deal with Elessar and we set a trap for
Wren.”

“Which I allowed myself to
walk into,” Wren continued. “It was the only way I could
get close to the action.”

“But how did you know they
wouldn’t kill you after capturing you?” Ben asked.

“She didn’t,”
Alex said, “but I managed to persuade Elessar it would be
better to add Wren to the bait and dispose of her after.”

“So the whole thing was to
get Ben’s parents,” Charlie said softly.

Alex nodded. “Indeed.
Unfortunately, they called our bluff. We must think of another way to
get hold of them.”

Ben kept a calm face, but inside
his heart was racing. Charlie, lacking Ben’s knowledge of his
new memory, was still frowning.

“If you think Ben’s
parents are so important to stopping Suktar, why don’t they
come back?”

“That’s a very good
question, Charlie,” Wren said. “Initially we thought it
was due to the Institute’s ridiculous declaration of treason,
but I have a feeling they will not return even if it’s
removed.”

Ben felt Wren’s stare but
said nothing. He wondered again if she knew anything about
Elizabeth’s Armour.

He became vaguely aware they
weren’t heading back the way they had come. Of course, the
location of the exit gateway was always different to the entrance. At
the base of the hill they were joined by the Spellswords who had
survived the battle. Together they formed a loose circle, with Ben,
Charlie and Natalie in the middle. Wren and Alex moved a little
distance apart to talk quietly between themselves.

Ben paid little attention to the
darkness and unwelcome landscape as they walked. He kept replaying
his ancestor’s memory, still trying to take everything in.
Michael James Greenwood was his ancestor. Was that the same Michael
James marble statue at the Institute? It must be. For some reason his
surname had been omitted from history. Ben felt a shiver up his spine
knowing he was related to the original Director of Spellswords, a
legend within the Institute and one of Queen Elizabeth’s
right-hand men. What an unbelievable secret for his parents to
conceal. What other secrets did they have? One thing was perfectly
clear: going back home was not going to help find his parents. He
needed access to the Unseen Kingdoms. To get that, he needed to join
the Institute, but that was a problem. The Institute was strictly
invitation only. Neither Wren nor Alex had made any such offer. What
was going to happen when they got back to Taecia? Were they going to
send him home for good? The thought caused him endless worry and he
worked frantically on a solution, knowing with each passing minute he
was running out of time.

He was so deep in thought he
barely noticed when they stepped through the exit gateway. It was
only when he heard the roar of dragons that he realised they were
back at the Dragonway in Taecia.

“I’ll see you back at
the Institute, Wren,” Alex said. He turned to Ben, Natalie and
Charlie and gave them a little salute. “Let’s do lunch
sometime.”

He hobbled away and with him went
Ben’s hope that Alex might offer him an invitation to the
Institute.

The remaining Spellswords drifted
off to their own trains. With their Spellshooters holstered, they
looked more like commuters than warriors.

That left Ben, Natalie and
Charlie alone with Wren. At some point on the journey back she had
somehow managed to tidy herself up. Her hair was piled on her head in
a neat bun and the gash on her head was clean. Was she wearing
another dress? It shouldn’t have been possible, but Ben could
have sworn it was different to the one she had worn in battle.

Ben was aware he had seconds
before Wren said goodbye, possibly forever. If she didn’t ask
him now, she never would.

“Would you mind if I had a
word with you in private, Ben?” Wren asked.

“Sure,” Ben replied,
hoping his surprise masked his relief.

Wren led Ben a little way down
the station platform until they were alone.