Faculty of Fire (13 page)

No one came up with any questions, and we all moved towards the door without speaking. I was hoping to intercept Alice, but she disappeared before I’d taken my first step. Chas took me by the arm and dragged me out of the general huddle.

“You shouldn’t go home, anything could happen, you might not make it to the Academy in the morning.”

Strangely enough, I was thinking the same thing.

“I’d be glad not to go, but that’s where all my music is. Can you imagine even a single day without music?”

Chas shook his head, as if he simply couldn’t imagine a day as quiet and happy as that. Well, he just didn’t love music the way I did.

“Neither can I,” I said, ignoring his sarcasm. “So … art requires sacrifices.”

And so saying, I proceeded towards the exit, with Chas plodding after me. The moment we were outside, he jerked on my arm and shoved me into the crowd.

“What are you doing?”

“Your aunt’s standing over there,” Chas hissed at me. “If you’re quick, you can run home and collect your things before she arrives. Then you can flop at my place. Run for it, only make sure she doesn’t spot you.”

I didn’t waste time talking, just nodded and ran home as fast as I could along the sidewalk that glowed in the dark, scattering the faceless shadows with my protective amulet. To be honest, I’d stopped noticing the faceless ones a long ago, completely forgotten that they could be dangerous. But if I didn’t have my protective amulet, the guards wouldn’t have even found my skeleton.

On the way home I remembered I’d forgotten my keys, as usual, and I’d closed the window just to be on the safe side, remembering my visitor earlier in the day. All my optimism instantly evaporated. The only hope was that the twins would be home. And now I was past the golden districts, and approaching the house, which looked especially gloomy by the light of the moon. Strange, somehow I’d never noticed that before.

Of course, the twins weren’t home. I walked round the large gold house a few times, hoping to see a window that had been left open by accident, but it was a waste of time. There was no way in past the safety system (although in theory it ought to recognise me), you could be burnt to a cinder if you stepped on the wrong spot, or simply hung around outside the house for too long.

I sat down on the steps and started thinking. What should I say to my aunt? If she arrived now, there was no way to avoid a serious heart-to-heart. More of her tedious preaching, or something even worse.

I must have been tired after everything I’d been through that day, because I missed the moment when my eyes closed and …

The street is still there in front of my eyes, lit up by the identical windows of the houses and the illuminated light-stone of the roadway, but strange, unfamiliar shapes show through it. An age goes by, or maybe a second, and then my eyes are drawn away from the elegant forms of a huge house to a shapeless mass of uniform grey colour, towering up to the sky. Strange shadows appear on the street, either phantoms, or late-night revellers walking home. But people walking home aren’t transparent, and I can see through these figures, see a starry sky with two moons. Or is there only one? The forms overlap, and I can’t tell where the dream ends and reality begins. Suddenly a bat flies over me, almost touching my head with its webbed wings, and all the phantoms disappear …

The street was its usual self again, the weird phantoms had disappeared, the houses had recovered their proud golden glow, and the two familiar moons were shining in the sky.

“So that’s where you are!” my aunt’s voice exclaimed. “I thought you must have gone running off to collect your things.”

She sounded rather aggrieved.

“Well, who knows, maybe it’s for the best …”

My aunt emerged from behind the leafy hedge, wearing her evening dress and clutching a bottle of champagne.

“If it’s what you want, then so be it.”

I couldn’t see her face, because it was hidden in shadow, but it seemed to me that it must be frozen in an expression of total despair. At least, it was despair that came through in her voice.

“So you’re not going to scold me?” I asked timidly.

“I ought to, but I won’t. You’re a grown man, and you chose your own path. It’s just a pity that it won’t lead to the imperial throne,” my aunt said with a grim chuckle. “So let’s go and collect your things, future Craftsman.”

And then she calmly walked up the steps and opened the door. Or rather, the door opened itself as soon as its spell sensed the presence of the energy key. This key, by the way, was a very strange shape. For some reason, ever since ancient times, keys had to be shaped like weird little sticks. Nobody knew why this was, at least no one had ever explained it properly to me – after all, there was nothing magic about that shape.

I sat there for a while, staring blankly into space and trying to understand what had made my aunt so kind-hearted all of a sudden. When I recalled all the preaching I had to endure after I gave up my classes in the dance school at the Imperial Court, the way she was behaving now seemed positively angelic. It was all a little bit suspicious, to say the least.

Heaving a sigh, I got up off the bottom step and went to pack my things. What else could I do?

“Where have you been?” asked a faceless voice

 

A fat man answered in a surprised and happy voice:

 

“Drinking beer.”

 

I woke with a fierce headache and a ringing sound in my ears. I forced my eyes open. The terrible grating sound in my head made me realise my mistake and I forced shut them again. My head hadn’t hurt like this since the first time I got drunk. That time, of course, a bottle of good wine had relieved the pain very quickly. I could have done with a glass of that wine right now, to ease my suffering. Why did I drink so much last night?

Just a moment, it was today not yesterday, and I didn’t drink anything but champagne! My aunt had sent me off to pack my things, while she went to prepare a farewell supper. Naturally, I declined the supper, because I’d eaten my fill at the Golden Half Moon, but I did drink a little. Over the champagne, my aunt kept complaining about how much she would miss me. She asked my forgiveness for failing to protect me against bad influences. I was just about to argue with her, and then … what happened then?

The thoughts stumbled sluggishly through my head, clinging to each other for support. I was afraid to move, because even the slightest movement of my little finger triggered an almighty pain in my head. But I was gradually coming round.

I wondered how long I’d slept. It was probably time for me to go, or I’d be late for the morning gathering.

