Faculty of Fire (30 page)

I knew I shouldn’t have done it. Now they were going to throw me out over some stupid spell.

“What sensor?” the vampiress asked. “I just overheard them planning to expel you from the Academy.”

“Whoah, stop,” I said wearily. “Start at the beginning. What exactly did you hear, where and who from?”

“All right, then.” Alice sat on the edge of the bed beside me. “I just happened, entirely by chance, to be walking past a certain Craftsman’s study, when I heard your name. I have excellent hearing, so I stopped to find out why a Craftsman would do a first-year student the honour of mentioning his name in conversation.”

Aha. Okay, let’s suppose she just happened to hear my name mentioned by chance. But by what chance did she happen to be on the floor where the Craftsmens’ studies were?

“One of the Craftsmen was none other than our own dear teacher of practical studies, Shins, and the other was a Craftsman whose voice I heard at the enrolment, I think he’s the dean of one of the other faculties – maybe water or air. Shins was trying to persuade the other Craftsman to arrange some kind of exam, so that they could throw you out of the Academy with a clear conscience. Somehow he was sure you wouldn’t be able to pass it.”

What nonsense! Was she joking, or what? Exams after only two months of study? And why was Shins so determined to get me? That first time in the square he seemed like a rather nice old duffer to me. And in any case, the person he ought to have it in for was Alice, not me. I remembered how opposed he was to having a vampire in the Academy.

And then there was his furious reaction to my fiery snake that morning – that was completely beyond me.

Alice seemed to read my mind.

“And I also found out why Shins blew his top when he saw your fiery snake!”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because he thought you cribbed the idea from one of the senior pupils. That’s what he told the other Craftsman. He said you cheated, because you couldn’t do anything for yourself.”

“What?” I gasped. “The upperclassmen don’t even talk to us! We’re lucky they don’t spit at us every time they walk by ...”

The vampiress nodded.

“That’s the way it is, all right, but you try explaining that to Shins!”

“I’ll explain it!” I said, glaring defiantly at Alice.

“I think,” said Alice, “that you’d better go to your Craftsman uncle and tell him everything, and do it as soon as possible.”

“What?” I was so surprised that I lost my voice for a few moments. “How did you find out about that?”

The vampiress bared her fangs in a weary smile.

“Don’t make me laugh. How hard do you think it is to figure out who you go to see every now and then on the Craftsmens’ floor? The great conspirator! And it’s even easier to read a Craftsman’s name on his door.”

Right. And I thought no one noticed my occasional disappearances.

“And you think he’ll help me?” I asked sceptically.

“Well, he managed to get you into the Academy.”

I took me a while to realise what she’d said. When it hit me, I blushed bright red. And I wasn’t even sure whether I felt angry or hurt.

“What are you hinting at?” I asked in outrage.

“Me? Hinting?” Alice laughed. “I’m just telling the plain truth – with your abilities, much as I respect you --” she stopped laughing “-- there’s no way you could have got into the Academy on your own.”

May a dragon take me, but she was almost right. But even so, it was sickening. After all, Romius hadn’t helped me get into the Academy out of some personal whim, and certainly not because I asked him. It was that episode of mine ... But how could I explain that to Alice? How could I explain it to the others? After all, if she’d figured out this much, then why couldn’t they discover the link between Nickers the pupil and Nickers the Craftsman? It looked like there was serious trouble on the horizon ...

“It’s a long story,” I sighed. “But, believe me, I had no ambition to get into the Academy. And my uncle helped me for reasons that ...”

“Okay, that’s not important right now,” the vampiress interrupted. “You can tell me later, if you want to. What’s important right now is that tomorrow Shins is planning to pull some kind of dirty trick. You have to go and see your uncle straightaway.”

I agreed and tried to get off the bed, but I was still too weak and I could only stay on my feet for a couple of seconds.

“What were you doing in here?” Alice asked, going back to her first question. “Just don’t tell me you’ve been practising the craft again. It’s bad enough that you’re the worst pupil in the group, but now you’re the one with the worst disciplinary record too. At this rate Shins won’t even have to give you any exam – they’ll throw you out anyway.”

I supposed she was pretty much right. But why did she have to remind me I was the worst pupil in the group?

I had to tell Alice about my theories and experiments.

“And you think no one’s ever thought of that before?” the vampiress asked, giving me a sceptical look.

“Yes,” I replied honestly

“I’m not so sure,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t forget, when you created the shield, there was a burst of energy, and it could have been transmitted to the operator before you cut off the connection, but anyway, that’s just a small detail.” Her red eyes glinted cunningly. “So you think that now we can practise the Craft in your room?”

And do other things too, I wanted to say, but wisely decided to keep quiet. I hoped all those rumours about vampires being able to read peoples’ minds weren’t true.

“There’s only one way to check,” said Alice, and she lit a fireball in the middle of my room.

“That’s right,” I whined. “And now if something goes wrong, I get the blame again?”

“Oh stop that,” she said with a conspiratorial wink. “Things couldn’t get any worse than they already are.”

“You optimist,” I sighed and tried to get up off the bed again.

I almost made it, I took two steps toward the door, but my legs gave way again and I collapsed ... straight on top of Alice.

And at that very moment Chas came bursting into the room.

“Just as I thought!” he exclaimed. “While we’re working hard in Tyrel’s class, they’re cuddling in here. By fireball light – how romantic!”

Chas laughed theatrically: “You could at least have locked the door.”

