Authors: Aprille Legacy
I brought the food to Larni, and she picked at it. She
seemed thoroughly bored already, and I wished
desperately that I could bring her down to the games
room, but Iain or any of the teachers would chuck a fit if
they knew she was still here.
I leapt down the stairs two at a time to find most of my
classmates and quite a few of the older mages in the games
room too. Turns out no one had wanted to be alone
tonight.
The games room was as big as our practice hall, and
looked much the same. A few games such as pool and table
tennis stood off to the side, but the other ‘games’ in the
room leant more towards helping us train to become fitter
or better at things. A few ropes trailed from the ceiling,
and I’d seen Rain scale one in less time than it took Ispin
to even get a metre off the ground.
Even Phoenix was there, though I avoided looking at
him. I joined Petre, Ispin and Theresa in a game of table
tennis, something I’d been surprised to find in the mage
world. We beat them by four points to cheers.
I watched Dena floor Dustin in pool, and Eleanora
decimated one of the older mages in archery. I watched
her fluid movement as she pulled an arrow from her
quiver, fit it to the string of her bow (which she’d made
herself, I’d been surprised to learn) sighted down the
length of the arrow and released. The arrow sank,
quivering, into the bull’s eye of the target, and I felt a little
rush of jealousy.
I could throw knives with relative accuracy and kill
huge monsters with my swords, but archery was beyond
me by all definitions. I’d even asked Jett for private
tutoring, but those lessons had ended quickly when I’d
almost shot him through.
“It’s not that you almost shot me,” he’d told me shortly
after he’d cancelled the lesson. “It’s that you were proud to
get the arrow to leave the string.”
And so, I reasoned, watching the mage hand Eleanora a
small purse in defeat, my jealousy towards Eleanora was
based simply on her skill with the bow, and not at all
because she was tall and willowy with flowing blonde
hair.
“Can I tempt you with a rope race?” Petre asked me,
noticing how quiet I’d gone. It was an unspoken rule of
tonight that we wouldn’t let anyone think of the horrors
that we’d face in the near future.
I eyed off the ropes apprehensively. They weren’t my
forte, but to be fair, they weren’t Petre’s either. He picked
an activity that would well and truly distract me from the
upcoming battle.
“Alright,” I said finally.
A few people followed us to the ropes as we removed
our boots and tunics. I’d found that this was difficult
enough to climb the rope in long pants with long sleeves,
and wished for my gym clothes.
“This’ll be interesting,” Petre said as he noticed the
same issue.
The ropes were straight. There were no knots or loops
that we could fit our feet into, we had to rely solely on our
core strength. There was not even a wall that we could
brace our feet onto.
Dena pushed her way to the front of the small crowd.
“May I have the honour of saying go?” she asked.
Petre nodded as we both approached our ropes. I wiped
my sweaty palms on my pants and grinned at Petre.
Petre and I were very competitive. This had been
proven several times over the past year. It had gotten to
the point where nails had come into play, though I
considered this a very dirty tactic for a boy.
“Go!” Dena shouted suddenly, taking us both by
surprise and almost scaring us up the rope.
Petre began climbing immediately, but I jumped and
grabbed on. I’d set the rope swinging backwards and
forwards, but I was already ahead by a little.
Now came the gruelling task of heaving myself up the
rope. I twisted the rope through my legs and reached
higher, pulling my legs up as I went. It was tough going,
especially on my arms. I could feel sweat beginning to
bead up and run down my face, but I blinked it out of my
eyes and kept going. Every muscle in my body was aching
and trembling, but every centimetre was one I was putting
between myself and Petre.
Just as I reached the top and could see the little air horn
someone had put there just for races like this, I made a
mistake. As I reached upwards, my legs loosened their
hold on the rope just a little. I slid back down the rope,
managing to catch myself almost face to face with my
competitor.
“I knew you wouldn’t take this win away from me,” he
wheezed, his face bright red with exertion. “Thanks, Sky.”
I growled, setting my sights on the horn. I pulled and
shimmied until I had my rhythm back. Petre doubled his
efforts too, and as a result, we both reached the horn at
almost the same time.
I flung my hand up and pressed down on the horn. The
ear splitting noise that issued from it sounded like victory.