The mere thought of being late made me shudder. I didn’t want to be the first idiot who didn’t turn up after he’d already been initiated. But then, I really was very sleepy. And I could get up later, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I slept for just a little bit longer …

Suddenly the alarm clock started screeching at the top of its voice. Or, to be precise, not the alarm clock, but the musicale, which was set to a certain position of the moons and stars. Despite the hellish pain in my temples, I was forced to open my eyes again and look at the clock.

May a shadow take me! It was almost seven already!

The pain in my head was sheer torment, but as soon as I looked at the clock, I was swamped by a wave of icy terror. If I’d been standing up instead of lying down, it would have knocked me off my feet. I jumped up, half out of my mind, grabbed my bag and went skittering down the stairs. Halfway down I remembered that just a second ago I was dying of a fierce headache. But there was no time for that now, and the pain receded to wait for better (or, rather, worse) times. There was no one downstairs, and if there had been, I wouldn’t have noticed anyway. I shot outside and ran for all I was worth in the direction of the Academy. My feet slipped on the sidewalk still wet after its morning wash. I almost took a tumble a couple of times, but then I adjusted to a wide, staggering run and dashed on even faster. The streets were still empty, but here and there on the roofs people were opening their “daisies” by hand to catch the mags.

As I ran, there was only one terrible thought circling around in my head. I’m late! It was forty-minute walk from my house to the Academy. It took twenty minutes if you ran, ten minutes if you ran really fast. But I had to get here in five!

I suddenly closed my eyes in horror at the shock of stepping knee-deep into a puddle, and then fell flat on my face. I jumped straight back up and ran on. Fortunately, I was in good shape and the pain in my knee, which felt like it was bleeding, was no hindrance to me. Although it hurt really, really bad …

Before I’d run very far, three figures dressed in the kind of clothes they wear in the Borderland – that is, very, very shabby – strolled out onto the sidewalk in front of me.

“Hey, lad, where are you off to in such a hurry?” one of them asked in a hoarse voice.

“Somewhere you’ll never go,” I answered, heading straight for the three of them.

I wouldn’t want you to think I like asking for trouble. It was just that I could tell from the look of this threesome that they weren’t going to let me go just like that. I couldn’t see any point in wasting time on conversation, especially since I was so very late.

The trio’s sloppy appearance misled me. I assumed they were simple city lads looking for someone to vent their fury on. It was the enrolment yesterday – surely that was enough of an excuse?

At first I decided simply to scatter them. What could be simpler than that? I deliberately approached them at a slow walk, then suddenly darted forward, hoping to slip through and land a couple of quick kidney punches if I got the chance. But these lads clearly knew how to fight, and they weren’t going to let me get away that easily.

One of them stuck out his leg to trip me. I managed to jump over it, but my attention was distracted and I ran into one the fist of another fine fellow. He was aiming for my face, but I dodged and took the blow on the shoulder. My impetus spun me round and I used the momentum for a wide sweep of my leg that felled all three of them … and I went tumbling down after them.

“Strange,” I had time to think. “I was hoping to knock one of them down, but I got all three... lucky …”

I rolled forward, jumped to my feet and dashed on.

Before I turned onto the Square of the Seven Fountains, I looked back and saw a strange sight – the three strapping lads were beating each other up! And very professionally too. I was incredibly lucky to have slipped past them like that … and it was a miracle that instead of running after me, they started fighting each other. But I had no time for miracles right now …

I flew across the Square of the Seven Fountains at a frantic speed and there was the Academy towering above me, with its gates wide open. But the yard inside was strangely deserted. All the new pupils ought to have gathered there by now, but there was no one to be seen.

I hurtled through the gates like a meteor and ran another ten paces from sheer inertia before I stopped.

Emptiness. Emptiness and silence – that was what greeted me in the yard of the Academy. I was too late.

I walked over to the Academy tower and sat down wearily on the ground, leaned my back against the stone wall and put the bag with my things down beside me.

I was too late. I’d overslept. But how had I managed that? I wasn’t very sleepy when I got back home. I wasn’t even tired, really! No, it couldn’t be that, surely? That was impossible. My aunt couldn’t have spiked the champagne. Or could she? She was no gift, of course, but to do something as mean as that … She was my aunt, after all! How could she!

“You’re early.”

I must have jumped a yard in the air in surprise.

“Did you spend the night here, then?” the cheerful voice asked.

I glanced round the square in amazement – no one. So where was the voice coming from?

“Look up, you blockhead,” the voice advised me with a chuckle.

I did as it said and raised my eyes to see a young guy’s freckled face in a third-story window. He looked a year or two older than me, although I couldn’t really say for certain. Maybe he was ninety.

“Early for what?” I asked apathetically.

“For everything,” the young guy replied laconically.

I lost the thread of his logic at that point and just sat there for another five minutes, staring at the surface of the yard.

“But it’s too late,” I said eventually.

“For what?” the red-haired young guy asked in surprise.

“For everything,” I replied, amazed by my own quick-wittedness.

“A-a-ah …” the young guy drawled. He twirled one finger beside his head and disappeared back into the window.

I sat there on the ground, watching the puddles disappear as the stones soaked in the moisture. After a while I heard the sound of jolly voices; a happy crowd came piling in through the gates, proceeded to the centre of the yard and stopped there without taking the slightest notice of me. I was horrified to see my own Liz, or rather, no longer my own Liz, in the crowd. She’d obviously come to see off her new beau and his friends. I wished with all my heart that she would soak into the stones with the moisture, but even if she had, that still wouldn’t have saved me. I had finally been noticed, and now they could taunt me even from that distance.