With a strength that was amazing for a frail young woman, but not at all that surprising for a vampire, Alice tossed me over to the furthest corner of the bed. She rose to her feet almost too fast for the eye to follow and looked Chas up and down as if she was deciding where it would be best to bite. Being no fool, Chas backed as far away from her as possible.

“Don’t forget what I told you,” Alice snapped at me, and made a haughty exit.

“Just don’t tell me I interrupted something,” Chas went on in his usual style. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Well, of course not. I knew he didn’t do it on purpose, but that was no comfort to me. I was about to tell Alice about my talk with the tutor, but Chas had ruined everything.

“What did she tell you?” Chas asked, trying to sound casual. “Don’t think ...”

“Ah, but I will think,” I said irritably, making a third attempt to get up off the bed. “Or have you forgotten that I think too much?”

“Hey,” Chas exclaimed, grabbing me by the arm one second before I collapsed on the floor. “Have you been donating blood? You’re as weak as a kitten. Where does she bite you? I can’t see any marks on the neck ...”

“Drop it will you?” I yelled furiously. “Just lay off me.”

“Okay, not another word,” said Chas, suddenly serious. “Then why are you too weak even to stand?”

So for the second time that day I told someone about my theory and how I’d tried to disarm the sensor spell.

“Well, well,” Chas laughed. “And there I was thinking you really were donating blood to Alice. You must admit, it’s strange that she hasn’t drunk any blood in two months.”

So it wasn’t just Caiten and me who were thinking about that!

“Next time use your head, for a change, and don’t go jumping to conclusions,” I advised him,” trying to get back for his facetious remarks.

“Interesting experiments you dabble in,” Chas remarked, as if it was nothing special. “If the two of you don’t get punished tomorrow, it means you did everything right. But what if you do get punished?”

“Why should both of us get punished?” I asked, puzzled. “They’ll only punish me. It’s my room.”

Chas looked at me hard.

“And he advises me to use my head. Yesterday we were in your room too, as it happens. But both of us got punished! And that means that not only can they detect magic being worked, they can identify whoever’s working it.”

Dragon’s teeth! He was right. So now Alice could suffer because of me. And any breach of the rules was even more dangerous for her than it was for me. They’d throw her out at the slightest opportunity, and unlike me, she didn’t have anyone in the Academy to protect her. And speaking of protectors ...

“Listen, Chas, will you help me get to the Craftsmen’s floor?

“Want to visit your uncle, do you?” he asked.

“So you know as well?” I gasped.

It looked like the entire Academy knew. But how long had they known?

“Of course,” Chas said with a yawn. “Everybody knows.”

“How long have they known?”

“Not all that long, really. I only found out about it today.”

“Who from?” I asked, even getting up off the bed.

“I don’t remember,” he said with a shrug. “Everyone’s talking about it.”

Absolutely wonderful. My uncle wasn’t going to be too pleased with me, but I hadn’t done anything, had I? I hadn’t told anyone. But then who had? I wondered.

“Shall I take you there?” Chas asked. “I’m starting to feel sleepy.”

“Yes, take me,” I sighed.

The weakness was just beginning to pass, but it would still be good to have Chas there as support.

We walked out of the room and headed slowly towards the teleports. On the way I told Chas about what Alice had heard. Chas might be the world’s greatest bonehead, but I trusted him two hundred per cent. And apart from that, I was hoping he could tell me about the exam Shins was planning to give me.

“I haven’t got a clue,” Chas told me. “Before I started at the Academy, I used to think I knew quite a lot about it, but now I’m beginning to realise that even you know more about it than I do. I thought the Academy was a house of magic, with spells always being worked everywhere, and duels going on all the time.”

“And what is it?”

“The Academy is one big bundle of rules with a crowd of senile old fools making sure everyone follows them. I don’t know what happens to the young Craftsmen, there ought to be far more of them than teachers! But where are they? Have you seen them? No. Where do they go after they graduate from the Academy? And why do the ones who get thrown out for one reason or another just disappear? By the way, they’ve already thrown someone out of the faculty of earth because he couldn’t cut it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they throw one of us out too ...”

And I knew who it be – me.

“Sorry,” said Chas when the sad expression on my face made him realise what he’d said. “And as if that’s not enough, there’s all this weird intrigue going on. Between the faculties, between the Craftsmen, between the pupils. It’s only from the outside that the Academy looks like an impregnable stronghold of honesty and truth. Remember what we’ve had drummed into our heads ever since we were kids – Craftsmen never lie. Sure they don’t.”

“So what do you suggest?” I asked with a sad smile. “Do we just drop everything and go home?”

“As if we could,” Chas said angrily, smashing his fist against the wall. “You must realise the only way you can get home is by graduating from the Academy. Nobody’s got home any other way in two hundred years. If they had, I’d know about it. And even after you graduate, you won’t be in the city for long – they’ll send you off somewhere or other ... to guard the distant borders, for instance ...

“But you said we don’t have any distant borders,” I reminded him.

“Precisely!” Chas exclaimed. “Maybe Tyrel wasn’t talking about our borders at all. They’ll send us off to some other state ... to the next continent ... as mercenaries.

“What are you getting so wound up about? You’ll be here studying for ages – you’re one of the best pupils. No one’s going to throw you out. You’ll graduate from the Academy, and then maybe they won’t send you off to the distant borders as a mercenary,” I said with a bitter laugh.

“If they throw you out, I’m going with you,” Chas said seriously. “We started the Academy together, and we’ll finish it together. And if we can’t, then we’ll leave together.”

I didn’t know what to say. All the sarcastic remarks had flown clean out of my head.