Now I had to get down the rope. I’d seen Ispin get
awful rope burn by trying to just slide down; I didn’t
really feel like doing the same thing. Together we began
the slow descent, our muscles burning beneath our skin.
The floor beneath my feet could not have felt better. Petre
reached the ground at the same time, and we both bent
over trying to catch our breath.
“I let you win,” he said, trying to salvage some pride.
“No, you didn’t,” I was used to this tactic of his. It was
one he brought out when he failed to beat me at
something, which happened more than he would like, I
was proud to say.
We played a few more games, and though I desperately
wanted to interact with Phoenix in some way, I knew it
was too dangerous. I was already beating myself up about
having him in my room, and poor Larni witnessing the
whole thing, so there was no way I was going to risk
anyone else finding out.
I played a few more games of pool with Dena, though
she turned out to be somewhat of a pool deviant and beat
me mercilessly.
“We should go to bed,” she said reluctantly, watching
me trying to pocket the five. “C’mon, Sky, you know we
have to.”
I shot and missed, the ball bouncing around the table
but going nowhere near any of the pockets. I scowled,
ringing the cue in my hand. Back in my world I’d been
alright at pool, and had played whenever I could. I didn’t
really like being beaten, but it was Dena and she handled
me gracefully.
“Good shot,” she said as I managed to pocket another
ball. “You win this one, now bedtime.”
I hadn’t won; she just wanted to finish the game. I
knew she was right though, I could feel in my bones that
it was very late. Larni would be wondering where I was.
I trundled up the stairs, still ignoring Phoenix
determinedly. If Larni wasn’t in my room, I’d probably try
to signal to him to come visit. I guessed that he’d be nice
comfort through a long, nerve clattering night. But Larni
was staying in my room, so I waved to him with all of the
others. I headed into my room, finding Larni sprawled out
on a mattress she’d managed to dig from somewhere,
completely out of it.
“I can only hope I sleep as soundly as you,” I whispered
to her.
I climbed into my bed, but my head was full of
thoughts that plagued me. My eyes just kept seeing the
visions that my mind was throwing up, and none of them
were exactly calming. My heart was filled with worry
about my friends and classmates, but mainly Phoenix. He
was the one they were coming for; he was the one they
were prepared to tear through a whole Academy to get to.
Why? I wondered, staring up at my ceiling. Why
Phoenix? Not even he knew. He said that his foster father
had had students before, but I was willing to bet this was
the first time that one had left. Maybe it was an issue of
pride?
On the floor beside me, Larni snuffled in her sleep. My
heart twisted again. Another person to worry about. All of
these people, and tomorrow they might just be memories.
There would be no new ones made, instead we’d all sit
around saying, ‘hey, remember …? They were great’.
I pulled the blankets over my ears so that I couldn’t
hear her gentle snoring. Over me, Morri slept on top of
my headboard, twitching occasionally. By the time I’d
fallen asleep, I could see dawn beginning to break outside
my window, and I knew I’d only get a few hours.
The next morning dawned red, as though foreseeing
the day’s events. I dressed with shaking fingers and ate
with the others in the mess hall. The other mages were
there, talking quietly.
“Did anyone sleep?” Dena asked, and it was clear by the
state of her hair that she had not.
We all shook our heads. I couldn’t help but notice
Petre’s hand in Rain’s. I ached to hold Phoenix’s, but held
my fork instead, spearing scrambled eggs.
“Nothing could stop you eating, could it?” Theresa
asked, and I wasn’t sure if it was a friendly comment or a
nasty jab. With Theresa it was always hard to tell.
We took our turn patrolling the perimeter of the castle
in pairs. I got put with someone I didn’t know from our
class, whose soul mate was sick, because Iain and Netalia
weren’t letting Phoenix out of the castle in case he did
something stupid.
“You’re Sky, aren’t you?” the raven haired girl asked
me.
“Yeah... I am,” I looked at her, puzzled. “How did you
know that?”
“Everyone knows who you are,” she replied. She had
eyes of a very unsettling blue; they seemed to stare
through me. “You killed the Du’rangor.”
“Yes... yes I did,” I scanned the tree line, searching for
anything that might be out of the ordinary. “Uh, sorry,
what was your name?”
“Raven,” she said quickly.
“Ah,” it fit. I wondered if Netalia just came up with our
names or if there was something else she consulted.
“Who’s your soul mate?”
“Nero. I think you guys call him Red Hair, though.”
“Sorry,” I apologized. “We didn’t know his name, so we
just stuck to what we know.”
“It’s alright. Before we knew your name we called you
Green Eyes.”
My feet didn’t skip a beat, but I suddenly realised
something about my classmates.
Our class had every colour of magic there could be.
There was every shade, every hue of every colour, except
for green. I was the only green eyed, green magicked mage
in our year.
What was the reason? I wondered to myself as Raven
kept chattering on. It couldn’t be a coincidence, surely.
There were just too many of us to pass up a certain colour.
I had a feeling it was something to do with falling in
love with my soul mate, something that had been
forbidden by...
By whom? Argh, I didn’t know anything about my
situation! I was frustrated by my lack of knowledge, but
there was no way that I was going to inquire on it any
further. I’d had one scare about my feelings for Phoenix
being discovered, I wasn’t going to let myself have a
second.
“What was that?” Raven asked, stopping and peering
into the trees.
I stopped and looked with her. I couldn’t see anything
past the first few trunks.
“Should we go and check it out?” I asked. “What did
you see?”
“I’m not sure. It might’ve just been a bird.”
“Worth investigating?”
Her eyes scoured the trees, and I saw her fingers twitch
towards what looked like a folded staff on her back.
“Maybe,” her eyes hadn’t left the trees. “Ok, let’s go.”
We strode away from the castle, knowing that the next
pair of guards would round the corner any second. Raven
walked ahead of me, and I saw a small quiver of arrows on
her back next to the staff. Bizarre.
She crept through the trees and I followed carefully,
making sure my swords were still within my reach. Jett
had appealed to Natalia and – I wasn’t supposed to know
this but thanks to my eavesdropping in the corridor, I did
– she had let me take the swords because I’d already been
trained in them.
The hilts met my hands reassuringly, and I followed
Raven deeper and deeper into the woods until we came to
a rocky outcrop. She froze on the spot and then beckoned
to me.
“It’s a scout. He’s gone that way. I’m gonna circle
around and meet him, could you follow him? We should
be able to take him down,” she whispered, her voice as
quiet as a bird’s wing.
I nodded and headed off in the direction she’d pointed
me. I unsheathed my swords as I went, almost crouching
along the path. Raven was just on the other side of the
rocks, close enough to hear me if I called for help.
I froze in my tracks. The scout had stopped as though
sensing someone on his tail. His long cloak trailed in the
leaves, and he turned before I could get off the path.
“Wha-”
I was on him before he could finish the word. I didn’t
dare call out for Raven; there might be others nearby.
Black magic twisted through the air as I neared him.
My own magic warded it off, and my blade flashed
through the air as his own came up to meet it. With my
other sword I took a swipe at his side. I couldn’t let him
get back to the others; I needed to take him out here and
now.
Raven, hearing the clash of metal on metal, came
dashing down the other end of the path, taking the folded
staff from her back as she ran. The rogue and I were
caught in a dead lock, his sword trapped between my two.
The staff unfolded with a click, and a blade sprang from
one end. It was a scythe, I realised. Like Dustin’s.
Not like Dustin’s, I discovered quickly, as two bits of
wood sprang from it the top of the staff, making it into a
tall crossbow. Raven pulled an arrow from her back and
fitted it to the string.
“Down,” she commanded, and I withdrew my swords
and hit the forest floor hard, tucking into a ball.
She fired, and the rogue, who’d be turning as he
realised there was someone behind him, was caught by the
bolt in his shoulder. He fell to the ground with a cry, and I
pounced on him, flattening my hand over his mouth.
“Let’s take him back to the castle,” she said, panting,
folding the scythe-crossbow thing up and fitting it back on
her back. “He might have information.”
“You’re incredible,” I told her as we bound and gagged
the older man. “What is that?”
“It’s a scythe,” she replied, as we heaved the rogue to
his feet. “And also a crossbow. Close range and long
range.”
I want one, I thought, as we dragged the man back to
the Academy.
We’d pulled the bolt from his shoulder and dressed the
wound, so he wasn’t in too much pain. I think he was
suffering more from the fact that he’d been beaten by two
students.